A Brother's Generous . . . Offer (2 page)

“—
I know why you
think
you’re here,” he
said as he headed toward the large, elegant bar. The thing took up
half the wall. Once behind it, with his broad back to her, he
poured himself a glass of strong drink.

She popped brows. “I’m here for
business, right?”

“
Oh yes,” he said with a
strange tone as he grinned over his shoulder, and she arched a
brow. “But don’t worry, Eyleen. It’ll be more than just mutually
satisfying for us both. I guarantee you that by the time you leave
here you’ll leave with a smile.”

“
Good,” she said, although
she looked a little wary.

He sent her another mysterious smile
before he turned from her again, and she briefly heard ice cubes
tinkling in a glass. “Sorry to hear about your divorce,” he said
before he turned to look at her. “I hear he skipped off to
Australia or something?”

He came from behind the bar with blue
eyes twinkling as he bent his head to sip his drink, walking toward
one of the opened French doors with billowing curtains.

“
Argentina, actually,” she
corrected him. “And even with that grin, I’m sure you mean it too,”
she drawled, but she couldn’t help but admire her brother’s tall,
very tan physique—and the large bulge in his trunks.

She flustered a moment when she
discovered where she’d been peeking, but then it dawned on her that
he was heading outside as he slipped his black sunglasses down over
his eyes.

“
Where are you going?” She
looked a little annoyed after him.

“
Come on. You’ll see, Sis,”
he said with a sexy grin before he was swallowed up by billowing,
silk curtains.

Having no choice but to follow, she
swept up her briefcase. Her heels clicked hard as she nearly
stomped after her younger brother out into the sunshine, and into
the elegant and luxurious pool yard.

“
Is this a joke?” she
demanded to know, her eyes narrowing on him.

He seated himself on a chaise lounge.
With long, muscular legs straddling each side, he seemed unfazed
that she had a full view of his heavy scrotum; one that was barely
concealed in that ridiculously tiny piece of Lycra.

“
No. No joke,” he said.
“Come sit down with me.” His dark hand patted the tropical colored
cushion of the chaise beside his.

“
Can’t we go sit in the
shade or something? It’s very hot out,” she said as she walked over
to the designated chaise, but stopped short.

On the cushion lay an ice-blue
bikini—and one that looked all too familiar to her. She looked
thunderously from the bikini to her brother’s handsome, smiling
face.

“
You remember,” he noted.
“It’s a start. Always thought that bikini looked perfect on you.
You’re a C-cup now, right?”

“
Excuse me?” She was
angrily indignant. Despite the breeze it was hot, and heat always
made her irritable.

“
Your breasts must’ve grown
another cup size. You used to be a B-cup. Let’s see if I guessed it
right.” He feigned a thoughtful look. “32-C now, right? You don’t
look like you’ve gained any weight, so you still have to be a
32.”

“
What the hell is this all
about, Ryan?” she demanded; indignant. Fingers were gripping tight
around her glass of tea and her briefcase handle.

“
Concluding business,” he
said as he looked up at her through his shades. “How are the twins
by the way?”

“
They’re fine.” Then she
shook her head, clearing some cobwebs. “Wait a minute! How did you
know about the twins?”

“
Oh, Eyleen,” he chuckled,
“I know more than you think.” He smiled. “Now why don’t you change
out of that stuffy office ensemble and put on the bikini. I’m sure
it fits. Like you said, it’s too hot out here especially wearing
silk and cashmere.”

“
Then maybe we should go
inside to conduct business,” she said, almost gritting her teeth.
She was infuriated because it looked as if her brother was playing
games.

“
But I want to conduct
business out here,” he said as he lazily ran his cold glass slowly
up then down his ripped abdomen as he leaned back in the chaise. He
didn’t bother to raise his long legs onto the chaise, but he did
raise an arm to put behind his head giving her a good view of his
muscular biceps and chest. “Isn’t the motto of your firm “Clients
are Kings”?”

Think partnership, Eyleen!
Think partnership!

“
Fine.” She nodded
stiffly.

He watched as she lowered herself to
sit on the edge of the chaise, making sure she didn’t come anywhere
near the sparkling, ice-blue bikini. She set her briefcase down on
the foot end of the chaise as he quietly sipped, watching his
uptight older sister open her briefcase to take out a file. She
couldn’t know just how sexy she looked, even in that business
ensemble.

The Florida sun was merciless, and she
was already feeling droplets trailing down her back. She fidgeted a
little, but ignored it and took out her slender pen. She scooted to
sit with knees properly tight together facing him as she twisted
open her pen, and opened the file of contracts on her
lap.

“
Well,” she said with
expelled breath, “since you know why I’m here, I don’t want to
waste your time, so I’ll get right down to it,” she began.
“Waterman, Vasquez, Oosterhout & Associates LLP is one of
America’s finest corporate law firms specializing in the protection
of our clients—”

“—
Are you mad at me?” he
asked, cutting off her well-prepared sales pitch.

“
No,” she said then bent
her head to look at her papers. “Now, about Waterman—”

“—
Do you ever think about
that summer in Hawaii?” he cut her off.

She raised her golden-brown head to
look cool at him. “There’ve been many summers in
Hawaii.”

“
With me,” he noted. He
watched as her lashes flickered a moment before she looked at him
with that cool sheen in her ocean-blue eyes. It was a cool,
standoffish gleam he didn’t like.

“
Yes, of course,” she
answered serenely. “Anyway, as for the services our law firm can
provide, you’ll find we’re more competitive than Wasserman,
Bingham, Rosenblatt & Associates—”

“—
I really want you to put
on that bikini,” he cut her off again, and she glared annoyed now.
“I really feel at a disadvantage, and I don’t like conducting
business when I feel at a disadvantage. Besides, big sis,” he
smiled, “why so shy? It’s just us here.”

She really wanted to forget it was so
incredibly hot out, but her sweaty back and her brother’s remarks
were making that impossible. Still, she hesitated.

“
I don’t see why I
should—”

“—
Please?” he asked
quietly, and her stoic face softened just a little. It had always
been hard to refuse Ryan anything ever since they were
children.

“
Okay, but no more games,
Ryan,” she warned with an exasperated sigh. He smiled and she
accepted his silence as his agreement. She nodded as she took up
the bikini and rose to her feet before she moved to go back
inside.

“
Where are you going?” he
asked.

“
To change.” She arched a
brow down at him.

“
What’s wrong with right
here? It’s only us, Eyleen.”

“
There’s still
Armand.”

“
Gave him the day off,” he
countered. “So no more excuses. Like I said, it’s just
us.”

“
You want me to undress
in
front
of you?”
She looked shocked in disbelief.

“
It’s not like you haven’t
done that before, right?”

He was challenging her. She frowned
disenchanted, lips tight.

“
Right,” she said, “but I
prefer more privacy these days.” Then her glossy lips curved into a
smile seeing two dressing cabanas flanking a large, cool blue and
white striped gazebo. “I’ll be right back,” she said, smiling coy
because she was thrilled with her solution to this
dilemma.

The cabana only had Velcro to keep the
flaps from blowing open. She undressed, carefully hanging her silk
blouse and cashmere skirt on hangers conveniently placed there. She
pulled on the bikini and to her surprise, Ryan was right. It fit
her like a glove. Then again, she reasoned, he was in the business
of sizing up women.

Still, how did he know her size before
even seeing her?

She suddenly began thinking about that
summer she tried so hard to forget. It haunted her even to that
day. Only hard work made it bearable, but seeing her younger
brother brought it all home again, and with it, an old ache in her
chest.

She’d left Hawaii that summer and went
straight to university in Florida. She hadn’t seen her younger
brother in over thirteen years now. He just disappeared out of her
life, but not before he came to see her at her dorm. They fought so
ferociously then. He wanted to continue together, she wanted to
forget, he couldn’t convince her so he left… straight out of her
life.

She was recruited by Waterman,
Vasquez, Oosterhout & Associates LLP just before she graduated.
Being from Georgia originally, she didn’t feel she was that far
away from home so she accepted the position, and work kept her in
the sunshine state ever since.

She always wanted to make her parents
proud. Their father was an attorney, their mother a homemaker. They
were a close-knit family, and that one summer, she was closer to
Ryan than most sisters could ever dream to be with their younger
brother.

She felt guilty about it though. It
was the one, most memorable summer she wished to god she could
forget. Maybe it was the reason why her brother played it so fast
and loose in his life, and maybe it had something to do with why
he’d chosen the business he was in now. Lord knows he had every
right, not to mention the right “equipment”, to take it
far.

He was a well-endowed male with an
incredible sexual stamina. He was still a virgin at eighteen, but
she changed that, and yet she was the one surprised by his sexual
drive. He seemed insatiable, and she recalled she had trouble
keeping up with him, once joking that he should seek a career in
the porn movie industry. Now she bit her lip, wondering if he would
have gone in this line of business had she not corrupted him, or at
the very least, kept her mouth shut.

When she was twenty-five, their
parents died in a plane crash on their way back from New York. By
that time, Ryan was out of the house, shunned by their father for
his career choice. He never came to their parents’ funeral as a
result. She really wished he had. She needed him so, but could she
really blame him?

Plagued with guilt and anger, she
turned to work to deal with it. She was good at what she did, but
something had changed inside her. She was once a happy, liberated
young woman, but now she was a sober, serious one; frigid to a
fault.

She was successful at everything . . .
except relationships. Even her marriage to a human rights attorney
fizzled out long before its time. He left for South America to
pursue humanitarian efforts leaving her with baby twins, and he
never looked back.

“
You okay in
there?”

She snapped out of her thoughts and
looked at Ryan’s silhouette on the canvas wall.

“
Yes. Yes, of course,” she
answered, shaking off those memories of pain and guilt.

She felt damp on her cheeks and
quickly fingered away the tears, composing herself again. Then she
quickly stepped out of the cabana, but cried out when she bumped
into him. An instant, electrical shock passed through her body
making her shudder. His hands had cupped her waist to prevent her
from falling, and now she stood against her brother’s hard body
that made hers turn instantly into jelly.

“
Wow Sis,” he said as he
looked down her body, “you’re gorgeous.”

Guilt and sudden unease made her
terse. Her nerves were on edge. She angrily pushed down his arms,
forcing him to let her go as she glared angrily up into his
surprised, sterling blue eyes.

“
If you’re recruiting for
one of your smut movies,
spare
me,” she said unfairly curt then stepped into the
direction of the chaises, but Ryan’s hand had cleverly swept up and
pulled out her hair clasp.

Her dark brown locks tumbled down and
swept around her astonished face and slender shoulders. She
stiffened then snapped around, touching her hair as she glared up
at him.

“
What the hell do you think
you’re doing?!” she snapped.

“
Don’t need to have your
hair up in that stuffy bun. It’s nice and cool in there,” he said
with a friendly smile as he lifted a hand into the direction of the
huge luxury gazebo.

She looked into it and saw a
king-sized chaise. Her briefcase and folder were already there and
two standing fans hummed full speed and cooled the area. He had
moved their glasses and her things into the cool shade of the
gazebo too, and did it all while she was changing.

She narrowed distrustful eyes up at
him, but he smiled.