“Nope.” I shake my head. “I’m a classic doughnut girl and you would never catch me dead eating a Krispy Kreme. There’s a coffee place on Charlotte Street, small, blink and you’ll miss it, that has the best glazed doughnuts of life. You need to go there.”
“What’s it called?” he asks.
“IX.” At his frown, I explain, “The name is weird, I know. It represents the fact it’s the owner’s ninth business. Look for red stripes. Actually, it’s next to a 24-hour gym that’s huge, so just look for that. And if you don’t bring me back a pack of four doughnuts, we will be having words. Oh, and a cappuccino too. Dan makes the best.” I grab some cash from my bag and hand it over. “Thank you.”
Colt takes the cash. “Got it. Four glazed doughnuts and a cappuccino or else my balls are in danger.”
I look at Zane and jab my finger in Colt’s direction. “Finally, you’re working with a guy who understands me.”
Zane doesn’t crack a smile. Not that I ever expect him to. My brother’s best friend’s face barely sees a smile. “How about a little less fucking around and a whole lot more working?”
I roll my eyes. “Tell me again why I took this job.”
He doesn’t bother to answer me. Zane’s not one for small talk. Instead, he pulls out his phone and checks something before glancing back at me. “Liam and I have to head out to take care of something. Hopefully, it won’t take hours.”
I wave my hands at him, shooing him out. “I don’t need you guys for what I’m doing. I’ll let you know when I’ve got shit fixed.”
Liam meets my gaze. “Call Mum. She’s been waiting to hear from you.”
“Ugh. Brothers. Who’d have them?” I mutter before nodding to let him know I’ll do it. I mean, of course I’ll call her. I don’t need him telling me to, but that’s Liam. Always running interference between Mum and me. She and I love each other like crazy, but we also frustrate each other in the same way. We really do need Liam at times, but honestly, I could do with a little less of him taking charge.
I watch the three of them exit the room, my thoughts briefly turning to Zane, Liam, and me, and all the years we’ve been bugging each other. Liam and Zane met in grade eight. They were thirteen; I was six. It’s been twenty-two years of us annoying and loving each other. Zane is family to me and that’s the real reason I took this job. Sure, I need the cash, but I can take my pick of jobs with the skills I have. I said yes to Zane because I never say no when he needs me. And from everything I’ve seen, he really needs me this time.
3
Colt
Echo was right. These doughnuts from her mate Dan are the best I’ve ever had.
I arrived back at Zane’s HQ five minutes ago and found Echo zoned in on her work at her laptop, almost oblivious to the fact I was back. She was that engrossed in what she was doing that I wasn’t sure she’d even heard me enter the room. It was when she lifted her arm and motioned for me to come closer that I knew she was aware of my presence. When I moved to her, she finally looked at me and proceeded to take charge of the doughnuts, bossing me into eating mine then and there.
“No one needs to wait a second longer to get one of these bad boys in their mouth,” she’d said with the kind of smile I don’t often receive from a woman. I’m used to flirty, sexy smiles. This one from Echo was pure joy and anticipation. She really fucking likes these doughnuts.
I’m halfway through mine when her phone rings.
“Sorry, I have to get this,” she says before placing the phone to her ear and saying, “I tried to call you—”
Her mouth snaps shut as she’s cut off, and after listening for a moment, she says, “You know I really don’t need to know that, Mum. It—”
Cut off again, she makes wide eyes as she listens to her mother.
I finish my doughnut and pull up a chair.
“Right,” Echo says, “I’ve got it: you’ve been thoroughly fucked and now you’re treating yourself to a spa and some champers. I mean, I would have thought you already treated yourself with the two orgasms, but what do I know?” She turns silent for a moment before pulling a face and waving her hand in front of her while scrunching her eyes closed and saying, “Mum! Stop! No one needs to know all the ways your man used his tongue down there. Seriously—” Her mother takes over the conversation again, but only for a moment before Echo says, “You know I’m not a prude. I’m just a daughter who doesn’t need a blow-by-blow of her mother’s sex life.” With that, she shoves a huge bite of doughnut in her mouth like it’s the saviour she needs.
I fight a chuckle.
This reminds me of the conversations I have with my aunt. She likes to share details that are none of my fucking business, and as much as I tell her that, she blows me off and continues gifting me information I wish I could erase from my memory.
Echo listens to her mother for a few moments before saying, “I’ll probably be working all night, so it’ll be tomorrow afternoon before I come over. You should cook me Red Lentil Dahl for dinner. And you should cook enough so I can take leftovers home.” Her mother says something and then Echo says, “Okay, I’ve gotta get back to work now. I’ll text you tomorrow to let you know what time I’ll be there.”
With an ‘I love you’, Echo ends the call, drops her phone on the desk and looks at me. “Holy hell, I love that woman, but she insists on inappropriate sharing of far too many things. Is your mother like that?”
“No, she wasn’t, but her sister is.”
Echo narrows her eyes at me. Fucking gorgeous hazel eyes. “When you say wasn’t, you no longer have your mum?”
“My parents passed away ten years ago.” I tack on “in a plane crash” because that’s the answer to the next question most people ask me.
Echo leans back against her chair and pulls her legs up onto the seat to cross them. I don’t try to hide the fact my gaze is magnetised to those legs. Because it fucking is and I’m helpless to stop it. Also, the vibe I’m picking up is that she likes my eyes on her. “You were young then. How old are you now? Thirty what?”
She’s direct, which I’m down with. Beating around the bush frustrates the fuck out of me. “Thirty- two.”
A flash of something crosses her eyes. Sadness, maybe. “I can’t imagine living without my mother, let alone doing that from the age of twenty- two.”
I nod. Losing Mum and Dad at that age and then being responsible for my younger sister was a hard fucking time in my life. Not the hardest, but definitely the kind of carnage I never want to experience again. Jerking my chin at Echo, I say, “You sound like you’re close to your mum.”
She reaches for the box of doughnuts, eyes remaining on me. “Yes, way closer than I should be.” She lifts her second doughnut to her mouth, and as her teeth sink into it, she moans.
The sound reaches my dick, and since I haven’t seen any action in weeks, and since Echo is the sexiest woman I’ve ever met, I’m fucking into that sound.