Lying to Her Grumpy New Boss: Cates Brothers #3

by Kilraine, Lee

  He didn’t look happy about being told what to do. Well, tough cookies. His dog and cat had pushed her around for long enough; now she was making some decisions. In fact, she decided not even to wait for him to decide anything.

  She slung her backpack off and got out some aspirin. She shook out four and slapped them in his hand. “Here; chew these.

  He must have been in pain because he chewed them without a word.

  Next she decided what to do about a brace for his ankle. He’d rigged it pretty well, but between walking on it and the rain, it had loosened too much to give him the support he needed. “Okay, two options for your ankle. One: You lean on me like a human crutch and we walk out of here. The height difference might slow us up. Or two: We cut your spiffy raincoat into strips to reinforce the splint you made so you can walk on your own.”

  He held up two fingers.

  She nodded. “Okay, option two it is.”

  They got to work. She started to remove his hiking boot but he stayed her hand, shaking his head.

  “No. It’s too swollen. You’d have to cut it off and I’ll need it to walk.”

  Good point. Between the two of them, they got it done. Tynan cut long, three-inch-wide strips out of his Lycra rain jacket. After Tynan retied the boot tighter, Lu wrapped it with the strips, pulling as tight as she could. She bit her lip when he groaned a few times. “Sorry.”

  He grunted, then reached out a hand to push away the wet hair plastered to her cheek.

  “All set.” She ran her gaze over his face, paler now than it had been ten minutes before. “Ready?”

  He shook his head, leaning in so she could hear over the wind and rain. “I need a walking stick.”

  Right. She stood up and began a search for a large, sturdy stick. Hickory or oak would work best. It took at least ten minutes to find one she hoped would work. Holding it up for Tynan to see, he nodded.

  She set it down on the ground next to him so she could use both her hands to help him up. He powered himself up for the most part. Leaning back down, she grabbed the stick and handed it to him “Are you sure you don’t want to stay while I go find help?”

  Tynan took the walking stick with a sure hand as his grimace of pain smoothed out into a lop-sided grin. “And miss the chance to stare at your sweet ass walking in front of me? Not on your life, Lulubelle. Lead the way.”

  38

  Tynan stabbed the stick firmly into the ground and put his weight on the injured foot. Oh, fuck, he was about to pass out from the pain. He bit the inside of his cheek to keep his groan from escaping. He gave a curt nod and they moved forward, one painful step at a time. It turned out Lu’s sweet ass was hidden by the borrowed backpack, so he distracted himself from the pain with a mental after-action report of The Bear Incident.

  What had been his initial plan? Simple: to hike the shit out of the mountain. What had happened? He’d become so hyperfocused on his goal as to forget basic hiking safety in bear country: make noise. He could kick himself because he damn well knew better than to let his mind wander out here. What had he learned? Stay focused and don’t run into a fucking bear.

  A flash of white-hot pain shot up his leg, causing him to make a quick assessment of his options. By his estimate they were less than a mile from the cabin. Normally, a twenty-minute hike for an average person with a pack. But a guy with a bum ankle and a possible concussion, a pixie carrying a pack made for someone twice her size, a three-legged dog, and a soaking wet cat…he’d need to bend the space-time continuum to calculate that. And, a tropical storm? He knew for damn sure three days ago it had been a tropical depression with a trajectory keeping it out over the ocean.

  He refused to allow the pain in his ankle to stop him because that would either leave them all vulnerable or mean Lu would have to head back through the woods and the storm by herself again. No way in hell would he let that happen. He wasn’t happy that she was here alone to begin with. After he had a long talk with her about safety he’d have a word with his family too. How could they have let her come out here by herself?

  No, he would damn well crawl out of here if he had to. Hell, this was nothing compared to hiking through hundred-degree temperatures, sandstorms, and gunfire. He gritted his teeth and kept going, following Lu. Rain sliced at them, driven by the gusting wind, but Lu pushed forward with Houdini reined in tight, trying to keep him away from his feet.

  At one point the cat parked its butt in a pile of pine needles and stayed there. It hissed and glared at them all. Lu walked over and scooped it up. She handed it over to Tynan, and he draped it over his right shoulder, where it hung on for the ride.

  Lu waited for his signal that he was ready to move again, then gathered the dog’s leash and moved forward. He kept shifting his gaze from Lu’s backpack to his feet. He didn’t want to fall on his face again or lose Lu in the woods.

  A loud crack off to their left had Tynan jumping forward and grabbing Lu into his chest as an upper tree branch crashed to the ground next to them. Hell, another strong wind gust could easily take out one of the older pine trees. Tynan released Lu and they pressed forward at a slightly faster speed.

  Finally, after about an hour and a half, they reached the cabin. In unspoken agreement, they headed straight for it. No point trying to drive through this and risk getting hit by a falling tree. They could shelter in the cabin until the storm had passed through.

  Tynan pulled the cat down into his arms, leaned next to the cabin door for support, and looked at Lu. “Key?”

  She shook her head at him. Right. She hadn’t taken ownership quite yet. He handed over the cat and brushed Lu back a pace before smashing his elbow into the corner windowpane above the doorknob. He reached his hand through and opened the door. They all piled inside. Ty had to put his shoulder into the door to push it closed against the gust of wind.

  Inside, the noise was blessedly muted. The rain hit the shingle roof, finding a few places to sneak in and onto the floor. Overgrown branches swayed wildly, scratching and slapping up against the two windows in the room as the wind tore through the woods. Tynan dragged himself in farther and leaned against a wall in relief. Any port in a storm.

  The room, stuffed with overlarge generic rental furniture, looked dim and gloomy. Lu ran her hand around near the door, looking for a light switch.

  “Farther to the left.” He was afraid to tell her adding light wasn’t going to help.

  She slid her hand further, and then Tynan heard a click and a sixty-watt bulb in the center of the ceiling oozed a murky yellow light down into the space.

  Lu was busy looking around in the small dark corners of the place. He grinned at the disappointment on her face. And then he opened his mouth because he just couldn’t help himself. “Nice place you have here.”

  She turned into the girl from The Exorcist right before his eyes. Her head spun around, and there might even have been sparks shooting from her eyes before she turned to look around the space again. “This is the cabin you were raving about? It’s…it’s…”

  “Damn ugly. And it’s yours.”

  Her gaze landed on his, biting her lower lip before she released it.

  She looked so worried, the urge to wrap his arms around her and never let go hit him like a sledgehammer. But there were things he needed to say first. Apologies to be made and accepted. Questions to ask. Explanations they both needed to hear.

  He straightened, using his shoulder to push himself off the wall. “I don’t know about you, but I think we should just wait the storm out for now.”

  She stared at him, her hair plastered to her head, water dripping from her nose, and sighed. “That’s probably a good idea. I need to run out to my car. I packed extra supplies, just in case.”

  “In case of what?”

  “I have no idea, but those two over there”—she pointed to where the dog and cat lay curled up together on an armchair—“Houdini and DA, his diabolical assistant, were freaking out so much, they had me freaking out.”


  “I’ll help.” Tynan limped toward her, trying not to grimace.

  “No. I’ve got it. It’s just one trip.” She braced herself and rushed out, pulling the door shut behind her.

  Houdini jumped down and paced by the window until she came back.

  Lu returned in a gust of wind and rain, slamming the door and setting a brown paper grocery bag down on the floor. “I was wrong. One more trip. Be right back.”

  This time the cat paced with Houdini. He’d pace with them, too, only his ankle was throbbing as if an elephant had stepped on it. He also wanted to put a call in to Quinn and the park rangers, letting everyone know they were safe and where they were, but not until Lu was safely back inside.

  When he finally heard her on the porch he limped over and jerked the door open to let her in. He pulled his thermal shirt off over his head and crammed it into the square of missing window glass.

  Water streamed down Lu’s face and neck and dripped down her jacket, leaving a wet trail on the wooden floorboards. She had his gym bag looped across her chest and was pulling the wheeled cooler from his garage. Lifting the strap from the bag over her head and off, she set it down on the floor. After peeling out of her soaked rain jacket she hung it next to the front door along a row of rusty hooks and kicked her shoe against the cooler. “Look. How great is this?”

  “If you tell me that cooler is full of beer, I absolutely agree.”

  “Oh, no, I don’t think so.” The radiant smile fell from her face. She leaned down and opened the lid, gesturing with her hand to it. “Ta-da!”

  Tynan looked down into the cooler. Inside was a half-melted bag of ice, a few stalks of celery, and a pomegranate. He was expecting something better from a chef of her caliber. “Yay? Celery and pomegranate.”

  “No, not those. And don’t give me that disappointed face. That’s all you had in your refrigerator.” She pointed a finger at him. “I’m talking about the ice. The ice! You’re going to stick your ankle in the cooler every twenty minutes.”

  Well, crap. He’d had to do that during high school lacrosse season once. It hurt like a bitch until it went numb, but she was right; it would help. “Okay. Good thinking. Let me see if the phone in the kitchen is working first, so I can call Quinn and let him know where we are.”

  “Oh! Please ask him to call Beatrice and Agatha also. I wouldn’t want them to worry, plus I promised them I’d let them know where Houdini and DA wanted to go.”

  He narrowed his gaze on her. “What do you mean, where they wanted to go?”

  Lu had taken the two items out of the cooler and wheeled it over so it sat in front of one of the dining-table chairs. “Your dog and his damned assistant kidnapped me. They tracked me down, bullied me, and then forced me to drive them around looking for you. For an hour.”

  Bullied? Kidnapped? “Why didn’t Beatrice and Agatha stop them?”

  Lu squeezed the water out of her long hair, so it fell into the cooler. Then she did some twisty thing with her hair until it was in one of those messy bun styles that made men think of rolling around in the sheets.

  “Ha! They said it was more exciting than their TV crime shows and couldn’t wait to see where the two wanted to go.”

  Tynan ran a hand over his face. “Let me understand this…Agatha and Beatrice let you head into the forest with a tropical storm on the way to look for me? By yourself?”

  “Not exactly. Hey, you know what?” She blinked her big brown eyes up at him. “I would feel better if we got your ankle in the ice now.”

  “Don’t think we’re done here.” He hit her with one of his most intimidating gazes and pointed his finger at her, then hobbled into the kitchen to make the call but the phone was dead. Without knowing what was going on with the weather, their safest bet was to stay put.

  Tynan limped back into the main room. It looked as if he and Lu would have all night to talk things over, and that was more than fine with him. He was afraid he might need all night.

  A month ago, when Lu first had walked into his life, he’d had no earthly idea what he wanted. From day one she’d rubbed him the wrong way, but before long he hadn’t cared. She could have rubbed him up, down, sideways, or with sandpaper, as long as she was touching him. And he began needing to touch her.

  Then the first blow had hit and she’d stolen his cabin. Next, he’d gotten slammed with the real bombshell when he’d discovered she’d been Joey’s fiancée. No, not just his fiancée but his high school sweetheart. Was he such an asshole that the universe needed to play this sad joke on him?

  How else could a commitment-phobic lifer like himself suddenly find the one woman he could imagine having a real, committed relationship with—and it ended up being a woman who had every right to hate him for not keeping her fiancé safe and alive?

  But standing here looking at Lu now, none of it mattered. None of it. Now all he had to do was convince her to believe that too.

  Damn. The advice Captain York had given him a few months ago suddenly made sense. He’d said after experiencing war things would never be the same. And you either let that eat away at your soul or you figured out how to build your life around that immovable boulder. If you were lucky, you could chip it down in size, but it would always be there at your core.

  In that moment, as he stared over at Lu, he had a revelation. Immovable boulders made strong foundations. He was ready to build his life on his. Preferably one with Lu standing beside him.

  “Hey, hello, Tynan?” Lu stood next to the cooler waving her hand, trying to catch his attention. “What did Quinn say?”

  “What? Oh, nothing. The phone line’s dead.” He sucked in a breath; it was now or never to make his case. “We’ll have to ride it out here.”

  “Looks like it.” She shrugged then tapped the open lid of the cooler. “The ice is ready. Let’s get your foot in before it melts.”

  “Right. But first—take off your clothes. Strip, Tink.”

  39

  Strip? Liquid heat surged through her body. Hallelujah. Good things happened when her clothes came off around Tynan Cates. “I thought you’d never ask.”

  “We’re both soaked through.” His brows lowered and he hobbled toward her. “It makes sense to get out of our wet clothes.”

  “Oh, sure, right.” Gah! He’d meant strip as in get-out-of-your-wet-clothes strip, not strip-naked-so-I-can-do-lovely-things-to-you-with-my-mouth-and-hands strip. Well, if she was going to try to talk the commitment-phobic man into an actual relationship, doing it while half-naked might help. “You’re absolutely right. I’m feeling downright chilly. So we’ll strip. Get you in the ice and then I’ll get a fire going.”

  There was no way she was going to give him a single second to think about this. She whipped her sweater off, followed by her jeans. Wet jeans never came off easily, so her dream of peeling them off like a sexy Victoria’s Secret model died when she fell backward onto the couch and kicked them off in frustration.

  “I’m fine!” She jumped up, laying her clothes over the back of the couch, more than a little nervous about standing in front of him in her underwear. “You too. Should we cut your pants off?”

  His gaze ate her up. “Let me take off my boot and get a look first.”

  Holy cow, it was a painful process. Even using Tynan’s knife to cut off the rigged-up splint and the boot laces, it had to hurt like hell. He gritted his teeth and let her hack away at the boot until it finally came off. She rolled his sock down as gently as she could, but, oh lord, it was bruised about three different shades of purple. And the swelling…oh boy.

  “You poor thing.” She bit her lip to stop from crying.

  “Let’s do this.” Tynan grabbed the knife back and sliced up the outside seam of the pant leg on his injured side. Once it was open he cut the fabric off at midthigh, ending up with one long pant leg and the other baring his bulging thigh muscles. Then, without a moment’s hesitation, he stuck his injured ankle straight into the cooler of ice and water with a hiss of air through his
teeth. “Oh shit.”

  He sat on the chair, gripping the edges of the seat for a minute while he adjusted to the pain. “While my foot is going painfully numb, you can distract me with that explanation of how you ended up in Climax.”

  “I stripped down to my underwear to distract you.”

  “Oh, it’s working. Only between the sprain and the ice treatment, my pain level is pretty high.” He was working those crazy eyes of his. Shining them on her with so much heat, her stomach swirled and flopped where she stood. “I might need you to lose the bra too.”

  “I just might.” She could tell when his foot started to go numb; the lines in his forehead smoothed out and his massive thigh muscles relaxed. She moved over to start a fire, bending over to peek up into the chimney to see if the flue was open.

  “Christ, Lu, warn me next time.”

  She grinned and went about building a fire from the logs on the hearth, letting him stare at her ass the whole time. She was hoping to distract him long enough for her to figure out where to start. Once the fire caught she turned back to Tynan. Outside, wind gusts rattled the windows while rain pounded, constant and heavy against the roof. DA jumped away from the window when a tree limb smacked up against it.

  Lu crossed her arms under her breasts, trying not to look awkward. Tynan must have noticed because he pulled his T-shirt off and handed it to her.

  “Here, put this on. I’m having trouble concentrating over here.”

  She ran her gaze over his face, searching for pain. “Oh no. Your concussion?”

  “No. Your breasts.”

  She almost snorted, but then noticed he was actually serious, and that made her heart skip a beat. So instead, she slipped on the T-shirt quickly. It was soft, warmed by his body, and smelled faintly of his spicy aftershave and rain.

  Taking a deep breath, she tried to focus on everything in her heart she wanted to lay out and expose to him.