Tempted & Taken (Men of Haven #4)(15)
“That’s because they’re both wee lads at heart.” Sylvie stood and started gathering up empty dessert plates. Where Knox kept everyone guessing with food, Sylvie’s personal mission was to find the perfect sweet to go with whatever meal was chosen. Tonight, it’d been a traditional cheesecake, made one hundred percent from scratch. Plates in one hand, she paused next to Knox, patted his cheek and winked. “Don’t let ’em get ta ye, love. Whatever ye pick is fine with us.”
Axel grumbled and thumbed through the screen’s television guide. “Christ, Ma. Don’t encourage him. We’ll end up eating frozen Kid Cuisines again.”
Vivienne snickered, stood and started helping Sylvie. “You guys are so dense. He only does it to get your goat. If you’d relax and go with the flow a bit, he’d find some other way to make you nuts.”
Yep. Jace’s woman was smart as hell. No wonder the Haven leader had given up his solitary ways to claim her.
As if spurred by some innate womanly cue, Ninette and Gabe joined in with cleanup detail, their quiet voices as they divvied up tasks and shared plans for the next day drifting through the room with a pleasant warmth.
Out of nowhere, the conversation he’d had with JJ popped in his head. He’d done that a lot the last few days, churning through the possible ways of how to bring her request up with his brothers along with his suspicions, but this time he couldn’t help but wonder how she’d fit in with the rest of the women. If she’d be as comfortable as Viv, Gabe and Nat were with his brothers.
Knox shoved the thought aside, closed his eyes and focused on the moment. Family night never got old. The other guys grumbled every now and then when Sylvie and Ninette demanded their presence each Wednesday, but not him. He’d waited his whole damned life for this. Watched the other foster kids he hung with finding permanent homes while he bounced from place to place, hoping each new placement would be different. But it never was. At seventeen he’d given up and accepted Beck would be the closest to family he’d ever get.
And then he’d met Axel.
One private security gig, a whole lot of hacking questions and a full year later, Axel, Jace, Trevor and Zeke had welcome him and Beckett into the fold. Only twenty-three years to get the family he’d wanted, but man, the wait had been worth it. So yeah, Ninette and Sylvie might have to browbeat the rest of his brothers, but it’d take an act of God and a probable loss of limbs before he’d miss this weekly sabbatical from the world.
Still chattering amongst themselves, the women ambled out of the room and toward the kitchen downstairs.
Jace scanned each of his brothers. “Who’s bunking down here for the night?”
That was the cool thing about Jace and Axel’s ranch on the outskirts of Allen, Texas. Every brother had their own suite away from Dallas’s chaos and no one but family was allowed. The massive estate was exactly what Jace had named it—Haven. A safe place where they could get away, say what they thought without censure and cover whatever business needed handling without fear of prying ears.
“I’m in,” Knox said.
“Me, too.”
“Yep,” Beck and Danny said in tandem.
Trevor cupped his son’s shoulder, the pride on his face as he did so rattling long dead hopes inside of Knox like a box of brittle bones. “Can’t tonight. Levi’s got a thing in town with his best friend in the morning.”
Man, but Trevor was lucky. Levi might not be flesh and blood, but as of a few months ago, he was Trevor’s boy as far as the courts were concerned. And he was a helluva kid. Rambunctious. Smart. Honest to a fault, too, which meant no one could never predict what jaw-dropping comment was gonna fly out of his mouth.
Zeke raked his fingers through this hair and yawned. “I’ve got a day shift tomorrow, so me and Gabe are gonna head home.”
What a difference a woman made. A little over a year ago, Zeke had been as hard to unwind as Knox, yet here he was at barely ten o’clock, yawning and ready to head home with his old lady.
Out of nowhere, the memory of JJ and the way that she’d looked at him during that one, unguarded moment during their meeting hit him hard. He’d had women look at him with lust before, but she’d focused on his lips like she’d die if she didn’t get a taste. He shook off the image and forced himself to focus. “Got something I need to run past you guys before anyone heads out.”
Axel folded up the footrest on his black leather recliner, stood with his empty crystal tumbler and tossed the remote next to Jace on his way to the wet bar. “Brother, you ate two baked potatoes, all of one strip and half of Gabe’s. Not sure you how can think after all that food.”
“No shit,” Danny said. “For a skinny guy, I don’t know where you put it.”
Jace chuckled and took up scanning through the television channels. “He works it off with the women in his little black book.”
Beck gave Knox a look that said he was about a nanosecond away from spilling how long Knox had gone without sleep before he’d caved and hooked up with Tiffany.
Knowing that would get him a whole lot of attention and a lecture he didn’t need from Zeke, he redirected the conversation before Beckett could speak. “You guys remember that skip tracer who helped us with Trevor’s deal?”
Axel glanced back from the wet bar. “JJ, right?”