Page 36 of Turning Up the Heat

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

WHENGEMMAHEARD the knock on her door the next morning, she thought it might be Tom. He hadn’t been able to get a flight the night before, but he was scheduled to arrive very soon. She all but ran to the door, unable to contain her smile, but it dropped when she opened the large wooden door to see Quin. And he didn’t look happy.

“Hey, what’s up?” she asked, a moment of panic seizing her. “Is Dad okay?”

“Everyone is fine,” he assured her. “But I saw a teaser on Men’s Lifestyle website for your interview and photo shoot.”

She could tell that he wasn’t happy. He handed over his phone, and she saw the website. They’d chosen a very sexy picture. The one where she was side-on, holding a sheet over her front, but the curve of her ass was exposed. She looked sexy, powerful, in charge, and she smiled.

“You like it?” Quin asked. “It’s a little risqué. I don’t personally see what your ass has to do with rum.”

“You wanted hip and sexy, didn’t you?” she reminded him.

“I certainly didn’t want to think about my sister as being sexy,” he said.

“Your not being able to handle my sexiness isn’t my problem,” she said, pointing her forefinger at him. She frowned at her brother. “Quin, you arranged that photo shoot and feature. You knew what kinds of things they do. I think it looks great,” she said, reaching for his phone. “Let me see the other pictures.”

He opened the gallery and scrolled through the photos. Gemma was thrilled with how they’d turned out, and she couldn’t wait to see the spread and feature in the upcoming magazine. If the public liked them half as much as Tom would... Then she remembered. Tom was going to be here any minute. She had to get Quin out of her house before he showed up. She moved around him and put a hand on his arm, subtly ushering him to the door. “Well, thanks for stopping by.”

He saw through her, though. “Are you trying to kick me out?”

“Of course not,” she said. “I just have a lot to do today before dinner at Reid’s.”

He narrowed his eyes at her and stood in place for a bit, just watching her. “All right. See you tonight, I guess.”

She smiled and opened the door for him. “See you tonight.”

She watched Quin get into his car and then drive off her property, and she exhaled. Obviously, Quin knew something was up, but she couldn’t focus on that now. She went back to the kitchen and finished prepping the breakfast she would share with Tom.

Only a couple of minutes passed before her doorbell rang again.

This time, she knew it was Tom, and she quickly walked back to the door. She pulled it open and barely had enough time to catch her breath before he drew her in for a kiss. When he pulled away, he was smiling. “Sorry I’m late,” he said.

“Don’t worry about it,” she told him. “Whether you know it or not, you’re actually right on time.”

When Gemma pulled her Jeep into Reid’s driveway next to Quin’s Range Rover, she turned off the engine and just sat in the quiet for a moment. She regretted leaving Tom at her place so she could have dinner with her family. She was glad to have had the afternoon with him, and in a moment of desperation, she’d asked him to join her. But he was right. A celebratory dinner with her family at Reid’s home probably wasn’t the best place to reveal her relationship with her family’s enemy. She’d promised she wouldn’t stay long, but he’d told her not to worry about him as he settled in front of the basketball game on TV.

Tonight was all about family. Her father didn’t visit Miami enough, and she missed them all being together. Her brothers and their partners and her father were waiting inside, celebrating Reid and Lila’s engagement as a family before their formal engagement party the next weekend. She exhaled. She was excited to see her family, of course, but that was hard, since she’d left Tom alone at her house.

He’d been right to stay, of course, but it didn’t make driving away any easier. And that was what was starting to scare her. She’d never felt so strongly for a man before. She had always been a single, casual, fun-loving woman who didn’t need to be tied down to a man. But she was already tied to Tom. It had happened when she wasn’t even paying attention.

She saw movement in the living room window that faced the driveway. It was Quin, waving for her to come in. She waved back and grabbed the bottle of rum she’d brought for her father and headed for the house.

When she opened the door, the music and the noise of conversation and raucous laughter greeted her. Her brothers were talking, and her father was busy charming, or being charmed by the newest members of the clan—Lila and Celia.

Reid and Quin saw her first. They hugged her in greeting, and then she moved on to say hello to her father. When he turned and saw her, he stood from his stool and came over to her. He wrapped his arms around her and lifted her off the floor. “My little Gemstone,” he said, using the name he’d called her by since she was a child.

She hugged him back. “Hi, Dad. It’s good to see you.”

He lowered her again. “How are you?”

“I’m good.” She lofted the bottle. “I brought you this.”

He kissed her on the cheek and took the unlabeled bottle. “Gemstone, if you weren’t already my favorite, this would have put you at the top.”

“Hey!” Reid called as he and Quin joined them at the kitchen island. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Reid, when you’re number one, you’re number one,” Gemma teased.

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