Sweet Temptations Collection

by Brant, Marilyn

  His golfing partner that afternoon was none other than Cait’s brother Seth, a fact that delighted him to no end when he saw Cait’s stunned expression at his arrival.

  At first she didn’t know why he was at her mom’s house, appearing suddenly in the middle of a Walsh family gathering. She asked politely how he was doing. Inquired about Jacob.

  But Seth had jumped to his feet and grabbed his clubs when Garrett walked through the front door.

  “Wait—you’re taking out my brother?” she asked, her voice disbelieving then, slowly, quite believing.

  “Yep,” he told her, enjoying the moment.

  Seth, who’d been initiator of the outing, had helped by looking smug and claiming it was all Garrett’s idea. But somehow, an hour later, that victory felt hollow.

  At his bad swing, Seth cocked an eyebrow in his direction. Garrett reached for his five iron.

  “First time out in a while, Ellis?”

  “No. Third.”

  “Hmm.”

  Garrett felt Seth’s sharp eyes assessing him. He’d been playing like an idiot, slicing and dicing so much he should’ve been in a kitchen. He just couldn’t get the touch, the taste, the scent of Cait off his mind… Parts of his body reacted with rigid indiscretion at the memory of those milky thighs.

  They walked in silence toward her brother’s golf ball. Seth shifted his tall body with surprising grace and gave his ball a PGA-perfect swing. It arched, landing like a gently tossed egg on the green, not more than a yard from the flag.

  Seth turned to him. “Woman trouble?”

  “No.”

  “Oh, okay.” He glanced over at Garrett, green eyes glowing like a freaking Looney Tunes character. “Well, Dianne’s kid brother just got his first serious girlfriend.”

  “Good for him. Who’s the lucky lady?”

  “A cute freshman at New Brighton High, like him. Had an officer buddy at the station do a background check on the family.” Seth grinned. “They seem like good people.”

  Garrett laughed. “They’d have to be now, wouldn’t they?”

  A toothy smile split Seth’s face as he shrugged, an unconvincing attempt to appear innocent.

  They reached the spot where Garrett’s ball rested, mud-splattered and trying to hide from his club. He grimaced as he lined himself up.

  “You always check up on the people involved with your family members?” He swung before Seth answered and watched his ball sail impressively into the sand trap. Releasing a deep sigh, he turned to Cait’s brother, daring him to comment on the swing.

  The corners of Seth’s lips quirked, but he didn’t take the bait. “Yep,” Seth said. “I’m a little protective of the people I love. Especially my kid sister. She’s been through a lot. If that Fredric bastard hadn’t hightailed it back to Australia, he’d be in permanent traction.” He squeezed the iron in his hands and flipped it over his right shoulder as they walked on. The movement was casual, but Seth’s knuckles were unmistakably white.

  Garrett nodded and took it as the warning it was.

  ***

  Garrett strode into Cait’s classroom at precisely 3:25PM Monday afternoon, just as the two of them had planned. And, just as they’d planned, she was in the midst of discussing Harvest Hoopla decorating ideas with Loni and Marlene.

  “Oh! Hi, Garrett,” Cait said, in a believably surprised voice. He clenched his jaw then forced himself to relax it. Her ability to playact gnawed at him, despite the fact that this setup was his own damn idea.

  Loni said, “Hello.”

  Marlene gave him a friendly wave.

  “Sorry to interrupt your meeting, ladies,” he said, holding up his manila folder, “but I got this administrative survey thing in the mail, and I’ve been scouring the halls for anybody willing to help me with it.” He gave them his best self-depreciating laugh. “I really suck at this stuff.”

  Marlene chuckled and Loni grinned. Cait raised her eyebrows and nodded approvingly, and he wondered if this was yet another act. Was she really approving of him or merely the pretense he’d performed so seamlessly? What he wouldn’t give to know.

  “How can we help?” Loni said.

  He feigned a deep sigh. “Okay, it’s like this. I need to answer a bunch of questions about ‘School Operations’ for the central office. Everything from what I think of the efficiency of the hot lunch line to what my opinion is of the condition of our playground equipment.” He shrugged and did his best to look mystified. “I’ve seen the school in action this past month, and I have a few thoughts, but as for the real ins and outs…well, you teachers know the true story better than I do.”

  “Slow lunch line,” Marlene said. “Top-notch jungle gyms.”

  Cait appeared to give the question some thought. “I agree on both counts. We probably need a new swing set soon, though. What do you think, Loni?”

  The older teacher nodded. “The chains are rusting on them.”

  Garrett opened the file and began scribbling down their comments. “This is great, thanks.”

  “Any other questions?” Cait asked innocently.

  Yeah, sweetheart. When can I make love to you? “Um—yeah,” he said aloud, pretending to scan his sheet for a good one. “How about teacher satisfaction? Any general impressions?”

  “We’ve got a fabulous school!” Marlene said with passion and the appearance of total sincerity. “Involved parents, sweet students, honest and dedicated staff. What’s not to love?”

  Did he spy a look of guilt crossing Cait’s face at Marlene’s words? True, it had to be hard on her to hoodwink her friends, but he was irrationally pleased to see a crack in her acting veneer.

  “That’s so true,” Loni chimed in. “There are some annoyances here and there but, for the most part, our school is a wonderful place to work. I was in another district for seven years before we moved to Ridgewood Grove, and I can say the atmosphere’s not always this cordial elsewhere.”

  He saw Cait swallow. “Yes…but what about the reduction in office supplies this year? Or the cancellation of the Hoopla?” She tossed a small, well-rehearsed grin his way before glancing at her colleagues. “Originally, I mean. Before Garrett saw the light. We were all pretty upset about that, remember?”

  “Well, sure,” Loni said. “But the Hoopla got ironed out—”

  “And we’ve been filing our complaints about the supplies with Sonja, who’s really efficient at getting the right words to the right ears,” Marlene said, and he knew that was true. Sonja could run the school singlehandedly. “Our concerns won’t go unnoticed.”

  Loni nodded. “Exactly. That’s the kind of school we have.”

  “Good to know.” He scribbled some more and gave Cait the high sign that it was okay to move on. He asked them another bogus question or two for good measure and, five minutes later, they disbanded.

  Then, just as they’d planned, Cait and Garrett drove separately to New Brighton and met in the Pummelhof’s Market parking lot to confer.

  “Well, your friends hardly seemed like disgruntled school employees,” he admitted to her. “If either has a motive to steal district money, it sure wasn’t easy to pinpoint.”

  “I hated doing that.” She picked at her fingernails and looked lost, confused, in need of comfort. From him.

  He put his arm around her, and his body heat rose from the contact. “I know, but we needed to do some checking. We can’t completely rule them out, but every nonverbal cue they gave off seemed genuine. Any guesses on the others?”

  She shook her head and tantalizing golden hair brushed his skin. He bit back a groan.

  “I won’t even try,” she said. “I must not be good at this sleuth thing. I mean, I loved watching Agatha Christie movies when I was a girl, but real life isn’t that simple. Figuring out motive and opportunity isn’t the straightforward task I’d thought.” She sighed. A soft, inviting sound. “I’d have completely failed as a detective.”

  He couldn’t take it anymore. No more talk. No more waiting
. No more charades.

  “You sure got that last part right, darlin’. If you were any good at gathering clues you’d have deduced by now that I’ve been waiting to make love to you for way too long.”

  He heard her breath catch, and he leaned in until he could see the dark gray rims around her irises. He wanted to make sure he had her full attention. That she understood his meaning. “No more detective games, Cait,” he said, enunciating every syllable. “You’re coming home with me. I want you bad, and I want you now.”

  ***

  Cait’s stomach quavered with excitement, anticipation and unappeased desire. “Strawberries and Polar Bear Freeze again?” she whispered once they were inside Garrett’s condo.

  “No.”

  Time played relativity games with her mind. Garrett moved at both a rapid speed—locking the door, flipping on lights—while also gliding through the rooms in a bizarre kind of slow motion. Cait wasn’t sure which was the reality and which was her skewed, passion-fogged perception. But this she knew: He was focused.

  In the end she decided it had been only a matter of seconds since they’d entered the place. He stood in front of her, grasping her fingers, letting his warm brown eyes beam down at her with the intensity of an uncovered fluorescent lamp.

  “I made my intentions clear,” he said. “If you have any objection, speak now.”

  “Or forever hold my peace?” Nervousness made her twist a strand of hair.

  “Don’t mock me, Cait.”

  “I’m not.”

  “So, then?”

  She approximated a deep, cleansing breath. “Yes.”

  “Yes?”

  “Yes. Absolutely yes.”

  He relaxed his shoulders and grinned. “Good answer.”

  And that, she realized, was the end of the discussion. No preambles about birth control, a detail she doubted a man like Garrett would neglect. No lingering glass of wine to either numb or heighten sensation, not that she could stomach it anyway. No awkward conversations about where to lie down…or was it lay down? Oh, God. She couldn’t remember even simple grammar rules. He’d shorted every circuit in her brain and body.

  “You’re thinking too hard,” he whispered into her mouth, his lips closing in on her, warming her, throbbing to the beat of his roadrunner pulse as he captured her lips with his. “Stop worrying, Cait. I’m not Fredric. I won’t hurt you like he did.”

  No. But he might hurt her in new, far more painful ways. That didn’t surprise her. Her willingness to take a chance on him anyway—well, that was a fresh shock.

  The clothes disappeared off her back…and off her chest and her legs, too. She had almost no recollection of him removing them until she felt his skin on hers. The tiny hairs on her arms danced and mingled with his in their embrace.

  “We’ve waited too long,” he murmured.

  Garrett buried his face in her flaxen hair and felt he was, like the words of some old song he’d once heard, walking on sunshine. Yeah, he thought. It was time to feel good.

  There’d be no phone interruptions that afternoon. He’d clicked off the damn ringer. Purposely left his cell in the car. God help anyone, anywhere, who tried to come between them.

  For ten seconds or less he debated doing something extra creative. There was a bear-shaped bottle of honey in the kitchen. Something involving a lathery shower maybe. The hallway was a mere two feet from the door and had very thick carpeting.

  But he opted for comfort and tradition over originality as he half-led, half-lifted her into his bedroom. She moaned when he ran his tongue over her nipples, first one breast then the other, in leisurely spirals. Her heart pounded underneath. He sensed she was facing down some demon. He refused to disappoint.

  Within a few short minutes, Cait had never been further from disappointment.

  “This is w-wonderful, Garrett. But what—what can I do for you?” Saying those words cost her several breaths. He’d taken her oxygen away.

  He growled at her. “You can let me have my way with you.”

  The wild thrashings of his tongue, as it neared her belly and then headed further below it, made her claw at the silky bed sheets. They scrunched beneath her fingers.

  She heard her own voice cry out to him, her words a jumble. Could he understand her calls of desire? Her admiration of his skill? Her amazement at his gentleness despite his strength?

  Her bones, her skin, weakened, loosened. They turned to water just as her internal organs turned to flame. An impossible combination, they shouldn’t have been able to coexist this way. But they did. Her body craved release, either in the form of wave or combustion, so long as immediate satisfaction came.

  And, oh, it came.

  He cradled her once the aftershocks subsided, allowing her to feel the magnitude of him beside her—his hard muscles, long limbs, masculine scents of sweat and musk, lingering aromas of the late autumn afternoon—and she relaxed into his embrace, imbibing him. When he slid away from her, an odd bereavement set in. Their psychic connection had become even stronger than their physical one, and letting him go caused a stab of loss.

  The sound of crinkling foil lifted her spirits, though. She’d never before felt this union of emptiness and fullness, anguish and bliss. Not that her sexual past was much to speak of, but to never even guess it could be like this…? God knew, this was more like the first time than the actual first time had been.

  He returned to her arms, his arousal obvious. She drew him to her, opening herself up to all of him, being and soul. And he accepted the invitation, entering her slowly, fully.

  Garrett’s thoughts came in brief, random pulsations. He tried to express them aloud, but his mind was too fuzzy to say anything right.

  “To finally be with you, Cait,” he whispered. “Heaven.”

  The best he could do was to let go of reason and then drench himself in only her. Words didn’t mean a thing in moments like these anyway. What he had to say to her, he had to say with kisses and caresses.

  A groan escaped his lips as their bodies climbed together and journeyed higher and higher. Eyes clenched shut, he felt blindfolded but not sightless. Though he couldn’t see through to its end, the path itself grew clearer. And it narrowed, and narrowed further, until he could feel the tautness and the tension in what little space remained.

  They sprinted to the top of the peak, whirling over the edge as if the path continued in air, then clung to one another for the slow, delicious descent. Falling brought not fear, but the rarest sense of freedom.

  ***

  A few hours later, bodies still entwined and sheets twisted, words came back to him.

  “How are you?” he said, trying to untangle himself from his now-blueberry-stained linens without losing skin contact with Cait. He licked a dab of fruit off her shoulder, the remains of a tasty experiment during their second (or was it their third?) round of lovemaking that had served as their dinner.

  “Mmm?”

  “Are you feeling all right, sweetheart?”

  She rolled over and looked him in the eye. “Oh, fair.”

  “Wh-wha—fair?” he sputtered, trying to keep the horror from his voice, but knowing he sure as hell wasn’t succeeding. Man! If all she could say about it was—

  Then she openly laughed. “Oh, stop looking at me like I just put peanut butter in your CD player. I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling pretty marvelous right now.”

  So, okay, she was teasing him. He could forgive her.

  He kissed her good and hard, and extra long, too. Damned if he’d let her forget he was the man who’d made her feel marvelous. He’d only just begun their evening together as far as he was concerned, and he planned to add the adjectives spectacular, splendid, awe-inspiring and magnificent to it before dawn hit. Though, she did give him an idea.

  He’d never considered peanut butter before.

  ***

  “Give me a pair of those,” Jenna demanded early the next day, reaching into the box of goblin ears. “Hmm,” she
said, trying them on and looking more like a dark-haired elf than usual.

  “Just got them online,” Cait said, passing her a hand mirror.

  Jenna admired her reflection and grinned. “There are wacky websites for everything now, aren’t there?”

  Cait sighed. All the fears she’d put on hold yesterday when she and Garrett made love were now coming back full force. “No, not everything. You can’t buy love electronically.”

  Jenna shot her an inquisitive glance. “You refuse to talk about Garrett, girlfriend, but you plague me with lead-ins like that.” She shook her head and dark curls flew. “Besides, you’re wrong about e-love. Computer dating is real big, and you never know who you might find.”

  “E-love, huh?” Cait wrinkled her nose. “Ha. Well, anything seems better right now than G-love, but the traditional method is still the way for me, however imperfect.”

  “Oh, whoa, Cait,” Jenna whispered, her eyes big and bright. “You slept with him.”

  It wasn’t a question. Jenna just knew these things. Cait nodded in acknowledgment anyway.

  “Oh, boy.” Her friend sighed. “Are you falling for him? Falling in love with Garrett Ellis?”

  She mentally rehearsed her lie then said, “No.”

  “Are you sure?”

  She hesitated. Breathed. Thought of the countless reasons she had to never fall in love again. Like pain. Suffering. Cheating slime-ball boyfriends. And she realized that logic didn’t change a darn thing when it came to emotion. “No.”

  “Cait! So you’re saying you did fall—”

  Marlene breezed in, rubbing the drowsiness out of her eyes. Jenna threw Cait a We’re-Not-Finished-With-This-Conversation-By-A-Long-Shot look before turning toward the other teacher.

  “Morning,” Marlene said. “Hey, Cait, remember how you told us to let you know if we spotted any school board members roaming around?”