Seducing Zeb (Tarnished Saints Series) (8 page)

“Don’t bother being the welcoming committee
since she won’t be family in a few weeks anyway,” Zeb said over his shoulder, making Cat feel very insecure.

“I don’t get it,” said Judas, trying again to rock the baby
as he walked but it just kept crying.

“I was supposed to marry Zeb’s twin
brother but ended up with him by accident,” said Cat. “We’ve filed for an annulment.”

“Makes perfect sense
,” said Judas making a face. They were now out in the pickup area and Cat realized they were taking the squad car to Zeb’s home. The car was illegally parked and the lights atop it were blinking.

The porter tried to fit all the suitcases in the trunk while Judas strapped the baby in the car seat in the back.

“You should have told me you needed a truck and I would have asked Thomas to come get you,” said Judas, closing the car door and looking at the leftover luggage that wouldn’t fit in the trunk just sitting on the sidewalk.

“We’ll make it fit,” said Zeb, cramming a suitcase in back next to the baby.
Then with a nod of his head he motioned to Cat. “Get in.”

Cat looked at the back seat. It was
made of a hard molded plastic that was probably used in squad cars in case someone who’d been arrested started puking or bleeding so it would be easy to clean. There was a screaming baby in the back, and no real room for her to sit.

“I think I’d be better off in front,” she said.

“Like hell,” growled Zeb. “Now take off the heels and you’ll fit just fine. I’ll load the extra two suitcases on your lap and we’ll be on our way.”

Cat wasn’t going to sit in the back and that was all there was to it. “Judas, is there any way the three of us could fit in the front seat of your car?” she asked and flipped her hair over her shoulder as she talked.

“Oh no, you don’t,” said Zeb, knowing exactly what she was up to.

“Well, I don’t see how,” said Judas. “But I’m sure Zeb wouldn’t mind sitting in the back with the baby and the luggage and you can ride up front with me.” Judas rushed around and opened the passenger side door and helped her get into the car. As Cat pulled her legs inside she noticed the look on Zeb’s face. It was anger mixed with lust, and that’s when she purposely bent over to fix her shoe, looking up to Zeb and smiling. His eyes were first on her legs and then on her cleavage.

“Damn you, woman,” he growled and got in the back. His brother loaded all her luggage atop him. She looked up to see a camera mounted on the front windshield that monitored the back seat. She almost laughed aloud to see just the top of Zeb’s hair sticking up above the suitcases, and also his hands coming out to the sides to cover his ears so he wouldn’t have to listen to the baby’s screaming.

Judas got in the car and checked the camera and smiled. “My grandson’s sure got a set of lungs on him, doesn’t he?” he asked proudly, pulling out into traffic with his siren going now as well. He made a sharp merge an
d one of the suitcases slid into Zeb’s chest. She saw him staring right into the camera, clenching his jaw and just shaking his head.

“I can’t wait to meet the rest of my new family,” said Cat
, turning around and looking through the back window at Zeb and waggling her fingers in a wave. “So are all your brothers like Zeb?”

“Oh, no,” said Judas, “not at all.”

“Thank goodness,” she mumbled.

“Zeb is the classy one of the bunch and also the richest. You’re lucky you got the best of the lot when you married him, Cat.”

Cat was speechless and didn’t know how to respond to that!

Chapter 7

Zeb wasn’t happy at all when Judas informed him they’d have to make a stop and drop off the baby before he took them to Zeb’s condo in Benton Harbor. His condo was right by his new office and on Lake Michigan about a half hour drive from the little town of Sweet Water. The crying baby was hurting his ears and the suitcases were full of grease on the bottom, ruining his Armani suit as well as digging into his chest.

“Damn,” he said, noticing that
Judas turned down the road toward Thomas’s house instead of toward his own cottage. Zeb reached out, managing to rap his knuckles on the window that separated the front seat from the back, trying to get Judas’s attention.

Judas reached over and slid open the wind
ow, but there was still bars between them. “What is it, Zeb? We’re almost there.”

“Why
are we going to Thomas’s house instead of yours?” he asked, knowing that all the kids would be home from school since it was the weekend. He wanted to hide away in his place with Cat until he’d had time to talk to her about their situation and figure out what the arrangements would be for the next few weeks until he was able to get the marriage annulled.

But now, Judas was taking them right into the eye of the storm, and his entire family was going to see Cat. He didn’t know how to explain this. Nor did he want to right now.

“My daughter is over here,” Judas said over his shoulder. “She just got home from school and we’re having a picnic to celebrate since she passed her test.”

“School? It’s Sunday, Judas. No one goes to school on Sunday.”

“It’s Sunday school at the church,” he told him. “She’s actually been attending a class for teens that introduces them to the Bible. Pete started it up before he went back to Peru, and it’s taking off beautifully. Jaydee got all her friends to join as well.

“Well, hell, aren’t we lucky.”

“Who is Jaydee and Pete?” he heard Cat ask him.

“Jaydee
is my daughter,” Judas explained. Actually her name is Judith Delaney named after me and my wife Laney, but everyone calls her J.D. She likes it when I call her Jaydee tho. She’s seventeen and the baby is hers. His name is Matthias. And Pete is our minister brother. He’s in Peru doing missionary work right now but is being relocated to Sweet Water’s Twelve Apostles Church soon. It’s the nondenominational church our father started before he died. I can’t believe Zeb didn’t tell you all this before you got married.”

“Well, he’s not that great at communicating,” Cat said, making Zeb want to scream.

“Zeb, shame on you,” said Judas through the window. “Even I know that communication is the most important thing in a marriage.”

“Really. Well
, I’d think the most important thing would be knowing the man’s name you were marrying,” said Zeb through the suitcases. “And don’t bother telling her anything about our family because it doesn’t matter. We won’t be married any more in a few weeks anyway.”

J
udas stopped the car and their brother Thomas’s six boys spotted them and ran over. The door opened and they started pulling the suitcases off of him and stacking them on the ground. Zeb slipped out quickly, hoping he could somehow keep Cat in the car and the questions to a minimum.

“Don’t unload the luggage,” Zeb told them. “It’s going to my place, so put it back in the car.”

“Ok, Uncle Zeb, said Daniel, Thomas’s eldest son who had turned seventeen just recently. “Jake and Josh, you load them back in and I’ll get the baby and bring him to J.D,” he instructed his nine-year-old twin brothers.

“I’ve got him,” said Judas lifting the baby out of the car
. It was still in the carrier that was made to strap right onto the seat. It wasn’t hard for him to do that one-handed.

The door to the house opened and to Zeb’s dismay, not only J.D.,
but Judas’s wife Laney walked out followed by Thomas and his wife, Angel, and their young daughter, Gabby. Then he saw his brother, Levi and his wife, Candace, and their six-year-old twins, Val and Vance who came out to greet them too.

“Wow, you have quite
a big family,” said Cat, stretching her long legs out of the car and standing up on her spiked heels, pulling a wrinkle out of her dress.

“Zeb, good to see you,” said their brother Thomas, coming over to shak
e Zeb’s hand with Levi right by his side. All the women and kids ran over to croon over the family’s first grandkid.

“Have a nice trip?” asked Levi, then looked over to Cat and smiled and nodded his head. “
Oh. I guess so.”

“Guys, this is Catalina,” he said, splaying a hand toward her.

“Just call me Cat,” she said, flashing one of her hundred-thousand-dollar smiles. “After all, I’m family now.”

“Family?” both Thomas and Levi said together.

“That’s right, Zeb and I are married.” She continued talking and Zeb just wanted to crawl under a rock and die.

“Well, congrats, bro, you sly devil,” said Tho
mas with a slap to Zeb’s back.

“Anything to get out of having your wedding at my restaurant, I see,” said Levi jokingly. “Candace,” he said, calling his wife over from the baby. “Come meet Zeb’s new bride.”

“Bride?” he heard Candace say, and then all of the sudden the group of women and children shifted and in two seconds he could no longer see Cat as she was surrounded by his family congratulating her and welcoming her to the family.

“You two will be staying for the barbeque won’t you?” asked Angel
– Thomas’s wife. “We have plenty of food, so don’t feel as if you’d be imposing.”

“Oh, I’d love to,” said Cat before he could object. And before he knew it, Cat and his sisters-in-law were headed across the lawn with a trail of kids behind them.

“So, what made you decide to get married in Vegas and who is she?” asked Levi, as both he and Thomas had their eyes glued to Cat’s ass as she sashayed across the lawn, almost falling as her heels dug into the dirt.

“I didn’t, I’m not the hell sure, and I need a beer fast,” said Zeb, heading away before he had to answer any more questions.

* * *

Cat had the best day of her life, being introdu
ced to Zeb’s family – some of them anyway, and having a barbeque with them. She’d never felt like part of a family until now. And she’d been so alone for so long, and so angry with what her father did to her and her mother, that she’d forgotten how to be happy.

But Zeb’s family was wonderful. They all
accepted her so easily and were so friendly too. They seemed so different than Zeb, and she was starting to wonder what it would have been like if she’d married James instead.

But she realized that when she looked at James she didn’t feel that tingle of excitement down low in her belly that she did every time she glanced at Zeb. He was sexy and exciting. He was successful and rich. And though she hated the fact he was a lawyer, she wondered if maybe he was a lot like his other brothers down deep and she just hadn’t seen that side yet.

“So, tell us about your family,” said Laney, holding her grandson in her arms. Cat had heard about so many people in the family tonight that she was sure she’d never remember them all. Cat was thirty years old and knew that Laney was only a few years older than her. She wondered what it would feel like to have kids, let alone grandkids. Seeing Laney with her grandbaby only made Cat feel her biological clock ticking.

“Oh, there’s really nothing to tell,” she said.

“Come on, Cat,” said Zeb, biting into a bacon-mushroom-cheeseburger. “I’d like to know all your secrets as well.”

“I don’t have secrets,” she said, picking up her paper cup of lemonade and taking a sip. She looked up over the rim and saw Zeb watching her intently. He’d been looking at her with those bedroom eyes throughout the entire meal and if he didn’t stop it soon, she didn’t know if she’d be able to control herself when they got alone tonight. Ever since she gave him that kiss, it’s all she could think about. Th
e smell of his musky cologne lingered on her. And the way the stubble on his jaw scratched her lightly on the cheek when their lips met earlier, lodged a memory in her brain.

His kiss was intoxicating and had been more passionate than any of t
he kisses she’d ever had from Denny. Actually, she’d sprang to life more in Zeb’s short embrace than she ever had with any man she’d gone to bed with. And it wasn’t just because of Zeb’s good looks, which didn’t hurt things any. There was something inside him that drew him to her. And though she didn’t realize it at first and Zeb probably didn’t realize it still, they were both so much alike it was scary.

Zeb accused her of using her looks to get what she wanted, when in reality, Zeb did the exact same thing. He was all about being flashy, wearing an Armani suit to Vegas a
s well as a Rolex, and throwing around his money at the game tables and also flying first class. He liked money and the things it could buy, just as much as she did.

But the difference between them was that Cat knew what it felt like to be
all alone and have nothing but the clothes on her back, not knowing where her next meal was coming from. Zeb, she was sure, never had to endure anything like that. Not with being a part of the Taylor family. Being part of this family, someone was always around to comfort and care for each other. That was something she longed for and missed dearly since the day her father took her brother away and never returned.

“Well, thanks for the food, but we’ve got to get going,” said Zeb
, throwing down his napkin atop his paper plate. “Can someone give us a ride?”