His Southern Temptation - By Robin Covington Page 0,12
of gum he popped into his mouth, and offered her one as well. “So, you won’t be staying?”
“Now you sound like Lucky.” She tried to keep the pout out of her voice.
“Oh, hell. Lucky’s staying at the house.” Recollection flashed across his face, quickly replaced by an apology. “You okay with that? You can stay with me in the apartment upstairs if you don’t want to stay there with him. I’m back and forth to DC so we won’t be tripping over each other.”
She waved him off, the movement hopefully masking the flutter in her stomach and the heat rising in her cheeks. “We’re good. After I put the gun away, we worked out the sleeping arrangements.” She left out the groping on the floor and her invitation to share a bed. Teague would freak if he knew how different their sleeping arrangements had been in the past. It was part of his brotherly bossiness.
“What gun?”
“Father’s Smith & Wesson from the study.” She waved off his look of horror. Hell, Teague had taught her to use the gun when she was kid—he better believe she was going to use it if needed. “It’s a long story.”
“Shit, Taylor. Can you try not to cause any trouble while you’re here? Some of us still care about what people think about the Elliotts in this town.” His expression hardened as he barely kept his temper in check. “I’m fixing the mess he left behind with this practice, and I don’t need anything else on my plate.”
Ouch. She sat up a little straighter, refusing to give an inch on this argument. Teague applauded her choice to leave Bobby—her cheating bastard of a fiancé—at the altar, but he disapproved of everything she’d done after that day. Her lifestyle, her occupation, and her decisions in general didn’t live up to the Elliott family standard of decorum.
If he knew that just this morning she’d gotten a stripper job at the Jolly Gent to help Lucky find that missing girl, he’d keel over and die of shock. He’d have good company, because she was pretty sure Lucky would kick it when he found out what she’d done.
“Kiss my ass, Teague.” Taylor got up to leave, suddenly over this little family reunion.
“Hey, wait.” She heard him jump up behind her, his hand grasping her arm to turn her around to face him. She saw the regret in his eyes, and it thawed her resistance. “Sorry. I’m tired. Wrapping all this up is kicking my ass, and the partners in DC are starting to push for me to get back. Forgive me?”
Her first reaction was to tell him to forget it. She’d gone a number of years with no real relationship with him, and it wouldn’t change a damn thing in her life to keep the status quo. But during the long flight here she’d made up her mind to try to reconnect with Teague, and the first step required her to meet him halfway, especially when he offered an olive branch.
“It’s okay.” She smiled and his tense expression relaxed. “So, how is it going at work?”
His eyes lit up with excitement and the grin sprouting across his face was contagious. “I’m up for partnership. The youngest one ever, and it looks like I’m going to get it.”
“Shut up!” Taylor jumped back into his arms, her actions pushing a grunt and a laugh out of him. He hugged her again, this time with a hard squeeze, and in that moment she was really glad she came back. “That’s awesome. You deserve it.”
He blushed at her words, modesty and pride warring in his eyes and in the twitch of his lips. Pride won out and he grinned from ear to ear. Go, big brother.
Pulling back, she reached up to adjust her T-shirt, tugging it down from where it had ridden up. Teague glanced down and, presto, disapproval resettled in the line of his shoulders. She steeled herself for what was coming next.
“Taylor, what is that?”
“A piercing.” She tried to keep the defensive tone out of her voice and act like she didn’t care what he thought, but knew she sucked at it. There was no danger of her winning an Oscar any time soon.
“When did you get it? It looks like it hurt.”
“About two years ago. It didn’t hurt as much as the other ones. A little pinch and done.”
“Other ones?”
“Yeah. Two others. You’ll never see them.” She waited for their location to sink in and bit back her laugh when