by Casey Hagen
Okay, he was the big brother and filling in for their dad, so Lathan would let it slide. For now. The idea of Jeremy assuming Lathan was some kind of prick trying to change Jack grated on Lathan’s nerves.
He had to remind himself that Jeremy hadn’t had the benefit of meeting his family, so all he knew was Lathan had a ton of money and that he’d proposed to his sister on the fly. “From what I understand, Jack told my mother and aunts exactly what she wants and they’re honoring her wishes.”
Jeremy snorted, and Lathan had to fight off the irritation growing in him. Jeremy had been exuding attitude for most of the night.
Lathan let it roll off at first, but he’d just about reached his breaking point.
“Like your rich family is going to give a crap about what Jack wants. They’re going to worry about appearances… I’m surprised they haven’t put the brakes on this whole charade.”
Lathan snapped and before he thought better of it, he had two fistfuls of Jeremy’s shirt in his hands and had pinned him against the wall. He wasn’t ordinarily a violent man, but now, twice in one day, he’d put his hands on someone.
“Hey, knock that shit off!” Jack pushed between them, shooting a glare at her brother. “What did you say to him?”
“What makes you think it was me?” Jeremy asked with his palms out and an incredulous look on his face.
Jack stuck a finger right in his sternum. “Because I know you; you push buttons. Lathan doesn’t just put his hands on people over nothing.”
“Aww, known him for under a week and already coming to his defense,” Jeremy said in a mocking tone.
“It was your sister you were talking shit about, so when it comes down to it, she’s coming to her own defense,” Lathan pointed out.
Jack whipped her head around and pushed Jeremy against the wall, rattling the dart case hanging on the wall when she did. “What were you saying about me?”
“I just don’t want this wedding to be about appearances and not about what you want.”
Jack took a step back. “Jeremy, they were nice about it and made notes about everything I wanted. I know you love me and want to protect me, but you need to trust me to do this.”
Jeremy tugged Jack’s ponytail and gave Jack a sad smile. “I don’t want them to change you.”
“They never tried, not even once.”
Lathan kept his mouth shut as Jack hugged her brother. Her brother held on tight, the look on his worried face deflating the last of Lathan’s anger. Jeremy was scared for his sister. The more time Lathan spent with Jack, in her house, with her friends, the more he worried about her, too. His family wouldn’t try to change her, but would she compromise pieces of her life to accommodate his? He didn’t want that for her, and as soon as he had an opportunity, they were going to discuss it.
“Shit. Lathan, I’m sorry. I’m being a prick,” Jeremy said with his arm slung around Jack’s shoulders.
“Forget it. You’re being an older brother. I imagine if I had a little sister, I would do the same.”
Jeremy hooked his arm around Lathan. “Come on, let’s grab another beer.”
Jack shook her head and peeled Jeremy’s arm off Lathan. “Oh, no. I think you need a break. I’m going to take Lathan for a walk. We’ll be back.”
The air grew crisp as the sun started to go down. They grabbed their jackets and stepped out for a walk. “Thank you for today,” Jack said.
Lathan laughed. “For what, having an employee make you feel like gutter trash or for grabbing your brother?”
“For being offended for me, being kind to my father, and for not letting my brother get away with mouthing off.”
“It’s been a day for shitstorms, hasn’t it?”
“A little bit, but I’m focusing on the good. My dad recognized me, and he was able to meet you. I didn’t expect that, and I’m grateful for it. It makes the other not so important.”
She took a seat on the wooden bench next to the body shop and patted the spot next to her.
Lathan cupped her chin and kissed her lips. “The other isn’t important. My family loves you. I—”
“You made me a promise. Anything I want. I’m ready to collect,” Jack interrupted.
Jack’s heart thundered in her chest. Afraid he was going to say three little words she couldn’t stand to hear, she scrambled for something, anything to distract him.
Easy affection, protection, and kind words had added a few more dents in her armor today. Protecting herself had become crucial.
He brushed a wisp of hair under her knit hat and kissed her forehead. No, no, no, not the forehead again. There was no defense for that.
“Whatever you want…”
“Come on.” She practically dragged him into the shop and past the F-350 and the Jeep, to his car on the end. “Jeremy said there’s just one part, and it will be here first thing in the morning. You’ll be able to return to Brentwood soon.” She slid her hand over the hood and leaned back on it and winked at him. “Before you take it away, we should make a memory on it.”
“You, Jack, are trouble.” But even as the words slipped from his sexy lips, deft fingers parted her leather jacket, exposing her collarbone.
She closed her eyes as his lips roamed her sensitive skin. She would miss this after a year.
Had she ever even felt this way before?
No, she hadn’t.
Men had come and gone with not much more than a ripple. She had never had a broken heart, never longed for anyone, never had a man touch her in a way that left a permanent mark on her soul. Not until now. Not until Lathan.
One year. She would let herself have him for one year, and then she would walk away and build that armor right back up again, and hopefully one day, he would find someone who fit in with his life, someone able to support him and devote her time to him.
Just the idea of another woman loving him, touching him, having a life with him, brought a swift punch of pain, because, as much as she hated to admit it, she had already fallen hard and fast.
Letting him see the truth would only make her vulnerable, so she masked it. “Lathan, shut up and get on this damned thing.”
He walked his hands over the sleek hood on either side of her. “Yes, ma’am.”
She kicked off her shoes and shimmied out of her pants while he nibbled at her neck. When he pulled back, he made quick work of whisking away her shirt, bra, and underwear with deft fingers and quick movements, leaving her stripped bare to his hungry gaze.
He lifted her, sliding her higher on the hood and planting her feet wide, on each side, just above the headlights.
She’d never been so exposed, but the way his expression had gone stormy and his breathing grew ragged told her that he loved the view.
He never took his eyes from her as he removed his clothes, revealing inch after inch of perfectly tanned skin, muscled torso, lean hips, and, God, those thighs.
Her nipples tightened. Her sense of touch became heightened. Her palms tingled with the slide of smooth, waxed paint beneath her hands. Sliding back, the cool hood against her naked ass startled her. Gliding her feet over the hood tickled the sensitive arches.
If he didn’t make a move soon, she was going to lose it. Or kill him. She hadn’t decided.
“Lathan?”
“Yeah.”
“You want to hurry it up?”
“I want to take this nice and slow.” He picked up her foot and grazed the inside of her ankle with his lips. By the time he got to the inside of her knee, he had added his tongue, making her whimper.
“Someone likes that.”
“Who? Your mother?”
Lathan yanked his head back. “Gross. Jesus.”
Jack couldn’t help it. She laughed until her eyes burned with tears. “That’s what you get. Don’t gloat. It’s not attractive.”
“Lesson learned.”
Lathan tugged her leg back to his eager mouth. Lips and teeth worked her inner thigh, going higher and higher, finally la
nding in the center of her, banishing all laughter.
Crying out, she locked her hands in his hair and held him to her. Bless him, he took the hint, and in just minutes, with her shaking legs over his shoulders, she screamed her release.
He lifted his head and gave her satisfied smile. “You showing up to tow my car was the best thing that ever happened to me.”
Crinkles formed around those baby blues, and shit, she would swear her heart sighed. “Get up here and show me.”
He crawled up, first one knee, then the other. Settling in, right at the center of her, he locked his fingers over the edge of the hood where it met the windshield and slid in hard. “Shit!”
“What?” she said on a gasp. He was stretching her, hitting all of her sensitive spots, making it almost impossible to speak.
“My knees just sank into the hood.”
“It’s okay; we have a body shop, too. I know the owner; he’s the best.”
He lifted a knee as if he intended to climb down. “Damn it.”
She grabbed the back of his hair with her fist. “Lathan, don’t you dare stop this. You owe me. You can’t change what happened, so keep your damn knees planted in those dents and finish what you started.”
She pulled him in, kissed him hard, and smart man that he was, he did exactly as she told him.
The next day, Lathan stood at the front of his car with Jeremy.
Jeremy scratched his beard and turned to him. Never in his life did he have to struggle with embarrassment the way he did under the curious gaze of his fiancée’s brother.
“So, what happened to the car?”
“Well, last night, your sister and I…”
Jeremy held up a hand and closed his eyes. “Full stop. Are those knee prints? Seriously, are you asking me to fix knee prints you made on the hood of your car while banging my sister?”
Lathan pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. “Yeah, unfortunately, that’s what I’m asking.”
“Four more days.”
“Four days? Come on, how hard can it be?”
“It’s going to take at least a day to block out what I’m looking at. Day two, I’m going to fight the urge to kill you. Day three, I’ll start, but I won’t put in a full day because guy, you nailed my sister on your car. The end of day four, it’s yours.”
“It’s not like your sister was a virgin.”
“No, she isn’t but I’ve never had to the see the handiwork of her sex life. You’re lucky I’m not billing you for my therapy.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah, shit.”
An hour later, Jack’s shift started, and since Lathan was curious what a full day for her was like, he decided to ride along. Her first day back showed no mercy. Rain fell off and on all day. With the drop in temperature, that meant he spent most of the day cold and uncomfortable.
They stopped for two flat tires. She received three calls for illegal parking tows. They were eating chicken and avocado wraps in the truck when a call came in for a serious accident just outside of Tallulah Cove. They arrived to find a fifteen-passenger van dangling over the edge of a bridge.
Pride filled Lathan as he watched Jack take each problem head-on with confidence. The fire truck on the scene had secured the van while rescue teams had rescued the people trapped. With the last person pulled to safety, Jack secured the van with a winch so the fire trucks could release theirs.
People had gathered around the scene to watch the rescue. The least injured sat in clusters on the side of the road, wrapped in blankets while EMT workers assessed their conditions. With the way the front of the van was crushed in, he had to wonder if the people in the front seat were even alive.
Sobs, squeals, and chaos filled the air. “What do we do now?” Lathan asked Jack.
“We have to wait for the EMTs to clear the area, and then I pull it over.”
“You can’t do that now?”
“Not with this many bodies around. It’s too dangerous. If my line snaps, which is highly unlikely, but if it did, it would turn into a forty-foot-long whip flying through the air.”
Two EMT workers passed by with a little girl, likely seven or eight, on a stretcher. She was crying hysterically. “We might need to sedate her.”
“I hope not; it will make it difficult for them to assess her injuries at the hospital.”
Jack stopped the EMT workers as they passed. “Hey, sweetheart, shhhh, it’s okay.” Jack ran her fingers over the little girl’s long blond hair. “What’s the matter?”
“My-y te-ddy,” the girl sobbed with her hands stretched into the air.
“Shhhh, shhhh, it’s going to be okay.” Jack brushed her fingers over the little girl’s hair, and she began to quiet under the comforting gesture.
Jack looked up to the EMT workers. “Did you guys look for it?”
“Briefly, but with the van in that position, none of us were going in.”
Lathan didn’t like the look of challenge in Jack’s eyes as she assessed the van again.
“Give me a minute,” Jack said as she took off toward the van.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Lathan asked, running alongside her.
“I’m going to get her teddy bear.”
Lathan grabbed her arm to stop her. “Oh, no, you’re not.”
Jack glared down at his hand and shook him off. “It’s not up to you, Lathan.”
“You’re going to be my wife.”
“So what? That means I need to cease being me? Because I can tell you right now, I’m going to continue to do my job as I see fit, married or not. Now move out of my way.” She shoved past him and before he could so much as reach out, she had reached the van and begun shimmying her way through the back that had to have been cut open by the jaws of life.
Her feet disappeared inside, and the air lodged in his seized lungs. The van shook and pitched. A grinding noise came from the tow truck. For all he knew, these were normal movements and sounds, but all he could think about was what would happen if the winch failed and that van went over.
All for a teddy bear.
She couldn’t take unnecessary risks like this. She was going to be married. She had a family and would soon have more. She was being selfish, and they were damn well going to have a talk about it when this was all over.
The van pitched again, and the firefighters rushed to hook their winch back on. Just as they got the cables connected, Jack’s arm popped out the back with a small brown teddy bear clenched in her fist. She locked her gloved hands on the jagged metal and dragged her body out. With a slight limp and what looked like a large cut in her jumpsuit, she delivered the teddy bear to the young girl, who immediately stopped crying.
“What’s your name, sweetheart?”
“Lizzie,” she whispered.
“It’s nice to meet you, Lizzie. These nice men are going to get you all fixed up, so you need to be brave, okay?”
“Okay.” The little girl nodded.
Lathan stood by while she winched the van up over the side of the guardrail. She was fine, but he wasn’t. He was mad as hell, scared, and wanted to throttle her for taking such an unnecessary risk with her life. He bit his tongue and kept his mouth shut while Jack dropped the van off at the junkyard. He stewed in silence all the way back to her house. Her shift had ended, Kurt having come in to relieve her.
The minute they were alone, all the fear, anger, and anxiety bubbled over, and he lost it.
“What the hell is wrong with you? Why would you take a risk like that?” He paced her living room, the churning from envisioning the hundreds of ways her stunt could have gone wrong pouring out of him with every angry word.
Jack peeled off her dirty jumpsuit and tossed it in the laundry room off the kitchen. “Because it was the right thing to do. That accident stole something from her today, but I was able to keep it from stealing a whole lot more.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Her parents were in the front.
They didn’t make it. After they get her patched up, they’re going to devastate her.”
Lizzie was orphaned, and in a way, so was Jack. Shit. “Putting your own life at risk wasn’t the answer.”
His phone started going off in his pocket. He cast a quick glance at the screen.
Kim.
His argument evaporated as his mind switched gears. He shook his head. No, he wasn’t getting distracted from this.
Jack crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows. “Important call?”
“No. Listen—” His phone started going off again. Kim, again. “Jesus.”
“Take it. I’m getting a beer.”
He clicked the answer button while following Jack into the kitchen. “Hello.”
“Lathan, thank God I finally reached you…”
“Kim, this is a bad time.” He hadn’t missed the way Jack’s shoulders stiffened. What were the chances that Gina had filled Jack in on Kim? He hadn’t told his family much about her, but Gina knew everything.
“I’ll make it quick. Look, I think I was hasty in turning down your proposal, and I was hoping we could talk about it.”
“All of a sudden you want to marry me? Why?”
“Well, I think we could make a good life together. We fit well, socially. I think in time, maybe we could become more involved with some of the more elite residents of Brentwood, or not. I don’t know. I just think we can work past our differences. Compromise.”
Bone-deep weariness settled into him. He stepped into the living room and dropped into Jeremy’s chair. He felt Jack’s eyes on him. Well, good. She needed to hear this.
“Kim, do you love me?”
“Well, I have affection for you.”
“Not the same thing. You don’t love me, and I don’t love you.” He looked Jack square in the eye. “In fact, I’m in love with someone else.” He’d never intended to tell her this way. Hell, he didn’t quite realize how true it was until he watched that van shift, not once, but twice. She was going to give him shit for it, but yeah, he had gone and fallen in love with her.
“Is this about that woman I heard you’ve been running around with? Really, Lathan. I didn’t realize how desperate you were, but I’m here now, and I’m willing—”