He did it on purpose. “Not into the kitchen, smart-ass. Into the house!”
“The underground garage.”
I’d pitch the nearest mixing bowl at his head. I spun to face him, wishing he’d put on a shirt and regretting once licking every taut muscle on his chest.
“That isn’t what I mean…” My rage blitzed into a sharp huff. “There’s an underground parking garage?”
“Two levels. Only one’s underground. But the elevator takes you to the roof where the tennis courts are.”
I stared at him. He arched an eyebrow. Tennis courts?
For as much as I wanted to squeal in delight for my newfound palace, Zach Harden was still half-naked and dripping in my brand new kitchen.
Well, one of my kitchens. But I liked this one. I’d probably use it the most. Which meant I preferred it puddleless.
“Why are you here?” I tossed a tea-towel at him. It hardly covered his palm let alone the rest of his six-foot-four, monstrous bulk. “How’d you get in?”
“I have a key.”
“Impossible.”
He brushed the towel over his muscles. His tempting, sea-foam eyes studied me, made greener only by the stacks of cash that insulated the walls of my new house. “My name is on the deed too. I live here.”
“You do not.”
“Just moved in.”
I heard a fizzle. I hoped it was the last shred of my patience burning up and not a snap of an aneurysm.
“You can’t move in here,” I said. “I told you. You are not welcome in my house.”
He shrugged and foraged in my fridge. “You don’t have to invite me in if I have a key code. I’m not a vampire.”
Not a vampire? He’d bit me enough during our night together. A couple discreet hickeys proved otherwise. I slammed the refrigerator shut and leaned against the steel doors. Zach only smiled. I began to loathe those dimples.
“This is ridiculous,” I said. “You didn’t even know my father. You can’t live in his house.”
He shrugged. “Actually, I did know him.”
“You…did?”
“I met him a couple times. Nice guy. We had a bit in common. He was in the service. Marines.”
I didn’t know that. It didn’t matter.
“One conversation doesn’t entitle you to half of his life. This isn’t your house. You’re inheriting money that…that…”
“Belongs to you?”
Oh, Christ, he made me sound like a money-hungry gold-digger. It wasn’t like that at all. Dad took care of me in material ways, and Momma taught me resilience and strength. I didn’t need billions to make me happy.
I didn’t even know what I needed.
Why the hell didn’t Dad ever tell me he was in the service?
Why didn’t he tell me he had a secret family with a lady he married a month before he died? Then again, would I have even listened to a word he said?
“Look,” I sighed. “You know this is wrong. My dad updated his will, but he didn’t think he’d die so soon. This is a mistake.”
“He signed it, witnessed it by his attorney, and had it notarized. It’s hard to argue it.”
Well, I was trying, wasn’t I? “Why are you wet?”
He liked that I studied his muscles, glistening with water droplets. “Swimming. There’s a great pool out back.”
A pool. Fantastic. And he had been in it. Exercising in the clear pool. Letting the sun warm his lightly bronzing skin. I imagined him diving through the water as it caressed a body so powerful and fierce he’d cut through the ripples like a sword through silk.
Momma was too terrified of water to let me swim. Now all I could imagine was slipping beneath the surface with a skilled military man who probably worked better under the waves than above them.
But those thoughts were wrong. A well of anger rushed over me, drowning me in unspoken words that thickened over a tongue which could still taste every inch of his body. I ground my teeth.
Step-brother.
He was my step-brother.
And he didn’t tell me before seducing me. He didn’t warn me before he took half of my inheritance. And now he ate a cold pepperoni pizza from the fridge. Where the hell did he even get a pizza?
“This is ridiculous.” I crossed my arms. “You have ten seconds to get out of my house.”
“Our house.”
“Ten. Nine. Eight.”
“Shay, I have every right to be here.”
“Seven. Six. Five.”
“God damn, you’re cute when you’re angry.”
Ignition. “Fourthreetwoone.”
“Easy.” Zach sucked a bit of pizza sauce from his finger. I stared only at his lips. “I’m just messing with you. You’re wound pretty tight, you know?”
“I get that way when strangers trespass in my house.”
“I’m not really a stranger anymore, am I?”
I didn’t let him get to me. “What happened, happened. It was a mistake, and you should be ashamed of yourself.”
“I’m not,” he said.
“I’m not surprised.”
“You’re gonna tell me you didn’t have fun?”
It wasn’t like I could lie. He had been there. He personally witnessed how many times I humiliated myself. I begged for him to debase me, and he did it perfectly.
“This isn’t about that night,” I said. “This is about here and now. You’re the least trustworthy man I know. I am not sharing a house with you. I want you gone.”
“You’re right. I didn’t tell you that we were step-siblings.” He leaned closer. My heart and stomach duked it out between flitters and flops and every inappropriate butterfly that grew to the size of a hawk. “But everything else that night? That was totally honest. We had an un-fucking-believable night of sex. You can’t bluff that.”
I could and I would. He didn’t buy it.
“Admit it, Shay. We aren’t strangers, and you’re kidding yourself if you think I’m gonna walk out that door and forget all about you. Ain’t happening. You’re in my blood now, and I’m in yours.”
“I’m not falling for it.”
“I’ll keep the addiction hidden if you can.”
He smirked. I sunk back against the fridge though I’d only find relief if I ducked inside of it.
His eyes. The dimples. That unbelievable body still shining with the occasional drip-drop of water. I followed a single sparkling bead as it crossed over the shadow of his pecs, along the ridged six-pack of his tongue-tempting abs, and lower. It crested in the V which peeked from the waistband of his shorts.
The man was perfection.
And what waited beneath the shorts? The source of his pride. The one delight I had yet to forget from the biggest mistake of my life.
He caught me staring at it. Thinking about it.
Wanting it.
Holy Christ, I was as big a perv as him. Crushing on my step-brother was bad enough. He was nothing but a no-good con-artist who got his money and his rocks off all in the same night.
This was a nightmare and a half. I’d abandon the house myself if it meant I could piece together some shreds of my dignity. All I wanted was to slip into a warm bath where only the removable showerhead knew where I touched.
“Get out.” Venom strengthened my words. It tasted an awful lot like desire. “Or get an attorney.”
“Christ, I’ve had insurgents crack easier than you.”
I quieted. He pulled away from me, chuckling as he crossed the kitchen. His trunks didn’t fall low enough, and his perfectly muscular ass hid from me. I wondered if he still had marks from where my fingernails dug in, trying to fit him deeper inside me.
I took my first deep breath. Mistake. The air filled with him. Sweat, salt, and dust. It certainly wasn’t what Atlanta’s Old Money smelled like.
“I have a proposition for you,” he said.
“You’ve propositioned me enough, thank you.”
Zach winked. “We can keep our clothes on for this.”
Then why wasn’t he wearing any yet? I couldn’t think of any insults to lob at him while his pecs twitched as he inadvertently flexed.
“I understand this was a big shock,” he said. “It was for me too. But we’re both adults.”
“What’s your point?”
He leaned against the counter as if he belonged in the house. As if he already knew the name of the spikey fruit loaded in the baskets by the window or if the pizza oven was wood or charcoal.
If Zach could tell me where the nearest bathroom was, we’d be set.
“My point is, we can settle this in a minute flat,” he said.
“Well, this I gotta hear.”
“I propose we share the house.”
“And you’re done.”
Zach prevented me from storming out. “Shay, listen. Let’s temporarily share the house. I’m only on leave for a few more weeks. Let me crash in the lap of luxury before I get shipped back to some desert where there’s more explosives and camels than…” He patted the granite countertop, though his eyes lingered on me. “Simple delights.”
“That doesn’t solve our problem. It just moves it to a different continent.”
Zach’s smirk faded, and he turned serious. An odd sincerity, but one I completely believed.
“I’m not looking for the easy way out or a get rich quick scheme. Never was. I’m a SEAL. That’s my job. That’s my life. I live to serve, and this…” He gestured around the mansion. “Is nothing but a fairy-tale while I wait for my next deployment. That’s all.”