Chapter One

Talon

“You what?”

My sister, Marjorie, whipped her hands to her hips, her brown eyes wide and angry.

I let out a sigh. “You heard me the first time. I asked Jade to leave.”

Marjorie shook her head, her lips trembling. “I don’t get you, Talon. Jade is the sweetest person in the world. She’s the best friend a girl could have, and she’s been there for me every time I’ve needed her. It gave me great joy to help her when she needed help, to let her come live here and start her life over after her she got humiliated on her supposed wedding day. Why in God’s name would you ask her to leave?”

How could I answer? Jade had only been gone since this morning, and already an emptiness had surfaced. Even in this sprawling ranch house, the loss of Jade’s body, her soul, was measurable—a thickness that was damn near visible. It percolated through me like a cold fog.

“Damn it, Talon, you owe me an explanation.”

Marj spoke the truth. I just didn’t know how to put my explanation into words without telling my sister things I didn’t want her to have to deal with. My brothers having to deal with them was bad enough.

“So you’re really just going to stand there with your mouth hanging open like an idiot, huh?” Marj bit her bottom lip. “Fine. I’ll call Jade.” She stomped off.

My skin tightened around me. Jade would probably tell my sister that I’d been screaming like a maniac before I booted her out of our house, but at least she wouldn’t be able to tell Marj the truth. Jade didn’t know the truth. She didn’t know I’d had a flashback while she was massaging me.

I reached down and gave my mutt, Roger, a pet on the head. He licked my fingers.

Even canine loyalty wasn’t going to cheer me up today. Life was about to get hard. Not that I wasn’t used to that, but this time, emotion was involved—emotion that was new to me. I sucked in a deep breath. I’d go to the guest house and talk to Ryan. My younger brother’s door was always open. After all, I was a hero in his eyes.

What bullshit.

But Ryan would listen. He always listened, and I had to tell someone what had gone on between Jade and me.

I had to tell someone that I had fallen in love.

What else could it have been? Even now, having only been separated from her for twenty-four hours, she still invaded my thoughts. Her golden-brown hair flowing over her creamy shoulders, her ruby-red lips so full and kissable with the taste of strawberries and champagne. The silvery-blue eyes that darkened and smoked ever so slightly when she was turned on. Her beautiful breasts with brownish-pink nipples that were always hard for me. That soft sigh that escaped her lips every time I entered her.

I had hungered for her since the first time I laid eyes on her, and with each kiss, each touch, each minute in her presence, that craving had turned quickly into an obsession.

Jade Roberts was now as essential to me as oxygen, as sustenance, as water.

And I had thrown her out of my house.

“Come on, boy,” I said to Roger. “Let’s go see Ryan.”

I opened the French doors out of the gourmet kitchen onto the redwood deck, followed the pathway half a mile to the guest house, and knocked.

My brother opened the door. “Hey, Tal, what’s going on?”

“Do you have a few minutes?”

“Sure.”

“I wasn’t sure I’d find you home on a Saturday evening.”

Ryan let out a laugh. “I put in a twelve-hour day, and I’m too freaking bushed to go out. Why aren’t you in the city?”

Good question. My brothers both knew I tended to spend weekends in the city—meaning bedding cocktail waitresses or anyone else who threw themselves at me to release the pressured steam of my life. Maybe Ryan and Jonah hadn’t noticed, but ever since Jade moved to the ranch, my trips to the city had been fewer and farther between.

“The city doesn’t offer much for me anymore.”

Ryan widened his eyes. “Come on in. Sounds like you need to talk.”

I entered, Roger panting happily at my heels. Ryan led me through the living area into the kitchen to the laid-back family room. He walked behind the bar. “I’m guessing you could use a drink.” He pulled out a bottle of Peach Street bourbon.

I nodded. “That’s the God’s honest truth.”

Ryan poured me two fingers of the whiskey, straight, and slid it across the bar. He poured a glass of red wine for himself. Then he came around and sat next to me on a barstool.

“So what’s eating at you?”

Where to begin? Ryan knew my history. So did my older brother, Jonah. But we didn’t talk much about it. Neither of them knew the gory details. I had spared them that. Ryan was my little brother by three years. He had gotten away that horrible day. He had run because I’d told him to, and the poor guy harbored a lot of guilt for that.

“Have you ever been in love, Ry?”

Ryan raised his eyebrows and swallowed the sip of wine he had taken. “For a man of few words, Talon, that is certainly not a question I ever expected to hear from you.”

I rubbed at my jaw and took a drink of my bourbon, letting the spicy warmth slide down my throat. “It isn’t a question I ever thought I’d ask either.”

Ryan took another sip of wine and set his glass on the bar. “I can at least answer you honestly. No, I haven’t.”

“Not even with Anna?”

Ryan shook his head. “Anna and I had a good run, not to mention some amazing sex, but in the end, we both agreed that what we had wasn’t anything lifetimes were made of.”

“What about Joe? Do you think he’s ever been in love?”

Ryan smiled. “I think you’d have to ask him.”

My brothers were both married to their work—Jonah to the beef ranch and Ryan to the winery.

“There are a lot of women in town who would like to take one of the Steel brothers off the market.”

My brother laughed. “What’s the hurry?”

“Well, none of us are getting any younger.”

Ryan looked at me pointedly, his dark eyes serious. “What the hell is this about, Talon?”

I wasn’t much of a talker, not even to my brothers. They both knew that. What had I been thinking? I was about as uncomfortable as a grizzly in tights. I downed the rest of my whiskey like a shot and set the glass on the wooden bar. “Nothing. Sorry to bother you.” I stood.