by Rye Hart
I watched him leave to find me a spare room, my head spinning. What in the world had just happened? There was so much to unpack and process, and I was still hazy from the beer. So many admissions and so many things experienced and felt.
I wish Dylan hadn’t left.
I wanted him here again.
“Okay,” he said. “Got you a room. On the second floor, room 2102. You can crash there, and grab something to wear from our little boutique, on the house. Got you a wake-up call set for six so you got plenty of time to get ready and eat before eight.”
“Thank you,” I said. “That’s very kind.”
Dylan leaned forward and kissed my cheek before he took the rag from my hand. He ushered me over to the exit, and I took the hint, feeling him slide the keycard for the room into my palm. I looked back at him one last time, feeling him watching me as I made my way to the stairs.
I just had sex with Dylan.
And I found myself wanting it to happen again.
CHAPTER 15
CALEB
I was walking down the hallway of the second level trying to track down one of our housekeepers. I had some questions I needed to ask her about her previous employment, and I couldn't find her to save my life. I darted my head into a few of the open doors, waving at the women I did encounter.
But none of them had seen the woman I was looking for.
I started back down for the elevator, ready to head to the third floor to keep looking. I needed to make sure this woman hadn’t lied on her employment application just to get this job. I jammed the elevator button in and groaned, waiting for the doors to open.
“Caleb?”
Katie’s voice took me by surprise as I whipped my head around. She was coming out of one of the guest bedrooms, and I was confused as to why she was there. I furrowed my brow as she approached me, her red and blue dress fluttering against her legs.
“Katie? What are you doin’ here?” I asked.
“Why didn’t you come to the party last night?” she asked.
“Had a long day and didn’t feel like listenin’ to loud music.”
“Well, it was a good time. I think I drank a little too much, though. Dylan was insistent I stay in one of the rooms so I didn’t drive home.”
I ran my eyes up and down her body, but I wasn’t convinced. Her neck was a bit red, and she was limping on her right side. She had this relaxed look in her eyes, but she looked awfully tired.
Was that all there was? Just her staying here because she drank too much?
“I’m glad you didn’t drive home drunk,” I said.
The elevator doors dinged open, but I ignored them as I leaned against the wall. Katie did look good in that dress. Her boots were on, and the spaghetti straps accented the strength of her shoulders. Her curls were freshly washed, and the earrings dangling from her ears made her eyes twinkle. It was nice to see here, even though I was caught off guard.
“How’re your first few days goin’?” I asked.
“Really well. I think I got the hang of the front desk stuff. That’s where I’m headed now, actually. I’m going to get some coffee then get to work.”
“Well, don’t let Dylan train ya too much on that system down there. Our in-house counsel’s gone in a week and a half, and it’ll be their job to train ya on stuff before they leave,” I said.
“I can’t thank you enough for these jobs, Caleb. Really.”
“I know it’s not what you wanna do full-time, but it’ll help you get by until you figure it out,” I said.
To my shock, Katie threw her arms around me and hugged me close. I patted her back and breathed in the smell of her hair. A soft scent of milk and honey. Her skin was warm, and her hug was tight, and I chuckled at the surprise of it all. It wasn’t like me to show this type of outward affection for people, but I’d make an exception for Katie.
I’d always make exceptions for her.
“It’s not a problem,” I said. “We needed the positions filled, and you needed a paycheck. One of those jobs happens to be your expertise, so it ain’t nothin’ big.”
“It is to me,” she said.
The way her voice fluttered over my ear made my cock twitch. I broke the hug, pulling away so she didn’t feel nothing going on. I was usually more in control than this. A woman’s voice wasn’t nothing to get excited about. I was an ass man. Fistfuls of it. Pounding a woman from behind. Grabbing onto her hair and takin’ her for a ride. I didn’t give a flying flip what she sounded like in bed.
But the way Katie’s voice hit my ear...
My cock jumped again just thinking about it.
“Come on, I’ll walk ya down to the front area,” I said.
The two of us ventured down the stairs and made our way to the dining hall. Trying to find that housekeeper fell from my mind as we got ourselves some coffee. We sat in a comfortable silence at one of the tables, my eyes stealing glances at Katie as her eyes were brought to life by her dose of caffeine. She really was a beautiful girl. Classically so. The right mix of country and city that really oiled a man’s joints.
I kept looking away when she looked at me, hoping she wouldn’t notice my staring.
“Ya know, we’re not real busy today,” I said.
“So I’ve noticed.”
“And our in-house counsel doesn’t come in on Sundays.”
“Good to know,” she said.
“So, why don’t you go home? Take the day off? You’ll be back in here tomorrow dealing with more stuff. Might as well take a day to relax,” I said.
“You sure? What if things pick up here?”
“Then we’ll call ya. But I’m sure they won’t. Sundays are always our slowest day. Ain’t no reason for you to be here unless you really wanna be.”
“Well, if you guys will call me if you need me, then thank you,” she said.
“Take a day and enjoy yourself. You look tired. Damn good, but tired,” I said.
She blushed at my words, and I couldn't take my eyes off the way it trickled down to her chest. It was a good color on her. I started wondering about all the other ways I could pull that color up against her skin.
My cock twitched underneath the table again, and it forced me to clench my jaw.
She finished the rest of her coffee before getting up and throwing the cup away. She reached back and waved at me one last time, bidding me farewell before she headed for the exit. I cocked my head to the side and studied her ass, watching it as it swayed underneath her dress. It was perfect. Round, but not too much. Just enough jiggle to get me going. Fuck. I bet she’d look good in some lacy panties. A little bit of spillage out of the sides, just to taunt my fingertips into digging in.
This was definitely not “little Katie”, Hunter’s baby sister.
If I could see how beautiful Katie was now, then I knew all my brothers did, too. But did they all feel the same way? Katie was a full-grown woman now. Sexy and mature. With curves in all the places that made my cock hard to control.
Fuck. I needed another cup of coffee to muddle through all this.
I heard a pair of footsteps walking across the hardwood floor. I expected to look up and see Katie. Maybe she’d forgotten something, or she wanted to give me another hug. But instead, it was Dylan.
And he seemed happier than usual.
“Mornin’, Caleb.”
“What’s up with you?” I asked.
“Wow. You need more coffee,” Dylan said.
“The circus in town? Because you sure are happy.”
“Can’t a man have a good Sunday mornin’?” he asked.
“You’re practically skippin’, Dylan. What gives?”
“Nothin’. Just havin’ a good mornin’. Didn’t know that was uncalled for here.”
“You got laid didn’t you?” I asked.
His head shot over to me as a grin crawled across my face.
“That’s why you look so happy. You finally got yourself laid. I was wonderin’ when you were gonna cave. All
that settlin’ down crap.”
“It’s not crap, and there is a chance I got laid,” he said.
“Was she good? What’d she look like? Wait, did you get drunk and screw one of our cousins? We’re supposed to be a classy country joint. Not a trashy one.”
“I didn’t have sex with one of our cousins, you idiot,” he said.
“There’s the Dylan I know.”
“Way to sour the mood,” he said.
“Come on. Ya gotta gimme somethin’,” I said. “What was her name?”
“No,” he said.
“Don’t think you’ve screwed anyone with that name before, but everyone likes somethin’ different.”
“You’re a dick. I’m gettin’ back to work,” he said.
“Come on. You’re not gonna gimme anythin’?”
“Nope!”
I watched him walk away with that pep in his step when a thought crossed my mind. Dylan got laid last night. Katie stayed here in the hotel last night. Was it possible Katie was the woman he slept with? Did she just lie to me about why she stayed here last night?
I needed another cup of coffee. I was in no position to keep unpacking shit like that unless I was more awake. I grabbed another cup of coffee and snatched the file folder off the table, then pushed all those insane thoughts to the back of my mind. I needed to find this housekeeper. And if she wasn’t here, then I needed to call her. Lying on an employment application was a crime in the state of Texas.
That was what I had to do. Focus on drinking coffee, working, and getting everything in order for this Charleston build. With Katie gone home, she wouldn’t be a distraction to anyone, and hopefully, that would clear my head of all the questions running through it.
Like why the hell she’d want to screw around with “no commitment” Dylan when she could have me.
CHAPTER 16
ANDREW
“We got a call with investors this mornin’, Katie. Can ya make sure the guests are taken care of?” I asked.
“Sure thing, Andrew. You guys need anything for this meeting?” she asked.
“Nah. It’s nothin’ like that. The investors for this new place we’re openin’ wanna see projections of where their money’s gonna go and what it’s gonna net them in the first five years. Ya know, greedy shit like that.”
“Sounds like a blast. Don’t worry. The guests will be taken care of. Though I’m gonna have to be relieved at two.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Your lawyer’s coming in to start me on my training today. He said he’d been here around two.”
“Gotcha. Not a problem. Do whatcha gotta do, and if the meeting tries to take the whole damn day, then I’ll sneak out and relieve ya,” I said.
“Thanks.”
The meeting was boring as fuck. Dylan had come up with all these graphs to show them, and Caleb was walking everyone through blueprints. Wyatt droned on about how much feed a month the place would need, and Dylan jumped in with how much that would cost. I briefly talked them through the activities and what would be offered as well as outside things the resort could conduct, like weddings and dances and debutante balls and other special events. Dylan had this sprawling graph of the projections of the first five years’ earnings based on how our other resorts did in the first five years, and the investors seemed impressed. It was the last meeting we needed to have with them before we signed off on the construction crew to start building.
Dylan showed them how our profits had doubled over the last quarter, and that really made people excited. The investors started asking bullshit questions, like “Do y’all expect this kinda return in Charleston?” and “Y’all ever thought about takin’ this show to New York?”
New York?
Fuck, we didn’t even have Charleston built yet.
All in all, the damn meeting took almost three hours. But, the investors were happy, and we could officially give the go-ahead for the crew to begin building. That meant a shit-ton of preliminary weight off our shoulders. It also meant fun business trips to Charleston. I could get behind some trips to a place like that. I knew it was right up Dylan’s alley, but he’d need someone to go with him.
And I planned to position myself to be the one to go.
“Hey, Andrew. Can I talk to ya a sec?”
I rolled my eyes as Caleb trotted up to me.
“Can ya make it quick? Someone’s gotta relieve Katie soon to go train,” I said.
“The hell’s she trainin’ for?” Caleb asked.
“She’s not just our front desk face. She’s also takin’ over work when our lawyer quits. Remember all that? You fuckin’ signed her up for it.”
“Shit. Yeah. Sorry. I’m distracted.”
“No fuckin’ joke. You good?” I asked.
“Look, I’m just gonna ask. You think there’s somethin’ goin’ on with Katie and Dylan?”
I furrowed my brow as I turned the question over in my head. Katie and Dylan? Why the hell was he asking about Katie and Dylan?
“Honestly? I thought somethin’ was goin’ on with Katie and Wyatt,” I said.
“Katie and Wyatt?”
“Yep.”
“Shit,” he said.
“What the hell makes you think there’s somethin’ with Katie and Dylan?” I asked.
“The other day she was comin’ outta one of the rooms on the second floor. I asked her why she was here, and she said she’d stayed for that party the family had.”
“Yeah. I snuck a dance with her before I left. I was fuckin’ tired. Didn’t wanna stick around for three hours of dancin’ with the cousins,” I said.
“I didn’t even do that. Just popped my head in to say hey and left. Katie told me Dylan set her up in a room ‘cause she had too much beer that night.”
“So what?” I asked.
“When I saw Dylan later that same mornin’, he had this pep in his step. Said he’d gotten laid that night.”
“The night of the dance?”
“Yup.”
“And you think the two of them screwed.”
“I do. He wasn’t forthcomin’ ‘bout anythin’. No name. No details. Nothin’. You know how Dylan is with that kinda stuff. He’s ready to fill you in on more details that you really wanted.”
I thought for a minute. “I can see how you’d think there was somethin’ goin’ on with them. But just ‘cause Dylan got laid and Katie had too much to drink don’t mean they fucked.”
“Then why the hell you thinkin’ there’s somethin’ between her and Wyatt?” he asked.
“Just had an encounter with them a few days ago. They went for a walk. Ya know after she blew ya off in the hallway.”
“She didn’t blow me off,” he said.
“Whatever. Anyway, I went out on the porch to get some sun, and they were all the way at the edge of the property. Down by the trees. They were tiny little specks, but they were pretty close. Came back up the hill and they were all close and gigglin’ and shit. Pretty sure somethin’ happened between the two of them down by the edge of the woods.”
“Would Katie do somethin’ like that?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” I said with a shrug. “Not like we ain’t shared women before,” I said.
“Yeah, but this is Katie we’re talkin’ about. The girl we grew up with. That damn tomboy who could out-do any guy she came across.”
“I know,” I said.
“Do you think she’s slept with both of ‘em?” Caleb asked.
“I think she’s flirtin’. Testin’ her boundaries. Gettin’ herself back out there. I don’t think she’s sleepin’ with ’em both. Our Katie isn’t that kinda girl.”
“You made a move on her?” he asked.
“So what if I have? What’s it to ya?”
“Cut the shit, Andrew. Do you like her?”
“Of course, I do. She’s my best fuckin’ friend. We grew up together, with those late-night porch conversations and shit.”
“You know what I mean, you asshole
,” he said.
I drew in a deep breath through my nose as I stared my brother down. What the hell was I supposed to tell him? That I’d had a crush on Katie for years? What the fuck was it to him?
“Yes,” I said. “And I have for a while.”
“Fuck. I knew it,” Caleb said.
“The hell you so worked up about?” I asked.
“Because I like her, too, damn it.”
“Then we got ourselves a fine predicament here.”
“I don’t know if I could share Katie with y’all,” he said.
“Don’t worry. I couldn't share her either. Even if she wanted me to. It’s Katie we’re talkin’ ‘bout. She’s better than that.”
“She deserves better than that,” he said.
“But if she’s screwin’ Wyatt and Dylan—”
“Which we don’t have proof of,” I said.
“Yes, I know. But if she is, then it shows us she is that kinda girl now. So, what do we do then?” he asked.
“First, we need to figure out what the fuck’s goin’ on between her, Wyatt, and Dylan. Ain’t gonna do us no good jumpin’ to conclusions if we don’t have proof of all the cards in play.”
“What? You wanna stalk them or somethin’?” he asked.
“No, idiot. Just, stick close. We could make a promise or somethin’. If I find out any information, I’ll tell you. And if you find out any information, you’ll tell me.”
“I can do that. That sounds good,” he said.
“And if one of us ends up with her, we tell the other. Immediately.”
“Just no details. Again, Katie’s better than that,” he said.
“I just hope it’s me first,” I said with a grin.
“In your wildest fuckin’ dreams, maybe.”
“Okay. Well, I gotta go relieve Katie from the desk. She’s got three hours of trainin’ ahead of her, and we got snoopin’ to do.”
“Sounds good to me. I’ll be in my office in case ya need me. Maybe Wyatt would like a free dinner tonight or somethin’,” he said.
“And Dylan’s always relaxed over beers. Maybe I’ll take him out,” I said.
“Talk to ya soon.”
“And godspeed with—whatever the fuck this mess is,” I said.