“What do you want?” Liam finally asked. His tone was quick and impatient. “I’m busy.”

“I was just driving by,” Marcus begun.

“The hell you were,” Liam snapped. “You live hell knows how far that way.” He hooked a thumb over his shoulder in the general direction of the city and beyond where Marcus lived. He turned back to the pile of shit and hay and who knew what else. All of it needed moving to the barrow next to him that was nearly half full.

“You can keep working,” Marcus said. He was trying to be helpful but knew he’d failed in that when Liam frowned at him.

“And you’re gonna do what? Stand there and stare at me?”

“Can I help it if I like what I see?”

Liam very deliberately hooked a pile of mess onto his shovel and hefted it into the waiting barrow. Marcus grinned at the combined sensations of sight of the muscles and the fact that Liam thought turning his back was going to work. They stood this way for a good ten minutes, and Marcus watched every move until finally he couldn’t really justify standing and staring any more.

“Dinner?” he asked.

Liam didn’t hesitate with his answer. “No.”

“One day you’ll say yes.”

Liam muttered a reply. “When hell freezes over.”

“See you soon,” Marcus added cheerily.

“Not if I see you first,” Liam snapped. He stood up and suddenly Marcus was near enough to kiss Liam. They stood so close that it would only take one movement from either of them and they would be kissing the hell out of each other. Marcus wasn’t sure who moved first but assumed they both leaned in. No hands but lips crashed and tongues tasted. There was nothing soft about the kiss, and it ended as soon as it began.

Liam stepped back and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

“What the fuck.”

Guilt consumed Marcus. He’d just gone into Liam’s personal space and near forced a kiss on the guy. No wonder Liam looked so shell-shocked.

“I’m sorry. I just wanted… Will you come to dinner… I want to talk…”

“No.”

Seemed like that was Liam’s last word, and Marcus left the barn. When he was out of sight he stopped for a moment and lifted his face to the fall sun. He shouldn’t be riding Liam so hard, but there was something there, an indefinable attraction that flooded him whenever he saw Liam. Attraction definitely, lust, a little smatter of affection. There was pain in Liam’s expression and the heat of anger in his beautiful gray eyes, and Marcus wanted to know more.

“You okay?”

Marcus focused on the voice, then looked up at Robbie astride a big brown horse. Way up.

“Just talking,” Marcus explained.

“You harassing my staff?” Robbie asked quietly.

“Asking him out for dinner.”

“How many times is that?”

“I lost count at five.”

“Seems to me you’re likely moving into being a nuisance,” Robbie said without heat. He slid down from the back of the horse in a smooth movement. Marcus appreciated that he didn’t have to tilt his head back to actually see Robbie’s expression. Robbie wasn’t holding back even if he worked here and Marcus was Jack and Riley’s friend. A large part of him, the part that both lusted after Liam and cared for the young man, liked that Robbie had his eye on Liam.

Marcus shrugged. “He hasn’t punched me yet.”

“If he does it will be your own fault.”

“Duly noted.”

Robbie stood silently for a moment. “You remind me of Eli,” he said finally. Then he moved away and Marcus was left wondering what that meant. He liked Eli, although they hadn’t really sat and talked. Eli came from old money like Marcus, but that is where the similarity ended. Maybe Robbie meant the persistence thing. After climbing back into his car, he left the D and was back in the city before he realized it. Marcie met him at the door with a wide grin on her face.

“The McDonalds are pregnant,” she exclaimed.

His sister was as involved in the surrogates and the intended parents as much as he was, and he returned her grin before grabbing her and hugging her close. The McDonalds had been trying with their surrogate for over a year, and to finally hear a success was at hand was the best news of the day.

He followed Marcie up the stairs to their private apartments and listened as she chatted on about HCG levels and expectant dates. He wasn’t entirely focused on his sister when his brain was still using so much processing power on considering how to get Liam to go to dinner with him.

“Earth to Marcus.”

Marcus blinked as something passed in front of his face, and he realized it was Marcie waving a hand to snap him out of his thoughts.

“Sorry.”

“Thinking about Liam again?” she asked with a smirk.

Marcus groaned. God help brothers who had sisters as uncannily observant as he did. Two bottles of red and he’d spilled the whole sorry mess to Marcie a few weeks back. He couldn’t recall exactly what he had said to her but seemed it was enough for her to have teasing material to work with on a daily basis.

“Yeah,” he admitted with a sigh. “I was out at the D.”

“You have it so bad,” Marcie commented. She pulled out a tray of lasagna from the fridge sniffed it and grimaced. “We’re eating out. Then you can tell me all about Liam and his hair and his eyes and his body and the fact that all you want is to love him and feed him and call him squishy.”

“I hate you,” Marcus said dryly.

Marcie blew him a kiss. “No you don’t.”

“I do.”

“Not even for a second,” she laughed. “I’ll get my jacket and we’ll go for Italian.”

Marcus waited by the door and pulled out his cell. He had Liam’s number only because Liam had finally given in and let him have it.

Dinner? he texted.

The answer was immediate. No.

Marcus smiled at the answer. One day Liam would give in and type yes.

Chapter 5

Riley was persuaded that whoever designed ball pits should be consigned to a very special hell where they spent eternity finding stickiness and suspiciously damp items touching their entire body. Seemed like Max agreed with him. The pit itself, part of the indoor play area that housed an enormous brightly colored setup for kids, was heaving with toddlers, so Max hung back. He’d liked the slide, he’d even walked the foam and material bridge between the toddler and baby area, but the pit was clearly not on his to-do list.

Jack and Rebecca were in the baby area with the twins, and it was Riley’s turn to spend time with Max.

Max looked in his direction briefly and frowned. “Icky,” he murmured.

“Yuck,” Riley agreed. He and Jack had both learned that simple words were the best way to communicate with Max. Long sentences confused Max, and both men had researched the best way to explain what they needed to the small boy. “Outside, buddy.” He crouched down next to Max.

Max gripped tight to his Thomas the Tank Engine, the same one Riley had mended when they first met. Then something else obviously caught his imagination, and he walked away from Riley at a fast rate. Riley followed, ducking under the low-hanging beams of red plastic-covered steel. Twice Riley had smacked his head, and he was regretting his six four height. They walked through the large dining area and out the side door to the open play space. Here, there were slides and sand pits and large canopies that gave shade in the late afternoon sun. Riley checked out the vicinity, something he had grown used to doing.

He wasn’t always sure what he was looking for. Things that could hurt Max, kids that were maybe too boisterous for the quiet child he was in charge of. Maybe someone with a camera out. He had deliberately worn a cap and shades and dressed down in baggy jeans and a loose T, but his height made him someone people looked at. Put two and two together—Jack in the baby area with twins, him with a small boy in tow—and suddenly the headlines wrote themselves. When this was done, when Max was their child to look after, he was never subjecting Max or himself to the chaos of the ball pit again. Max didn’t much like the noise and he used his free hand to cover one ear. The other he covered by hunching his shoulders.