by Natalie Ann
He didn’t take it as prying as much as information gathering.
He’d learned just as much about her. Well, except for why she hadn’t asked a guy out in almost ten years. There was something more going on and he wondered if he’d ever find out. Or if it even mattered.
The thing is, he knew it did matter. He knew that for as much as she’d confessed to him about the way things were with men, that something more was holding her back. A bigger driving force in her lack of self-confidence.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, she was giving out all sorts of vibes and signals that she’d love a lot more than a kiss goodnight from him.
If she were anyone else, he would have had her stripped naked and in his bedroom the minute she walked in the door.
But this was Ella. She was shy. She was timid, whether she wanted to admit it or not. And she was pulling him into a world he wasn’t sure he ever wanted to go to again.
He wouldn’t do anything to scare her away no matter how much of a bravado she put up. He’d been down the road of scaring women in his life and he was over it.
He was over having to be the protector and the rock to hold things together. Then when it all failed, he was left to pick up the shattered remains on his own.
And though Ella was different—she was calm and confident in her everyday life, relationships not so much—it was a relationship he was struggling with and he would have to find some common ground on.
So he kissed her long and hard when she left. Her hands were all over his back and chest and testing his willpower greater than hell week during his SEAL training. If there’d been a bell in his living room to ring and tap out, he would have done it.
She probably wondered why he was holding back. He wasn’t quite sure himself. Then he realized that before they took that next step, he wanted her family to be aware they were dating.
He wanted his presence known to them. He didn’t care if he got their approval or acceptance in the matter, but he wondered if she needed it. And he wasn’t going to be used as an object for her to move further in life either.
That common ground he was trying to find, they needed to reach it together somehow first.
So he decided to have a burger and a beer at Fierce and see how it went. How Ella acted around him in front of her family.
Maybe deep down he wanted to know if he was being used too. If he was being kept in the closet because she didn’t think her family would approve, or if she needed them to know so they’d stop trying to pair her up with someone.
Or maybe he was doubting himself like he hadn’t done in a long time and just needed to man up and take her to bed. Get it out of both of their systems and worry about the rest of it at another time.
A little after five, he parked in the back parking lot of Fierce and noticed Ella’s car was there. He didn’t know if she watched the cameras and would know if he was there. She always said she never paid much attention to them, so it might be telling if she came down and talked to him.
He’d bet she did.
He walked around to the front and through the door, then to the bar and took a seat.
“Hey, Travis,” Brody said to him. “Working or coming in for a beer?”
“A beer and a burger,” he said.
Brody reached behind the bar and handed over the menu. “I’ll take an Ella,” he said, just to be funny. Not that Brody would have any idea of the humor behind it.
“Coming right up.”
“Hi, Travis,” Aimee, Brody’s wife, said moving closer to him. “I don’t know if we’ve ever officially met before.”
They hadn’t, but he knew all the Fierce family members and their employees. It was his job to know and his job to do checks on people now when they were hired. He wondered if the new wives of the group ever knew that Jolene had requested background checks done on them prior to them being hired.
Or as Ella said, before Jolene decided they were going to be perfect mates for her sons. He was still shaking his head over it all. All the girls were clean as a whistle for the most part. No criminal records, nothing more than the average person with some family drama-like problems in their life that would only show up in a deep dive that he was paid to do.
“Nope. It’s nice to meet you too,” he said, sticking his hand out to hers. He still kept tabs on her ex, the father of her daughter that Brody had adopted. Brody wanted no part of that scumbag coming back into Aimee’s life so he monitored Pick’s movements in whatever band he was in. The same as he did Cade’s fiancée’s ex, Keith. The Fierce boys were all about protecting their women.
He understood that feeling well. He hoped they never failed like he did. He wouldn’t wish that on anyone.
“If you know what you want, I’ll just put the order in for you,” Aimee said.
“I’ll take the black and blue burger and an order of fries.” He handed the menu back and picked his beer up to see how long it took for someone to come over and really chat him up.
That someone being the woman haunting his dreams and making him wish for the life he’d given up so long ago.
It was all of five minutes before he heard the click of heels and turned his head to see Ella standing there in a straight black skirt hitting her knees, black heels not hiding the red soles, and a white blouse with a red collar and cuffs.
She took his breath away, but he only tilted his head to see what move she decided to make. No use letting her know the power she had over him just yet.
He wasn’t disappointed when she walked over and sat right next to him.
This was the side of her he’d known for years. The one that would grab a seat and pretend he wasn’t there. Should be interesting to see how it all played out.
***
Ella very rarely looked at the camera feeds when she was working unless she was prompted. To her they were just fixtures in her office that took up too much space and made an annoying buzzing noise.
But she’d felt a tingling at the back of her neck that made her look up into the doorway like she was being watched. There wasn’t anyone there, so she turned her head toward the monitors and saw Travis sitting at the bar with a beer in his hand. Damn it all if he wasn’t looking right at the camera pointed at him with a smirk on his face.
She finished up her work, locked her office door, and walked downstairs ready to have some fun. It was time to ruffle some of her family’s feathers and she was positive Travis would be on board with it.
Actually she was wondering if that might be what was holding him back a bit. If he was waiting for her to at least mention their relationship to someone else.
She wasn’t trying to hide it as much as protect him from her brothers’ comments.
And when she realized that thought, she laughed herself silly. Travis didn’t need any protecting even if he did make a comment about protection and support going both ways. He could handle her family without a lift of his eyebrow and wasn’t that what she might just want out of a man in her life?
“Ella,” Brody said. “To what do we owe the pleasure of you gracing us with your presence in the bar? You actually walked away from your desk early? Talk about the world tilting on its axis.”
“I’m hungry,” she said, narrowing her eyes. Geez, if she didn’t work as much then things wouldn’t get done. Her brothers were the same way. Or at least they used to be before they found mates. Now they found a balance and it just shocked her to realize that. That they were able to do something before she could figure it out. “I think I’ll grab some dinner here tonight.”
“Would you like a salad?” Aimee said, moving over and placing a napkin down next to Travis where Ella had stopped.
“I think I’ll have the veggie flatbread pizza tonight,” she said, sitting next to Travis. “I’ll take a seltzer with it.”
“Coming right up,” Aimee said.
Brody moved over to stand in front of her and frowned. “Really, Ella. You can’t say hi to Travis? You can sit right next to him and not even
acknowledge his presence? That’s a bit rude even for you.”
Brody was smirking at her like he always did. She turned her head. “I didn’t have a chance to, but since I sat next to him, I’ll say hi. Hello, Travis. We don’t see you often during the day.” She wondered if he’d get the underlying meaning she was sending his way.
“Maybe I need to come around more so that you can say hi to me.”
“Ha,” Brody said. “Good luck with that. Ella doesn’t say hi to too many people. That’s why she’s single and probably always will be. That is unless my mother can match her up with some other bean counter.”
Aimee walked over and pinched his arm. “Don’t be mean to your sister. Now I know why she kicked you guys in the balls so much as a kid.”
Ella heard Travis snort next to her. “Thank you, Aimee. I wish I had another girl in the house when I was growing up. Maybe then the boys could have walked with their legs crossed even more.”
Aimee laughed. “Well, I’m glad you didn’t do too much damage. I’d like to have another child someday.”
Ella was still ignoring Travis next to her, figuring out what her next move would be, trying to calculate the best words for the most effect, when he said, “You sure do look pretty today.”
“Aww,” Aimee said.
“Watch it,” Brody said. “She’s got fast hands and feet if someone compliments her. If we’ve heard it once, we’ve heard it a million times, Ella doesn’t need a man nor does she want one fawning all over her.”
“Giving someone a compliment is considered fawning all over them?” Travis asked her.
Her eyes met his quickly. “No. Brody would still be single if my mother didn’t find Aimee for him. Who else would put up with him other than someone that had experience with a toddler?”
Aimee burst out laughing. “That’s a good one.”
“Yeah, it was,” Brody admitted, filling an order for the waitress that just came over.
She held Travis’s stare, not caring if Brody noticed or even commented on it. “Fawning all over someone is kissing their butt. I like being told I look nice. And when someone tells me that and I think it’s an honest statement, it makes me want to be a little bold.”
Brody didn’t say a word, just stared at her like she’d lost her mind. This was going better than she thought it would.
“Bold, how?” Travis asked. She wondered if anyone else could feel the heat radiating off the two of them as they carried on this conversation.
“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe like this,” she said, leaning in and laying her lips to his, then snaking her hand around his head and kissing him even deeper. She’d never kissed a man like this out in public before.
“What the hell, Ella?” Brody said.
She pulled back and looked at Brody’s jaw that was almost lying on the bar. Aimee was grinning from ear to ear. It was nice to know that Aimee had at least figured out what Ella was doing. Sometimes her brothers all had blinders on.
“Relax, Brody. Travis and I are dating,” Ella explained.
Brody burst out laughing. “No way. He’s not your type.”
“I didn’t know I had a type, but since I don’t and I am dating Travis, you can pick your tongue up off the floor and take a chill pill.”
Brody was staring at Travis now. “Really? How the hell are you able to deal with her?”
Travis laughed. “I’ve found her to be pretty easy to deal with, no thanks to her brothers’ antics.”
Ella threw her head back and laughed, then laid her head on his shoulder while his hand caressed her back. “You should see your face right now, Brody. Don’t you want to threaten him? Tell him to keep his hands off your sister?”
“Hell no. He’s a lot bigger than me and is probably packing heat on top of it. If he has the patience to deal with you, more power to him. Though I’ve got to say this might put a wrinkle in Mom’s plans.”
Travis stuck his hand out to Brody, surprising her. “I’ve got a lot of patience, so I’ll take that as a blessing from you?”
Aimee said, “Aww,” again and Ella almost felt her eyes mist up.
“Yeah,” Brody said, grudgingly. “But this sucks. You really are bigger and tougher than us all and there are no lockers around here for me to shove you into. You’d never fit.”
“So noted,” Travis said and Ella felt her heart start to melt.
Waiting for My Ride
It didn’t take long for Brody to run to the kitchen and tell Aiden and Nic. Aiden thought it was funny and shook Travis’s hand too. Nic sided with Aimee and laughed at the two brothers when they were trying to figure out how this all happened with no one even knowing about it.
“Now that that is out of the way,” Ella said, “can we enjoy our dinner together in peace? Do you want to find a table or sit here at the bar while Brody doesn’t leave our side?”
“I want to sit here at the bar and torment your brother while I put my arm around you in front of him.”
“Oh please do,” she said. Then she leaned into his side and whispered into his ear, “It torments me a little bit too.”
Thank God for massive amounts of control because he needed it for his body right now when she said that.
“How did you know I was here?” he asked, trying to take his mind off her teasing ways.
“You need to ask that when you know darn well you looked at the camera willing me to see you sitting here?”
He laughed. He had done that and wondered if she would have noticed him. “It worked.”
“There are a lot of things about you that work for me.”
“You’re trying to kill me tonight, aren’t you?” he asked.
“I think I am. I like feeling this way. I like having a little bit of power like this.”
“You mean some confidence?” he asked her straight-faced.
“Yeah. It’s nice getting that back. It’s been a long time coming.”
“Just don’t go using it on some other guy. Remember, I’m the horse you climbed back on first.” He hoped that didn’t come off as desperation in his voice, but he wasn’t ready for her to move on.
She laughed. “I haven’t even begun to try you out yet. I’m still waiting for my ride.”
He groaned. “That’s it. You’re officially doing this on purpose, aren’t you?”
“Is Brody watching us at the other end of the bar?”
She had her back to Brody right now. He shifted his eyes. “He is.”
“Is he scowling?”
“I’m not sure what he’s doing, but it’s something.”
“Good,” she said. “It serves him right. God, this feels so good to get them back for everything they did to me growing up.”
“So that’s the only reason you’re doing this?” he asked seriously.
She put her hand on his cheek, forcing him to look into her eyes. “After everything I’ve confessed to you about my insecurities, and why they’re there, how could you even think to ask that? But since you did, the answer is no. I’m doing it because I want to. Because it does make me feel good to get some confidence back in the one part of my life I haven’t had it in years. And I like knowing I’m doing it with you.”
They finished their dinner and stood up. He’d planned on going out the front door the way he’d come in, but she grabbed his hand, threaded their fingers together and pulled him through the restaurant. He assumed she was taking him upstairs where her belongings were.
They passed the restaurant and then through the kitchen. Aiden lifted his head quick and held their stare. Ella only shook her head and smiled at him and he could see Aiden’s shoulders drop.
It was amazing to him how much two of her brothers were all bent out of shape over Ella dating someone. Even if they did seem to accept it, he’d known they were torn. But they were behaving for the most part and he hoped for Ella’s sake they continued. He’d hate to have to have words with them all at some point.
They climbed the stairs to the offices above, an
d once she unlocked her door, she pulled him into her arms and held him tight and kissed him like a woman starving. Like a woman who’d just been on a high and was coming down looking for more.
Like she wanted to gobble him up on her desk with all those people a floor below them.
As much as he was losing himself in her touch and taste, he heard footsteps coming. Footsteps trying to be quiet, but not quiet enough.
“We’ve got company,” he whispered.
She turned her head to the rack of security cameras and didn’t see anyone until Brody appeared on the screen trying to quietly walk down the hall.
“Keep kissing me,” she whispered back.
“You’re just a glutton for punishment from them, aren’t you?”
“No. He thinks I’m playing a prank on him. That the whole thing was a joke. Trust me. I know.”
He’d take her word for it. Anything to get his mouth on hers again.
“Shit,” they heard Brody say.
Ella leaned back but didn’t step out of Travis’s arms. “No, Brody. I’m not pulling your leg. We really are dating. Do you honestly think I’d do that to any man to just get back at my brothers?”
Brody’s shoulders dropped just like Aiden’s had in the kitchen. “No. This feels weird.”
“What does?” she asked.
Travis was going to let them talk, but he was keeping her in his arms for support whether she thought she needed it or not. Maybe he needed it more than her.
“I’ve never seen you kissing a guy before.”
She laughed. “I can assure you I’ve kissed a man before, Brody.”
“I know that,” he said, running his hand through his hair. “It’s just you do everything in private and no one really knows what goes on in your life. It’s not like you to be out in the open like this.”
“Maybe that means something,” Travis said before she could answer.
Brody stared at him and nodded, then walked away. When they were alone, he fully expected Ella to deny his statement, but all she said was, “Thank you.”
***
The next morning Ella was working away in her office when she heard feet stomping up the steps. Rapid moving feet that could only belong to one person. Her mother.