It's in His Kiss

“It’s me telling you one last time to leave,” Sam said. “Now.”

Jase shoved his hands in his pockets. “Listen, I don’t know what she’s told you about me, but we’re cool, her and I, so—”

Sam grabbed him by the collar. “Are you? Cool?”

“Yeah. I mean. . .” Jase closed his eyes and shook his head. “Okay, so we’re not cool, but it’s not what you think.”

“You know what I think?” Sam tightened his grip on Jase to make sure he had his full attention. “I think you let her take care of you all your life, and then when she needed the favor returned one time, you failed her. You let her get hurt. You let her feel guilty for being raped.” Christ, he wanted to squeeze until Jase stopped breathing. And indeed, Jase choked and brought his hands up, but Sam was beyond giving a shit. He heard Cole and Tanner calling his name, felt them trying to pull him off Jase, but he held on.

Until he heard her voice. Becca’s.

“Sam! Sam, let go!”

Shocked, Becca clutched at Sam’s cement biceps. “Please, Sam,” she said, heart in her throat, but as if please had been the magic word, Sam did indeed let go.

Jase slid to the ground, gasping for air. Letting out her own tense breath, Becca dropped to her knees at her brother’s side, running her gaze over him. Realizing he was indeed mostly in one piece, she tilted her head to Sam’s. “What the hell?”

Eyes shuttered now, Sam took a step backward and said nothing.

Becca shook her head and turned back to Jase. “What are you doing here?”

Still holding his throat, Jase slid a cautious look up at Sam.

Becca couldn’t blame him. Sam had backed up, but he still had a feral look of fury in his eyes. He was breathing steadily, calm even, but his hands were in fists. On either side of him stood Cole and Tanner. Probably to back up Sam, but maybe also to keep him from killing Jase. Hard to tell.

“I was trying to see you,” Jase said, “but then I was assaulted.”

Tanner made a sound from deep in his throat that should have been a warning, but Jase had never been good at warnings.

“I mean, Jesus,” he went on. “I didn’t do shit; he just came after me.”

This time the growl came from Cole. Clearly, neither he nor Tanner had any idea what this was about, but it didn’t matter. Brothers of the heart, they stood united with Sam. “Jase,” she said softly. “This isn’t the time or place. I’m at work. Go home.”

“I. . .can’t.”

She stared into his eyes, saw shame and guilt, and felt her heart clutch. “Why, Jase?” Oh, God. “What have you done?”

“I. . .need your help.” He clutched at her hands and held her gaze in his own red-rimmed one. “This one last time, Becca. Please.”

At his words, the years fell away. She could see him at age five to her seven, needing her to chase away his night terrors after he’d been bullied at school. At age twelve needing her to hide him after he’d stupidly shoplifted a metronome from the music store. Then over a decade later, coming out of rehab and still looking broken. And she felt herself waver. “Jase—”

“Just this one last time,” he promised in a broken whisper.

She pulled her key from her pocket. “Go to my place. I’ll be off in a few hours. Wait there.”

He took the key.

“Jase,” she said. “Promise me.”

“I promise,” he said woodenly.

She rose and watched him do the same. He straightened his shirt, gave her three bosses a very wide berth, and left.

She let out a breath and turned to the small crowd gathered. “Show’s over,” she said briskly. “We’ve got a sale on water equipment for the next hour only, twenty-five percent off. Who wants to snorkel or kayak? Line up, first come, first served.”

A murmur rose from the crowd. Lucky Harbor was filled with good people, but they were also hardworking and loved a bargain.

“Does the snorkel gear come with a hottie instructor?”

This came from Lucille. She had her hand raised, her gaze on Tanner. “Because I wouldn’t mind getting . . . instructed,” she said.

Tanner winced but everyone else laughed, dispelling the tense atmosphere.

Satisfied that things would go back to normal, or as normal as it got around here, Becca started back around to the front of the hut.

“Becca.”

The softly spoken single word was from Sam. She considered ignoring him, but the problem with that was she’d never been able to ignore Sam. Not when he’d been her Sexy Grumpy Surfer, not when he’d become her boss, and certainly not now that he’d become so very much more. She was going to have to do something about that, and she knew it. It was one thing to put herself out there and fall in love with someone. It was another entirely to be the only one of the two of them putting herself out there. “I’ve got work,” she said.

And then she got to it.

Becca sat in the reception room of the “recovery” center in Seattle and watched her brother walk away from her toward the nurse who’d just called his name.

She’d gone home after work and found Jase pacing, looking more than a little crazed, and in desperate need of a fix.

“I f**ked up,” he said straight off. “I stole Janet’s Vicodin.”

She blinked. “Who’s Janet?”

“Someone I met after last night’s concert.”