by Maddie James
“We’ll just have to work on that later,” Graham said, his voice softening.
Anticipation tingled through her veins—anticipation tinged with fear. What had she gotten herself into?
Jane pouted as she’d seen Dawn do. “Promise?”
“Cross my heart and hope to die.”
The sweetness of the old, childhood vow gave her heart a lurch. She lifted her gaze to meet his, surprised to see unchecked desire glittering in his eyes. Desire that matched her own.
He pushed a wayward strand of hair from her eyes. “Later,” he whispered. Graham’s fingers lingered near her cheek a moment longer than necessary. “But first, duty calls. Our public awaits us.”
Jane nodded, unable to speak again. Keeping her hand tucked in his, Graham led her toward the picnic shelter.
As in many East Tennessee towns, Legend was in a valley. Hazy, purple mountains, part of the Appalachian range, dominated the eastern skyline, further isolating the town and bestowing upon it a quiet, unhurried character.
The small, natural lake was Legend’s prime attraction. Today the state provided picnic shelters, a swimming area, and a privately-run canoe and pedal boat concession at the inlet folks had always called The Point.
It was an unusually hot Indian Summer day for October, even for Tennessee, and they were all dressed in summer clothes, enjoying this last bit of summer before the damp dregs of winter settled into the mountains.
Once again they were the stars of the show just as Graham and the real Dawn were the previous night. When they walked up to the crowd together, Jane could almost hear the gossip buzzing. Unaccustomed to the fawning adulation, Jane struggled to maintain her composure.
“I saw you in Winter’s Day, Dawn,” a classmate’s wife said. “I loved it.”
“Thank you.” Jane pasted a smile on her lips.
“What’s it like to star with Brant Warren?”
Jane had no clue. She arched an eyebrow and broadened her smile. “What do you think?”
With Graham standing so near, concentrating on her role was hard. He chatted with old friends as if he’d never left town. Often his glance settled on her face. She felt it just as surely as she felt the tenderness of the touch of his lips on her hand.
She gave more autographs, all the while consuming Graham with stolen looks. She couldn’t get enough of him—so sexy and urbane, a big town guy amidst small town folks. She liked the way his brown hair curled at the edge of his beige polo shirt collar, and the way the lines around his eyes crinkled when he laughed. She liked his crisp, navy shorts and his deck shoes worn with no socks. Conservative, yet understated, he didn’t belong in Legend, Tennessee, but at a fancy mansion on Long Island.
Steven Ridgeway’s obnoxious, young son raced up and thrust a pen and paper in her face. Jane’s lips tightened. Taking a deep breath, she made an effort to get along with him.
“My daddy sent me to get your autograph.” The brat rubbed a dirty finger under his nose. “I’ve never seen a real movie star.”
“We’re just like regular people.” Jane forced a smile as she scribbled “Dawn Smith” on a scrap of paper.
“My daddy says you’re prettier than Jane.”
“Oh?” This was interesting. “How can that be? We’re identical twins.”
“My daddy says you got bigger boobs.”
So much for loyalty from the man who wanted to marry her. And so much for his horrible child.
The boy snatched the paper and took off without saying thanks. If this was how Dawn lived her life, her sister was welcome to it.
Jane caught a glint of humor in Graham’s eyes. “What’s the matter? The boy’s a brat,” she said so only he could hear. “I was just defending my sister.”
“The Jane I knew never needed defending.”
She returned Graham’s steady gaze, wondering about his remark. About him. About the man he’d become.
Slowly, Jane ran her tongue over dry lips. The two of them seemed suspended in time. Alone in the crowd. Her nerve endings prickled with a potent attraction that connected them like lovers.
She squared her shoulders and turned away to sign another autograph. Could she sustain this switch of identity when every bit of her wanted what she’d always wanted: Graham to love her for herself?
****
A wolf whistle split the air. Clint Roberts, the originator of the whistle, sauntered toward them, holding tightly to Dawn’s hand. Jane’s heart gave a tiny squeeze to see the two of them together. Dressed in Jane’s clothes, Dawn looked completely relaxed and happy for the first time in years.
Clint slapped a hefty hand on Graham’s back in that very male-bonding way. “Glad you both could make it. Damn, Dawn, you sure look hot.”
Shutting one eye in an exaggerated wink, Clint let Jane know he was in on their little secret.
She smiled at her affable classmate. “You’ve never been one to mince words, Clint.”
He grinned. “I always call ‘em as I see ‘em.”
Jane had seen how Dawn twisted Clint around her little finger in high school. Looked as if she had him in the palm of her hand again. But you had to admire a guy like Clint. Steady, successful, good-hearted. The kind of man who’d make Dawn a good husband if she’d give him half a chance.
Steven joined them. He held a bottle of beer. “The guys are getting up a flag football game. Come on, Clint.”
“You know me and football.” Clint looked at Dawn. “As long as Jane wants to come along.”
“Of course,” Dawn said, linking arms with the big jock.
Dawn hates football. Surprised, Jane eyed her sister with curiosity.
Steven took a swig of beer and gave Jane a disgusted look. Was he suspicious? Or just resigned to the fact Jane had dumped him for good? “How about you, Winchester?” Steven called out. “Would our fancy big city attorney like to join us?”
“Thanks, but I was just about to invite Dawn for a ride in a pedal boat.” Graham turned to Jane. “Will you join me?”
“That would be nice.” Anything to get her away from the crowd and back to seducing Legend’s famed novelist.
“Come on, Dawn.” Grabbing Jane’s hand, Graham drew her away.
“They always were too good for the rest of us.” Steven’s voice carried as he walked away.
Anger tightened Graham’s jaw. Ridgeway was a jerk. He didn’t like the way he ogled Dawn or reeked of alcohol.
Graham wanted to protect this woman. It was an insane feeling. The Jane he remembered never needed rescuing, but as Dawn, Graham sensed a new vulnerability about her. Maybe Jane was feeling something of what he felt. Out of control. Unable to come up with an idea for his next book, and without a job, he didn’t belong anywhere—even in his own hometown.
No matter, he needed to take Jane away from the crush of curious classmates. Any moment now, they’d start asking specific questions about Hollywood, questions she couldn’t answer. Jane’s portrayal was admirable, but he was certain she’d give herself away if they stuck around much longer.
Besides, he selfishly wanted time alone with the little imposter. Perhaps then he could figure out why he wanted to bed her one minute and protect her the next.
Graham paid the rental fee for the fiberglass pedal boat. The teenage attendant took them along the dock and helped them climb into the sunken seats of a flat, yellow boat. The sturdy craft had a small paddle on the rear connected to pedals beneath the seat, and, much like a bike, it was moved by leg power.
Graham liked the method of propulsion, for it gave him a pleasing view of Jane’s shapely legs and creamy thighs. The pink hot pants, hiked high, left nothing to his imagination. And he had a lot of imagination. In fact, he had to stay his eager fingers from exploring the soft warmth he envisioned under the pink cuffs. It would be so easy to test what Jane so innocently offered.
Sucking in a sharp breath, Graham nodded to the attendant, who shoved them away from the dock. What was the matter with him? This was Jane for God
’s sake. Not some uptown girl.
“How do you guide one of these things?” Jane asked, turning her guileless blue eyes upon him.
His gaze took in the sunlight that touched her fair skin. “With this handle between the seats.”
“You’ve got to be kidding?”
“No.”
She laughed. “That doesn’t seem very efficient. So Captain, what do you suggest?”
“Paddle like crazy,” he responded with a laugh of his own and began to pump his legs.
Frothy water churned beneath the paddle that slapped slowly at first, but increased in rhythm as they got used to paddling. Steering was awkward, but adequate to move them toward the middle of the blue lake where he hoped to isolate Jane so he could discover why, when she was near, his nerves snapped like ice-covered branches.
Ten minutes later, they were exhausted.
“Whew, this is too much like work.” Jane stopped pumping.
“My sentiments exactly.”
Graham quit too and the watercraft slowed. Drifting in the placid lake, tension eased from his shoulders and legs. The gentle rocking of the boat and the rays from the sun lulled him like a heavy drug.
Jane closed her eyes and rested her head against the back of the seat, giving him a tempting view of her sleek neck and delicate profile. What would it be like to shower kisses along her jaw and down her throat? She tickled his senses smelling of lavender and sunshine. An aching heat pooled in his groin.
Dangling her left hand over the side of the boat, Jane murmured, “Mm, the water’s still warm. Nice that we’ve had a warm fall.”
“That’s not the only thing that’s warm.”
She opened an eye and lazily slanted a gaze at him. “The sun is especially hot today.”
Graham didn’t think she’d mistaken his meaning. “The warmth I’m talking about has nothing to do with the water or the sun.”
“Oh?”
“It’s closer to home.”
“Is there a problem?”
“You’re my problem, sweetheart.”
“Aren’t you just intrigued because I’m a movie star?”
Graham played along with her. “I knew you before you went to Hollywood, remember? You’ve always had star quality.”
He was telling the truth. Jane was quality and had always done the right thing. She was his conscience throughout high school. Never until graduation night had he thought of her in any way but as a friend. He regretted being so shortsighted, for his relationship with Jane could have been something more.
As water gently lapped the sides of the boat, Graham considered that time years ago. Then he was a green kid. Now he was a cynical adult, still searching for that illusive meaning to life. He’d left Legend, running from something. Fifteen years later he was still running. Trouble was, he didn’t know from what or to what.
Jane shut her eyes once more, but wouldn’t let the subject drop. “Come on, Graham, you can confess you’re attracted to me because of whom I am.” A faint smile played across her lips. They begged to be sampled.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I know since I saw you again, my libido’s done double time.”
“Then you’ll want to keep your promise.” Jane opened her eyes and batted her lashes at him in a seductive way she’d not quite mastered.
“Sweetheart, you don’t know how much I want to keep my promise.”
A hard fist of fear clobbered him. He was falling prey to her little game. Part of him wanted to believe in her deception, for Jane had blossomed into a very beautiful, sexy woman. The rest of him knew it wasn’t right to ogle her like that jerk Ridgeway. That was okay for the real Dawn, but Jane was special.
Last night he vowed not to muddy his life again with sex, but Jane was making it too hard. How far would she go with her game? Back in school, she’d been shy. The good girl. Her locker room reputation was spotless. A powerful wave of guilt rushed through Graham’s veins, remembering how he tainted that reputation graduation night.
But times had changed. She had grown up, as his sideways glance confirmed. Was she willing to go all the way with him again? For the sake of a quick release, would he compromise Jane again?
Graham abruptly shoved aside the troubling question, preferring to let his mind drift just as the boat drifted peacefully in the water.
“So what do you think of our humble, little Legend?” Jane’s eyes were shut to the sun and his perusal.
“I haven’t had a chance to see much of it. I just got in yesterday.” He didn’t add that he felt out of place in his home town, much as he felt earlier standing in the Smith’s living room.
“It hasn’t changed much.”
“No? You come back a lot?” he asked, pretending to talk to Dawn.
“Not really. Jane fills me in.”
Little liar. She didn’t realize how transparent she was. He’d seen through her rouse immediately. Well, two could play her silly game.
He traced a fingertip down her sun-warmed arm. “So how is your sister?”
“Fine.” Jane’s answer was almost a sigh. “You know she left teaching after mother died. She bought the bookstore with her inheritance.”
Touching Jane gave him such an arousing pleasure. His fingers strayed to her satin curls. “She never married?” he asked even though he had the same conversation with the real Jane.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“She never met the right man.” Jane wet her lips with the tip of her tongue, unaware of what the slight movement did to him.
“Never?” That same painful ache throbbed in his groin.
“Well, nearly never. The right one got away.”
“Maybe he didn’t know he was the right one.” Was she talking about him?
Jane opened her eyes to search the horizon. She didn’t reply to his comment.
“Is Jane happy being single?”
Jane shifted in the seat and turned her gaze on him. “I wouldn’t say happy. Content is a better word.”
He inclined his head and considered her answer. Then he once more touched her arm. “That’s a good way to put it.”
“Yes.” Jane shivered in response to his caress. “She refused to settle for second best. Why did you never marry?”
Clint asked him the same thing. “Too busy with my career, I guess.”
“I don’t believe that.”
“What? About my career?”
“No, silly.” Jane’s eyes showed astonishment. “A guy as handsome as you surely has plenty of girlfriends.”
Graham averted his gaze. “I never said that.” Shrugging, he looked back. “No girl was ever right.”
“I see.” Jane dipped her head, and reached to stroke his forearm. “So what makes a girl right?”
His skin sizzled at her touch. “That’s another good question.” Graham hesitated, wondering why he’d never before verbalized his needs. “She’d have to let me be me. She’d be a friend, someone I can talk to. She’d be courageous—not afraid to take a risk. And of course, she’d be beautiful,” he added with a quick wink.
“Oh, you guys always throw that one in.”
“It’s important.”
“Why?”
“I wouldn’t want to spend my life with someone who is dog-ugly.”
Jane grinned. “Or a bitch.”
“You’ve got it, sister.”
Jane leaned toward him, giving him a wonderful view of her inviting cleavage and mounds of flesh. She let her fingers slowly walk up his arm. “Would she turn you on, this Ms. Right?”
“She’d have to.” Graham drew a deep breath, wishing her fingers would wander lower to ease his throbbing erection.
“Like I turn you on?” This time when Jane batted her lashes, she succeeded in transmitting the intended effect.
To prevent further torment, Graham captured her roving hand. “Sweetheart, you’ve got that right.”
“So, when do you plan to keep your promise?”
“Soon.”
“How soon?”
At that moment, Graham wanted her with a ferocity that startled him. Her self-satisfied smile and her laughing blue eyes sorely tempted him. But he couldn’t allow himself this easy conquest. This was Jane, after all. Not a city girl. No matter what her game, he still respected this woman, just as much as he longed for her.
“Do you know something? You’re an outrageous flirt.” He hoped to lighten the mood.
“Comes with stardom.” Jane played the game like a pro.
“That’s how you made it to the top?”
“It helped, but marriage to a movie producer didn’t hurt either.”
“What are you going to do now you’re divorced?”
“Enjoy you,” she said with a sexy grin.
That was enough. The situation was way beyond his control as the swelling in his shorts testified.
“I think it’s time for me to take a cold shower.”
Needing to drench the fire raging within and to take back control, Graham stood up, kicked off his shoes, stripped off his shirt and shorts and dove headfirst into the lake.
Chapter Sixteen
Lilly stared blankly through the large plate glass window at the activity on Main Street that Saturday afternoon as Martin McClain elaborated on the benefits of owning a downtown shop. She heard him, every word, and everything he said made perfect sense from a business standpoint. She just wasn’t feeling very businesslike herself.
Not after the temptation that had enticed her earlier in Suzie’s kitchen. And she wasn’t talking food.
“The large amount of tourist foot traffic as people passed through Legend on their way to Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge keeps a steady stream of shoppers in the area. Business is great during the summer and fall months, a little slower in the winter and spring, but the town council is looking at possible options to improve the situation.
“Our lake is pristine. The surrounding property rarely comes up for sale as it’s mostly owned by the descendants of the original settlers, or very wealthy newcomers, but I know of one tract that could be available within the next couple of years if you’re interested. Mr. Wilcox is a hundred and three… Unfortunately he’s outlived his family.” Martin cleared his throat. “It’s all very sad, but he’s lived a good life and has commissioned me to take care of the disposal of the property when the time comes.