Overdrive TheLookOfLove June14 (10 page)

Chloe shook her head and muttered, “I can’t imagine dealing with one big brother like you, let alone six.” She arched a brow at him. “You know exactly what’s best for them, don’t you?”

He grinned at her unrepentantly. “Of course I do.”

She snorted, looked at the picture again. “They are both very pretty. I sure hope they got some good ones in on you and the rest of your brothers for being know-it-alls.”

Chase winced in memory. “More than once, you’ll be glad to hear.”

She laughed again, and if there was a sweeter sound in the world, Chase hadn’t heard it yet.

“What do they do? Lori looks really athletic.”

“She’s a dancer and choreographer. She started out working with cheerleaders and now she does a lot of the stuff you see on TV.” Damn, he loved those girls. “Sophie is a librarian at a university. She’s smart as a freaking whip.”

“Wow. Very impressive. No wonder you’re proud of them.”

He was proud of all his siblings. They didn’t always see eye to eye, fists were sometimes raised and landed in the heat of anger, but he’d give up his left arm—hell, both of his arms—for any one of them.

“I already know about Smith. He’s a little older than you, right?”

“Thirty-four.”

“Wow, your parents were busy,” she said, before pointing at another of his brothers. “And he is?”

“Zach. Twenty-nine. Owns half the auto shops in California.”

“Hey, those Sullivan Auto ads I hear all the time on the radio are his, aren’t they?”

“He’s a business mastermind who’d rather spend his life with his head under a hood.”

Or between a woman’s legs. But Chloe didn’t need to know that. Especially given that Zach was a good-looking bastard. Quite possibly the best looking of them all. Including Smith, whose looks were integral to his profession.

“Marcus is the old man of the group at thirty-six.”

“So, there are eight of you between the ages of twenty-four and thirty-six.” She raised an eyebrow. “And none of you are married yet?” Her surprise was evident.

He shrugged. “Nope. Bets were placed a long time ago on who would be shackled with the ball and chain first. We’re all expecting Marcus and his girlfriend to do the deed soon.”

She laughed out loud at that. “See, now you’re talking like a normal guy. Using the words
shackled
and
ball and chain
in reference to getting married.”

Funny, he thought as he enjoyed her laughter, up until yesterday he’d been right in with the rest of his siblings on thinking marriage was a long way off. But now, he wasn’t so sure. The crazy thing was, he didn’t mind being led straight to the edge of the cliff. As long as Chloe was standing there, too.

And they were falling together.

Turning back to the picture, she said, “Your mother is beautiful.”

“She’s great.”

“She looks so happy to be with all of you.” Chloe’s eyes were big and full of concern as she asked, “What happened to your father?” She bit her beautiful lower lip. “That was really rude. I’m sorry, you don’t have to answer.”

“You can ask me anything,” he told her.

Her gaze flew to his and he held it steadily. “We just met last night. We don’t know each other that well,” she protested.

“I was ten when he died. He went to work that morning and he had an aneurysm. One of his employees found him in his office on the floor.”

“Oh, Chase, I’m sorry.” She put her hand on his arm and it was crazy, but even though he thought he’d been over his father’s death for two decades, her touch gave him comfort. “I can’t imagine how your mom managed without him.”

Beyond glad that she hadn’t shied away from what she wanted to know, either, he said, “It wasn’t easy. Especially not at first. We all helped out. At least, the big kids did.” He gave her a small smile. “I make a mean mac and cheese.”

“Yum,” she said in a soft, not altogether convincing voice.

“Want to hear my secret?”

“Uh…okay.”

He leaned in a little closer, close enough that he could breathe in her sweet scent. “You’ve got to watch the pot carefully and know just when to stir.”

Attraction flared between them again at his teasing words, both of them knowing that what he was really saying was that he was gauging her reaction to him, too.

Because he wanted her.

And he knew she wanted him.

* * *

Marcus found them in his study and glanced down at the family photo in her hands. “Whatever he’s saying, Chloe, it’s all lies.”

Chase watched her grin up at his brother. “Oh,” she said with a teasing frown. “So I guess that means you’re not a superhero, after all?”

Marcus laughed, clearly pleased with her comeback. “Everyone left to go dancing in town. How about I open up a bottle of the good stuff for the three of us?”

“The wine you’ve served so far tonight has been amazing. You have better stuff?” Chloe asked, clearly incredulous.

“Prepare to have your mind blown,” Marcus replied.

Despite the fact that his brother was clearly enjoying being around Chloe, Chase couldn’t shake the sense that something wasn’t right with Marcus. As the oldest Sullivan, he’d always carried more of the burden of making sure everyone in the family was okay. But tonight he seemed edgier than normal.

Wound too tight.

Before meeting his girlfriend, Jill, Marcus had been just as much a dog as the rest of the Sullivan boys. But in the past two years, he’d straightened up to the point where Chase almost didn’t recognize him. He missed getting up to no-good with the oldest of the Sullivan clan, but he’d assumed his brother was preparing to marry Jill and settle down with a bunch of kids.

They followed Marcus into the living room, which looked out over the moonlit vines and pool patio. As he uncorked a dusty bottle that still smelled of the caves, Chloe said, “I really shouldn’t have any more, but how can I resist?”

The three of them sat down and Chase loved how easy she was with his brother. Just knowing Chloe was near, just being able to see her smile, to hear her laugh, made everything so much better.

And his life had been pretty damn good before she came into it, so that was really saying something.

“Everyone was saying what a great help you were at the magazine shoot today,” Marcus told her.

She looked pleased by his compliment. “I had fun.”

“She completely saved the day, actually.”

Chloe rolled her eyes. “That is so not true.” She took a sip from her glass. “Oh. My. God. This wine is so good it should be illegal.”

Marcus smiled. “Glad you like it.”

She took another sip. On a near-moan, she said, “This isn’t even close to like. It’s love all the way.”

In an instant, Chase went rock hard in his pants. All it took was hearing her moan…and say one little four-letter word.

A word that he hadn’t even been searching for. Because he hadn’t realized it was missing from his life.

Until now.

Until Chloe.

“So,” Marcus said, “where are you from, Chloe?”

She instantly snapped to attention, sitting up so fast in her seat that the wine sloshed almost to the rim of her glass. “I’m in the process of moving, actually.”

She took a gulp of wine and Chase tried to use Sullivan telepathy to tell his brother to shut the fuck up.

It didn’t work.

“Where to?” Marcus asked.

Chloe took another gulp before replying. “I’m still looking at my options.”

As soon as Marcus refilled her empty glass, she shot up out of her seat. “I’ve got to go visit the powder room. Excuse me.”

Marcus waited until she’d left the room to say, “What the hell is going on? She’s got that bruise pretty well covered up tonight, but how’d she get it in the first place? Did that happen when she drove off the side of the road?”

Every time Chase thought about how she’d gotten the bruise, he wanted to hammer his fist into something.

No, not
something
. Straight into the face of the guy who had hurt her.

“I don’t know for sure. She hasn’t trusted me enough yet to say.” He gave his brother a warning look. “Don’t push her anymore. On anything.”

Marcus raised an eyebrow. “You like her.”

“It’s way beyond like,” he said, echoing Chloe's comment. Only he was talking about something a hell of a lot more important than an expensive drink. Talking more to himself than his brother at this point, he said, “I just need her to stay a few more days. And then maybe she’ll give me a chance.”

“I’ve never seen you like this before.”

Chase shook his head, as surprised by what had happened to him as anyone. “And here I thought I was coming here for nothing more than a few days of meaningless sex with—”

Marcus cut him off. “With one of your models?”

Chase snorted. “No. No way. You know I stopped sleeping with models years ago.” He knew his brother was going to be pissed off when he told him, “I was planning to hook up with Ellen.”

Marcus narrowed his eyes. “My employee, Ellen?”

“That’s the one.”

“God-damn it, Chase, you can’t fuck around with someone who works for me. All I need is for her to get a broken heart on account of you treating her like shit and then having her take it out on my winery.”

Chase held up his hands. “Look, the hookup didn’t happen, okay? So don’t get all bent out of shape about it. I met Chloe before Ellen and I could get into any trouble. And you’ll be glad to hear that Ellen seemed fine with being let down.” Ignoring his brother’s glare, he gave in to the need to confide his feelings to someone, and admitted, “I’ve never been like this before, never felt like this with anyone but Chloe. And I haven’t even touched her yet.”

Shit, he was saying too much. Marcus didn’t need to know what he and Chloe had—or hadn’t—done.

Chase refilled their glasses before turning the tables on his brother and asking, “Everything go all right in the city last night after you left the party? How’s Jill doing?”

“She’s fine.” A muscle started jumping in Marcus’s jaw. “I think I’m going to head in for the night. Got a busy day tomorrow.”

Chase stood up, too. This time around the Sullivan telepathy was working perfectly. Something was up with Jill and Marcus—and his brother had no intention of talking about it with anyone.

Chase wished like hell he knew how to bring the old Marcus back. As the oldest of all of them, after their father died, Marcus had immediately stepped into those newly empty shoes. Chase had memories of his brother changing diapers and wiping noses. Making sure everyone got to school on time with their homework in their backpacks. Fortunately, in their twenties, as everyone grew up and needed him less, he’d been able to break out of that responsible shell and cut loose.

Once upon a time, Marcus had been the biggest player of them all—almost as if he was making up for lost time. Women would throw themselves at him, and he’d catch each and every one of them.

But now, ever since he’d been with ice princess Jill, he’d changed again. Receded back into that too-responsible, too-mature shell.

Funny, Chase realized with a start, that while he was thinking his brother needed to shake off the chains and get back out there, he was looking at doing the exact opposite.

But the truth was, Chase had burned through more than enough women.

He was ready for one special one.

“I should check on Chloe,” Chase told his brother. “Got to make sure she didn’t get lost in your palace on the hill.”

A couple of minutes of searching later, he found her standing out on the back deck, her glass empty again. For a long moment, Chase had to stop and just stare.

She was stunning.

Not because of the moonlight. Not because of the dress.

It was all Chloe.

No other woman had ever taken his breath away like this. And he knew no other ever would.

Just her.

“There you are.”

She turned her face to his and it was full of so much emotion—and longing—that it was all he could do not to just reach for her.

They were completely alone out on the back porch. His brother was in bed, everyone else was gone. And he could tell just from looking at her that the wine had blurred some of her edges.

Unable to keep away from her, he moved behind her, putting his hands on either side of the rail.

“Some moon tonight, isn’t it?”

He expected her to push away from him, but strangely, she did the exact opposite by turning slowly in the circle of his arms so that she was looking straight at him with those big eyes that mucked up his insides.

“Chase.”

Jesus, he was teetering on a thin edge, so close to her and yet so damn far.

Honor. Why the fuck had he decided that honor mattered? Everything would be so much easier if he simply took what he wanted...and worried about the consequences later.

She wasn’t drunk, but she wasn’t sober either. He should take her back to the guest house. Put her to bed.

Alone.

But he obviously wasn’t strong enough to do any of that. All he could do was say her name. And want her more than he’d ever wanted anyone or anything in his whole life.

“Chloe.”

Her full lips parted slightly at the sound of her name. For the first time, she wasn’t trying to hide her desire from him.

“It’s inevitable, isn’t it?”

Hell yes, it was. But he couldn’t put words in her mouth. Not now.

“What’s inevitable?” Each word was raw. Husky.

Her eyes dropped to his mouth.

“This kiss.”

As Chloe threaded her fingers through his hair and pulled his face down to hers, it took every ounce of control Chase possessed to keep his hands on the rail.

But when her lips touched his, just a whisper of a kiss...his control was lost.

He wanted to touch her everywhere at once, but it was a straight shot from the rail to her lower back and the curve of her hips.

Her mouth was so soft, so damn sweet, as she pressed one kiss after another against his lips. If he could, he would have prolonged the gentle exploration. But he’d been waiting too damn long for this kiss. Running one hand up her spine, he cupped the back of her neck and held her captive beneath him while he tasted her.