Thorn's Challenge

by Brenda Jackson

  Dare leaned back in his chair. “No, but evidently you do since you’ve been fighting it for nearly two years now,” he said, meeting Thorn’s frown with one of his own. “We knew from the beginning that she was your challenge and even told you so. It’s about time you come to terms with it.”

  Thorn leaned forward, both palms on the table, and met his brothers’ gazes. “I haven’t come to terms with anything,” he snapped.

  “But you will once you put that nasty episode with Patrice behind you,” Dare responded. “Damn, Thorn, it’s been three years since that woman. Let it go. To my way of thinking you never actually loved her anyway, you just considered her your possession and got pissed to find out you weren’t the only man who thought that. As far as I’m concerned she was bad news and I’m glad you found out her true colors when you did. You’re a smart man and I don’t think you’re into self-torture, so relax and stop being stubborn and uptight and get over what she did to you. And for Pete’s sake, please do something about your sexual frustrations. You’re driving us crazy and it’s gotten so bad we hate to see you coming.”

  Chase laughed. “Yeah, Thorn, it’s obvious you haven’t gotten laid in a while. Don’t you think that rule you have of not indulging in sex while racing is a bit much? By my calculations it’s been way over a year, possibly two. Don’t you think you’re carrying this celibacy thing a bit too far?”

  “Not if he’s waiting on a particular woman that he’s set his sights on and he wants with a fierce Westmoreland hunger,” Stone said smiling, knowing the others knew the gist of his meaning. “Since we all have a good idea what he wants from Tara, maybe now would be a good time to tell Thorn just what Tara wants from him, Chase.”

  The room got quiet and all eyes turned to Chase. But the ones that unsettled Chase more than the others belonged to Thorn as he sat back down. Chase smiled, seeing Thorn’s annoyance as well as his curiosity. He had shared the news with Stone about Tara wanting Thorn to pose for the charity calendar but hadn’t gotten around to telling the others yet.

  “I stopped by the hospital today to visit Ms. Amanda, who’s had hip surgery,” he said, mentioning the older woman who worked as a cook at his soul food restaurant. “While I was there I decided to drop in on Tara to see if there was anything she needed for tonight. She mentioned that some lady who’s a big wheel around the hospital had stopped by her office earlier asking about you, Thorn. The lady wants you to pose for a charity calendar,” Chase said in a calm voice, explaining things to everyone.

  “After talking to Tara, I got the distinct impression that somehow the lady found out Tara knew you. She wanted Tara to use her influence to get you to do it,” Chase added.

  “Thorn doesn’t ‘do it,”’ Storm said, chuckling. “Didn’t we just establish the fact that he’s still celibate?”

  Chase frowned and swung his glance toward his twin. “Can’t you think about anything but sex, Storm? I’m talking about posing for the calendar.”

  “Oh.”

  Chase refocused his gaze on Thorn. “So, will you do it?”

  Thorn frowned. “Are you asking me on Tara’s behalf?”

  “No. But does it matter? If Tara were to ask you, would you do it?”

  “No,” Thorn said without hesitation while throwing a card out, remembering how he and Patrice had first met. She was a photographer who had wanted to do a calendar of what she considered sexy, sweaty, muscle-bound hunks, and in the process had ended up being his bed partner. His and a few others, he’d later found out.

  Chase frowned. “It’s for a good cause.”

  “All charities are,” Thorn said, studying his hand.

  “This one is for children, Thorn.”

  Thorn looked up and met Chase’s gaze. Anyone knowing Thorn knew that on occasion he might give an adult pure hell, but when it came to children, he was as soft as a marshmallow. “The racing team I’m affiliated with already works closely with the Childrens’ Miracle Network, Chase.”

  Chase nodded. “I know that, Thorn, but that’s on a national level. This is more local and will benefit Kids’ World.”

  Everyone living in the Atlanta area was familiar with Kids’ World and the benefits it provided to terminally ill children. “All I’m asking is for you to think about it and be prepared when Tara finally gets up enough nerve to ask you,” Chase added.

  Thorn frowned. “Why would she need to get up nerve to ask me anything?”

  It was Dare who chuckled. “Well, ahh, it’s like this, Thorn,” he said throwing a card out. “You aren’t the friendliest person toward her, but we all know the reason why, even if you refuse to acknowledge it.”

  Glancing around the room to make sure Tara hadn’t come back downstairs, Dare continued. “The plain and simple fact is that you have a bad case of the hots for her and it’s been going on now for almost two solid years. And as far as I’m concerned, you need to do something about it or learn to live with it. And if you choose to live with it, then please adjust your attitude so the four of us can live with you.”

  Thorn glared at Dare. “I don’t need an attitude adjustment.”

  “The hell you don’t. Face it, Thorn. You’re not like the rest of us. Storm, Chase, Stone and I can go a long time without a woman and it doesn’t bother us. But if you go without one for too long, it makes you hornier than sin, which for you equates to being meaner than hell. And it seems that you’re deliberately holding out while deciding what to do about Tara, and it’s making you worse than ever. Don’t you think that in two years you should have made some decisions?”

  Thorn’s intense dark eyes held his brothers’; they were all watching him like hawks, waiting for his response. “I have made decisions regarding what I’m going to do about Tara,” he said slowly, seeing the looks of comprehension slowly unfolding in their eyes.

  “About damn time you stop backing away from the inevitable,” Storm said, smiling broadly. “I knew you would come to your senses sooner or later.”

  “Uh, I hate to be the voice of reason at a time like this,” Chase said grinning. “But I’d think twice about whatever decisions you’ve made about Tara without her consent, Thorn. She’s quite a handful. I’ve seen her rebellious side and bringing her around won’t be easy. Personally, I don’t think you can handle her.”

  “Neither do I,” Stone chimed in.

  Thorn’s face darkened as he gazed at all of them. “I can handle Tara.”

  “Don’t be so sure about that,” Stone said smiling. “Her first impression of you wasn’t a good one, and I don’t think she likes you much, which means you’ll definitely have your hands full trying to win her over. I’m not so sure you’re up for the challenge.”

  “I bet you any amount of money that he is,” Storm said grinning. “Thorn can do anything he wants to do, including taming Tara.”

  “Don’t hold your breath for that to happen,” Chase said chuckling. “Have you ever really noticed the two of them around each other? They’re both stubborn and strong-willed. I say he can’t hang.”

  “Okay you guys, pull back,” Storm said, slowly stroking his chin. “Thorn’s a smart man who plans his strategies well. Hell, look how he has trained for those races he’s won. If he goes after Tara with the same determination, then there won’t be anything to it. Therefore, I say taming Tara will be a piece of cake for Thorn.”

  “No, it won’t,” Chase said chuckling. “In fact, I’ll be willing to bet a case of Jack Daniels that it won’t.”

  “And I bet you a new set of tools that it won’t be, too,” Stone added shaking his head with a grin.

  “And I bet you a day’s wage and work for no pay in your restaurant as a waiter that it will, Chase. And I also bet you that same set of tools that it will, Stone. Thorn can handle any challenge he faces,” Storm said, with confidence in his voice as he gathered up everyone’s cards to start a new game.

  Thorn had been sitting back listening to his brothers make their bets. He looked over at Dare who just shru
gged his shoulders. “Making those kinds of bets aren’t legal, and since as a sheriff I’m duty-bound to uphold the law, I’ll pass,” he said jokingly. “However, if I were a betting man, I’d say you could pull it off, but it wouldn’t be as easy as Storm thinks. Calendar or no calendar, Tara’s not going to let you just waltz in and sweep her off her feet. You’ll have to set yourself up on a mission,” he said, grinning, as he remembered the tactic he’d used to win the heart of the woman he’d loved. “Then you can’t play fair,” he added, thinking of the technique his brother-in-law, Prince Jamal Ari Yasir, had used to woo their baby sister, Delaney.

  Thorn nodded. Set myself up on a mission and then play unfair. He could handle that. He’d put his plans into action later tonight when everyone left. Tara wouldn’t know what had hit her until it was too late.

  Way too late.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Tara’s heart, beating twice as fast as it should have, slammed against her rib cage when, after the card game was over, it became obvious that, unlike his brothers, Thorn had no intentions of leaving.

  She closed the door and turned to him. The air in the room suddenly seemed charged. “Aren’t you leaving?” she asked, as she leaned against the closed door.

  “No. I think we need to talk.”

  Tara inhaled deeply, wondering what he thought they needed to discuss. While upstairs in her bedroom she had managed to get her thoughts and her aroused senses under control after convincing herself that her earlier reaction to Thorn had been expected. After all, from the first she had been physically attracted to him and memories of the kiss they had shared a few months back hadn’t helped matters. Then there was the way he always looked at her with that penetrating gaze of his. After thinking things through logically, she felt confident that the next time he looked at her as if he would love to gobble her up in one scrumptious bite, things would be different. She would be more in control of the situation as well as her senses.

  “What do you want to talk about?” she asked, wondering if Chase had mentioned anything to him about the charity calendar.

  He met her gaze. “About us.”

  She lifted an arched brow. There was no “us” and decided to tell him so. “There’s no us, Thorn. In fact I’ve always gotten the distinct impression that you don’t even like me.”

  Boy, was she wrong, Thorn thought. If anything he liked her too damn much. There were several emotions he’d always felt toward Tara Matthews from the first and dislike hadn’t been one of them.

  He took a couple of steps forward, bringing him right in front of her. “I’ve never disliked you, Tara.”

  She swallowed deeply against the timbre in his voice and the look of melting steel in his eyes. That’s the same thing his brothers had claimed when she’d told them how she felt last year. They had argued that Thorn was just a moody person and told her not to take it personally. But a part of her had taken it personally.

  “My brothers think you’re my challenge,” he added, not taking his eyes off her.

  “Why would they think that?” she asked. She had wondered about it the first time the brothers had mentioned that very same thing to her. But none of them had given her any further explanation.

  “Because they don’t think I can handle you.”

  She frowned. “Handle me? In what way?”

  His gaze ran provocatively down her full length before coming back to meet hers. “Evidently not the way I originally thought,” he said, thinking just how much he had underestimated his brothers’ cleverness. They had set him up from the first.

  “Of the five of us, I’m the one who’d always had a better handle on Laney than anyone, so I assumed they meant that I couldn’t handle you because you were as headstrong, willful and unmanageable as she could be at times. And although you seem to have those traits, too, I now believe they meant you were my challenge for a totally different reason. I think they meant that I couldn’t handle you as a woman. There’s a big difference in the two.”

  They gazed at each other for a long, intense moment and then she asked. “And what’s the difference?” She knew she might be asking for trouble, but at the moment she didn’t care.

  The room crackled and popped with what she now recognized as sexual tension and physical attraction. It hadn’t been dislike the two of them had been battling since they’d met. It had been primal animal lust of the strongest kind.

  He took another step closer. “If I were to group you in the same category as Laney, I’d have no choice but to think of you with brotherly affections since I’m almost eight years older than you. But if I were to forget about the age thing and place you in the same category as I do any other woman, then that would make you available.”

  Tara frowned. “Available?”

  “Yes, available for me.”

  Tara swallowed again and ran her sweaty palms down over her slender waist to settle on her hips. She wondered what his reaction would be if he knew that in all her twenty-seven years she had never been available for any man. Although she and Derrick had dated for a number of years, they had never slept together, which meant she was probably the oldest living virgin in the state of Georgia. But that certainly didn’t make her open game and she resented any man thinking she was his for the taking. Derrick had taught her a lesson and she had no desire to forget it any time soon. “Sorry to burst your bubble, but I’m not available for any man, Thorn.”

  Thorn continued to stare at her. Yes, she was definitely his challenge, and he liked challenges. “I think differently,” he finally said.

  Tara blinked once, then twice when she actually saw the corners of Thorn’s lips move and his mouth suddenly creased into a smile. It was definitely a rare Kodak moment and she would have given anything to capture it on film. He had the most irresistibly, devastating smile she had ever seen. It contained a spark of eroticism that sent her pulses racing.

  “You are definitely my challenge, Tara,” he added in a raspy voice.

  Too late she realized he had taken another step forward, bringing her thigh-to-thigh, chest-to-chest with him. Her breath caught when the sexy sound of his voice and the heat from his smile set her body on fire. But she fought to hold on to every ounce of control she had and refused to go up in flames. “I’m not anyone’s challenge, Thorn,” she said, barely above a whisper.

  He began lowering his head toward hers and said huskily, “You are definitely mine, Tara.”

  The impact of Thorn’s statement, his words of possession, made a degree of lust, stronger and more potent than she’d ever experienced before, fill the air; the room suddenly felt hot. A distinct, seductive warmth flooded the area between her legs. She wanted to fight him and the emotions he was causing her to feel. She tried convincing herself that he was just a man and she had promised herself that she would never lose her head over a man again. She had to admit that Thorn was the type of man who would make it hard to keep that promise, but she was determined to do so.

  The one thing Thorn didn’t know about her was that she didn’t need a man, physically or mentally. As far as she was concerned, you couldn’t miss what you’d never had. Besides, like most men who didn’t have marriage on their minds, the only thing Thorn would ever give her was a whirlwind, meaningless affair that centered on sex.

  Feeling more in control she took a step back, away from him, out of the way of temptation. “The hour is late and we’re through talking.”

  “Yes, we’re through talking.”

  Tara swallowed deeply, suddenly aware that his tone of voice was a low, seductive whisper and the intensity of his gaze had darkened. She stood rooted in place as he slowly recovered the distance she had put between them. He was so close that she could actually see her reflection in his eyes. So close she was sure that he heard the irregular beat of her heart.

  She swallowed deeply. He was staring at her and his face was filled with such intense desire, that even a novice like herself could recognize it for what it was. It then occurred to her tha
t her earlier assumption that you couldn’t miss what you’d never had had no meaning when it came to basic human nature, and tonight, between them, animal magnetism was at an all-time high. Other than the kiss they had shared before, she had never felt so wired, so hungry for something she’d never had and so ripe for the picking.

  The part of her that made her a woman felt thick, pouty and naughty. It was as if it had a mind of its own and was responding to Thorn as though he had some sort of mysterious telepathic connection to it. The absurdity of such a thing made her want to take a step back but she couldn’t. His gaze was holding her still. Her entire concentration was on him and his was centered on her.

  “I should probably get the hell out of here,” he whispered in a low, sexy rumble of a voice as he placed his arms at her waist and shifted his gaze to her lips.

  “Yes, you should,” she whispered back, as a shiver passed from his touch at her waist all the way to her toes. She shifted her gaze to his lips as well and felt the intensity, the desires that were building up within her. Blood rushed to every part of her body.

  “And I will,” he said in a sensually charged voice, bringing her body closer to his. “After I’ve gotten a real good taste of you again.”

  Tara blinked and her mouth fell open. Thorn swiftly descended on it like an eagle swooping down on its prey. The feel of his mouth closing on hers was warm, startling, a direct hit. His lips were seductive against hers and gently yet thoroughly coaxed her into a response, a response she had no trouble giving him.

  The sensations, acute and volatile, were a replay of the last time they had kissed, but, as she settled against him, she immediately decided that this kiss was destined to be in a class by itself. If he was bold before, this time he was confidently assertive. There was nothing timid about the way he was feasting on her mouth. The intensity of it made her body tremble. It was heat and sensuality rolled into one and her body tightened in hunger unaccustomed to such nourishment. Her pulse points pounded, right in sync with the turbulent beating of her heart.