by Marie Force
Rosie’s laughter echoed through the yard.
Ian’s eyes were riveted to her, the firelight burnishing her golden curls. She was everything to him. He had sacrificed everything for her and would do it again in a heartbeat. It mattered to him that he be a man she could be proud of and look up to, which was why he had been plagued all day by doubts about the deal he’d made with Cat.
As his brothers settled into relationships with women who had the potential to change their lives for the better, he was headed for trouble. He knew it and hated it but was just as certain he would go to her the first chance he got.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Tess and Ben didn’t leave Kevin’s house until almost eleven because she insisted on helping Linda clean up. Ben liked how Tess put others first. The kindness that radiated from her touched everyone around her and had been the first of many things that attracted him to her. Hell, he liked just about everything he knew about her, which wasn’t much, he had realized as they sat by the fire.
“Are you tired?” she asked.
He noticed she had adjusted her pace to his, as if walking this slow was natural to her. “Not particularly. You?”
“Not really.”
“Do you have to work tomorrow?”
“Not until three. I traded shifts with someone who needed tomorrow night off.”
Ben was already sad to realize he wouldn’t see her tomorrow night. A sure-to-be endless day had just gotten longer. “Can we go somewhere? To talk?”
“Where do you want to go?”
“How about the beach?”
“I have a blanket in my car.”
“Perfect. Let’s go to King Park.”
“Where?”
“I’ll show you.”
When they were in the car, he directed her. “So you’re not from here? Newport?”
She shook her head. “I’ve lived with Georgie for the last few months, but I moved to Rhode Island almost a year ago.”
“From where?” When she didn’t answer right away, he glanced over to find her jaw set with tension. “Is that a trick question?”
“No,” she said softly.
“You don’t want to tell me?”
“It’s not that.”
Ben let it rest until they had pulled into the angled parking spaces at King Park, which overlooked Newport Harbor.
Tess retrieved the blanket from the trunk of the car.
He appreciated her patience as he hobbled across the lawn, through the playground to the beach. God! How he missed being able to get around effortlessly—something he, like most people, had taken for granted until it was gone.
Tess spread the blanket on the beach and took his cane for him.
As if she knew he wouldn’t want her to witness his struggle as he lowered himself to the blanket, she looked out at the boats at anchor.
“We might need a crane to get me out of here,” he said when he had landed.
“I can get you up.” She blushed when she realized what she had said.
Finding her adorable, Ben laughed. “Please, feel free.”
She shot him a withering look. “You know what I meant.”
“I know what I heard.” He reached for her hand and laced his fingers through hers. “Are you going to tell me why you don’t want me to know anything about you?”
“It’s not that I don’t want you to know.”
“Then what?”
She ventured a glance at him. “I . . . my last relationship was difficult, and I don’t ever want to think or talk about it again. I’d like to pretend my life began the day I moved here.”
Ben stretched out on the blanket and brought her with him. “It breaks my heart to think of you being unhappy.”
“Ben,” she sighed, resting her head on his chest. “That’s the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me.” She ran a hand over his chest. “I took a solemn vow to never get involved with a man again.”
While he was desperate to know what had caused such a beautiful young woman to make that kind of vow, he couldn’t bring himself to ask. “You’re going to have to break it.”
“I think I already have.” She shifted onto her belly and propped her chin on her fist so she could see him. “How’d you manage that so quickly?”
Threading his fingers through her long, silky hair, he urged her closer. “How did you manage to make me forget I’m supposed to be moody and sullen?”
She laughed at the grumpy face he made.
“Kiss me,” he whispered. “Before I die from wanting you to.”
As their lips met in the dark, her sweet fragrance wafted through his senses and surrounded him. Ignoring the pain in his hip, he shifted onto his side and brought her up tight against him. He smoothed his hand down her back until he encountered the soft skin of her leg.
Her tongue tangled with his in teasing thrusts that made him crazy with desire.
Encouraged by her passionate response, he changed the direction of his hand on her leg.
With a shudder, Tess let her head fall back in a gesture of helpless surrender.
His leg screamed in protest, but Ben ignored it as he shifted her under him. He wasn’t interested in being an injured man right then. He was interested in being just a man with a woman who made his blood run hotter than any woman ever had.
Her fingers were gentle as they combed through his hair.
With the pale light of the moon beaming down on them, their eyes met.
“You’ve got your moves back,” she whispered.
“You think so?”
“Uh-huh. What else have you got?” she asked with a saucy smile.
Laughing, he captured her bottom lip between his teeth as his hand moved up to cup her breast. He was gratified by her sharp inhale. “Lovely, lovely, Tess,” he said, skimming his lips over her neck to her ear.
Her hands slid down his back, and it was his turn to be surprised when she grabbed his ass, pulling his erection into snug contact with the V of her legs.
“Tess,” he choked.
“We can’t,” she moaned.
Confused, he raised his head to look at her. “Can’t what?”
Pushing against his erection, she said, “This. It’s too soon.”
“Since we’re on a public beach, I think I can control myself.”
“Good. We can’t be like everyone else.”
“Who everyone else?” he asked, puzzled.
“Your brothers, my roommates.”
Ben’s eyes widened with surprise. “I knew about Nate and Georgie, but Ian and Cat, too?”
With a guilty expression, Tess nodded. “You can’t say anything.”
“Damn! That didn’t take long.”
With the light touch her of her fingers, she brushed the hair off his forehead. “It’s been a long time,” she said softly. “Since I’ve felt this way.”
His lips moved over her face, her forehead, the tip of her nose. “What way?”
“Excited, giddy, safe.”
The last word was slow to register. Once it did, Ben struggled to process it. “Were you unsafe? Before?”
It seemed to cost her something to reply with the slightest of nods.
Rage ripped through him. That someone could hurt her. He held her tighter, flooded with tenderness and protectiveness and so many other things he had given up on ever hoping to feel. Here it all was. Right here in his arms was the answer to his every question. “You’re safe now,” he said fiercely. “With me.”
This time when he kissed her, he kept it gentle and waited for her to tell him what she wanted. She didn’t disappoint. In an almost dainty movement, her tongue traced the outline of his mouth.
Ben’s heart slowed to a crawl. A sudden, blinding light scared the crap out of him. “What the—”
“Newport Police, folks.”
“Great,” Ben grumbled.
Tess giggled.
“Shh,” Ben hissed. Squinting, he looked up at the cop. “I’m Nate Caldwell’s brother
.”
“Oh, for Christ’s sake.” The cop killed the offending light. “Why didn’t you say so?”
“Um, because I was too busy being blind?”
The cop laughed. “Which brother are you?”
“Ben.”
“The one who was in Iraq?”
“That’s me.” Ben wondered if the word Iraq would be forever attached to his name.
“How you getting along?”
Ben glanced down at Tess under him and then back up at the cop. “Pretty well until you showed up.”
She shook with silent laughter.
“Oh, jeez, sorry, man. You don’t have any alcohol with you, do you?”
“Not a drop.”
“Then you enjoy your evening.”
“I plan to.”
“Ma’am,” the young patrolman said to Tess before he walked away.
She laughed so hard she cried. “I feel like I’m seventeen again.”
“And getting caught making out on the beach?”
“I never got caught,” she said haughtily.
“First time for everything.” His lips flew over her face, purposely avoiding her efforts to recapture his mouth. “What do you say we take this somewhere more comfortable?”
“What’d you have in mind?” she asked, breathless.
“Your place or mine?”
Her fingertips dug into his back. “Too many people at mine.”
“Mine it is, then.”
A long line stretched from the front door of Club Underground all the way around the block.
“Shit,” Ian mumbled. He had waited until midnight, an hour before last call, hoping to avoid the mob scene. “Now what?” Wandering around to the back of the building, he found the evening’s band taking a smoke break. He recognized one of them. “Hey, Scotty.”
The other man blinked in the darkness. “Ian Caldwell? Hey, dude, what’s up?”
Ian clasped his outstretched hand. “Long time, no see.”
“What’re you up to?”
“I need to see the manager, and the line out front is insane.”
“Dude, have you met her? The manager? H-o-t.”
The desire to punch the lusty look off his friend’s face took Ian by surprise. “Yeah, I know her. Can you get me in the back?”
“Sure.” Scotty nodded to one of his band mates, who opened the back door for Ian.
“Thanks, guys.”
“See you around,” Scotty said.
Inside, Ian waded through a sea of barely dressed bodies in the back hallway to get to the large main room, which pulsed with retro dance music that Ian hated. A headache started in his right temple as he pushed through a crowd of kids so young he wondered how it was possible they were legal.
He arrived at the bar as a group was leaving and grabbed one of the abandoned stools. Five minutes passed before he was able to get a bartender’s attention to order a beer. Scanning the crowd, he looked for Cat’s trademark red spikes but all he saw was one glassy-eyed, sweaty kid after another. When had they gotten so young? He would ground Rosie for life if she ever hung out in a place like this.
He was well into his second beer and the band had started up again when he finally spotted Cat across the bar talking to a guy. Ian bit back a pang of jealousy when he saw that she had her hand on the guy’s shoulder as she leaned in to hear him over the music. Throwing her head back, she howled with laughter. When she came back down, her eyes connected with Ian’s. He watched as her laughter died, and her head tilted as if she was asking a question.
Ian smiled and tilted his own head in invitation.
She leaned in to say something to the friend she had been talking to, patted him on the shoulder, and started around the bar. On the way, she stopped to issue a warning to a group of men who, judging by the ball and chain around the neck of one of them, were apparently part of a bachelor party, signed something thrust in front of her by one of the employees, and consulted with a towering man who had to be one of the bouncers. Standing next to him, Cat seemed almost fragile. She appeared to be giving the big man some instructions. After he had walked away, she continued on toward Ian.
He never took his eyes off her as she made her way around the bar. When she was finally standing right in front of him, he had to contain the urge to haul her into his arms and greet her properly.
She leaned in close so he could hear her when she spoke, and the dark, sexy scent he would recognize anywhere as hers engulfed him, making him instantly hard. “What’re you doing here? Not exactly your scene.”
He feigned offense. “I love this place.”
Her lips curled into a skeptical smile. “Then why haven’t I ever seen you here before?”
“You weren’t looking?”
“You’re full of it.”
He loved the way her warm breath felt against his skin as she spoke into his ear.
“How was the family thing?”
“Fun.” He hesitated for a second. “I missed you.” What the hell? Why not?
The comment seemed to rattle her.
“My parents surprised us by showing up.”
“All the more reason to stay away.”
He let his gaze wander down the front of her, coming to rest on breasts that were on prominent display under a snug T-shirt. “They liked Georgie and Tess.”
“They’re the kind of girls you bring home to Mom.”
“And you’re not?”
“The moms tend to be put off by the brow ring and tattoo.”
Wondering if that’s why she had them, he shrugged. “My mother has six sons. Not much fazes her.”
Her eyes widened. “Six?”
Ian smiled as he nodded and continued to fight the overwhelming desire to touch her.
She directed his attention to the fat wad of cash she had rolled into her fist. “I was heading up to the office. Want to come?”
So badly he ached. “Yeah,” he said, reaching for his wallet to pay for the beers.
She stopped him. “It’s on me,” she said with a signal to the bartender. Pointing to Ian, she made a writing gesture.
The bartender responded with a thumbs-up.
“Thanks,” Ian said. He followed her back the way he’d come in. Halfway down the long, dark hallway, she ducked through a door that led to a stairwell.
Using a key at the top of the stairs, she pushed open a heavy door and stepped into a large, cluttered space. One whole wall was a window that looked down over the club.
“My home away from home,” she said as she stashed the money in a safe behind her desk.
Cases of beer were stacked against one of the other walls, her desk was piled high with paper, and a screen saver on her computer provided the only light in the room.
When she reached for a switch on the wall, Ian took her hand before she could turn on a light, brought her into his arms, and captured her mouth for a deep, searing kiss. Tongues met in a fierce battle, and when her teeth clamped down on his, Ian almost passed out from the surge of pure lust that streaked through him.
He scooped her up.
She wrapped her legs around his waist and tightened her arms around his neck.
Pressing her back against the window that overlooked the club, he broke the kiss. “One-way glass?”
“Uh-huh,” she said, pulling him in for another torrid kiss.
Long, passionate minutes passed before Ian came up for air. Planting his lips on her neck, he whispered, “I’ve needed this all day.”
“Mmm,” she sighed, tilting her head to encourage the attention he was paying to her neck.
“You, too?” he asked, hating his needy, hopeful tone.
“I liked finding you at my bar.”
The confession made him ridiculously happy. “There’s no chance of this window letting go, is there?”
“That would suck,” she joked, rotating her pelvis against his straining hard-on.
“Cat.”
“Ian,” she teased in the same tone as she
bit down on his earlobe.
He was so painfully hard, he was afraid it would break right off if she kept pushing on it. “Does that door have a lock?”
He saw a moment of hesitation in her eyes that disappeared as fast as it had come. “Sure does.”
He let her slide down the front of him and, for the second night in a row, watched her slide a lock into place.
She turned back to him, and with a sexy, confident smile, she reached for the hem of her T-shirt and lifted it up and over her head. Her eyes locked on his, she unbuttoned her camouflage pants and let them slide into a puddle at her feet.
Ian’s hands rolled into fists at his side as he bit down on his lower lip to keep his tongue from hanging out of his face. Watching her strip for him was like having every fantasy he’d ever had come true all at once.
Her smile shifted from confident to tantalizing as she reached back to unhook her bra. She took it off and threw it at him.
Surprised, he caught it, felt the heat of her body in the soft cloth, and was certain he was going to explode any second.
As she sashayed toward him, Ian was paralyzed and terrified that she’d only have to touch him and he’d be done.
“You’re kind of overdressed for this party,” she whispered, inching his shirt up and over his head, her lips exploring each new bit of skin as she uncovered it. “Condom?”
“Wallet,” he managed to say.
Reaching into both back pockets and squeezing his ass, she removed his wallet and flipped it open.
He watched her smile fade when she encountered a photo of Rosie. That would be something he could think about later, after he had slaked the burning desire. Taking it from her, he found the condom and tossed the wallet on the floor with his shirt. There was something highly erotic about getting naked in front of a window where hundreds of people who couldn’t see them gyrated to music they could feel but not hear.
Unbuttoning his shorts, she pushed them down and kneeled in front of him. “Cat,” he gasped as she took him into her mouth. No way would he survive this—not after the striptease. “Babe, wait.” He wove his fingers through her short hair. “I can’t . . .”
She sucked hard and skimmed her tongue over the tip.
His legs failing him, Ian leaned back against the window. This was going to be quick. “Cat.”