Ladder 54: Five Firefighter Romances Page 18

  He opened his mouth to question Selene’s father on his odd comment, but the extended family chose that moment to arrive en masse, leaving Theo no chance to ask what he’d meant.

  It was a long wait. Selene’s four brothers, with more wives and kids than he could classify into family groups, stepped carefully around him, though he didn’t understand why. Except for that jerk Hector, whose ass he’d beaten years ago for teasing his quiet little sister, he’d gotten along with all of them over the years. Unsurprisingly, Hector was the only one not married, and appeared to live in his parents’ house.

  The throaty roar of a Harley with loud pipes filled the quiet neighborhood and caught his attention.

  Selene’s mother Elena tugged him away from the window, her fingers digging into his arm. “Don’t let her see you. You wanted to surprise her, yes?”

  “It’s just a motorcycle, ma’am. She’s not here yet.”

  “That’s hers.”

  He understood enough of her muttered Greek to get the gist about daughters who wanted to kill their mothers with fear and worry as she shoved him toward a powder room. “Go hide if you want to surprise her.”

  She slammed the door in his face, but he could hear the pipes rumble to a stop in front of the house. He grinned and shook his head. So, his Selene was a biker chick. No, not his Selene. Part of him still wanted to spank her for disobeying his orders to stay in the B&B. He shoved the atavistic desire away. She wasn’t his to punish, nor did he disagree with her for leaving. He’d been an ass.

  He heard a door open and heavy boots on the wood floors. Elena shrieked, “You ride that death motorcycle too much, agapi mou.”

  “It’s fine, Mama. I’m a safe rider.” Selene’s sultry laugh made him bite back a groan as his cock pressed against the zipper of his jeans.

  With her curves waiting just on the other side of the door, he couldn’t stay in the tiny powder room with the decades-old flocked wallpaper and rose-scented soap any longer. He moved his hand to the glass door knob when he heard Hector’s annoying voice. “Too bad you look like a dyke whore in all that leather.”

  The glass knob in his hand cracked and split into two pieces as she responded, “Really, asshole? Do you have to do this every time I visit?”

  He pushed at the unusable door while the scuffle and shouting grew louder, but he was effectively trapped in his small cage. Pounding the door with his fists, he shouted, “Open this damned door.”

  Theo heard a crash of breaking glass just as Elena screamed, “Stop! Don’t you break my good dishes!” In a panic, he put his shoulder into the frame. It cracked slightly but didn’t budge. Just as he rammed the door again, it opened and he landed on his knees at Evzen’s feet.

  His face red with embarrassment and anger, Evzen said, “This might be a good time for you to leave.”

  “Why the hell don’t you stop him?” Theo growled. Not waiting for an answer, he got up and pushed past the older man in time to see Selene and her brother disappear out the back door in a tangle of limbs.

  Theo stopped at the top of the back steps and watched as his delicate Greek flower, her weathered riding leathers shaping her curves with a smoothness that demanded his attention, beat the shit out of the brother who had made her childhood miserable.

  She delivered a solid kick to his nuts, and Hector howled as he bent over while the men watching the show simultaneously shuddered. When Hector took a wild swing at her face, she caught his arm, twisting it behind his back until he fell to the ground whimpering, his arm resting at an odd angle. Theo winced, knowing Selene had dislocated Hector’s shoulder.

  She stood over him, panting as she rested her hands on her knees. A red mark under her right eye promised to bloom into a magnificent shiner and her lip was swollen. She chewed on it and spat blood to the ground next to her brother, but her gaze stayed fixed on his prone body.

  Elena spoke as though she’d just watched her children spend fifteen minutes racing bicycles down the street. “Let’s get some ice for your pretty face. You’re going to have a bruise, kukla mou. We’ll eat as soon as your baba takes care of your brother.”

  No wonder she’d distanced herself from this crowd. For the first time since he’d started after her, he hesitated. He cleared his throat and she froze in the act of wiping her bleeding mouth on a towel her mother gave her. She paled, and the bloodstained cloth fell to the ground as her eyes widened.

  She opened her mouth, then shut it with a snap, pressing her lips into a thin line as she turned away from him. Shaking her mother’s hand off her arm, she hissed, “You’ve got to be kidding me. You brought him here? The next time you set me up, there better be ouzo.”

  Without another word, she stormed to her bike. Throwing her leg over the saddle, she kicked the starter. The Hog roared to life, and she was gone, her long brown hair trailing behind her in the breeze.

  Left with her extended family, Theo focused on Hector, who was sitting up groggily. With a frown, he picked him up and slammed him into the side of the house to fix his shoulder.

  Hector screamed, but Theo slapped a hand over his mouth, cutting off the sound. “I will say this only one time. You fuck with Selene again, and I will bury you so deep in Yellowstone that the coyotes won’t find you.”

  Hector’s muddy eyes narrowed, and he shook his head. When Theo removed his hand, he said, “Fuck you. My whore of a sister—”

  “Wrong answer.”

  His fist met Hector’s jaw, slamming the smaller man against the house while Evzen shouted, “Watch the siding! Selene just had that replaced!”

  When Hector dropped to the ground, unconscious, he rounded on Evzen. “Is this the way you brought up your sons? You allow them to hit women?”

  Elena stepped between them, holding up a hand. “No, Theo. We don’t condone it, but my daughter has never accepted our help with Hector.” She glanced down at Hector and prodded him with the toe of her slipper as her lips firmed in an angry line. “Silly me. I thought he’d grow up. But you’re right about one thing. I’m going to put the fear of God into Hector starting today.”

  “Elena! This is man’s work!” Evzen complained.

  Theo lost track of the spitting Greek coming from Selene’s mother, and kept his head down as she thrust bags of food into his hands. Some things were best left without translation, and he didn’t feel a single bit of pity for Evzen or Hector when Elena threatened to throw them both out.

  Elena handed him a piece of paper. “This is her address and the code to unlock her gate. Go make this right, or I’ll be having a conversation with your mother.”

  Theo shuddered and glanced down at the cramped handwriting, finding a rural address in Braidwood. Selene hadn’t been kidding about moving out of the neighborhood. It was about as far away as a town could get and still be called Chicago.

  Chapter Four

  Today marked the day that she would forever enjoy her family from a distance. It was one thing to tangle with Hector. Listening to his vile innuendos was the price of one of Mama’s meals.

  What was unconscionable was letting Theo into their home, allowing him to see the shit storm that was her family life.

  Maybe it was for the best. He must realize she wasn’t the nice Greek girl he’d imagined. He’d take his fine ass back to Montana and leave her in peace. That cute Angus rancher down the road had been asking her out for months, and after a nice date, all would be right in the Selene-verse.

  Why was Theo even in Illinois? Sophie or Walt would have told him she’d gotten home safely. Maybe he’d just wanted to see for himself. The thought sent a tiny spark of electricity through her core as she remembered his honey and gravel voice lecturing her. His spanks on her bottom had awakened some sort of twisted hormonal response that ended in wet panties and a frustrated, empty pussy.

  Damn him; the stubborn asshole refused to leave her head. He’d turned into the object of too many fantasies when his hard hand made contact with her bottom, replacing the childhood hero she didn
’t need anymore. She’d been taking care of herself for a long time and the vibrator in the bottom drawer of her posh master bathroom could fix the achy pressure between her thighs that materialized whenever she thought of him.

  She stripped off her leathers, leaving them hanging in the mudroom on the hook by the door. Walking into her kitchen in a pair of leggings and a t-shirt over her rounded breasts, she put a bag of peas on her already swollen eye with a pained grimace. Hector might be an idiot, but he could still throw a mean right hook.

  The memory of Theo’s shocked face as he watched her from the stairs of her parents’ deck continued to haunt her, and she opened a bottle of wine and grabbed a plastic tumbler before pulling the cover off her hot tub on the back porch. She stripped down to nothing and settled herself into the hot water. Maybe a good soak would relax her.

  She turned the jets on, enjoying the pounding water against her spine. The pumping bass from her outdoor grade Bose sound system brought a little Seattle grunge and postmodern metal to her screened porch. A soft thump sounded next to her ear, and she smiled as her two-year-old calico cat settled her furry body on the rim of the tub.

  No Theo, hot tub, wine, and purring kitty. The best life for an old maid escaping the gulag of Greektown. Braidwood was the perfect bolt hole; close enough to town to make things convenient, but far enough away so she didn’t suffer the noise and her well-meaning, but clueless, family. Hiring a full-time caretaker for the property made her travel life easy.

  Her family didn’t belong in her quiet, adult life, but Mama’s care packages were always welcomed. Okay, Mama could still visit, but nobody else. And only if she promised not to set her up again. Men like Theo Papadakis could destroy her independence and hard-won confidence faster than she could knock out Hector’s teeth.

  Ignoring the plastic tumbler, she took a deep drink from the wine bottle and leaned back against the side of the tub while sliding her hand between her legs in another futile attempt to erase the nagging ache between her thighs even though she knew nothing would assuage the maddening itch for long.

  Giving up, she opened her eyes and straightened, reaching for her wine. Her breath caught as a shadow, silhouetted by the sun, appeared in her doorway. The figure was too large to be the elderly man she’d hired to care for the farm in her absence. When the storm door creaked open, she caught a glimpse of a tanned forearm carrying a grocery bag from the Greektown store her mother used.

  Theo could have found the address on his own. She tried to give her parents the benefit of the doubt but judging by the second grocery sack Theo set at his feet, she knew they had given him both the address and the security code for the gate. Narrowing her eyes, she pretended not to notice him.

  And what did he want, anyway? After seeing her family life, why wasn’t he running back to Montana as fast as he could? She let him fumble around for a few minutes while he juggled the shopping bags, then asked, “What are you doing here, Theo?”

  He knocked a few flowerpots from the table by the door. She wasn’t hiding the fact that she was naked, and his clumsiness along with the red flush decorating his cheekbones made her entire day.

  “Your mother gave me your address,” he said, stepping inside and closing the door behind him. “And she sent leftovers for you. You… Uh… You forgot to eat before you left. You know how that would bother her.”

  “Fine,” she replied, her voice icy, though she was enjoying his discomfort. “Thank you for stopping by. Have a safe trip back to Montana.”

  He picked up the flowerpots he’d knocked over and took a step past the door. “Aren’t you going to ask why I’m here?”

  She sat up in the tub, not caring that she was giving him a view of her naked body. “No. I’m sure you’ll go through your misogynistic diatribe all over again, and I don’t have any interest in listening.”

  “I misjudged you, and I came to apologize.” He perched on the edge of the tub, so tantalizingly close but still a world away from her. “I thought you were wasting time running around the country while you looked for a husband, but I was wrong. I also wondered if you were trying to drag me back to Greektown.” He looked outside at the sleek horses grazing in her pasture, then at her fashionably decorated screened porch. “I was wrong about that, too.”

  “Okay, thanks, I think.”

  He nodded and turned his head to look outside once more. “Your home is beautiful, and it’s apparent you’ve worked hard for everything you have. I’m sorry I implied anything less. It’s just that sometimes being Greek is a very hard habit to lose, and you’re not the same girl I met at St. Demetrios.”

  She failed to choke back her laugh. “I’m still a geek, Theo. I grew up and learned about Lasik and the value of a good haircut, but I’m still more interested in science and the newest Marvel movie than I am in nail polish.” She sobered, turning her face away from him. “Thank you, though. I do appreciate your apology and your attempts to protect me, but as you saw today with my family, I don’t need a hero anymore.”

  “They are a handful. I thought my family was hard to manage.”

  “You should meet my uncles and cousins. Christmas at our house never ends without a fistfight over the karidopita.” She tried to make it a joke, but sadly, the scene she described was accurate.

  Leaning closer, he touched her shoulder, making her turn to face him. “And I’m sorry about the lunch our families set up, too. I’d already taken the job in Big Banks and didn’t know about the plans my mother made. I was angry over her interference, but nobody can tell my Mama anything. It was insensitive and rude to not tell you in person.”

  She looked into the water and focused on moving her hand to create a small wave pool. “Thank you.” Grabbing her wine, she took a long pull off the bottle. “You’ve delivered your message, and I appreciate it. As you can see, I’ve got this, and I’m sorry you came all this way for nothing.”

  He nodded, but didn’t take his eyes off her. She silently urged him to leave, but to her surprise, he rubbed his shoulders and said, “My muscles are pretty achy from the plane ride and sleeping in my old bed from when I was a kid. The least you could do is offer hospitality.” Retrieving a bottle of Pitsiladi from her mother’s care package, he added, “Offer me a drink, maybe talk about what we’ve been doing for the last ten years? Unless you’re on the shy side.”

  Shrugging, Selene tried to keep her lips from twitching into a smile. “Why not? Take a load off and climb in. On the other side of the tub, of course. After all, I’m a good little Greek girl.”

  He slipped his shirt over his head to reveal lean, washboard abs, and an amazing set of shoulders that demanded her exploration. The gods had been overly generous with the Greektown boy. When he flicked the buckle on his soft leather belt and tugged his worn jeans down, she almost gasped as a thousand volts of electrical energy set her insides on fire.

  He busied himself on the deck with his drool-inducing nudity out of her reach as he pulled the aluminum tray filled with roasted goodness from the paper sack. The scent of lamb and her mother’s special blend of spices overwhelmed the chlorine odor from the hot tub. He sucked a bit of meat from his fingers before setting out a plastic bowl filled with her mama’s dolmades.

  Holding one out in front of her lips, he said, “Open.”

  Surprising herself, she obeyed and took a bite of the spicy rice-filled treat. Sitting on the edge of the tub, he pulled the rest away and popped it into his mouth. So tantalizingly close, but her hands were unwilling to explore.

  The muscles in his arm stretched and flexed as he picked up the bottle of ouzo and handed it over. “Have a drink, agapi mou.”

  “I am not, nor will I ever be, your love.” She took the bottle and brought it to her lips, tilting it until the anise-scented liquor ignited the fire in her gut. “Why did you come to Chicago? You could have left a message with my service if you wanted to apologize.”

  Theo grinned as he held a piece of roasted lamb in front of her. “I signed up for
that auction, and you won me. I believe in honoring my commitments. I can deliver everything the script promised, or we can do something a little more meaningful. Do you have any experience in BDSM? Do you understand how a scene is played?”

  Her mouth fell open and Theo popped the bite of meat into her mouth. She chewed and swallowed hard, trying not to choke. What was he implying by the word meaningful? She laughed to cover her nerves. “Do I look like a submissive? It’s fine, really. I told Sophie you’re off the hook.”

  He slid his huge muscled frame into the hot tub and came dangerously close to her side. Her body protesting the distance between them, she moved away. Theo followed until his thigh touched hers. The heat of his velvety smooth skin almost made her whimper.

  “I think you would be a fantastic submissive.” His hand moved slowly down her cheek, igniting a trickle of heat that spread down her body. “All I need is your obedience and your boundaries…” he leaned closer and the tiny hairs on her body quivered as he brushed her jaw with soft kisses, “…and a few hours.”

  The heat rose tenfold and she stood, needing the distance. The cool air flowed in a sensual caress over her tense muscles, but her body temperature refused to drop with those dark, demanding eyes staring at her. She crossed her arms in a futile attempt to cover herself.

  “Let me explore all the erogenous zones of your body and ignite that temper of yours into passion. All you have to do is follow my instructions for as long as you agree to play.”

  She stood where she was as her childhood memories returned. Hector’s unmerciful bullying had gone on until she’d left on the bus for Texas. Her busy parents tried to help, but she’d never been a tattletale, and refused their assistance unless they caught Hector at his games. Her other brothers hadn’t cared. Only Theo had stood up for her. Protected her. Just like he’d thought he was doing in Big Banks.

  He held his hand out to her. “You’re safe with me, Selene. Give me twenty-four hours and I’ll show you things that you’ve never dreamed of. Have you ever screamed from an orgasm before?”