As she sat at the center island drinking a glass of wine, Hadley wondered if it had been a mistake to accept Axel’s invitation to his place when she didn’t know him, but when he hadn’t balked at her giving his address to a friend, most of her tension had dissipated. She’d gotten pretty good at seeing through bullshit and charmers—charmers seemed to be the worst. Hiding their garbage under a pretty face and attitude. And while Axel seemed to have an edge to him, she wasn’t scared of him.
The distinction was clear in her gut in a way she couldn’t articulate. And she’d been trusting her instinct for a long time. Ever since one of her mother’s boyfriends had tried to get too friendly with her. Even being here with him now muted what had happened to her last night. Not so much that she could completely forget it, but she felt more balanced.
“So tell me more about your family,” Axel said, glancing over from the stove.
Hadley wasn’t sure how to respond. Earlier she’d almost called Brooks her half-brother, which was her tendency. But Brooks had made it clear that he thought of her as his sister, that there was no half about it in his mind. Something that absolutely warmed her heart. “That might be too heavy for first date stuff.”
Taking another sip, she watched him cook at the stove. He had on gray pants and a dark sweater that did absolutely nothing to hide all the muscles underneath. Axel might be in finance but clearly he had a gym membership. And he could cook? The guy seemed too perfect. The simple veggie and skillet meal he was preparing smelled delicious.
“If you want to get technical we could consider it a second date.” He grinned at her, a slow curving up of his delicious lips, and she felt it all the way to her core.
“I don’t think me spilling coffee on you is considered a date.” Not that she would know, since she hadn’t been on one in forever.
“I’m going to count it,” he said.
She laughed lightly. “Well I grew up with my mom on the West Coast. Only recently I met my father and brother. I knew they existed for a while…” She decided to hold some stuff back because this really did feel too deep for a getting-to-know-you-type of conversation. “I was really nervous to meet them both but they’ve been nothing but welcoming.” That being an understatement. Her dad wanted to buy her a house and car, and just…no. It was too much and she wasn’t comfortable with it. Not yet and maybe never. Though she knew it bothered her dad, and even Brooks was gently pressuring her to at least take a car. Gah. It was weird to have people who wanted to help her so generously when no one else ever had. And there didn’t seem to be any strings attached either. Still, it was too much.
“That’s incredible to meet your family after so long.”
“Yeah, I know. I really wish they’d been in my life sooner.” Because her relationship with her mother had been complicated and pretty toxic. And it wasn’t as if she’d been able to escape that toxicity, at least not until she’d been old enough to move out. Even then she’d still been too afraid to reach out to her dad. Because she hadn’t wanted to hurt her mom even though her mom hadn’t cared about hurting her. But she wasn’t going to think about that now and ruin this date.
“Where’s your mom now?”
“She died a few years ago.” And that was all she was going to say about that.
“I’m sorry. I…never knew my dad at all.”
“What about your mom?”
He lifted a shoulder. “We weren’t close.” His body language changed ever so slightly, his posture became a bit more rigid, and she figured there was more to it than he wanted to tell her. Which was fine with her. There were some things she didn’t like to talk about either and her familial relationships was one. “Let’s talk about something different, then,” she said, keeping her tone light.
“Okay, how is it that you’re single?” he asked, pinning her with those incredible eyes as he leaned against the counter. Even when he picked up his water, he was focused on her.
She felt her cheeks flush hot. She cursed herself for her blatant reaction to him. It was insane. She’d never reacted to anyone like this before but around him her entire body simply went haywire. “I’ll answer, but you get the same question from me. Honestly, I was so busy in college and then moving here, I haven’t had time.” Though if she’d wanted to make time, she would have. No one had interested her enough.
“I can understand that.”
“Turnabout is fair play. I’m assuming you’re single?” Something she probably should have asked him before agreeing to come here. He was in town on business after all.
He snorted and nodded. “Yes. Very single. I travel a lot and it makes relationships difficult.”
Knowing that he wasn’t permanently here and that he was being so honest with her, or at least she thought he was, made her open to being a little freer with him. She’d never had a one-night stand before, and while she wasn’t sure that she even wanted one, she was definitely thinking about it. But only with him. It felt kind of wrong and she wasn’t sure why. Because everything about him felt really right in a bone-deep sort of way. There was something so sexy and, okay, a little fierce about him that turned her on.
Plus he had a seriously nice ass. Her mouth practically watered as she watched him at the stove and she felt like a pervert but didn’t actually care. Because the man was fine.
After what had happened to her last night, maybe she would throw caution to the wind and have some fun. A lot of it.
Chapter 5
—If everyone knew what I was thinking, I’d get punched in the face a lot.—
Skye stood with her hands on her hips as she watched Gage work his magic on his laptop. “So?”
“Don’t rush me,” he growled.
Skye hated being between jobs. It made her antsy and ready to run another ten miles. Considering she’d already run fifteen this morning, she feared that might be overkill. But the whole situation with Hadley really bothered her. Not enough to contact Brooks…yet. Because he was with his fiancée out of town on some sort of work thing for her. Some kind of wedding convention, Skye wasn’t really sure. And though she loved Darcy, she wasn’t really interested in anything to do with weddings.
“Come on.” Colt took her hand in his and pulled her out of the room into the hallway. At the moment, it was just the three of them at Redemption Harbor Consulting in their converted warehouse. Leighton was away on a small one-man job, Savage and Olivia were on their honeymoon, and Nova was gone for the day.
Skye wanted to snarl at her husband but didn’t because he’d done nothing wrong. She was just being edgy and annoyed and he didn’t deserve her acting like a crazy person.
He gave her a wicked grin that made her toes curl in her boots. “If you’re feeling edgy I can think of a way we can burn off some energy.”
“Dude, I can still hear you guys!” Gage called out from his office.
Colt tugged her down the hallway. They’d actually only gotten busy once here, in her office. It had been after a particularly rough job, and they’d had the place to themselves and she’d wanted to burn off energy. Okay, who was she kidding—she’d wanted to screw her husband’s brains out. Some days it was hard to believe she was actually married, much less alive. And she was so grateful to have him in her life. “This thing with her is just really bothering me,” Skye said even as Colt pulled her into the break room instead of her office as she’d expected.
He pointed to the table. “Sit. And I know. I think the real reason you’re bothered is because it’s Hadley that it happened to.”
“True enough.” There was no reason to deny it. Hadley was the half-sister that Brooks recently found out he had, and she was absolutely adorable. And Skye worried about the girl’s survival skills. Once when she’d asked Hadley how many exits were in the restaurant they’d been having dinner in, Hadley had given her a blank stare. Yes, they seriously needed to work on her observation and survival skills. “She’s like a little puppy.” Folding her arms across her chest, she frowned.