“Take these off,” he repeated.
She acquiesced this time, her legs and arms barely functional, but she managed to scoot the lacy scrap down over her thighs, her knees, her ankles, then stepped out of them. He stepped back to watch her, then sheathed himself with the condom and pinned her again.
“If you let me take over, we’ll both be happier in the long run.” He breathed into the space between them. “As I said, it’s been a while.”
She simply nodded. She couldn’t even speak.
He had her off the ground in one strong lift, hoisting her and pushing at the backs of her thighs until she wrapped her legs around his waist. He entered her swiftly, but only his tip. Her body seemed to clamp down, and as he pushed farther, pain shot through her.
“Wait, wait,” she gripped his shoulders.
She squeezed her eyes shut. Damn. This is what always happened. Why couldn’t she have normal sex like other women? Here was the sexiest guy she’d ever had the pleasure—ahem—of knowing, who had her in a froth just moments ago, had curled her toes, had her moaning with enjoyment, and now here they were—her body shutting down like it always did. What was wrong with her?
He was too big. It was his fault. He was hung like a bull. What woman could possibly—
“Lia, let go,” he said between deep breaths.
“Let go of what?”
“Control. Seriously.”
Her head went back against the wall and she willed herself to relax.
“Don’t think of anything but pleasure,” he said in a husky voice. “You’re allowed.”
His finger wrapped from underneath her thigh and hit that joyous spot again, and she bucked against the wall.
“There we go,” he whispered.
He coaxed her open. He rubbed, he circled, he kissed her neck, he whispered dirty words in her ear, and next thing she knew, he was fully inside of her—all huge amounts of him—and thrusting her against the wall. Sometime between the velvet kisses and the fourth time he said, “God, I’ve wanted you so badly . . . ,” she came in a magnificent way—her body breaking apart, her head exploding into a shattering light, a ray hitting her brain, and pleasure throbbing to her fingernails. . . .
His biceps shook and he slid her down the wall, then stilled against her, pulling her into his chest but leaning his forehead against the wall, breathing heavily.
She closed her eyes and let the last of the rays reverberate away. “What was that?” she whispered.
“That was really, really great sex,” he said.
“Thank you, Evan.”
“Pleasure’s all mine.”
But Lia simply smiled. Definitely hers.
Finally.
* * *
Evan could hardly lift his head, hardly lift his arm, but he needed to get off her. He was probably crushing her with his weight.
But damn. But damn . . . Cinderella was amazing.
The first stab of guilt came when he let his mind wonder if he’d ever taken Renece against a wall, and realized he hadn’t. But he shoved the guilt aside. Not now. He wanted to enjoy this. He wanted to look at Cinderella, and enjoy the first and only woman he’d ever taken against a wall, and push her hair over her ear, and revel in the fact that she was who she was. And maybe that was okay. He wanted to look at her, kiss her forehead, take his time backing away from her, and—
A frantic rap at the door shook the thin catamaran walls. “Evan?” came a man’s voice.
Lia met his eyes with her own saucer-sized blues.
“Evan, you in there?” the deep voice came again.
His brain couldn’t get synapses firing into place.
“Douglas!” Lia whispered, filling in for him.
Damn. Adrenaline shot through him, helping him move away from her, helping him find his jeans, yank them on.
The rap sounded again. “Evan? You okay?” A key began scratching at the lock.
“Just a minute,” Evan yelled toward the door. He threw Lia’s underwear at her, yanked her dress off the floor, and began pushing her toward the head.
But the key jiggled just the right way and the door swung open—Lia halfway to the head, her dress clutched in front of her, frozen in the deep sun rays that shot through the galley.
Along with Douglas’s frown.
And, right behind him, Drew’s shocked expression from his wheelchair.
“Fuck,” Doug whispered, slamming the door shut.
CHAPTER
Twenty-two
Fifteen minutes later, they all sat crammed in the dinette—Lia dressed, Evan with his pants buttoned back up, Douglas avoiding their eyes, and Drew scowling at all of them.
“So is anyone going to explain what’s going on here?” Drew directed the question around the table.
“It’s exactly what it looked like,” Evan intercepted. He didn’t like how Drew was glaring at Lia.
“You’re fucking my friend, on my boat, while the lines are half undone, and netting is all over the deck?” Drew looked at him incredulously.
Evan sat back and did his best to formulate a sane response. “Look, Drew, I’m sorr—”
“Douglas was just at my place, telling me how much I could trust you now,” Drew went on, his voice shaking in a holding-on-by-a-thread voice. “And I arrive to see how the disentanglement went, and see everything to the contrary. You know how much it . . .” Drew’s hand waved in the air toward the back of the cabin where Evan had just been naked with Lia, and his face went a little white. “. . . freaks me out to have your . . . germs . . . all over the . . .” He motioned again, seemingly unable to even finish the sentence. He stared at the offending area as if he were imagining how he might bleach it down.
“And there’s fish netting all over the deck?” he went on, sweeping his hand back toward the door. “And the fucking lines aren’t all tied?”
Evan looked away, embarrassed. What had he been thinking? He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so stupid.
“And Lia, what the hell? Didn’t I ask you specifically not to get close to him?”
“Leave Lia out of this, Drew,” Evan said, although his thoughts dragged over that last comment.
“Evan, you don’t need to speak for me,” Lia said.
“And Evan, damn it, can you not leave one friend of mine alone?” Drew’s hands clenched, and his breathing was labored. If his legs had been fine, he’d certainly be pacing now.
Evan would let Drew vent, have his piece. The main thing he felt bad about was that the lines weren’t all tied. That was irresponsible. He’d truly lost his mind, there. But the rest was just Drew being Drew. Evan was used to his brother’s outbursts, his overreactions, his phobias. He’d wait it out, like he used to, then maybe get to the part where he could apologize for the things he really wanted to apologize for. He’d wanted to have this discussion for some time. He just didn’t think he’d be doing it after being caught with his pants down. Literally.
“Drew, you need to stop yelling at your brother,” Lia said. “Especially for being with me. It’s not like I was an unwilling participant.”
“And what about that, anyway, Lia?” Drew said, turning to her. “What about my simple request: to stay away from my fucking brother?”
“And why did you ask that? That was a ridiculous request, with no explanation whatsoever.”
“Can’t you just do one thing I ask you?”
“Not without a good explanation.”
“She doesn’t take orders well,” Evan threw in.
He resisted the urge to smile at her. He liked her more every minute. Normally he’d jump in with his brother yelling at a woman like this, but Lia was holding her own, and the two of them seemed like they’d done this a million times.
Douglas moved his bottled water around the table and looked like he wanted to be anywhere bu
t there. “I’m just going to . . .” He gestured with his thumb toward the door.
“No. Douglas, stay,” said Drew. “You were vouching for him earlier. I need you to see why I have a hard time buying into the fact that he’s someone I can trust.”
“I’ll vouch for Evan, too,” Lia piped in. “We all like him. He helped us out tremendously this week, Drew. He’s smart, and he’s a good captain, and—”
“He can navigate a boat—I get that,” Drew snapped. “I never had any issue with that. I’m more worried about the damage he can do to people.”
“I’m sitting right here,” Evan murmured.
“I didn’t want you to get hurt, Lia,” Drew said. “That’s why I wanted you to stay away from him.”
“Evan’s not hurting me.”
“Yet. He hurts people. He only thinks of himself.”
“Evan’s not hurting me,” Lia said more forcefully.
“I’m sitting right here,” Evan repeated.
“He just fucked you,” Drew said to Lia, “probably with no thought of—”
“That’s enough, Drew,” Evan said, louder.
“. . . with no thought of you and your boyfriend,” Drew went on, “and he’ll never look back. I imagine he’ll be leaving any day now.”
“Knock it off.” Evan shoved out of the dinette. He’d heard enough.
Drew looked up at him with surprise. Maybe he thought Evan might hit him. But Evan wasn’t going to hit him, as tempting as it was. They were through with their competitive boyish tumbles of the past.
“You know he’s been sailing the world, right?” Drew asked Lia, but he kept his eyes on Evan. “Who knows who he’s been with? Or what diseases he’s brought home? I hope you used a condom.”
“You don’t know anything about me, Drew.” Evan was getting pissed now.
“I know you take what you want.”
“That’s not true.”
“So you don’t just sleep with whomever you want? I must have been mistaken.”
“You are. And this is bullshit. I’m not going to discuss my sex life with you. Or Douglas.” He motioned to the poor guy.
“What about Lia?”
“I’ll discuss it with Lia if she wants to, in private.”
“We used a condom,” Lia blurted. As soon as she said it, she leaned back against the dinette in a brazen way, but then she glanced at Douglas and her fingertips fluttered to her collarbone.
Evan smiled at her. He was really beginning to love everything about her—her directness, her bluntness, the cute expression on her face when she said something she didn’t mean to.
“Forrest and I broke up anyway,” Lia added, waving her hand.
Drew frowned, his concern playing across his forehead lines. “Oh. Sorry about that, Lia.”
The smile Evan had just had on his face slid away as he watched the interplay between Drew and Lia, the clouds of old-time guilt gathering and hovering over his head. Drew really did care about her. Maybe Drew was just looking out for her. Evan could see how Drew could feel protective. He slid back toward the dinette bench. Maybe he should cut his bro some slack.
“But the fact that you had a boyfriend probably didn’t matter to Evan,” Drew said. “That never stopped him before.”
Or maybe not . . .
“Watch it, Drew,” he said under his breath.
“He’s using you,” Drew told Lia.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Evan said.
“So you’re staying?” Drew threw back at him.
Evan glanced at Lia. Well, sure, he was leaving. But she knew that. He certainly didn’t see himself as using her—
“Evan’s right.” Lia turned angrily toward Drew. “I have no illusions here. I’m not dating him, and I don’t expect him to date me. Or stay. We’re just two adults. And we can handle ourselves. It meant nothing.”
Evan snapped his head up. He knew that’s how she felt. He knew that going in. In fact, it was every man’s fantasy to have such a willing partner with no strings attached. But it still gave him a ridiculous tug in his chest to hear her say it. He stared at the table.
Douglas moved his bottled water around and stared at the porthole as if he hoped it would suck him through.
“You didn’t even know her,” Drew said quietly toward the tabletop. “You just wanted her because she was mine.”
The sound of the water lapping the side of the boat was the only sound for half a minute.
“Are we talking about Renece now?” Evan asked.
Drew had aged quite a bit in the last few years. Or maybe it was just the pain of the broken legs and DVT, but he looked haggard—permanent lines crossing his forehead, his hair receding around the temples. Suddenly, Evan was sorry he’d let so many years go by. They should have settled this years ago.
“Doug, Lia, can you give us a minute?” Evan asked.
Douglas bolted out of the booth, leaving his bottled water shimmering on the table. Lia hesitated, but finally moved out too, running her hand over Drew’s shoulder almost maternally.
When the door closed, Evan slid into the bench across from his brother. “Let’s have it.”
The haggard lines in Drew’s face went from anger to fatigue. “What do you want me to say?”
“I guess we both have a lot to say. And we probably should have said it a long time ago. Do you want me to start or do you want to?”
“You look like shit.”
“Thanks, I was going to say the same about you.”
A reluctant smile crossed Drew’s face. He stared at his own water bottle as he twisted it between his palms.
“So you made it all the way around?” Drew finally asked.
“Yep.”
“How long did it take you?”
“Two years.”
“What was the hardest part?”
“I hit a crazy storm near the Maldives. And the Panama Canal was a bitch to get through. But I don’t think this is what we need to talk about.”
As the boat rocked gently, Drew’s smile was replaced by a terrible sadness. “I can’t seem to stop hating you.”
The words were delivered in almost a whisper, without malice, matter of fact, but they held so much honesty Evan couldn’t help but recoil.
As many problems as he and Drew had had as kids, they’d always loved each other. There had been fistfights and silent treatments, toothpaste wars and demolition derbies on bikes, but that had all been just normal brother stuff. There had also been the time little Drew had stood guard over Evan’s aquarium when some younger cousins came to visit, or the time he’d collected signatures at school to get Evan voted as junior campus police. Once, Drew rode his bike all the way into the next city to tell Evan he was going to get in trouble if he didn’t come home by five, and another time Drew had made a terrible “carrot soup” for Evan when he stayed home with the flu and their mom had to go to work. It was just boiled water with carrots in it, but Drew had thought he was helping.
Evan stared across the table at the little brother who had always loved and admired him, and realized how much he’d really hurt Drew when he’d left with Renece.
“I’m sorry,” Evan finally said. “Look, Drew, I didn’t know you were in love with her. It had never come up between us, and you introduced her to me on the boat. I honestly thought you were introducing her to me as a possible date.”
Drew looked up at him quizzically. “You’re insane.”
“That’s how it looked from my perspective.”
Drew stared through the porthole and seemed to consider that for a second. “That’s stupid. I’d invited her there because I’d had a crush on her for a million years.”
“You never told me that.”
“Why didn’t you back off once I did tell you?”
“We�
�d already gone out every day for two weeks. I fell hard, man.”
Drew looked up with surprise. “You fell in love with her? You didn’t just sleep with her?”
“Who do you think I was? I was a geek. I didn’t sleep with girls. She was the first. She made me feel like I mattered to someone.”
“She was the first?”
Evan just shrugged.
“I thought you were a dog, man.”
“What made you think that?”
“You got everything you wanted.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Your own bedroom, a normal life with no OCD, your own boat, you got to live with Dad, he took you with him—I was just the ‘disappointing kid.’”
“I was always jealous that you got to stay with Mom.”
They both stared at the table. A patrol boat sounded a horn in the marina, and the festival crowd erupted.
“Well, whether or not you’re trying to take everything from me, I don’t want Lia or my boat to be part of the collateral damage,” Drew said.
“What? I don’t want to take everything from you. And I would never use Lia that way.”
“Why did you come here, then, Evan? Why are you on my boat? And why her, of all the women in the state?”
Evan looked away. That, he didn’t know.
“I didn’t know why I came here, to be honest,” he said, deciding just to answer the part he understood. “Lia thinks I secretly wanted to apologize. And she’s probably right. I know I pulled into Sandy Cove when I could have easily gone to San Diego. And I know it’s late to apologize, but now that I’m here, I just want you to know that I never meant to hurt you.”
“And why Lia?”
Evan shook his head. His first instinct was to say nothing about Lia, but keeping things to himself when it came to Drew had gotten him into this mess in the first place.
“I know it looks bad,” he said, “but there was no intent there, to go after her because she’s in your life. I even asked her if she ever dated you. A few times, actually.”
Ten Good Reasons Page 25