The Avoidance of Love (The Daniels' Sisters Book 2) (11 page)

“Wow. After hearing that, I am very glad that I have sisters.”

“How many sisters?” Nico was excited, but I wasn’t going to encourage him.

“I have three younger sisters but I can assure you that none of them would be interested in you Nico. Not at all.”

“You can’t be so certain. I’m not without charm.”

“Hmmmmm, maybe a little too much charm.” We all laughed as Nico feigned being insulted and pouted in my direction.

While we had been joking and laughing, the restaurant had begun to pick up again. The brothers needed to get back to work, and I needed to get back to the hotel to meet Jace and his crew for dinner. The thought of eating more food made me feel a little ill. I was absolutely stuffed.

Alex helped me out of my seat since I was still a little unsteady on my feet. I kissed each of the brothers politely goodbye and each of them pulled me in for a bear hug, even Gio. At that moment, I changed my mind and secretly wished for brothers, especially an older one who could take care of me like a little sister.

“Come on, pretty lady. Let’s get you back to your hotel.”

“Thank you for a wonderful day, Alex. I really needed this.”

“Any time.”

ALEX GOT ME to the hotel in record time. I really hadn’t realized how late it was. I just about had time to get to my room and change. Just as Alex helped me out of the car, I felt
his
presence before I heard his voice.

“Where have you been?” I didn’t like the aggression of his tone. I’d never really been keen on aggressive men, and since my sister Dana, had had a really bad experience with an aggressive man, my tolerance level was even lower.

“Excuse me? Did you ask me a question?” I squared my shoulders and met Jace toe to toe.

“I asked you where you have been. I’ve been calling you all day and you haven’t returned any of my calls.

Oh.
“I’ve been out in Florence with Alex, doing my job. I wasn’t aware that I needed to be at your beck and call.”

Jace was no longer paying me any attention. He seemed to have engaged in some sort of stare down with Alex. Alex tilted his head to the side as if assessing Jace and his intentions. I felt Jace’s arm come around my shoulders as he pulled me into his body so I was standing as close as possible to his side. Alex visibly relaxed and then smirked.

“You okay, pretty lady?”

I shrugged off Jace’s arm, which was stifling and uncomfortable and made my way over to Alex.

“I’ll be fine, Alex. Don’t worry about me.”

“If you need me, you’ve got my number.” He pulled me in for one his brotherly hugs. I could have sworn I heard Jace growl. Alex held me tighter and lowered his head so that he could whisper in my ear. “If this is the man you work for, I can tell you now that he didn’t bring you here for work.”
Tell me something I don’t know.
“I think you like him as well, pretty lady. It’s not so bad to let people in every occasionally. Sometimes, they may surprise you.”

I hugged Alex tighter. I definitely would have loved having a brother if they were like him. Jace growled louder, and Alex laughed.

“I’ll see you soon. If I don’t see you then you had better believe that Max will find you.” With a wink, he took off, leaving me to deal with my problem that was Jace.

Maybe Alex was right, but that didn’t mean that I had to accept Jace’s aggressive attitude. I turned around to find him watching me. I couldn’t read his face; it seemed to convey too many emotions at once. I shouldn’t care. I pulled my shoulders back and walked straight past him.

“Mara, wait.”

“What for?” I didn’t stop while I stomped through the lobby. It barely registered on my radar that people were watching.

“I . . . can you just stop and talk to me for a minute.”

“No.”

“Please.”

“No.”

Jace followed me all the way to my room and, when I tried to shut my door in his face, he pushed his way through.

“Would you just stop for a minute?” I finally stopped and turned to face him. It’s as if he was oblivious to the hints that I really did not want him in my personal space right now.

“What do you want?” My arms were folded, and I was fighting every urge in my body to tap my foot while I gave him sixty seconds to say his piece before I chucked him out of my room.

“I realize that I shouldn’t have spoken to you the way I did down there and that was wrong. I was worried about you. I knew I had left you by yourself all day in the hotel. I didn’t know you’d be gone and, when it got later and you weren’t answering your phone, I started to panic.”

“That still doesn’t explain your behavior toward me in front of Alex. It was rude and embarrassing.” Jace raised an eyebrow at me and looked as though I was incredibly stupid. I ignored him.

“I suppose I could have handled that differently, but he was eye-fucking you for all to see.”

“He was not eye-fucking me. He has been nothing but good to me all day and his cousins were complete gentlemen as well.”

“You spent the day with men!” Why the hell was he shouting? I didn’t even get a chance to think about it any further before he had grabbed the nape of my neck so that his mouth could come crashing down on mine. He took complete control of my lips, nipping and biting them. He didn’t wait for me to allow him entry into my mouth; he simply forced his tongue inside to duel with mine.

His hand crept up the side of my dress before it cupped my breast, kneading and massaging with just the right amount of pressure. I couldn’t help but moan. It felt so right, as though my body was made just to mold to his. “Mara, I want you so much. The thought of another man trying to touch you drives me crazy. Why won’t you give me a chance and let me in?”

I do not intend to fall in love. I don’t desire it. I don’t want it. I couldn’t give Jace what he wanted, but I knew he was going to try to push me until I caved. I pulled away from him and felt instantly cold.

“Jace you need to stop. I’m not what you want, and you’re not what I want.”

He took a step back away from me like I’d burned him.

“Your head is messed up sometimes, Mara. As smart as you are, as strong as you are, sometimes you don’t know shit.” He headed to the door and muttered as he went through it. “The rest of the team would like to meet you since you’re going to be at the race tomorrow. They’ll want to have dinner soon so I’ll tell them you’re taking a shower and will be down shortly. Try not to take too long; we’ve already been waiting for you long enough.”

He didn’t look back as he went through the door. There was a big part of me that wanted to run after him like a silly girl, throw myself into his arms, and tell him I didn’t mean what I had said, but I didn’t. I turned around and went to have a shower.

I hadn’t even reached the shower door when my phone rang. That shower had been so close. I grabbed my phone out of my bag and saw that it was Coops calling. I hadn’t checked in with him since I arrived.

“Coops.”

“Soooooo . . .”

“So what?”

“So how is it going so far? I can’t believe you’re going to make me drag this out of you! For someone who prides herself on efficiency, you’re wasting precious time here when you know exactly why I called you.”

“Italy is wonderful. I got some good photos. I am confident I can get the designs completed from what I have seen so far.”

“You’re stubborn you know.”

“Sorry to disappoint, Coops. I haven’t even seen Jace today much more than twice. I’m getting in the shower, you can keep talking though, and I’ll just put you on loud speaker.”

“How come you haven’t seen him all day?”

“I don’t know. He was doing bike stuff. I had plenty to get on with anyway.” I stripped off and got into the shower once the water had warmed up. I left my phone far away from the spray, but still close enough that I could hear Coops talk. We caught up on some topics other than Jace, which I was thankful for until Coops asked what I was doing for the rest of my evening. Since it isn’t in my nature to lie, I told him the truth.

“Okay, so you’re going to meet the whole team. What are you wearing?”

“Why are you concerned?”

“My reasons are totally selfish at this point. If you get in with his team then I could get some autographs for my dad, my brother, and me. Oh, and who knows, maybe free tickets to races!”

“Coops, you earn enough money to buy your own tickets.”

“Yes, but free tickets are better. Everything’s better when it’s free.”

“STDs are free. Not sure you feel that way about them.”

“Crude. Very crude, Mara. On that note, I will leave you to go and have dinner with the insanely hot man who wants in your panties.”

“Bye, Coops!” I hung up. I had already gotten out the shower and was dressed. I didn’t have time to do much with my hair so I had no choice but to leave it down. I had put on another little dress that Lana had picked out. It fit nicely but was quite fitted, again, nothing like I would normally wear, but I didn’t have time to moan about it since I was conscious that people were waiting on me. I slipped on my sandals and grabbed my purse, before dashing through the door to make my way downstairs.

I DIDN’T EVEN know where I was going to meet the rest of the team so I just assumed that it was the lobby. The closer I got, the louder the sound of voices became. When I turned the corner, there seemed to be more people sitting around than I had anticipated. My eyes immediately found Jace sitting in the middle of the group with Brielle perched on his lap looking like the cat that got the cream. Not that I cared.

Brielle saw me first and gave me another one of her bitchy fake-ass smiles. I swear to God, I’d smack the bitch on her ass if I gave a shit! She could sit on Jace’s lap all day long and I would still give the same fuck in the evening as I did in the morning. None!

Unfortunately for her, Jace wanted to know what had caught her attention and looked over in my direction. At first, his face was an expression of guilt, but he quickly masked it. He had nothing to feel guilty about. I was beginning to get pissed off about this whole situation and wanted nothing more to just go back to my room or, better yet, call Alex and go back to the restaurant and down some more of that wine. No such luck.

“Hey, Mara. You finally made it,” he called out. At that point, the rest of the team turned around. I had never been a fan of attention. Out of my sisters, the only one who loved attention was Lana.

I made my way over to Jace and Brielle, who did not attempt to move and look like an adult rather than a lovesick teenager.

“Yes, I apologize for being late.” I slipped back into my professional demeanor with ease. Jace frowned a little and then proceeded with introductions.

There were names I was never going to remember, but it was undeniable that Jace was not the only charmer on the team. Zack Morgan was almost too pretty to be a guy. His hair was a shade of blonde I had never seen. It was too gorgeous and natural to come from a bottle. The long fringe that swept all too often into his eyes drew you into the blue pearls that he captured you with. His looks alone must charm the panties off any girl.

I made a mental note never to allow him to near Lana. They would destroy the world with their perfect features and overactive libidos. He slipped me his number within two minutes. Jace noticed and grabbed it, making a big point of throwing it away.

“She’s here to work not to be groped or manhandled by you.” Jace looked like he was foaming at the mouth and I had to bite back a laugh at the thought that he might be jealous. That was until Brielle chipped in.

“Yes, Zack. Stop trying to fraternize with Jace’s employee.” Who the hell was this skank calling an employee?

I turned my attention back to Zack. “Yes Zack, do stop trying to fraternize with me. I do believe Ms. Brielle doesn’t have much time left on her cougar clock, and she wishes to do some fraternizing with you. Once she’s finished with Jace, of course. It would be unladylike for her to be fraternizing with two team members at the same time.” I gave Brielle a most satisfactory smirk while the color seemed to drain away from her face while she sat on Jace’s lap with her mouth open. “You better shut that jaw, hun, you never know what you might catch.”