by Holly Jacobs
“Gee, thanks, what a friend,” Allie said. She turned to the men. “Don’t move. Don’t touch each other, and don’t say a word until I get back.”
She stormed after Anne, watched her climb into bed, and handed her the fussing baby.
“Go get ’em, killer,” Anne said with a grin.
“You think this is funny?” She’d suspected Anne’s humor was warped, but this was the clincher.
Grinning ear to ear, Anne settled herself and the baby. “What you see isn’t humor, it’s relief that you have to solve this one, not me.”
“Some friend,” Allie grumbled.
“The best,” Anne said, looking unrepentant.
At the door, Allie asked, “Why do I feel like Daniel walking into the lions’ den?”
“Probably because both of our brothers bear a resemblance to big, growling beasts.” Anne shifted the still-fussing baby to her shoulder.
“Could be. Wish me luck, huh?”
“You don’t need luck, you need a club.”
Silently agreeing with Anne, Allie walked into the room to meet her lions. They had moved and were sitting on opposite ends of the room, scowling at each other.
“Now, what do you say we try this again?” With a flourish she waved her hand toward Conner. “Ian, I’d like you to meet my oldest brother, Conner. Conner, this is my roommate, Anne’s brother, Ian. And,” she said, glaring at her brother, “the baby I was holding was Anne’s daughter, Ryane.”
“Oh,” was the best defense Conner could muster. “Guess I owe you an apology,” he finally said to Ian.
Ian shrugged. “No problem. If I could get Anne to tell me who Ryane’s father is, I don’t think I’d greet him as nicely. He’d get my fist first and words later.”
Allie looked at the two of them, calmly shaking hands like some long-lost buddies. “What makes you think Anne would want you to greet him at all?”
Both men looked at her like she was speaking some foreign language. Allie shook her head. Occasionally she hoped the males of the species could be trained, but to date, she’d seen no evidence of it.
“So which brother are you?” Ian asked.
“The cop. Zeb’s the writer, Zac’s the architect.”
“And are they visiting too?” Ian asked, saving Allie the trouble.
Conner shook his head. “Not this time, but I’m sure you’ll meet them soon. They’ve both been talking about coming to see Allie.”
Allie couldn’t help but groan. Male bonding was too much for her to deal with. “Do you guys want anything to drink?”
“Coffee?” Conner said.
Ian nodded.
Allie fled.
It was just too weird watching them chat after their initial blowout. And did it ever occur to Conner that he owed her an apology as well?
No, of course not.
She held the coffeepot under the faucet.
Using his keen police reasoning, he’d seen a man come out of her bedroom carrying a baby and had assumed it was hers and she’d been sneaky enough to slip out of town so he wouldn’t find out. The more she thought about it, the angrier she felt.
Instead of using the pot to make coffee, she calmly walked with it into the living room, stood behind her brother’s chair, and dumped the water on him.
“Here you go,” she said sweetly.
Conner bounded from the chair. “What are you thinking?” he bellowed.
“I’m thinking you’re lucky it wasn’t hot. I’m thinking you owe me an apology. I’m thinking that I was right to move out of town, because no matter how old I am, no matter how successful I am, you’re never going to see me as anything but a little sister. Someone you need to steamroll into doing your will.”
She’d never been able to make him understand, and she doubted she could this time either but gave it one last shot. “Well, I’m an adult. I’ll sleep with whom I choose. I’ll have a child when and with whom I choose.”
“Not without a wedding ring, you won’t.” Conner was standing again, trying to look intimidating.
That look didn’t work on very annoyed sisters. “I wouldn’t wear a wedding ring for anyone, not some man, and certainly not some brother.”
“You will if you know what’s good for you,” he bellowed.
Allie stood her ground. “I won’t. I’ve yet to find a man I’d ever consider shackling myself to for life. I can’t keep a relationship going for more than a month, what makes you think I could vow to keep one going for the rest of my life?”
She stalked across the room. “I’m going for a walk to cool off. The two of you can go on with your conversation.”
Her grand exit made, Allie left the room, slamming the door behind her.
Ian and Conner watched her go. “Well,” Conner finally said. “That went well, don’t you think?”
Ian looked at the door, wishing he could chase after her, but knew it was wiser to let her cool off. He almost grinned, enjoying this side of Allie. Oh, he’d seen it before when she’d gone after him for interfering with Dr. Neighbors, but he thought it was more fun to watch her vent her spleen on someone else.
Realizing Conner was watching him, Ian said, “I think you’re going to need some dry clothes.”
The big man shrugged. “My suitcase is down in the truck.”
“Tell me where and what I’m looking for, and give me your keys. I’ll take care of it.”
Conner stood and reached into his sopping-wet jeans and withdrew a key ring. “The red Chevy Blazer down in the lot, near Allie’s car.”
Ian took the keys. “Will do. You might want to head into the bathroom and strip.”
“Yeah. Though, I don’t know why I bother. When Allie is in this kind of mood, it tends to last,” he grumbled as he walked toward the bathroom.
Funny, it hadn’t lasted for him when she was annoyed. But then, he wasn’t her brother. He was her . . .
As he walked down the hall, he tried to think of the appropriate description. He was her neighbor, her friend, her buddy, and her lover. All were accurate, but not quite right.
He lived in her apartment building. He genuinely liked her. More than that, he liked who he was when he was with her. A man who smiled and laughed. A man who trusted. A man who . . . a man who loved.
Ian Ryan wasn’t the type of man to fall in love. He wouldn’t go all goo-goo eyed and turn into a giant marshmallow. He’d known plenty of women, gorgeous women—some were glamorous even. They didn’t wear glasses when they read. They didn’t style their hair in ponytails. They didn’t talk of breasts and nipples as easily as other people made small talk.
But they weren’t Allie. They didn’t make him laugh. They didn’t aggravate him and enthrall him in turn.
And he didn’t love them. Never even imagined he did. Not one of them. But he was pretty sure that love was the word that described how he felt about Allie.
Love.
It was a powerful word. An even more powerful emotion. One he’d never had much opportunity to explore. Oh, he loved Anne. Anne and Ryane were the only two people he would have used the word in regards to.
Until now.
He’d reached Conner’s truck just as he reached the conclusion that he loved Allie. Oh, he knew there wasn’t much to recommend him in the significant-other department. The few times he’d tried a relationship, it hadn’t lasted.
He might make a decent living, but he wasn’t a good catch by any stretch of the imagination. Still he was going to try and convince Allie to give him a chance, to teach him to be better than he was.
He was going to try and convince Allie to love him in return.
Hefting Conner’s overnight bag, Ian squared his shoulders. He had no idea how to woo a woman, but he was going to do his best to learn.
Thinking of Allie in his room on that old squeaking bed, he s
miled. He was going to do his best to learn fast.
Men.
Allie stomped around the block twice before she finally felt calm enough to think about returning to her apartment. Her apartment. Maybe it was time to remind Conner it was her apartment, and more than that, her life. She had long ago given up any hope of having a sister-in-law from any of her brothers. They were too overbearing and too self-assured.
Too annoying.
Well, just because they didn’t have any women in their lives to torment didn’t mean they had to focus all that overbearing machismo on her. She’d left Taylorville to escape them. Now they were going to torment her long-distance.
She sighed.
They loved her and took their parental roles seriously, but they’d done their jobs. It was time to have it out with Conner once and for all.
She could only juggle so many Y-chromosomes at a time, and right now Ian was all she could handle.
She felt almost calm when she finally knocked at her door. She’d been so annoyed she’d left without a key. Well, her solitary little apartment had recently started to feel like Grand Central Station. Someone was bound to be there.
The door opened and she braced to start in on Conner, but it was Ian. “You’re back,” he said.
“Good hunch, Sherlock,” she said. Realizing how waspish she sounded, Allie offered him a small smile. “Sorry, I was revved up to have this out with Conner. You sort of threw me.” He always threw her and she wasn’t sure she liked it.
Life was getting more complex by the minute.
“He’s in the bathroom changing.” Ian gave her a funny look.
“Don’t you dare give me a lecture on how to treat a houseguest,” she warned him.
He smiled. “I wasn’t going to. I was simply going to tell you I think I like it when you’re mad.”
She glared at him. “You do?” she said menacingly.
“Not with me, but at someone else. It’s fun to watch you rake them over the coals. It turns me on.” His smiled turned into an out-and-out grin.
Nervous now, Allie took a step backward, her back landing against the door. “It does?”
He matched her step and added one extra, bringing him right in front of her, almost touching. “Honey, almost everything about you turns me on.”
“It does?” Her voice squeaked almost as much as Ian’s old bed.
He chuckled and pulled her into his arms. His lips met hers and he murmured, “You taste good.”
“You ain’t so bad yourself,” she managed before those lips joined hers again.
How did he do it?
How did he sweep her from one emotion to another in quicksilver fashion? Alexandra McGraw wasn’t the mercurial-mood-type person. She was easygoing—mellow even. She’d just gone from righteous anger to Jell-O in the space of one caress.
“Ian,” she whispered, losing herself in his embrace.
“Ahem,” came the sound of a voice being cleared.
It wasn’t Ian’s voice, Allie realized. She suppressed a frustrated groan. Disentangling herself, she looked past Ian to her brother’s frowning face, standing next to Anne’s grinning one.
“Something you want to tell me?” Conner asked.
“Ian’s bed squeaks, so if you didn’t find out now, you’d find out later,” Anne said helpfully.
This time Allie didn’t bother to suppress anything—she just went ahead and groaned. Glancing at Ian, she saw him shoot Anne a menacing glare, which set his capricious sister to laughing and her overbearing brother’s eyes to popping.
“Anne,” Ian reprimanded.
“Ian’s new bed doesn’t squeak,” Allie corrected.
“Allie?” Conner asked.
“Come on, you guys, lighten up,” Anne said, laughter lingering in her voice.
Allie looked at the bunch of them and thought perhaps her sanity was slipping. Where was her quiet, solitary haven? The only thing that could make it worse was if Zeb and Zac showed up. The thought made her nervous.
“So, what are we going to do for dinner?” she threw out to no one in particular.
“Pizza?” Ian didn’t wait for any confirmation, but went to the phone and started dialing. “Anything in particular you like?” he asked Conner.
Allie watched her brother, worried that Ian had left himself open, but her brother merely shook his head. “Whatever.”
“Allie?” Conner said, taking her by the elbow and steering her toward the kitchen for what she assumed was going to be a lecture.
“It’s none of your business, Conner,” she hissed as they shut the door on their guests.
He dropped her elbow and stood facing her. “It sure as hell is my business.”
Calmly, as if she were talking to a mother with sore nipples, Allie said, “I’m going to say this once, just once more. I’m all grown up. I’m almost thirty.”
“Two more years.”
“Close enough,” she said.
Conner stood stone still, hands clasped behind his back, glaring at her. “And I’m still your older brother, no matter how old you are.”
As gently as she could, Allie said, “But not the keeper of my conscience. Whatever is going on between Ian and me—”
“It’s obvious what’s going on between you and Ian,” he growled. “And that’s what I’m having a problem with.”
“If you’re not careful, I’m not offering you my couch tonight,” she said, her calm facade fading as her voice rose.
“You won’t need the couch,” Ian said as he entered the room. He stood right next to the big man. “Allie can bunk upstairs with me and you can have her room.”
“Over my dead body.” Conner’s voice was dark and full of menace.
Ian sized him up. “Could be arranged.”
“Would you two stop fighting over me like I’m some scrap and you’re a couple of mutts playing tug-of-war?” Allie resisted the urge to stomp her foot, though it was tempting. After all, God had given her two feet and two pains in the butt to use them on.
Neither man spared her a look. Their attention was solely for each other. “As I was saying, Allie can stay with me and you can have her room.”
“Thanks, Ian. Why don’t you go visit Anne?” she said, propelling him to the door.
“I’d rather stay,” he said, looking at Conner.
“I’d rather you didn’t. Go.” She shut the door in his face.
“How serious is it?” Conner asked as the door shut.
“None of your business.” There was no talking to Conner when he took this attitude.
“Damn it, Allie, it is my business.”
“Make you a deal, Conner. You fill me in on your sexual history and I’ll do the same for you.” When he didn’t say anything, she forced a grin. “No? You’re sure? Well, then.” She opened the fridge and pulled out a cola. “You’re welcome to my room because I’ll be staying with Ian.”
“Allie.” There was a wealth of warning in his voice.
“Go away, Conner.”
“This isn’t over,” he assured her.
“Yes it is.”
He stormed from the room and Allie bent over the counter, resting her head in her arms.
A hand began massaging her shoulders. She groaned with contentment.
“That bad, sweetheart?” Ian asked.
“You didn’t help matters,” she muttered, her voice muffled by her arms.
His fingers found the knot in her shoulders and manipulated it. “Guess not, but I thought we might as well get our relationship out in the open.”
“Talk about the grand announcement,” she huffed.
He chuckled and those magical fingers continued to work out the knots. “It’s all going to work out, Allie.”
“Easy for you to say. Your sister thinks this is all some joke.
”
“Anne was always a bit warped.” He paused a moment. “Actually, it’s good to see her sense of humor back in working order. I hadn’t realized how much I missed it.”
“Yeah, she’s a riot. The other night when I came in, she greeted me with ‘er, eek, er, eek—thump.’”
She turned just in time to see Ian blush. First a smiling Ian, then a laughing one, now a blushing one? What was next? The remainder of her tension faded away.
“The invitation to stay with me isn’t just because your brother is here. I want you with me every night.” He wrapped her in his arms.
“You want me in your bed every night?” The thought was intriguing.
“And as frequently during the day as we can manage,” he said, desire in his voice.
“Oh.”
“Is that an ‘Oh, yes,’ oh or an ‘Oh, no’ oh?” he asked.
“It’s an ‘Oh, why don’t you shut up and kiss me?’ oh,” she answered.
“All you had to do was ask, ma’am.” Ian was more than willing to oblige. And he was sure that willingness was going to be a huge part of the rest of his life. It was a gentle kiss as he tried to convey the wealth of feelings he couldn’t quite verbalize.
Comfort. That’s what he wanted to do. Comfort this woman in his arms. He reached into her hair and pulled it from its ponytail.
“Ian,” she scolded softly.
“I like it down,” he told her.
“It’s in the way,” she said, turning back to the refrigerator.
“It’s beautiful.”
She whirled around. “What did you say?”
“Your hair is beautiful. So are you,” he added for good measure. He was getting pretty good at this compliment stuff.
Allie lifted a hand to his brow. “Do you have a fever?”
She grinned and he couldn’t help but echo it. “Can’t a man tell his woman she’s beautiful and not get picked on?”
“Let’s see if I have this straight, not only are you complimenting me, but you’re smiling too?” She shook her head. “Ian, what’s happening to you? You’re full of surprises these days.”
“Isn’t that what you said you wanted? Surprises?”
Slowly, obviously unsure of where this was going, Allie nodded.
