"What are you doing here?"
Sasha appears in the doorway behind me. "I can go if you guys need to talk."
I turn around and anchor an arm around her waist. "No! Stay. Please. Let's go downstairs and you can relax with a glass of wine while Luke and I talk."
Luke looks completely shell-shocked and I remember then Finn's hilarious retelling of the first time he introduced Sasha to our youngest brother. Apparently he has a little crush. When I look over at Sasha, my chest tightens. I definitely can't fault my little brother for his taste.
As we walk downstairs, Sasha tries to make small talk with Luke but he's clammed up completely. Eventually she gives up. Once downstairs, I lead her to an overstuffed chair in the living room.
“I’ll bring you a glass of wine. Luke, you want a beer?"
He nods absently and perches on the edge of the couch. I smother a laugh and then enter the kitchen. Zack looks up.
"Did Luke find you?" He snickers and ducks when I try to punch his arm.
"Yeah, although you should definitely warn me next time. He might rethink his decision to get to know us if he walks in on me with his dream girl."
I pass him three beers and then uncork the bottle of white wine that I keep on hand in case one of our moms drops by. I pour a generous glass and carry it out to Sasha who takes a big gulp before standing up.
"Where's your restroom? I have to get these pins out of my hair."
I point her to the bathroom off the kitchen.
She waves over her shoulder at the others. "Excuse me for a minute, guys. I'll be right back."
As soon as she's gone, I turn to Luke. "So what's up?"
He accepts the beer that Zack holds out. "Uh, well, that picture you sent me of Blade's stuff? The language in the book is Gaelic. It explains why I haven't found anything through my usual sources if this guy is from overseas. Actually that's why I was trying to get in touch with you. We need to get into Interpol files."
The more we find out about Blade, the less we seem to really know. "Interpol, huh? You can't get in there?"
"It’s not whether I can do it. Of course I can do it." Luke makes a disgusted sound and rolls his eyes.
Zack coughs next to me, covering his laugh and even I'm amused at the affronted look on Luke's face. Who knew geek egos were so fragile?
"Right. So, what’s the problem then?"
"The problem is that it’s not worth the heat that could bring. If you have any friends with access to Interpol files, doing it legally is better."
Zack glances over at me. "I'm sure Tank can figure something out."
Sasha comes back then and the conversation turns to more generic things. She starts telling us about her gig at the Piedmont. After a few minutes she has us all laughing describing her audition with the owner and how nervous she was. Her hair was in some sort of elegant updo when she was onstage but she's taken that down and her hair cascades over her shoulders in long waves. As beautiful as she looks, I find I miss her natural wild curls. It reminds me of how she looked when I made love to her. She turns to me and her voice falters, probably because she recognizes the look in my eyes. She flushes and her hands start playing with the ends of her hair before her eyes meet mine again.
Yeah, you know what you do to me, beautiful girl.
A half an hour later, Luke is gone and Zack has finally decided to make himself scarce. He keeps saying that he's going to get his own place and every time I remind him that there's no rush. Now I find myself wishing I had rushed him a little bit. Watching Sasha walk up the stairs, her curvy bottom just a few inches in front of me, has me on edge. I can't help thinking that it's going to be a lot harder to spread her out and do all the things I want to do to her with my brother right down the hall.
In my room, I close the door behind us and turn the lock. At the quiet sound, Sasha's eyes meet mine. The innocent expression on her face doesn’t fool me at all. As she moves closer, I take a deep breath, bracing for whatever outrageous thing she’s going to do. Then she stands on tiptoe and kisses me on the cheek.
It’s so innocent but I can feel my body heating up as she presses kisses to my face, neck and ears before coming back to my mouth, our tongues twining together in a way that has me hard and ready in an instant. Her hand travels down, gliding over my abs and I know exactly where she's headed. I sit down on the bed because my legs are unsteady as hell. She stands in front of me and tugs at the top button of my pants.
"This really isn't why I brought you here, I swear. I wanted us to talk. To … talk about something." My mind is quickly turning to mush and I let out a low rumble of displeasure when she pulls back.
"No, you're right. We do need to talk." After a few deep breaths, she sits next to me. Just looking at her sitting there with her hair spilling over her shoulders and her brown eyes soft with desire makes me lose my breath.
"Don't listen to me. I'm an idiot, we can talk later." I reach for her and she evades my grasp with a soft laugh.
"Gabe, we do need to set up some ground rules. That's where we went wrong last time. If we do this, you have to promise no more freaking out afterward."