She would shut down if he brought it up, and given his own complicated part in her relationship with Mei, he wasn’t eager to delve into that Pandora’s box. He was also smart enough to know weight wasn’t a subject women enjoyed discussing at length. So he would keep his trap shut and merely continue feeding her.
“Trouble with Kati-cat?”
He ignored her use of his nickname for his sister. Kati would kill him if she knew a third party had overheard it. Especially Akira. “There’s always something with teenage girls, isn’t there?”
Her shoulders lifted. “She’s not the type to get in trouble, though, right?”
His eyes narrowed at her subtle emphasis on the wordtype. “She’s a good girl,” he agreed slowly. “Has great grades, is focused on college.”
Akira took a drink from the beer. He had never seen her drink beer at parties, only wine or liquor, but the lager didn’t seem to faze her. “Oh, Jacob.” Her expression was mildly pitying.
“What?”
“I’m going to clue you in on something you really should be aware of.” She leaned closer. “There’s no such thing as good girls and bad girls, or the right crowd or the wrong crowd. Life isn’t that simple.”
“I know,” he protested.
“Do you? Or have you put her up on her own mini pedestal? Maybe that’s why any problems you have with her throw you for a loop.”
“So, what, I’m just supposed to expect the worst from her?”
“No. Expect her to be a human.” She pointed her finger at him, stern. “When I was at your cabin and you were calling her? I bet you a thousand dollars Kati was with her boyfriend that weekend.”
That was an easy bet to take. He tried to keep his smugness to a minimum. “She doesn’t have a boyfriend.”
“Maybe she hasn’t introduced him to you yet. Because, and I further bet, you and your brothers have successfully scowled and run off any guy she does bring home.”
Lies. He was the soul of hospitality to all of Kati’s friends. Even the bastard, pimply-faced boys who hovered around, panting after her. “Trust me. She doesn’t have a boyfriend.”
Akira cocked her head. “She talks to him on the phone a lot. Maybe he’s dropped by to study with her. They go silent when you walk in on them.”
A tall, skinny kid popped into his head. Quiet, a bit shy, who blushed any time Kati spoke. Their heads had been awfully close together when he’d walked in on them studying at the kitchen table a few weeks ago… “Darren,” he growled.
Akira mimed a shooting motion. “Darren’s your man. Or rather, Kati’s man. Boy. Whatever.”
He thought of the hesitancy in Kati’s voice when he had called her from the cabin, the way she had quickly switched the subject to Akira. “She’s going to get a lot more than her phone taken away if she lied to me and then spent the weekend with some boy,” he grumbled.
“Bah.” Akira waved her hand. “Give the kid a break. It could have been a lot worse. I won’t tell you what I was doing with my weekends at that age.”
“She’s a young girl…”
“And in a few short months, she won’t be under your supervision at all.” The words shot through him, burrowing into his heart, but she was relentless. “Soon, she could be shooting crack and having orgies on the weekends, and there won’t be a damn thing you can do about it. Let her learn while you’re still around.”
He subsided, unhappy. “I’m going to ask her.”
“Fine. But don’t be a dick about it.”
“I know you might find this hard to believe, but I am capable of not being a dick,” he said wryly.
She pressed her hand against her chest, an action which brought his gaze directly to that expanse of smooth flesh. “Did you…did you just use the D word?”
“I can do a lot more than use it.” The words came out unbidden, the sexual entendre surprising them both. It was just that this conversation was coming so easily, so naturally, both of them merely speaking with one another without thinking about their history or consequences or—
Jacob stiffened. He didn’t need to rationalize a lapse in decorum, damn it. He was a fully grown man. Let her see he wasn’t a type either.
Her lips curved wickedly, and she stretched her legs, drawing his instant attention. God, he loved those legs, displayed to perfection tonight in her clinging skinny jeans. They were long and muscular, her thighs and calves strong.
Strong enough to wrap around a man’s waist as he drove into her, trapping her body against a wall in a room lit by a dim bare bulb…
