The quiet seemed to register with them both at the same time, and Viv twisted for a look behind her.
Oh, they had an audience alright. The women were a mix of playful and envy, but the men were more than a little smug. Shit, if they had any clue how Viv kissed, he’d have to fight them all off.
Viv pushed up and reached for her Coke, only to realize all she had left was ice.
Jace pulled the tumbler from her death grip and pried himself from the chaise. “I figure since you kissed me and made me all better, the least I can do is get you a refill. You want another Coke, or something else?”
Her gaze zeroed in on one of the girls’ frozen drinks. “Coke’s fine.”
Gripping her chin, he urged her face to his. “What do you really want?”
She wrinkled her nose in way that guaranteed if he didn’t have what she wanted, he’d buy the closest liquor store that did. “Do you have any wine?”
“Love the stuff when I’m in the mood. What kind?”
“Red?”
“Still kind of vague.”
“Surprise me.”
Hell, yeah, she had some smart-ass in her, and he fucking loved it. He leaned in and kissed that perky nose. “Good to see the wild child’s finally lettin’ loose.”
He strutted off to the kitchen, the frustrated knot he’d lugged around since New Year’s Eve finally easing up. He still had bubkes in the way of answers where she was concerned, but at least the puzzle pieces were almost on the table. Didn’t hurt he felt about fifty feet tall at the moment either.
With a refreshed Macallan in hand and a wine opener in his pocket, he headed for the wine rack.
“Never thought I’d see you with a mousy thing like her.” Lily’s voice turned the Scotch easing down his throat to acid.
He slid a merlot free and meandered to the kitchen island. If Lily was stupid enough to go head to head with him, then she deserved a setback aimed her direction. Hell, with the way she’d acted on the patio, he was looking forward to it.
He set the bottle on the thick granite, and the heavy thunk echoed through the otherwise empty kitchen. Turning to face her, he leaned back on the counter and braced with a solid pull of Scotch. “You think she’s mousy, huh?”
Lily big-mouthed the bait and sashayed closer. “Well, she’s sure not your usual type.”
“Yeah? What type is that?”
“Oh, come on, Jace. She’s uptight and goody-two-shoes. Probably wouldn’t know how to navigate your world, let alone keep your cock’s attention.”
Jesus, this woman was a piece of work.
She dragged one long fingernail down his sternum, then slowly toward his waist. “You really think her sweet and innocent is going to keep you interested long-term? I mean, she’s either dressed for a boardroom or like one of the guys. You need someone a little more...comfortable being a woman.”
“Someone like you.”
“Exactly.” She grinned, all devilish confidence and forgone conclusion, and eased to her knees. “You’d never be bored with me.”
And here he’d thought setting Lily straight for good was gonna be a tough, maybe even painful task. Seeing her make an ass out of herself where anyone could walk in turned it into a cake walk.
“Take a good look at yourself, Lily. That mousy thing out on the patio wouldn’t get on her knees when just anyone could walk in, and she damned sure doesn’t have to pour herself into a dress that shows more than it covers to make herself look good.”
Lily’s smile melted and her fingers tightened on his thighs.
“I was straight with you before we started, and I’m bein’ straight with you now,” Jace said. “What bores me is having to rerun how I was too disinterested in you to take what you offered. Hell, if I’m honest, I was bored with you before you got on my bike.”
Oh, that one stung. Enough so, her wince almost made him regret saying it. Probably would have done something to ease the jab if her verbal slaps toward Viv weren’t still rattling through his head.
He slid one hand in his pocket and sipped his drink instead. “Now are you gonna get up and keep yourself off my radar? Or do I need to make sure your Haven welcome is all dried up?”
Footsteps sounded from the living room a second before Viv’s voice floated through the kitchen entry. “Hey, Jace. I changed my...”
Every damned time he saw her his insides took a punch, but right now with the flannel shirt gone and her hair draped around her shoulders, it was closer to a battering ram.
She froze not more than two steps in. “Oh.” Her gaze darted between Jace and Lily kneeling at his feet, and her bright smile avalanched. “Sorry, I was just...” She ducked her head and rubbed her palms on her hips. “Yeah. I’m really sorry.”
She spun before he could pull his head out of his ass and hightailed it toward the patio.
Lily took her sweet-ass time pushing to her feet, her scheming smile vile enough he damned near threw his drink across the room. “Oops?”
He plunked his glass to the granite and headed after Viv, but paused at the kitchen exit. “Want you out of the compound in five minutes. I don’t want to see you. Don’t even want to hear your name at any Haven business. I’m not keen to violence where women are concerned, but if I catch wind you so much as breathe anywhere near Viv, I’ll make your life a fuckin’ nightmare.”
Chapter 11
Stupid, stupid, stupid. The internal chastising whipped through Viv’s head almost as fast as her footsteps pounded against the stone decking. She kept her chin ducked tight to her chest, navigating toward her purse and shirt through the crowd around the grill. Her eyes watered and her knees shook as though they’d give out any minute.
God, she was an idiot. She’d known better than to open herself up to a man like Jace, but dumbass that she was, she’d dropped her guard. And look what it got her.
Marching to the chaise, she kept her eyes trained on her purse.
“You find him, Viv?” one of the girls said.
Oh, yeah. Found him knocking back a cocktail, with a hot brunette on her knees about to do things Viv had fantasized about. She wrestled her flannel shirt on and kept it to a simple, “Yeah.”
Axel stood. “You okay, lass?”
She would be, as soon as she got the hell out of here and stopped fighting back tears. The sandstone patio wound around the far side of the house with a wide enough gap she hoped meant there was a side exit. “I’m fine. I just need to go.” She lifted her focus only enough to skim the crowd and give what was probably the worst smile in history. “It was nice meeting everyone.”
The other two men stood as well, but Viv strode away before they could speak. Her throat tightened and a sob pushed up behind it. For just a little while, it had been so nice. Relaxing on a pretty day, flirting, being held by a man who made her want to snuggle deeper. Now the whole world felt like it was spinning out of control around her, the air in her lungs too thin to give her what she needed to survive.
A wrought iron gate sat only a few feet ahead. She plucked her phone from her purse and fired up the home screen. She’d call a cab, think about something mundane, and then have a huge pity party when she got home. Lots of wine, ice cream and anything else to dull the ache in her chest. She reached for the latch.
A firm arm wrapped around her waist and jerked her to stop.
Jace. Even without looking, she knew it was him, his clean, masculine scent coiling around her as stoutly as his arm.
She wiggled and shoved his arm.
It tightened another fraction and his calm, confident voice rumbled beside her ear. “Settle.” Keeping their backs to the crowd on the patio, he wrapped his other arm around her chest, his hand curling around the front of her neck. “Put your phone away.”
“I’m calling a cab.”
“Only way you’re getting home today is on t
he back of my bike or my truck, and you’re not going yet. Not until we talk. After that, if you want to leave, we’ll leave. No questions asked.”
Cracks seemed to ripple through the heavy weight behind her sternum, and a tear slipped free. “I don’t think I can trust you.”
His fingers flinched around her neck. “Not asking you to do anything more than listen. If you want, we’ll do it right here where you’ve got plenty of audience. Me, I’d rather do it someplace quiet where I get your full attention.”
God, this was torture. The hard press of his chest, his voice, his strength. How was she supposed to listen to anything he said and not replay what she’d seen in the kitchen over and over?
She nodded, the one quick jerk the best she could manage between her rigid muscles and his determined grip.
Slowly releasing his arms, he trailed one hand down her arm, grasped her hand, and led her back across the patio. If anyone had noticed their tense moment in the corner, they didn’t show it, keeping to their tight huddles.
Everyone except Axel, Trevor and Zeke. The three of them stood, eyes to Jace, alert and ready for action.
Jace shook his head and kept walking, pulling her behind him.
They stepped into the living room with its soaring wood beam ceilings and distressed wood floors. The old-world ivory walls and honey-stained accents had calmed and comforted her on the way in. Now they just felt sterile and distant.
Across the vast living room, Lily strode through the entryway, her heels clacking on the intricate tiles. She sneered at Jace over one shoulder, threw the door open and stalked outside. The heavy door slammed shut behind her loud enough to rattle the walls.
Pausing only enough to check Lily’s progress through the sidelights beside the front door, Jace started up the wide staircase with its intricate wrought iron spindles and hand-carved wood rails.
Viv jerked her hand free and held her ground. “Here’s good.” With a little luck, their talk would be quick and Lily would be long gone before her cab got here. She pulled up Google on her phone.
“I can work with that.” Jace casually pulled the phone from her fingers, tucked it inside her purse, and tossed them to the hall table. For a guy who’d just been busted pre-kitchen blow job, he came off mighty calm, cool and collected. Definitely not apologetic. “I told you I’d take you home.”
“And I’m a little more cautious than I was thirty minutes ago.”
Jace grinned, though it was crooked and missing any kind of warmth. More like a goodhearted attempt to laugh in the face of something ugly. “I’ll give you that play.”
He crowded into her space and ran his hands up her arms. “You’re jumping to conclusions.” His touch ran deep like it always did, warming and uncoiling tension clear to her bones.
Unfortunately, it didn’t turn off the snapshot of Lily on her knees and ready for action in her head. She stepped back. “That position’s a bit hard to misinterpret.”
Jace followed and gripped her hips, pulling her toward him so she had to brace her hands against his chest to keep from falling. “I didn’t organize today so Lily could blow me in the kitchen, sugar. I did it so a curvy little kitten could let her hair down on a Saturday afternoon and show me the wild woman she’s got buried inside.”
“But she was—”
“I know what she was doing, and I was letting her hang herself so she could see how asinine she was acting. I’d laid it down and made it crystal clear what she was doing didn’t just turn me off, but disgusted me, when you walked in the door.”
Her mind flittered back to Lily on the patio and the way her hand lingered on Jace’s shoulder. “But you’ve been with her.”
Jace let out a tired huff and dropped his head. “I brought her here once, yeah.” He raised it again and met her stare head-on. “Stupid fucking move on my part. I told her straight up she was just a one-night itch, but couldn’t follow through with the scratch once things got started. I left her alone, drunk on Scotch in my bed until she slept it off, then told her the next day I wasn’t interested. She apparently decided she didn’t like that answer and made her play today, but she won’t make that mistake again. Not after the ass chewing I just left her with.”
Viv toyed with whatever the pendant was he wore beneath his T-shirt, smoothing the soft cotton enough the silver and black face showed through the fine fabric.
“Did I look like I was interested?”
For the first time since she’d stormed out of the kitchen, Viv consciously replayed the scene in her head, pushing past the shock and surprise. Lily’s face had been blank. No, not blank. Calculating. And Jace had seemed about as interested as a homeowner with a door-to-door salesman. “No.”
He cupped the back of Viv’s head, his fingers working her hair as though he loved the feel of it. “Lily’s surface deep in everything. She never thinks past her immediate needs and rarely ventures to the needs of someone else.” The hand in her hair slid around, his thumb tracing the line of her jaw then on to skim her lower lip. “You’ve got layers. Lots of ‘em. Passion and smarts and a sweet little heart. All of it wrapped up in curves that make a man want to touch. No contest there, sugar.”
Outside the music jumped an extra notch. Through the wall of windows on the far side of the living room, she spied a handful of women dancing poolside. Only two hours they’d been here, but it was easy to forecast how things would be in another two or three. Wild and uninhibited without a care for what might happen. “I don’t think I fit in here. I don’t think I can.”
Jace pulled her closer and wrapped her in an easy hug. His lips nuzzled near her ear and his hand stroked up and down her spine. “You ever thought about just being yourself and not worrying about where you should and shouldn’t fit?”
A shiver ripped through her, the idea of letting all her worries and expectations go even for a little while the most profound temptation. A fresh fall breeze after the hottest, mostly stifling summer heat.
Everything he’d said and done since she’d known him darted through her thoughts. Making sure she’d made it home safe, all the business opportunities and contacts, the calm way he’d handled the run-in with Lily, the party he’d—
“You organized this for me?”
Jace smiled, this one bright and big enough that brilliant white teeth showed behind his devious lips. “Had to handle my own events before you came along.” He smoothed her hair away from one side of her face. “You promised me, Viv. Two dates with you all in. You still have a mind to run after I told you what you thought you saw wasn’t real?”
Lily sure hadn’t looked happy when she’d stormed out the door. He’d also come clean on him and Lily having been involved, and had stayed scary calm through the whole altercation. So, odds were good he was telling the truth.
She swallowed and prayed she wasn’t screwing up. Again. “I’ll stay.”
Chapter 12
Cool, crisp air gusted across the wide, manicured backyard and up to Jace and Viv on the compound’s balcony. The day might’ve felt like spring, but with the sun long gone, the temps had dropped to standard mid-January fare. Jace didn’t mind it one damned bit. Not with Viv snuggled against his chest and staring out at the night.
She twisted and graced him with a happy smile, her hair still loose and whipping across her face. “It’s a great view.”
“Hell, yeah, it is.” Not that he cared about the twinkling view of downtown. Viv’s pink cheeks were way better, the absolute delight in her expression something he’d leap hurdles to create more often.
She faced forward again and studied the empty patio below. The only people still at the compound were his brothers and the women they’d brought, but they’d long since huddled in the warmth of the big entertainment room on the other side of the sliding glass door behind him.
He released his hold on the balcony rail and rested his hands on her
hips. Whatever it was she used on her hair was crack for his lungs, something kind of exotic, but not overly girly either. A winter and fire combination he wouldn’t mind lingering on his sheets and skin.
She finished off her wine and sighed, resting her head on his shoulder.
He held out his hand for the glass, barely brushing her breast with his arm in the process. “You want another?”
Handing it over, she shook her head.
Thank God for that. He might’ve insinuated he didn’t mind her getting loopy when he’d poured her a second glass, but most of him was glad she was clearheaded. If they did end up in bed, he intended to make sure she remembered it in vivid detail and didn’t need any booze muddying the water.
He stepped back, set the glass aside, and resumed his spot behind her. Fuck if he wasn’t wound up tighter than a teenage boy on his first wave of testosterone. Every chance he’d had after their talk, he’d placed tiny, teasing touches wherever he could. After dinner, she’d sat on his lap and chatted with his brothers, squirming that fine ass against his dick until he’d considered bending her over right there.
Nuzzling the sweet spot behind her ear, he inhaled deep and slid one hand around her belly. “You remember that talk about limits?”
Her hands tightened on the iron rail and her muscles beneath his palm clenched. She nodded. “I remember.”
“Good.” He slipped his hands beneath the bottom of her tank and sampled the hot skin underneath. Slow and steady, he smoothed his palm over her abdominals and dragged his thumb along the bottom of her rib cage. Where she’d seemed content and engrossed in the view before, now her attention was squarely on him and his touch. He’d swear she wasn’t breathing. “Relax, sugar. You want me to stop, I’ll stop, but I’ve wanted my hands on you all day.”
Her eyelids slid shut and she licked her lower lip.
Pressing his more than ready cock against her, he eased his hands higher, teasing the soft space beneath her bra line. “You with me?”
Rough & Tumble (The Haven Brotherhood) Page 10
