“It’s okay, Liam, he’s a nice man and so is his brother Asher. They’re twins,” Cora told Liam, and Liam pulled slowly away from her leg and looked back and forth between the two men.
She could see the other children and parents heading into school. She was definitely going to be late.
“We need to get you two inside now,” she began to say.
“No, Mommy, don’t leave us for work. I want to stay with you today. Can’t we go too?” Liam asked.
“Yeah, Mommy, please. We want to go with you.”
“You can’t, guys, no kids are allowed and you need to be in school,” she said.
“But, Mommy, is it safe or will they keep you late again?” Julia asked and Cora felt sad.
“Baby, I need to work to make money, remember?” she said as she ran her fingers through Liam’s light-brown hair. Then she cupped Julia’s chin and gave it a squeeze.
“No, Mommy,” Liam stated firmly and crossed his arms in front of his chest and pouted.
She didn’t know what to do. They never acted so defiant.
“I have an idea. Why don’t you let Mommy go to work and then on Saturday she can take you to the office for a visit,” Asher suggested.
The kids got excited and started rambling to one another.
“Asher, you don’t have to do that. They’ll hold you to that, you know?”
He smiled at her softly as he stared at her lips then looked her body over. It made her feel self-conscious, but also aware of their masculinity and the effect it had on her body. But she knew half the single ladies in town at minimum had these twins on their radar. Plus she wasn’t looking for another man or men to do her wrong. She wanted security and safety for her children.
“We’ll run it by the others but we’re sure it will be fine. Maybe they can come over for lunch and we can show them the game room we have,” Asher said.
“Game room?” Julia and Liam asked, sounding excited.
“Yep. But, you have to be good and listen to your mom. Otherwise the deal is off,” Avery added firmly with his arms crossed in front of his chest.
“Okay. Bye, Mommy. See you later,” Julia said as she took her brother’s hand and led him toward the front of the school where his class was gathering. Cora watched Julia then walk across the way to her school as she met up with her friends.
Cora watched them, feeling that bit of anxiety inside her chest. Then she felt Avery next to her, and Asher stood beside him.
“They’re good kids,” Avery said to her.
“The best,” she replied and then looked at both men.
“Thanks for the help,” she told them as she absorbed their attire of dark jeans and tight T-shirts that showed off their muscles. It had been a shock to have them walking in and out of the office this past week as they checked in on deliveries to other locations and worked on the computers. She hadn’t expected all five men to be so involved with all aspects of the business, but they were.
“They weren’t exactly cooperating with you. I suppose they miss you during the day,” Asher said to her.
“They do. This is a big change for them. Me working out of the home, I mean.”
“You worked from home back in Chicago? What did you do?” Asher asked.
She panicked and looked and looked at her watch. “Shoot, I need to go or Blade and Beau are going to be angry I’m late. We’re supposed to have that phone conference with Calvin this morning. Again, thank you for the help with the kids.”
“No problem. We’ll see you at the office in a little while,” Avery told her, and she nodded her head and hurried to her car. If she made it on time it would be a miracle.
* * * *
“What do you think?” Avery asked Asher.
“I think she’s embarrassed about her life in Chicago and maybe has secrets. She’s definitely not sharing with any of us about her previous work experience,” Asher replied.
“I think so too. Those kids are adorable,” he added.
“They sure are. They probably need some reassurance to know where exactly their mom works. I don’t think the guys will mind at all if they stop in Saturday for lunch. It’s the right thing to do,” Avery said and glanced at the clock on the dashboard of the truck.
“Shit, she’s going to be late.”
“Should we call Blade and let him know why?”
“Blade will be fine. Cora’s been doing an excellent job, plus she’s easy on the eyes,” Asher said and winked at Avery.
Avery looked out the window. His thoughts had suddenly become so somber. He and his brother were thirty-four years old. Neither of them had ever been involved in a serious relationship with a woman. They fucked around a lot. They engaged in ménages before because they were so close and they fed off one another’s excitement and desire to please a woman in bed. The results were reputations they lived by in between missions. No-strings sex meant no heartache, no worrying about leaving a woman all alone and wondering if she would stray off if she were sad without him around. It left his heart closed up and secured from being assaulted, and that helped to make him and his twin two hard-ass soldiers ready to dive into danger.
Seeing what their team leader had gone through with his wife led them all to believe that women couldn’t truly be trusted.
“Why are you so quiet, Avery?”
Avery glanced at Asher, who had a firm expression on his face. They headed to the job site, hoping to get more of the surveillance cameras situated around the perimeter of the house they were working on.
Avery didn’t say anything. How would he admit a sort of softness or weakness to his twin about what he felt they missed out on?
“Forget it. I know. She’s different. Special, I think. Makes me wish I hadn’t been such a callous dick when it came to women and sex. I just don’t think I have it in me to change, Avery. Men like us don’t find women who can accept our scars and our faults.”
“You don’t know that, Asher.”
“Sure I do. Think about it. We’re trained killers. We’ve taken lives and killed people with our bare fucking hands. We don’t do delicate. We’re rough, hard men, not pussies.”
And that was Asher. If some emotional thought or action made him feel uncomfortable or the least bit weak, he shut down and ignored the urge to give in to the weakness as he saw it. Give him a mission, a plan of attack, and he would infiltrate, overcome, and adapt. Right now there would be no further discussion about commitment, never mind the possibility of love. Even Avery knew that wasn’t possible. For who could even think to love men like them? A family, love, companionship were not within the five of them, and just like Asher, none of the others would ever let a stranger in, and definitely not a woman.
* * * *
Beau was pacing the front entryway when he saw Cora pull up in the old beat-up hunk of junk she called a car. He had just discussed with Blade the idea of adding a business car into the contractual agreement so Cora and her kids would be safe driving around town. That piece of crap made so much noise, and it looked like it could break down any second. He wondered why she was late. It was fifteen minutes past 9:00 a.m., and Blade was pissed off and so was he. They expected her to be on time.
She ran up the walkway, and as the wind blew her hair forward it lifted her skirt, giving him a quick glance at her tan thighs and what appeared to be black panties underneath. Her hand reached for the front, trying to hold the skirt in place as she ran up the steps. He was shocked at the sting of interest in seeing her bare skin and the glimpse at her black panties. It shocked him and caused him to just stare at her and absorb everything he could in the few seconds before she got to the door. His heart hammered in his chest as he gained back his sanity and pulled the door open.
“You’re late,” he barked at her.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Spade, I ran into a bit of the problem with the kids this morning. They didn’t want me to leave for work.”
“Is this going to be a problem?” he asked, and her brown eyes widened. He could see the e
motion in them, and he felt like a dick for a moment when Blade’s voice echoed down the hallway.
“Cora, you’re late.”
She stumbled with her words as she tried to head down the hallway toward Blade.
“I’m sorry. I was just explaining to Beau that my kids were giving me a hard time this morning when I dropped them off at school. You see, this is all new to them and they are very attached to me. They were refusing to leave my side.”
The panic in her voice, the fullness of her lips, and the way she lowered her eyes so submissively made his cock harden like never before. It had been so fucking long since a woman, since anyone, affected him in a way that would be positive on his body. Why Cora? What was it about her that made him feel anything and everything?
“We have ten minutes before Calvin calls and I expect you to be here to go over the details with us ahead of time. There are no excuses for being late. You should call us next time so we know,” he stated firmly.
“Uhm, I’m sorry, sir. I don’t have a phone, remember?” she asked, sounding embarrassed by that fact. Again, Beau felt his heart ache a little. He wondered why and how this petite little woman had such an effect on him this way.
“We’ll get that cell phone set up today. Cason is off from the sheriff’s department and can help us get that set up for you so there aren’t any excuses.”
“Excuses for what?” Cason asked as he walked into the room. Cora’s eyes widened, and then she quickly lowered her eyes and headed toward the office. They frightened her. It was obvious by her demeanor.
“Cora is late and we need to go over a few things before the phone conference. If she can’t make the total commitment to this position then she won’t need a cell phone,” he said as they all followed her into the office. Beau heard his commander’s tone of voice. This was Blade’s way. He was always in charge, expected a hundred and fifty percent at all times, and truly felt that there weren’t any excuses for failing at anything.
It was that determination, hard-ass attitude, and push that always got them through every mission safe and sound. Beau couldn’t fault the man for that. But he noticed how much Blade watched Cora. He supposed they all did. She was quite a stunning woman. But the commander would go from almost smiling as she spoke to then keeping his distance as if she had some sort of disease. It was crazy.
Beau watched Cora set things up at the conference table that could seat eight. It had been her idea to set it up near the sliding glass doors that led out to the patio so that if they had meetings with clients in the house the view of the pool and gardens that ran across one whole side of the office could be appreciated by them. She suggested offering coffee or other cold beverages by the pool afterward to make them feel special and appreciated. Men didn’t think like that or do things like that. Cora added that special touch that only a woman seemed capable of doing.
“We have five minutes. How the heck are we going to go over everything? This is why you need to get here on time. Let me know if you can’t handle this job, Cora, and I’ll find someone who can,” Blade snapped at her again as he went over the files.
She looked flustered, then angry, and then calmness overtook her features as she lined up different sets of papers in front of her and in front of Blade. Just as Beau and Cason took their seats the phone rang.
“Fuck!” Blade yelled out and then cleared his throat before reaching for the phone. Cora covered his hand with hers, and Blade just stared at her.
“I’m your office manager. That’s my job, remember?” she asked him softly. He slowly pulled his hand back and squinted at her as if he knew she was patronizing him. Cora answered the phone.
* * * *
Blade tried pulling his shit together, but damn, did Cora keep surprising him. He knew he was being a prick to her. He couldn’t stop himself, and each time, instead of the woman running for the nearest exit, she would continue to work and fight for this job.
As the conference call started he felt more than on edge about the fact he wasn’t fully prepared. Or at least he thought he had been fully prepared last night when he went over all the papers Cora supplied him, but he had difficulty focusing. It was like he couldn’t stop thinking about her. The papers she gave him smelled like her perfume. The little sticky notes she attached to the top of every page with either ideas or suggestions showed her character. Hell, he was even admiring her penmanship until exhaustion and tired eyes overtook him.
He didn’t like the feelings that he was having. He was attracted to her, and that pissed him off entirely. He listened as she answered the call from Calvin directly and they chitchatted about some current events and something about his yacht and going deep-sea fishing with her, Liam, and Julia. Somehow, in a week’s time Cora had gotten Calvin Smith, a multimillionaire who didn’t trust anyone, to invite her onto his private yacht. That was a shocker.
“Yes, Calvin, Blade has all the details to that project right here in front of him. He’ll be happy to go over all of that with you.”
“Thank you, Cora,” Calvin responded, and Blade could imagine Calvin’s expression in response to Cora. Blade had been present before, when he visited Calvin in Dallas, to see the man flirt with someone’s secretary or some woman that approached when they were at one of his establishments. The man was smooth when it came to women, but he was choosey, and the fact he was flirting with Blade’s officer manager pissed him off.
Blade shot Cora a look that made the woman bite her lower lip, but she tapped the first stack of papers in front of him. He glanced down, and there in bold letters was the title of the first project for Calvin.
As Blade went over the document with Calvin, Cora would chime in if he got stuck on something to buy him time to come up with the right answer. On Cason and Beau’s parts, she would point to the documents and then whisper things to them if they needed help, or she wrote things on little sticky notes. She apparently was having other phone conversations with Calvin. It appeared that Cora was the reason why Blade received three new inquiries for new work.
As they finished up the phone conference, Calvin mentioned to Cora something about calling him later with some other small details but to also discuss something else. She said she would call him back later today, and then they disconnected the call.
“Damn, Cora, that was fantastic. It’s obvious that you did your homework and went over the details of this project of ours thoroughly,” Cason told her and winked as he stood up.
“I’ll go take care of that cell phone for her,” he added.
“Not yet,” Blade said firmly as he raised his hand up.
Cora bit her lower lip and stared up at Blade. Why was she getting personal with Calvin and getting these other clients? How come she was thoroughly looking over every detail of this operation and how they did their job? He didn’t trust her, or any woman for that matter. Would she use the information against them, or to perhaps gain something from these other clients? She could be some scam artist for all they knew. They had nothing, no information on her but the small tidbits of her past and the ex-boyfriend who apparently was alive and on the run. He needed more info, and he would get more info.
“Why were you talking to Calvin like that?” he asked her.
“What do you mean?” she replied.
“All friendly like you’ve been friends for years. You spoke to him for the first time on Monday.”
“I don’t know. He’s a nice man. He is engaging and it helped to gain his trust and confidence in your capabilities.”
“In my capabilities? How?” he snapped at her. She looked scared by his deep voice and strong tone, and she should be. Women were manipulators.
“Calvin just wants reassurances and he’s not very trusting.”
“Rightfully so. Everyone wants a piece of his fortune. Do you know how many women try to use him to get to his money?” he replied.
She gasped, and Cason started to say something, and Beau just listened and watched him confront Cora.
�
��I don’t think that’s what Cora was doing,” he said, and Blade gave him the look, and of course Cason stopped talking.
“It’s okay, Cason, Blade hasn’t had his second cup of coffee yet. We all know no one can discuss much with him rationally until he has that,” she said as she stood up. He stood up too and stepped right in front of her.
“What’s your game? What are you after? Why are you talking to Calvin so much and getting friendly with him?”
“Let’s see, Blade, first of all, if you have jobs and continue to work then I have a job and continue to work. That’s the way I look at it.”
“I don’t know those other people he referred us to,” Blade replied. He was angry. What she said made sense and he was accusing her of doing something manipulative, and it appeared she was just doing her job above and beyond.
“That’s the point of gaining new contracts and clients. You’ve been working with Calvin for years and you have a business trust in him, do you not?” she asked with a bit of sarcasm.
He’d killed men for less.
He nodded.
“Then why wouldn’t you accept referrals of other businessmen from him? That’s the way to ensure decent clients, by word of mouth. I wasn’t doing anything wrong.”
“She has a point, Blade. Those other potential clients have a lot of money too. We trust Calvin and I’ll thoroughly check them out before we entertain them as clients,” Cason added.
Blade saw Cora look at Cason and then back at Blade. She was hiding something, and Blade was going to find out exactly what.
“Fine. You look into that but hold off on the cell phone for her. I’ll let you know when she can be trusted.” Blade stood up, grabbed the papers, and walked out of the room.
* * * *
Cora felt the tears reach her eyes. Blade was such a mean man. He was so distrusting. They all were, but at least Avery and Asher, even Cason were approachable. Blade and Beau were not, and she felt like she did something wrong even though she thought she was doing everything right.
Soldiers of Pearl 2: Healing Souls (Siren Publishing LoveXtreme Forever) Page 6
