So, shower. Then maybe Vaughn would be home and he wouldn’t be able to act on his fantasies.
Cam took two steps toward Vaughn’s bedroom, and his cell phone rang. He backtracked and picked it up off the end table, where it had been charging. Vaughn’s name showed on the caller ID, and Cam shook his head. He probably should have expected it—he’d been thinking about his twin, after all. Sometimes even he got spooked by how in tune they were.
He answered. “Hey, bro. Have you looked outside recently?”
“Yeah, it’s nasty,” Vaughn said, “and getting worse. The Hummer can probably handle it, but the city’s got a ban on unnecessary travel, so I’m crashing at Greer’s until the ban’s lifted.”
Damn. There went his cockblock. Greer lived in an apartment complex several blocks over from the Wilde Security office and, yeah, it was probably better that Vaughn stayed there for the night.
Still…
Damn.
“You okay?” Vaughn asked.
He heaved a sighed. “Eva’s here.”
Vaughn’s laughter boomed over the line. “Well, you have the house to yourselves for the night. Feel free to dirty up every available surface—uh, except my bed. And if you fuck on the kitchen counter, don’t tell me about it.”
“You’re not helping.”
“Really? I thought that was very helpful advice.”
“Vaughn,” he said in exasperation. “She only stopped to ask me questions about one of my former informants and now she’s stuck here because of the storm. She won’t say it, but she’s bugged out by what happened in Key West.”
“So take her to bed. If you keep her busy, she won’t have time to bug out about anything. Seems simple enough to me.”
“Only because you tend to think with the head in your pants, not the one on your shoulders.”
“Mm. Your point?”
Cam grumbled. “Someday, you’re gonna meet a woman who gets you so twisted around you won’t know which way is up. Then I’ll sit back and laugh.”
“Yeah, right.”
“Famous last words, bro. Didn’t I hear a rumor you caught the garter at Jude’s wedding? Who was the lucky lady to catch the bouquet?”
A pause. “Lark.”
“Ah ha. And afterward, you hit on her and she wasn’t interested because she’s already engaged to that asshole Linz. No wonder you were in such a shitty mood that night. You’re not used to women telling you to get lost.”
Vaughn growled low in his throat. “Something like that.”
“Oh yeah, that’s the first sign. Hate to tell ya, but your days of fast women are numbered.”
“Shut the fuck up and go deal with your own woman.”
The line went dead and Cam found himself grinning as he set down the phone. If he didn’t know any better, Vaughn was already twisted up about someone.
Lark?
Hmm. Something to consider later.
At least the phone call had calmed him down in the way that a cold shower wouldn’t have. He could handle this situation with Eva. And maybe Vaughn did have a point. He had spent five long years in the role of best friend. It was time to step up his game and make it absolutely clear friendship wasn’t enough for him anymore. He wouldn’t push too hard, but if he backed off completely, he’d never get anywhere with her.
He heard the water stop running through the pipes and strode into the kitchen. He’d planned to just snack his way through dinner tonight, but Eva needed something more than a bowl of carrots. Opening the fridge, he considered the contents against his mental list of meals he could make without giving her food poisoning. Hmm. Probably best to stick to canned food. Reece was the only half-way decent cook in the family. He moved on to the cupboards and found a family-sized can of SpaghettiOs. That would work.
By the time he heard Eva’s bare feet coming down the hallway, he had the can open and was in the process of dumping it into a pot on the stove. She wore his Redskins jersey and a pair of sweats that had shrunk in the dryer, but he kept around for her.
With her hair down around her shoulders and sleek with water from her shower, she looked vulnerable. Not like a child, because the jersey clung to her obviously bare breasts and her nipples stood out invitingly under the nylon mesh. More like a woman unsure of herself.
Was she self-conscious because of him?
As much as he craved her, he didn’t want her feeling insecure around him. This wasn’t his Eva, the woman who unapologetically kicked ass—his included—and didn’t take shit from anybody. The woman who could out-drink almost any man he knew. Who trounced him at darts on a regular basis and threw down at the gym like her life depended on flooring him. Who called him on his bullshit, but got his sense of humor and laughed at his jokes when nobody else did. Where was that woman? Because she wasn’t standing in his kitchen right now, and pain sliced through him with the knowledge he was responsible for sending her into hiding.
He wanted his Eva back.