by Soraya Lane
“You know he’s living at his girlfriend’s place, don’t you?” she asked Nate.
He took a sip of his beer and leaned over for another slice of pizza. “The cute blonde, right? He’s kept her kind of hidden away from me.”
“Ha-ha, I wonder why?”
Nate just winked at her, the tilt of his mouth in one corner telling her that he didn’t give a shit that even his best friend was worried he might steal his girl. Faith just shook her head, forcing herself not to laugh. Arrogant son of a bitch.
“I’m sure she would have let his little sister stay,” Nate said, suddenly more serious. “If that’s what you were worried about?”
“He moved in with her less than a month ago. I’m not convinced she would have been happy with me landing on her doorstep so soon.”
“You moved in with your guy around the same time, right? I remember Sam telling me that you weren’t living at home anymore.”
She sighed, not wanting to go back to that place in her mind even for a second. Bad decisions weren’t something she was used to making, and she sure as hell wasn’t going to make the same kind of mistake ever again.
“Can we make a deal that we don’t talk about either of them again? My dad or my ex?”
Nate nodded, his eyes softening around the corners as he did so. He’d been sexy before, tempting before, but the way he was looking at her right now was something she could start to crave. Because now he wasn’t just turning on the sexual charm—now he was looking at her like he truly cared, and she liked it. Liked the feeling of being looked after right now without having to give anything of herself in return.
“Sure. But if you want to talk about it . . .”
“I won’t,” she insisted.
“That’s settled then. So I guess we should just eat pizza and get drunk?”
She groaned, pleased that he’d changed the subject. “Does that line work when you’re trying to get lucky and take a woman home with you?”
He shrugged, smiling before taking a bite of pizza. “Sugar, I never bring women back here.”
Faith burst out laughing before she realized he was being serious. He was staring back at her without that trademark grin. “You’re full of shit. You’re hardly chaste.”
He shrugged again, leaning forward slightly, his body coming into her space. Faith inhaled, loving the scent of his citrusy cologne, tempted to lean that bit farther toward him. But she didn’t.
Faith glanced from her glass of wine to his face, not wanting to stare at him. The truth was, she was jealous of the women he bedded—being the sole focus of Nate’s attention in the bedroom was something she’d fantasized about plenty in the past.
“Who said anything about being chaste? I don’t like sharing this place with just anyone, and it’s way easier to just rent a room if I need to, or use my apartment in town. I keep my private life separate from my . . .” He raised an eyebrow, reaching for his beer and taking a long, slow sip, leaving her staring at his mouth, waiting for him to finish his sentence. “Sex life.”
Okay, then. Faith swallowed as a shiver ran through her body, not answering him straightaway. What she needed was to stop thinking about Nate naked, and talk like this wasn’t helping. Part of her still simmered for him, probably always would, but there was a difference between a fantasy and reality, and part of her was scared at the thought of being with any man, even Nate, right now.
“Too much information?” he asked.
Faith shrugged, not sure what to say. She’d asked and he’d told her straight. “I’m not some underage virgin who can’t deal with hearing about your naughty escapades, Nate. It’s not exactly a secret that you’ve slept with every woman in this town.”
He met her gaze, stared her straight in the eye. When he spoke, his voice was lower, husky. “I haven’t slept with you.”
She swallowed, hoping he couldn’t read her mind and tell just how many times she’d wished she was one of his conquests.
“I’m starting to see why my brother kept me away from you,” she managed, pretending like nothing was wrong, like she wasn’t coping with how intense he was.
“Sam is going to kill me when he finds you here. You do know that, right? He’s going to go all soldier crazy, pull his army shit or something.”
“You really think that he’ll make some crazy assumption that we’re together because you’ve let me through the front door and lifted your no women in the house rule?”
Nate glared at her, his patience obviously waning. “Look, Sam is like family to me. He’s the one person aside from my brothers that I like to keep firmly on my side.”
“I was only teasing. Besides, I’ll be the one he lays into, not you.”
“So are you actually planning on being my housekeeper, or do I still need to keep running that ad? Because this place is going to go to complete shit if I don’t find a replacement for Mrs. T soon.”
Faith put her hand over her mouth, in danger of laughing out her mouthful. This was what she wanted from Nate, just plain old fun and friendship. “I can’t believe you had that lovely old lady working here for so long. She must have been like eighty when she retired.”
Nate winked and Faith tried to relax. Nate wasn’t the one who’d hurt her; he wouldn’t lay a hand on her without her okaying it. There was nothing wrong with having fun with him, chatting and laughing.
“I think keeping this house added at least twenty years to the poor old girl. The three of us were kind of a handful.”
Faith finished chewing and made herself look back up at Nate, not sure why things suddenly felt so different between them. Or maybe she was just being more sensitive given what had happened. He’d never shown her any interest, but now that she was in his kitchen she was certain he was coming on to her, and . . . he seemed a whole lot more dangerous than before. Those dark eyes, his full lips, the confidence that as good as dripped from him. She’d be lying to herself if she didn’t admit to wanting to know what it would be like to let those experienced hands of his pleasure her. And he was big, his shoulders as wide and big as a quarterback’s.
Faith cleared her throat. “I’m deadly serious about working for you, Nate. I’ll keep this place tidy, handle the groceries, and take care of the meals. You just ask and I’ll do it.”
They stared at each other for a minute, the silence deafening. Faith was the first to look away, trying to stop her hand from shaking as she reached for her glass. All those thoughts she’d once had about her brother’s best friend were back tenfold, no matter how hard she tried to fight them.
“Well, okay then,” he agreed. “But it’s only short-term, until you find your feet.”
She wasn’t ready to be close to a man, wouldn’t be for . . . she didn’t know how long. Right now her hands were shaking just at the thought of Nate touching her skin.
Nate shut the door behind him and walked in the dark toward the closest field. Faith was inside busying herself in the kitchen, and he’d made up an excuse about needing to check on a pregnant mare. It was a lie, his brothers dealt with all the livestock on the property, but he’d needed some space. Staying in the house a second longer would have been a mistake, because he was dangerously close to losing control.
When he’d told Faith that Sam had always warned him off her, he hadn’t been lying. But just because he wanted to protect her didn’t mean he hadn’t noticed how goddamn beautiful she was, and the trouble was, her brother knew it. Christ, Nate was hard just thinking about her now, let alone when he was looking into her warm brown eyes and seeing her body up close and personal. And having her in his kitchen, drinking in the low-cut T-shirt and skintight jeans . . . it had been almost too much for him to resist. Almost. Right now he was barely in control.
Nate leaned on the fence and let his eyes adjust to the fading light, watching the horses graze. He hardly ever thought about the day that Sam had thrown a punch at him and shoved him to the ground, but seeing Faith today had brought it all back
He want
ed her. He wanted her so damn bad. No matter how much he tried to tell himself that he should be acting like her brother, it wasn’t even close to working.
He’d promised Sam he wouldn’t touch her. He’d sworn he’d never go there. And yet now . . .
Even if he screwed everyone in his little black book, he doubted he’d get Faith out of his head. Because it was her he wanted in his bed, her body he wanted naked and glinting with sweat beneath him, and he wanted her right now.
His phone rang, breaking the dead silence on the ranch and scaring the shit out of him.
“Hello,” he said without looking at the caller ID.
“You’ve been hiding away, Brother.”
Of course, it had to be Chase. Again. “Just training my new housekeeper.” Two could play at this game.
“A hot live-in one? I should have gotten me one of those when I was single.”
Nate clamped his jaw and refused to be baited. “Look, she’s Sam’s sister and she needed a place to stay, so I gave her the job. End of story.”
“She always did drive you crazy, huh?”
Nate didn’t want to talk about it. “Just keep all the guys away from her. She isn’t the type to be toyed with and we both know that’s their specialty.”
“Fuck you,” Chase said good-naturedly. “You’re the love ’em and leave ’em king; what do you care?”
But he knew she was more in danger of him toying with her than anyone else right now. Even her hair had been a temptation, falling over her shoulder every time she’d leaned forward to reach for a slice of pizza, hiding the delicate skin of her neck and making him want to sweep it back and press his mouth there. He wanted to strip her naked and see exactly what that lush body looked like bare, preferably bent over his kitchen table.
Damn it! She’d been roughed up by her ex; the last thing she needed was Nate wanting to rip her clothes off.
Nate shook his head and hitched his heel on the rail in front of him. She was driving him insane.
“You’ve got to admit that she’s hot, though, right? I mean--”
“Enough,” Nate ordered. “Just be nice to her if you see her.”
“Yes, sir,” Chase said. “I had no intention of being anything but. You do know I’m married, right? Or have you forgotten all about the fact you have another sister-in-law?”
Nate said good-bye to his brother and stared at his phone. Just his luck Sam would call him next, and then Nate would be forced to lie to his best friend. For a guy who’d decided to keep his head down and stay out of trouble now that he was running the King empire, he sure wasn’t doing very well at it. Not very well at all.
He jumped when his phone buzzed again, his concentration lapsed, but the ID told him it was a call he wanted to take this time.
“Yeah,” he answered.
“Nothing unusual going on with the guy, not that we can see, but we’ll keep tailing him.” The man cleared his throat. “And we have a man for the job, if you decide not to take care of it yourself. Seems to me that it won’t be hard to take him, if you know what I mean.”
Nate took a slow, deep breath. He knew it was wrong to want to hurt another human being so badly, but teaching this guy a lesson was something Nate was starting to look forward to. “You just get me the info I need; I’ll take care of the rest.”
Nate shut the phone. It was time Faith’s ex had a taste of his own medicine, and learned the hard way that it was never okay to hit a woman. The easier thing would have been to pay someone else to do it, but getting other people to do his dirty work wasn’t the King way.
Faith hadn’t often woken up in a house that wasn’t hers, but there was something liberating about being at Nate’s place. She’d been guilted into looking after her dad for years, until she’d finally realized she didn’t have to pay for her mother’s mistakes for the rest of her life. Her mom had walked out, and Faith’s dad was a drunk, and for years she’d felt she owed it to her dad to stay with him.
When she’d moved out she’d been so determined not to repeat the mistakes she’d already lived, not to ever let a man treat her bad or not respect her. At least she’d left as soon as he’d hurt her, though—for that she’d be forever proud, even if it had been scary. She wasn’t about to repeat the mistakes her mom had made, letting a man break her heart and stifle her dreams.
Faith ran her hand along the banister as she walked down the stairs, loving the smooth texture of the timber beneath her palm. It was early, too early for Nate to be up, and it was a nice feeling to just pad around his luxurious house and enjoy her freedom.
Faith crossed the hall and peeked into a room she guessed was Nate’s office, before heading for the kitchen. She was thinking of making something simple like an omelette for their breakfast, because she knew he at least had fresh eggs, but then--
“Oh my god! Sorry,” she gasped.
Faith forced her mouth to shut and tried not to stare, but it wasn’t easy. Nate was standing in just a pair of running shorts, bare chested, a carton of juice in one hand. He had sweat dripping off him, chest slick, and way too much skin on show for her to be admiring.
“I didn’t expect you to be up already.”
Ditto. She wouldn’t have come down in her tank top and boy shorts if she’d heard so much as a noise to alert her that she wasn’t going to be alone. But Nate, half-naked and gorgeous before 6:30 am? Now that was enough to make her pulse ignite, even if she was trying not to think about him like that. Hell, she doubted there was a heterosexual woman in the world who’d disagree with her.
He set the juice down on the counter. “I run for an hour before sunup every morning. Did I wake you?”
Faith shook her head, still struggling to raise her eyes from his impressive abs and the arrow of hair that ran from his belly button down to his . . . She swallowed and met his gaze.
“I was just coming down early to grab a coffee and figure out what to make for breakfast,” she managed.
“Sounds good. I’m off to hit the shower.”
Nate walked past her, T-shirt slung over his shoulder, and all she could do was stand and wait for him to pass. What the hell was wrong with her? It wasn’t like she hadn’t seen a bare-chested guy before. But Nate was, well, built. There was nothing about him that didn’t scream sex.
Except she wasn’t going to go there. If she wanted to ogle half-naked men, she could do it on the Internet. Although there was nothing quite like the muscles and warmth of a real-life body. . . . Faith shook her head. She was crazy. Looking was one thing, looking was okay; it was the thought of actually being vulnerable again that was what scared her.
What she needed was a strong coffee, black and sugary, and then she’d head back upstairs to put some clothes on. Clothes that didn’t show off her half-naked body, and make it way too easy to imagine what it would be like to be in this house with Nate for another reason entirely, instead of just being his platonic housekeeper.
The one thing her mom had taught her, before she’d left them and disappeared, was the importance of understanding a person’s place in the world, and Faith knew she and Nate were from different worlds. It didn’t mean she couldn’t admire him, but it gave her another reason to remember why it was one thing to look and another thing entirely to act on those thoughts. She’d already made a mistake with one man, and she wasn’t about to do it with another.
She filled the kettle with water, flicked the switch, and found the coffee. Today was about making herself useful, and thinking about what the hell she was going to do with the rest of her life. Today she was starting over, stepping out from the past and making her own way in the world. She just had to figure out what she wanted for once, instead of trying to please everyone else. And remember that Nate was a friend and nothing more.
Chapter 3
Nate had stayed in the shower way longer than usual. He’d blasted it so hot that it had almost taken his skin off, and when that hadn’t erased the mental picture tormenting him he’d turned the faucet to co
ld. All that had managed to do was piss him off, and he was still remembering just how goddamn hot Faith had looked in her nightwear. Tiny little shorts that showed off a hint of butt cheek, a tight top that displayed the perfect silhouette of her nipples, and her hair all tousled and messy, like she’d been rolling around between the sheets before coming downstairs.
He groaned as he pulled on his jeans. This was why he shouldn’t have let her stay. Hell, now that he’d had time to think about it, he could have put her up in a nice hotel or somewhere else indefinitely, anything to help her without having to directly involve himself. Instead he’d as good as invited the lamb into the wolf’s den.
What he needed was a night out, somewhere with plenty of single women. Maybe if he distracted himself with enough sex, he’d stop thinking about Faith like that. He laughed. With Faith it was more than just physical, it always had been, which was why nothing helped him to stop thinking about her. Never in his life had he been told he couldn’t have something if he wanted it bad enough. It didn’t mean he was handed everything on a silver platter; he’d learned to work hard to get what he desired, but at the end of the day he always figured out a way to get it. Faith was in an entire category of her own, and the fact that he couldn’t just screw her and get her out of his system was starting to seriously annoy him.
The doorbell rang, followed by some loud thumping, and he grabbed a shirt and headed for the stairs. Enough with thinking about Faith’s legs wrapped around him and her ass pressed to the glass in his shower. He had work to do and he needed to get her the hell out of his head.
“I’ll get it!” he called out.
