Broken Promise (The Denton Family Legacy #1)(9)
“I’m not going to hurt you.”
“Then why were you going to touch me?”
Lou was such a feisty woman, and nervous as hell. He wondered if she even knew it. “I was just going to tuck your hair behind your ear, Lou,” he said, holding his hand up to show that he meant her no harm.
She quickly tucked her hair behind her ear. “My name is Louisa.”
“I just heard you call yourself Lou with me my sister.”
“I said my friends called me Lou. You’re not a friend.”
“Are you trying to be a bitch?”
“It comes naturally.” She placed her hand on her hip, and he loved it. Jacob loved her attitude.
“So, you’re Riley’s twin.”
“The one you didn’t get to beat up.”
“He held his own in the fight.”
“Can I please get past?” she asked.
He shook his head. “Not at all. I’m intrigued by you.”
She growled, stamping her foot. “You can’t keep me here.”
“I want to take you out on a date.”
“No.”
Jacob chuckled. She was the first woman who had ever turned him down.
“Do you know how many women there would be who’d love for me to take them out?”
“Then take them out. Go and ask them. I’m not going on a date with you.”
He was about to say something else, but Riley interrupted them. “I’m heading out, sis. Do you want a ride?”
“Yes.” She pushed past him before he had a chance to respond and keep her with him a few moments longer. Fuck, that one touch and he wanted more. He was fucking addicted to her already. Jacob wondered if this was what his father had gone through when he found his mother. It wasn’t fun. It was a fucking nightmare. He watched her walk away from him without even a glance back.
Lou had felt nothing, and he was going to think of her as Lou, and not Louisa.
Riley placed his hand at her back, and if they were not brother and sister he’d have fucking killed the bastard for touching what belonged to him. He followed the twins out of the house, and they only stopped so that Riley could say goodbye to their parents. Lou looked everywhere else.
Only when he was sure that she was okay did he go in search of his parents. He found them both out in the garden staring up at the stars.
“He made it, baby, I told you he would.”
“No more, Maddox. No more fighting.”
“I can’t stop the boys from fighting, but Tamsin won’t go through it.”
His mother chuckled. “I don’t know. The way Tamsin is, she’ll demand that she gets a chance to fight.”
“Not happening.”
“You’re not going to stop her from falling in love.”
Maddox chuckled. “I’ll try.”
“Mom. Dad,” he said, gaining their attention.
They both turned to him.
“What is it?” Charlotte asked.
“I’ve found my woman.”
Jacob watched as his parents smiled and moved toward him. “That’s awesome news. Congratulations,” Maddox said.
He looked toward his mother. “She doesn’t have a clue how I feel. Did you? Did you know how you felt about Dad?”
His parents shared a look, a private look that made him crazier than anything.
“Who is it?” his father asked.
“Louisa Moore.”
His mother winced. “That’s going to be a problem.”
“Why? What’s wrong with her?”
“It’s not her that’s the problem. Her parents are the problem. They’re going to try to wrangle for a part within the family,” Charlotte said. “And they’re not the kind of people we want associated with us.”
“You were willing to let Riley fight my brother.”
“Riley was the only one willing to make the call. His parents didn’t have a clue when we called to arrange the fight,” Maddox said. “I’ve heard the twins are a good pair, but their older brothers are petty criminals. Their parents are not much better.”
“I can’t control the way I feel about her. I was only close to her, and I needed to touch her, to be with her.” He couldn’t even begin to describe the way his feelings were consuming him. It was unlike anything he’d ever felt before. The need to follow her, to hold her was so strong, and no woman had ever made him want to do this. Sure, he liked to fuck women, and he’d screwed plenty of women in his time, but none of them had ever held him like this.
Lou hadn’t even wanted him, yet he’d felt this consuming desire to claim her.
None of it made any sense to him. He didn’t like it, not one bit.
“That’s how it is.”