In Too Deep (34 page)

From the parking lot behind the
corner of the hall rolled a smoky laugh. Ben forgot the irritable
spot under his cast.

Kezia
.

He straightened his shoulders,
scowling at the tug of the wool jacket. Bad enough he’d catch grief
from the guys tonight, not to mention the heckles from his sisters,
but Kezia? She confounded him with her sheer sunny nature and
refusal to take his coolness as a personal affront. Thank God that
as the local primary school teacher, their paths didn’t cross
often. If he wanted to hang out with his baby sister, he didn’t
visit when Kezia and Zoe were home.

But it wasn’t Kezia who appeared
around the corner first; it was Piper. And, good God Almighty, his
mother must’ve conned her into wearing a dress. The grin spread
across his face before he could stop it. West would stroke out when
he caught a glimpse of Piper all fancied up.

She caught his look and stabbed a
finger. “Not one word, Benjamin Harland.”

He looked her up and down while
she teetered toward him in some wicked looking heels. Shaye or
Kezia, since they were into that girly crap, must’ve held her down
and piled goopy stuff to her eyes and lips, then swiped something
through her hair to make it sit in a sleek, shiny cap around her
face.

“
Not. One. Word.” Piper climbed
the verandah’s two stairs, Shaye behind her with a smug expression,
and Kezia bringing up the rear.

He’d been about to say something
lame like she looked nice, but at her fierce stare he shrugged.
Whatever. She’d get the compliment soon enough with West panting
over her.

He swept his hand to the side.
“Ladies.”

“
Come on, Piper. Don’t start in on
each other,” Shaye said.

The three women moved toward the
open hall doors.

Kezia paused and looked over her
shoulder. “Shoot, I left my wrap back in the van. I’ll meet you in
there.” She turned away and walked back toward him.

He developed a sudden interest in
the construction of the hand rail above the stairs. A spicy, exotic
scent drifted into his nose, tickling his senses and causing the
tips of his ears to burn.

“
Ben?” Kezia’s voice, a sensual
stroke along his skin, came from right beside him.

He looked down, way down—God, she
was tiny—into smoldering chocolate-colored eyes. Ben offered a
rumbly grunt, since his vocal chords failed when she
smiled.

“
If you turn that frown upside
down it’ll result in the ladies paying a higher price for the
chance to
have
you for a night.”

He shoved his fists into the
pockets of his suit pants, which in direct contradiction to the
jacket were half a size too big. Just as well, since the thought of
Kezia
having him for a night stirred things below his waist
that he didn’t care for anyone to see.

“
I’ll remember that.” His voice
came out gruff and clipped with an unintentional edge of
annoyance.

Small white teeth flashed under
gloss-slicked lips before she turned away, moving with an easy
grace down the stairs, the silky red dress clinging to the lush
curves of her very fine ass. An ass he couldn’t pull his gaze from
as she sashayed around the corner.

Nope. Not taking his hands out of
his pants pockets any time soon, since they hid one mother of a
hard-on.

A couple of minutes ticked by
while he got his dick under control, kicking himself the whole time
for being such a jerk when Kezia had only tried to…well, he didn’t
understand
what
the sultry smile and soft, suggestive words
were about.

Ben glanced around. The street
alongside the community hall remained deserted. He didn’t want to
ruin the start of Kezia’s evening by sounding like the world’s
grumpiest jackass, so he’d go mutter an apology.

Limping down the stairs, he set
off along the sidewalk, a couple of different apology scenarios
scrolling through his brain. Apologizing to women wasn’t his strong
suit.
Talking
to a woman like Kezia, who for some unknown
reason made him feel like one of the eight-year-olds in her class,
wasn’t his strong suit.

Ben strode into the parking lot,
his gaze tracking across the concrete until he spotted the bulky
outline of Due South’s courtesy van in the far corner. He didn’t
spot Kezia at first, but zeroed in on the dark-haired man on the
opposite side of the van. The man leaned on the van’s panel with
his hands spread apart, his head dipped down, a snarl twisting his
mouth.

Reynolds.

Then a glimpse of a woman’s pale
fist thumping Gav’s shoulder, before his hand snatched her wrist
away and shoved. The back of the woman’s head hit the van with a
dull thunk, followed by a familiar husky voice cursing in
Italian—Kezia’s voice.

That sonofabitch.

Broken ankle notwithstanding, Ben
ran, hurtling around the van and hauling Gav backward by his shirt.
Gav choked and sputtered as the collar tightened around his neck
and buttons pinged off, but he managed to swing a sloppy left hook.
Ben dodged easily and Gav staggered, tripping over his
feet.

“
The fuck’s your problem,
Harland?” Gav righted himself, puffing out his chest and
glowering.

Gav was drunk. Stinking drunk and
mean with it. Terrific.

Measuring Gav’s agitation, Ben
said to Kezia, who looked more murderous than teary-eyed, “You
okay? Did he hurt you?”

“
No, he didn’t hurt
me.”

While he could hear the fury in
Kezia’s voice she kept her distance, backing up a few steps. Smart
cookie.

“
But the bastard ambushed and
pawed me when I climbed out of the van.”

Ben stilled, even as his blood
pressure rocketed into the danger zone, blood pulsing through his
skull like his head was about to explode off his shoulders. “He put
his hands on you?”

“
Yes.” The single word, almost a
whisper, slipped from her glossy lips.

“
We were just talking, you
stuck-up, frigid bitch.”

“
Don’t speak to the lady like
that.” Considering his internal temperature, he had no clue where
the ice coating his words came from.

Gav lurched toward him, his eyes
dark chips of built-up resentment. “Piss off, cripple. This is none
of your business.”

Cripple or not, the prick had
touched her and now a messy conclusion was unavoidable.

Gav aimed a kick at Ben’s broken
ankle, broadcasting his intention by wobbling onto his left leg.
His balance sucked, thanks to the Jack Daniel’s fumes wafting off
him.

Ben swiveled to avoid the
ill-timed kick and grabbed Gav’s wrist to pull him further off
balance. Stepping slightly behind him, he delivered a blow with his
elbow to the side of Gav’s jaw. His annoyance spiked at the hiss of
his hundred-dollar hired suit tearing at the seams, so he added a
knee to the gut.

Gav folded like a bad poker hand.
But even scrabbling on the concrete, he had to have the last
word.

“
Not. Lady…Whores,” Gav wheezed,
blood trickling down his chin from where Ben’s elbow had split the
corner of his lip. “Her and…your sisters.”

Righteous anger detonated into
rage. Ben pulled back a fist to teach the bastard a life lesson
when a small but strong hand gripped his forearm. He glanced
down—Kezia at his side again, with that unfathomable gaze trained
on his.

“
Don’t, Ben. The pathetic worm’s
not worth it.”

“
No one calls you, or my sisters,
whores.” Like his father, his temper proved hard to ignite, but
once provoked beyond tolerance and the fuse caught fire, it was a
hell of a thing to put out before an explosion.

“
He can call us anything he
likes.” Kezia tugged on his arm with both hands. “And then he can
repeat it to Noah Daniels when I press sexual assault
charges.”

Ben sucked in a breath. The scent
of her perfume broke through the urge to add more bloody splotches
to Gav’s white dress shirt. He took a step back and looked at his
hand, forcing his fingers to relax. He breathed some more. God, she
smelled amazing. “Well. That’s something.”

Gav rolled over onto his hands and
knees and vomited. Ben considered planting his cast on Gav’s ass
and toppling him into it. Later. Maybe later he’d pay him another
visit; the last time he “visited” him after the Waitangi Day game
he’d told Gav he’d end up with both arms in casts if he touched one
of his sisters again. Gav didn’t comprehend the threat extended to
other women in Ben’s orbit.

“
Escort me back to the ball?”
Kezia slid her fingers up his forearm to tuck into the crook of his
elbow. “And you may want to take the jacket off, it’s almost in
shreds. You look like The Incredible Hulk after a night on the
town.”

“
Not Dr. Bruce Banner?”

“
Definitely The Hulk,” she said.
“You’ve got some muscles there.” She patted his bicep and gazed up
at him.

The last of his temper fizzled,
the hairs on his arm standing to attention.

“
But he’s the green one.” Kezia
dipped her chin at Gav who slumped like a beached starfish on the
parking lot, groaning.

Aware of the warmth of her at his
side, Ben guided her around Gav’s prone form. Kezia paused and trod
on Gav’s hand. He let out a tea-kettle whistle and yanked at his
hand trapped under her dainty stiletto.

“
Whoops. My bad.” Without another
glance, she stepped off again. “Ready?”

“
Remind me never to cross you, Ms.
Murphy,” Ben said as they strolled out of the parking
lot.

She laughed, and temper had
nothing to do with the heat that abruptly roared through
him.

When they reached the verandah,
Kezia slipped her hand from his elbow and straightened the lapel of
his ruined jacket. Her fingers wrapped around his tie and pulled,
his head dipping closer to magnetic dark eyes a man could lose his
mind in.

She rose on tip-toe, brushing a
whisper-soft kiss across his cheek. “Thank you for being all
big-brotherly on my behalf.”

For once, Ben wished he had West’s
skill for easy conversation. A witty remark, a casual comment to
smooth this awkwardness over. Something. Because he couldn’t blurt
out that he now wasn’t thinking of her in a brotherly way at
all.

He hooked a finger inside his
too-tight collar and cleared his throat. “Ah. You’re
welcome.”

Christ. What a jackass.

Releasing his tie, Kezia smiled,
and disappeared into the crowded hall.

***

As part of free-diving training,
West learned that on a deep dive his lungs compacted to the size of
two oranges. That was nothing compared to the pressure compressing
every oxygen molecule in his lungs at the sight of Piper across the
crowded hall.

Her dress floated around her, the
pale green fabric contrasting with her tanned skin and glossy hair.
But it wasn’t the way her eyes sparkled, or the heels which made
her legs look a mile long, or even the seductive slick of her
painted lips.

Piper glowed, from the inside out.
She lit up the hall with enough energy to power Oban through many
cold, winter nights. While she’d always been beautiful,
tonight—tonight Piper looked incredible.

West dodged through the crowd to
claim her before anyone else could and the tingles racing out from
his heart meant one of two things. Either he was about to suffer a
heart attack, or the barricades he’d erected to prevent himself
from falling in love with her had yielded without a
whimper.

Refracted light from the disco
ball sparkled over Piper’s face as she angled her chin toward his
father, laughing up at him when he touched her arm.

Oh, yeah, one small step away from
catastrophe, one not-so-giant leap from hitting that one-way,
slippery slope.

The band started with a catchy
number and couples flowed out onto the dance floor. Piper patted
his father’s arm and gestured to Claire, who stood on her other
side talking to Shaye. Piper mouthed something and with an
aw-shucks shrug Bill tapped Claire’s shoulder.

West ignored the soft smile his
mother returned as she took Bill’s elbow and allowed him to guide
her onto the floor.

He had other issues. Like Kip, his
about-to-be-fired barman, honing in on Piper with the determination
of a Great White after a seal.

Not that Piper was a seal, but
dammit, she was
his
.

West caught Kip’s eye and
threatened disembowelment with a single glance. Kip grinned, not at
all perturbed, and changed direction to swoop toward Shaye
instead.

West slipped behind Piper and set
his hands on her waist. “Hey, there.”

She stiffened, then melted into
him as he planted a kiss on the crescent of skin behind her ear.
With her little ass snugged into his crotch, and her skin sprayed
with something delicious and citrusy, dancing with Piper would be
less scandalous to the group of octogenarians clustered in the
seating areas than dragging her off to a dark corner.