Taking Him (Lies We Tell)

by Jackie Ashenden

  “What do you think, Hunt?”

  Hunter blinked, realising Vin was looking at him, expecting an answer to whatever question he’d asked. Shit, had his friend seen the way he was checking out his sister? He bloody hoped not. What he and Ellie had going on wasn’t something he wanted to tell Vin about. Wasn’t something he’d ever tell Vin about.

  “Think about what?” he said, trying not to look at Ellie.

  Vin rolled his eyes. “Mate, that bloody bandage currently masquerading as a skirt.”

  Oh no, he didn’t want to look. Not again. “It’s fine,” he said, moving toward the door. “I gotta go.” Getting away seemed like a great idea at this point.

  Vin’s eyes widened. “It’s ‘fine’? Are you serious?”

  “Geez, chill out, Vin.” Ellie gave her brother a foul look. “When are you going to stop going on about my clothes? I’m twenty-five. I can wear whatever the hell I want.”

  “Over my dead fucking body.”

  Tension coiled in the air between the two of them and it looked like there was going to be another sibling battle. Probably a major one considering the shitty mood Vin was in.

  “Come with me, sweetness,” Hunter said quietly. “Vin’s not the best company right now.” Probably better to separate them before either of them said something that couldn’t be taken back. Vin and Ellie didn’t often fight, but Hunter was well aware that there was resentment on both sides—resentment that could boil over into something nasty if they weren’t careful. Not the best going away present for Ellie. Or for Vin.

  “I’m fine,” Vin growled.

  “You’re not. And I’m out of here.” Ellie came toward Hunter, and he pulled the door open for her.

  “I’ll be there in a second,” Hunter said, making sure his gaze was firmly on his friend and not on checking Ellie out as she passed him, the flower scent of her almost making him forget her damn brother was still in the room.

  “What?” Vin demanded after Ellie had gone. “I can’t switch off years of protecting her like that. I have a problem with her slutty skirts, okay?”

  “It’s not the skirt.” He didn’t bother making it a question. He knew it wasn’t.

  The other man straightened, chucking the pencil he was holding back down on the desk. “No. It’s not. She didn’t come here to see me. She came here to see you.”

  Hunter kept his face completely expressionless. “What makes you say that?”

  “Oh, come on, man. You didn’t see the way she looked at you?”

  Ah, shit. “She always looks at me like that.”

  “I know. And I’m getting pretty sick of it too.”

  Hunter stared at his friend, a weird shock going through him. “You’re jealous.”

  Vin scowled. “Of course I’m jealous. I’m the one who’s her brother, not you. It should have been me watching her grow up, spending time with her. But it wasn’t, was it? It was you.”

  What could he say to that? Nothing. Because it was true and they both knew it. “You did what you could with what you had at the time. What was right for her. Besides, you couldn’t leave her alone. That would have been worse.”

  “You know what? That doesn’t make it any bloody easier. Especially when she’s leaving the country and seems more interested in seeing you than me. She’s staying with you for Christ’s sake. I didn’t even have anywhere for her to go when she needed it.”

  The acid guilt already burning a hole in his gut burned a little deeper. Not helped by the fact that he already knew that when he left Vin’s office, he was going to take Ellie back to his house. And that when they got there he was going to pull up that sexy little skirt of hers and drive himself inside her.

  “Vin—” he began.

  “No.” Vin cut him off, looking back down at the plans on his desk. “I’m not in the mood for platitudes. How about you piss off and leave me alone.”

  Yeah, perhaps that was the best thing all round.

  Hunter didn’t protest, pulling shut Vin’s office door as he left.

  In the hallway outside, Ellie waited, leaning against the wall with her arms folded. “What’s his problem?” she asked as he came out. “He’s been grumpy all bloody week and it’s getting boring.”

  “You came here to see me, didn’t you?”

  She went pink. “No. Well…uh…okay, yeah. Crap, was it obvious?”

  “Yes.”

  Ellie looked down, biting her lip. “Shit. Does he suspect?”

  “That’s not the problem. The problem is he’s jealous.”

  “Jealous? Of what?”

  “Me. Spending time with you.”

  She frowned. “Why?”

  “Why do you think? You’re leaving the country in a few days. He’s going to miss you.”

  “Oh.” She chewed on her lip a little more. “I guess I should spend some time with him, right?”

  “You sound like you don’t want to.”

  “No, I do. I’d rather…” She broke off. Her gaze remained on the floor, but he could see the flush deepen in her cheeks. And he knew the part she’d left unsaid.

  I’d rather spend it with you.

  This would be the moment to end it. To ease his guilt. To stop getting between her and her brother. But although the words were there, waiting to be said, he didn’t say them.

  He was a selfish bastard and he wasn’t ready to give her up. Not yet. He had a few more days with her and he’d take them, to hell with the consequences.

  “I think I might go home,” he said casually. “Want a lift?”

  Ellie raised her head, the blush still burning in her cheeks. “Well, taking the bus is kind of a drag.”

  “Come with me then. I have room on the back of my bike.”

  She smiled, half shy, half naughty. “Are you sure you have your keys with you?”

  “My keys?”

  “Yeah. I wouldn’t want you to leave them behind.”

  Where the hell was she going with this? He patted the pocket of his jeans. “No, they’re right here.”

  Her smile lost the shyness, becoming wholly naughty. “Oh, are you positive? I’d better check. Just in case.” She gave a quick glance around the reception area—which was empty—then stepped up close to him and slid one hand into the pocket of his jeans.

  He went very still, his body instantly responding as her fingers explored. “You’re not, by any chance, copping a feel are you, sweetness?” he murmured. God, she was going to be the death of him.

  Ellie’s eyes widened innocently. “Me? I would never—ow!” The smile faded. “What the hell?” She pulled her hand sharply from his pocket, holding something in her fingers. A drawing pin.

  A crease appeared between her brows. “Why have you got a drawing pin in your pocket?”

  Hunter willed his muscles to stay relaxed. She wouldn’t know what he used it for. To her it was just a drawing pin, nothing more. “I have no idea. Must have put it in there by accident.”

  “There’s blood on it. Did you—”

  “I’d love to stay and chat about drawing pins, sweetheart, but aren’t there are other things you’d rather be doing?”

  Her frown vanished. “Good point.”

  Keeping his movements unhurried, Hunter took the pin from her hand and stuck it back in his pocket. “Then what are you waiting for? After you, sweetness.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Okay, so she knew Vin had a problem, but right at this point in time, after a couple of hours in Hunter’s bed, Ellie couldn’t bring herself to care. She only had a few days left with Hunter and dammit, she’d take what she could get when she could get it.

  Sitting on his workbench in the garage, wearing nothing but one of his T-shirts, Ellie gave a small, happy sigh. Crazy as it was, she rather enjoyed watching him fiddle with his motorbike. She’d been talking to him about her game app idea while he was busy doing something with a bit of metal. He didn’t say much—he never did while she talked—but she knew he’d listened. Had even asked her a
couple of interesting questions that had got her thinking off on a tangent about something else. Another, bigger idea.

  She swung her legs idly, watching him, trying not to think about her idea because really, she didn’t have the time to concentrate on that quite yet. Not when she had him to look at.

  He was crouched down by the bike on his haunches, wearing only a pair of jeans. And bloody hell, he was hot. The denim pulled tight across his butt and thighs. His back bare, his tattoo sweeping across his shoulders and down his spine. Black feathers on brown skin.

  She gave a little, delicious shiver, her fingers itching to trace it yet again. That afternoon she’d spent a good ten minutes indulging her weird obsession with it. Hunter had just lain there while she’d run her fingers over him, not saying a word and yet letting her touch wherever she would. Questions had filled her head as she’d done so. Why had he gotten it? Why wings? How long had it taken? Had it hurt? But the questions had remained unasked. Silent in her head. She couldn’t ask him. The weight of what had happened to him rested between them and something told her the wings were part of that.

  The moment—all the moments she had with him—had been too precious to break with silly questions. And she was still too scared to ask.

  Vaguely annoyed with the direction of her thoughts, Ellie leaned back on her hands, studying him as he began to place the bit of metal he held into the bike’s innards. He was careful, precise. She’d watched him working on a building site often enough over the years to know that when he worked like this, he gave it his full attention, not letting his mind wander.

  “So, did you ever want to be a lawyer?” she asked idly. “Like your dad?”

  His careful hands didn’t falter. “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “I don’t like lawyers.”

  “Oh?”

  “Dad.” The short, clipped word held a world of questions all on its own.

  Ellie bit down on them. Of course. The thing with Liz would probably have coloured his relationship with his father whether his father knew about it or not. God, that woman should be shot. Hunter seemed to think it had been all his fault, but how culpable could a sixteen-year-old boy be when pestered for sex by a thirty-eight-year-old woman?

  She knew what she’d been like at sixteen. All her emotions had been new and raw, and so very, very deep. And if Hunter had thought he was in love with Liz, what chance had he at saying no? If Hunter had done to her what Liz had done to him, she would have laid herself at his feet without even thinking about it. Before she was ready for it.

  “I told him about Liz,” Hunter said unexpectedly. He didn’t look at her, still concentrating on his bike. “I told him because I thought I loved her and I thought she loved me, and I imagined telling him was the right thing to do.” Hunter shifted slightly, his attention on the bike and what he was doing. “But he didn’t believe me. Called me a liar. Even now he still thinks I made it up because I was going through a ‘phase’.”

  There was no emotion in the words and the detachment in his voice brought tears to her eyes. How could he think this didn’t affect him?

  “But he must have known,” she murmured, anguish sharp inside her at the thought of Hunter gathering his courage to tell his father—because it must have taken courage. And then his father calling him a liar. Jesus.

  “Of course he knew.” A thread of bitterness crept into his tone. “He would have had to have been blind not to see what was going on. He just didn’t want to admit he did. Because then he’d have to take some fucking responsibility.”

  “Oh, Hunter…” She stopped, her voice gone thick with pain.

  His hands dropped from the bike. “So now you know why I never went into law. Dad places a lot of store on his career and Justin’s. Think of the scandal if it ever got out his wife was screwing his teenage son. It would have meant the death of his career. Justin’s too.”

  “Bastard,” Ellie said fiercely as anger swept through her. Anger for Hunter and how he’d been treated. “Your father was a complete bastard.”

  He stared at her for a moment. Then rose to his feet in a graceful, fluid movement, coming over to the workbench where she sat. Gently he put his hands on her knees and pushed her legs apart, leaning in to stand between her thighs. Ellie blinked as he took her face in his hands, stroking her jaw with his thumbs. A tender touch. Her heart swelled inside her chest, a balloon filling up with air.

  “It’s okay, sweetness,” he said softly. “It was a long time ago.”

  She looked up into his face, at the concern in it and knew it was for her. As if it had happened to her, not himself. Looked like his father wasn’t the only one in his family capable of denial.

  Ellie knew she should push it, but when he touched her like that, gently and with tenderness, she couldn’t bring herself to do it. The walls would come up and she would lose him again. And she didn’t want to lose what little she had of him already. She couldn’t.

  So she said nothing. Closing her eyes as he bent down, his mouth brushing hers. Tightened her thighs around his hips and slid her hands around to his back. Holding him as he kissed her. The kiss was hot and slow and consuming.

  Until suddenly he was ripped from her arms.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” someone shouted.

  For a minute Ellie couldn’t move, dazed by the kiss, struggling to make sense of what was going on. Because she couldn’t get her head around it. What the hell was Vin doing here? He stood behind Hunter, a look of murderous fury on his face. Bloody hell, she’d never even heard him arrive.

  Hunter had been pulled round to face his friend, and now he shifted so he stood directly in front of her as if shielding her.

  “Tell me what the fuck you’re doing with my sister!” Vin shouted again.

  Hunter stepped toward his friend. “Kissing her. What does it look like I’m doing?”

  Vin lashed out, right fist connecting to Hunter’s jaw in a punch that knocked Hunter’s head back and sent him down to the ground, the crack of it echoing around the garage area. “I trusted you, you prick!” Vin drew his foot back, kicked him in the stomach. “You were supposed to be looking after her, not screwing her!”

  A shot of adrenaline burst through Ellie’s veins, shattering her paralysis. “Stop it, Vin!” she yelled, propelling herself off the workbench and straight at her brother. “Leave him alone!”

  Vin wasn’t looking at her, his face twisted with such rage it shocked her. Vin was usually the cool, calm and collected one. Always in charge and knowing what he was doing. She’d never seen him so angry. Putting herself between Hunter’s figure prone on the floor and her brother, she pushed Vin hard in the chest. “I said, leave him the hell alone!”

  Behind her she could hear Hunter moving and she braced herself, waiting for his retaliation. But it didn’t come.

  Vin had gone back a couple of steps, his chest heaving, his furious gaze switching to her. “Did he hurt you? Did he?”

  “No, of course he didn’t! Where the hell do you get off? And what are you doing here anyway?”

  “I came to apologise. But fuck that. How long has he been screwing you?”

  “That’s none of your fucking business! It’s got nothing to do with you.”

  A blue flame burned in Vin’s eyes. “Nothing to do with me? It’s got everything to do with me! I’m the reason you’re staying with him. I’m the reason you even met him in the first place. And he was supposed to look after you, not go screwing you behind my fucking back!”

  Ellie felt her own rage boil up inside her. “Like I had no choice in the matter, right?”

  “No, you didn’t,” Vin said with such certainty she nearly hit him herself. “You’ve been in love with him for half your life. You would have done anything he said.”

  “You really think I’m that stupid? A little girl who does whatever the big scary man says? Are you completely out of your mind?”

  Vin’s mouth twisted in a sneer. “You know what happened to h
im, right? With his stepmother?”

  She found she was shaking. “Yes,” she said, lifting her chin. “I know.”

  “Then you’ll understand why I want to deck the bastard.”

  “What?” Ellie demanded, incredulous. “You can’t think he seduced me like Liz seduced him.”

  “Why shouldn’t I? History has a habit of repeating itself.”

  “Oh Jesus Christ, Vin! It isn’t anything like that!”

  “It’s exactly like that, sweetness.” The words were soft, slurred.

  Ellie whirled round.

  Hunter had gotten to his feet, hand on his jaw. His lip had split and he was bleeding, a bruise beginning to darken his cheekbone.

  Anguish clenched hard inside her. Hunter didn’t look angry. He looked resigned, as if the axe had fallen already. “No, it’s not,” she said hoarsely. “I seduced you. That’s how it happened.”

  “And I let you seduce me.” His gaze shifted over her shoulder to where his friend stood. “So I could get you right where I want you. Under me.”

  A statement so completely wrong that Ellie opened her mouth to contradict him. Only to be unceremoniously shoved to one side by Vin as he launched himself at Hunter again.

  “Vin!” she shrieked as her brother hit Hunter with his other fist. This time he didn’t go down, only stood there as Vin hit him again. Stood there and took it.

  Oh God, had her brother lost his mind? Okay, he was protective but this… This rage wasn’t only about catching her and Hunter together. It had to come from something else.

  Like the jealousy Hunter had mentioned earlier, maybe?

  Whatever, she had to stop it somehow.

  Throwing herself at her brother, she tugged hard on his T-shirt, physically dragging him around to face her. Then she slapped him. Hard. “I said, leave him alone!”

  The fury in Vin’s eyes leapt and he took a step toward her, bloody fists clenched.

  “Not her, Vin,” Hunter said in a thick voice. “Fuck’s sake, not her.”

  For a moment her brother just stared at her. Then abruptly all the violence seemed to leak out of him, the coiled tension leaving his posture, but not the rage. That rage stayed there, glittering in his blue eyes.