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That has my brother’s head whipping around, and he narrows his eyes at me, but he doesn’t ask the questions I can see burning in his eyes.
What do you mean? You never take a hiatus. What happened?
I shake my head a tiny bit, and he reads me loud and clear.
Please don’t ask me now. I’ll tell you all about it later.
The conversation turns to wedding plans for Stella and Gray and new movies that are on deck for Vaughn, and the whole time, Keaton hasn’t said a word.
But he sits next to me at the table.
And I can feel the heat from his arm as he reaches for the salt and pepper.
It makes my nether regions do the happy dance.
“So, how have you been, Keaton?” I ask before taking a bite of salmon.
“Fine.”
I nod thoughtfully. “Boy, you don’t let a girl get a word in edgewise, do you?”
Liv snorts at that. “He’s a man of few words.”
“What kind of cars have you been working on lately?” I ask him. I know that Keaton rebuilds expensive, hard-to-find vehicles and sells them to the highest bidder. Jay Leno has several of Keaton’s cars in his huge garage.
“He’s got a Mustang in his garage right now that Uncle Will has been salivating over,” Stella informs me with a helpful smile. “Are you going to put the man out of his misery and sell it to him, Keat?”
“It’s his,” Keaton replies. “He might kill me in my sleep if I sold it to someone else.”
Keaton goes quiet once more, and I’m surprised by how much that frustrates me. He may be on the quiet side around his family, but I remember very well that when he’s naked and making me quiver in delight, he’s very vocal.
“That’s right, baby, let go. Fucking come for me. God, you’re gorgeous. Yes, just like that.”
I shiver, as if a chill has just run up my spine.
“You okay, Sid?” Gray asks.
“Sure. I’m probably just cold from the flight. Why are airplanes always so damn chilly?”
“Right?” Liv says, agreeing with me. “I always freeze my tits off on planes.”
“I’ll warm your tits up,” Vaughn offers, making us all laugh.
“Of course, you will,” Liv says and leans over to kiss her husband’s lips. “That’s so selfless of you.”
“Dude.” Keaton sits back and scowls at Vaughn. “That’s my fucking sister.”
Chapter 2
Keaton
Fuck. Me.
The one woman in this universe that I can’t get out of my head is sitting inches away from me, and everything in me wants to fuck her until she can’t remember her own name.
I doubt her brother would appreciate it much if I did that on his own dining room table.
“I like the scruff.” Sidney’s voice is quiet as she picks at her salad. She hasn’t eaten much of her dinner, but I chalk it up to her traveling most of the day. I know that my stomach doesn’t settle for a while after flying.
When I don’t answer her right away, she turns those baby blues up to stare at me.
“Are you just not speaking to me at all anymore? I thought we left things on better terms than that.”
“No.” I shake my head once, relieved that the others aren’t paying any attention to us. They’re too wrapped up in discussing the pros and cons of having a band versus a DJ for Gray and Stella’s wedding. “That’s not it. Sorry, I was surprised to see you. I’m not trying to be rude.”
“Same goes,” she says with a little sigh. The same kind of sigh that slipped through her lips when my fingers danced down her spine. “It’s been a while. Almost a year?”
“About that,” I agree, as Olivia breaks out in her rendition of beatboxing.
My sister is talented at a lot of things, but beatboxing isn’t one of them.
“Don’t quit your day job,” I suggest and am met with her flipping me the bird, which just makes me grin.
“So, you’re working on a Mustang, huh?” Sidney asks, obviously trying to make conversation. It’s not that I don’t want to talk to her. It’s that my tongue always sticks to the roof of my mouth whenever I’m near her. She’s the one woman in this world that both disarms me and makes me feel like a kid. I’ve done a good job my entire adult life of keeping women at arm’s length.
Sidney’s the only one I’ve been tempted to pull into my world.
And that can’t happen.
Had I known that she’d be here tonight, I wouldn’t have come. It’s no one’s fault. She wanted to surprise her brother and Stella, and I get that. It was fun for all of them.
But I’d give just about everything I own not to be here tonight, to avoid the awkwardness. Because Sidney and I can’t happen.
“You’re quiet again,” she says with a resigned sigh.
I don’t want to hurt her feelings, so I decide to suck it up. I might not want to be here, but I am, and I refuse to make Sid feel bad.
