Erin McCarthy - Full Throttle

“No. Why would he follow me? And what is the big deal about that guy?” Had Eve seen him on America’s Most Wanted ? Was he a Gone with the Wind –inspired serial killer? First he dressed you in drapes, then he threw you down the stairs?

As they started walking toward the car, Eve said, “ That was my brother-in-law. When I came back from the restroom, I saw you with him. There was no way I could let him see me there. And there was no way I wanted him to know I saw him there.”

“Your brother-in-law? You mean, like, Nolan’s brother?” She could see how that would be more than a little awkward for Eve. It wasn’t just the corner pub they’d been in.

“Yes.” Eve beeped open her SUV and they all climbed in. She turned toward Shawn in the backseat and gave a snort of laughter. “Nolan’s little brother, Rhett.”

“That guy’s name is really Rhett?” she asked in amazement. Now she felt like a jerk for doubting it. “I thought he was making that up!”

“No, it’s really his name. He’s twenty-five years old and he’s in a sex club. Oh, my God, how am I going to look him in the face?”

“Twenty-five?” Shawn squawked, horrified. “Good Lord, he’s a fetus!” Who she had been contemplating pursuing so she could get a serious look at him naked. Her cheeks burned. “He looked older than twenty-five. He looked too hot to be that young. And I thought Nolan’s little brother was well, little. It never, ever occurred to me that the fake Rhett could be the real Rhett. You always talk about him like he’s seventeen.”

“To me, he might as well be. He’s Nolan’s little brother! What the hell was he doing there?” Eve asked, pulling out of the parking lot.

Oh, Shawn had a funny feeling she knew exactly what he was looking for. She might not be particularly knowledgeable about the lifestyle, but she could pick up on a clue or two. “I think he was a Dom looking for a submissive,” she said, not at all sure how she felt about any of this.

“ What ?” Eve said, moaning. “Oh, shit, I’m going to die. I do not want to picture that. God!”

“I should have let you give him your number,” Charity said ruefully from the front passenger seat. “But I panicked.”

Still stunned, Shawn murmured, “I told him my name was Scarlett. I thought he was giving me a code name.”

As Eve cruised to a stop at a red light, they all looked at one another and burst out laughing.

“So what are we reading next month?” Harley asked.

Shawn figured it could only be a letdown after this selection. She settled back into her seat, shivering, and tried not to think about a certain guy who was too young for her, with the most intense green eyes she’d ever seen in her life.

It worked for about three whole seconds.

RHETT swiped a handful of nuts from the crystal bowl on the coffee table as he stepped over three of his nieces coloring on the floor, the smell of his mother’s enormous Sunday dinner cooking in her kitchen. Frowning, he searched the crowded room for his sister-in-law, Eve, wanting to discuss the plans they had going for the upcoming racing season.

But he had the distinct feeling that she was avoiding him today for some reason. Every time he got close to her, she disappeared, and other than a quick wave and a half smile, she hadn’t made eye contact with him once. It was weird.

A wail sounded from the carpet, and he realized that he had stepped on Georgia’s yellow crayon and snapped it in two. His niece was only three, and frequently at the mercy of her older siblings. Being the youngest of nine kids himself, Rhett sympathized with her.

Immediately, her older sister Jessa started mocking her. “Stop being a baby. Baby, baby, cry baby.”

“I’m not a baby!” Georgia’s face was red, her eyes and nose leaking fluid. Rhett bent down and scooped her up under his arm, slinging her back and forth.

“Sorry, G. My fault. I’m sure there is another Macaroni and Cheese crayon in this house somewhere.”

Tears trickled off into giggles.

He gave Jessa a look of reprimand. “Be nice. You don’t like your stuff getting broken either.”

Hearing his niece’s laughter usually made him smile, but he felt off today. Having a hell of a time falling asleep last night after going to The Wet Spot, he had woken up with a start and a giant boner that morning. He had dreamed of the woman from the club, Scarlett, aka Shawn. It was likely she’d never show up there again, and while her first name was unusual, without a last name or any information about her at all, he had no way to locate her. It was a huge downer because there was something about her that had gotten under his skin. Or at the very least, in his pants. He wanted her, and knowing he would never get her made him grumpy.

His brother had already picked up on it. “So what’s your problem today?” Nolan asked him as he let another niece, Asher, climb on his back.

“Your face,” he told him lightly, because that’s what you said to your brother. “Where the hell is Eve, by the way? I wanted to ask her if she’s talked to Evan about when we’re getting the car.”

“She’s around here somewhere. Probably in the kitchen. She loves Mom’s cheese balls.”

“I think she’s avoiding me,” Rhett said as he pulled Georgia up to rest on his hip. It made him concerned there was a problem with their plan. Last fall, Eve had quit her job as a PR rep for her brothers, both highly successful stock car drivers, Elec and Evan Monroe, to pursue her own career as a driver. She had chosen to try to tackle the truck series and was already a few weeks into her inaugural season. Rhett had left Evan’s pit crew to join Eve’s, knowing it would afford him more free time to pursue his own passion—dirt track racing.

If all this went south, he was going to be less than thrilled. Not to mention out of a job.

He didn’t really know his new sister-in-law all that well, since they had only fleetingly crossed paths over the past couple of years. It was just since she’d married Nolan a few months earlier that he had started to spend more time with her, but they weren’t particularly close. Maybe he was reading her wrong.

“You sound like a middle school girl,” Nolan said. “No one is avoiding you.”

If he hadn’t been holding Georgia, he would have called his brother a dick, but he was, so he had to settle for punching Nolan on the arm.

“Dinner! Find a chair,” their mother called from the kitchen.

They were easily twenty for dinner that night, which was still only half the family, but in a small ranch house, it made for tight quarters. Rhett tried to maneuver himself near Eve, but she hightailed it to the very end of the long folding table, which came out on Sundays to accommodate their large numbers. With six kids and Nolan between them, there was no way Rhett was going to get a seat anywhere near her.

He was not imagining that her behavior was off.

It did not improve his mood.

Nor did his mother’s decision to ask him about his love life.

“So I was hoping we’d see Lexi here tonight,” his mother said to him across the table, ruining his appetite entirely.

“We broke up,” he reminded her. “It’s been six weeks, Mom. Let it go.”

To change the subject, he turned to his sister Danny. “Give me the mashed potatoes.”

His sister made a face at him, and he realized that sounded way ruder than he had intended.

“So bossy, for crying out loud,” his mother said. “I hope you weren’t bossy like that with Lexi.”

If only his mother knew just how bossy he had been. The thought amused him.

Down the table, Eve started choking on her wine.