by Nora Roberts
The ice cream idea had been a brainstorm. She’d picked up a gallon on the way home and now had all three of her men, as she liked to think of them, settled on the back porch downing bowls of Rocky Road.
Timing and execution, she told herself, and rubbed her hands together before she stepped out on the porch. ‘‘It’s going to be a warm night. It’s hard to believe it’s nearly July already.’’
She wandered to the porch rail to lean over and scan her flower beds. Coming right along, she thought with a sense of righteous satisfaction. ‘‘I thought we could have a backyard picnic on the Fourth.’’
‘‘They have fireworks on the waterfront,’’ Ethan put in. ‘‘Every year, half hour after sunset. You can see them from right here on the porch.’’
‘‘Really? That would be perfect. Wouldn’t it be fun, Seth? You could have your friends over and we’d cook burgers and dogs.’’
‘‘That’d be cool.’’ He was already down to scraping his bowl and calculating how to finesse seconds.
‘‘Have to dig out the horseshoes,’’ Cam decided. ‘‘Do we still have them, Ethan?’’
‘‘Yeah, they’re around.’’
‘‘And music.’’ Anna shifted just enough to rub her husband’s knee. ‘‘The three of you could play. You don’t play together nearly often enough to suit me. I’ll have to make a list. You’ll have to tell me who we should invite—and the food. Food.’’ She thought she feigned flustered irritation very well as she pushed away from the porch rail. ‘‘How could I have forgotten? I promised Grace to trade her my recipe for tortellini for hers for fried chicken.’’
She dashed inside to retrieve the index card that she’d neatly written the recipe on—something she’d never done before in her life—then dashed back out again. All apologetic smiles.
‘‘Ethan, would you run this over to her?’’
He stared at the little white card. If he hadn’t been sitting down, his hands would have jumped into his pockets. ‘‘What?’’
‘‘I promised I’d get her this today and it completely slipped my mind. I’d run it over myself, but I still have a report to finish. I’m just dying to try out that fried chicken,’’ she went on quickly, pushing the recipe card into his hand, then all but dragging him to his feet.
‘‘It’s kind of late.’’
‘‘Oh, it’s not even nine o’clock.’’ Don’t give him time to think, she warned herself. Don’t give him a chance to pick out the flaws. She pulled him into the house, used smiles and fluttering lashes to move him along. ‘‘I really appreciate it. I’m so scatterbrained these days. I feel like I’m chasing my own tail half the time. Tell her I’m sorry I didn’t get it to her sooner and to be sure to let me know how it turns out once she tries it. Thanks so much, Ethan,’’ she added, rising up to give him a quick, affectionate peck on the cheek. ‘‘I love having brothers.’’
‘‘Well . . .’’ He was baffled, closing in on miserable, but the way she said that, the way she smiled when she did, left him helpless. ‘‘I’ll be right back.’’
I don’t think so, Anna thought with a wisely controlled chuckle as she cheerily waved him off. The second his truck was out of sight, she dusted her palms together. Mission accomplished.
‘‘Just what the hell was that?’’ Cam demanded, making her jolt with surprise.
‘‘I don’t know what you mean.’’ She would have sailed past him and into the house, but he stepped out, blocked her path.
‘‘Oh, yeah, you know what I mean.’’ Intrigued, he angled his head. She was trying to look innocent, he decided, but couldn’t pull it off. Too much pure glee in her eyes. ‘‘Exchanging recipes, Anna?’’
‘‘So what?’’ She lifted a shoulder. ‘‘I’m a very good cook.’’
‘‘No argument there, but you’re not the recipe-emergency type, and if you’d been so hell-bent on giving one to Grace, you’d have picked up the phone. Which is something you didn’t give Ethan a chance to point out, since you were so busy batting your lashes at him and cooing like some empty-headed twit.’’
‘‘Twit?’’
‘‘Which you’re not,’’ he continued, slowly backing her up until she was trapped against the porch rail. ‘‘At all. Shrewd, savvy, sharp.’’ He laid his hands on either side of her hips to cage her. ‘‘That’s what you are.’’
It was, she supposed, a fine compliment. ‘‘Thank you, Cameron. Now I really should get to that report.’’
‘‘Uh-uh. Why’d you con Ethan into going over to Grace’s?’’
She shook back her hair, aimed a bland look dead into his eyes. ‘‘I’d think a shrewd, savvy, sharp guy like you ought to be able to figure that out.’’
His brows drew together. ‘‘You’re trying to get something going between them.’’
‘‘Something is going between them, but your brother is slower than a lame turtle.’’
‘‘He’s slower than a lame turtle with bifocals, but that’s Ethan. Don’t you think they should muddle through this on their own?’’
‘‘All they need is five minutes alone, and that’s all I did—work it out so they’d have a few minutes alone. Besides’’—she slipped her arms up and around his neck— ‘‘we deliriously happy women want everyone else to be deliriously happy, too.’’
He cocked a brow. ‘‘Do you think I’m going to fall for that?’’
She smiled, then leaned over to nip his bottom lip. ‘‘Yeah.’’
‘‘You’re right,’’ he murmured and let her convince him.
• • •
ETHAN SAT IN HIS TRUCK for a full five minutes. Recipes? That was the dumbest damn thing he’d ever heard of. He’d always thought Anna was a sensible woman, but here she was, sending him off to deliver recipes, for Christ’s sake.
And he wasn’t ready to see Grace just yet. Not that his mind wasn’t made up about her, but . . . even a rational man had certain weaknesses.
Still, he didn’t see how he was going to get out of it, as he was already here. He’d make it quick. She was probably putting the baby to bed, so he’d just get it done and get out of her way.
Like a man condemned, he dragged himself out of the truck and to her front door. Through the screen he could see the flickering lights of candles. He shifted his feet and noticed that music was playing, something with weeping strings and soaring piano.
He’d never felt more ridiculous in his life than he did standing there on Grace’s front porch holding a recipe for a pasta dish while music slid around the warm summer night.
He knocked on the wood frame, not too loudly, as he worried about waking Aubrey. He gave serious thought to sticking the card in the door and hightailing it, but he knew that would be cowardice, plain and simple.
And Anna would want to know why he hadn’t brought her the instructions for Grace’s fried chicken.
When he saw her he wished to God Almighty he’d taken the coward’s way.
She walked out from the kitchen, at the back of the house. It was a tiny place, had always made Ethan think of a dollhouse, so she didn’t have far to travel. To him it seemed he watched her walk through that music, that light for hours.
She wore pale, fragile pink that skimmed down to her ankles, with a row of tiny pearl buttons from the hollow of her throat to the hem that flowed around her bare feet. He had rarely seen her in a dress, but now he was too thunderstruck by the sight of her to question why she was wearing it.
All he could think was she looked like a rose, long and slim and just ready to bloom. And his tongue tangled up in his mouth.
‘‘Ethan.’’ Her hand trembled lightly as she reached down, opened the screen. Maybe she hadn’t needed a star to wish on after all. For here he was, standing close and watching her.
‘‘I was . . .’’ Her scent, familiar as his own, seemed to wrap around his brain. ‘‘Anna sent you—she asked me to bring this by.’’
Mystified, Grace took the card he held out. At the sight of the recipe she had
to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing. Her nerves backed off just enough that her eyes smiled when she lifted them to his. ‘‘That was nice of her.’’
‘‘You got hers?’’
‘‘Her what?’’
‘‘The one she wants. The chicken thing.’’
‘‘Oh, yes. Back in the kitchen. Come on in while I get it.’’ What chicken thing? she wondered, nearly giddy from suppressed laughter that she knew would come out well on the hysterical side. ‘‘The, um, casserole, right?’’
‘‘No.’’ She had such a tiny waist, he thought. Such narrow feet. ‘‘Fried.’’
‘‘Oh, that’s right. I’m so scatterbrained lately.’’
‘‘It’s going around,’’ he mumbled. He decided it was safer to look anywhere but at her. He noted the pair of fat white candles burning on the counter. ‘‘You blow a fuse?’’
‘‘Excuse me?’’
‘‘What’s wrong with your lights?’’
‘‘Nothing.’’ She could feel the heat rise into her cheeks. She didn’t have a recipe for fried chicken written down anywhere. Why would she? You just did the same as you always did when it came time to make it. ‘‘I like candlelight sometimes. It goes with the music.’’
He only grunted, wishing she would hurry up so he could get the hell away. ‘‘You already put Aubrey to bed?’’
‘‘She’s spending the night with my mother.’’
His eyes, which had been steadfastly studying her ceiling, shot down and met hers. ‘‘She’s not here?’’
‘‘No. It’s her first overnight. I’ve already called over there twice.’’ She smiled a little, and her fingers reached up to fiddle with the top button of her dress in a way that made Ethan’s mouth water. ‘‘I know she’s only a few miles away, and as safe as she’d be in her own crib, but I couldn’t help it. The house feels so different without her here.’’
‘‘Dangerous’’ was the word he’d have used. The pretty little dollhouse was suddenly as deadly as a minefield. There wasn’t any little girl innocently sleeping in the next room. They were alone, with music sobbing and candles flickering.
And Grace was wearing a pale-pink dress that just begged to have those little white buttons undone, one by one by one.
The tips of his fingers began to itch.
‘‘I’m glad you stopped by.’’ Holding tight to her courage, she took a step forward and tried to remember that she had the power. ‘‘I was feeling a little blue.’’
He took a step back. More than his fingertips was itching now. ‘‘I said I’d be back directly.’’
‘‘You could stay for . . . coffee or whatever?’’
Coffee? If his system got any more wired than it was at that moment, it would have jumped right through his skin to dance the hornpipe. ‘‘I don’t think . . .’’
‘‘Ethan, I can’t steer clear of you the way you asked me. St. Chris is too small, and our lives are too tangled up together.’’ She could feel the pulse in her throat pounding against her skin in hard, insistent little knocks. ‘‘And I don’t want to. I don’t want to steer clear of you, Ethan.’’
‘‘I said I had my reasons.’’ And he could think of what they were if she’d just stop looking at him with those big green eyes. ‘‘I’m just watching out for you, Grace.’’
‘‘I don’t need you to watch out for me. We’re all grown up, both of us. We’re alone, both of us.’’ She stepped closer. She could smell his after-work shower on him, but under it, as always, was the scent of the Bay. ‘‘I don’t want to be alone tonight.’’
He edged back. If he hadn’t known her better, he’d have sworn she was stalking him. ‘‘I’ve made up my mind on this.’’ But damn it, it wasn’t his mind working overtime, it was his loins. ‘‘Just stay back, Grace.’’
‘‘It seems like I’ve been staying back forever. I want to move forward, Ethan, whatever that means. I’m tired of staying back or standing still. If you don’t want me, I’ll live with that. But if you do . . .’’ She moved closer, lifted a hand to lay it on his heart. And discovered that his heart was pounding. ‘‘If you do, then why won’t you take me?’’
He backed hard into the counter. ‘‘Stop it. You don’t know what you’re doing here.’’
‘‘Of course I know what I’m doing.’’ She snapped it out, suddenly furious with the pair of them. ‘‘I’m just not doing a good job of it, since you’d rather climb up my kitchen wall than lay a finger on me. What do you think I’d do, shatter into a million pieces? I’m a grown woman, Ethan. I’ve been married, I’ve had a child. I know what I’m asking you, and I know what I want.’’
‘‘I know you’re a grown woman. I’ve got eyes.’’
‘‘Then use them, and look at me.’’
How could he do otherwise? Why had he ever believed he could? There, standing in shadow and light, was everything he yearned for. ‘‘I’m looking at you, Grace.’’ With my back to the wall, he thought. And my heart in my throat.
‘‘Here’s a woman who wants you, Ethan. One who needs you.’’ She saw his eyes change at that, sharpen, darken, focus. On an unsteady breath, she stepped back. ‘‘Maybe I’m what you want. What you need.’’
He was afraid she was, and that telling himself he could and would do without had been an exercise in futility. She was so lovely, all rose and gold in the candlelight, her eyes so clear and honest. ‘‘I know you are,’’ he said at length. ‘‘But that wasn’t supposed to change anything.’’
‘‘Do you have to think all the time?’’
‘‘It’s getting hard to,’’ he murmured. ‘‘Right at the moment.’’
‘‘Then don’t. Let’s both stop thinking.’’ Even as the blood pounded in her brain, she kept her gaze locked on his. And lifted her hands, trembling hands, to the top button of her dress.
He watched her unfasten it, staggered at how that single, simple gesture, that tiny inch of exposed skin, could electrify him. He felt his lungs clog, his blood sizzle, and his needs, all the long-denied needs, beg for release.
‘‘Stop, Grace.’’ He said it gently. ‘‘Don’t do that.’’
Her hands fell back to her sides in defeat, and she shut her eyes.
‘‘Let me do it.’’
Her eyes blinked open, stared stunned at his sober gaze as he stepped to her. She took in one shaky breath and held it.
‘‘I’ve always wanted to,’’ he murmured and slipped the next tiny button free.
‘‘Oh.’’ The breath she held came out in a hitch and a sob. ‘‘Ethan.’’
‘‘You’re so pretty.’’ She was already trembling. He lowered his head to brush a kiss over her lips and soothe. ‘‘So soft. I’ve got rough hands.’’ Watching her, he skimmed his knuckles down her cheek, over her throat. ‘‘But I won’t hurt you.’’
‘‘I know. I know you won’t.’’
‘‘You’re shaking.’’ He undid another button, then another.
‘‘I can’t help it.’’
‘‘I don’t mind.’’ Patiently he eased the buttons free to her waist. ‘‘I guess I knew, deep down, if I walked in here tonight, I wouldn’t be able to walk away again.’’
‘‘I’ve been wishing you’d walk in here. I’ve been wishing it a long time.’’
‘‘So have I.’’ The buttons were so tiny, his fingers so big. Her skin, where the dress parted, where the edge of his thumb slid up, was so soft and warm. ‘‘You tell me if I do something you don’t like. Or if I don’t do something you want.’’
The sound she made was part moan, part laugh. ‘‘I’m not going to be able to talk in a minute. I can’t get my breath. But I wish you’d kiss me.’’
‘‘I was getting to it.’’ He nibbled gently, teasingly, because he hadn’t taken his time the first time he’d tasted her. Now he would linger, sample, find a rhythm that suited them both. When her sigh filled his mouth, it was sweet. He loosened more buttons and let the long, deepening kiss spin out.
/>
Touched her nowhere else, not yet. Only mouth against mouth with flavors mixed. When she swayed, he lifted his head, looked into her eyes. Clouded now, heavy and aware.
‘‘I want to see you.’’ Slowly, inch by inch, he slipped the dress from her shoulders. They were sun-kissed, strong, gracefully curved. He’d always thought she had theprettiest shoulders, and now he indulged himself by tasting them.
The hum in her throat told him she was both surprised and pleased by the attention. He had a great deal more to give her.
She’d never been touched this way, as if she were something rare and precious. What that touch stirred in her was so new and warm. Her skin seemed to soften and sensitize under the brush of his lips, the blood beneath to go thick and lazy. She only sighed as her dress slid down to pool at her feet.
When he eased back again, she could only stare up at him in wonder. Her lashes fluttered, her pulse skipped when he stroked his fingers lightly over the swell of her breast above her simple cotton bra. She had to bite her lip to hold back the groan when he flicked open the hook, when he gently cupped her breast in his palms.
‘‘Do you want me to stop?’’
‘‘Oh, God.’’ Her head fell back, and this time the groan escaped. His workingman’s thumbs were skimming slowly, rhythmically over her nipples. ‘‘No.’’
‘‘Hold on to me, Grace.’’ He spoke quietly, and when her hands came to his shoulders and gripped, he brought his mouth to hers again, drawing more this time, asking more until she went limp.
Then he lifted her into his arms. He waited until her eyes opened again. ‘‘I’m taking you, Grace.’’
‘‘Thank God, Ethan.’’
He had to smile when she pressed her face into the curve of his shoulder. ‘‘I’ll protect you.’’
For a moment as he carried her off, she thought of dragons and black knights. Then the more practical meaning got through. ‘‘I—take the Pill. It’s all right. I haven’t been with anybody since Jack.’’
He’d known that in his heart, but hearing it only added to his steadily rising need.
She’d lighted candles in the bedroom as well. Slim tapers there that lanced up out of tiny white shells. The white of her iron headboard glowed in the soft light. White daisies sprang out of a clear glass vase on the small table beside the bed.