ROMANCE: Bear Naked Seduction (Billionaire Bear Trio Book 1) (39 page)

Keith couldn’t believe Jan had come in, accompanying little boy. The little guy would be okay, although surgery was in his future.

Keith wrapped up his paperwork and walked to his locker, pulling out street clothes and dressing quickly. He shrugged on a light jacket, ran his hands through his hair, and gave himself a squirt breath spray. He tried not to examine why he was primping, or his version of primping anyway. Jan was family, not quite a kid sister, definitely not a daughter. But she was family nonetheless.

Forever it’d been Jimmy and Keith, against the world. That met their wives together; they’d married three months apart. They’d even gone through pregnancies together, even though the endings have been very different. Keith and Miranda’s son, Cody, had been born both physically and mentally developmentally delayed. He died at age 3, of complications from his many conditions. Meanwhile, Jan had grown up to be beautiful woman. Poised, empathetic, caring to her students. It was a mystery to Keith why some guy hadn’t snapped her up. He shoved his wallet and keys in his pocket and walked back, finding Jan still sitting in the chairs, staring out into space.

“Jan, you ready?”

“I… Yes,” she said, her voice trembling.

“Want to talk about it?” Keith asked.

“Not here. You mentioned dinner, didn’t you?”

“I sure did. Want me to pick the place.”

“God, yes.” She started to stand, and then reached for him, clutching his arm. “I forgot. Keith, my car isn’t here. I rode with Brady in the ambulance. Can you drop me at my car?”

“Yes. I’m so glad you came over with him. He was so scared, and the nurses told me all he wanted to do was talk about Miss Jan.”

Jim let out a bark of laughter, brittle and bitter. There was something going on, Keith wanted to find out what it was.

“Jan, talk to me.” She looked up at him, her eyes filling with tears. Although. This wasn’t going to be good. Smile wavered, and she wiped her finger under one of her eyes, collecting her tears before they rolled down her cheeks.

“Can we please,
please
just get out of here?”

“Of course.” Keith wrapped an arm around her, pulling her close, her trembling body against his. It wasn’t only a protective motion; he wanted her close for other reasons. Reasons it probably wouldn’t set well with Jim. His daughter was most probably off limits, and if Jim didn’t kill him, Lisa might just. She was as scary as her husband.

Keith didn’t need to ask to know the daughters were off limits. He’d fought an attraction to Jan for a long time. At first, he told himself he was looking for something completely different after his wife died. It was true, Jan, with her curly red hair, bright blue eyes, beautiful smile, and generous curves had been, in many ways, a physical opposite to Miranda, blonde, sleek, beautiful but in a different way. Miranda looked the part of the Hollywood actress, or a high-powered attorney. Jan, however, had a very approachable down to earth, nurturing look about her.

No, Keith told himself. Don’t go there. That would be a full on disaster, he be lucky if you get out of it alive.

Jim was as protective as could be over his daughter.

“Did you talk to the boys in blue?” Keith asked, and she pressed harder against him, molding herself to his side, seeking comfort from him. She nodded and he closed his eyes, wondering what the deal was with that.

It was kind of nice having a woman wanting his comfort. He’d been alone far too long. Oh yeah, he’d been alone far too long, as his cock was currently reminding them.

Down boy, he thought, but it had a mind of its own and it wouldn’t behave. Okay, he needed a restaurant, with booths preferably. If she was going to cause this reaction in him, he did not need to broadcast it to the world. “It’s bad, isn’t it?”

Jan nodded and swallowed hard. Her face was pressed against his shoulder, and he could feel her little breaths, panic distressed sounds.

“We can do a pizza at my place if you’d rather be more private, Jan? Or we can pick up something and take it home to eat.”

“I think I’d like that better,” she said in a small voice. “Your place.”

Keith hadn’t really thought this through. Jan at his place. Was in a mess? Had he done the dishes? He supposed it didn’t matter; there was something going on here. Something major. “Come on then,” he said gently to her, and let her out of the hospital.

Once they were in his car she turned to him, her breathing harsh in the silence of the car.

“Is Brady going to be okay?”

“He should be. He needs surgery on the leg. Can you tell me what happened?” Jan fell silent, and Keith turned the car on maneuvering himself out of the parking lot and onto the main artery leading to his suburb.

“He was hit by car. The car came up on the playground.”

“Oh. That’s why the police were here, wasn’t it?”

“Yes,” Jan said. There was something in her voice that Keith did not like. “I have a sneaking suspicion that they’re going to blame me.”

“Weren’t blood test routine for all of your staff?”

“Yes, I think so. But I wasn’t impaired in any way, Keith. Please believe me. I was inside.”

“And you think they’re going to go after you?”

“Oh, yeah. My supervisor has a bit of a drinking problem, and I don’t know why he was off the school grounds when school was in session. Even if it was lunch hour, he should have been out drinking.”

“Was it a three martini lunch?”

“For all I know could have been,” Jan said. “It’s common knowledge that he has a drinking problem, and I think some of my coworkers had to cover for him several times. I’m not going to do that anymore. But I think he’s going to come after me.”

“Come after you how,” Keith asked.

“He’s never liked me all that much. Borderline sexual harassment, but I like the kids and most of my coworkers are great. And the kids are fantastic. When they come in during the summer, they’re so full of energy.”

Keith nodded. That had always been her dream, to work with children. “You get quieter during the school year, don’t you?”

“Much. We do have a lot of kids who are in the afterschool program. And then we have tutoring, which takes a lot of time and energy. But I love it. I love the kids. I just…”

“Did you know he was drinking today?” Keith asked. He had to think like an investigator; it might help Jan, if need be. And Keith had a growing sense that it would need to be, whether Jan liked it or not.

Jan closed her eyes and leaned back in her seat.

“No. I didn’t know. I was inside, like I said, and four of the girls were watching them for free play time. I was about to come out and call the five minute warning when it happened.”

“What happened?”

“I didn’t see it, but I heard the thud and the cries. Claire, who isn’t the best teacher ever, was letting the kids just stand there. Oh, god, they must have been so terrified, Keith.”

“Shhh.”

She sighed again, and he squeezed her knee. “It’s going to be okay, Jan. He’ll be just fine and you can ride out this storm.”

Keith pulled in to his driveway, parking. He’d take her to her car later. The last thing she needed was to be alone with her thoughts right now.

“Chinese or pizza?” he asked, waiting for her to get out of the car. When she did, he walked up to the front door and stuck the key in. “You haven’t been here yet, have you?”

She hadn’t; he was fairly certain. Keith had bought a huge when the market had crashed, and had rented his family home, the one full of memories of Cody and Miranda, to a great family, one who could build their own memories, one who could turn the house from a sad memory of what Keith had lost, to a home full of love and laughter.

This place was new; he’d been the first to buy, and at a huge discount from its current appraised value. It was way more house than he needed, but Keith loved it. The three bedrooms all had their purpose and when Mom came back to town, she had a place to stay while she visited, and the basement home theater system was the place for the guys to come visit, whether they were watching a game or playing poker.

“No, I haven’t.” She looked at the outside and smiled, though he was sure her heart wasn’t in it.

“Then you have a treat ahead,” he told her, yet his heart wasn’t really in it either.

He let her inside to the living room and grabbed a few menus from his kitchen counter. “These places deliver, anything strike you?”

She glanced through the menus and pointed at one. “Chinese?”

“It is really good Chinese,” he told her, taking off his coat and reaching for her. She gave it to him, and he slung it over one of his kitchen chairs, along with his. Maybe her sunshine scent would permeate to his coat too.

“What are you having?’ he asked when they fell silent.

“Kung Pao chicken, I think. Want to share some fried rice?”

She sounded much younger than her years now, and tentative. He’d liked her take-charge attitude with the boy, and missed that. In the silence of his apartment, he heard a persistent buzzing sound.

“My cell. Text messages.” She opened her purse, pulled out her phone, and read the screen. “Oh my god, the media knows about it.” She shuddered and barely held back a sob. “This is awful, Keith.”

“Put it aside for now.” He held out his hand and she reluctantly placed her phone into it. “This can all wait. You gave blood. Did they want urine too?”

“Yes,” she whispered, staring at her hands.

“You have nothing to worry about. You weren’t even out there.”

“I wanted to be, but there were things inside I had to deal with.”

“Were you supposed to be out there?” Keith hated asking it, but he need to know.

“No. I’m not assigned outside during this week.”

“Did you have adequate staff out there?”

“Yes. It wasn’t their fault. It was my supervisor’s fault.”

“Okay, then, we talk about it all later. Let me get the order place.” He smoothed one wayward curl back, his fingertip tracing over her cheek, her soft, warm skin branding his fingertips. His cock throbbed and he knew he was in trouble, big trouble.

He'd been lonely for too long; he’d been alone with only his hand for pleasure for way too long. And she was beautiful and as much his type as…

No. Think of Jim. Think of Lisa. Think of…Miranda.

A shaft of pain and longing tore through him. Longing for the future, longing for the past. Longing for…everything, including Miranda.

Jesus Christ, he couldn’t open this door with a girl—woman—twenty years younger, with his best friend’s only child. This was a pure disaster waiting to happen.

He was so fucked. The door was open and now…now he couldn’t close it.

Keith placed the order and tugged a kitchen chair over, sitting backward on it. That’d block her view of him, though it was an armor than he knew was nearly transparent. She would eventually see he was turned on, would see that he was ready and aroused for her. What the hell was he thinking? This was his best friend’s kid. Okay, she was closer to thirty than teenhood, but he’d watched her grow up. There was no way he could be attracted to her…but he was. His cock was hardening as he sat looking at her. This was not good. At all.

“How are things?” Keith asked, desperate for some distraction from his carnal thoughts. “You seeing anyone?”

“Seeing anyone?” Jan asked, her nose wrinkling up adorably. “You mean as in dating?”

“Yeah.” At least if he had a name of a guy she was dating, he’d be able to put her out of his mind.

“I’m not seeing anyone,” she told him, shaking her head. “Do you really think…”

“Think what?” he asked.

“Think that... I don’t…Guys don’t seem to be interested in a chubby teacher.”

“Curvy,” he responded, letting her comment sink in. She was a hell of a woman; any man should feel lucky to have her.

“Fat,” she said in reply, wrinkling her nose. “There’s curvy and then there’s me.”

He wondered if she was insulting herself, but from her ironic smile, she seemed to be accepting.

“I don’t like that word.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, a blush coloring her cheeks. “It is what it is, you know? I can’t deny that I’m bigger than average. And most guys my age—”

“Most guys your age are idiots.” It was as much the truth as her weight was. “If they can’t see how beautiful you are—”

“Okay, pep talk over,” she said with a laugh. A part of him that he barely controlled wanted to kiss her silly, to show her that a real man had so much to offer her.

A real man, who would worship her curves rather than deriding them. And maybe, just maybe, he was that man for her.

Jan looked at Keith, trying to figure him out. He was her dad’s best friend, sure, but there was something different today, something that she wanted to figure out. Something that made her look at him as a man—okay, one old enough to be her father, but a man. A very handsome man who had been compassionate to a scared little boy. That aroused every protective need in her, the nurturing she used at school making her a prime candidate to be attracted to a caregiver.