Seven Night Stand (5 page)

It was a good lesson to learn.

“Your parents like each other?” He attempted to make it a casual question, sipping his beer, looking out into the starry night, but she couldn’t help but feel her answer was important to him in some way.

“I guess.” She studied his profile, strong and handsome, and yet she wondered what effect his parents’ tortured relationship had on his brain. He seemed to channel it into positive outlets, but how much did she really know about Nate Harrington? “It was always more of them against me or me against them than any arguments between them. That’s why we don’t have much contact any more.”

“I don’t know if that’s any better, Viv.”

It would do her a world of good to keep those words front and center in her brain, because her philosophy was the exact opposite. Lack of connection meant people couldn’t hurt you. Play down the emotion and things wouldn’t hurt so bad. She’d learned that every time she had to say good-bye to a person or place that’d become important to her. Better not have any involvement than be hurt.

“You’re going to have to understand this. I can’t ever let them be on TV.” His gaze stayed on the world beyond the porch, but his voice was fierce. “I like having you here, but nothing you can do is going to change my mind. It’s my name, my business, my family on the line, and I’m not going to do anything to jeopardize that.”

“Why are you so convinced a show would hurt you or your family? It’ll give you more business, guaranteed. It’d be good for Harrington. How much your family and this place mean to you will show up on TV. People will watch and they’ll see that. They’ll connect to you—the way you connect to this place.”

“People will watch and see my chain-smoking mother and my confused grandfather. They’ll see my sleazy father if he ever shows up again. People will watch and see something to make fun of. It’s too much to risk. Harrington means too much.”

Vivvy wished she had the words to make him see he was wrong, but arguing with him when he was so determined wasn’t the answer. She’d show him he was wrong. She’d find some way to prove to him this could be beneficial.

“I like you, Vivvy. I’m not trying to be a dick to you. It’s the way it is.”

She forced herself to smile. “I like you, too.” And it was true. She liked Nate for Nate in some weird realm separate from the show. “Maybe we can take a break from show talk for the rest of the night?”

“Now there’s an idea.”

She moved out of the chair, closed the short distance to Nate, and slid onto his lap. “I don’t know about you, but I can think of a lot better ways to spend our time.” She’d never been one to put things on the back burner, but timing was everything. And now was the time for something that didn’t involve Harrington or Tyson. Now was the time for something that was just Nate and Vivvy.

His eyes studied her face as his hands rested on her hips, then he pulled her farther onto his lap. He tugged on the hem of her shirt. “I don’t know why these butt-ugly pajamas totally do it for me.”

“Well, then I’m glad I don’t pack lingerie for a business trip.”

He looked up at her, eyes intense and dark, dark green in the dim porch light. “You said we weren’t going to talk about business anymore.”

She moved her leg so she was now straddling his lap. Leaning forward, she brushed her lips across his earlobe. “Right. So, what do you want to talk about?”

“Me. Touching you.” His voice was low and her nerve endings tingled. “Everywhere.” He managed to work his hands under the thick fabric of her shirt. His hands were chilled against her skin, and goose bumps broke out where he touched.

“That doesn’t sound like much of a conversation.” But it sounded amazing.

“Oh, it’s a conversation.” He gripped her hips and pulled her against his growing erection. “Just not with words.”

“I like that.” She moved her mouth against his. His tongue skimmed her lips and then dove in. If they kept up this pace for the remaining five nights, she wasn’t sure her body would survive, though it would be a hell of a great time finding out.

Chapter Five

The bedroom door flung open and slammed against the wall loud enough it snapped Nate out of deep sleep. He sat up in bed, squinting.

Ryan stood in the doorway his face contorted in anger. “Have you lost your damned—”

Vivvy bolted up and screeched at the stranger in the bedroom doorway.

“Ry, get the hell out,” Nate ground out, shielding Vivvy from Ryan’s bugged-out eyes.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Ryan turned and slammed the door behind him.

Vivvy’s chest heaved. “Who the hell was that?”

Nate rubbed his palm against his forehead, trying to work away the sleepy fog in his mind. “My brother.”

“I figured that out,” Vivvy snapped, her voice too clear and precise for the morning hours. “My God, he looked exactly…” She let out a long breath, and shook her hair back behind her shoulders. “You’re identical twins.” She pointed at him as if it were an accusation.

“Yes, ma’am.” In the looks department, that’s exactly what he and Ryan were. As children, it had been easy to confuse even their parents. Though they had seemed to age the same, it wasn’t quite as hard to tell them apart anymore. Ry was corporate through and through. Nate didn’t even own a suit.

Vivvy flung herself back onto the pillow, still clutching the sheet as she stared up at the ceiling. “Identical,” she repeated.

“Yeah. Though Ry’s muscles aren’t as big as mine. Keep that in mind, Viv.”

Nate shoved himself onto his feet, looked around for some clothes to throw on. What the hell was Ryan doing home? They barely got Christmas day out of him. What was so special about now?

Well, judging by the anger in his brother’s voice, someone had spilled the beans about the whole TV show idea. Great. Just what he needed. Another crazed family outburst in front of Vivvy.

“I know I said I needed to meet your family. This wasn’t what I had in mind.”

“No shit.” He looked over at her in the rumpled bed, not quite sure what possessive feelings worked through him. He didn’t want Ryan to interrupt this, to change what their morning could have been.

Which was weird. What did it matter? They’d had plenty of sex in the past two days. It wasn’t as if he needed to get some that morning or he’d fall apart.

Already a headache was brewing. “Stay in here. I’ll take care of it.” He pulled on a pair of jeans and stomped out to the living room where Ryan was pacing.

“Maybe next time you give some warning first?”

Ryan pointed toward the bedroom door. “Maybe next time you don’t have sex with some random chick in my bed.”

“It’s not your bed.” Nate resisted the need to tell him the chick was not random. “It’s the guest bed. You’re just the only guest I’ve ever had...until now.”

Ryan threw his hands up in the air. “Whatever, man. Not why I’m here.”

“Why are you here?”

“What the hell kind of brain aneurysm did you have to make you think this TV show thing was a good idea? I know Dad can be persuasive, but you should know better.”

Nate sank into the couch. “I’m not agreeing to anything.”

“That’s not what Mom said.” Ryan’s hands slashed through the air. Nate couldn’t help but wonder how his lawyer brother couldn’t control his anger.

“Look, I’m letting her look around. She thinks she can convince me to do the show. She’s wrong.” He couldn’t feel guilty about that. He was being up front with her. It wasn’t his fault she was stubborn.

“Letting her look around? Yeah, that seems like a big fat no to me. I can’t believe I had to come all the way out here and talk some sense into you. What the hell are you thinking?”

Anger had burned Nate’s usual morning fog off quickly and he shoved off the couch again. He took a few steps toward Ryan, hands clenched into fists.

Ryan had left, barely looked back since college. He’d given nothing to Harrington since he was eighteen, while Nate had given it his all. Ryan had no say now. None. “I’m thinking it’s none of your damn business. You left. Some of us care about the family legacy.”

“This shithole is hardly a legacy.” Ryan matched Nate’s fighter stance even though they both knew Nate would win any physical fight. “You staying was your choice. You can’t fault me for mine.”

“I can when you’re miserable.”

“I’m miserable? I’m miserable? I got out, Nate. I got out of this godforsaken town and made a life for myself.”

It was an argument they’d been having for years, but they never seemed to be able to let it go, and Nate refused to divulge just how much he’d made out of himself. Money didn’t prove anything. It didn’t mean anything. Harrington was what meant everything. “Congratulations. When was the last time you flew? The last time you were in a plane that wasn’t some commercial jet?” Nate pounded one of his fists to his heart. “When was the last time you used a drill or a screwdriver and knew you were putting something together rather than tearing it apart? This is a life, Ry. A real one.”

Nate knew the last bit struck a raw nerve, but before Ryan could retort, Vivvy stepped out of the bedroom in her ridiculous pajamas. “Excuse me,” she offered casually. “Just need my bag.” She grabbed her overnight bag and walked, head high, down the hall to the full bath as though it was the most normal thing in the world.

When Nate looked back at Ryan, he wasn’t pleased to find his brother’s eyes following the swing of Vivvy’s hips. “Eyes up front.”

“Where did you find her?” Ryan scratched the back of his head, studying the door Vivvy had disappeared behind. “That woman is not from around here.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Nate shoved his hands into the pockets of his shorts.

Ryan’s face was contorted, and then some of the tension relaxed. “Oh no.”

“What?” Nate returned gruffly.

“You didn’t.” Ryan shook his head, back and forth, over and over.

“I didn’t what?”

“Please tell me you didn’t.”

Nate knew his twin well enough to know Ryan had put two and two together, but that didn’t mean Nate couldn’t play a little dumb. “Spit it out.”

“She’s the TV lady, isn’t she?”

Nate shrugged, didn’t meet Ryan’s disgusted glare. “I said don’t worry about it.”

Ryan shoved fingers through his hair. “Could you be any more like Dad?” he demanded as if the words themselves tasted bad. “Hell, if Dad ever shows up he’ll probably be interested, too.”

Nate grabbed Ryan by the shirtfront, moved him two paces back. “Mind your own fucking business. And it isn’t here. Every last inch of your business is in Kansas City. You made sure of that. So get the hell out.”

Ryan pushed Nate away. “My business is here. As long as you’re sleeping with the woman who is trying to convince you to make a laughingstock out of the Harrington name, my business is making sure you don’t.”

“You’re a divorce lawyer, Ry. Your name isn’t in the highest of standings anywhere.”

“I’m good at my job. I have a good life, Nathan. You’re the pathetic one who couldn’t get the hell out.”

“I chose this. Just like you chose that. Maybe it doesn’t meet your standards, but I don’t deny what’s inside of me. You can pretend that you don’t miss it, but I know you. I know you down to your soul, and every second you’re away from Harrington it eats away at you.”

“I’m not you, Nate.” But Ryan’s voice wasn’t strong, and Nate knew he was poking holes in all of Ryan’s usual arguments.

“No, but that’s one way we’re the same.” This was why they couldn’t stand to be in the same room anymore. The rift between them neither could let go. Ryan wanted out, but he’d wanted Nate out, too. Nate couldn’t leave, and he blamed Ryan for the ability to do it.

The brothers stared at each other for a long time, not saying a word. Both knew how to throw a physical punch, but the Harrington way was usually the verbal one. Nate still wasn’t sure when it had all gone south. The moment Ryan left for college? When he’d decided to join a firm in Kansas City? When Nate had refused to leave with him?

Finally, Ryan shook his head in disgust. “The TV lady, Nate?”

Vivvy stepped out of the bathroom, pulled the door shut. She smiled pleasantly at the brothers, every inch the TV lady in her suit and heels. “Afraid so, Mr. Harrington. I assure you, Nate’s and my relationship has no bearing on the show, if that’s what you’re worried about. Is there a decent place in Demo to get a cup of coffee?”

“McDonald’s,” Ryan muttered.

“It’ll do. I’ll leave you two to your argument and I’ll be back in about an hour. Meet you at Harrington, Nate?”

Nate could only nod while Ryan stood by, openmouthed. It wasn’t every day a woman rendered a Harrington man speechless, let alone two. Vivvy had a gift.

“Mr. Harrington.” She walked by without a backward glance.

“You are Dad, aren’t you?” Ryan said even as his eyes followed Vivvy out the door.

Nate winced, knowing Vivvy had to have heard the comment before she shut the door behind her. She’d never met Jed, and if Nate could help it she wouldn’t. That didn’t make the insult, and the fact Vivvy of all people had heard it, sting any less.

“You going to yell at me some more or we going to get some work done?”

“Dude.” Ryan shook his head. “This is messed up.”

“Well, I may as well tell you all the messed up. If you plan on crashing, do it at Mom’s. I’ll probably have an overnight guest again.”

“Seriously? What is wrong with you?”

Nate didn’t feel like arguing anymore. He didn’t feel like defending himself anymore. He wanted to feel the way he had last night, with Vivvy. The only way to replicate that feeling without chasing Vivvy down was to get in a plane. “Let’s go down to the airport, Ry.”

“You’re nuts.”

“Tell me you don’t want to get up in a plane today. You don’t want to forget all this crap and be above it all for a little while.”

Ryan sighed, pushed his fingers through his hair. “Fine, but I gotta change first.”

Nate smiled. They might not see eye to eye, but he knew his brother. Like all Harrington men, no matter how “messed up,” they couldn’t resist the sky.

…

Vivvy pulled up to Harrington Airfield & Mechanics just as a plane descended. The plane moved out of sight onto the landing strip and she smiled. It would look good on TV.

Had it only been two days ago she’d shown up half-convinced this was a dead end? It felt like so much longer. For a tiny, private airfield in the middle of nowhere, there was certainly a lot going on.

She got out of her car and bypassed the office building. She would love to see Nate hop out of that airplane again. He looked good with a plane as a backdrop.

Okay, he looked good all the time.

She rounded the corner just in time to see the pilot jump out, but the image made her frown. Nate and yet not Nate. The twin brother.

Up close it had been harder to tell them apart. They had the same face, the same green eyes. The brother’s hair was cut shorter and he’d been wearing a tailored suit. From far away, though, it was easy to distinguish the two. Even wearing almost identical jeans and T-shirts.

Nate was broader, and he had been right about the bigger muscles. The twin wasn’t a slouch by any means, but he was slimmer, not quite as built. Even if he hadn’t been wearing a suit that morning she would have pegged him as a guy who worked in an office rather than a man who worked with his hands.

They might be identical, but Vivvy preferred Nate. He had it all: body, manners, charm. The brother came up short in all three.

“Hello, again,” the brother greeted.

“Good afternoon.” Vivvy put a pleasant smile on her face, but her voice was cool. The guy had been a total ass to Nate that morning.

The thought bothered her. What did she care how one brother treated the other? That spoke a little too closely of connection, and real connection at this point threatened her impartiality. She couldn’t risk that when she had spent the morning formulating some new, clearer ideas for the Harrington show.

Ideas that didn’t involve the rest of the Harringtons. This morning she’d had no problem convincing herself the ideas were impartial, were necessary to get Nate to agree. Now, feeling protective of Nate made her question herself.

The twin approached. “I didn’t properly introduce myself this morning.” He offered a hand, a man at ease with people and yet not. He didn’t trust her. That was fair enough. “I’m Ryan Harrington.”

Vivvy shook his hand—they weren’t smooth as she expected. Not quite as calloused or worked-with as Nate’s, but he wasn’t just a paper pusher.

“Vivvy Marsh.”

“I apologize for creating a scene.” He flashed a smile. There was charm there, but it was different than Nate’s. Polished. Practiced. Not innate or easy. “I can be a bit overprotective when it comes to my family.”

Vivvy bit back the snarky comments wanting to escape and smiled. “No hard feelings, Mr. Harrington. You know, my job isn’t to convince your family to agree to the television show. In fact, my presence here isn’t even a guarantee your family will be offered one. I’m just a scout, per se.”

Except she did need to convince them. If she took this show idea back to Lee and Gerry, she needed to know that Nate wouldn’t back out.

Ryan didn’t need to know that.

“Nate explained that to me. Though, he also said he’s not doing the show, so I don’t quite understand why you’re still here.”

“I don’t give up that easy.”

“Neither does Nate. Neither do I.”

“We’ll see.” Arguing never got people anywhere. Vivvy preferred the low-key approach. Nate approached from the hangar. Vivvy couldn’t help but frown at the little jolt of warmth that went from her stomach to her heart, because it wasn’t just lust. Something else was mixing with that feeling. Something awfully dangerous and potent.

“Morning.”

He stood next to his twin, completely at ease. Something had changed since that morning. The charge in the air was gone, the crackling tension. It seemed they’d made amends.

When Nate’s hand rested on the small of her back, Vivvy had to resist the urge to step away. Warmth coursed through her, but a small dribble of fear doused it. Fear?

Vivvy worked up her best smile, trying to fight the strange thoughts her brain was coming up with. “I wanted to film you today.”