Chapter 11

DYLAN

I frownas I look over the table set up. “Are you sure it’s perfect? I want it to be perfect.”

Darren laughs as he claps me on the back. “Jesus, calm your shit, big bro. You got catering for a meal for only three people. And it’s the best in the city. I’m pretty sure she’ll be impressed.”

I shrug off his hand and narrow my eyes at him. “Are you taking this seriously? You better be taking this seriously. This girl is important to me. I want the full Darren Lennox charm offense. No half-assing it today, okay?”

Darren rolls his eyes as he drags out a chair and sits down at the table. He loosely holds up a hand. “I’ll be on my best behavior. Scouts honor. Martha won’t leave this house until she’s fully charmed.”

“Miranda!”

He laughs and slaps the table. “This shit is too easy. Lighten up, man.”

“Jesus Christ,” I swear, shaking my head and heading back to the kitchen to double check the food is perfect. I don’t know why I’m so goddamned nervous. Darren is the only one I have left apart from Chloe and I just—

I breathe out before going into the kitchen, stopping myself from pushing through the door. I’ve been hovering over the catering staff like a bear ever since they got here an hour ago. I’m sure the food is fine. They’re professionals.

I just want everything to be perfect.

The past three weeks with Miranda have been… I can’t even wrap my head around it. We’ve spent almost every night together, either at my apartment or her house. I’ve never had so much sex in my entire life, even when I was a horny kid in my twenties. Rediscovering sex has been, just… and sex with Miranda, Jesus—

No words. No fucking words can do it justice.

During the day I’m constantly thinking of her. But even though I’m getting less sleep than usual, somehow I have more energy than I have in years. For the first time in I can’t remember when, I’m passionate again about the product line—the designs of the new robotics boards themselves, but also the business side.

Before Miranda, Darren was the best part of my life. He’s the one thing I didn’t fuck up. I protected him from Dad and though he had some wild days in college at Stanford, Darren’s turned out to be a really good guy. In spite of me, really, because there were times I was the bad influence before I got my shit together. Fuck but I couldn’t be prouder of him.

The echoing doorbell jolts me out of my thoughts.

She’s here.

I freeze for a second before jumping into action.

Darren moves to stand up but I’m already jogging into the foyer to the door. I pause before opening it to look back at him. He followed and is standing in the hallway.

“The full Darren charm offensive,” I order one last time before taking a deep breath and opening the door.

It’s good I took that deep breath because Miranda looks show-stoppingly gorgeous today. And it’s not the outfit. She’s just wearing a modest knee length skirt and a white blouse. But Miranda, I swear she fucking radiates.

Her smile is so bright when she sees me that it’s like the damn sun coming out.

I lean forward and brush a kiss across her cheek. Even the brief contact is enough to stir my blood. I swallow a groan. My dick’s gotten used to seeing her and automatically fucking her.

It’s Pavlovian at this point. Seeing Miranda equates clothes immediately coming off, followed by me burying my cock as deep inside her as possible. It’s like the first thing I have to do after even the shortest time apart is to reassure myself that she’s real and that she’s mine. By completely dominating her body. Repeatedly, if possible.

I move back but grab her hand, hoping my dick will get the message that this is just a social call. I don’t need to be popping wood in front of my brother for Christ’s sake.

I usher her into the house. “Miranda, this is my brother Darren. Darren, Miranda.”

She walks forward with a sunny smile, her hand out.

Darren forgoes the hand and hugs her.

“Dylan won’t stop going on about you,” Darren pulls back with a charismatic smile, “I swear I feel like I already know you.”

Miranda’s smile goes shy and she glances my way, but I can tell she’s pleased by the warm reception.

“Come in, come in,” Darren places a hand to the small of her back and guides her to the large, open dining room off the entry way. “We busted out the fancy china and silverware and everything.”

Miranda laughs as Darren leads her and pulls out her chair.

I can’t take my eyes off her as her eyes dart all around the room. What is she seeing? I spent a big part of my life hating this place. I didn’t come back here for years after I found Chloe like that…

It was only after Mom and Dad were both gone and Darren wanted to move in that I could cross the threshold again. Dare did the lion’s share of sorting and getting rid of Mom and Dad’s stuff. As guilty as I felt about not helping him with it, I just couldn’t. No, it was only after he renovated and redecorated that I could step foot back in this house.

And even with the new coat of paint and the wall between the old game room and the living room ripped out to open up the space downstairs, I’m still far too aware of all that went on underneath this roof.

A big part of me still wishes I’d gone with my gut and burned the whole thing to the ground.

But to Dare, I know being able to live on the family estate means something. He seemed surprised when I didn’t want to fight him over the deed after dad died. But I just sold him my half at a steal. I used the money to pay for Chloe’s tuition and came over here as little as possible.

Darren proposed meeting Miranda here, though, and I knew there was no reasonable excuse to get out of it. And having my thoughts on her all afternoon has kept me from getting stuck in my usual brooding funk that being here brings on.

“So, Miranda,” Darren says once we’re all seated, “tell me everything about yourself. Then I promise I’ll share all the embarrassing childhood stories I have on Dylan.”

My chest loosens as I relax, watching the two of them interact. Miranda is lovely as she talks about Ohio and the small town where she grew up, and I only have to threaten Darren with disownment a couple times as he relates some of the more embarrassing mishaps of my early years.

“No way.” Miranda’s sparkling eyes come my direction. “Where’d you get the cow?”

“Don’t believe anything he tells you. He was the one who put the cow in the Principal’s office on the last day of my senior year. He just blamed it on me.”

Miranda’s head swings back to Darren. “Is that true?”

He shrugs and then smiles slyly. “I plead the fifth.”

The food is delicious and Darren keeps conversation flowing. It’s always been his talent, far more than mine. In any social situation, he always knows exactly what to say and how to act. Having him as the face of the company was a large part of why we were able to grow as fast as we did. With his marketing and networking skills and my technical and engineering background, we were a force to be reckoned with.

But I’ve never appreciated him more than in this moment.

Getting to see the two people I care most in the world getting along so well? It means a helluva lot. I catch his eye as the caterers switch out our dinner plates for dessert and give him a small, meaningful nod that I hope lets him see my appreciation.

My phone rings right as I’m about to take a bite of my crème br?lée and I excuse myself from the table.

“Hello?”

“Mr. Lennox. It’s Malik here.” Malik is my chief software engineer. “We’re having a problem with the RISC chips we’re testing. The precision of the localization code is way off and we’re scrambling to figure out a way to fix it.”

“Shit.” I glance back over to Miranda and Darren, both of whom are looking my way. “I need to finish up with something but I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“Okay. As soon as possible would be best. We’ll keep working on it, but you’ve got the most experience with the new chips and everything’s stalled out till we fix this.”

I give a sharp nod then realize he can’t see me. “Got it. I’ll text you when I have an ETA.”

“What is it?” Miranda asks. “Is something the matter?”

“Just a problem in engineering. I’ll need to run over there later this afternoon.”

“What happened?” Darren gives me a concerned look.

“Nothing we can’t fix. Just a bug with one of the processor’s chips we’re testing.”

Darren shoots me a look. “How many bugs is it going to take before you admit it’s a bad idea taking a chance on those new chips?”

Of course he’d use this as an opportunity to take a dig at the RISC chips. He knows we were running another set of experiments with them this weekend. It’s true we’ve been running into bug after bug, but they’re all stupid ones. Little things that are easily fixed. The design of the new chips still makes them the best way to go, I’m more and more convinced the more I work with them.

“RISC is the future of robotics, Dare, how many times do I have to tell you? The old processors are shit in comparison. They won’t be able to compete—”

Then I glance Miranda’s way. Fuck. I’m just putting my foot in it. Her company, ProDynamics, makes one of the old Intel-style processors. And I haven’t even officially declined the ProDynamics bid. Unofficially, I know I want to go with the RISC chips but we have to make sure they’ll work with the rest of our infrastructure first. “I didn’t mean—”

“Dylan,” Miranda cuts me off, taking her napkin from her lap and putting it on the table. “It sounds like you need to go now. It’s okay. Go.” Her eyes are earnest and she doesn’t look offended in the least about my off-handed putdown of companies like the one she works for. “We’re almost done here anyway. I’ve had a lovely lunch.”

Damn, is this woman even real? I pause, wavering. I never want her to think that I consider my work more important than her. And she doesn’t even seem upset about her company losing the bid.

She rolls her eyes at me like she can see what I’m thinking. “Dylan, I’ve seen you almost every day this week, I can handle an afternoon without you.”

She stands up to come around the table and I meet her halfway. I cup her face in my hands and give her a kiss. If Darren weren’t here it would last much longer but I try to keep it PG. Mostly.

I pull back and search her eyes. “I’ll see you tonight?”

She bites her lip. Jesus, it drives me crazy when she bites her lip like that and she knows it. “I’ll see you tonight,” she whispers, running a hand down my shirt.

Darren clears his throat and we spring apart. Shit. For a second I forgot he was here. Being with Miranda can do that—shut out everything else in the world besides us.

I grin sheepishly at my brother.

“I’ll show Miranda out after we finish dessert.” He looks to Miranda. “Sound good?”

Her eyes flick my way but then she smiles back at Darren and nods. “Sounds great.”

I give her one last kiss and then, with the hand that Darren can’t see, I pinch her ass. She stifles a yelp and I grin. “See you tonight, babe.”