Indigo Nights: A Sexy, Contemporary Romance (23 page)

“I’m meeting your brother?”

I covered my face with my hands. “No. I didn’t mean—”

“In your phone call, he said he wanted to meet me?”

I stayed silent, hoping I might disappear if I didn’t respond.

“Beth, you know I can see you even if you’re covering your face so you can’t see me, right?”

I burst out laughing and dropped my hands into my lap. “Okay, you win. Yes, he said he wanted to meet you.”

“Okay, good. I’ll come over when we take ownership of Redux in two weeks. We can do it then.”

“Just like that? You don’t think it’s too much too soon? I don’t want us to burn out.”

“Yeah, I said I wanted to. Why is it such a big deal? I’m not telling him you’re knocked up.”

I stretched to kiss his jaw. “Okay then.”

How had Dylan gone from incredible sex and a tight ass to the guy who was flying to London to meet my family?

My stomach fluttered. Everything was just too perfect.

Dylan

I’d told Beth that she didn’t need to meet me at the airport, but now that I’d landed, I was delighted she’d told me that she was ignoring me and would be waiting for me.

As soon as I passed customs, I craned my neck to try to spot her in the crowd. Her beautiful smile and her plump red lips came into view first. Her grin was wide and she held her hands up high, as if she were a ring girl at a boxing match, except her sign read “Mr. 8A.”

She was on the other side of a waist-high metal barrier, but that didn’t stop me from leaning across and pressing my lips to hers. Her hands slipped around my neck and I let go of my suitcase so I could run my hands across her back. She smelled like lemons. I’d missed her. It had been sixteen days since I’d last seen her.

I rounded my hands around her ass and pulled her over the barrier. She clamped her legs around my waist. I wanted to be in private, to slide my tongue over her soft, pliable skin. I dipped my lips over hers and she moaned. There was going to be a lot more of that very soon.

Blindly, I reached for my case and began to walk us forward. She pulled back from our kiss. “Hey. It’s good to see you.”

I chuckled. “The feeling is mutual.”

She squeezed her arms and legs tighter. “Shall I get down?” I didn’t want her to, but I knew we’d get to our destination quicker if she did. “Stop a minute, Dylan.”

I let her down to the floor, bending to kiss the beauty spot on her cheekbone.

“I have a confession,” she announced. “I’m not sure you’re going to like it—I don’t like it.”

My gut twisted. Had she hooked up with someone? I tried not to give away my concern. Instead, I took her hand in mine and brought her knuckles to my lips. “Tell me.” She was a beautiful girl; no doubt she was being hit on all the time.

“Sunday night dinner has kind of moved to Saturday night dinner, which means we have to go straight to my brother’s from here.” She screwed up her face as if she was waiting for me to lose it.

“Okay,” I replied, relieved it wasn’t something more serious, thankful there had been no one else. It was as if I was waiting for something to go wrong because everything was so right.

“Okay? That’s okay with you?” She raised her eyebrows. “Because it’s not with me. I want to get naked, like now.”

I chuckled. “Yeah, me too. But look at it this way, unless your brother kills me, we can stay in bed for the whole day tomorrow.”

“Who’s going to get me off, if you’ve been murdered? This is why we needed to get naked
before
you meet Jake.”

I glanced at her. “You think you’re cute, don’t you?”

She cocked her shoulder. “Yes. And you agree with me.”

I put my arm around her neck, pulling her toward me and kissing the top of her head as we headed toward the car.

“How come you organized a car?” she asked as we approached a man with my name on a sign. “I was going to take you on the train.”

“The train?”

“Yes. Are you so spoiled that you can’t take the Heathrow express?”

“Spoiled? Maybe I just wanted you to myself.”

“I think you need to see how the rest of London travels. Come on.” She grabbed my hand and started pulling me away from the car.

“I’m sorry,” I said to the driver. “I’m not going to need you, just charge my account all the same.” Beth pulled me toward a sign that said Trains. There weren’t many women who could persuade me onto public transport.

As we stood on the edge of the platform, Beth’s hand in mine, I wanted to ask her a thousand questions about her brother. I knew she was close to him, so it was important that I made a good impression. “Are you nervous about me meeting your brother?”

She glanced at me and moved closer so her body was pressed up against mine. “A little.”

“Because you don’t trust your judgment yet?”

I could almost see the filter in her brain start to organize her words. She didn’t want to hurt me. She knew she was one of the only women who ever could.

“You can be honest, Beth.”

She smiled and the train interrupted us. We climbed on board, stowing my luggage and finding a pair of seats. As we sat, she flung both her legs over my knee and brought my hand to her lap. I stroked her stocking-covered legs, wishing we were going to be alone soon.

“I didn’t realize that that’s what I was nervous about, but I think you’re right. It’s just that Jake has been part of my world, part of my sobriety, for so long that sometimes I forget that I’m separate from him. I’ve depended on him for so much. It’s like the baking. That’s something for me, and if it’s a success then that’s all on me. It’s good, but scary. With you, you’re my choice, too. I’m not used to making so many choices that don’t involve my brother. So I guess I just want him to think I’ve done well. Especially because I’m invested.”

I lifted her hand and kissed her knuckles, but didn’t say anything. I wanted her to tell me how she was feeling.

She leaned back onto the window and stared at her lap. “I didn’t expect it to be like this between us. It feels so good between us, as if it’s . . .”
It
.
Forever.
I wanted her to finish the sentence. I wanted her to feel the same way I did.

She shrugged. “I don’t know. I just want him to like you. It’s important.” She smiled at me. “But no pressure.”

There was a lot of pressure. Because I’d not spent time with Jake and Beth together, I wasn’t quite sure of the hold he had over her. If he didn’t like me, what would this mean for us? She said she was invested, but I wasn’t convinced that we’d survive if Jake and I didn’t hit it off.

Sweat beaded at my brow. Fuck, I could have done with a night alone with Beth before this introduction. She calmed me, made me realize what was important. I needed that. Work was increasingly stressful. The Redux deal was a huge challenge, particularly as Raf and I were so far away. Almost all the projects we’d been involved with were domestic. Managing a company in another country was proving to be a challenge. On top of everything, I didn’t want to fuck things up with Beth. Businesses could be rebuilt, but time and experience had told me women like Beth came along once in a lifetime. I didn’t want what was happening at work to impact my introduction to Jake.

“So tell me about him. Does he like sports?” Would I have anything in common with this guy?

My phone rang. Damn, I should have turned it to silent when I switched it back on. I reached into my pocket for my cell and cancelled the call.

Alicia had been calling on and off since the gala. I’d not answered any of her calls. I kept meaning to work out how to block her, but hadn’t quite managed it. I didn’t want to keep anything from Beth, now just wasn’t the right moment.

“You can take it.”

“It wasn’t anything important.” My stomach churned. I should probably tell her that it had been Alicia. But I didn’t want to spoil our moment together or have another discussion about my ex just as we were arriving to meet her family. If the situation upset Beth, I didn’t want those feelings written all over her face when I met Jake for the first time.

There was a loud crash from behind the door as soon as Beth pressed the doorbell to her brother’s house.

“They’ve probably just dropped the baby on her head. No biggie.”

I chuckled.

A beautiful blonde woman answered the door wearing a fantastically wide grin. She glanced at me, pulled Beth into her arms, and squealed. “So glad you’re here. Jake’s just dropped a bottle of wine.”

“Dylan, this is Haven.”

“You’re just as hot as Beth described,” Haven replied and pulled me into a hug. I didn’t quite know how to respond, so just hugged her back.

“Get your hands off him.” Beth pushed us apart.

“Nice to meet you, Haven,” I said.

“And you, Dylan. Come inside. Don’t be put off by the stocks and rack we have set up back here. It won’t hurt as much as you think it will.”

I glanced at Beth but she was laughing nearly as hard as Haven. So this
was
going to be an interrogation. Something a good night’s sleep and some naked time with Beth would have made more bearable.

We turned left into a huge open-plan living space running the length of the house. It would have been nice if it hadn’t looked like they’d been robbed. Jesus, there was baby stuff everywhere.

Two guys stood in the kitchen. I recognized Jake from the airport but if I’d not seen him before, I would have known he was Beth’s brother because of his reaction.

He strode toward me and held out his hand. “Dylan. Thanks for coming.”

As we shook it felt as if we were locking horns. He made it clear that I needed to prove I was good enough.

I nodded. “Thanks for inviting me.” We looked each other in the eye in a way that was almost primal. He was sizing me up, trying to get the measure of me. But his expression was as blank as I knew mine was. Business had made me the ultimate poker player, and I knew better than to let my nerves show.

“I’m not sure you’re going to be saying that in a couple of hours.” A process of elimination told me it was Ash who provided the warning and welcome interruption. She walked over, a baby on her hip, and kissed me on both cheeks. “Ignore Jake, his bark is worse than his bite. This is Maggie.” She lifted up the baby’s hand and made her wave.

I chuckled, the muscles in my neck loosening after my introduction to Jake. She was a cute kid. “Hi, Maggie. Nice to meet you, and you, Ash.”

“Beer?” Luke asked, lifting Maggie from Ash. He offered me his hand. “I’m Luke.”

“Good to meet you.”

I would have been less nervous if we were all out at a late supper, in public, where at least I knew what to expect from my surroundings. I didn’t see my brother often, and we were totally different kinds of people. We saw each other when we collided at our parents’ house, not because we wanted to spend time together, but these guys seemed to genuinely like each other.

“Did you want that beer?” Luke asked again.

I glanced at Beth. Did they drink around her? She wasn’t looking at me so I turned back to Luke. “No, thanks. Can I get some water?”

Beth snaked her arm around my waist, instantly calming me. “You don’t want a beer?”

I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had a drink. I was pretty sure that I’d not had one since I’d met Beth. “No. I have to concentrate later.”