by Lietha Wards
Ashamed that she would look at such a thing, she quickly lifted her eyes to his face. His strong, square jaw was dusted with stubble, and his black hair was ruffled as if he’d just removed his hat and combed his fingers through it. She nearly sighed aloud at how handsome he was.
Priscilla swirled at the sound of him coming in through the door. “Hi, Alex,” she said cheerfully, not affected by his scowl or presence as Angel was. She gave him one of her ravishing smiles.
It wasn’t like they were invading his privacy. The Harrisons’ house was a home away from home for them, and they’d grown up in it. The brothers had never seemed bothered by their presence. Unlike Angel, Priscilla had grown accustomed to Alex. Of course, she was also loaded with self-confidence, which Angel envied.
“Angel and I just needed some time to freshen up before we see Seth. We knew you wouldn’t mind,” Pricilla continued, glancing at her reflection in the mirror again.
Angel wished the couch she was sitting on would just swallow her whole as his eyes shifted to her at the mention of her name. His gaze surveyed her slouched posture, frumpy pink blouse, and white eyelet skirt with apparent distaste.
“Good luck with that,” he said with an edge of mockery.
Angel quickly averted her gaze, flushing to the roots of her hair. So much for not being noticed, she thought. Priscilla gave a flirtatious laugh at the comment, making her to want to choke her sister. She didn’t find it funny in the least. Clearly, Pris wasn’t bothered by his expression, but why should she be? She was popular and likable.
Her sister said something flattering to him that didn’t seem to have any effect based on the lack of change in his expression, and then she swept out of the room. Angel stood and went to follow her, but her sister shut the door behind her and cut off her escape. Didn’t she ever think of anyone else?
She stopped abruptly when Alex suddenly stepped in front of her. His large frame towered over her, and she nearly planted her face in his chest, causing her to gasp. She tilted her head back to meet his gaze.
“Can’t wait to get away from me?” he asked, staring down at her.
His expression had shifted from disinterested to dangerous. The change stunned her. “I…I—”
“Still got that ridiculous stutter, I see.” His gaze flicked to her mouth, then back up to her eyes.
She bit her bottom lip and turned her head away. Every time his hazel eyes settled on her, she felt her heart skip a beat. When he combined that with talking, her heart jumped all over the place.
“Then again—” He paused while reaching for a cigarette in his front shirt pocket, then lit it and took a long draw before continuing. “—I suppose I make you nervous. Don’t I, little one?”
Her blue eyes met his light hazel gaze again. “Sometimes,” she murmured. Always, she thought.
His eyes surveyed her again. “How old are you now?”
“Twenty,” she answered in confusion. Why did he want to know her age? To her complete surprise, a bit of a smile tugged at his lips. “Why?”
“Don’t you know?” He managed a cagey grin as he stepped closer. “I think it’s about time you grew up, don’t you?”
Not knowing what he meant, but fully aware of his closeness, she tried to back up. Unfortunately, the couch was right behind her. Short of falling back onto it and sprawling awkwardly on the luxurious cushions, she had to allow him to close the distance. She tried to steady herself as best she could over his nearness, but her knees seemed to grow weak.
“Afraid?”
“Yes,” she admitted, suddenly unable to take her wide eyes off him.
“You should be. I can be a bit of a predator when I see something I like.”
What did he just say? Angel could only find it in herself to blink twice.
“And,” he added in the same husky tone, “you finally grew up, didn’t you, honey?”
She swallowed hard as her eyes focused on his. He stared down at her through thick lashes with those stunning pale green eyes.
“Do you have a boyfriend?”
Was this just friendly conversation? Somehow, she didn’t think so. Alex hadn’t had a friendly conversation with her in years. He was cordial, but not curious like this. “How? I work five days a week, and my spare time is spent on coursework.” And no man would even notice me, she added in her head.
He perked up. “I forgot about that. Did you get your paralegal?”
Didn’t he have any concept of personal space? He was still way too close to her and it was completely unsettling. “Yes. Now I’m working on some prelaw courses to shorten my time away from home when I leave for college,” she answered, relieved by the casual dialogue. He actually seemed interested in her career. However, he still didn’t move back. He might be comfortable standing toe to toe with her, but she was becoming more and more unnerved by his proximity to her.
“Is that what you want to do?” he inquired.
“I—my father thinks it’s best,” she answered honestly.
“I didn’t ask you what George wanted, Angel. I asked you what you wanted,” he said deeply, tipping his head slightly and giving her a steady gaze. “Don’t you have a backbone?”
“Have you met my father?” she responded, as if her statement made all the sense in the world.
“He was no different from mine, kitten, and he wanted me to be a doctor like Seth.”
“Really?” Her eyebrows rose. “I never knew that.” She didn’t miss the fact that he’d called her by a pet name again. It did wondrous things to her insides when he said it, but she was sure it was just a friendly endearment. She would give anything for it to be a covetous term.
“There are a lot of things you don’t know about me,” he stated huskily while stepping even closer.
Now the toes of his boots were on either side of her feet. She could feel the heat from his body—they were touching now, but she had nowhere to go. Tilting her head up so she could meet his gaze, she was going to tell him to back off, but the look in his eyes left her speechless. It was the same expression she’d seen by the pool when she was eighteen.
“Alex—”
“Be quiet, honey,” he said softly as his head lowered towards hers.
Even though he was lowering his head, and even though he’d called her kitten and honey, she never thought that he would actually kiss her. Only when he nudged her face up with his and their lips met did she finally realize it was happening.
Alex was way out of her league—or at least she’d always thought he was—but as his mouth touched hers, she suddenly didn’t think of anything else except the warmth of it against hers. She’d never been kissed before, and if this was how it felt, she’d been missing out. Then she felt his rough hands on either side of her face as he tilted her head slightly so he could capture her mouth more fully. Something in the pit of her stomach started to heat up, and she moaned as she gave in and relaxed against him.
Alex felt a wave of triumph at her surrender. One of his arms circled around her back while the other slid up and around to the back of her head. She felt so damn soft and smelled like roses. Who the hell smelled like roses? She curved against him perfectly too. He stifled his own groan and managed to work her lips apart so he could slip his tongue inside her warm mouth. That time, he did groan. She tasted like heaven. He could feel her hands on his chest, but they weren’t trying to push him away. Instead, her hands curled into his shirt, and he could feel the trail her nails left on his skin through the cloth. It gave him images of her nails raking across his flesh while they were naked. Finally, he forced himself to lift his head and stare down at her.
Her eyes were closed, and her lips were slightly swollen and set in the most delicious pout he’d ever seen. If she had any idea of how turned on he was by her, she’d probably tear out of there and never come back. Although inexperienced women usually weren’t appealing to him, Angel was appealing in every way a woman could be to a man. He was so hard for her that it was painful. It had been
a while since a woman had turned him on so quickly and effectively. He’d known she would taste good—had never doubted it for a minute. What he hadn’t counted on was how his body would react so rapidly to hers.
His eyes went over her face while she still reeled from the effects of that kiss. She had perfect skin, beautifully shaped cheekbones, and stunning blue eyes. “Angel,” he said softly. He could stand there all day with her in his arms. Her eyes slowly fluttered open. “Angel, you’d better get back to the party. People are going to wonder what I’m doing with you in here.” Or I am going to start doing things to you, he thought.
Her eyes widened when she finally realized the intimate position they were in. He still had her in a tight embrace, and she could feel her breasts pushed against his chest. It was new to her, but even as embarrassed as she was, she liked it—a lot. She lowered her eyes to her hands, which still clutched at the material of his shirt.
“Angel?” He grinned at the dazed expression on her face.
“Oh?” She finally released him as if he’d burned her, and he stepped back. If someone had told her that Alex was going to kiss her that day, she would have laughed in their face. He didn’t think of her that way. Even so, he had kissed her, held her, caressed her, and made her feel the burn of undiscovered desire. Oh, had he ever done that. However, she was entirely confused. Not once had he ever indicated that he liked her that way, and he had access to all kinds of beautiful women. “Alex, what are you doing?”
“Any damn thing you’ll let me do,” he answered thickly, taking another draw off his cigarette. He was thankful that he hadn’t burned her with it—he’d been just as involved as she was, and he’d completely forgotten it was between his fingers.
Oh, dear. Her eyes widened.
“Don’t get too comfortable, honey,” he said, keeping the devilish grin on his face. “I’ll be seeing you later.”
“Later?”
“Yes,” he said. “I have no desire to embarrass you in front of half the town by letting them speculate on what I’m doing to you in here. So we’ll continue this later.”
“We—I wasn’t!” She finally came to her senses. Her eyes went to the material that covered his chest, and she could see that she’d wrinkled it with her hands.
“Oh, you were.” Alex chuckled. “However—” He paused, moving his gaze over her face and allowing a smile to tug at the corner of his perfectly chiseled mouth. “—I don’t have it in me to seduce a virgin on my couch while her parents are just outside the room.” Damn, just thinking about it made him harder. Right now, he was straining against the fabric of his jeans.
Angel’s lips parted in a gasp at his blunt statement, and his eyes were drawn to them automatically.
“It’s too bad you aren’t more promiscuous, like your sister is,” Alex said, raising his eyes back to hers. Although he loved her strong sense of values, he’d give anything for her to stray from them for about an hour. His eyes studied her flushed, upturned face, her mouth still slightly swollen from his kiss. Maybe two hours. Hell, he could take all night with her with what he had in mind. They could make a complete mess of his room with what he had flashing through his head right now. If she was like her sister, he wouldn’t hesitate and would’ve had her on the couch, against the wall, on the floor—even his desk was a tempting surface, considering how worked up he was. But she wasn’t promiscuous, and her inexperience was evident in her response to him. He had enough experience to recognize a lack thereof. Actually, he was thrilled about it, even if it didn’t show in his expression. He wanted her, and wanted to be the only one to have her. It was a bit hypocritical, considering his past, but Angel was different. She was special—perfect, or just about. There were a few things he didn’t know about her, but he intended to discover them soon.
When he’d gone into his study, he didn’t plan to be so aggressive and intimate, but she looked so frightened and nervous. He felt protective of her—he always had—and he needed to touch her. Little did she know that he’d had to work at behaving himself around her for the past few years.
Now that he’d touched her, there was no way in hell he would get the feel of her out of his mind tonight. Not unless he took up drinking, at any rate, and he wasn’t much of a drinker. Everything he’d imagined about her was dead on, although she felt better and tasted better than he’d thought any woman could. He itched to reach out and free her abundance of hair from the bun she always wore on her head. He’d never understood that about her. She was quite pretty, and he already knew that she had a body that could melt butter during an ice age. Yet like her hair, she kept it hidden.
Angel’s eyes widened. “That’s a horrible thing to say!” she blurted out as his words finally sunk in through the haze of desire.
“For me or your sister?” he asked derisively. He shouldn’t have said it, but he was getting irritable about his condition, even though it was self-inflicted. He needed a distraction, and picking a fight with her seemed to be the best option at this point.
“You—You—”
His eyes roved over her flushed face and the hair that was sticking out from the tight bun on her head, and he gave her a sly, heart-stopping look. “I’ll see you later.” With that, he left the room, shutting the door behind him. He had to leave, or he’d act on his impulses—and Christ, did he pulse! Pulsed, throbbed, and ached. He needed a cold shower.
Angel stood there, stunned, staring at the door he’d just closed behind him. What the heck just happened? Alex wasn’t cruel. He could be downright menacing, but she knew he’d never intentionally tease her. At least she’d never thought he would. For the life of her, she couldn’t figure any of this out. Well, she wasn’t going to spend any more time on it, or it would drive her nuts. She patted her frayed hairdo with her hands before she walked back out to the party to find her sister.
Seth arrived soon after that, and much to her sister’s anguish, he had a girlfriend with him. About twenty minutes later, Priscilla sought her out and insisted that they go home. Angel was more than happy to agree after the incident with Alex, but she still couldn’t take her eyes off him through the crowd. He’d cleaned up before his brother arrived. Now he was wearing tan slacks, a white shirt, and a matching striped tie, and his hair was damp as if he’d taken a quick shower. She knew she shouldn’t be surprised that the man looked incredible in everything he wore. His poise dripped with self-confidence, and he stood at ease with his hands in the pockets of his slacks.
After he’d greeted his brother with a genuine smile and a handshake, followed by a few private words, he’d resigned himself to a corner of the room as a quiet observer. To Angel, he didn’t look as though he was enjoying himself. More than likely, he needed a cigarette, and Bea wouldn’t let him smoke anywhere in the house except for his study. She found herself smiling. It looked as if he’d rather be castrating cattle than be in that room. He wasn’t one for social events, and only went when he was required to attend. She was surprised to realize she was a little disappointed that he didn’t acknowledge her at all. She missed the rapport they used to have when she was younger. He used to ruffle her hair or nudge her shoulder with his, followed by a teasing look. Ever since the day by the pool, things were different. Apparently, they were beyond that friendly camaraderie now that she was no longer a teenager.
A young woman that Angel recognized as Miranda Ebbings, who worked at the jeweler’s in town, stopped to talk to him, and he bent his dark head so he could hear her over the crowd. She furrowed her brow at the scene. How could he seem so at ease with other women, but always stare at her with some degree of criticism? Maybe it was because Miranda was married and obviously pregnant by the size of her belly, and he didn’t feel the need to keep her at bay. Angel bit her bottom lip and wished he would at least look at her.
Only when Priscilla insisted on going home did she tear her eyes away from him. That was a hard task in and of itself. He was like a fine sculpture by Bernini or Michelangelo, and she could have stared a
t him all day. For the first time in years, she’d touched him, but touched him as a woman touching a man, and then he’d kissed her. She let out a slow, controlled breath. The way his shirt stretched over his broad shoulders and spanned down across his flat stomach reminded her of how he’d looked by the pool that day, and she completely forgot that Priscilla wanted to go home until her sister pulled on her arm and made an impatient sound.
Unknown to her, Alex saw the action and grinned as he watched Priscilla pull her out of the front door. He’d felt her eyes on him all night, but if he’d given in and looked back, he would have dragged her off to the study again. Soon, baby. Soon.
All the way home, Angel listened to Priscilla plot about how to steal Seth from his new flame. “Prissy,” Angel interrupted, using her nickname, “maybe he’s serious about her.”
“Did you see her?” she asked, ignoring her sister’s comment and shooting her an incredulous look. “She looks mousy.”
Like me. “No, I didn’t.” Her attention had been elsewhere.
“And the way she was hanging off him…” She let out a frustrated noise and slapped her hand on the steering wheel.
“Maybe you should back off a bit. I don’t think Seth is the type that likes to be chased like that.”
Her sister shot her an angry look. “You’re one to talk with the way you pine after Alex, but don’t do anything about it—Don’t look so shocked, it’s very obvious! At least I make my feelings known.”
Angel snapped her mouth shut. Her sister was right about that. “Sorry,” she mumbled. Prissy seemed fine with her half-hearted apology and began to jabber on again about how she was going to get her clutches on Seth. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, switching her gaze to the scenery passing outside the car. How her sister could drive and talk non-stop was beyond her. It made the fifteen-minute drive seem like it took an hour.