by Susan Hayes
Lia had made it a personal goal to never try and drink away the dark part of her job, but there were days she was tempted, and today was one of them. She’d been called to a half dozen convenience store robberies over the last few weeks. The suspects had gotten more aggressive with each hit, beating up cashiers and trashing the place after they got what they were after. They wore masks, caps and long sleeves to hide their identities, leaving Lia and her partner with next to nothing to go on.
Today’s robbery had turned into a blood bath. The shop owner had been manning the register when the two gangbangers had stormed into the store, guns out, screaming demands. Instead of complying, the owner had pulled his own gun, and in the carnage that followed, all three of them had been shot. Now one suspect was in the morgue, the other was in intensive care, clinging to life by a thread, and the would-be victim would be spending a few days in hospital to recover from having two bullets tear through his body.
It had all hit a little close to home for Lia. That could have been her family’s store, and her father the one lying in a hospital bed right now. She’d become a cop to protect people, but today she’d been too late to help anyone. Days like this, she would usually withdraw from the world, seeking solace in ice cream and solitude while she went over everything that happened, trying to find something she could have done differently. Not this time. Instead of Rocky Road, she was having coffee, and instead of curling up in her pyjamas and hiding, she found herself looking forward to Nick’s visit and the comfort having him near would bring her. She braced her foot against the floor, bringing the rocking chair to a sudden halt.
She’d been so busy wondering if she was ready to invite Nick into her life, she’d somehow failed to notice he already was. Still perched at the edge of her seat, Lia started thinking back to everything that had happened since the day Nick had sent her the wand. They’d seen each almost every day, as well as called and texted. She’d still managed to check in on her parents, keep up with her job, and make sure Mister Darcy’s food bowl stayed full.
Well, shit.
Apparently she had a boyfriend, and the world hadn’t come to an end. She let that idea sink in slowly. Waiting for some part of her brain to protest or produce evidence to the contrary, but there was nothing but silent acceptance and a sense that things were exactly the way they should be. As if her heart had already known and was just waiting for her brain to catch up.
Lia rose from the rocker and wandered down the hall to her room, stripping off her shirt before she even reached the doorway. She went over to the floor length mirror and stood close to it, running her fingers over the lines Nick had drawn on her skin before making love to her again. The three forget-me-nots were still easy to see, one for her brother and two smaller ones for her parents, but that wasn’t what she was looking at. It was the pair of wings that he’d hidden in the curling vines and flowing lines surrounding the flowers that drew her eye. He’d curved the wings down so they seemed to be folded protectively around the rest of the design. His mark, over her heart.
It was time to stop pretending that it didn’t mean anything.
Lia checked her watch and grinned to herself. She still had time to shower and dress before Nick arrived. The plan had been to order in tonight, but Lia didn’t feel like hiding away any longer. If Nick was game, she had something else in mind.
****
Nick barely managed to knock once before the door to Lia’s apartment flew open, revealing a vision straight from his wildest fantasies. Lia was wearing black jeans that molded to her hips and thighs, showing off every inch of her gorgeous legs, right down to the knee-high leather boots she had picked. What really caught his eye though, was the top she’d chosen. It was black with metallic bronze studs along the scooped out neckline, and it was revealing enough that he could see part of the tattoo he’d given her. She looked incredible. Sexy, hot, and his.
“Wow,” he said, trying to take in the transformation.
“You like?” she asked, eyes dancing with pleasure at his reaction.
“I like very much. Is there a reason you look like you’re ready to take the city by storm?”
She backed up, letting him into the apartment. “I thought maybe, if you were up for it, we could go out for dinner tonight.”
So, she wanted to go out, did she? Nick was all for that idea. Not that he hadn’t enjoyed having Lia all to himself until now, but seeing her like this…fuck, he wanted to parade her around on his arm and let every other man in town see what they’d missed out on. He tugged her into his arms and kissed her hard. God, he liked the way she felt in his arms, like she’d been made just for him. She twined a denim-clad leg around his, rubbing herself against him until his dick was hard enough to drill through concrete. When her teeth closed on his lower lip, he was damned tempted to forgo dinner in favor of tearing her clothes off and fucking her up against the nearest wall.
“Do that again, Cin, and we’re not going to be leaving this place until tomorrow,” he told her, barely lifting his mouth from hers long enough to utter the words. Her answering laughter bubbled up, spilling over until she had to break their kiss to gasp for breath.
“Nuh uh. Tonight, we’re going out. No one can live on pizza and great sex alone.”
“We could try,” he teased, pointedly reaching down to adjust his aching cock. Truth was, he’d do whatever it took to keep that smile on Lia’s face.
“How about we come back here for dessert, then?”
“You have yourself a deal. Any thoughts on where you’d like to go? I’m not exactly dressed for fine dining.” He was in his usual work clothes: jeans, boots, leather jacket and a blue jersey knit sweater.
Lia leaned back and he caught a brief flicker of doubt in her eyes as she said, “We could go to Leo’s.”
All brain function stopped the second she uttered those words, and it took Nick a few seconds to untangle his thoughts enough to speak. “You want to go to Leo’s? As in, the place where there is a very good chance we’re going to run into at least some of my family and your coworkers. That Leo’s?”
“That Leo’s. If you want to. If you don’t feel like seeing your family, we could pick somewhere else.”
Like hell they were going anywhere else. Lia had just agreed to go public with their relationship. He’d have to be three kinds of stupid to argue with her. Even on his worst day, he’d never been more than two kinds of stupid, and this was far from his worst day. “If that’s where you’d like have dinner, then get your coat on and let’s go. You’ve been there before, right?”
“A few times. Often enough to know the bacon cheeseburgers are perfection on a pretzel bun.”
“Tell my brother Jared that when I introduce you and I promise you’ll have a friend for life.”
“He’s the one that looks the most like David, isn’t he? I’ve seen him around Leo’s but never met him.”
“He’s blond like Dave and our mother, and like all my dear brothers, he fancies himself a ladies’ man.” He stopped dead as an uneasy feeling came over him, one he’d never felt before…because he’d never brought a woman he was seeing anywhere near his family before.
Fuck.
“Is something wrong? You look disturbed about something,” Lia asked.
“Oh, I’m definitely disturbed. I just realized that if any of my brothers look at you sideways, I may have to kill them. Thank God Ben and Tag are spoken for. Suddenly I’m seeing things in a new way, and I can’t say I’m enjoying it.”
“You lost me.”
“The first time Ben brought Kelly to the pub, Tag hit on her. I wasn’t there, but I hear Ben didn’t take it well. Kelly still calls him caveman because of what happened that night. Until today, I thought that was fucking funny. Now? Not so much.”
Lia snickered. “Not much fun when the shoe is on the other foot, huh? You have nothing to worry about.”
“You already know you have the pick of the litter?”
She grinned at him as she shrugg
ed into a red leather jacket. “Nope. It’s just that your only single brothers are blonds, and I like brunettes.”
She was still laughing as they hit the parking lot, her hand caught tight in his.
Nick had managed to find parking out back of the pub so they didn’t have to walk far. It was a good thing too, because the wind was picking up and the forecast was predicting a late season storm coming in. Nick was sick of winter, and if he never heard the words “polar vortex” again, that would be fine with him. He was itching to escape to sunnier climes for a few days, but he wasn’t going anywhere without Lia.
Just before they reached the door he stopped and snagged Lia’s hand, then leaned in and brushed a kiss across her sweet lips. He could see she was nervous. Hell, if he was going to be honest, he wasn’t totally tranquil about this idea either. His family could be a rowdy handful. “Stick close to me, and don’t believe a word my brothers tell you about my childhood. It’s all lies.”
She flashed him a smile and squeezed his hand. “Uh huh. Remember, I’m okay with you being a bad boy. Besides, I don’t think there’s anything they could tell me that would make me change the way I feel about you.”
His mouth opened, but before he could say a word she was darting through the door and into the bar, pulling him along behind her. He wanted drag her back outside and finish their conversation in private, and if she said what he hoped she’d say, what he wanted her to say, then he had a few things he needed to say to her too. Judging by the way she had bolted, though, Lia wasn’t ready to talk about it. Nick could understand that. He hadn’t told her about his past career as a dancer yet either. Something told him he was rapidly running out of time to make that confession.
He followed her deeper into the crowd, waiting until she slowed on her own before he gave her hand a tug. She fell in behind him, and he led her across the room to the oversized bar where he knew his father would be holding court. There were some friendly waves and a couple of curious stares as they crossed hardwood floors and made their way to the brass and polished wood behemoth where he’d spent countless hours pouring drinks in the days before he’d left for college. Leo’s looked like countless other pubs in the city, dark wood paneling, tables polished by the sleeves of countless customers and grooves worn into the floor from the passage of thousands of thirsty patrons. It looked the same, but it didn’t feel the same. For Nick, this place felt like coming home.
Nick reached the bar first and announced his presence by slapping his open palm down on the liquor stained wood. “Hey, barkeep. I need two beers, a couple of menus and none of your usual shitty attitude.”
Jared spun around, ready to do battle, then grinned when he spotted Nick. “Hey, stranger. I was wondering when you’d show your ugly mug around here again. I need you to distract mom from her new goal of finding me a nice girl to settle down with. She keeps drifting by and pointing out pretty girls, loudly.”
“Mom’s here?”
“Uh huh. Girl’s night out. Our sister-in-laws are here too. If you’re smart, you’ll escape before it’s too late.”
Shit. Maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea after all. The guys would be easy to deal with, but if the Wilde women found out he was here with Lia…
Lia chimed in at that point, sealing their fate. “Does your mom pick out girls for you too, Nick? I think that’s sweet.”
“No, she does not. That’s a special treatment she only gives to the sons too socially inept to manage to meet a girl by themselves, like Jared here. Jared, this is Lia Archer. Lia, this is Jared.”
Jared’s blue eyes lit up with interest and he leaned across the bar to take Lia’s hand. “Hello, Lia, nice to meet you. I hate to ask this, but have we met before? I’m certain I wouldn’t forget such a pretty face, and you look hauntingly familiar.”
Nick wrapped a possessive arm around Lia’s shoulders and shook his head in mock dismay. “Is that the best you’ve got? No wonder mom’s decided you need help, bro. Now, kindly let go of my girl’s hand before I get grumpy.”
Jared gawked at Lia and then Nick as he released her hand. “Yours? Not you too? Dammit, Nicky, we were supposed to stick together on this.”
“Sorry, bro. You’re on your own. Lia’s all mine.”
Lia snickered softly. “Did he just call you, Nicky? That’s adorable. I may have to start—”
“No. Not a chance. Forget you ever heard that name,” Nick grumbled, but he was inwardly grinning. He’d just staked a very public claim, and Lia hadn’t so much as blinked.
Progress.
“Nicky boy, is that you?” He recognized the boom of his father’s voice instantly and turned to greet the old man.
“Hey, Dad.”
“About time you came around. You’ve barely showed your face around here the last few months. Your mother worries, you know. She starts wondering what trouble her youngest boy’s gotten himself into this time.”
And here we go.
“No trouble, just busy.”
Brian Wilde snorted, his hazel eyes full of disbelief. “Somehow, I doubt that.”
“You shouldn’t, sir. I can attest to the fact Nick’s been very busy of late, and I’m afraid I’m the reason.” Lia smiled up at his father, and Nick watched in amazement as the old man immediately mellowed.
“No one’s called me sir since I retired. You can just call me Brian, young lady.”
“Dad, this is Lia Archer. Lia this is my father, Brian.”
“You’ve been spending time with my boy? Well, then, he’s forgiven for not coming by to visit more often.” His gaze narrowed. “I know you.”
“Not you too, Dad. Jared tried that line not five minutes ago.”
“And that’s why he’s still single.” Brian sighed. “But that’s beside the point. You’ve been here before, haven’t you, Lia?”
“Yes, sir, a few times.”
“And you were at the wedding a few weeks back too?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You’re one of us, aren’t you.” It wasn’t a question, but Lia answered it anyway.
“Yes, sir. I am.”
Jared groaned from behind the bar. “No way. She’s a cop?”
Nick couldn’t hold back his laughter at the identical expressions of shock on both his father and brother’s faces. “Actually, Lia’s a detective. She works with Dave.”
“Fuck me,” Jared muttered as he set their drinks down on the bar with a thump.
“A detective, dating my son. Well that’s something I never expected to see. And David knows about this?”
“I cleared it with him before our first date, Dad.”
“That’s good, but it’s not what I meant. Your mother is going to pin his ears back when she finds out he knew you were seeing someone and didn’t tell her about it. Do you want to be the one to tell her, or shall I?”
Jared cleared his throat. “Better she hears it from you, dad. She’s less likely to shoot the messenger that way. The two of you better drink up. There are three very curious women making their way over here, and once they arrive you’re not going to get a minute of peace.”
Nick ignored his beer to pull Lia into his arm for a sizzling kiss, announcing to everyone present how he felt about Lia. “Just remember, Cin. Coming here was your idea.”
“Your family doesn’t scare me, Nicky.”
“You’re going to pay for that later.”
“That’s fine. You don’t scare me, either.”
Chapter Ten
Lia almost bounced into work, she was feeling so happy. She and Nick had spent the rest of the evening eating, drinking, and spending time with his family, and she’d enjoyed every second of it. Meg Wilde was just as much a matriarch as Lia’s own mother, ruling her family with love and kindness mixed with laughter. Lia had liked her immediately, and by the end of the night it had been clear to her that Nick had inherited his artistic temperament from his mother.
She could see now why he was sometimes at odds with the rest of the fa
mily, but he was far from being the black sheep that he thought he was. His father looked at him with quiet pride when he thought no one was looking, and the rest of his family loved him very much, they just didn’t seem to know how to tell him. Lia hoped that she might be able to help Nick reconnect with the rest of the Wildes.
Being out with Nick as a couple had been easier than she expected. No one had so much as batted an eye at their pairing. She’d even run into Bill Nayer and some of the other guys from the office playing pool in the back of Leo’s, and they’d just waved and gone on with their game. It forced Lia to finally accept that the only one who expected her to be a perfect professional night and day was herself. Nick had been right when he’d told her she never let herself be happy. That was all going to change, now.
Her good mood lasted until she spotted her desk and the smirking faces of the rest of her shift, all of them watching her intently. When she got closer, the laughter started, and then she saw what they’d done. Every inch of her desk was plastered with pictures of Nick, and he was barely dressed in most of them. He had a deep tan, oiled skin and fewer tattoos, but it was still him. The name “Nick Raven” was on two of the pictures, and in one he was standing with his back to the camera, grinning over one shoulder as he showed off the wing tattoo she loved so much.
Son of a bitch. That man had some serious explaining to do.
Somewhere in the office a tinny rendition of Tina Turner’s “Private Dancer” started to play, and the laughter got louder.
“Hey, Archer. Does he still do private shows?” someone called out from the crowd, and then Bill Nayer appeared in front of her, grinning broadly as he started to bump and grind in time to the music. It took her a second to realize that he had his shirt unbuttoned and a couple of dollar bills tucked into the ample waistband of his pants, completing her descent into hell.
