* * * *
Kali Jenkins watched with glee as her aim proved accurate and the Angry Bird destroyed the final stone tower and dumped the last little pig on the ground before it disappeared. Finally, after millions of attempts—okay, maybe fifteen—that level was done. She pressed the button to continue, intending only to look at the next level before putting her phone away and getting back to work, but the level looked too interesting, and she decided to try just once.
Ten or twelve attempts later she was interrupted from her little war against green piggies when someone knocked on her door. She glanced at the clock, surprised to realize more than a half hour had passed since she’d decided to take a break. Hell, being her own boss really had its drawbacks sometimes.
She plastered on a smile and opened the door, hoping that whoever stood on the other side wouldn’t take forever to get rid of. But the annoying, oversized, and very familiar Neanderthal pushed past her and stepped into her foyer without even saying hello.
“What do you want?” she demanded, hands on her hips, foot tapping in annoyance.
“I want you to close the door, lock it, and then sit down so we can talk.”
“Look, you and me,” she said, waving her hands between them, “have nothing to talk about.”
“Turns out that’s not exactly true.”
She rolled her eyes, stomped her foot in annoyance, and considered using her phone for something besides playing Angry Birds—like maybe calling the police.
The thought was only half formed when her brother stepped through the open doorway, gave her an annoyed look, and then turned to lock it like Ronan had ordered when he first walked in. Of course, simply the fact that Ronan had ordered her to do it in the first place was a good enough reason for her to leave it open. That and the fact she wanted the obnoxious man out of her house.
Seriously, one horrible, tragic, pathetic double date with her brother and his wife should have made certain that neither of them wanted to be in the same room ever again.
“What do you want?” she asked her brother. Maybe she’d get a straight answer out of him.
“I want you to listen to Ronan. He’s going to keep you safe.”
The words “what the fuck?” were bouncing around her head, but since she tried not to swear in front of her big brother, she swallowed them and turned her gaze on Ronan. It didn’t help her anger levels that the man was still good looking, hard in all the right places, and built like any woman’s wildest dream.
Just because she’d fantasized about him a time or two—okay, at least a couple dozen—it didn’t mean she wanted to put up with the man’s obnoxious personality. Hell, if he could maybe get a personality transplant, he might actually be the perfect man.
But none of her mental meanderings explained why her brother and his annoying army buddy were standing in the middle of her living room. Through clenched teeth she asked for an explanation one more time. “What makes you think I’m not safe?”
“It’s just a precaution,” Dave said, suddenly acting like nothing was wrong. Again the words “what the fuck?” where bouncing around her head, and at this rate they were liable to bounce right out of her mouth, brother or not.
“A precaution for what?” Her jaw was starting to ache from the effort of holding back her temper. It had been obvious when her brother walked in that he was very agitated about something, so the nonchalant act wasn’t fooling her.
“I’ve got to go,” Dave said and moved to press a kiss to her forehead. “Listen to Ronan. He’ll keep you safe.”
“Uh-huh,” she said, not wanting to commit to that course of action. Seriously, the guy didn’t even smell pleasant. Had he come straight from the gym? God, she hoped so, because having a man who smelled like that all the time was seriously going to overtax her potpourri. And, well okay, it wasn’t exactly an unpleasant odor, more of a clean, sweaty, hot man smell rather than a full-on stink, but this was her house. Shouldn’t she have the final say in what smells—delicious or otherwise—should be allowed in?
With a final nod in Ronan’s direction, Dave left, pulled the door behind him, and used his own key to lock her deadbolt. She turned to Ronan, put her hands on her hips, and issued her demand. “Explain.”
He shrugged.
She growled low in her throat and wished she had the physical strength to toss him out of her house. Maybe if she’d gone to the gym instead of playing games on her cell phone she would have been able. She glanced at the man-mountain with legs as thick as tree trunks and dismissed her fanciful thinking. It wouldn’t have mattered how many times she visited the gym, she’d need three of her just to shift his stubborn ass.