Chapter 8

8

Kaitlin closed her eyes and counted backwards from ten. Then did it again. She was going to kill her oldest brother. The moment Kaitlin heard Aeden’s rude question she knew Brando had arrived. Dammit. She had been trying her best to get rid of her brother, but he had refused to budge. It was like he had some kind of weird intuition when it came to his younger siblings. He would just pop up and cause problems. He’d been there complaining that she should move back to Baltimore. She’d been so aggravated by him, she had been ready to agree when someone had knocked on the door.

“Aeden Michael Fitzpatrick, what do you think you’re doing?”

He looked back over his shoulder at her. “There’s a stranger here.”

“And so you ask who the hell he is?”

He shrugged in that annoying way he had. Other people found it funny, but she was pretty sure she wasn’t the only sibling who found it irritating. He was always doing things like this.

“I dunno. He’s a stranger and I could care less if I was rude.”

She settled her hands on her hips. “Do you want me to call Mom and tell her just how rudely you answered my door?”

He said nothing to that. Of course he didn’t. While all her brothers might like to strut around like they owned the room, they were all deathly afraid of their mother.

“Move,” she ordered.

His frown turned dark and with one last nasty look out the door, he did as she ordered. As soon as he did, she could see Brando. Her heart sighed at the sight of him. Lord, he was even prettier than he had been in New Orleans. His hair was definitely shorter and not as curly. He had a little five-o’clock shadow on his jaw, and he looked tired from the trip. It had been a long month waiting for him to make it there. Now, though, she didn’t know what to say.

She waited to see if he spoke first, but he looked content to stand there and stare at her. “Hi.”

His lips curved. “Hi.”

“Sorry about my brother. He’s always this rude.”

“No problem. Remember, I come from a big family too.”

She nodded and they kept staring at each other.

“Are you going to let him in, or just stare at him?” Aeden asked from the kitchen.

She was going to kill her brother. Slowly, painfully…but he was going to die. She would use this situation—and so many others—as examples. She was sure younger sisters around the world would support his murder.

She shut her eyes as her face flamed. When she opened them, she found Brando smiling.

“Come on in.”

She stepped back and he walked past her. She could smell his cologne and that dark, masculine scent she associated with Brando. Only Brando.

“Brando Santini, this is my brother Aeden Fitzpatrick, who was just leaving.”

“I was not,” he said as he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the kitchen counter.

Killing was too good. Although, it would take more planning to hide the body. She would just castrate him. “Yes, you were. Remember, you had a date.”

Aeden shrugged without taking his gaze off Brando. “She can wait.”

“And, he is a pig,” she said.

Brando nodded in Aeden’s direction with about as much warmth as Aeden was showing him. Dammit , he wasn’t going to leave. He would have a stare down for hours. Declan, one of her other brothers, had always said that Aeden could stare at anything for hours. He was going to be a big pain in the ass. As usual.

“How was your drive?” she asked as she led Brando into the living room.

“Pretty good. I thought I would never make it through DC traffic. I regret not hitting seventeen off of sixty-six to avoid it.”

She smiled as she motioned to the couch. Brando waited for her to sit before he did. She sat down on the opposite end of the couch.

“Yeah, it gets insane at times. That’s why I love being here. Granted, the traffic is still a pain, but it isn’t as bad as Baltimore or DC.”

Aeden apparently decided to invite himself into the conversation. He sat on the chair. She was surprised he didn’t sit between them. She was going to have to invest more time in watching Discovery ID to get pointers about covering up a murder.

“How do you two know each other?” he asked in his older brother voice. She was going to have to come up with something to get rid of him.

“College,” she said, trying to ignore him.

“And you’re stationed here?”

Great. The interrogation was going to be extensive if she didn’t get Aeden out of her house.

“No,” Brando said with a smile.

Kaitlin had to bite her lip to keep from laughing. Her brother was not happy with that answer. He could usually intimidate men she dated, but Kaitlin had a feeling that Brando would be the exception to the rule. Still, he needed to leave. If he didn’t, she would never get her hands on Brando. That was the most important thing.

“You know that Wendy was going to go by Declan’s tonight,” she said nonchalantly.

That grabbed her brother’s attention. His gaze moved to her, and he narrowed his eyes. “What?”

“She has forty-eight hours off in a row, so she’s going to stop by. I think she said something about that new guy you have at the house.”

She did not feel the least bit guilty throwing her friend under the bus. Besides, Wendy always wanted to know about the new guys at the stationhouse where her brother worked. Kaitlin was pretty sure it was to irritate her brother.

His frown turned darker. Oh, she loved getting the best of Aeden.

“Which one?”

“I’m not sure. She said something about a sexy redhead, and that she wanted to get to know him better.”

Aeden was definitely torn. Her brother and Wendy had a love/hate relationship. She knew that both of them were attracted to each other, but neither of them would act on it. Wendy would make her pay for it later, but there was one thing that would get Aeden out of her house, and that was to keep men away from Wendy.

“What the hell is she doing that for?”

Kaitlin shrugged. “She said she was bored.”

With a growl, Aeden stood and grabbed his keys off the stand. “I’ll be calling later.”

“I’ll be ignoring you.”

He hesitated. “I don’t feel right leaving you.”

“You’re being obnoxious. Go away or I’ll tell Mom who really owned the Playboys she found in the basement.”

He snarled and finally opened the door, stepped out, then slammed the door behind him. At last, they were alone. She released a breath and counted back from ten.

“There’s a red head in the house?”

“The firehouse where he works, but I don’t know that they have one. I made it up.”

He chuckled. “Are they involved?”

“No. They just…their relationship is hard to explain. Anyway, I am really sorry about the way he behaved.”

He shook his head. “I understand being overprotective. We have one girl in our family too.”

“And you all try and tell her what to do.”

He nodded. “Yep.”

“Does it work?”

He gave her that crooked smile of his. “She’s a fighter pilot. What do you think?”

She laughed. “Are you hungry?”

The moment she said the words, his eyes darkened. “Sort of.”

She licked her lips. He leaned over and kissed her. Kaitlin had been so worried everything would be weird now, but it wasn’t. It was as if they had never been apart.

He slanted his mouth over hers, deepening the kiss. With frantic movements, he urged her back on the couch. Before she knew what he was doing, he stood, pulled off her jeans and panties as she worked on her shirt and bra. When she was finally naked, he looked at her much the same way he had that night in New Orleans.

“What?”

“I just can’t believe I’m here and I’ve gotten this lucky.”

She opened her mouth and no sound came out. He chuckled as he tugged off his shirt. She leaned forward to unbutton and unzip his jeans. When she did, she pushed them down a little bit. His erection jutted out from his body. Without hesitation, she took him into her mouth, enjoying the salty sweet taste of him. As she was starting to get into it, he pulled her away with a grown.

“Don’t. I have a hair trigger where you’re concerned.”

He pulled out his wallet, and grabbed a condom. They slid it on together. He sat down on the couch, and pulled her over. With ease, she straddled him, then took him inside of her. God, it felt good to be connected to him this way, to feel the way he filled her up.

She started to move, enjoying the way he pulled in a quick breath as she swiveled her hips.

“Damn,” he muttered as he took one of nipples into his mouth. She felt the graze of his teeth, then his tongue.

She started to move faster, trying to reach the pinnacle. But she became frustrated. He must have sensed it. Without stopping his teasing, he moved his hand between them and slipped his finger over the tiny bundle of nerves. Something so wonderful exploded within her and she felt her flying over into an abyss of pleasure.

Then, he did pull away. He took her hips into his hands as he started thrusting up. Faster, harder. She bent her head as he moved his mouth to hers. It was hot, wet and carnal. His tongue swept past her lips to tangle with hers. He pulled away again, thrusting up into her one last time and shouting her name as he held her still.

She looked at him, his head bent back, the veins in his neck straining, and she kissed him there. Moved her tongue over his Adam’s apple.

He finally relaxed and slid his arms around her. He kissed her chin.

“That was fantastic.”

She smiled.

“But if we do round two, I think we should do it on my bed. Much more comfortable up there.”

He laughed. “Sounds good.”