Brazen and Breathless (Untouchable Book 6) Read online

  “Maybe,” he conceded without any kind of concession. It was a marvel how he did that. “But let’s put it this way, I can afford to make your life and your lab very uncomfortable. Can you?” He didn’t wait for an answer, he just ended the call and then stared at me. “Jake go get coffee?”

  “Yep.”

  He nodded and shoved his phone in his pocket before holding out a hand to me. I clasped his hand and let him pull me to my feet.

  “Let’s go, boys. You guys are dressed fine, but Frankie needs to change.”

  “I do?”

  “Yep,” he said, tugging me toward our room—well, my room really, but it had grown to be ours more and more. “We’re not doing this… We’re not sitting around and staring at those letters. We know they’re DNA tests, and we’re assuming that you’re the donor being matched with a paternal sample.”

  In my room, he opened the closet and then eyed me before looking over what was in there. Curious, and a little bit amused, I folded my arms and waited. He still hadn’t said what we were going to do.

  “Without more data, we’re going to be chasing ourselves in circles.” He slanted a look at me. “So, we have two choices. We can sit here stewing about it all, which is not my favorite choice, but I will if you need it. Or we can get changed, wait for Jake to get back here, and go do something fun.” He glanced past me. “All of us. Tonight is still mine, but I can share today.”

  “Generous,” Coop said with a smirk, and flopped onto the bed. Tiddles leapt up to walk over and flop on his chest, motorboat purring until Coop began petting him. “So what is the plan then?”

  “WeFLY.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “WeFLY,” he repeated, and then pulled out one of the Torched long sleeve sweatshirts I hadn’t gotten to wear yet. The rose on fire had always appealed to me. At the drawers of my dresser, he pulled open the second on the right and lifted out a pair of my yoga pants. “Indoor skydiving.”

  “Holy shit,” Coop said, bouncing upward, and Tiddles leapt off the bed with a note of disgust.

  “Seriously?” Ian gaped at him, but there was absolutely no disguising the thrill on their faces or the wide grins they suddenly sported.

  Almost instantly, they were peppering Archie with questions and warmth suffused me. Even as Archie answered them with this adorable little smile and indulgent look, he kept glancing at me. Oh, I needed to change.

  I stripped hurriedly to swap outfits out. I had to toe off my shoes before peeling down my jeans, and once I was dressed again, I sat on the edge of the bed to pull on my shoes. “I didn’t think there was a place close by.”

  “There’s one close enough,” Archie said.

  “When did you plan this?”

  “Multi-tasking is an art,” he told me with a wink. “Trust me?”

  “Yes.” No hesitation at all. Not that Archie couldn’t still pick on me sometimes or tease me. I’d hate it if he ever thought he couldn’t play with me. But no doubt existed in me. I could trust him. Even when he drove me crazy trying to take care of everything… “Boyfriend privilege.”

  “Yes,” Coop cheered with a fist pump before he high-fived Ian, and I laughed. “Told you she would come around. Boyfriend privileges rock.”

  Ten minutes later, Jake was back and we headed down to his SUV to meet him. They’d briefed him on what we were doing, and I sat in the back with Coop and Archie while Ian rode up front. It took us ninety minutes of driving, but we sang along with the music, laughed, teased, and played.

  You know what we didn’t do?

  We didn’t discuss the letters, the results, none of it. It kept trying to creep back in, and then Ian would smile back at me, or Jake would switch the song right in the middle of one we liked that he didn’t, or Coop would decide to randomly tickle me. They were all looking after me.

  When we got to the place…

  I got to fly.

  For real.

  I forgot all about Maddy and the rest as we spent two hours learning how to ride the wind, and I even managed a couple of tricks. I might never dance in the air like Emersyn Sharpe or be an aerialist or super hero—and I was never, ever jumping out of a perfectly good airplane for real—but I could fly.

  It was awesome.

  Even better…

  I was still humming when we hit an all-you-can-eat sushi place for lunch.

  The buzz carried us on the drive back, and to the apartment. Someone had put the letters up before we left, and I didn’t look for them. I just went to get changed for my date with Archie, but he caught my hand and pulled me back.

  “We’re going to do simple tonight,” he said. “So just grab what you need to spend the night?”

  Simple was lasagna and garlic bread, followed by huge ice cream sundaes with Jeremy, who actually deigned to join us for fifteen minutes so we could talk about colleges with him before he told us to enjoy our “date” and leave him the clean-up.

  In his room, Archie insisted we had to be naked to enjoy popcorn and the movies he’d picked out. For atmosphere…

  “It’s Jurassic Park,” I argued as he queued up the first one. “Why do we have to be naked?”

  “It’s a mood, an aesthetic. Our ancestors in the caves didn’t wear much either.”

  “There weren’t humans in the Jurassic era.”

  He paused to eye me, then reached up and pulled his shirt off. It hit the floor. Followed by his belt, then his jeans and his boxers. “Your point?”

  I grinned. “You’re still trying to distract me.”

  “No, babe, I promise. Right now, I just want you naked so I can hold you for all the jump scares and see how excited you get. Then we’re going fuck for an intermission before we kick off the next movie.”

  “What if I want to do something during the first movie?”

  “Then we’re not watching Jurassic Park because I will never turn you down, but it’s a sacrilege to ignore the movie.”

  That did it. I cracked up, and he grinned. It was exactly what he meant. So I got naked—not like it was a hardship—and Archie nudged up the heat in his room so we didn’t freeze, and we curled up on the bed with the popcorn and drinks.

  We made it about halfway through the movie before he proved to both of us that he was no longer as invested in watching the movie. Of course, the fact we could pause it didn’t hurt. We finished the last bit in a boneless heap, and I was almost too relaxed to jump at the velociraptors.

  Almost.

  But later, after we finished the second movie and curled up, my mind circled back to the results…

  “I’m going to have to talk to her,” I murmured, and he sighed before pressing a kiss to my shoulder blade right over my tattoo, and my heart squeezed.

  “I know, babe. But not tonight, and not until you’re ready. You set the terms and you decide when.” He tucked his face against my throat and snuggled my back to his chest. “Then we’ll ambush the bitch and see how she likes it.”

  Ambush her.

  “I like it.”

  “Good. Now sleep, I’m right here.”

  I sighed, and I tried to go to sleep. I really tried, but the one thought kept niggling at me. “Archie…what if she tells me something really horrible? Like my father is in prison or he didn’t want me or whatever? I mean, she doesn’t seem to have known who…”

  “One, we don’t know why there are multiple tests. We are assuming she needed to determine paternity out of a list of possible candidates, but we’re not sure.”

  Fair. We were probably right, but fair.

  “Two, I don’t care if your father is a boring accountant from Akron, Ohio or the leader of some gang of thugs. He’s a sperm donor, and who he is has nothing to do with you.”

  I liked that.

  “Three, her decisions aren’t yours, Frankie. She’s an adult. Those choices have been and always will be about herself. It’s not on you to excuse it or understand it. You don’t owe her the time of day, much less a thought process considering her beh
avior.”

  Someone had thought about this. I turned my head a little, seeking him in the dark, and he rubbed his cheek to mine.

  “And four, most important of all, I love you. We all do. You’re not alone. I’ll have your back every step of the way. I promise, I’m not going any-fucking-where.”

  Interlacing my fingers with his, I pressed a kiss to his lips. It wasn’t deep or passionate, more a brush and hold, a token and acknowledgement. “I love you. Thank you.”

  “Always, babe.” Another kiss. “Always.” After a beat, he asked, “Think you can sleep now?”

  Yeah. I absolutely could sleep.

  And I did.

  Every time I jerked awake from a dream I couldn’t remember, he was right there.

  Just like he promised.

  Chapter Twelve

  Love on Top

  Saturday dawned dreary and wet. I woke before Archie, but I didn’t try to sneak away. Instead, I curled up there, aware of his heartbeat, the way he held me close, even in sleep, and the fact that our legs were tangled together. It was comfortable as fuck.

  The dull spatter of rain against the windows held my attention as I traced little patterns on the back of Archie’s hands. The calluses on his fingertips always made me want to play with them. I almost wanted to turn over and stare at him asleep—not creepily—but because I loved how relaxed he’d get in the early hours of the morning. Sometimes, even in sleep, he wore the most consternated little frown. Other times, he looked just like that boy we met in ninth grade.

  Every once in a while, I wished I could go back and slap myself. There was a clarity that came with knowing how they felt. He had absolutely been trying to date me, and I never fucking noticed. They all had, in their own ways. Knowing what I knew now, I could see it.

  A brush of lips against my tattoo made me smile. I loved tracing theirs, too. I’d spent part of the movie last night lying on his back and just tracing it over and over. At least until he’d flipped me over and we forgot all about the kids and the T-Rex for a little while. We definitely focused on the screen for the raptors.

  Couldn’t miss those.

  A giggle eddied up through me as I wiggled around to face him. “Good morning,” I whispered, and his eyes opened halfway.

  “Still early,” he murmured. “Go back to sleep.”

  I curled my fingers against his face, teasing the blunt cut of my nails against the stubble on his cheeks. His breathing softened, and I smiled as I pressed a kiss to his jaw, then to his throat and worked my way down his chest to the very interested cock waiting for me.

  Archie’s groan answered me as I wrapped my lips around him. Pausing for a moment, I stole a look up, and a flash of lightning from outside illuminated the naked lust on his face. So much for sleepiness, right?

  “Go back to sleep,” I teased. “It’s still early.”

  The fact that he fisted my hair and thrust with his hips was all the answer he gave me, along with a drawn out, “Fuck!”

  Fifteen minutes later, he returned the favor.

  Yep.

  Definitely a good morning.

  I was in a good mood when I got to Mason’s, full of French toast from breakfast at Archie’s. We had a lazy morning before I had to get ready for work. I was super proud of him for not trying to talk me out of my job. Maybe I didn’t have all the hours here I used to, but Marsha was good people and I had loved the job. Maybe I didn’t love it as much anymore, but I also didn’t want to give it up before I absolutely had to.

  He dropped me off because Ian was picking me up. The guys had all texted, and Coop sent me pictures of the cats, spoiled as hell. Coop had plans with Trina today. Apparently, he was going to try and talk some sense into his sister. I wished him good luck. Jake and Archie were meeting to work on their super-secret-we-can’t-tell-you-just-yet project. Ian had a couple of students to work with at the music studio.

  Busy days. Jake’s sisters started blowing up my phone at some point.

  Becca: Okay, we need a girls’ day. We’ve decided.

  Blake: What she means is she decided.

  A series of laughing out loud emojis followed it.

  Louisa: Girls’ day would be fun. We haven’t in a couple of years.

  I winced at that reminder. Louisa’s birthday was coming up.

  Me: How about I pick the three of you up next Sunday?

  Blake: YES!!

  Becca: OMG, would you?

  Louisa: No Jake?

  I chuckled.

  Me: No Jake. I promise.

  My phone vibrated madly.

  Jake: Yeah, that’s not working for me, Baby Girl. The four of you together…

  Me: Hush and go work on your secret project that you don’t want to tell me about.

  Jake: Heh. Don’t let them drive you nuts.

  Me: They really don’t. I love them.

  Jake: Me too, doesn’t mean I don’t want to smother them occasionally.

  I laughed.

  The rest of my shift, any time I checked my phone, there were new messages from the girls. I’d actually suggested we invite Trina, too. Blake hesitated and so did Louisa, but Becca said she’d talk to her. It was always kind of weird that the girls hadn’t been closer friends, considering how tight Jake and Coop were, but…I couldn’t really say much on the subject.

  At least not yet. Even if they didn’t end up inviting her, I’d make sure Trina and I went and did something. I hadn’t checked on her in a couple of days. Probably time to do that.

  The stormy weather worsened throughout the day, and the temperatures plummeted. I’d brought a change of loose-fitting clothes for our “date” as requested. Ian showed up in my car rather than the bike, and I grinned when he pulled up and then I darted out the front door and right into the passenger seat.

  “I was going to—”

  I didn’t let him finish the sentence before I kissed him. My cheeks were damp from the ten seconds it took me to get from the door to the car. There was a hint of ice in the plinking against the windshield, and I had a feeling Mason’s would be closing early.

  One hand cupping the back of my neck, Ian took over the kiss and tugged me into him. Even leaning over the parking brake couldn’t have dislodged me. The sweep of his tongue demanded entry, and I was more than happy to open to him.

  He smelled fantastic. The smoothness of his cheeks was almost baby soft, and a little thrill chased up my spine over the idea that he had showered and shaved before coming to get me. That he spent the time to get ready before coming to get me. Ian tightened his grip a little, then slid his hand from my nape to my throat and tilted my head back so we could break the kiss, but I didn’t move away.

  “You interrupted me,” he said with a definite lick of heat and warmth.

  “I did, but I blame that all on you,” I informed him with a sigh. My pulse thudded like a happy puppy whose tail wagged frantically.

  Amusement flared in his eyes, despite his stern expression. “Me?”

  “Yep. You. You smell good. You feel good. You’re here to get me. It’s all your fault I interrupted you—”

  I gave a little mental fist bump when he claimed my mouth this time, stopping the flow of words. I didn’t care where we were parked or where we had to go, I was thoroughly enjoying this right here. When he nipped at my lower lip and then dragged his teeth over it, I sighed.

  Yep, this was a good spot to be.

  Chuckling, he stroked his thumb in circles over my pulse. “Hi, Angel.”

  “Hey,” I greeted him with a smile. “I hope what I’m wearing is okay for tonight.”

  He didn’t once look away from my eyes. “It’s perfect. You good? Not too tired? I know Archie probably had you up half the night.”

  I laughed. “No, we did actually sleep, I promise. And I feel pretty good. We weren’t busy today, not really. I’m also kind of excited about tonight, even if I only have the vaguest idea of where we are going.”

  He slid his hand up to cup my face, then to my ha
ir, where he tugged the ponytail holder gently. “May I?”

  “It’s going to be a little poofy,” was all I warned. I’d braided it for work and it had come out of the braid in a wild kinky array, which kind of fit the theme for the day, now that I thought about it. With a delighted smile, he tugged the tie free and then combed his hand through my hair.

  “I love it when it looks like this. You look like you just rolled out of bed.”

  I wrinkled my nose, and he kissed the tip of it.

  “Also,” he said, “you look perfect. But you always do.”

  “That is so not true.”

  “Uh uh. Tonight has rules, Angel, and the first rule is you don’t get to disagree with me.”

  I leaned back a little and stared at him. “Seriously? Have you met me?”

  He grinned. “I have and I love you, but that’s why we’re discussing it here. Tonight, I want you to trust me. Let me make the calls and the decisions just for tonight. I want you to watch, to listen, and absorb every piece of the evening, then we can discuss what we like and don’t like after.”

  Not an unreasonable request. Excitement fluttered through me. “Can I ask a question right now?”

  His eyes softened. “Yes. It doesn’t really start until we get there, so we have time to discuss anything you think I need to know.”

  I let out a little squee and did a bouncing dance in the seat. Ian leaned back, laughing at me. Maybe laughing with me.

  You know, it didn’t really matter. I’d been reading, a lot. I had all kinds of questions. “We don’t get to talk about this as much.”

  “I know,” he said. “Thank you for not bringing it up around the guys.”

  “I don’t mind protecting our privacy.” Some things were just for us, just like some things with the others were just for them. Not once had Coop really gone for truth or dare with Jake there, so I got it. We each had our moments.

  This was for Ian and me.

  Especially since he hadn’t shared it with anyone else. No way I’d betray that trust.

  “It’s not that I care if they know eventually,” Ian promised, and when a car honked behind us, he grunted and shifted to move us so we left the parking lot of Mason’s as he added, “By the way, I meant to get out and let you drive,” he told me. “This is your car.”