by Vonna Harper
“You’re there.”
“You didn’t know that when you called.”
“No. But I do now. You’re exactly what she needs.”
Why? Because this was the first time Deanne had managed to track him down in eight years and she was still anxious to see them end up together?
In Dana’s mind, they hadn’t had enough in common to make their relationship worthwhile, once she’d finished her master’s degree and gotten herself situated in a pretentious career he didn’t have. It was crazy to think they would have a chance now. Crazy enough that he’d lost sleep more than one night while he turned over Gwen’s words: If there was a chance that he still loved Dana, he should do whatever it took to give them another try.
Even if he wanted that, the odds were next to nil that Dana would. “What about you, Deanne? What does Dana think this resort has to offer you?”
“A lesson in self-esteem,” she admitted grudgingly. In a more upbeat tone, she added, “She’s wrong. I’m not. She needs you, Treah.”
Damn, it wasn’t right how much he wanted to believe those words and have Dana believe them as well.
Needing more than a tranquil view of the ocean from afar, Treah pushed back the chair from his desk. He moved through the patio door and sat at one of several picnic tables, his back to the table and front to the quartet of boats that bobbed along twin docks a hundred feet away. “I’ll admit it’s a tempting offer, but I don’t do the healing.”
“I don’t need you to cure her of any fears. I just need you to show her that her fiancé doesn’t have what it takes to make her happy.”
The lightened beat of his heart falling by the wayside, he pulled the phone from his ear to glare at the receiver. Dana was engaged? Like this call, the news shouldn’t be surprising. At one point, he’d written her off as married with children. But she wasn’t. She was just engaged. Engaged but not happy, at least to her sister’s way of thinking.
Treah brought the phone back to his ear. “What makes you think he doesn’t?”
“Professionally, they’re perfect. As lovers, she’s always left wanting.”
No matter what his feelings for her were these days, he didn’t want to think of her sleeping with another man. Even so, hearing she wasn’t pleased by that man’s sexual prowess brought a measure of both comfort and conceit. Personally, he’d never left her wanting. Of course, maybe if he’d pleased her a little less and acted like he understood her work a little more, she wouldn’t have walked away.
Old frustrations rising up to taunt him, he pointed out, “Dana’s career is her life. At least, the Dana I remember. If he’s a perfect career match, then she’s happy.”
“You don’t believe that. I know you better.”
“You knew me eight years ago, Deanne. Time changes most everything.”
“Are you still single?”
He winced with the soreness of the subject. “At the moment.”
“Then what’s your price?”
Time did change most everything, but not Treah’s lack of love for money. It was at the root of far too much evil in his life, including the primary reason behind Gwen’s deception. “You can’t pay me enough to seduce your sister into breaking things off with her fiancé.”
“You have changed.” She sounded disappointed. “There was a time when you would have done anything for Dana’s happiness.”
He didn’t like to disappoint people, least of all a woman who’d gone against her own twin to take his side. Like his feelings on money, those on Dana’s happiness hadn’t changed. They still mattered, as did finding out if he loved her before it was too late. “I never said I wouldn’t help you. I just won’t take money for it and I won’t play the seduction game.”
“How else are you going to show her what she’s missing out on?”
“I’ll think of something.” Something that didn’t involve greeting her in his bed and proceeding to make her wish that she’d never left it.
When Treah got his hands on Chris, he was going to wish he was dead. Per Treah’s approval, Chris had arranged the swapping of the two sisters and then promised to personally see a sedated Dana delivered to Treah’s spare bedroom. But she wasn’t in Treah’s spare bedroom. She was in his bedroom. In his bed. Her face was buried in his pillow and, somehow, she still managed to snore loudly enough to wake the dead, just the way he’d remembered her doing.
He’d been exhausted when he’d mounted the stairs from the administration offices and meeting area that made up the first floor of his house. He’d considered coming up earlier but he hadn’t been tired, what with thoughts of Dana’s arrival thick in his mind. Then he’d gotten into work and the hours had slipped away until it was after three in the morning.
Now it was close to three thirty, and he wasn’t feeling exhausted any longer. He was feeling like his heart might slam through his chest for its fierce pounding.
Drawing in calming breaths, he moved to the side of the bed and allowed himself to do what he hadn’t been able to for so long. Watched her sleep. Her hair was longer and the once dark brown shade was streaked with golden highlights. He curled his fingers at his sides to keep from reaching out and sliding them into the silky waves.
Pulling back the top sheet and a thin blue cover brought an immediate smile. She still slept semicontortionist style, with her knees tucked up under her belly and her ass in the air. Such a nice ass it was, too. A little rounder than it used to be, in white cotton pajama shorts. Now, it would be all the better for gripping while he stroked his cock into her and met her thrust for eager thrust.
Not the thoughts he should be having, Treah acknowledged. They had his shaft rousing against the fly of his trouser shorts as he bent and scooped her off the bed. She’d always been a heavy sleeper. Between that and the natural sedative she’d been given for her trip to the island, moving her into the spare bedroom and, in turn, himself away from temptation, should be a cinch.
It should have been. But it wasn’t.
With a soft sigh, Dana curled her arms around his neck and nuzzled her face against his shoulder. “Missed you.”
His heart stuttered a beat. If only she really had. But she was asleep, probably dreaming of her fiancé. Lucky bastard. At least, the guy was lucky for now. Maybe before her time at the resort was through…
It wasn’t a maybe he should contemplate now any more than he should consider her lusciously curvy butt. “It’s time for—”
Her head lifted to reveal her copper-laced brown eyes part-way open and her smile so bright it stopped his words on a dime. Her lips parted. He thought she would say something until her mouth contacted soft and warm against his own.
Her tongue pushed inside with his surprised breath. The damp, lusty sweep of it against his own took one hell of a pot-shot at his good intentions. Her fingers kneaded at the back of his neck in such a familiar way that Treah sank into the kiss without thought, without care. Just sank his tongue against hers and let his head spin with how incredible she still tasted. Warm and sweet with a generous coating of brazen.
Dana’s mouth pulled from his. Eyes once again closed, she snuggled back against his chest and murmured a low, throaty, “Yummy.”
God, yeah, it was.
He’d vowed not to seduce her. He wouldn’t let her seduce him, either. Not while she was out of her rational mind. Her eyes had opened for a second or two, but he didn’t buy that she knew what was happening.
Tipping his head back so that she couldn’t get her mouth on his again, he started for the bedroom door. “Time to go to your own bed, sleepy girl.”
“Want you.”
He groaned with the toll her breathy disclosure took on his body. “Trust me, you don’t want me.”
Or maybe she did.
Her hand moved between their bodies to cup his crotch. Through his shorts, her fingers closed around what was quickly becoming a full-blown erection, and she let out another throaty murmur. “Do.”
Before his judgment could be sw
ayed by his dick, Treah hurried down the hallway to the spare bedroom. Not bothering to turn on the light, he crossed to the bed, whipped back the covers, and lay her down.
At least, he tried to lay her down. She still had ahold of his cock with no apparent plans to release it.
Moving them onto the bed as a unit, he laid her back while he hovered over her, the weight of his thighs around hers pinning her in place and a hand on either side of her head. Far too intimate of a position. Particularly now, when he could see all of her.
The bedroom light wasn’t on, but the light from the hallway bled in to throw shadows across her face. Dana had always thought her nose too straight and uppity to match the softness of her mouth and eyes. Personally, he thought it fit her well, particularly considering her tendency for snobbery that had emerged toward the end of their relationship. Only, in the shadows, her nose didn’t look uppity and not an inch of her came off as snobby.
Her body was hot beneath his. The contrast of her smooth, bare upper thighs as they contacted against the crisp hair of his legs was more intimacy than Treah had known for months. Too much intimacy when coupled with a woman who was his ultimate temptation.
As if she knew his thoughts and was granting leniency, her grip on his shaft released. He breathed a sigh of relief for the second it took her to wrap her legs around his ass and wrench him forward. Caught off guard, he went down fast and hard, losing his handhold on the bed and then quickly replanting his palms before his face pummeled into her breasts. His mouth still brushed against a hard nipple through her thin pajama top, but the fall could have ended much worse for his peace of mind.
She made it much worse on his mind then, by tightening the hold of her legs around his butt and pressing her groin flush to his.
The heat of her sex warmed into his despite the layers. On a needy whimper, she wrapped her arms around his back, trapping him entirely while she wriggled her pussy against his solid cock.
Fuck, he’d always loved how passionate she was. If her fiancé was missing out on this part of her personality, then Deanne might just be right. Dana might not be happy. She couldn’t be happy with a guy who catered to her professionally only. Just as she hadn’t been happy with Treah for catering to her physically while professionally he was a clear miss to her way of thinking.
That cold slap of reality had him risking the full press of his face against her breasts so that he could use his hands to get her arms unlocked from his back. Focusing on anything but the nipple pressed against his mouth, he grappled for her hands. He found her fingers interlocked and damned impossible to get unhooked.
Moaning, she segued her pelvis into a circling grind. His cock gave a savage throb and he muffled against her breast, “Stop, Dana.”
“Nah uh. Want you, Treah.”
Oh, hell. Not his name in that sexy, smoky voice. She still had to be sleeping, dreaming, just not of her fiancé, the way Treah had presumed. But of him.
She was going to kill his good intentions yet.
APHRODISIA BOOKS are published by
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Copyright © 2009 by Vonna Harper
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ISBN: 0-7582-3979-3