by Foster, Lori
Some ridiculous prudish streak now had her denying her own feelings.
One way or another, he’d get her to accept him, and to trust him and her own basic nature. Because one way or another, he planned to have her—for the rest of his life.
But when Levi started to go after her, two large muscled bodies got in his way. Why hadn’t Beth told him that her brothers were enormous? Well, at least one was enormous. Noah was a big brick wall of a guy. But Ben, no slouch, stood on a par with Levi.
Together, they looked pretty invincible.
Removing his coat, too, Levi told them, “This is none of your business,” and he knew that somehow, if necessary, he’d walk right through them. He would not let Beth keep dodging him.
Noah grinned—which only made him look more imposing. “It’s our business now.”
Levi glanced beyond the hulks, but the more reasonable women were nowhere to be seen. Damn.
“Forget it,” Ben told him, knowing the direction of his thoughts. “They went after Beth to find out what the hell you did to upset her so much.”
“She’s not upset,” Levi argued. “She’s embarrassed when she has no reason to be.”
“Says you,” Ben remarked right back. “She thinks differently.”
“She’s in denial,” Levi explained. “She’s uncertain, and she’s surprised. That’s all.”
First, he’d strip Beth naked and get her in bed, and then he’d hash out the future with her. He’d found that the more he touched Beth, the more reasonable she became.
Noah’s grin widened. “I wonder why she’s embarrassed. I don’t suppose you plan to tell us?”
“No.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Noah said. “I already have an idea what’s going on.”
“Me, too,” Ben said. “But given Beth’s reaction, you must not have handled it right. If you had, she wouldn’t have come back to us.”
Levi stiffened. “I’ll straighten out everything. I just need her to listen to me.”
Another voice, thankfully less provoking, intruded. “Quit crowding him, boys. He doesn’t look like he’s about to back down, and regardless of what Beth said, I don’t think she wants him mangled.”
Levi didn’t think so either, but it surprised him that her father might be an ally. “Thanks.”
The older man nudged Noah out of the way. “Let’s all take a seat.”
Levi shook his head. “I need to go after her.”
“Not just yet,” he was told. “Ben, could we get some coffee, do you think?”
Ben grumbled, but agreed and took himself off. Noah stepped farther to the side, giving Levi room to move and the opportunity to address Beth’s father.
Pulling himself together, Levi eyed the man before him. He had Beth’s blond hair and piercing blue eyes, but where Beth was delicate in the most delicious ways, this man looked solid and hard.
On the best of days, Levi hated meeting dads—not that he’d often been serious enough about a female to warrant the need of parental approval. In fact, since meeting Beth, no other woman had held his attention long.
Now, under these conditions, it really sucked to await judgment by Beth’s father. The man knew she’d been engaged to a doctor. By comparison, Levi had to be one hell of a letdown. Brandon could have set Beth up in style. Lots of luxury. Guaranteed security.
All Levi had to offer was fidelity, devotion, and a job that barely paid middle-class wages.
Seeing no help for it now, Levi stuck out a hand. “You’re Beth’s father.”
Accepting Levi’s hand in a strong, calloused grip, he said, “Kent Monroe.”
“Levi Masterson. And as Beth said, I apologize for the theatrics.”
“That’s my girl. She got that dramatic streak from her mother.” Kent gestured him toward a table. “How about you tell me what’s going on without all the drama?”
Because Kent was being reasonable, Levi hated to disappoint him. But much of the story would be Beth’s alone to tell. The second they were seated and Ben had returned with mugs and a coffeepot, the three men stared at Levi in expectation.
To appease them, Levi gave the shortened, censored version of the past week. “Brandon is out of the picture. I’m in, whether Beth admits it or not. I love her, and I’m pretty sure she cares the same about me.” He shrugged. “Either way, I plan to marry her.”
Everyone waited.
Levi poured himself a mug of coffee.
“That’s it?” Noah asked.
“Afraid so.”
“What happened to Brandon?” Ben asked.
“You should ask Beth.”
In disbelief, Ben fell back in his seat. “You really think that’s all you’re going to tell us?”
Levi sipped his coffee. “Yeah.”
Kent laughed. “Did you propose to her yet?”
“I’ve tried, but she hasn’t exactly given me a chance when she’s avoiding me like the plague.”
“And?”
“I’m working on it.” Levi set the mug down. “That’s why I’m here.”
Noah propped an elbow on the table. “So you followed her here to propose to her?”
“I followed her here because she’s been trying to hide from me. I have to get her to accept all the sudden changes before I can ask her to marry me.”
“Yeah,” Ben said, “she sounds real smitten.”
“She is.” Levi had to believe that. Beth wasn’t a woman who would go wild with a man that she didn’t love. “It’s just that she’d gotten really comfortable with her plans for the future, and now those plans are gone. Beth’s having a hard time accepting it all. That’s why I can’t let her out of my sight for long. She’ll convince herself she doesn’t care, or that we don’t belong together if she gets a chance to think about all this too much.”
“Think about all what?” Noah asked.
Wild sex. Unrestrained passion. Fantasies come true, and imaginations gone wild. Levi cleared his throat. “You’ll have to ask—”
“Beth,” Noah finished. “Got it.”
“So,” Kent said, sounding cordial and almost amused, “you’re stalking my daughter?”
“Sort of.” But he didn’t want Kent getting the wrong impression. “If she’ll just admit it, she wants me to.”
Ben tapped his fingers on the tabletop. “Did you know she was coming home when you followed her?”
“Yeah, I figured that’s where she was headed.” Levi shrugged. “It’s the holidays. She’s emotional and confused. Being with family made sense.” He eyed each of the men in turn. “Maybe you can help me.”
It was Noah’s turn to drop back in his seat. “Help you?”
“That’s right.” Levi leaned forward. “For starters, I’d appreciate it if you’d keep her from running off again.”
“For starters?” Kent asked. “I gather there’s more?”
“Yeah. I wouldn’t mind being alone in a room with her for a while, too.” And before any of them could start grumbling about that, Levi added, “To talk. To work through things.”
“The changes?”
“That’s right.” It wasn’t every day a woman found her fiancé cheating, broke an engagement, and realized she loved someone else anyway.
Kent nodded slowly. “You know, I believe you.”
“Thank you. I give you my word that Beth has nothing to fear from me. I love her. I would never do anything to hurt her.”
“That’s good,” Ben told him. “Because if you do anything—”
“Yeah, I’ve got it. You don’t need to finish that thought.”
“Good.”
“If one of you would go park my truck, I’d really appreciate it. I left it idling in the lot, blocking Beth’s car.”
All three of them looked toward the diner door, but none of them made a move toward it.
Levi settled back in the booth and lifted his mug of coffee. “Or someone can steal the damn thing. I don’t give a shit. I just want to talk to Beth without being
interrupted and without her sneaking away.”
The gazes all transferred to him.
Levi felt his shoulders go rigid. If they thought to stop him, they’d be sorely disappointed. “So where is she? I don’t think it’s a good idea for her to have this much time away from me.”
Kent tapped his fingertips together. “You could be right.”
Taking their clues from him, Ben and Noah made sounds of reluctant agreement.
“But I won’t send you off to a room alone with her, unless Beth decides that’s what she wants. I remember being young and in love.”
Ben snorted. “You’re old and in love and no better now than you probably were then.”
Kent just smiled. “Ben, can you tell Levi of someplace he can talk to Beth without interruption? Someplace that’s not too private, though?”
“Someplace,” Noah interjected with a narrow-eyed look at Levi, “where we can hear her if she calls out.”
Ben thought about it a moment. “Sure, I know just the place. If Beth presents herself. Because right now, I have no idea where the women are. Sierra knows every hiding place in this joint. If Beth doesn’t want you to talk to her tonight, then you won’t be talking to her.”
“We’ll talk,” Levi assured him with confidence. “She won’t trust me alone with the three of you for too long. I’ll give her fifteen minutes, tops. Then she’ll be out here again, giving me the perfect opportunity I need.”
Her head in her hands and her shoulders slumped, Beth sat on a stool between her sisters-in-law with her stepmother pacing in front of her. So far, they’d tried to make her eat, encouraged her to drink, smothered her with hugs, and very impatiently waited for explanations.
She had to tell them something.
The truth seemed her only option.
Forcing herself to straighten, Beth faced her family. “Brandon cheated on me with a female colleague of his.”
“That bastard,” was followed by a heated, “Miserable jerk,” and finally, “Oh honey, I’m so sorry.”
Beth nodded in acknowledgment of each sentiment. “He claimed it was a mistake, that it just happened. He said he was sorry and that he still loved me.” She gulped back her humiliation. “He said he’d make it up to me in our marriage.”
All three women made sounds of disgust and disbelief.
“All I really wanted,” Beth confided, “was to get even, to maybe make him as miserable as he’d made me. I wanted him to know what he’d thrown away and to regret what he’d done.”
Sierra asked, “So you ended the engagement?”
“Yes.”
“I hope you threw the ring at him,” Grace said.
“I did.”
“And?” Brooke asked.
Drawing a deep breath, Beth whispered, “I gave him tit for tat by sleeping with his best friend.”
Mouths dropped open in shock, only to snap shut in realization. Beth could almost hear the blinking of their wide eyes and feel the burn of their condemnation.
Brooke recovered first. She looked back at the closed kitchen door, and for some reason, she spoke in a whisper. “That young man out there?”
“Yes.” Hiding her face in her hands again, Beth wailed, “That’s him.”
Grace cleared her throat. “I take it he wants a repeat performance?”
“But I don’t.” She lifted her shoulders. “Only now he won’t go away.”
No one had any suggestions.
“Do you really want him to go away?” Brooke finally asked.
“I…I think so.” Beth gulped, and wondered where to start. “It had seemed like such a simple plan in the beginning.” She looked at Sierra and Grace and almost laughed at their identical expressions of disbelief. “It did, really.”
“What was the plan?”
Saying it aloud made it sound even dumber, but Beth forced herself to honesty. “Brandon had cheated, so I would cheat. It was just supposed to be sex, and it was just supposed to be one time.”
Sierra scooted closer. “It was more than once?”
Boy, was it ever. Beth nodded miserably, and her voice dipped to a mere whisper. “I went to his place on a Friday after work. I figured I’d be there an hour and be back home before dinner so I could call Brandon and tell him what I did. He’d be heartbroken and full of regret, I’d be avenged, and that’d be that.”
“How long were you there?” Grace wanted to know.
“The entire weekend.” To Beth’s amazement, no one looked shocked. They didn’t even look surprised. They just…looked curious to hear more. “Actually,” Beth added, so they’d be sure to understand, “we both missed work on Monday, too.”
Grace scooted in closer. “You’re saying that you lost track of time?”
“I lost track of everything. The plan. Propriety. I lost track of me.” And that was the hardest part of all. “I don’t know what happened. I was a…a…”
“A what?” Sierra asked.
“A deviant,” Beth blurted. “A sex freak. A…I don’t know. Inexhaustible, I guess.”
Brooke cleared her throat. “And that concerns you?”
“Well, of course it does.” How could Brooke look so cavalier over her confession?
Grace grinned. “Nothing wrong with a little deviation now and then, as long as you’re both willing.”
“Yeah,” Sierra agreed. Then she leaned closer. “So what exactly did you do that was so freaky?”
Brooke said, “Now Sierra. I don’t know that we should be discussing this.”
“Oh, come on,” Sierra said. “Everyone sees how you look at Kent. And everyone sees Kent, so they all know why you look at him like that. You’re not fooling anyone.”
Pretending affront, Brooke said, “Young lady, that’s entirely…” her stern expression broke into a grin, “…accurate.”
Sierra and Grace chuckled. “We know.”
“And that’s probably something else that we shouldn’t talk about.”
Leaning in close again, Grace whispered, “You should see how Brooke watches your dad when he’s working on landscaping.”
“Now stop,” Brooke insisted, but everyone could see that she didn’t mean it.
Suffering a different kind of uneasiness now, Beth looked at Brooke.
“All right, it’s true,” Brooke admitted. “Kent looks incredible when he gets all sweaty and he takes off his shirt and his muscles are bulging.” She shivered. “He’s such a hunk. I’m so glad I met him.”
Beth blinked. Her father was a hunk?
“Noah is very inventive,” Grace confided without a single ounce of discomfort. “I can always trust him to keep things interesting.”
“Ben’s a nut.” Sierra looked at her mother-in-law. “Don’t listen to this part, Brooke.”
After rolling her eyes, Brooke put her hands over her ears and paced to the other side of the room.
Sierra smiled. “Since Brooke is Ben’s mother, she doesn’t really like to hear about how sexy he is. She just wants him to be happy.”
“And he is,” Grace noted.
“So am I. But when I first met him, I thought he was a complete perv. And that he made me into a perv, too. It was really unnerving. I wasn’t me anymore.”
Because that was exactly how she felt, Beth nodded. “What did you do?”
“Well, whatever else Ben might be, he’s incredible. And considerate. And I love him more every day. So naturally, I just gave in and enjoyed it.” She gave Beth a certain look. “Trust me, I’ve never regretted that decision.”
Brooke looked back at them, lowered her hands, and asked, “All clear?”
“Yes.” Sierra stood. “So Beth, if you had a good time, there’s no reason to be so upset.”
“But…” Beth didn’t know what to think. “It’s like I went into this fog and I didn’t want anything to stop, ever.” Desperate to make them understand, Beth turned to Brooke as she rejoined their little circle. “It was never like that with Brandon. I mean, it wasn’t bad, but it
wasn’t…”
“Overwhelming?” Grace asked.
“Mind-blowing?” Sierra added.
“Stupendous?” Brooke offered.
“All that.” Beth slumped in her seat.
“I’d say it’s a good thing you didn’t marry Brandon.”
Sierra agreed with Grace. “For sure.” She patted Beth’s hand. “You did the right thing.”
“I don’t know.” In for a penny, in for a pound, Beth decided. “For those few days, I was shameless—and I loved every second. But now that I’m myself again, my behavior seems horrifying.”
“You were a virgin when you met Brandon, weren’t you?”
There were times, Beth thought, when Grace proved very astute. “Yes.”
“When I met Noah, I was, too. But I just thought it was all really exciting.”
Sierra gave Beth a sympathetic look. “Did you think it was exciting with Brandon?”
Beth started to say yes, but she hesitated. “I don’t know. Cementing our relationship was exciting. And the sex was pleasant—”
Grace made a face. “Pleasant?”
Agreeing with her, Sierra said, “Brandon must’ve been a putz.” Brooke sympathized. “I’m so sorry, honey. Before Levi, you probably didn’t even realize that sex could and should be more.”
Beth decided that the conversation had veered too far off course. “The problem is that now I can barely look at Levi, but he won’t give me any space. To hear him talk, you’d think we were engaged or something.”
“Ah.” Brooke pulled up a chair. “How so?”
Relieved to finally have someone to talk to, Beth blurted, “He says he always wanted me.”
Brooke’s eyebrows shot up. “Really?”
“He claims that he never said anything because he and Brandon have been friends since grade school. He didn’t want to interfere between us.”
“Wow.” Grace let out a long sigh. “He put your feelings before his own. That’s so romantic.”
“Levi sounds like a great guy,” Sierra agreed.
It struck Beth that he did sort of sound terrific—in an infuriating, devastating kind of way.
Sierra tilted her head. “So I’m dying to know—how did Brandon take it when you told him about Levi? Did you get your revenge?”