Lovell, Cooper - Tessa's Highlander (Siren Publishing Classic) (18 page)

A mischievous expression appeared on Alex’s face. “Now this is completely for my own future entertainment. How big
is
he?”

She felt her face go scarlet. So, he was taking the left turn instead of the right. But, she had no choice. Her one-word answer was “Big.”

Alex ran his hand down the front of his face. “Man, why do all the good ones have to be straight? Please tell me he has a brother somewhere who’s not.”

Tessa beamed as she took a sip of coffee. Alex was leaning in for his fifth and final question when they heard Gavan coming down the stairs.

They both turned to watch him. Fresh from the shower, his hair was wet and tousled, a few chocolate curls clinging to his face. He wore only his jeans, top button still undone, an A-1 sexy look in Tessa’s book. Barefoot, he carried his boots and socks. Tessa’s hard-working butterflies concluded their well-earned break when the reason he was bare-chested occurred to her,
because his shirt still lay in a puddle on the floor of the library
.

Alex reached over, squeezed her hand, and leaned in to press his forehead to hers affectionately. “Tessa, he is glorious.”

* * * *

“Tessa, honey, I
kin’na
believe you left me alone. I was looking forward tae a nice lo—”

Gavan stopped in his tracks when his gaze landed on Tessa,
his
Tessa, sitting in her breakfast nook with the smarmy lover-boy she had been with last week looking very cozy.

Even worse, the bastard was touching her.

He dropped his boots to the floor and sat on one of the lower stairs to slip into them without putting on his socks. A million thoughts bombarded him. The loudest thought, though, was the one that shouted at him,
You are a jackass for believing pillow talk
.

When he stood, Tessa came to him and wrapped her arms around his waist.

“Good morning. I didn’t want to wake you.” She leaned in and kissed his chest, swiping her tongue on his bare skin, and added in a sultry voice, “Thought you might need some rest after last night, so I snuck out.” She craned her neck in obvious anticipation of his kiss, but he denied her. Instead, he gripped her arms and pushed her from him.

* * * *

Confused and a bit hurt, she stuttered, “
Wha
…
w:what
are you doing?”

His eyes were icy and his jaw was clenched. “I have tae go. I’ll be in
tomorra
tae get back tae work.”

This couldn’t be happening. What happened to the man who took her to the brink of ecstasy with such ease, who tenderly cared for her when she ached from his loving, who held her so tightly while they slept, who looked directly into her eyes and told her he loved her?

“Gavan, why would you leave? I don’t want you to leave. What’s going on?”

He closed his eyes and pushed his hand through his damp hair, an expression of extreme anguish on his face.

To Tessa, the silence went on for an eternity. When he looked at her again, his eyes were fiery with anger.

“What’s going on is I
will’na
be made a fool of and I
will’na
share you with another man. I
din’na
know you’d be entertaining this morning or I would have cleared out of here last night.”

Pain and then anger surged through her. “What the hell are you talking about? You’re not sharing me with anybody. And I’m not entertaining. It’s just Alex.”

From behind her she heard, “Geez, thanks, T.”

Without turning in his direction, but waving a dismissive hand at him she said, “Not now, Alex.”

He put his hands up in apology.

Gavan headed toward the foyer. She ran to him and grabbed his arm. He spun on her. “Oh, he’s just Alex. Oh, you’ve known him forever. Jesus, Tessa,
doona
you know how beautiful you are? That no man is going tae just want tae be friends with you? I
doona
care how long you’ve known each other.”

Once again, from behind her, Tessa heard Alex, “Oh good Lord. That burr is like liquid heat.”

Tessa’s lips thinned at his unsolicited comment and without turning so as to maintain Gavan’s gaze, she called to Alex, “Could you please come over here?”

As he approached, she said to Gavan, “You couldn’t be more wrong about this. You’re getting your boxer-briefs all in a twist for nothing.”

He shook his head at her, eyes still alight with fury, a muscle twitching a rapid beat in his clenched jaw.

Alex arrived at Tessa’s side, snaked his arm around her waist, and said, “What can I do for you, honey?”

She saw rage flash in Gavan’s eyes at the endearment and intimate contact that she just knew too-smart-ass-to-know-what’s-good-for-him Alex threw in there on purpose, and for a moment, she feared for Alex’s safety. Thinking it was better not to delay this any longer, she turned to Alex. “Will you please tell Gavan what you said to me about him while we were at the table? You know, right after you asked me your fourth question.”

Normally, Tessa would never expect Alex to thrust his sexual orientation in someone’s face because it wasn’t how she defined him or their friendship. She knew he would recognize that asking him to do it now meant this was something that was incredibly important to her. Alex was completely out and utterly open and he was never shy about his pride. It wasn’t a problem for him at all. In fact, it was probably less of a problem for him than it was for her to even make this request.

He took a deep breath, looked at Gavan, and said, “Well, if I recall correctly it was something like, ‘Why are all the good men straight and please tell me he has a brother who isn’t.’ Or did you mean when he was coming down the steps and I said he was glorious?”

Gavan’s mouth dropped open and confusion filled his eyes. Tessa, arms crossed over her chest, shifted her weight from one foot to the other, hoping that Gavan would be able to accept this and not walk out on her. Without realizing it, she held her breath. She was about to implore him to believe there was no reason to be concerned over her friendship with Alex when he smiled. A wide, beautiful, perfectly devastating smile. He thrust his hand out to Alex and when Alex grasped it with his own, Gavan pulled him into a full bear hug, lifting him right off the floor.

“Alex, it’s great tae meet you, man!”

He released an obviously shaken Alex from his embrace. At first, relief filled Tessa, but at second thought, she bristled at the fact that she had to produce a bona fide gay man in order to placate his jealousy when he could have simply chosen to listen to and believe her.

Gavan grabbed her chin between his thumb and forefinger and tilted her head up to receive his kiss. Quickly, she stepped back to avoid it.

Tessa could have clobbered him when he said, “Honey, I’m sorry. If you would have
tol
’ me, I’d have understood.”

Now she was seriously pissed. Behind her, Alex groaned loudly. She flicked her hand at him, a signal to shut up.

“Oh, so if I would have just told you that Alex was gay, you wouldn’t have acted like such an ape?”

Gavan squirmed a bit. “Well, I
wouldna
’ had tae worry if I’d known he had no interest in you.”

Tessa’s eyes narrowed.

“Ah-huh. So what you’re saying is that whenever I tell you about a friend of mine, I should divulge some aspect of their private sex life to you, is that it? Like, if I talk about Jaime, I should preface it with the fact that he lost his virginity to a forty-year-old woman when he was fifteen?”

Behind her, Alex gasped, “No way!”

Tessa turned her head. “Not now, Alex!” Then she looked back at Gavan. “Was I supposed to say, ‘Oh, by the way, this is Alex, Queen of Center City’?”

Once again, Alex chimed in from the background, “Have you seen my tiara, honey? I seem to have misplaced it.”

She whirled around and glared at him. “Alex! I’m going to choke you! Can you ever resist an opening?”

She turned back around and Gavan was reaching for her.

“Please, I’m sorry. You’re absolutely right.” Looking up, he said, “Alex, I hope there are no hard feelings.”

He shook his head. “No problems here, Gavan. Tessa, I’m just going to slip into the powder room, see a man about a snake.”

Tessa rolled her eyes and sighed. He did pick the worst times to be ridiculous.

As he passed by Gavan, he leaned in and said, “Got your hands full with this one, don’t you, big boy?”

Gavan nodded solemnly. “Aye. Best handful I’ve ever had, though.”

* * * *

Once alone, Gavan drew Tessa into his arms. At first, she resisted, her body stiff as a board.

He tickled his fingers up and down her back, shamelessly exploiting the fact that he knew she loved being tickled and stroked, and kissed the top of her head, murmuring into her hair, “I’m so sorry. All I saw was his hands on you, the two of you sharing secrets. If I’d taken two minutes tae see the two of you interact, I’d have seen a true friendship. You two are great together. I kind of like seeing somebody push your buttons like that.”

He delivered another kiss to the top of her head, letting his lips linger, breathing in her lavender fragrance.

“This is so right, so fast. I love you. But I have to tell you that I’m scared as hell so it’s possible I might get a wee unreasonable occasionally until I’ve convinced myself you’re real,” he said quietly into her hair.

She surrendered then, her body softening into his as her arms wrapped around his waist. Her words were muffled because her face was pressed to his chest, but he was able to make them out.

“I just thought you were unreasonably furious that I had a friend. I didn’t know you honestly thought something was going on.” She snuffled loudly. “I thought you were gone.”

He felt the shudder of her small frame. Pulling back, he took her chin between his thumb and forefinger to raise her face to him. Tears streamed down her cheeks and her nose was bright pink. His heart broke wide open. He bent to kiss her tears from her face, holding her face between his palms.

“Baby, please
doona
cry. I’d never leave. Even if I thought something was going on,
doona
you think I’d fight for you? I’d never just walk away from you. Not when I love you the way I do. You hold my heart, Tessa. You hold my big, stupid heart in your dainty little hand.”

* * * *

Geez, the man knew how to say the right thing in a pinch.

She sniffled again and blinked her eyes. She took a deep breath to cleanse her lungs of the momentary despair when it happened.

She snorted.

Her hands flew up to cover her face as Gavan burst into laughter. As he struggled with her to pull her hands down, she started to laugh with him. He smothered her face in kisses, snorting with each one. “You are the best thing that ever happened tae me, Tessa Danvers.”

* * * *

Alex emerged from the bathroom in time to see the new couple kissing and making up.
Just like it should be
, he thought to himself. He hovered at the kitchen door until they finished, which was a short eternity, but an eternity all the same, and then he walked to Tessa to kiss her cheek.

“I’m
outta
here, hon. Meeting some of the guys in town. I’ll call you later.”

Tessa sniffed, pulled herself from Gavan’s embrace, and followed him to the foyer.

His hand on the doorknob, Alex turned to Tessa. “Question five.”