“Really?”
“Yup. He loved teaching me stuff.” Nik just bet. “It was the only time I didn’t tell him to get his fuckin’ hands off me.”
Nik rubbed his nose to stop from laughing. He leaned against the balcony. “Anything, huh?”
Ban stared up at them, rubbing his forehead. When he realized Nik watched him, he began making kissing faces and pointing at the pair of them. When Angie turned around, he stopped.
Sarcastically, “How about nailing my bonehead brother in the head again?” Since he assumed it had already happened once based on the knot already growing there.
She shrugged. “Okay.”
“Wait, I was kid—” But it was too late. She sent the ball blazing down from the balcony and popping Ban right in the head…again.
Man, that baseball player taught her well.
Ban let out a stream of curses he probably hadn’t used since he left the Marines and again gripped his forehead.
Nik ran his hands through his hair. No, he’d never hear the end of this one.
While Ban rubbed his head with one hand, he grabbed the ball from the ground at his feet with the other. Nik knew exactly what he had in mind. “Don’t even think about it.”
“That nutcase hit me in the head! Twice!”
She put her feet between the bars and leaned far over. “Who the hell are you calling nutcase, slow boy from down the lane?”
“She sure did hit ya.” Nik laughed. He probably shouldn’t be so proud of that fact, but he couldn’t help himself. “Why the hell were you up here anyway?”
Ban dropped the ball and took several steps away, closer to Nik’s side of the balcony. “I wanted to see if she wanted to come with us to the dinner tomorrow.”
Angie suddenly perked up, pushing Nik aside to look down at Ban. “A dinner? Like a party?”
“Yes. But I changed my goddamn mind!”
“Well that’s plain mean.”
“Forget it. I ain’t takin’ you anywhere. The slow boy from down the lane has spoken.”
Nik placed his hands on the railing, “accidentally” rubbing against Angie’s bare arm. “Good. ’Cause she’s comin’ with me.”
She turned on him. “I am not.”
He didn’t want to analyze why she seemed more than comfortable going with Ban, who she popped in the head with a baseball, and not him. He was definitely better looking than Ban.
“Sssh. Don’t interrupt, sugar. Big boys talkin’. ”
“We are not bringing her now,” Ban snapped.
“Sure we are. Daddy’ll love her.”
“Momma won’t. She hurt me. I’m gonna have a knot on my head.” Yeah. And once he made up some bullshit story, every tigress there would be falling all over their Christian Dior dresses to take care of the big idiot. They loved Ban. He was a proven breeder.
Nik brought his head right next to her so he could whisper in her ear. “He’s got a point, sugar. You done gone and hurt her baby boy. Ban’s her favorite.”
She didn’t answer him. She was too busy leaning away from him. He didn’t understand it. He’d bathed that morning.
He wondered how far she’d go, so he leaned over a little more. Immediately, her body leaned farther away from him. He wasn’t even sure she knew she did it. He stood up straight, and so did she.
He leaned over again. So did she. So he kept going, now desperate to see how far she’d go.
She hit the floor.
“Dammit!”
He stretched out his hand to help her up, but she slapped him away. She got to her feet and looked damn cute doing it, too.
“You all right, sugar?”
“Yes.” She brushed non-existent dirt off her dress. “And stop calling me sugar.”
“Naw.”
“Naw?”
He shrugged. “Naw.” He smiled at her. “Besides, ain’t you sweet as sugar?”
She snorted. “Naw.”
Aleksei suddenly appeared on the other side of the railing. “Ya gotta come with us.”
Startled, Angie jumped back. “Are there stairs or something next to this fuckin’ balcony?”
“Naw,” both brothers answered.
She leaned over the railing, giving Nik an amazing look at those legs. Damn, girl. “Then how…”
“It’s our hind legs. Tigers can jump really far,” Aleksei offered.
“Really?” She bit her lip. “You must have amazing thighs.”
What the hell did the woman think she was doing? Flirting with both his brothers. And completely ignoring him!
Aleksei stared at her, completely lost. “They’re not bad.”
“Interesting.”
Alek leaned in closer and all Nik wanted to do was toss the man’s ass off his balcony. Why is he on my territory anyway?
“Ignore Ban,” Alek insisted. “Just come with us.”
“I’d love to. I do love a good party.” She glanced at Nik. “And I think I have just the dress.”
Nik barely bit back a snarl. “Only one?”
She shrugged innocently.
“Great.” Aleksei grinned. “Well, I better take care of Ban’s big fat head. I still hear him whimpering.”
“I ain’t whimperin’,” Ban yelled from the patio.
Aleksei winked at Angie. “Yes he is.”
She gave a wave of her hand. “Do what you must, hillbilly. But I want my baseballs back.”
She headed back into her room. Aleksei leaned in close to his brother. “Man,” he whispered. “That woman is hot. And I think she likes me.”
“I think she likes anyone dumb enough to be controlled by her.”
“You mean like you, Mr. Twenty Grand Man?”
Nik glared at his brother, slapped his hand over the man’s face, and shoved him off the balcony.
“That wasn’t funny,” Alek yelled once he landed.
Nik leaned over the railing. “Yes it was.”
Angie placed her newly purchased clothes in the chest of drawers as Nik walked back into the room. He closed the balcony doors and she almost screamed at him to open them back up. She finally had to face it, the man made her nervous. And closing her off in a room with him wasn’t really helping.
He picked up the bat she had laying on her bed. “And what do you expect to do with this?”
Kill you in your sleep?
“Pretty little thing like you. What? You gonna beat up the big, bad hyenas with it?”
She carefully smoothed out a chemise she’d placed in the drawer, and turned to face the hillbilly, closing the drawer with her backside. She folded her arms in front of her chest and silently regarded the man for several moments.
“Is there a problem, hillbilly?”
“If you keep calling me hillbilly there will be.”
She stepped away from the dresser. “Oh, I’m sorry. Do you prefer redneck or Jethro or—?”
“You could use my name.”
“I sure could. But I choose not to.”
Anger flashed across his face, but it quickly disappeared. Replaced by a slow, easy smile that almost had her melting at his feet. “I wonder what it would take to get you to say my name.”
Uh-oh. “Don’t go gettin’ any funky ideas, hillbilly.” Especially since she had so many of her own.
He dropped the bat back on the bed. “Like what exactly?” When she didn’t answer, he walked toward her. “I asked you a question, sugar.”
“I’m not playing this game with you.”
He stopped right in front of her, gently taking a lock of her hair and twining it around his big index finger.
“I don’t play games. I’m a real sore loser.”
He stared at the hair he had wrapped around his forefinger, his thumb smoothing it against his skin. It took Angie a second to realize he’d stepped even closer to her. She wanted to take a step back, but if she did he’d end up yanking her hair. And she didn’t want to look like she was trying to run away from him.