LITMIR.BIZ

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the man who had been their father had linked them not just by blood, but by fostering that brotherly connection in their childhoods. All of Ben King’s sons had spent time together every summer, and the differences among them melted away in the shared knowledge that their father hadn’t bothered to marry any of their mothers.

      Lucas, the oldest of the three of them, was checking his watch and firing another impatient look at Rafe. Sean, typically, was so busy studying the screen of his cell phone while he tapped out messages to God knew who, he hadn’t noticed that Lucas had spoken.

      The brothers held weekly meetings to discuss business, to catch up with whatever was going on in the family and simply to keep up with each other’s lives. Those meetings shifted among each of their houses. Tonight, they were gathered at Lucas’s oceanfront home in Long Beach.

      It was huge, old and filled with what Lucas liked to call character. Of course, everyone else called it outdated and inconvenient. Rafe preferred his own place, a penthouse suite in a hotel in Huntington Beach. Sleek, modern and efficient, it had none of the quirks that Lucas seemed so fond of in his own house. And he appreciated having room service at his beck and call as well as maid service every day. As for Sean, he was living in a remodeled water tower in Sunset Beach that had an elevator at beach level just to get you to the front door.

      They had wildly different tastes, yet each of them had opted for a home with a view of the sea.

      For a moment, Rafe stared out at the ribbons of color on the sunset-stained ocean and took a deep breath of the cold, clear air. There were a few hardy surfers astride their boards, looking for one last wave before calling it a day, and a couple was walking a tiny dog along Pacific Coast Highway.

      “What do we know about Katie Charles?” he asked, taking a swig from his beer.

      “Katie who?” Sean asked.

      “Charles,” Lucas said, irritation for their younger brother coloring his tone. “Don’t you listen?”

      “To who?” Sean kept his gaze fixed on his cell phone. The man was forever emailing and texting clients and women. It was nearly impossible to get Sean to pay attention to anything that didn’t pop up on an LED screen.

      “Me,” Rafe told him, reaching out to snatch the phone away.

      “Hey!” Sean leaned out and reclaimed his phone. “I’m setting up a meeting for later.”

      “How about instead you pay attention to this one?” Rafe countered.

      “Fine. I’m listening. Give me my phone.”

      Rafe tossed it over, then turned his gaze to Lucas. “So?” Rafe asked. “You know anything about Katie Charles?”

      “Name sounds familiar. Who is she?”

      “Customer,” Rafe said, picking up his beer and leaning back in the Adirondack chair. “We’re redoing her kitchen.”

      “Good for us.” Sean looked at him. “So what’s bugging you about her?”

      Good question. Rafe shouldn’t have cared what Katie Charles thought of the King family. What did it really matter in the grand scheme of things? Still, ever since leaving Katie’s house earlier, he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her. And it wasn’t just the flash of heat he felt when he was around her that was bugging her. She was pretty, smart, and successful, and she hated the Kings. What was up with that?

      “Katie Charles,” Lucas was muttering to himself. “Katie Charles. Kitchen. Cookies.” He grinned and said, “That’s it. Katie’s Kookies. She’s building a real name for herself. She’s sort of a cottage industry at the moment, but people are talking about her.”

      “What people?” Rafe asked, frowning. “I’ve never heard of her before.”

      Sean snorted. “Why would you? You’re practically a hermit. To hear about anything you’d have to actually talk to someone. You know, someone who isn’t us.”

      “I’m not a hermit.”

      “God knows I hate to admit Sean’s right. About anything. But he’s got a point,” Lucas said, stretching his long legs out in front of him. “You keep yourself shut up in that penthouse of yours most of the time. Hell, I’m willing to bet the only people you’ve actually talked to since last week’s meeting are the room service operator and the crew you worked with today.”

      Rafe scowled at Lucas, but only because he didn’t have an argument for the truth. He didn’t have time to date every model in the known universe like Sean. And he had no interest in the corporate world of movers and shakers like Lucas. What the hell else was he supposed to do with his time?

      “Oh, yeah,” Sean said with a grin. “I forgot about that bet you made. How’s it going, being back on a job site?”

      “Not bad,” Rafe admitted. Actually, he’d enjoyed himself more than he had expected. Being on a site with hardworking guys who didn’t know he was their boss had been … fun. And there was the added plus of being around a woman who made his body tight and his brain fuzz out. Until, of course, Katie had confessed that she hated the King family.

      “So,” Sean asked, “if you had such a good time, why do you look like you want to bite through a box of nails?”

      “You do look more annoyed than usual,” Lucas said with a shrug. “What’s up? And what’s it got to do with Katie Charles?”

      “Neither of you knows her?”

      Sean and Lucas looked at each other and shrugged. “Nope.”

      “Somebody does.”

      “Somebody knows everybody,” Lucas pointed out.

      “Yeah, but the somebody who knows Katie is a King.”

      Sean snorted. “Doesn’t narrow the field down by much.”

      “True.” Hell, there were so many King cousins in California, they could probably start their own county.

      “What’s the deal?” Lucas picked up his beer, leaned back in his chair and waited. “Why’s she bothering you?”

      “Because,” Rafe told him, standing up to walk to the balcony railing, “she hates the Kings.”

      “Hates us?” Sean laughed. “Impossible. Women love King men.”

      “That’s completely true,” Lucas said with a self-satisfied smile.

      “Usually, maybe,” Rafe said, his gaze sweeping across the froth of waves on the darkening ocean. Although his ex-wife would probably argue that point. “But this woman doesn’t. Hell she barely could say the word King without shuddering.”

      “So why’d she hire us if she hates us so much?”

      He turned to look at Sean. “Our company’s reputation, she says. But she’s not happy about it.”

      “And you think somebody in the family turned her against all Kings?” Lucas asked.

      “What else could it be?” Rafe looked at him and shrugged.

      “The real question here is,” Sean said quietly, “why do you care?”

      “That is a good question.” Lucas looked at Rafe and waited.

      Too good, Rafe thought. Hell, he didn’t know why he cared, either. God knew, he didn’t want to. He’d been down this road before and he’d already learned that not only didn’t he know how to love, but according to his ex-wife, he was actually incapable of it.

      So why bother with romancing a woman when you knew going in it was doomed to fail? No, he kept his relationships easy. Uncomplicated. A few hours of recreational sex and no strings attached.

      Better for everyone when the rules were clear.

      Yet, there was Katie.

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