CHAPTER 32
JOE
I threw open the front doors of Weird and Wired—feeling like a sheriff walking into a dirty saloon in the middle of an old western movie. I was irate. I was terrified. I was ready to crucify Doug if need be.
People gasped at my entrance.
I had a little notoriety in the coffee world. I’d been approached on a few different occasions by employees from other companies—including this one—to leave my barista job and come work as a barista for them. And I guess a few of these people recognized me.
But I was loyal, so fucking loyal, to Java Beans. To Lana. If Doug hurt her in any capacity, I’d probably go to jail tonight. Maybe I’d let him manipulate me, but I would not let him do the same to my woman. Not ever.
Kitty laughed from behind me at the genuine fear of those around me. But none of this was funny. I was about to start yelling at people, standing on another chair—eh . . . stump—if need be, until they told me where I could find Doug.
I hadn’t needed to consult the phone Doug left behind with Kitty. Because there was one small detail Kitty knew that I didn’t know. When she’d met Doug yesterday, he’d told her flat out he’d bought Weird and Wired. And the moment Kitty told me that, I knew I’d find him and Lana here. I knew Doug’s style. His tactics. His way of using someone’s weakness to manipulate them. For me, my weakness was Kitty and the protectiveness I had for her. But for Lana, a woman without a weakness, it was Weird and Wired. She liked their coffee more than her own. Of course, Doug would see that and try to use that against her.
But luckily, I didn’t have to go crazy on the innocent bystanders of this room, subjecting them to a lecture like the lecture I’d given the employees of Java Beans. Because a minute later there was Lana, across the room, her pretty blond hair and signature white-tailored suit hard to miss, hard to ignore.
Our eyes connected and she hurried toward me, landing in my arms. Whatever Doug had been telling her today, it had left her a little emotional. There were tears in her eyes as she pressed her lips to mine, and whispered, “We need to go. Now.”
“I need to talk to Doug.”
“No, you don’t. I said everything I needed to say to him. It’s over.” She tugged on my arm. She was fierce when she wanted to be, controlled in every other moment, and mostly, so damn hard to resist.
I brushed a thumb under each of her eyes, swiping away the tears. “What if it isn’t over?”
“Doesn’t matter.” She stood on her toes to whisper in my ear, “I need you right now. At home. In bed.” She pulled back to gauge my reaction, her eyes so intense as they stared into mine, so needy, so vulnerable. Her chest rose and fell, and another big, fat tear slipped down her cheek.
“Anything,” I complied.
I’d never once seen her get emotional like this. Whatever she needed, I’d give it to her. Now before I started to get emotional too. I felt something swell in my chest just at the sight of her tears.
“Well, I’m not done talking to Doug,” Kitty announced, about to cause more drama than need be. I caught her arm as she tried to storm past me in the direction Lana had just come from. “Let me go, Joe. You two fools think a man like Doug can just drop something. He can’t. He won’t.”
“Let it be, Kitty. For now, let it be.”
She wasn’t happy, but she listened to me. With a huff, she turned in the opposite direction and left. I held Lana’s hand tight, leading her out of the Weird and Wired office. Right this moment I felt weird and wired myself. I was so curious as to what was running through Lana’s mind, where her sudden need to get home and in my bed had come from. She was watching me intently, her eyes hungry—almost desperate—as we stepped onto the elevator with Kitty.
My sister was with us—it wasn’t like I could act on anything. But I squeezed Lana’s ass as she leaned into me, trying to let her know she was all mine if she could only wait until we made it home.
Kitty mumbled under her breath, oblivious to us. Angrier than she needed to be, especially given this had little to do with her. When we stepped outside again, into the light of the day, she immediately had her phone out—no, Doug’s phone out—texting someone.
“What are you doing using that phone?” I demanded, about to try to snatch it from her.
“It’s a perfectly good phone.”
“So?”
“So I moved the files, had Larry wipe it clean, and then I called the phone company this morning and had my number transferred onto it. No big deal. Anyway, I’m going to Larry’s. I need to relax.”
And by ‘relax,’ she meant she needed to get fucked-up.
“Kitty,” I groaned, still holding Lana’s hand tightly, a little torn at the moment between the two women in my life who needed me.
“Don’t Kitty me. I’m a big girl. I know what I’m doing.” She gave me a quick hug. “I’ll be safe. I’m fine.”
What more could I say to her? She was an adult. I had to trust that she’d make smart, safe choices. Larry seemed okay enough, trustworthyenough. “Can I take the car? Lana can drive you home, right?”
Lana nodded.
“Fine, you can take it,” I added. “Lana and I are going to the same place anyway.”
“Of course you are.”
Kitty left us, and I felt uneasy as she went. Being her brother was a full-time job, one I didn’t have a clue if I was doing right. I exhaled deeply, squinting up at the sun.
“You’re doing the best you can,” Lana commented, softly tracing two fingers up and down my forearm, over one of my tattoos.
“I feel like I’m more of a father than her brother.”
“You’ll make a great father one day.”
My eyes narrowed, and I looked down at her. Mulling over that smartass comment. “Will I now?”
Her cheeks turned a pretty pink shade.
Maybe she hadn’t said it sarcastically. Maybe she’d meant it. Was it a thought she’d had about me before? I wasn’t sure if I’d make a good father. But right this moment, I wouldn’t mind putting a baby in her. Or at least getting in a few rounds of practice for something in a very distant future.
“Come on, take me home. That’s a conversation for a different day,” I whispered.
Feeding off her energy, the lust that seemed to be radiating off her skin in waves, she led me to where she’d parked her car in a garage across the street.
I hadn’t been in her car before. It was a white Mercedes. It screamed Lana. Inside, I settled into the driver’s seat, playing with the clutch for a moment. I knew how to drive a manual, just not well. I stalled out once before falling into a groove as I sped down the street—a street I knew because of the bus route I normally used—heading toward my home.
The sun was sinking in the sky, and I should have been exhausted or at least hungry. But I was neither. Only fighting the bulge in my pants, the increase in blood flow that kept wanting to surge south, the thumping of my heart, and the thoughts in my head that were spinning out of control.
“What did Doug say to you?” I need to know. I needed to know what had made her emotional.
“He wanted to trade companies. I told him no.”
“Is that all?”
“Um.” She rubbed her hands over her knees as we came to a stop at a traffic light. “He said . . .” she paused, “never mind, it was dumb.”
“No, tell me.”
“I’m embarrassed.”
“Don’t be.
“I’m not sure why I’m letting it get to me.” Her voice grew coarse, heavy with emotion once more. “He just pointed out something I already knew about myself.”
“Which was?”
“I’m boring.”
I chuckled but stopped immediately when I realized she was serious.
“I’m predictable. I’m safe. Part of me wanted to trade companies with Doug today. But did I do it? No. And it wasn’t because it was Doug asking, but because I’ve never taken a risk like that in my life. And you—” She tugged at the edge of her skirt, looking down at her lap. “You’re . . .. I’m so attracted to your ability to take risks. It’s so damn sexy. You’re fearless. You take chances and you take leaps and you don’t care who cares. Kitty called me out on it that day at the restaurant, and she was exactly right.”
“But I like that you’re safe.”
“You do?”
“Yeah. I need safety. I need that balance, that person to keep me grounded and focused when my mind wants to run crazy. You’re that person. This thing we have going on, that we’ve started, it really is a perfect balance. I’ll be your risk, and you can be my safety.”
My heart was thumping. Yet, someone behind me blew their horn, as the light had changed, and we hadn’t moved.
“Alright already,” I said, grinding the clutch into gear, nearly stalling out again, before I got the car to move.
I blew out a breath.
“And there is nothing boring about you. You make car rides, five-hour plane rides, and waiting in long ass lines like the one for the Rockefeller Center tolerable. Come here.”
I really needed her next to me even though I was struggling to drive the final blocks to my house. Leaning over the middle console, she settled in against my side.
I kissed her forehead.
But she had to move when I needed to shift gears again.
Damn, I was so done. So deeply in love. I needed to tell her that, officially this time, but not until we made it back to my house.
By the time we reached the house, Lana was close to tears again—this time because she was laughing at my crap driving skills. I finally stalled out in the driveway. “I’ll give you lessons,” she promised. “Have you ever driven stick before?”
Only once and it had been in a parking lot with a friend of mine from college. “Get over here,” I told her, gripping her waist, pulling her into my lap. “I’ll show you how to drive stick, woman.”
I had her skirt hitched up and her top off at record speed. But I wasn’t looking for a quick fuck in her car. Not when my bed was just inside the house. So we left the car and I carried her upstairs. I fumbled through the hallway, making it to my room, bringing her inside, dropping her on top of my unmade bed.
She was right where she belonged.
I stripped off my clothes, not bothering to be slow about it. I stroked my hand up and down my already hard and desperate cock, taking in how perfect she looked tangled in my sheets.
My heart was swelling. I needed to tell her. But instead, I dropped to my knees. I yanked her body to the edge of bed, pushing up her skirt. Slipping her panties to the side, I buried my face between her legs. I breathed in deeply, getting lost in her sweet, feminine scent, then I got to work, making her come in a whole new way.