As the night moved on, Sinclair had been amazed at how the time had flown and how much of a good time she was having.
She had found that the brothers, both, had a wicked sense of humor. One that, had she not known any better, would make her think they were in fact blood relatives of the Wildes.
Yet the Wildes were not actually blood brothers, despite the similarity in their personalities. A lot of that had to do with them being raised together as brothers, under Clint Jedediah Wilde as their father.
Guilt assaulted her from two different camps. On the one side, she’d suddenly, eerily, gained an odd understanding of what the twins felt, knowing that Clint Wilde was their father yet never having known him. She could understand the anger and betrayal both men no doubt felt. Although Nick was open about his anger, his brother was silent. Yet Sinclair had found him looking at her throughout the meal, occasionally. In his blue eyes was not anger or mistrust...it was the exact opposite.
She’d felt confused, unsure of what was going on, why he seemed so much like family...
It was a disquieting thought, which in turn presented her with the other side....
That one thought alone made her feel exceedingly guilty about her Wilde Boys. She was there for them...not to cozy up to the Kealohas, no matter how she may empathize with them.
After dinner and dessert, they took their coffee to one of the larger sitting rooms. Immediately, Sonia and Key sat, as though one, in a large chair that was meant for one but two could share. She smiled at the love between them. It was so palpable she felt as though, again, she was back home observing the Wildes with their spouses.
She felt Nick’s eyes on her and her heart started thumping hard against her chest, a reaction she was starting to associate with him.
He reached out a hand for her to take, asking her, silently, to sit near him on the soft leather sofa. She took two steps before she halted and shook her head as though to clear it.
“Come and sit with me. I don’t bite,” he said and her face caught color as her eyes widened. She heard a choked-off laugh coming from Sonia but couldn’t stop looking at him.
“Come on...you know you want to,” he said and her blush deepened.
“Give the woman a break, Nick. She doesn’t know you, yet,” she heard his brother admonish from behind her, but still she was stuck, her gaze locked with his.
He smiled.
Her heart about stopped beating.
“Oh, yes, she does, brother,” he murmured for her ears alone.
The blush intensified and she swallowed. She forced herself out of the odd trance he’d placed her under.
She straightened her back, lengthened her spine. Purposely she put on a sardonic look as she threw on her attitude like a well-worn coat.
“You’re right.... I do,” she said to Key before turning back to Nick. “Which is why I think I’ll take this seat instead,” she said, pointing a finger at the chair beside which she’d left her briefcase. Behind her she heard both Sonia and Key laugh outright.
Point: Sinclair.
Completely ignoring his knowing smile, Sinclair sat in the upright chair and brought her briefcase into her lap, strangely battling a smile she felt trying to break free.
She, with reluctance, pulled out the documents she’d brought with her.
“Listen...we trust you.”
Before she could even withdraw all of the documents, Key had spoken.
Her eyes flew to meet Keanu’s glance. “Excuse me?”
She could feel Nick’s eyes on her and turned to see him sitting back on the leather sofa, a neutral look on his handsome face that didn’t match the blazing look in his eyes.
“Of course we will look at the documents,” Key continued, “but as I’ve told my brother, we are leaving this...decision for him to handle. We trust and believe in him.” Key spoke calmly, as though not discussing what could be a volatile situation regarding millions of dollars at stake. “Whatever decision you two come up with is one that we, as a family, will agree to. Whatever that is,” he finished.
His wife smiled down at him, kissed him. The moment was so private, a communication only the two of them understood, that Sinclair glanced away, her eyes colliding with Nick’s.
“Looks like you’re stuck with me, darlin’,” he drawled, his hot glaze sliding over her body.
She fought the warmth flushing her body with his look.
“Hope that’s all right with you?” he rasped, bringing the cup of coffee he held within his big, capable hands to his mouth.
“I think I can, uh, handle that,” she said, putting the papers aside and toying with her own mug, her gaze locked with his.
“Good,” he said, one side of his mouth lifting in that way he had, before he took a drink of the hot brew.
She watched in helpless fascination as he drank. The way his throat worked the liquid down, the strong column of his neck straining as it slid down his throat.
She forgot for the moment that anyone was there but Nick. She even forgot why she’d come there.
There was no one in the room but the two of them.
“So, are you okay with that, Sinclair?”
Sinclair turned to see Sonia staring at her, a small smile lifting the corner of her generous mouth.
“I’m definitely good with that,” she said, putting as much professionalism as possible into her voice and demeanor. “No problem for me.”
The rest of the conversation proved pleasant, though before long Sinclair, surprised at the time, started to gather up her things. Standing, she said good-night to Key and Sonia and nodded when Nick offered to walk her to her car. It seemed natural for him to do so.
After walking her to her rental, he offered to shadow her back to her hotel.
“It’s not a problem for me to do that. It’s late, and although it’s safe around here—the entire island is—I would feel better if you allowed me to see you back to your hotel safely.”
She was already shaking her head no before he could finish.
“Um, no. I’m good. I mean, it’s not that far of a drive. And, uh, like you said, the island is safe and—” She stopped as the dimple appeared near the lower corner of his mouth.
He was so sexy when he smiled like that. She nearly groaned out loud.
She knew she had to get away from him quick-fast and in a hurry. Throughout the evening they’d locked gazes and she’d known that he was too...experienced not to know she found him sexy as hell. And at this point, not only was it obvious that she felt attracted to him, but from the looks and his demeanor it was clear he was attracted to her, as well.
She was in a precarious position.
But she also knew his ego was just big enough that he would never think of forcing his attention on her. No, he was the type who enjoyed the woman chasing him.
She straightened her back, firmed her smile. Well, she wasn’t that type of woman.
His eyes rolled over her face and stopped at her mouth.
With his gaze focused on her mouth, she licked lips gone completely dry, leaning away from him, fumbling in her satchel for her keys as her rear end bumped against the car door.
She glanced up in time to catch the knowing look in his vivid blue eyes at her telling response to his nearness.
“Well, thanks for a great evening. Your family is very nice. And I’ll get back with you all on the new proposal. I mean to you, I guess, as it appears as though we’re flying solo with this,” she said in one long rushed sentence. She stopped and forced a smile she knew was twitchy from the nerves racking her. She turned, not wanting to make eye contact because she was too damn nervous to do so.
“Good night.”
She would have gotten away with it, too, had he not stopped her, placed his big, warm hands on her shoulders and tur
ned her back around to face him.
Goose bumps feathered down her arms when she felt his hands run down the length of her bared skin before holding her wrists.
She dropped her briefcase on the soft grass.
In a move that surprised her, he leaned down and captured her lips with his.
And just like that, she detonated.
His lips feathered back and forth over hers, casually, no demand, while his hands loosely bound her wrists.
When his tongue pressed against the seam of her lips she eagerly opened for him, eager for the feel of his tongue in her mouth. She’d imagined how it would feel, rough yet smooth.
She groaned when he lapped inside.
It was just as she’d imagined, but hotter. More intense.
He pulled her closer, one hand taking over as it kept her bound, the other moving to the back of her neck.
He was in control. Even as he kissed her, his lips making love to her mouth, a part of her recognized that he was a man used to being in control.
She allowed him the control, because it made her feel so damn good.
She moaned, leaning into the kiss and shyly meeting his tongue with hers.
He groaned harshly and brought her even tighter against his body, grinding against her so that she inhaled sharply against the sensation, feeling his shaft, thick, hard, against her stomach.
The kiss grew hotter and wetter as their tongues dueled.
A sound broke into her consciousness like an irritating buzz. She recognized it as the sound of men speaking, laughing, not far in the distance.
She brought her hands up to his chest and pushed him away.
Sinclair was so shaky she leaned against the car to lend her strength.
He reached out to grab her shoulders, and she moved away.
“I’m fine,” she mumbled.
“I shouldn’t have—”
“Look, it’s fine. I’m a grown woman. I didn’t let you do anything I didn’t want done,” she said, forestalling him from apologizing, her hand raised as she turned to lift her briefcase from the grass near the driveway where she’d allowed it to drop.
She glanced up at him in the dark, the moon highlighting his handsome face.
Instead of the look of triumph she expected to see, his was one of arousal mixed with something more.... That same thing she’d seen when they’d first met.
It was as though he was trying to peer into her soul.
Without a backward glance, she got into the car, reversed and skidded in her rush to leave before smoothly taking back control. Yet...she raced from the circular driveway as though the hounds of hell were after her.
With all of the heated stares and with all the sweating and panting she’d been doing the entire night, she felt just as though they were.
Chapter 11
She was a powder keg of sensuality, waiting to be lit.
He ran a hand across his face.
Nick couldn’t take it anymore. The entire week he’d been on edge, his cock so hard he could use it to slice the Wagyu beef his family prided themselves on producing.
And the longer he watched her prance around his ranch, the randier he got. He didn’t know how much longer he could take it before he would detonate.
And day by day it was getting worse.
It had been just a week, and he had it so bad for her, he was beginning to question his own sanity.
That morning he’d had a run-in with his brother. He’d known that his brother was aware that everything wasn’t going exactly the way he’d planned with Sinclair the minute Key had opened his mouth.
* * *
“Everything cool, Nick?”
Without asking, he was asking.... It wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Key knew things weren’t going that great.
Nick snorted. “That’s got to be the understatement of the year.”
He’d gotten up early this morning, earlier than the normal—5:00 a.m.—just to get out to the south pasture to look upon his land before it got busy and the ranch “came alive.”
He often did that whenever something was heavy on his mind.
He glanced over at his brother. “How did you know?”
“That Sinclair is on your mind 24/7?”
Nick slowly nodded his head. There was no sense in trying to convince his brother that there wasn’t something going on in his psyche regarding Sinclair.
His brother barked out a laugh.
“I remember the symptoms.”
Nick didn’t respond. He couldn’t. He knew his brother was referring to how he had fallen for his wife. It wasn’t like that for him. He wasn’t falling in love with Sinclair...she just plagued his mind nonstop, he thought irritably.
At most, he was falling in lust with her.
The thought of how she’d feel beneath him had been his constant companion for the past week. In fact, it had been growing for six months, from their first communication.
“She’s under my skin, man.” Nick grumbled as the admission was torn from him. He knew that if he didn’t just admit it, voice it, it would only get worse. Who better than his brother to admit it to? “Just not sure how in hell to get her out,” he finished. He lifted the coffee mug to his mouth and took a swallow of the now-cooling brew.
“Who says she has to come out, so to speak?”
The two men stared out at the pasture, not looking at the other, both in their own thoughts.
Casually, as though it was no big deal, Key removed the large coffee mug from Nick’s hand and took a deep swallow. Then promptly grimaced.
Before he could say a word and without even glancing his brother’s way, Nick spoke into the silence. “You don’t get to complain when you don’t make it. That goes for when you steal it, as well.”
Nick didn’t have to look at his brother to know the look on his face after taking a drink of his coffee.
“Serves you right for taking such a big-ass gulp, anyway,” Nick continued, snickering.
His lack of coffee-making skills was one of many reasons why Mahi forbade him from being in the kitchen when he was preparing any given meal.
“It’s something about her...” Nick began, only to stop, shake his head. He paused for a long moment before continuing. “Something about how damn protective she is of her ‘Wilde Boys.’” Nick picked the topic back up, unaware that one side of his lip had curled slightly downward when he mentioned the Wildes.
“Nick...brother, look,” Key began with a sigh. He took a careful drink of the coffee before he placed a booted foot on the lower log of the fence and propped his large elbows on the top rail. Although he’d complained, Nick noticed he didn’t give him back his coffee.
“There are a few things you need to figure out, and one of them most definitely isn’t how to ‘get’ Sinclair out of your head. One of them is how you feel about the Wildes,” Key stated.
“Aw, hell, I don’t need to hear—”
“And all this crap about being ‘over’ the fact that Clint either didn’t know about us, or care enough to find out, is the major bee in your bonnet,” Key said, talking over his brother’s protest.
“It’s not that, Key. I couldn’t give a damn... Wait. ‘Bee in my bonnet’? Really, bro, that’s the best you have? You’ve been hanging around your wife too long. You’re getting soft,” he said, unable to let that one go.
When his brother gave him the middle-finger salute to his observation, he continued. “Look, if the man knew, cared, or otherwise, I don’t care. That’s all in the past.” He stopped, his brow knitting in a frown. “A past I have...or had...no intention of dredging up. I’d decided to let it all go, anyway, to move on. Before...”
His brother turned to face him, an equal frown on his face. “Okay...t
his is new. ‘Before’? Before what? What are you talking about?”
Nick ran a frustrated hand through his hair, feeling conflicting emotions as his brother stared at him, his eyes boring a hole through Nick.
“Damn. Look... Before Sinclair came around, before she informed me she wanted to come out to the ranch to settle this, I was ready to let it drop.”
“And?” Key prompted when it looked as though Nick wasn’t going to continue.
He shrugged his wide shoulders. “And I didn’t.”
“No damn way. You can’t just say that and not explain. You need to, if for no other reason than it’s going to help you understand. Don’t you see that?” The look in his brother’s eyes was disconcerting. As though his brother knew something he didn’t, as though he understood something Nick didn’t.
Nick growled in frustration.
“It wasn’t Wilde’s...fault. He didn’t know about us. Mom never told him. I know that. I just—” He stopped, clenched his teeth.
Although Key had asked the question, it was less than a minute later when Nick realized his brother had realized, come up with, surprised or Jedi-mind-tricked him. Either way his brother laughed.
Shaking his head, Nick turned back to face the south pasture. The sun was beginning to rise, and the two men observed it together. The ranch was beginning to come alive.
The brothers didn’t exchange another word about the topic. Key instinctively realized his brother needed to get a handle on his feelings for not only Clint Wilde, but more importantly for the woman who was intimately involved with the family of a man he hated.
He glanced over at his brother, his twin. A small smile pulled the corners of his mouth. He clapped his brother on the back.
“Yeah, well, I’m sure you can handle one little lady, brother, can’t you?” he laughed, reminding Nick of how he’d once teased Key about Sonia. “Funny how karma and life find a way of getting us all eventually, huh?” Again his brother laughed. He laughed so hard he nearly choked.
Nick didn’t think it was so damn funny.
Chapter 12
Sinclair stood at the gate closure, watching as Nick slowly approached the stallion. The animal tossed its head back, its nostrils flaring in agitation and its eyes on Nick, carefully watching as he approached.
To Tame a Wilde (Wilde in Wyoming) Page 8