Kaleb (20 page)

“How
the hell you managed to convince her to go to bed with you is beyond me, much
less the two of us.” Laughing, Gage slapped him on the back and headed into the
house. Kaleb followed.

Once
inside, Kaleb noticed they’d made some significant progress over the last few
hours. If they were lucky, they’d only have to spend half of Sunday finishing
up. If that was the case, he had a big night planned for Zoey.

Sharing
Zoey with Gage had proven to be both erotic and unnerving. He’d been like a
randy fucking teenager, barely able to control himself. And that had been just
from watching her.

Thinking
about the amount of pleasure had from that one encounter and how Zoey was a
more than willing participant, still made his cock throb.
Which
didn’t surprise him if he honestly thought about it.
Over the last
couple of weeks, the two of them had shared some hot and heavy make out
sessions in damn near every place they could come up with. The sex was off the
charts, and her eagerness was downright thrilling.
Especially
considering he’d initially been worried about how she would respond to the
desires that plagued him.

Loud
voices coming from the living room interrupted Kaleb’s thoughts, and he rushed
quickly through the house to see what was going on. What he came upon shocked
the shit out of him. It only took a few shoves to get the others to move out of
his way.

“I
dare you to fucking say it again, mother fucker!” Zane growled, his hand
clutching the throat of one of Anderson’s friends – Jake was his name, Kaleb
thought.

“Whoa.”
Braydon said as he approached Zane and the other man as Kaleb flanked Zane’s
other side.

“What’s
going on?” Kaleb asked, watching as Zane continued to squeeze the man’s throat.
“Let go of him, Zane.”

Jake’s
eyes were bulging out of his reddened face, but he wasn’t making any move to
try and fight Zane off. Maybe that was because Zane towered over him and
probably had at least a forty pound weight advantage to boot.

Releasing
his hold, Zane kept his hand on Jake’s throat as he spoke. “If I ever fucking
hear another word come out of your mouth about Vanessa, I promise, I’ll rip
your fucking voice box out.”

Kaleb
glanced over to see V standing beside Zoey in the doorway, tears streaming down
her face. Kaleb had no idea what the hell had happened, but apparently Zane
wasn’t having any of it. Pulling Zane back, Kaleb and Braydon led him to
another room while Anderson approached Jake. They shared a look and Kaleb made
sure the other man understood what his options were. Either Jake would leave,
or the Walker’s would be.

Zane
pulled away from Kaleb and Braydon and headed straight for Vanessa, putting his
hand on the back of her neck and pulling her against him before leading her
through the house and out the front door.

“What
the hell happened?” Kaleb asked Zoey when she joined him.

“It
was nothing.” Zoey whispered
,
glancing around as the
others began to disperse.

“Nothing my ass.”
Kaleb stated firmly. “My brother doesn’t go off like that for
no
reason.” As a matter of fact, Kaleb wasn’t sure he’d ever
seen Zane react the way he had.

Granted,
they’d all probably defended the honor of one woman or another because when
jealousy reared her ugly head, there was usually at least one Walker in her
path. But this time, something was different about Zane.

Glancing
over at Jake, he witnessed the argument between him and Anderson as he was
asked to leave.

“Fuck
you all.” Jake yelled as he headed to the front door. “You let that bastard
know this ain’t over.”

An
automatic response had the remaining Walker brothers standing tall and facing
Jake as he walked out the door. Kaleb would have to admit, although there were
only five of them standing there, it was still an intimidating sight to see
them. Jake must’ve thought so too because he hurried out the front door, not
looking back.

When
Zoey would have turned away, Kaleb put a hand on her arm. “What really
happened, Zoey?”

Looking
weary all of a sudden, she glanced around to make sure no one else was
listening before turning her attention back to him.

“That
guy Jake has been hitting on V all morning,” She began. “V wasn’t encouraging
him, but she was trying to be civil by ignoring him. Apparently he didn’t like
that because he quickly turned to bad mouthing her. He made it personal.” Zoey
looked right in his eyes. “He started calling her and her mother whores and
then he just turned nasty.”

Well,
in that case, Kaleb should’ve let Zane do his worst.
Fucker.

“Is
she all right?” Kaleb asked as he looked around, trying to find Zane and V.

“She
will be. That woman’s got thick skin.” Zoey forced a smile. “Let’s get back to
it so we can get out of here.” With that
,  she
turned abruptly and went back to working in the kitchen.

Kaleb
managed to stay busy for the next two hours and by the time they were at a
stopping point, it was well past dark, and there were only a few people still
hanging around. Zane had left earlier with V, insisting that he just take her
home. Following them, Braydon and Brendon headed out.

“You
ready?” Kaleb asked when he found Zoey standing in the kitchen, sans anything
other than the cabinets and the sink. “Wow. This looks like a different room.”

“It
smells like a different room, too.” Zoey laughed. “I think that smell has
gotten into my pores. I seriously need a shower.”

“There
you go again with that shower invite. All right, twist my arm already.” He
laughed, linking his fingers with hers as he led her through the house.

When
they stepped out on the front porch, they came face to face with Gage. “We
done?”

“For
today, we are.” Kaleb stated.

“Where’re
you two headed off to?” His friend asked, glancing back and forth between the
two of them.

Kaleb
peered down at Zoey, wondering what the answer to that was. He heard what she
said earlier, but he wanted to make sure she was still onboard.
Especially after such a grueling day and the drama with Zane and
Vanessa.

“Why
don’t you boys go home, take showers, and then come over to my place, say in,
” Zoey checked her watch, “about
an hour? I’ll make dinner
as my way of saying thank you.”

“Can’t argue with dinner.”
Kaleb grinned as he looked at Gage.

“Nope,
can’t argue. All right, then I’ll meet up with the two of you at Zoey’s in a
bit.” Gage said before walking away.

“You
ok with that?” Zoey asked when it was just her and Kaleb standing on the porch.

“Well,
I can think of other ways for you to say thank you, but yes, I think dinner is
a good start.” With a quick kiss, Kaleb left Zoey standing on the porch staring
after him.

Lord
have
mercy. The woman was going to be the death of
him.

♀♂

Dinner
consisted of country fried steak, mashed potatoes, okra and of course biscuits.

No,
Zoey was by far a gourmet cook, but there were a few things she could make and
yes, this was one of them. In the past, both Kaleb and Gage had requested her
to make the well-known southern meal, so she figured she might as well go for
it tonight.

After
a quick shower, Zoey spent the last half hour working in the kitchen, trying to
get everything ready before either man showed up. Thankfully they must’ve been taking
their time because the steak was almost finished and she had just pulled the
okra out of the fryer.

Needing
something stronger than beer to calm her frazzled nerves, Zoey was on her
second glass of Jack and coke, not that it was helping much. She actually felt
just a little out of control and hoped they’d be able to make it through dinner
before she went off the deep end.

Five
minutes later, just as she was taking the biscuits out of the oven, Kaleb came
strolling through her front door with Gage not far behind him.

“Did
y’all ride together?” She asked, wondering how they could have timed that any
better.

“Yeah,
I stopped and picked him up on my way over.” Kaleb said right before he pulled
her into his arms and crushed his mouth down on hers. It was funny how dinner
was now the last thing on her mind.

When
they both came up for air, Zoey found she was damn near climbing Kaleb’s body
in an attempt to get closer. If it hadn’t been for Gage clearing his throat and
laughing, she might’ve done just that.

“We
figured it would be best if both our trucks weren’t parked outside of your
house late into the night.” Gage offered.

Ahhh.
Good point. In a town the size of theirs, rumors spread like wild fire, and
with their track record, it wouldn’t take long for speculation to run rampant.
Not that it would be untrue, but Zoey appreciated the fact that they wanted to
be discreet.

“You
know,” Kaleb said, his hands still gripping her hips, “you didn’t have to go
all out with dinner. We’re a sure thing.”

Zoey
swatted his chest and laughed, pulling away in the process.

“I
know how grumpy the two of you can get when you’re hungry.” She moved to the
table, followed by both men.

They
waited for her to take a seat before doing the same.

Southern charm.

It
was so damn sexy.

Probably
due to such a long day, and the fact they were all starved after working at
Anderson’s mother’s house for the better part of the day, the conversation was
minimal while both men inhaled their meals, going back for seconds before Zoey
even finished half of hers.

“Where
was Travis today?” She asked when they were pushing their plates away a short
while later.

“He
had a meeting with a couple of potential investors up in Dallas. Sawyer and I offered
to go with him, but he said he’d rather go by himself.”

“Investors, huh?”
Gage asked, spinning his beer bottle in his hands.
“For the
resort, right?”

“Yeah.
Luke and Logan McCoy.
They own Club Destiny, some
nightclub in downtown Dallas. Travis is still waiting for a final decision on
the land we’re looking at, but he wanted to meet with the McCoy’s just to
outline his plan.”

Zoey
didn’t say a word. She wondered whether Gage knew what land Kaleb was referring
to. Since they were good friends, she figured he did, but no one made a big
deal out of it, so she left it at that.

“So,
what’s for dessert?” Kaleb asked, turning his attention to her once again.

Zoey
smiled. She knew exactly what she was planning to have for dessert.

“Oh no.
What’s the grin for?” Gage asked, trying to sound leery. Zoey knew better. If
she reached over right now, she was pretty sure his cock would be begging to be
released from those tight jeans.

“First
of all, there’s this little issue of the dishes that need to be taken care of first.”
Zoey grinned. “Since I cooked, you boys get to clean.”

“And
what do we get if we do the dishes?” Kaleb asked, leaning forward in his chair,
definitely looking interested in a possible turn of events.

“Well,
that depends...”

“On?”
Gage asked, mirroring Kaleb’s position, putting his elbows on the table.

“Whether
you can get this task accomplished.”

“Oh,
honey, I think we’ve done our fair share of dishes.”

“Maybe.”
Zoey wasn’t about to make this easy on them, and quite frankly, it was time to
have a little fun. They might’ve figured she was the passive bystander all this
time, letting everyone else take control, but that was no longer the case.
“But, you probably haven’t done the dishes naked before, have you?”

Kaleb’s
eyes rounded, and a seductive grin tipped his lips. “Naked.”

“Naked.”
She confirmed, although he hadn’t been asking.

Kaleb
pushed his chair back, standing abruptly before unbuttoning the first of many
buttons on his shirt. He took his time, and Zoey looked her fill. It didn’t
take long before his shirt was hanging on the back of the chair, and her eyes
were grazing the scrumptious planes and angles of his chest, the ripples of his
abs, and the tiniest hint of the muscular ‘V’ that dipped into the waistband of
his jeans.

The
man was sex personified. Smooth, tan skin and a spattering of dark hair on his
chest had her wanting to run her fingertips over every exquisite muscle,
followed by her tongue.

Her
attention was immediately drawn to Gage as he stood from his seat, using one
hand to grip the back of his shirt before easily pulling it over his head. Gage
was significantly bigger than Kaleb when it came to muscles, thanks to an
apparent commitment to the gym. The hair on his chest was thicker, and her
fingers itched to slide into the soft, silky curls.