Once a Family

by Tara Taylor Quinn

  “She was also a teenager, your ward and feeling powerless. She’s not powerless anymore.”

  He wasn’t stupid; he knew where this was going.

  “She’ll stand up to me, you mean.”

  “Yeah.”

  And as a bit of the pressure eased, he was glad he’d come.

  * * *

  FROM THE MOMENT Ellie had jumped in Tanner’s lap he’d been quietly stroking the little dog. Sedona watched that strong, gentle hand and couldn’t imagine it hurting anyone, ever.

  “She told me about the time you slapped her.” It wasn’t her place to tell Tanner what else Talia had told him about that incident—about how Talia had used his guilt to manipulate him. But she was fairly certain the other woman would do so. When the time was right.

  His hand clenched and, as the poochin raised her head, settled back on Ellie’s fur. Moving slowly along her spine and then repeating the action.

  “I don’t think what you did was appalling.” She didn’t have her case planned. Was standing before the jury without knowing what to say. It was her worst nightmare.

  Shaking his head, Tanner seemed to be studying the tips of his loafers. “To this day I don’t know what came over me,” he said. “I heard those words coming from that sweet little mouth and it was like my mother had taken control of Talia’s body. Did you ever see the movie The Exorcist?” he asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “That’s how I felt. As though this demon had possessed my sister and I had to get it out of there. It was a split second. Ruled by fear. And I will never, ever forgive myself.”

  “My mother slapped my face once.” She’d forgotten all about it until Talia had talked about the sting of fingers against her skin. “I was fourteen and had just found out that my father had been unfaithful to her, several years before. It only happened once. They’d been separated for a week and that’s when he did it and I guess that’s all it took for him to come home begging. And to solidify their love and loyalty to each other for a lifetime. But at fourteen, as a girl who idolized my father, it was hard to take. I made a comment to my mother about him, having to do with his parentage. I was telling her she could do better. And she slapped me.”

  He was looking at her now. She could feel his gaze like a physical touch. And she turned, letting him see the moisture in her eyes.

  “I told her I hated them both and ran to my room.”

  She’d never told anyone about that day. Not even Grady. “An hour later they came to my room, knocked on my door and asked if they could come in. I almost said no, I was so ashamed. But I loved them so much and was scared to death of what I’d done, or what I’d do if they quit loving me.” She smiled, remembering, for a second, how it felt to be fourteen. Hormonal. Emotional.

  And realized that she hadn’t changed nearly as much as she thought she had.

  “Before I could say a word my mother apologized for slapping me. She said there was no excuse for having done so and that I was not to accept that kind of behavior from anyone. Ever. No matter what I’d done. While I was still sitting there with my mouth hanging open, my father apologized for the insecurity in him that had had him believing he wasn’t good enough for a woman as accomplished as my mother. He swore to her, in front of me, that it would never, ever happen again.”

  Tanner didn’t blink. He didn’t move at all. It was as though he was there in the room with the three of them, in that long-ago memory. Living it with her.

  “I started to cry and told them I hadn’t meant a word of what I’d said but was afraid they’d never forget my words. I was so afraid I’d put words out there that would live forever. They told me that sometimes that happened with words, but that this time wasn’t one of them. We made a pact that day that those sins would die the second we walked out of my room together, and we’ve never spoken of them since.”

  Until that moment. She’d broken her sacred pact with her parents for Tanner.

  And that’s when she knew that her time wasn’t only up. Life as she’d known it before was over.

  * * *

  MILLIE CAMPBELL HAD been moved to slap her daughter. Tanner let the information wash over him. And while he felt no less shame for the one time he’d lost complete control of himself, he felt somehow cleaner.

  “It occurs to me that I couldn’t have made up a story that fit this moment more perfectly,” Sedona said, breaking the silence that had fallen over them. She’d been sipping wine.

  He’d been watching the ocean fading in the distance beneath a falling dusk, and trying to make sense of everything coming at him.

  Too many changes.

  Too much to contemplate.

  To know.

  To understand.

  He’d told Sedona something he’d never told anyone else. She’d just done the same. It felt as if they’d had sex. Only it was so much more.

  And not nearly enough. Never had he needed to sink his body into a woman as badly as he needed to make love to Sedona Campbell in that moment.

  The night before, at his table, they’d kissed. More than once. Just lips touching lips. Like it was a part of everyday normal conversation. He’d leaned over and kissed her. She’d kissed him back, and they’d gone on talking. Not about kissing.

  Whatever was happening between them meant something.

  He had to know what it was.

  “I told you about what happened with my parents, in part, to excuse myself from not being horrified that you hit Talia. My mother was a grown woman when she disciplined me. You were what, sixteen, seventeen? Carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders?”

  “There’s no excuse for what I did.”

  “Maybe not. But sometimes an explanation is all that it takes to sway a jury from a guilty to an innocent verdict.”

  What he’d done was wrong. He wouldn’t do it again. End of story.

  “Tatum’s fifteen. I was fourteen. And felt horribly betrayed by my father.” Her voice gathered momentum as she sat forward, facing him. “And all it took was an explanation, Tanner. Tell Tatum why you didn’t tell her about quitting school. Maybe, instead of protecting your loved ones, you’d serve them better by sharing some of the ugliness. Not all of it, but some of it.” As she spoke, her eyes lit up and he had to listen.

  “It’s just a thought,” she said, sitting back.

  God, she was lovely. And so...there.

  More real than anything he could ever remember. “I’ll think about it,” he said. And he would. But not tonight.

  He couldn’t let the maelstrom out tonight.

  So he sipped wine. Watched the ocean. And sat next to the woman who turned him on more than any other.

  * * *

  “YOU SHOULD GET a dog,” Sedona told Tanner. Tatum had said they’d had one once. That it had been hit by a car and Tanner had refused to buy another.

  The hand on Ellie’s back stilled, as though Tanner had just realized that he’d been petting the little poochin.

  “I don’t have time to house-train a dog,” he said. “And it wouldn’t be fair to the creature to leave it alone all day every day.”

  “Ellie’s alone all day.” A lot of pets were. “And Talia will be around now, too, to help.”

  She wanted him to tell her about the dog that died. Wanted him to open up to her about all of the pain he stored in that heart of his.

  He looked over at her. “I’ll tell you what,” he said. “You get Tatum to come home and I’ll let her pick out any dog she wants.”

  It wasn’t what she’d been looking for, exactly. But it was more than she’d expected. Tanner was changing, little by little. Opening up, lightening up. He might not know it, but Sedona, who was far too tuned in to him for anyone’s good, could feel the difference.

  And...

  “We ha
ve a...situation,” she said. She’d been waiting for the closing argument to present itself, but it wasn’t happening. And her day in court was ending.

  “What?” He watched her, but she figured he couldn’t see much. Maybe the glint of her eyes in the darkening night. The private beach had no lights, other than the moon that was rising over the water.

  They were each still on their first glass of wine. She took a sip of hers and wanted more. A lot more.

  He seemed relaxed now.

  “I’ve crossed a line, a professional line.” She could lose her license to practice law if an ethics complaint was filed against her. She probably wouldn’t. But she could. Which meant that what she was doing was wrong.

  His hand, those fingers that handled fragile grapes with precision and care, stroked Ellie’s head. The little dog lay contentedly with her chin on Tanner’s leg. And Sedona was jealous.

  “I can’t be impartial where you’re concerned. And so I’m doing your sister a disservice. I can’t guarantee that the decisions I make will be in her best interest.”

  Still, he watched her. And she couldn’t figure him out.

  “Why can’t you be impartial?”

  She had a feeling that hadn’t been his first question. And it was the one she most didn’t want to answer.

  “You’re... I care as much about you as I do about her.” No. That wasn’t even true. “I care more about you than I do about her.”

  It didn’t matter how softly she said the words, or how active the waves were in the distance, her voice still sounded too loud.

  “I don’t trust myself to put my client’s needs first. I’m too aware of your needs and how I can help and―”

  “I don’t have any needs.”

  “Of course you do, Tanner. Everyone does.”

  “I can take care of myself.”

  To an extent, sure. And for a man who’d never had anyone looking out for him—even as a young boy—she could understand him not realizing what he was missing.

  “You need Tatum home with you.”

  “And I’ll get her home.” He really believed that.

  Maybe she was worrying about nothing. Maybe it didn’t matter that she cared, because he wasn’t going to let her in.

  Maybe he wouldn’t let her choose him over Tatum.

  “And if she decides to go to the police, after all? If she asks me to petition to have her guardianship changed?”

  “That’s the second time you’ve mentioned that. Is that her plan?”

  “See, you’re already doing it—asking me to give you something you need that, in Tatum’s best interests, I shouldn’t tell you. In this case, it doesn’t matter because she hasn’t asked. But she could.”

  “She won’t.”

  “I think she will. If she’s pushed hard enough.”

  “And I trust you to do the right thing if it comes to that.”

  He wasn’t making this easy. Rather, he was making it downright impossible. So maybe he was right. Maybe the man really was an island unto himself—the exception that proved the rule. Maybe he was strong enough, determined enough, something enough, to make certain that she did her job where his sister was concerned.

  By not letting her put him first.

  Maybe she just wanted to be off the hook. Because she didn’t want to be off the case.

  Tatum trusted her. And she cared about the girl. More than she’d cared about any other client she’d had during her four years of practice.

  She took another sip of wine. A recklessly big sip.

  Ellie, who must have sensed something amiss in her mistress, jumped off Tanner’s lap, looked up at Sedona and lay down at her feet.

  “So you can sit there and honestly tell me that you have no needs that I can fill,” she said, just to clarify.

  “Honestly?”

  Breathing was a little hard. “Yeah.”

  “Then, to be completely honest, there is one need that I have that you can definitely fill.”

  She knew what was coming. His low sexy tone told her. But knowing didn’t stop her. “And that is?”

  “I need to strip you naked, take you to bed and sink myself so deeply inside you that neither of us will ever be the same.”

  Her wine was gone.

  “I need that, too.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  TANNER WAS ROCK-HARD as he stood and reached for Sedona’s hand. Some things weren’t about right and wrong. About perfect or imperfect.

  Some things just were.

  “I have a condom in my wallet.” And whether she was on the pill or not, he’d wear it. As he’d lectured all three of his siblings, safe sex wasn’t just about pregnancy prevention.

  “I have some in my bedroom, too.” There could have been some awkwardness in the exchange. If there was any, he wasn’t feeling it.

  He led her through the door into her house. She led him down the hall and into a small bedroom suite with white walls and a large bed with a rose-covered comforter and more pillows than a bed needed.

  As if on cue, they stopped a couple of feet from the bed. He wasn’t hesitating. There was no thought of turning back. He was savoring this.

  Like the finest wine, Sedona melted all of his senses, making him heady and excited.

  The lion’s mane of blond hair, so thick and untamable.

  He ran his fingers through it—claiming the right. Claiming her. Her head lolled backward, resting in his palm, and he pulled her gently forward. Slowly. Until her thighs were touching his and his penis pressed against her pelvis. Her breasts, large enough to fill his hand, touched his chest and only then did he bend his head toward hers.

  As he touched his lips to hers, taking tonight’s first tentative taste, the sensation was exquisite. Light, with a hint of fruitiness. His wine on Sedona’s lips.

  “I’ve wanted women before.” Her perfection seemed to pull honesty from him. Demanded it. “I’ve never needed one.”

  The only light in the room came from the hallway behind them, a soft glow from a sconce on the wall, but he could see the tilt at her lips—a sexy, knowing tilt―as she looked up at him and said, “You need me.”

  A simple statement. And life-changing.

  “Yes.”

  “I need you, too.”

  While still holding his gaze, she undid the buttons on his shirt, and as the backs of her knuckles brushed against the hair on his chest, his ribs, his belly, he sucked in what air he could. Held it as though it was his last.

  And didn’t care if it was.

  There came a time in a man’s life when he had to face reality. When he wasn’t a god, or strong enough to fight. This was Tanner’s time.

  Sedona Campbell had captivated him.

  And he succumbed.

  * * *

  THE MAN WAS EVERYTHING. Everywhere. Lying on her bed in her panties and shirt, she watched as Tanner shrugged off the shirt she’d undone, unbuttoned the fly of his jeans and pulled them off. His black briefs followed and before she’d had nearly enough of the visual feast he presented, he was over her, coming down to settle half on top of her, with one naked leg in between hers. Propping his elbows on either side of her he held his face inches from hers. Studying her.

  His brown eyes were a drug, and their effect instantaneous. She was hypnotized, aware only of him. And her need to have sex with him.

  His chest was smooth with a scattering of hair between the nipples; the muscles, clearly defined and hardened with strength, fit his somewhat slender frame perfectly. They didn’t bulge. Weren’t overgrown. But, like his wine, honed to perfection.

  He was an artist. A piece of art.

  And she’d never been given to fanciful moments.

  * * *

  HE WAS COMMI
TTING her to memory. The women in Tanner’s life were just moments. Sedona could be no different.

  And yet she was completely different.

  He kissed her, and kissed her again, lowering his mouth to hers, pressing her head into the pillow, touching his tongue to hers, and wasn’t satisfied. There was more of her to know, more ways to know her.

  His penis ached with the need for release. He rubbed it against her thigh and almost came when she drew in a ragged breath and stuck her tongue farther into his mouth, mimicking the act of love.

  Undoing her bra, Tanner covered Sedona’s breast with his hand, and while he’d never touched her there before, the size and shape of her fit his grip so perfectly she felt familiar.

  Her nipples were hard and he broke from their wet kiss to suckle them. He was more animal than man and knew that in a different moment he was going to regret behaving with such an uncharacteristic lack of control.

  His reaction to Sedona would scare him. In a different moment.

  In this one, he was unfettered from the chains of life. Freed from his self-imposed prison.

  And when the moment came, when she spread her legs and urged him between them, when he finally pushed himself to her core, he knew he wasn’t going to be able to go back to what he’d been.

  * * *

  THE COUPLE OF lovers Sedona had taken had usually fallen asleep seconds after orgasm. She’d expected the same of Tanner—and she needed the time alone to recover physically before she could tend to the emotional avalanche assaulting her.

  Who was this man? Why did he affect her so? And what had she done?

  Disentangling himself from on top of her, he rolled over and sat up, picking up his briefs and sliding them on, condom and all, before heading toward her adjoining bathroom.

  When he came back into the room, she was sitting on the end of the bed, wearing her robe. Waiting for him.

  “I have to recuse myself as Tatum’s legal counsel.”

  Stepping into his jeans, he didn’t even hesitate. “No, you don’t.”

  “I can’t be impartial.” More than ever. His lovemaking had been... She wasn’t ever going to find another man who turned her on like that.