by Lexi Blake
“The brakes are on,” a calm voice said. “Let me help you. Hold the door open for me and we’ll get him inside and away from prying eyes. You would think they’d never seen a dude in a wheelchair.”
The new girl was standing there, her soothing voice reaching out to him. He moved out of her way and she competently flipped the brakes off and pulled the chair back, though she only had one hand.
“I’ve certainly seen men in wheelchairs,” Mrs. Gleeson from 5E said, holding her robe closed. “I’m eighty-two. It’s how all the men I date get around. You work that chair well, dear. You’re not Javier’s usual. Much more lovely.”
Kristy stepped out, frowning. “She’s not his girlfriend.”
Mrs. Gleeson sighed as she looked her over. “Yes, that’s what I was expecting. Oh, well. If the gentleman in the wheelchair needs a hangover cure in the morning, come down. I’ve got a wonderful herbal tonic. I’m going to dip into the wine this evening.”
“Could you keep it down?” Mr. Cassidy from 5F shifted his glasses and frowned.
Mrs. Gleeson shook her head. “Oh, go back to bed, old man. Have you never seen a man in a wheelchair, his brother who has terrible taste in women, a blonde tart, and a lovely female veteran who’s trying to help out?” She waved down the hallway toward Jules. “Let me know if you’re single, dear. I have two grandsons.”
Javier felt his face flame as Rafe’s head came up.
“Where the fuck am I?” Rafe nearly shouted.
“Go back to sleep, buddy. It’s definitely time to sleep it off,” Jules said quietly.
“Don’t go. Sonja, baby, I didn’t mean it,” he mumbled. His eyes were completely unfocused.
How deep had Rafe fallen?
“It’s okay. No one’s going anywhere. Go to sleep,” she replied, not missing a beat. “We can talk in the morning.”
She pushed the wheelchair, easing it inside the apartment.
Kristy was hard on her heels. “Who the fuck is she and why is that man here? Javier, I’m patient, but this is too much.”
Jules looked over at her. “Then you should go because apparently this is his brother and he needs help. Are you going to help? Or are you going to whine and cause more problems for your boyfriend here? Javier needs someone who can help him get these prosthetics off and get his brother into bed. I am more than willing to turn that job over to his loving girlfriend, but you look way more like a chick who runs at the first given opportunity. Which one is it going to be?”
Kristy stared at her like she wasn’t sure what to say.
Javier knew. “I think you should leave, Kristy. I’ll call you a cab.”
She turned on him. “Don’t bother. You’re not the man I thought you were. I thought a Dom from Sanctum wouldn’t live in a hellhole. It’s not worth it. I’ll find another way.”
She stalked out the door, slamming it behind her.
“Well, I showed her, didn’t I?” It wasn’t really a hellhole. Of course, it wasn’t all that nice either.
Jules glanced back at him, her lips quirking up. “Sanctum? Is that the club Chef and Mrs. Taggart mentioned? I bet it’s full of rich dudes.”
“Not all of us are rich. Some of us just work for the rich dudes.” So much for settling down.
Except apparently now he had a brother to take care of. An alcoholic double amputee with a terrible attitude.
“It’s better to know now. Sorry, I heard a rumor she’s a new girlfriend, not a long-time thing,” Jules commented.
Ah, the rumor mill was still strong at Top. “Yeah, it wasn’t anything serious. Thanks for helping.”
Jules put the brakes on again. “No problem. Do you know how to get his prosthetics off? He should sleep without them. He’ll be more comfortable.”
How had she known? He shook his head because his brother was wearing cutoff sweats and his legs were visible. Not something Rafe would have done had he known he was going out for the evening.
His brother had always been impeccable. But then this man wasn’t really his brother since his brother would never, in a million years, call his wife a bitch and scare his tiny daughter. Ex-wife.
What the fuck was he going to do?
“Hey, one step at a time. I know this is overwhelming but the only way to handle it is to work the problem in front of you. Getting him to bed. Unless you want to call someone. Is there anyone else who’ll take him?” Jules’s logical questions and competent demeanor were something he could cling to.
He tried to shove aside the emotional storm playing through his brain. He shook his head. There was no one he could call. His mother lived in an assisted living facility. His father had passed years before. His sister had her own family to take care of and his younger brother had recently graduated high school and joined the Army, following in his and Rafe’s footsteps.
“You could call the cops,” she said gently, not a hint of judgment in her tone. “They could help you figure out where to take him.”
“Of course not.” They were just the words he needed to get him moving. She was right. He needed to work the problem in front of him and then get some sleep. There would be a world of new problems to solve tomorrow. He looked up at the woman who was showing him such kindness. “I’m sorry about what Kristy said to you earlier. She was never mean before. I guess I didn’t really know her.”
“You knew her bra size,” Jules replied with a grin. “That’s all most guys need to know about a woman like her. Hey, she was hot. I’m not so hetero I can’t see that.”
“Yep, she was hot. And then she wasn’t. At least not for me.” He had a suspicion now that her hots for him were all about getting into Sanctum, where she likely would have found a wealthier, more powerful Dom and left him behind.
Jules knelt down beside him and showed him how to pull his brother’s C-legs off, how to clean and dry his stumps, how to ease him onto the bed without hurting him. Rafe was deadweight. If Jules struggled with her part, he didn’t see it. She didn’t complain or show strain.
She even seemed to know that he needed a minute. She walked out of his bedroom after they’d gotten Rafe into bed.
He stared at his brother, wondering what the hell he was going to do now.
Rafe had been his rock. Rafe had been the leader. He was only two years older, but it had always been Rafe who would go first into anything. It would all be easy if Rafe had been a shitty brother, but he’d never shut Javier out, never told him he couldn’t go along because he was a snot-nosed kid brother.
Who the hell was he now?
Javier grabbed a blanket and a couple of pillows. He would bunk down on the couch until he figured out what to do.
He stepped back out into his living room and the redhead was there. She’d poured a couple of fingers of whiskey into a glass and held it out for him.
“You should enjoy this now. I think you probably need to get rid of it in the morning.”
He took it from her. He definitely hadn’t had enough to drink. He’d been driving and planning to play, so he’d had exactly one beer hours before. He took the glass and downed a healthy portion.
“I’ve written down a couple of numbers for you.” She gestured to a notepad on his bar. “One of them is a really good rehab place not far from here. I actually go there on a regular basis and they’re super good at what they do. I left you the number for a…well, he’s a guy who works with vets.”
Javier could guess. “Kai Ferguson? Yeah, I think Rafe’s already given up on that.”
She shrugged. “Kai’s a good guy to talk to anyway. I’ve only had a couple of sessions with him and he knows what he’s doing. He could give you advice. The other number is a veteran service’s group that will do everything from helping to set up doctor’s appointments to getting him to and from rehab. They’ll also probably send a nurse if he qualifies.”
It was too much. He couldn’t pivot and change that quickly. One minute he’d been dipping his toe into having a girlfriend who knew where he lived, and now
he had a brother who would be dependent on him. And Rafe would be angry about it.
“Are you okay?” Jules asked.
“Why are you being nice to me?” He took another drink. If Rafe was staying, he would have to hide the liquor. Or do what she’d said and get rid of it because he was going to be responsible for his big brother, and it looked like the party was over.
She held up her left arm, showing off the stump it ended in. “I kind of know where he’s been. I definitely know what it’s like to feel alone.”
“Well, I’m pretty sure Rafe wants to be alone.” He couldn’t get the look in his niece’s eyes out of his head.
Jules moved to the door. “I was talking about you. If you need help with him in the morning, you know where I am. See you at work.”
She closed the door behind her and he was alone again.
He sat up for the longest time knowing his whole world had changed.
Chapter One
One month later
Juliana O’Neil stared down at the petite brunette named Suzanne and wondered if she was a bored housewife. She had that look about her. Not the bored part, exactly. The woman had a glow, a certain innocent awe for the little things that made Jules wonder how often she got out. The housewife part she fit. She looked like the kind of woman who had a husband she would dote on and a couple of kids who adored her.
So what the hell had gone so wrong that Suzanne was here trolling?
It was the fact that sweet woman with the Southern accent couldn’t seem to take her eyes off Javier that caught Jules’s attention. Had she met the gorgeous chef somewhere, he did what he did with all women, and now she followed him around like a puppy?
Somehow the idea of Suzanne finding a broom closet and having fun with the handsome chef didn’t sit right with Jules.
“Was everything all right with your dinner?” Jules wasn’t sure how to go about trying to save a woman. Not that she hadn’t before. She’d totally saved people from mortar fire and bad guys. She’d been there, done that, gotten the T-shirt, which in this case was more like got the completely shitty prosthetic. Saving a woman from herself and picking the wrong dude to moon over was a completely new experience.
Suzanne glanced up from where she’d been staring and flashed a bright smile. “It was amazing. Truly. It was the best of all the meals I’ve had here. The bacon wrapped shrimp were better this evening. Not that they weren’t excellent when I had them two days ago, but this evening there was something…some extra zing to them.”
Suzanne waved a hand and Jules caught a glimpse of something on her inner wrist. Was that a brand? Maybe the sweet-looking housewife type had some secrets of her own.
“I tweaked the barbecue sauce they use. I didn’t do it myself, obviously. I merely mentioned that adding some cayenne would boost the flavor,” she admitted.
“I thought you were the hostess. I didn’t realize you were a chef.” Suzanne’s face brightened. “That’s very exciting. I love to cook. I would love to talk to you about the beef Wellington I had last night. The pastry was perfection. Do you make your own pastry dough or use a frozen puff pastry? I tried my hand with it, but it’s surprisingly delicate.”
Jules held up her obviously fake hand. “No, I’m not a chef. I simply help out in the kitchen from time to time. And I do believe the chefs make their own pastry. I wouldn’t be able to.”
Suzanne frowned. “Why not?”
Did she not see the prosthetic? “Cooking is one of those things that requires two hands for real precision. I only have one now and it’s not even my dominant hand. I was a lefty and now it’s gone. I’m not saying I can’t heat a can of soup, but cooking is an art form.”
“So is surviving,” Suzanne said with a wistful smile. “I think you could probably do anything you would like, but sometimes dreams shift. You seem to know how to fix a recipe.”
“Like I said, I help out.” She’d been thinking a lot lately about doing more.
“How long have you been at Top?” Suzanne asked, her eyes straying back to the bar.
“I hired on six weeks ago.” Yep, there it was, that longing look in her new friend’s eyes. How to handle this? Jules caught Ally’s stare across the room. Ally Miles was one of the servers, and she, along with Tiffany Lowe, had come up with the “save the civilian” plan. Ally nodded her way, encouraging her to continue. “I noticed you come in a lot.”
Suzanne nodded, her eyes still on the bar where Javier was sitting with a couple of friends. “Yes, I was quite happy to find this place. I’m recently moved here. Starting a new job and a new life, so to speak. It’s nice to find places where I feel comfortable.”
What did she say now? She wasn’t any good at this. Damn it. Why had she stopped at Suzanne’s table? If she’d just gone on about her business it could be Ally over here awkwardly warning a perfect stranger about venereal diseases. This was Ally’s table after all. It should be her job, but she’d found herself asking Suzanne about how the meal had gone. “I’m new myself. You know new girls gotta stick together.”
“Oh, yes, we do,” Suzanne agreed, leaning in. “Which is why I hope you’ll allow me to give you some advice. I’m very good at seeing things like this.”
“Things like this? What is this?”
Suzanne’s eyes lit up. “Sparks between people. You see, some in my family think I’m a bit of a busybody, but I like to think of it as using all my gifts for the betterment of humanity.”
“Gifts?” Was she losing control of the conversation? Now that she thought of it, she was kind of the one being a busybody. Who was she to care if some housewife went looking for a wild time with a bad boy?
Except Suzanne was sweet and Jules wasn’t sure she was capable of not falling for whoever she slept with. Unlike her. Hell, she’d managed to marry a man she hadn’t loved. She was fairly certain love wasn’t real, but Suzanne would believe.
“I’m a bit of a matchmaker,” Suzanne admitted, proving Jules right on everything she’d been thinking. “I mean I was way back in college. I might be a little rusty, but I think I’ve found your match.”
Well, at least they were talking about dating. It would be a good opening to warn her gently away from the manwhore of Top. Over the couple of weeks she’d known the dude, she’d heard story after story about his sexual proclivities. “I recently got divorced. Well, I got divorced eighteen months ago. It was amicable, but I’m not ready to date.”
There was no room in her life for a relationship. No way. No how. But would it be so bad to have a one-night stand? Every now and then.
Or a relationship based purely on need. Like some of the women who worked here had found at Sanctum. When she’d hired on, she’d gotten the spiel from Grace Taggart about the club many of the employees belonged to. They weren’t taking new members for the time being, but when they opened it up again, Jules would have a place if she wanted it.
A place in a BDSM club.
Yeah, she wasn’t sure about that, but she also wasn’t willing to count it out.
“I think you can do anything you put your mind to, Juliana.” Suzanne practically had a halo around her. She was sitting in exactly the right way to be illuminated by the soft light from the table behind her. “You just have to believe in yourself and the people around you. You can’t let anything hold you back. Not when you want something. Not when it’s right. I can practically feel the chemistry between you and that lovely man over at the bar.”
“Linc?” Lincoln was the bartender. He was cool, though a little on the paranoid side. He was putting a beer in front of Declan Burke, one of the bodyguards who worked for McKay-Taggart. He was a lovely man, but he rarely talked. He seemed to prefer brooding and working out when he wasn’t on duty. “Or Declan? Because I’m really not interested in improving my psych skills, if you know what I mean.”
“They are not crazy,” Suzanne said primly. “Though they might behave that way some of the time. I assure you their behavior seems perfectly normal to each o
f those men. You would do well to be more tolerant of the people around you. And no, I was talking about the other one. I think his name is Javier.”
She bit back a laugh. Wasn’t the world a crazy thing? “I was coming over to warn you away from him. That’s funny.”
Suzanne looked entirely satisfied with herself. “Then I was right. I’ve watched you two. I don’t have anything better to do. My job hasn’t started in earnest yet. I need a hobby. I think you should be the one to make the first move. He watches you, but he seems uncertain. Is he going through something? That might be why he’s hesitating. I think all it would take is you asking him for a drink and he’ll fall right into your arms.”
“Arm,” she corrected. “I’m not good with the prosthetic yet. I would probably drop him. I’m afraid you’re wrong. The servers are worried about you and they wanted someone to kind of gently give you the truth about Javi. I wasn’t going to warn you away because I want him for myself. I live across the hall from that guy and he’s a serious player. I mean a walking, talking venereal disease according to the rumors. I’ve only been here for a while, but I know not to walk into the broom closet if I hear something weird.”
At least that was what Ally had told her. She’d never actually caught Javier with his pants down, though she’d seen plenty of women doing the walk of shame out of his apartment during the first few weeks. It had been just after that night she’d helped him with his brother. She’d been surprised because he hadn’t called her to help out again, and he seemed to have found a way to watch his brother while keeping up with his active social life.
And then the last two weeks he’d gone quiet and it made her wonder what was going on. No late-night dates. No early morning good-byes.
Suzanne shook her head. “You can’t blame a man for his past. Can you honestly tell me you have no interest in him?”
“He’s hot.” She wouldn’t lie about that. The man was sex on a stick, which was probably why all those women made the long trek down the hallway in the morning, still shaking in their stilettos. “I can’t deny that. He’s a beautiful man and he’s pretty funny and nice, but I’m not interested in a relationship.”
