After a brief non-verbal standoff that consisted of narrowly eyeing each other and jaw clenching, I conceded to laying on the couch with my foot elevated on a pillow. At least I think I agreed to it.

I didn’t have much choice in the end because he manhandled me into position after a minute, then dropped the freezing pack on my foot.

I nearly fell off the couch when I yelped.

My hand shot out to remove it but it was caught and held as Brock adjusted the bag.

“I think you twisted it a little but it isn’t sprained or broken. Just keep the bag there for a little while and it should feel better in about an hour. If it doesn’t, I’ll have Logan drive out and look at it for you.”

Having Dr. Logan Matthews drive out to the hotel was a little ridiculous but I wasn’t opposed since he was married to my best friend Kate. Kate was due any week now though and it would be terribly selfish of me to take her husband away from her right now. Even if I knew Logan of all people would get Brock to let me out of this place.

I tried to remove my hand from his but the more I pulled the tighter his grip became.

“I could do this at home, just as easily as staying here.”

“Yes, but it’s the penthouse. I mean, if you’re going to be flat on your back recovering, why not do it in luxury?”

I frowned at him. “Because it’s not my room and I’m afraid of messing something up. Who says I like luxury anyway? Maybe I prefer sitting on rocks and eating oatmeal with a piece of tree bark. Which reminds me that I should probably be laying on the floor doing this if we’re going to stay here. I don’t want to mess up the leather.”

“Fuck the leather. They can bill me if it gets messed up. You’re beautiful right where you are. You will not sit on the floor or eat oatmeal with a piece of tree bark. Where did you even come up with that?”

“I have stuff to do Brock,” I said, ignoring him.

He was still squatting beside me and I could feel his breath along my arm. He shifted and took a long look up my body. The hand that held mine twisted around effortlessly and slid around my wrist. He lifted it up and held it for a moment, then placed it beside my face on the couch.

His other hand came up and I felt his fingers graze over the line of my jaw. I jerked in reaction and moved my face away.

“Andi, how old are you?” he asked, as his fingers found my jaw again and started skating along the edge.

“Twenty-five, just like my license says,” I lied. “I’m sure you found it.”

He stopped touching my jaw but his hand moved to gently hold my throat. His thumb skimmed up and down on my windpipe while his fingers wrapped around the back of my neck. His other hand still held my wrist in place, his fingers pressing into the underside of it.

“Bullshit. I’ve known twenty-five-year-old women. You look like you’re nineteen, if that.”

I shook my head. “Nope. Twenty-five. I use a combination of daily moisturizer and night cream. Plus, I always make sure to use something extra under my eyes. Prevents bags and wrinkling. Which is another reason why I need to go home. I forgot to put some on after I showered.”

I was twenty-two but only Drew and I knew that. When I had paid for our new identities I had asked for three years to be added to my age so that I would look a little more hirable on paper to potential employers and look like I might be old enough to escort an eight-year old when we travelled.

It wasn’t too much of a stretch and people hadn’t questioned it on our journey across the country. Maybe looking at my face at the time had shut those questions down. A split lip and a bruise on my cheek should have raised a lot of questions at the time but no one had wanted to know the truth of it.

When we landed in Lakefield I had told people that Drew was my brother. The counterfeit papers I had paid for, included a legal custody document due to the death of my fake parents. On paper, we were legit.

His smooth jaw clenched. “Where did you go to high school at?”

I swallowed. “We were abroad. Homeschool.”

“On a teacher and mechanic’s income?’

I blinked. “Hmm?”

“Your parents. Teacher and mechanic or is that something you’ve forgotten in your twenty-five-year-old brain? I take it you weren’t close.”

My eyes flashed at him, then looked away. “I didn’t like my parents.”

“Hmm, well that’s one honest answer. Want to tell me another one?”

“Drew and I inherited some money from my uncle Stan and we went to school in England on an exchange program. That was after some homeschooling.”

“That was a lie.”

I glared at him. “You don’t know anything!”

“I know that you aren’t telling me the truth! That’s the least convincing lie I’ve ever heard and it doesn’t make sense. I also know you can’t look me in the eye when you tell it.”

I stared straight into his green eyes. “I’m twenty- five. How old are you? Ninety?”

He narrowed his eyes at me. “You’re avoiding the other questions. I’m thirty-three.”

“Gawd, you’re on death’s door. I’m not avoiding the questions. I just told you all about my life.”

He pursed his lips and looked annoyed. “The key to any good lie is details Andi. If you’re going to tell one then you should develop a backstory that sounds legitimate with the finer points. For instance, if you want to say you went abroad, you should say something like, you enjoyed the countryside and lived in a quaint town on the outskirts of London. You were very happy there, living with an old relative in a farmhouse that afforded you some nice country air and long walks down country lanes.”

I sighed and rolled my eyes but kept my mouth shut.

“Besides, your pulse spikes every time you lie and your throat constricts just slightly.”

I looked over at my wrist and realized he had his fingers dug into my vein.

My other hand came up and pushed at his chest feebly.

“Let me go.”

“No. Are you a runaway?”

I felt like telling him I wasn’t exactly a runaway. Just a brother kidnapper trying to forget my past and build a life without worrying about my parents or their associates. I was kind of a runaway in a sense just not the way he thought.

It would be nice to tell someone the truth for once. To have it all out with just one person, because it was a lonely life when you had to become someone else.

But I couldn’t.

“Drew and I are here because we’re family and my parents are gone. I’m building a life for us and we’re happy.”

“You deflect well. Are you in some kind of trouble?” he asked, frowning down at me.

I looked up at him and clenched my jaw, trying not to lose it. I needed him to stop asking questions. It was too much and I didn’t like to lie to him or anyone else. It’s just that no one else seemed to care about the little details so I hadn’t had to lie this much to one person.

“Please stop,” I pleaded. “I can’t do this.”

“Do you know how many secrets I keep, Andi? Thousands and thousands. If you’re in trouble, let me help. Just tell me the truth. I don’t want to have to dig. Not with you. But you’re making me chase down all these little things that don’t make sense and you’re lying to me. Don’t lie to me. I promise I’ll help.”

Although I held it together enough not to let out a sob of frustration, I felt a warm tear slide down my cheek. I needed him to stop asking.

He loosened his grip on my neck and bent forward to kiss the tear. My eyes widened and another tear slid out. Again, he kissed it.

“Tell me one truth and I’ll give you something,” he whispered. “You can stay here and I won’t ask any more questions for now.”

I sucked in a breath as his lips moved to my ear. My eyes closed when I felt his hot breath against my neck. He hadn’t let go of my wrist yet. He didn’t trust me to tell him the truth which was definitely the right instinct on his part. Had he not been holding my wrist I would have told him anything.

His lips hit the spot right beside my ear that I liked so much and my back arched slightly.

“Tell me, Andi.”

“What do you want to know?” I whispered.

“Anything. Everything.”

“I had a horse when I was growing up. Her name was Charlotte. She was a nice chestnut color and I learned to ride her when I was ten. My parents let me take riding lessons so I spent a lot of time with her. Drew was born and sometimes our nanny would bring him along to my practice. I remember that he squealed once when I was coming around in a trot beside the fence and it made me laugh. So, all I did that day was ride around several times trying to make him squeal again.”

He leaned back and blinked at me while frowning. “That’s a true story. You had a nanny?”

I nodded. “You asked for one true thing and that story was honest.”

“Sounds like a happy memory for you.”

I gave him a bitter smile remembering the first twelve years of my life. It was one of many happy memories back then.

“Drew was and still is my world. He was born and he was just so perfect. Little hands and feet. He always liked to be held. Our nanny had been with us for a while at that point. She was good with him and I enjoyed her company. We used to take Drew out with us walking, to the playground and just about every place we went. He was always a good kid even when he got older.”

Brock kissed the side of my face. “You sound like a parent when they talk about their kids.”

I shrugged. “He’s my brother but I would do anything to take care of him. I guess I do sound like a parent but I just want him to have a happy life.”

Unlike the one I had in my past. One where someone you loved didn’t hit you or yell at you because you simply existed and weren’t living up to what they expected.

I ran over the memories in my mind of protecting him. Confessing to things he had made a mess of just to protect him. Spilled cereal on the carpet, a crayon left on the sidewalk.

I had known eventually that my parents would turn their wrath on him after I left for college. Which was why I had purposely failed some placement tests in school. I had planned on going to a local college and checking in frequently if not living at home for a while to keep an eye on things.

Love was a funny thing. Sometimes you sacrificed everything for it. Gave everything you could give to the point of emptying yourself so that the object of your love could know happiness. That was Drew for me. I would do anything for him, unconditionally. I didn’t know if that was a healthy thing or not but he meant that much to me. Maybe he really was like my kid in some ways.

Brock cleared his throat. “You went away there for a minute. Lost in thought. What were you thinking about?”

I shook my head. “Nothing much. I was wondering if the hairdresser has some of that brush in dye that men use. You’re getting grey hair around your temples old man.”

Brock gave me a sideways glace. “Right. I’m not that old yet, thank you.”

I gave him a sympathetic look. “It’s okay to be your age. Just use joint medication and consider your retirement planning.”

He laughed. “You’re a brat.”

I gave him a wide grin.

His eyes drifted to my mouth and I licked my bottom lip.

Without hesitating he leaned in and ran his tongue lightly against my lip then pressed his full lips against me. He sucked at my bottom lip, his tongue seeking entrance to my mouth.

My eyes started to close when he jerked back and gave me an alarmed look.

“If Drew was a baby then that would make you twenty?”

Shit. I shouldn’t have told him my age.

His fingers pressed into my wrist again.

I rolled my eyes and looked at him again. “Twenty-two.”

“Fuck,” he muttered. “You’re a baby. What the hell am I doing?”

He let go of my wrist and ran a hand down his face.

“How the hell—,” he started to say, then shook his head. He opened his mouth to say something several times then stopped. Then growled and tried to say something again.

I watched several emotions place across his face until he finally stopped whatever train of thought was on his mind and stared down at me.

He ran his hand down my jaw and moved some hair away from my face.

“Okay,” he nodded and let out a huge breath. “I’m going to make us something to eat for lunch. Then we can talk about what I would like you to help me with. I feel like I should be giving you some milk and letting you watch cartoons or something. Jesus.”

I don’t know what possessed me in that moment. Maybe my brain was still on Brock kissing overload. He had felt so good. Perhaps it was inexperience with men, but in the back of my mind I didn’t think a kiss was going too far with him.

I lifted my hand to his face and he stiffened. His jaw was smooth against my fingertips.

“I’m not a child. Drew doesn’t even watch cartoons anymore. I grew up a long time ago.”

A look of concern came over his face. “What does that mean?”

I just shook my head but didn’t answer.

“Andi—”

I lifted up and kissed him, pressing my lips against his mouth. After a moment, he cupped the back of my head with his hand and took over. He growled and swept his tongue against me.

I opened my mouth to him and he dove in. Licking and sucking at me.

His lips were wet against mine and I mimicked him by sucking at his bottom lip. He tilted his head and almost violently started to possess my mouth.

My body started tingling and coming alive from it.

He growled again and pulled back suddenly.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” he said and stood up. “Andi, you’re going to drive me insane.”

Adjusting himself, he stalked off toward one of the hallways with a hand rubbing the back of his neck and muttering the entire way.

I frowned after him and watched his ass. He filled out a pair of jeans like he was built for sex. I was just trying to distract him more than anything. The fact that he was a good kisser was a bonus.

I smacked my forehead. “Ugh. What am I doing?”

He momentarily distracted me from getting out of this stupid place. I needed him to lose interest not gain interest with kissing. Maybe the split in age would work to my advantage and he would be so turned off by it that he would stop with the questions and the digging. Maybe he would leave me alone.

That kiss though. Wow. Mind blowing and now I had this awful restless energy deep in my belly. It was his fault that I couldn’t concentrate.

“Focus on the objective. Not his lips, butt or body. Pretend he doesn’t have any of those,” I whispered to myself.

An image of him kissing me beside my ear passed through my head and I let out a loud huff. Clearly trying to convince my hormones that he needed to be left alone wasn’t working.

Brock walked back in, eyeing me cautiously. He looked more composed and came over with the remote to the TV, a folder and several books in hand. He placed them neatly beside me and gave me a heated look.

I bat my eyes at him and gave him a smile. “Thanks, you make an excellent servant. Can I have peeled grapes next?”

“Stuff to do,” he growled. “Read over what’s in the folder and we’ll talk about it.”

He walked toward the kitchen before I could reply.

I moved my ankle around a little. It was getting numb from the cold. The bag slipped off and I caught it before it hit the floor. Placing it gently on the ground I swung up into a sitting position and continued to flex my ankle. It felt a lot better.

Opening the folder, I found several sheets with names and pictures inside. The job titles were ranging but they all worked for his tech company.

I heard Brock in the kitchen moving around and making some phone calls. I was nearly done when he came back in and stood looking down at me with a frown.

Glancing up at him questioningly, I asked, “Are you mad at me? I was just joking about the grey hair.”

He shook his head and sighed, “No, just practicing some patience. Find anything?”

“Uhm, no, there aren’t very many people listed in the folder and their job descriptions are a little confusing but I think I got it. What do you need?”

He came over and took the file from my hands, placing it on the couch. Then he swept me up into his arms. My hands flew to his neck as he started carrying me to the dining room.

When we entered I noticed that one whole wall of the room was made of glass and there was a door leading out to a small square pool. It had two lounge chairs beside it and looked out over the country that surrounded the hotel.

He set me down at the table and left, then returned with a chicken salad, various fruits and a cheese plate. He left and returned with some bread and his own plate. Then did the same again and brought back two glasses of wine.

Offering to tip him for the service would probably go one of two ways. Sexual suggestions or irritation. I decided not to press my luck but I couldn’t help but smirk.

“Thank you, this looks great,” I smiled at him.

He nodded and began to eat. I did the same and stared through the window to the solitary pool as I chewed.

“Does it feel like a date?” he said and my eyes swung to him.

“No, definitely not a date.”

“Sure you don’t want to skip all this and just go on one?” he smirked.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Positive. Why do you keep asking?”

He looked like he wanted to say something important then changed his mind and asked, “How is the food?”

“Brock? Why the date question? I thought we determined that I was too young for you.”

He took a bite of his salad and gave me a funny blank stare that I imagine he thought looked innocent but just made him look like he was up to something.

“Food?” he smiled.

I huffed and rolled my eyes. Dragging answers out of him wasn’t what I wanted to right at this moment. He complained about my attempts at diverting answers and it looked like he was just as bad.

“Uhm good. So, what did you want to talk about?”

“Right, so I need you to help me find out who the mole is in my company. They stole some data and in turn we saw some stocks of one of the Latimer businesses fluctuate. You know he owns several and if one has a problem then it might spell trouble for others. It’s happened a couple of times so I started trying to figure it out and stumbled onto some transmissions between our firm and a competitor. Are you familiar with Colton Blackwell?”

I shook my head.

“He’s also an entrepreneur looking to make a big name for himself with the same types of businesses. He’s into anything from real estate to restaurants to electronics. Pretty diverse like Aiden. Simply put, we think that someone in our company gave some data to one of his and it cost Aiden some money. Their business profited.”

“Okay. I think I understand,” I said and took a bite of some cheese. It all sounded fairly complicated to me and not simple at all. Data, transmissions. I was basically getting that someone stole something at the tech firm Brock worked at and gave it to someone else.

He sighed. “I need you to come to the party tonight and just listen. Mingle. People will be drinking a little and I’m hoping someone will slip up and say something. Look for anything that sounds like negativity toward the company or Aiden. Nothing big.”

“Why would I be there precisely? Housekeepers aren’t exactly needed at those functions.”

“You’re not going as a housekeeper. You’ll be going as a personal assistant.”

“To whom?” I asked.

“To me. I thought about taking you as my girlfriend but they may not buy that.”

I laughed. “Yeah, given your reputation for being a lady’s man I suspect they wouldn’t. Mr. Flirtatious with a girlfriend. That would be funny.”

“Andi, we’re going to talk about that but just not right now. I need to go make some calls and have a dress delivered for you. Can you write down your sizes for me?”

I nodded.

He got up, left for a few minutes, then came back with a small notepad and pen. He slid them across the table to me.

I did as he asked and slid it back to him.

“Good, I’ll have on of Aiden’s assistant pick everything up and have it delivered. The party starts at eight. I’ll call the salon downstairs and have them send someone up for you rather than having you limp your way down to them.”

“Okay, but that’s hours away, what am I supposed to do in the meantime?”

He slid a phone across the table. “Make calls, relax. All your numbers are downloaded to that phone now. You can give it back later.”

“How did you even do that? I have a phone in the apartment Brock.”

“Don’t ask. Just take it. If I remember, I’ll bring your phone back with me. I need to go do some things for a few hours. I’m not sure spending time with you right now is a good idea.”

“Why?” I asked, and took another bite of my salad.

He clenched his jaw. “It’s hard to explain. I want to take you to the bedroom right now and fuck you but I can’t.”

I set my fork on my plate and rolled my eyes. “Well, I don’t want to have sex with you. So, we might as well just stay away from each other. I’ll help you tonight and then I’ll stay clear of you if you’ll do the same for me.”

He looked at me like I was crazy. “I’ll do no such thing. We’re going to be seeing a lot of each other from now on. I just can’t carry you off to the bedroom right now because I need my head clear on the rest of this shit and you are a major distraction. That said, I’m having a clear vision of what you might look like on my bed right now, very hot, naked and wanting.”

My lip poked out for a minute while I thought about that.

More of the kinky talk. I wouldn’t have guessed it at all from him.

He was either supremely confident or just extremely controlling. I needed to get back to work at some point and I wasn’t planning on becoming his pet while he wanted to play.

Eventually he would leave. Or Drew and I would. Which reminded me to look up the directions to his camp. If I needed to, I would go grab him and we would get out of here.

“Anything else you need right now?” he asked.

I shook my head. “No.”

Besides a plan? No.