Up to the Challenge ai-2

by Terri Osburn

  She nearly came off the floor, but her reaction didn’t faze him.

  He continued over her taut belly, around her hips, then down her thighs, eventually dropping to his knees. By the time the contact reached her calves, this powerful man she’d had sex with countless times in the last week looked into her eyes and made her heart stop.

  “I’m going to make love to you tonight, Sidney Ann.”

  It took everything she had not to throw herself at him. Not to lick him from head to toe, light him on fire the way he was doing to her. But something in that look stopped her. Something in his words. Love. He was going to love her.

  Dumbstruck, all she could do was nod acceptance. Lucas dropped a kiss just below her naval and she shoved her hands into his hair, feeling the perspiration along his scalp. This level of restraint wasn’t as easy as he was making it look. And he was doing it for her.

  It was a good thing the bed was right behind her because Lucas’s next move buckled her knees. His tongue slid way lower than her naval, landing Sid flat on her back on the bed. He pulled her hips to the edge, spread her legs with the slightest pressure, and proceeded to drive her mad.

  A combination of torture and absolute bliss, waves of sensations slammed against her, pushing her down, lifting her up, sending her crashing and out of control. She heard a voice begging and distantly realized it was her own. Though she had no idea what she was saying. Something about more and stop and don’t stop and holy mother of God.

  When the final wave hit, Sid would not have been surprised to hear she levitated right off the bed. Not that she could feel the bed anymore. Everything had fallen away. Everything but the man between her legs. His hands and tongue and hot breath sending aftershocks quaking to her toes.

  She felt like a live wire. Dangerous. Spitting sparks.

  Finished with what Sid assumed to be the appetizer, Lucas maneuvered her further onto the bed, sliding over her, but only after kissing everything from the tip of her toes to the inside of her knee to the edge of her left hip. She’d never been worshiped before. Never thought much about the concept.

  But that’s what he was doing. Lucas was worshiping her body. Loving her body. How would she ever live without this?

  “No thinking,” he said, sliding a hand along her jaw, nudging her to look him in the eyes. With a shake of his head, he repeated, “No thinking. Not tonight.”

  Once again, all she could do was nod and Sid started to wonder if he’d slipped her something to make her mute. Then his mouth encircled her nipple and she quickly regained the ability to speak.

  “You’re trying to kill me.”

  The man had the nerve to chuckle, lightening the mood for the first time since they’d left the ball. “Maybe,” he said, moving to the other breast. “But this would be a damn good way to go, don’t you think?”

  Sid couldn’t answer since in that moment thinking went out the window. Along with the ability to breathe, move, and once again speak.

  The whole world was centered in her breasts, until Lucas trailed a hand across her abs and settled it between her legs. Then some crazy game of sexual pinball started in her system. Surges of pleasure shooting around, bouncing through her abdomen, setting off various bells and whistles, signaling the jackpot was within reach.

  Her hips rose off the mattress as she held Lucas to her breast in a death grip. She managed to mumble between pants, “I don’t know how much more I can take.”

  “I have several more hours of this planned. You don’t want to miss the rest, do you?”

  Her head swung from side to side in the universal gesture for No, no, no!

  He pulled a condom from the nightstand, sheathed himself in seconds, then braced above her, holding his weight on his elbows. His hips lowered and Sid pulled her knees up out of instinct.

  That’s when he stopped. Lying there, pressed against her core, bodies damp and aroused, he stopped. And Sid stopped breathing.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked, worried she’d disappointed him somehow.

  He shook his head. “You’re so beautiful. All these nights, I keep thinking I’ll wake up and you will have been a dream.”

  “I keep thinking the same thing about you.” Sid didn’t want to admit as much, but she couldn’t lie to Lucas. Not in that moment. “I don’t know why you’re here, with me, when you could have any woman you want.”

  Lucas smoothed her hair away from her face. “You really don’t know how gorgeous you are, do you? And smart. And sweet.”

  She barely kept from snorting. Barely. “You think I’m sweet?”

  He smiled. “You hide it well, but I’ve seen it. Don’t worry, I won’t spoil your reputation.”

  She returned the smile. “I appreciate that.”

  Their eyes remained locked for several seconds, and then Lucas leaned down. Finally. Their lips met with no urgency, leisurely exploring each other as if they’d never kissed before. And maybe they hadn’t. Not like this. She was still aroused, need coursing through her, but this kiss was too good to rush. This one deserved to be savored.

  What could have been minutes or hours later, Lucas began to move against her, relighting the fires that had banked down to embers. His knees spread her further, then he broke the kiss, catching her gaze as he entered her. He slid deep, slowly, allowing her to adjust to all of him. She felt awkward at first, with him watching her every reaction. Every twitch and jerk as he pulled out and drove in again.

  But then she was lost. In his eyes and what he was doing to her. Stretching her body, taking her places she’d never been before. His jaw tightened and she knew he was holding back. For her.

  Trailing her fingers down his ribs and around to his ass, she tried to give back everything he was giving her. “Come with me, Lucas. Come with me.”

  The thrusts grew stronger. Faster. His head dropped to her shoulder and she curled against him. With her legs locked around his hips, she pulled him home and experienced the most amazing orgasm of her life. She’d read a million times about bursting into a million pieces. In that moment, she understood the description.

  As her body began to reassemble, Lucas jerked against her, throwing back his head with a sound of utter triumph.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Lucas lay awake the next morning, watching sunlight pour through the window to dance across Sid’s bare skin. Skin he’d spent the night touching, tasting, and memorizing for future nights when he’d be alone. He’d tried covering her more than once, but even sleeping naked, she never left the covers on for long. Sid’s free spirit couldn’t be held down, even in sleep.

  He’d come to love that spirit as much as he loved the rest of her. Which made him a complete idiot and, oddly enough, put her further out of his reach. Sid would hate living in the city. Hate life hemmed in by all the buildings and societal rules amongst his peers. Many of the wives had careers of their own, with busy days that included lunch meetings, business suits, and keeping up appearances as much for their own careers as for their husbands’.

  Forcing Sid into that world would be like putting a great white in a fish bowl. No. His world could never be hers.

  Since he’d kept her up most of the night, both only nodding off shortly before sunrise, he let her sleep, leaving a note that he’d gone to speak to his parents about Will. He took the time to feed Drillbit, who had warmed to him considerably in the last week. The tiny ball of fur seemed more interested in curling up against his neck than trying to slice his jugular.

  Another pint-sized female who’d managed to win his affection when he wasn’t looking.

  “Anyone home?” Lucas yelled in greeting, stepping through the kitchen door and breathing in the rich aroma of his mother’s favorite coffee. Patty Dempsey may look like a tea drinker, but she preferred the more bitter brew in a potency strong enough to peel paint.

  “You’re up early this morning,” Patty said, rising on tiptoe to plant a kiss on his cheek. “You don’t look like you’ve been running, but I’d say you
’ve been up to something.”

  Lucas fought the blush and lost. He was not going to talk about the activities of the previous night with his mother. “Is Dad around? I need to talk to you guys about something.”

  With a tilt of her head, his mother studied him. He could practically hear the gears working in that sharp mind of hers. But he doubted she knew why he was there.

  “Is this about your intentions toward a certain sharp-tongued boat mechanic?” she asked, a smile crossing her face.

  The question hit like a bucket of cold water to the face. What were his intentions toward Sid? The truth—he was going to love her and leave her—made him feel like the jackass that he was. Definitely not something he wanted to discuss with his mother.

  “This isn’t about Sid,” he managed, staring through the window to watch the birds fighting over the offerings of his mother’s bird feeders. “If Dad’s in bed, I can come back.”

  “He’s up.” Her voice turned stern. “You’re not toying with that girl, are you? She’s been in—”

  “Thought I heard your voice,” Tom said, entering the kitchen looking healthier than he had since Lucas arrived. “Where’s your little partner in crime? I was starting to think you two were attached at the hip.”

  What was this constant talk about Sid? So he’d lived at her house for a week. They were consenting adults. That was their business. Except he’d forgotten that on Anchor Island, everything was everyone’s business.

  “Sid is sleeping. She had a long night.” Well shit. That wasn’t the answer he wanted to give. Maybe he could leave the house and come back in again.

  “I’m sure she did.” His parents exchanged a knowing smile that made him feel like a schoolboy caught necking in the backseat of their car.

  “I’m here to talk about something else,” he blurted, desperate to change the subject. “I have an idea for the restaurant I’d like to run by you.” Odd to feel nervous, but then he’d never tried to tell his parents how to run their business.

  They exchanged another look, but this one he had no idea how to interpret. They didn’t look angry, and neither told him to keep his nose out of things, so he took that as a good sign.

  “Bring us over some coffee, Pat.” Tom pulled out a chair from the kitchen table. “What do you have in mind?” he asked Lucas.

  “Well,” Lucas hedged, pulling a chair for his mother, then taking the next one over. “I have no doubt you’ll be back on your feet soon, but this heart attack is a pretty obvious sign you can’t keep up the pace you had going before.”

  “My pace?” Tom asked.

  Lucas looked to his mother for backup, but she remained silent.

  “Running the place alone, working six or seven days a week, just isn’t good for you. Hell, it’s about to do me in and I’ve only been at it for a couple weeks.”

  His dad leaned back in his chair. “If you’re looking for time off, then just say so.”

  “I’m not talking about me.” He was making a mess of this. “I simply think you need help. You deserve help.”

  Patty finally spoke up. “Are you volunteering?”

  “What?” he asked, stunned by another question he didn’t expect. “No, not me. Will.”

  “Will?” the pair asked in unison. “What does Will have to do with this?” Tom asked.

  He was losing them. “Just hear me out. Will has worked for several businesses on the island and been behind the bar at O’Hagan’s for nearly a year. She’s also worked other bars and restaurants up and down the coast.”

  “What does that have to do with Dempsey’s?” Tom asked, but Patty shushed him and motioned for Lucas to continue.

  “You need some kind of assistant manager. Someone to take the everyday weight off your shoulders. She could work the bar. Create the schedules. Anything you need her to do.”

  The elder Dempseys sat silently as if absorbing the suggestion. “Have you talked to Will about this?” Patty asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Without coming to us first?” Tom nearly leapt from his chair but Patty’s grip held him in place. “You can’t go around offering people jobs whenever you feel like it.”

  “I didn’t offer her a job,” Lucas defended, ignoring the knot forming in his gut. He never meant to offend his parents. Especially not the man who’d raised him like his own. “I wanted to make sure she was interested before I came to you. She understands this isn’t a done deal. You have the final say, of course.”

  “How gracious of you to let me decide what happens in my own damn restaurant.”

  “Tom,” Patty scolded. “He has a point. You can’t go back to working so many hours. His intentions are in the right place and the idea is worth discussing.”

  Finally. Someone on his side.

  “You’d be doing Will a favor, too. She could stop flitting from business to business, picking up hours wherever she can get them.” Lucas clasped his hands on the Formica tabletop. “No one is suggesting you can’t run the business, but this is an opportunity for you to relax a bit. Let someone else do the heavy lifting for a while.”

  “Heavy lifting takes money,” Tom grumbled.

  “What does that mean?” Lucas asked, confused where this reaction was coming from.

  “Tom,” Patty nearly whispered. “We have to tell him. We should have told the boys long before now.”

  “Tell the boys what?” The knot tightened and spread to his chest. “What am I missing here?”

  “The restaurant is losing money,” Patty said, when his dad held silent. “It’s been slowing down for several seasons, but this year has been the worst.”

  “Are you saying we’re going out of business?”

  “Absolutely not.” Tom smacked the table. “We’ll cut back. Wait for things to get better. Hiring an assistant manager just isn’t in the cards right now. Maybe next year.”

  Lucas couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Nearly twenty years of his life had been spent in Dempsey’s Bar & Grill. He couldn’t imagine Anchor without it. His family without it.

  “Do you need cash?”

  “We need customers, but with tourism down, the numbers aren’t there.” Patty rubbed a hand absently across her chest. This must have been hard on them, watching their life’s work fade. Carrying the burden by themselves, pretending everything was fine.

  They didn’t need to carry it alone anymore.

  “Let me help. I can invest in the business.”

  “The business is yours without your money,” Tom said, dismissing the offer. “I’ll mortgage this house before I’ll take your hard-earned money.”

  “Don’t be stubborn,” Lucas said. “You need money and I have it.”

  “Are you sure about this, Lucas?” Patty asked.

  “No.” Tom shoved his chair back and threw his hands wide. “I won’t allow it. I will not take charity from my children.”

  “It’s not charity,” Lucas argued, coming to his feet. “Dempsey’s is the family business and I’m part of this family. It’s time I made an official investment in my future, and I’ll expect a return on that investment.”

  “Your future? Since when do you plan to run this business in the future?”

  Tom had him there. Lucas always knew he and Joe would inherit the place someday, but never intended to come back and run it. Had his feelings changed? He considered what he’d have to leave behind and knew the answer immediately.

  “I didn’t say I’d be the one running it, but I will be an owner someday. That can’t happen if there’s nothing left to own.”

  Tom ran a hand through his cropped hair. “It’s not right.” The vehemence in his voice had softened. “I don’t like it.”

  “Tom.” Patty stood and took her husband’s hands. “Lucas is right. We need a shot of capital and he’s willing to give it. Better from him than someone else. Better than losing it all together.”

  “Listen to her,” Lucas said, stepping up behind his mother and resting his hands on her shoulders. �
��Let me do this. No matter the amount, it won’t come close to paying you back for everything you’ve done for me. You’re always taking care of everyone else. Let someone else do the taking care of for a change.”

  Tom’s gaze darted from his wife, to the floor, to the son he’d given his name and his love. “An investment. For a full stake in the company.”

  Lucas extended his hand. “Deal.”

  By Tuesday, Sid was ready to leap out of her skin. Neither she nor Lucas had talked about how things had changed after Friday night. And things had definitely changed. Any illusion of acting casual went out the window, along with Sid’s final grasp on denial. She was full on in love with Lucas Dempsey and if his actions were any indication, he’d fallen off the casual cliff right along with her.

  You’d think they’d talk about it. They both knew Lucas was leaving at the end of the summer. Sid didn’t harbor any great hope he’d change his mind. Lucas didn’t belong on Anchor any more than Sid belonged in a beauty pageant. For all of five minutes she imagined he might ask her to go with him. Then she remembered Curly’s stories about dinner parties, political events, and mindless small talk.

  Sid would rather face a squall on open waters than be forced into that world.

  No, she couldn’t go with him. And he wouldn’t stay. So they’d both avoided the subject and pretended Labor Day would never come. Or so she thought.

  Until her bed partner started acting more and more odd. Happy one minute, staring off into space the next. Always with that disgruntled look as if he were passing a kidney stone while working a word problem in his head. When she’d ask him where he drifted off to during those moments, he’d just flash her a smile and drop a quick kiss on her lips before changing the subject.

  They worked seamlessly during the days, then cuddled on her couch at night. The challenge of showing Lucas all there was to do on the island fell away at some point, though she couldn’t remember when or why. They’d taken in another movie. One of the Die Hard flicks, though she wasn’t sure now which installment. They also attended a Merchants Society meeting, during which Sid had whispered stories in Lucas’s ear about nearly everyone in attendance.