Tempted & Taken (Men of Haven #4)(17)

“But honest,” Beckett added.

Axel lifted his tumbler in salute. “That counts in my book.”

For a few seconds, silence filled the room, each man looking from one to the other. Per usual, it was Jace who spoke first. “So, what’s your play? You gonna teach her?”

And there was the question. His instincts had already gone off half-cocked once and now he couldn’t decide if he was solid enough to make the call. Especially considering how she’d scrambled his head through the last part of their meet.

Knox shrugged. “She’s got attitude and aptitude. I needed a leg up once. Seems the right thing to do.”

“But?” Trevor said.

“But without knowing who she’s running from, there’s no telling what kind of attention we’d attract. Plus, I’m going on pure gut. She could still be a hell of an actress. I don’t like the idea of putting her in contact with any of our systems without several second opinions.”

Beckett slouched deeper in the cushions. “Already gave you my spin. Give it a go.”

Danny chuckled and shook his head. “You’re just angling to win the bet.”

Zeke perked up and swiveled his attention to Danny. “What bet?”

Grinning huge, Danny zeroed in on Trevor and Zeke. “She’s hot. Like Christmas fairy hot. Beckett ponied up one large that says Knox’ll add her to his black book inside of a month.”

“Not gonna happen,” Knox said. “If anyone knows what a bad idea it is to fuck someone you’re teaching or working with, it’s me.”

In all of a second, Beckett went from laid-back to upright and pissed off. “Oh, give that shit a rest. You were barely eighteen. Not a man in this room that could think with anything other than their dick at that age. Especially with a thirty-year-old teacher built like a brick shit house out for attention. JJ’s thirty-two. That’s a whole different situation.”

“No, her records say she’s thirty-two,” Knox argued back. “No way she’s that old.”

Beckett scoffed, stood and stomped to the mini fridge. “Whatever. She’s way older than you were so cut yourself some fucking slack.”

Not the least bit bothered by Beckett’s outburst, Jace grinned and focused on Knox. “Gotta say, sometimes mixing work and pleasure works out for the best.”

“I’ll second that,” Trevor said.

Of course, they would. Both of them had found their women through work. Sort of. Trevor had truly gone after Natalie while she was on payroll, but Jace had to bribe Vivienne into a job first and then lured her in.

“You guys are makin’ too much out of this.” Granted, he’d had a whole host of ideas slide through his head on things he’d like to do to JJ while she was sitting next to him, but who the hell could blame him? With those high as fuck heels she’d had on and her sinfully long legs, he’d have had to be a eunuch not to conjure up a ton of dirty thoughts. “The only reason I’m considering what she asked is because she seems to need the help. That’s what we do, right? Just because she doesn’t have a dick doesn’t mean I should tell her no.”

Beckett paced forward with his fresh beer, took a pull, then murmured, “Mmm hmmm.”

Trevor grinned at Beck’s subtle jab but gave his attention to Knox. “Ignore him. If you want more opinions, just set it up so we meet her.”

Danny barked out a laugh. “Yeah, that’s an incentive to keep a girl from running. Line her up in front of seven men with a ton of questions.”

“Not like that,” Jace volleyed back. Like they handled this kind of arrangement every day when in fact, they only met as a group for brothers. Or meeting a woman a brother wanted to claim. “We’ll set up something casual. She doesn’t have to know what’s up. Just a chance for us to get a read on her.”

“A family thing,” Zeke added, though his gaze when it slid to Knox had a mischievous glimmer that made Knox want to stand up and pace. “Wouldn’t be the first time we’d gotten together to meet a girl, would it?”

The fucker. That wasn’t what this was and he damned well knew it. Still, if he protested, the rest of the guys would just jump on the bandwagon, so Knox ignored it.

Axel leaned his hip against the couch and rubbed his jawline, working his fingers through his thick beard. “We could meet her Saturday night. That’s the next Bikers and Blues Rally.”

As laid-back venues went, the summer-long gimmick Axel had set up to promote a new outdoor music venue in Dallas was perfect. The premise behind the bi-weekly gatherings was that if you could get people out on a regular basis in the hottest months of the year in Texas, you could damn well support a steady music venue year-round. So far, he’d been successful as hell, packing Klyde Warren Park to the gills with a slew of bikers and every other music lover in Dallas.

“That could work.” Beckett shuttled his gaze from Jace, to Trevor and Zeke. “The girls will be there, right?”

“Yep,” Zeke said. “Music. Food. Laid-back. Perfect for letting JJ’s guard down.”

Jace studied Knox, the uncanny shrewdness behind his eyes saying he was thinking the same thing Zeke was. “That gonna work for you?”

Well, they could eyeball and tease him about mixing work and pleasure all they wanted, but this was nothing more than a meet with a prospective employee. Not some fabricated excuse to get his family’s blessing on a long-awaited girlfriend. Knox shrugged and reclined against the couch back. “Yep. Works for me just fine.”