She gritted her teeth. She didn’t always get what she wanted. Not at all. She had wanted him. She had wanted a church wedding and flowers and a family and all the fixings of marriage. She had wanted the love to go on forever; she had wanted the tenderness and the laughter.
No, she didn’t always get what she wanted.
“This is really your place?” she asked rigidly.
“Yes, Ms. Lorenzo, it is.” He started to get out of bed. She remembered the way he looked. The way he walked.
“Don’t!” she cried.
Startled, he looked her way. A lock of tawny hair fell over his eye, and he reached slowly for the sheet. As he rose, he wound it around his waist. She breathed more easily.
He opened a drawer in the bedside table and took out a pack of cigarettes and an ashtray. He lit a cigarette and blew smoke toward the ceiling.
“I thought you quit.”
“I did.” He paused. “Then I started again.” He rose with the sheet still wrapped around him. He was still fabulous to look at. He had dropped out of school at sixteen to support his mother and his younger sisters. He had worked in construction, and his body attested to his labors.
His shoulders were heavily muscled and broad, his stomach was trim and flat, and his thighs and calves were heavily muscled. He was tall, so he appeared lean and sleek, but he was very powerful, and still graceful.
He moved to the rear of the room and pulled open the drapes. Sun poured through the glass doors that led to the balcony overlooking the beach and the Atlantic Ocean. He opened the door and walked out into the sunshine. He leaned on the wrought-iron railing, and Lucia saw his fingers grasp it tightly. He inhaled deeply on the cigarette, then irritably swung around and stared at her. “Joe’s cousin. Fine. So what are you doing here?”
“Faith sent me here.”
“Fate?”
“Faith! My Aunt Faith! Joe’s mother.” Lucia exhaled with aggravation. “My aunt assigned us singles—” She paused, sorry that she had used the term the second she saw his smirk. She lifted her chin and continued. “These are big condos, Ryan. They’re mostly two-and three-bedroom places. Those of us who are unattached—” That word seemed to be even worse. “Aunt Faith was in charge of fitting us all in. This is where I was told to come.”
She saw by the angle of his head that he was going to dispute her. “Damn you, Ryan, I’m telling you the truth.”
“Sure.”
“I am!”
“Like I said, sure.”
She wanted to hit him, but that would mean touching him, and that was the one thing she couldn’t let herself do. She clenched her hands into fists at her sides and swore instead, but she would rather have walked out onto the balcony and hit him.
“You set this up. I know it!” she said.
He started to laugh.
She couldn’t help it. She walked across the room and out to the balcony. He warily tossed his cigarette into the large brass planter at his side, and she saw a curious sizzle rise to his eyes. He caught her wrists before she could slam her fists against his chest, and he pulled her taut against him. He was hot. Vital. His fingers wound tightly around her wrists.
“I swear,” Lucia assured him, “I would rather crawl into bed with a porcupine! Or a rat—and that just might be pretty damn close—”
“Lucia, you’re pushing it. Really pushing it. Is that what you want?”
He spoke tensely, in a whisper. His breath touched her cheek, and his tension seemed to become a part of her. Her blood leaped in her veins, and her heart beat raggedly, slamming against her chest. Her head was cast back so that she could meet his eyes. Snoopy and the sheet lay between them, but suddenly it seemed as if there were nothing at all, nothing but the sun, warm and sure and vibrant, shimmering down upon them, heating them.
She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t speak.
“Lucia…”
He said her name softly, as he had that first night. As if he were tasting it. As if he found it very sweet.
She didn’t know when he released her. Her hands were lying against his chest, and she felt the erratic movement of his heart beneath them. She felt his eyes staring into hers.
Then she felt his hands moving over her back. She was shivering, trembling, achingly aware of his touch. His fingers skimmed down the length of her spine to the small of her back and drew her closer. Closer…flush against him. Hip to hip. And still his fingers moved sensually over the curve of her buttocks, pressing her ever more tightly to him.
Then he moved his hand to her face and stroked his thumb gently over her cheek, gazing into her eyes. At last he lowered his head and kissed her.
His lips moved over hers, and she felt his tongue swiftly ravage her mouth. Reaching, exploring, plunging…delving. The air seemed to simmer. The heat entered her, swirled in her blood and shot to the core of her, and she trembled anew. No one could kiss as erotically as Ryan Dandridge. No one. No one could tell a woman so completely, just with the pressure of his lips, what he wanted, what he could give.
This was foolish, insane. She had to stop him.
She did nothing.
His left hand remained on the curve of her derriere, his right hand fell from her face, and he slowly lifted his lips from her mouth. His eyes, smoldering, were on hers.
“So this isn’t what you came for, huh?”
She stiffened instantly, and he laughed delightedly at the fury her features betrayed. “Lucia—”
“Lucia! Are you up yet, dear?”
They both froze. It was Aunt Faith.
And apparently the front door to the apartment was open, because she heard Aunt Faith come right in. Staring at Ryan with high-school panic clearly written on her face, Lucia listened as Aunt Faith hummed away and turned on the coffee. “Lucia, did you make it?”
“Make what?” Ryan queried in a whisper.
“Shut up!” she returned in kind, kicking his shin.
“Ouch!”
“Shh!”
She felt his eyes on her, and she clenched her jaw tightly. She couldn’t walk in there. Not now. She didn’t know what to do. Aunt Faith wouldn’t understand. She would never be able to explain.
Ryan was staring at her curiously. She realized for the first time that until now he really hadn’t believed that she hadn’t known he would be there.
“Aunt Faith?” he mouthed.
She nodded vigorously.
“Lucia, sweetie, are you here? Did you make it in okay? Dear, dear, dear, I knew she shouldn’t have been driving all that way alone so late at night!”
Ryan smiled, watching Lucia. He shrugged. “Answer her. Tell her you’ll be right out.”
“Hi, Aunt Faith! I’m here!” she called. She kept staring at Ryan. Her hips were still flush with his, and his hand still rested on the curve of her buttocks.
“Oh, thank goodness!” Aunt Faith called back.
Then the bedroom door burst open and Aunt Faith rushed in. Tiny and pretty and dark-haired, with just a twinge of gray, she moved swiftly into the room with a broad smile on her face.
“Oh!”
There was silence among them.
Aunt Faith’s smile faltered, then fell. She dragged it back into place, though it kept threatening to slip.
“Er, Lucia, dear, I’m so glad you made it! We were all worried, such a late drive, but you’re here now and…” She paused, then cleared her throat. “And, well, I, er, I see that you and Mr. Dandridge have met.”
CHAPTER 2
“No! No, we haven’t met!” Lucia said quickly. Then she realized how absurd her words sounded and simply froze. They hadn’t met? They were standing there intimately entwined, and he was still practically naked, and she was saying they hadn’t even met! Before, that was what she had wanted to say. They hadn’t met before. She had wanted to pretend that she didn’t know Ryan Dandridge, that she had never seen him before in her life.
“Oh,” Aunt Faith said.
It had to be one of the most awkwa
rd moments in Lucia’s entire life. Though she had always prided herself on being in control in any situation, she had no control whatsoever then, with her Aunt Faith staring at her, stunned, her face as pale as a ghost’s. For the life of her, Lucia couldn’t think of a thing to say, not a single word to bail herself out of these miserable circumstances.
Ryan! It was all Ryan’s fault! Just when she’d thought that she was straightening things out, he was back in her life, creating confusion and disaster. She fought daily to forget him, and now he was not only back, he was enmeshing her in an outrageous mess!
“Aunt Faith—”
“Mrs. Donatello,” Ryan said smoothly, “this is awful, and it’s absolutely not what it appears to be. I’m afraid that Joe made a mistake passing on the room arrangements. I’ve just met your niece in a rather awkward manner, I’m afraid. She wasn’t expecting me, and I sure as he—er, I definitely wasn’t expecting her.”
“Oh,” Aunt Faith said. It seemed to be all that she could manage to say herself. Her eyes were still wide, and Lucia thought that maybe she kept saying oh because her lips had frozen into that particular position.
“I came in so tired and so late that I just crawled into bed,” Lucia said.
“Oh, dear,” Aunt Faith murmured. Her lips had relaxed enough to let her form other words at last.
“I’d offered my penthouse to the girls,” Ryan said. By now, Lucia realized, seeing him from the corner of her eye, he had managed to tie the sheet securely around his hips. “Maybe Joe didn’t reach Ms. Lorenzo in time. Maybe he forgot. I’m not sure what happened. It seems to have been a little slip.”
Aunt Faith tried to smile again. “Well, Lucia, dear, I’m just so glad to see that you made it in safely.” She reached her arms out for a big hug, and Lucia stepped forward. Her aunt took her into a warm embrace, then whispered, “I’m so very glad, dear, that your mother isn’t here.” She hesitated. “And your father!”
At the moment Lucia was rather glad herself her father had taken her mother to Paris for their thirtieth wedding anniversary.
Ryan, clad in his sheet, swept by them both. He nodded to her and smiled to Aunt Faith. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ll solve some of this mess right now by dressing and going back to my own apartment. Ms. Lorenzo, it was a… pleasure. Mrs. Donatello, I’m very sorry for the discomfort this morning has caused you.”
He might have been wearing a tux. Ryan had the ability to appear completely calm and totally authoritative no matter what he was wearing, a business suit, beach trunks, jeans…or a sheet over nothing at all. It was one of the things that had always irritated Lucia. The more excited she got, the calmer Ryan would be. It was impossible to win an argument with such a man.
It had been impossible to reach him, to know what he really thought, really felt, and whether or not he really cared at all, when she had been falling irrevocably in love.
Ryan escorted the two of them to the bedroom door and closed it. Lucia smiled weakly as she heard a drawer slam within the room.
“Lucia—” Aunt Faith said.
Lucia quickly hugged her. “Oh, Aunt Faith, it is so good to see you!”
She had to leave, Lucia realized. She couldn’t stay here. Not if Ryan was going to be here. She had been looking forward to the comforting balm of her family, to forget the heartbreak and tempest of Ryan Dandridge. She didn’t know how she was going to explain it to her aunts and uncles and cousins, but she was going to have to drive right back home. She couldn’t stay in the same state with Ryan Dandridge.
The door burst open. Ryan, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, stepped out. He excused himself politely to Aunt Faith, and stared at Lucia.
She stepped back quickly, letting him walk by. He looked good. His chest and shoulders were darkly bronzed from his time in the sun, and she wanted to reach out and touch him.
She clenched her fists. She’d already touched him once and been burned very badly in the process. This was a nightmare, and she had to wake up. This was her family reunion; how could he possible be a part of it?
“Faith, Mr. Dandridge,” Aunt Faith was saying. “Please, no Mrs. this or that, I’m Faith.”
He smiled, his heart-stopping, slow, easy smile. “All right, Faith. But no Mr. this or that, either, I’m just Ryan, okay?”
Aunt Faith grinned just like a high-school girl with an enormous crush. How quickly we all fall, Lucia thought acidly. She smiled herself. “Weren’t you just leaving, Mr. Dandridge?”
Ryan arched a brow and walked on by. She watched as he moved down the hallway. She had to clutch the wall. She felt weak suddenly, and curious hot shivers sped over her flesh.
“Oh, Lucia, I’m so sorry!” Aunt Faith said.
“It’s all right. It wasn’t your fault.”
“And he really is such a delightful man.”
“Umm.”
“You two got off on the wrong foot, I know, but the first time I saw him, I thought how charming he was and how right he might be for you.”
“Aunt Faith, no matchmaking.”
“No, no, dear, nothing like that. I wouldn’t dream of actually matchmaking. He’s just so good-looking.”
Lucia smiled tightly. “Yes, he is.”
“And he’s such a hard worker. This place is his, you know. He’s a builder. And he’s doing very well.”
“That’s marvelous, Aunt Faith. I’m so very glad for him.”
“He renovates old houses, too. With your love for old furniture and bric-a-brac—”
“Aunt Faith,” Lucia interrupted with as sweet a smile as she could muster. She yawned widely. “Would you mind terribly if I went back to sleep for a while? It was such a long drive, and I’m afraid I got started very late.”
“Of course not, dear,” Aunt Faith began, but just then the outside door banged open and shut again as someone else came into the condominium.
“Lucia? You here?”
It was her cousin Joe, Aunt Faith’s youngest son, and one of her closest friends since she had been a little girl. He came into the room with his dark flashing eyes and wide smile, and she forgot her misery for the moment, greeting him with a big hug. He squeezed her in return and went through a rapid-fire recital of all the usual questions: How was the drive? What time did she get in? Did she hit any bad weather? Didn’t she just love the place? Wasn’t it wonderful here? He didn’t really wait for answers as he cast his arm around his mother’s shoulders and said, “Isn’t it just great to see her?”
“Of course!”
“I have a bone to pick with you, Joe,” Lucia said severely.
“What?” He arched his brows innocently.
“There was a man in my bed this morning.”
“Joe, it was just dreadful,” his mother said. “How could you have done such a thing?”
“What do you mean?”
“There was a man in her bed,” Aunt Faith said firmly. “Your friend Ryan. He said something about giving the penthouse to your cousins and that was why he was down here.”
Joe slammed his palm against his forehead. “Oh, my God, I forgot. I completely forgot. Ryan did intend to let you and Dina use the penthouse.”
“Then…” Lucia hesitated. “He knew I was coming?”
“He knew I had two single female cousins coming. And he’s such a nice guy.”
“A living doll,” Lucia murmured.
“What was that, dear?” Aunt Faith said.
“Uh, nothing, nothing at all.”
“Poor guy. He must have been as stunned as you were, Lucia.”
“Was he?” she asked, wondering at his tone of voice.
“Lucia, he’s my friend, but you were here, I wasn’t.”
“He seemed…surprised.”
“Well, it couldn’t have been too bad. You’re both nice people, right?”
“Umm, sure.”
“Dear, is something wrong?” Aunt Faith said.
“No, no, of course not.”
Joe took her hands. “Lucia, I’m s
orry. But Ryan is a real gentleman. Everything was all right, wasn’t it?”
There was something odd about the way he was looking at her, Lucia thought. There seemed to be an extra light of mischief in his eyes. She had to be imagining things, she thought. He couldn’t have meant to put her in such an awkward situation. Had he?
“Forgive me?”
“I—of course I forgive you.”
“It’s just that we’re such a crowd. Ma and I had to make sure that the marrieds with children had enough room, and that the singles were with the singles, and, well, it can get confusing, you know?”
“Sure,” Lucia said.
“Lucia wants to get a little more sleep, Joe,” Aunt Faith told him. “Let’s give her some privacy.”
“Sure. Get some sleep, Lucia.” Joe kissed her cheek. He was still looking at her in a curious fashion. “Go to sleep. We’re going to have a big barbecue by the pool this evening. Everyone isn’t going to want to do the same things every day, but we thought we’d start off tonight with hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill.”
“Fine,” Lucia murmured. “I’ll be there.”
Would she? She had a few things to say to Mr. Dandridge; then she would be on her way.
Aunt Faith gave her a fierce hug. “Oh, honey, we’re so glad you could come! Georgia seems so far away. We’re so grateful that we’ll have this time together.” She hugged Lucia once again, then stepped out of the condominium. Joe gave her a wry grin and a thumbs-up sign, then followed his mother out.
Lucia watched them go, feeling ill. She loved them all very much, and it was special to have this time together. She had always been grateful for her family. They were a big group, and confusion often reigned around them, but they were always there in a pinch, and no people in the world could be as loving and supportive. It was going to be difficult to leave.
Ryan! Damn him, this was simply impossible!
She didn’t go back to sleep; she’d had no intention whatsoever of doing so. She threw her suitcase onto the bed and took out a bathing suit and a big overshirt. Then she walked into the bathroom for a shower, but found herself pausing instead.
Even the bathroom was nice. It was done in red and black and white, with a sheer glass shower stall and a red whirlpool tub that faced a little balcony with a garden. It was a functional bathroom, but it could also be very romantic.
Lucia in Love Page 2