He cocked an eyebrow. “And?”
I let out a whoosh of air. “I can’t get her out of my head. She’s there no matter what I’m doing. Hell, he only brought her home yesterday.” I ran my hands through my hair and tugged. “Today he took her out on the lake. She couldn’t swim and was nervous as hell, but she put on a life preserve, which I strapped up for her because my brother was more interested in retrieving his cell from the car.”
Collapsing onto the bottom step, I slouched forward and placed my head in my hands. “I watched them from the café and after a few minutes out there he started rocking the boat. I saw red and ran out of the café and waited on the dock. As soon as she was in reach, I leaned over and lifted her out, undid her preserve and threw it at the bastard.”
Dropping my hands, I flexed my fingers wanting to punch my brother. “But for Thalia running off upset and my need to comfort her, I would have hit him. Instead I ran after her and held her while she cried. She felt damn good against me. For the first time since I accepted that I was going to be with Mia and basically shut down, I want someone else and she’s my brother’s girlfriend. How fucked up is that?” I looked back at him sitting on the top step.
“So that’s why you were out last night? It’s not screwed up. Okay, the brother’s girl part could be a problem, but Donovan and me have told you to blow the engagement and get on with your life. You’re the one who’s stuck it out. You need a medal for dealing with Miss Snobby’s shit.”
I held his stare for a few minutes before changing the subject. “What you planning on doing today?”
“Nothing much, thought I’d grab some food in town, and then head over to Donovan’s to go fishing – you’re supposed to be coming with us.”
I’d forgotten. How had I managed to forget I was supposed to be hanging out with my best friends? They gave me the sanity that I needed. I’d go crazy without them.
Chapter 18
Thalia
Sitting in the car with Liam while he drove us back to the house, I couldn’t stop thinking about Jack.
When the boat reached the dock, I’d turned and seen Jack standing there and all I’d wanted to do was throw myself into his arms. He’d looked furious. When I’d run off not wanting them to see me cry, I’d had no idea that Jack, not Liam, would come after me, but when I’d turned around and seen him standing there, the most natural thing in the world was to throw myself into his arms. He’d felt amazing against me, and yes, I’d felt his erection. Thick and long. He’d tried to hide it by pulling away, but he wasn’t quite quick enough.
Liam had been pissed when he’d found me there and had wanted to know what was going on with Jack stalking off. I’d told him he was still mad with him for being an ass.
I’d known Liam for a while and he’d never acted like an idiot before, and, but for the talk on the lake, I’d have said he was jealous of how Jack and I reacted to each other. I didn’t think that was it though.
“Thalia, I’m sorry, okay? I really am. I acted like a jerk out on the lake. I was curious.”
I brought my gaze from looking out of the window to Liam. “Curious?”
“I’ve never known my brother to act with anyone the way he is with you. I wanted to see how he’d react if he thought you were in danger of falling into the water. He wanted to kill me when we pulled up at the dock. He doesn’t even react like that around Mia.” Liam looked jealous.
What did I say to that? I couldn’t exactly deny it, because it was true, at least the worry about me had been true. Ugh, I needed a distraction.
“Hey, why don’t we go fishing? I haven’t done that for a long time. It’ll be fun.”
“I don’t fish!”
Well that said it all, and he was sulking.
My temper was close to the surface with his attitude. “Liam, stop acting like a two year old and grow up. If you didn’t want me to come here, just say and I’ll catch the next flight to Texas.” I turned back to stare through the window.
He pulled up outside the house and turned the engine off, climbed out and ran around to open my door. He took my hand and pulled me out, keeping my hand in his.
“Okay, let’s call a truce. I want you here I just wasn’t expecting this thing between you and Jack.”
I let out a sigh. “There isn’t a ‘thing’ between me and Jack. He’s getting married remember. Can we leave that alone and go and do something where we aren’t going to get into an argument.”
“Yeah. What do you want to do?” He turned and started to walk up the porch steps with me trailing behind him.
“What about walking to the river?” I sighed in relief as we entered the air-conditioned house. “We could take a picnic.”
Perhaps if I made an effort we would hopefully get the kind of friendship back that we had before we arrived at his family’s home.
“Oh, you’re back. I wasn’t expecting to see you both until dinner,” Stephanie commented walking out from the kitchen.
“Yeah, Thalia doesn’t like the water.”
I smiled, but felt like punching him. Stephanie glanced at me, as though it was unheard of.
Changing the subject, I said, “We thought we’d go on a picnic by the river.”
“Make sure you wear bug repellant, Liam. You don’t want to get bitten again.”
I hid a grin and turned to Liam, “Do you mind if I go upstairs for ten minutes, I need to return Callie’s call?”
“No,” he replied.
“Thalia, please don’t feel like you have to ask. While you’re here, please treat this as your home,” Stephanie informed me, which took me by surprise.
“Oh, okay. Thank you.”
With that out of the way, I turned and headed up the stairs.
“Wait up,” Liam shouted, and then he looked to his mom. “We’ll see you later.”
As I was entering my bedroom, Liam caught my hand and tugged on it to get my attention. “Give me an hour and we’ll go and raid the kitchen to have our picnic, okay?”
“Okay.”
“It’s a peace offering. I was a bastard earlier and I’m sorry. We need to have some fun.” My eyes widened and he burst out laughing. “Go rest.”
I opened my door and walked through turning around to look at him. “I’ll accept, providing you don’t chuck me in the river.” He chuckled and walked off to his room shaking his head.
With my door shut, I dropped my purse on the floor, retrieved my phone from my back pocket and then made a dive on to the bed, sprawling out on my stomach while I dialed Callie.
She answered on the second ring. “Hey girlfriend,” I said in response to her distracted ‘yeah’.
When she realized it was me, she screamed and dropped her phone.
“Thalia, you still there?”
“I sure am.”
“How’s it going with Liam?”
“Not too bad, although he was an ass out on the lake, earlier.”
She sighed down the phone. “You can’t swim”
“Yeah, I know. It was pretty scary, especially when Liam rocked the boat.” I inhaled and let my breath out slowly, knowing when I mentioned, Jack, I’d get bombarded with questions. “His brother, Jack, pulled me out and looked ready to murder Liam. I left them to it and ran off to cry.”
“That bastard, he made you cry – hang on – Jack – who’s Jack?”
I smiled thinking about Jack. “He’s Liam’s brother and so damn hot.”
“Please tell me you aren’t getting up to no good with his brother?”
“It depends what you call ‘any good’.” She stayed silent. “He came after me and held me in his arms. He felt good – hard and solid against me – he’s getting married.”
“Oh fuck!”
“Lovely language, for a lady.”
Callie snorted in response.
“He’s lonely Callie. Even though he’s always done what his parents wanted him to do, even, if I’m not mistaken, marry this woman; they still treat him like shit. The
fact that he’s good looking, doesn’t help my attraction to him.”
“You are in trouble. Perhaps, I should visit. To check him out.”
“No, you won’t.”
Shit. She started to laugh – rather loudly. “You’re in way over your head. What does Liam have to say about all this?”
I sighed. “I can’t figure him out. He said he wants me to ‘pretend’ to be his girlfriend and that he knows we aren’t going anywhere. He just wants to be friends, which is more than fine with me. He also said that Jack will get married, no matter what. Basically, he warned me away from his brother.”
“How does he know you have the hot’s for Jack and how old is he?”
“Apparently, Jack has never acted with anyone the way he does with me. The episode on the lake was to prove to me that Jack would come to my rescue, and he did... Oh, and he’s twenty-five.”
“What are you going to do? It sounds like he has the hots for you as well.”
“Oh Callie, he pulls at me. When I see him all I want to do is hold him. Wrap him up in my arms and never let go.” I laughed, embarrassed. “I only met him less than twenty-four hours ago and can’t get him out of my head.”
“Thalia, he’ll break your heart. Promise me, you’ll stay away from him, no matter how hard it is. Make sure Liam is always with you around the house so you don’t get caught on your own with him.”
I didn’t think it wise telling her I was sharing a bathroom with him.
“Anyway, enough about me. How’s Texas?” She giggled. I moved the phone away from my ear and looked at it, thinking I’d heard wrong. She never giggled. “Did you just giggle at me?”
“Maybe.”
“Callie.”
“We have a new ranch hand – he’s hot. He’s a sexy cowboy, Thalia….”
Shit. “That is so not fair – I bet Jack would look hot in denim, boots, and open shirt.” I could dream and probably would.
“Oh my God. I’ve got to go so you behave and NO Jack. Love you, Thalia.” She hung up.
I rolled over and lay on my back, resting my hand with my cell on my chest. I needed to do what Callie said, and stay away from Jack, but something told me, that wouldn’t be all that easy.
Chapter 19
Jack
“What’s this about you having a boner for your brother’s girl?” Donovan asked walking towards us, which stopped me dead. I looked towards Reece who looked just as stunned, then back to Donovan.
“What the fuck!”
He grinned. “Reece sent me a text, saying you wanted to fuck your brother’s girl.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. I never said that. I’ll show you the text if you want. What I said was ‘you were screwed up over your brother’s girl’.”
“You’re like a bunch of fucking women. Fuck.” I ran my hands through my hair, and then shoved them into my back pockets. “Look, can we leave this alone. I’m going to avoid her from now on. Let’s just go and eat.” I walked off towards the café and pushed through the door with Donovan and Reece following while I tried not to laugh at them.
We took a seat in our usual place, ordering our food from Mary who’d worked there since we were young boys running circles around her.
“Ryder rang me earlier.” We both looked at Donovan.
“And,” we said at the same time.
He didn’t give anything away then all of a sudden he started to smile. “We still have a standing Saturday night date and maybe Wednesday as well. He wants us to do next Wednesday and see how it goes.”
Both Reece and I just stared at him. That was what we’d hoped, but I was stunned that he’d given it to us. I loved music. All types of music. I didn’t think I could stop for anyone, and didn’t see the reason why I should. God, help me when I had to tell Mia. She’d be pissed as hell.
“Hey, isn’t that Liam. Oh, and a babe,” Donovan announced.
My head whipped up. I took a breath and looked out of the window and there they were, walking across the road heading in our direction. Fuck.
“So much for staying away.” Donovan chuckled.
They walked into the café with Thalia having a good look around. I waited until her eyes met mine. She froze. I couldn’t take my eyes from her.
“Well, we know it isn’t just you. When you both finally get naked, you better make sure it’s in water, otherwise you’re likely to set the place on fire,” Donovan blurted while I held Thalia’s gaze.
She started walking towards us, leaving Liam talking to Mary. Standing to the side of our table, I noticed she’d started to blush.
Reece elbowed me in the side. “As Jack’s lost his manners, I’m Reece.” He held his hand out to her. Instead of shaking it, he kissed her palm.
“I’m Thalia. It’s nice to meet you, Reece.”
“I’m Donovan, take a seat.” She did, beside him.
“Nice to meet you too, Donovan.”
Reece sitting back in his seat, just stared at her with a smile on his face, the smile he used on the ladies. I kicked him under the table, which turned his smile into a scowl.
“So, Thalia, Jack’s been telling us about you. He kind of left out what a babe you are.”
Thanks Donovan.
She laughed. “Well thanks – I think.” She passed a quick glance at me then focused her attention back to Donovan.
“Oh definitely,” he replied.
She chuckled.
My heart thumped. “What’s Liam up to?” I practically growled at her. I was acting like a jealous idiot.
“He’s getting some food together for a picnic by the river at your house. There wasn’t really any picnic food in the kitchen.”
I wished I’d never asked.
“Thalia, you ready?”
She gave Liam a quizzical look. Probably wondering why he was ignoring everyone, me included.
“Ah, I guess.” She stood. “I hope to see you all again.”
“You sure will little darlin’.”
Liam moved in and put his arm around her shoulders. She quickly glanced to me. “I’ll see you later, Jack.”
“Yeah.”
Liam scowled at me then pulled Thalia towards the door, without a backward glance, from Liam that was, Thalia looked back at me from the car.
“That girl wants you. What you going to do about it?” Donovan asked.
“If you knew she wanted me, what was ‘you sure will little darlin’?”
He grinned at me. “Someone’s jealous.”
“Okay, that’s enough.” They knew I was serious. “It doesn’t matter. I need to leave. I’ll meet you both at the river.” I stood and walked out of there, climbed into my car and drove to the river, knowing they’d leave me alone for an hour to get my head together.
I’d known Thalia, not twenty-four hours and already she’d gotten into my head. I couldn’t get her out, and out she needed to be in order for me to carry on with the life everyone had planned out for me. For the first time in twelve months, I’d started to look at my life and I didn’t like what I saw.
I’d stayed true to Mia in the twelve months we’d been together. So, basically I hadn’t been with anyone in that time. Something had died in me, when I was told to marry Mia or lose everything. I wish I’d walked away then, but I hadn’t. Thalia came along, and all my desires had risen – literally.
Chapter 20
Thalia
Before yesterday I’d already been having trouble keeping him out of my head, but after being held tight in his arms, he was even more difficult to get out. I sighed – Jack, the object of my obsession.
Every time I shut my eyes, I saw him. The image I had since yesterday was the one of him watching me leave the café with his brother, to head towards the river. He’d never taken his eyes from me. And yeah, Liam noticed and did nothing but mumble all the way back to his house.
I’d also noticed Liam’s reaction in the café to Jack and his friends. His excuse when I’d asked him about it had been that they were a bad influenc
e on Jack and he wished Jack had never become friends with them. He’d sounded jealous if truth-be-told.
Donovan had been full of life and energy. Everything about him hummed with excitement from the way his blue eyes danced over my features to the broad shoulders that tensed beneath his tight, black t-shirt. His taut abs were perfectly silhouetted by the cool cotton shirt and I wasn’t the only woman in the room stealing glances at him.
He was definitely someone worth getting to know, but it wasn’t just his amazing physique or the way his black hair fell over his eyes casting shadows over his chiseled cheekbones and plush lips; it was the deep voice that sent shivers down my back. He had spent most of the time flirting with everyone: me, the waitress, the cute girl sitting at the table beside them. There was no doubt that Donovan had gathered plenty of admirers and broken a few hearts.
Jack’s other friend, Reece, was as interesting as Donovan, but he looked like a player – a panty wetting bad boy. His crooked grin had spoken volumes as he’d sat back and watched me. I fought the urge to shift as I’d stood there with Reece’s blue gaze smoldering a trail down my body – his smile growing before it became a scowl. A slight movement from Jack made me wonder if he’d kicked Reece.
As Reece took me in, I did the same to him. At first glance, he seemed dangerous, but as I looked closer, there seemed to be a sadness in his eyes. His straight nose was set perfectly over straight white teeth and his high cheekbones would be the envy of anyone. The deep blue bandanna wrapped around this baldhead, was enticing me to stroke his silky smooth skin, but I resisted.
He was also dressed in a tight t-shirt and the dark cotton clung to his sculpted abs and chest. A few tattoos had peeked out of the short sleeves of his shirt, which made me wonder what else covered his body.
They were gorgeous. All three of them looked like they’d stepped out of some woman’s fantasy and by the looks from the women in the cafe, I was positive that I wasn’t the only one who thought so. But it had been Jack who had drawn my gaze back to him again and again. Jack that had my mouth go dry as I tried to ignore the thrum of anticipation. The other two may have been nice eye candy, but it was Jack that I ached to touch.
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