WALLOPING THE HANGING BAG WITH a thunderous kick of his leg, Calder watched Alex steady himself against the heavy jolt and smirked. Serves the fucker right, he thought.
“You’re making me regret coming here to help you out while you moon all over that lady of yours.”
“Oh, fuck you!” Alex laughed. “You love running the Justice show and you know it. By the way, I noticed you reconfigured one of my robotics programs. It’ll take me days to follow whatever abstract thread was running in that brain of yours. Nice touch, Unc.”
Calder shot his nephew a smug grin while wishing he could add a well-placed finger flip, but the gloves he had on prevented that.
Stopping, he grabbed onto the bag along with Alex and enjoyed the moment. It was true that he relished the idea of taking over the Justice tech cave while his nephew rightly focused on other things. After all, he’d been Alex’s mentor from an early age, guiding him along, instilling a love for discovering how things worked and using those talents and skills to broaden his understanding of technology.
“Alright, alright,” he growled. “Because you asked and because I like that curvy woman running your life at the moment, I’m gonna make an effort to be pleasant to Tori’s mother. Just don’t expect too much, okay? And this better not be some sort of matchmaking bullshit on your part, Alex. I swear, I’ll fuck with your systems so hard that it’ll take you years to follow the breadcrumbs and figure it out.”
Alex chortled while Calder removed his gloves. “Matchmaking? Me? Yeah, right! I wouldn’t do that to Stephanie. Already told you, man—I like the lady. Last thing she needs is some aging surfer dude with his head up his ass and a huge computer chip on his shoulder.”
They both laughed at the sly reference, but Calder didn’t miss the point Alex was making. He did have a chip on his shoulder. A big one. Especially when it came to the vapid, mirror watchers he had such disdain for. Babysitting some past-her-prime beauty queen was just this side of asking too much of him, but what choice did he have? He was in Arizona specifically to make his nephew’s life easier.
A sound behind him and Alex’s quick glance in that direction caught his attention, making him swing his head over his shoulder to see what was going on. Holy crap. Who the fuck was this?
Calder was pretty sure he’d met everyone currently in residence at the compound. But the vision in a skintight tank top and cropped workout pants that molded to a figure screaming, ‘watch out boys—here I come’ was new. And flat-out the sexiest thing he could ever remember seeing.
The light streaming in from behind her obscured the details of her face, so he focused on everything else—from the ponytail swinging high on her head to an exposed neck that called to him and had him licking his lips in response. He could just make out the tilt of her chin that suggested she was used to being ogled by the opposite sex, but that sure as shit didn’t stop his visual inspection at all.
She was standing with hands upon her waist, legs planted in a determined stance, and calves visible beneath the end of her stretch pants. Calder was a leg man. Nothing got him fired up quicker than a delectable set of stems. Eyes drifting downward, he noted delicate ankles atop a pair of sneakers that looked like they’d seen their fair share of use.
Oh, yeah. And then there were her boobs. The tank top left little to the imagination, low enough in front to show a healthy amount of cleavage, and tight enough to make him painfully aware of how perfectly her tits would fit his big hands. Jesus. He was getting hard just looking at her, and he didn’t even know who she was.
He heard Alex mutter, “Oh shit,” as he stepped away from the punching bag and scurried in the woman’s direction.
“G’morning, Stephanie. This is a surprise,” his nephew muttered as he leaned in and kissed the woman on the cheek.
No way, Calder’s mind screamed. No fucking way that this vision in skintight workout gear was the aging beauty queen he’d been imagining. Fuuuuuck. Not good. Not good at all.
“Come for a workout, have you?” he heard Alex ask.
For the briefest moment, the woman said nothing, and Calder had the distinct impression she was subjecting him to the same, slow appraisal he’d just thrown at her. Oh, my God, he marveled silently. Had he really just sucked in his gut? What in the fucking fuck?
Alex and the woman began walking in his direction, and he heard her slight chuckle. “Damn Carmen and that irresistible pan dulce she tempted me with.”
As they moved closer and he caught sight of her face, Calder swore his brain began melting into his socks. Not only that, his sex was stirring, too. Fuck my life, he thought. Now was so not the time to sport an erection, especially not after he spied Alex’s dark scowl. Right. He was expected to play nice.
“Stephanie, come and meet my uncle. Ignore the stupefied expression on his face. They just let him out of the asylum, and you’re the first female he’s encountered,” Alex joked, clearly trying to lighten the odd vibe in the room.
Not even his nephew’s attempt to crack a joke shook Calder from the spot where his feet seemed glued. Why in the hell was it that when women walked, they had to do that seductive hip roll thing that robbed a man’s brain of speech? His thoughts scattered with each step she took while the expression on her face suggested she thought he was a dirty old man for the way he was leering at her.
Stopping just a few paces shy of invading his personal space, Alex performed the expected introduction while he and the beauty queen eyed each other.
“Um, Stephanie Bennett—this is my uncle, Calder Dane.”
Calder flinched when her hand shot out to shake his.
“Calder, this is Tori’s mother, Stephanie. She’ll be staying with the St. John’s until the baby comes.”
Trying to reel in his stupefied reaction, Calder failed miserably when he got a close-up of the woman’s face. If this lady was anywhere near his age, she definitely had the last laugh because she in no way appeared old enough to be approaching grandmother territory. In a nutshell, she was a classic beauty—big brown eyes that resembled melted chocolate stared up at him above a cute nose and a pair of pouty lips that should be declared illegal. It was easy to see where Tori had come by her good looks. That was one apple that hadn’t fallen far from the tree.
Remembering his manners, he reached out to take the hand she offered and nearly fell to his knees when he felt her soft, dainty hand slide into his bigger, stronger one. Something that felt like a low-grade electrical current tingled at his wrist then slowly snaked up his arm, exploding in a torrent of sparks at his shoulder and shot into his neck. Holy mother of God. What in the hell was that?
When she spoke, he had to control the urge to cover her mouth with his and inhale her words. He would bet she tasted divine.
Quickly biting then releasing the center of her bottom lip, she purred, “Calder. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
Uh, was he supposed to respond? Alex’s puzzled expression suggested that was exactly what he was supposed to do. Okay. He could do this. English. Speak the English, his head screamed. She’s going to think I’m some sort of dolt if I don’t say something.
Clearing his throat, Calder willed the sparks shooting into his neck to calm the fuck down.
“Um, Stephanie.” Fuck. Was that him with the husky, smoky voice? Did he always sound like this? “The pleasure is all mine,” he babbled, unable to stop the pained wince on his face when his eyes shut and he shook his head from how fucking stupid that sounded.
They just stood there staring at each other, her hand still clasped in his, silence bouncing off every nook and cranny of the workout room while fireworks shot from his head.
Finally, Alex spoke up to break the spell, forcing Calder to reluctantly release her hand.
“We were just about to clear out, Stephanie, so you’ve got the room to yourself.”
She blinked those amazing chocolate eyes a couple of times as she ran her hand along her thigh. Shit. He hoped it wasn’t because his grip had been cold and clammy.
“Thanks, Major. I’m just going to jump on the elliptical for a while and work up a good sweat.” Turning her gaze back on him, she murmured, “Nice to meet you, Calder,” and then scurried off like she was running for her life.
It in no way helped his frame of mind when his eyes locked on her ass. The woman was a devil in disguise—all rounded and perfect and so mouthwateringly feminine as to make him wonder if he’d ever met another woman quite like her before.
When she was out of earshot, Alex thumped him good between his shoulder blades and growled, “What the fuck, Unc? I said be nice, not act like a brain-dead teenager.”
Calder looked one more time at the back of Stephanie Bennett and then all but sprinted for the locker room with his perplexed nephew hot on his heels. Crumpling the gym towel in his hand, he threw it into a bin and stomped off toward the shower without acknowledging Alex’s presence.
By the time he settled beneath the spray of steamy water, he realized that he had no memory of removing his clothes. He glanced down quickly to make sure he wasn’t standing there in his sneakers as the shower poured over his skin. It wouldn’t have come as much of a surprise if he’d discovered the gym shorts, socks, and shoes still clinging to his drenched skin.
What in the hell had just come over me, he wondered. Just weeks away from turning fifty-two, he was hardly a stranger to a sudden burst of sexual attraction, that was for damn sure—but his reaction to someone he’d been predisposed to dislike on sight went way beyond that. In fact, so far beyond that he’d reacted like, well…like he didn’t know what.
Standing there as the water pounded, with his arms crossed in front of his chest, even his body language was off. And what the fuck with his dick, man? Did it have to be standing at attention? Shit. He was too old for this horny crap. Wasn’t he?
After a couple of minutes, Calder reluctantly washed off and hurried from the shower, even though he’d have gladly stood there for half the morning while he struggled to get his body under control. He was ever conscious of the drought conditions hammering the entire Southwest, so he made short work of it.
Wrapping a towel around his hips, he strode into the changing room to find Alex already dressed and sitting on a low bench, his iPhone in hand furiously tapping away. At his approach, he looked up and immediately smirked before letting out a belly laugh that almost shook the walls.
“Say even one thing, Alex, and I swear you’ll regret it.”
Watching his nephew try to choke down the laughter rubbed along Calder’s nerve endings like coarse sandpaper. Motherfucker. The damn towel did little to disguise the unfortunate erection he still carried, and at that moment, wiping the shit-eating grin off the younger man’s face was all he could concentrate on.
“Calling Uncle Lumberjack,” Alex hooted with glee. “Pallet of wood in aisle ten.”
“Shut the fuck up, man. This isn’t funny.”
“Oh, hell yeah, it is. From my point-of-view anyway,” Alex snickered.
Grumbling aloud as he pulled a t-shirt over his wet head, he griped, “Gonna change all your fucking passwords, you little shit. Then we’ll see who’s laughing.”
“Why, Uncle Calder,” Alex jeered. “What’s got your shorts in a twist, hmmmm?”
Glaring at his overly amused nephew, he bit out, “I swear to God if you run your mouth about this…”
“Too late,” Alex chuckled as he held up his cell phone. “I believe my fiancée is currently picking herself up off the floor after having fallen over laughing.”
That was it. “You have ten seconds to get the hell out of here or I’ll be using that grinning mug of yours for a target. Ten, nine, eight…”
Alex held up his hands in surrender and started backing away. “I’m beginning to think maybe there’s something in the damn water around here. It’s like the damn Love Boat these days.”
As he turned to dash out the door, Calder flicked the towel from around his hips, wadded it into a tight ball, and threw it at Alex’s head. It smacked him soundly, a second before he dashed to safety while his laughter split the air.
“KEEP BREATHING, JUST KEEP BREATHING,” Stephanie chanted as she pounded away on the elliptical until her thighs screamed from the intense effort and her arms burned. Huffing loudly, she pushed and pulled on the handlebars while keeping an eye on the touchscreen and willed her mind to remain focused on what she was doing.
Yeah, that worked about as well as a tea bag in a rainstorm when all she could think about was the wall of pumped up masculinity she’d stumbled upon. She’d always said that Alex Marquez was one serious piece of manly eye candy but holy cow, his uncle? That guy took eye candy to a whole new level. And then some.
Calder Dane. Calder Dane. Calder Dane, her mind recited in rhythm with her legs until she realized what she was doing. Oh, my God, really? No, no, no. Not good. Not good at all.
Switching into a slower cool down mode, she took a series of deep breaths and shook her head in disbelief. What in the heck was wrong with her that a piece of beefcake could shake her up so badly?
So, okay. Maybe ‘beefcake’ was the wrong term. Stunner. Dreamboat. Superstud. Hunk. Yeesh. Apparently, the list of synonyms was endless. Alex’s ‘uncle’ had rendered her tongue-tied and almost speechless. And as if the sight of his incredible physique wasn’t enough to get her juices flowing, when he’d taken her hand and stared down into her eyes, she’d come dangerously close to embarrassing herself with a good old-fashioned case of the lady vapors. Imagining being wrapped possessively in those muscular arms and being pressed against his outrageously broad chest lit up her brain at the same moment that a delicious tingling warmth from his touch had invaded her senses.
The guy was sex on two legs with a body to die for and a face that had probably gotten him a ton of pussy over his lifetime. He had the same shaggy hair of his nephew, only in a gorgeously burnished shade of blond that looked like a sandstorm mixed with coppery flecks, and a pair of steel blue eyes that seemed to pierce her soul. She’d almost giggled like a schoolgirl when his touch had sent shockwaves pulsing through her body.
He looked a lot like that guy from Lost. What was the character’s name? Oh yeah, right. Sawyer. Only Calder was older, with the sort of ageless masculinity that made women forget their names. Damn. Men who looked like that needed a warning label. He exuded a dangerously sexy energy that she was not normally attracted to.
What exactly did she even know about Calder Dane beside the fact that he was Alex’s uncle? Not a whole hell of a lot. She couldn’t recall exactly what the Major had said about him yesterday during the car ride from the airport except that he was staying in the casita behind the main house. And last night Draegyn and Tori had mentioned him almost in passing. Her daughter simply stated that he was some sort of computer genius who Alex was relying on to keep Justice running smoothly while Tori and he were occupied elsewhere. End of story.
Nowhere in that description had she heard the words ‘hot’ or ‘sexy’. Stopping the elliptical, she climbed off and swiped the gym towel across her face and down her neck where sweat had run into the cotton sports bra she had on. Grabbing for the water bottle she’d stuck in the machine’s holder, she ripped off the cap and downed half of it. Unfortunately, not even the icy cool water was enough to quench the fire burning in her overactive imagination, sparked by the seriously hot surprise she had in no way been prepared for.
Stephanie was reluctant to date. She just didn’t see the purpose in getting involved with someone, anyone. Convinced her best days were behind her in the romance department, she’d been content, although sometimes itchily so, to avoid emotional entanglements, preferring the occasional flirtation to anything more substantial. It had been years since she’d let any of those casual encounters become more than a make-out session. Sleeping around for the sake of sex just wasn’t her style any more than finding her undies dampened by a chance meeting with a smoldering pair of blue eyes and a set of pecs that begged to be licked.
She seriously hoped that what she was experiencing was just a surge of pre-menopausal hormones because there was no way she was up for anything else. She was in Arizona to help her daughter prepare for the birth of her first child. She was going to be a grandmother soon, goddammit. That was it. Zip. End of the line. Calder Dane was an unwelcome distraction, no matter how yummy he was.