Relentless (Code R.E.D. Book 4)

Chapter 10

Friday, three days after they’d met, Zane sat across from Willow at a deli on School Street. She was a lot like his sister—unapologetic when it came to eating in front of men. No prissy girl picking at her food to look like she didn’t eat much. Willow ate with enthusiasm and enjoyment.

She was so pretty with her sun-streaked hair, her smooth, heart-shaped face. Every movement she made was graceful. Taking her to bed was what he thought of every time he saw her. Hell, even when he didn’t see her, he fantasized about her long golden legs wrapped around his hips, her slender arms linked around his neck when she brought him down for a kiss.

No, pretty didn’t describe her. Beautiful wasn’t enough either. So much about her made it difficult to explain just how special she was.

And he loved to watch her no matter what she was doing.

“What?” She looked up from her thick barbeque pork sandwich. A touch of barbeque sauce was at the corner of her mouth.

“A little sauce.” Zane reached across the table and wiped the sauce away with his thumb, just to skim his fingers over her face. She always smiled when he touched her and every time her smile did something to his chest. An ache, a longing that told him he was in deep shit.

She moved her lips just enough to draw Zane’s finger into her mouth and suck. He nearly groaned out loud.

Willow let his now wet finger slip from her mouth. “Don’t want to waste any,” she said with a wicked glint in her eyes.

God, he wanted to take her now. But they’d agreed to slow things down and they’d only had lunch together every day since that incredible dinner and night afterward. Because Willow spent Saturday with her aunt, she would spend Sunday with him and his family, then him alone.

It was the alone part he was looking forward to.

“Sunday, when you meet Lexi, please don’t mention that you have any clue that Stacy was more than an interpreter.” Zane held her gaze. “You and me, that’s it, okay?”

“Okay.” Willow spoke in a subdued tone now. “I just wish I had someone I could talk with who could tell me more about what Stacy really did. I just want to know because she was so special to me.”

“I’m sorry.” Zane leaned close, over the table and kept his voice as soft as hers. “But you need to understand how dangerous any knowledge can be.”

Willow sighed and set down her sandwich. “It’s hard.”

“I know, honey.” He gripped one of her hands that was on the table. “You don’t know how hard it is for me, too. Especially when something like that happens.”

She gave a slow nod. “I don’t have to like it, but it is what it is.”

Zane leaned back in his chair. “How’s the preparation to defend your dissertation going?”

“You remind me of my aunt.” That was something Zane wasn’t so sure he liked hearing. “Every day she presses to make sure I’m preparing and not off doing something ‘impulsive’ like she says I do a lot.”

“Like meeting me?”

Her lips quirked. “Yeah, she wasn’t too crazy about me going out with a man the same day I met him and not getting in until three a.m. Even though you are Lexi’s brother.”

“I wouldn’t have approved, either.” He narrowed his brows. “And you promise to never do it again, right?”

She gave a mock salute. “Yes, sir!”

“About that dissertation.”

“I’ve been going to the public library every day and making my last revisions on my laptop.” Willow pointed at her purse that was resting by her feet. It was large enough to hold her laptop, which was both slim and small.

With his memory for details, Zane wasn’t surprised he remembered the design was something his youngest sister, Rori, was into, a brand called Coach. Not something Lexi would go for—she wouldn’t be caught dead with something designer if it wasn’t part of her undercover work.

Willow took another healthy bite of her barbeque pork sandwich. “Can’t wait to meet everyone in your family on Sunday,” she said after she finished chewing. “I just have my younger twin sisters, so it’ll be fun to be around a really big family.”

“Well, now you’ll get almost the whole experience.” Zane held his own sandwich, ready to take another bite. “Almost the whole bunch. Our brother, Ryan is Special Ops in the Marines and who knows where he is right now.”

“Eight, nine, still big either way.” Willow sipped a drink of her lemonade through a straw in her Styrofoam cup. She glanced at her watch before setting her lemonade on the tray on the table. “Hey, gotta run. I’ll be late for work if I don’t get going.”

Zane stood at the same time she did and caught her by the shoulders before he kissed her long and hard as she kissed him back. He wanted to do more than kiss her, damnit.

When they parted, she picked up her purse and gave him one of her smiles that always punched him in the gut and made him wonder what the hell he’d gotten himself into.

* * *

“Now I’m reallyin the Land of the friggin’ Giants.” Five-foot-four Lexi Steele planted her hands on her hips as she looked from the five-eleven Willow to her three over six-foot-tall brothers. The diamond piercing at her bellybutton winked in the sunlight and Willow wondered what the Chinese symbol meant that surrounded Lexi’s bellybutton.

By the spark in Lexi’s green eyes, Willow could tell Zane’s sister was comfortable with her shorter height and wasn’t serious as she glared at everyone around her.

Now Willow could report back to Linda that Zane did have older brothers almost as sexy as he was.

“But I’ll take you each on one-one-one,” Lexi was saying, and it was obvious she meant it. From what Zane told Willow, Lexi was a small package but she “kicked ass.”

“How about we go three on three?” Zane’s brother Troy said.

Willow tried to keep a straight face as she rubbed her damp palms on her jean shorts. The afternoon sun and humidity had her pulling her hot pink tank top away from her chest, too.

“Okay.” Lexi looked around at her three older brothers, and their twelve-year-old brother who was taller than Lexi. “I’ll take Zane and Willow over you buffoons.”

Willow high-fived Lexi as she said, “These boys will go down fast.”

She wasn’t kidding. She’d played ball from junior high through four years of college and was even asked to try out for several WNBA teams as guard. But for Willow basketball was just meant to be fun, challenging, and her break from studying. It hadn’t been her life’s ambition.

Within fifteen minutes, after several jump shots, easy passes, layups, and three-pointers, all three of the huge Steele brothers, including Zane, stared at Willow as if she’d come from another planet.

“You’ve got a ringer.” Troy shook his head as he looked from Willow to Lexi. “We should get a handicap.”

“I want to be on her side,” the twelve-year-old shorter brother Sean said to Zane. “Trade ya.”

Zane studied Willow and said, “Not on your life,” as if he wouldn’t trade her outside of basketball, either.

Heat flushed Willow’s cheeks as she stood on the three-point line and palmed the ball. She glanced at Lexi who was grinning.

“Oh, you boys are so going to die,” Lexi said with an evil laugh.

Lexi might be five-four, but she weaved around the men with ease and made several of her own jump shots as they started another game of three-on-three. Zane was just as good as Lexi.

The two men and younger boy on the opposite team held their own pretty well, but they never stood a chance.

After destroying the brothers five games to zero, everyone was pouring sweat except for Willow who wasn’t really winded just damp from perspiration, mostly from the heat and humidity. She’d never lost her endurance after so many years of playing one of the most demanding sports, that required extensive cardio training and playing.

The five miles she ran every morning was barely challenging. It was mostly to help keep her fit.

Zane put his arm around her shoulders and Willow noticed that everyone around them just about dropped their jaws. Zane didn’t seem to notice as he said low enough for her to hear, “You’re full of one surprise after another.”

“Lemonade and whiskey pie,” Mrs. Steele called from the front door.

Everyone picked up their jaws and bolted for the house. “Dibs on the biggest piece!” Sean yelled as he beat his older brothers up the steps and onto the porch.

Willow wanted to lean into Zane, but she could be pushing it in front of his family. Before, they might have thought he’d brought her home because she was Stacy’s cousin—now they knew better.

And apparently, this was something Zane had never done before—which didn’t surprise her in the least.

She looked up at Zane. “Whiskey pie?”

He gave her one of his heart-melting smiles. “An Irish dessert, of course. Mama grew up on Irish cooking and that’s what she serves from appetizers to desserts.” They reached the steps. “And not one of us complains.”

Including Zane’s parents, the nine members of the Steele bunch sat at the incredibly long oak table. The only one missing was the brother who was in the Marines. Willow climbed onto the matching polished oak bench between Zane and Lexi.

Mrs. Steele must have spent at least a couple of days cooking due to the amount of food that had been piled on this table both times they sat down today. Now there had to be enough desserts for each person at the table to have their own pan or platter-full.

“Cool,” Lexi said as she reached for a platter with what looked like battered and deep-fried lumpy somethings. “Apple fritters, too,” Lexi said.

Ah.

The way the whole family dug in, Willow figured she’d have to jump in if she wanted a taste of the apple fritters and whiskey pie. But Zane slid a slice of pie onto her plate and winked when she looked up at him.

Melt.

God, he was so devastatingly handsome when he did that. He made her feel like warm chocolate and she wanted to pour herself all over him.

Tonight.

Definitely tonight.