Having Her: Lies We Tell, Book 2 (2 page)

Not that she’d ever let him know that.

Inside, Kara debated putting her feet on the dash then decided against it. With Vin in this mood, there was no telling what he’d do. She settled for the vocal equivalent instead. “So,” she said as he got in and pulled on his seatbelt, “you really want to know what I was thinking tonight? I was thinking I wanted to get laid.”

“How? By standing on the side of the road like a hooker?” Vin pulled the car into the traffic. “I wouldn’t have thought you’d be that stupid.”

A small kernel of anger hardened inside her. “Well
obviously
not,” she replied, not holding back on the sarcasm. “I picked up a guy in a bar.”

“How is that any more intelligent?”

“And I suppose you’ve never picked up a woman in a bar?”

“No.” He said the word so flatly she had no doubt it was the truth.

“Oh. Uh. So
you’d
stand on the side of the road then?”

He gave her a cold, sweeping glance, once again making her feel two inches tall. “What are you doing picking up men in bars, Kara?”

She leaned back in her seat, folding her arms. “I thought I was clear as to why. Perhaps I should spell it out?”

He did not, unfortunately, rise to the bait. “And you’re doing this by yourself?”

Kara bit her lip, glancing out the window. “I wasn’t by myself.” At least not after Wayne had showed up.

“So that would be a yes then?”

Abruptly tired of his questions and sick of his attitude, Kara snapped, “Okay, fine. Yeah, I was by myself. And no, I know it’s not the most intelligent thing I’ve ever done but hey, what would you do if you were twenty-five and a virgin?”

She had to be joking. Though sometimes with Kara it was difficult to tell.

Vin glanced at her and met her gaze staring back belligerently at him. Purple eyes, long blue hair, square, black-framed glasses, a skin-tight short black dress and biker boots. A ring through one eyebrow and a blue stud in her nose. By rights she should be scaring people away looking like that—perhaps she even meant to. But of course nothing about her weird appearance masked the fact that Kara Sinclair was beautiful.

Twenty-five and virgin? Yeah, she had to be joking.

“Didn’t I tell you I wasn’t in the mood to play games?” he said, not bothering to hide his irritation.

“I’m not playing games.”

“You can’t seriously be telling me you’re a virgin?”

Kara’s pale eyebrows, the only sign of her true hair color, pulled down. “You think I’d say something like that as a joke?”

“I have no idea. It’s sometimes difficult to tell with you whether it’s the truth or just another sarcastic remark.”

Her thickly mascaraed eyelashes—blue mascara, of course—veiled her gaze. “Jesus. Forget I said anything, okay?” she muttered, turning her head to look out the window.

Vin frowned. She really could be the most irritating woman on the planet when she put her mind to it. Always ready with a quick comeback or a snarky statement. And she’d always made it very obvious she didn’t much like him. Not that he cared what she thought of him, he had far too much on his plate already to deal with his little sister’s annoying best friend.

Yet the innate protectiveness that was part and parcel of his makeup, that had forced him into the car to come and get her tonight, couldn’t help noting that there was something a little off about her. A little bit quiet. Normally she wouldn’t have been able to shut up, but now she’d gone silent, her shoulders hunched. With her long blue hair over one shoulder, the pale, vulnerable skin of her neck was revealed and just beneath her ear, he saw a bruise.

A love bite.

Shit. What had happened to her tonight?

Long years of being the one who had to make all the decisions, the one in control, made him want to demand an explanation. Because although he may not like her much, she was still vulnerable. And since she was Ellie’s best friend, she automatically came under his protection whether she wanted to be or not, though mostly it was not.

But demands didn’t work with Kara. His best friend Hunter was better at doing the good cop stuff, while he was always the bad cop.

“What happened tonight?” he asked, trying to find some of Hunter’s good cop tone.

Kara didn’t look at him. “It’s a little late for Mr. Nice Guy, isn’t it?”

“You’ve got a bruise on your neck.”

Her shoulders tensed and she raised a hand, touching her skin lightly. “Oh,” she mumbled. “Bugger.”

Christ. His hands clenched on the wheel. She wasn’t his sister but still, he’d known her for over ten years, ever since she’d befriended Ellie at high school, and by default she’d become part of the family he had to look out for. Especially once he’d found out that the reason she came round to visit so often wasn’t just because she was friends with Ellie. Her foster family clearly had a policy of benign neglect.

“Tell me what happened, Kara,” he said curtly, ditching all attempts at moderating himself. If something had happened to her he needed to know and he needed to know now.

“Nothing.” She shrugged. “Wayne got a little over eager, that’s all.”

“Wayne?”

“The guy I picked up.” She gave him an annoyed look. “And before you start getting all Neanderthal, it was nothing like that.”

“Nothing like what?”

“I bit him first.”

“Jesus, Kara.”

“What? Look, I was telling you the truth, okay? I’m a twenty-five-year-old virgin and I’m fucking sick of it.” She crossed one booted foot over her knee. “Man, I never thought it would be so difficult to get laid in this stupid town.”

Vin found himself staring at the way her black dress had ridden up her legs, revealing what looked like the top of a stocking. Shit. Was that lace? And suspenders? On Kara?

He jerked his gaze back to the road as a feeling uncomfortably similar to lust shot straight to his groin.

For fuck’s sake that was all he needed. Kara had always been in the realm of the untouchable, too many associations with his sister for anything like attraction. So why he should be getting a hard-on for her now was anyone’s guess. Maybe he was just tired. He’d been working like a dog for the past week, and God knew it had been months since he’d taken any time for himself, too consumed by the needs of his business in a difficult economic climate. Not to mention making sure his mother was secure in hospital.

Clearly he needed to go let off some steam somewhere.

“So that’s what you’re doing?” he asked. “Going around picking up men just to get rid of your virginity? I take it back, clearly you
are
that stupid.” He’d never been one to sugarcoat the truth. He didn’t have time for that shit. Except for the kind of truth that affected his sister. And that he’d do anything to keep from her.

“You prick. Thanks so much, Mr. Sensitive.”

“Well what do you expect me to say? You’ve got a bruise on your neck and you’re standing out on the road at eleven p.m. at night. I did think you had some sense.”

Her head was turned resolutely toward the window, her shoulders stiff with tension. “It’s not like I planned for the evening to end this way.”

“Then how did you plan it?”

She had her arms crossed over her breasts, her fingers white where they lay against her upper arms. “I thought I’d stay over at Wayne’s place.”

“You thought you’d stay overnight at your hook-up’s place? Are you really that naïve?”

“Hello? Virgin here.”

She still had her head turned away but he heard something in her voice. A small tremor.

“Fuck, did he hurt you?” Vin demanded, a sudden ice-cold anger going through him. “Because if he did—”

“No, he didn’t,” Kara said flatly. “I left.”

For some reason that didn’t make him feel any better. “Why? What did he do?”

“Nothing. He didn’t do anything.” She fell silent for a long moment. “And that was kind of the problem. I think he was expecting me to do something.”

“What?”

“I don’t think I want to be discussing this with you right now.”

He didn’t really want to be discussing it either if he was honest. But he didn’t like the idea of Kara picking up strange men in bars just because she wanted to lose her virginity.

“Jesus, Kara. What’s the rush?” he asked, when she didn’t break the silence. “Surely you don’t have to resort to bar hook-ups?”

She let out a short breath. “The rush? I’m twenty-five for God’s sake. Hardly normal, is it?”

He didn’t want to point out the obvious but someone had to. “Normal? You?”

“Yeah, yeah, hysterical, I know. So shoot me if I want a little bit of normality in my life.”

“If you want normality in your life, then dressing like that isn’t the way to go about getting it.”

Kara turned her head, giving him a hard stare. Then, pointedly, she pushed her black-framed glasses up her nose with her middle finger. “I’ll dress any way I damn well please, thank you very much.”

Christ almighty, the woman was asking for trouble with that kind of attitude. “I hate to be the one to point this out to you, Kara, but if that’s the way you treat all your hook-ups, no wonder you’re a virgin.”

“You’re an asshole, you know that?”

Yeah, he kind of did. But shit, he wasn’t going to apologize for pointing out the truth. “All I’m saying is—”

“All you’re saying is that I can’t get laid because I’m an evil bitch,” she interrupted, shifting her leg which only pulled up her dress more. “Well, maybe you’re right. But I’m not looking for a relationship or someone special. I just want to get this stupid virginity thing out of the way before I get a complex about it.”

Vin dragged his gaze away from the tantalizing glimpse of black lace and suspenders showing beneath the hem of her dress. He couldn’t think why he wanted to look. He was driving for fuck’s sake. And this was Kara.

“Sounds to me as if you already have a complex about it,” he said, staring out into the darkness beyond the front window. They weren’t far from Kara’s apartment now. Thank Christ.

Kara waved a hand. “Hence the bar hook-ups.”

“Why?”

“Well, bars are full of guys looking for sex. I thought it would be easy to find someone who wasn’t too hideous and who wanted a bit of fun.”

Vin couldn’t help flashing her a glance. “Someone who wasn’t too hideous? You’re really selling yourself very high there.”

A stain of color crept over her cheeks. She looked out of the window again. “As you say, I dress weird. I have an attitude problem. Beggars can’t be choosers, can they?”

He didn’t know what to say to that. Didn’t she know she was gorgeous? That she could have any guy she pleased? Or at least she could if she didn’t dye her hair stupid colors or wear contacts that made her look like an alien.

“That’s what you want?” he said. “To lose your virginity to some random stranger who isn’t too hideous?”

“Yeah, so?”

“You can do better than that, Kara. Shit, you
should
do better than that.”

“What do you care?”

Kara’s apartment building loomed out of the darkness and he pulled the car over outside it.

“Because you’re Ellie’s friend. You’re like my own goddamned sister. And I don’t like the idea of you trolling bars for sex just to lose your virginity. It’s not only wrong, it’s dangerous.”

An odd expression crossed her face, one he couldn’t interpret. Then it was gone, her usual sarcastic exterior firmly in place. “I don’t give a shit what you think. You’re not my brother or my father and even if I had either of those, I wouldn’t let them dictate to me what I did with my time or my body.”

He ignored that. “But surely you can see what a stupid idea it is, right?”

She put her hand on the door handle, preparing to get out. Her eyes were the deep purple of violets, an unnatural color. “How else am I supposed to do it? Sell my virginity on eBay?”

“Find a guy you like. Tell me about him. I’ll investigate—”

“Oh my God, you’ve got to be kidding.” Her gaze went wide. “You’ll vet my potential sex partners? Do you have any idea how ridiculous that sounds?”

Vin tightened his grip on the steering wheel. Yeah, okay, he was kind of over the top with stuff like that. But someone had to look out for those who didn’t have anyone else to look out for them. He didn’t know much about Kara’s birth family—she was notoriously private about them and not even Ellie knew much—but he did know that her mother lived down south and her father wasn’t in the picture. That her foster family was long gone and she had no one here in Auckland. Which for Vin automatically meant it was his job.

“I don’t care how ridiculous that sounds. I don’t want you ending up raped or murdered because you chose the wrong guy.”

Kara rolled her eyes. “Jesus, Vincent. Give the bloody protective crap a rest, okay? I’m not your damn sister, I don’t need it.”

But Vin had never backed down over what he saw as his responsibilities and he wasn’t going to start now. “What you need, Kara, is for someone to show you all about sex in a safe environment, not some fucking bar.”