Rock Chick Regret (Rock Chick #7)(72)

“Coffee. Black,” Blanca answered.

Still annoyed at him, I shot another glare at Hector and then started opening and closing cupboards to find the mugs. His hand slid around my waist, pulled me into his side, he reached well beyond me and opened the cupboard over the coffeemaker. It was filled with mismatched mugs. I turned my head to give him another glare but this effort failed when his mouth hit mine for a touch on the lips. Then he let me go.

I shrugged off his kiss and got down to the business of coffee. I was in the middle of finishing mugs for Blanca and me (and Hector, who slid his cup beside mine when I was pouring) and wondering how on earth I was going to get through this latest trauma (in a t-shirt, no less!) when I heard a man’s voice call out, “Chavez?”

“Christ, is there a sign on my door that says come, the f**k, in?” Hector muttered.

I noticed at our latest visitor Hector instantly lost his good morning mood and it was Blanca’s turn to shoot him a glare.

But my eyes flew to the kitchen doorway, wondering who this was now (and also wondering why my life couldn’t be the eeniest bit easier) when Hector moved across the room and out of the kitchen.

“Café, mi hija,” Blanca reminded me and I stopped staring at Hector’s departing back and brought her coffee to her.

“What else can I do?” I asked as I heard male voices in the other room, they were getting closer and my eyes went back to the door.

“Do you cook?” Blanca asked.

“Not really,” I answered somewhat dishonestly. I’d never had to cook much but I did know how to make coffee and toast which was something.

“I’ll teach you,” Blanca assured me, moving around the room, putting away food and pulling out cooking implements.

I was feeling a weird, happy glow at Blanca offering to teach me to cook when Hector walked in. He was followed, to my horror, by the tall, handsome, dark-haired Ren Zano wearing a tailored suit (and wearing it really well, by the way), making me acutely aware that I was wearing nothing but Hector’s t-shirt and a pair of dove gray satin panties which, luckily, you couldn’t see as the shirt hung to mid-thigh.

Please, someone tell me, just… plain… no.

Ren’s eyes scanned the room, coasting across Blanca with a quick, “Mornin’,” and then coming to a halt on me. His face gentled and without hesitation he walked to me, smiling.

“Sadie,” he said softly.

“Ren,” I replied.

To my shock (because he’d never done it before, not once), his arm slid around my waist and he pulled me to his body in a hug. After he was done with the hug, his arm loosened but didn’t let go. I arched back over it, hands on his chest and looked up at him.

Eyes on my face, he murmured, “Beautiful as ever.”

Oh my God.

He’d never done that before either! What was that all about?

I searched for the Ice Princess.

The Ice Princess never much liked coming out around Ren (although, of course, she did) but this time she flatly refused.

That was why New Sadie asked, “Are you well?”

“Yeah,” he returned.

I smiled at him. “Good.”

His gaze dropped to my mouth then his lips formed a grin. “Jesus, Sadie, never seen you smile,” he remarked.

I cocked my head in confusion. “I’m sure you have,” I replied.

His eyes moved back to mine. “Trust me, I would have remembered.”

It was then I felt the electric current snapping through the room right before I heard Hector, his voice not happy, saying in the form of a question but meaning it in the form of a demand, “Zano, you wanna step back?”

I realized Ren still had an arm around me right before he dropped it and stepped back.

Both Ren and I looked across the room.

Hector was standing, feet planted, arms crossed, eyes dark and looking beyond unhappy. So beyond unhappy, he looked downright angry.

No, one could say he’d gone right past downright unhappy to pretty extreme fury.

Blanca had a similar expression and she was holding a wooden spoon, a wooden spoon I thought she had a mind to use for something other than cooking.

“Chavez, you know Sadie’s a friend,” Ren told Hector in a low, placating tone.

“Yeah, but now she’s a friend you don’t put your hands on,” Hector replied.

Oh my.

Why was he being so rude? This was Ren Zano we were talking about! Ren was a very nice man. There was no reason to be rude.

“Hector –” I started and Hector’s eyes cut to me. The minute I saw the look in them, for self-preservation’s sake I snapped my mouth shut.

“Coffee and we finish our talk in the other room,” Hector told Ren.

“I’ll get the coffee,” I offered quickly and jumped to get Ren’s coffee, needing something to do to keep my mind off the look in Hector’s eyes. I asked Ren’s coffee preference, hurried through the preparation and handed him his mug. He smiled his thanks, nodded to a still-frowning, closely-watching Blanca and walked from the room.

Then I gave Hector his mug, got scorched by a Hector glare that made my lungs burn and he walked from the room too.

I picked up my own mug and tried to stop my hands from shaking and my heart from racing. I took a sip and realized I also had to stop breathing so heavily. I was panting like I’d just run a race.