by Tawny Weber
He was? Zane arched one brow. What the hell did that make him?
“And third, of the two of you, Xander watches patiently while Zane always looks like he’s about to pounce.” Three fingers in the air, she paused to give him a wide-eyed smirk. “Well?”
“Well,” Zane said, folding his hands behind his head as he leaned the chair back to rest on the rear legs, “I think it’s safe to say that we’ve lost our mystique around these parts.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that.” Dianne patted his shoulders. “There’s plenty of mystery left. Enough to intrigue any number of women in town. I’m sure there’ll be a long line of them thrilled to enjoy some of that mystery you spread around. Just don’t be starting fights in my bar.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he murmured as she walked away.
Tipping back his beer, he pondered his lack of enthusiasm over spreading mystery. He liked—no, actually he loved—exchanging orgasms with all manner of single ladies. Tall ones, short ones, sassy ones, intense ones. His only hard-and-fast rule other than their being single was to keep the exchanges to one night—or in extreme circumstances, maybe an entire weekend.
But there was something about the idea of women lining up, just waiting. Where was the thrill in that?
He sucked down the rest of his beer, wishing it’d wash away the taste of dissatisfaction.
“Bennett!”
“Harris,” Zane greeted, shoving to his feet to wrap one arm around the other man’s shoulder and giving him a thump on the back. “Check you out. Mr. Big Shot bank manager, Little League coach and, what did I hear? You’re running for the city council?”
“You forgot head of the reunion committee,” Mike said, dimples flashing as he grinned. “Dude, you really should think about stepping it up and doing something for your community.”
“You really should think about kissing his butt,” injected Kyle Daley as he joined them. “Like a SEAL needs your advice on anything besides how to pick out a tie?”
“The only advice you have is how to look pretty,” Mike shot back as Zane greeted Kyle with the same back-thumping hello.
“Yo, Zane,” Joe Beck called out as he wove his way through the thickening crowd. “About time you came back to entertain us.”
“Where’s Xander?” Kyle asked, grabbing a chair with one hand, gesturing for a beer with the other.
“He’ll be here. What about Lenny?” Zane wondered, looking around for the last member of the group of guys he and Xander had run with since grade school. “I thought he was joining us.”
“He’ll be here. He got stuck working the afternoon shift at the gas station.”
“What happened to his job at the power plant?”
“Lost it.” Joe grimaced as he pulled up his own chair. “His old lady kicked him out, too. He’s renting that apartment over the bakery, trying to get back on his feet.”
“Over the bakery? I thought your sister lived up there.” Zane shot a look at Mike, whose parents owned the bakery.
“She does, but there are two apartments up there.” Mike shrugged. “This way Lenny’s got a place he can afford and Viv isn’t on her own.”
“Still playing overprotective big brother? Aren’t you worried about letting a dog like Len loose around your baby sister?”
The three men laughed, Mike’s sounding a little forced.
“Lenny’s scared of Vivian,” Kyle explained. Before he could elaborate, Zane’s brother sauntered into the pub. As the others called out greetings, Zane eyed his twin.
Yeah, he could see why Dianne claimed Xander was a gentleman. Nobody would mistake them for brothers, but while Xander looked just as capable of kicking serious ass, he was approachable. And approach they did, especially the women.
Relaxing now that his back was covered, Zane started on his second beer and prepared to have a good time. Life was always good when Xander was around.
An hour and two pitchers of beer later, the six of them had commandeered the pool table. Par for the course, the insults were flying right along with the laughter.
“Whew, I’d like to take her out,” Lenny said, watching a stacked blonde saunter past them toward the ladies’ room. “She’s turned me down four times, though. But she’s giving you the do-me look, Xander. You gonna go for it?”
Xander glanced over, noted the hot inspection the blonde was giving him and the invitation in her eyes, then turned back to the pool table.
“Nope. Zane went out with her a few years ago.”
“So?”
“Bennett brothers don’t share,” Joe reminded the others. “Remember? Any chick one of them does—dates, I mean,” he corrected at Xander’s arch look, “is on the other’s do-not-touch list.”
“Is that why the two of you live on opposite coasts? To keep the field clear for the other?”
“No. It’s so we can spread the joy of the Bennett brothers around. Our little favor to womankind,” Zane joked.
“Methinks it’s challenge time,” Kyle said, draining his fourth beer and reaching for the pitcher.
“Haven’t you grown up yet?” Xander asked, his attention on the table as he executed a wicked bank shot.
“C’mon, it’s tradition.”
“He’s got a point,” Kyle remarked from his position at the table, feet propped on an empty chair as he waited to play the winner. “We’ve been issuing challenges since second grade when Joe dared the two of you to jump off the dugout to see who could land closest to the pitcher’s mound.”
“Or Mike’s cookie challenge. The one where Xander beat you by eating four-dozen snickerdoodles.”
“Four dozen and two,” Xander corrected from the pool table. “Zane upchucked at forty-nine.”
“Drag racing on Old March Road.”
“Who could catch the most bass when we camped at Adobe Creek.”
“Who could get the most applause singing ‘Living on a Prayer’ in the cafeteria.”
Zane exchanged an eye roll with his brother, amused at the replay of some of their stupider dares over the years. The raw-egg one had definitely been vile.
“I think we’ve outgrown being dumbasses,” Zane decided, getting to his feet as Xander made his last shot to win the game.
“We can’t have a reunion without a challenge,” Mike objected.
“And I’ve got the perfect one,” Joe claimed, returning to the table with another pitcher of beer and a grin. “Remember the girl everyone wanted to date in school?”
“No,” Zane said. He’d dated pretty much all the girls he wanted. Then he saw Xander’s gaze shift toward the bar. Following it, he frowned. “You mean the Princess?”
“Yep, the Princess. Quinn Oswald was the finest girl in our class. Nobody here scored with her then, and nobody’s scored with her since she moved back to Little Creek.” From Joe’s expression that wasn’t for lack of trying on his part.
Tension shot off Xander like bullets from a gun. Nothing pissed him off more than seeing someone disrespecting a lady.
“We don’t bet on sex,” Zane said, laying one hand on Xander’s arm before he could throw the punch his scowl promised was coming.
“Not sex,” Joe said, backing up with his hands in the air. “A date. Just a date.”
“To the reunion dance,” Kyle added. “Last night of the event, everyone’s wearing clothes. Nothing rude about that, right? It’ll be like prom night all over again.”
If Zane recalled, there had been a lot of not wearing clothes on prom night. But maybe that’d just been him and Cait Carson.
“Just a date?” Xander asked in a chill tone, despite the tension Zane still felt shooting off him.
“A date with Quinn Oswald to the reunion dance. Let’s make it easy on her and keep the choice between the two of you.” Mike looked from Xander to
Zane and back again. “Challenge issued.”
The brothers’ eyes met.
There was something in Xander’s that Zane couldn’t read. He hesitated, but didn’t ask. Not here in front of everyone.
“It’s better than raw eggs,” he pointed out instead.
“Yeah.” Brow creased, Xander looked across the room at Quinn again. “Sure. Why not.”
“Challenge accepted,” Zane said after a second, his eyes still on his brother’s face. Something was definitely up. But he knew he wouldn’t get anything out of Xander that Xander didn’t want to share.
Zane grinned. He’d make him share later.
For now, he had a pool game to win.
And win he did, playing all comers over the next hour. He’d just accepted Lenny’s tequila challenge, and the offer of the guy’s couch since it meant Zane only had to walk across the street instead of driving, when Kyle sidled up next to him.
“Dude, Xander is getting a step up on you,” Kyle muttered, adding an elbow to the ribs as emphasis.
Zane glanced over to see his brother at the bar with the Princess and shrugged.
“There’s plenty of time,” he said, grabbing his shot glass and toasting Lenny. “And fair’s fair. Xander got there first, it’s his shot.”
Zane was drinking his.
But Zane’s thoughts weren’t on the challenge, the reunion or even sexy princesses when he walked out of the bar. Not at closing, as he’d figured, but at half-past ten. Because, apparently, everyone had to work in the morning.
What the hell?
Wondering when they’d all gotten so old, he turned into the alley between the bakery and the coffee shop, heading for the stairs that led to Lenny’s place.
And rammed into a wall.
A tall, blond, curvaceous wall that cussed like a sailor when her feet went flying out from beneath her.
“Sorry,” he muttered, making a grab and catching only fabric. He snagged her arm at the last second, holding her there, teetering on high heels.
Whoa.
His smile spread wide and wicked at the sight of the gorgeous blonde. She looked like a forties movie star with her side-swept bangs, sloe eyes and Cupid’s-bow lips. She didn’t look happy, though.
Probably because he’d ripped her blouse, leaving her standing in a body-skimming black skirt that hit her shapely knees, stiletto heels and, if the dangling fabric was any indication, a lace demi-cup bra.
“Hello, gorgeous.”
4
“WHAT THE HELL?” Vivian cursed, yanking herself free from the jerk that’d rammed into her.
One arm pinwheeled as she tried to keep her balance, the other clutching the box of her latest creations close to her chest. For one second, she thought she had a chance as the stiletto heel of her sandal found cement.
But she was no match for gravity.
She hit the ground.
The box hit the air.
It rained chocolate. Freshly molded confections flew high in the air before gravity brought them down, too. Squealing, Vivian threw out her hands, trying to catch as many as she could from her prone position.
“Don’t let them—” she huffed “—hit the ground.”
Groaning as they did just that, Vivian dropped three pieces she’d rescued into her lap, then shoved at the hair curtaining her face. The better to glare as she cursed the man who’d knocked her on her ass.
That was when she got a good look at him.
Oh.
Vivian’s breath caught in her chest. She was pretty sure there was some surprise mixed in there, but mostly what was running through her system was pure lust.
“Zane? Zane Bennett?”
“Damn, sorry about that.”
He didn’t sound sorry, though.
He didn’t look it, either.
He looked sexy. So, so sexy.
Those dark eyes, the chiseled jaw and, oh, baby, that bad-boy smile of his. It was enough to melt what was left of Vivian’s chocolate.
“Hi,” she breathed as he helped her to her feet. Realizing she sounded—and probably looked—like a wide-eyed groupie, she cleared her throat and found her pride. “It’s great to see you again.”
“Do we know each other?” he asked, his eyes narrowed as if he were trying to remember where from. Vivian bit her lip instead of answering. She didn’t want him seeing her as Mike’s little sister. Something about that designation had always seemed to make her invisible in the past.
And invisible was the last thing she wanted to be around Zane.
So she took a deep breath, thrust out her breasts and offered her sexiest smile.
“We’ve never actually been introduced,” she said truthfully. “But everyone in town knows who the Bennett brothers are.”
“Is that so?” he murmured, his voice dropping one sexy decibel.
“That’s so.” Vivian cocked her hip to one side and lifted one hand to tick them off, one by one. “The Bennett brothers facts. Twins. SEALs. Football heroes reputed to have scored even more off the field than on.”
His grin widened.
“The Bennett brothers can never refuse a dare, never back down from a challenge. Xander holds the Little Creek RBI record, but you, Zane, won three pink slips racing your Chevelle on Old Marsh Road. Nobody has ever broken your doughnut-eating record, but one of this year’s graduates got within touching distance of taking Xander’s role as chug-a-lug champ.”
“As always, our reputation precedes us.” His laugh faded into a wince as he looked at the mess at their feet. “I’ve got to say, this is the first time I’ve plowed into a gorgeous woman so hard that she lost her...” He glanced down again with a frown. “Is that candy?”
Sexy-lingerie bridal shower candy, as a matter of fact.
At her silence, he knelt down to help her gather her ruined chocolate. After scooping up a few, he glanced at them and laughed.
“Is this a bikini top?”
Actually, it was a bra. It went with a thong. Vivian bit her lip to keep from blurting that out.
“Sure,” she said, since bikini was easier to explain than lingerie to a gorgeous man who made her breathless with need. Vivian scooped fast, snagging tiny chocolate nighties, baby dolls and corsets. It wasn’t that she didn’t want Zane to see her undies, but maybe not here on the street.
“I had no idea Little Creek Bakery was quite so imaginative,” he said, grabbing another piece, lifting it high to see the details in the streetlights. “Whoa, is this a garter belt?”
Hoping the cloak of night hid her embarrassment, Vivian wet her lips and fought the urge to grab the candy out of his hands.
“How many styles have you got here?” he wondered, bending down to scoop up another handful. Instead of tossing them into the box like she was, though, he took time to inspect every one of them. “I’m impressed. There might be some here I didn’t know existed until now.”
Yeah, right. She was willing to bet that Zane Bennett knew just about everything there was to know about women’s sex wear.
“If rumors are anything to go by, though, you have plenty of personal experience to call on. Maybe I should ask you for advice for my next batch?”
“Sweetheart, I wrote the book,” he teased. “You want suggestions, I’m your man.”
Vivian was proud of herself. Her breath only shuddered a little and she managed to keep her moan of delight in her head.
“So what’s the deal?” He lifted another piece of candy, this one a little bigger than the others, and frowned. “A chocolate homage to Victoria’s Secret?”
“They’re an experiment,” she explained. “Um, there’s this bridal shower and after making the cake, I had this idea for party favors.”
“And I ruined them,” he realized, n
ot looking the least bit sorry. “Guess you’ll have to make another batch. You want help?”
Oh.
Vivian’s mind went blank. Mouth dry and heart racing, she could only stare. She wanted to think there was a double entendre in that offer, but the dim light wasn’t enough to judge his expression.
“Do you have any experience?” She waited a beat, long enough for his eyes to meet hers. The look in those dark depths made her want to squirm. Oh, yeah. He had plenty of experience. She took another moment to steady herself before adding, “With making chocolate?”
“Making...chocolate?” He smiled suggestively. “What do you think?”
Oh, God.
She tried to come up with a witty comeback. Or, hell, she’d settle for a lame one if she could just get the words out of her mouth. But how was she supposed to think with all this lust pounding through her system?
“Chocolate is tricky to work with,” she babbled. “It’s better to do favors like these at night when it’s cooler.”
And when the bakery was empty.
“A lot of things are better made at night,” he murmured.
He was flirting with her.
Vivian wondered if it was bad form to do a butt-wiggling victory dance in the alley this late while surrounded by chocolate lingerie.
“You’re melting.”
“What?”
How’d he know? Before she could figure it out, Zane angled the hand he captured up so the streetlight shone on it. Her heart pounding at the feel of his fingers on hers, Vivian caught a glance of the streak of chocolate.
“Um, yeah. It’s warm,” she started to say.
Then he shifted her hand to his lips.
And sucked on her finger.
“Delicious.”
Desire, hot and needy, coiled tight in her belly, making Vivian want to moan.
“Oh. My. God.”
She didn’t know she’d spoke the chant out loud until a wicked smile flashed over Zane’s face. Not sure if she should be embarrassed or grateful for the invitation in that smile, Vivian reluctantly pulled her fingers away from those tempting lips.
“Do you live nearby?”