Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
LOTTIE
“Shut. Up.” Jenni smacks her bubble gum between her lips.
She’s my closest friend in Sweetbriar, even though she’s almost twenty years older than I am, living her best life and dating like a rock star.
I spare a quick glance at Kara. She’s chatting away with Jenni’s twenty-year-old niece, Abbi, who graduated from cosmetology school a few months ago and is currently working on Kara’s hair.
I’d meant to have Jenni do it, but I saw the hearts in Kara’s eyes the second she saw Abbi, and I figured she could use some girl time with someone at least a little closer to her age. Plus, it gave me a chance to catch up with my friend.
“I told you to be quiet,” I hiss. “The last thing Kara needs is to hear all my thoughts about her big brother.”
“He’s hot, isn’t he?”
Still staring at Kara so Jenni can’t see how my cheeks flame, I say, “Oh yeah. He has the carefree, messy hair thing going on, and a permanent scowl, but Jenni, when he smiles? Holy shit, I almost fainted.”
“The Scuttles say he doesn’t hear tone. That true?”
I hate that answering this feels like a betrayal, but he said this is what he wants—trial by fire—so I squash the uncomfortable swirling in my belly.
“It’s true, but he’s learning. He loves his sister. They’re…learning to understand each other.”
“Ha. Good luck with that. I remember when Abbi was thirteen. There’s no reasoning with those kinds of hormones.”
“They—”
“Oh. Em. Gee.”
My shoulders tense as she drags out the phrase.
“You like them. Like, you like them like them. Both of them.”
Kara meets my gaze in the mirror and offers a shy wave that I return. Every time we have a moment like that, my inner child reaches up and gives me a high five.
“I, ah, I have a connection with them, and I think I can be someone, like a support person for her. Someone I never had.”
“Oh, sweetie.”
Jenni’s sad tone deflates my mood. She knows more about my past than even Rowan. The woman makes sneakily strong margaritas, but I don’t let that toxicity out if I can help it.
She places her hand on mine, and I shift away from Kara’s stare so I don’t accidentally give too much away with my expression.
“You don’t even mind that he’s kind of a stalker?”
Rolling my eyes, I laugh. What else am I going to do? “He’s not a stalker. He’s just…someone I want to get to know better.”
“Whoa.” Jenni sits back on her stool and fluffs her feathered bangs out of her face. Today she’s wearing a Fresh Prince of Bel Air T-shirt that’s cinched at the waist with a hot pink belt and matching pink leggings.
Every morning, I start my day with an affirmation inspired by her: I don’t give two fucks what anyone says about me. It’s shockingly soul-affirming.
“You.” She points one long hot pink nail my way. “ You want to get to know him better? This I’ve got to see.”
I swat her hand away playfully. Getting to know people isn’t my normal MO, so I can understand her reaction.
Thane and I are a 99.7% match. There’s also that little fact that I will tell no one, but it’s hanging out in the back of my mind whispering, what if …
“We have a lot in common, that’s all.”
“What do you think?”
“About what?”
Jenni holds her pointer fingers a foot apart, then brings them closer as though on a scale.
“How big do you think he is?”
“Oh my God, Jenni. Stop that right now,” I hiss. “His sister, his baby sister, is twenty feet away.”
“So big then. Got it. This is something I can get behind. I’ve been telling you for months that you need to get laid.”
“Can girls get laid? I thought that’s something boys say?” Kara asks from her seat. The internal cringe that infiltrates my body is red-hot.
“ Jenni .” I swat at my friend’s shoulder.
“What? The kid’s thirteen. Has anyone had the birds and the bees talk with her yet?”
“Woman. Enough.”
“Kara?”
“Jenni!” I hiss, wanting to strangle her.
“Yeah?” Kara is enjoying my discomfort, or maybe she just enjoys being part of the girl group. I’d have given anything to have this conversation with anyone other than my brother.
“Pause. Stop. Give me two minutes before you say one more thing.”
Jenni raises her brow, but smirks as if she knows exactly what I’m about to do.
And she’s probably right, as I duck outside with my phone to call Thane.
“Lottie.”
“Hello to you to, Thane.”
Silence. “H—Hello.”
“This is all kinds of weird, I’m sorry. Never mind.”
“Lottie.” Oh, I like the command he wields much more than I have a right to. “What is it? Is Kara all right?”
“Oh, yes. She’s getting her hair fixed, and she’ll be beautiful. I’m about to overstep a line that’s not meant for me to cross, and I don’t know how to prevent it.”
“Do you want to?” If I didn’t know better, I’d almost believe he was smiling on the other end of the phone.
“It’s…complicated.”
“Explain.”
I pull the phone away from my ear and glare at the screen. He really doesn’t have phone etiquette down either.
“Well, there are some, um, conversations I would have shaved my head for if it meant I didn’t have to have them with my brother.”
More silence.
“Well, and somehow the salon has fallen onto a topic that is in no way my place to discuss with your sister, but then I remember how my conversations went, and I would have loved to have someone, anyone, that wasn’t my brother explaining things to me.”
“What things, Lottie?” His voice is strained. Is he mad?
I swallow audibly. The gulp can probably even be heard through the phone. “Okay, well you said you wanted me to help you with Kara, right?”
“Yes. What things , Lottie?” His husky voice is hypnotizing.
“Ah, Jesus. Um, girl things. And sex things, and?—”
“Come again? What things?” His tone has dropped to a decibel so low it vibrates through my chest.
“Girl things. Sex things.”
“Sex. Things.”
I should not be turned on by two words, but said in that voice, as though he’s struggling to hold on to his composure, has me hotter than I’ve been in years.
“Yes? Maybe? Ah?—”
“What kind of sex things, Charlotte?”
I stare at my phone again. Did he really ask me that? Pressing the phone into my chest, I poke my head back inside the salon. “I need a few more minutes. Do not discuss anything with her until I get back. Nothing, Jenni, do you hear me?”
Jenni flashes a traitorous grin, then shoos me away. Abbi and Kara have already moved on to some concert that’s coming to Nashville, and I sigh in relief.
I swear I hear Thane chuckling into the phone. Lifting it to my ear, I catch the tail end of it, then slip around the corner into the alley.
“Where’s Kara?” he asks, making me jump. What the hell am I doing in a dirty alley anyway? I know better than this, but I can’t help feeling like I need to sneak around.
“She’s with my friend and her niece, who’s doing her hair. They’re talking about concerts they want to go to.”
“Is she having fun?”
A shiver runs down my spine.
“I think she is.”
“Good. Now tell me about these sex things you wish to discuss.” The rich, velvety tone of his voice washes over me, and I fan my face. His chuckle has me gasping and peering at my surroundings a little more closely.
Holy mother of sexiness, what I wouldn’t give to hear that sound every day.
“Not with you,” I whisper into the phone. “Has anyone had the talk with Kara?”
“What talk is that?”
“Now you’re intentionally being obtuse. Has anyone had the sex talk with her?”
“I’d much rather have it with you.”
I nearly scream as he rounds the corner, but he takes up all the oxygen in the alley, and I have no words. None. Ending the call, I slip my phone into my back pocket, never once taking my eyes off this man.
He moves with a grace I’ve never seen him carry as he strides right up to me until our chests are nearly touching.
“What kinds of things did you wish to discuss, Charlotte?”
I snap my mouth closed before I catch flies in it.
“Surely, you’re not shy.” He dips his knees to stare directly into my eyes.
“Aren’t you?”
His expression is predatory. “Not about this. Nothing has ever felt more right.”
“Thane.” There’s no warning in my tone, no fire, not even any sass. The only thing I hear is longing and need that’s going to get me into trouble. “Your sister is right on the other side of this wall.” It’s the only defense I have, but I’m not sure if I’m imploring him to stop or to continue.
His hands take hold of my wrists, and I forget to breathe as he interlaces them in one of his big palms before holding them against the brick wall above my head.
Then he leans in.
“That’s why we’re only talking.” But as he says it, his massive thigh wedges between my legs. The contact sets me ablaze.
My hips buck, and I want to die of embarrassment.
“Talking, Charlotte.” He runs his nose up the side of mine, and a whimper escapes as something deep in my core claws its way to the surface. He drowns out my sounds with a groan of his own. “You’re too precious to be taken against a wall.” He pulls back to stare down at me. “Even if it’s what we both want.”
He drops my hands and takes a step back. I’d fall over if I hadn’t lurched forward at just the right moment. An energy I’ve only ever read about vibrates between us.
What the fuck was that?
Maybe he’s a wizard, or a dragon, or maybe I’ve been reading too many paranormal romances lately.
Thane shoves his hands into his pockets as though he’s afraid to touch me again while my breaths are heavy and gasping.
“To answer your earlier question, I don’t know. But I assume my father gave her very little of his time. Are you asking my permission to discuss those things with her?” He smiles just a bit when he says the word things.
Ninety-nine point seven percent.
I’m in serious trouble here.
“I…I believe I am.”
“Then, Charlotte, permission granted. You may discuss things with my sister, and you may experience them with me. My door is always open to you.”
He spins away from me then, but I can tell by his stride that he’s adjusting himself as he rounds the corner. It does nothing to calm the beast he’s ignited within me though—so it better damn well be the same for him.
When he’s out of sight, I drop my head to the hard brick and suck in a lungful of air, asking myself one more time, what the fuck was that?
By the time I compose myself, I’m not even surprised that he’s sitting in the salon, typing rapidly on his phone while Jenni practically drools over him.
I hope my libido is as active as hers is when I’m fifty.
“Thane?” The second his name leaves my mouth, all heads turn my way. I was attempting to act surprised, but that’s not the emotion that came out. This one belongs back in the alley, so I rush to his side and plop down into the chair next to him before I keel over from embarrassment.
“I told you I’d text you when we were on our way home.” Even whispering the words doesn’t keep them from Jenni’s ears. Sometimes I wonder if she has hidden hearing aids to eavesdrop on people.
Thane shrugs and keeps typing on his phone. “Rafe thought it would be a good idea if I took you two out to lunch.”
My heart skips a beat before plunging into my belly.
“Rafe thought it was a good idea?” In other words, he isn’t taking me out because he wants to—he’s taking us out. Us. Me and his baby sister.
He slowly lowers his phone to his lap and angles himself in his chair to stare at me. The weight of his gaze is making me hot in all kinds of uncomfortable places, and it’s not helped by his thick thigh that’s now pressing warmly against my own.
“Why is your face scrunched up again?”
“She thought you were asking her on a date.” Jenni quickly ducks behind the counter. She knows me well and, given another second, I might have thrown something at her.
“So that face,” he says, turning my chin back to him with one long finger, “is your disappointed face or your disgusted face?”
The chorus of “aw” that comes from the peanut gallery has me grinding my teeth.
“It’s neither. My nose itches.” I lean back far enough to dislodge his finger from my chin.
“My father did teach me one thing, Charlotte.”
“Lottie. Don’t call me Charlotte.”
This time, a wicked smile emerges victoriously on his stupidly handsome face. “You didn’t mind it in the alley.”
“I was cornered in a dark alley. I wasn’t thinking clearly.”
“It was neither dark, nor were you cornered. You were pressed up against the wall by my?—”
My hand slaps over his lips with a loud smacking sound, and his eyes twinkle under the harsh fluorescent lights.
Jenni sits propped up on her stool, fanning herself. “Girl, we need a girls’ night ASAP!”
I point at her and purse my lips. “You, go check on Kara and Abbi.”
She hops off her stool, wearing a giant pout. As soon as she gives us her back, I turn my attention to Thane, who licks my freaking palm.
Licks it.
I’m so shocked, I don’t even move. My hand stays pressed to his lips as though I’ve turned to stone. Licking my hand seems like the least Thane-like thing he’s done to date.
“D—did you lick me?”
He does it again, and this time I drop my hand, wiping it off on his thigh and instantly regretting it. The man has muscles for his muscles, and now I can’t stop envisioning what his thighs could do to me.
I don’t understand what’s happening to me. Even at sixteen, when I thought Jamar Holioak was the hottest boy in the entire world and I’d die if he didn’t ask me out, I wasn’t fantasizing about his body parts or him licking me.
This is moving too fast. That’s what’s happening here. He’s been here for all of two weeks. I know we’re a near-perfect match, something that really shouldn’t be possible, and it’s that knowledge that’s messing with my head. Nothing more.
Thane leans into my space, and I frown.
“What?” I didn’t mean to snap, but I can’t be trusted when he’s this close. If I don’t fully understand my bodily reactions to him, how the heck am I supposed to explain it to anyone else?
“Disgusted or disappointed? And before you answer, would you like to know the only useful thing my father ever taught me?”
I nod, not trusting myself to speak.
Thane gently sweeps my long brown hair over my shoulder, and his warm breath hits my ear. “He taught me how to spot a liar. He is a master of the craft, after all. So keep that in mind before you lie to me. Though the punishments for lying could be fun…for me.”
His chuckle is deliciously menacing. Damn. Wounded, dark, a little twisted, and hot? No wonder he’s my perfect match.
He sits upright in his own space as Jenni takes her post at the desk, still fanning herself. Idiot. I love her, but she’s an idiot.
“Now answer my question, Charlotte .”
“My father calls me Charlotte,” I hiss.
He may not hear tone, but he’s a master of studying my face. His gaze scans every inch, from my hairline down to my chin before finally resting on my eyes.
“Charlotte has bad memories attached to it,” he says, nodding as if he’s answered his own question. “You’ll help me with Kara, and I’ll help you learn to crave hearing your name. Now for the final time, disgusted or disappointed?”
He’ll what?
He never glances away, never blinks, doesn’t even appear to breathe as he waits for my answer. He’s so high-handed I should smack him for his audacity, but I can’t find it in myself to be offended. I’m in serious trouble here.
And I know in that moment, he’s telling the truth—he’ll know when I lie. So as my face burns brightly, I lower my chin and answer the only way I can—with honesty. “Disappointed.”
“Lottie, look!” Kara bounces into the waiting room, not picking up on the tension, and spins in a circle—the epitome of happy little girl.
“Oh, honey. It’s amazing. Doesn’t she look beautiful, Thane?”
Slowly, he drags his gaze from the side of my face to his sister. “You’re always beautiful, Kara. My apologies if I don’t make that fact known more often.”
Her chin quivers, and she wrings her hands in front of herself. “Abbi said I have wavy hair and there’s special stuff for it. Can I get it?”
Thane nods. “Whatever you need.”
Her face lights up as she bounces to the counter, but I can’t unsee how Thane is watching her. It may confuse him, but he loves his sister in ways he probably never thought himself capable of. It’s obvious every time he faces her.
“You’re good for her, you know.”
He swallows hard. “And you’re disappointed. It would appear I have more than one girl to make up with.”
Thane stands, reaches into his pocket for his wallet, and joins Kara at the counter, while I stare after them, wondering how the hell I fell into a relationship with my client-slash-stalker-slash-new-neighbor in less than a month.