Sins, Lies & Spies (Black Brothers #2)(36)

The corner of his eyes crinkled in amusement. “I’m a man of mystery.”

“Something like that.” I rolled my eyes. “Seriously, though, where do we go from here?” The weight of my words hit my stomach as if I’d swallowed acid.

He blew out a breath. “Honestly, Trinity.” He sat up, his legs dangling over the side of the bed and his back to me. “I don’t know.”

Flames shot up my face, and I was thankful he didn’t turn around to look at me. With shaky hands, I buttoned my shirt. “I’m not trying to push for a relationship if that’s what you’re worried about. Last night you all but kicked me out of your car and life, and now this happened.” I waved my hand in the air.

He pulled his shirt over his head and yanked on his pants. He dropped his head for a second, clearly contemplating what to say to me. Then he stood and pressed a kiss to the top of my head. “Why don’t you take a nap and I’ll run over to your house and pick up your things. I think it’d be safer for you to stay here for a couple of days.”

I shook my head. “That’s it. That’s all you have to say?”

He raked his hands through his blond hair and it stuck out in a dozen different angles. He looked boyish, adorable even. Damn him for being…him.

“Yes.”

“Look.” I sat up, my gaze settling on the strong column of his throat because I didn’t want him to see the disappointment etched on my face. “Just take me home. I don’t want this to be awkward, and I sure as hell don’t want you to feel obligated to let me stay at your house.”

“Relax, Trinity,” he murmured, pressing a hand on my shoulder. “I don’t have all the answers right now, and neither do you. Let’s process this for more than a few minutes, and we’ll go from there.”

I stared at the bedding, feeling foolish. He was right. I didn’t know what I wanted from him either. “All right.”

“Good.” He grinned. “I’ll be back in an hour or so. There’s plenty of food in the kitchen. Help yourself to whatever you want.”

“I will.”

He cupped my face as he kissed my mouth hard. I wrapped my arms around his neck, my fingers twitching to yank him back into bed and start all over. No thinking. Just touching.

He untangled my arms from his neck, a maddening closed-lipped smile on his face. “I bet you will.” He walked to the entrance of the bedroom. He grabbed a pair of aviator sunglasses from the top of the dresser and slid them on his face, pausing for a moment. “And try to refrain from rifling through my files again.”

“Jerk.” I threw a pillow at him, but he dodged it without difficulty.

His deep laugh echoed down the hallway.





CHAPTER TWENTY




Knox



I pulled into a parking place down the street from Trinity’s townhome, and I checked my phone. There were two messages from Archer, demanding I call him immediately.

“Hey, Archer. It’s me,” I said.

“Finally,” Archer growled. “I was about to filing a missing person’s report. You haven’t returned my phone calls for a week.”

“Yeah. Yeah,” I said, feeling like a major *. I glanced out of the rear window of my car to see if I was being followed. “I’m busy. If you haven’t noticed, I have two f*cking jobs, and my boss for one of those is a real piece of work. He’s always riding my ass like I don’t have anything else to do.”

He chuckled. “I assume you’re referring to me.”

“If the shoe fits…” I answered, swinging my legs out of my car, then pushing the door shut behind me.

“Don’t think I didn’t notice that you still haven’t finished that security update for Black Investments.”

I switched my phone to the other ear and pumped a couple of quarters into the meter. “I haven’t forgotten about it, but it will probably be a few weeks before I can wrap it up.”

“What’s going on?”

I glanced up and down the street. “You know how these things go, Archer. I can’t talk about it on the phone. In fact, I shouldn’t tell you anything, ever, but I wouldn’t mind bouncing some ideas off you.”

My brother was one of the smartest people I’d ever met. He was a wizard with numbers and had an uncanny ability to see through the bullshit. Jack was a good business partner. We understood each other, and I respected his work ethic. He respected me, but I would never trust anyone as much as I trusted Archer. I had idolized him for as long as I could remember. That would never change.

He was only a couple of years older than me, but if it weren’t for him, I probably wouldn’t have survived past my fifth birthday. To put it mildly, my mom was a shitty parent who took her role as a victim seriously. Until the last year of her life, she used vodka to cope with the fallout from one self-created disaster after another. I’d spent my entire childhood and most of my adult life hating her. Resenting her. She stripped away my innocence and subjected me to the ugly side of life before I could even walk. Her neglect lingered over me like a thunderstorm my entire life.

“Then you’re in luck. Langley and I are in D.C. for a couple of days. I made reservations for the three us at that sushi place in my building at seven-thirty.”