Chapter 11

CHAPTER ELEVEN

This was the very definition of not keeping my personal and private life separate.

Something I'd made an art of for the last two decades. No woman since her had been invited to meet my friends, especially not the women they were dating. That only led to messy. Women bonded. They formed friendships that would outlast the week or two a particular woman would be spending in my bed.

Aria meeting Jonas was an anomaly, a byproduct of her situation. Her sitting in the conference room across from Kira and Ivy was a goddamn nightmare.

The sisterhood initiation had started.

The bond was clicking into place and getting stronger the longer they chatted.

Messy was thirty minutes ago.

The current state of play was nearing DEFCON-fucked.

I knew this shit would happen as soon as Kira called this morning to tell me Zane wanted us in the office for a briefing before we headed over the bridge to Aria's house.

I should've disobeyed the order.

Zane was wherever Zane did his plotting, making us wait for him to grace us with his presence so we could get down to business. Knowing the man, this was on purpose. He knew women, he especially knew his wife. Ivy Lewis was friendly, she was interesting, she was smart, and she was the leader of the girl posse. If Ivy liked you, she pulled you in, never to escape from the blanket of love and loyalty she'd shroud you in. Like husband, like wife.

Then there was Kira—the little sister my team adored. The woman who had lost her family yet still had the strength to move on. The little sister who poked her nose into our personal lives but most of the time understood not to step over the line into private. But the longer she was around Zane the more she blurred that line.

The level of screw I was now in was off the charts.

I knew this because Kira was tossing sidelong glances my direction while talking to Aria. And those glances were coming more frequently. It was no surprise Kira like Aria. There wasn't much not to like—actually, I hadn't found a single thing that didn't appeal to me. Except her being her normal funny, witty self with Ivy, Kira, Jonas, and Cooper. I didn't find that appealing. I found that to be the death blow I could've done without.

I didn't have to look to know Jonas had initiated his superhuman radar. I could feel the weight of his stare as he sat quietly watching my reaction to the women. This being after he'd assessed the women and come to the same conclusion I had—Aria was in the fold.

She'd be around long after whatever we had ended.

Fuck, yeah, this was messy.

"Finally," I grumbled under my breath as Zane walked in with a baby strapped to his chest.

Then I made the grave mistake of looking at Aria. Her eyes hit my boss, dropped to the little girl he carried on his chest, and she smiled so huge it lit her beautiful face.

There were only a few times she'd looked more stunning—right after I slid inside her, right after I made her come, and when I was working her up. The filthier my mouth the hotter she got, the more gorgeous she became. I could add when she laughed but that was a different kind of pretty. It was the same kind as when she flirted, just giving a tease of that beautiful she had to give.

"Aria Taylor," Zane greeted.

"Zane Lewis," she returned. "The man, the myth, the legend, in the flesh."

Christ .

This was worse.

Zane's gaze bounced around the room before landing on me and narrowing.

"On a scale of one to ten how fucked am I?" Zane asked.

"Seven-million-five-hundred-twenty-eight," Jonas answered.

My boss's attention skidded to Aria then back to me, then to Kira.

"Don't scowl at me, boss, I wasn't in charge of prophylactic distribution."

"KK," Cooper mumbled.

Kira shifted slightly to look at her husband.

"I'm not getting thrown under the bus because Smith's playing hide the rocket."

Jesus Christ .

"Sorry, brother, I tried." Cooper conceded defeat.

Zane pinned a scowl on Jonas. His hands lifted off the table and he shook his head.

"Don't look at me. You sent me in late, Z. By the time I showed up, she'd already cast her net and our boy here had happily tangled himself in it. Not much I could do."

"Here's a suggestion," I cut in. "How about we get down to business so I can get Aria to work."

"Figured you'd already got the business this morning," Jonas unhelpfully egged on the ribbing.

He wasn't wrong, but I didn't now nor would I ever openly discuss my sex life with my teammates.

"It's cute how y'all think the coded innuendoes are going over my head," Aria joined.

"You'll learn to ignore them," Ivy told her. "Good news is they burn themselves out fast. That is unless Kira here gets a wild hair, then her and my husband can do this for hours."

That was the goddamn truth. Normally it was amusing. Not so much when they were working themselves up to dig into me and Aria.

The good news was, Aria grinned. The bad news was I knew what that grin said.

"Well in that case, I'll help a sister out," Aria began with her eyes on Kira. "No need to worry about prophylactic distribution. I have an IUD." She paused long enough to transfer her stare to Jonas. "And you're a traitor. I thought we connected after our rocky musical start. Just because you sold me out, today's a Backstreet Boy day. All day." Aria stopped again to look at Zane but before she could say anything more Jonas cut in.

"That is cruel and unusual punishment," he griped.

"I don't do anything half measure and I hold a mean grudge. I'll also torture myself if it means torturing you."

Fuck, she was cute.

I knew Jonas thought so too when he smirked.

"A woman after my own heart."

I clenched my jaw in an effort to ignore Jonas's taunt.

"And you," Aria continued. "Mr. Cock Blocker. I get you and my dad are friends but I'm an adult and can handle myself and my?—"

"Aria," I growled my warning to stop her from inflaming the situation that had nowhere to turn but down if she finished her sentence.

"Don't growl at me, Sailor."

"Baby, if you engage we'll be sitting here for the next hour exchanging barbs. We got shit to do today, not to mention I'm already fed up. Help us out and don't feed the bear."

"Fine," she snapped. "But only because you're right and I want to get to work."

Christ I wished we weren't in a room full of people so I could kiss that haughty look off her face. I should've known she'd willfully and happily jump headfirst into the shit talk and she'd enjoy every minute of it.

"Just so we're clear I'm the bear in this scenario?" Zane asked.

"In this scenario, correct." Aria continued to entertain Zane. "Though normally, Smith's the bear and he eats?—"

"I have an office here," I warned.

Instead of my warning doing what I'd hoped, it spurred the woman on.

Aria turned to Ivy and Kira and educated them. "He likes to make threats, crazy threats I've informed him aren't really threats but he's yet to learn."

"In seconds you're gonna learn what my palm on your ass feels like."

"See!" she exclaimed. "Like, who doesn't like a good?—"

"Fucking shit," Zane thankfully interrupted Aria. "If my wife didn't already cut them off your father would."

"For the last time," Ivy sighed. "It's called a vasectomy and your balls are still there. Though if you don't stop your bellyaching I can see about removing them completely. And if that doesn't stop your complaining I can always give you something to complain about and get a dog. A small, little yappy dog I can dress up and carry around in a purse like a Kardashian."

Zane visibly shuddered before he pulled out the chair at the head of the table and sat while keeping a hand on a sleeping Rose's head.

How that child slept through Zane's booming voice was a miracle. Either that, or the child was simply conditioned to sleep through her father's obnoxiousness.

"No letter yesterday." Zane finally shifted the conversation to work.

"None the day before either," I reminded him.

"No need to stop by planning and zoning," Kira told us. "I already pulled the address. No permits were issued. I'm going to call Brittney today and ask her when the work was done and who did it. Unless Aria wants to do it, which might be better than a cold call from me."

"I can call her," Aria agreed.

"Any luck with the attic?" Cooper asked.

I fielded that.

"No. Today we're finishing the tear out and Aria has some filming today. Tomorrow we'll worry about the attic."

"If it's alright with you I want to search your car."

Aria's gaze swung to Cooper.

"My car?"

"Yeah, we need to know if you were followed from your house or if there's a tracker on your car."

"A tracker?" The question whooshed out of her.

Cooper glanced at me then at Aria.

"It's a just precaution," he attempted to backpedal.

"Right," she huffed. "My car's at my house. I can give you the fob if you need to get inside."

"That'd be helpful."

I didn't miss Aria's jaw tighten at Cooper's request. And it was then it hit me—she'd taken everything in stride. Not a single complaint outside of the time and money she was losing on her house, but nothing about her personal safety. Not that first mention if she was scared or concerned. And the fuck of it was, I hadn't asked. I'd been too busy getting in her pants to notice if she was afraid or worried.

Yeah, oh yeah, I was a total motherfucker.

"No one's gonna get to you," I told her.

Aria sat up taller and squared her shoulders.

"I know."

"Even if Cooper finds a tracker on your car, nothing changes. You're still safe."

"I know."

Her brave face was impressive but I didn't miss her tell. When she didn't want to show weakness or for someone to think she had one, she squared her shoulders preparing for battle. It was a show of strength but also a dead giveaway that she felt she had to prove she could take care of herself.

If that wasn't enough, she swung the conversation away from her safety and back to the house.

"Should I call Brittney now?"

Zane was eyeing Aria closely. He'd caught it too, which meant Jonas caught on before both Zane and me.

"Ivy baby, take her to my office, yeah?"

Ivy caught Zane's tone and nodded.

"Can I have my daughter first?" she asked.

"Nope."

With a long suffering sigh the woman pushed back from the table.

"Come on, Aria, we'll grab a coffee before we go up."

Without hesitation Aria followed Ivy out of the conference room. My gaze followed Aria. Unfortunately, this gave Zane a new opportunity to jump on me without Aria in attendance. Which meant it went from worse to seriously fucking bad.

"I hope you know what you're doing," he barked as soon as the women were out of earshot.

Well, not all of the women. Kira was still at the table smiling at her keyboard.

Before I could tell my boss to mind his business he pushed, "You don't fuck a woman like her."

My fist resting on the table clenched and my chest started to burn.

"You're either in or you're out. And by that I mean you're either making moves to fix your head or you explain to her?—"

"I've explained," I rumbled, unable to keep my voice modulated. "Like she told you, she's a grown-ass woman. Out of respect I'll give you this, she's not looking for anything permanent. She has a business to run. One she's determined to grow to give her father something when he retires. From what she's said, I get the feeling she's looking forward to him being close and them working together. The woman is nothing if not single-minded in her ambition. We both know what this is and what it's not."

"Do you ?" Zane inquired.

"Do I what?"

"Do you know what it is?"

I could be an asshole and pretend I didn't know what the nosey bastard was talking about or I could be a man and own up to my stupidity.

I chose somewhere in the middle.

"I know exactly what it is, but more—I know what it can never be."

"Dumbass," Zane mumbled and looked at Kira. "Where's the team at with their informant?"

For the next fifteen minutes I vaguely listened to Kira's SITREP on my team. The informant had some good intel having to do with resumes and hiring practices at the electrical company they were looking into. Intel that led to more questions. Nonetheless, the team would be coming home tomorrow to regroup for the trip up to Vermont next week.

"Nebraska thinks she has a lead on a former security guard who worked one of the substations…" Kira's eyes lifted to the doorway and she trailed off.

"Sorry to interrupt," Aria said.

"No, come in," Kira invited.

Instead of taking her original seat across the table from me, Aria walked around the table to the chair next to mine. I was in the midst of ignoring how that made me feel when Aria launched in. "I talked to Brittney. She said the upstairs was redone when she was a teenager. The summer between eighth and ninth grade. Her dad, brother, and George Jr's friend Billy Rice did the work."

"Did she tell you why they only did the upstairs?" Jonas got there before I could.

"Yeah, she said the upstairs was freezing during the winter. Her dad wanted to replace the insulation. Her mom was adamant the interior walls were to match. She said the first room they did, which was the master, looked like crap with two walls sheetrock, the others plaster. Brittney said it took the whole summer because her dad only had evenings and weekends with two seventeen-year-olds helping."

Kira was already tapping on her keyboard.

"Did she give you anything else on Billy Rice?"

Aria looked at Kira and smiled. "Yeah, when I told her I wished I had a Billy to help me hang drywall she laughed and told me the story. Billy's parents were divorcing. His home life was total shit, so he basically moved in with the Calvins when school ended and didn't go home until after Thanksgiving when his mom got on her feet. She also told me Billy's dad worked as a farm hand and they lived on the farm where he worked. But during the divorce Billy's dad kicked him and his mom out of the house, another reason Billy lived with the Calvins. Billy's mom couldn't find a place to live she could afford so they were staying with Billy's grandma in one bedroom."

"Good work," I said.

My praise was met with a sarcastic smile that rivaled Zane's.

"And here you just thought I was just a pretty face." She added a wink to her smug smile and the all but dead organ in my chest squeezed.

Jesus fuck .

Aria Taylor did it for me.

Period.

It was like the woman was made for me.

Every. Damn. Thing. About her.