I was in trouble.
I’d never brought a woman home before. Being with my family was where I was most at ease, most myself, and it was a place I fiercely protected. Jacob had brought girlfriends home from time to time but none of them seemed to last. And Zach brought someone over a few months ago, although no one had heard of her since. We were a tight circle of history that was hard to penetrate. But Madison seemed to have floated right in.
“Getting jealous?” Zach asked, lifting his chin toward Madison and Jacob on the other side of the fire pit.
I chuckled. “Of Jacob? Never.” I wouldn’t admit it, but I wondered if the tight swirl of heat in my belly was jealousy or desire. Either way, it didn’t bode well for the deal Madison and I had made to keep things entirely professional between us.
“He’s got her eating out of the palm of his hand. He’s a handsome, eligible doctor. If you don’t want him swooping in and taking what’s yours, you better step in there.”
Jacob was definitely handsome, even if I’d never tell him so. And of course he was a doctor: he was a Cove. But Jacob wouldn’t make a move on Madison, would he? They were just talking. “You think he fancies her?”
Zach knocked back a mouthful of his beer. “She’s completely gorgeous. Funny. Relaxed. Course he fancies her. I fancy her. Don’t you?”
There was no doubt Madison was all those things Zach described. “She also doesn’t take no for an answer. If we went head-to-head in a full-on argument, I’m not sure who’d win.”
“Sounds like maybe you more than fancy her.”
“We’re working together,” I said. “Our relationship is purely professional.” Kinda. Sorta. Aside from the fact we’d already slept together. And I might have flirted with her. And I might have suggested there could be more between us.
But we hadn’t crossed any lines, not since the wedding.
Yet.
“It’s more than that. I can tell by the way you look at her.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Mate, your eyes follow her around the room. It’s like you need some kind of connection with her at all times.”
“You don’t get it. Hospitals are basically big dating pools from what I can tell. People prioritize flirting over most everything besides saving actual lives. The rest of the world isn’t like that. She’s my guest. I just want to make sure she’s okay.” Lies and more lies, but I’d never say so. Maybe I was different here, surrounded by my family, or perhaps Madison was different outside the high-pressure clutches of London, but the pull I’d felt to her since the first day I’d set eyes on her had gotten stronger somehow. I’d seen Madison through a different lens since we’d arrived. She was more relaxed, happier maybe. And hearing Zach saying he was attracted to her and thought Jacob was too, made me want to scoop her up, put her in the car, and take her home.
“I don’t understand the big problem if you like her,” Zach continued, completely and rightfully ignoring what I was telling him. “You’ve never been shy about going after a woman.”
“I’m not shy, you dick.” And Madison wasn’t just some woman. “She’s got a job to do. I’ve got a job to do. We’re both professionals.”
Zach sighed and took another swig of his beer. “Well, I’m just telling you that I like her. And if I didn’t think you liked her, I would be in there like a pig in a trough.”
“You’re gross.”
Zach shrugged. “Because you’re my brother, I’m not going to go there. But someone will. And by the looks of it,” he said, nodding toward Madison and my older brother, “it might be Jacob.”
Zach set his bottle down on the stone beside his chair and stood. “You should go to bed or you should go get your girl.” Then he left me sitting opposite two people who looked like they were a couple. Or soon would be.
Is that what Madison wanted? My brother?
My phone buzzed with a message from Christine. On a Saturday night. Instantly I felt bad about leaving her a voice message earlier. She should be spending the weekend with her family rather than running around after me. But at the same time, I was grateful she was so dedicated; she’d cancelled the lunch with the cheeky bastard trying to steal Madison’s story just like I’d asked her too.
Madison’s laughter at something Jacob had said pulled me back to my dilemma. Was I okay with her hooking up with Jacob? Absolutely not. I didn’t mind them talking. But I felt some kind of claim over Madison. She knew me. And despite the fact that it was her always questioning me and pushing me for information, I felt like I knew her. And I liked her. I’d said it before but I felt it even more now. Of course I was physically attracted to her—otherwise I would never have pursued her at the wedding. But she seemed to have gotten more beautiful since then. Her smile, her warmth, the way she tried not to laugh at things she clearly found hilarious—the way I didn’t feel like she was doing a job when she was interviewing me, but like she really wanted to know me. It gave away who she was: Interested. Attentive. Clever. Everything about her drew me in, made me want more.