More Than Meets the Ink (29 page)

“I’ve got to go to the bathroom,” she said.

The second she stood and he saw his cum trickling down from between her thighs, he got hard again. It must be some caveman instinct or some shit like that, because he couldn’t control his reaction to it. It had been this way since that first time in her place, when they had made love bareback on that chair and as she’d risen from him his cum and her lube had trickled down from her pussy and onto his cock. It had been the most erotically charged experience of his life. He’d gone instantly hard again, thrown her onto the bed, and fucked her again. She’d laughed and squirmed but opened her legs for him and welcomed him inside her body again. But that had been then, before he’d dropped the big
L
bomb.

He was considering the benefits of giving it a go when, with Tate halfway to the bathroom, his door suddenly opened. Tate screamed and tried to cover herself with her hands while a surprised Max appeared in the doorway.

“Fuck, sorry,” Max cursed, trying to keep his eyes on the ceiling and away from the girl. James had swiftly gotten up and placed his body in front of Tate, effectively covering her.

“Don’t you know how to knock?” James barked at him.

“Sorry, I didn’t know you had company.” Max looked down at James’s cock, standing naked in full salute, and smiled.

“What’s going on?” James heard his brother Cole say before he appeared in the doorway. “Oh fuck!”

“Yeah man, exactly my thoughts,” Max said with a grin. “It seems we’re interrupting.”

Tate was behind James, her nails digging into his arms. She pulled him backward, trying to reach the bed to grab the blanket. “Do you guys mind getting the fuck out of here?”

They didn’t pay him any attention. “You haven’t been sleeping here, so this morning when we saw your truck, we decided to come have breakfast with you,” Cole explained.

“Good luck with that, the fridge is empty.”

“Aren’t you going to introduce us?” Max said. “I’d like a name to go with that naked body that almost gave me a stroke.”

James crossed his arms over his chest. “I find your eyes on that body again, and I’ll rip them out, understand me?” He knew his brother was pulling his leg; from the moment he’d opened the door and Tate screamed, Max had tried very hard to keep his eyes off her. Good, otherwise he’d have kicked his ass. He still might if they didn’t stop smirking and get the hell out of there fast enough.

Both his brothers crossed their arms over their chests. They were obviously going nowhere, so James breathed out hard and gave in. “Tate, these are my brothers, Cole and Max. Guys, this is Tate.”

“Hi,” she said from behind him. She’d managed to move him back enough to reach the blanket and wrap herself in it by now, but she was still hiding behind his back.

“Happy now?”

Both his brothers grinned.

“Now please get the fuck out of here!”

Nobody moved. “Do you realize this is the first time you have a woman here that you’ve allowed to stay until morning? Do we need to start shopping for tuxedos?”

“Enough!” James barked. “Everybody who’s dressed, out of this room!”

“Fine, fine. But get down fast; we’re going to breakfast at Aunt Maggie’s. You too, Tate,” Cole said. “You need to meet the in-laws. We’re charming.”

“Out!” James yelled. The last thing he needed now was his brothers scaring the hell out of her.

Once they were alone, he turned to Tate. Her face wasn’t only a vivid red, but her eyes were huge and round.

“That was so embarrassing,” she muttered.

Lifting her chin up, he forced her eyes to focus on him. “Sorry about that, princess. My brothers don’t fully understand the meaning of privacy. I’ll pound it into them, though; that won’t happen again.”

She let out a mortified smile. “Why is it that I always find myself in the weirdest situations with you? I was never caught, not even once with Aid—”

He cut off her words with a possessive kiss. “You’re with me now, and I don’t want you talking about other men, princess. I’ve discovered recently that I’m a very jealous man. Now let’s get dressed; we have a family breakfast to face.”

She looked panicked again. “James, I have lots of things to do. Plus, I should go to the police station, and I have a front door and an apartment to repair, and the insurance to deal with. And Elle is coming today. Maybe it’s best if I meet them some other time.” She was freaking out; he could see it.

“You have to meet my brothers sometime, and today is as good a day as any. And don’t worry about the police; we’ll go together later. I spoke with Zack. The temporary front door is already in place, and the insurance inspector has come already. Everything’s under control.”

She was going to complain, but he wasn’t letting her.

“Please, baby, despite how they behaved just now, they are a very important part of my life. I want you to meet them.”

The second she assented, he rushed her to get dressed and, grabbing her by her wrist, half dragged her to the diner. As she saw it she stopped dead on her tracks.

“A diner? I thought we were having breakfast at your aunt’s. I meant at your dad’s place. Didn’t she move in with you guys to help out years ago?”

“Yeah.”

“So why the hell are we going to have breakfast in a diner?”

“Aunt Maggie is temporarily helping out in the diner. She’s great, and she’s dying to meet you.”

“Oh boy…”

Chapter Twelve

It was eleven at night, and Rosita’s was quite full. She’d made James promise he’d drag Zack and Sean along to dinner, and as always, he’d delivered. It was the least she could do seeing as how they’d gone out of their way to help her. However now that they were here, it seemed they preferred to wait until closing time and eat together with her and James, so after a detour to chat with Tim in the kitchen, James had left them on the far end table and had come to join her at the counter.

Regular patrons already knew him, and many greeted him while he passed by their tables. He looked so at ease there it gave her goose bumps. Although really, she’d been out of balance the whole day, starting with that trying morning with Jack’s call about Clint, and then continuing with James telling her he loved her. Getting caught by his brothers butt naked and dripping cum down her inner thigh on her way to the bathroom hadn’t helped matters, not to mention the family breakfast with their aunt while half the town watched. Oh, they were all nice to her and smiled approvingly the whole time. There was nothing wrong with his family. It was her. She was wrong; she didn’t have a family nowadays, family breakfasts were very much out of the picture, and she had no business having those. Nevertheless she’d loved it, absolutely loved it, sibling banter included. Max and Cole were funny and charming and had teased James to no end. Aunt Maggie had hugged and smooched her to death. By how thrilled she’d looked, it was plenty obvious those boys weren’t big on bringing girls to her. Tate could have done without the groupies around, stupidly smiling at James and his brothers, but all in all, Alden had turned out to be a lovely place full of people that seemed to know and respect the Bowen family.

“Where’s Elle?” James asked, leaning at the counter and looking around.

“On her way, last I heard.”

She really hoped that was the case. After a short visit to the police and helping her with the cleanup, James had accompanied her to pick Elle up from Logan Airport, dropped her at one of her friend’s, and then had gone to work. Tate hadn’t been surprised about her sister’s choice of accommodation; she knew Elle wouldn’t want to stay at their parents’ house, alone on top of everything. Although Tate had gone there with James twice after that first time, she didn’t feel ready to sleep over yet. She asked Elle to stay in Jonah’s apartment, but she’d refused, claimed the place was barely big enough for one, let alone two people. They could have roughed it, no problem, but too much immersion in the life scraps of the Coopers was too painful for Elle, or at least it had been for all her other visits, so Tate hadn’t insisted. This time, though, Elle had quickly agreed to come to Rosita’s, probably just to get the chance to check James out some more and hear the whole version about the fires and Clint, but whatever the reason, Tate was happy. Elle was as much a part of the restaurant as she was; it was past time she got herself involved in it, even if it was only for a night.

James smiled at her. “She’ll be here, princess, you’ll see.”

She surely hoped so. If she could go to their home, as sure as hell Elle could get her ass to Rosita’s. Lifting her eyes to the door, she realized she wouldn’t have to hunt her down and drag her in. Elle was there. Smiling. A bit shaky, but smiling. Tate’s eyes filled, and she blinked to stop herself from crying, Elle didn’t like touchy-feely scenes; it would freak her out.

She blew a kiss to Tate and leaned on the counter. “So,” she began pointing at the front door. “Are you taking suggestions for the new door? Because if so, I vote for a modern glass door instead of the old-fashioned wooden one. You know, to go with that Gothic girl you have waiting tables.”

James and Tate looked at each other, jaws slack. Elle seemed so relaxed it surprised Tate.

“Now, is the food still any good in this joint?”

Tate smiled. “Sure, but you need to wait some tables first if you want to earn dinner.”

“Deal,” she said, rubbing her hands. “Let me drop by the kitchen to say hi first.” And she strode away, stopping several times to greet regular patrons as if she’d never been away.

“Well, that wasn’t so hard,” James whispered to Tate.

No it hadn’t been. With Elle the most difficult thing was to get her to take the first step; after that and once she’d made up her mind, she’d waltz through anything.

“And she hasn’t been so hard on me either,” James said.

That was also true, but only because she hadn’t got up to speed yet. From the second Tate had introduced them, Elle had narrowed her gaze on him, and for the fifteen-minute ride from the airport, she’d studied each of his words and gestures. She wasn’t done with him, oh no, not yet. Soon she’d cross her arms over her chest, cock her eyebrow, and start with the hard questions, the ones she always failed to ask her wannabe loser boyfriends.

“She’s just waiting for you to let your guard down. Tonight, when you least expect it, you’ll get the third degree.”

James looked weirdly at her, clearly amused. “Bring it on; it can’t be worse than Max and Cole, right?”

“And speaking of the devil,” she said, pointing toward the door. Max and Cole were there, Max grinning devilishly, Cole nodding, a bit more dignified. “It seems we have a full house.”

“Told you not to invite them.”

While running away—literally—after breakfast, she’d politely invited them to pass by whenever, she just didn’t think whenever meant right away that same night. She was probably a bit rusty as far as family matters were concerned, because James didn’t seem at all surprised.

“Cool place you’ve got here,” Max stated, looking around. She wasn’t sure he meant the place or the cuties that were all smiling back at him. Like it wasn’t enough to have chicks drooling over James, now she had the whole Bowen male panty-creamer clan parading through Rosita’s. She should be charging for entrance.

“Nice job my men did with the temporary door. You like it?”

Tate looked at Cole. What was he talking about?

“Didn’t James tell you he sent my guys to do it?”

“Cole runs my dad’s construction company,” James said.

Yeah, Tate remembered vaguely he’d mentioned working as a carpenter for his father. What he didn’t mention, though, was that now she was in debt not only to James, but to his brother too. She doubted it was in their modus operandi to leave whatever it was they were doing to come early in the morning to take measurements to put in a temporary door for a stranger.

“Window too?” she asked, staring at James. He nodded, and her nostrils flared. To Cole she just smiled.

“Thank you, Cole. It’s great. Be sure to send me the bill.”

“Anytime, sweetie. And no, you don’t get bills from me. When you decide which kind of door you want, just come see me, and I’ll fix you up.”

She pursed her lips. “Yes, I get bills from you.” He was going to complain, but she stopped him. “Especially bills I’m going to pass along to the insurance company for them to pay, so hit me hard; the insurance company deserves it for stiffing me the first time around.”

Cole grinned and turned to his brother. “She’s frisky!”

“That she is,” James said, and as Tate frowned at him, he just winked at her.

“I’ll take you up on the new door, Cole. Although I’m not sure which kind we want. My sister, Elle, came for a visit, and we may want to change the look of this place.”

“Your sister’s here?” Max asked. “Great. I’m dying to meet her. I bet she’s as beautiful as you.”

She laughed. “Oh no, she’s way prettier than me. But you need to be a mean asshole full of tattoos to catch her eye.”

“I like her already.” He grinned.

“Go with them,” she said to James as his brothers moved to the table occupied by Zack and Sean.

“Are you sure? If you need help—”

“Go!” she insisted, laughing. She had everything under control there.

After several minutes, Jack came in and joined them, bringing the total amount of hunks at that table to six. There was not a single woman in Rosita’s that was not sneaking peeks at them.

With Elle pitching in, everything was running smoothly. She felt…happy. Until she saw Faith coming in. She went straight to the cigarette vending machine, as she’d done the night before. On her way out, she approached Tate at the counter.

“Don’t get used to him. He isn’t yours to keep. I’ve known James for years; he doesn’t give himself totally to anyone. And he doesn’t do the girlfriend scene, no matter how much he’ll try to convince himself otherwise.”

Before Tate could answer, Faith had already turned around and left.

* * *

James hadn’t wanted his brothers to know about Tate’s stalker or any specifics about the problems with the restaurant, but with them sitting at the same table along with Zack, Sean, and Jack, there was no chance of that happening, especially as everyone else assumed they were in on it. In three minutes flat, Cole and Max were up to speed and glaring at him for leaving them out of the loop.