If You Dare

by Lee, Liz

  He thought she didn’t like it? “I’m thinking this whole day was foreplay, Joe. If you hadn’t gotten right down to business, I’d have jumped you.”

  “You are something else.” His laughter laced words made her smile.

  “As long as we understand each other.”

  “Oh we definitely understand each other.”

  Not for the first time, Cordelia heard his acceptance of her charade and felt guilt. He had no clue who she really was. But did it really matter? This wasn’t real.

  But dammit, it felt real.

  And when he pulled her right up next to his body, where she fit perfectly curled under his arm, her back to his chest, she knew she’d made a serious mistake.

  It might not be real, but somehow, her heart had missed that message.

  Cordelia looked down at the goop covering her legs and then looked over at the reason for this insanity. Joe’s sister was a lunatic! She actually seemed to enjoy leg waxing.

  Talk about sadistic.

  How had she let Taylor convince her that waxing was an essential element of makeover miracles? She was living proof waxing wasn’t necessary.

  But now here she was…OUCH!

  “Taylor, why are we here again?”

  Across the room Joe’s sister looked at her and grinned. She looked just like her brother when she grinned like that. “Quit whining, Vegas. Who would’ve thought you’d be such a baby about a little thing like waxing.”

  Vegas. The first thing Taylor had said this morning was she needed a new name. Cordelia was too much of a mouthful and Del was reserved for family. So Vegas it was, at least for now.

  The cosmetician pulled another strip of hair off her leg and Cordelia winced again. “It’s not a little thing, and I’m not whining.”

  Taylor didn’t bother to answer, just buried her nose deeper into some gossip magazine.

  “You know your brother’s not going to like this.”

  Taylor looked up from the magazine. “As if he’ll ever even know.”

  “Oh, he’ll know.”

  Taylor raised an eyebrow in perfect imitation of her brother. “He might know about you, but I doubt it. However,” she held open a page for Cordelia to see, “This, he’ll definitely notice. What do you think? Big city enough?”

  Cordelia closed her eyes and shook her head at the picture. Why in the world she’d thought this was a good idea? “No, I don’t really think magenta hair is the color for you.”

  Taylor rolled her eyes. “You’re so literal! I’m just joking. I want big city, but I’m not that brave. Besides my skin’s too pink to go and put something like that on my hair.”

  Cordelia said a silent prayer of thanks. Somehow she didn’t think Joe would forgive her if she brought home a purple haired Taylor.

  “You know, I knew I wanted to meet you right away. But after Joe took you away for the weekend, it sealed the deal.”

  Ah-ha. Joe talk. Good.

  Cordelia figured she could tell herself she was here because Taylor reminded her so much of herself. But the reality was she wanted to know more about Joe. No sense lying to herself about that.

  “Why’s that?”

  They’d moved from waxing hell to manicure and pedicure heaven and Taylor shrugged as the nail technician applied the first coat of I’m Not Really a Waitress red to her nails. “Oh, I was just intrigued that anyone could drag my brother away in the midst of crisis.”

  “Crisis?”

  “You know, me being here, breaking off the wedding. Planning to move. Joe usually likes to be in charge, but he just told me to stay put and swept you away to wherever you two went. And when he came back, he was completely on another planet. Very unusual.”

  Cordelia couldn’t suppress the warmth that radiated through her body at the thought that Joe chose her over a family crisis, small as it was. That he was different when he came home. “So you were supposed to marry…”

  “But Joe Don, that’s my ex-fiancé’s name, but we call him J.D., well, he refused to even consider moving. He’s got some wild plan to open radiator shops all over Oklahoma. Radiator shops! He’s finishing up his business degree at OU and he wants to keep on doing what he’s always done.”

  “And you don’t like radiators?”

  Taylor sent her a look that spoke volumes; Cordelia thought she understood, but she was completely wrong.

  “Shoot no. I love radiators. Actually I love everything about cars. I’ll talk about gaskets, pistons, headers, valves, whatever any day of the week. I just don’t want to do it in Oklahoma.”

  “But you love cars?”

  Taylor nodded. “Heck yeah. There’s nothing sexier than cars. Nothing more exciting.”

  “And you love J.D.?”

  Taylor looked down at her newly polished nails. “Sure, I guess. At least sometimes. I mean, he’s my one and only. We’ve always been together. Even when we were little. I told my entire kindergarten class I was going to marry him.”

  Wow. Cordelia wasn’t sure what to say now. She’d easily slipped into her normal teacher role. Ready to listen, counsel. But Taylor wasn’t one of her students.

  “So you’re not necessarily here to stay. You might just be here to live a little.”

  “Uh-uh.” Taylor wiggled her now red toenails in Cordelia’s direction. “I’m here to live a lot.”

  Poor Joe. He was so going to die when he realized his sister was serious.

  Hopefully he didn’t blame her for what ever happened next.

  Taylor made her debut as a big city woman at lunch that day.

  Cordelia couldn’t believe the change. She shouldn’t have been surprised at how artificial changes made such a big difference, but she was. Taylor’s once tawny hair now looked more like spun honey, just a little darker than Joe’s. She still wore the jeans and white tee shirt, but even they seemed to fit differently.

  And everyone they passed noticed.

  It felt good to be out in public, feeling the admiring glances from strange men, talking girl talk.

  Taylor insisted on treating her to lunch, so they’d settled on Mexican.

  Cordelia opened her menu and wondered how she could segue the conversation to Joe. But Taylor beat her to it.

  “You know, I told you how I like cars, but I didn’t tell you why.”

  Cordelia chose a salad. “So why do you love cars?”

  “Everyone in my family loves cars. Even Joe, but he tries to forget it. Our daddy owns a car shop in Daryl, and we all pretty much cut our teeth on tires.

  “Joe once restored a La Mans to die for, but when he left, he gave it to me. I love that car. And let me tell you, car talk is sexy. Working on cars is sexy. J.D. goes crazy when I work in Daddy’s shop. He says it’s something about the grease.”

  An instant flash of heat branded its way through Cordelia at the thought of Joe walking in on her covered in grease, fixing a car. But then she remembered she didn’t even know how to change a tire. Well shoot!

  “And Joe came out here and never looked back, but I bet you anything he still remembers.”

  Cordelia didn’t figure there was much Joe Sterling forgot.

  “Joe said something about debutants the other night.”

  Okay so it didn’t have much to do with cars, but Cordelia still didn’t know why Taylor thought it was so funny. At least not right away.

  “Poor Joe and his debutants. Actually my older brothers had the worst luck with the rich girls in Daryl. I don’t think I’m supposed to know this, but Joe was something of a bad boy. And those girls just loved Joe. But not really. You know. They liked his car, they liked his body.”

  Cordelia definitely understood that.

  “But Joe’s mental about money. And it’s pretty weird. My grandmother is rich, like sickening rich. She’s rolling in oil money. Momma gave up all that when she married Daddy. But her mother never let her forget it.”

  Cordelia wondered if she should stop Taylor or let her go on. For some reason, this felt almost l
ike eaves dropping. Like she was a grade A sneak.

  But she wanted to know. And Taylor wanted to talk.

  “But it doesn’t even matter now because my parents might not be mansion living these days, but they’re not hurting. And Joe still hates Oklahoma. He doesn’t even like Oklahoma City, and that’s practically a sin!”

  Cordelia couldn’t help but laugh. “But you do like it?”

  “Yeah, I guess.” Taylor shrugged. “But it’s not like here. I love this.” She waved her hands around the room. “Look at that guy sitting over there by the waterfall. He’s just dreamy. I feel like I’m in the middle of a movie or something.”

  Cordelia turned her head to see who Taylor could be talking about. And when she looked at the waterfall she was a little awestruck herself. They were eating next to an indoor waterfall!

  And then she saw Taylor’s dreamy vision.

  “Oh wow! I know him.”

  Taylor lifted her eyebrows in surprise. “You do?”

  Cordelia couldn’t believe it. How odd was this? “Yeah. Hold on just a second and I’ll introduce you two.”

  A few seconds later she walked back across the restaurant followed by two handsome men who were absolutely interested in meeting the sexy woman sitting alone at the table. And, Cordelia told herself, she owed it to Taylor to introduce her. Besides, Joe couldn’t possibly get upset over this.

  They reached the table and Cordelia made the introductions. “Taylor, meet one of your brother’s very good friends, Keith Lawrence. He coaches football at a local high school.”

  Cordelia sat back and watched Taylor blossom as Keith shook her hand and introduced one of his fellow coaches.

  It didn’t take a genius to see that Keith was quite interested in getting to know his good friend’s little sister. And Taylor was certainly open to that prospect.

  Cordelia fought the niggling sense of unease. Joe couldn’t get upset with her. Taylor was here for a number of reasons, but it seemed to her that spreading her wings a little was top priority. At least Joe knew Keith.

  And then she saw the way Taylor looked up at the coach with that big-eyed wonder, and she saw the way Keith looked at Taylor…

  Oh man. Joe was so going to kill her.

  Joe looked at his sister and frowned. She’d cut her hair in some new style and changed its color too. He hadn’t noticed when he’d first come in, but now that he’d changed and was gathering the groceries he’d bought to make supper for Cordelia, he could definitely tell.

  “New hair?”

  Taylor turned away from the computer where she was instant messaging someone and beamed up at him. “Yep. Do you like?”

  Joe took a second to answer. He could tell her the truth, hell no, you look like you belong here, or he could lie.

  “Yeah. It looks good. Where’d you say you put the wine?”

  Taylor pointed toward the kitchen. “In your wine rack, dummy. You going to Cordelia’s?”

  Joe walked in to the kitchen and sure enough there the wine was. “Yeah, how come?”

  He was settling the avocados into the bag when his sister answered. “Oh, I figured I might stop by for a second.”

  “Uh…” Joe didn’t know what to say. The last thing in the world he wanted was Taylor’s company, but…

  She walked into the kitchen laughing. “I was joking you big goofball. Like you want me hanging around while you seduce Vegas.”

  What? “Vegas?”

  Taylor hopped up on the kitchen counter and Joe wondered when shirts that looked like bras and jeans that hung around the pelvic region had become fashionable. “Yeah. We came to an understanding today. Cordelia is just too much name. I’m calling her Vegas.”

  “Ah.” So she’d spent some time with Cordelia. That was okay, he guessed.

  “She talked me out of pink hair.”

  Thank God. But he knew better than to say that. If he did, he was liable to come home and find a pink haired baby sister. “The blond looks more like you. Makes you look…” He searched for the right word. “Fashionable.”

  Taylor bent over and gave him a quick kiss on the forehead. “Thank you, big brother. That’s sweet. You better not forget the chips.”

  That would’ve been just great. He reached over and grabbed the bag to throw in with everything else. Good. Finally finished.

  “If you get a chance, you should compliment Vegas on her wax job.”

  Joe grabbed the bag and looked back at Taylor in question. Somehow he couldn’t see Cordelia working on cars.

  But then Taylor made a stripping motion over her thighs and he winced. Ouch.

  “Oh, wax job.”

  Taylor nodded. “Yeah. She didn’t think you’d notice.”

  Good grief. His, well whatever Cordelia was, talking to his sister about whether he’d notice that. Never in his wildest dreams…

  He walked toward the door, bag in hands, ready to try for slow and easy once again when Taylor called out one last comment as the door closed behind him. “Tell Vegas hey. And remind her Fredericks is at the top of our list tomorrow. Okay?”

  Fredericks.

  Cordelia of the sleeping cat pajamas was taking his sister sexy lingerie shopping. That he could handle.

  Cordelia of the incredible sex, the outrageous sex, the public place sex, now that was a little different.

  He was reaching for his key card when Cordelia opened the door looking nothing like the sleeping cat pajama girl and everything like the I’m not wearing panties woman.

  Her long white silk negligee was slit up to her waist on the side and when she moved just so, he could see…oh yeah. Garter belts and thigh highs. He was a very happy man.

  And while his sister had come back after a day on the town looking like an almost different woman, Cordelia still looked very much her oh so sexy self.

  He followed her into the kitchen and set down the bag of groceries on the counter.

  “I understand I owe you a huge debt of thanks.”

  Cordelia pulled down two crystal wine glasses and he watched the way her soft hands gripped the stem of the glass while he poured. “Thanks?”

  “You stopped pink hair.”

  “Oh that. Your sister is quite the adventurer isn’t she?”

  Joe lifted his glass for a toast, not answering. “She said to tell you hello.”

  “She’s sweet. I enjoyed today.”

  When Cordelia lifted her glass to his Joe let their fingers touch, just barely skim really, before shifting his glass to make slight contact. “To an enjoyable night.”

  She repeated his words and he watched as she took a long slow swallow of the drink. Watched as she licked the tiny speck of wine left on her upper lip. Felt as if she’d touched her tongue to his mouth.

  He had to clear his throat before he could speak, and damn if she didn’t smile. “Can I make a suggestion?”

  “Sure.”

  They’d been in the same room for more than a minute and he hadn’t kissed her yet. Maybe this would work. “I’d like to suggest that we make a pact right now. We will eat dinner and dessert tonight. And we won’t get in any big hurry to move this to the bedroom. We’ll enjoy each other’s company first. You know, talk a little.”

  She didn’t look exactly comfortable with the idea and Joe fought back the disappointment as she took another sip of wine before answering.

  He’d seen the move often enough to understand it without explanation. She was stalling for time.

  Okay, so the sex was incredible, but he knew it could be even better.

  But he wasn’t going to force her to get to know him better if she didn’t want to.

  Cordelia let the sweet wine slip over her tongue and closed her eyes. She wanted to get to know him better, but that was a big mistake. This was about sex. A summer fling. A Cosmo article.

  He shouldn’t care.

  But when she opened her eyes and looked across the small space separating them, she could tell he did care. And Lord, that made her care too.


  Damn, damn, double damn.

  If this were her normal life it would rank in her top moments of all time, but this wasn’t her normal life.

  He was so sexy, but he was more than that. He was kind. And he was gentle and he wanted to get to know her.

  No not her.

  He wanted to get to know Irene’s sexy, fun-loving sister.

  She took a deep breath and prayed she didn’t live to regret this moment.

  “Okay. Dinner, dessert, sex. In that order. I can do that.”

  Surprise at her answer crossed his face and she felt a thousand times better. “But I have a few stipulations for this getting to know each other.”

  He narrowed his eyes, but she saw the interest there. “Okay. Shoot.”

  “We have the option of answering questions or passing.”

  He nodded. “Of course.”

  “No trying to cajole answers once I pass. I know you, and you’ll try to convince me it’s in my best interest to answer anyway.”

  A smug look crossed his face at that and she squelched the urge to wipe it away, but…

  “And if I decide I want to quit talking and move on to making love, you won’t argue.”

  “Darlin’, when have I argued about having sex with you?”

  Okay, he had a point.

  “I didn’t wear this” she waved her hand down her body, “to talk.”

  He looked at her with hooded eyes and she felt her breath catch. For a man who had talking on his mind he sure did look like he wanted to get naked, yesterday.

  “I can guaran-damn-tee you what you’re wearing won’t hinder our talking.”

  The way he said that made her oh so thankful she’d agreed to talk.

  “In fact, I’m thinking the way you’re dressed is going to work with what I have in mind just fine. Why don’t you come on over a little closer and see what I’m talking about.”

  She shook her head. “If I come over there, we won’t eat. I know. And we won’t talk either.” Suddenly she really, really wanted to talk. But she wanted to make love too.

  Oh man.

  He put his wine glass on the counter and crossed his arms. “We can touch and still eat, Cordelia. We can touch and even talk. And I like touching you. So come on over here. I’ve got a few things I want to say.”