Deadly Ties (14 page)

“Who?” Gavin asked, leading her to one of the chairs by the couch.

“Bachall, or Morris either for that matter. he said, he’d check with Gatesville and call me

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back.” Taylor sat in the chair and he sat on the arm beside her. “Why hasn’t he called yet? How long can it take to see if she’s there? Either, she’s there, or she’s not. God, what if she’s not?”

“I’m sure everything’s fine.” He’d make certain it was.

Her look wanted to know how he knew that.

“So,” Brayden asked, “what took so long? You called almost three hours ago.” He grabbed a hand full of popcorn and shoved it in his mouth.

Gavin looked to Taylor. He’d rile her some more. “I was busy rescuing damsels in distress.”

That got a reaction out of her.

“I would like to make it clear I am
not
, nor have I ever been, anyone’s damsel to rescue or otherwise.” Her eyes flashed at him even though her voice remained calm.

“Oooo,” Aiden laughed out. Brayden followed with a whining sound of a downing airplane before he rumbled, what Gavin assumed to be, an explosion.

Someone, Jess, he figured, murmured, “Crashed and burned.”

Gavin ignored them and leaned down so that his arm rested on the back of the chair, letting his fingers play with strands of her hair. “Now, Taylor, come on, tell the truth. You were happy to see me.”

Smiling herself, she retorted, “At that point I would have been happy to see Charles.”

That wasn’t funny, not one damn bit.

“Who’s Charles?” Christian asked.

“Never mind,” Gavin answered.

“Wow, I sense a tangled story here,” Jesslyn said. “Maybe this will be more entertaining than
Notorious.
”

“God, we can hope,” Aiden said.

All the men agreed, as they didn’t exactly care for chick-flicks, let alone some old sappy black and white.

An argument started up about movies and what wager the men had lost. Insults were thrown and tossed along with popcorn. Gavin was starving. Taylor, he noticed was quiet, but tentatively joined the conversation.

“Here you are, laddy.” Gavin turned at the sound of Becky’s Irish voice. She carried a tray piled high with food.

“Becky, why won’t you marry me?” he asked the plump, gray-haired housekeeper while he made his way to her. Taking the tray with one hand, he gave her a one-arm hug. The little woman barely reached his chest.

Smells rose up from the selections on the tray: sandwiches, fruit, salad, cheese, and cookies. The last made him want to forget the rest. “Cookies? You made cookies? You have to put me out of my misery, Becky, and be mine.”

“Ah, be off with ye. Scoundrel that ye are.” Her rosy cheeks plumped when she smiled.

He looked at her then. “I’m sorry for being so short and rude on the phone earlier.”

She waved him off. “What with the break-in and all there’s no apologizing necessary, but I appreciate the gesture all the same. Right proud I am of ye.”

“Break-in?” Jock barked. “Becky, what are you talking about?”

Becky and his father had a love-hate relationship. Each went out of their way to rub, jab, or

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barb the other, and both loved every minute. The housekeeper simply huffed a sigh, ignored Jock and looked back to Gavin. He caught everyone staring at them out of the corner of his eye.

“The young ones were prattling on about it to your mum. Poor little tyke. Bastard. Pardon me, but they are. Killed his violin, he said and could have bashed your head in too,” she said to Taylor. “Shame it is, what the world has come to. A shame.” Shaking her head, she turned to Taylor then. “I assume you’re Taylor? The little lad’s mum?” Becky was already nodding to her own question. “Ye just don’t worry about a thing. We’ll take right good care of ye, we will.

Won’t we, Gavin, me boy?” The last was asked to him with a twinkle in her eye as she introduced herself to Taylor.

Bless Becky’s heart. “Indeed, Becky, we will.”

“Are ye all right?” she asked Taylor.

“Yes, thank you,” Taylor said with a small smile.

“Did they really kill his violin?” Becky asked, directing her question to him instead of Taylor.Gavin was aware they had everyone’s undivided attention. There was no privacy in this family. Everyone knew everything sooner or later. He sighed and rubbed his chin. “Yeah, they or rather, he did. Busted and broke it up, along with all the rest of Taylor’s house.”

Becky tsked, and patted Taylor’s arm. “Not to worry, dearie. Things’ll work out. They always do. Shame though.” She turned to leave. “Kaitie’ll be along in a minute. She’s in the music room tuning on the fiddles.”

Becky left and Gavin placed the tray on the coffee table before he plopped down on the floor, leaning back against Taylor’s chair. He tore into his food, eating what he wanted and leaving the rest.

On a sigh, he draped an arm over Taylor’s crossed legs and finished answering the questions bombarding from everyone in the room. Some Taylor answered, several he did.

At last the story was told and Gavin learned where they needed to go tomorrow to find Ryan a new violin. Brayden said he and Tori might go with them, and since Brayden knew where the music store was, Gavin agreed.

Earlier he hadn’t noticed what Taylor was wearing, too much had happened, too many thoughts and emotions running high, but now he couldn’t help but notice. Her pants were soft, pale beige linen. Just as her foot kept tapping, his fingers kept up their lazy patterns on her calf.

Strange, he hadn’t even noticed he was doing that until his finger ran low at one point and her foot stilled. Then he’d noticed.

The others decided to start the movie and he craned his head back when Taylor tapped high on his shoulder.

What would her fingers feel like on his neck? Last night when they’d kissed, she’d wrapped her arm around him, but he wondered what her fingers playing on his skin would feel like. There was a thought.

The woman kissed like a siren, or what he imagined one would kiss like. Gavin had thought of her kiss all damn day long, and it was one long day. Her mouth, soft and warm, her tongue, quick and tantalizing, her taste, ahhh….

“I think I should go check on Ryan,” she told him in that calm, soft voice of hers.

“Hmmm.…” Here he was thinking of kissing the woman, and she was, understandably,

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thinking of other things.

Music floated down the hall and into the family room. Gavin smiled, bent his elbow, curving his forearm back up her leg so that his hand cupped her knee.

“I think things are fine,” he told her, tracing a slow circle with his thumb on the inside of her knee. Her light brown eyes deepened just a bit, or maybe it was a play of light. But then she shivered. Gavin winked at her, then turned around as
Notorious
started.

Though several of the notes were enharmonic and stilted, two fiddles danced slowly down the hallway in a familiar Irish reel.

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Taylor cut through the warm, dark water, smooth and silent. At the end of the pool, she slicked her hair back from her face before propping her elbows on the ledge. Her chin rested on her stacked hands and she watched the nightlife around her. The rain had finally stopped. Clouds still blanketed the moon before skirting into the midnight sky.

The Kinncaids were an incredible family. She had yet to pin everyone down. Aiden and Jesslyn and their twins were happy and funny, the newness of their lives together was lost in the ease she noticed between them. Brayden was quiet and reserved, as was Christian. Taylor got the impression from their bantering that something might be going on between the two of them.

Tori and Ryan seemed to have clicked, which surprised her. The little girl and her son spent the rest of the evening in the music room practicing various pieces of music.

Water splashed as she flicked an ankle out behind her. Pushing off from the side, she floated on her back, letting her gaze travel the inky velvet of the clouded sky.

So whom did that leave? There were two brothers she had yet to meet. Quinlan, who was labeled the workaholic. And another brother that she could have sworn Gavin had mentioned before, but who hadn’t been mentioned tonight.

Then, there were the parents. Jock and Kaitlyn were an interesting couple. Jock was, as Gavin described him, all bluster.

After the movie held no one’s attention, everyone just sort of migrated down to the music room and Mr. Kinncaid’s true colors had shown as he’d held one of the twin babies and teased Tori. Seeing him play so openly and easily with the kids had warmed her over and had eased Ryan somewhat. Though, to be honest, Ryan wasn’t exactly at ease with anything.

Kaitlyn was the show runner. That much Taylor figured out. The mistress of the house had given Taylor’s son a temporary fiddle to borrow until he found another one. Then she’d dug out all of her ‘old fiddlin’ tunes’ as she’d called them and played a few for everyone.

Taylor couldn’t remember an evening spent, in the form of family time with more than two people, in.… Well, since her parents had died. What a depressing thought. Here she was almost thirty and had no husband, no extended family, and no hope for one.

But, she had an amazing son.

An incredible, musically gifted son, if tonight was any indication. He and Kaitlyn had really gotten into some of those Irish music pieces. Taylor smiled to herself.

Ryan was all the family she needed.

Earlier, after she’d known he was asleep, she’d walked out on the balcony to see the pool below. Kaitlyn and Gavin had told her to make herself at home. That didn’t really sound plausible to her, but the pool had been entirely too inviting. As a child and a young girl, she’d loved to swim after a rain had cooled the air and water off.

She’d given in to the temptation and pulled out the swimsuit Gavin had said she’d need for

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the weekend and quickly donned it. Not wanting to wake anyone, she’d left all the lights off.

Besides, she didn’t know where the switches were anyway. The slight nervous feeling that she shouldn’t be out here kept her from truly enjoying her swim, and she tried to push the thought away. She knew what Gavin would say to that, if he said anything after rolling his eyes.

Gavin. There was a thought. Taylor had no idea where they had been heading before. That they were more than friends had to be clearly evident to the blind--which none of his family were. If his arm-over-her-legs didn’t shout that little fact to his family and to her, then in the music room would have answered any doubts they might have had left. The man had kissed her there in front of God and everyone. Not a kiss like they’d shared the night before, granted. A simple kiss that had still managed to make her stomach riot, as he’d wrapped his arms around her and pulled her back against him while the music had danced on the air.

But still a kiss.

Of course, everyone had to pop off some smart-assed comment then. Well, Aiden and Jess did. Brayden and Christian only shook their heads, and Jock…. Well, Taylor knew now where Gavin inherited his supercilious lift of brow. Kaitlyn only smiled, a single dimpled smile at her.

Taylor moved her arms, keeping afloat. Water caressed her bare stomach.

The sky shifted, allowing the moon to periodically peek out on the world below. She turned back over to swim a bit more before heading in.

Four laps later, she sensed someone was watching her. Taylor dipped under the water and heard the splash as someone else joined her in the pool. Surfacing, Taylor wiped the water out of her eyes. Her feet didn’t touch the bottom.

“Hello?” No one had surfaced yet, and the water absorbed the night so that only the shadows of the shifting waves were visible.

A tingle ran up her spine. She thought of the masked man earlier and shivered again.

Someone jerked her ankle, and water rushed in her mouth as her yell was cut off before it even started.Taylor came up sputtering and coughing to hear his deep chuckle behind her.

She whirled, angry at being frightened.

“That was
not
funny.” Taylor glared at him and swam to the side, where she gripped the edge and pulled herself out to sit on the lip. Now she could kick him.

Gavin swam up to her. His face was shadowed, but she’d been out here long enough for her eyes to adjust to the dim light. White teeth flashed in his crooked grin. Damn the man. Her heartbeat would never be the same.

“You scared the tar out of me.”

His elbow grazed and stayed against her thigh as he rested them on the lip.

“I got that.” His voice was made for the night.

“Did you now?” she asked. The only sound was the soft lap of water. “The idea of the masked man with the tire iron flew through my brain.”

“Sorry.” A silent moment stretched between them. “I’ve been watching you for a while,”

he said, lowering his voice. Definitely for the night. His voice could tempt a nun to sin.

Taylor licked her lips.

“Thought I might join you,” he continued. His hand lay on top of hers. “But you got out.

Sorry, I scared you.”

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Taylor could only sigh. The low light made him seem even more rugged, shadowing his jaw line, the hollows of his eyes, highlighting his strong, straight nose.

His hand tightened atop hers. “Don’t you want to join me? It’s cold out there.”

Circles on the inside of her wrist sent another shiver down her spine, just as a breeze, cool from the earlier rains, blew across her wet skin. Cold. Yes, it was cold, and hot, and….

“Come on.”

A voice like that should be banned.

Taylor thought about it for less than a second. “Don’t scare me like that ever again. I
hate
that. Absolutely hate it.”

A smile flashed again. “Promise.”

This was probably a mistake.

Taylor grasped the edge of the pool and lowered herself back down into the water. Gavin didn’t move. Her leg brushed his chest, his stomach, then his thigh. One of his hands remained on the side of the pool. The other went from her hand, up her arm to slide over to her waist.

Another sighing shiver as the water closed back over her. Taylor started to tread water, but Gavin was too close. She reached out and put her hand on the hard curve of his muscular shoulder.

If the man’s voice did wicked things to her, well, his body…. His body would make an artist long for a way to capture that essence of pure male. The man had to work out regularly. His sculpted shoulders and chest were visible to her above the water, making her want to run her hands down the taut, chiseled planes. If the water would allow her, which unfortunately it did not, she would probably be able to see a washboard stomach.

“Better?” he asked.

Her tongue darted out to lick the top of her lip. “Umm….”

Umm, indeed.

This time she couldn’t keep the sigh to herself.

Gavin watched her and wondered….

Her breath breezed against his face, warm and almost moaning. Almost. Gavin wished she had. Her bathing suit should be illegal. When Gavin had told her to grab a suit, he never banked on this. Black was still the sexiest color. And bikinis were man’s best friend, or worst enemy.

Taylor’s suit was all of the above. The midnight material stood out against her skin, reminding him of females of old compared to alabaster.

Taylor in some old-time dress caught his fancy, made his head turn. In jeans or trousers, she brought fantasies storming through his brain. But, Taylor, in what was basically three triangles of black spandex, wet and slick, felled him to his knees.

Her stomach curved beneath his palm, smooth, flat and soft as petals. His fingers flexed on her side, catching the breath in the back of her throat. Slowly, so as not to startle her, Gavin pulled her closer and closer to him, until she was a mere inch away.

The moon chose that moment to peek out of its cocoon, and he could see the light reflected in her eyes. Taylor’s top teeth grazed over her lower lip.

Gavin closed the rest of the distance between them, stopping just shy of kissing her. Their breaths mixed and sighed against the other. Taylor’s lids slid down over her eyes.

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He smiled as his lips closed over hers, soft and gentle. Fruit. Taylor tasted like fruit. His tongue skimmed the edge of her mouth. Nibbled, until her lips parted, allowing him access. He knew she expected him to dive in and taste her all at once like he had the night before. Hell, he wanted to. But, he wouldn’t.

As if he had all the time in the world, his tongue meandered along the curve of her smile, the edge of her teeth, the ridged roof of her mouth. Her quick in drawn breath and grin against his mouth seemed to jolt her out of her passiveness.

With something between a moan and a purr, Taylor’s arms wrapped around his neck as her tongue parried and forayed with his. She half floated, half hung onto him, her body buoyant in the water, feather light against him. Up and down.

Gavin slanted his mouth over hers, deepening the kiss. Her naked stomach slid against his, her breasts brushed against his chest making him want more. On that thought, he broke their joined mouths, before he returned to place a chaste peck on her lips. “I’ve thought of that all day today. All last night too.”

“As you can see, kissing you never crossed my mind.” Her words whispered out.

“Didn’t think so.” He cleared his throat. Taylor’s arms were stilled twined around his neck, his one hand holding the edge all that had probably kept them from going under. Madness.

Taylor was a madness to his well-ordered life. Gavin started to inch his hand back a few feet towards the shallow end, or at least where his feet could touch the bottom.

“What are you doing out here?” he asked her, paddling with his other hand to help keep them afloat. Her arms remained around his neck.

Dimples shadowed her cheeks in the low light. “Swimming.”

“Hmm….” Gavin searched her eyes, saw the tiredness, the anxiety, the worry. “Why?”

He’d managed to get his feet under him, and jerked her legs around his waist as he kept up his backward trek.

“What are you doing?” she asked, ignoring his question.

Gavin chose not to answer her. Pulling her with him, they made it to the deep steps set into a small cove in the side of the pool. He sat on one, and pulled Taylor across his lap. It wasn’t lost on him that she straddled him. Nor, from her wide-eyed, and probably flushed, expression was it lost on her.

“I can sit beside you,” she said in a voice made for the night.

Gavin draped his arms over her shoulders. “You could.”

Taylor didn’t move. Finally, she shrugged and relaxed.

The water lapped around and between them. Wet hair slicked back from her face accenting her classic beauty. High cheekbones and her patrician nose were highlighted in the shifting moonlight. Her neck was long and smooth. The moonlight glistened off pearl-drops of water clinging to her skin. He wanted to kiss them all off.

“So,” he said, letting his gaze roam back up to her face, and asking instead, “why are you out here in the middle of the night swimming?”

Again she shrugged, looked away. “I don’t know.”

“Taylor.” He brought his hand up to cup her chin and turn her face back to him.

After a moment, she answered him. “I just needed to think and the pool seemed like a great place to work off some worry.”

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Made sense. “Particular worries, or just your general worries?”

“Both.”

“That’s lots of worry there, Gorgeous. Care to share it?” he asked.

A silent moment passed between them. Crickets and cicadas sang in the night, and Gavin caught the throaty sound of frogs down by the creek.

Apparently the woman didn’t like sharing troubles, but he already knew that about her.

“I don’t understand you sometimes,” she whispered to him.

That wasn’t what he was expecting to hear. “What’s not to understand?”

“Everything.” Taylor waved one hand by his head. “One minute I think one thing about you, and the next, another. I just can’t peg you down.”