by Lori Foster
“You should have told me.”
“Mmm.” She let her fingers trail down to his slacks. “I should have had my wicked way with you, knowing what you think of me?”
He kicked off his shoes as she tackled his belt. “I don’t think you’re wicked.”
She chuckled. “I know. Now you mistakenly think I’m some innocent little maid.” She licked his chin, and then his chest. “But I am wicked. Very wicked.”
“I never said…”
“Take off your clothes, Daniel, and let’s go to bed.”
He shouldn’t have been surprised. Lace was out to prove a point, and he knew, whatever the point might be, he’d enjoy it. He grinned, daring her with a look. “I will if you will.”
A smile twitched on her mouth, then she stood and very casually stripped in front of him. He could barely breathe; every muscle in his body turned rock-hard. As she removed each article of clothing, she watched him—and lectured.
“A lot of women are terribly shy about being naked. Did you know that, Daniel?”
He nodded dumbly, his mouth dry at the sight of her.
“They think their bodies are inferior because they try to compare themselves to all the nude models in men’s magazines. It’s hard to convince them that men don’t expect perfection, that no two bodies are alike and that’s a good thing. Breasts are different, different sizes, shapes. Nipples can be pink or mauve or—”
“Lace.”
“Some men like petite women, but a lot of them like a woman with a few extra pounds.”
He leaned forward and kissed her belly, his hands going to her bottom, cuddling her, touching her. She tangled her fingers in his hair and he said, “Your body is perfect.”
She laughed. “I’m far from perfect, but I’m glad you approve, because I’m not ashamed of my body.”
Slipping his hands into her panties, he felt the softness of her bottom, her plump flesh, before skimming them down her legs. She stepped out of them and moved back. “Your turn, Daniel.”
He stood and undid his slacks. When he started to push them down his hips, Lace knelt in front of him and took over the task. He locked his knees to remain standing.
“Do you know what you’re doing to me?” She’d positioned herself as a sexual supplicant, and his male brain became frantic at the sight.
“Of course I do.” She peeked up at him. “And I know what I’m going to do to you.”
He groaned, causing her to laugh. “I haven’t done it yet, Daniel.”
“It doesn’t matter.” He trembled like a virgin himself when she wrapped her small hands around his hardened arousal. He squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his jaw. “My imagination is going wild here, Lace.”
“In all my studies, there was one particular thing that intrigued me, that stirred my curiosity.”
“Lace…”
“Do you know what that one thing is, Daniel?”
He groaned.
“I suppose I should just show you.”
The warning given, she leaned forward and he felt her mouth close around him. He yelled, and Lace paused. “I’ve never done this, but I like it. Are you okay? Am I doing this wrong?” She stroked him lightly, then replaced her fingers with her tongue. “Or this?”
He couldn’t get air into his constricted lungs, so he couldn’t very well talk. He shook his head.
“You’ll tell me if you want me to do something different?”
He nodded, and his hand tangled in her hair, urging her back to her seduction.
It was the most exquisite, most sensually exciting thing a woman had ever done with him. And since it certainly wasn’t his first time, he decided it had to be Lace. She was different from every other woman he knew, so being with her, making love with her, was different. Not just unique, but better, more intense, thrilling.
When he knew he couldn’t take it anymore, he pulled away. She looked dazed and warm and very aroused. Her breasts, flushed with excitement, rose and fell with her rapid breathing. The fact that what she’d been doing had excited her, too, made him full with emotion.
He scooped her up into his arms and carried her to the bed. “It’s my turn, sweetheart,” he said between warm, gentling kisses. He felt ready to burst with some vague, heavy sense of perfection and he couldn’t quit touching her, kissing her.
Lace wound her arms around his neck. “That was your turn.”
“No. My turn is getting to watch you as you climax.”
Her lashes lowered over her eyes. “Daniel.”
He smiled at her pink cheeks and laid her carefully in the middle of the bed. “You like it.” Keeping his gaze on her, he opened the closet and located a box of condoms. He set them on the nightstand. “You like the way I talk to you. It excites you.”
Lace widened her eyes at the box, then admitted, “Actually, it does. But then, everything about you excites me.”
His heart skipped a beat. “Is that a fact?” He stretched out beside her. “I could just look at you and be happy.”
“But I might not like it.”
Her muscles tightened when he laid a hand on her belly. “Do you like this?”
“Hmm.” Her lips parted.
“And this?”
“Daniel…” She breathed his name.
His hand slid between her thighs, light and teasing. He stroked. “Do you know what I’m going to do to you, Lace?”
With her eyes closed and her body taut, she whispered, “What?”
He leaned over and whispered in her ear, and she moaned, pressing her head back, offering herself to him. He kissed her breasts and her belly and when he moved between her thighs she groaned in heightened anticipation of his promise.
Daniel loved every sound she made, every movement. She was so open, so free and honest and real. He kissed her deeply, heady with the taste and scent of her body. He brought her to an explosive climax, loving the way she screamed and clutched at him and praised him. And before the small convulsions had ended, he thrust into her. Once again, she shuddered and cried out his name, this time taking him with her as she came, and beyond his release, he realized something else.
He loved Lace McGee.
*
Lace was the most uninhibited lover he’d ever known, ever imagined. She had no modesty once she got used to being nude with him. In fact, in the four days they’d been at the cabin, they’d seldom bothered with clothes, and she’d quit blushing after the first day.
She was also the most talented, demanding lover he’d ever known. Lace could make him lose his control with just a look. When she talked sexy to him, he went wild. And when she touched him, quickly learning through her openness and honesty what pleased him most, he couldn’t hold back.
Lace was a very quick learner.
Daniel thought it could take him a lifetime to get used to her. Only he didn’t have a lifetime. Lace would only grant him a short interlude of intimacy. She’d been very specific that their affair had a limited time period. He could understand her reasoning. They were from different worlds. His, staid and conservative and stifling. Lace would smother in his extended company, and he’d sooner give her up than ever make her unhappy.
She slept beside him on her stomach and he admired the smooth line of her back and rounded bottom. She’d healed nicely, he noticed with a professional eye, her scar only a thin pink line. In another month, it would barely be noticeable. He traced it with his fingertip and she stretched awake.
Turning her head on the pillow to look at him, she smiled. “Good morning.”
He continued touching special places on her body, lightly, teasingly. Behind her knees, the small of her back. Down the length of her spine and beyond.
“Mmm-hmm.” She purred, smiling. “I like that.”
Without meaning to, he asked, “Do you like me?”
She rolled onto her back and faced him, her green eyes slumberous, her pale hair spread out on the pillow. “I think you’re the finest of men.”
“Lace.�
� Lying back down beside her, he propped his head on a fist and made a big production of stroking her belly. “I’m being serious.”
“Of course I like you. Do you think I’d sleep with a man I didn’t like?” When he didn’t answer, she sighed and sat up, cross-legged, unselfconscious in her nudity. “Daniel, just because we’re so different doesn’t mean I can’t understand who you are. I’ve always been free to do as I please, responsible only for myself. But you, you’ve always been out to save the world.”
He smiled, though he felt unreasonably sad. “Not the whole world. Just my small part of it.”
She smoothed his hair. “Have I ever told you how sexy I think your glasses are?”
Laughing, he wondered how she could come up with such inane things to say at the most improbable times.
“You look so intellectual, so serious and professional.”
“You look like a vamp, sitting there like that, seducing me. And here I was hoping to have a serious, professional conversation.”
Lace pulled a pillow in front of her. It barely covered the high points of interest. “There. Behold a modest woman.”
Unable to resist a moment more, he kissed her, but they both ended up laughing. That was another thing he loved about Lace. She could make everything fun. She lightened his life with her teasing insults and her absurd taunts. She’d forced him to drop his cloak of propriety, and he’d honestly enjoyed every moment.
He’d also learned to trust her instincts.
“You don’t have a modest bone in your body, but I’ve decided you are very astute when it comes to my sister.”
She stilled, all teasing gone. “Is that so?”
“Yes. I thought about it, and I watched her. You’re right, she is in love. I’m not sure who it is, and—” he looked at her over the rim of his glasses “—don’t suppose you’ll tell me?”
Lace shook her head. “I can’t. I promised.”
He accepted that. Lace would never break a promise, and he wouldn’t ask her to. “The problem is, I’m afraid she’s going to get hurt.”
Lace took a deep breath. “I’m afraid of the same thing. I’ve tried to warn her, to…”
“To tell her love doesn’t exist?”
She looked away. “No. That’s not my place to say. I’ve never tried to discourage people from seeking love. But I want Annie to be prepared. Even the examples of supposed love I’ve seen have been unrewarding, unhappy experiences most of the time. People end up hurt. Annie’s so free with herself. She doesn’t know to protect her heart.”
He wondered if that’s what Lace was doing: protecting her heart. But he seriously doubted her heart was involved with him. She’d made it clear, way too many times, how different they both were. He remembered her accusing him of hiding, and knew it to be true. Even now, he hid, because the truth would be too bitter, too painful, to deal with.
“You’ve been a good friend to her, Lace. She should have been able to come to me, but I was too busy trying to force her to stay the same. I see that now.”
Lace put her arms around him. “Be happy for her, Daniel, even if things don’t work out. She’s a wonderful person, a beautiful, caring woman, and you’re the reason why. You’ve done an incredible job with her.”
“You give me too much credit,” he said, but he liked hearing it. He liked knowing there were things about him that Lace admired. He took her shielding pillow and tossed it across the floor, then pulled her naked body against his own as he fell back on the bed. “Make love to me, Lace.”
She cupped his face and kissed him while she straddled his hips. He raised his palms to her breasts and watched her head fall back, her eyes close.
Someday Lace would find a man as forthright and uninhibited as herself. Then she’d give up her ridiculous notions that love didn’t exist and she’d marry him, living her life independently of society’s strictures. Being free in a way he never could be.
The thought filled him with rage and remorse, but he tamped it down. He didn’t want her love, didn’t want to tie himself to a woman the way his father had. As Lace had pointed out, a lot of people depended on him and he couldn’t let them down, couldn’t take chances with their happiness.
Which meant he couldn’t take a chance with Lace.
She didn’t believe in love, and that made her the worst possible risk. And although she claimed to like him, liking wouldn’t be enough, not between them. He and Lace had no future together, and he’d known it from the start.
All he could do was take the time he had with her, and then let her go.
He caught Lace and pulled her beneath him. She blinked up at him in surprise. “I thought you wanted me to make love to you?”
“I changed my mind. I want us to make love to each other.” He stared at her, trying to find something he knew didn’t exist. Lace closed her eyes against his probing gaze.
He cupped her jaw, almost roughly, regaining her attention. He saw confusion and distress, and he couldn’t bear it. He kissed her hard, his tongue thrusting, his mouth eating at hers, devouring, and for a long time, he couldn’t stop kissing her. When he finally did, they were both numb with pleasure.
Later that day his beeper signaled the end to their idyll.
*
Ten
« ^
January was a miserable month of sleet and cold. It seemed he’d no sooner stopped seeing Lace than the sun stopped shining and winter lost its appeal.
Everyone appeared to be in the doldrums, his family included. They’d been hanging around lately, watching football games or playing cards and generally making nuisances of themselves, Guy especially.
“I’ve had it. I’m going to head home.” Guy, sitting on the opposite end of the sofa and eating popcorn, yawned hugely.
Daniel pulled out his pocket watch, fingered the engraving on the back as he always did, and checked the time. “It’s only ten o’clock. What’s your rush?”
“You. You’re miserable company.”
As much as he wanted to deny it, he knew it was true. “Like you’re so choosy?” Daniel flicked off the sports channel they’d both been ignoring and tossed the remote on the table.
“I know when to get away from a bear.”
Max, doing sit-ups on the floor at their feet, grunted a muffled, “Amen,” to Guy’s comment.
Daniel nudged him in the ribs with the toe of his shoe. “Not a word out of you.”
Guy stared at Max. “What’s with him, anyway? Why all the exercise all of a sudden?”
Daniel shrugged. His brother’s peculiarities always eluded him. “You planning on entering a body-building contest, Max?”
“Nope.” He huffed between counting. “Ninety-nine, one hundred.” He fell back on the floor, breathing deeply. After a minute he pushed himself to a sitting position. “Just staying in shape. I was thinking of taking another trip.”
“Where to this time?” Daniel hated it when Max traveled, but his brother had a bad case of wanderlust and there was no curtailing his interest. He wondered what Lace would say about Max’s tendency to run off for long stretches.
He no sooner thought it than he shook his head. He and Lace were history, and unlike his father, he was determined not to mope.
“What?” Max stared at his brother in confusion. “You’re shaking your head at me and frowning and I haven’t even said anything yet.”
Guy laughed. “He was probably thinking of a certain blonde bombshell who shall remain nameless.”
“Who? Lace?”
Guy tossed a pillow at Max. “Don’t throttle him, Dan. Lace is the only blond bombshell we know at present.”
Max snorted. “Not me. I could name a dozen.”
Daniel held up his hands. “Enough, all right?”
Guy stood, then stepped over Max. “It’s not enough. You miss her. Hell, we all do, except Annie. She still sees her.” He pointed a finger at Daniel. “Your little sister has been especially weird lately. You should keep an eye on her.”
<
br /> Daniel waved away his concern. “Be patient with her. She’s in love.”
Both Guy and Max gawked at him. “What!”
“You guys should pay better attention.” Daniel didn’t add that it had taken Lace’s prodding for him to notice and be convinced.
Guy slowly sat back in his seat. “She’s in love? With who?”
“Hell if I know. I wish I did because the jerk is making her unhappy.”
Guy stared at him. “She won’t tell you?”
“No.” Then Daniel looked struck. “You should talk to her, Guy. She feels funny talking to me because I’m her brother and she’s afraid I’ll disapprove.”
Max stood and put his hands on his hips. “If the guy is making her sad, then you can bet I disapprove! I’ll find out who he is and—”
“No, don’t interfere, Max. Annie’s all grown up and she has to handle things on her own.”
Guy shook his head. “I’ll talk to her.” He looked galvanized with new purpose. “I’ll stop by and talk to her tonight.”
Daniel stared at him. “Uh, Guy, not a good idea. It’s getting late and you know Annie has to be up early to open the bookstore. Just stop in and see her tomorrow at work.”
“Right. Tomorrow. I’ll do that.” Guy stuck his hat on his head, picked up his coat and walked out without another word.
Max chortled. “I think you’re both pathetic.” Then to Daniel, “Why don’t you just call Lace? Tell her how you feel?”
For the first time that he could really remember, Daniel wanted to talk to his brother about his problems. He didn’t want to burden him, but he needed his advice, and Max knew more about women than most three men put together.
He looked at Max and said, “I wish I could, but I’m afraid to.”
Max blinked at the outpouring of brotherly confidence, started to say something, changed his mind and pulled up a chair. “What do you mean, you’re afraid? You don’t think she’ll be glad to hear from you?”
“I have no idea. You probably don’t know this, but—”
“You and Lace were involved? Of course I knew it. I probably knew before you did that you were hung up on her. That’s why I chased her in front of you.”