A Haught Date: Haught Brothers Book 1 (A Haught Brothers Novel)

by Leela Lou Dahlin

  He’d arrived a few minutes early so he could check out the place, but now that it was the appointed time to meet a commotion with a waitress and spilled drinks made him have to wait a few more minutes. After her sexing the cherry stint, she’d given him an annoyed look and took off. He wasn’t sure why she left so he’d followed her to the bathroom.

  Now she stood looking at him. The blonde was gone, but the fish out of water expression had returned to her pretty face. Her eyes were wide with confusion and her soft looking moist mouth was slightly open. He wanted to soothe her. He held out his hand, because he wanted to touch her again.

  When she took his hand and looked away, he had the answer to one question. The color of her eyes. Deep dark chocolate. He’d seen that eye color before, but it’d never made him want to hold onto his heart. He walked her out of the lounge with her hand enveloped in his, and a feeling he hadn’t felt in a while…anticipation.

  When they made it outside the club to the sidewalk she tugged on his arm. She let his hand go and slowly turned to face him. Her heated scrutiny was like a caress as she took in everything about his face. He wished he knew what she was thinking. He’d made his life’s work trying to figure out women’s behavior, because he loved them. Everything about them. How they thought, how they moved, how they worked out problems…there were so many variables in each individual. He’d known his whole life that he didn’t deserve a happily ever after or a family of his own, but that didn’t stop him from studying and loving women.

  This one looked firm, but wary, intrigued but timid. Her eyes were clear and direct, but her teeth nibbling into her lip told another story. There was no doubt she was a paradox, and he’d always loved puzzles. It was taking her time trying to think this through, and by watching her stoic face, he determined she knew how to keep her thoughts hidden pretty well. She was hard to read, but he could tell by the time her focus fell on his lips, her decision to use him for her pretend boyfriend wasn’t going to be in his favor.

  “I don’t think this is going to work,” she said as she turned and walked away.

  That wasn’t the response he usually got. Women loved him. He wasn’t conceited. He wasn’t sure why women loved him and his two brothers at first glance, but the fact was, they did. The other fact was this one didn’t.

  “I know what happened in the bathroom may not have endeared you to me, but you don’t know me enough to decide if this could work out or not,” he said as he caught up with her. She merged with the locals and tourists that were standing around and walking to the clubs and restaurants this area of town was known for. “Why don’t you think this is going to work?”

  “So how do you know True?” She took a deep breath and then walked slow enough to talk, but he figured that was because the sidewalk was so crowded. He noticed she’d changed the subject, but as long as she was still talking, in his opinion, they were moving in the right direction.

  “She lived next door to us when she was young. She’s been like a member of the family, and the best friend of my brother, Beau, for almost as long as I can remember.”

  “Did she tell you about my situation?” she said, and he tried to see her face because she almost sounded embarrassed.

  “Not really. She thought I’d be able to help you, and she said you’d fill me in on the rest.”

  “Not really?” she said as she stopped walking, but didn’t turn toward him, and his mind whirled, trying to figure out a way to get her to sit down and talk with him. He spied a coffee shop and hoped for the best.

  “How about we talk over a cup of coffee? Then I won’t have to worry about you sprinting away.”

  She turned to look at him, and he could almost hear the war going on within her, but she nodded in agreement to his suggestion.

  He guided her into Coffee Smoffee and was glad she was going to talk with him a bit more. He enjoyed doing things for others, it made him feel like he was there for a reason, and he had a purpose. He wanted to do his best to help her. He just had to find a way to get her to see how useful he could be to her.

  “What’s good here?” he said, looking up at dozens of coffee drink specialties on the wall above the counter.

  “You’ve never been here?” she asked with her bright eyes sparkling with mischief, a good look on her.

  “I’m not much of a coffee drinker.”

  “Really? What do you drink? No, let me guess,” she said with a flirty smile that reminded him of the sexy siren she could be.

  He liked the way she looked him over searching for clues to her question. He also liked that she seemed to be loosening up a bit.

  “You think you can tell what I drink by looking at me?” he quipped.

  “Sure. I would say you look like a water drinker – bottled or filtered. You’re one of those ‘I-like-to-know-what’s-going-into-my-body’ types.” Her head was cocked to the side like she’d put serious consideration into her answer.

  “Hmm,” was all he was going to give her.

  “Well, how’d I do?”

  “Pretty good. I am a water drinker, my-body-is-a-temple…yadda, yadda, yadda type of guy, but I also like beer.”

  The open smile she gave him made his heart kick a beat. If he’d already drank some coffee, he could have blamed it on the caffeine. Something about her provoked him and made him want more. He should have known this would happen based on how regularly, he thought about her after seeing her picture last month. He wished he’d gone to that showing of True’s art at The Galleria instead of reading about it and her new assistant in the paper. She just did it for him. Maybe it was her shy vulnerability that seemed to call out to him or maybe she’d bumped it up a notch when she’d seduced him in the bathroom. Whatever it was, it was an emotion he’d not dealt with before.

  With her decaf mocha latte and his bottled water, they made their way to a table in the corner of the room. The small round table seemed almost non-existent between them as they sat in the dimmed corner.

  “So, tell me about yourself.” He’d made sure he took the seat across from her, because he wanted to see her face as they talked. Now that they were sitting close she seemed more interested in stirring her whipped cream into her drink.

  “There’s not much to tell. You know I work with True as her assistant. I love art. True’s art especially. We talked about my situation and she told me she thought she knew the perfect man for the job.”

  “That’s a decent start.” He paused until she looked up from her drink. He wanted to explore her expressive face to gather additional queues. “Why do I feel you are leaving out something important?”

  Her deep, throaty, laugh made his cock begin to stir, but he tried to ignore that and concentrate on her story.

  “My family has been trying to hook me up with everyone they knew for the last year. I told them I had a boyfriend, so they would stop. It was just to keep them off my back, but they wanted to see him. I told them we were getting to know each other before I introduced him to the family.”

  Ha, now we’re talking. He knew there was a problem. “How long have you said you had this boyfriend?”

  “Six months?” Her tone was sullen as she went back to studying her drink.

  “O...kay. That’s a good enough time to know someone and I can see where that would cause an issue, especially if there actually is no guy.” He rolled his bottle around in his palm thinking of how he was perfect for this. All he could get out of True was that Gemmi was in a bind and she thought he’d be able to help her out.

  “So now you know why it can’t be you.” Sadness dulled her warm brown eyes. He’d seen those them sparkling with humor and damned if he didn’t want to bring that back.

  “Wait… what?” This woman kept him on his toes. He was trying so hard to get her to see it his way her last statement threw him for a loop. “Since you’ve already told me your cover story, which I could tell was hard for you to get out, and I am willing to play the part of the boyfriend you’ve had for six months. I don’t
see the problem.”

  “You don’t even know what you have to do or how long it’s going to take or what the requirements are…” She flailed her hands, and he could tell she was working herself into a frenzy right before his eyes.

  He reached for her hand and held it in his to calm her and get her to focus. “Gemmi, tell me what you need from me.”

  “Well, I don’t know how long it will take… at least a month because then we would have been together for over six months, and that’s a long time for me. During that time, we’d have to be seen together, and you wouldn’t be able to go out with anyone else. After that we could break up and my family would know I am able to be all right having a relationship start and end normally.” She took a deep breath. “That’s one of the reasons why I don’t think that would suit you.”

  “So, you think my dating habits would get in the way?”

  “I’m sure you aren’t lacking dates or interest. You’ve already been hit on once tonight and have caused at least twenty-five women to get whiplash when you walked by. That has all happened within the forty minutes since we met.”

  “So, no dating anyone but you for at least a month and we need to go out together? Is that it?” He tapped her hand to draw her attention away from whatever secrets she was trying to find in her Latte and to see if the punch to the gut he got when she looked at him was a fluke or would it keep happening. She lifted her head to look at him…nope, it kept happening.

  “Why do you want to do this? It’s summer. You don’t want to be saddled with something like this, at this time of the year.” She gasped like she’d figured something out. Her full lips formed an O and her eyes were wide. “Do you owe True some epic favor? Is she blackmailing you?” She squinted, as if she could see the truth of his words if she tried hard enough. This woman was fascinating. He’d told her he was willing, and she was trying to find a way out of it.

  “I do owe True a huge favor for—introducing me to you. No, she is not blackmailing me and why do I want to do this?” He looked into her warm brown eyes and followed her glasses as they slid down her nose, but then his gaze got stuck on her full pink lips. “I just want to help you.”

  “Do you often go around playing the hero?”

  “I do what I can.” He brought his attention away from her mouth and back to her eyes, this was no time to get lax. She was still a flight risk.

  “What do you get out of this?” She slid her hand from beneath his and placed them in her lap.

  “The usual stuff, you know karma, paying it forward, wonderful conversations with a beautiful woman…” That, at least, brought back her smile, albeit a small one. He was enjoying her interrogation. Women generally didn’t make him work very hard, but he liked that this one did.

  “You’ve done so many horrible things in your life you need good karma to reverse it?”

  “You have no idea.”

  “Do you have any family around here?” Her tone and her questions were getting friendly. She must be considering using him in her grand scheme.

  “I have two older brothers, Alec and Beau. We all live in this area.”

  “Wow, there are two other men who look like you? That’s like amazing.” She pushed her glasses up on her nose, looked away, and then cleared her throat.

  He was charmed by the quick flush of pink that stained her cheeks.

  “Your parents don’t live in this area?”

  “My mother died a while ago, and my father passed a few months after her. My brothers and I moved here and lived with my grandfather. After he died, we stayed to run the family business.” He hoped she didn’t dig deep or long in this vein of conversation because that was more than he’d ever said about it to anyone.

  “I’m sorry.” She looked so sad he wished he hadn’t told her that. He wanted to bring the smile back to her face.

  “Thanks.”

  “What’s your last name, Camden?”

  “I will tell you if and when you let me help you out with your problem.” He was not getting into that tonight. It would come up soon enough, and he would deal with it then.

  “What’s wrong with your last name? Is this like Rumplestiltskin?”

  “Maybe a little, my last name is a bit quirky, and it may tip the scales out of my favor.”

  “Your last name is that bad?”

  “Trust me.” He could almost see the questions forming on her face. He drummed his fingers on the table trying to figure out a way to get out of this conversation. She laughed, and he stopped the nervous habit he hadn’t done since he was a teenager.

  “I think that’s the most uncomfortable I’ve seen you all night.” She cleared her throat and tried to stifle her laughter. “So what does a man like you do for a living?”

  “You mean a man who likes to eat and pay his bills on time?” He tried to give her his most dazzling smile. His gaze raked over the honest eyes, the full lips, and the stern challenge of the gorgeous woman across from him as he tried to remember why he was doing this. Good deeds…karma? Yeah, right. He just plain liked her.

  “Of course, that’s exactly the kind of man I was talking about,” she said as she leaned closer to him. This was the treatment he was more familiar with. Interest.

  “I’m a bartender.”

  “Do you know how to throw bottles in the air and pour the drink behind your back?”

  “Most of the customers I serve don’t want anything that fancy, they just want their drink in a glass without a show.”

  “I’m sure watching you is a significant part of the show.”

  Look who’s feeling more comfortable. He was pleased she was loosening up enough to show him more of the flirty, confident woman from the bathroom.

  “I guess for some, but it’s a neighborhood sports bar, nothing elaborate. You should come by sometime. I’m surprised True hasn’t dragged you in yet.”

  “I’m not much of a bar person. The noise… the crowds. I get all flustered, so I try to stay away from that scene.” She looked around the room like she just remembered where they were, she seemed focused on the group of women who sat on the other side of the room. He’d watched her notice them when they came in and ordered.

  “I really need to be going. I have to work on the art show with True in the morning.”

  “Let me walk you to your car.” He started to stand, but she looked like she was spooked by something and held her hand out to stop him from getting up.

  “It’s fine. Nothing serious happens in this town and I’m parked right outside. Really. I’m fine. Have a great night.” Then his little Cinderella was up and out of there like the clock was about to strike the twelfth chime.

  Chapter 3

  “True, what were you thinking trying to hook me up with a man who should be on the cover of Out of Your League magazine?” Gemmi called True as soon as she walked in the door of her apartment. She tried to remain calm. It made her feel good to know she was in control of herself, but she’d done things she’d never have done tonight. She really wouldn’t have done them if she knew whom she was doing them with. “You said you were going to introduce me to some average guy. The man you sent for me is not average. There is no way anyone is going to (A) believe I could get and keep a man like that and (B) that I would have hidden him away for six months.”

  She hadn’t succeeded. Her voice was raised to an octave that could rival a dolphin and her body was so tense she felt like she could shatter. Damn, she hated when she lost control of her temper. She liked to keep herself composed. She took a deep breath and that’s when she noticed True hadn’t said anything. She sat down on her favorite loveseat and tried to organize her emotions by looking at her organized living room. Deep breath in…deep breath out.

  “Wow,” True said with her voice filled with awe.

  “What?” Gemmi was exasperated but felt like she was winding down after that large burst of energy.

  “I’ve never heard you so twisted up. You’d better calm down before you get one of your stre
ss headaches.”

  “True, is that all you have to say?” She probably shouldn’t have had that coffee so close to bed time she was seriously wired. Decaf or not. She took another deep breath and decided to change the subject. “Where were you tonight?”

  “It’s Thursday,” she answered. It wasn’t like True to be cryptic.

  “I’m aware of the day of the week,” Gemmi said as she walked to the kitchen. Maybe a cup of tea would calm her nerves.

  “You know I always have a standing movie and popcorn night with Beau every Thursday,” she reminded Gemmi and she could almost picture True’s eyes glazing over, the way they always did when she talked about her best friend Beau.

  Gemmi didn’t know him well. She’d only met the outrageously beautiful man once, very briefly, but now she knew he had two brothers one of which was Camden.

  “How could I forget that? It’s your one constant in life.” She seriously should talk to True about facing facts. The woman was in love with Beau, but maybe she’d wait to try to help her confront that issue when her own problems didn’t feel as hard to solve as the national deficit.

  A weighty sigh followed the long pause and Gemmi knew True was going to have something deep to say. That sigh was the one she gave right before she said something that she’d been trying to hold back and holding back wasn’t her strong suite. She didn’t know if she honestly wanted to hear what True had to say right now. The water was in the kettle and she moved to get the cup and sugar ready.

  “Gemmi? Do you remember what you told me about your family? The part about them always thinking they know everything about you.”

  “Yes, I remember.” And she didn’t like the direction this one was heading. She walked into her living room looking her snow globes attempting to find peace in the falling snow around the houses.

  “It’s the same with Camden. I’ve known him almost all my life, and I’ve watched people categorize him. He’s unbelievably gorgeous, but no one truly knows him. He doesn’t give anyone a chance to see he’s more than just a hot guy who’s helpful as hell. You are both such incredible people. I know you need some help right now, and I know he loves to help. What could be a better match?”