Unexpected Legacy

“So is Beth,” Landon murmured sadly.

Garrett looked down at the conference table and scowled. Nobody in this goddamned world could be as freaked out about it as he was.

He pictured Kate in Miami, sick and alone. Who would take her to the doctor? Who would even know that she was sick? The thought was so disturbing he pulled at his tie, feeling choked to death.

But as much as he loathed that she was sick today, maybe this would provide an opportunity to make Kate see how indispensable family that protected and cared for you was. Also, her stubbornness might be at a low point because of the fever, and he might be able to talk to her without putting her on the defensive.

“You guys don’t mind if I take the rest of the day off? If there’s even a chance of making her stay, I need to filter through her defenses and find out why the hell she wants to leave.”

“You mean you want to bulldoze through her walls, without any tact whatsoever, and screw everything?” Julian teased.

“Jules, I happen to think Kate is the one who’s bulldozed through Garrett’s defenses with her imminent departure,” Landon said.

Both his brothers looked terribly amused.

Garrett shoved his arms into his jacket and grabbed his iPhone. “Screw you. You guys know how hotheaded Kate is when she gets something in her mind—at least today she won’t have all the energy to fight me. Hell, you took two months off for your honeymoon, Landon, and you don’t even work here anymore. Jules. I’m taking a day off, no matter what you both have to say.”

Julian answered, with a laugh, “We have a lot to say about it, bro. We just won’t be saying it to you.”

* * *

“So I know you’re going to find all sorts of things wrong with my stupid soup, but it’s still chicken and broth and I’m not the baker here, okay, Kate?”

Molly set the tray with the steaming bowl on a chair by the window and parted the drapes.

Kate almost hissed as she raised her hand to shield herself from the sunlight.

“Wow. You look so bad, Kate.”

Molly’s blue eyes brimmed with sisterly pity as Kate sat up in bed and tried to peel her sweaty T-shirt off her skin. The cotton was soaked from when the fever had started dropping during her nap. Her hair was plastered to the sides of her face as if with glue.

“I feel worse than I look, I guarantee,” Kate rasped out, her throat raw.

She had strep throat. Which meant she had nausea, a throat that ached like hell and a fever that was kicking her fanny. Wonderful.

“Let me run a bath for you.”

Molly disappeared into the bathroom, and Kate groaned when she heard the loud chime of the doorbell.

“I’ll get that, Kate. Don’t even move a finger. I’ll be back in a bit. In the meantime, you can eat my sucky soup,” Molly said, poking her head back into the bedroom. Kate smiled weakly and nodded.

As her little sister went down the hall to the front door, Kate marveled at how sharp and efficient she was being.

Molly had always been a red-hot mess, but today Kate truly felt Molly’s motherly instincts surge to the forefront as she tried to pamper her big sis.

It was a rare event when Kate succumbed to being sick. She just didn’t have time for it. What the hell was wrong with her?

The stress of her move had her sleepless and anxious and now, apparently, had left her with no defenses against strep.

Sighing and plopping back on her pillow, she heard voices in the living room. Then she heard footsteps approaching. Kate opened her eyes, and her stomach dropped when she saw him.

The last man she wanted to see.

Or to be more precise, the last man she wanted to see her like this.

She flew upright to a sitting position, her cheeks warming in an awful blush when Garrett stopped at the threshold. Her blood bubbled in her veins, and the feeling was unbidden and unwanted. He looked positively beautiful, his shoulders about a yard wide, his patterned tie slightly undone. His dark hair stood up on end as if he’d been pulling at it on his drive over.

He was honestly the most beautiful thing she’d seen all day.

She indulged in a small moment of grief as she realized that while he looked so excellent, she’d never looked worse.

“Did you lose your GPS? Your office is the other way,” she said, merely because attitude was the only thing she had left now.

“I followed another compass today.” A tender look warmed his eyes as he stepped inside and shut the door behind him.

He removed his jacket, and her pulse jumped at each flex of his muscles under his snowy shirt.

“How do you feel, Freckles?” He draped his jacket on the back of her desk chair and rolled his sleeves to his elbows. “We should’ve made you drink tequila Saturday. That would’ve killed anything off.”

All the grogginess fled from her when he seized the tray with the soup and brought it to the bed.

“Molly suggests you eat her sucky soup.”

Kate grimaced. “I’m not hungry, Garrett,” she said in her slightly raspy strep-throat voice. “There’s no need to check up on me.”

He settled down on the edge of the bed and lifted the spoon, his eyes glimmering in pure devil-like mischief. “Starve the virus, feed the fever.”

“And that means, Confucius...?”

“You need to feed your immune system. Come on. Open your mouth.”

After a brief hesitation, she parted her lips and Garrett offered her the soup. Her stomach was warmed by the intent look on Garrett’s face as she curled her lips around the spoon. He tipped it back, and she swallowed. Then he lowered the spoon, watching her.

“It’s not that bad,” she said. The soup slid down her throat and coated her sore spots. “But it’s still a little too hot.”

He immediately set the tray at the foot of the bed. “Molls said you’re about to take a bath? Would you like to hop in there now?”

Before she could even nod, he disappeared into the bathroom, where she heard the water stop, and then he returned. He looked so sexy but at the same time, so domesticated; she almost felt giddy at all this sweet male attention.

“While you relax in your bath, I’ll go get my laptop and briefcase, all right?” He signaled toward the window at his Audi parked outside. “Since she’s having such success as an artist, I told Molly I’d stay here so she could go to her studio and finish up her pending works before the wedding.”

“Wh-what? No! No! I don’t need a babysitter!”

“Good because I didn’t hire one.” The smile he shot her was rather wolfish, and he looked very damned pleased about himself. “It’s just you and me now. I can see you’re excited about it.”

“As I am about having strep!” she countered.

He burst out laughing, and once again she felt things she didn’t really want to feel. Kate was going to kill her sister. Kill her. But of course Molly must’ve been thrilled about this turn of events. She kept insisting that Kate should stay in town until some miracle happened and Kate and Garrett finally became an item. Ha. She was clearly still such an innocent.

And right now, especially, not even a miracle would make someone want Kate. Only a thing called strep throat wanted her.

And just then, she remembered the exquisite feel of Garrett, big and warm, in bed with her Saturday night.

As the thought rushed through her, Kate ducked her head to hide her blush, never wanting Garrett to know the effect he had on her. On the night of his birthday, she’d been so angry and frustrated. She’d felt all kinds of unwanted arousal while he’d slept soundly next to her. So she’d promised herself she would get over him. And she would. No matter what. She merely wished that he, of all the men in the world, hadn’t seen her in this state.

“You want help getting to the tub?” He gestured toward the bathroom. She was still in bed, holding the sheets to the top of her neck like a shield.

“I can walk,” she answered the moment she realized how silly she must look. Frowning in annoyance at her own prudish attitude, she kicked the sheets aside, then realized that her T-shirt had ridden up to her hips. As she struggled out of bed, Garrett got a perfect view of her pink panties.

He whipped his eyes away, but not before she saw that he saw. Her pink panties. And her toned thighs.

Garrett’s face hardened instantly, and he rubbed the nape of his neck as Kate felt a red-hot flush creep up her body.

“So, you have strep?” he asked, looking away quickly.

“It’s very contagious. You should leave.” In fact, she’d probably even had it incubating when he’d slept in her bed the other night. The thought of giving him strep made her insides twist in foreboding. “You should really leave, Garrett.”

“I’ll leave when your fever’s gone, Katie.”

Groaning in disgust at his stubbornness, she went into the bathroom and locked the door behind her. Oddly, she felt acutely aware of her nakedness when she stripped. Aware, also, of only one measly door separating her from him.

After double-checking the lock, she settled in the tub. The water felt so warm. She closed her eyes and sighed as she dunked her head and slowly surfaced, starting to relax.

As the minutes passed, she couldn’t stop wondering what Garrett was doing out in her room. She definitely heard noises, and she figured he must be setting up a miniature office. The thought both annoyed her and...didn’t. He looked extremely good today. But she couldn’t help but wonder what the purpose of this sudden attention was. Of course something sneaky was going on. She had no doubt this all had to do with her leaving for Florida—and Garrett intending to convince her not to.

No way are you going to stop me, Garrett Gage.

She scowled at the thought. She hadn’t even had boyfriends because of him. Directly or indirectly, he’d been responsible for Kate waiting to lose her virginity until she was over twenty-one and then she’d lost it to someone she didn’t even like all that much. Even then, though, she’d kept expecting him to one day realize they were meant for each other. Now she was determined to stop waiting for anything Garrett-related.

Fiercely resolved, she came out minutes later, wrapped in a towel, bathed, refreshed and wet.

She found, not to her surprise, that Garrett was already settled in her room. He lounged back in a chair with his laptop open on her small desk before him. He’d also turned the chair so that it was facing the bed, rather than the window. He looked as out of place in her feminine bedroom as a bear would.

He glanced up when she padded barefoot toward her dresser, and an irresistibly devastating grin appeared on his face. “You already look better.”

“Actually, I feel tons better.” Clutching the towel to her chest, she rummaged through her drawers and was about to try to get dressed under the towel when she remembered to say, “Look away for a second, please.”

As she selected her new panties, purple this time, she asked, “Are you looking away?”

“What do you think, Kate?” he asked, annoyed.

She took that as a yes and quickly let the towel drop and slipped into her panties. Even though he was looking away, her cheeks flushed red at the thought of him being so close when she was naked. She quickly slipped on her bra, still feeling hot inside, but then she realized he would probably be as moved by her nakedness as a sofa. The man was completely immune to her.

Then again, her butt was quite nice thanks to her Pilates classes. As she was thinking these thoughts and smoothing her panties over the curves in question, a strange silence settled in the room.

Garrett’s voice was deceptively calm when she reached into her drawer again.

“Did you really think I’d look away, Kate?”

Kate’s stomach clenched, but she went about the task of selecting a T-shirt.

And now she could feel his eyes were definitely on her.

Boring holes into her bottom, actually.

And suddenly she really prayed that it was, indeed, a very nice bottom.

“Please don’t tell me you were looking,” she threatened, starting to panic. She broke out into a fresh sweat as the fever continued dropping after her bath.

As she grabbed a T-shirt with a Minnie Mouse image on the front and pulled it on, she heard a deep male groan.

“Freckles, I’m not made of stone you know.”

Garrett sounded grumpy, as if he was in danger of getting strep, too.

“Really? I thought you were.” Instead of being embarrassed, she was suddenly amused as she pulled the T-shirt as low as possible and turned around. But her smile froze on her face.

Garrett sat like a marble statue on the chair, his muscled arms crossed, his forearms corded with veins, his lips hard and completely unsmiling. His face was harsh with intensity, and his eyes were the blackest she’d ever seen them. There was such an unearthly sheen in them, Kate stopped breathing.

They stared at each other for a heart-stopping moment, and the atmosphere seemed to morph, becoming heavy and thick with something inexplicable. There was a deeper significance to their stare that she couldn’t quite pinpoint, but it felt like a delicate thread between them was pulling tight.

It hurt. This strange link. It felt threatening.

It hurt, and ached in all kinds of places inside her.

Garrett put his forehead in his hand for a moment, then sighed and ran a big, tanned hand down his face in pure frustration. “Look, Katie.”

“Look, Garrett, you need to stop this now.”

“Stop what?”

They stared once more, and the atmosphere in the room continued feeling heavy and odd. Kate’s nerves could barely handle it.

“I know what you’re trying to do, and it’s not going to work,” she finally said.

His eyes remained almost predatory in their intensity. Finally he raised one sleek black eyebrow. “My plot to save the world, to keep Kate in Texas, won’t work, even if I put in some good hours of doctoring time?”

“It won’t work.”

“So you didn’t mean it the night of my birthday when you said that we would talk about it later?”

“We’d both been drinking. Whatever we said that night was the alcohol talking.”

“All right, so today the strep is talking. When is Kate going to talk to me?”

“I’m talking to you now.”

His eyebrows fell low over his eyes. His shirt stretched over his square shoulders as he sat back, his muscled arms still crossed over his chest. “Then tell me if you’re leaving because of a man. First. And second, you’re going to tell me who.”

“Ha. This is my house. I run it. So I say who has firsts and seconds here, not you.”

She bent to put on some socks. A rivulet of water slid along her toned legs, and when she straightened, she saw his eyes had darkened even more. He continued to stare at her legs for a wildly erotic moment.

Her pulse jumped at the thought of him touching her—of him even wanting to touch her—and her hands trembled as she bent her head and slowly wrapped the discarded towel around her wet hair.

When she straightened, Garrett’s expression had turned bleak as a funeral, and he pushed to his feet, stalking over like a pissed-off predator. “What do you need so you can get back in the damned bed, Kate?”

“I don’t want to get into bed. I’ve been there all day. My fever is dropping and I’m sweating. I feel hot.”

“Then put something on, would you!” He signaled at her long legs, and a wash of feminine awareness swept through her when his eyes raked her up and down as if he couldn’t help himself.

She laughed nervously and glanced away so that he wouldn’t notice his effect on her; then she hopped into a comfortable pair of white cotton shorts she used for yoga sometimes.

Garrett seemed completely disturbed and grumpy...but more than that, he seemed alert. Did this mean she’d finally gotten past one of Garrett’s walls?

She almost laughed. She’d always tried many subtle ways to get his male attention. Who would have thought she just needed to do a little striptease?

It’s too late, Kate. You don’t want him anymore. You want a new start—without him.

Turning in sudden annoyance, she shoved at his chest so he stepped out of her personal space. “Just go home, Garrett. You don’t have to do this. Aren’t you working on that big deal all your brothers are talking about?”

He looked agitated and started pacing around, scowling down at the carpet. “There’s nothing I can do about it today. We’re ironing out the details.”

“Well, go iron them out somewhere else.”

“On the bed, Freckles! Unless you like your soup cold!”

With a complaining sound, Kate plopped down on the bed and crossed her legs under her body. He expelled a breath, as if finally appeased; he was just so handsome her heart ached. She propped her head back on the headboard as he brought back the tray, and she quietly studied him as he fed her.

Garrett Gage was one of the least emotionally accessible men Kate had ever met, and to see him do something so honestly sweet for her triggered a wealth of unreasonable emotions in her chest.

She didn’t want to feel giddy and protected and cared for. But she did. She felt safe. And fiercely achy for so much more. His dark espresso eyes wouldn’t stop watching her mouth as he guided the spoon inside, and out, and it made every time she wrapped her lips around the spoon unbearably...intimate.

Suddenly all she could hear was the sound of their breathing in the bedroom. Hers was not all that steady. His was inexplicably slow and deep, his chest extending slowly under his shirt as those dark, thick-lashed, half-mast eyes remained on her face.

“Poor Jules. I swear Molly doesn’t cook for anything,” Kate whispered, anxious to break the silence.

Now that she was able to taste the soup better, she definitely knew her little sister could use a little cooking advice from her.

Garrett chuckled. The sound was rich and male as he set down the spoon. “He’s in love with her, Katie. She can feed him cotton balls and he’ll be content.”

“I love how they love each other.”

Suddenly feeling drained, she shook her head when Garrett offered more soup. She slid down the bed a little so that the back of her head could rest on her pillow. The thought of Julian and Molly made the ache in her chest multiply tenfold.

“They’re not afraid to,” she added.

Garrett didn’t respond. He merely set the tray aside and turned thoughtfully back to her. “I wouldn’t let fear keep me from someone,” he said then, his voice a low murmur.

“No? Then what would?”

His powerful shoulders lifted in a noncommittal shrug, and then he said, “If you love someone, you want what’s best for them. Even if it means it’s not you.”

Something in his words caused a little ribbon of pain to unravel within her. Had he ever felt anything for her, and thought that he wasn’t good enough for her?

No. How could he not be good enough for anyone? He was honorable and dedicated, fiercely passionate about those he loved, as protective as an angry panther.

“Garrett, you don’t have to stay. I know you told Molly you would but I’d rather you go,” she said, getting sleepier by the second. “The antibiotics and steroids make me dizzy anyway, so I’ll probably sleep all afternoon. And if you stay here I’m going to give you strep.”

The tenderness that liquefied his gaze suddenly made her feel even more soft and languid. “You’re not giving me anything. Relax and I’ll be here when you wake up.”

His voice was so soothing and gentle she couldn’t help but nod and close her eyes. As she heard him take the tray to the kitchen, she snuggled into her pillow, her stomach warmed with Molly’s sucky soup, which, even if tasteless, had served its purpose well. Ever since Molly had moved in with Julian, the house had seemed so quiet. Just knowing Garrett was around right now made her feel safe and protected.

The steroids were kicking in as well as the antibiotics, and her fever seemed to be breaking.

New beads of perspiration popped onto her brow, and a new, unexpected heaviness settled in her chest as she thought of her move to Florida and how she wouldn’t see Garrett and Molly and all her loved ones as frequently as she did now.

She sighed when she felt something cool and damp slide along her forehead. Her pulse skittered when she realized Garrett was stroking her face with a cool towel, and she felt out of breath as she murmured, “That feels good.”

He dragged the damp cloth along her cheek, and the cool mist on her skin made her nipples bead under her T-shirt. His voice was low and sensually hypnotic. “So of all the states, why Florida?” He ran the towel along the length of her bare arms, and her nipples turned hard as stones.

With a delicious shiver, she sighed and leaned her cheek to her right, into his chest. “Some of my college friends live in Miami Beach. And I’m a sun person.”

She hadn’t realized she was grabbing onto his arm, but she knew that she didn’t want to let go. He smelled so good and felt warm and substantial, so she kept her arms curled around his elbow. God, she’d done the impossible to get this man to notice her. The impossible. She’d dated men she hadn’t even liked. She’d said she’d marry other men. Ignored Garrett and paid attention to everyone else. It had made him scowl, but that had been the whole extent of his reactions to her efforts.

It had been infuriating and disheartening.

He really did see her as some sort of friendly sister, while Kate had fantasized about him for decades. She hated that she never could really enjoy sex with her partners because a part of her heart had always belonged to this man.

This man who now caressed her neck with that cloth, and made her new purple panties damp with wanting. Even if she’d convinced herself she didn’t love him anymore, her body was still hazardously attracted to his. Hell, if she weren’t sick, she would open her eyes and kiss him even if he didn’t want her to. She’d just go crazy and kiss him, because that was the only thing she’d never tried, of all the crazy stunts she’d pulled to get him to notice her. She had his attention with Florida. But this was no longer a stunt.

She had to leave. And she had to leave now.

So that when she came for a visit, she would have a new life, a steady boyfriend and an equally great catering business in Miami, and when she saw Garrett, she would see what she had been meant to see all along. A friend and a brother figure.

“Do you want me to bring my laptop here?” he whispered in her ear, his voice strangely husky. “Kate?”

She nodded, not opening her eyes as she released him and waited, with a new kind of fever, for him to come back.

* * *

Garrett was hard as granite and hated that he was, but he was trying his damnedest to ignore it as he set his laptop on the nightstand. He kept the computer shut, and instead kicked off his shoes and plopped down on the bed next to Kate, stretching his legs out as he put his arm around her shoulders, sensing her need for comfort.

She’d been holding his arm so hard, he hadn’t wanted to move.

Hell, his back had gone stiff as a board as soon as her fingers had curled around him. He’d desperately wanted her touch and at the same time, he’d been distressed over the way his body responded to it. In the end, he’d wanted it more than he’d disliked it, and he’d come back. For more. Like a needy dog wanting a bone.

When she’d been getting dressed, he had thought he’d have a heart attack at the sight of that beautiful bare bottom. Kate was willowy and slim, and her wet hair had so temptingly caressed her shoulders. In a fraction of a second, he’d visualized about a dozen things he wanted to do to her, a dozen ways he wanted to kiss and feel her.

Now she was cuddling against his side, with that cute little T-shirt, and that soft, almost dreamlike smile on her lips.

He put his arm around her shoulders, and she sighed in contentment and snuggled into his chest, clutching a piece of his collar. The gesture was so possessive and sweet his chest knotted with emotion as he set his head back on the headboard and held her to him.