Like all the brothers, Brodan had sandy-blond hair and, like Lachlan, he sported designer stubble.
Focusing on the hot cocoa, I was a little startled to feel the heat of him at my back as I worked.
“Whipped cream, my lady,” Brodan overpronounced the words, making them sound dirty as he placed the can down in front of me. His body brushed my back with the movement.
I stiffened. “Thanks.” I tried to move away, but there was little space. He had me sandwiched between him and the counter. If Thane was still watching us, this did not look good.
“Do I make you nervous?” Brodan asked softly.
I turned my head to meet his gaze. “No, but you are in my personal space.”
He smirked. “Your personal space smells very nice.”
This close to him, I saw something in his eyes that I recognized. Something weary and a little desperate, pushed back under charm and cheekiness. It was like looking in a freaking mirror.
What had happened to him?
At whatever he saw on my face, his expression fell. Wariness settled over him, and he eased back. “So, you’re really the nanny?” he asked, and I wondered if it was to distract me from what I’d just seen.
“I think we’ve established I am in fact the nanny.”
Brodan grinned, and it was so much like his brothers’, I couldn’t help it; fondness crept over me despite him trying to flirt. “You’re just wandering around my big brother’s house? Day in and day out.”
I narrowed my eyes at the insinuation in his voice. “Meaning?”
“You’re very beautiful.”
“I’m also good at my job.” I grabbed the whipped cream, expertly swirled it over the top of two mugs, and then sprinkled them both with chocolate curls. Shoving the cocoas at Brodan, I said through clenched teeth, “Why don’t you take these to the niece and nephew you never see? They could do with your attention more than I could.”
A flash of anger made his eyes seem bluer, but he took the mugs, gave me an abrupt nod, and marched out of the kitchen.
“Hey, kids! Look what Uncle Bro made you!”
I grimaced and caught Thane’s gaze across the room. His expression was unreadable, but when I rolled my eyes at Brodan’s audacity, Thane smiled and got up from the couch.
“Need help?” he asked as he strolled into the kitchen.
“Yes, please.” I pushed mugs toward him.
Then he touched on my lower back and I looked at him in surprise before glancing over at our guests. No one was looking.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Oh, yeah. Your brother is harmless.”
The muscle in his jaw ticked, but he just nodded and took the mugs I’d passed him and carried them over to Robyn and Lachlan. I hoped Thane wasn’t jealous of that brief moment in the kitchen. His brother probably flirted with everything in a skirt. And while I could notice how good-looking he was and what an amazing body he had, he didn’t inspire a visceral reaction in me. Sometimes I got turned on just from Thane’s smile. He did it for me in a way no man ever had. And I wished I could tell him without scaring him off.
THANE
Brodan’s arrival home for the Christmas holidays filled Thane with a strange mix of relief and agitation. His visits were becoming few and far between, and he didn’t know his niece and nephew very well anymore.
Watching him with them made Thane long for the days when they were all together. Natural-born flirts, Brodan and Eilidh gravitated toward one another, and Thane witnessed something wash away from his brother as Eilidh bewitched him. Listening to Brodan’s loud, deep laughter at Eilidh’s too-quick quips and adorable mischievousness, Thane rubbed his chest where he felt a slight ache.
He missed Brodan. He missed Arran. Arran, who’d called Brodan to let him know he couldn’t make it back for Christmas but to send along his best wishes. His fucking best wishes.
Thane watched as Regan and Robyn returned from the kitchen with more cocoa, the last for Eilidh and Lewis, before they went to bed, and his eyes narrowed as Brodan looked up to watch Regan. His brother’s gaze moved down her body, and Thane curled his hands into fists, resisting the urge to bark at him to take his bloody eyes off her.
The jealousy that surged in him when he saw Brodan press Regan into the counter was unbearable. He’d wanted to punch his brother. He hadn’t felt that urge since they were kids and Brodan crashed a football into the 3-D model of Edinburgh Castle Thane had spent months building out of Popsicle sticks.
He’d also noticed Regan checking out his brother.
And he hadn’t liked it.
He didn’t like it one bit.
That was how easy it would be, he’d thought to himself, for her head to be turned once she grew bored playing house with him.
Quietly stewing over the jealousy he hated she inspired, Thane was quiet as his siblings told Robyn, Regan, and the children funny stories from their childhood.
“Uh, how about the time you and Arran crashed my first date?” Arrochar glowered at Brodan.
“They did not?” Regan gaped at her in horror.
“Oh, aye, they did. Blake Burnside asked me out in third year. I was so happy because all my other friends had already been on dates, and I worried no one fancied me. His mum drove us to the cinema in Inverness and was going to pick us up after. And we’re sitting in the cinema and Blake had just got up the nerve to take my hand when there’s all this scuffling around us. I look to the empty seat next to Blake, and it’s not empty anymore. Brodan’s in it. And suddenly Arran is in the seat next to me. They mortified me!”
“Where were you?” Robyn tried not to laugh as she addressed her fiancé.
Lachlan grinned. “On a movie set somewhere.”
“And you?” Regan asked Thane.
Thane found himself smiling, despite his unhappy thoughts. “At uni.”
“At uni?” Brodan scoffed. “It was his bloody plan! We were just his foot soldiers!”
Thane cut his brother an annoyed look as Arrochar turned on him. “You did not!”
Rubbing his neck sheepishly, he shrugged. “I couldn’t be there to make sure you were all right. And anyway”—he shot Lachlan a warning look—“I was only following orders.”
“No!” Arro turned on Lachlan, making them all laugh.
Lachlan grinned unrepentantly. “You were fourteen. If boys were going to date you, they needed to know what they’d be facing if they hurt you.”
She shook her head. “I didn’t get asked out again for two years!”
“Well, that was just an accidental bonus.”
Robyn shoved Lachlan playfully on Arro’s behalf, and he roared with laughter, setting them all off. Thane caught Brodan watching Regan again as she fell against Arro giggling, her dimples so damn appealing. Any amusement Thane felt died at the definite interest in Brodan’s eyes.
Not long later, when Regan announced it was bedtime for Eilidh and Lewis, Thane took them up and settled them in as he always did. Eilidh was more hyper than she’d ever been, and he regretted allowing her that final hot cocoa.
“I don’t wanna sleep, Daddy,” she growled at him in the monster voice.
“You have to, Eilidh-Bug. It’s past your bedtime.”