Never Say Never (McLaughlin Brothers Book 3)

by Jennifer Ashley

  “Did you come here to yell at me about the car?” I set a glass in front of him. “I guess red goes with that.”

  “No.” Austin ignores the glass. “To thank you.”

  “Oh.”

  I don’t know how else to respond. I’d wondered how he’d react to my spontaneous gift—I pictured everything from elation to fury and refusal to accept it.

  I wasn’t expecting him to gaze at me, his face impassive, while he quietly expressed his gratitude.

  I lift my full glass. “You’re welcome.” I sip, savor. “You got this from Simon.”

  “Yes. He thought I should celebrate owning a new car.”

  “You spoke to him?” Of course he had—how else would he have picked up the wine? My brain and my mouth aren’t working together.

  “He’s babysitting the Ghibli in his high-tech lockup.”

  “Oh.” My responses are brilliant. “That was smart.”

  “Nice of him,” Austin says.

  “Yeah, Simon’s a nice guy.”

  “I don’t really want to talk about Simon.”

  I take another sip of wine. “Me either.”

  Austin reaches over the counter, takes my glass from me, and sets it down. He comes to me, and as he had at the front door, steps close and studies me.

  “What?” I whisper.

  “Tell me one more time why you made sure I could buy the car.”

  It’s easy. I don’t have to think about it or pretend I have a complicated motive.

  “Because I saw how happy it made you, and I want you to be happy.” Because I love you. I’ve never stopped.

  “It’s not the car that makes me happy.” Austin cups my face. “It’s you.”

  I part my lips to say, Oh, again. Austin tilts my head up and leans to take my mouth in a slow, thorough kiss.

  Chapter Ten

  Brooke

  Unlike Saturday, when we ripped each other’s clothes off, Austin and I undress each other leisurely.

  We’re in my bedroom—which I straightened on the off chance we’d end up here again one day—he sliding my T-shirt off.

  He’s still in office clothes, a button-down shirt and tie. I work my fingers under the tie’s knot and loosen it, then pull apart the silken ends until it’s slithering from him. I unfasten his shirt, one button at a time, while he carefully unhooks my bra.

  Even when we’re standing against each other, skin touching, Austin kisses me unhurriedly, savoring me like I’d savored the pinot.

  I rest my hands on his back, enjoying the play of muscles there. Austin has always been so strong. He dances, he jogs, he works out, keeping himself honed. It’s a pleasure to touch his smooth skin and steely body.

  He touches me as well, hands gliding down my spine to my hips and waist. He cups my breasts, thumbs teasing me to life, sending fire through my blood.

  “There is nothing in the world more beautiful than you,” he murmurs. Austin kisses the shell of my ear, his breath hot.

  He’s busy undoing the drawstring of my running shorts. I wrestle a little with his belt and then unfasten his pants.

  Austin takes a step back to rid himself of shoes, the pants, and his underwear, coming back to me in nothing but his socks.

  He pushes my shorts and underwear away, and now we’re naked together, our mouths meeting as leisure gives way to fever. Our kisses heat up as we touch, stroke, relearn each other.

  Austin trails kisses down my neck and to my breasts. He eases his rush as he suckles me, making me groan. I arch to him, my fingers in his hair as he feasts on me.

  His hand slides between my legs. His palm is hot, and I rub myself on him, unable to stop. Austin smiles as he kisses me again, knowing he’s driving me crazy.

  I close my fingers around his cock, liking it when he gasps. “Damn, woman.”

  “Hey, I can make you happy too.”

  “I’d say you can.” Austin straightens up, unashamedly enjoying what I’m doing. I stroke and squeeze, while Austin sucks in a shuddering breath.

  His hands land on my shoulders, though he gentles his grip for me. He steers me to the bed, and soon we’re on it, kissing, licking, nipping, working each other up until we’re wild with longing. He breaks from me only to dive for his pants, returning with a condom.

  “I came packing,” he says breathlessly. “Decided to never leave home without one.”

  “Good thinking.”

  I help him put on the condom, then we spend a moment studying each other before he rolls me down into the blankets, and slides inside me.

  I love Austin. I know it with all my heart as I look into his beautiful eyes. He’s funny and fun, one of the few people who can make me laugh. I’m intense, but he eases me down, teaching me how to relax and imbibe the pleasures of life. He points out my arrogance yet makes me believe I can do anything I wish.

  Austin makes a soft sound, and his thrusts speed up. The sensation shatters my thoughts. I wrap myself around him and hang on.

  “Brooke.” His voice is breathless. “Damn, you make me insane.”

  I try to answer, but I can only cry wordlessly as Austin takes me over the top.

  His shouts meld with mine. We slam together, gripping each other, kissing, crying out. He pounds the bed with a fist, and I press my fingers to his tight body.

  We come together, and ride our passion until the end, when we land breathlessly in a pile of limbs and laughter.

  Austin and I share the bottle of wine in bed. We toast Simon, who has provided us another fine wine to drink together.

  This time, I don’t pour the wine on myself and Austin so we can lick each other clean. It’s tempting—Austin tasted great flavored with port—but I decide to be dignified … as dignified as I can be sitting naked in bed drinking from a wide-bowled wineglass.

  “What do we do now?” I ask softly as we rest side by side, imbibing the last of the wine.

  “Hmm, let me think.” Austin pretends to ponder. “Have more sex?”

  I laugh. We’ve done it three times by now. When Austin claimed to be packing condoms, he wasn’t kidding. He’d brought a box.

  “I mean after that.”

  “Um—”

  I touch my fingers to his lips before he can say Have more sex again.

  “Are we back together?” I ask.

  Austin lifts my hand away. “No.”

  My heart sinks, sadness pulling at me. I must look dejected, but I can’t disguise it.

  Austin touches the corner of my mouth. “We never broke up, remember? So we’re not back together. We’re still together.”

  My dejectedness evaporates. “You have everything figured out, don’t you?”

  “Yep.” Austin caresses my cheek. “I do understand now why you didn’t want me interfering with your life. It took me a while to figure it out, but I have—believe it or not. You needed to achieve things no one handed to you, and I was hindering you as much as those trying to block you. I thought I was helping, and it made me furious that you didn’t realize that. And I didn’t make things easy for you bursting in like a grizzly defending his mate. I understand why you were mortified, but I thought I was doing the right thing.”

  “I know you did.” I get that now. “But I was scared and angry, and tired of people treating me like a simple-minded little girl who couldn’t do anything on her own. Plus you did nearly get me fired.”

  “I regret that—trust me. I came off as being a macho jerk, right? Will it help if I told you I apologized to those guys?”

  I blink in surprise. “You did? When was this?”

  “About a week after. Raymond told me where they hung out, and I met with them. They were total assholes and totally in the wrong, but I didn’t want anything I did to blow back on you. I got them to be calm and get over it. A few beers didn’t hurt. They admitted you were good at your job and knew you’d kick their butts in sales. Ryan—who knows everyone—said a friend of his was hiring at another dealership and I sent them there. I apologized to Raymo
nd too, by the way.”

  I listen with my mouth open, but the deed sounds just like Austin. He’s forever keeping the peace, charming everyone, even total assholes. He’d made the apology for my sake, I understand, not worrying about what those guys thought of him.

  “Thank you.” I twine my hand through his. “That was good of you. If I’d known that I might have climbed down from my high horse long ago. Maybe.” I could be a stubborn idiot.

  Austin shrugs. “I didn’t want you to think I was still interfering, so I asked Raymond not to say anything.” He lets out a breath. “I admit I did worry that you couldn’t make it on your own. A stupid thing happens to guys when they’re enchanted by a beautiful woman. They start to forget she’s a person underneath, can’t quite believe she can think for herself. We become knights-errant who want to save the damsel. Never mind she doesn’t care about being saved.”

  I ponder that. “I don’t know if it’s the wine or that I’m very happy being with you, but I’m taking it as a compliment you think I’m so beautiful it erases my brains.”

  “Of course.” Austin wraps a wisp of my hair around his forefinger. “What being away from you made me realize is that you are the whole package. A smart, capable woman who doesn’t need me. It scared me that you didn’t need me. That meant I could lose you anytime. Easily.”

  “I do need you.” I snuggle closer to him. “I need the Austin who makes me laugh and lets me unleash my wild side. You show me how to enjoy things like fine wine and the joy of riding in a well-made car. I live in a crappy house and focus on my work, while your house is tailored to you—made to hold the things you love.”

  “Yeah, it’s not bad.” Austin dismisses my assessment, but I know I’m right. He glances around my room. “I was going to be nice and say this place has potential if we try, but I think it should be torn down and the parts given away to our charity—if any are salvageable. Most will have to be a landfill donation.”

  “Thanks a lot.” I huff, but secretly agree.

  Austin had once told me I’d taken this house so I could avoid living. I’d been annoyed, but now I believe he’s hit upon a truth. It’s easy to stay at work and concentrate on it if home is uncomfortable and lonely.

  “Okay,” I say. “We’ve decided I don’t know shit about how to pick out a house, and you don’t know how to handle a successful businesswoman. Where does that leave us?”

  “At the moment?” Austin takes in the mostly empty bottle and the dark window over my bed. It’s nearing midnight. “That leaves us with a great wine and spectacular sex. And celebrating the fact that we never broke up. I think that’s pretty good for one night.”

  I could argue, say we need to work through a lot more before we’re a couple again.

  But I don’t care. I’ve missed the hell out of Austin, and I do need him in my life. Not in a clingy way, but to bring out the best in myself. He needs me too—I hope—to share his triumphs and his sorrows.

  Austin is like me in that he wants to prove himself. He’s the youngest McLaughlin and considered the screwup, but the fact that McLaughlin Renovations is known throughout the Valley shows he’s not. Their name is in every local magazine I open, at every home show, and on bus stops and billboards throughout town, plus signs in front of plenty of houses where they’ve been hired. Austin knows what the hell he’s doing. And like I said, he knows how to keep the peace.

  Tonight this is about Austin and me. Not success or failure, or cars, or wine, or living the good life, or just getting through a day.

  It’s about us, and love, friendship, and new understanding. I reach for him and pull him down to me, showing him how happy I am that he walked back into my life.

  Austin

  In the morning—after a little more sex, of course—I leave Brooke’s house.

  For the next couple of weeks, I make myself stay away from her.

  I don’t want to, but my grand gesture won’t work unless I absent myself for a while. I want her to be truly surprised.

  I call her, and she calls me, but I’m evasive about when I want to get together again. She’s puzzled and not happy—though she says nothing—but I’ll make it up to her.

  I’m a little worried that me vanishing might make Simon think he can leap in and steal her, but whenever I mention him to Brooke, I can tell she doesn’t give a rat’s ass about Simon or his money. He’s a client, a nice guy, and a sort of friend. That’s it.

  I have to recruit my brothers, of course, for my grand gesture. They’re all for it. Though I’ve had the seeds of this project in place for a long time, I need the family to help me pull it together quickly.

  During the chaos, Zach and Abby return from their honeymoon.

  “So you and Brooke hooked up?” Zach asks me in the lunchroom on his first day back. He’s tanned and relaxed, like he’s figured out his place in life. The way he and Abby kissed before heading into their respective offices tells me why.

  Zach’s teasing me, because when he and Abby first got together, I said almost the exact same thing to him.

  “Yep.” No hiding it. I pour another cup of coffee. I’ve drunk a lot of it trying to keep myself from Brooke. Wine makes me think of her, so I haven’t touched a drop since the bottle we shared in her bed. “Hooked up several times. She bought me a car, and we decided we like each other again. That’s about it.”

  Zach sends me a stern look. “You are leaving out a hell of a lot, but I’m letting it go. Ryan will fill in the gaps—Calandra tells him everything Brooke tells her.”

  “Seriously, there is no privacy in this family.” I strive to be disapproving but can’t quite manage it.

  “At least I won’t be in your face asking you questions. If you give me a ride in that Maserati.”

  “Absolutely. We’ll go all out and see what she can do.”

  “That’s what I want to hear.” Mom walks in on the last of our discussion. “My sons talking about recklessly driving a race car.”

  “I mean on a track, with lots of safety in place,” I add quickly.

  “Sure.” Mom heads for the coffee machine, pausing to kiss Zach’s cheek. “Welcome home, sweetie. I won’t lecture you about the car, Austin, if you let me drive it.”

  I’m not surprised. Mom is not a timid person. “Whenever you want,” I say. “Just give me the word.”

  “After you and Brooke are good,” she says, and breezes out.

  “I guess you’d better settle things,” Zach says to me. “Congratulations.”

  “Don’t congratulate me yet.” I cradle my cup, my self-assurance sinking by the minute. “She might refuse everything and freeze me out. Or say thank you but go away.”

  Zach, basking in the glow from his honeymoon, claps me on the shoulder. “She’ll accept. You two are great together.”

  “So says the man stupidly in love. Not everyone gets a happily ever after, you know.”

  “Yes they do,” says stubborn Zach. “It’s not exactly the same for everyone, and not everyone recognizes their happy ending when they have it. But it’s there, even if it takes a while.”

  “Optimistic and romantic.” I shake my head. “What happened to my cynical brother?”

  “Abby found him.” Zach’s gaze goes to the showroom outside the open door, where Abby walks purposefully from her office to our mom’s.

  Abby pauses at Erin’s desk to speak to her, and the two ladies share a laugh. Both are vibrant, attractive women. No wonder my brothers have turned into bright-eyed numbskulls.

  I probably look just like them.

  I make it through the rest of that week, catching Abby and Zach kissing in the break room only once, which has to be a record. I catch Erin and Ben too. It’s a love nest in here.

  At the end of the day on Friday, I drive home and fetch the Ghibli. Simon sent guys to my house to reinforce my garage and install a security system. Simon is quickly becoming a friend, now that he’s stopped trying to land Brooke, though I’ll keep my eye on him.

  I
drive to Brooke’s dealership as she’s leaving through the back door. The guys have let me in through the gate—they’re becoming friends too.

  Brooke pauses when she sees me. We haven’t met face to face for nearly two weeks, and I can tell she’s not happy about that.

  “Hey there.” I step out of the car but keep it running. “Drive you home?”

  “My car’s here.” Brooke gestures to one of the garages.

  “It’ll be safe until morning.” Probably safer than at her own house. “Or I can bring you back for it later.”

  “Are you saying we need to talk?” Brooke’s expression is wary. She looks hot today in a sunshine-yellow dress with red high-heeled sandals and red earrings.

  “Nope. Driving you home, that’s all. You can talk about whatever you want.”

  Brooke hesitates. She wants to turn me down, show me she’s not bothered by the fact she hasn’t seen me in person for two weeks.

  But she’s curious, I can tell, about what I’ve been up to. Plus she has more guts than any person I’ve ever known.

  “All right.” She saunters to the Ghibli as I race to open the door for her. “Drive me home. I can have Mike drop off my car later.”

  “Okay by me.” I usher her in, Brooke as graceful as ever as she slides into the car.

  I’m around to the driver’s seat in no time flat. I wave at the guys who open the gate for me, and pull out, the engine purring.

  Brooke examines the car as we go, Phoenix traffic slowing us to a crawl. She pushes buttons, adjusts her seat, and plays with all the controls she can reach.

  “I don’t always get the chance to check these out,” she explains as I cock an eyebrow at her. “It’s a great model. You look good in it.”

  “You’ve already sold me the car,” I remind her. “Relax. Enjoy the ride.”

  “I am enjoying it.” Brooke tunes my sound system, finding a station that plays music we both like.