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“No, you just suck. I mean, how hard is it to stay on the track?” Amelia scoffed, and Ewan chuckled from the kitchen. It smelled incredible. Upon my arrival, he had made it clear that neither of us were welcome in his work space and were banished to the sitting room to find our own entertainment. They had plenty to choose from. They owned every game system imaginable: old, new, and in-between.
“Fine, I suck.” She turned the TV off and focused on me. “What are you reading right now?”
“Outlander.” I winked at her. “The show is phenomenal, and I have a serious thing for the Scottish accent. Even reading it is sexy.” Amelia doubled over giggling and Ewan yelled an “oy” from the kitchen.
“Night Circus.” Amelia tried to hand me her Kindle, but I scrunched my nose. “Kindles don’t bite.” She rolled her eyes.
“I prefer my Nook, I hate the Kindle interface, but that book was insufferable. No amount of romance or magical premise could save it from the two dimensional characters. Two-stars.”
“Are you joking? It is so romantic how they refused to kill the other one and fell in love despite the competition.” Her jaw was hanging open, and she crossed her arms, daring me to argue.
“Oh, please, they don’t even physically meet until two-thirds into the book and girl is too stupid to even know who the guy is when they meet. It’s not love. It’s poor character development and set up for the insane ‘love at first sight’ concept that is overused in the YA genre.” I smirked, mirroring her daring look.
“Last I checked, your boyfriend is the least romantic person ever. So what do you know?” She cocked a brow at me, and I snorted an embarrassing laugh. Ewan was easily the most romantic guy I had ever met, outside of a Colleen Hoover novel, and he wasn’t exactly my boyfriend. Ewan groaned from the kitchen, but Amelia went on, “Seriously, for their anniversary, he got Darcy a vacuum. I mean I hated her, but geez.”
“She asked for one,” he called out, but it was drowned out by Amelia giggling near my ear.
“Darcy was a huge bitch and threw a tantrum because he hadn’t bought her a stupid expensive pair of earrings.” His sister rolled her eyes. “She really did ask for a vacuum, but expected him to buy her both. Between blowing his money and calling me a brat, I hated her.” I wasn’t sure why Amelia insisted on talking about Darcy, but I was tired of hearing about the woman. Ewan obviously had money, but who cared? Plus, the idea of any other woman touching him made my blood boil.
He called us to the dining room table where the food was plated, waiting on us. Not romantic my ass. He poured me and himself a glass of wine and Amelia opened a Coke, pouring it into a glass. I dug into the spicy pasta dish shamelessly. Amelia pointed a fork at me and made a comment about liking a girl who wasn’t afraid to eat as she devoured hers with as much gusto, if not more. I stopped Ewan after the first glass of wine and resisted the temptation to literally lick the creamy sauce from my plate when I was done. Yeah, perfection summed him up nicely. Hot, accent, and a great cook was a winning combination. Not to mention the sizzling sex.
“Can I ask you for something?” Amelia looked at me sheepishly. “Say no if you don’t want to.”
Ewan groaned, and grumbled an, “Amelia, please.”
His sister ignored it, waving a dismissive hand at him. “My birthday is in a few weeks, and I had planned on some friends staying the night, but a couple of moms are weird about Ewan being the adult here.” Amelia batted her lashes at me and smiled sweetly.
“So you need a female chaperone?” That was the stupidest concept ever. If he were her single dad, would those moms still feel the same way? Then I looked at him and wondered if those were the same girls drooling over him on Facebook after I accepted Amelia’s friend request. Amelia nodded. “Sure. Why not?” I shrugged, and she squealed, pulling out her phone to update her friends on the change in adult supervision. Ewan was smirking at me with something resembling adoration in his dark eyes.
After dinner, I started washing the dishes despite him telling me not to, and Amelia ran up the stairs talking excitedly on the phone. Ewan wrapped his arms around my waist from behind, pressing his lips into the hollow below my ear, and I had to stop what I was doing. “Stay with me tonight.” His hands slid under the hem of my shirt, and his thumb grazed my hipbone. My breath caught in my chest. The man was determined to break me.
I tilted my head to see him over my shoulder. “What kind of example would we be setting for Amelia?” I arched my eyebrow at him, making him chuckle against my neck. I shivered.
“She won’t come out of her room the rest of the night and you dropped by for breakfast in the morning.” Ewan shrugged. Amelia and dealing with what she knew was his problem, not mine, but I didn’t want her thinking less of me for spending the night with her brother. “I want to wake up with you.” My pulse quickened at his words. I was fine with him asking me to stay for sex, but the whole waking up thing sold me.
“All right,” I mumbled, pretending to put up a fight. No sooner had I cocked my head to look at him again we heard a clicking noise and he jumped back. Amelia was giving us an accusing look, phone in hand. Had she heard our conversation? We had been whispering, but still.
“Selene doesn’t believe you’re my brother’s girlfriend.” She obviously sent the picture and then moved over next to us. Amelia tucked a strand of my hair back and squeezed herself between us. “Smile, Ewan,” His sister commanded. A series of pretty flattering pictures were taken after Ewan relented to smiling and relaxing. Once Amelia was satisfied, she turned the phone off and faced us. “Have a nice night, you two.” Yup. She heard us.
Dusk settled over us as we sat on the porch swing. Well, I sat; Ewan was lying in my lap with his long legs thrown over the arm rest at the other end. I rocked the swing, gently slouched back with my eyes closed, and he had our hands clasped on his chest. He was incredibly comfortable around me, with me, it was so weird. I wanted to mirror his comfort, but it was all too surreal, too incredible.
TWELVE
Ewan
“Tell me about your affinity for the Scots. Should I be jealous?” I smirked without opening my eyes. I knew Jovie was watching me, I could feel it, but I kept my eyes closed tight. Jovie’s thumb made tight circles on mine where our hands were clasped on my chest. She giggled an “uh-huh”, and I shifted to bury my face in her stomach. I circled my arms around her and nuzzled in. “Thanks for agreeing to help with the party. I wasn’t sure what to do. I hate that they’re uncomfortable with me supervising, but maybe I almost understand.” She answered with a hum. “Maybe I’ll take the night off and go find a classy gentleman’s club.” I cocked my head to judge her reaction.
Her mouth fell open, but the shock was ruined by a giggle. “Remember whose lap you are in, mister. I could have you on the floor pretty quick right now.” I growled softly at the threat making her laugh harder. The idea of her putting me on the floor made my cock twitch with anticipation. “Was that just payback for my Scottish comment?” I nodded against her, and we slipped back into silence. She stroked my hair, and I clung to her back with my face buried into her stomach. When Amelia opened the door to tell us goodnight, Jovie answered, but I only waved.
“I could get used to this.” I peeked at her, trying to gauge her reaction, but Jovie only looked confused. “All of this. You, me, having someone to spoil and talk to. Having someone to spend time with.” I sucked in a breath, pushing up from her lap. The way I felt about her had only intensified since our first meeting, so I felt the need to show my hand and cross my fingers.
“I don’t want to be spoiled.” Her defensive, snarky tone came through, making me instantly regret what I had said. It was too much for her.
“What do you want?” I was still not ready to let her turn me down.
“Nothing.” My face fell; I felt my expression give away my pain at her words. She saw it too. “I mean, I don’t need to be spoiled. I can buy things for myself. As far as a relationship goes, I have been on my own so long, I guess simply having someone to spend time with would be enough. I could go on about someone loving me unconditionally and all, but that isn’t reality.” There was obviously a lot more baggage related to the cheating asshole than I realized, and she was still carrying it around. “Reality is that relationships are hard. People give in easily, cheat readily, and don’t take care of each other.” Jovie truly thought we were all alike and I was going to fight her to prove we had something that was worth it, something real. I wanted it all from her, with her, instantly, but she wanted nothing or was trying to convince herself that she wanted nothing.
“Aren’t you the cynic?” I laughed while she nodded, cracking a smile. “So, you think the idea of true love is a farce?”
