“Once you found out they were a scam, you started looking twice at everything.”
She nodded. “I had to get away. I set my folks up in a beautiful home in Florida with an income to live on. My sister Fiona and her fiancé Bernie got the wedding Fee wanted but could never afford before.” Her lips twisted in a grimace. “But not until Fee went freaking insane buying everything and anything she could get her hands on.”
“It was her thong.” His palms broke out into a sweat. “They weren’t rhinestones, were they?”
She shook her head so slightly he could barely see the movement.
“She got angry with me when I told her it had to go back. There’s so much more that could be done with fifty grand.”
He swallowed and nodded, lightheaded at the idea of the rat’s nest lined with diamonds.
The coffee was ready, and she poured them both mugs. Then into his she put one spoonful of sugar and a dash of cream. She already knew how he took it. She might be rotten with numbers, but she’d taken careful note of how he liked his coffee.
“It’s been six months since the win. What now?” What about us? He wanted to ask, but couldn’t. She’d had more demands made on her than he would ever know about. It was clear his marriage proposal was not one she wanted to deal with.
And he couldn’t ask her again. She’d think he was like all the others who’d disappointed her with their reactions.
“I’ve got a law firm setting up a charity foundation. All requests will have to go through them.”
“Good idea. And your sister?”
“She’s coming around. Bernie’s a good influence, rock steady and blind in love with her. Has been since he was fourteen.”
“Did she really want the thong to wear on her honeymoon?”
“Yes. After she bought it, I realized how frenzied she was with the money. The shopping was manic, the splurging obscene. I sent them on Bernie’s dream honeymoon. They’re in Alaska at a remote hunting and fishing lodge. My sister’s sweet, but she needs some time to think and calm down.”
She nodded, as if trying to convince herself she’d done the right thing. “I’m sending them to Africa next. Bernie says she needs a reality check. That should do it for her. Fee will be fine once she realizes this kind of good fortune comes with social responsibility.”
“That’s something you’ve always known,” he said, thinking of her volunteer stint at the women’s shelter.
She nodded. “I want to share the wealth, do the right thing and help people, but I’ll be damned if I’ll allow unscrupulous people to take advantage of me.”
“You’ve sacrificed a lot for this money.” He took in her sadness, her slumped shoulders. “You even led me to believe your father was dead.”
“I’m so sorry, Daniel.”
“Has everything else between us been a—”
“A lie?” She interrupted him, then tilted her head to the side. Her voice dropped to a plea. “Never the loving. What we shared was real. I gave you everything.”
She bowed her head, and the arms she’d crossed over her stomach trembled with her effort to hold herself together. She sniffed, and he saw her face crumple toward tears.
He was on her in a flash, wrapping her in his arms, holding her while she wept. “I’ve lost so much I loved, Daniel. Friends, family, my good name. People hate me for no reason.”
“I don’t, Frankie. It seems wrong to tell you I love you now. As if I’m taking advantage, but you have to know that while you’ve lost a lot, you’ve gained too. Here, with me.”
It seemed even more trite that he’d been planning on giving up his job to take one he hated to have enough money to have her in his life. But he would have, in a heartbeat. He’d have made a morning slot work, even with a bimbo like Jenna in the booth with him.
He’d have done all of that if it meant having Frankie.
Now he’d lost her, and there was no sacrifice he could make that would keep her with him.
“I guess all we have to do is figure out how to get you out of here without that jackass following you.”
She sniffed and smeared her nose on his shirt by his collar. “Okay, but what about your shift tonight? Do you have a replacement for emergencies?”
He set her away from him. “You inviting me along?”
She nodded. “Married people hang out together, Daniel. Don’t know what you were thinking, but you asked me to marry you and I said yes.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“Well, I would have if we hadn’t been interrupted.”
He kissed her, long and hard and deep. When he could think again, he came up for air. “I don’t want to go with you.”
Her eyes widened. “What do you mean?”
“I’d have given up my whole life for you, Frankie. I was willing to sacrifice a job I love to provide for us in a job I’d hate. Now I want you to think about sacrificing something.”
“What’s that?” She looked happily suspicious, if that were possible.
“Stop running. No more hiding. We’re thousands of miles from Chicago. Since your windfall, other people have won big jackpots. They’re in the spotlight now. Stay here with me. We’ll build a life together.”
She grinned. “Maybe I should track the new winners down, start a support group.”
“Wouldn’t hurt, might help.” He pressed his hips against hers, slid his palms to cup her ass. “Besides, if you didn’t want to be found, you would have been gone the minute I told you about that guy on the Boondoggle, but you stayed anyway.”
“I stayed because I was falling in love. With you. Your voice, your kindness, your sexy caramel eyes.” She glanced around the kitchen. “I love it here, Daniel, and I love you.” She kissed his nose, then his lips, quick and hard. “There’s one other thing we can do.”
“That is?” he asked.
“Call that journalist back down here. We’ll give him the interview he wants, then he’ll leave us alone. You’re right. I need to stop running. I want to stop running.”
“We’ll weave your family back together, Frankie, you’ll see.”
“I knew the first time I heard your voice you were the best thing this city has going for it. I’d be happy if you stayed on the air, doing what you love to do. Every night, I’ll be here waiting for my midnight blues man.”
“Oh God, Frankie. I’m the one who won the real prize.” He brushed the back of his knuckles across her delicate cheekbones.
“Daniel, you’re the sweetest man on earth.”
“No, just the luckiest.” He hugged her close and swept his tongue into her mouth, then down her sweet neck and lower.
THIGH HIGH
To Nancy Warren, a dear and much-appreciated friend.
And to E.C. Sheedy, whose midnight adventures in
Emergency came in handy!
And for Ted, always.
1
“Oh man, he is so buff!” Kat Hardee commented, ogling her next-door neighbor. Her mail forgotten in her hand, she leaned on the mailbox at the entrance to the townhouse complex.
“I’ll say,” Celia agreed. “But such a nerd. It’s a shame.”
Celia lived on the other side of the man in question, Taye Connors, and Kat had forgotten she was standing there too.
“I didn’t mean for you to hear that,” Kat said with a burn on her cheeks. Knowing Celia she’d twist the comment into something it wasn’t.
He climbed out of his SUV and headed to the door of his townhouse, briefcase in hand. He bent and picked up a package left on his front step. Wrapped in cozy brown cords, he had a great butt, even from this distance, and Kat found several ways a day to see it. From her back upstairs window she’d watch him put out bird seed. Through his tiny kitchen window she’d catch glimpses of him making dinner.
“He’s not a nerd,” Kat said in his defense. “I’m willing to bet under that tweed jacket is a lot of man.”
“You think?” Celia assessed him with her man-hungry eyes.
Kat shifted.
A second mistake. Taye’s physique was not up for discussion, not with Celia. She was a shark when it came to getting what she wanted. Kat’s comment had alerted her to something Kat wanted to keep to herself. For herself.
Not that she had the gumption to go after the man. Chasing a man had created havoc in her life once; she didn’t need to do it again. Especially not now! She was finally in college and finally doing something for herself.
A man in her life would only mess up everything! She wrestled the image of Taye Connors’s hot, sexy body back under her libido. Way under her libido. Locked in a vault under her libido. No way would the two meet again.
“How much would you bet?” Celia’s curious, dangerously calm voice broke into Kat’s wrestling match. The look Celia gave her was every bit as dangerously curious as her voice.
Dread leaked into her belly. “What do you mean?” Even she heard the fear in her voice. Celia had a way of making foolish behavior sound like fun. Lots of fun.
Celia clicked her tongue impatiently. She didn’t suffer fools gladly. “What would you bet that he’s a lot of man under his clothes?”
Everything inside her tightened: stomach, libido, vault, all waiting to see what Kat would say at the idea of getting Taye out of his tweed jacket, then his shirt, then his slacks. “You know I’m broke. I can’t afford to bet.”
“Hmm. Wouldn’t have to be for money.” Celia pulled mail out of her box and smiled in a way that made Kat nervous. “How’s this? You get him naked and let me know how buff he is. I’ll give you the weekend.”
“Why?”
“I’m curious. The men I usually spend time with aren’t like him. I go for bad boys. I’ve never done a man like Taye.” She arched one perfectly waxed eyebrow and waited.
“Do you want him?” Celia and Taye: a good man with a bad, bad woman. He was nice, quiet. Kind. Gentle. A woman like Celia would eat him alive.
Celia shrugged one smooth shoulder. “Might be fun, if the bod’s up to snuff. But I won’t know that unless you tell me what he looks like under his clothes.”
Kat secretly admitted to some curiosity and a dose of reluctant admiration for the woman’s want-it, get-it attitude, but she did not want firsthand knowledge of Celia’s lifestyle. She preferred a quieter life. She preferred to wait for a man to find her. She preferred not to think of Celia with Taye.
She wanted Taye.
If he took a walk on the wild side with Celia, Kat wouldn’t stand a chance. He’d never look her way again.
Up to now, there had been some glances. Second and third glances. A couple of those glances had stretched into looks. Long steamy looks.
“I’d do it,” Celia threatened in a sly tone, “but I’m going away for the weekend.” The lascivious expression in her eyes meant she’d found a new man. But still, she looked at Taye as if she couldn’t wait to get her mouth on him. “But there’s always next weekend.”
Celia’s nipples rose under her low-cut sheer cotton blouse, then Kat saw her upper thighs squeeze and release. Damn it, Celia meant business.
She could let this go. It wasn’t up to Kat to keep a nice guy out of Celia’s clutches. Especially since Taye never did anything more than chat politely at the front door.
But she couldn’t allow Celia to move in on a man Kat wanted. This was way past schoolgirl stuff. Taye’s heart might be at stake. The round robin of why she should walk away and let it happen versus the disaster of Celia messing with him bounced around in her head.
She looked up the driveway one more time. He was deadheading some petunias, bent over again, firm ass looking like a fine piece of fruit.
It wasn’t her head that made her decision. It was her heart. Followed quickly by a libido that came to life with a roar.
“All right. I’ll give it a try. But Taye going from small talk in the driveway to naked in my arms seems like a long shot.”
Celia crossed her arms under her gigantic boobs and shook her head sadly. “Who said anything about naked in your arms? I didn’t say you had to fuck him, I just said you had to see him naked. You can leave the fucking to me.” She actually smacked her lips! “In fact, I’d prefer it if you did.”
“No way. If I see him naked, you have to walk away. Completely.” Temptation. The thrill felt good, gave her underused libido a jangle she enjoyed. A jangle of keys, one of which opened the vault under her libido. Once the vault opened, temptation gave way to lust. She was in now, no going back. “If I get him naked, there’s no way we’re not having sex. A naked Taye means he’s mine. Got that?”
Celia rolled her eyes. “There’s that puritanical side of yours again.” She waggled her finger in a dismissive gesture. “Sleeping with the same man shouldn’t interfere with a friendship, Kat. Men should never come between friends.”
“No, they shouldn’t.” Because friends shouldn’t sleep with the same man.
“Of course not.” Celia firmed her lips into a moue. “Not unless there’s more than sex going on.”
Kat rolled her eyes. “That’s not what I meant at all.”
Celia continued as if Kat hadn’t spoken. “If you were to get attached and start a thing with Taye, then of course I’d back off. But if it’s just sex for convenience, then, honey, I’m up for a roll with our delicious neighbor too.”
“So my choice is to seduce him into a relationship and keep him to myself or play with him for a weekend and leave him wide open to you?”
The last time she’d insisted on a relationship with a man she was in lust with, her life had taken a rotten turn. She was just now repairing the damage.
But, and it was a huge but, she wanted Taye in a powerful way. If she never went for it, Celia would sleep with him. And if Celia slept with him, Kat wouldn’t be able to. No matter what Celia said about convenient sex. Kat wasn’t capable of sleeping with a friend’s lover.
So, if she didn’t get to Taye first, she would never have him.
Later she would swear she heard actual creaking as her long-closed vault door opened wide as lust rose in every muscle, ligament and artery in her body. Her heart picked up speed and her breath shallowed. She never could have imagined going head to head with Celia for a man’s attention, but damn it, Taye was the one Kat wanted. Celia figured one cock was as good as another. It wouldn’t matter a fig to Celia if she lost out on one cock, but it would matter a lot to Kat if she let Taye get away.
Celia watched as Kat fought her silent battle. Then she sighed, letting her breasts jiggle for emphasis. “For a woman as knowledgeable about sex as you are, you’re a real prude sometimes.”
“There are two sides to sex, the mechanics and the emotions surrounding those mechanics.” Celia’s comment rankled her into a sharp response. “I’m not a prude. I just like a connection with the men I sleep with. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
“Sex is a bodily function. A tool,” Celia said. “Nothing more than comfort food. It doesn’t mean anything.” Celia frowned and pursed her lips.
“This is why I never go clubbing with you. I can’t feel the way you do. It’s not in me.”
Heat glowed in Celia’s gaze and her frown turned dark. “Be careful, Kat, you’re getting awfully close to calling me—”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to sound judgmental,” she interrupted, slinging her arm around Celia’s shoulder. “Like religion and politics, there are some things friends shouldn’t discuss.”
“Just remember, it was your need for a connection that got you married and divorced by what? Twenty-two?”
Her spine stiffened. “Point taken.”
“And you’re twenty-five now. Three years divorced and you’re still clinging to attitudes my grandmother would laugh at.”
“I’ve met your grandmother, Celia.” Kat crossed her arms. “And using a Las Vegas showgirl as a moral compass has left you jaded and cynical.”
“I meant my other grandmother.” Celia speared her with an intent stare. “Are you going to get Taye Connors naked or not? If you do, wi
ll you sleep with him?”
Ticked off by the mention of her disastrous marriage, something she’d only confided after two bottles of wine, Kat rose to the challenge. “Yes!”
Then to make matters worse, she let Celia’s mocking stare goad her further. “If I don’t sleep with Taye Connors, I swear I’ll go out clubbing with you.”
“And you’ll find a man when you do?”
“You want me to sleep with a stranger just to prove I’m not a prude?”
Celia clicked her tongue. “Okay, you don’t have to go that far. But you do have to come out and have some fun. You’re working yourself too hard.” She went back to assessing the man in question. “Must have had a delivery from his mother again,” Celia said with a sniff. “The guy’s a high school science teacher, neat as a pin, who gets care packages from his mom. That spells nerd to me.”
To Kat it spelled sweet. She checked out his butt again with a deep lean around the light standard to get a better look. Sweet and hot, she thought, setting out for the short walk to her front door.
With a sultry chuckle that set Kat’s teeth on edge, Celia sauntered into step beside her. As irritating as Celia could be, she had a good point. Since her divorce her education had come first. Add that to the fact she hadn’t found a man worth more than a second glance and the itch Taye created inside her burned.
If Celia had an itch, she scratched it. She wasn’t as picky about male company as Kat was. Being seriously attracted to Taye set up all kinds of conflicting emotions. She had more than enough reasons not to pursue a man right now, but if she didn’t take a chance with Taye she’d lose out.
To Celia.
She wasn’t prone to adventure and intrigue. She was no drama queen. Chasing Taye was a bad idea, but she couldn’t leave him to Celia.
She would have to remember all the lessons she’d learned during the end of her marriage. All her realizations would serve her well now. She’d put too much into her marriage, had given, given, given. She wouldn’t make the same mistake with Taye, she vowed.
Turning her back on the idealistic young woman who’d married her high school sweetheart should be easy. All she had to do was have sex without commitment. She could learn to do that. She would learn to do that.
Thigh High Page 9
