“Embarrassing?” This time it was Zeke who adjusted for a better view of her face. “Like porn?” He knocked her hand away from the track pad and popped open the internet browser. “Now I’m compelled to find what secrets you’ve got stashed away.”
She snatched the laptop, swung her legs off the couch, and set the computer on the coffee table. “No porn.” She slid him a sideways glance as she shut the cover. “But I might have a few...um...graphic pictures saved here and there.”
He snatched her by the wrist and tugged her toward him. His voice rumbled low in that drop-dead sexy way he always used when he was about a second from sliding his cock inside her. “Yeah?”
Oh, yeah. Definitely drop-dead sexy.
He nuzzled the sensitive space behind her ear, his warm breath sending delicious ripples down her spine. “Now I feel compelled to finagle a private viewing.”
She giggled, but it came out huskier than her usual laugh, her body ramping fast for more of his decadent touch. “Ask Knox. I bet he’s seen.”
“Maybe.” He pulled away, much to her dismay, and gripped her chin between his fingers. “But if you knew Knox a little better, you’d know he’s seen so much crap online that nothing fazes him. And I mean nothing. A few dirty pics or porn history wouldn’t even tweak his radar. Hell, if anything, a lack of dirty stuff would throw a flag more than anything kinky.”
Part of her wanted to push the issue, but the sweet, puppy dog look on his face obliterated her forced frown. She pursed her lips to fight back the smile. “You and your brothers are weird.”
“Weird, but devoted. Once you’re in, you’re ours whether you like it or not.”
She sat back, more than a little stunned by the statement. “I’m not in. I barely know the man.”
“Gatinha, I’ve told you I love you three times in the last hour. Knox is my brother. You don’t get more in than that.”
“Maybe you should define—”
Her new phone rang and vibrated against the glass-topped coffee table. For a second, she considered punching the decline button, but changed her mind when she spied Danny’s number on the front. Her brother might get chatty at home, but she could count on one hand the number of times he’d phoned her without an agenda. She scooped it up and scowled at Zeke. “I’m not done with you.”
He grinned, as unrepentant as always.
She swiped the button on the home screen. “Hey, Danny. What’s up?”
“Oh, good, you’ve got your phone on,” Danny said. Before his voice had even died off, what sounded like a high-powered drill shrilled in the background. A muffled sound distorted the audio, but she could still make out Danny yelling at someone. “Hey, you guys wanna give that a rest a minute?” The smothered sound disappeared and Danny came back online. “Sorry ’bout that. Been a busy day. I just wanted to give you a heads up you’ll be getting some test calls in the next thirty minutes or so.”
“Test calls?” She pulled her phone away from her ear long enough to check the time. “And what the heck are you still doing at work after seven o’clock? You never work this late.”
“I’m not working. At least not at the shop. And the calls are from the monitoring center.”
“Monitoring center?” Beside her, Zeke swiped his fingers against her laptop’s track pad, navigating some colorful website, not the least bit clued into her confused conversation. “Are you drunk?”
“No, I’m not drunk,” Danny said. “The monitoring center is the place that dispatches emergency services if an alarm goes down at the house.”
“We don’t have a security system.”
“We do now. I put one in today. Beck and some of his boys helped me do it. It’s part of his sign-on bonus. Said no self-respecting security guy is worth his salt if he doesn’t practice what he preaches.”
She blinked. Then blinked again, rewinding what he’d said and still not coming up with anything that made sense. “Hold up. What signing bonus? And how could you install a security system when you were supposed to be at work?”
Movement sounded through the line, a shuffling sound as though Danny were moving somewhere quickly, followed by the thunk of a closing door. His voice dropped to that I’m-your-big-brother-and-you’re-gonna-listen-to-me voice. “I got a signing bonus because I quit the shop and went to work for Beck.”
“You what!”
Zeke’s head snapped up at her outburst. He set the laptop aside and gave her his full attention, which kind of sucked considering he could only hear half of the shit coming through the line.
Danny kept going. “I’m going to work for Beckett.”
“Doing what?”
“Everything. Home installs, consults, private security.”
“You mean guarding rich people.”
“That’s a piece of it, but yeah, that, too.”
He was out of his mind. No one just up and quit their job on a whim. Especially Danny. “But what about cars? You love working on them.”
“I love doing my own thing. Doing the hot rods. Not patching up someone’s fender bender and picking stock colors. Plus, Steve’s an asshole. Beck’s cool. He gets me. And he’s willing to teach me something new. Plus, he’s letting me set my own schedule so I can take on more custom work. Even said he’d back me financially so I can grow into that full time if that’s what I want.”
He quit his job.
Moving away from you.
Leaving you.
A bone-chilling cold pierced her stomach and a low, grating buzz droned inside her head. Quitting meant change. He’d probably be gone more. Might even decide he needed a place of his own. Someplace where his sister didn’t cramp his style. Or worse, what if he got hurt looking out for some stranger? She’d already lost her dad. Her mother couldn’t even remember to send cards on her birthday, let alone be a presence in her life. If she lost Danny, then—
“Gabe?” Zeke covered her hand and pulled it away from her neck, yanking her back from her manic thoughts and the murky darkness that went with them at the same time. “Sweetheart, take a breath and give me the phone.”
She nodded and handed over the sleek device, nearly fumbling it in the process.
Zeke reclined on the couch, pulling her against his chest as he went and wrapping her up tight. “Hey, Danny. What’s going on?”
God, he was warm. Warm and solid against the negative chatter battering her from the inside out. She inhaled deep, grounding herself in his summery scent and the steady beat of his heart beneath her cheek. The words he shared with Danny didn’t matter. Only the rumbling comfort of his voice did.
He tossed the phone to the couch long minutes later and kissed the top of her head. “You okay?”
She was now. Embarrassed as hell she’d panicked like a two-year-old, but steadier now that she’d had time to center herself. “What did he say?”
“Mostly, he was worried about you.” He shifted enough to gauge her expression. “You want to tell me why your brother trying out a new job sent you in a tailspin?”
Not really. Heck, she wasn’t even sure it would make sense even if she tried. “He just caught me off guard. Walking away from something you’ve done your whole adult life is kind of a big thing.”
“Gatinha, doing a job and loving it are two entirely different things. Can you honestly say he was happy working at the shop?”
Was he? Now that she thought about it, she couldn’t remember the last time he came home in a decent mood. If he ever talked about the shop, it was to bitch about his boss. “No, but he likes his custom work.”
“And Beck is willing to work with him on that. Danny likes the security work. A man exploring...trying things on for size...that’s healthy. The only way a person finds what they love in life is trying. Before I met Jace and Axel, I didn’t know that. Now I do. We want to share that w
ith Danny. Why is that bad?”
She pushed against his chest and sat upright, studying his expression. “What if it doesn’t work?”
“Are you asking about him working security? Or are you asking if we’ll stick around for him?”
I hope they’re around a lot more. I hope they let me in their circle so I can learn from them and make my life better like they have.
Serious topics weren’t something Danny dove into often, but when he’d shared those words with her after she’d first met them, he’d never been more solemn. “You guys mean something to him. I don’t want to see him get hurt.”
He traced the line of her cheek, his smile soft and patient. “We’re not going anywhere. Not for you, or him. Danny’s as much family to my brothers as you are to me. The only difference between the two of you is he’s ready to jump.”
If he’d somehow linked directly to her mind and conjured a picture from her thoughts and emotions, he couldn’t have summed it up any better. Ever since she’d met him, it seemed he’d drawn her closer and closer to the edge of a giant bluff. Her hopes and dreams whispered of paradise and urged her to trust and leap, but her fears could only focus on the distance. On the danger and the risk.
“It’s a long way down,” she whispered, hating the anxiousness that laced her admission, but proud she’d voiced it all the same.
He palmed her nape, pressed a gentle kiss to her lips, and murmured against them, “I’ll catch you.”
She closed her eyes, his velvet promise sweeping clean and bright as a spring breeze through her guarded heart.
Resting his forehead against hers, he squeezed her neck. “Don’t overthink this. You might be content in your work, but Danny’s not. He’s bored. Frustrated. You know where that’s led him in the past. We’re just opening some new doors.”
She pulled away enough to meet his gaze. “That’s the part I don’t get. Why?”
“Because he’s a good man and he deserves it.”
So simple. Almost too simple and too good to be true, but if Zeke and his brothers could make Danny happy, she’d bite her tongue and pray for the best. For both of them. “I think he deserves it, too.” She smoothed her fingertips along his sternum, the dove-gray cotton T-shirt soft beneath her touch. “And you’re right about my work. I like what I do. I like the peace behind it. Puzzling things out and letting my mind wander.” She lifted her gaze to his. “But I’m not content with everything in my life.”
He arched his eyebrow, silently prodding her for more.
Part of her wanted to retreat. To wave the topic off or find some shallow excuse for what she’d started to unveil and keep her secrets safe. Another, more daring part, demanded she take that first step toward the cliff. “People. I’d like to have more friends. Trust people more.” She hung her head, a smile tugging on her lips as she thought of all the times her brother had lectured her on her reclusive ways. “Danny says I hold people off on purpose so I can’t get hurt.”
“Is he right?”
She shrugged. “Probably.”
Zeke snagged her wrist and tugged her forward until she toppled against his chest. “You know, I used to be a lot like that.”
“You did?” She tried to push upright, but he held her firm. “There’s not a shy bone in your body.”
His voice took on an easy tone. Almost distant as though he strolled easily through long forgotten memories. “Shy wasn’t my problem. Bullies were.”
She relaxed against him, splaying her hand over his heart and resting her head on his shoulder while the setting sun cast his living room in deeper shadow. Outside the picture window, Dallas’s downtown lights twinkled against a deepening blue skyline.
“I told you my family was poor,” he said, “but I was crazy good with books and learning. My grades earned me scholarships to one of the nearby private schools for junior high and high school. Great for my education, but hard as hell on my social life.”
“How?”
From her place against him, she couldn’t watch the emotions play across his face, but she felt them all the same, a prickling unease that lifted goose bumps along her arms and shoulders.
As if sensing her response, he wrapped her up tighter, warding off the chill from his emotions. “Kids are mean. Especially when someone’s different. It’s hard to blend in with rich kids when you’ve got a thick Brazilian-Philly accent and no money to dress like them.”
“They were mean to you?”
“People buck what they don’t know.” He huffed out an ironic laugh. “And to be fair, I wasn’t exactly nice back to them. I told you I had anger issues. Still do if I don’t keep a tight leash on them and keep myself evened out. Back then, though, it was bad. I got to the point where it was either isolate myself from everyone, or get kicked out of school. Watching how hard my parents worked to make ends meet, I knew how important school was, so I sucked it up and went with option A.”
A helicopter glided above the two tallest buildings in the distance, its rotors filling the room with a low, muted pulse. Even its landing lights took on a mystical glow in the twilight. “What changed things?”
“I met Jace and Axel in college.” His thumb moved in a slow, back-and-forth slide against her shoulder. “I was tending bar at a college hangout near campus. Some snotty jock tried to force a fellow bartender into a yes when she’d clearly said no, and I snapped. It took both Jace and Axel to pull me off the bastard. I lost the job, but I found my brothers.”
She shifted enough to gaze up at his face. “So they helped you, and now you’re helping Danny.”
“Something like that.” He hesitated a minute, his eyes narrowing as though he struggled to string his words together the way he wanted them. “The thing is, once a person’s got their base, people they know they can trust in their corner, it makes dealing with everything else easier. It doesn’t matter if you’ve got one or ten you can rely on. If they’re there, you can face the rest of the crowd a lot easier. You don’t have to be defensive with the world at large because you know at the end of the day, your real friends aren’t far away.”
And she’d spent the vast majority of her life keeping most people at a distance. Except Danny and her father. God, no wonder she was a basket case. Though, in the past month things had been different. She’d not only begun to let a man into her life, both emotionally and physically, but she’d willingly walked into at least two social situations. Scary ones that necessitated at least a modicum of small talk. In the past, she’d have chewed off her own arm to avoid that kind of torture.
And she’d made a friend. A real life honest to God girlfriend.
All in the past month.
Since she’d met Zeke.
Because he was in her corner. Grounding her even when she was freaking out over demons he couldn’t see.
She swallowed, barely managing the act with the knot of emotion clogging her throat. “I have you.”
He smiled and tugged her back against him, the patience and understanding in his easy embrace further tempting her to jump. “Yeah, gatinha. You’ve definitely got me.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Thirty more minutes until Operation Swan Dive commenced. Careful to keep her new ivory shirt out of the mess she’d created, Gabe wiped up what was left of the splattered chocolate cake batter on the kitchen counter and gathered up the last of her pots and pans for washing.
Nearly a whole week since Zeke had told her he loved her and they were still solid. Five and a half days of easygoing, uncomplicated happiness so bright and blinding it rivaled the May sunshine glinting off the lake outside her kitchen window.
And nothing had ripped the rug out from underneath her.
Well, not with Zeke at least. Something was wrong with Danny. Not that he was overly angry or anything. More like distracted and refusing to talk about
whatever was bugging him. Hence, the chocolate Bundt cake cooking in the oven. Where poking and prodding to uncover what was on her brother’s mind wouldn’t work, sweets would.
Always.
Too bad her plans with Zeke wouldn’t be as simple. Cooking she could do in her sleep. Handing over her heart was a whole different recipe she didn’t have a clue how to prepare for. April, on the other hand, had offered all kinds of sexy tips to build into her special night. Most of which entailed blowing what was left of her savings on purchases she’d guaranteed would make Zeke remember every last detail.
The timer on her phone let out an impatient trill at the same time a knock sounded at her door. She poked her head around the corner of her galley kitchen.
Zeke’s cherry-red Camaro sat beside her truck in the driveway, the early afternoon sun sparking off the spotless exterior.
So much for having the mess cleaned and her makeup re-touched before he got here. “It’s open!” Ducking back to the oven, she snatched her oven mitts. The heat hit her in a waft powerful enough to stir the hair around her face, and the rich, sweet scent of fresh cake flooded the kitchen.
“Gabe?”
“In here.” She flipped the oven door closed and eased the cake on the counter to cool. “I thought you weren’t going to be here for another thirty minutes?”
Zeke meandered around the corner. “I thought you were going to start locking the front door.” He glanced back over his shoulder. “The alarm system wasn’t even on.”
Okay, so maybe they hadn’t had a completely uneventful five and a half days. Zeke might not get upset about many things, but the three times he’d busted her not locking the door and using the alarm—which was now four times—had set him off good. She still couldn’t figure out what all the fuss was about. “I’ve lived in this house my whole life, Zeke. I told you I’d try, but that’s not going to change overnight.”
Satisfied she had the bulk of her cleanup done and eager to get his mind on something else, she tossed her dish towel to the countertop, spun toward him and smoothed her hand over her blouse. It probably wasn’t anywhere near as fancy or trendy as the stuff the women where he worked wore, especially paired with jeans, but the peasant look and the delicate lace made her feel sexy, and April said that was what counted most. Plus, she’d splurged on some delicate, sparkling sandals. “What do you think?”
Wild & Sweet (The Haven Brotherhood) Page 25