Melt (Steel Brothers Saga #4)(8)
“Didn’t you grow up in a large ranch house?”
“Yeah, but the two of them liked sharing a room. At least until after…” I cleared my throat. “Talon wanted his own room after that. But me, I always wanted my own. I like alone time.”
“Alone time. Why do you think that is? Why do you like being alone so much?”
“I don’t know. I always have.”
“Do you think it was because it let you escape the responsibility of being the oldest brother sometimes?”
My palms began to itch. Damn, this woman was getting inside my head, and all my defenses were yelling at me to make it stop. I clenched the arms of the recliner, getting ready to stand.
“Going somewhere?”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re bracing to leave. Your body language is speaking volumes right now, Jonah.”
She was in my head all right. Well, that was what I was paying for. How was I supposed to let her into my psyche when all I could think about was getting her into my bed?
I forced myself to relax. “You must have misread me. I’m not planning to go anywhere.”
She smiled. “All right.”
She was pacifying me. I could tell. She didn’t believe for a minute that she had misread me.
And of course she was right.
“So let’s get back to you and your alone time. Do you still like your alone time now?”
I nodded.
“What you do during your alone time?”
“Sometimes nothing. Sometimes I swim. I have a lap pool at my house. I’ve always loved the water.”
“I see. What is it that you love about the water?”
“I don’t know, really. I guess I just like the way it wraps itself around me.”
“Like a shield?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. It seems to…”
“What?”
“It…soothes me. Takes the weight away.”
“I see. That makes a lot of sense. What else do you do while you’re alone?”
Well, I jacked off a lot. But I sure as hell wasn’t going to tell her that. It had been way too long since I’d had a woman. Even though I’d had girlfriends in the past, I’d never had what I thought was a serious relationship. Only one of us had—before Talon and Jade, that was. Ryan had been with a woman named Anna for several years, but they’d ended up calling it off.
“Sometimes I read up on ranching, agriculture.”
She laughed softly. “That’s part of your work. I’m talking about your free time. Your alone time. What do you do besides swim?”
I honestly didn’t know how to answer her. If I wasn’t swimming or sleeping, I was doing something involving the ranch, whether it was reading up on new techniques, attending a conference, or talking to my brothers or my foreman. God, had I really become so involved in my work?
“I…hang out with my brothers and sister.”
“What about friends? What about a girlfriend?”
“Talon has a group of guys he plays poker with. Ryan joins them sometimes.”
“But you don’t?”
“No. I don’t really believe in gambling.”
“Why not?”
“I just don’t.”
“Why do you think that is?”
I had no idea what she was driving at with this line of questioning. “Isn’t it better not to gamble, Melanie? I mean, it can lead to addiction, right?”
“Do you think you have an addictive personality?”
This was getting way off track. “Of course not.”
“All right. I’ll move on, then. What about dating?”
Was it my imagination, or did her cheeks turn pink just a little bit at the mention of dating? “I don’t have time. Plus, I haven’t met anyone I’m interested in.” Until now, that was.
“Friendships?”
“Again, I grab a drink with some of the guys on the ranch sometimes, sometimes my brothers.”
“No one else?”
“Well, my best buddy from my childhood just came for a visit. He’s actually the cousin of one of the kids who was killed back when Talon was abducted.”
“I see. So you’ve spent some time with him, then?”
“Yeah. He’s still here. He has a ten-month-old little boy who’s really cute.”
“How old are you, Jonah?”
“I’m thirty-eight. How old are you?”
I shouldn’t have asked that. I wasn’t sure why it had popped out.
“I’m forty.”
I hoped my shock didn’t show on my face. I’d have pegged her for much younger, but all that schooling…and she’d been in practice for a while. Of course she was older.
She continued, “But we’re not here to talk about me, are we?”
“I’m sorry. That was personal.”
“No worries. I’m not one of those women who gets weird about her age.”
“No reason you should. You look great. I’d take you for late twenties.”
She blushed again, this time all the way down her neck. Her skin was fair, and the rosiness erupted like pink petals against her flesh.
My groin tightened.