An eternity later, as the blood pounded through her brain and arousal peaked across every inch of her body, Lucas suddenly broke the kiss. His breathing was loud, and she could swear she heard his heartbeat matching her own.
“Turns out,” he gasped, clasping her upper arms firmly and putting some space between them, “we can.”
Embarrassment washed over her.
She bit down on the heat of her lower lip and finger-combed her short hair back into submission, mortified that she let him kiss her, that she’d kissed him back, enthusiastically.
It would have been bad enough if she hadn’t liked it. But oh, dear, she had really, really liked it. She struggled to bring her hormones back into submission.
Like she had while they were jogging, she was completely off her pace, out of control. Her world was spinning wildly around her, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
“That was bad,” she told him, shaking her head. “That was stupid. We are not going to let this happen again.”
They absolutely could not go around falling into each other’s arms, kissing each other, getting lost in passion when there were serious issues between them.
It was important they came to an agreement on that.
He didn’t respond.
“Lucas,” she prompted.
His eyes focused on her. “What? You want me to lie?”
Four
Devin had escaped the Demarco mansion first thing the next morning, taking Amelia in her car and heading to Lake Westmire, well away from any possibility of a chance encounter with Lucas. She decided she would check on her plants, pack a few more of Amelia’s clothes, listen to any messages on her answering machine and double-check the fridge for anything that might spoil during the few weeks she’d be away.
Lexi stopped by the house during Amelia’s afternoon nap. She convinced Devin to join her for a catamaran ride across the bay once the baby woke up. Devin was happy with the excuse to extend her visit. She decided that after the sail, she’d give Amelia her dinner, freshen her up in a bath and then let her fall asleep on the way back to the Demarco mansion.
Out on the lake, in her little swimsuit and a cotton cover-up, Amelia sat happily between Devin’s legs, bouncing on the catamaran’s trampoline deck. When the cool water splashed up through the springy, open-knit fabric, she grabbed at it with her hands, giggling when it disappeared from her little fingers.
“Define kiss,” said Lexi, adjusting the main sail with practiced maneuvers as she changed their direction and they skimmed out across the rippling water.
“A regular kiss,” said Devin.
“On the lips.”
“Yes.” Devin wasn’t sure anything else would have been noteworthy. Though she supposed Lucas kissing her on the cheek or forehead would have been pretty weird, too.
“Full frontal hugging?” asked Lexi.
“Yes,” Devin admitted. And, wow, that had been one great hug.
“Groping?”
“No,” she quickly denied.
“But the kiss was good?” Lexi persisted.
“The kiss was great,” Devin confirmed on a huge sigh of frustration. It would probably go down in the record books as one of her all-time favorite kisses. Whatever his ethics, whatever his conduct, Lucas Demarco knew how to kiss a woman.
She compulsively rolled one of the webbing straps on Amelia’s life jacket into a tight spiral, then she let it spring back open in her hand. “But I don’t get why he did it.” The question had plagued her all night long.
“Sometimes guys don’t have a reason,” Lexi offered, swooping some loose strands of hair back from her face as the wind grew stronger. “They take random action. And, when it comes to sex, they’re ruled by their primal brains.”
“Number one, it wasn’t sex. And number two, Lucas is not a random guy.” And Devin doubted his primal brain ruled any of his actions. “He’s logical, organized and compulsively goal-oriented. When he does something, it’s for a reason.”
“Do you really think you need to add paranoia to this situation?” Lexi pushed hard on the tiller.
The boat canted to one side, and Devin braced herself with a rope handle, holding tight to Amelia. “It doesn’t count as paranoia, when they truly are out to get you.”
Lexi rocked her head back and forth, obviously considering the merits of Devin’s point.
“I’ve been thinking,” Devin added, completely convinced that Lucas’s kiss was part of some well thought out, detailed plan to gain an advantage over her. “I’m not going to just sit back and wait for his next move.”
She anchored her white baseball cap on her head. “If all I do is react to his maneuvers, then I’m going to lose. That’s what happened in the temporary guardianship hearing. He had a plan. I didn’t. And it cost me.”
Lexi loosened the sail. “So, what are you going to do?”
“Make a plan,” Devin answered logically.
“No kidding, Sherlock. What kind of a plan?”
“I’m going to need your help with that.”
It needed to be devious, brilliant, but the simpler the better. It needed to paint Lucas into a corner, but he couldn’t see it coming.
“You could kiss him again,” Lexi offered.
“That’s the best you can do?”
“You’d turn the tables on him. You’re a gorgeous woman, you know.”
Devin could see where Lexi was going with this. But is wasn’t something she’d be able to pull off. “I’m not exactly a vamp.”
Lexi’s voice was laced with laughter. “But you could be. You glam up good. I’ll lend you a dress. We’ll do your makeup, get you some sleep-with-me heels, mess around with your hair.”
Devin chuckled in return. “And then what?”
“And then he’s putty in your hands.”
“And…?”
“A little pillow talk. You learn his secrets.”
Devin splashed some water at Lexi. “I’m not going to sleep with him.”
“Of course not. Just, you know, put on some sexy clothes, give him a couple of come-hither looks. If you can learn something useful about Konrad—or about Lucas for that matter—you can take it to court.”
Lexi leaned far back to balance the boat in a freshening wind. Devin tightened her hold on Amelia and shifted her weight to help out. The sail rippled loudly in the wind.
“It might work,” Devin called to Lexi. “I find concrete proof that Lucas and Konrad plotted Amelia’s birth for their own financial ends, and I’m home free.”
Lexi slowed the boat down as they neared her beach. “And if he’s already playing you on the sexual front?”
“Then I’ll lull him into a false sense of security.” Devin wasn’t scared. Okay, she was a little intimidated at the thought of playing sexual politics with Lucas. But it was for a good cause, and she’d simply have to make sure she kept her wits about her.
Lexi turned the boat for home. “You should also snoop through his house.”
“I’ve been thinking about talking to the staff,” said Devin. “Just idle chitchat. I’m not going to grill them or anything. And, hey, if there’s something interesting lying out there in plain sight…”
Lexi shot her a conspiratorial grin.
“I refuse to sit back and do nothing,” Devin defended.
“You have my complete support,” said Lexi. “Besides, he’s the one who forced you to stay there in the first place.”
Devin gave a vigorous nod of agreement. “If he’s not smart enough to hide the evidence, then he deserves to get caught.”
“What do you think you’ll find?”
“I have no idea.”
“Looks like we’ve got company.” Lexi nodded to the beach in front of their houses.
“Not Lucas.” Despite her bold words, Devin wasn’t anywhere near ready to put her plan into action. She certainly wasn’t ready to face him yet.
After their kiss last night, she’d escaped directly from the library to
her room. Then she’d deliberately waited until his sports car pulled out of the driveway this morning before venturing down from the nursery to feed Amelia breakfast. They’d made a clean break. And, if she was lucky, it would last until tomorrow morning.
“It’s Steve,” said Lexi, adjusting the angle of the catamaran so that it pointed directly at the beach.
As they approached the shore, Devin prepared to jump off. She settled Amelia firmly against one hip, then she turned her body, feet dangling just above the water line.
She jumped and hit the sandy bottom. It slipped away beneath her heels, but she maintained her balance, trotting the last few feet alongside the boat.
She grasped the bow line with one hand, holding Amelia fast with the other. She needn’t have worried. Lexi had put the boat expertly up on the beach and quickly jumped off herself.
Steve stood at the water’s edge, and he stepped forward and smoothly relieved Devin of Amelia.
“Looked like fun out there,” he commented. He held Amelia aloft for a minute, grinning at her and babbling nonsense.
The baby smiled back, cooing a few sounds of her own and reaching for his nose. Steve propped her, bulky life jacket and all, against his shoulder, and Devin couldn’t help contrasting his easy manner with the baby against Lucas’s awkwardness.
Lexi stripped off her life jacket and started work on the ropes.
“I thought you might need some help,” Steve explained to Devin.
Devin stripped off her own life jacket then took Amelia from Steve’s arms and unzipped hers. “Help with what?”
“I assumed you were picking up a few more things from the house. For the baby. Maybe for you.”
“How did you know I was here?” It was disconcerting to have him show up out of nowhere.
“He pumped the staff for information,” came Lucas’s unexpected voice.
Devin looked up in surprise to see Lucas striding across the beach, his shoes off, slacks rolled up a few turns and his suit jacket slung over his arm. “He’s been spying on you,” Lucas told Devin.
“What about you?” Steve challenged.
“They’re my staff,” Lucas returned.
“Did you two come together?” asked Devin. She wasn’t crazy about having any of the Demarco family invading her home turf. It wouldn’t be much of a sanctuary if her problems kept following her out here.
“No,” they both answered simultaneously.
“Well, I don’t need help moving,” she said, finishing the exchange with Steve.
Then she turned on Lucas. “And you. There’s no reason for you to be here, either.”
“I wanted to make sure you were coming back.” There was a wealth of awareness in his flat, frank stare. He knew the kiss had disconcerted her. And he’d obviously guessed that’s why she had fled.
Well, he was in for a surprise now. She was over the kiss, and she was going to ignore any lingering attraction she might have for him. From now on, he was the target of her investigation, nothing more.
“Of course I’m coming back,” she told him breezily, switching her attention on Amelia, fixing her little sun cap and smoothing her wispy hair.
Despite her concentration, she could feel Lucas’s gaze. But she assured herself that he didn’t know what was going on inside her head. As far as he was concerned, their kiss had meant nothing.
“You should have told me where you were going.” There was a rebuke in his voice.
“I’m a prisoner now?” she couldn’t help but ask.
“You’re under a court order.”
She turned to peer at his expression, an unsettling thought taking hold. Would he somehow use this against her? Had he reported her for taking Amelia out of the Demarco mansion?
She advanced on him, voice going low. “What did you do?”
“Damn it!” Lexi shouted from behind her, and Lucas instantly sprang to action.
Devin whirled to see him drop his suit jacket and race into the lake after the catamaran. The wind had picked up, and the craft had slipped from the sand. The breeze caught the mainsail, and the boat was heading out into the middle of the water.
Lexi was chasing it, too, but Lucas was faster. As the water reached his waist, he dove in, swimming powerfully across the waves, only just managing to grab a stern line and hang on tight.
Lexi was chest deep in the water. Steve was still on shore. And all three of them held their breath while Lucas made his way, hand over hand, along the rope. He grasped a handle on the pontoon and hauled himself, dripping wet, onto the accelerating boat.
“I can’t believe he caught it,” Lexi breathed. “That was just plain stupid,” she cursed herself, her expression telling Devin she’d been needlessly distracted.
“Must have been a sudden gust,” Devin offered in consolation, shading her eyes to watch as Lucas took control of the catamaran, ducking under the boom while he tacked to turn.
“Does he know how to sail?” Lexi asked Steve.
Steve nodded, but his lips were drawn in a grim line. There was a chill in his brown eyes that Devin hadn’t seen before.
She shifted Amelia and focused on Lucas as he maneuvered in a big arc against the setting sun. Once turned, he lined up, pointing the craft toward them, coming in at a fast clip as he ran the boat back up on the soft sand. Lexi quickly grabbed one of the pontoons. Lucas hopped off and grabbed the other. Together they dragged it a safe distance onto the beach.
Lexi immediately started taking down the sail.
“Thanks,” she called to Lucas while she worked.
Lucas glanced down at his dripping clothes, then over to the jacket that was halfway in the water, its fabric being ground against the sand by the lapping waves.
It occurred to Devin that she probably should have thought to pick it up for him. Whoops.
He paced over to retrieve it. “I cannot keep a suit clean around you people.”
She couldn’t tell if he was angry or joking.
Lexi had offered to lend Lucas a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt left at her house by her oldest son. So, he stood in Devin’s tiny shower rinsing off the lake water and sand, the plastic curtain brushing up against his skin every time he moved, while he struggled to keep his shins from hitting the steep sides of the narrow antique tub. The water temperature was erratic, the pressure pathetic, the taps whistled and a wire soap dish stuck out at a dangerous angle from the worn, tiled wall.
How did Devin put up with this every day of her life?
Rinsed clean, he cranked off the creaky taps and drew back the plastic curtain, scraping it noisily against the curved metal rod as he stepped from the deep tub onto a turquoise mat. The towels were small, with a pink floral pattern and a fringe at either end. He caught a glimpse of himself drying his hair in the steamy mirror, and he couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight of roses topping his head.
He supposed a shave was out of the question. It was probably just as well. Given the lilac-scented soap he’d just used to wash, he needed the macho factor provided by a five-o’clock shadow. Fortunately, the sweatpants were black and the T-shirt was steel-gray.
It proved tricky getting dressed in the compact room. He knocked over a bottle of hand lotion with his elbow and banged his head on a low-lying lamp while he struggled into the slightly tight T-shirt. Then, having learned his lesson about waking up Amelia last time he was here, he carefully opened the aging bathroom door and padded silently out into the hall.
The house was quiet, but Devin’s footfalls could be heard outside on the deck. As he rounded the corner into the living room, his nose picked up the scents of charcoal and grilling burgers through the screen of the patio door.
The sun had set while he showered. The lake was black now, except for the light from the few houses along the shoreline. A three-quarter moon hung low in the sky, while plastic patio lanterns glowed red, blue and green where they were strung on a wire around the perimeter of the deck.
Lucas started to smile at the classic
backyard scene, but then he spotted Devin and instantly sobered. She stood at the barbecue, spatula in hand, watching the flames sear the burgers in front of her. Her feet were bare, legs long and tanned, and she wore a pair of lemon-yellow shorts paired with a white tank top that showed off her smooth golden shoulders.
She was in profile. Her hair was wispy short, waving softly over her ears and along the nape of her neck. She was delicately beautiful in any setting, and his mind jumped swiftly back to those moments when he’d held her tight in his arms and kissed her luscious lips.
He didn’t know why he’d let it happen. It was reckless and self-indulgent. But from that moment he’d brushed her shoulder in the dining room, kissing her had been all he could think about. Kissing her was still all he could think about.
She turned and spotted him standing there.
“All dry?” she called.
He moved to the screen door before answering, keeping his voice low, assuming Amelia must be asleep. “All dry,” he confirmed.
She looked him up and down. “Who needs a six-thousand-dollar suit, anyway?”
He jokingly spread his arms. “Is it me?”
“It’s you.” She paused. “Surprisingly.”
“Hey, I can hobnob with the common folk.” Not that he could remember having done it recently. In fact, his last hamburger was probably at summer camp when he was in grade school. He was more a rib-eye kind of guy.
“Sure.” She nodded sarcastically. “I bet you hobnob all the time.”
He didn’t answer, and instead slid open the screen door to join her.
“Would you like some wine?” she asked.
“Sounds great.”
She pointed with the spatula. “On the counter next to the fridge. Bring me a glass, would you?”
“You got it,” he answered easily, liking this laid-back side of Devin.
In the kitchen, after a few minutes of hunting for a bottle, Lucas realized she’d been referring to the cardboard box with the plastic spigot, sitting there on the kitchen counter. Wine in a box. Now that was a first.
Billionaire Baby Dilemma Page 6