by Lisa G Riley
“Not turtles. Turtlenecks. It’s too hot for turtlenecks.”
Sloan frowned while she looked at him like he was mentally deficient. “Okay,” he said slowly. “And why are we talking about turtlenecks?”
“Because you were sucking on my neck.”
Sloan stared at her for a few seconds, waiting for comprehension to take hold. It didn’t. “What?”
Kendra sighed. “You were sucking on my neck. I have to work. And I can’t go to work with—”
Sloan was nodding as he interrupted her. He rolled off her and stared at the ceiling. “And you can’t go to work with a hickey on your neck. Okay, I get it,” he said just before he burst into laughter. “You’re a nut, you know that? You are just a nut. Your thinking is so convoluted, it boggles the mind!”
“Well, it would have been much easier to explain if you hadn’t been all over me like a heat rash. I couldn’t think,” she protested as she wrapped the sheet around herself and sat up.
Sloan stopped laughing long enough to look at her pouting face. “I’m sorry,” he said with sincerity. “I meant: Grade A. Certifiable…Nut.” He started laughing again when she hit him with a pillow.
“Keep it up, and you won’t get your surprise.”
Despite flying pillows, Sloan managed to pull her down again and throw a leg over both of hers. “What surprise? Let me guess. Everything is all taken care of for our wedding, and we can spend the next seven weeks relaxing and making love.”
Kendra’s bark of laughter was unsympathetic. “You wish. Kyle is back in town, and he’s coming to stay with us. He’ll be here in time for dinner.”
Sloan stopped studying her hair long enough to look at her face. “Is he?”
“Yes, he is. You’ll get to play big brother again.”
He slid off her to lie next to her again. “When did this happen?” He hadn’t heard from his younger brother in at least nine months. No one in the family had. Sloan wondered what kind of trouble he was in now.
“He called this morning, said he was back in town and wanted to come for dinner.” She sat up to lean over him. “And maybe stay for a week or two.”
“This morning? Why didn’t you tell me when I called?”
She lifted a brow. “I don’t guess you remember this, but I was just a little too distracted at the time. Telling you my own name wasn’t even possible.”
Sloan smiled but remained quiet.
“Don’t look so worried, baby,” she soothed and smoothed his frown lines with two fingers. “Maybe he just wants to see us. It has been a long time.”
“Hmm?” Sloan looked at her again. “Yeah. I know it’s been a long time, and I know he wants to see us. He always wants to see us. That’s not the issue. I want to see him too. What I don’t want is to put up with any crap.”
“And Kyle knows that,” she reminded him gently. “He’s always known that.”
“Well, we’ll find out when he gets here.” Determined that he wouldn’t let it bother him, he ran a finger down Kendra’s shoulder. “So,” he began in a voice that was once again rough with desire. “Let’s see if I can make you forget your name again.”
Kendra’s mouth fell open. “Are you serious? Good God, Sloan, we just finished!”
He lifted a brow. “And your point would be…?”
“The point is,” she began as she rolled away from him and left the bed to pull on her robe, “I know it’s been almost three weeks, but I’m not some hooker on the stroll. Hell, even if I were, I’d still need some kind of break between tricks.”
Sloan looked at her as she stood by the bed with her hands on her hips and a smile of disbelief on her face. “How much of a break?”
“A long one. Now get up, please. Your brother will be here in little more than an hour, and we haven’t even started dinner.” She walked back to the bath and turned in the doorway to deliver one last parting shot. “And use the spare bathroom for your shower, ‘cause I’m not letting you anywhere near me in this one,” she finished with a wink and shut the door.
“Good move,” Sloan muttered when he heard the metallic turn of the lock. She knew him much too well. He thought about his brother again as he got out of bed and walked naked to the closet to grab fresh jeans and a shirt. His brother was the smartest of the three of them—their sister Amy, Kyle, and him—but he had never been able to stick to any one thing for very long. Kyle had graduated from high school a year early and had gotten through four years of college in two.
He’d gone straight into the air force after that and then had been everything from a private detective to a wildcatter drilling for oil. His latest thing seemed to be gambling. Sloan tried not to worry about him, but ingrained habits were hard to break. He’d worried about his brother since they were five and two, respectively, and Kyle had cried when he wasn’t allowed to follow him into his kindergarten classroom.
“Shit, Kyle,” he muttered. “Just don’t bring your mess to my door.”
Chapter Three
“Kyle’s on his way up,” Kendra announced as she reentered the kitchen after having answered the concierge’s call. She went back to slicing carrots, smiling at the noncommittal sound Sloan made. “My mom was going to come for dinner tomorrow,” she said as she bit into a carrot slice. “But she had to cancel.”
Sloan looked over at her from where he was mixing a dressing for the salad. The comment had been way too casual, so he waited for the other shoe to drop. Kendra’s mother didn’t like him. It didn’t bother him as much as it could have, but he wouldn’t pretend that he was disappointed that he wouldn’t have to put up with her disapproval at dinner the next night. “Uh-huh. What else?”
“Uh…well.” Kendra stalled as she sliced another carrot for the salad. “I knew you’d be disappointed, so I told her we’d have lunch with her next Sunday.” She laughed when he groaned out loud. “Oh, come on, Sloan. You’ve got seven whole days to get used to the idea, and besides, it’ll just be for a couple of hours.”
“Your mother doesn’t like me, Ken. Why should I put us both through a miserable lunch where we’ll both have to pretend that she does?” He studied Kendra’s neat appearance in simple jeans and a white blouse, and without a hair out of place. He, dressed quite similarly in jeans and a T-shirt, looked exactly like what he was: a man who wasn’t too happy about being pulled out of bed.
Kendra frowned and dumped more slices into the bowl. “Please, baby. You have to come. You don’t see me ducking and hiding when your parents want to spend time with us.”
Sloan snorted and continued to look at her, amazed at how quickly she could go back to looking so calm and cool after lovemaking—lovemaking that always threatened to burn him to a crisp. She lifted her head to look at him, and he smiled in satisfaction before picking up the conversation again. Her eyes weren’t able to hide the heat. “That’s because my family loves you. Hell, sometimes I think that they like you even more than they do me. Your mother, on the other hand, can’t stand the sight of me.”
She wrapped her arms around his waist and laid her head on his chest. Breathing deeply, she rubbed her cheek against the soft material of his shirt. “I know she’s not the easiest person to get along with, honey, and I’m sorry. You just have to grow on her. It’s taking Mom a little long to get used to you; that’s all—”
“It’s been four years, Ken, and I’m pretty much an open book for anyone who’s interested in getting to know me. Your mother isn’t interested. And that’s fine, but at this point it isn’t about liking me. She hasn’t bothered to get to know me well enough to know if she likes me or not.”
Sloan recognized her next move. Automatically trying to soothe, Kendra absently slipped her hands under his shirt and began rubbing his back. She sighed heavily. “Please don’t take it personally. She’ll probably always be bitter about my father’s leaving, and she’ll never trust any man. You’re right, I know, and I’m sorry that she’s so difficult and that she takes it out on you. But she’s my mother, Sloa
n, and I love her. I can’t keep her out of my life.”
“I never asked you to, Ken, and I never would ask that of you. All I’m saying is that given her feelings toward me, your mother and I shouldn’t have to deal with one another unless it’s absolutely necessary.”
Kendra sighed again. “I know you’re right, of course. You’d never ask me to choose, and I appreciate that, especially since I sometimes feel split between you. I just wish things could be different somehow.”
Pressing a kiss to her forehead, he held her closer. “For your sake, I wish they could too.”
“Oh well.” She kissed his chin and released him and, with a shrug, went back to her carrots. “You know what they say. If wishes were horses, et cetera, et cetera…” Turning again with a crooked smile, she picked up her last carrot.
Sloan looked at her slumping shoulders and bent neck. She was the picture of dejection. Goddamn it. “Shit,” he said softly but vehemently, wishing he could resist her, even just a little bit.
Startled, Kendra whipped back around to look at him in concern. “What? What’s the matter?”
“Damn it. I’ll go to the damn lunch if it means that damn much to you,” he muttered. He wanted to bite his tongue off.
Kendra smiled sympathetically. For all the rough exterior that he tried to project, he was really just a softie—especially when it came to her. She knew it too, and she tried never to take advantage of it. “Well, damn, Sloan. Are you damned sure?”
He winced as if he really were in pain.
She melted. “Oh, sweetie, you don’t have to go. I wasn’t trying to make you feel guilty. For real,” she added when he allowed pure suspicion to flash in his eyes. She held up her hand, palm out like a good Girl Scout. “Honest.” Pure earnestness and honesty showed on her face.
Only pure disgust showed on his.
Kendra broke into hysterics. “I swear, sweet pea,” she managed to promise before she bent at the waist and convulsed into giggles.
Not completely happy that she could turn him into two hundred pounds of mush, Sloan walked over and yanked on her ear. “Brat,” he muttered and pulled her into his arms again.
“Ow!” Kendra was still laughing, but now she put a hand protectively over her ear. As her laughter petered out, she smiled up at him and twined her arms around his neck. “That may be true, but I’m an honest brat. I really wasn’t trying to make you feel guilty. However, since you’re such a generous soul, I don’t see anything wrong with a little payback. I’ll make your sacrifice worth your while.”
“Will you? How?”
“If you can sit through this lunch with Mom, I’ll shower with you for a whole week.”
Sloan was quiet for a moment as he considered it. “Hmm. I don’t know. I’m thinking,” he told her when she sighed impatiently. “You’ll let me bring in the vibrator?”
“The vi—” Kendra ended her objection when he raised a brow. “Okay, you can bring in the vibrator.”
“And I can take as long a time with your body as I want.”
“Well, I don’t know about that. I can’t be late for work.”
“That’s the deal breaker, Ken.”
“But I—”
“Watch my lips: Deal. Breaker.”
“But—”
“Take it or leave it.”
She pouted. “Fine, it’s a deal. But I hardly think it’s fair,” she grumbled playfully between the kisses he was pressing on her mouth. “All you have to do is put up with two hours of my mother’s company—and get a free lunch out of it, I might add—while I have to take the chance of being late for work. Some of us don’t always have the luxury of working from home, you know.”
“Who says the showers have to be in the morning?” Sloan said softly as he nibbled at her lips. “Besides, we’ll pay for lunch. And you can always quit your job.” He tried to ignore her stiffening. “I know you don’t really like working at L and H. Hell, I hated it too when I worked there. I’m doing well enough so that you can stay home and write your poetry, draw your pictures, and raise our babies,” he suggested as his mouth found her neck. “You can even go back to school for that creative-writing program like you’ve been saying you want to do. I’ve told you that a hundred times.”
“Oh, whatever,” Kendra said as she pushed out of his arms. “You know good and well that I’m not going to quit my job, which I like just fine, thank you very much.”
Sloan just looked at her, letting her know that he wasn’t amused. He’d heard the strain in her voice, and he knew the reason why she’d stiffened in his arms. He continued his silence a moment and just looked in her eyes—eyes that seemed to be pleading with him to drop the subject.
Sloan decided to do just that. Now was not the time to argue with her about her lack of trust in him. Besides, what good would it do? They’d had this argument before.
He sighed. “It’s just an option that you know you have; that’s all I’m saying.”
Kendra released a breath and nodded. “Thank you,” she said, and they both knew that it was for more than his offer. She gave him a friendly kiss, which he immediately took to another level. As she returned his kiss, Kendra thought about how she’d just dodged a bullet. They both knew why she’d never quit her job. Because she’d be ass out if he ever left her. But he never will. She tried to believe it. He’s not my father. He won’t leave and never come back.
“And to add a caveat”—Sloan said as he broke off the kiss—“your mother needs to be on her best behavior. No snide, bitchy comments.”
Kendra laughed and stood on her toes to peck him on the mouth one last time. “Aw, poor baby. Now, you know I can’t promise you that.” She slipped out of his arms when the doorbell rang. “It’s about time your brother got here. It’s been a while since Theresa called to let us know he’s here. I’ll bet one of the elevators is acting up again.”
Sloan followed her from the kitchen and entered the living room just as she opened the door to Kyle. He smiled when Kyle picked Kendra up and spun her around. His brother looked good, if a little tired. But he always looked tired, and Sloan tried to let the thought go. At least he didn’t look malnourished and worn down like he had the last time he’d visited. In fact, he looked healthy. Thank God, Sloan thought before stepping forward to embrace his brother in a bear hug. “Kyle, it’s about time you brought your skinny butt home to family,” he said. “It’s been too long.”
Kyle hugged him back. “Hey, Bro, I didn’t expect to see you until tomorrow.”
Sloan released him and reached around him to shut the door. “I got in a day early. I wanted to surprise Kendra.”
“Well, shoot,” Kyle joked. “That just means I have less time alone with my favorite sister-in-law.”
Kendra snorted. “I’m not your sister-in-law yet, and when I am, I’ll be your only one. It’s easy to call me your favorite.”
“Semantics,” Kyle dismissed with a smile as he put his arm around her shoulders. “So, favorite, what’s for dinner? I don’t smell anything cooking.” He took his jacket off and hung it on a wooden coatrack that stood near the archway separating the living room from the entryway.
“I’ve got some chicken breasts thawing out, and we’ll have wild rice, asparagus, French bread, and a salad,” Kendra said as she positioned herself on the love seat across from his chair. “Sloan made a dressing.”
“Did you say the chicken is thawing?”
“I’m going to go check on it now,” Sloan said over his shoulder.
“It shouldn’t take much longer,” Kendra told Kyle, “and then I’ll bake it. We should be eating in about forty-five minutes.”
“Got anything to tide me over until then?” Kyle asked hopefully. “I’m starved.”
Sloan laughed from the kitchen, not at all surprised. “We figured you might be. I’m bringing out the tray of cheese and crackers.”
“Great,” Kyle called back. “Now tell me, favorite, how do you always manage to look so beautiful? And why the he
ll don’t you have a sister I can hook up with? What about a cousin?”
“I’ve got plenty of cousins, all of whom you’ll stay away from. I don’t want to have to hurt you for breaking one of their hearts. Besides, lucky for you, they’re all married.”
“Ouch.” Kyle sounded wounded.
“All kidding aside, Kyle, when are you going to settle down in one place and start to take better care of yourself?”
“Come on, now, little sister. Don’t I look good now?” He held his arms out wide.
She shook her head at Kyle. “Of course you do, idiot. You look just like my Sloan. However,” she continued when he twisted his mouth and playfully rolled his eyes, “that doesn’t keep me from worrying about you. How’s the gambling?”
“I know my gambling bothers you, and I appreciate your not making a big deal out of it. At any rate, it’s going well. Thanks for asking, sweetness. How’s the advertising business?”
“Great,” Kendra said. “So great that I have a breakfast meeting tomorrow.”
“You have a meeting on a Saturday?”
“Yes, on a Saturday. The client’s in town for the weekend and wants to meet with the team. That’s why I took half of today off.”
“You didn’t take the whole day?”
“No. She’s too straitlaced for that,” Sloan said as he placed a tray on the table. He sat next to Kendra and handed out the bottles of beer he’d brought. “The little chicken came home before lunch.”
“Well,” Kendra bristled in protest. “Fair is fair. They’re not keeping me all day tomorrow, and I’m getting a free breakfast out of it,” she defended her ethics when they only laughed harder.
“Yeah, a free breakfast, which I’m sure will make up for having to get out of bed at six on a Saturday morning after having worked late every night the week before,” Sloan chided. “That’s real fair.”
“Well, still,” Kendra protested weakly. “It’s lucky for you I did it this way. Otherwise your little surprise would have been ruined,” she finished with a lift of her chin.