That pissed me right the fuck off—until it didn’t.
I knew what it felt like to be an outsider. The new kid in school. The new recruit on a squad. The new guy on a team. The older you got, the nuances changed but the awkwardness was still there.
“If that’s how we made you feel then you should’ve said something.”
“This is my shit, it has nothing to do with anything anyone has or hasn’t done. And it has nothing to do with Jax. My brother is who he is and I’m damn proud of him. But because of that, he’s set a standard that’s damn hard to live up to.”
“In an effort to help you sort that faster let me explain. Jaxon Cain isn’t on our team, you are. Your brother’s a good friend. I’ve known him a long time. But saying that, I don’t give a shit how good a friend he is. I wouldn’t put my trust—and my life—in your hands if I didn’t know you were capable of having both. You’re new to us the same as we’re new to you. We need to feel each other out—”
“That’s different than feeling each other up, right?” Coop cut in.
“Well, thank fuck you have a sense of humor because that is one thing Jax doesn’t have. And God knows it gets boring being the wittiest on the team, so good to know I’ll have some backup with that, too.”
“Is that right? I’d heard from Natasha that Kevin’s the funny one and the rest of you are sticks in the mud.”
I believed Nat did say that. For some godforsaken reason, she thought Kevin was amusing.
“Yeah, she’s totally lying. Kev’s mostly rude. So tell me about what you’re working on,” I invited.
Over the next thirty minutes, Cooper told me about the 1964 Pontiac GTO he’d picked up and was in the process of restoring. Throughout this, I participated in the conversation but my mind was stuck on Evette and what the hell she was doing and why it was taking her so long. And as my mind wandered I wondered why in the hell I cared.
“Damn, brother, if I didn’t know any better I’d say you were hung up on the woman.”
Fucking shit. My eyes sliced back to Cooper because, yes, I was back to staring at the goddamn door. The smirk on his face told me he was gonna bust my balls.
“You’re gonna hand me shit about her, aren’t you?”
“Hell yeah, I am. You’re sitting here in front of me talking about a busted-up old GTO but your head is full of Evette London.”
Well, damn, it seemed Cooper Cain was gonna fit in just fine.
“Which I have to admit,” Coop went on. “The woman is fine but she’s got trouble written all over her.”
He wasn’t wrong about that.
I must’ve been a glutton for punishment.
No, scratch that, I was a total dumbfuck.
The trouble wasn’t her curiosity, which I saw spark to life when Ivy mentioned a certain CIA agent. It wasn’t even that I knew given the opportunity Evette would love to go down the rabbit hole of shit that Ashaki had created that I found troubling. It wasn’t that she had a thirst for revenge. The concern was that for some unknown reason I wanted to be the man watching her back while she was on her quest.
I didn’t want to stop Evette in her pursuit of finding the truth about what happened to her friend. I had no intention of trying to stop her from bringing down all who were responsible. I simply needed to be at her side while she did it.
I wanted her to trust me.
That made Evette not only trouble but a distraction neither of us needed.
I heard the bedroom door open and I fought to stay sitting instead of rushing to her side like a love-sick puppy dog or a goddamn stalker.
“Sorry I took so long,” she happily chirped. “I’ve never been in a shower with multiple shower heads before. It took me like ten minutes to figure out how to get the big one overhead to turn off. That mother dumps like fifty gallons a minute out—total planet killer. Someone should really talk to Zane and tell him all those nozzles in there are a waste of water and it feels like you’re walking through a car wash. I mean, the water squirts at you from all directions.”
Visions of her wet and naked formed in my mind. And apparently, when it came to Evette I had a very active imagination. It didn’t take much for me to conjure up images of her under the spray. Though in my mind she wasn’t fiddling with buttons and knobs trying to figure out how to turn off the water.
I was an asshole.
I pushed aside the mental pictures of her soapy hands roaming over her glistening skin and instead took in her fully dressed form. Which, honest to fuck did nothing to calm my reaction even though all of the creamy, soft skin I’d been imagining was hidden under a t-shirt and jeans. Unfortunately, the jeans hugged her in all the right places and I feared when I caught a glimpse of her ass I’d need to take a personal time-out to tame my growing erection.
This was goddamned ridiculous.
The problem was I didn’t know which part of my idiocy was more idiotic. My need to be near her or the fact that I couldn’t take my eyes off the way the ends of her hair curled ever so slightly under her breasts as if to highlight the magnificence of their full, perky position on her chest.
Christ, I was a sonofabitch.
“Is everything okay?” she asked.
The tension that had been absent when she entered the room crept back in and her brows pinched together. Which of course drew my attention to her eyes and the long lashes that framed them.
Did she have to be so fucking beautiful?
“Yeah, we were just waiting for you before we decided on dinner.” Cooper thankfully took over the conversation since apparently, I’d become a nutless mute.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t know you guys were waiting on me. I hate traveling and I really hate traveling by plane. Once I got under the hot water I didn’t want to get out.”
Christ, she was killing me.
And there it was again, more images of her naked and wet flitted through my mind, only this time I’d joined her in the shower. After all, someone had to wash all those hard-to-reach places.
I was going to hell. Straight on down on the fast train to meet the devil.
“Steak, burgers, or chicken are your options,” Coop continued.
It was good to know he didn’t suffer from the same affliction I did and still had his voice. I on the other hand needed to snap the fuck out of my daze.
“Did Ivy get you everything you needed?” I asked.
Evette’s head jerked to the side at my sudden change of topics.
Yeah, babe, I know Cooper was asking you about food but all I can think about is you wet and soapy and it’s made me stupid.
“And then some,” she answered.
I must’ve looked as confused as I was because Evette continued, “Ivy got me everything I needed and then some.” She enunciated the last three words like I was a little slow.
Which was a good thing considering that at that moment my brain was mush.
Get a hold of yourself, Harris. Christ, you idiot.
“Right. Good.”
Evette kept right on staring at me when she asked, “Are you okay?”
“He’s fine. But I’m starved. Chicken, burgers, or steak?” Coop took back over the conversation.
When this was over I was buying the man a bottle of his favorite liquor.