EVES: (Carsonbrothers, #2)

by Dyble, S R

  "Everything looks pretty great from out here, too," I heard Kit say from the doorway and my eyes shot open. I pulled my top over my stomach and sat up, offering him a half smile.

  Once at my side, he pulled my top up again and I felt paranoid about the stretch marks gathering on my hips. He noticed them too, and as he crouched down at the side of the bed, he kissed the skin and then placed his head on my stomach to listen inside.

  "Hmm," he frowned and looked at me, "she said you've gotta stop eating so many apples."

  I chuckled despite trying to stay serious.

  "But they're so good," I answered.

  "We should probably place an apple tree in the garden, just to keep up with the demand."

  "They'd have to be those delicious, juicy apples.." I trailed on and Kit stared at me, hovering his eyes over my lips.

  "You okay?" I asked as he got up.

  He nodded. "Just you talking about apples has given me a hard on," he said whilst adjusting his jeans around his crotch.

  "All I did was talk about apples…"

  "Yeah, like that woman speaks about food on the bloody M&S adverts…"

  "Here's me thinking you were just coming to talk to me."

  "Me too," he answered, "not really my fault your mouth turns me on, though."

  I shook my head in disbelief and looked away from him.

  "I have come to talk to you," he said before sitting himself down in the chair we had situated beside the cupboard.

  It meant distance and maybe he needed that.

  I stared at him, wondering when he was going to start.

  "I am. I mean, I was scared about having a girl, okay?"

  I nodded, already knowing that.

  "I don't know how to say this," he said, placing his hands to his mouth.

  "Just say it, no matter how brutal, just speak to me."

  He nodded.

  "I love you, Eves, like I've never loved anything before. Although it's my job, protecting you has been more than a job. As if I were protecting my last breath from being stolen from me."

  I wasn't going to well-up. I swore it to myself.

  "I never wanna be without it, because that means being without you and I can't have that. Don't get me wrong, I'd love our son unconditionally as I do you, and I'd kill to keep him safe. The only thing is, I can train a boy to keep himself safe, train him how to fight and be strong."

  "You can teach a girl just the same," I said, denying him those words.

  He nodded. "Let me finish."

  "I'd somehow convinced myself that it would just be another victim that I'd need to protect and that I'm not strong enough to protect her from the amount of shit directed at us. Especially with the recent things happening. I've been the target. So, my thoughts were, how am I gonna protect you and a little girl as well when I'm clueless as to what's coming next?"

  I looked down at my hands, feeling a huge burden.

  "Then I thought of you," he said.

  I looked at him, his eyes were full of love. A look I'd missed.

  "How strong you are. Everything you've been through and yet you're still willing to give your last breath to protect the ones you love, to tell them the truth and you never give in."

  "That doesn't sound like me," I said honestly.

  "Well, tough shit, because that is you."

  I shook my head. I wasn't strong, I knew I wasn't.

  "My point being, we are having a little girl. When she's ready I can teach her to protect herself, she'll have your strength…"

  He moved over to me then and he crouched against the bed as I sat up and crossed my legs.

  "You're the strongest person I've ever met, Eves. If our little girl is only fifty percent of you, then she'll already be perfect."

  I nodded, rubbing a tear away. I nodded, not because I believed him that I was strong, but because our little girl would be perfect no questions asked and his words had weakened my hormones.

  "I'm sorry I acted the way I did, I guess I'm not as great at dealing with pressure as I thought. I should have spoken to you, I just didn't want to place any worry onto you."

  He reached his hand out and placed it gently on my stomach.

  "If anything happens to her because of me, I might as well be dead."

  I placed my hand on top of his there, on my stomach and frowned at him.

  "Stop putting yourself down, you hear me? You've dealt with so much alone. You've held everything together and you've not only taken care of me but everyone we know. You're allowed to be scared, to be mad and not know what to do. You're not allowed to shut me out."

  He nodded and reached forward to kiss me.

  The second our lips touched I felt a tingle across my body. I pulled Kit onto the bed with me. Rolling over onto the other side of the bed, I followed him as he kept his hands on my body.

  I sat there straddling him and hummed when his tongue met mine.

  After everything that had happened, we needed something happy.

  So, Kit's birthday came at the perfect time.

  It was hard keeping his surprise a secret, and I knew he was pretty sure that none of us had bothered.

  That morning he left later than usual to go to work and it meant I had to wait to start the preparations.

  Once he was gone, he was out of the way to start baking his cake.

  We planned to hold his surprise at the end of the day, and at Delta. His full team were involved, even Tricia. It was a very well organized plan, even if I did say so myself.

  I had to secretly source ingredients for his cake and have his present delivered to his brothers house for them to stash for me.

  Now all I had to do was bake a cake…

  Piece of cake, right?

  At least Lilly was on her way over to help. It acted as a good distraction for her, and I knew she needed it after what had happened with Maddie.

  I started weighing all the ingredients I would need and placed them aside to gather the equipment.

  An hour later, we were pretty concerned. About ready to make a dash to the supermarket to buy a cake, we decided to start again.

  "Okay, we have enough ingredients to make one more double layered cake of perfection, you ready?" Lilly asked, handing me a spoon so I could start creaming the marg' with the sugar…

  I nodded, taking it from there.

  "At this rate, we're not gonna have time to—"

  The security system beeped, letting us know that someone had entered the front door and we both stared at each other.

  Had Kit come back home?

  "Hey, it's me!" Nick said and I took a deep breath while Lilly's body language instantly shifted and became very awkward, as expected.

  Once inside the kitchen, Nick spluttered a few times then eyed Lilly, currently covered in flour and splattered with cake batter.

  "What the hell happened?" He asked and I lifted the bin lid to show him the last cremated cake still crisping inside the bin liner.

  "Panic averted! We're making another."

  "Panic averted? Next time you'll probably burn the house down…"

  "Trust you to talk about fire. Not really the best time, you pillock, her grandparents house was recently burnt down in a catastrophic fire!" Lilly scolded him and Nick stared at her as she stood glaring at him.

  "You're really hot when you're angry, you know?"

  "Your face makes me angry," Lilly answered.

  "Exactly my problem. Which goes back to you being hot as fuck, all the time..."

  "Don't try and sweet talk me you little twat."

  "Little twat?" he teased her and I saw it as my time to step in once Lilly started chanting that she was going to smack him.

  It made Nick smile, knowing he'd affected her and I gave him a stern look that made his face change almost straight away into an apologetic one.

  "I brought the presents you had stashed at our house, and the decorations. Tricia said we won't have long to set up. He showers pretty quickly before leaving."
/>   "Then perhaps you should make yourself useful and stall him," Lilly said to him.

  "That's not a bad idea, Petal."

  "Don't call me that."

  "Fine. I'll be in there waiting for you to be done. Eves, can I—"

  "Nick, like you even have to ask if you can get something to eat. Help yourself…"

  He smiled at me then made his way around the counter and to the fridge.

  All the while, eyeing Lilly.

  I wanted to smack the shit out of him for teasing her so much but thankfully she paid him no attention and instead focused on helping me with the cake.

  An hour later, we were successfully icing the cake and were ready to present it.

  Nick had lazed about on the couch the whole time, watching episodes of Breaking Bad and now we were finished, he strolled into the kitchen to assess our handy work.

  "I'm impressed, ladies," he said eyeing up the cake and he brought his arm over my shoulder whilst Lilly avoided eye contact at all cost.

  I smiled and looked at the clock. It was almost 4 o'clock and thankfully Lilly had just finished wrapping Kit's present for me because we needed to leave, and now.

  We got changed quickly, almost slapping on makeup but in an organised fashion.

  Despite her refusal, it made it a lot easier for us to drive together to Delta. Lilly understably didn't want to drive with Nick, but she didn't really have a choice. I was so grateful once she just agreed. It made things a lot easier and she jumped into the back of his car, looking uncomfortable as hell.

  I gave her a look, thanking her with my eyes for doing this for me.

  As Nick drove I could feel his eyes constantly glancing to his rearview mirror, that he pretended to be repositioning so he good get a "better view of the cars behind us."

  I smiled, eyeing him.

  "What?" he asked.

  I shook it off, knowing exactly why he'd adjusted his rearview mirror. Lilly had dressed herself quickly in a beautiful dress that showed her cleavage perfectly.

  Her hair was down and as always, she looked absolutely gorgeous.

  I'd gone with a simple black dress that flowed outwards in a skater style.

  Lilly had done my hair quickly, with her professional skills she'd whipped my hair into a decorative braid, allowing some of my curls to fall free along with my side-fringe.

  Once we got close to Delta, Lilly sat forward, and I could feel her holding onto the back of the front seat where I sat.

  "I can't believe I'm about to see the Delta…"

  I nodded. "First, we'll need to pass security."

  "Tricia has briefed everyone so we should get through with no problems," Nick said and I nodded, waiting for the familiar uneasiness that came every time I got to this point.

  "You okay?" Nick asked and I felt Lilly's hand reaching over my shoulder as we reached the security point.

  "I'm fine," I said once the masked man came out of the little hut and towards Nick's car.

  "He's just checking the car," Nick said once he looked back at Lilly.

  "I can understand why they freak you out, Eves. This guy is a freaky fucker."

  I smiled and held back a chuckle. Lilly always knew how to ease my mind even without meaning to. She was doing a very good job at appearing like she was fine but I knew differently. That what had happened had destroyed her and that it would take time. She knew that she had to do it, and I knew she'd do it all over again in a heartbeat, if she had to. It still didn't make the fact that she'd killed someone any easier to bare. Once we were clear to go ahead, Lilly sat forward again, pulling on my chair as she did.

  "This is Delta?" She asked and I nodded, staring at the two buildings.

  "Well, technically that's Delta," I said pointing to the glass building.

  "That's the safe house," I added.

  Once we parked up, it was time to activate Ninja organising mode.

  "Okay, she said she'd text me once Kit finishes his training. He usually showers straight after. Once I get the text, you head to the conference room to set up. It's the huge room next to the room we had your first meeting in at Delta."

  I nodded at Nick, waiting for him to continue.

  "I'll try to hold him off for as long as possible whilst you set up. I'll grab as many people as possible and tell them to head to the conference room. Jax will meet us there."

  "What about Eric and Jason?" I asked.

  "They're on their way."

  Jesus, we really were a set of undercover agents. If this actually went to plan, we each deserved a pat on the back.

  We each waited for Nick to receive the text from Tricia and once he eventually did, we each pelted towards the building. Holding balloons, a cake and presents in hand.

  "Why are we tiptoeing?" Lilly asked from behind us.

  I looked at Nick and stood up straight. "I have no idea."

  We each smirked, even Lilly, and once inside Delta I smiled as Tricia rushed forward and led us to the conference room.

  "I'll go find Kit," Nick said handing the presents to Tricia and I nodded.

  "Ooo, look, champagne," Lilly said, noticing the glasses on the side already filled ready for the party.

  "Focus, Lil'," I said while placing the cake down on the table set in the centre of the room.

  "So, what's the plan?" Lilly asked, placing balloons around the room before blowing up some more.

  "Once everyone is here, we'll light the cake and turn all the lights off…"

  "Then we'll scare the shit out of him?" She beamed, loving the sound of that plan.

  "Something like that…"

  Thankfully we had the room completed when the members of Delta started descending into the room. I placed candles on the cake, ready to light.

  Shortly after Jason and Eric arrived and complimented us on the decor and shortly after Jax arrived with some other guys, including Jerry who smiled at me.

  Jesse came over to me and smiled.

  "This is really cool, Eve."

  "Thank you," I grinned, feeling a little nervous.

  I really hoped Kit would like this.

  Tricia then came pelting into the room frantically and I realised how much I liked her. She really was investing herself into this so much so that everything went smoothly and I loved her for it.

  She shushed everyone and directed us to light the candles.

  Jesse took that role for me and I thanked him.

  "Oh shit, he's leaving. Do I call him in?" Nick asked.

  I looked at Jesse and knew he had the candles sorted.

  Thanking him, I rushed over to the double doors as everyone remained quiet.

  "We're turning the lights off now!" one of the lads said and everyone nodded, looking giddy and excited over what we were about to do.

  Once the lights were off I shut the double doors behind me and watched as Kit made his way towards the front doors, leaving the building.

  "Where are you going?" I called across the open space.

  The only other person able to hear was the lady sitting at the reception.

  Kit turned around to look at me, frowning at me in question.

  "What are you doing here?" He smiled, still questioning me with his eyes.

  "I came to… see Jerry," I lied.

  He nodded, walking towards me.

  Once he was at my side he reached down to kiss me and I now had to usher him through the double doors that were to our right.

  "He's in there where I left him. He wanted to speak with you before we leave."

  I wasn't specifically lying… I knew Jerry had come to the party and had smiled at me as he entered the room earlier with Jax.

  "Okay?" Kit looked at me knowingly and I gestured for him to open the double doors.

  He smiled at me and eventually opened them. Instantly being stunned by the bright lights being flicked on, and everyone shouting "surprise!"

  Kit's face lit up as he looked at me and I bit onto my lip, trying to contain my smile.

  "
You sneaky little—"

  "Come blow out the candles!" Tricia shouted from across the room and she came forward, carrying the lit cake and singing happy birthday.

  Everyone joined in, as did I, and he pulled me into his side to kiss my temple as Tricia neared.

  "It's not everyday you turn twenty-five." She winked. "Blow them out and make a wish," she said.

  With a huge smile, he let go of me and reached forward to blow out the candles.

  I couldn't believe we'd pulled it off.

  Shortly after, various people came over to say happy birthday and some people had to leave to get back to their jobs.

  Kit thanked them all and either shook their hands or gave them a hug.

  I left his side for a moment to meet Lilly who was enjoying the free champagne when we both saw the girl from the reception desk approaching Kit.

  "Kit," she got his attention and I stared along with Lilly at how she gushed just being in his presence.

  "This one is from me," she said handing him a long gift bag that obviously had a bottle of alcohol inside. Her hand lingered on his upper arm longer than I'd have expected before running it down his arm as she left.

  "Well, that was interesting," Lilly commented.

  I nodded, eyeing Kit's back as I took a sip from my glass. It wasn't unusual for girls to find Kit attractive and this one was to be no different.

  Shortly after and talking with Jerry, I introduced Lilly when I felt hands on either side of my waist. I knew them to be Kit's hands instantly and he turned me around to look at him.

  "I've been told this was all your idea," he said and I shrugged.

  "I may have had something to do with it."

  "Nick told me that you cremated my first cake…"

  "That bastard," I spoke quietly and stared across the room at Nick talking to Jesse.

  Kit smirked at me, making me feel shy under his intense stare.

  "You thought I'd forgotten your birthday, didn't you?"

  He shrugged. "There’s been a lot going on. I wouldn't have been mad if you had. I wasn't expecting anything like this."

  I nodded, knowing the last thing Kit did was think about himself.

  "I wanted to show you how much we all appreciate you."

  "You big softy. Come here."

  He kissed me but we were interrupted shortly after.