She clung to him.
***
When he had thought about the upcoming holidays and going home to spend it with his family after more than a month of flying around the globe, checking up on various problems and whatnot within the Savage Corporations, he hadn’t once thought he would be walking into something so mind-numbingly horrific.
No, he had thought about the many presents he had picked up along the way, something different and special for each member of his family. Like the funny hats he had picked up for Quinn and Eve in Spain two weeks before. Or the hand-crafted watch he had selected in Switzerland for his father. Or even the gag gift he had purchased for Cameron a month earlier. He had imagined the laughs and hugs, and Eve’s unbelievably precious giggles when they opened up each gift.
But to come home just hours after Eve’s brush with death and to have her fall into his arms, sobbing? That had not once crossed his mind. Now he sat on the sofa in front of the fireplace with her on his lap, still clinging to him. Her sobbing had subsided to little hiccups and her tears had soaked into his shirt, but he didn’t care. He stroked his fingers through her long, copper-red hair in the soothing way he knew she enjoyed.
Garth had left the room a few minutes before to check up on Cameron and make some coffee, but mostly to keep busy. Sebastian knew how much his father cared about Eve. Not only because she was all he had of the woman he had loved so much, but because Eve was special. She had the kindest, most caring heart he had ever come across. The day’s events had shaken him badly.
Just thinking about what might have happened was enough to make Sebastian tremble. He tightened his hold on her for a moment before continuing to comb his fingers through her beautiful hair. If he were honest with himself, he would admit how much her hair alone affected him. As did the light scent of the perfume she wore—the same perfume he gave her every year for her birthday. Her perfectly shaped, firm breasts pressed against him at the moment, and if he were admitting things to himself, he would have to admit that he was a weak man when it came to his reaction to every little detail about his beautiful stepsister.
Not that he would admit that to anyone, especially not to Eve. Letting a female know that you were weak where they were concerned was dangerous. Sebastian liked danger, had been called an adrenaline junkie because of all the risks he took in and out of the boardroom… But letting a woman know when he was affected by her was just too dangerous in his book.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered suddenly, pushing herself off his lap and away from him as she wiped her eyes with the backs of her hands. “I guess it finally caught up with me.”
He felt the loss of her against him like a missing limb, but he hid it behind a cocky smile. “Yeah, it was just an excuse to touch my sexy body. Your secret’s safe with me.”
He meant it as a joke, like he always jokingly flirted with her. But he saw the flush creep into her beautiful face, and her eyes lowered. Wait…what? Did she want him? Just the thought was enough to make him ache.
Don’t go there, Sebastian! he mentally shouted at himself. She’s still a baby. Hands to yourself.
She punched his chest. “You wish, pig.” She gave a forced little laugh and scooted over a bit more, putting over a foot between them.
The door to the family room swung open, and Quinn hurried into the room. Her long caramel hair was pulled into a ponytail, and the almost feral look on her beautiful face would have sent anyone running for shelter. It was the look of a mother bear in need of protecting her cub. In this case, Eve.
“Oh, honey.” She crouched down in front of Eve. “Thank God you are all right!”
Eve threw her arms around her, hugging her tight. “Quinn!” she cried. “I’m so glad you’re home.”
Garth and Cameron came into the room. The younger man was carrying a bowl of popcorn in one hand and shoving the snack into his mouth with the other. To see all three of the Savage men was to witness a trio of Viking warriors, although Garth’s hair was more silver than blond now. They all stood close to six and a half feet, with Sebastian as the tallest. With their powerful builds, even Garth at his age, the power just emanated from them.
And Quinn, though her hair was a lovely caramel color, was also unusually tall, standing an inch over six feet. Eve felt like a shrimp around all of them, no matter that she was above average at five feet eight inches. But they all made her feel incredibly safe, and that was something she needed more than ever right then.
“Well, this Christmas has been eventful,” Cameron joked around a mouthful of popcorn. “Let’s try to keep the excitement level down, though, okay? My heart can’t take any more.”
“That’s E for you.” Sebastian sat back in the corner of the sofa, trying to relax. “She’s always been a pain the ass. I don’t know why we keep her around these days.”
That got a pillow tossed at him from Eve, but she was smiling. “I love you too,” she assured him. “Next time, you can do my banking.”
“Sure. But just so you know, we plan on switching banks as quickly as possible.”
two
How she fell asleep was still a mystery to her, but around three thirty she awoke, gasping for air. She had dreamed the entire thing again, only this time, she had died, not the masked man who had attempted to take her as a hostage.
Eve sat up in bed, sweat beading across her forehead and upper lip. Wiping a hand across her face, she got out of bed and reached for her robe to cover the T-shirt and panties that were her normal pajamas. She slipped it on but didn’t bother to tie the belt, knowing that everyone would be sound asleep anyway.
Tired but knowing she would never be able to get back to sleep again after her nightmare, she went downstairs to sit in front of the fireplace in the family room. The house was so big it wasn’t surprising for guests—which were rare—to get lost in the maze of halls. When Eve had first come to live here, it had been somewhat of a headache to remember where each room was.
Garth’s room, which he had once shared with her mother, was in the east wing. On the first floor of the east wing were his home office and the library. The middle of the first floor, at the rear of the house, was a kitchen that would make any chef weep with appreciation. The west wing of the house was where her room was, along with Sebastian’s and a few guest rooms. Quinn’s and Cameron’s rooms were in the middle of the second floor which, for some strange reason, was always quieter.
The first floor’s west wing housed the family room as well as several other large rooms that were rarely used. Eve entered the family room and crossed to the fireplace. It was a gas fire log, and she moved to sit on the floor in front of it. The Christmas tree was still lit up, making a nice night-light in the corner of the otherwise darkened room. She had decorated the tree herself a few days before, with a little help from Garth.
It looked festive and cheerful, something her mother would have adored. Giselle Savage had been a wonderful and spirited woman, with a beauty Eve wasn’t sure if she had inherited from her French aristocratic father or her English mother. Eve looked a lot like her mother, except for the red hair she had gotten from her own father.
Eve missed her mom. Even though they had spent most of each school year apart until she was thirteen, they had been close. Her father, who had died when Eve was just a baby, hadn’t been a great guy. Geoff Patel had been an angry man, emotionally abusive, if not physically. Some had wondered how a woman as hot-tempered as Giselle had put up with the man. But when Giselle met Garth, she had found her own Prince Charming.
Eve knew that, as much as she missed her mother, it didn’t come close to how lost Garth felt.
“Little girls should be in bed sleeping.”
She raised her head to find Sebastian standing over her. For all his height and weight, he moved deceptively quietly, something that had always fascinated her. Heart racing, she gave him a small smile, hoping he couldn’t read how easily he affected her with just his nearness. “The fire was telling me stories again.”
His brows rose, and he dropped down beside her on the floor. “Anything interesting?”
She shrugged. “Keeps me entertained.” Over the last six years, she has spent many sleepless winter nights right there in front of the fireplace. She had always sworn that the little flames were talking to her, telling her stories.
Sebastian stretched out his long legs and laughed softly. The deeply rich sound caused her spine to tingle, but she kept her face as blank as possible so he wouldn’t know how much she wanted him. “Well, we both know it doesn’t take much to entertain you, so it can’t be that interesting.”
She wrinkled her nose at him. “You best be nice to me, mister.”
“Oh, yeah? Who’s gonna stop me if I don’t?” He grinned. “You?”
“I’ll tell the new cook to burn your pancakes,” she threatened with a grin of her own.
“Brat! All right, I’ll be nice.” He yawned. “You couldn’t sleep?”
“Bad dreams.” She glanced back into the flames. “I’ve never been so scared in my life as I was yesterday.”
He reached out and clasped her left hand in his much larger one, and she couldn’t miss the sight tremor to his fingers. “I can’t begin to imagine what that must have been like. Just thinking about you going through it makes me sweat. It terrifies me that we came so close to losing you, baby.”
Heat shot up her arm at this touch, but she’d had a while now to learn to hide her body’s reactions to his touch—his sheer nearness. She had developed a crush on him when she was fourteen, something she’d thought she had outgrown, but the previous year she had realized he could make her body react in a physical way. Lust was a hard emotion to tame. Mixed with her love for him, it was a near combustible combination.
“How was your latest trip?” she asked in an attempt to get her mind off how he was making her body burn. “Spain, wasn’t it?”
“Yes. And it was productive. I think you will like the Christmas present I picked up for you there.” He was playing with her fingers now, stroking each digit, picking at her manicured nails.
“I’m glad you’re home. It was getting a little lonely around here without you.” He was the only one of her three stepsiblings who was home more often than not. “I missed you.”
“Good to hear,” he murmured. “I missed you too… A little.”
Eve raised one well-shaped red brow. “Whoa, I guess you did get homesick if you actually missed me.”
He snorted, and even that was sexy to her. “More like I was bored and missed getting to tease you, kid.”
His constantly calling her “kid” and “baby” was really getting irritating and beginning to piss her off. “Stop it. I am not a little girl anymore, Sebastian. I’ll be twenty in three months. I’ve been an actual adult for almost two years now.”
“Yeah, I can see that.”
Something in his tone made her lift her eyes to meet his gaze. She nearly gasped at what she saw those dark depths. Was that desire she saw in his blue eyes? Longing? But then he grimaced, and the expression was gone, leaving her wondering if it was real or just a play of the firelight. “How about a snack? Or a warm drink? That might help you sleep.”
Eve blinked at the quick change of subject and then figured she had imagined the look in his eyes. Wishful thinking, more likely. She nodded. “Okay. Hot apple cider sounds good.”
He got to his feet smoothly and offered her his hand to help her up. “I think I can manage that.”
***
Sebastian didn’t release her hand as they made their way through the quiet house to the kitchen. Even though he knew he should.
Yes, he knew that Eve was nearly twenty. Maybe he kept trying to make himself forget those facts in an attempt to keep his own desires locked up. He was thirty years old to her nineteen, and while some men preferred younger, barely legal girls to boost their egos, he wasn’t one of them. He preferred women his own age or older.
But when it came to Eve, he had been fighting his growing desire for her for more than a year now. Sometimes the very power she held over him terrified him. So he would tease her, comment on her still being a kid to irritate her, but mostly to remind himself to behave.
Once in the kitchen, he finally released her hand and moved around making each of them a mug of hot apple cider. While he waited for the cider to warm, he made himself a sandwich and opened a bag of chips.
“Did you notice something different about Cameron?” she questioned, taking a nacho cheese chip from his plate and nibbling on it.
Sebastian frowned. There had been something different about his little brother that had seemed a little off. But he had been too busy trying to calm down after the news of the near-miss with Eve. It was hard to tell with Cameron, though. He kept parts of himself caged up and rarely let anyone close.
“He’s lost some weight,” Eve went on, taking another chip. “Which is just wrong. Food is his greatest love, always will be.”
Sebastian shrugged. “Yeah, I guess he has.” Feeling a little irritated that she had noticed something like that about his brother—he refused to call it jealousy, damn it—he took a bite of his sandwich.
“Well, he was in the gossip rags a few weeks ago with some French girl. Do you think he likes her?” She reached for the sandwich that he had just set down and took a small bite. “Mmm. This is delicious. I didn’t realize how hungry I am.”
“I’ll fix you one,” he offered, reaching for the platter of deli meats, glad she was feeling up to eating again.
“Can I have this one?”
“Sure, knock yourself out. I will just eat this one.” He went about making another sandwich, watching her take a slightly bigger bite than the last time. “You have lost some weight too. Has everything been okay here?”
“I had a stomach bug last week. It wasn’t fun.” She shrugged her slim shoulders. “Garth gave it to me, which I am still pretty miffed about. But other than that, all has been going well.”
When the cider was hot, he poured her a mugful and set it beside her plate. “Careful,” he warned.
“Thanks.” She took a tiny sip and raised her eyes to meet his gaze. “You are very domesticated, huh?”
Sebastian grinned. “Of course. One of us has to be.”
“I can make you a full, multi-course dinner, I will have you know,” she reminded him. “And you know you can’t resist my French desserts. My time in a Paris boarding school wasn’t a complete waste.”
It was true. He couldn’t resist her French pastries. But when he thought of her cooking them for him, he always imagined her in a tiny French maid outfit. Yeah, he tried not to think about that too often. Way too dangerous.
Just the thought drifting through his mind made him hard. He shifted to make the pressure bearable. “Have you finished your Christmas shopping?” he asked, trying to get his mind on something other than Eve’s luscious body.
“Yes. Actually, I finished it yesterday.” She grimaced. “Luckily, nothing was broken.”
“What did you get me?” he asked, sorry that he had made her remember the events of the day before.
“I’m not telling you. You’ll just have to wait and find out Christmas morning.” She smiled a teasing, flirty little smile that made him ache to taste her lips. “But I promise you will like it.”
“Ah, come on, babe. Give me a clue. Just a little one?” he urged, wanting to see her eyes light up again. He leaned across the island where she was seated and took the half-eaten chip from her fingers and devoured it. “Please?” He gave just a little pout.
It was a mistake. He had no business being this close. Now he could see her blush and her eyes, as green as a perfect emerald, glaze with passion. He swallowed a groan, feeling his erection pulse. Was it him, or had the chip tasted better for having touched her lips? Such pretty, pouty, kissable lips.
“Eve…” He closed his eyes, fighting his desire to reach for her. To taste those luscious lips. “Go to bed, sweetheart. It’s not safe here right now.”
“I don’t think of it that way,” she whispered. “But I guess I should go on up.”
He opened his eyes to find her still seated across from him, her eyes bright with desire and something else. They locked gazes for a long moment, and then with a grimace, she got to her feet, taking her drink with her. “Good night, Sebastian.”
He cleared his throat. “Night, E.”
three
The next morning, an FBI agent came to the house. He was a good-looking man in his late thirties with an easy smile, but he hinted at a notable temper under the surface. Eve took one look at the man and was thankful he was one of the good guys.
He wanted to ask her a few questions, and she led him into Garth’s study. The house was quiet for the most part. Sebastian and Garth were at the office getting some things taken care of so they could take the next few weeks off. Cameron had gone out, probably to do his Christmas shopping—he always left it to the last minute—while Quinn was still in bed. Jet lag always hit her hard, and sometimes she couldn’t function for a few days.
Eve motioned for Special Agent Walsh to have a seat while she took the chair’s twin and turned to face him. He was very handsome, she had to admit. Maybe six feet with short, raven-black hair, a dark olive complexion, and nearly chocolate eyes.
“I’m sorry for the ordeal you were put through yesterday, Miss Patel. I will try not to take up too much of your time.” His voice was a little rough, not like he was a smoker but more natural and probably scary when he raised it.
“I understand that these things have to be done. I guess since banks are under federal protection, you guys had to come in and take over.” She gave him a small smile. “I’ll try to answer your questions as best as I can.”
He pulled a small black notebook and a pen out of the inside pocket of his jacket. “The man who was not dispatched…you’ve met him before?”