She was something else. The more he ran into her the more his intrigue grew. The only thing he disliked was the way she had trouble looking at him. She seemed to blow him off the last time they were alone in Jeremy’s kitchen, so he backed off. But she wasn’t a woman easily forgotten. He’d thought about her every day, anxious for the next time he might run into her. When Ty invited him to Mia’s party, he accepted on the hope that Chloe might also be here and here she was.
This time he’d try not to come on too strong. But, man, he wanted to follow her into some private corner of the house and pin her to a wall. He wanted to run his hands over her body and feel her breath hitch and her pulse flutter. He wanted to steal another kiss and possibly get her to not run away this time. It was a little difficult to do all of that when she avoided looking at him.
He had that effect on a lot of people, especially women, but Chloe had no problem looking at Jeremy or Ty. Why should he make her any more nervous than those guys?
Maybe it had to do with her past. Chloe had experiences that would change any woman. He couldn’t just charge in demanding kisses and laying on the charm. He had to be smart, which was exactly why he gave her an escape the other day. She had to be the one to come to him, otherwise, he’d take it that she wasn’t ready.
The question was, did he have the patience to wait her out? Every time he saw her she seemed more nervous than the last. Maybe all he could do was pop up in her life like this, when she connected with Jade, wear down her resistance a little more each time. The trouble was, he had a healthy sexual appetite and since crossing Chloe’s path, no other women had held his attention. She was becoming his secret, dirty obsession and she’d probably slap him if he knew the things he fantasized about doing with her. All those delicious curves and that mouth…
“Hey, settle down in there!” Ty yelled as the kids in the other room were getting rowdy.
Trent put his thoughts away for another time. Jeremy nursed a beer and whispered quietly with Kat. His boy was probably worried about Jade dealing with a pregnancy so soon after her recent traumas. Trent could understand that, but as a man who’d never have children of his own, he thought the news was great.
When he was a young boy he’d been in an accident that almost killed him. He didn’t recall much of the accident, only being in the back of his family’s station wagon without a seatbelt. It was a freak thing. A rig, barreling down the Garden State Parkway, lost a wheel. The rim soared over the highway and spliced right through the roof of his parents’ car.
His father, who was driving, lost control and spun into the oncoming traffic. Trent woke up two days later with seventy-six stitches from his jaw to his chest and ice packed between his legs—a very sore crotch.
His parents hadn’t told him about his situation until he was sixteen and they found a three pack of condoms in his drawer. At the time he was relieved. What sixteen-year-old wanted to be a father? But as he grew older the lost opportunity sometimes got him down.
He loved kids and thought he’d make a pretty decent dad if he had the chance. But life had dealt him a different hand and at his age, he’d come to accept the blessings he had and not worry about the things he couldn’t change.
Speaking of children—Mia walked into the room and climbed onto Jeremy’s lap, bringing a smile to Trent’s lips. She was a cute little thing. Being a father would be an amazing privilege. He had no doubt his friend would manage just fine the second time around.
There was a loud crash in the other room followed by children shouting.
“That’s it.” Tyson went to go investigate the ruckus.
Trent stood to give him a hand.
As they entered the living room the shouting escalated and Ty raced into the tussle. “What the hell?” Ty grabbed for one of his nephews, who was wrestling—not play wrestling—with another boy. “Robert, get off him!”
The tear of fabric filled the room as the other boy swung wildly at the kid's face, clipping Ty in the jaw. Ty continued to break up the fight. His other nephews stood to the side, yelling. There was a smaller boy hiding behind the arm of the sofa.
Enough was enough. Trent let out a long, sharp whistle. “Yo!” The room silenced.
Ty tugged Robert off the floor and yelled for his sister and Darrel. Trent stepped in and stood close to the other boy in case he decided to go apeshit again.
“What the heck is going on?” Ty demanded.
“He started it!” Robert snapped.
“Did not!”
Tyson held up a hand, silencing them both. “Kat, please go in the other room with Mia and Davis. One of you better tell me what happened. The truth.”
The boys shrugged their shoulders and kept quiet.
“Somebody better start explaining, quick.”
“I didn’t do anything, Uncle Ty,” Robert grumbled. “I swear. We were playing Wii and all of a sudden Dayton went crazy and shoved me across the room.”
Tyson looked at the other boy. “Is that what happened, Dayton?”
“No.” The kid folded his arms across his chest and scowled.
He looked ready to blow again. He also looked about a foot shorter than Robert. Trent was pretty sure Ty’s nephew would’ve handed the other kid his ass if they hadn’t broken up the fight.
“Well, no one’s going anywhere until I get some honest answers. There’s no excuse for this behavior in my home.”
Robert shrugged his uncle off and straightened his shirt. It was obvious the kid was angry. He noticed the rip and jerked his chin at Dayton. “Fool, you ripped my shirt. Lucky I don’t beat your ass again.”
Before Ty could react Dayton charged, but Trent intercepted, grabbing the kid and taking a few kicks to the shin as the boy went ballistic, cursing and shouting at Robert. “I’ll kill you!”
“Enough!” Trent pinned the kid’s arms to his side, restraining him before he seriously hurt someone—or more likely hurt himself. “You need to chill, little man.”
“Get off me!”
“What’s going on? Put down my son, right this instant!” Chloe stormed into the den, full momma bear, and Trent immediately released her angry little cub. Shit. Of course, it would be her son…
“Chloe, doll, the boys—”
Hard brown eyes glared at him, cutting off his explanation. “Who do you think you are, touching my son?”
Um, okay, this was unexpected. Taking a breath he held out his hands in surrender. “The boys had a little scuffle and—”
Her red painted nail jabbed his chest. “How dare you put your hands on my child? I don’t care what was going on. You have no right to touch him!” The finger jabbed deeper, causing him to take a step back. “If there’s a problem, you call me! I’m his mother and we do not resolve arguments that way in our family!” She turned back to her son. “Dayton, what happened?”
Shamefully, with each jab of Chloe’s finger, Trent’s blood heated a little hotter. Totally inappropriate!
The kid shook off his mother’s attention and Ty tried to reason with her. “Chloe, they were just being boys and things got a little too rough.”
She ignored him. “Where’s Mattie?” The younger boy ducked lower behind the couch.
Trent tried to explain in a calmer voice. “The boys were fighting. We had to break it up before someone got hurt.”
As if just registering his words, her entire demeanor changed and she gaped at her eldest son. Her chin trembled as heat colored her cheeks. “Dayton, is that true?”
The boy didn’t answer so Trent filled her in. “Ty took a few swats to the face and your son kicked me some in the shins. That’s the only reason my hands were on him. I was trying to calm him down. I would never hurt a child.”
Lips compressed, her lashes fluttered. Shit, he hated seeing girls get upset.
Turning back to her son, she repeated in a firmer voice, “Is that true, Dayton? And do not lie to me.” Apparently, Dayton’s guilty expression was enough of an answer for her. She pointed a finger
to the hall. “Go get your coat and wait by the door.”
The boy left the room and Chloe ignored everyone else as she went to the side of the couch where her youngest hid. She dropped to her knees, her voice softening. “It’s okay, Mattie. You can come out.”
Trent frowned. The boy seemed overly upset by the scuffle. They were boys. Boys wrestled sometimes.
Chloe stood, holding the kid as if he were much younger than his actual age. Carefully putting him on the ground, she kissed his head and whispered, “Go get your coat.”
The little guy actually hugged the perimeter of the wall on his way out of the den. That’s when it occurred to Trent. The boy wasn’t so much afraid of the other boys. He was afraid of the men.
A sick feeling settled in his stomach. It was so easy to see Chloe as a single woman who shared mutual friends. How quickly he’d overlooked where she and her boys had come from. The things they might have seen and experienced.
He should’ve never grabbed the kid. But Dayton would’ve gone after Robert again if someone hadn't stopped him. It was a crappy situation all around.
He waited by the door as she made her goodbyes with the kids. Her steps faltered as she spotted him blocking her exit, but he had to make this right. “I’m sorry about what happened, Chloe.”
“Boys, go wait in the car.” A mix of emotion played on her face. When her sons were no longer in earshot, her words turned clipped and frazzled. “Mr. Cole, I’m sorry for my assumption—”
“Don’t call me that. My name’s Trent.”
“Trent... Trenton, I’m sorry I jumped to conclusions.”
He tried not to let the way she lowered her gaze away from his irritate him, but it did. He gently tipped her chin until she looked at him.
“I’m the one who needs to apologize. I never meant to scare you or your boys. I’m not that kind of man, Chloe. Tell me you know that.”
“Beyond a car ride and a few recent run-ins, I don’t know anything about the kind of man you are.”
Her words enforced the gap between them, upsetting him and pissing him off at the same time. “You know I’m nothing like Marcus.”
Her eyes widened and she took a step back. “Who told you my husband’s name?”
He opened his mouth, but couldn’t think of anything to say. Fuck!
She was looking at him now. Well, more scowling. “Who told you my husband’s name?”
Son of a bitch. His heart pounded as he clumsily tried to cover his tracks. “I’m sure you mentioned his name. The night we met. You told me about your old life and how you were making a new beginning.”
“I never would have…” Her words drifted away as an unsure frown pinched her brow.
He hated making her second guess herself. It was his fuck up, not hers.
She never gave a name. She was smarter than that. And he couldn’t explain how he knew the details of her marriage unless the information had come straight from her, which it hadn’t. His only option was to distract her from his slip up.
“Chloe, I’m not him. I remember everything you told me that day in the truck. Please, believe me. I am nothing like your ex-husband.”
Her jaw trembled, her eyes glazing with emotion. “I’m sorry.” She pulled out her keys. “I can’t do this.”
“Don’t run away.” As he reached for her she jerked her arm away. Regret swept through him. He’d seen her flustered, determined, and even desperate, but this was the first time he’d ever seen that sort of distrust in her eyes and he hated it.
“I have to go.”
Chapter Seven
Warm breath puffed against Trent’s cheek as soft fingers scratched the whiskers at his jaw. He swatted the tiny fingers away and a giggle tinkled through the quiet room.
Something tickled his nose and his lips twitched as nervous laughter wheezed playfully. A silky strand of hair tickled his nose again, this time triggering the irritating prelude of a sneeze.
More giggles.
“Brielle, get away from your uncle and let him sleep,” Phoenix’s voice hissed from the other room.
His niece giggled.
Trent kept his eyes closed and fought a smile. The nose-tickling continued, accompanied by tiny fingers thrumming over his socked feet. That would be his nephew, Austin. Cabinets opened and closed over the gurgle of coffee percolating. A pan clattered lightly and then came the snapping sizzle of bacon frying.
“Brie, put this tiara on him,” Austin whispered.
The tickling stopped and the weight of a toy crown pressed into Trent’s head. Snickers escalated to smothered hilarity. “He sure is a hairy queen,” his niece lisped.
“Where’re your play earrings?” Austin whispered.
More youthful laughter chirped from Brie as the soft patter of her socked feet scampered across the room.
“Get the big ones with the purple diamonds.”
Trent could tell Brielle found the earrings by the way her stifled laughter punched out in little breaths. Figuring he should probably save his manhood while there was still time, he waited for her to creep closer and pounced. “Gotchya!”
She shrieked out a burst of laughter. Grabbing her by her tiny rib cage, he tickled. Peals of hilarity screeched across the room as Austin tackled him, looping his arms around his shoulders, a brave squire prepared to slay the giant who held his sister captive.
“Who dares wake the sleeping giant?” Trent bellowed and pinned Brielle on the couch, capturing her squirming feet.
“Austin, help! The ugly queen’s got me!”
Trent roared, flipping the boy off his shoulders. They wrestled and played until they were wheezing to catch their breath. Only when Phoenix announced breakfast was ready did they scamper out of the room.
Entering the kitchen, his sister handed him a mug of coffee. “You got in late last night.”
He swallowed a gulp, hoping it would settle his headache. He was too old to start his day with rubies and wrestling. “Did I wake you?”
“I heard you locking your gun in the safe.”
Taking a seat next to Brielle, he pushed her glass of milk away from the edge of the table. “Sorry. I should be back at my place tonight.”
Phoenix adjusted her robe and carried a plate of pancakes to the center of the table. “How’d you make out?”
“Found the girl. She was shacked up with her boyfriend as expected.”
“I bet her parents were relieved.”
“You could say that, but the twenty-year-old guy harboring a minor wasn’t too happy.” He spread a smear of butter over his cakes with the back of his fork.
“How old was the girl?”
“She’ll be eighteen in a month. I’m not sure her parents can press charges.”
Phoenix sat down with her coffee. His sister was one of his best friends. She was a realist, but a pleasant one. She knew how to roll with the punches and there wasn’t much that could fluster her.
“Pete says you got a good chunk of change from this job.”
“Could’a been his.” He’d offered the job to his brother-in-law.
She rolled her eyes. “You know I don’t want him in the field anymore. Now that I’m making more money, I’d rather he stick with the desk work.”
Like Trent, Pete was an excellent agent. He knew how to shadow someone for days without being detected. But over the years, since the kids were born, he tended to stick with the local end of things, turning down most of the private jobs.
Trent, on the other hand, had a hard time turning down private jobs, which paid a hell of a lot more than government sanctioned bids. Jobs like the one he just finished paid enough for him to take it easy for a while.
Of course, that sort of work also put his day-to-day life on hiatus, requiring him to travel and stay the course until the job was done and his mark was secure. He’d been on the road for the past month.
Over the years they combined their various skillsets and formed a tight little business that kept them all afloat, him, Pete, and
Jeremy. Jeremy could break and rewrite codes faster than most people could put together a toddler’s jigsaw puzzle, so he handled computer security. Pete handled the monetary side of things, negotiating each contract to make sure they were paid accordingly for each job. And Trent did most of the legwork.
Pete stepped into the kitchen, kissed his wife, and filled a mug. “I got a message on my phone this morning. The money’s been wired to your account.” He settled into a chair with the morning paper.
“Good. Thanks for letting me crash here.”
“Uncle Trent, are you gonna sleep over again tonight?”
He looked at his niece, her red curls tousled from sleep and her little Hello Kitty pajama shirt sprinkled with dribbles of syrup. She was getting so big. Had it really been almost five years since she was born?
“I gotta get back home, sweetheart.”
She pouted and poked at her saturated pancakes with her fork. Her food looked more like round sponges than pancakes. That pout could seal the sale of a human soul.
He kissed her pudgy cheek. “Don’t worry, I’ll see you Saturday for the St. Paddy’s Day Parade.”
“You will?”
“You bet.”
Mollified, she smiled and continued to eat her sponge cakes.
“Is Aunt Bristol gonna be there?” Austin asked.
Phoenix stood to refill her coffee. “Yes, but it isn’t her weekend with Dallas. He’s gonna be with his dad.”
Austin looked disappointed. Trent could relate. Growing up with four sisters didn’t leave many options for activities boys favored. Suffice it to say, this morning wasn’t his first royal makeover.
He thought about Chloe’s sons. The shy one, Mattie, was younger, but Dayton seemed about Austin’s age. Recalling the incident at Ty’s house a couple weeks ago, he debated if the kid would be a good influence or not.
Or maybe that was just an off day. Maybe there was more to the story and Robert had antagonized the kid. Maybe the kid needed a friend. The question was could he convince Chloe to join them after the way they’d left things?
Something Borrowed (New Castle Book 3) Page 8
