'Stay put.' Jill held out a manicured hand to stop Liz before she could stand up, her expression firm. 'You look like you're enjoying your break, and that's what you have extra employees here for, isn't it?' Without waiting for a reply, she motioned Katie over with a smile.
'She's a take-charge kind of woman,' Steve said out of the corner of his mouth, though he didn't bother to keep his comment from Jill's listening ears.
'Only when I need to be.' Jill tossed back her sleek auburn hair and winked conspiratorially at Liz. 'I've learned with these Wilde men that I have to take charge when the opportunity presents itself.'
Boy, could Liz ever relate to that with Steve, who seemed to hold tight to the reins of control when it came to the two of them. Obviously, the dominating trait ran in the family.
While Jill placed her order with Katie, Steve stood up and dragged two nearby chairs over to their corner spot, as if he was resigned to the fact that their guest would remain, invited or not. Once Jill was seated and Steve slid back into his spot next to Liz, he glanced from Liz to the woman sitting across from them.
'I take it the two of you already know one another?' he guessed.
'We're on a first-name basis,' Liz said, and rubbed the tingly spot on her thigh now that Steve's hand was no longer there. 'She's a fairly frequent customer in the mornings, though I had no idea that the two of you knew one another.' A shameless throwaway comment that begged for more information, which Jill was only too happy to supply.
'I'm dating his brother, Eric.'
One of the brothers Liz had been so curious about earlier. What a small world it was. She recalled seeing Jill with a dark-haired, good-looking guy a time or two, and had always assumed it was her boyfriend by the way the other man had doted on her, their affection for one another tangible.
Katie arrived with two chilled lattes, and when Jill went to pull her wallet from her purse to pay for her order, Liz waved away her attempt. 'Your drinks are on the house tonight.'
Appreciation brightened Jill's eyes. 'How kind. Thank you.'
Steve stretched his arm across the back of the sofa, his fingers grazing the back of Liz's neck and causing a smattering of goose bumps to rise on her skin. Was he deliberately throwing her off balance? If so, he was doing a darn good job of keeping her very aware of him, and not bothering to hide his attraction to her.
'So, where is my brother?' he asked Jill.
'He dropped me off out front, and since all the parking spaces were taken, he had to drive around back and find one there. He should be here any second.' Jill glanced toward the front of the cafe, and her expression lit up when a tall, well-built man strolled in. Unlike Steve, who seemed to live in jeans, his brother wore a neatly pressed shirt, khakis, and loafers.
Searching blue eyes, just as striking as Steve's, swept over the customers in the establishment, and Jill waved to get his attention. Just as Steve had walked through the cafe with single-minded purpose earlier and hadn't seemed to notice the other women ogling him, Eric did the same, his gaze locked on his girlfriend as he approached-until he caught sight of Steve sitting on the couch across from Jill.
'Well, what do we have here?' Eric assessed his brother with interest and a flash of humor as he sat in the chair next to Jill's. 'I didn't know they allowed riffraff in this place.'
'If they allow you in, they'll obviously allow anyone in,' Steve countered smoothly, though it was obvious their ribbing was based in mutual masculine comradery.
Jill rolled her eyes and shook her head. 'Knock it off, you two,' she chastised lightly, then laid a hand on Eric's arm and launched into introductions. 'Eric, you remember Liz, the owner of the cafe.'
'Sure do.' He grinned, his gorgeous features reflecting those superior, sexy Wilde genes that apparently ran in the family. And just like his older brother, Eric oozed charm and plenty of sex appeal. 'It's nice to see you off your feet for a change, instead of always working so hard.'
His comment was sincere, and it earned him a smile from her in return. 'Steve and I were discussing business,' she said in an attempt to keep everyone's speculation about them to a minimum.
Except by their skeptical expressions, neither Jill nor Eric appeared to believe her, and Steve didn't bother to back up her claim.
Jill stirred her straw through her blended latte and addressed Steve. 'Eric was just mentioning at dinner tonight that the two of you and Adrian need to go and buy that set of Callaway golf clubs your father wants for his sixtieth birthday, before the big party on Saturday.'
Steve reopened his binder and skimmed through the calendar section. 'How about tomorrow afternoon, about one?' he suggested to his brother.
'Only if lunch is on you,' Eric replied.
'Cheapskate,' Steve muttered.
Eric shrugged unapologetically. 'Meals are a write-off for you, so why not take advantage?'
'Fine.' Steve jotted down the date in the appointment book. 'Lunch at McDonald's it is.'
Eric chuckled. 'Now who's the cheapskate?'
Listening to everyone's lighthearted banter, Liz suddenly felt awkward and out of place sitting there in her work uniform, being a part of this cozy social gathering when she'd never intended to let her brief affair with Steve extend to getting to know his family.
And then there was Steve himself, who was throwing her off kilter with his own behavior and the mixed signals she couldn't fully decipher. He'd openly stated that he'd been married before and wasn't looking for anything complicated or committed, but he obviously had no qualms about his brother meeting the woman he was seeing on a short-term basis. She wasn't sure how she felt about that. Wasn't sure she liked everyone knowing that their relationship was nothing more than a casual fling, because that was Steve's standard method of operation when it came to women.
Refusing to analyze her conflicting emotions when they had no business being a part of her relationship with Steve, she decided it was time for her to get back to work and not let Jill waylay her this time.
'If you'll excuse me, I have some things I need to get done before I leave for the evening.' She stood, straightened her apron, and smiled at the couple sitting across from her. 'It was nice talking to both of you.'
'Likewise,' Jill said, and tipped her head thoughtfully. 'Maybe we can all do this again another time, but when you don't have to rush back to work.'
'Unfortunately, if I'm here, I'm bound to work,' Liz said, infusing her tone with a believable amount of regret. Not giving Jill the chance to make a different suggestion-like the four of them going on a double date somewhere away from the cafe-Liz turned toward Steve. 'I'll talk to you later?'
His dark blue eyes were unreadable, giving none of his own thoughts away, which only added to her confusion. He gave her a nod, telling her with that quick, simple gesture that he understood the underlying meaning behind her question. 'You can count on it.'
Yes, she could count on him, she knew. To be the man who offered her his protection and advice while they searched for her cousin, and to give her the kind of pleasure and passion she'd only dreamed of.
Nothing more.
As she walked away, she heard Jill tell Steve that he ought to invite her to his father's birthday party on Saturday, that everyone would enjoy meeting her. Luckily, Liz didn't hear his response. She didn't want to hear him say no, didn't think she could bear to hear what kind of handy excuse he'd come up with as to why she might not be able to go with him. Not that she could blame him. She didn't belong at a celebratory gathering with his friends and relatives, no matter how much she ached to be a part of the kind of fun-loving closeness and acceptance Steve shared with his family.
Bypassing the coffee bar, she headed to the storage room in the back part of the cafe, which doubled as her office. Halfway there, she pressed a hand to her stomach to calm the unexpected rush of upheaval in her belly that told a tale of its own. She was getting in too deep with Steve, in over her head in a way she'd never anticipated. Involved more than they'd agreed upon.
And if she wasn't careful to keep pleasure and her emotions separated, this particular bad boy was going to steal his way into her heart. If he hadn't already.
Liz desperately needed a reprieve from the hot and heavy phone conversations she'd been fielding for the past
