Breathless In Love

The toilet flushed at the other end of the barn and she felt the rumble of Will’s low—and clearly frustrated—laugh against her throat. “Very soon we’ll both have what we want,” he promised her as he slowly pushed away from the wall, then turned around to focus once again on her brother and the car.

* * *

By the end of the afternoon, Will was so keyed up from wanting Harper, he was ready to blast past every last wall that she was still trying to hold up. But rushing her wasn’t part of his game plan. She had to be ready. More than ready—he wanted her desperate and wild, the way she’d been that night at the deserted fountain.

They’d left an hour ago, without his securing another date with Harper. In fact, for the rest of the afternoon, though she’d been involved in taking pictures of their progress—and she’d been perfectly polite—he could easily guess that she was stewing on everything that had happened between them. And everything he’d said.

Soon we’ll both have what we want.

Will wasn’t a man who waited for what he wanted. And he wanted her badly enough that he’d been sorely tempted to ask them to come back tomorrow. But he’d corralled every ounce of his self-control and had, instead, let her go with the promise that she and Jeremy would return the following Saturday. When they’d do the dance all over again.

Until Harper wanted him as badly as he wanted her—and no longer thought she needed to keep fighting the inevitable. Because if there was one thing Will knew for sure, it was that the sparks between him and Harper wouldn’t be nearly so hot if they weren’t supposed to come together.

His cell rang beside him on the arm of his chair, signaling that his favorite person in Chicago was calling. “So,” Susan said after his warm greeting, “I hear you have some new friends.”

He choked out a laugh. “Evan gossips like an old woman. It’s only been six hours since he met Harper and Jeremy.”

“You know he always checks in with us on Saturday.”

Evan tended to be driven by routine. Will, on the other hand, called Susan and Bob a couple of times a week without any set schedule.

“He’s still a gossip,” he said without rancor.

Susan was the closest thing Will had to a mother. He barely remembered his real mom. And it was Susan, along with Bob, who had helped Will become the man he was, instead of the man his father would have turned him into. Susan had been a waitress and Bob a baggage handler at the airport, even after he’d injured his back. They hadn’t had much money, but they’d taken in each and every one of the Mavericks. Loved them. And treated them like their own.

Will would do anything for them. And the other Mavericks felt exactly the same. Their bond was stronger than any blood tie could have been.

“How’s Bob doing?” Will asked before Susan could start peppering him with questions.

“You know him.” He could hear the smile in her voice. “He’s got to be out there helping the contractor put the new deck in. Can’t just sit and watch.”

The first thing the Mavericks had done when the money started rolling in was to get Bob the back surgery he’d badly needed. He’d still stubbornly continued to work long after Daniel or any one of the Mavericks could have supported both him and Susan. It had taken years to convince him that a less physically demanding desk job might not be as bad as he thought. Then finally, last year, he’d agreed to retire and start enjoying life. But he wasn’t yet sixty and no one was putting him out to pasture, as he loved to say. He worked on the house and the yard, and volunteered with Habitat for Humanity.

“So are you going to tell me about her, honey?” Susan wasn’t going to let Will avoid the reason for her call.

“I met Harper through her brother. He was hit by a car when he was seven. He worked through the physical issues, but he acts younger than he is.”

“I’m so sorry.” She hated it when kids got hurt. So did Will.

“He’s a great kid. Enthusiastic. Positive. He loves cars so I bought another kit car, and he’s going to help me build it.”

“You sound happy. Helping him is going to be good for you, I can tell.”

Happy was as good a word as any to describe what he’d felt as he helped Jeremy mark the sheet metal. For the last few months, even longer than that, he’d been running on empty. But Harper and Jeremy seemed to be filling him up again.

“And his sister, Harper? Is she someone special?”

He didn’t even have to think about it. “Very.” He’d known from that first day in the hangar that Harper was special. And good. Too good for him.

“You have no idea how glad I am to hear you say that, Will. I want my boys happy. And you deserve a good woman.”

Susan didn’t see him shake his head. She really did love all of her boys, so much that Will knew she let herself forget where—and who—he came from. Forget who he was.

If Harper knew what he’d been like as a kid, all the crimes he’d committed for his dad, the hellraiser he’d been even after the asshole went to prison and he’d moved in with the Spencers—would she ever trust him with her brother? Would she ever trust him with herself? She already doubted his motives with Jeremy. If she knew the guy Will was on the inside, all the lies he’d told, all the houses he’d broken into for his dad, all the cars he’d stolen, and then what had finally gone down with the Road Warriors…