by Lori Foster
Dean came right to the point. “I have a proposition for you.”
“Interesting. Let’s hear it, buddy boy.”
To guard against the bright morning glare, Dean slipped on his sunglasses. He looked up at the clear blue skies. Not a cloud in sight. But how long would it last?
“I could use a hand with something. If you help out, I’ll spar with you.”
“Spar? Shit, man, I want a sanctioned fight.”
“Sparring first, and then we’ll see.” Dean opened the door of his new car and slid behind the wheel. “But the sparring comes after we finish up a job. For every day that you work with me, I’ll spar with you for two hours. What do you think?”
“I think you’ve got me by the balls, you bastard.” Excitement deteriorated Gregor’s language. “But fuck, yeah, I’m your man. Whatever you need, you tell me.”
“For starters, I need you to clean up your language.”
“What the fuck do you care?”
Gregor could be such an idiot. “I’m going to reshingle my sister’s roof, and she’ll probably be around. She doesn’t need to hear your foul mouth.”
A heavy pause, ripe with anticipation, followed Dean’s statement. Then, as if savoring the words, Gregor murmured, “Oh, yeah. Little sister.”
Dean rolled his eyes. “Don’t say it like that, you ass.”
“Like what?”
“Like she’s a buffet dinner, and you’re a starving man.” Wading into unfamiliar territory, Dean tossed out his first bit of brotherly caution. “Keep in mind that she’s my sister, okay?”
Gregor laughed at that. “Hell, man, knowin’ little sis will be around, I’d have done this without the promise of a payback. Too bad for you, you’ve already given me your word.”
“It’s hard work,” Dean warned him. “And it’s going to take a few days.”
“Yeah,” Gregor said with satisfaction. “The longer, the better. Because I’m going to enjoy every second of it.”
CHAPTER 12
LATER that afternoon, when Dean walked around to the backyard, he saw Gregor’s hulking form already taking up a good deal of space on the deck. He must have raced right over, Dean thought, in the hopes of seeing Jacki. Gregor was a real ladies’ man. But Dean had never seen him have to work at it before.
The bonus to having Gregor help him with the roof was getting a front-row seat to his pursuit. Dean instinctively knew that Jacki wouldn’t make it easy on him. She was a real pistol, with a few issues of her own, so Gregor would have to go forward carefully.
At that moment, only Cam and Eve were available to keep Gregor company. Did that mean Jacki was deliberately avoiding him or was she unaware of his presence? She liked him, Dean could tell. So what held her back?
As Dean approached, he watched Gregor pouring on the charm, smiling down at both Eve and Cam. His manner with them held no resemblance to the territorial, almost barbaric way he’d behaved with Jacki. Because of their close relationship to Jacki, Gregor wanted to win them over.
It wasn’t working.
Cam stared up at him in something akin to horror. As always, she tried to be polite, but she kept blinking. And looking at Gregor’s ears, fattened from too many solid punches during fights. And his tattoos, meandering all over his upper torso.
And his bare chest, which most women would find intimidating.
Dean would have said something about Gregor’s lack of a shirt, except that his attention strayed to Eve, standing beside Cam.
She’d changed from her sexy dress to even sexier shorts and a halter top that left a strip of bare soft skin exposed above her waistband. He could see her little belly-button ring, and it entranced him.
Unlike Cam, Eve didn’t appear nearly so distressed at Gregor’s ponderous appearance.
Dean’s armload of tools dropped to the ground with a clatter.
Gregor turned, saw it was Dean, and his charm turned to complaints. “Damn it, Havoc, your little sister is dodging me.”
“Can’t say as I blame her.” Dean looked at Cam. “Where is she?”
After two tries, Cam found her voice. “She, ah, volunteered to make a quick run to the grocery store for me.”
“For lunch,” Eve explained to him. “We figured we’d grill some hamburgers and hot dogs. What do you think?” As she spoke, she approached Dean with a smile. “Are you hungry?”
“Always.” And with her, that wasn’t a stretch. He’d just been inside her a few hours ago, and already, his body turned taut and twitchy again, just because she stood within reach.
Gregor tugged on an earring. “So how long do you think little sis will be?”
Looking hopeful, Cam said, “Jacki shouldn’t be too long.” And with the obvious desire to escape, she added, “I’ll bring out some iced tea for everyone. How’s that sound?”
“Awesome.” With his giant mitt on Cam’s slender back, Gregor started her toward the house. “I’ll help you, and you can tell me more about Jacki.”
Denying him wouldn’t be polite, so her expression both dismayed and resigned, Cam went along.
As they disappeared into the house, Eve grinned. “Mighty colorful friends you keep, Havoc.”
“He’s more an anxious contender for the title than a friend. But he’s all right. Just overzealous about things.”
“Your sister being one of those things?”
Dean grinned. “She knocked him on his ass. I swear he was ready to spout poetry to her. The thing is, Jacki doesn’t seem to know it. She thinks he’s using her to get to me.”
“But you’re sure he’s not?”
“Gregor doesn’t work that way.” Dean thought about it and decided to put the question to Eve. “You got any idea why Jacki would second-guess his interest?”
“Nope. As far as I know, she’s had a lot of boyfriends. You heard my brother. Jacki draws people, male and female alike. With her caustic wit, she’s very charismatic.”
“Maybe.” But Dean didn’t buy the façade. He’d seen too many flashes of insecurity.
It was Eve’s turn to study him. “You know, when you first met Jacki you sort of stomped on her one obvious vulnerability.”
Dean wasn’t an idiot; he well remembered the moment Jacki had walked out on him. “Her height and thinness?”
“And what comes with it. Or rather, what doesn’t.”
“Ah.” So that was it. Women. Why did they persist in thinking men judged them by the size of their boobs?
Shaking his head, Dean said, “So she’s not stacked. That really bothers her?”
Eve gave him an exasperated look. “It’d bother most women.”
“Shouldn’t. We males aren’t nearly as shallow—or one-dimensional—as women try to make us out to be. Sex, in the nude, with the lights on. A few laughs. Lots of moaning. And no inhibitions.” He winked. “That’s all we want.”
Because he’d gotten exactly that with her, Eve blushed. Dean touched her chin, grinned again, and kissed her quick and hard. “If Jacki would give Gregor a chance, I’m sure he’d show her how little her bra size matters to him.” Now that he saw that Gregor was actually interested, and not just out to score, Dean wouldn’t mind seeing him succeed. Jacki could use the boost.
Eve cleared her throat. “I’m dying to find out how he met Jacki already.”
“It’s a boring story.”
“So bore me.”
Shrugging, Dean said, “He was asking around town about me, and Jacki overheard him.” He couldn’t help himself; he bent and kissed Eve again. “You’re done with your appointment?”
“Mmmm.” Eve licked her lips. “Free for the afternoon. I couldn’t resist coming by to watch you sweat. It’s bound to be a spectacular sight.” Her smile couldn’t quite hide the worry in her eyes. “Are you sure you’re up to hard work in this heat?”
Women had never looked at him with concern. From the fairer sex he got lust, manipulation, and in the case of fans, blind admiration. Eve’s worry both unmanned Dean and made h
im want to cuddle her.
He blew off both sensations by teasing her. “By now you should know how up I can be.”
She didn’t laugh. She smoothed her fingertips over the bruise on his cheekbone, brushed his hair back to see the stitches on his forehead. Dean felt her gentle touch everywhere, in places he’d never thought about before.
Like his heart.
Forcing a laugh, he stepped out of her reach and stripped off his shirt. “If you want to do some stroking, I’ve got better places I can direct you to.”
“You do have an awesome physique, no two ways about that.” She locked her fingers together. “But if I start touching you, I won’t want to stop. And now’s not the time.”
Damn. It was so easy for her to get to him. “Hold that thought till tonight then.” After tossing his shirt on the back of a lawn chair, Dean gave Eve a more leisurely kiss, and then turned away to inspect the tools he’d need for the job. Because they had to strip off the old shingles, he’d arranged the delivery of a large Dumpster in the driveway. They’d toss the old shingles in there to make it easy to haul them away.
Later that evening, the hardware store would deliver new shingles right atop the roof.
Eve followed close behind him, and Dean felt her gearing up for something. If she thought to back out on him tonight, just because she’d lost the bet…
“My mom said you don’t want to sell the house.”
Dean relaxed. He could handle her nosiness. “That’s right.”
“So…what do you plan to do?”
“Talk to Cam first. I don’t want to blindside her with this.” He raised a brow. “You haven’t mentioned it to her, have you?”
She shook her head. “I figured you could do that. It’ll be a good chance for the two of you to talk more, maybe get better acquainted.”
“Right.” Thinking of the job at hand, Dean walked a circle around the supplies, taking a mental inventory to ensure he hadn’t forgotten anything. Two shingle scrapers, rolls of tar paper, boxes of galvanized nails, strips of roofing edge, aluminum flashing, and two hammer tackers.
So that he and Gregor could finish faster, hopefully before more rain moved in, he’d gotten duplicates of each tool. With any luck, they’d have the roof prepared by the end of the day.
“When are you going to tell Cam?”
Dean sent Eve a fleeting look. “You keep pushing for us to bond or something. But it’s not going to be like that, so get it out of your head.”
Suspiciously agreeable, Eve said, “Of course it’s not.” She seated herself on the lawn and pretended to examine a patch of clover. “But it won’t hurt for you two to discuss a few…things.”
Placating him? Dean didn’t like it. For some strange reason, Eve had relegated him to the role of close and caring big brother, when she didn’t know him well enough to make that assessment.
He had no intention of allowing Eve to dictate to him. But at the same time, he didn’t want to disappoint her, either.
Standing over her, Dean crossed his arms and willed her to look at him. When she did, he almost got distracted with how bright her blue eyes looked in the glaring afternoon light.
“Before I do anything, I need to see how many repairs the house needs in order to turn a profit.”
“You’re going to sell it?”
He didn’t know for sure, so rather than lie, he just shrugged. “From what Roger told me, it’s all but falling down.”
“He exaggerated.” Visibly distraught, Eve plucked a blade of grass and slid it between nervous fingers. “But not by much.”
“So it is that bad?”
Her bare shoulders lifted, drawing his eyes to her smooth skin and delicate bone structure.
“I’m not sure what the costs will be, but the house has been neglected. Cam tried to keep up with everything, but she has a tendency to take too much on herself. And Lorna never offers any help.” She looked away again. “It’s still home to them, though. Neither Jacki nor Cam wants to sell.”
Her insinuation was loud and clear. “No one should keep what he can’t afford.”
“But maybe with just a little help, they’ll be able to afford it now. I heard that you convinced Jacki to get a job.”
Eve had braided her dark hair. Thanks to the heat and humidity, small, damp tendrils had escaped around her ears and clung to her nape. Why that made him hot, Dean couldn’t say.
Hell, everything about her, even her damn meddling, had a singular effect on him. “I had nothing to do with that.”
“Cam has always encouraged Jacki to skip work in favor of concentrating on her studies. You said she should be able to do both. And now she’s taken the initiative and gotten herself employed.” Pure satisfaction sounded in Eve’s statement. “I’d say you had everything to do with it.”
To keep her from slapping a halo over his head, Dean decided to clue her in on a few facts. He dropped down to sit beside her. “Before I get any credit or blame, you should know that Jacki will be working at some sleazy bar. I think she said it’s called the Roadkill Bar.”
Thick lashes lifted in surprise. “I’ve heard of it.”
“But you’ve never been there?” Sitting so close beside her, Dean breathed in the scent of summer-warmed skin and flowery shampoo, a scent fast becoming familiar to his libido.
“It’s not exactly my kind of place.”
Dean couldn’t keep his hands to himself when he was this close to her. He brushed the backs of his fingers over her cheek. She was so damn soft.
When Eve turned her head and kissed his knuckles, Dean withdrew.
It was either that or advertise a boner to his sister and Gregor. “She’ll have late hours, staying on till two in the morning.”
“Ouch. That is late.” Eve caught a blade of grass between her thumbs, cupped her hands, and lifted them to her mouth. Eyes twinkling at Dean, she blew hard into her hands.
An ear-splitting whistle sounded. Dean grinned with her. “Your talents abound.”
“Dad taught me that when I was six.” Drawing her knees up and resting her crossed arms there, Eve surveyed him. “What kind of stuff did your uncle teach you?”
By rote, Dean tried to deflect the personal question. He’d spent a lifetime keeping people at a distance, well out of his private business.
Looking toward the house, he said, “I wonder what the hell’s keeping Cam so long.”
Almost on cue, Cam came out. She looked around until she spotted them and then waved. “I had to make some more iced tea. I’ll have it ready soon.”
Animated cheerfulness had replaced Cam’s skittish reserve, making Dean suspicious. “Everything okay, Cam? Gregor’s not getting on your nerves, is he?”
“No. Not at all.” Her smile should have warned him. “He’s telling me all about your history in the SBC. And he said he’d get me an official T-shirt with you on it, and some autographed pictures of the other fighters. He’s really a very nice man. I like him.” She turned and went back inside.
Bemused, Dean watched her go. “God only knows what he’s saying.”
Eve shoved his shoulder. “Who cares? It can’t be bad or Cam would have tossed him out.”
Her and what army? “Eve? Did you happen to notice how big Gregor is?”
Eve shot back, “Did you happen to notice how delighted Cam is to have you here? She’s not going to let anyone bad-mouth you.”
No, Dean thought, she probably wouldn’t. He scowled at the house. He didn’t feel deserving of Cam’s defense.
But he liked it just the same.
“Now come on.” Eve nudged him again. “Tell me about your uncle and your relationship with him. Surely he taught you stuff.”
Dean thought about it, then decided, why not? Stretching out in the warm, sweet grass, he crossed his arms behind his head, closed his eyes, and let the sun soothe his still-aching muscles. “Grover taught me how to build things the right way.”
“Like what?”
“Everything from p
utting on a simple addition to constructing an entire house. He told me too many people take shortcuts these days, and he’d take it as a personal affront if I didn’t do the work right. He put me with the crew as soon as he took me in. If I could hold a tool, he let me use it. Hammers and drills and power saws.” He smiled with the memory. “Sometimes the tool weighed as much as me. But I managed.”
“It’s a wonder you didn’t hurt yourself.”
“Or someone else.” Dean could still picture his uncle standing over him, supervising, patiently explaining.
Just…being with him.
Which was something his own parents had never done.
“Later he told me that he wanted to keep me busy so I wouldn’t dwell on my parents’ deaths and my new life. He figured if I worked hard enough during the day, I’d be too exhausted at night to feel sorry for myself.”
Very gently, Eve asked, “Did it work?”
It hadn’t, but he didn’t want Eve to know that, any more than he’d wanted his uncle to know. “It made me independent. And I liked being around the other men. They were…rough.”
“With you?”
“No, just in their manners. The only adjectives they knew were curse words. They drank too much in the evenings. A couple of times a week, they fought with each other.” Sometimes Dean missed those days. “I learned from them, too.”
“What did you learn?”
Where to start? There were things he couldn’t tell her, but most of what he’d learned from his uncle’s crew had been harmless. “They showed me how to repair just about everything from watches to car engines. If it runs, I can probably fix it.”
“That’d go a long way in being self-sufficient.”
“Yeah.” Dean relaxed a little more. “They taught me how to play poker, too, and how to cheat without getting caught.” He smiled. “I can pick a lock, start a fire from scratch, cook dinner, and sew a hem.”
“I take it none of these men were married?”
Laughing, Dean said, “No sane woman would have had any of them. Not long-term anyway. What they needed done, they did themselves.” There’d been women, but not the marrying kind. Making an admission, Dean said, “They taught me to be the same.”
