“Oh my God. You’re Smith Sullivan’s brother?”
* * *
Jealousy wasn’t something that Chase knew a lot about. So the sudden hard hit of it, right in the pit of his gut, stung pretty damn bad.
“I am.” He waited for her to ask if she could meet Smith, or to start peppering him with questions about his movie-star brother.
Instead, she simply turned and stared at him for a long moment. “I guess I should have seen the resemblance.” And then she said, “Tell me about everyone else.”
Seriously? She didn’t want to know more about Smith?
This time he was the one giving her a funny look and she shifted uncomfortably under his gaze, her free hand automatically coming up to cover her cheek. “Is something wrong?”
He quickly shook his head. “No. Not a thing.”
He wanted to move her hand from her cheek, wanted to tell her she didn’t need to hide any part of herself from him. But he’d made himself a promise to let her lead their dance.
He wasn’t a saint. Not even close. But he knew keeping that promise was the only way she’d ever really trust him.
Chase knew how to persuade a woman with kisses, with the touch of his fingertips across her skin. But he didn’t want to be the only one wanting.
He wanted Chloe to want, too, just as badly as he did.
Enough that she had to act on that want.
Enough that she had to push past fear and trust him.
“Ryan is a year younger than me.” At her questioning sidelong glance, he added, “I’m thirty-two.” He turned back to the picture. “He plays pro baseball for the San Francisco Hawks.”
She murmured something about being impressed, but it was clear from her reaction that she wasn’t a baseball fan. He grinned, thinking about Chloe meeting Ryan and not fawning over him. His brother would be crushed.
“Gabe is my youngest brother. He’s a firefighter.”
“Wow, that’s a really dangerous job. Doesn’t your mother worry?”
“At this point, between the eight of us, I think she’s pretty much thrown in the towel on worrying.”
Chloe shook her head. “No,” she said softly, “she’s your mother. She still worries. About all of you. Because she loves you.”
Caught up in a perfectly clear vision of Chloe as a mother, sweet and loving, his voice felt raw as he agreed. “That’s why we’ve tried to give her a little peace, now and again, as we get older.”
“Who’s this?” She pointed at one of his sisters.
“Nice.” He corrected himself. “I mean Sophie.” He pointed to her twin. “That’s Lori. A.K.A. Naughty.”
She chuckled. “Why do I have a feeling they don’t much care for those nicknames?”
“They do. Even though they’re always telling me they don’t.”
Chloe shook her head and muttered, “I can’t imagine dealing with one big brother like you, let alone six.” She arched a brow at him. “You know exactly what’s best for them, don’t you?”
He grinned at her unrepentantly. “Of course I do.”
She snorted, looked at the picture again. “They are both very pretty. I sure hope they got some good ones in on you and the rest of your brothers for being know-it-alls.”
Chase winced in memory. “More than once, you’ll be glad to hear.”
She laughed again, and if there was a sweeter sound in the world, Chase hadn’t heard it yet.
“What do they do? Lori looks really athletic.”
“She’s a dancer and choreographer. She started out working with cheerleaders and now she does a lot of the stuff you see on TV.” Damn, he loved those girls. “Sophie is a librarian at a university. She’s smart as a freaking whip.”
“Wow. Very impressive. No wonder you’re proud of them.”
He was proud of all his siblings. They didn’t always see eye to eye, fists were sometimes raised and landed in the heat of anger, but he’d give up his left arm—hell, both of his arms—for any one of them.
“I already know about Smith. He’s a little older than you, right?”
“Thirty-four.”
“Wow, your parents were busy,” she said, before pointing at another of his brothers. “And he is?”
“Zach. Twenty-nine. Owns half the auto shops in California.”
“Hey, those Sullivan Auto ads I hear all the time on the radio are his, aren’t they?”
“He’s a business mastermind who’d rather spend his life with his head under a hood.”
Or between a woman’s legs. But Chloe didn’t need to know that. Especially given that Zach was a good-looking bastard. Quite possibly the best looking of them all. Including Smith, whose looks were integral to his profession.
“Marcus is the old man of the group at thirty-six.”
“So, there are eight of you between the ages of twenty-four and thirty-six.” She raised an eyebrow. “And none of you are married yet?” Her surprise was evident.
He shrugged. “Nope. Bets were placed a long time ago on who would be shackled with the ball and chain first. We’re all expecting Marcus and his girlfriend to do the deed soon.”
She laughed out loud at that. “See, now you’re talking like a normal guy. Using the words shackled and ball and chain in reference to getting married.”
Funny, he thought as he enjoyed her laughter, up until yesterday he’d been right in with the rest of his siblings on thinking marriage was a long way off. But now, he wasn’t so sure. The crazy thing was, he didn’t mind being led straight to the edge of the cliff. As long as Chloe was standing there, too.