Regan was trouble.
But only because he wanted her.
Like really, really was seriously lusting after her.
His nanny.
His brother’s soon-to-be sister-in-law.
His employee, thirteen years his junior.
Never again, he vowed.
Thane was not that hotheaded youth anymore. He was a grown man with children and responsibilities and a respectable reputation within their community. He could control his attraction to an inappropriate woman.
Never again.
Thane could only hope Regan understood that. At any rate, he planned to make sure she did.
13
Regan
I was twenty-five years old.
You would think by now, especially after what I’d been through, that I wouldn’t be naive enough to assume that just because a woman got a man’s dick hard that it actually meant anything.
And boy, was Thane out to prove it didn’t.
My hurt was a deep, hot, wounded ache in my chest that I hadn’t expected. I had a crush on the guy, but after his treatment that morning, I worried my response meant it had developed into something more.
When he’d held me in his arms yesterday, I thought I was going to come out of my skin I was so desperate to have his mouth on me, his hands touching every inch of my body. Never had I been that turned on. And I’d read some smokin’, spectacular sex scenes in romance novels.
Now, Thane was not only acting like nothing happened, but he was treating me with cold politeness.
The kids weren’t up yet. I was in the middle of setting out their breakfast dishes and juice when Thane, dressed in a suit, came hurrying down the stairs. When I offered him coffee, he didn’t even look at me and just coolly told me he could get it himself. Then he disappeared upstairs again instead of chatting like he normally would before waking Eilidh and Lewis.
I blinked at the sight of him now.
He’d trimmed his beard. Like, really trimmed it.
And it looked amazing.
Was he trying to kill me?
“Your beard,” I said.
His eyes flicked up before moving away as he grabbed his car keys off the hook on the wall near the photo gallery. “Excuse me?”
“You trimmed your beard.”
“So I did.” He walked out of the kitchen toward the front entrance.
Was that it?
I wasn’t even getting a goodbye?
Tears stung my eyes, and I quickly blinked them back as I heard the front door slam shut.
“I hate men,” I whispered harshly. Even the best of them couldn’t escape the asshole gene when it came to sex and attraction.
THANE
He was thirty minutes from Ardnoch before he stopped fighting with himself to turn around and drive back to the house.
Now it was too late. He couldn’t be tardy for work after yesterday’s debacle with Paul.
Still, his gut churned with that awful feeling he got when he knew he’d done something wrong.
He’d handled Regan badly. There was a difference between reminding her they should act professionally around one another and acting like an insensitive bastard. Leaving without saying goodbye was fucking rude.
“Arsehole,” he muttered for the hundredth time as he pulled into the parking lot. How did he apologize now without getting her hopes up?
Would her hopes even be up?
He was assuming Regan gave a shit if he wanted to sleep with her.
“She gives a shit,” he said under his breath as he got out of the SUV. If he was being honest, they’d been dancing around their attraction to each other for weeks. That day at the beach, they’d most definitely been flirting, and when he’d seen her flirting with Jared McCulloch, he’d acted like a jealous arsehole then too. Thane thought he was past all the games and possessiveness at his age.
“Thane Adair?” A man stepped from between two vehicles in front of him, drawing him out of his thoughts.
Thane abruptly stopped walking.
Guard up at the suspicious behavior, and with the punch he’d given Paul in mind, Thane glanced around to see if they were alone. They weren’t. A few other employees were making their way to the lift. Relaxing slightly, he asked, “Who’s asking?”
The man drew nearer. His huge, dark eyes were haunted behind his round spectacles.
But Thane suddenly recognized him. Dread and anger and grief and despair and possessiveness fired within. “What do you want?”
“To talk with you. About Eilidh.” He slurred the words.
Rage consumed him, and he took a menacing step toward the man. “You will stay away from my daughter.”
Desperation lit up the man’s face. “But she isn’t yours, is she? She’s mine.”
A quick look around the lot told him they were alone now. Thane lunged at him, grabbing him by the shirtfront. He cried out, but Thane ignored his pleas, hauling him through a gap between cars to slam him against a concrete pillar. The smell of whisky wafted strongly off the bastard.
“Just because you fucked my wife doesn’t mean a goddamn thing. Eilidh is mine!” He was so furious, spittle flew from his mouth as he raged, “I don’t know why you crawled out of the woodwork now, but I’m warning you to crawl the fuck back in, or I will ruin your goddamn miserable existence. And you know I can.” He pushed him harder into the pillar. “Do you understand me?”
The man nodded as his trembling hand reached to straighten his glasses.
His fear doused some of Thane’s rage, and he stumbled away. “Get out of here … before I do something we both regret.”
14
Regan
“So Arrochar wants to host us all at her place on Saturday, since she’s doing the cooking. But I thought you and I could try baking the cake.” Robyn folded the clean laundry as she spoke.
I glanced at her and frowned before turning back to my ironing. “I told you, you don’t need to help me. This is my job.”
“Yeah, but I’m not doing anything right now and these kids have more clothes than a Kardashian.”
I shrugged. “Thane likes to make sure they have everything they need.”
“I know.”
At Robyn’s silence, I looked up. She narrowed her eyes, expression ponderous.
“What is it?”
My sister scrutinized me some more. “You sounded a little defensive, that’s all. In fact, you’ve been a little short all morning.”
“If you mean about the Adair brothers’ birthday plans, then it’s because I’m not sure us baking a cake when we have no prior experience beyond the odd tray of brownies is a good idea.”
“No, I just mentioned the cake. You’ve been off all morning.”
My pulse raced at Robyn’s probing stare. I hemmed and hawed over whether to tell her about Thane. I worried she’d judge me as that impulsive, irresponsible woman who had dated an asshole after running away from another asshole. However, I also needed someone to talk to. Someone I could trust. Someone whose advice meant a lot to me.
“Okay, I’m getting worried.” Robyn pushed away from the laundry room counter and stood right in front of the ironing board so I had nowhere to look but into her eyes. They were golden today beneath the room’s bright spotlights. “Talk to me.”