Page 4 of Knight's Desire

He already enjoyed playing uncle to his coworkers’ kids. Sam and his live-in girlfriend Monica had a son, Aidan, who had just turned five and was excited for the day he would start kindergarten. Jay Colter and his wife Payton had two adoptive daughters, Davi and Stephanie, both teenagers who’d dealt with rough circumstances no one that young should ever have to deal with. But they were safe and happy with the Colters.

His other coworker and friend, Zane Wilder, technically didn’t have children of his own, but as serious as he was about his girlfriend, Bridget Kincaid, he may as well have. Bridget was raising her niece and nephew, Marlowe and Mathias, who adored Zane and already referred to Brick as uncle. He would never admit to playing favorites, but Lil Bit, as he called Marlowe, had a way of making his heart smile. Socially awkward, she was shy but brilliant. She was in a gifted program at her school that was barely enough to challenge her big brain.

He’d never expected to be able to carry on a conversation with a genius like Marlowe, but she never treated him like a big dumb private eye. He was thrilled to know she adored him, and the feeling was more than mutual. If anyone ever put a frown on that sweet girl’s face, Brick would need his entire team at KSI to hold him back from pulverizing the offender.

The Knight Security and Investigations building was in his sights when a gentle breeze kicked up, blowing a couple of napkins off the top of his pastry box. Trapping the rest of them under his hand, he turned to retrieve the others and stopped.

The store front was one he’d seen many times. The boutique had changed ownership over the years, and he had no idea who owned it now or what type of merchandise was sold there. He’d never cared enough to notice before. But looking through the large display window that provided a clear view of the interior, that changed.

The woman stood on a pedestal facing away from a set of full-length mirrors and toward a two-seater loveseat, where someone else sat. Her dark hair was swept up, revealing the delicate curve of her neck. Her smile was wide and sparkled in her eyes, her high cheekbones flushed.

She wore a floor-length white dress that should be illegal. It molded to her generous curves, leaving little to his imagination, which was good because his brain had short-circuited when he spotted her. The low neckline displayed her ample cleavage and left her shoulders bare to his stare.

She turned to the side, and he blinked once. Lacy panels exposed her skin on the sides before joining the white material to hug the sensuous flare of her hips. The material hugged to her round ass like a second skin. She turned once more, facing the mirrors, and he saw her back was exposed. The dress dipped low, almost too low. One wrong move, and her ass crack would be on display. And Brick would swallow his tongue.

He felt his cock twitch behind the zipper of his jeans. He had to stop staring. The boutique sold wedding dresses, and the woman on the pedestal was obviously someone’s fiancé. He had no business wondering what the rest of her luscious body looked like underneath the white cloth and lace. But damn if he could turn away.

“Brick! Brick!”

He jerked, startled, and turned to see his coworker, Sydney Atwood, walking his way, staring at him curiously. She was coming from the direction of the KSI building with her laptop bag swung over her shoulder. He couldn’t resist one last glance through the window only to see the vision in the wedding dress stepping down from the pedestal and disappearing out of sight.

“Hey, are you okay?” Sydney stopped in front of him, her keen eyes shifting from him to the bridal boutique and back. “I had to call you several times to get your attention. You look like you’ve seen a ghost or something.”

He chuckled to cover his awkwardness. “I’m fine. It’s nothing. So are you coming or going?”

She tapped the front of her bag. “Going. The computers at Horizon Marketing are glitching, and Chloe called me with a 9-1-1.”

When Sydney was hired at KSI, she arranged to keep the small number of clients who hired her to freelance cybersecurity for them. One client was the marketing firm that her best friend, Chloe Stephens, co-owned.

“You’re going to miss out on the pastries.” He raised the box to show her. “I bought them as a celebration for Tryst and Kat finding out about the girls.”

“Good. Maybe the diner’s pastries can diffuse the tension in there now.”

“Uh oh. What am I walking into?”

“Tryst tried to get Kat to go home and rest, but she insisted on coming into work. The doctor told her she was fine to work as long as she stopped to rest when she got tired. Tryst thinks it’s too risky for her to be stressed at work. They had a big fight about it.”

“She only has a couple of months to go, right?”

“If that long. With twins, she could go into labor early. I want the babies to wait long enough to be healthy, but I kind of hope she has them sooner rather than later. She’s miserable.”

Brick agreed. Kat’s belly grew larger with every passing day, and she stayed on a constant back-and-forth to the restroom with the babies pressing on her bladder constantly. She waddled instead of walked, and her face and ankles stayed swollen most of the time. Even with her miserable state, she was beautiful. Her sable hair shone thanks to her prenatal vitamins. Her skin glowed, her eyes sparkled, and her hand constantly caressed her belly as if comforting the lives growing inside.

“We need to get to work on that nursery. With Tristin nagging Kat about working too much, she hasn’t been on our case to come over and help him put the furniture together, but if we’re not careful, the babies will have to sleep in dresser drawers when they come home instead of pretty cribs.”

Sydney giggled. “Cole and I were just talking about that. I think we’re planning to go over there tomorrow night for dinner. We’ll give Kat a baby shower while you guys get the nursery together.” Sydney was married to another KSI co-worker, Cole Atwood.

“Sounds like a plan. We can order Chinese or pizza. With all of us chipping in, we’ll have it put together in no time.”

She nodded. “I think so too. Well, I need to be going. Save me a pastry.”

With a small wave, she hurried over to her car and pulled out of the KSI parking lot to head down Main Street. Brick fought the urge to glance once more inside the boutique. He forced himself to continue to KSI. He bypassed the side entrance at the alley that separated the office building from the shopping center where the boutique and a few other businesses were. He had a code to gain entry through that door, but he opted to go through the front, putting him at the security desk in the front lobby.

Jordan Raines, a Green Beret, occupied the security desk. His watchful eyes noted every person who passed by and everyone who came inside KSI. Monitors behind the desk showed images from the several security cameras around the building and property. They rarely had trouble at the office, but Tristin wanted to be prepared, and Jordan was as good a deterrent as any.

“Hey, man. I brought treats for everybody.” Brick opened the pastry box for his friend. Jordan withdrew a gooey treat, but Brick waved the box around in front of him. “Go ahead and take one for Stella too.”

Jordan’s wife, Stella, was a part of the KSI family too, and she was well-loved by everyone. A petite woman with a heard of gold and an iron fist, she was a good fit for the quiet and tough security guard. They married when they were both eighteen, and they were approaching their thirtieth anniversary. Brick had never known another couple who had been married that long.

---