by Alisha Rai
Shock chased across Connor’s face. He folded his arms over his broad chest. The resemblance between all the brothers was strong, but Connor’s features were more refined than Jacob and Ben, his full lips and long lashes making him almost pretty. “I know exactly what Jacob’s done for me. Us,” Connor responded defensively.
You’re overreacting. This is not your place. It wasn’t her family, after all. Her ire was controlling her mouth, however, and there was no stopping her now. She sneered. “So put on your fucking big-girl panties and act like it. It won’t kill you to help him out now and again.”
Connor grew silent and studied her for a long moment before glancing over her head at Ben and exhaling. “Damn you. You were right.”
“I told you so,” came Ben’s mild response.
“I didn’t think he would actually jump in the deep end.”
Realization dawning, Akira slowly took a step back. “You were playing me. Trying to get me to tip my hand.”
“No.” When she lifted an eyebrow, Connor had the grace to look shamefaced. “Not entirely.”
“We don’t haze Kati’s dates because we’re chauvinist pigs and she’s the baby girl,” Ben explained. “We’re all protective of each other.”
She curled her fingers, trembling from leftover adrenaline. “Fuck you both. That’s what this was, hazing Jacob’s date? What are you trying to do, get me to prove myself?”
“Wait, Jacob’s dating that woman?”
They all turned at the feminine yelp to find Kati standing at the bottom of the stairs, hands in her back pockets.
That woman. That Akira. Akira was pissed to begin with, and the girl’s words only exacerbated her temper. “Don’t call me that.” Her voice was low but clear.
“What?”
“Don’t refer to me as that woman,” she clarified. “You sound like my mother. I hate it. Call me by name or not at all.”
Kati paled, but to Akira’s surprise, nodded. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I know better.”
Akira was tempted to smack her down further, but Kati lifted her chin, and there was something in the curve of her jaw, the downturn of her lips, that resembled Jacob so closely Akira didn’t have the stomach to swat the girl away.
A bit more subdued, Kati frowned at her brothers. “Did you guys know they were dating?”
“No.”
“Yes.” When everyone looked at Ben, he shrugged. “Jacob was crushed when he was an ass to you, Akira, and then a couple days later he says it’s cool and forget it? He couldn’t even look me in the eyes. I knew something was up, especially when he started to disappear at night.”
Kati’s frown became more pronounced. “No one ever tells me anything.”
Akira would have loved to throw up her hands and storm out of this awkward three-ring circus. Unfortunately, she didn’t know where she would go. “We’re not… It’s not like that,” Akira interjected.
“Then what is it like?” Kati asked, hostility slipping back into her voice. “Are you the reason he ran off?”
Akira’s lips tightened. “Maybe.”
“What the hell did you to do to him?”
“That’s between me and him,” Akira replied.
Kati snorted in obvious disbelief. “So why do you want to see him now?”
Akira could manipulate them. She could outsmart them. She could verbally reduce them to ashes.
Instinctively, she knew that would get her nowhere. “I need him,” she said softly. Humbly. Truthfully.
The Campbell siblings were silent for a moment, making Akira wonder whether they would close loyal ranks against her, keeping her out.
To her surprise, Kati was the first to speak. “Will you hurt him?”
A no might get her the answer she sought, but it wouldn’t be honest. “I won’t intentionally hurt him.” She couldn’t promise anything else.
The only person who had ever loved her the way these people loved each other was her grandmother. She was out of practice and out of her depth with Jacob, and she feared she would probably fuck up more before all of the dust settled. Generating chaos had always been something she excelled at.
But she would try.
Ben looked at Connor, who eyed Kati. She was the one who piped up. “He’s at the cabin.”
Connor stepped past Akira and picked up the pitcher from the center of the table, pouring a glass. “Have a drink, if you’re driving there now. Your lips are dry.”
Because she hadn’t drunk or eaten anything since the previous night. She accepted the glass, nearly lightheaded with relief. That was it? They weren’t going to torture her some more? “Why did you tell me?”
Connor stared meaningfully at the glass, and she quickly took a large gulp of the sweet, tart drink. “Because he’s already in rough shape,” Connor responded matter-of-factly. “Our main concern is not making him worse. But I don’t think you’ll do that.”
“How do you know?”
“’Cause you don’t look so hot either, Akira,” Ben said sympathetically. “Go see him. Work things out, please. We’ll hold down the fort as long as he wants, but we do miss him.”
Akira drained her glass. She looked at Kati, who merely shrugged. “I owe you.”
“For what?”
Kati’s lips firmed, and she glanced down at the ground. “You must be eager to get going. I’ll walk you out.”
Akira nodded. “I am, yes. Thanks.” She shrugged off Ben’s sweatshirt and handed it to him. “Bye. Maybe I’ll…see you?” Only if things worked out with Jacob.
Please let them work out with Jacob.
Connor murmured his goodbye, and Ben gave her a bright smile. Kati followed Akira up the steep staircase, her flip-flops squeaking on the metal. They were silent until they left the earshot of the men, and then Kati spoke. “That was nice of you, trying to pay me for the box.”
Was that what the girl felt she owed Akira for? “You did have a claim to it, and I’ll give you fair value.”
Kati bit her lip, her steps slow as they walked through the kitchen to the foyer. The colors Jacob had chosen for his home were soothing blues and creams. Akira caught a glimpse of warm wooden antique furniture in the dining room and living room. “Mei used to wear a necklace a lot,” Kati murmured. “It was a delicate gold chain with a starfish on it.”
Akira knew immediately the necklace Kati was referring to. Once Akira had become an adult, she rarely saw Mei outside of parties or gatherings, where she wore flashier though still tasteful jewelry.
But when Akira had been a child, Mei had often worn that simple piece.
“I know it,” Akira replied. “I’ll put it aside for you.”
“Thanks. I’d really like that.”
The suppressed emotion had Akira glancing sharply at the girl. “You loved her.”
“Yeah.” Kati’s lips twisted. “I mean, I don’t think she loved me like a daughter or anything. I don’t think I even loved her like my mother. But she taught me how to put on makeup one day, and we would watch soaps together, and…I don’t know. She could be really awesome. We were kind of close by the end there.”
Akira stopped at the front door. She studied the heavy frames that had been arranged on the walls. No original Monets in them, but the prints were serene watercolors that urged her to curl up in the comfortable home.
“At the end…” Akira said, hating herself for asking, but something within her desperately needing to know. “She was a little softer? Less guarded?”
“She was.”
“Did she talk about me at all?”
Kati flushed to the roots of her hair. This time, it was her turn to study the walls. “Ah, she did but—”
It was nothing Akira would want to hear. Probably things Akira had heard for years when the woman was alive.
There would be no deathbed declaration of love for her. “Never mind. Forget I asked.” The polished brass doorknob turned easily in her hand.
“I called you a slut, you know.”
/> That brought her to a halt. She cast a glance over her shoulder at the teenager. “Excuse me?”
The girl’s fair skin must have been scalding hot, she was blushing so hard. “I still feel bad. That’s what I owe you for. Don’t worry,” she said hurriedly. “Jacob punished me. I didn’t know you two were involved, so maybe he was extra mad.”
Warmth chased through her, singeing away the cold. That day, in her library, when she had questioned Jacob as to why he and Kati were on the outs, he hadn’t been able to look her in the eye. No wonder. She was unkind to someone I care about.
Akira turned to face the younger girl. “That was before we were…involved.”
“Oh.”
“I’m sorry you were punished. I don’t much mind being called a bitch, or a whore, or a slut,” she informed Kati gently. “Those words usually mean the person saying them thinks I’m too rich or too smart or I’m having too much fun. But I think your brother has a moral streak that doesn’t allow him to see things the way I do sometimes.”
“Yeah.” Kati looked down at her feet. “Whether you mind or not, I think he’d like me to apologize to you. I shouldn’t have said it. I guess I was with Mei so much, and—”
“Apology accepted,” Akira cut her off, not eager to dwell on all the names her parent called her.
Still staring at her feet, Kati mumbled, “He’s like my dad, you know. Those other two idiots, they’re my brothers. But Jacob’s basically my dad. I hate that he’s hurting.”
Akira wasn’t adept at handling children. She could safely say there wasn’t a maternal bone in her svelte body.
But even she couldn’t remain unaffected by that pronouncement. She cleared her throat, filing the moment away so she could recount it for Jacob. If and when he took her back. “Yeah. I know.”
“So if you guys get together and he’s happy…” Kati shrugged. “I don’t think we’ll be best friends, probably, but I’ll try not to be jealous and mean. Because you’re right. He deserves more than taking care of us for the rest of his life.”
The lukewarm acceptance was more than she could have expected, especially since Mei had most likely poisoned the girl for years against her. Akira opened the door. “Thanks. I appreciate that.”
Kati bit her lip, suddenly looking very young. “Jacob calls me every night. But when you see him, could you maybe remind him opening night for my school play is this Friday? I didn’t want to pressure him, but I want him to be there.”
Akira murmured her agreement. She had made it down the stairs to the street when she heard her name behind her.
She turned, her hand on the railing. “Yes?”
Kati’s smile was bright, the first genuine grin Akira had seen out of the girl since she was a child. “I remembered something. You asked if Mei mentioned you at the end.”
Akira immediately shook her head. The last thing she needed to take with her to Jacob was the demoralizing memory of her mother telling Kati she was a slut.
She’d told Kati the truth—the names generally didn’t bother her much. Her mother simply had a unique ability to be the exception to that rule, always. Her opinion, Akira had cared about. Hers and Jacob’s. “That’s—”
“Once Mei was talking about your dad, and she said there was nothing more wonderful then the fact that you were more successful than he was.”
Something clenched in her chest, making it difficult to breathe. “Really?”
“Yup.”
It wasn’t a deathbed declaration of love.
But it was something.
Chapter Twenty-Three
By the time Akira pulled her car to a stop at the cabin, she sorely wished that it hadn’t been her driver who had betrayed her. This second leg of Operation Find the Brooding Author had been particularly tiring. The sun was starting to set, and her emotional and physical exhaustion was making itself known.
She turned the car off and stared at the small house, half-fearing the Campbell siblings had lied or alerted Jacob to her imminent arrival. Jacob’s car wasn’t anywhere to be seen. The clearing was quiet and abandoned.
He could have parked around the side of the place, she told herself, and clambered out of the car. Her heels sank immediately into the earth, which was damp from recent rain. She glanced down, idly noting they were the same pair she’d tossed to Jacob when they were ducking paparazzi and escaping from her second-story office window.
Not even her favorite shoes were safe from the memory of the man.
Dismissing the mud clinging to the narrow heel with a never-before-seen blithe disregard for her precious footwear, she reached into the backseat to grab the paper bag she’d stowed there. Shifting the weight to one arm, she took a deep breath before making her way to the front door, her shoes sticking in the dirt.
Akira opened the screen door and tapped lightly on the wood.
Nothing. She rapped harder.
Nope.
Akira hesitated, torn between returning to the relatively safe haven of her car and barging in.
Barging in was her M.O., right? No reason to stop now, when she’d come so far.
The knob turned easily in her hand when she tried it. She stepped inside cautiously. “Hello?” she called out, hating the note of uncertainty in her voice. “Jacob?”
The cabin was silent.
Gaining confidence, Akira stepped inside the home, balancing the bag in her arms, and closed the door behind her. “Jacob? It’s me.” The open door meant he was home, right? Or was he so trusting he left the damn thing unlocked all the time?
If so, they really would need to have a serious talk about his lack of security.
She stepped into the tiny kitchen and dropped the bulging bag filled with food on the chipped countertop, casting a glance at the coffeepot, which was filled with black, sludge-like liquid. She placed her hand against the pot. Still warm. He couldn’t have gotten far.
A noise reached her ears, muted by the thickness of the cabin walls, and she briefly closed her eyes. Well, why wouldn’t he be chopping wood? Full circle. Maybe it was her fate to always be forced to face him when she was fatigued and he was dripping sweat and engaging in an appropriately sexy activity.
After she stowed her purse carefully in the cabinet next to the bookshelves—she adored the expensive handbag itself to pieces, but between her grandmother’s treasures and Jacob’s note, it now contained her most precious possessions—she followed the noise to the clearing she had found Jacob in the first time she had come to this place.
Sweaty palms were not a regular experience for her. Neither was uncertainty. Yet Akira had to battle both as she caught sight of the man she was seeking. Stripped to the waist, his bronzed skin glistening, he brought the ax down ferociously on a helpless log. Hastily, she wiped her hands on her hopelessly wrinkled skirt.
Her heart pounded, her breath coming faster. Thirty feet separated them, then twenty. Then fifteen. She halted, shifting her weight from one foot to the other, her shoes ruined beyond all repair. Say something.
Fear strangled her, stealing her voice.
Another faltering foot and he looked her way. Dark hair fell into his eyes, and he gave an impatient shake of his head, as if to both clear his eyes and express disbelief at what he was seeing.
They stared at each other across the distance separating them for a long minute.
Akira wasn’t sure how expensive Jacob’s ax was, but she bet he was a man who took care of his tools. He barely paid attention to where he dropped the thing on the ground. In the cool air, steam rose from his sweaty shoulders. His hands opened and closed at his sides, his chest pumping with the force of his breaths.
His first step was slow, as was his second, but his stride increased with every move, until he was standing directly in front of her, close enough she could trace the individual lashes on his eyes.
“What the hell,” he shouted, startling both her and probably every bird within earshot, “took you so fucking long?”
She was awa
re her mouth had fallen half open. Jacob was capable of yelling? Automatic defensiveness made her stand up straight. “It hasn’t been that long.”
“Not that long?” The muscle in his jaw jumped. “One more day, Akira. One more day, and I would have hunted you down.”
Hunting didn’t sound terrible. She had a feeling Jacob could have made it a sexy hunt. “You said you wouldn’t chase me.”
“I lied, okay?” He raked his hands through his disheveled hair and took a deep breath, making a visible effort to bring himself under control. “I fucking lied. Of course I would chase you. Of course I would beg you to give us a chance. How am I…what am I supposed to do when I can’t function without you?”
Like butter, she melted. He couldn’t function without her? “I—”
“I can’t eat. I can’t sleep. My dick is raw from my stroking it, thinking of you.”
Her belly tightened. How on earth did he make that last sentence sound so damn romantic? “I had to figure some stuff out…”
His lips firmed. “And did you figure it out?”
“Yes. Jacob…” That was all she managed to say before huge hands closed over her upper arms, and she was yanked forward for a soul-searing kiss. His palms slid down her back as his tongue fucked her mouth, his fingers tracing the individual bumps of her spine and settling over her ass. His fingers squeezed, pulling her closer to him.
He growled when she ripped her mouth away. His eyes were hot, dark with need. His hand wrapped around her neck, his thumb settling at the vulnerable hollow of her throat. “I need to fuck you,” he said, distinct and deliberate. “That clear?”
