Harlequin Superromance May 2016 Box Set

by Janice Kay Johnson

  “We already talked about that...” Unless Tressa was a problem for him. It was pretty clear that the woman still considered him her property.

  Lacey had assumed the problem was Tressa’s. Was it Jem’s, too? Was he feeling guilty?

  The darkness was her friend, hiding her humiliation.

  “The thing about Tressa is...there’s usually a grain of truth in the things she says. That’s why her words can be so lethal. She hits her mark and then screws it all out of proportion.”

  “I don’t know what you’re telling me.” If he wanted her to believe he’d been a male prostitute, she just wasn’t going to buy it. He’d told her he’d never been unfaithful to his wife.

  “After my divorce...I went out with a woman I didn’t know. Slept with her. And never saw her again. Tressa...found out about it.”

  “You slept with a woman you didn’t know was safe?” The thought stopped her in her tracks.

  “Hell, no.” The disgusted tone of his voice had her wishing she hadn’t asked that question. He pulled up in front of her house and put the truck in Park. “She was a perfectly respectable woman—a nurse. The sister of a colleague. She was open to having a relationship. I wasn’t.”

  She nodded. Waited.

  “I am now.”

  Oh. God. Okay. Well...

  The silence took away her ability to exhale. Or speak. And then all the air left her in a gush that had been building. And building.

  She opened her door and jumped down, grabbed his hand as he met her on her side of the truck and walked with him, unsteadily, up to her door. “My bedroom’s this way...” she said as the door closed behind him, pulling him along down the hall. She’d changed her sheets that morning...and was ashamed for a moment, like she’d been planning this.

  “Wait...” He didn’t move.

  She didn’t want to wait. Afraid that the moment would pass, that this...thing...would end. And she’d never know... Looking into his eyes, she wanted to know exactly what he needed. So she could give it to him.

  “I don’t want to rush,” he told her. “I have a feeling this is going to be something we’re going to remember for the rest of our lives, and I want to savor every second of it.”

  “In that case, sir, could I tempt you with a glass of wine?” She’d never felt so stupid, so out of control and immature. And so...needy.

  They’d held themselves to one glass a piece at dinner in deference to the fact that he’d be driving as soon as they docked.

  “You can tempt me any way you’d like.” He followed her into the kitchen and pressed his hardness up against her backside as she reached for the glasses. With shaking fingers she poured the wine, managing to get most of it into the glass.

  She turned, handing him a glass. “Here’s to a first time we’ll remember forever,” she said.

  He clicked his glass against hers. “To remembering forever,” he said in return.

  That was the moment Lacey admitted to herself that she was falling in love.

  * * *

  HE HAD NO idea he could feel as though he was making love without undressing. Or touching.

  Wineglass in hand, Jem wandered outside to the footer he’d poured where Lacey’s dream room was going to be. He wrapped himself up in the feeling of being in her home. Her space. Alone with her.

  He wanted to strip off his pants and bury himself in her. And he wanted to keep them on and enjoy knowing that he was going to bury himself in her.

  “I heard from the inspector today,” he said, toe to toe with her in what was going to be the middle of the room. He pushed himself into the V between her thighs.

  “Why didn’t you say so?”

  “As soon as I saw you in that dress tonight, all I’ve been able to think about is getting you out of it. I completely forgot my good news.”

  “We have the go-ahead?”

  “I planned to pour the floor tomorrow, if that works for you.”

  “I think it’s pretty clear that anything you plan works for me.”

  Her fingers skated up his thigh, stopping just below his ass.

  “Why do I get the feeling we aren’t just talking about building a room here?”

  “Maybe because we aren’t?”

  Their wineglasses were full...and in the way. Taking hers from her, he set them down on the newly inspected footer. On his way back up, he grabbed the bottom of her dress, pulling it up with him and dragging it over her head.

  And things were almost over before they’d begun. Her panties were lace. Her skin the same honey golden color all over. Her thighs went on forever...

  She put one thigh forward and a hand to her waist, drawing his eye to the curve of her hip, a flat belly.

  His penis throbbed. Painfully, but he ignored the irritation.

  And now he could no longer even pretend to ignore the fact that she hadn’t been wearing a bra.

  “You aren’t playing fair.” He groaned, reaching for the button at his waistline.

  “I’m not playing at all,” she told him in such a sultry voice he had to try to capture it. With his mouth.

  His fly was unzipped as he planted his mouth on hers. Finding her tongue with his. Immediately. Hungrily.

  He still wasn’t touching her with anything other than his lips. He didn’t trust himself. Didn’t want everything to end. He wanted a beginning that lasted forever.

  “Oh, my God...” he whispered raggedly, pulling the tie from around his neck to drop it in the dirt. His shirt followed right afterward.

  “Time is money, you know,” she told him.

  “There is no amount of money that could pay for this time right here,” he told her. He stepped out of his pants and briefs all at once, left them puddled on the ground and approached her. He’d take her on the wall. In the dirt. Any way he could think of.

  “I like how eager you are,” she whispered, her gaze on his crotch. She stood up, turned her back to him and, leaving her dress where he’d dropped it, walked into her house.

  Unable to tear his gaze from the white lace-covered backside, Jem grabbed a packet out of his pocket, dropped his pants again and sauntered slowly in behind her.

  Two could play her game.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  LACEY HAD NEVER had a thing for muscled working men. Had had no idea how sexy construction workers could be. She and Jem were in her room. She was a lady. A queen. He was strong. Solid. Gorgeous. And he wanted her. She touched his chest. He rubbed his penis against her leg. She kissed him. He picked her up off the ground and held her suspended against his rock hardness.

  He hadn’t touched a single erogenous zone and she felt as though every one of them had been loved repeatedly.

  Her nipples were hard. She was moist. And he prolonged the misery by running fingers down her back and stopping just above her tailbone. Licking her belly button, but no lower. Or higher.

  “Jem,” she finally moaned. “I need you.”

  “I know, Lace. I need you, too.”

  “Then...”

  “Shh.” Standing, he let his jutting maleness slide between her legs as he touched a finger to her lips. “The longer we hold out, the higher we’ll fly.”

  She didn’t know about that. If he didn’t hurry, she might very well fly without him.

  And this from a woman who had a history of being grounded.

  * * *

  HE KISSED EVERY part of her that he’d seen over the past couple of weeks. Her hands. Her arms. Her calves and feet and knees. Her ears and neck. Her chin and cheeks.

  He kissed her shoulders, sliding himself over her body.

  “You’re going to know me all over.” He heard the words at some point and realized he’d said them aloud.

  “Please, Jem.”


  But he helped her bear the pain and gave himself a pleasure he’d been imagining for weeks. With two fingers he touched her nipple and rubbed gently across the tip. She cried out, moving her hips.

  Lowering his head, he took her nipple into his mouth. Not for too long, though. Just long enough to keep her wanting.

  He moved to the other side and played with that tight bud with his fingers and lips. Then gulped when she grabbed his penis.

  “If this doesn’t happen soon, I’m not going to be responsible for...”

  He kissed her before she could finish the sentence, eased her back against the edge of the bed and spread her legs. Standing in front of her, he grabbed the packet he’d dropped on the bed when they’d come in, opened it and slipped it on. Finally, he ran his finger along her moist center and positioned himself.

  He looked into her eyes before he moved any further. “This is only the beginning,” he told her.

  “You are my man.” The words sounded like a promise.

  He gave a slow push, still holding her gaze.

  “Can you feel me?”

  “Oh, God, Jem. Yes.”

  “I can feel you, too.” He barely got the words out. The effort it was taking not to ram himself home and find relief was more than he’d ever imagined.

  But he’d made a promise—to her and to himself. Love with Lacey was going to be different than it ever had been before.

  He was marking his forever.

  * * *

  LACEY COULD HARDLY meet her sister’s gaze when Kacey came in the door a couple of hours later. It wasn’t her reticence that gave her away, though.

  Nothing as momentous as what she’d just experienced with Jem would have been missed by her identical twin. You couldn’t have a change that magnanimous and not have your counterpart feel something different about you.

  “How was Levi?” she asked.

  “Perfect as always. I have to tell you, if I was going to have a nephew, I couldn’t pick a better one.”

  Lacey, in thin cotton pajama pants and a matching T-shirt, had been watching a rerun while waiting for Kacey and, reaching for the remote, turned the sound off as her sister dropped her purse and joined her on the couch.

  Kacey felt peaceful, but somber, too.

  “I didn’t talk to him about...you know...” She couldn’t bring herself to say Jem’s ex-wife’s name in her home so soon after...

  “I didn’t figure you had.”

  “Did he say anything to you?” Her lover had left her bed to go to his home, where he and her sister, her spectacular look-alike, would be home alone. And she hadn’t worried. Not even a little bit.

  “Just asked after Levi, then told me the night was a complete success and thanked me about a million times over. He also asked if I was up for any more babysitting before I head home.”

  One week was all they had left. She didn’t want to think about that.

  “I’m going to need a chance to tell him about talking to Sydney without Levi present,” she said when she’d just been thinking that she didn’t want to saddle Kacey with babysitting during her last week of vacation. “I don’t want to do it over the phone.”

  She needed to be able to reach out and take his hand. To see into his eyes. To know that they were going to be okay.

  “You made love with him.”

  There was no point in denying it. And while the sisters didn’t kiss and tell, they usually let the other know when they were in a physical relationship. Up until a year and a half ago, they’d shared the same house. And it was polite to let your roommate know when a man was going to be at the breakfast table.

  “Yeah. Without telling him that I’m going to make his life uncomfortable if he doesn’t do it himself.”

  “You went with your heart.” Kacey knew her well.

  “You think I should have told him first?”

  “I’m not saying that. You know your stuff, Lace. You’ve always known when to let others figure things out for themselves. And when they do, there you are, sitting right beside them. Ready and waiting.”

  They weren’t talking about Jem. Or domestic violence.

  “We’ve both been kind of cast off at sea, haven’t we?” she said, not regretting a second of what she’d done with Jem that night, but not gloriously happy about it, either. There were hurdles in front of them that couldn’t be ignored.

  “I thought it was just you,” Kacey told her, taking Lacey’s hand in both of hers and holding it on her knee. Something she hadn’t done in years but used to do often, Lacey remembered. Usually when they were waiting to go on camera. In their pubescent days Kacey had started to get nervous sometimes before going on air.

  “I thought you were running away when you came up here, because you were so convinced you were second best.”

  “In some ways I was,” Lacey said. If they were going to clear the air, really clear it, and be as connected as they’d always been—and she hoped they were—then she had to be honest. With Kacey, of course, but also with herself. “In a lot of ways I was,” she said now.

  “I know. And sometimes...I liked it that way. It’s like I was the star and you were my sky.”

  Kacey’s eyes filled with tears. “Like that old song...you were the wind beneath my wings.”

  And if that was all she’d ever be, it would have been enough because Kacey’s wings were lovely. When she spread them, she brought joy to so many. Not just by entertaining them, but with her kindness, too. Her open heart.

  “And I focused far too much on not having my own wings,” Lacey told her. “When in reality, I never really wanted them. I didn’t want to come in second, to lose my boyfriend to you, and every solo job offer...” She stopped. They both knew all the ways in which Lacey had been passed over through the years. “But I also didn’t want to be in the spotlight. To have people fawning over me. I’m not good at it.”

  “I like that I can shake someone’s hand, or smile at them, and make their day,” Kacey said. And somehow managed to convey heart, not conceit.

  “You’re living the life that you were meant to live,” Lacey said. Knowing that as great as it had been sharing a home with Kacey again, they were going to have to separate. Because just as Kace belonged in Beverly Hills, Lacey’s life was in Santa Raquel.

  In a very short period of time, even before Jem, the little town had become home to her.

  “Not completely.” Kacey shook her head. “But you knew that, too, didn’t you?” She met Lacey’s gaze and Lacey couldn’t look away.

  “This is where you shine far brighter than I do, Lacey, and it’s worth far more than shiny lights. You get life. You get the big stuff. The small stuff. The real stuff. You see what most people are too afraid to look at. And you find ways to make it okay. From the time we were little you were always making life okay.”

  Kacey had been the acrobat. She’d been the net. It wasn’t a choice either of them had made. It just was.

  “I date the wrong type of men,” Kacey said now. “I love my work. I’d go so far as to say I need it. It completes something in me.”

  A fact that had been obvious to Lacey since they’d been about eight. “I agree.”

  “But I’m not enjoying clubbing. I get bored at the parties. I want...more.”

  “You need more.”

  “You knew.”

  “I suspected.”

  “And you waited.”

  “And prayed.” A lot.

  “I’m excited to get back to work,” Kacey said tentatively, as though the news might upset Lacey.

  “I know, Kace. It’s okay. You’ve got a gift.”

  “I’m going to miss you.”

  “I’m going to miss you, too.”

  “So, I was thinking...there’s no reason why I can’t commute on
weekends. At least on weekends when I don’t have an event to attend.”

  “Your room is your room. Anytime. Leave clothes here. Things in the bathroom. You have a key. Show up whenever you want.” She had things at Kacey’s condo. And still had her key, too.

  “I’m not going out with anyone who doesn’t seem like someone I’d want to marry someday,” she said.

  “Good.”

  “You knew I’d get to this point, didn’t you? That’s why you never took me seriously when I tried to introduce you to a new guy.”

  “I hoped. But if you ended up marrying one of your fancy-pants but empty-hearted suitors, I’d have welcomed him into our family.”

  “This time with Levi... I want kids of my own.”

  “I want to be a mother, too.” To Levi, someday, if she and Jem made it to that point. And to children of her own.

  “Did you notice number thirty passed us by last year?”

  “How could I miss it?” Lacey’s grimace probably wasn’t the prettiest look she’d worn that night. “There had to be five hundred people at that party.”

  “And you were a hit.”

  “Because I drank too much.”

  “Me, too.” Kacey’s expression sobered. “Because I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t happy when I had it all...”

  “Me, too,” Lacey told her.

  “So...you want some cobbler while we watch Lucy?” Kacey asked, nodding toward the old black-and-white sitcom rerun that was just starting.

  Lacey turned up the sound while her sister dished up the dessert Lacey and Jem had never gotten around to eating. They sat up for another couple of hours. Watching television. Talking. Eating second helpings of cobbler.

  It was only when she made it to bed that Lacey remembered the wineglasses out on the footer. She’d pulled on her robe to run out and gather their clothes so Jem could get dressed. She’d forgotten the wine.

  She smiled. And fell asleep that way.

  Overall, it was probably the best night she’d ever spent.