Terms of Surrender (17 page)

Traitors.
She’d been the one who’d rescued them from their father. Sort of. She’d read them their bedtime stories, cooked them their favorite breakfasts, and taken them shopping at the mall. All he’d done was tag along.

And be dashing and courteous and so darn handsome, she was envious of how close the girls got to be to him. Oh yeah, Gage Toryn was like a recipe for heartache for every age out there.

Harley lengthened her strides and headed toward the clothing store. Gage and the girls caught up to her quickly.

“So what kind of suits are we buying?” he asked.

She turned her head to look at him, eyes narrowed, suspicious.

“For the girls, I mean,” he added with a most appealing grin. “I already have one at home.”

She shrugged and headed for the children’s wear. The girls spotted the suit they wanted right away, a hot pink polka-dotted bikini. Harley found two in the correct size and headed to the checkout counter.

Gage caught her by the arm. “What about you?”

“What about me?”

He sighed and glanced down at the girls. “If you want to join the pool party, Aunt Harley, you have to wear the proper attire.”

Laura tugged on his hand. “What’s ’tire, Unca Gage?”

He grinned at the girl, his attention shifting to Harley, his smoking hot gaze raking the length of her. “In this case, sugarplum, the proper ’tire for your aunt is one of those string bikinis.”

“Like ours?” Lisa asked, holding up the scraps of fabric.

Gage studied the items in her hands, a thoughtful expression on his face. “Yeah, that looks about the right size.”

Something was different. He was different. Ever since the incident with the razor, he’d been playing the family man. Or maybe he was simply being…Gage. Sweet and kind and considerate, a sucker for the underdog. “You’re a closet pervert, aren’t you?”

“What’s a pe’vert?” Lisa asked.

“Your Uncle Gage,” Harley replied without pause.

Gage grinned. “No bikini, no party for you, Aunt Harley.”

“Actually, I prefer the one piece variety. Something practical like a racing suit.” She heard him groan as he followed her, the girls in tow.

“You can’t be serious. How will you compete in the bikini contest?”

Wide-eyed, Laura clapped her hands. “Puh-kini contest? Do we get a prize?”

Harley stopped, one hand resting on the rack of women’s bathing suits. “Yes, Uncle Gage. What’s the prize?”

His grin turned wolfish. “An evening alone with me.”

The girls squealed their delight. Yeah, for sure her heart wouldn’t be the only heart broken in their household.

Harley pulled out a very modest one-piece outfit and studied it critically. “And I suppose you’re the judge?”

Gage pulled the hanger from her hand and hung the suit back on the rack. “Yes, so if you want to win, you have to outdo the girls’ outfits.”

Lisa tugged up the bottom edge of Harley’s top and looked underneath. “How’re we ’posed to ’pete with those?”

Gage leaned forward and crooked his finger into the neckline of her t-shirt. “What are you talking about, sugarplum? Let me have a look.”

Harley grabbed the edge of her shirt and with a laugh, backed out of reach.

“How are we ’posed to ’pete with those?” Lisa asked again, this time poking Harley in the breast, clearly exasperated that he didn’t know what she was talking about.

Her face turning twelve shades of red, Harley couldn’t help but notice the people who stopped to stare. Self-conscious, she smiled at them.

Beside her, Gage was focused on Lisa’s concerns. He shook his head, an intense frown fixed on his forehead. “Didn’t even notice Aunt Harley’s breasts, so they won’t be a factor in the contest.”

Harley rolled her eyes, turned back to the rack, and started flipping through the hangers. “Why don’t you let me worry about my suit and you three go buy the pool?”

Lisa pushed Laura. “
A pool
.”

Laura pushed Lisa back. “
Stop it.
”

Coming to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with her, Gage pushed a couple of hangers along the rack. “Since it’s my treat, I should get a say in what you buy.”

She noticed him reach for a canary yellow Victoria Secret style bikini and stopped his hand in mid-air. “Fortunately, I can afford to buy my own.”

His hot breath touched her ear. “Maybe so, but if you let me pick, you’ll be the hottest babe lounging around the pool.”

Harley couldn’t help it. She laughed, and using her shoulder, nudged him back. “You’re incorrigible.”

“One of the many things that make you wildly, crazily hot for me.” He stopped, distracted as Laura pushed past him to chase Lisa around the racks, darting in and out without thought or concern for the other shoppers. “Girls. Come back here.”

“Like that’ll work.” Harley stepped away from the rack and watched them, fascinated by all the energy packed into their tiny bodies. “Maybe we should go.”

“Not on your life, lady.” Reaching out, Gage caught the girls by the back of their sundresses and held on. They strained to get away, choking themselves in the process. He gave Harley an easy smile. “Everything’s under control. Go ahead. Pick a few suits. Try them on. I’ll help you decide.”

“In your dreams.”

In the end, she chose a hot pink bikini sans polka dots. And as she held the suit up in front of Gage’s face so he could see her choice, she was rewarded with his jaw dropping open, his eyes practically popping out of his face, and his grip on the girls’ sundresses loosening.

The twins disappeared under a rack.

“You’re it.
”

“No, you’re it.
”

Gage closed his mouth, muttered something under his breath about the weather turning hotter, and went in after them.

At least the girls were no longer miserable.

A new bounce to her step, Harley headed toward the checkout counter.

Oh, she was so going to make him wish he’d let her buy the one-piece suit instead.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

With his wrench in hand, Gage hunkered down to change the oil in his bike, far, far away from his houseguests and the domestic situation he’d avoided his entire adult life.

What had he been thinking when he’d decided to buy the twins the plastic pool?

Their excitement and laughter had been contagious, and for a few moments, Gage found himself wishing this family belonged to him.

At which time reason returned.

He’d ushered Harley and the girls out of the clothes store, stopped to purchase the pool, and loaded them all up in the truck.

Back at home, while Harley fed the twins and put them to bed for naps, he’d set up the plastic pool and filled it, leaving it in the heat of the sun to take the chill out of the water.

Afterwards, he’d escaped into the garage, one ear cocked for the sound of his temporary family, like an ogre desperate for companionship, yet too afraid of rejection to join in on the fun.

Two hours later, the house erupted with the sound of Harley’s laughter, childish screams, and the overriding excitement of the new toy waiting for them on the lawn.

He wouldn’t join them. As long as he remembered to keep his distance, they were safe. He’d have to remember not to repeat this morning’s shopping trip because he’d enjoyed it too much. It had reminded him of all the things he was missing by choosing this solitary lifestyle.

A squeal from the house broke through his thoughts. The back screen door burst open, slammed shut. He winced, wondering if it would still be in one piece by the time the girls left.

Mike.

He needed to find his brother and convince him to seek professional help. The girls needed their dad, and Mike needed them so he could quit wallowing in self-pity and begin to piece together a new life.

“Lisa, sweetie.” Harley’s voice came from the vicinity of the house. “Stay out of the garage. Uncle Gage will join us when he’s done working.”

Not if he could help it.

He paused to listen to the sound of water splashing and girls laughing.

Family playtime.

There’d been none of that in the house where he’d grown up, nothing to make a boy feel like he was wanted or loved. His dad may be tolerable now, but in those days, he’d been worse than an ogre.

Gage blocked out the giggles and focused on the mechanics of his bike. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed before he felt the presence of another person. Glancing up, he saw one of the twins standing quietly on the other side of the bike, her stature barely tall enough to see over the edge of the seat.

This one had to be Lisa because Laura would have announced her presence without any hesitation. “You shouldn’t be in here, sugarplum.”

She cocked her head to one side, reminding him of her aunt. “Why not?”

“There’s lots of dangerous things that aren’t for little girls.”

“Can I watch? I p’omise to be good.”

He eyed her, surprised
good
was in her vocabulary. Finally, against his better judgment, he caved. “I suppose. Don’t touch anything.”

The sound of bare feet against the cement alerted him to the presence of someone joining them. He glanced up, expecting to see the other twin.

Instead it was Harley and he got his first look at her in the two-piece suit. It set his mind reeling with lust and his body hardening with desire.

When she spotted the twin, she approached them. “Lisa, you shouldn’t be bothering your Uncle Gage.”

Gage straightened and let his gaze sweep down the length of her bare skin, her small breasts, her smooth skin. His voice was rough when he finally swallowed and spoke. “It’s okay, I don’t mind.”

She stopped on the other side of the bike, twirling a tendril of hair around one finger, shifting from one foot to the other, no doubt unaware that the jiggle of her breasts was enough to ignite his body. “Are you sure?”

Before he did something he’d regret, like maybe lunge across the bike seat, tackle her to the ground, and have his way with her, he hunkered down beside the bike again so he was at eye level with the younger twin. “You’ll be good and not touch anything, right, sugarplum?”

Lisa nodded earnestly, her curls bouncing around her shoulders. She raised her chin to look up at her aunt. “P’ease, p’ease, p’ease, Aunt Harley. I p’omise to be good.”

Harley smoothed one hand over the top of her head and leaned over at the waist so she was at eye level with the twin. As the swim suit top gaped open and revealed more of the rounded flesh of her breasts, Gage nearly had a heart attack.

“Well, I guess if Uncle Gage thinks it’s okay, you can stay.” As Harley straightened, she met Gage’s gaze and stilled. Something dangerous flared in her eyes and a slow smile spread across her mouth. “Maybe when he’s done here, you can convince him to join us at the pool, sweetie.”

Lisa gave a jump of joy, and with another pat on her niece’s head, Harley turned and headed back out of the garage.

Gage wiped sweat off his forehead, certain that the temperature had climbed at least ten degrees.

As he returned to work, Lisa came around to squat on the floor next to him, her keen gaze following his every move. When she stood up and moved away, he figured she’d gotten bored and decided to return to the pool. A moment later, he heard the clatter of metal against metal.

He shot to his feet. “Lisa? What are you doing?”

She turned quickly to face him, her hands behind her back. “Nuttin’.”

He started toward her. “What have you got, sugarplum?”

“Nuttin’,” she repeated, her gaze fixed on his face, her neck arching backward as he approached, her eyes widening with innocence.

“Let me see what’s in your hand.” He stopped in front of her, mindful that he was a good deal taller, and probably more threatening than he could ever imagine. “Now.”

His size didn’t seem to worry her. She pulled out her right hand and placed it palm up in the space between them. “See. Nuttin’.”

“Let’s see the other one.”

Quickly sliding her right hand out of sight, doing some sort of juggling act behind her back, she finally held up her left hand for his inspection. A hint of Laura’s belligerence showed on her face and in her voice. “Happy now?”

“I want to see both hands at the same time, sugarplum.”

Metal clattered to the floor. She thrust both hands up in the air. “See.
Nuttin’
.”

He leaned forward to check the floor behind her. “What’s back there?”

Clasping her hands behind her back, giving him a toothy grin, she did a one-footed jig, swinging her other foot back and forth in an attempt to kick away the evidence.

Gage hunkered down, reached around behind her, narrowly missed getting kicked, and picked up his one-and-three-quarter-inch wrench.

“I got a secret. I got a secret,” she sang and gave him a disarming smile.

He held the wrench under her nose with hopes his frown would convince her he meant business. “What’s this?”

She stopped dancing. Rocked back and forth on her bare feet. Tried to dazzle him with her pearly white teeth. Batted her lashes at him. “Laura says you’re gonna ’ex Aunt Harley.”

Gage stilled, his heart lurching in his chest. “Pardon me?”

“’ex. You know.” When he didn’t answer, she ogled him, crossing her eyes, sucking in her cheeks, and moving her mouth like a fish in a fishbowl. “Do I have to ’plain everything?”

“Think of me as your dim-witted uncle,” he said dryly. “What’s ’ex?”

“Kissy, kissy. Huggy, huggy. That sorta ’tuff.” When he didn’t respond, she gave up on the silly face, placed her hands on his shoulders, and leaned forward to look him square in the eye. “That’s why she has boobies and me ’n Laura don’t. Do you under’tand ’ex now?”

He thought of Harley’s breasts in his hands and willed his body not to respond.

Oh yeah, he knew all about sex, didn’t need a lecture from the kid.

Kissy, kissy. Huggy, huggy. Where had his niece learned this stuff? “Don’t try to sidetrack me, kid.”

She slid her arms around his neck, gave the tool in his hand a savage look, and rested her cheek against his. “I jest wanted to help, Unca Gage.”

He moved his arm around her back, offering her support. “Tools aren’t for play. They’re for big people to work with.”