“Tess, why is there a strange, hot dude in your chair?”
Tess struggled against the weight of sleep and weariness and medication to get to the surface and answer the voice that accompanied the hand currently shaking her shoulder. She wiped a hand across her eyes, clearing away the gritty layer on her lashes and blinking into the pale light sneaking through the slats in her blinds. She stretched a little, testing out her body, and assessed that she didn’t feel one hundred percent but she did feel much better than yesterday.
“Tess, are you okay? Is that Adam Redhawk?” Mia’s face came into focus, her expression filled with equal doses of concern and curiosity.
“Mia, what are you doing here?” It was the middle of the semester and it was uncommon for her sister to make a trip home so close to midterms.
“I came home to get some quiet to study and found an expensive-as-shit-car in the driveway, you out cold in bed and him over there.” Mia pointed to the oversized chair across from her bed and to the man currently sprawled out on it.
Adam’s large frame made the chair look small and very uncomfortable. He was slumped down onto the cushions, his long legs spread out before him, a too-small throw blanket tucked up under his chin. His hair was a mess, falling over into his face and obscuring his eyes but leaving visible the five o’clock shadow darkening his jaw. He looked different in his sleep as everyone did but his vulnerability and rugged handsomeness struck her as if she’d never seen him before.
And she’d never seen him like this. When they were together it was never in a bed, never overnight. She’d never woken up with him wrapped around her, never had the chance to watch him when all of his defenses were down and it was just the man.
What a mistake. She’d missed one of the best parts.
“Sis, are you okay? I saw a prescription on the kitchen counter. Are you sick?” Mia intruded into her thoughts, stopping her from going down a path that she knew led to nowhere she belonged.
Tess circled back over the last day, recalling Adam showing up at her door, cooking the omelet, taking care of her. He’d stayed while she slept, waking her in the night to give her a second dose of the antibiotic and tucking her back into bed. And he must have stayed all night.
“I am... I was sick. Caught something and got an infection.” She shoved off the covers, sitting up in bed to facilitate her coming back to the land of the living. She waved in the general direction of the man currently the topic of discussion. “Adam stopped by to make sure I was okay. He...helped me out...must have stayed overnight.”
“Uh, okay.” Mia’s face showed the considerable effort it took for her to digest everything she’d just heard. She sputtered with words, not bothering to disguise her confusion. “Wow. That’s really nice.” And then her eyes flew open, brows shooting halfway to her hairline. “Whoa, are you two...? I mean that’s something you only do for close friends and people you’re fu—”
Tess’s hand whipped out almost on autopilot and covered Mia’s mouth. They were not going to have this discussion with Adam only a few feet away.
“I think this might be the best time for me to let you know that I’m awake.”
Adam’s deep voice rumbled out from the direction of the chair and both she and Mia jumped and spun around to watch him as he stretched, arms and legs flexing with the effort of waking. His shirt lifted up and they both caught a good, long look at his gorgeous skin and cut abs. Tess knew that body, knew that he’d be warm and silky and she knew exactly what was at the end of the delicious treasure trail of dark hair.
“Good morning,” Mia said, her smirk indicating that her thoughts were walking the same path. Tess jabbed her with a finger, fuming when she was ignored and all Mia’s attention stayed on their guest. “I’m Mia.”
Adam let out a sleepy chuckle and shook the hand her sister offered. “I’m Adam and I knew who you were.”
“Oh yeah? Tess show you a picture of me?” Tess rolled her eyes at the antics of her soon-to-be-dead little sister. She remained braced to tackle her to the ground if this conversation took a turn for the worse.
“No. You two are identical. I’d know you anywhere.” Adam rose, his hands busy with folding the blanket and draping it over the arm of the chair.
“Because we’re both so gorgeous?” Mia asked, her eyes flashing with humor and mischief.
“Mia!” Tess was only going to put up with this one more minute and then she was going to become an only child.
Adam laughed, shuffling over to press the back of his hand on her forehead, assessing her with an allover gaze that had her leaning into his touch before she could remind her treacherous body that her sister was present. It wasn’t as if Mia hadn’t seen Tess with a guy before but she wasn’t positive that all of the emotions, the feelings she had for Adam tumbling around inside her wouldn’t be evident to anyone looking. And Mia was looking.
“Definitely gorgeous.” Adam smoothed her hair back from her face, tangling his fingers in her curls and tucking one behind her ear. It was such a cheesy move but the flutter in her stomach told her that it was working. Damn him. “How are you feeling? I think your fever finally broke.”
Tess reached up to touch her own cheek, her fingers brushing against and then intertwining with his before she realized what she was doing. Hell, make a meal and change her sheets and she became a total sap for this guy.
“I’m better. You can go.”
He smirked but didn’t move.
“Thank you.” Tess put some emphasis on it, sincerity with a touch of “please go before my sister starts asking too many questions.”
“Okay. I get it. Just promise that you’ll call me if you need anything.”
“Mia is here.” She nodded toward her sister as a reminder to herself more than Adam. He nodded in return, making a move to let her hand go but she tightened her grip, giving it a squeeze. “Thank you, Adam. I’m sorry I was so much trouble—this isn’t what you signed up for.”
He glanced over his shoulder, his eyes full of humor and his voice lowered when he turned back. “I told you, I was just focusing on the friends part of the arrangement.”
Tess sucked in a breath, loving the way his thumb rubbed along her wrist and the ripples of pleasure that raced under her skin. Adam Redhawk was dangerous. She needed to remember that but it was damn easy to forget when he was this close and was looking at her like she was Christmas and his birthday all wrapped up in one package.
He pressed a discreet kiss to the same place he’d just been caressing. She felt the heat rise in her cheeks and she knew it wasn’t the fever returning, exhaling when he dropped her hand and took a step back.
“I’m going to go since you’ve got a very capable nurse.” Adam turned to address Mia. “She needs to finish all of her antibiotics and is due for another dose in a half hour and she needs lots more rest. Don’t let her tell you that she’s better and can go back to work or anything.”
“Now, wait a minute,” Tess objected, not liking the teaming of these two for one second.
Mia held up a hand to shush her. “No to work. Yes to drugs. Got it.”
Tess continued to object. She wasn’t a child and she would know when she was ready to back to work. “He’s not a doctor, you know.”
“I got my degree at WebMD,” Adam teased, backing toward the doorway like a man who was well versed in self-preservation. “Don’t come to the office for a couple of days, Tess. Don’t make me alert security to get you off the property. Call me.”
“I owe you one,” she answered, never wanting to be in anyone’s debt but knowing when it was true.
“If you insist,” he said, giving a salute as he disappeared around the corner.
Tess watched him leave, listening to his footfalls on the hallway floors and the sound of the door closing before she turned to her sister.
Mia beat her to the punch. “Don’t even try to bully me into letting you go back to work or to stop taking your meds. I’m your little sister but not an idiot.”
“I’m going to take my meds.” Tess hustled by her sister, leaving the room in a huff that she didn’t try to hide.
She was still sick, weak, flustered and confused by everything that had happened the last couple of days. And while she was glad Mia was here, she didn’t want to have the conversation her sister was going to poke and prod to have with her. It wasn’t that she wanted to hide stuff from Mia but there were lots of things that she hadn’t figured out herself. Like how to keep Adam’s trust and do what she needed to do to bring down Franklin Thornton. Like how Adam was quickly becoming important to her.
“Tess, you can take your meds and also tell me what the hell Adam Redhawk was doing in your room all night.” Mia followed on her heels like one of those annoying yappy dogs who never gave up when they had a good bone on offer.
She made her way around the kitchen island, automatically going for the coffee maker but rethinking it when her stomach gave a little gurgle. Juice sounded way more appealing, and she busied herself grabbing it from the refrigerator along with bread for toast, and avoided the intense stare of her sister across the island. She popped the bread into the toaster oven and reached for the antibiotic, taking one as prescribed and washing it down with the orange juice.
“So...how long have you been sleeping with Adam Redhawk?”
“Wow. Way to go easy on the sick person.” Tess flipped her the bird and grabbed the butter from the fridge. “He was just here to help me out. He knew you were at school.” She shrugged as she spread some butter on the toast. “He’s just a nice guy.”
“And he’s sleeping with you.” Mia reached over and twisted a piece of bread off and popped it into her mouth. “It was obvious from the way you let him fuss all over you. You never let anyone do that.”
“And you jumped to the sex conclusion?” Mia stared at her, her expression communicating that she could do this all day and Tess knew she could. Mia didn’t fall far from the stubborn tree in this family. Tess slid into the seat next to her sister, crunching down on the toast to buy some time. “It’s been a few weeks.”
“A few weeks?” Mia threw her hands up and mimicked throttling her sister around the throat. “And I’m just hearing about this now? My sister is dating—”
“Oh no.” Tess shook her head, nipping this misunderstanding in the bud. “We are not dating.”
“So, you’re a booty call? A one-and-done?”
Tess tossed down her toast onto the plate. “Holy crap, Mia. I know you’re in college but I don’t want to even think about the idea that you know what any of that means.”
“Tess, I’m twenty-one and a sexually active woman. So, wrap your head around that fact and tell me that you know what you’re doing.” Mia’s hand covered hers and Tess wondered when that had happened. It was just yesterday when Mia’s tiny, sticky fingers were engulfed by Tess’s and life had been busier but a lot less complicated. “I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
Tess swallowed hard, Mia’s words echoing the whispers that had already been circling in the back of her mind. But if she wasn’t ready to deal with them in her own head, she wasn’t ready to do it with her sister. The one she was supposed to be taking care of and not the other way around.
Tess patted Mia’s hand, another gesture that brought back memories of earlier days. “It’s just an arrangement.” She leveled her with a stare that did nothing to wipe the all-knowing grin off her face. “Not a booty call. An arrangement between two consenting adults.”
“Is one of those consenting adults still unaware of the vendetta the other consenting adult has aimed at his adopted father?”
Tess picked up her toast, taking a bite and grimacing at how the butter had congealed as the bread cooled. She chewed it anyway, forcing it down with juice and scrambling for an answer that would get her sister to drop it. With a sigh, she turned and faced off with Mia.
“Look, I know very well how this is likely to go. But it’s what needs to be done and I promise you that I’m not taking anything on that I can’t handle. Okay?”
Mia stared her down, her eyes scanning every inch of Tess’s face for something she needed to see. But for once Tess didn’t know how to give it to her.
Finally, Mia nodded and leaned over to press a kiss to her cheek. “You’re not invincible Tess. I saw how you two looked at each other and you’re headed for a whole lot of hurt if you insist on going after Franklin Thornton. I don’t want to be right but you know I am.”
And Tess did know. She just didn’t have any choice.