She nodded. “Is that why you read romance?”
“Yep. The world needs more happy stories, and there’s nothing happier than love stories.”
Her eyes widened. He sipped from his cup to hide his smile. She was so easy to surprise. She was from a cutthroat world of arrogant, greedy pricks who would do anything for power and she was ballsy enough to try to take the big dogs down, but she had a sweet air about her. Almost an innocence. Which reminded him of what she’d said about being a virgin. She might not be an actual virgin, but she hadn’t been properly fucked. Not the way she needed to be. He was sure of it. He didn’t know why, but he was.
And he intended to fix that.
She was going to take a piece of his heart with her when she left, but he couldn’t let her leave his world untouched. He was not that noble of a guy. He wasn’t sure he was all that noble at all, really.
“So you believe in love stories?” she asked. “You read romance because you like pretending there are happily ever afters and people finding their soulmates and all of that?”
“I definitely like reading love stories, but there’s nothing pretend about it. I’ve seen them in real life all around me my entire life. People here fall hard and fast and forever.”
“Wow. Really?”
“All the time.”
She narrowed her eyes as she took another sip of coffee. “That’s another reason it’s important that Autre stay…happy, right? So they can all fall in love and build their lives and families.”
He narrowed his eyes back at her. “Why do you say that?”
“Because I’ve met them, Zander. Tori and Josh and Ella. Paige and Mitch. Donovan and Naomi. Jordan and Fletcher. Charlie and Griffin. Ellie and Leo.” She sighed. “All of them. It’s taken only four days around them for me to totally get it.” She laughed lightly. “It didn’t even take that long. I’ve seen exactly what you’re protecting.”
He stared at her. His heart was hammering. His gut was tight. His nerve endings were tingling.
Theo, Michael, and the others got it. He knew that. But to have this woman, this outsider, this stranger, get it and say it like that did something to him.
But it shouldn’t surprise him that his family’s love and happiness was so evident.
He cleared his throat. “I’m glad.”
She finished her coffee, still watching him. “That’s a lot of pressure on you, isn’t it?”
He lifted a shoulder. “Someone’s gotta do it.”
“Why you?”
“Because I can. And because I care more about them being happy than anything else.”
She studied him as she rose from the table and brought the coffee mug to the sink next to where he was leaning. She washed it and set it on the drainage rack. Then she turned, propping her hip against the counter. “So you’re willing to give up all the happy-falling-in-love-family stuff for yourself to make it happen for them?”
She’d nailed it. He nodded. “Me and a few other guys.”
“You don’t want what those romance novels talk about?”
“I get some of it.” He reached out and snagged her hand, tugging her close. “You should read chapter six.” With his cup still in one hand, he slid the fingers of his other hand into her hair and tipped her face up to his. He kissed her slow and deep, tasting the coffee on her tongue, and absorbing the way she willingly leaned into him, accepting his kiss and pressing close for more.
He let her go a moment later, studying her eyes as he held her head.
She ran her tongue over her lips and his cock twitched, wanting that pink tip on it. “I noticed that you read some pretty dirty stuff,” she said, a little breathless.
He gave her a slow grin. “I sure do.”
She took a deep breath and he let her go. He couldn’t not touch her, but he really couldn’t keep going. They needed to get up to Ellie’s. He wanted to get Spencer working on this case, for one thing, but the longer it took for him to get Caroline up there, the more curious his family would get about what he and the gorgeous heiress were getting up to. He wanted her and intended to have her before she left, but he did not need to get his family all riled up about how he might feel about her.
In their minds, the perfect Autre meant everyone in the family was deliriously happily in love. That was the one thing he wasn’t going to give them and he hated that anything would feel less than to his parents or grandparents. But he had to put them first and he was already distracted as hell with Caroline in town. She’d been here for less than a week and he could already feel how his attention and loyalties and time would be pulled in different directions if she were to stay and become a true part of everything.
“Let’s get you dressed and then see what Spencer can do about Brantley,” he said, reminding them both of the most important focus of their day.
She nodded, but her gaze dropped to his mouth and Zander liked the realization that he could distract her from pursuing the criminals behind the illegally bought and sold animals. He knew how important that was to her.
He led her to his back porch, then bent and swept her up into his arms. She gave a little giggle that punched him in the gut. He loved making her laugh and smile and flirt. He got the impression all of that was uncommon. Or if she did it with other men, it was forced.
He carried her and her bare feet to his truck ignoring the fact that she felt amazing in his arms and that her legs were smooth and that if he ran his hands over that silky skin he wouldn’t run into any barriers until he got to that thong.
Mitch and Paige didn’t live far enough away to actually drive usually, but after Caroline was cleaned up and dressed, they’d be driving up to Ellie’s anyway, so he pulled into his cousin’s driveway a minute later. He carried Caroline inside and set her down in the living room, pointing her up the stairs.
“Bathroom is at the top of the stairs. Linen closet is to the right. Help yourself to everything. She said to tell you that the third drawer down in her dresser has shorts in it. Fourth drawer is jeans. Shirts and shoes are in the closet. Grab whatever you like.”
Caroline shook her head. “This is really nice. Remind me to send her a gift basket or something.”
He chuckled. “Sure.”
She started up the stairs and Zander didn’t even try to pull his gaze from her ass. Damn, he was going to be sorry when she was no longer wearing his shirt. She looked sexy as hell in that. But he needed to get work done today. They had to talk to Spencer. And if she stayed in that shirt, he wasn’t going to be able to resist putting her up against a wall much longer.
While she showered and changed, Zander made himself return a couple of calls and emails, trying to keep his mind off the noises coming from the second floor and the images of her showering that kept teasing him.
But then she came back down those stairs in some of Paige’s denim shorts, a red tank top, and red flip-flops with sparkly stones along the straps. She also had her hair back in a braid.
Zander could easily picture her sitting on the tailgate of his truck with a jar of moonshine in hand and he realized the up-against-the-wall was absolutely still on the table.
“We need to go.” He pivoted toward the door immediately.
With the flip flops on her feet, he didn’t have to carry her. Thank God.