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“Not feeling well?” Chase teased.
Did everyone expect Jack to always drink? He might have to rethink his image if he survived tonight. “I’m doing fine. Thanks.”
Chase studied Jack. “Markets good? Do we need to juggle some investments?”
“No.” He shook his head. Jack didn’t want to do small talk. “Markets are good, but what I really want is to chat a minute about Siobhan.”
“Oh. I see Paige. I’ll let you two knights in shining armor have at it.” CJ, who’d been chatting with another woman at the bar, gave her husband, then Jack, a peck on the cheek and crossed the room to where Paige and Eve had come in.
“She’s right.” Chase lifted his chin in his departing wife’s direction. “We owe you a thanks for rescuing Siobhan today.”
“Glad I was available.”
“You think there was something to those guys?”
“I think the world is filled with bad people and, yeah, they may have been a couple of them.”
Chase frowned and Jack knew exactly how the guy felt. It had taken Jack a while to stop stewing over what could have gone wrong had he not arrived when he did.
“Like I said, thanks.”
“Nothing to thank me for. I care about her too.” What Jack needed but didn’t have, was time to soften Chase up, ease him into the conversation about the little sister that wasn’t so little anymore. Not that Jack blamed any of them for being protective of her, Siobhan wasn’t his sister and he felt the exact same way. “Which brings me around to something we need to discuss before Siobhan arrives.”
Nodding, Chase reached for the ginger ale the bartender had served and handed it over to Jack. “I’m all ears. But if you want me to reel in our baby sister, you’re jack out of luck—no pun intended. That kid has a mind and adrenaline tolerance that’s all Baron and hard to control.”
“She’s definitely all Baron, but there’s no baby or kid in her. Not anymore.”
That had Chase frowning again. Whether the guy was doing math in his head or preparing to argue, Jack had no idea, because his eyeballs suddenly popped in conjunction with the low whistles of a few men at the bar. “What the…”
A guy Jack didn’t recognize elbowed Chase. “Looks like your little sister isn’t so little anymore.”
“Watch it,” Chase and Jack chorused.
That made the line between Chase’s brows deepen.
Jack sighed. Knowing the second he turned around and saw Siobhan, how he felt would be painted all over his face for Chase and anyone else paying attention to see, this wasn’t going to be easy.
“Crap.” Chase rolled his eyes. “Why do they have to grow up? That kid, no, that woman is going to break some hearts tonight. Right after I punch a few of them in the nose first.”
And if he guessed right, Jack’s nose would be the first to make contact with Chase’s fist.
A matching deep-set frown between his brows, Mitch appeared beside his brother. “When the hell did Siobhan start dressing like a vixen?”
“First of all, no one uses the word vixen anymore; secondly, I believe it’s called growing up.” Chase’s gaze narrowed. “And I don’t like it one bit.”
“Which brings me back to what I wanted to discuss with you two,” Jack interjected.
“Not now.” Chase pushed away from the bar. “I need to run interference.”
“Right behind you.” Mitch straightened his tie and Jack dared to spin around.
Holy… All the breath in his lungs left him. Donning a strapless royal blue dress that showed more assets than he liked, Siobhan closed the distance between them. From the way just about every male eye in the room turned her way, he wasn’t the only one to notice her…assets. A thin strand of pearls hung around a long kissable neck and rested just above a hint of exposed cleavage. Enough flesh to taunt a man’s imagination and tease his sanity. The tight swath of fabric draped about a narrow waist showcased an hour glass figure. With each step across the crowded ballroom, the clinging fabric swished back and forth, a single slit just above the knee exposing long, shapely legs. Legs that were doing as much to fuel his imagination as the rest of her.
“Hi.” Siobhan came to a stop in front of him, and completely ignoring her brothers, laid one hand on his forearm and leaned in for the tiniest of pecks on the lips. Not his cheek as she might have done only a few short years ago, but smack on the lips.
“Hi,” he managed to mutter back, just in time to see Eve half a step behind her smiling, and not one but two Baron brothers staring daggers at him.
No matter how he sliced it, he was in so much trouble.
