Dirty Secret (The Burke Brothers #1)(53)
Author: Emma Hart

Leila chokes in an attempt to hide her laugh. Only because she knows exactly what I’m doing.

So maybe flirting with the security is a little underhanded and immature, but Conner wanted to fuck with the media. That’s exactly what I’m doing . . . with the added bonus of fucking with him, too.

Two can play this game.

“You aren’t from around here, are you?” I ask him.

“Sofie.” Ajax says my name sharply, a warning in it.

“I’m making conversation. You expect me to sit here for almost an hour and not talk to anyone? I certainly ain’t talkin’ to these pains in the ass.” I nod toward the paparazzi.

One gets a little too close, and Ajax steps forward threateningly. The photographer doesn’t move, and I can see the camera lens in my peripheral vision.

“I hope you got a strap on that thing, because if it ain’t out of my face in the next ten seconds you’ll be pickin’ it up off the floor,” I snap.

He scuttles back and I glare at the line. Nobody moves aside from a scuffle in the back, and there’s a shout of “Where’s your daughter?”

“Playing hide-and-seek,” I retort, looking back at the security.

This time, Ajax’s lips really do twitch.

“Carlos. Where are you from?”

He looks nervously at Ajax. “Texas. Moved to Shelton Bay a couple weeks back. Are you from here?”

“Born and raised.” I smile. “How are you liking it?”

“Just fine. The beaches are nice.”

“Sure are. Are you workin’ on Saturday?”

“All right, that’s enough.” Ajax whips out his cell phone. “Conner? Miss Sofie is making your staff uncomfortable.”

“I am not!” I shout indignantly, knocking my fist against the car hood next to my legs. “I’m just bein’ polite! Ain’t that right, Carlos?”

Ajax nods. “Yes, sir, she’s exaggerating her drawl,” he says into the phone.

“Oh my God! I am not!”

So I was. Kill me.

Leila giggles into her hands.

“Okay. I’ll tell her.” Ajax hangs up and looks at me. “He said stop chatting up Carlos, and if you don’t listen to me, he’s going to come and sort you out himself.”

A thrill runs through me at that prospect. Jealous Conner is hot Conner.

I smile sweetly at Ajax. “Well, Carlos, are you workin’ Saturday?”

Ajax pulls his phone out again. He doesn’t get a word out before my front door opens and Conner comes strolling out. Determination powers his every step, and it takes just seconds for his long stride to swallow up my front lawn.

“Hi, Conner!” I say brightly.

“Sofie,” he growls, and steps up to the car. “Are you fucking with my staff?”

Leila doesn’t bother to hide her laughter this time.

“That’s a yes, then.” He grabs my ankles, slides me down the car, then wraps his arms around my waist.

“What the hell!” I shriek as he lifts me up and over his shoulder in a fireman’s hold. “Put me down!”

I kick my legs and wriggle. He grabs my lower legs with his other hand, stopping them, so I punch his butt instead. He doesn’t react. He simply carries me to my house as swiftly as he just walked away from it.

I slam the door behind us. “Put me down, you giant—”

He slides me down and crushes me against the wall. His lips descend on mine, hot and demanding. His hand, sliding around the back of my neck, screams possession.

I whimper, melting against the wall. He steps into me and with one final firm kiss, breaks it.

“You’re damn lucky I didn’t push you up against my sister’s car and do this out there.” His words are short and sharp. “The hell do you think you’re playin’ at?”

“Me?” I look at him incredulously. “You’re the one keeping me out of my house!”

“To surprise you,” he replies through gritted teeth. “You’re just so damn impatient.”

“You told me to get out of my house, take my daughter to your parents’, then disappear inside a salon for hours!”

He pulls back to look at me. “Hair looks good, by the way.”

I narrow my eyes.

“You’re so fucking hard to please.”

“Not somethin’ I’ve ever heard you say before,” I mutter, looking to the side.

He laughs quietly. “True that. Come on.” He steps back and pushes me toward the stairs. “Your surprise is ready anyway.”

“Why is it upstairs?”

“Shut up and move.”

I glare over my shoulder but do as he says. He darts in front of me at the top and takes my hand. I look around shiftily as he pulls me toward my room and its closed door.

We stop, and I turn my attention to him. A bright pink smudge is mingling with his hair, and I reach up. It’s crusty, falling away at my touch, but obvious.

“Why is there paint in your hair?” My eyes find his. “Conner, what did you do?”

His lips pull up on either side into a secretive yet excited smile. Then without another word, he pushes the door to my room open.

Except it’s not my room anymore.

The room is painted in pink and yellow, the two colors separated by the thick Peppa Pig border running around the room in the center of the walls. Pine furniture, new furniture, including a huge sleigh-style crib, fills it. The curtains are Peppa and the lamp is Peppa and the rug is Peppa.

Instead of her old CD player, an iPod dock with a pink iPod sits on a pink floating shelf.

“It’s loaded,” he says. “Full of Dirty B. Including her favorite song.”

I step into her room and walk to her cot. There’s Peppa bedding and a giant Peppa head-shaped cushion.

“Why would you do this?” I whisper, my throat tightening.

“Because,” he replies simply, stepping forward. He grabs my hand. “Come here.”

He tugs me out of Mila’s room and toward Dad’s old room. I barely have a chance to say a word before he opens the door.

My hand shoots to my mouth. It doesn’t look a thing like Dad’s room, not anymore. The light blue walls have been replaced with teal, and the wall along the back is papered, a black pattern swirling and curling across it. A huge leather bed is sitting against it, covered with a teal-and-black-patterned bedspread. The furniture here is new, too, all black, all shining.

A large TV is mounted on the wall above the new dresser, and a black lamp sits on the nightstand. The black carpet is still the same, but a large, ridiculously fluffy rug matches the walls and breaks up the darkness.