“Oh, Lacey, we are so glad you could make it today. It seems like every time we have a family get-together you’re working. We’ve missed you,” said Rayanne as she gave Lacey a tight hug.
Lacey pulled back and looked at Scott’s oldest sister. She’d always gotten along well with Scott’s whole family, but except for holiday parties and Jason’s birthday parties, she’d not attended any more intimate family get-togethers.
Rayanne gave her another gentle hug. “We are all so glad about you and Scott,” the woman whispered in Lacey’s ear.
What did she mean about her and Scott? Surely Scott hadn’t told them about the kiss they’d shared? Maybe Scott’s sister had been drinking out of the same cup his mother had been drinking from.
Lacey pulled back and looked into the woman’s eyes. They were bright and clear, with no sign that she had been into her momma’s “adult” beverages.
“Mom,” Alston called as he ran up to her. “Can I change and get in the pool? Scott’s dad is out there.”
Alston knew his mother’s rules. Even though he was a good swimmer, she’d never let him swim in a pool without an adult present.
“Sure—just make sure you listen to Mr. Boudreaux,” Lacey said.
“Scott? You want to swim with us?” Alston asked.
“I’ll be there in a few minutes,” Scott said.
“Alston is such a good kid. You know we all love that boy like he’s one of our own,” Rayanne said.
Lacey gave the group a smile. Unlike herself, Alston had always had the gift of making friends easily—just like his father.
“Scott was telling us about the hike y’all took last weekend,” said Scott’s youngest sister Leslie. “It sounds so romantic. The two of you out in the swamp, working together to save that vet...”
“There was nothing romantic about it,” Lacey said, “Katie could have died out there. There’s absolutely no room for romance when you’re fighting to save someone’s life.”
“Well, surely you and Scott were able to find some time for romance?” Scott’s sister said, with a smile and a wink that matched her brother’s.
At that moment the pieces of the puzzle started to come together. The over-the-top welcome from his mother, the strange comments Rayanne had made... It all made sense now.
Scott’s family had decided that she and Scott were an item. But why? After all these years of being friends, why would they suddenly think that the two of them were involved? Because they had gone together on a hike? They’d gone plenty of places together over the years, and the hike had been a planned event for the veterans, not a romantic tryst for the two of them. There was no reason for them to think things had changed between the two of them.
But things had changed. After they’d shared that last mind-blowing kiss everything had changed. But there was no way they could know about that. Unless...
Lacey felt the rush of blood to her face. What had Scott done? Did he think just because she had responded to his kiss that he was suddenly free to share this with his family? She’d have to straighten this out right now.
“Do you have a moment, Scott?” Lacey asked. She tried to sound casual, but that was hard to pull off when her face was glowing like Rudolph’s nose. “I need to discuss something with you,” she said.
Scott looked over at her, and then he looked down at his feet. The man was busted and he knew it. She’d kill him for this. There was no reason for him to have shared what had taken place between the two of them with his family—with anybody, period. She’d certainly not told anyone. She’d never share something that personal.
Taking Scott by the hand, she pulled him away from the rest of the group. From the look on Scott’s face, her smile must be horrific. Good—let him fear for his life. If he’d shared the details of their kiss with anyone she’d kill him for sure.
* * *
Scott stared at Lacey’s face. He had known he should warn her about his family, and he’d planned to do just that when they shared a ride over to his parents’ house. But she had been avoiding him and he’d never gotten a chance to explain things to her.
He’d have some groveling to do now, but surely Lacey would understand why he’d done it?
“Is there something you want to tell me?” Lacey asked, once she’d pulled them inside the French doors to his parents’ house.
He knew she was using her “mom voice” on him. He recognized it immediately as the one his own mom had used on him and his sisters. It was that tone of voice that could make him feel guilty without even knowing what he was supposed to be guilty of. Only this time he knew exactly what he was guilty of.
It had seemed so innocent at the time. When his sister had come to him with concerns, saying that it wasn’t healthy for him to be spending all his time with his dead friend’s wife and child when, according to her and his mother, he should be focusing his time on finding his own wife and family, he hadn’t known what to say. If he’d tried to explain the guilt he felt that Ben hadn’t made it home, or his promise to his friend that he would look out for his friend’s family, it would have just upset them more.
The two of them moved aside as one of his nieces headed out the door to the pool. They couldn’t discuss this here.
Now he was the one who took her by her hand and led her to the back of the house, to his old room. Shutting his door, he turned back to Lacey. Her eyes, usually full of humor, sparked with anger now. He’d have to explain everything fast, before she went off.
“Look, I’m sorry, but it started off very innocently. I didn’t mean for you to find out, or to have to deal with my family. You know how they are—they’re constantly trying to get in my business, especially my sisters. Living with four meddling females has never been easy.”
One look at Lacey’s face told him he wasn’t helping matters. How was he going to get her to understand that it didn’t matter? What did it matter what his family thought? But of course if it really didn’t matter he wouldn’t be in the spot he was now...
“I didn’t mean for things to go this far,” he said.
“You didn’t mean for things to go this far? What did you think was going to happen? You just said that they’re meddlers. Did you think that suddenly they’d leave you alone? That once they knew you’d kissed me and I had responded they would stay out of things?”
Scott stopped his pacing around the room. What was she talking about?
“Do you tell your family about every kiss you have with someone or is it just the mind-blowing ones you share?” she asked. “And I’ve been thinking about that. How do we even know that it was your kiss that made me respond? Isn’t it more likely that the fact I haven’t had sex in the past three years is the reason it affected me that way?” Lacey said, and then she stepped in front of him. “I could have responded to any man the same way.”
Scott was getting tired of listening to Lacey’s excuses for their attraction. He knew in his heart that Lacey would never have responded to someone else like she had to him, and it was time he proved it to her.
Crossing to the door, he locked it. He didn’t want anyone to interrupt them. This see-saw of emotions would end here. He’d leave her in no doubt about whom she would and wouldn’t respond to.
Turning back to her, he walked over till only inches were between the two of them. “Is that what you really think or are you just too scared to admit that you liked me kissing you?” he asked.
She knew just as well as he did that this thing between the two of them wasn’t a fluke. He just had to make her admit it, so that this argument could be set aside once and for all.
“I’m not scared,” she said. “I just don’t understand why you want to ruin a perfectly good relationship because of a couple kisses.”
Taking her face in his hands, he slowly lowered his lips. “Do you want me to kiss you, Lacey?” he asked.
He f
elt the shiver that ran down her body. He watched her eyes go soft, then close.
“Yes,” she whispered.
He placed his lips lightly on hers and pulled her body into his arms. He fought back the urgent need to possess her that filled his body every time he held her close to him. Instead he swiped his lips softly across hers, coaxing her to open for him. Her lips opened and he slowly let his tongue dance with hers. He felt her relax in his arms.
Moving his arms up her back, he let himself caress her. His body tightened as her arms moved around him and they moved closer together. There was no space left between them now. They moved as one as they fit their bodies together, her breasts pressed against his chest, his erection cradled against her abdomen.
He’d been afraid to let her see just how much she affected him the other times they had kissed, afraid that he would scare her away, but today she would know exactly what she did to him and what he could do for her.
His hands cupped her bottom and brought her up against him. Their kisses were driving him crazy and they were not enough. Her body slid against him and they both moaned. Did she know what she was doing to him? Did she understand that this was more than just sexual attraction?
In one movement he picked her up and laid her on the bed, pinning her down with his body. He drew back from her. Her eyes, clouded with desire, opened slowly and stared back at him. He wanted to watch her face the first time he touched her. He moved beside her and turned her toward him. He pushed her shirt up, then moved his hand over her breast. He could feel the hard peak of her nipple through her bra.
“Could just any man do this to you, Lacey?” he asked as his other hand undid the button of her jeans. He slid his hand inside and felt her through her panties. She pushed against his hand and he knew he had her. “Could any man make you this turned on?”
He pressed his hand against her sex and watched as her eyes closed in pleasure. She was so responsive to him. For him. He knew what she needed—what they both needed—but with his family just outside he knew they couldn’t make love. Frustration filled him and his body protested. He’d started something he couldn’t finish and that hadn’t been fair to Lacey.
He lowered his head to hers and kissed her deeply. Suddenly she took over the kiss, her tongue stroking his urgently with a desperation that drained him of all his good intentions. There was only one way this could end.
He moved his hand against her again and moaned. She was so wet and warm. This was going to kill him, but he couldn’t stop himself.
He parted her and felt the hard bud of her core against his fingers. He increased the friction as he kneaded it. She shook in his arms as the climax hit her and he smothered her moans with his mouth. His body was strung tight with a need he fought to suppress. If he died here, with his hand inside Lacey’s jeans, his mother would kill him.
The thought of his mother helped to cool his body’s demands.
Lacey lay in his arms, limp and satiated. Seeing her that way made dealing with the frustration of his own body worth it all. He needed a cold shower, but a dip in his parents’ pool would have to do.
When Lacey opened her eyes he couldn’t help but smile. Her lips were red with their kisses and she looked up to him with soft, welcoming eyes. He smiled again. Her smile faltered and then her lips began to tremble. Was she going to cry?
“I’m sorry,” she said as she looked away.
Was that embarrassment? The two of them had always had a very open relationship. They’d shared their feelings and thoughts without any worry of judgment between the two of them. That wasn’t going to change now.
“Lacey, you have nothing to be sorry about. I love the way you respond to me. I don’t want you to ever be embarrassed by anything the two of us do together.”
Lacey looked up at him. She still seemed unsure—something the Lacey he knew never felt—but there was some humor in her eyes now.
“I’m not embarrassed by that,” she said. “It’s just that you... I didn’t... I mean you still haven’t...”
She straightened her shoulders and looked into his eyes. Now, this was the Lacey he knew.
“You didn’t get anything out of that. I should have done something to...ah...help,” she said.
Scott broke out in laughter, and then choked when he heard his mother’s voice calling down the hall.
“Scott? Lacey?”
Lacey covered his mouth with her hand and he nipped at it with his teeth.
“I told you—I saw them headed over across the street,” his oldest sister said. “I think they were going to check out that old creek bed.”
He had no doubt that Rayanne had seen the two of them walk into the house. He owed her a big favor for covering for him, and he had no doubt she was already figuring out what she was going to blackmail him out of.
“Shh... If your mother catches us in here I’m going to kill you. And don’t think I’ve forgotten about the little oversharing that has caused this mess you’ve gotten us into,” she said.
They heard the back door open and shut and both relaxed back onto the bed.
“Why in the world did you think you had to share what happened between the two of us with your family?” Lacey asked as she chewed on her bottom lip.
It was something he’d seen her do a thousand times and it had never bothered him before. Now all he could think about was those lips and all the things he wanted to do with them.
Knowing that thoughts like that were only going to make things worse, he moved away from Lacey and sat on the end of the bed.
“I didn’t tell my family about kissing you,” he said.
“If you didn’t tell them then why are they acting so strange?” Lacey asked as she straightened her clothes and sat next to him.
He noticed that she’d moved a little farther away from him. Was she regretting what they’d done? Or was she finding the proximity of the two of them together and the bed as much of a temptation as he was?
“You know how my sisters are always trying to set me up with their friends, right?”
She nodded her head and moved into a cross-legged position, scooting a little farther away again.
“I got tired of all the harassment from the three of them, and then one day Rayanne—who seems to think the world of you, so don’t take this personally—started on at me about dating one of her husband’s cousins. She said the family was worried about me spending so much time with you and Alston instead of trying to find my own wife and family. I told her that we had plans for the weekend that she was trying to set me up. She made a comment, said that the two of us would make a nice couple and it was too bad we weren’t taking our relationship a little more seriously. I saw the way out of having to deal with her matchmaking and worrying my mother so I took it.”
“You took it?” Lacey said. “What does that mean?”
She was giving him that stern momma stare again, and he felt the need to squirm. How did women do that?
“I just told her that she didn’t know everything about my life and that maybe we were in a serious relationship.”
Lacey shook her head at him, a look of pure disappointment on her face.
“Don’t look at me that way. It worked like a charm. Not one of my sisters has tried to set me up in the last nine months. And my mom’s not always calling to check up on me.” He said. “It’s been kind of like getting one of those ‘get out of jail free’ cards when you’re playing that board game.”
“Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed it—because the getting out free part has run out and now we have a mess to fix,” Lacey said as she rose off the bed.
Panic hit him. If his sisters found out he’d been lying about his and Lacey’s relationship they’d make his life hell. And the truth was Rayanne hadn’t been totally wrong. He’d already realized that he enjoyed the time he spent with Lacey way more than time with any of the gi
rls he had dated. He couldn’t admit it to Lacey, but his feelings for her had changed months ago.
Scott had always found his friend’s wife attractive, but the friendship between him and Lacey had been casual. He’d respected her nursing abilities as they’d worked together in the ER, but his real friendship had been with Ben. His friendship with Lacey had really only grown after Ben had passed. They’d both needed someone to talk to, and the sharing of their grief had been brutal for both of them.
It hadn’t been until the past few months that he’d noticed their friendship was changing again. How Lacey hadn’t seen the change he could not understand...
“Are you coming?” she asked, and then froze. “Although maybe it would be better if we went out separately.”
Scott looked up at Lacey and grinned. He’d learned a few tricks as a result of living with his sisters. Women were always concerned about what other women thought of them. It was something he never had understood. Men just weren’t built that way. They were who they were and they didn’t care what their friends thought.
“You know Rayanne knows we were in this room alone, don’t you? She’s probably already told Amy and Leslie by now.” He watched as she nibbled on that sexy bottom lip of hers again. “If we go out there and tell them that it’s all been a mistake they’ll never believe us. How could they? I mean, how is it going to look if we say we were just passing the time, making out, and then tell them that we’re just friends?”
Lacey looked up at him, her eyes narrow and shooting darts. Maybe that last part had been a little overkill.
“So what you’re saying is that I’ll look like a slut if I walk out there and tell your sisters that I was just making out with their brother, but they’ve totally mistaken the nature of our relationship?” she said.
He decided it was a good time for him to get up. Rising, he moved over toward the door. A little distance between the two of them might be good right now.
Stolen Kiss with the Single Mom Page 8
