Wilde Edge (8 page)

Tag waved them off and hauled his
cell phone out of his pocket. He needed to order pizza, and then he was going
to grab the beer out of the trunk of his car and take a moment to call
Jolena
and thank her. He just didn’t want to do it within
earshot of his brothers. They’d had enough to say about his love life already.
With any luck,
Jolena
wouldn’t be done at the garage
until after the nosy assholes had gone home.

He wasn’t ready to share her with
any of them.

* *
* *

Jo hadn’t planned on working at all
today, but a car they’d sent out for painting had come back with a flawed
finish. It was always easier to see the problem firsthand so she could explain
exactly why it was going back, and why she wasn’t going to be paying until it
was perfect. Then she had to call the owner to explain the delay, and after
that, it was a non-stop flow of issues that lasted until after lunch.

She’d been on the office phone when
Tag had called her cell and left a message thanking her for the note and the
donuts. She played the recording back three times, letting the deep tones of
his voice sooth her frazzled nerves and lighten her mood. Tom had appeared at
her office door as she was listening to the third round, a look of amusement on
his craggy features as she hung up quickly and dropped the phone back onto her
desk.

“No need to tell me who that was.
Only one person can make you light up like that, and it sure isn’t anyone here.
I came by with the idea of tossing your ass out of here, but I don’t think
you’re going to need much persuading. Go home, Jo. We’ll see you Monday.”

She wagged a finger at Tom as she
pushed back from her desk and stood. “There you go again, bossing me around.
This is getting to be a habit!”

He just grinned at her and left,
waving one grime-encrusted hand as he headed back to work. Tom was more uncle
than employee, and Jo knew he was worried about her. He’d been a godsend after
her father’s diagnosis. He could run this place himself singlehandedly, and was
the only reason she was able to take any time at all away from work. Tom had
helped her strip her first engine nearly twenty years ago, and had forgotten
more about cars then Jo had ever learned. After the cancer had taken her dad,
they’d grieved together, worked together, and kept each other sane.

Greg thought of the garage as a
source of cash, but to Jo it was so much more. This place was her second home,
and there wasn’t a chance in hell she’d sell it. If that meant she had to
finally stand up to her ex and make it clear she was done with his tactics,
then so be it. She was ready.

Jo headed home, her mind buzzing
the entire drive as she thought about Greg and what she was going to do about
him, when she hit the remote on the garage door and saw Tag’s car parked in his
space.

Dammit.

She’d been distracted enough that
she’d forgotten to scrub her hands and fix her hair before leaving the garage.
Jo glanced down at her jeans and faded black shirt and decided to make a run
for the back door so she could clean up before she saw Tag or any of his
brothers. No one would ever mistake her for a Hollywood starlet, but anything
would be an improvement on her current look, which was somewhere between
fashion disaster and apocalypse survivor.

The plan would have worked too, if
it hadn’t been for the damned dog.

Halfway to the house a black and
tan German shepherd appeared around the side of the house. He started barking
the moment he spotted her. It wasn’t a fierce bark, but it was enough to make
Jo freeze while she frantically tried to remember the dog’s name. Hunter? Seek?

“Chase, what is it, boy?” an
unfamiliar voice called out and Jo knew she was busted.
So
much for getting presentable before meeting anyone.

“He’s just checking out the new
arrival,” Jo called back, and not two seconds later a seriously sexy man
stepped into view. For a moment, she thought it was Tag, but then she realized
that while they were very similar in appearance, Tag was taller, and his hair
was a whole lot longer.

“Chase, enough. Hi, sorry about
that. He’s harmless, I swear.”

“I have never heard a police dog
described as harmless before. Hi, I’m Jo, Tag’s new landlady.”

Ben was grinning as he looked at
her, and Jo got the feeling he was amused by something. She just wasn’t sure
what. “I’m Ben, and you’ve already met Chase. Chase, go apologize for barking.
She lives here too.”

To Jo’s amazement, Chase did
exactly that. He walked over to her with his head down and his tail wagging
slowly. Then he sat down, looked at her, whined once and lifted his paw,
holding it off the ground. She crouched down and shook it, and she could have
sworn the dog grinned at her as his tail started wagging harder.

“And now you have a friend for
life. Not many people are that comfortable with him right off.”

“You’re a gorgeous one, aren’t
you?” Jo murmured, releasing Chase’s paw to give the dog a proper pat.

“You better be talking about the
mutt and not my brother.” She glanced up to see Tag walking toward her. If she
hadn’t been crouching, she might not have noticed the way he was favoring his
left leg just a little.

“Hi, Tag. I was talking to Chase,
of course. He’s
lov
—” she didn’t get to finish her sentence
as Tag reached her. Without a word he took her by the wrists and tugged her up
into his arms for a kiss so hot she idly wondered if they’d leave scorch marks
on the walkway.

He drew her arms around his neck
before releasing her wrists. One hand speared into her hair as the other slid
around her waist, pulling her in tight against him as his mouth plundered hers.
Jo had two choices, fight him or surrender, and there was no force on earth
that was going to convince her to let go of this man. She gave in with a soft
sigh, leaning into his chest, her fingers stroking the back of his neck as she
answered his kiss with one of her own.

It was the sound of wolf whistles
and applause that finally caught her attention. She pulled back from Tag,
turned her head and spotted Nick, Ben and two blond men she assumed were the
rest of Tag’s siblings. They were all standing a few feet away, laughing.

“I’m going to die of embarrassment
now,” she muttered and hid her face against Tag’s chest.

“They’re just jealous, angel. Well,
all but Ben. He’s engaged, so he’s the only one I trust anywhere near you.”

Ben snickered. “Sucks when the shoe
is on the other foot, doesn’t it?”

“Fuck off, the lot of you. I’ll
bring
Jolena
by for introductions in a minute.”

The others wandered off, still
laughing, and
Jolena
could have sworn she heard one
of them say something about cookies and the dark side. She meant to ask Tag
what they were talking about, but the minute they were alone he coaxed her head
back and kissed her again.

“I think I forgot to say hello
earlier. So, uh, hi there,” he said when he finally came up for air.

“I was planning on cleaning up and
changing before I came down to
see
how it’s going.
So much for first impressions, huh?”

“You look gorgeous.” His dark brows
furrowed slightly as she opened her mouth to protest. “Don’t say it. If you
argue, I’m going to kiss you again. If I kiss you again we’ll never get into
the house, and that’s going to be a problem shortly because it’s starting to
sleet again.”

Well,
hell, when did that happen?

Jo had been so distracted she
hadn’t even noticed the freezing rain that was falling faster by the second.
“Give me five minutes and I’ll come down and meet everyone. I crawled under two
cars today. I need to wash up.”

“Five minutes. Any longer and I’m
coming up there to get you. My brothers have been dying to meet you, and it
would probably be nice if I let you actually speak to them before I toss them
out.”

“I won’t be long. I promise.” She
let go of him and backed away, only to have him haul her back into his arms for
one last kiss. As he released her, he nuzzled her ear and inhaled deeply. “And
for the record, you smell amazing.”

She laughed at that. “I smell like
rusty metal and gasoline.”

“Exactly.
Sexiest fucking perfume ever.”

“If you say so.
I’ll see you in a few minutes.” Jo felt like she was walking on air as she
headed into the house, watching Tag out of the corner of her eye as he walked
toward the front of the house and vanished from sight. Only when she was sure
she was alone did Jo squeal softly and skip her way up the stairs.

He
still wants me.

It had been a few days since their
date, and despite the calls and texts, there’d been a whisper of doubt in the
back of her mind. That whisper was silent now. Her cheeks burned hot as she
recalled the kiss and the laughter of his brothers when they’d caught them.

As she unlocked the door and let
herself inside, she felt her stomach drop and her heart race. It was as if
she’d just stepped off a cliff. It only lasted a few seconds and then it was
gone as suddenly as it had come. It was the same feeling she’d had when she had
caught Tag staring at her office window the day they’d met. Maybe what she felt
was fate, giving her a nudge.

More
likely it’s Dad, kicking me in the ass and telling me it’s time to get on with
my life.

The thought made her smile for a
second before she remembered Tag’s warning. She had no doubt that, if she was
more than five minutes late, he’d be coming after her. She sprinted to the
bathroom, the grin still on her face.

Chapter Six

Tag had taken a second to will his
dick to go back to sleep before walking back into his new suite. His entry was
met with another round of applause. Even Dave was laughing while the rest of
his bastard brothers were outright cheering.

“I’ve seen that look on someone
else’s face recently, and it does not bode well for you,” Jared said between
sniggers of laughter.

“Yeah, where?”
Tag asked, heading through the open living space toward the kitchen. He needed
a beer.

“On Ben’s face, the first night he
brought Kelly to the pub. I remember it, because when he caught you flirting
with her he glared at you the same way you were glowering at us a few minutes
ago. Looks like
Ben’s
not the only possessive male in
this family.”

“Damn right I’m possessive. And if
I catch any of you flirting with
Jolena
I will do a
lot more than glare.” He twisted the lid off the bottle and tossed it onto the
countertop with enough force it skittered and skipped until it hit the wall.

He took a long pull of his beer and
tried to get a hold of his runaway temper. He knew the guys were only teasing
him, but somehow the idea of another man looking at his angel had him ready to
commit fratricide. Suddenly he had a whole new perspective on what it must have
been like for Ben the first time they’d all met Kelly.

Fucking hell, how could
Jolena
get so far under his skin after just one date?

The faint patter of footsteps
coming down the outside stairs announced
Jolena’s
arrival, and he shot a warning look at his siblings. “Behave yourselves.”

He met
Jolena
at the door, tucking her smaller hand into his before leading her back inside.
He loved the strength in her hands, the slight roughness to her fingers that
made her touch different from any other woman he’d been with. Those fingers
were gripping him tightly as he introduced her to everyone. “You already know
Nick, and you met Ben and Chase earlier. The two blonds are my older brothers,
Jared and Dave.”

“Hi. It’s nice to meet everyone.”
Jo said, glancing around the room with interest.

“It doesn’t look like the same
place, does it?” Tag asked and she shook her head, gesturing to the leather and
chrome furniture and his large, flat screen television.

“Not at all.
Now it looks like a guy lives here.”

Several of them laughed at that,
and Jo relaxed a little. After that, conversation flowed easier, and soon all
six of them were eating pizza and talking. Nick kept unpacking as the others
chatted, trying to get the kitchen organized. He was kneeling on the floor,
putting away a batch of cookware when the laughter got louder, piquing his
interest. He tuned into the conversation going on a few feet away.

“...So Tag’s hanging onto the
window ledge, mom’s beloved climbing rose trellis is busted and lying all over
the lawn, while Mom is yelling and Dad is trying to haul his sorry ass back
inside the house,” Jared said, and Tag cursed.

 
If you couldn’t trust
family…

He stood, ignoring the pain in his
leg as he slapped a hand down on the countertop, drawing everyone’s attention.
“If we’re down to telling that tired story, then it’s time you guys went home.
Angel, don’t you believe a word of this shit they’re spewing. I was a saint
growing up, unlike these miscreants.”

“Uh huh.
Sure you were. That’s why you were the one working undercover, because you just
scream innocence and sainthood,” Dave pointed out as he rose from the couch.

Jared chimed in, “Yeah, the only
thing missing from your bad ass image is a tattoo, because you knew Mom would
kill you of you ever got inked. She’s barely forgiven Nicky, and he runs a
tattoo shop!”

Nick smirked. “You’d be surprised
who in this room has ink from my shop. Mom’s more forgiving than you think.”
Ben, Jared and Dave were all looking at their siblings with disbelief, but it
was
Jolena
who finally broke the silence.