by Dee Tenorio
Now if he could just figure out how to help her.
The made bed was smooth beneath her, and the nightstand was clear of everything but a jewelry box and a framed picture of her with her brothers. “Where’s the key?”
“I dropped it,” she said into her chest, as if she couldn’t bear looking at him.
He frowned. “Under the bed?”
She shook her head. “Into the grate.” The hand inside the handcuff pointed down to the floor between her bed and the nightstand.
Cole stepped forward a little, stretching his neck to try to see what she was showing him. Just like she’d said, there was a small floor grate down there, no doubt part of a central heating system. The size of it was not encouraging. He’d been lucky to get the hide-a-key out. There was no way he’d be able to get his fingers in between those slim slats. Another step forward and he saw what he hoped would be their salvation—two small screws holding the grate in place.
“You sure it fell in there?”
Amanda lifted her head, her lashes decidedly moister and her eyes slightly red-rimmed. “What?”
The sight of what could only be threatening tears flipped his heart over and started something that felt a little like panic powering through him. Lust disappeared completely, which worked out because guilt immediately took its place. He could guess why she might have the cuffs. He’d worked them both up the night before, even if he hadn’t meant to. If she’d planned to lure him into her bedroom and make use of those cuffs, it could only be because she didn’t want a repeat of his gentlemanly retreat. “You’re sure it’s in the grate?”
She blinked a few times, from what he could tell, to pull herself together.
Good girl. No crying. I’m pretty sure if you cry, I’m going to have to hate myself.
“Yeah, I saw it go in after I bobbled it. God, Susie is going to have a field day with this one.”
He could imagine. Susie, mistress of all that was sexy and therefore sophisticated to the residents of Rancho del Cielo, had a hell of a sense of humor. A good laugh too, come to think of it. Like she enjoyed the act of laughing all by itself. But she’d fall down cackling if they told her Amanda had managed to accidentally cuff herself to her bed with no means of escape. “I don’t see why we have to tell her.”
Yeah, this whole thing could be their little secret. Just his and Amanda’s. No one else would ever have to know he’d driven a hometown sweetheart to such drastic measures. Especially no one who would tell the Jackman brothers that he’d seen their sister’s absolutely edible body. Then everyone would continue to live with all their limbs attached.
“No?” Amanda asked dryly, as if she could hear the reassurances playing in his head. “You don’t think the fire department bringing out the Jaws of Life to free me from my own bedpost might need some explanation?”
Cole did his best not to chuckle at that image, but he couldn’t help it. “Maybe I should get you your robe.”
“Why? It’s not like this day could get any more embarrassing.”
It will if you drop that towel and my dick goes off like the Fourth of July.
Short of someone blasting him with cold water from a fire hose, that would be exactly what might happen. Guilt or not, there was a beautiful naked woman in front of him, and his body had yet to accept that he had scruples.
He looked madly around the room before spotting a splash of color on the back of her bedroom door. Yes! He ran over and grabbed the silk body wrap, grateful the thing had some length to it. The more of those legs he covered, the better.
But when he got to her side, determined to preserve her modesty, he couldn’t help one last look.
He was already going to hell, right?
Riiiiiiiiiiight…
Sun-kissed golden skin, smooth and gleaming, all but called his name, daring him to touch her slim legs. Not a single tan line interrupted the perfection in front of him. Her belly was covered—he still wasn’t sure if that was a positive or a negative—but the towel’s precarious position over her left breast was testing his very thin moral fiber.
On the one hand, he could see the soft globe spilling free. Could almost imagine his palm catching it, supporting it, peeling the towel away so he could wrap his lips around her nipple and suck it until she whimpered.
On the other, doing that would be so wrong. Wrong. Like…prison-worthy wrong. He could see the headline on the front page of the Rancho del Cielo Reporter: Local Man Accosts Hometown Girl; Loses Teeth and Testicles in Same Day!
Hands shaking, he unfurled the silk robe and laid it over her like a blanket. It fluttered down, finally covering all that temptation and giving him a chance to breathe.
Yup, definitely the right thing to do. Cover, not cop a feel.
Also the suckiest, which he decided then and there was the best morality gauge he’d ever heard of. If it sucks so hard your balls threaten to leave you to fend for yourself, it’s probably the choice of a good man.
Of course, being good was highly overrated. And kind of painful, he added, trying to shift his pants without her noticing. Definitely eye-opening. In less than five minutes he’d had the worst epiphany of his life: for those legs of hers, he could seriously consider becoming a total piece of shit.
“Thanks, Cole.” Her grateful whisper accompanied by a tiny grin of relief twisted what was left of his guts into knots. How could she look so damn cute and sexy and silly and adorable all at the same time? He couldn’t see an inch of her body under the chin and he still wanted so bad to kiss those damn pink lips until she made another one of those little moaning noises.
You’re so screwed, man.
And the worst part? He wasn’t sure he minded.
Chapter Seven
God bless you, Locke!
Amanda tried not to squirm under the robe while she waited for Cole to finish prying at the little grate near the floorboard. Thanks to Locke’s insistence, she had more tools than she knew what to do with under her kitchen sink, all neatly packed into a deep canvas bag. Cole had gotten it, scooted her nightstand out of the way and was undoing the small screws to fetch the key. The grate came up and Cole was explaining something about magnetized heads while he fished for the itty-bitty key in the dusty cavity.
“So explain to me how all this happened.”
“Do I have to?”
He laughed, glancing up at her with those knowing brown eyes of his. He’d already put it together, she could tell. Too smart for his own good sometimes. Which, in this case, was just the way she wanted it. Sort of…
“I had an idea,” she started, thinking back to how the idea had come to her in the store. How hard could it be to pretend to be playing with the cuffs and manage to get one around his wrist? That was the beauty of working in an erotic wonderland. Access to all kinds of things you normally couldn’t get your hands on. She’d taken her shower and was still drying off when she’d had her next brilliant thought.
“I was trying this flip trick I saw in a movie once. The cop clapped one cuff on this guy, then swung the other one and it latched onto the guy’s other wrist. It didn’t look hard or anything. I put one on my wrist as the starting point, and I was trying to swing it and get it on my other wrist—”
“But you missed,” Cole finished for her.
She nodded as miserably as she could. Missed, aimed, what’s the difference? She still had her wrist cuffed ever so conveniently to the upper bar of her brass headboard. Right where she wanted it.
“Yeah, I missed. And when I tried to put the key in to get myself out, it slipped right through my fingers.” Unfortunately, that part was true. She’d gotten a little too pushy with the tiny key when she realized she’d forgotten to make one crucial stop in the bathroom before setting herself up here on the bed. “I heard it go into the grate, and I realized the only way I was getting out of here was to wait for you.” Also unfortunately true. “At least I’ve only been here for about twenty minutes or so, but right after I settled, I realized I’d put off
going to the bathroom…”
Yeah, that’s sexy, Amanda. Talking about having to pee. Brilliant. That’ll get him in the mood.
“I know how that goes. As soon as you can’t go, it’s all you can think about. Like not being able to swear in front of people you just met or not scratching your balls in the outfield.” He flashed a smile at her, and relief soothed most of her discomfort away.
“When did you ever play baseball?” Before the elder twins got their paws on him, Cole had been a tall, skinny, self-professed geek boy who lived and breathed next to his computer and comic books. He lost the skinny after a year or two, but his ability to duck sports of any kind had never gone away.
“There are only so many fake doctors’ notes you can pass off to the PE teacher. We all had to play sometime. Just because not all of us are blessed enough to be volleyball goddesses.”
She barely kept from snorting. “As if. I only made the team because they needed a tall center. Admit it, you’re just jealous I can hit the things I aim at.”
“Not last night, you couldn’t.” And oh, he sounded good and smug about that.
She forgot her plan for a second and narrowed her eyes at him, but the glare was lost on his bowed head. “How’d you do it?”
He finally looked up from his project. “Do what?”
“Win a game that doesn’t include a game console. We both know you usually can’t hit a ball to save your life.”
He cocked his head to the side, one corner of his mouth lifting. “Are you actually accusing me of cheating? At minigolf?”
“Cheating is a harsh word that I did not actually use.” But yes, that’s exactly what she meant.
He tsked, but she heard the evil smile in it as he went back to fishing. “What is it about Jackmans that none of you can handle losing?”
“What is it about techies that you can’t answer direct questions?”
His bark of laughter at that gave her a warm feeling in her stomach. She leaned back on her pillows, strangely enough feeling the closest to normal that she had since moving out of the family house. It didn’t matter that she was naked under a thin piece of silk or that he was trying to find the key to her fuzzy padded handcuffs. It could be just another Saturday morning while he ate her cereal and they watched SyFy.
“Fine, keep your secrets. But just because I can’t prove it doesn’t mean you weren’t cheating.” She knew she sounded haughty, but that was half the fun. She closed her eyes, content to relax and squabble like kids. Even if it didn’t advance her goal, it was…fun.
“You’re only mad because I caught you trying to sneak a double tap.”
One of her eyes opened, and she speared him with as cranky a glare as she could manage. “How many times do I have to tell you? I was not double tapping. The first stroke was a practice swing.”
“All I know is my father’s golden rule—if you shake it more than once, you’re playing with it.”
She laughed. “You’re so gross.”
“I’m also your hero.”
Amanda turned her head to see him holding up a key on the end of the screwdriver. “Oh, my God, you did it!”
“I’m hurt you doubted me.” He captured the key, and before she could finish sitting up, he’d unlocked the shackle on her wrist.
“I love you so much right now.” Struggling with the towel and the backward robe, Amanda leapt to her feet and kissed his cheek before dashing out of the room, hoping to God she didn’t flash him her bare ass on the way toward sweet relief. Since she could hear him laughing even through the slammed bathroom door, she had to chalk that one up to lost hope.
Five minutes later, after as much fussing as she could think to do, she came out, her robe on correctly, the vivid, colorful flowers painted on the white silk now at the hem where they belonged. She tied the belt at her waist as tight as possible and hoped against hope she could maybe get back to looking like a competent woman sometime in this lifetime.
Cole was still in her bedroom, putting the tools into the bag again. The grate was back in place, and the nightstand was returned to its previous spot. The pink cuffs were even off the headboard bar, folded neatly on the bed next to the bag. He looked up when she came in, a welcoming grin on his face.
Shyness suddenly gripped her. This wasn’t exactly how she’d plotted this to go. The idea was for her to be “helplessly” waiting for his rescue. Then she’d get to wait in the comfort of her bed for him to come to her, a much stronger position. But now, she was coming to him. Vulnerable.
She took a breath, a shiver that had nothing to do with the warm air flowing in through the windows. Her stomach tightened and her blood began to race, giving her a hot, quavery feeling throughout. This wasn’t shyness. It was awareness. Of the man in her bedroom, his smile fading slowly, looking decidedly in place amongst her things. How that was possible with his big work boots, beat-up jeans and yet another of his ancient T-shirts, this one black and completely washed-out with small holes in the shoulders. Even the collar was bedraggled.
Amanda concentrated on that ripped-up fabric to give her confidence to move closer. Cole stayed quiet, allowing her to do this how she wanted. Relief flooded her as she realized he wasn’t going to stop her. She walked over to him, reaching for the dangling piece of his shirt and smoothed it. Her fingers touched the warmth of his skin briefly before she slid them over the hard contours of his chest.
She kept her eyes there, tempted for a second to end the whole farce before she did something stupid. She was no seductress—these nerves just proved it. Her every attempt to move him forward met with unmitigated failure. Those minutes when they’d just been Amanda and Cole instead of manhunter and man-refusing-to-be-hunted had been temptingly comfortable.
If only she could have both…
But she couldn’t. Even if she could forgive his role in her brother’s marriage scheme, she would never get past his reservations about marriage. Not for the first time, she bit back a curse in his parents’ direction. On their own, his mother and father were fairly decent people. But together, the bitterness and angst was like an unbreakable wall no one could possibly scale. Certainly not their son, who in turn had built some pretty impressive walls of his own. She had her fantasies, but she didn’t have any illusions. He cared for her, but only because she was safely inside the box where he’d put her. For whatever reason, Locke had forced that box open and left her to deal with what fell out.
This time, this stupid, stupid hide-and-seek game they were playing was all she would have. Probably ever.
The sadness of that dulled the excitement. His hand came slowly up over hers, holding her palm tight across his heartbeat. She looked up, her breath growing shallow in her chest. He waited there, not saying a word, until she got enough courage to meet his gaze.
There was no censure. No judgment, either, thank God. He tugged her closer, until her robe was brushing against his clothes and he fit his other hand against the side of her face.
The kiss, when it finally came, was so soft, so fragile, she was afraid the slightest sound would break it. He pressed his forehead to hers, curling his fingers around hers between their chests.
“What’s happening between us,” he murmured. “It doesn’t have to happen all at once, Amanda.”
Yes, it did. Because if he kept doing things like this, slowing everything down and making it meaningful, her heart was going to start thinking it was something he didn’t intend. The same way it had talked itself into falling head over heels for him when he didn’t have a clue that she wanted more than his friendship.
Of course, soon, that would be gone too.
And that made her sadder than anything else.
“You don’t understand,” she found herself whispering, hating the situation so bitterly it hurt. She felt as if she were in an hourglass, the sands constantly pouring out from under her. Her time with him was ticking away. In the end, she could lose so much more than her brother had realized. “You don’t know what it’s like
to have wants and dreams and wishes and be completely invisible to everyone around you. To search and search for something that makes you special or interesting or proves somehow that you’re worth something and never find it. You don’t know what it’s like to need—” She bit her lip to keep the words in, the tears. The sad desperation she had lived with for so long—not just the craving for him, but for herself.
“It wasn’t only my brothers getting in my way, Cole. It was me too, buying in to all the limitations. They weren’t holding me at gunpoint. I had choices, and I made them because it was easier to just give in. Telling myself that just because they said I couldn’t do something meant I really couldn’t. They might have put me in a box, but I let them. I made myself into a victim, and you don’t have any idea how angry that makes me.”
“Yes, I do,” he said in a clipped tone, his voice deep and full of a conviction she rarely heard out of him. “For a long time, I let my parents’ unhappiness dictate my life. I made it my job to make them happy, to the point that I almost quit on what made me happy.”
She could only stare. Even when the elder twins were driving him crazy, throwing away his cigarettes and annoying him into weight lifting or running miles, Cole had always been his own person. His own force of will. Then again, she’d never imagined he would go along with her brother’s autocratic edicts before, either. She was so tempted to ask him why. Why was he giving in to Locke when he’d never given in on a single thing in his life? In this moment, she felt as if their game was on pause. This was real, possibly more real than any moment they’d shared before.
“Remember the school thing?”
She blinked, snapping back from her revealing thoughts. Oh yes, she remembered the school thing. Shay Engstrom had pushed hard to get Cole to consider law school, to the point that she’d enlisted her family connections to get him a position as a senate page for an entire summer back in high school. Not terribly amusing to his surgeon father, who had plans to groom his son to follow in his own distant footsteps. When Cole had disagreed with attending his father’s school of choice, Jason had told him to pay for his own education, going so far as to insist on Cole joining the military or leaving his house for good. Cole had left, on his own, without ever looking back.