by Lucy Leroux
Chapter 11
Calen practically ran upstairs when Davis reported that Liam and Patrick had dropped by. They were on his approved list, and their prints were on the finger print lock, but he hadn’t had a chance to tell them about Maia yet. He’d been procrastinating, knowing he would have to tell Liam the truth about how he actually met her.
He’d planned on introducing Maia to his friends over drinks, keeping it casual and lighthearted until he had a chance to take the guys aside and explain. But now he couldn’t do casual. Maia looked scared. Her face was white...but that didn’t stop Trick from looking at her a touch too warmly for his taste.
He wasn’t sure how long they’d been interrogating his fairy, but he was putting a stop to it right now. Maia was still recovering, and these two overbearing asses were a lot to take even on a good day. And yes, those overbearing asses were his best friends. Usually he was twice as bad, but he tried to reign himself in around Maia.
Calen ignored the two men while he checked her temperature with his palm. “You look pale, nymph. Are you feeling okay? Should I call the doctor?”
“I’m fine,” she said weakly¸ shifting the blanket down to her waist.
His eyes warmed appreciatively when he saw what she was wearing, but he tamped down his sudden arousal. They had company.
“Why don’t you rest in your room until dinner is ready while I talk to Liam and Trick,” he said, picking her up. As he swept Maia out of sight, he called over his shoulder to his friends. “I’ll be right back.”
She looked so beautiful in her new dress, despite the faint bruises on her cheek. It made him want to linger, but the guys were waiting, so he gave Maia a quick kiss and deposited her gently on the bed.
“I don’t think they believed me when I said I was your fiancée,” she whispered with a little grimace. “I wasn’t sure if you had told them the truth or not.”
He sighed. “I’m going to tell them now. Don’t worry about it. Just rest. You look beautiful, by the way,” he said giving her another quick kiss before leaving the room.
Liam was waiting in the hallway, Maia’s crutches in hand. “What the hell is going on?” he asked with his customary bluntness.
Calen rolled his eyes and took the crutches, putting them next to the door before walking back to Trick. Liam followed him out to the living room. He stopped to pour himself a tall glass of whiskey from the bar.
“Why is your ‘fiancée’ lying about where she met you?” Liam demanded.
He sighed. Liam was good at reading people, and Maia was a terrible liar. Calen loved that about her—except right now.
“Because she was lying,” he said, passing a tired hand over his face.
He was not looking forward to this.
“Why would she lie?” Trick asked with a frown, his usual devil-may-care attitude sank below his brother’s oppressively serious one.
“Come into the office. I don’t want Maia to hear us if she gets up,” Calen said, leading the way.
The men followed him without a word. Reaching his sanctuary, he dropped into one of the leather armchairs he’d arranged into a conversational nook next to the small fireplace.
His office doubled as a library. It had an impressive assortment of leather bound first editions as well as several weighty financial tomes. Books on philosophy, the natural sciences, and art lined the walls. It was one of those rare private libraries that was actually used. But his favorite and most personal collection of books was kept in the shelves behind the desk. Someday he would have to show those volumes to Maia.
Liam waited until Trick helped himself from the bar across from the library doors. He sat in the chair nearest the unlit fireplace while his brother took the other.
“Well? Why did she lie?” Liam demanded.
Calen’s shoulders tensed as he braced himself. “Because I told her to.”
There was a pointed silence. Calen took another fortifying drink. Liam was a stubborn and irritating bastard, but a loyal friend, and he did owe him an explanation.
“I took a meeting for my father. A meeting with a Russian crew, the Komarevs.”
The explosion wasn’t long in coming. And it wasn’t only Liam standing over him and shouting. Trick joined in the fun.
He is starting to resemble his older brother more and more every day.
Calen let them vent for a while and then waved them into silence. “All right, enough!”
Liam shook his head. “What the hell were you thinking?” he asked in disbelief, running his hand through his hair.
“It was a one-time thing, and it’s over now.”
When Liam tried to interrupt, Calen cut him off. He explained about the reason for the meeting and his father and Darren’s inability to make it after the painstaking effort it had taken to set up. Darren’s wife, Mary Margaret, had been fine in the end. She was on bed rest for the rest of her pregnancy, but both mother and baby were expected to get through the delivery with no problems.
“You know how I felt about that shit when it all went down,” Calen reminded them. “I wanted to stick it to those assholes myself,” he added, taking a sip of his drink.
“That’s how these things start,” Liam berated him. “For Christ’s sake, you saw the Godfather,” he bit out.
“I saw it, and I still don’t regret going. I will never do anything like it again, but I can’t regret it because that’s how I got Maia.”
That shut them up.
“How did that happen?” Patrick asked.
Calen told them about Maia chasing a butterfly in the woods. They thought it was amusing until he told them how she stumbled upon the men burying a body. He explained about Timur and Viktor and how they had run her down like some sort of animal.
“They were going to kill her?” Trick asked, looking green.
Trick was the most chivalrous man Calen knew. He was always looking out for the women in their circle. Any suggestion that one was being hassled or abused in any way was enough to get him going. But none of the women they knew had ever been in danger. Not like Maia had been.
“Yeah. They were. But not right away,” Calen growled. “Timur is the worst kind of sick shit. I’d heard about him before this. He gets off on...on cutting girls up while he rapes them. When the girls the Russian’s run get out of line, they give them to Timur to punish. They let him do what he wants when they want to make an example of someone—but he enjoys it. I don’t want to think about what he would have done to Maia if he had been given time.”
“Is she okay?” Liam asked gravely.
His attitude changed after hearing the truth about Maia, but Calen had been expecting that. When it came down to it, Liam was also an overprotective pushover when it came to women. Not the ones he was dating of course, but friends and family. It probably came from raising their sister from the time he should have been out at high school parties. Liam and Patrick’s parents had passed away in a car accident during their junior year. Liam was the oldest, almost two years older than Trick and nine years older than their sister Maggie.
Their deaths had been hardest on Liam. He was the man of the family, and as a result, he’d been acting as though he was forty since they graduated high school. His concern for Maia was genuine, though, and Calen was grateful for that overprotective streak in his best friend.
“She is,” he said. “I got her out of there in time before they could...you know,” he said, waving a little drunkenly, not wanting to say it aloud.
“Well, that’s good. So what are you going to do with her now?” Trick asked, taking a big drink.
Calen straightened in his chair. “I’ve decided to keep her.”
“What does that mean?” Trick asked, dribbling whiskey from his mouth in surprise.
“I mean I’m going to marry her,” Calen announced. “If she decides to go through with it, that is.”
After a pregnant pause, Liam cleared his throat. “This is for real, right? It’s not a joke? Or is it something you think yo
u have to do to protect her?”
Calen shook his head. “I want this. More than I ever thought I would.”
His friends absorbed that in silence. He and Liam had been friends since he was five. They were each other’s first friend. And once they were old enough for the small age difference between the brothers to become insignificant, he and Trick had grown close. The three of them had been through a lot together. Even more than him and Sergei, who felt like his twin sometimes.
“Are you sure? Are you prepared to throw away your whole single life for this girl? One that you don’t know at all?” Liam said, his cynicism breaking through.
Calen sat back. “What am I throwing away? I’m tired of being alone. Partying at the clubs is boring as shit these days. That’s why I don’t want to build a new one at the Caislean. I can’t even work up the energy for that, and you know I love that place.” He put down his drink and decided to be as honest as could. “I want someone to come home to, someone to care about and vice versa. And Maia is special. I can feel it in my bones. It’s true, I think she’ll be safer as my wife, but I happen to want a wife. As far as I’m concerned, we have as good a shot as any other couple that met under traditional circumstances.”
The brothers exchanged an unreadable glance.
“Okay,” Trick said. “So what’s she like?”
Calen relaxed and told them all about his fairy. Her smile. The quirky little sense of humor that he was only now starting to see. Her brains and that sweet manner she had. And her modesty. Also, the fact she was apparently a terrible liar. Trick and Liam were shaking their heads and laughing at him by the time he was done.
“Shut up, you stupid gits,” he growled, slamming back the last of his drink before starting to laugh, too.
“So you genuinely want her,” Liam said, leaning forward in his chair.
“I do,” Calen said, his laughter subsided. “I can make her happy.”
“Of course you can,” Trick said lightly.
“No...you don’t get it. Maia doesn’t get to choose. She’s stuck with me. Whether she likes it or not. Whereas I know I want her, I don’t know if she wants me. But even if she doesn’t, it’s not like she can go back to her old life.”
Trick stopped laughing.
“I’m sure you’re not going to have a problem on that score. When has a woman ever failed to fall all over you?” Liam asked pragmatically.
Calen shrugged. “Maia’s not like the women who hang around us. She’s completely different. That’s the whole fucking point.”
Liam waved dismissively. “Then persuade her. I don’t think it will be that hard. What is the alternative? I guess you could send her away. Far away,” he suggested, but Calen shook his head.
“They would go looking for her once they realized she wasn’t with me. The only way to make sure she’s safe is to keep her close. Timur is fucking psychotic. The things he does to girls, what I’ve heard about him, it’s all pretty fucked up. Maia won’t be safe until it’s drummed into his and all those other assholes' heads that she’s no threat to them. That she’s protected.”
“Whatever you need man, we’re here to help,” Trick said.
“Well, for the moment, you can make my girl feel welcome at dinner,” Calen said, getting back up and motioning for them to follow him.
****
Dinner was an experience for Maia. She’d never spent much time in the company of the opposite sex, and now she was faced with wall-to-wall beefcake. Calen was the most handsome, but Liam and Trick (as Patrick insisted he be called) were intimidatingly good-looking as well.
She knew that most women would give their right arm to be in her shoes that night. Though they were somewhat overwhelming, especially Liam, they were kind.
Once Calen had assured her he’d told them everything, she’d relaxed, allowing the collective charm of the men wash over her. She was uncomfortable lying and knowing she didn’t have to anymore calmed her nerves. The wine Calen kept plying her with now that she’d stopped taking painkillers also helped. Eventually, she was laughing at the stories Liam and Trick told her about Calen, despite the fact it hurt her face a little to laugh. But she couldn’t help it. Trick was a master storyteller, and his tales of misspent youth and all the trouble they used to get into as boys were hilarious.
She even made them laugh, too, which she found surprising since she was usually so shy in company. They left promising to introduce her to their sister Maggie, making her feel like she was being set up on a play date.
Maia kicked herself for not having the guts to mention Calen’s DVD collection while they were still there. Although calling attention to it in front of them might have been worse.
“Don’t feel like you have to be friends with Maggie or anything. They’re just excited to welcome you into the fold,” Calen said, coming back to the table after he walked the men to the elevator.
“I wouldn't mind meeting her. I’ve been so busy with school, that other than Tahlia, I haven’t made friends outside of work people.”
“Tahlia?”
“The birthday girl, the reason we went to Siren. I mentioned her before. She’s a third-year graduate student in the math department. Although we’re not that close,” she tacked on honestly.
Calen looked confused. “Why not?”
Maia opened her hands in a questioning gesture. “I’m not sure. She’s…a little reserved. I mentioned that there’s a bit of weirdness with her family. I think it makes her a little closed off. But she’s nice to me and includes me in stuff sometimes. I met her at a graduate mixer, a wine and cheese tasting.”
“Have you told her about me yet?”
“I haven’t gotten ahold of her. But I texted her and will see her on campus when I go back.”
Calen’s expression became serious. “Yes, we should talk about how that’s going to work. Will you come sit with me in the living room? I can make a fire.”
Maia nodded with a faint smile. “Sure. I love your fireplace. Real wood fires smell so good.”
Calen gave her one in return. “Yeah, I like them, too.”
****
They were sitting by the fire, close but not quite snuggling. Calen could feel the contentment he’d been searching for nearly in his grasp. He wanted to reach out and pull Maia close, but he didn’t want to overwhelm her...or hurt her ribs. Instead, he talked to her about his concerns.
“The building you work in will be hard to secure. It has too many entrances. Though there is supposed to be key card access only, there are open hours for undergrads to come in without one. Not to mention the fact that your building connects to the ones on either side of it with some underground tunnels. Davis and Stephens have some concerns about them, but I think the best we can do is tap into the existing security feeds and add a few of our own cameras in the current blind spots. Davis and Stephens will watch the exterior. One of them can monitor the cameras from a nearby van while the other patrols. Another two guys, Marks and Ellis, will trade off with them periodically when the other two need some downtime, but your security will chiefly be handled by Davis and Stephens. They’re used to working together.”
“You’re going to add cameras? Secretly? What if people find them?” Maia asked, her hands twisting in the little blanket thrown over her lap.
“Pretend you know nothing about them. You may have to practice; cause right now your face gives away your every thought,” he said with a lift of his brows. “I realize lying isn’t something you would normally do, but it’s the lesser of evils. Unless of course Davis sits on you all day, waiting in your office for you.”
“Oh, no! That would never work,” Maia exclaimed. “I share a tiny office with two other graduate students. A massive bodyguard would disrupt work for everyone. It’s a small lab.”
“That’s what I thought you were going to say. Well, on occasion the guards will be there to pick you up. They will only come inside if they think there’s a threat or if you asked them too. We’ll have to take yo
ur supervisor into our confidence when you go back. But don’t mention the cameras.”
“Okay,” she said slowly. “Do you think there is a genuine threat there? Am I putting my coworkers in danger?”
“If all goes as well, the Russians will drop it. But it would be best if they had a reason to,” Calen said softly.
“Like getting married to their rival’s son?”
He studied Maia in the firelight. Her eyes were huge in her pale, heart-shaped face. He felt bad for pushing her, but the alternative—living platonically with someone so tempting—was unacceptable to him. It would be torture. And he'd crack sooner rather than later. He wouldn't be happy until Maia was in his bed. At least this way she'd have a ring on her finger and his name to protect her.
“My father isn’t their rival, exactly. More like a competitor in a superior position. And there is no way they would risk outright war if you joined our family. Marriage is the most expedient way,” he said in a low voice.
Maia’s head lowered and she blinked several times. Calen felt another flash of guilt before pushing it away. He was doing what was best for her. From her frequent blushes and the way she looked at him, he knew she found him attractive. In time they could build on that. But she did have an alternative and he would be a complete asshole if he didn't let her choose.
“If you can’t face marriage to me you can run...change your identity. I will help you. But you’ll have to leave everything.”
He didn’t see another alternative. Not one that would work as well for the two of them as marriage.
For a moment, Maia was quiet. Too long. Threads of disappointment were starting to pool in his gut when she finally shook her head.
“I don’t think I could bring myself to do that,” she said with a pained look. “I don’t have a whole lot in my life except for my studies. I’ve spent my entire life working to be where I am now. I couldn't just give it up and live with myself,” she said with a heavy sigh, collapsing on the couch cushion more deeply. “Of course, if we do things your way, I’m not sure how you would live with me. Are you seriously willing to marry me? What if I drive you crazy? What if you meet someone else? Is that why you think kids are a good idea? If we had one and you wanted to end this, would my status as your child’s mother be enough to keep me alive?”
