HeatedMatch Read online

  And yet it didn’t always work. How could he know if he’d be one of the lucky ones like Shep and live in harmony with his match, or a victim of the system like his mother? Far better not to take the risk, but it was damn hard with temptation a few inches over in the passenger seat, especially after unburdening his soul on the drive over. It felt as if he could tell her anything and there was only a paper-thin barrier between his brain and his mouth to keep him from spilling everything he was starting to feel for her.

  The connection he felt to her and the clear memory of their earlier kiss hardened his body in a flash. Without warning, his hands disconnected from his brain, and in one swift move, he unclipped his seatbelt and launched his torso over the center console, nearly knocking the gear shift into drive with his force.

  Loren faced him, an expectant look in her eyes. He met her nose to nose, her opportunity to deny him, a hairsbreadth of time. Then he was on her. Lips to lips, hands on shoulders tightening.

  Her soft moan was the healing balm of acceptance and welcome he’d been waiting for all his life. Nothing had ever tasted better than her sweet, warm mouth.

  His.

  His match.

  He plundered, taking and demanding she meet him equally. She did not disappoint.

  He licked and nibbled on her full lips, reveling in her tongue rubbing his with urgency. Time was of the essence. They’d wasted days circling around each other when they could have been doing this. Kissing, licking, petting. Adam dragged her t-shirt up and slipped his hand under. Skin softer than a thousand yards of silk heated his palm. He inched slowly toward the Holy Land until Loren took the initiative and twisted so her breast landed right where he wanted it. Her distended nipple dragged a searing line of fire across his life line.

  His world narrowed to this car, this woman. The sweet smell that was uniquely Loren filled his nostrils, mixed with something else, arousal. He eyed the backseat of the car, rejected it, then leaned across her to press her seat into a full recline. With some difficulty he maneuvered himself fully over the gear shift and onto her. He stopped to gently bite the tip of her nose when she laughed at his contortions.

  Then he was on her, lips to ankles and everything in between. Humor fled, replaced with her earnest eyes gazing deep into his. When she tugged on his head to pull him back down for a kiss, he conceded easily. Their kiss heated up even more than he’d thought possible. He was helpless not to thrust his arousal into her belly. He groaned as the friction abraded his shaft, but it was not nearly enough.

  She shifted around, trying to spread her legs to accommodate his hips between hers, but the narrow, molded car seats left no room for that kind of love play. He turned on his side, taking Loren with him, still facing each other.

  “Ow. Damn it.” He scowled as bits and pieces of the car stabbed him in his lower back. He attempted to make them more comfortable, but this time Loren cringed as her leg wedged under the glove box. He kept kissing her, but now found himself competing with her giggles.

  “Adam, stop.” More laughter.

  “Why? I can move the seat farther back. I can make this work,” he promised her with the urgency of a high school senior on prom night.

  Loren shook her head as more soft giggles escaped her swollen lips. Then she untangled an arm to point up at the window.

  He followed her finger and looked up to see the grinning face of his brother peering down on them. He groaned, banged his forehead onto Loren’s shoulder and wished for a transporter that could take him and Loren anywhere but here. Somewhere with a large bed.

  Suddenly, Loren’s passenger door opened with a crack. Rowan leaned in to help extricate them from the car. Easier said than done. It took a near-dislocated shoulder to untangle Loren from him and the car. Adam got out with slightly more grace to stand next to her. She was greeting Rowan and trying not to stare at the place where his right arm was supposed to be.

  Loren hid her shock with a wide smile, but between Adam’s revelations and heated kisses on top of Rowan’s surprise appearance, she was grateful to be upright and not a pool of jelly on the steaming summer sidewalk. The brothers greeted each other with that half handshake, half hug combined with back pounding that masculine men loved. Like a true, full-armed hug was something shameful. Or maybe in this case it was logistically difficult, given Rowan’s missing limb.

  She wondered how he’d lost it. Had he been born without it, or had there been an accident later in life? Life could be tough on these streets, and based on what Adam had told her, losing an arm from a fight seemed entirely more plausible than Rowan being born without one. Especially since he was a son of two people matched for their ability to produce a more perfect human.

  Her mind reeled and whirled at the possibilities. Perhaps, Rowan had been born without the arm, and that was the source of contention between Adam’s parents. It seemed unlikely. Had his father really flipped out over one tiny missing limb? Although not that tiny, given the size of Rowan’s physique. He and Adam could easily be mistaken for twins, except Rowan stood two inches taller than Adam’s six feet even, and lacked twenty odd inches of sinew, bone and fingers.

  But as she trailed behind the brothers who strolled toward Rowan’s row home, she had a sick feeling that Rowan was the link to the mystery of Adam’s extreme opposition to the Program’s matching system. He’d said he was damaged goods. Did he think that because his brother was missing a limb? She’d have to do a little digging back at the Program compound to see if they truly looked at one tiny missing limb as such a handicap. She shook her head then hurried after the two men who’d walked ahead, talking in low, hushed whispers. When they reached the steps of a narrow, gray house with crumbling concrete steps and black iron bars over the windows, Rowan turned and smiled at her.

  “Welcome. Mi casa es su casa and all that.” He swung the door open with a flourish and gestured she should enter. Adam followed close on her back. She picked her way over Red Bull cans and empty Corona bottles toward a sagging, ancient couch, which once had bright flowers on the upholstery, but now looked like splotches of questionable origin.

  She found the cleanest spot she could and sank down onto it, her legs still not entirely trustworthy after her heated make-out session in Adam’s car. He and Rowan stood a room’s distance apart, Rowan leaning back against the closed front door. Adam stood near her but stared at Rowan and ignored her to the degree she felt like nudging his foot with her toe and asking what the heck she was doing here.

  “Ro, what’s going on?” Adam broke the silence.

  Rowan approached the couch in a sprawling gait that screamed, Ignore me, I’m a lazy, worthless nothing. Loren didn’t buy it. She’d seen the deep humor in Rowan’s eyes when he’d discovered his big brother hitting on a girl in a parked car. Not to mention how easily he pulled her from the passenger seat. His missing arm didn’t mean his body was missing any strength or power. She got the sense he more than made up for his deficiency with muscles elsewhere.

  She glanced from brother to brother. Adam’s grim face. Rowan’s easy expression.

  “Chris is threatening me,” Rowan said.

  “Why?” Adam asked.

  “He was the one who pulled the unregistered gun at the party last week. Now he’s worried I’m going to rat him out in court and he’s going to jail.” Rowan rolled his eyes as if the mere idea he’d rat out a friend was ridiculous.

  “But you’ll have to tell the truth. Won’t you?” Loren ignored the disbelief thrown her way and forged on. “I mean, if you’re on a witness stand, you have to tell the truth or you’ll end up in trouble.”

  Rowan shot her a patient, pointed look. “Duh, sweets. That’s why Adam’s here, so my big shot lawyer brother can give me some four-one-one.”

  Loren zipped up her lips under the force of the look Adam shot her. Lawyer? Adam? Rowan thought Adam was a lawyer and it seemed Adam had perpetuated the lie.

  “Tell Chris to shut it and calm the fuck down,” Adam said.

 
“Dude, I did.”

  Each brother fell into established roles and patterns, with Adam as the older protector and Rowan as a helpless baby brother. Things needed to change around here, and roles needed shaking up. It was obvious after only five minutes in their company.

  “Motherfucker called me from prison yesterday and threatened me. That boy is cee-razy, with a capital C.” Rowan shook his head as if shaking off the threat. “If he gets out, he’ll keep coming after me, ’til it’s him or me. I’m not getting dragged down with him, but I’ll be dayamed if I let him challenge me.”

  She rapidly translated Rowan’s slang and debated about the wisdom of interfering, but couldn’t keep her mouth shut. “Is he your friend? If so, and he’s truly crazy, then he needs help. Maybe you can push to have him declared insane.”

  She held her ground under the weight of twin skeptical frowns. “You should,” she insisted.

  “Chris ain’t my friend, but I’ve known him all my life,” Rowan said.

  “He’s our neighbor. This is the house we grew up in. Chris wanted to be in charge once I left,” Adam explained. “He thinks life is still like high school. He’s never had a job. Just hangs out all day.”

  If Loren had been watching Adam instead of Rowan, she would have missed the flicker of emotion that ran across Rowan’s face when Adam talked about leaving the neighborhood. Comprehension dawned. Adam escaped the house when he was fifteen, leaving Rowan by himself. Rowan probably saw it as complete abandonment and betrayal and still remained locked in the past in his childhood home. Her suspicions were confirmed at Adam’s next words.

  “Speaking of which, Ro… What are you up to? What happened to the money I sent you? Why are the steps out front still broken? Do you need me to call the contractor?” Adam sounded like a nagging parent.

  Oh yes, this situation needed to change. “No, Rowan shouldn’t bother fixing the steps. He’s coming with us,” Loren said. “It solves his Christopher problem.”

  A lesser woman would have bolted at the quelling looks Adam and Rowan threw her. Loren held her ground. “Rowan should come back to Beltsville with us,” she repeated. As someone who’d been left in the dark about significant portions of her parentage, she fully sympathized with Rowan. He deserved the crash course in the Program she’d received. It was justice, plain and simple.

  “Why? So Adam can dress me like a suited-up, tie-wearing monkey and parade me around his office?”

  She shot Adam a look. Tell him. Tell him you don’t wear a tie unless for deception. Trust him. “What does your dad think Rowan should do?” she asked.

  And that was the sound of shit hitting the fan. She had always wondered what that sounded like. Now she knew. As soon as the words left her lips, her top layer of skin could have burned from the intensity of their narrowed stares.

  “My father?” Rowan choked out. “My father is dead, lady. He died when I was born, leaving us no money. That’s why we grew up in this shit hole.”

  Silence descended on the room with all the force and magnitude of a volcanic eruption. His gut tightened and his vision blurred. Little Miss Reporter had to go and spill the beans. He’d told her to play it cool, but no, she had to go and say something. Granted, he’d been debating for weeks, years really, that the time was right to tell Rowan the truth. Still, it would’ve been nice to make the call himself.

  “Rowan, sit down.”

  For once his baby brother obeyed without any lip. “Loren’s telling the truth. Isn’t she? Your, our father is alive.”

  When Rowan’s mouth opened to fire more questions, Adam stopped him with a hand gesture and the dirty truth. “Yes, he’s alive. But he thinks you’re dead.”

  Rowan’s mouth opened again. But then he stood with a lurch and slammed out of the room into the adjacent bedroom. No sounds emerged for several minutes.

  Adam stared in contemplative silence at Loren who sat across from him, looking at her feet. Despite his anger, he couldn’t stand to see dejection painted on her. He moved over to the couch and lifted her chin with his knuckles.

  Unshed, shiny tears filled her eyes. “I’m sorry,” she said. Then she threw her arms around him and held on tight.

  He hesitated a heartbeat then pulled her onto his lap and held her like the lifeline she was becoming. “It’s all right,” he murmured.

  “I didn’t know.” Her muffled voice rose up from his shoulder.

  “No, you didn’t.”

  “I should’ve kept my big mouth shut. You told me to play it cool, but no. I had to blabber and spill the beans.”

  “Yeah.” He rubbed circles on her lower back with his palm. “You spilled them, all right. Just ripped open the bag.”

  At that, Loren rose up and looked him in the eye. “Rowan had a right to know about his dad, and your father has a right to know about Rowan. You should never have kept that from them. If I hadn’t stumbled onto your Beltsville compound, I’d still be in the dark about my own dad.”

  Fifteen years of guilt welled up and spilled out in his words. Adam hugged Loren tightly to his chest. “You’re right. I’ve told myself every day for the last fifteen years that today was the day I would come clean. But there was always one reason or another to keep it from them. Plus, I was scared.”

  “Of what?” Her gentle hand stroked his forearm, offering hope and redemption.

  “After I left Rowan, I became a killer. I never wanted to see judgment or disappointment in Rowan’s eyes. He looks up to me, you know? I’m his amazing big brother who actually got out and became a lawyer. He thinks I went to college.” He tried to hide how much he’d wanted to go to college. He even had an SAT study guide stashed somewhere in his room.

  She said nothing. Just snuggled in close and continued to rub his arm. Her silence forced Adam to look inward. How would he feel if the situation had been reversed? If Rowan was born perfect and whole, and he was left behind to struggle for pennies without parental guidance. He buried his face in Loren’s glossy silk curls and inhaled. Her subtle floral scent offered comfort and bolstered his courage to go talk to his brother.

  He stood and lifted her off his lap in a deft move. He took three steps toward the shut door and raised his fist to knock, but the door swung open before he could make contact.

  Rowan filled the doorway with an expression on his face he’d never seen before on his baby brother. Red rimmed his eyes, but no tears were evident now.

  “You’re going to take me to our father. Now.” Rowan’s voice reeked of authority, all humor bled out, the street slang gone. It was the voice of an officer, a voice to be obeyed.

  Adam met his brother’s gaze head-on and shook his head. “I can’t. But I will go get him and bring him back here.”

  Rowan took a step closer and for the first time in his adult life Adam thought he’d have to duck a punch from his brother.

  “And how do I know you’ll come back? Maybe you’ll disappear like you do so well.”

  He cringed from the pain in his brother’s voice.

  “Adam. It won’t work. The truth is going to come out anyway. Keeping Rowan here won’t hide it.” Loren’s voice floated through the room, a rational breeze on the wind of discord.

  He weighed his options. Taking Rowan, a civilian, to the compound meant some paperwork and hand-slaps from Shep. But Rowan would be safer there, removed from Chris and the old neighborhood. Plus, ghosts of the past wafted through here like poisonous fumes. It was time to man up and do what should’ve been done twenty-seven years ago.

  Forty five minutes later the trio entered the Beltsville compound, Rowan still looking a little shell-shocked. “What is this place? This is your pad?” he asked.

  “Yep.” Adam nodded. “I’ve lived here since I left you and mom.”

  “So, let me get this straight. Humor me, cause I-I’m still blown away here. You’re not a lawyer. You’re one of those genetic soldiers that were in the paper a few weeks ago, and I could’ve been one too if I was whole.” Rowan rubbed at his chin wi
th a scarred hand.

  Adam kept silent. This was twice in a month now he’d inducted someone into his world. First Loren, now Rowan. Maybe he should quit his day job and become the welcoming committee.

  He steered his car into the underground garage and chose a spot. Good, his dad’s car was there. He’d thought about calling ahead to warn him, but what was there to say, really? Hi Dad. Stay home ‘cause in about an hour I’m bringing my brother home. Yep, my brother. The son you thought dead for the last twenty-seven years. He’s alive. It’s cool, right?

  No, better to spring it on him in person.

  Three car doors slammed in succession as he, Loren and Rowan exited. He led the way to the garage exit and out into the sunshine. Loren took a step away from them as if to head for another part of campus. When he shot her a look and stepped closer, she sighed.

  “Are you sure you want me to stay? I feel like I’m intruding. How is your dad going to react?” she asked. “Plus, I want to go check on Chase. We left him a while ago. I hope the doctors got him more comfortable.”

  He reached for her hand and held it. “I’ll check on Chase with you afterward. Stay, because I want you there. This is not going to be an easy conversation, and I’d feel better if you were there.” It was surprisingly easy to confess his emotional needs to her. And it wasn’t a ploy. Lies had come easy to him in the past if it helped with an operation, but with Loren, it was truth. He wanted her with him, trusted her judgment and thought she could help facilitate Rowan’s introduction to his father. Damn, he needed to man up and not depend on her emotionally, and tomorrow he would, but today he needed her. She’d be gone soon anyway now that she’d seen Rowan and understood what he’d meant by having compromised DNA.

  Her smile warmed him and she tugged him closer with her hand as she stood on tiptoe to place a soft, lingering kiss on the corner of his lips. When she made to pull away, he pulled her back, a promise for more in the kiss. Man, as soon as Rowan was settled, he was dragging Loren to the nearest bed. For at least a day. He couldn’t and wouldn’t keep her forever, but he had to be with her one last time before she went back to the real world.