Her Lone Wolves (5 page)

Caleb only laughed, but there was a sharp edge to his laughter that sent a chill down Jane’s spine. Avery, who sat next to her, passed her the platter of food first. She forked a thick, juicy steak onto her plate, along with a helping of golden-brown potatoes and some of the salad, which only she and Avery ate.

The food was delicious and the three men ate in silence. Jane was starving so all she did was eat too, but there was a knot in her stomach because the tension between Everett and Caleb was still palpable. Once dinner was done, she helped Avery clear away the table. Everett and Caleb went into the living room. Jane couldn’t help wondering if they were going to continue their argument in there.

“Dinner was very good,” she said as she helped him load the dishes into the dishwasher.

Avery smiled. “Thanks.”

“And thank you for washing and pressing my clothes for me. It was you, wasn't it?”

Avery nodded and she was surprised to see a blush on his handsome face.

“Do you do all the cooking?” she asked.

“Yep. Someone's gotta do it. Or else we'd wind up having to—” Avery stopped and cleared his throat. “I don't mind. As I said someone has to do it. You won't catch either Everett or Caleb messing around in the kitchen. Not unless Caleb's in here looking for beer.”

“Why not?”

Avery looked over at her, his hazel eyes wide. “Because it's women's work.”

“Women's work? Cooking isn't women's work. It's just work. Is that why Caleb treats you the way he does? Because he thinks cooking and cleaning is women's work and that lessens you in some way?”

Avery shrugged. “I don't know half of why Caleb does what he does.”

“But you're twins. Don’t twins usually have some kind of psychic connection?”

“I guess. I really don’t know. But we’re not identical twins. And we're nothing alike. But I supposed you already noticed that.” Then he laughed. “Sometimes I think we both had different fathers. But that’s not possible is it?”

Jane wanted to tell him that, in fact, it was possible for a woman to give birth to fraternal twins with different fathers. She’d read about it in a magazine. The window for a double conception was narrow, however. About five days, but she kept silent. It wasn’t any of her business whether Avery and Caleb had the same father.

“Now what?” she asked as she dried her hands then placed the towel back on the rack.

Avery glanced around. “The kitchen’s all done. Guess it’s time to relax.”

Jane glanced sharply at him, but there was nothing on his face to suggest he meant anything by what he’d said.

“What do you guys do to relax?” She hoped it didn’t involve skinning animals. Or people.

Avery shrugged. “Not much. If it wasn’t for the storm we'd still be taking care of stuff around the place. That’s pretty much all we do here is work. But looks like we're stuck inside for the time being.”

He left the kitchen and Jane followed.

“You got a television?”

He headed toward the living room. “Sure. Wide-screen. Picked it up in town last year.”

“But I’m betting you don’t have Wi-Fi or any kind of connection with the outside world?”

“Nope. Everett says we don't need it.”

“But what if something were to happen to one of you?” she asked.

“Like what?”

“I don't know. What if you got hurt?”

“We'd get better,” he said.

Jane frowned. What were they? Survivalists? Terrorists? Wanted criminals? That scary feeling came over her again. But what could she do? Run out into that blizzard and wind up freezing to death? As much as it troubled her to have to do so, she had to trust them. She had no other choice.

The living room contained a wide-screen television, just as Avery had said. He stood next to a cabinet. Inside were shelves of DVDs. Caleb sat in a large, leather-upholstered chair polishing a pair of boots, while Everett, who sat in a chair just as big and leathery as Caleb's, hunched over a chess set on a table in front of him.

Everett looked over at her. “You play?”

“I used to, but I haven’t since high school.”

“Couldn't have been that long ago,” Caleb said. “You don't look any older than a cheerleader.”

Then he gave her that long, slow, once-over look again. It was all Jane could do not to slap him, but she had an unsettling feeling that, instead of being insulted, he'd take it as an invitation for intimacy between them.

“I wasn’t a cheerleader,” she said. “I was in the chess club.”

Caleb snorted. “A nerd. Figures.”

She didn’t like his tone. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

He tilted his head, his eyes moving slowly up and down her body again.

“Don’t mean nothing,” he finally said.

She looked back at Everett. He was staring at her. Then he looked over at Caleb. “Guess that leaves you.”

Caleb sighed heavily as if the last thing he wanted to do was play chess. “Just let me finish up these boots.”

Everett started setting out the chess pieces. “Don't take all night.”

“Hold your damn horses,” Caleb snapped. “It ain't like we got anything else better to do.”

He looked over at Jane, his green eyes smoldering, his burning gaze licking across her body like flames, and there was no doubt in her mind as to what Caleb would rather be doing.

She went over to Avery, who was still looking over the DVDs in the cabinet. “That’s quite a collection.”

“Thanks. They’re mine. I love movies. Do you?”

“Yes, very much so.”

He smiled, his hazel eyes warm. “Those two don't much care for movies.”

“Hey, I like movies,” Caleb said.

“Yeah, but all the movies you like have titles like
Sorority Sluts
.” Avery looked apologetically over at Jane. “Sorry.”

“It's okay.” She studied the rows of movies. “You've got a lot of my favorites here.”

Avery’s smile widened. “Really?”

Jane nodded. “I love classic movies.”

“You wanna watch one?”

“I'd love to.” She pointed to a movie on the shelf she’d seen before but had always loved. “How about that one?”

“Excellent choice. That’s my all-time favorite.”

Jane couldn’t help but smile at Avery’s enthusiasm. Then she heard Caleb snorting behind them. “They’re
all
his all-time favorites. Man’s got no standards so don’t let it go to your head.”

Avery’s smile dimmed. Jane had no idea what the deal was between the twins, but she didn’t like how Caleb seemed to go out of his way to take digs at his brother. She’d been an only child, so she had no idea how brothers were supposed to act. Maybe Caleb’s behavior was normal.

Avery took the DVD off the shelf and loaded it into the player. Caleb finished polishing his boots. He then dragged his chair over until he was sitting directly across from Everett, the chess set between them. Avery sat on the couch in front of the TV. Jane followed and sat next to him. She noted both Caleb and Everett staring at them.

Everett finally looked away and moved one of his pieces. When Caleb continued to stare at Jane and Avery, Everett snapped. “Your move.”

The movie started and, for a while, Jane lost herself in it. But she was aware of Avery's presence next to her on the couch and that, as Everett and Caleb's chess game went on, the two were once again arguing. It started when Everett accused Caleb of playing recklessly and not taking the game seriously.

Jane glanced at Avery, but if he seem troubled by what was going on he gave no sign. She remembered he’d said that his brother and Everett were always butting heads. But she wondered if that was true and if, in fact, something else was going on.

Caleb suddenly shot up from his chair and knocked the chess set over.

Jane, who had been engrossed in a particularly dramatic scene in the movie, jumped, her heart beating fast. She hadn’t been paying attention to what was going on with the chess game so she had no idea what had made Caleb so mad.

“I'm sick and tired of you telling me how to play this goddamned game,” Caleb growled. “Especially since I always manage to beat you when I play it my way.”

“Not all the time,” Everett replied, his voice strangely calm despite the fact all the chess pieces were now scattered across the floor. “I beat you nine times out of ten if you remember.”

“How can I help but remember,” Caleb said. “You remind me of it all the fucking time.”

Everett looked up at him from where he sat in his chair. “Pick up the pieces.”

“You pick ‘em up. They’re yours. Not mine.”

Everett slowly rose from his chair. “Do it. Now.”

Caleb thrust his face at Everett. “Fuck you. I’m tired of you telling me what to do. You hear? And I’m starting to think that maybe it's time we had a new leader of the—

Everett hit Caleb square in the face. Jane gasped and jumped up from the couch.

The blow was hard enough it should have knocked Caleb down, but he remained upright, his hands bunching into fists.

Avery rose from the couch, but he remained near Jane.

Caleb looked as if he were about to throw himself at Everett. Blood trickled from the side of his mouth. He slowly wiped it away. He glanced at Jane. His upper lip curled, showing his teeth. Then he turned and left the room.

“You didn't have to do that,” Avery said.

Everett glared at him. “You challenging me too?”

Avery quickly lowered his eyes. “No. I’m not challenging.”

Everett then looked over at Jane, his eyes burning. “Go upstairs to your room.”

Jane was about to protest. Everett was sending her away like a child who’d misbehaved, but she hadn’t done a thing. If anything, she’d done her best to keep out of the middle of whatever was going on among the three men.

“You’d best do as he says,” Avery said in a low voice. His hazel eyes were pleading. She looked over at Everett, who was still staring darkly at her.

“Good night, Avery.” she said, pointedly ignoring Everett.

“Night, Jane,” Avery said.

She went upstairs. There was no sign of Caleb. She entered her room and closed the door behind her. Although it appeared on the surface Caleb and Everett had come to blows over a chess game, she knew, though she could not have said how she knew, that it had really been about her.

And that thought both scared her and excited her.

Chapter Six

Everett shoved a forkful of eggs into his mouth as he stared at the empty chairs at the kitchen table. Avery, who sat to his right, focused on his breakfast. Caleb and Jane had yet to come down.

He frowned. Despite the fact Caleb seemed to be jerking his chain of late, Everett doubted he’d go so far as to fuck a woman before Everett had. He was Clan leader. Any woman was his by right and then, after he’d mated with her, the others could have her.

If he let them of course.

Everett grimaced when he felt his cock stirring. Damn it all to hell, he wanted Jane. As much as he wanted her out of his life, he also wanted her beneath him, her nails raking down his bare back and digging into his ass as he fucked her.

And it wasn’t just because it’d been some time since he’d had a woman. It was Jane too. Even now, he could see her in his mind’s eye. The way she had looked that first time. Asleep, naked and altogether vulnerable in his bed.
His bed
. All that long, bright hair tousled about her heart-shaped face and those big, mouth-watering tits.

He shook his head as he ate more of his eggs. Those breasts had to be fake. No woman with a body that slim could genuinely have breasts that big. But, then again, she didn't strike him as the kind of person who'd go in for plastic surgery neither. If anything, she seemed to go out of her way to play down her looks. Of course, since she didn’t have her bag with her, she might be the kind of woman who liked to cover her face with cosmetics. He hoped not. He preferred the natural look. He didn’t like women who were all made up.

He cut into a thick piece of ham then looked over at Avery. “Maybe you should go upstairs and wake those two. Before their breakfast gets cold.”

Avery shrugged and picked up a glass of orange juice. “Don’t see any reason to. I'm sure they'll be down shortly.”

Everett grunted. As he finished the last of his ham, he was of a mind to go up and get them himself. Maybe catch them in the act. He didn't know why he was so suspicious. Caleb wouldn’t dare touch her. Not if he wanted to keep living, he wouldn’t.

“Morning, Caleb,” Everett heard Avery say.

He looked up from where he'd been glowering at his plate as Caleb came into the dining room.

“You slept late,” Everett said, his eyes tracking Caleb as he sat down at the table.

He wasn’t exactly sure what he was looking for. Hickeys? Or some sign that Caleb and Jane had been together? But, except for his disheveled hair and his customary surly, early-morning expression, Caleb didn’t appear any different than any other morning.

Caleb yawned hugely, spooned some eggs onto his plate and stabbed a thick slice of ham from the platter with his fork. “Can't a man sleep in if he's tired?”