TheFugitivesSexyBrother

by Annabeth Leong

  The expression on Emily’s face wasn’t at all what he expected. She stared steadily down at him, her lips arranged in a thin, determined line. Despite her delicate features, the set of her jaw made her face hard. “It’s Fernando’s file. The charges. The arrest warrant. The evidence the prosecutor presented that convinced the judge to issue the warrant. You might want to take a look.” She nudged him with the file until he took it from her. “It’s also got some other information about what Fernando’s been up to. Other people he’s hurt. Maybe not kids, but people. He’s no saint, Javier. I know he’s your brother, but how much can you lie to yourself? Do you want to have any part of an activity that kills people? Any people? Even if it’s not all cute little girls?”

  Javier did not open the file. She’d just handed him everything he’d spent his life ignoring about his brother. He flexed the fingers of his left hand, shaking his head at his scarred knuckles. “You know, when I healed up after that cut, I took up boxing for a while. I think I just wanted to hit something, a lot. I could beat the hell out of a bag for hours. Still do sometimes. But I figured out pretty fast that I didn’t want to hit people. First time I tried a bout, I just stood there and took it. Fernando couldn’t understand what came over me.”

  “What does that mean, Javier?” She gave no quarter with either her expression or her posture.

  He blinked up at Emily. He’d never told Terri half this much, but she’d melted with sympathy if he so much as hinted at it. False sympathy, maybe, since she hadn’t seemed to care where his money came from. His lips twisted. “You’re not making this easy.”

  “I’m not trying to.” Now she touched him, her hand firm on his shoulder. She squatted down beside him without releasing her grip. “I understand you’re very loyal to your brother. I respect that. Truly. But I also think that, at this point, the best thing for Fernando is for me to find him and take him to Guy. He’s likely to get killed by that rival gang if I don’t. And to be perfectly honest, he deserves to be tried and possibly punished for his crimes. I can see you want to be a good man, Javier. You’ve told yourself for a while that you can love your brother and take care of him and just keep yourself away from the bad things he does. But if you’re really a good man, it means you know when it’s time to take a stand. I’m saying that time has come, and it’s the best thing for everybody.”

  Javier swallowed hard. He wanted her to stop talking, but she would not.

  “Guy’s a good man. He believes in the system, and he believes in people getting fair treatment. He can help Fernando if he gets the chance. He wouldn’t have taken him on as a client if he didn’t think he had integrity.”

  Javier dropped his head into his hands. “Why did he run? If he was innocent, why would he?”

  “Maybe he wasn’t innocent,” Emily said mercilessly.

  Javier put his hand over the one she’d placed on his arm. He took a deep breath and peeled her fingers off him. “Don’t pretend you feel sorry for me.”

  She did not take her hand back. She laced her fingers through his instead, and he allowed it. “I do feel sorry for you. Obviously, you’ve had a hard life and this is an awful situation. I’m not going to pretend this is anything less.” She squeezed his hand. “I also know you’re a grown man, and I know you can handle this. You can do the right thing. We need to find your brother, for a lot of reasons. I’m asking for whatever you can give me.”

  Javier’s chest felt tight. The hand she held wanted to shake, and it took everything he had to hold it steady for her. She’d made a lot more sense than he wanted to admit. In the short time he’d known her, she’d already inspired him to reexamine his life, to reconsider how he used his skills. He didn’t know how much more of this he could take. He shook his head. “No one’s going to find him,” Javier said. “I’ve made sure he’s safe. He’s run away, so that means he’s done with the stuff in this file. Can’t we just leave it be? It’s over.”

  Emily didn’t move a muscle, but he felt her disagreement as surely as if she’d slapped him. She let the moment stretch until Javier could barely stand it. Then she finally spoke in a low, urgent voice. “Do you really think it’s fair for him to get away clean? If he really hurt a little girl?”

  “Damn it, Emily.” He ripped himself away from her and stalked across the room.

  “Give me some sort of lead, Javier.”

  He leaned his head against her door again. He didn’t know if he wanted to get out or stay in forever. For a wild moment, he wished he were someone else. He needed to give her something—she’d convinced him that it was the right thing—but he still couldn’t stomach the idea of betraying Fernando. “Carolina Mendes,” he muttered.

  “What?”

  He spelled the name for her. “I’m not giving you any of my technical secrets, but I suppose it’s possible someone else might have seen him with her. You might find someone else who would give you that name—maybe it didn’t have to come from me.” He cleared his throat. The compromise he’d made with himself felt pathetic, but he clung to it. “I think he’s in love with her. He knows better than to contact her, but maybe she knows something.”

  “Thank you, Javier.”

  He whirled toward her. “Don’t thank me, damn it. Don’t ever thank me for something like that. I didn’t give you that name to earn your gratitude.”

  She eased herself to her feet. “I understand.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Javier paced her shabby living room, had been pacing for hours. The moment he’d given that damned name to Emily, he’d known he wouldn’t sleep. He felt restless. He could sit at her computer and spend the rest of the day coding to calm himself, but he didn’t want to drown himself that way. Emily’s hands on his hips stilled him.

  He jumped. He hadn’t noticed her coming up behind him.

  “Tell me about Sabi,” she said, the words breath with barely any voice.

  The walls that remained within him threatened to tumble down. He let her pull him to a sitting position on the floor. “What do you want to know?”

  “What was she like?”

  “I don’t know how much I remember.”

  “Don’t lie to me.”

  Javier sighed. He’d avoided the subject for so long that it took a moment to summon any details. “She had this doll she used to carry. A stuffed dragon, I think. It started out with gold eyes, but she hugged it so much that the buttons on her shirt scratched all the color off. She loved to brush her teeth. She did it after every meal, but also for fun, and she always wanted me to brush my teeth with her.” He smiled despite himself. “She also liked for me to braid her hair, because no one else would. I got pretty good after a while.”

  “Yeah?” Emily rested one hand at the base of his spine as if she were holding him up.

  “Oh yeah. I looked online and found all kinds. French. Three-strand, four-strand, five-strand, upside-down. I did her hair every morning and sometimes we’d play around with braids for hours on a Saturday afternoon. She had really thick, long hair. Kind of like yours, except black.” The lump in Javier’s throat made it impossible to speak.

  Emily lifted one of Javier’s hands in hers and guided it to her hair. He almost couldn’t bear to touch it, but she held him firmly in place until he gripped a thick hunk of it. “I’ve never even heard of a five-strand braid,” she said. “Why don’t you give me one now? Do you still remember how?” She scooted around to sit cross-legged in front of him.

  Javier swallowed hard but it only moved the knot down to his chest. “Why?”

  “Because it’s okay to remember her.”

  Javier’s muscle memory activated before he’d fully agreed to Emily’s plan. He finger-combed her hair, enjoying the way the soft, silky strands stroked across his skin. He cleared his throat and made an effort to regain control of the situation. “You’re not my sister.”

  “Believe me, I’m not confused about that. But I can tell you my daddy taught me to play golf and then take you to the driving ran
ge on a date, right?”

  Javier made a face. “Fernando likes golf. It makes him feel like a legitimate businessman.”

  “I think it does the same for my father.”

  “Is he not?” Her conversation began to draw him in. He liked the idea of taking the focus off his family and learning more about her.

  “Oh I guess he is. He makes a lot of money working in finance, anyway. But he lives in Newport, not New York City, and he’s going to retire with a million dollars, not five million dollars. That kind of thing. I don’t know how you get satisfaction, ever, when you think like that.”

  Javier wove her dark-blonde hair into a complex pattern, taking plenty of opportunities to caress the sides of her neck and the spots behind her ears. “Retire with a million dollars, huh? Is that because he’s too stingy to buy his daughter a new couch?”

  She leaned into his touch. Javier moved closer, adjusting his position so she wound up seated between his legs. Emily sighed. “He’d buy me a new couch and anything else I wanted if I’d quit being a bounty hunter. As long as I do this work, though, I get nothing from him.”

  “Knowing you even a little, I figure his methods have backfired in a pretty big way.”

  “Don’t get me wrong. I’ve wanted to be a bounty hunter for as long as I can remember. I’ve worked damn hard for this. I wouldn’t give it up easily, no matter what. But honestly? After the way he’s been about it, I’d live on the street before I quit.”

  “That’s my girl,” Javier said, pulling her even closer.

  “Your girl?”

  He held his half-finished braid in place with one hand while he wrapped the other arm around her waist. He kissed her hair. “If you’re willing.”

  She twisted in his direction. He had to react quickly to keep from losing the work he’d done on her hair. “What are you talking about?”

  “Didn’t you say no more fighting this thing between us?” Javier coaxed her back into place. Now the pattern he formed in her hair seemed like a way of holding her to him. “I don’t know if you understand how deeply you’ve affected me. I can’t go back to the life I had before. Whether you stay beside me or not, I’m going to be a new man because of you.”

  His heart pounded. She stayed silent so long he worried he’d said too much. Then she gave a long exhale, and her shoulders dropped. “Make me surrender to you, Javier.”

  “I don’t need you to surrender, Emily. I don’t have to prove I’ve got the upper hand. I just want what you’re willing to give.”

  “I know. But I want to surrender. Make me. Please.”

  “Lead me to a rubber band I can use to tie this braid up.” Emily rolled smoothly to her feet without using her hands. Javier kept hold of her hair and followed her up, moving a little more slowly. She took them to the desk, where she produced a sticky rubber band. Javier shook his head. “You’re obviously not the kind of woman who spends a bunch of money taking care of herself.”

  “Do I look like I have a bunch of money to spend?”

  “You make me wish I could take care of that for you.”

  “I would never accept it.”

  “I know. But you just asked me to make you surrender.” He snapped the rubber band onto the bottom of her braid. He tugged it once playfully, then took her by the shoulders and turned her to face him. “Get on your knees, Emily.”

  She bit her lip. Her wrinkled forehead and restless fingers revealed the battle that must be taking place inside her. Javier folded his arms across his chest, consciously mimicking the posture she had taken earlier with him.

  “Are you going to make me?” Emily said finally.

  “You want me to grab you and force you to your knees?” He called the idea into question by raising an eyebrow. “That’s not going to work for either of us. If I make you surrender with your body but not with your heart, what good is that? I’m just going to stand here and wait until you figure out what you want.”

  Emily stared at him, her eyes naked with shock and vulnerability. This time, Javier was the one who could gaze at her implacably.

  “You told me just a minute ago that you want to surrender, Emily. Were you lying to me?”

  “No, I just need—”

  “To get on your knees if that’s what you want.”

  “Matthew would have fought me for it.” She looked like she regretted the words as soon as she said them. Javier could have taken them the wrong way, but he decided not to.

  “I’m not Matthew. Do you wish I was?”

  She shook her head, then slowly sank to her knees. The sight of her obeying him, willingly giving herself to him, turned Javier on more than he could ever have expected. He watched her, imagining he could hold her with his gaze alone. He stepped closer and rested the palm of his head on the top of her head, emphasizing the difference in height.

  “Good girl,” Javier said. “Now tell me what else you think about when you want me to make you surrender. What does that mean?”

  She trembled so violently he could feel it through her thick hair. Javier waited. When Emily finally spoke, her voice came out higher than normal. She sounded younger. “I want you to make me stop fighting so I can relax. I want to feel like you’re taking care of me. I want to feel like you’re strong enough to hold me up.”

  Javier inhaled, a plan forming in his mind. After feeling off balance every time he encountered her, it pleased him to see his way clear to giving her what she needed. “Good,” he said aloud. “Now listen to me. I can be as strong as you need me to be, but I’m not going to force it or fight you for it. We can play like we did with the spanking, but I don’t want to be in a battle of wills all the time. You’re going to have to decide if you trust me, and you’re going to have to be honest about what you want from me. Can you do that?”

  Emily nodded slowly and a thrill of arousal passed through Javier from head to toe.

  “Good. Now stand up and take off your clothes.”

  He saw her shiver but she got to her feet without hesitation and faced him. All traces of shyness faded. She met his eyes while bold fingers removed the conservative pantsuit she had been wearing. Javier stood back, restraining the urge to touch her immediately. He wanted to enjoy the revelation of her bare body.

  Powerful, lean muscle shaped Emily’s every limb. Javier’s eyes traced the thick curves of her calves, the compact line of her ass, the muscle that rippled over her slim stomach. He grew painfully hard before she even stripped down to her bra and panties. Her every gesture increased the pressure in his groin even further.

  She dropped her clothes in a pile along the wall and stood proudly before him, her long, thick braid concealing her large left nipple.

  “Have you fantasized about me?” Javier asked.

  “Yes.” Now that they’d entered the scene, Emily’s voice had resumed its usual confidence. He liked that she answered with one brazen word.

  “Show me what you’ve thought about.” She cocked her head in confusion and took a step closer but he stopped her with a lifted hand. “Touch yourself the way you’ve thought about me touching you.”

  Her wide blue eyes blinked once, then Emily backed against the wall and ran her hands down her sides. She gripped her hips firmly, hard enough to whiten the skin around her fingers. Emily whirled, her body moving with a deadly sort of grace that he imagined she’d learned from drilling martial arts moves. She pressed herself face forward against the wall, then arched her back so her ass edged toward him. She slipped one hand between herself and the wall, taking hold of her left nipple. Her other hand reached around behind her and spread herself open.

  Javier groaned aloud. The image her gestures created overwhelmed him. “Freeze,” he said. “Don’t move.” She obeyed. He approached and reverently touched her bare skin, running fingers up between her thighs and along the planes of her cheekbones. Gently, he pulled her hands aside and took hold of her soft nipple himself. He felt between her legs and found her dripping wet. He leaned close to her ear. “Where d
id you leave those condoms?” he murmured.

  “In the bag on the couch.” Her voice came out measured but he heard the restraint coiled there. To tease her, Javier found her clit and stroked over it, his fingers moving from side to side.

  “Should I go get them?”

  “What the hell do you think?” Emily snapped, then laughed. “The downstairs neighbors are about to get their ceiling flooded, Javier.”

  “Because you’re that wet for me?”

  She sighed. “Yeah.”

  “So you want me to get the condoms?”

  She let out a frustrated growl that made him chuckle.

  “I think I want you to come for me first.”

  “It’s hard for me to come standing up.”

  “Then we’re going to be here for a long time, aren’t we?” He lowered his lips to her neck.

  “Oh my God, Javier. What the hell is this?”

  He nibbled and sucked her neck, flicked her nipple and toyed with her clit. “Surrender, Emily.” She sighed and moaned a little. He couldn’t resist teasing her a little more. “Remember, any time you don’t like it, you can just throw me to the floor and drive your knee into my rib cage.”

  “You are evil!” Emily laughed, gasping against the wall. She curled one hand into a fist. “How am I supposed to come if you’re making me crack up like this?”

  “I don’t know,” Javier said, his voice as innocent as he could make it. He released her nipple and trailed his fingertips as lightly as he could over her ribs.

  Emily shrieked and twisted in his arms. “You really are going to end up on the floor!”

  “You sure?” He redoubled his efforts on her clit, stroking her with several fingers at once, each one moving at a slightly different pace. Emily half-laughed and half-moaned, squirming in his grasp ever more violently.

  His tickling hand returned to caressing, but he’d sensitized her so much by then that she continued to react as if he poked her. Javier slipped his fingers inside her, curling them to catch her inner walls.