Thirteen
“Joey?” Nicole said uncertainly as she spotted the man fuming outside of the guest bathroom. After Jake’s brief interruption, she’d dressed quickly, put her hair up in a ponytail and rushed out to find him, only to find her brother instead. “What are you doing here?”
Joey jerked around to peer at her. “There you are!”
Her eyebrows rose at his tone, and the way he rushed to her side. Grabbing her arm, he started to pull her across the room toward the stairs.
“Come on. I’m getting you out of this madhouse,” he said determinedly.
“What?” she asked on a startled laugh. “What are you talking about? What madhouse?”
“Nicole.” Joey paused and turned to face her with exasperation. “You missed our lunch without warning or even a courtesy call, which is completely unlike you. And then when I repeatedly call to speak to you, I get some woman and then these strange men answering and telling me you’re ill and couldn’t make it and don’t want to see me. Finally, I’ve had enough and come out here to check on you and you have two mob goons downstairs and your supposed cook/housekeeper is coming out of your bedroom as naked as the day he was born. Something weird is going on here. You need looking after and I’m taking you to our hotel until I sort it all out.”
Nicole stared at her brother weakly as his words poured over her. In all the excitement the last few days, she’d quite forgotten about her lunch with Joey. In fact, she’d forgotten all about him, and his being in town, and . . . well, just everything.
Or someone had helped her forget, she thought suddenly, but let that go. If Dante and Tomasso had blocked her brother from her memory, she knew exactly why they’d done it . . . and she understood. But she couldn’t explain it to Joey. He was a bit of a blabbermouth. Nicole didn’t think there was a secret the man had ever actually kept.
She also couldn’t explain Jake’s coming out of her bedroom buck naked. Or she didn’t want to, so Nicole settled on the one thing she could say in response to his long diatribe and assured him, “Dante and Tomasso are not mob goons.”
Apparently, it was the wrong approach to take. Joey’s mouth dropped open, snapped closed, and then he reached for his phone. “I’m calling Mom.”
“Joey,” she said on a sigh. “There’s no need for that. Look, just come have a cup of coffee and—” Nicole paused abruptly and peered around her brother toward Jake when the bathroom door opened and he came out. He wore baggy gray jogging pants and a T-shirt that was pretty tight. He also had bed-head and a day’s worth of growth on his face . . . and damn, but didn’t he look fine, Nicole thought, her knees going weak and mouth actually salivating as Jake met her glance.
In the next moment, he had crossed the room toward her like a moth to flame, and—completely ignoring, or oblivious to Joey’s presence—slid his arms around her and drew her against his chest as he laid one hell of a hot, wet kiss on her lips. Nicole was on the verge of wrapping her legs around the man and climbing him like a telephone pole when he broke the kiss and eased back to peer down at her.
It was only then that Nicole became aware of her brother’s protesting squawks.
“What the hell? Stop that! Get your hands off my sister! Nicole! Get away from him! I’m dialing Mom now!”
Nicole grimaced apologetically at Jake, then swiveled her head to peer at her brother. “I’m fine, Joey. There’s no need to call Mom.”
Joey glared at her, phone at the ready and breathing heavily. He then stepped closer and hissed by her ear, “We need to talk. Something isn’t right here. I want you to come with Melly and me. You can stay at our hotel with us until we get this straightened out.”
“Melly?” Nicole asked, glancing around. “Is she here?”
Even as she asked the question, Nicole spotted the beautiful redhead standing by the couch. It wasn’t hard to believe she was a model, Melly was gorgeous; large exotic eyes, a straight nose, full, pouty lips, flowing red hair and stick thin. The woman looked like she was born to walk the runways of Europe and grace magazine covers.
Nicole was suddenly very aware that she was dressed like a bum, completely makeup free, and that her hair was a damp mess stuffed into a ponytail. Damn, she thought, life could be so unfair at times. Pushing that thought away, she produced a perfectly sincere smile and crossed the room to greet the woman her brother loved.
“Hello, Melly. It’s so nice to meet you,” she said, taking the woman’s cold hand in her own and shaking it warmly.
“It’s Melanie,” the woman said, with a cool smile as she retrieved her hand. “Only Joey calls me Melly.”
“Oh.” Nicole smiled uncertainly, glanced toward the men and then turned to head for the kitchen. “I’ll put coffee on.”
“I don’t drink coffee,” Melly announced. “It ages you prematurely.”
“Well then I’ll put water on for tea,” Nicole said, moving a little more quickly.
“Tea is as bad as coffee,” Melly announced as if she should know that and added, “Just hot water with lemon for me.”
“Right,” Nicole said through her teeth as she escaped into the kitchen.
She only realized that Jake had followed her when he said, “I’ll make the coffee and put the kettle on. You go visit with your brother and Melly.”
Nicole grimaced. “I’ll just get out some of that cake I saw in the refrigerator earlier.”
“Cake?” Jake asked with surprise.
“Mmm-hmm. I think Marguerite bought it while she was here.” Grinning, she added, “She has a sweet tooth.”
“What kind of cake is it?” Jake asked with interest, moving over to peer into the fridge over her shoulder. “And why the hell didn’t I see it when I was making our snack?”
“It’s double chocolate,” Nicole answered, pulling out a large carton of orange juice, another of milk, and a couple of creamers to reveal the covered cake at the back of the refrigerator. “Because I hid it so the boys wouldn’t gobble it down. They have a tendency to inhale everything.”
“Yeah, they do. They were always like that,” Jake commented, stepping back to get out of the way as she pulled the cake out and turned to set it on the counter.
Nicole started to take the lid off, and then paused and frowned. “I suppose if she won’t drink coffee, Melly probably doesn’t eat sweets either.”
“Yeah, she does,” Jake assured her absently, his attention on the cake. “She plans to puke it back up afterward.”
“What?” Nicole turned to him with surprise.
“I read her mind,” he explained, glancing to her and then smiled crookedly and added, “She doesn’t know you’re serving chocolate cake, of course. But when you said you were putting on coffee, she hoped you would serve a sweet too. She’s starved, wants to gorge on two or three pieces, and then slip away to the bathroom and purge it to avoid the calories.”
“Geez,” Nicole muttered, peering at the cake. It seemed a terrible waste to feed it to Melly just to have her puke it up afterward. “Maybe I won’t put it out.”
“Good. Save it for later. We can watch a movie and eat cake,” Jake said with a grin.
Nicole smiled faintly, but then her expression turned serious and she said, “Please don’t read Joey and Melly while they’re here, Jake. It’s kind of rude.”
His grin died slowly and he nodded. “You’re right. I hated it when my mother and the others read me. I shouldn’t do it. I’ll try not to.”
“Thank you,” she murmured, reaching out to place a hand on his chest to balance herself as she leaned up to press a kiss to his cheek. At least, she meant to kiss his cheek, but he turned his head at the last moment so that her lips landed on his.
“Is that chocolate cake?” Joey said behind them just as their lips brushed across each other’s.
It was probably a good thing, Nicole admitted as she turned to smile and nod at her brother. The way Jake affected her, she very well might have tried to climb him right here in the kitchen.
“Good,” Joey said grimly. “Chocolate is Melly’s favorite.”
