BARELY BEHAVING

by Jennifer Labrecque

  She craved him inside her.

  "Niall, we have to do this now. Do you have…" Damn. She wasn't so carried away that she couldn't remember a condom. And she didn't have one with her. And what were the odds that her boy-next-door was carrying protection? There was always her house, but she wanted to do this here. Now. With the night sky above them.

  "Yeah, move up a little bit," he instructed and dug in his front pocket. So, she'd been wrong about him. It was a nice surprise. They were on the same wavelength. She'd never been so happy to see a little plastic package.

  In a rush, he unzipped his pants and removed them, along with his underwear. Tammy hopped on one foot at a time and yanked off her pajama bottoms.

  It could've ruined the mood. It didn't. It was funny and sexy and she was totally turned on to be getting it on with Niall on her chaise lounge in the middle of a chilly night.

  Niall laughed. "This is crazy."

  "But you like it, don't you?" She straddled the chaise lounge, the night air cool against her wet heat. It only made her hotter.

  "Oh, baby. Yeah. I like it a lot." Niall tugged her down to his lap, his hard, hair-roughed thighs amusingly masculine against her buttocks and thighs, his jutting erection just out of reach of the place where she most wanted to feel him.

  He ripped open the condom package. She felt his hands shaking against her belly.

  "Let me," she offered. She took it from him and rolled it over his shaft. He was hot, hard silk beneath her fingertips. And it might be dark, but there was nothing wrong with her sense of touch. He was … impressive.

  She stroked the tight, heavy sacks at his base and he shuddered in her hand. He grasped her hips in his big hands, lifting her up, pulling her forward.

  "Please … now … Tammy." His hoarse, nearly incoherent plea, sent her over the edge.

  She plunged down. Yes. Exquisite.

  "So good," Niall gasped, his breath coming in harsh pants that echoed hers. He slid his hands beneath her pajama top and cupped her breasts, rolling her nipples between his fingertips. The sensation arced through her body to where he was buried inside her.

  "Oh, yes," she moaned and grasped his shoulders for support. She slid up his length and plunged back down while Niall played with her nipples, rolling, plucking the sensitive points.

  She set the pace. Hard. Fast. Her bottom slapping against his thighs mingled with their harsh breathing, the sighs, the moans of encouragement that rose between them. He squeezed her breasts and fondled her nipples with a matching rhythm, his hips rising to meet hers.

  Tammy threw her head back and looked at the stars. Each thrust, each plunge took her closer to joining the stars, to spinning into the universe.

  She clenched her muscles tighter around him as the first wave of her orgasm washed through her.

  "Come on, baby. I'm with you," Niall said and answered her spasm with his own.

  He was with her when she soared and lost herself in the sensations that rocked her out of this world.

  * * *

  Niall didn't turn on the lights as he let himself back into his house. There'd been something magical, almost mystical about the experience he and Tammy had shared in the dark. He wasn't ready for the harsh light to dispel that.

  New house. New vet practice. New lover. He had the distinct impression Tammy had thought they were a one-night stand. No way in hell. Instead of satisfying the hunger she aroused in him, their mind-blowing sex had merely intensified his craving. He wanted her again, but he also wanted to get to know her.

  He stood by the edge of his bed and stripped. It'd taken a little persuasive talking on his part, but she'd agreed to dinner at his house tomorrow night.

  He couldn't wait.

  * * *

  5

  « ^ »

  Tammy let herself in Pops's front door and sought Olivia in the kitchen. They'd fallen into a routine of Sunday dinners at Pops's in a weird dysfunctional family effort to stick together. Occasionally Marty and his wife showed up. Usually, however, Marty was too hung over from the night before. She bet Marty was a no-show today.

  Olivia sat at the worn Formica table peeling potatoes. "Hey. I wondered if you were coming."

  Tammy dug into her purse for the blood pressure pills she'd picked up for Pops at the drugstore. She put them on the counter. "Remind me to remind him to take 'em. Okay?"

  "Late night?" Olivia asked, eyeing her.

  Tammy skirted the rip in the faded linoleum and plopped into a chair opposite Olivia. She picked the other peeler up off the table. "It was a slow morning."

  She didn't add that she hadn't fallen asleep until the wee hours. She might've advertised to Olivia that she was looking for Mr. Right Now, but she was oddly reluctant to tell her he'd shown up. "Where are Pops and Luke?"

  "They're working on the barn."

  "Has Pops got his duct tape?" Pops used duct tape for repairs the way normal people used a hammer and nails.

  "You know it." Olivia rolled her eyes. "Luke's a good man to take on duct tape repairs with Pops."

  Olivia shrugged. "He's adequate in a pinch." Total adoration shone in her eyes and belied her droll attitude.

  Tammy eyed her pregnant sister's still-flat stomach and smirked. "Given your knocked-up state, I'd say you find him more than adequate. How're you feeling?"

  "A little on the tired side."

  "That's normal for now, isn't it?" She couldn't hide her panic. She couldn't bear it if something happened to Olivia. Even though it had taken a long time for them to become friends, she'd always loved her sister fiercely.

  "Now you sound like Luke. Don't worry. The doctor says it's perfectly normal. I should have more energy in a month or so."

  "Are you drinking your smoothies?"

  "It's only been two days since I saw you," Olivia pointed out in amusement, "but, yes, I had one yesterday."

  "Good. They should help with the energy. You told Pops?"

  "We told him this morning."

  "What'd he say?" Tammy scraped the skin from a russet potato, praying he'd come through for Olivia. Tammy hoped he'd been excited, but she really didn't know how he'd react. She wanted to believe he'd make a great grandfather, but he'd dropped the parenting ball countless times—mostly under the influence of Wild Turkey. Grandfather of the year wasn't a given, either. Between Pops and the Rutledges, Luke's snooty family who didn't quite approve of either Luke or Olivia, the kid had slim pickings for grandparents. Luckily, the tyke would have a hell of a set of parents. And she'd try her damnedest in the aunt department.

  "He said he was glad we were giving him a grand-baby since you or Marty hadn't."

  "Well, knock me down. Pops never showed remote interest in grandchildren."

  Olivia shrugged. "Go figure. He's really excited. I'm so glad. I didn't know how he'd take it." She sniffled, potato in hand, her eyes awash with unshed tears. "Tammy, I want this so much for you."

  Something akin to a lead brick settled in the pit of Tammy's stomach. She tried using a bad joke to distract Olivia, who by this time had tears trickling down her cheeks. "I'm glad you want it for me, but I've got plenty of potatoes over here."

  Even though Olivia giggled, her tears continued and she stuck to her guns. "I want you to have a good husband and a baby."

  Once upon a time she'd wanted those things, as well. When she still believed in princes and happily ever after, before she'd had a taste of reality.

  "I don't want another husband. And we should all be grateful I didn't drag a bunch of kids with me from marriage, to marriage. Thank God and birth control pills I'm not tracking down child support checks every month."

  "Why didn't you ever have a child?" Olivia asked, tears streaming down her face.

  She and Olivia had never been close enough for Olivia to ask before, and in the last year, as they'd become friends, it had never come up. Chances are she wouldn't have answered it, anyway. But how did you tell your hormonal, weeping sister it was none of her business?

&nbs
p; Unfortunately, Tammy didn't know how. Which left the option of offering her an answer. Rattled by Olivia's uncharacteristic weepiness, she blurted, "I was scared."

  Now that was a hell of a thing to up and say. Olivia abandoned all pretense of peeling potatoes and stared across the Formica expanse and sniffled, her gray eyes watery, awaiting an explanation.

  Tammy pushed away from the table and walked to the counter. Olivia had cried for a year after Martha Rae, their mother, had left. Tammy, who ached so bad inside she hadn't been able to cry, had figured Olivia cried enough for the both of them. And then one day Olivia stopped crying. Twenty-three years ago could've been yesterday because, God in Heaven, Tammy still couldn't stand to see her little sister in tears, hormonal or otherwise. She tore a paper towel off the roll and handed it to Olivia. Olivia dutifully dabbed at her eyes.

  Tammy turned her back to Olivia and braced her hands on the sink, staring out the window with its cracked pane. "I was terrible at being a mom to you after Martha Rae left."

  "You weren't—"

  She looked over her shoulder and interrupted Olivia's denial. "Olivia."

  "Okay, so you were. But you were just a kid, for goodness' sake. Very few nine-year-olds make good moms."

  That had been the most abysmal period of her life. She'd hated everything and everyone. Hated her mom for leaving, hated her family for driving Martha Rae away and most especially hated the pity in people's eyes when they looked at her. She'd been so angry, it'd been easy to build a bad reputation that kept everyone and their pity at bay.

  "And…" And she'd grown up to be afraid she couldn't love a child enough for it to love her in return. God knows, she hadn't loved her mother enough for Martha Rae to stick around. And she hadn't loved any of her husbands enough to keep them at home. As much as she wanted to explain all this to Olivia, the words wouldn't come. She couldn't lay her soul that naked to anyone, even her sister. "And now you're going to have one that I can spoil rotten." She sucked in a deep breath and firmly closed that particular discussion. "What's up at the library?"

  Olivia, very wisely, let it drop. "The Coulther County Regional Library is rocking. We were swamped yesterday at storytime, which was a good thing. The number of kids has almost doubled. They love the new addition."

  "Kids in a castle turret. What's not to love? It's very cool." Tammy was pretty proud of all the changes her sister had made at the library. Olivia had almost single-handedly raised the money to build the library's new addition.

  "Willette brought Kira to storytime yesterday. She said she'd met your new neighbor."

  Tammy didn't care for that speculative gleam in Olivia's eyes. They'd moved from one dangerous subject to another in record time. "Yep."

  "She said he was … how did she put it? Oh, yeah, eye candy."

  "If you like that sort." Tammy shrugged and began to rinse the potatoes in the sink.

  "And what sort is that?" Olivia joined her at the sink.

  This was the downside to being friends with Olivia. She felt perfectly justified in minding Tammy's business.

  "Sort of serious. Sort of quiet. Sort of boy-next-door." Sort of sexy. Sort of an incredible lover. And there was no way she was sharing that with Olivia. Let Olivia even catch a scent in the wind that she and Niall had this "thing" between them, and Olivia, who could be frighteningly determined when she set her mind to something, would be absolutely relentless.

  Tammy didn't want to find herself the focus of that kind of determination. And Olivia had already told her she wanted to find her a husband. She'd consider Niall prime husband and father-to-be material. Actually, he was, if you were looking for that kind of thing.

  "Hmm. Willette said he stopped by your place to see you." Her casual tone didn't fool Tammy for a minute.

  Tammy held up her hand. "You're barking up the wrong tree, sister. And it wasn't to see me, it was to thank me. Being the good neighbor that I am, I gave him directions to the grocery store. That's all. Not my type."

  Liar. Liar. Her conscience smote her. When you factored in his wanting to settle down, that made it only half a lie, she argued in return.

  "If you say so." Olivia neither looked nor sounded convinced. "She also said Lowell asked you out and you turned him down."

  "Willette covered it all, didn't she?"

  "Pretty much. So, I guess Lowell's not a Mr. Right Now candidate?"

  Olivia was going somewhere with this and Tammy was pretty sure she wasn't going to like it. "Nope, not today."

  "Well, I'm glad to hear it cause I don't like Lowell and you never know when Mr. Right Now might turn into Mr. Right." Now that was a totally scary thought.

  * * *

  Sweat dampened Niall's T-shirt and trickled down his neck, despite the cool day. For approximately the hundredth time over the course of his five-mile run, Niall mentally listed through all the reasons he should stay away from Tammy.

  She was complicated. She was his neighbor. She came with a lot of baggage. She had a really bad attitude about marriage. She didn't particularly like children or animals. Her reputation was just as bad as she'd claimed.

  Attractive women without half of the above strikes against them would be delighted to go out with him.

  And for approximately the hundredth time, all those reasons failed to sway him in light of one indisputable fact. He wanted her. Again. Something about her touched him, beckoned him. It was more than just the sex—which had been pretty incredible. Despite her in-your-face, what-you-see-is-what-you-get bravado, her underlying guardedness intrigued him.

  He turned onto his street and kicked into high gear, sprinting from the corner to his driveway. He immediately noticed Tammy had returned. Her car hadn't been there when he'd started his run.

  Sweat-soaked, heart pounding, he slowed to a walk when he turned into his driveway.

  "Hi." Her head popped up from the back of the plastic manger scene in her yard. She waved a light-bulb. "Baby Jesus burned out."

  "Can't have Baby Jesus burnout."

  "Not if I can help it." Tammy laughed as she stood up, brushing grass from the knees of her jeans. "I didn't realize you were a runner. How far do you go?"

  "Five miles a couple of times a week. It builds good stamina," he said.

  A wicked glint lit her eyes as she looked him over from head to toe and back again. "Stamina's important."

  "I work hard at going the distance." Her face flushed and she moistened her lips with her tongue. She was enjoying this conversation as much as he was. "Maybe you could try it with me sometimes."

  "I'd have to turn down that offer. I'm not a runner, wrong body type. I prefer dancing and yoga. The yoga keeps everything limber, and dancing is quite a workout—releases lots of pent-up energy."

  He knew firsthand just how limber she could be and he had no doubt she'd turn dancing into an erotic experience. Now there was a stimulating idea. Too stimulating for the driveway at dusk.

  "Maybe you could try a dance workout with me one day." Tammy peered at him from beneath her lashes, Salome issuing an invitation.

  "Sure." He'd agree to almost anything when she looked at him like that, but him dancing was in the same time frame as hell freezing over. Niall's two left feet were something of a Fortson family joke.

  "Are we still on for dinner? I've worked up quite an appetite." Her smile took his breath.

  "I've got just the thing for you. I think you'll like what I've prepared." He was damn nervous about it, actually.

  "I'm sure it'll be very satisfying. When should I come?" she asked, her voice dropping a seductive note.

  He was well on his way to a raging erection and running shorts weren't exactly discreet. "Give me half an hour to clean up."

  "What can I bring?"

  "I've got it covered. Just bring yourself."

  "I can manage that." He'd walked about halfway to his front door when she called out his name. He half turned. "Yeah?"

  Devilment danced in her blue eyes.

  "Nice shorts."


  * * *

  6

  « ^ »

  Niall shoved his shirttail in his jeans and opened the door.

  "You got a Christmas tree," she exclaimed, skipping the conventional greeting. "I saw it as I came up the front steps."

  Niall grinned, pleased she'd noticed, pleased by her enthusiasm and generally pleased she was at his door. "I sure did. Come on in."

  She stepped past him, the brush of her arm against his and the waft of her scent rekindling the banked fires from earlier.

  "Did you bring your tree with you from your other house?"

  "No. I braved the shoppers and bought it today. It came with the lights and I don't care if it doesn't have ornaments. I just had to have a tree. Even as often as we moved when I was a kid, we always had a Christmas tree."

  "It complements the packing boxes," she razzed him. "Are you a procrastinator by nature or is it just these boxes you can't seem to get to?"

  "Unfortunately, they may still be here six months from now. I hate packing and unpacking. Maybe because I did so much of it when I was growing up. I got to the point where I just lived out of my suitcase and boxes. It was easier that way."

  "Yeah, but this is different, isn't it? You're here to stay," she pointed out.

  "Yeah, I guess you're right." Despite the words and his intent, he realized he still hadn't made the mental transition.

  Tex and Lolita blinked at them from the back of the sofa. Gigi and Memphis lay curled together on a dog bed near the Christmas tree, both sacked out. Tammy gestured toward the dogs. "What's up with them?"

  "They exhausted themselves this afternoon chasing Frisbees and squirrels. Gigi has this thing where she jumps up and catches the Frisbee in midair."

  "Oh, I bet that's cute."

  "It is funny. And she must've leaped for it at least a hundred times."

  "Poor Tiny Mite, no wonder she's tired." She caught herself in midcroon, a sheepish expression on her face.