"What the hell?" he whispered. Dropping his hands to my shoulders, he stared right at my face.
"Talk to me." He used his forceful, bedroom tone, which made me swallow deeply. Now was not the time for my clit to throb like a bucking bronco.
"I thought I could trust her," I said softly. "Now I don't know who I can trust."
That was the truth, without coming out and saying it directly.
"You think you can't trust me?" He looked hurt, like I kicked him in the nuts at the same time as I kicked his puppy. Those would be some mad gymnastics skills.
I looked away, my gaze on nothing in particular.
"I don't know," I said. "Right now, I'm not sure I trust myself."
"Look at me," he said. "Harlow. Look. At. Me." When I brought my gaze back to his face he said, "I don't know what I have to say to make you understand, but you can trust me. I'd never betray you. For one thing, I love you. For another, you'd stab me in the balls if I pissed you off."
I snort-laughed, then blinked at him a couple of times.
"You love me?"
"So much." He lowered his forehead to mine, lightly touching. "Please don't stab me in the balls."
"You've never given me reason to," I admitted. I wanted so badly to believe him.
"You have every reason to be careful," he said. "I'd be worried if you weren't questioning everyone and everything. In myexperience, blind faith is a bad thing. It leads to complacency. And complacency leads to…"
"Walking into your restaurant and finding one of your staff members lying dead on the floor?" I said. "Yeah, complacency is a bad idea."
"At least you aren't fucking," Jules said as he stepped back into the restaurant, a box in his arms.
We jumped apart and let out matching sighs of relief.
"What took you so long?" I asked.
"Awww, were you worried about me?" He placed the box on the table and opened it to reveal smaller boxes, each containing a lightbulb.
"Pfft, of course not." I waved my hand dismissively. "We couldn't get rid of you that easily. I know, I've tried."
“Uh-huh, sure," Jules said, clearly disbelieving. "Admit it, you were worried about me."
"You didn't answer the question," Cass said. "What took you so long?" Apparently my wariness was contagious.
"They had to get more from out the back," Jules said easily. "It took them a while to find them. Excuse me if I wasn't walking out with two less than we needed. Call me anal, but leaving two bulbs warm would drive me bananas."
I looked over at Cass. "Would we call him anal?"
Cass slid a sly smile in his brother's direction.
"Ha fucking ha." Jules started to pull out the smaller boxes and open them. "Shouldn't you be cooking or something? I'll get started on installing these."
I nodded. "There's a step ladder in the storage room if you need it."
"Can't reach without one." He inspected the bulb in his hand, but seemed satisfied it was what he wanted.
"You could, but I prefer people not stand on chairs or tables in my restaurant," I said. "I'll be in the kitchen if you two needanything." I figured the job would go faster with both of them working on it at the same time.
"Are you going to admit you were worried about me?" Jules called to my back.
I turned back and gave him a small smile before heading into the kitchen.
