Tell Me No Secrets: Secret Baby Romance Collection

by Jamie Knight

  “Glad you are here.” He nodded towards the door. “Help me out with the rest of this?” Cooper asked.

  “Sure.” How could I refuse?

  I followed him back down to the garage, taking deep breaths every step of the way. We started to haul up Camilla’s bed, which I did my best not to think about. Apparently, Cooper was thinking along similar lines.

  “I have a favor to ask.” He eyed me as we waited, cramped into the elevator with the mattress.

  “Okay,” I said, not wanting to turn him down before I knew what it was.

  “Would you keep an eye on Camilla for me? I mean, your neighbors now so it should be pretty simple. Just make sure she doesn’t get into any trouble or attract the wrong guy.”

  A pretty tall order considering that, according to him, every guy was the wrong guy when it came to Camilla.

  “Sure,” I said, unable to find a polite way to say no.

  He slapped me on the shoulder. “Thanks, man. You’re basically a big brother to her, too. I mean, you’ve been around since she was a kid.”

  “I guess,” I said, feeling pale.

  I honestly didn’t like thinking about that. Yeah, I’d known Camilla for over two decades, but she had grown up since then, at least physically, and I didn’t feel brotherly toward her at all. My feelings were of a much different sort.

  The unloading of the moving truck went pretty fast. Which wasn’t too surprising considering the burden was now being shared. Two were usually better than one. Especially when one of those involved was a trained physical specimen who’s body was a lethal weapon. Cooper was in pretty good shape, too.

  “My heroes,” Camilla said, putting on her best damsel voice and clasping her hands together.

  “All in a day’s work, ma’am,” I said, channeling Golden Age Superman.

  “I’ll order a pizza,” Camilla said, dialing her phone as she headed for her bedroom.

  I wanted to leave, but Coop slumped down onto the couch and offered me a beer. Apparently, we were hanging out now. The pizza was ordered, all I had to do was act natural.

  Little did I know I was in for another test. Camilla emerged from her bedroom, wearing a crop top and a pair of tight yoga pants that barely came up over her hips, giving me a very generous view of lacy panties. Not to mention some good looks at her sexy belly. Mercifully, the pizza came fast, and I managed to inhale thee slices so it wouldn’t look rude when I fled in an attempt to escape the sweet, siren call of temptation.

  With Camilla this close, I was in a lot of trouble.

  Chapter Four - Camilla

  Sunsets are a cultural phenomenon. Painting, photographs, and metaphors abound surrounding the lowering of the sun on the horizon, casting pink across the sky on a good day. However, sunrises, in my humble opinion, didn’t get nearly enough respect. It could partly be because most people aren’t awake to see them. Or, if they are, it tends to be under less than pleasant circumstances.

  I had always been an early riser. I’m not sure why. My internal clock must have been set differently. No matter what else happened, I always woke up to see the sunrise, happy and refreshed. I was one of those mythical “morning people” one hears so much about. As such, I could run almost any model of coffeemaker with my eyes closed.

  The machine set, I started on a full breakfast fry up with a fresh fruit accompaniment. Most of it was done before the coffeemaker clicked itself off, leaving a pot of lovely, black happiness. Setting out plates and silverware on a tray like an old-world Duchess, I served up two plates of breakfast and two mugs of Colombian. Everything set just so, I hoisted up the serving tray and headed down the hall.

  Knocking loudly on his front door, I waited for Aden to rouse from his slumber. Ten minutes later, he appeared. Even groggy with his green eyes bloodshot and a wicked case of bed head, he still looked dashing. An impression only amplified by the fact that he was only wearing a pair of cargo shorts. It showed off his toned soldier bod, which hadn’t softened a bit since he retired.

  “Good morning!” I sang, holding the tray up before me.

  “The fuck do you want?” he growled, playing all mean again, repressing his true emotions.

  He was so cute when he was in denial.

  “I brought you breakfast,” I said, ducking under Aden’s arm into the apartment.

  “You don’t say,” he said, backing away from me and rubbing his big hand over his face.

  My eyes fixated on the bright tattoo on his shoulder, the one he got in the army representing his unit. There was another across his hard, defined left pec, a twisting Celtic knot that he had done right after high school. My eyes wanted to drift lower, but first, I had to continue on with my plan.

  “Indeed!” I said brightly, putting the tray down on the dining room table, after pushing papers to the side.

  “I don’t have to go to work for a couple of hours,” Aden grumbled, heading back towards the bedroom. “Leave.”

  “I’ll join you,” I said.

  Quick as you please, he turned on a dime and detoured back to the dining room, mumbling something I never quite got. Slumping into a chair, he crossed his big arms over his chest and looked at me with heavy lids. I put his plate before him, telling that the smell was already bringing around his grumpy mood.

  “You really don’t need to do this,” he said, cutting into the French toast.

  The first bite seemed to change his mind as he then gobbled down the rest in two minutes flat.

  “Like it?” I asked, unable to repress a giggle.

  “It’s pretty good,” Aden admitted.

  I looked down at my plate and carefully cut my toast. “I’m happy to do it again. Every day if you like. Maybe we could do dinner, too. It only makes sense to share. We are only an apartment away after all and such good friends.”

  “Drop it.”

  I looked up to see his bright green eyes glaring into me. Every line of Aden’s body was ridged.

  “Drop what?” I asked, slowly putting a bite of French toast into my mouth. A little dab of syrup dripped down my chin. I didn’t bother to use my napkin, licking it up by extending my tongue.

  “The bullshit. I know what you really want.” Aden pushed back his chair. He was trying to act mad, but his gaze was on my lips.

  “I’ve never made a secret of what I want,” I pointed out.

  I ate my bowl of strawberries in as sexy a way as I could manage. When they were gone, I reached for a banana, practically giving it head as I ate it, sucking and licking shamelessly to show Aden what I could do.

  Aden groaned and rolled his eyes. Not quite the reaction I was going for.

  “I have to take a shower,” he said, heading down the hall toward the bathroom.

  “Great!” I said, jumping up.

  “Alone,” he snapped, not turning around.

  I sat back down and started gathering up the dishes, unable to keep from smiling as I heard the bathroom door lock. Apparently, Aden though I might burst in there and ravage him. I was more than happy to accept the first win in this battle and headed home to do the dishes.

  Putting on my sexiest outfit that could still pass as office appropriate, I drove down to the parking garage, leaving my VW Bug in the deepest, darkest corner of the massive, concrete building. It really was an interesting idea when you thought about it. A structure that looked like a building but was basically a stack of parking lots.

  Carefully getting out of the driver’s seat so I didn’t accidentally flash the security cameras, I made my way up to the human world and then over to the building. Keeping a sway in my hips the entire time. The short walk still gave me lots of time to practice my sexy sashay.

  No sooner did my ass hit my chair than the new guy, Carlos, hired the other day to do storyboards for a new campaign, also visible from my desk, seemed to go into something of a panic.

  “What’s up, Carlos?” I asked, inching into his cubicle to see if I could help.
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br />   He looked up at me wide-eyed. “I can’t find the tag-sheet,” he gasped. The guy was a little high strung.

  “The what?” I asked, keeping my voice down.

  “The outline that the copywriters did up listing the most important beats of the new campaign, I had it when I left this morning. Or at least I thought I did.”

  He was going through the papers on his desk in such a crazy way I figured he was making them more unorganized than they were before. Not finding anything there, Carlos turned to another stack, almost knocking over his coffee mug into the first pile.

  I grabbed it before a drop could spill.

  “You don’t have it on your computer?”

  Erratically, he shook his head. “I asked for a hard copy so I could mark on it, codes and stuff.”

  “Oh.”

  “I’m so screwed!”

  “Not necessarily,” I said, with a flash of inspiration.

  Just then, Cooper walked by, giving both of us the stink-eye, like he had caught us fucking on the desk or something. My big brother was such a buzzkill sometimes. I ignored him.

  “How is that?” Carlos asked, looking up at me like I was an angel.

  “I get forwarded everything,” I told him, inching towards the door to his cubical.

  “Oh, that makes sense,” Carlos said, seeming to relax, and finally, take a deep breath.

  “Give me ten minutes.”

  I hurried back over to the desk and searched for the message that I was sure I’d seen. Locating it, I quickly printed off a hardcopy, knowing that’s what he preferred and got it over to Carlos, who was so happy he gave me a grateful kiss on the cheek. It was nothing, really. Just a little peck to show his appreciation. Not super appropriate for the office setting, but he had been in distress, so it was understandable — at least to those of a rational mindset.

  Sadly, this did not apply to my big brother. Just as Carlos was giving me that innocent kiss of thanks, Coop just so happened by again and cleared his throat quite aggressively. Carlos didn’t seem to notice, or if he did, he didn’t care and returned to his desk to keep working on the storyboards.

  “Breakroom,” I snapped, glaring at my brother.

  “What?”

  “Now!”

  “What’s going—”

  I grabbed his arm and pulled him with me.

  “How old am I?” I asked, slamming the door behind us.

  Cooper rolled his eyes. “I don’t see—”

  “Just fucking answer me!”

  “Twenty-nine. You’re twenty-nine, okay?”

  “Yes, it is quite okay. I love being the age that I am. What is not okay is for you to keep treating me like I’m a stupid kid.”

  “He was kissing you!” Coop grunted and swung his arms in a broad gesture.

  “On the cheek—” I pointed— “because I just got done helping him out of a jam.”

  “Oh.” His face fell.

  “Fuckin’ right ‘oh’. I’m not interested in Carlos. Even if I was, it wouldn’t be any of your damn business.”

  “I’ll never stop protecting you,” he said, being his usual stubborn self, doubling down even when he was wrong.

  “Protect me from what? Sex?”

  He flinched, uncomfortable with me even saying the word.

  “I know you have trouble committing to things. I just wish it extended to your determination to keep me celibate the rest of my life.”

  “Virgin. You mean keep you a virgin for the rest of your life.”

  “Yeah, keep telling yourself that,” I snapped, storming out of the breakroom. I could have slapped him.

  Chapter Five - Aden

  Despite Camilla’s clumsily erotic interruption, I still managed to get to work on time. After my shower, I got dressed in what was clean outfit—looking very much like I did the day before in a slightly different black shirt and jeans—and hustled down to the ground floor. Sliding the heavy metal disc into the aged CD player before setting off int morning traffic, I couldn’t actually hear Wicks brother among the heavily overlaid vocals. What I could hear sounded really good overall. The new guitarist seemed to ease into the fold quite well.

  Head-banging my way all the way down the freeway, I had almost forgotten about the office drama going on with Cooper and Camilla. I really liked Camilla and would have been with her if I could, but whenever I thought about it, I remembered the insanity that my best friend brought to the table. That would just give me a stress headache. There were times I was happy to have been from a fairly regular family.

  A graphic display of the siblings’ dramatic dynamic happened two hours after I got to my desk. Camilla came storming out of the breakroom in the sort of rage only Cooper was able to cause. She was so angry, in fact, she ran right into me oblivious to anything other than getting away from her life-long antagonist.

  I took hold of her to keep her from falling over. Our bodies pressed together in an admittedly pleasant way. I could feel Camilla’s warmth through her clothes, such as they were, and her full breasts pressed into my chest. I held onto her a moment longer than was strictly needed to keep her upright.

  Our eyes met, and Camilla was definitely giving me a ‘fuck me’ look. Not that I was much better, undressing her with my eyes. I was unable to resist wondering what she looked like naked at that point.

  Before I could meditate on the question any further, Cooper came out of the breakroom as well with all the fires of Hades burning in his eyes. I released his little sister quickly and took a step back. It was a muscle reflex based on years of experience. The truth was, my feelings for his sister would heart my friend, and I didn’t want it to come to that.

  Camilla tried to step closer to me, but I stepped back again to keep my distance. From the way that Cooper glanced over at Carlos, I knew it was him my friend was mad at rather than me. I honestly couldn’t imagine what the new guy would have done to evoke such wrath but also knew that it wouldn’t have had to be much. I had once seen Cooper try to break a guy’s nose for spilling beer on him.

  He was even worse when it came to Camilla. I would have thought that the first couple of broken noses might be an indication that he was taking the big brother shtick a bit too far, but he remained intractable. I could see how that would be frustrating for Camilla, who was pushing thirty.

  “I’m not sure what happened, but she is an adult, dude,” I said, keeping my hands in my pockets.

  Cooper looked at me like he couldn’t quite believe that I spoke and that I spoke against him. I really didn’t tend to say much at all unless provoked. For me to speak up like that was surely a rarity.

  He raised his eyebrows as he held my gaze. “Does that mean you won’t look after her like you promised?”

  “What the hell does that mean?” Camilla demanded, stomping her feet until she was between us.

  “You have two brothers looking out for you,” Coop said, putting his arm around my shoulder.

  “Did you agree to this?” Camilla asked, looking hurt.

  “Not the brother part,” I said, looking over at Cooper.

  Camilla looked like she might slap me. I wouldn’t blame her, really. It was a pretty shit thing for Cooper to do, and I never should have agreed to it. Instead, she just stormed off, shoving past me on the way, mostly because I let her.

  “I don’t know why I waste my time with either of you!”

  “She’ll get over it. It really is for her own good,” Cooper said, patting me on the shoulder. “Thanks for having my back, man.”

  We were released for lunch as per the custom. Camilla still hadn’t come back, so we had to fend for ourselves, the office temporarily ceasing operations, which did not seem to make Ryan very happy. Not that I gave much of a damn. It was his fault we were in this situation in the first place.

  On the way back with my ritual cheesesteak, I came across the tempting scent of a bakery. I suddenly remembered that Camilla liked caramel eclairs. I
wasn’t nearly foolish enough to think it would make up for everything. Camilla had always had deep emotions, a Jones family trait, or so it would seem, and she had been rightfully angry by what Cooper had tried to do. I had agreed to watch out for Camilla, but that was because I loved her. I had never said anything about being her other brother.

  I had put the pastry bag on the reception desk, without a word, hoping she would take it with the intended spirit. While I maintained my characteristic silence, our eyes did meet, just for a moment, and I could still see the longing there. She was pissed but still wanted me. I couldn’t say that I didn’t feel the same way. I looked away before my eyes could betray me.

  Camilla’s desire seemed to trump her anger and, after giving me the silent treatment, she came into my cubicle at the end of the day. I was surprised but didn’t let on. I had gotten very good at suppressing my emotions.

  “You’re making dinner,” she said.

  Of course, bat-ears Cooper heard that and came rushing into the cubicle to protect his little sister from such horrid scandal.

  “What the fuck does that mean?” Cooper demanded, in his best attempt at a warning voice that always made me want to laugh.

  Camilla doesn’t answer, apparently still ignoring him. She walked away without even making eye contact.

  “We’ve decided to share meals to make things easier.”

  “Oh, okay. That’s actually a good idea,” Cooper said, turning back into his usual self. A transformation that put me in mind of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

  It was then that I realized how absurd it was to worry about his approval for something so innocent and pure. My best friend had really gotten paranoid, and it wasn’t funny anymore. It was getting to be a bit scary and very annoying. Though, I wasn’t sure how to change the dynamics of our relationship at that point.

  On the way home, I kept thinking, despite the absurdity, I couldn’t deny my attraction to Camilla. She had grown up into a beautiful young woman and made no secret about her interest in me. It had become clear that if Cooper hadn’t been in the picture, we probably would have fucked already. While there was little that could have been done about the lost years while I was in the military, there was no reason for us to keep apart from each other now that I was back in civilian life.