“Now what makes you think I need your help, August?” sarcasm laced her voice. “Maybe I’m just calling to say hello and ask how your day is going.”
“Sure, you are.” A light chuckle punctuated the sentence. “And my day has been relatively uneventful. Thankfully. Thanks so much for asking. And I assume your day is going about the way it usually does. Hectic.”
“Right you are. I don’t suppose you’d like to go to the California Science Center to pick up your nephew for me? Gino’s grounded from using the car you so generously gave him for his sixteenth birthday last week.”
“Already?” Plopping into my office chair, I brushed my hand through my hair. The kid had promised me he’d be cool with the brand-spanking-new Chevy Camaro. “What did he do?”
“He took it out after curfew. Snuck out sometime in the wee hours of the morning and came back around seven in the morning, pretending to have gone out to get us all some donuts. Except the fool forgot to actually buy any donuts, letting me and his father know he’d been out and up to no good.” She sighed heavily. “He’s only the third oldest, August. I’ve got three more to get through the troublesome teens. My future is looking dimmer and dimmer with each passing day.”
“Come on, you’re Mother of the Year every year, and you know it.” Getting up, I headed to the door to leave. If I knew anything, it was that my sister had left this to the last minute, and the kid was most likely already waiting to be picked up. “I’ll head out now.”
“Thank you, dear brother. I’ve got to do a dye job on Miss Perfect today and I’m not looking forward to it.” She sighed again, a thing she did far too much.
“You don’t even have to work, Leila. Your husband’s job would keep you guys more than comfortable. So why push yourself so hard? You’ve got six—count them—six kids to worry about.” The key fob in hand, I pushed the button to let myself into my BMW.
“August, I’ve told you this a million times, but here it goes, one million and one. I work to get away from the mother and wife role for a few hours each day. I know you don’t get it. But that’s because you’re single and kid-free.” She paused for a moment, the phone clearly leaving her ear. “I’ve got to go. Her entourage has arrived, and the queen bee will soon be following—after the spritzing of the air with lilac oils and the spreading of rose petals occurs, of course.”
“Of course,” I echoed. “I’ll talk with Gino while I take him home. Give him the wise old uncle lecture.”
“Good. Give that boy hell, little brother. Bye now. And thanks.”
“Bye.” I ended the call and started up the car.
Traffic was light at one in the afternoon as I made my way to the Science Center. When I got there and headed inside, I found Gino still working. “Hey, Uncle August! Cool, Mom sent you to get me.”
“Yeah, she did, you rebel without applause.” My fist connected with his scrawny bicep, making him wince. “That wasn’t even hard, wimpy. So, what has you working on a school day, and when do you get off?”
“I’m on a four-day school week, did you forget that, Unc? No school on Fridays for me. And I get off in a half hour.” He shrugged. “Can you wait around for me?”
“I guess so.” Looking around, I saw all kinds of things that might interest me. “I’ll check the place out. I’ve never been here before. It looks cool.”
“Yeah, it is. Lots of tour groups come through the place. Lots of field trips come through here with kids of all ages.” He grabbed his broom and got back to work as I walked away.
The space shuttle Endeavor hung from the rafters nearby, capturing my attention. It seemed to be taking lots of people’s attention as several groups surrounded it, leaving minimal room to see it, even with its giant stature.
Standing behind a group of little kids, I spotted one little boy who seemed familiar. Not sure why, since I didn’t even know any little kids, but something about him drew my attention more than the giant airship above us.
He giggled along with a couple of other boys. Then he turned toward me, and I saw that his eyes were hazel, just like mine. And his hair was the same shade of brown, too.
That’s freaky…
“Mom!” his excited little voice shouted as someone moved past me. Our arms brushed for just a split second, but the electric current that came along with that touch pulsed all the way through my body.
“Calum!” the curvy redhead who’d just shocked my system with a simple touch called out to the kid. She picked him up, hugging him, and all I could do was look at her spectacular ass.
Hubba, hubba!
“I didn’t think you was comin’, Momma,” the boy said as he clung to her.
“I wouldn’t miss your first-ever field trip.” She put him down, taking his hand then turning to the side to look up at the space shuttle.
Her profile was pretty; her nose turned up a bit at the end. Her pink lips were on the plump side. The way the blue jeans hugged her curvy hips and the light beige sweater clung to her double D’s enchanted me—and my cock, which thumped inside my slacks. She turned all the way around, taking in everything that surrounded us, and I finally saw her entire face.
Tawny Matthews!
My pulse raced, my body heated. The feeling was familiar—it was the same way she’d always affected me from the moment she went from a gangly little girl to a curvy teen dream. But there was more than mere attraction with this one. Tawny had a place in my heart she’d stolen long ago.
Like a time warp had opened up, my mind left where I was to head back to where I’d been seven years earlier…
A full moon hung low in the night sky as I looked out the backdoor window of my parents’ home—a home I’d be leaving in the morning. Destination San Diego. Marine boot camp. After graduating early from college with a degree in engineering, I’d enlisted with the marines to do my part in the ongoing war. At twenty-one, I was heading into danger for the first time in my life.
The midnight hour was at hand, but sleep was not. I’d headed to the kitchen in search of a glass of milk, hoping that would help me relax and get some sleep before I had to leave for San Diego at six a.m. The moon captured my attention first though, drawing me to the window. And out that window, I spied another thing that would keep me from the glass of milk. The girl next door was outside, lying back in a lounge chair.
We didn’t have privacy fences in our neighborhood, just short chain-link ones. The small town of Sebastopol, California wasn’t the kind of place where you hid from your neighbors. And one of my neighbors was Tawny Matthews, a recent high school graduate who’d turned eighteen only a few weeks ago, if I recalled correctly. And she had her eyes on the sky, doing a little moon gazing.
Music floated on the breeze as I opened the back door. The sounds were light, airy, and romantic. Something inside of me stirred.
Tawny was pretty; I’d always thought so. We’d lived next door to each other forever. When we were really young, we’d played together in our backyards. When we were both little kids, we used to love tossing a beach ball back and forth over that chain link fence that separated our yards.
But once I left grade school for junior high, she and I lost that friendship we’d had. Puberty had started having its way with me while Tawny was still a kid with pigtails who played with dolls. My attention went to the girls my age and older, the more mature ones. Tawny got left behind, a thing I hadn’t really noticed until she started sprouting up and growing the female parts that took my interest.
But we were four years apart, and she was too young for me then. A senior in high school definitely couldn’t be with a girl in the eighth grade, after all. But that didn’t stop me noticing how attractive she’d become. So, I’d kept my distance from her on purpose.
But now that she’d turned eighteen, she wasn’t so young anymore.
Like a moth to a flame, I was drawn to her. I stepped out into the night. “Hey.”
She smiled at me. “Hey.”
Shoving my hands into the pocke
ts of my jeans, I rocked back and forth on my bare feet. “You’re up late.”
She chewed her lower lip as she looked me up and down with her pretty green eyes. My t-shirt was black and tight, hugging my pecs and biceps. I’d worked hard to get my body into excellent shape, so boot camp wouldn’t completely kick my ass. “So are you.”
The way she eyed me made me think that she might be more interested in me than I’d ever known. “You want some company?”
Plump pink lips pulled up to one side. “Why, you want some?”
Everything about her told me she was into me, so I headed through the gate that separated our yards, taking the lounge chair next to hers. “I do want some. I’m heading out to boot camp in the morning, and my mind’s a mess about it.”
Her lips formed a straight line as she looked into my eyes. “So, you’re really going then?”
With a nod I went on, “I’m not afraid to fight in this war. But I am afraid I’ll never see home again.”
With my words, she glanced up at the rising moon. “If it helps at all, I think you’re a hero, August.”
“I’m no hero. Not yet anyway. But thanks.” Thinking about what lay ahead of me put me in a mood for some midnight confessions, so I told her, “And I should tell you since I might never see you again, that I think you’re beautiful. I’ve thought so ever since you turned fifteen. You and I were too far apart in age to ever do anything about that though.”
She sat up, looking me right in the eyes as she smiled. “Okay, if we’re being honest then I can tell you that I’ve always thought you were smoking hot.”
A tantalizing idea popped into my head as my cock sprang to attention. “Well, I may never make it back, Tawny.”
She already seemed to be on board. “My parents aren’t home. I’m here alone, August.”
Something compelled me to make sure she knew how things had to be with us before we took this step. “It would be a one-night thing. You understand that, don’t you?”
With a knowing expression, she nodded. “It would be an honor to lose my virginity to a real hero.”
Whoa, what?
“You’re a virgin?” Heat coursed through me—I’d never had a virgin before. To think that after I’d lusted after Tawny for years, I would get to pop that cherry had me on fire.
All she did was nod as she got up, taking my hand in hers before leading me into her empty house.
Chapter 2
Tawny
Not in a zillion years did I expect to look around the California Science Center in Los Angeles and find the man that I’d given my virginity to looking right at me. His hazel eyes clung to mine, much the same way the expensive-looking black suit clung to his body, which was even more muscular than it had been seven years earlier. Those chiseled features, the sharp nose, and those high cheekbones offset by lips that looked soft and inviting took my complete attention as my heart raced. My hands fisted at my sides, yearning to run them through his thick, wavy, chestnut brown hair once again.
My feet moved without me telling them to, carrying me to the man who’d given me so much. I’d always been drawn to him, even when we were just two neighborhood kids hanging out after school. I guess some things never change.
“August Harlow!” Our bodies slammed together as I threw my arms around him. He hugged me tightly, picking me up so my feet left the ground. “I thought I might never get to see you again.”
His hold on me loosened as he placed my feet back on the floor. His hazel eyes sparkled, just the way I remembered them doing all those years ago when he’d first kissed me. “I have to say the same thing about you, Tawny Matthews.” He let me go entirely, and I felt the loss right away. Being in his arms felt like being home again. “Let me get a look at you.” His eyes roamed over my body, making me heat up inside. “You’ve grown up, haven’t you? And filled out perfectly.”
Just as my core began to pulse—August’s compliment had me wanting to jump his bones right then and there—a tug on the bottom of my sweater had me looking down. Hazel eyes shone up at me, and I ran my hand through my son’s silky chestnut hair. “Momma, who’s that?”
“This man used to be my next-door neighbor, Calum.” I looked back at August. “I’d like you to meet August Harlow.”
August extended his hand, which I found to be a funny thing to do to a six-year-old. “Hi, Calum. It’s nice to meet you.”
Calum let him shake his hand but ran his other arm around my leg, clinging to me. Then he buried his face in the side of my leg, and I rested my hand on his little shoulder. “He tends to be on the shy side until he gets to know someone.”
August’s eyes met mine again. “So, you got married?”
“No,” I said quickly, and didn’t offer any more information about that. “Do you live in L.A. now?”
“Yeah. And you?” August asked as he shoved his hands into the pockets of his slacks, rocking back and forth on his feet the same way he did the night he changed my life.
“We’ve just moved here.” I watched August as he eyed my son but didn’t ask a thing about who his father was. “I left Sebastopol a few months ago, just before school started. Calum’s in first grade now. I didn’t want to make him change schools in the middle of the year once the new job I came here for starts.”
August pulled his eyes off Calum to look at me. “And what job would that be?”
“I’m a nurse. I got on with Cedars-Sinai in the maternity ward. But the job doesn’t start for a few more months.” Calum’s class was moving on, and he looked back at them, then at me. “Go ahead, baby. Go with your class. I’ll catch up, don’t worry.”
“’Kay, Momma,” he said, then took off like a flash to catch up with his friends. Kyle and Jasper were a couple of little boys that he talked about nonstop each day when I picked him up from school.
“You’re a nurse?” August asked as his dark brows rose.
“Yeah. I worked in San Francisco after I graduated and got my RN. The drive was a real killer, an hour there and an hour back home. Mom watched Calum for me as I had to work the night shift. At Cedars, I’ll get the day shift and weekends off. Calum will be in school all day while I work, and he’ll only have to stay at daycare for a couple of hours before I get off. Things will be a lot better with the new job.”
“Color me impressed.” He looked me over without an ounce of shame in his game. “You and I should have dinner some time. You know, catch up.”
I agreed wholeheartedly and reached out my hand. “Give me your cell and I’ll put my number in your contacts. I’d love to catch up with you, August Harlow.”
As I typed in my number, my mind skipped back seven years to that fateful night…
Alone at home with my parents in Napa Valley for the weekend, I found myself looking out my bedroom window at the full moon that night. It called me to sit outside and do a bit of moon bathing.
Sitting outside in one of the lounge chairs in the backyard, I had no idea the hot guy next door would be joining me soon. “Just the Way You Are” by Bruno Mars played on my cell, keeping me company until the sound of the back door opening at the house next to ours took my attention.
I turned the volume down as my hunky neighbor stepped outside, his eyes on the moon before landing on me. August Harlow and I had a four-year age difference that separated us, but that’d never stopped me from having a huge crush on him. As he started making small talk, I got the feeling that he knew I’d turned eighteen a few weeks back—and that it mattered to him.
We’d played together when we were kids. But junior high had taken him away from being my friend anymore. He was always going after he left our grade school to go to what I had called The Big Kids’ School. I felt like he’d left me behind.
But after puberty changed my body, I had caught him looking at me from time to time, on the school bus, and in my backyard from his upstairs bedroom window. I’d fantasize about him coming over, asking me out on a date. But fantasy was all I thought I’d ever have.
A part of me I never knew existed came alive inside of me, and suddenly I was taking the guy’s hand and leading him into my parents’ home. Once inside, he kicked the door closed and pulled me to him, turning us around before pushing me up against the door.
My heart was beating so hard we both felt it. “Seems I’ve excited you, Tawny.”
My name coming out of his mouth with him so close to me compelled me to trail my fingers over his lips. “They are as soft as I thought they’d be.”
Those luscious lips curled into a sexy smile as he moved them closer and closer to mine, until they touched, sending fire rushing through my veins. “Oh…” I moaned, making my lips part. He took advantage, and his tongue moved into my mouth to twirl around with mine.
My body, pressed as it was between the door and his strength, felt like it belonged to him. Every little touch he made had me aching deep inside. I’d never wanted anything more than I wanted him.
When one of his hands made its way under my t-shirt, cupping my naked breast, I gasped with desire, not understanding how the heat I’d already felt could continue to intensify. His mouth left mine, moving down to join his hand at the tit he played with as his tongue danced over my skin. “God!”
He bit my nipple playfully then held it between his lips as he licked it over and over before sucking on it. “You like that?” he asked, and all I could do was moan in response.
My hands flew to run through his wavy, dark hair, relishing how it felt. “Damn, your hair’s so soft,” my voice but a whisper.
Nightclub Sins: A Billionaire Romance Series Page 32
