by Lori Foster
The second he stepped across the sprawling deck and through the tinted patio doors, Lucy wiggled free. Bram let her go, but not far. Her feet were barely touching the hardwood floors and she was still against his body, where she belonged, when he said bluntly, “I want you.”
Lucy pulled back. Her clear blue eyes were wide, her lips parted. She went alternately pale, then flushed.
The need to kiss her again was a clawing ache.
Bram touched her cheek, needing the contact, but she flinched away. “I want you, Lucy,” he said again, harder this time to make sure there was no mistake, no misunderstanding. “I’ve wanted you for a helluva long time.”
She shook her head, either denying him or not believing him.
It didn’t matter which to Bram, because neither one was acceptable. He fully intended to have his way. “Yes. And I’ll be damned if I’ll sit back now and watch you indulge in some sort of prurient idiocy.”
Her face went blank with shock, then burned with mortification. “Dear God,” she rasped, sounding appalled, “what … what are you talking about?”
Bram straightened to his full height. At six feet, four inches tall, he stood a good foot above Lucy. She didn’t look the least intimidated.
Bram frowned. “Don’t bother to deny it, Lucy. You came here to get laid.”
Guilt flashed over her features before she sputtered, “That’s utter nonsense.”
Leaning down close to her, Bram met her nose to nose. “Oh no you don’t, sweetheart. In general, I know women too well to be fooled, and specifically, I know you as well as I know myself. The second you told me you were coming to the lake, I knew what you were up to.”
She didn’t want to believe him. “You can’t possibly—”
“The hell I can’t. This is where David cheated on you; this is where you want to get even.”
Crossing her slender arms around herself, Lucy turned away. “David is dead. I can’t get even.”
“In your mind, you can.” Bram stepped up to her back and slipped his own arms over hers. He wanted to comfort her, console her. He wanted her digging her nails into his back as he gave her a mind-blowing orgasm. Hands, mouth, penis, he didn’t care how he accomplished it; he just wanted it to happen.
“He ruined your marriage by fooling around here, in the family vacation home. A place where you brought the kids, a place you used to love.”
In a small voice, she said, “I still love it.”
“You haven’t been here since, not in four long years. But now you’re here, looking incredibly sexy—”
“What?” She tried to twist to see him, but he held her still.
“—and eyeballing a guy who, if I don’t miss my guess, is close to the age of that girl you caught here in bed with David. That sounds like getting even to me.”
She gave a self-conscious laugh. “Funny. To me, it sounds like a woman who’s desperately horny.”
Shaking with the possibility of that, Bram gentled his hold, stroking her arms, bringing his groin in closer to her lush ass. Though he had a damn good guess, he still asked, “How long has it been for you, baby?”
She stiffened, but Bram secured his hold, refusing to let her sidle away.
“Don’t be embarrassed with me, Lucy,” he urged. “We’ve known each other too long for that. We’re friends.” And he wanted them to be lovers. He wanted all of her, every way that he could take her.
“If you’re asking how long I’ve been without a man,” she replied stiffly, “it’s really none of your business.”
Bram rocked her. “I’m guessing it’s been over four years. You and David were a little on the rocks even before he blew it.” He pressed his mouth to her temple in a reassuring kiss. “Am I right?”
He felt her tremble, heard the shuddering breath she drew in. “Bram, don’t.”
He ruthlessly ignored the pleading in her tone. It was his damned sympathy, his misplaced understanding, that had led her here today with plans to crawl under another man. He wouldn’t make the same mistake again. “Four years, Lucy. A short lifetime to go without letting another man get close.”
She yanked herself away from his hold and whirled to face him. “What was I supposed to do, Bram? Pick up a guy in the grocery store? At the school? Being a mother to two kids, the president of the PTA, and already the object of scandal made it just a little bit tough to go looking for sex, didn’t it?”
For about the hundredth time Bram wished he’d beaten the hell out of David before he died. “No one has ever blamed you, Lucy.”
“Bull!”
“David was responsible for his own actions.” Sadness welled inside him, but he shook it off. “He was the only one responsible for his death.”
“I guess you never heard the neighbors whispering. They think I’m coldhearted, that during one of David’s crying jags I should have taken him back.”
Bram shook his head. “He was a partier. And it had come close to happening before that.” David had slowly grown out of his marriage and had begun flirting, testing the waters. He’d been on the prowl long before he’d gotten lucky. Or unlucky, as Bram saw it, thinking of all he’d lost.
“I know,” Lucy whispered. “He ogled women everywhere we went.” She cast Bram a narrow-eyed glance. “And he envied you.”
Bram gently shook her. He couldn’t, wouldn’t, let her draw a comparison or blame him in any way. She had no idea of the lengths a man would go when the woman he wanted was married to someone else.
“A man who cheats is a cheater,” Bram told her, determined to at least ease any ridiculous guilt she might feel. “If it happened once, there’s no guarantee it wouldn’t have happened again. You can’t blame yourself for not liking the odds.”
And, Bram thought savagely, a man who cheated on Lucy didn’t deserve a second chance. He’d loved David as a friend, but he’d known all along that David wouldn’t make her happy. Too many times, David had told him that he resented the restrictions of marriage.
And time and again, Bram had told him what a lucky bastard he was.
Tiredly, as if she’d rehashed the story too many times, Lucy said, “I kicked him out, he went on a two-year drunken spree, and he died in a damn car wreck because of it. I blame myself.”
Bram wanted to shake her again. “Lucy,” he said, chastising. “You’re too smart for that, honey. And too realistic to think you had control over David. He chose his own way, then regretted it. No one made him cheat; no one made him ignore you or the kids. And no one made him drink too much or drive too fast.”
He squeezed her shoulders and said quietly, “I know the past few years have been ugly.”
Her blue eyes lifted to his face. “You made it easier. You’ve been such a help, with the kids, with everything.”
Bram shrugged. “The kids are important to me, you know that. I love being with them.”
“And they love being with you.”
That hurt, too, because he wished they were his own, not David’s. Bram loved them like his own. He shook his head. “It’s time for you to get on with your life, Lucy.”
She ran a hand through her hair, and her bangs ruffled back into place, a little mussed, a lot sexy. Indicating the summer house, which she’d had freshly cleaned and aired, she said, “That’s what I was planning to do.”
Bram realized that a hard-on was totally inappropriate to the moment, but he’d long since lost his control around Lucy Vaughn. And now, knowing it was only a matter of time until he could get inside her, his body rioted with need.
He held her gaze and whispered, “Good. Now you can plan on me taking part, too.”
2
The air-conditioning kicked on, activated by the open patio doors. He hadn’t felt the heat building inside the house, but then, he was so hot himself, it’d take a lot for the external air to catch up to his body temperature. Lucy made a face and stepped back out to the deck.
Watching her, Bram took two deep breaths, concentrated on relaxing his knotted muscles, then foll
owed her out. She stood at the rail, her hands clasped on it at either side of her waist, staring at the lake. The sunshine made tendrils of her dark hair look almost blue; around her temples, her hair was damp, clinging to her skin. The frayed hem of her shorts teased just below the rounded cheeks of her sweet behind, making his fingers twitch with the need to touch her. He’d always thought Lucy had a world-class ass, not skinny and narrow, like so many of the women he knew, but full and soft. He could spend hours just cuddling that bottom, kissing and stroking.
Through the years and two pregnancies, she’d picked up weight in her bottom and in her legs. He’d heard her laughingly complain about it and always reassured her that she had nothing to worry about. Lucy had never known how serious he was.
To him, she was so sexy it hurt just to look at her.
She was rightfully confused now, Bram knew, but he didn’t know how to make things clearer to her except to be brutally honest and up-front.
He slid the glass door closed.
“You were his friend,” she said, not looking at him but knowing he’d followed her out. “His best friend.”
Bram replied quietly, “I loved David like a brother. That doesn’t make what he did right.”
“He told me once that …” Her voice broke and she hesitated, then cleared her throat. “He told me you felt sorry for him.”
Bram went to her side and leaned back on the railing. He could see her face but made a point of not looking directly at her. Though he knew David had probably slanted that sentiment, making it sound like he blamed Lucy, Bram admitted, “I did.”
She jerked as if he’d struck her, then gave a humorless laugh. “Well, you weren’t alone. Everyone felt sorry for him. But what about me? I was the one who caught him in bed with that woman. Do you have any idea how that made me feel?”
“Yes.” Bram knew damn good and well exactly how she’d felt. He’d watched her closely every time he’d seen her after that, and he’d read the strain, the embarrassment and hurt, on her delicate features. It had made him sick with the need to retaliate in her defense. But he hadn’t. He’d done his damnedest to stay impartial in case the marriage had succeeded. He’d loved them both too much to get in their way.
But the marriage had crumbled anyway. By the time David had realized all he was throwing away, there’d been no helping him. Thank God the car crash that had taken him hadn’t involved anyone else.
Bram had grieved and suffered guilt and helped Lucy and the kids in every way he could.
And now it was finally his turn.
“You felt defeated,” Bram told her. “You were betrayed and lied to, and it hurt. You gave up on your marriage and you threw him out. That took guts, Lucy. And I was so damn proud of you.”
When she looked at him, not understanding, Bram added, “I felt sorry for David because the dumb son of a bitch had given up the best thing he was likely ever to find in this world, all for a quick fuck with a woman not worth the effort.”
Lucy trembled, her eyes direct on his face. “You knew her?”
Softly, intently, he said, “I knew she wasn’t you.”
She turned away again and paced the length of the patio, stopping at a new perch a good distance away from him. Bram smiled. He had her on the run, but here, at the isolated summer house, she could only go so far. And never out of his reach.
“What are you really doing here, Bram?”
His heart raced as he stared at her slender back, bared by the halter top. His muscles tightened in anticipation and his cock felt full to bursting. “I’m here,” he murmured quietly, honestly, “because you want sex, and I’m damn well going to be the only man to give it to you.”
He saw her shoulders stiffen the tiniest bit, her back expand as she drew in a sharp breath. She didn’t face him when she asked, “Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why would you want to …” Lucy gestured with her right hand, but there were no words to accompany her thoughts.
“Why would I want to make love to you?” He stepped toward her, slowly, letting her feel his approach, letting her awareness of him grow to a razor-sharp edge. Sweat trickled down his temples from the suffocating heat. His heart pounded, sounding loud in his ears.
He came close enough that the heat of his body mingled with the heat of the sun to envelop her, to wrap her up in his scent. “Why do I want you naked and under me?” he growled. “Why do I want to be the man to give you what you haven’t had in four impossibly long years?”
“Yes.” Her hands curled into fists, tighter and tighter. She jerked around toward him and shouted, “Yes and yes!”
The look on her face was haunted. Hungry.
“Lucy—” He couldn’t tell her yet what was in his heart. He had to get her past the emotional restrictions of being with a man who had been her husband’s best friend. He knew Lucy; she’d automatically rebel against the idea, finding it too intimate, too complicated. She’d rather have an indiscriminate fling with a stranger than risk the emotional complications of making love with a man she’d known for a very long time.
“Why, Bram? You can have any woman you want. You have every woman you want.”
“I haven’t had you, so that’s obviously not true.”
Her chest heaved, but she ignored his interruption. “They’re all young and sexy with flat stomachs and enormous boobs and legs to their chins. They’re not tired thirty-nine-year-old divorced mothers—”
“Officially, you’re not divorced,” he pointed out, just to stall her tirade. Voices carried on the lake, and though Bram doubted there was anyone around to hear, he didn’t want Lucy to be embarrassed later. “David died before the divorce was final, remember.”
“Widowed, then! They’re not like me.”
“Thank God,” he said with heartfelt sincerity. The dissimilarities from the women he usually dated were what made Lucy so special.
“The women you gravitate to are twenty-year-olds who fawn all over you and screw you all night and every day—”
Bram laughed. He didn’t mean to, but the humor struck him and he just couldn’t hold it back. She sounded almost jealous—which thrilled him. And she looked appalled that anyone would want sex that much, which made his chest swell with tenderness.
But he’d show her. Before the week was out, Lucy would learn to love sex as much as he did.
“I’m forty-one, Lucy. Round-the-clock sex is for the young studs, not for me.” And with a grin: “Though once at night and a coupla times during the day with you would be a pretty nice balance.”
Apparently grinning was the wrong thing to do.
Big tears clouded her eyes and she started to stalk away. Contrite, Bram pulled off his sunglasses and followed her. He almost got squashed in the sliding door when she went to shove it shut this time—hoping, he knew, to close him out.
He figured he’d been closed out too long already.
“Are we going to keep marching in and out?” he asked, trying to tease her into a better mood. He didn’t want this to be a battle. He wanted to gently seduce her as she deserved. At least, he hoped to start it that way. Ending it with a hard ride would suit him just fine.
Lucy headed down the short hallway of the one-floor house for the bedroom. “I’m going to go to the lake. You’re going to leave.”
He followed her straight into the room. “Not on your life, babe. Not with you still planning to—”
“Get out, Bram.” Her voice shook audibly and she looked none too certain of her position. She pointed to the door, trying to be forceful. Bram merely crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the wall.
“Why?” he asked. “So you can call that young worker back?”
Her chin lifted with defiance. “Maybe.”
Jealousy stabbed at him, but he resisted it. She was vulnerable now, doing things she’d never done before. Turning forty did strange things to women, so he could just imagine where her head was with her birthday not too far around the corne
r. Before the week was over, Lucy wouldn’t have a single doubt that she was an incredibly desirable, sexy woman. He’d prove it to her in a hundred different ways.
Damn, he was looking forward to it.
“Is he your type, hon? Midtwenties? Too dumb to really know how to pleasure a woman?”
She looked briefly shocked at his bluntness. “Maybe he would surprise me.”
His smile hurt, but Bram managed it. “I don’t think so.” He tilted his head. “Where’d you find him anyway?”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but I met him in town when I stopped to pick up some groceries. He agreed to … work on the lawn.”
“Oh, he’d have worked all right. But it wasn’t the lawn he had on his mind and you know it.”
“Is that so?” She looked pleased with the idea, making Bram almost smile again.
“Any red-blooded male with good-enough vision to see is going to want you, Lucy. You’re a hottie.”
She scowled at him. “That’s a weak line for a man with your reputation, Bram.”
“Always go with the truth, I say.” Deliberately he looked her over from her head to her curled toes; then whistled low. “I can’t believe you’re unaware of the way you turn heads.” Mine especially, he wanted to add but didn’t.
“I’m not the least surprised, though,” Bram told her, seeing that she was hungry for the compliments she should have been getting all along, “that the first guy you smiled at jumped at the chance to try his luck. Hell, at that age males are more testosterone than anything else and a sexy woman is an impossible temptation.”
Lucy looked both complimented and annoyed.
“But he doesn’t know you the way I do, Lucy,” Bram told her, dropping his tone and watching her closely. “He doesn’t know what you’ve been through and what you’re after, what you deserve. He’d grope you real quick, have your shorts off in a flash, and two minutes later he’d be walking away, anxious to go brag to his buddies about the eager woman on the hill.”
“Shut up, Bram.”
“Is that what you want? A reputation with all the guys who’re looking for a good time but no commitment?”
Her face was closed, but she shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. I’m selling the place anyway.”