Emma slid her hand along his thigh, murmuring, “Oh, honey, you have no idea.”

Before their flirtation could escalate, Brant was pulling into the driveway of her apartment complex. A sudden onset of nerves seemed to hold them both speechless. Should he ask to come in or let her make the first move? Wasn’t the guy usually expected to do that? Hell, he didn’t know and he’d never really cared before. You didn’t have these kinds of complications with casual sex. Everything was defined ahead of time. Now he felt like he had been reduced to a teenage boy on his first real date.

This kind of indecision was completely foreign to him. A few days ago, he would have imagined the final leg of this journey being much different. He could think only that if he had been forced to take her home, he would have brought the car to some kind of a rolling stop and asked her to jump out. When she did, he would have peeled out of the parking lot in his haste to finally be free of her after a weekend of complete hell.

The reality now, though, was so different. Just a few days with someone whom he finally admitted to himself that he desired had changed everything. He wanted nothing more than to follow her into her apartment and make love to her until they both passed out from sheer exhaustion. The fact that he thought of it as making love and not having sex was not lost on him. “So . . . do you . . .” They both almost jumped out of their skin when Emma’s phone shrilled in the confined space of the car. He thought he heard her mutter a curse under her breath when she looked at the screen.

Brant saw her wage a mental debate before clicking to answer the call. “Hi, Mom, can I call you back in a bit? We just got home.” She listened for a minute before exclaiming, “What! Oh crap, are you kidding me?”

Brant laid a hand over hers, quietly asking, “Is something wrong?”

Putting her hand over the phone, she said, “Boston got busted in a campus raid for possession of marijuana.”

He fought the urge to ask why they were so surprised by that fact but decided now might not be the best time to point that out.

“Mom, let me get in my apartment and I’ll keep trying to reach Uncle Ted.” She clicked to end the call and sagged back against the seat. “I so didn’t need this today.” She turned her head to look at him. “I have to go in and try to reach my dad’s brother, Ted. He’s a lawyer in Destin.” Brant did his best to hide a smile when she repeated his earlier thoughts. “Why is any of this surprising? Everyone in the family knows he is high as a kite more often than not. He’s studying botany, for God’s sake. Not only is he constantly smoking weed, apparently he’s growing the stuff as well.”

“What can I do to help?” he asked.

“Turn my brother into a scholar and not a pothead?” she asked hopefully.

Kissing her hand, he smiled. “Sorry, baby. That may be a tall order. How about I help you inside with your bags and let you do what you need to do for your family?” He could tell by the longing in her expression that they had both had other ideas about how the evening would end and now that was over. She needed to help her brother and that would be easier for her if he went home and let her concentrate.

He didn’t know if it was his imagination, but their pace seemed to drag by mutual consent as they made it up the one flight of stairs to her apartment. She opened the door and he had just a glimpse of the brightly painted wall behind her before she turned in the doorway. He gave her a gentle kiss on the lips, mindful of the fact that neither of them needed to end the night any more frustrated than they already were. “Brant . . .”

He put his finger against her lips. “I know . . . I’ll see you tomorrow. If something comes up and you need the day off, just call me.”

With one more brief brush against her lips, he forced himself to turn and retrace his steps. Fuck, his life seemed to be filled with bad timing.

Chapter Twelve

Brant was at the office early the next morning. He tried telling himself it was just to get through the backlog of work waiting for him, but he knew it was to see Emma. They could go to lunch together later on and talk about what was going on between them. He smiled to himself, thinking it would be a better meal than the cold sandwiches she usually brought back on her own for him. As he walked through the lobby of the Danvers International building, he was surprised to see Mac there waiting for the elevator. Mackinley Powers had been a friend of the family for many years. He and Brant’s brother, Declan, had enlisted in the marines together and served a couple of tours before coming home. Mac ran a security company with Danvers as one of its clients so it wasn’t unusual to see him in the building. Plus, he was a very hands-on boss and didn’t leave much to chance. He turned as he heard Brant approach. Mac clapped him on the shoulder. “Hey, good morning, man, didn’t know you were back yet.”

“Morning, Mac. Yeah, we got in yesterday. This is an early morning for you, isn’t it?”

Grimacing, Mac said, “For sure, but I offered to cover for one of my guys today. His mom was having surgery so he needed to be there. I was just going to do a walk-through before things got under way today. I had dinner with Declan, Ella and Evan last night. Shit, that’s really hard to adjust to now, but I’m happy for him.”

Brant smiled in return. He had similar feelings where his brother was concerned. It was almost surreal to have the wild child of the family married with a new baby on the way and a son. When Declan discovered that he had fathered a child six years ago from a one-night stand, he had stepped up to the plate and was now an active parent to Evan. Coincidentally, a short time later, his new wife, Ella, had found out she was pregnant. It was a huge shift in Declan’s life after leaving the military and suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome over the death of a friend in Afghanistan. Ella had helped him turn it all around and now he was the most content that Brant had ever seen him. “I know what you mean. It’s been hard for me to believe as well, but he deserves it. Was Ava also there?”

Mac looked away, obviously uncomfortable with the question. “No, I left before she arrived. It’s . . . just different now.”

Brant looked at Mac, surprised by his shuttered expression. For as long as he could remember, Mac had been in love with his sister. He knew that she loved him in her own way, but so far that hadn’t been enough to make her take a chance, and now maybe that would never happen. “Has something happened between you two?”