She shrugged, her expression sheepish. “If you want to.”
He pushed his chair back from his desk. “That’s not what I asked.”
Her big brown eyes widened as he stepped around his desk and moved toward her.
“I asked if you wanted me to invite him.” Nico stopped directly in front of her, ignoring personal boundaries because he could. And when she looked at him the way she was now—eyes wide, chewing on her bottom lip—he could practically see the X-rated thoughts running through her mind.
He couldn’t get enough of her. It didn’t matter that they now shared the same bed every night or worked in the same office every day. Nico wanted more. More of her time, more of her touch. He was addicted to her. Probably always had been, but he’d been too stubborn to admit it to himself.
And just like Stone, Nico was ready for the next phase of their relationship. He was ready to jump in with both feet. Not just with Stevie. He wanted the same with Stone. More time. More touch. More everything. He simply didn’t know how to broach the subject. They’d been moving fast, or so it seemed. At the same time, it felt like they were wading in quicksand, moving nowhere.
Nico cocked an eyebrow. “Yes or no?”
“Yes,” Stevie said, a shiver vibrating her small frame when he put his hands on her hips.
“Yes, what?”
“Invite him to dinner.”
“Maybe we should make him invite us,” Nico teased, leaning in, aching to fuse his mouth to hers.
“Maybe we should,” she whispered, her hands flattening on his chest.
God, he could get lost in her so easily. He could spend hours ignoring what needed to get done simply so he could—
Someone cleared their throat.
Nico glanced over to see Tara standing a few feet away. She was looking at the floor as though that offered them the privacy they’d thought they had.
Stevie giggled, then went up on her toes and kissed him. Softly, quickly.
“Need somethin’?” Nico asked her.
“Rex and Jack are here,” Tara explained. “They have an appointment.”
“First of many,” Stevie said as she slipped out from where he’d caged her against the wall. “Let me know what Stone says.”
Nodding, Nico watched as she walked away.
***
Stone sat on the couch, staring atthe television’s black screen. He’d hardly moved for the past three days, choosing to wallow in his frustration rather than tackle it head-on. Whenever he thought about what he needed to do next, he always came back around to the conversation he had with Zane on Saturday. The conversation that felt like the exclamation point on an exhausting journey to nowhere.
Without Zane’s support, he had nothing.
Not yet, anyway.
Yeah, it frustrated him to no end that his cousin was being a belligerent asshole, but Stone wasn’t giving up. That said, he wasn’t beyond feeling sorry for himself for a bit. He’d failed. Epically. What made it worse was that he didn’t know what he’d done to piss Zane off so thoroughly. Perhaps his memory was fading around the edges, but he could only remember good times with Zane. They’d been close at one time. Relatively speaking. Zane was two years younger, but not too young that he hadn’t spent his fair share of time with the guy when they were kids.
Zane was the youngest of seven, and back then, Stone remembered him as the one seeking attention from anyone who would give it. His brothers had given him a hard time, but that was what they did. Stone remembered stepping in, hanging out with Zane and CJ because they always had a good time when they did, but not enough to warrant the sort of reaction he’d gotten from the guy on Saturday.
Stone wasn’t going to let it get him down forever. He merely needed another plan. He had far too much going for him to give up now. Stevie and Nico were the only motivation he needed, and he was determined to prove to them that he was worthy of their love. So what if this plan failed? He could easily come up with another. He just needed to get out there and look around.
“Not gonna get it done from the couch, Jameson,” he grumbled, sighing as he shifted to the edge of the cushion, prepared to get to his feet and do … something.
He exhaled and looked around, hoping something would spur him into action.
The sound of an engine coming closer to the barn had him getting to his feet. He had pulled the shades on the front of the barn to block out the world for a few days, so he could only speculate about who might be there. If he were lucky, it would be Donovan. He’d been trading messages with him for the past couple of days, seeking his older brother’s input on how to go about course-correcting now that he’d been shot down so thoroughly. Donovan had told him he’d give it some thought and get back to him.
