“Is it cold where you grew up, too? That Yekat...” He frowned and changed course. “That other funny sounding place?”
“Yekaterinburg,” she said, beaming her sweet angel smile at him. She crossed her arms on the table, just as comfortable chattering back and forth with the unstoppable and candid eight-year-old as she’d been with Ninette and Sylvie when they’d first walked in the building together. “It’s similar. A little warmer, but I found St. Petersburg more interesting. More things to see and do. More art to enjoy.”
Levi opened his mouth, undoubtedly to launch yet another question.
Before he could voice it, Natalie cut in. “How about we let Darya get a solid breath in before you ask her anything else.”
“Yeah,” Trevor said. “Besides it’s time to get our Skee-ball championship underway. The man with the most coupons is the winner.”
“Hey,” Ninette said from her place to Darya’s right. “What makes you think it’ll be a man? I’ll have you know I was quite the Skee-ball expert in my day.”
Levi straightened in his chair and re-engaged with Darya. “I’m the best at Skee-ball. We always play games at family night and everyone gets a turn picking food and games. Tonight was my turn for games, so when Dad told me Uncle Beckett picked Dave & Buster’s for food, I challenged everyone to a Skee-ball championship.”
Knox swiveled his head to Beckett beside him and muttered, “So you’re the reason we’re here. I don’t suppose you made that decision the same time you helped Sylvie and Ninette plan their mani/pedi invasion?”
Beckett shrugged and bit into a wing. “Waitin’ on you is like watchin’ grass grow. More fun to nudge.”
Darya drew him out of his sidebar with Beckett with her innocent question to Levi. “What is Skee-ball?”
The look on the kid’s face was priceless. Like he couldn’t possibly comprehend anyone had gone through life without such dire information. “They don’t have that in Russia?”
“Well, I don’t know. We might call it something else.”
Levi twisted in his chair and shot puppy dog eyes at Natalie. “Can I show her, Mom?” Not waiting for an answer, he spun back to Darya. “It’s way cool. They’ve got these balls made out of wood. Or maybe not real wood, but they look like wood and feel like it, too. Then you roll it up this ramp and try to get the ball in different holes. The harder the hole, the more points you get.”
He paused for all of one beat, seemed to realize he’d yet to get an answer and turned back to his mom. “Can I? I mean, Darya gets a chance to play, too, right? So, someone needs to teach her how to do it.”
Natalie tried to fight back her laughter, but with Levi’s enthusiasm she’d have had to be the devil to pull it off. “I’d say that’s up to Darya.” She shifted her attention across the table. “Do you want to learn how to play Skee-ball?”
“Well, if I’m going to learn,” she said, her pretty gaze locked on Levi, “I’d do best to learn from a champion.”
“Awesome!” Levi jumped to his feet and held out his hand to Trevor. “Can I have my game card now?”
“Don’t look at me. This is Uncle Beckett’s thing.”
Axel chuckled from the end of the table and raised his scotch in salute toward Beckett. “The price of matchmaking, brother. Fork over the loot and let the lad win our girl over.”
Darya leaned close to Knox and whispered, “What does he mean by that?”
Knox cupped the back of her neck, her silky hair playing over his knuckles. It should have scared him, how easy it was being with her. How natural it felt to have her beside him at a time reserved for only family. But seeing her smile—feeling her presence beside him—was more natural than anything he’d ever done in his life. Made more sense than any line of code or tricky riddle. “It means family night is usually just for family because we do it out at Jace and Axel’s ranch, but Beck knew I’d want you with me, so he changed venues.”
“Who said it had anything to do with you?” As soon as Levi got within arm’s reach, Beckett forked over a stack of game cards big enough to tire out a whole brood of kids. Levi promptly started divvying out one to each person, but Beckett kept talking. “Maybe I’m biding my time until she figures out I’m a better bet so I can slide in and reap the rewards.”
“And here I’d thought I was gonna make it a whole day off without having to stitch anyone up.” Zeke wrapped an arm around Gabe and took a pull off his beer.
Jace chuckled, but it was Vivienne who spoke, her attention focused on Darya. “You see? This is why we can’t have family dinners in public. Too much testosterone gathered in one place. I can never tell if they’re going to beat their chests or each other’s faces.”
“At least they’re old enough they’re not beating something else all the time,” Sylvie said under her breath.
No matter how quiet she’d said it, it still garnered a table full of laughs, even from Darya who didn’t seem the least bit put off by the crude reference.
“Now, that’s a picture I didn’t need,” Danny said.
Ninette stood as soon as Levi finished rounding the table, cupped his shoulder and motioned Darya toward the arcade area. “Come on, Darya. The Skee-ball master’s getting impatient, and these guys look like they’re gonna marinate in their after-dinner drinks awhile longer.”
“All the better for us,” Sylvie said, standing as well. “The more the sots drink, the worse their coordination.”
Despite the amused but slightly overwhelmed expression on her face, Darya stood and pushed in her chair, following Sylvie’s lead.
Sylvie scanned the rest of the table, her gaze resting a little longer on Viv, Natalie and Gabe. “How about the rest of you ladies? Care ta team up and trounce the lads?”
“Oh, yeah.” Viv tossed her napkin on the table and stood, spurring Gabe and Natalie to do the same.
“You realize you’re still outnumbered by three,” Jace said, his eyes lingering appreciatively on Viv’s ass.
“Nope, only by two.” Natalie leaned in and gave Trevor a kiss on the cheek. “We’re gonna sweet talk Levi into pinch hitting for us.”
“Don’t do it, son!” Trevor shouted over his shoulder as the group migrated from the table, Darya casting a quick wave over her shoulder as the women herded her into the sea of games.
Axel grinned and lifted his scotch for another swig. “Too late. The lad’s got that gleam in his eye that says he’s already smitten.”
“Just like his dad,” Jace added. “Can’t help bein’ a knight in shining armor for the women.”
“Like you don’t buckle the second Viv crooks a finger,” Trevor said.
“True, but my armor’s dirty.”
Zeke chuckled and set his beer on the table. “Something tells me it’s the dirty part she likes best.”
The quip drew a full round of laughter, the overall tenor of it a little empty without the women’s lightness to round it out.
“So...” Axel eased back in his chair and crossed one leg over the other. As usual, he stood out from the rest of them, his tailored brown slacks, shiny loafers and crisp white button-down rolled up at the sleeves making him look like a corporate CEO caught in a casual moment. Even with his wild russet hair knotted up tight at the back, he still made the look work. “Darya seems to be settling in.”
And there it was. The nosey prodding he’d halfway expected the second he’d learned their family night had been relocated to a public place. Well, they could prod all they wanted. He wasn’t ready yet and until he was, there was nothing to talk about. “Yep.”
The table got quiet, all of his brothers looking from one to the other.
Not surprisingly, Jace was the one to break the silence. “That mean we need to talk about her future?”
“Hers or mine?” Knox said.
“Maybe both
.” Beckett peeled his attention off Darya where she stood beside Levi across the room at the end of a long line of Skee-ball machines. “The two don’t have to be exclusive.”
Letting out a heavy breath, Knox snatched his beer and tipped it for a healthy draw.
“For a guy that looked as comfortable as you did about fifteen minutes ago, that sound doesn’t jibe,” Trevor said.
“Sure it does,” Zeke said before Knox could answer. “Or did you forget how long it took for him to figure out we weren’t gonna leave his ass swingin’ in the wind? The only thing Knox does fast is type and hack into other people’s business. Everything else he has to stew on and overthink twice as long as the rest of us.”
“That true?” Danny asked. “We pushing where we shouldn’t be?”
Knox set his beer bottle on the table and shrugged. “You’re not asking anything not already in my head. I’m just not ready to go there. Not yet.” He anchored both forearms on the table and grappled for some way to share what was in his head without coming off like a ginormous pussy. “She knows about me. My past. All of it.”
“You ask me, that’s the biggest hurdle you’ve got,” Axel said.
“For me, yeah.” Knox studied his brothers, letting his gaze rest on each of them for a split second before moving to the next. “But I don’t know hers. I’m the only one standing out there full Monty, and until she’s ready to do the same, I’m not willing to bring my family into it.”
“We’re already in it, brother.” Jace sat forward, mirroring Knox’s pose. “We always will be. Doesn’t matter if you’ve got a toe in or the whole damned enchilada. We’re always with you.”
“Not like you to beat around the bush, though,” Axel said. “If not knowin’ her past is the only thing holding you back, just ask her.”
It wasn’t like him. But then nothing he’d done since laying eyes on Darya had been status quo. He met Axel’s steady stare. “Is it whacked I want her to give it to me?”
The hardness in his green gaze softened, understanding and a shit ton of compassion reflected back at him. “Not whacked at all. Surrender’s the sweetest gift a woman can ever give a man. Worth the effort to earn and the wait that goes with it.”
“So, we wait,” Trevor said, the easy drawl in his voice belying the stout vow behind his words. He rocked forward, guiding the front two legs of his chair back on the floor, grabbed his beer and lifted it in salute. “But we do it together and give your girl a safe place to share.”
The rest of the guys grabbed their drinks and lifted them as well, a mixed chorus of agreement echoing back at him.
God, they were a motley group. Every one of them incredibly different and fallible on their own, but unbreakable and steadfast as a whole. And they were his. His brothers. The family he’d always wanted patiently waiting and willing to support his future however he chose to build it. He lifted his own drink. “Yeah, we do it together.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
As routines went, the one Darya had developed with Knox was not only surprising, but strangely comfortable. For a guy with the energy of a sugar-hyped two-year-old and the brain power of a rocket scientist, he’d proven to be a bit of a domesticated homebody.
Work. Dinner. More work peppered with ample music or movies. Sleep and repeat. For just over a week, the pattern had varied very little, only events with his brothers or the weekend offering diversion.
The sex though...that was a whole different story. Predictable wasn’t a word that could ever coexist with Knox’s sensual nature. Well, except maybe that they were guaranteed to bookend every single day with anything from languid, brutally teasing sex to nothing short of wickedly carnal fucking.
Forcing herself to focus on the search results detailed on the screen, Darya slowly scrolled down the list of known residences for the most recent skip she’d been hired to find. Despite Knox’s attempts to get her to work with him on the couch, Darya always felt more focused behind her desk. More centered in her purpose.
Not that it was helping tonight. She was too distracted. Too aware of the shirtless man stretched out long across the couch cushions and the number of times she’d caught him watching her.
No, not watching.
Studying.
Calculating.
Which was doubly weird because after dinner, Knox was a machine when it came to work and focus. Nothing distracted him. Not music. Not her phone calls to clients or the endless movies that streamed across the television screen.
Well, there might be a few things that could distract him. The night she’d strolled out of the bathroom post-shower with nothing on but a towel, he’d ditched his computer and taken her from behind braced against a wall. Or, like tonight, Denzel in The Equalizer might get his attention. She still hadn’t figured out why he loved that movie so much, but if it was on, he always stopped and watched it to the end.
Although, he wasn’t really watching it tonight. Even without turning her head to confirm it, she felt his thoughtful gaze on her as sure as a tap on her shoulder.
She should tell him about her past. The way things were shifting between them he deserved to know. To truly understand what he was risking by being with her. Heck, if she was smart, she’d use the movie still playing on the screen as the perfect opening. To leverage some of the uncanny truths it portrayed to break her silence and share why she was running.
But she wasn’t ready. Not yet. Not until they had more time.
She copied the skip’s most recent address, pasted it in her report and hit save. In the background, Denzel’s confrontation with the vor he’d tracked down at the end of movie filled the otherwise comfortable silence. Another few seconds and the bad guy would get it.
Knox loved that part, but a quick glance his direction confirmed he was completely detached from the action and centered solely on her.
Dropping her hands in her lap, she pushed away from the desk and frowned at him. “I can’t focus when you’re watching me like that.”
“When I’m watching you like what?”
“Like you’re crafting devious plans.”
The dirty grin she’d come to not only love, but eagerly anticipate tilted his lips. “I thought you liked my devious plans.”
Oh, she liked them all right. Particularly the ones where the two of them ended up naked, sweaty and boneless from toe-curling sex. Commandeering the mouse again, she punched the back button on her browser session. “I can’t afford devious plans right now. I’m behind on my contract jobs and if I don’t get some information out to my skip clients tonight, they’re going to start threatening to use someone else.”
The grin shifted to a smirk. A seriously, self-satisfied smirk that said she’d all but danced right into the terrain where he wanted her. “Let ’em.”
It was a dare, one thrown with a soft voice, but thick with challenge.
How she kept from looking at him—from meeting his gaze and letting the hope he’d fired with his simple words shine bright—was a miracle. Instead, she scrolled down the screen, not seeing a single thing that passed her focus. “I’m not ready yet.”
“Yes, you are.”
Three simple words, but hearing them from Knox was the highest praise there was. At least in her book. She met his stare. “You mean that?”
“Have I ever blown smoke up your ass?”
No. Absolutely not. Knox could be extraordinarily thoughtful. Giving and detailed to a fault, but a bullshitter? Never.
Not waiting for her to answer, he motioned to the computer on his lap. “I just looked at the app rewrite you sent yesterday. The idea might not have been yours, but your execution was spot-on and you streamlined shit I didn’t even think to catch. All you need is your own idea and you’re off to the races.”
Her own idea.
Her own opportunity.
But, she had to be practical. To set a solid foundation that would give her plenty of room to grow. And that meant staying the course until she had at least a handful of salable products. “Maybe. But giving up the solid income is reckless. Better to experiment and build on the side while my skip jobs pay the bills.”
“It’s not reckless if you come to work for me full time.”
She froze, rewinding his words in her head even as she studied him for clues she hadn’t misheard. “What?”
He closed his laptop, slid it onto the coffee table with the casual confidence of a man utterly certain of his actions and stood. “Come to work for me.” He stalked toward her, the low waistband of his jeans accentuating the sharp V at his hips. “You’re already pulling full-time hours. If you ditch the skip work you’ll have extra time to brainstorm and work up prototypes.” He braced one hand on the back of her chair and the other on the desk, leaning in close. “Plus, you’d have the added benefit of some very hands-on coaching.”
Damn, but his voice was a weapon when he wielded it that way. Within kissing distance it was even headier, the smooth baritone of it scattering the few productive thoughts she’d managed to construct and stirring a whole host of tingles low in her stomach.
But she couldn’t lose her focus. Not with a topic as important as this one. She focused on his lips and her heartbeat shifted to a hummingbird flutter. “It’s the hands-on part I’m worried about.”
“Really? Because I think we’ve got that part down pat.” He teased his lips against hers, a barely there touch that made her own part, ready and impatient for more. “Give me one good reason why you shouldn’t work with me.”
Reason? There wasn’t one. At least not one capable of overpowering the very tangible physical need he’d nudged to the surface. Fear, though, was another matter. One she’d be foolish not to broach. “What happens when this is over? When you’re ready to move on? What if that makes our work life untenable?”
He smiled against her lips, palmed the back of her neck and kissed her with a firmness and depth that said he not only appreciated her honesty, but encouraged it. By the time he backed away enough to look her in the eye, she’d nearly forgotten her question. “Untenable will never happen. You just proved it. No matter what happens, you trust me enough to tell me the truth. To say what’s on your mind. So long as we’re talking, there isn’t anything we can’t figure out. Not with work or anything else.”
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