Until Jorlan.
“Well? What are you doing here?” she repeated.
Nick crossed his arms over his chest. “Can’t a guy visit his one and only sister out of love?”
“Not this particular brother. What gives?”
“You know me too well.” Grinning, he switched his attention to Jorlan and held out a hand. “Since Katie refuses to be polite, allow me to introduce myself. I’m Nick James. I handle all of Katie’s social media accounts. Well, for her business, not her life. Were I posting about her life, I’d break my own heart.”
“Ha-ha, very funny.” She flipped him off. “He only charges me a once a month wingwoman duty,” she said, her tone as dry as the desert.
“I am Jorlan en Sarr. I handle…Katie.”
Nick’s jaw went slack, and Katie had to smother a giggle.
“If I knew what a wingwoman was,” her…boyfriend continued, “I’m certain I would be properly impressed.” Frowning, he regarded Nick’s proffered hand, as if he had no idea what to do with it.
“Shake it,” she whispered in his ear.
“Ah, ’tis a form of greeting. While in the garden, I observed many people who performed such a task.” He took Nick’s hand and pumped up and down with way too much force.
Through narrowed eyes, Nick studied Jorlan more intently. “You look familiar. Have we met before?”
Katie swallowed a moan. What if her brother recognized Jorlan…as the statue that had once stood in her garden?
If anyone could make the connection, it was Nick. He was the cocreator of Slip through Time, a virtual reality game. He had a high-concept imagination.
No, no. No way. No one would ever put two and two together. She barely believed Jorlan had once been encased in stone, and she’d witnessed his emergence. Otherworldly aliens, mystical curses and magic spells went beyond the realm of perceived truth.
Still, she wouldn’t take any chances. She couldn’t tell the truth, but she refused to lie to someone she loved. What if she simply implied he was…who? Oh! The self-help guru, Hunter something. The redhead at the café had mentioned the two looked just alike.
No, no one famous. With a quick internet search, Nick could easily disprove the notion. So, she’d have to go with something else. But what?
“Hey.” Nick wagged a finger in Jorlan’s direction. “You’re that guy on the cover of those romance novels Katie likes to read.”
Oh, perfect! “You can’t tell anyone,” she said, doing her best to appear worried. “Jorlan doesn’t want the world knowing who or what he is. He just wants to be a normal guy for a bit.” All true.
Nick gave an understanding nod. “Do the women pose naked with you?”
“I have no woman save Katie.” He reached around to wind his arm around her waist…and gently squeeze her butt.
Heat whisked through her, her body ready for another orgasm. Fighting a moan, she slapped his hand and moved to stand beside him, slanting him a halfhearted glare that said, Behave. But only a little.
Fully absorbed in the conversation—because of course he was, considering they were discussing naked ladies—Nick barely spared her a glance. “How does a guy go about getting a job like that?”
“You love computers too much to switch jobs,” she reminded him.
“Who says I can’t do both?” her brother shot back. “Naked modeling and creating VR games.” He patted his own cheek. “You’ve seen this face, right?”
She rolled her eyes. “Jorlan will not be giving you modeling tips, and that’s that.” Another truth. He couldn’t give any tips, because he wasn’t a model.
“I must do as my woman says,” Jorlan said, clearly amused. “Her temper nigh flays her opponents alive.”
“Very true, very true.” Nick shoved his hands in his slack pockets and jingled change. “So how’d you two meet?”
“I told you this wasn’t the time for a grilling.” Katie linked her fingers with Jorlan’s. “Let’s go to the kitchen. You can explain whatever it is you’re wanting from me while we eat lunch.”
Jorlan perked up. “Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches?”
“As many as you want.” With that, she led him around her brother.
Behind them, Nick erupted into laughter. “Katie,” he called, “you’ve got a piece of linoleum glued to your ass.”
Of course, the two men were best friends after that. They all entered the kitchen together, the boys chuckling over something Jorlan had said. She was fairly certain that something involved breasts and thighs, and not the chicken variety.
As soon as she released Jorlan’s hand, Nick slung his arm around Jorlan’s shoulders and fired off a round of questions centered around Jorlan’s make-believe job.
“Do you get to hold them against you or are you put together digitally? Do you undress in the same room? Of all the models you’ve worked with, who has the biggest rack?”
Scowling now, Katie hurled a bottled water at each man’s stomach. Jorlan moved with lightning-quick reflexes, catching the thing midair; Nick wasn’t so skilled. The plastic knocked the air from his lungs.
She smiled, smug. “Oops. My bad.”
He blew her another kiss before unscrewing the top and taking a long swig. When he finally lowered the bottle, he said, “I thought you were dating Steve Harris, that detective from Gray’s unit.”
Katie had just tipped her bottle to her mouth. She spewed every last drop onto the floor. “What was that?”
“Steve Harris. The future Mr. Katie James.” Nick practically sang the words to the melody of Katie and Steven sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G.
Jorlan stiffened. “Does this Steve want to die?”
She slammed her water onto the countertop. “Steve isn’t my boyfriend. He expressed interest in me, but I turned him down.”
“The way Gray talked,” Nick said, “you and Stevie boy were already planning the wedding.”
Mouth agape, she skipped her gaze to Jorlan.
He crossed his arms over his chest, a storm cloud of fury brewing in his expression. Nick continued talking, saying something about flowers and churches, but she barely heard him. She continued to watch Jorlan. He grew stiffer and stiffer by the second.
The water bottle crunched in her too-tight grip. Just what kind of woman did Jorlan consider her? Only moments before, she’d kissed him, touched him and contemplated making love to him. Now he thought her so lacking in honor that she would marry another man?
Men were idiots!
“I’ve never even met the guy,” she grated to both her brother and Jorlan. “And I have no interest in meeting him, either.”
Jorlan relaxed. Barely.
“Good. That’s actually why I came to see you.” Nick worried a hand over his clean-shaven jaw. “I wanted to tell you to stay away from Steve.”
Something about his too-slick tone made her suspicious of his intensions. She planted her fists on the widest flare of her hips. “Why warn me away from him? Gray says he’s a good man.”
“Because I want—wanted—you to go out with a buddy of mine instead. He just struck it rich selling a video game, so he can easily provide for you and any kids—”