Page 1 of Tight Spaces

Chapter one

Danusia wiggled the key in the lock on her brother’s apartment door. Darn thing always stuck, but he wouldn’t make her another one. Said she didn’t come to stay often enough for it to matter.

Yeah, and he wasn’t particularly keen for that to change either, obviously. He’d probably gotten the wonky key on purpose. Just like the rest of her older siblings, Roman Chernichenko kept Danusia at a distance.

She knew why he did it at least, though she was pretty sure the others didn’t.

Knowing didn’t make her feel any better. Even in her family of brainiacs, she was definitely the odd one out. They loved her, just like she loved them, but they were separated by more than the gap in their ages. She was seven years younger than her next youngest sibling. An unexpected baby, though never unwanted – at least according to her mom.

Still, her sister and brothers might love her, but they didn’t get her and didn’t particularly want her to get them.

Which was why she was coming to stay in Roman’s empty apartment rather than go visit one of the others, or Heaven forbid, her parents. She did not need another round of lectures on her single status by her baba and mom.

The lock finally gave and Danusia pressed the door open, dragging her rolling suitcase full of books and papers behind her. The fact the alarm wasn’t armed registered at the same time as a cold cylinder pressed to her temple.

"Roman, I swear on Opa’s grave that if you don’t get that gun away from me, I’m going to drop it in a vat of sulfuric acid and then pour the whole mess all over the new sofa Mom insisted you get the last time she visited. If it’s loaded, I’m going to do it anyway."

The gun moved away from her temple and she spun around, ready to lecture her brother into an early grave, and help him along the way. "It is so not okay to pull a gun on your sister…" her tirade petered off to a choked breath. "You!"

The man standing in front of her was a whole lot sexier than her brother, and scarier, which was saying something. Not that she was afraid of him, but she wouldn’t want him for an enemy.

The rest of the family believed that Roman was a scientist for the military. She knew better. She was a nosy baby sister after all, but this man? Definitely worked with Roman and carried an aura of barely leashed violence. Maxwell Baker was a true warrior.

She shouldn’t, absolutely should not, find that arousing, but she so did.

"You’re not my brother," she said stupidly.

Which was so not her usual mode, but the six-foot-five black man, who would make Jesse Jackson Jr. look like the ugly step-brother if they were related, turned Danusia’s brain to serious mush.

His brows rose in mocking acknowledgment of her obvious words.

"Um…"

"What are you doing here, Danusia?" Like a really good, aged whiskey, even his voice made her panties wet.

How embarrassing was that? "You know my name?"

Put another mark on the chalkboard for idiocy.

"The wedding wasn’t so long ago, I would not have forgotten already." He almost cracked a smile.

She almost swooned.

Max and several of Roman’s associates had done the security on her sister, Elle’s, wedding, which might have been overkill. Or not. Danusia suspected stuff had been going on that neither she, nor her parents, had known about.

It hadn’t helped that she’d been focused on her final project for her Masters, and that Elle’s wedding had been planned faster than Danusia could solve a quadratic equation. She’d figured out that something was going on, but that was about it. This time her siblings had managed to keep their baby sister almost completely in the dark.

A place she really hated being.

Not that her irritation had stopped her from noticing the most freaking gorgeous man she’d ever met. Maxwell Baker. A tall, dark, dish of absolute yum.

Once she had seen Max with his strong jaw, defined cheekbones, and big muscular body, not much else at the wedding had even registered. Which might help explain why she hadn’t figured out why all the security.

"It’s nice to see you again." There, that sounded somewhat adult and full points for polite conversation, right?

"What are you doing here?" he asked again, apparently not caring if he got any points for being polite.

She shrugged, shifting her backpack. "My super is doing some repairs on the apartment."