Three Fates

her arms, tightening his grip when she tried to jerk away. “Don’t cry. I didn’t mean to make you cry.”
    “Let go.” Tears were spurting out faster than she could blink them back. “I don’t blubber to get my way.”
    “Don’t cry,” he said again, and his grip gentled to a caress. “Don’t go.” He drew her in, rocked her in his arms. “I don’t want you to go. I don’t know what I want altogether, but I know I don’t want you to go.”
    “This isn’t ever going to go anywhere.”
    “Stay.” He rubbed his cheek against hers, transferring tears. “And let’s see.”
    She sighed, let her head rest on his shoulder. She’d missed this. God, she’d missed just this simple connection so much it ached in the bones. “You can’t go soft on a woman just because she drips on you, Slick. Just makes a sap out of you.”
    “Let me worry about that. Here now. Here.”
    He skimmed his lips over her damp cheek, found her mouth and sank in, soft and slow.
    The tenderness of it had her muscles trembling and her belly doing one long, lazy roll. Even when he deepened the kiss it was all warmth, without any of those edgy flashes of heat she expected, she understood.
    For one of the first times in her life she stood poised on absolute surrender, with a man in total control of her. Heart, body, mind.
    It terrified her. And it filled her.
    “Don’t be nice to me.” She pressed her face into his shoulder as she struggled for balance. “I’ll just screw it up.”
    Not as tough as she pretended, Gideon thought. And not nearly as sure of herself. “Let me worry about that as well. You’ve only one thing to do at the moment,” he added, and tipped her face back to his.
    “What?”
    He smiled at her. “Unpack.”
    She sniffled, and hoped to get a little of her own back. “Is that how you get what you want? By being nice?”
    “Now and then. Cleo.” He cupped her face in his hands, watched the wariness come back into those deep, dark eyes. He didn’t mind it. If she was wary of him, she was thinking of him. “You’re so beautiful. Seriously beautiful. It can be a bit disconcerting. Unpack,” he said again. “I’ll tell Burdett you’ll be staying here. With me,” he added. “You’re with me, Cleo. That’s something we’ll both have to deal with.”
     
     
    ON THE ROOF, Jack took stock. One way in and out, he considered. That made this area either a trap or a solid defense. It might be wise to set up a few measures here.
    If a man didn’t anticipate a war, he always lost the battle.
    “Hell of a view,” he commented.
    “Got a smoke?”
    “No, sorry. Never picked up the habit.”
    “I quit.” Malachi rolled his shoulders. “Some time ago. I’m regretting that right about now. Well then, let’s have first things first.”
    “That would be Rebecca.”
    Malachi acknowledged this with a nod. “So it would. She shouldn’t be here in the first place, but since she is, she can’t be staying with you.”
    “Shouldn’t. Can’t.” Jack turned his back on the view and leaned on the safety wall. “If you’ve used those words with her very often, I bet you’ve gotten some interesting scars.”
    “True enough. She’s a perverse creature, our Becca.”
    “And she’s smart. I like her brain. I like her face,” Jack added, eyes direct on Malachi’s. “I like the whole package. That’s a problem for you, her being your sister.” He took a pull from the bottle of Harp. “I’ve got one of my own, so I get that. Mine went off and married some guy despite the fact that, in my opinion, she had no business even knowing what sex meant. She’s got two kids now, but mostly, I like thinking she found them under a berry bush. Probably in the same patch where my mother found us.”
    Amused, Malachi dipped a hand in his pocket. “You grow berries in that flat of yours?”
    “Let’s put it this way. She’s taking the spare room. Her choice. It stays her choice, either way. I gave your mother my word I’d take care of her. I don’t break my word. Not to someone I respect anyway.”
    Malachi was more than a little surprised to find himself relaxed. More yet to realize he believed Jack was as good as his word.
    Maybe, just maybe, they’d forge that unit.
    “I suppose this saves me from a bloody battle with Rebecca. But the fact remains, she’s an impulsive, head-strong girl who—”
    “I’m in love with her.”
    Malachi’s eyes widened, his thoughts scattered. “Jesus Christ, man,