A Magical Team

Chapter 1 Is there anyone in town you won’t f**k? Nina shook her head with wry amusement after watching a good-looking man leave her twin brother’s town home. It was a rhetorical question at best, as she knew the answer. “Damned few,” Tonio replied with a laugh, opening the front door a moment later to let her in. “You know I hate when you do that,” she grumbled, glaring at her green-eyed, dark-haired twin. “What? Opening the door for you?” He stepped out of reach when she tried to swat him. “Reading my mind, ass.” “Well, you were broadcasting loud and clear. Besides, you do it to me.” He closed the door and followed her into the living room. “That was Martin and it was his first, and last, time here. Conceited idiot.” Tonio flopped down on the long leather sofa, waiting for his sister to land somewhere, too. Nina did, at the other end of the sofa, after kicking off her shoes so she could put her feet up, wrapping her arms around her knees. Her long, dark hair hung loose around her elfin face. Her deep green eyes, which matched Tonio’s almost perfectly, darkened as she gazed at him. “Now what did I do?” he asked. “It’s not what you did, it’s what you didn’t do.” Tonio frowned. “Which was? Remind me.” “Lex.” “Oh hell, Nina, I don’t want to,” he whined. “Gods, you sound like a two-year old.” “I feel like one around him.” “So he’s imposing and authoritarian and sexier than all get out and,” she sighed, “not the least bit interested me, damn it.” “Why do you care? You’ve got, what’s his name? Yeah, Devlin, wrapped around your little finger. You don’t need another man.” “Says the guy who seems to need as many as he can get his hands on.” Nina smiled devilishly. “And that’s why you’re avoiding Lex. You can’t get your hands on him.” “I don’t want to,” Tonio protested. “He’s bossy, arrogant…” “And sexy.” “And sexy,” he admitted with a sigh. “If you like much older men.” “You wouldn’t know he was to look at him.” “Yeah, but he is. Hell, he’s got a son who is, hmm, twenty-one I think. Or thereabouts.” “Yeah, the mysterious, never seen Dirk.” “I saw him once,” Tonio told her. “Remember when we were teens and grandpa sent me to Lex’s home for a week for some lessons?” Nina nodded. “I was pissed as hell I couldn’t go, too. I told him he was being a chauvinist.” She laughed. “I didn’t even know what that meant. Only that it was something I heard grandma call him sometimes. So what was Dirk like?” “Bratty, like any ten-year-old. Followed me around wherever I went. I think he was lonely. He wanted to join in the lessons, but Lex said he was too young. Then three days after I got there, Dirk was gone. Back to his mother’s according to Lex. That was my first and last sighting of him.” He stretched and sighed. “I suppose I should stop putting off the inevitable and go see why Lex wants to talk to me this time.” “It might be a good idea, since he sent me here to remind you.” Tonio grinned. “And here I thought you wanted the pleasure of my company.” “At seven-thirty in the morning? As if. Speaking of which, I’d better get moving or I’ll be late to the office. Do you work today?” He snorted. “When don’t I work? I go in at eleven. Barring something big dropping in our laps I’ll be off at eight.” “And in bed with someone by eight-thirty.” He laughed. “Hey now, I’m not that bad. Honest.” “I know. It’s just ‘tension release’ to quote you, which I’m sure you need at times.” She stood, kissed his cheek, and departed. * * * * “Dirk, pay attention,” Lex grumbled. “Can I wake up first?” Dirk asked, going to pour himself a cup of coffee. “I suppose, if you insist.” Lex smiled fondly at his son. “Once you have, meet me in the practice room.” Dirk scrubbed a hand over his face. “What’s on the agenda for today?” Lex was about to reply when a beep from the intercom let him know someone was at the front gate. After checking to see who it was, he sent one of his people to let them in. “I’ll tell you later. Right now we have company.” “‘We’ as in royal sense, or as the two of us?” “The two of us. There’s someone I want you to meet and he’s finally decided to show his face.” Oh great, now what? Dirk had moved into his father’s estate, well outside the city limits, only a week earlier, much to his mother’s dismay. However, she’d had no say in the matter. The arrangement between his parents had been that, on Dirk’s twenty-first birthday, he would come to live with Lex until his father was convinced he could safely be out in the world on his own. So here he was and finally about to meet someone other than his father’s aids, all of whom were older than the hills. Of course whoever he is could be too. Dirk sighed ruefully. He followed Lex to the living room, waiting in anticipation to see who would come through the front door when his father removed the protections long enough to let them enter. Holy hell. Not old at all. Damn. He sucked in a breath as he looked at the man. He was tall, with ebony black hair and the greenest eyes Dirk had ever seen. The suit he was wearing fit him as if it had been tailor-made, accenting his muscular body without overdoing it. Wrap him up and I’ll take him home with me. Oh wait, this is my home now.