Tough Love: Back to Buckhorn

by Lori Foster

  “It’s mostly bunk. People are people, good and bad. Some poor and some privileged. But I’ve known really good people at every income level. My parents were...distant. My aunts, too. But I had friends who came from very close families. And some of my parents’ associates were major philanthropists. Very involved, not just by donating money but their time also.”

  Looking more pleased by the moment, Lynn said gently, “I stand corrected.”

  “I hope you don’t think I’m lecturing—”

  “Not at all.” She took Vanity’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “But I’m starting to think you’re one of those philanthropists.”

  Heat rushed into her face. “I wasn’t trying to brag, either.”

  “I know that.” With a final squeeze, Lynn released her. “I’m just tickled pink that you’re joining us for the holidays.”

  * * *

  PHIL STOOD JUST around the corner, out of sight but within hearing range. And he’d heard plenty, enough that his mind churned with ideas.

  So Stack’s new squeeze was rolling in dough? Fucking awesome. There had to be a way for him to use that to his advantage. Maybe with Whitney’s help—although that stupid bitch had already allowed herself to be done in.

  Maybe it had been a mistake to use her to irk Stack. Maybe all he needed was to get on Vanity’s good side. She was so clueless, it shouldn’t be too tough.

  Clueless, but incredibly hot.

  He’d find out where she lived, pay her a visit and see what he could work out. Very, very soon.

  * * *

  WHEN SHE HEARD Whitney laugh in the kitchen, Vanity made up her mind. She was a pragmatist but not a masochist.

  Time for her to go.

  Hoping to make a strategic exit, she whispered to Lynn, “If you need anything, anything at all, please, let me know. And again, thank you for the invitation to Thanksgiving. I’m honored to be included.”

  Then it struck her. The invite could be rescinded if Stack reunited with Whitney!

  Just as quickly, she shook her head.

  Stack wouldn’t. As Lynn said, he was smart. Whatever reasons he’d had for breaking things off with the woman, they would have been valid. He was not a weak man, not in any way.

  He wouldn’t be easily fooled by Whitney’s nonsense.

  Watching her, Lynn laughed and patted her arm. With a nod toward the kitchen, she said, “You have nothing to worry about from that one. Stack isn’t Tabby. He knows how to take care of himself.”

  Maybe. But Vanity sensed that Phil was up to something, and she didn’t like it.

  “Thank you.” Vanity started to rise, but Lynn pulled her in for a hug. And it felt so good, so motherly, that Vanity soaked it up, lingering a second or two longer than she should have.

  Deciding she’d imposed long enough, she thanked Lynn again, gathered the dogs and, being as quiet as she could with two unruly midsize animals, snuck away.

  * * *

  “HOLD UP.” OUTSIDE the apartment, Stack saw Vanity continue across the street. He knew she’d heard him. Just as clearly she planned to ignore him. Rather than chase her down, he stopped, whistled, and the dogs, which he liked more by the minute, nearly pulled her off her feet when they turned back to him.

  Vanity didn’t face him, but he saw her shoulders slump in acceptance of the inevitable. Got you now.

  The things she did, and the reasons she did them, often eluded him. She’d staked a claim in front of Whitney—a claim she’d probably deny—and then had hightailed it out the door the minute Whitney tried to get clingy with him.

  As Stack strode across the street toward her, the wind picked up her long hair and made it dance to the side. She didn’t shiver. She didn’t move at all except for when the dogs tugged at their leashes, making her stumble. She just stood there, her back to him, waiting.

  He’d have walked her out, damn it, but she’d waited until Whitney trapped him alone in the kitchen and then snuck off like a thief. Somehow she’d even kept the dogs quiet.

  If it hadn’t been for his mother alerting him, he’d have returned to the room to find her gone.

  Thinking of Whitney’s hands on him, how she’d stared suggestively at his mouth, then his crotch, made him want to shower.

  Or maybe just rub himself all over Vanity’s naked body; replace the bad with the good.

  Yeah, that idea appealed more.

  When he reached her, he stepped right up to her slender back, slipped his arms around her, and kissed the back of her neck that the wind had nicely exposed.

  Now she shivered. “Wanna tell me why you ran out on me?”

  One shoulder lifted in a halfhearted shrug. “I didn’t run.”

  “No, you tiptoed.”

  She didn’t deny that. “I just had to go, that’s all.”

  He could read nothing in her tone, but her posture said a lot. “Come on.” He relieved her of one of the leashes and led the way to her car. Many times now he’d admired her new-model Mustang convertible. The car suited her—classy, beautiful and far from wimpy. “That’s an awfully nice ride for dogs.”

  Totally missing his point, she said, “Thanks,” as she unlocked the door and, with total disregard for the buttery soft leather seats, urged the dogs into the back.

  After the dogs got situated, Stack took her upper arms and pulled her into his chest. “Kiss me.”

  She looked up in surprise. Street lamps added interesting shadows to her face; the cold turned her nose and cheeks pink. “Here?”

  Meaning it, he said, “Anywhere you want.”

  And damned if her gaze didn’t drop down his body.

  The effect of her interest was far, far different from Whitney’s.

  Stifling a groan, Stack urged her closer. “Yeah, don’t get me going if you can’t follow through. I’m in a bad way already.”

  Pleased, she grinned up at him. “You’re the one who wanted to talk so much this morning.”

  He could feel her warming, softening, and it spurred him on. “We talked about you. Fascinating topic. How could I resist?”

  Her husky laugh sharpened the ache. “I was offering sex.”

  Against her lips, he whispered, “Offer it again.”

  She stared at his mouth, teasing busy fingers over the neckline of his shirt, occasionally stroking his skin. “I want to.”

  Kissing her seemed like a really good idea, so he did. Softly, barely there. Except that as he leaned away she followed, then licked his bottom lip in invitation.

  Which he accepted.

  Drawing her in, he turned his head and fit their mouths together for a prelude-to-sex type kiss. The wet warmth of her mouth reminded him of wetter, warmer places. His dick remembered, too, and now the unruly bastard wanted to salute.

  Stack tried to think of something other than Vanity’s body, but her hands fisted in his open jacket, then moved to his shirt.

  Then under his shirt—and he lost it.

  Someone beeped, and Stack lifted his head to hear cheers from the passing carload of high school boys.

  “Damn.” He kissed her lips again, the corner of her mouth, her throat. “I need you, Vanity.”

  “You do? Still?”

  “Hell, yeah. We could have had sex this morning and this afternoon, and I’d want you again.” And again and again and again. He held her face so she couldn’t look away. “Let’s put the agreement aside.”

  Eyes widening, she breathed faster. “Meaning...?”

  “I don’t want a stopwatch ticking in my ear.”

  Fascinated, she again looked at his mouth, then back up to his eyes with yearning. “What do you want?”

  A complex question—but he chose to answer it simply. “You. Tonight and tomorrow.” After that, who knew?

 
Something shifted in her eyes, there and gone before he could decipher it. Her smile slipped into place, and she nodded. “Okay, sure, that works. But...Denver’s fight is next weekend, and then Thanksgiving is after that. Neither of those were part of our agreement, and they go way beyond tomorrow, so I’m not sure—”

  Warm and soft, Stack pressed another kiss to her parted lips. “Quit keeping score, okay? Let’s just play it by ear instead of sticking to rules that never made sense in the first place.”

  “Hey.” She playfully swatted at him. “My rules are what got me a date to the wedding.”

  “No strings attached, I know. I was an ass.”

  Clutching her heart, she pretended to faint. “You admitted it!”

  Now it was his turn to swat her—and he did. Reaching around her, he landed a perfect smack to her ass.

  Yelping, she bounced forward and against him. “Hey! That stung.”

  Nowhere near contrite, he rubbed the lush spot with his palm. “Mmm. Want me to kiss it to make it better?”

  “I do.” Before his gonads could celebrate, she sighed. “But I have to paint tonight. If I don’t, I won’t get things done by the deadline on Wednesday.”

  “Tomorrow?”

  Her gaze searched his. “I plan to finish painting in the morning, then I’m working at the resale shop a few hours. I’ll take the dogs with me—I think they’ll like that. But afterward I’ll have to run them back home, and then it’s my night at the rec center.”

  From what he knew of her, she never missed her exercise. “How about I hang around after I finish my workout, and I’ll see you there?”

  She visibly thought through several scenarios before pulling his mouth down to hers. “Hang around, and you could come home with me afterward.”

  Finally. He’d started to think she’d keep putting him off with one commitment after another. He wasn’t insecure, and he didn’t need her to put him above other obligations—but he needed to know he wasn’t in this alone.

  “Sounds like a plan.” Her lips were so soft under his. God, he loved her mouth. No more getting carried away on the street in front of his sister’s apartment. Wasn’t easy, but Stack pulled back. “Okay if I stay the night?”

  Happiness brightened her smile. “It’d be awesome if you did.”

  Now that was a reaction he could get into. “Awesome, huh? I promise to do my best.”

  Her arms went around his neck, and she hugged him tight. “Stack?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Whitney is the reason you despise Phil, isn’t she?”

  Well, hell. What a way to blindside a guy. First she got him thinking about tomorrow and sex, and then she threw out the tricky questions about the ex.

  Taking a step back from her, physically and emotionally, Stack gave her a partial truth. “Phil is a lazy, unemployed, self-centered pothead who would use his own mother to keep from doing an honest day’s work or having to face his own responsibilities.”

  Vanity nodded. “It’s your mother he takes advantage of, using her love for Tabby against her. I get that.”

  Stack couldn’t hide his surprise at her perception, or her unfettered leap into his family’s private business.

  Not bothering to temper his tone, he gave a cynical smile and said, “So on top of being sexy, you’re observant as hell. A nice combo.”

  She ignored his sarcasm. “I’m observant enough to see that something happened between Phil and Whitney. And, given how she tried to sex you up in the kitchen, I assume she’s—”

  “Sex me up?” Stack didn’t mean to, but he grinned.

  She cocked a brow. “If we weren’t being watched, I’d slug you for laughing at me.”

  If we weren’t being watched. Reality hit like ice water, and he turned his head to see Whitney at the glass entry doors to the apartment building, staring at them both.

  No doubt plotting a way to get him back in her bed.

  The ice water settled into his veins. “Ignore her.”

  “Oh, my God.” Flattening her mouth, Vanity accused, “You’re still hung up on her.”

  Lacking any humor, he laughed. “No.” He’d never been hung up on Whitney, but she had dented his pride. What he found most unforgiveable? How she’d fooled him. How he’d ended up feeling like an ass.

  She let out a tense breath. “Well...good.”

  Stack chucked her under her chin. “That reminds me. I appreciated your show of clinging worship. But if your intent was to scare her off, it didn’t work. In fact, I think she feels challenged.”

  Vanity’s eyes turned watchful. “Not that it will do her any good.”

  “No good at all,” he assured her. And still, Vanity studied him so long, he considered kissing her again to break her concentration.

  “Okay.” She finally accepted that with a nod. “So maybe you aren’t still in love with her, but—”

  “I was never in love with her.” To keep her from digging further, he partially explained. “Whitney and I were seeing each other until I dropped in on her one day and found Phil there. They both claimed he was only selling her pot. Doesn’t matter to me if she was buying from him or fucking him, neither is acceptable. She lied to me. End of story.”

  Vanity bit her lip, looked away, but then squared her shoulders and faced him again. “That’s when you started hating Phil?”

  “I disliked and distrusted the prick long before that. My sister could do better, if not for herself, then at least so she could stop dragging my mom down all the time.”

  Vanity tipped her head. “What else happened?”

  Stack looked up at the dark sky. “It’s getting late and you said you had work to do. There’s no reason to keep rehashing old news.”

  Without argument she let him off the hook. “Okay.”

  That shouldn’t have surprised Stack; she’d said from the start that she wouldn’t pry. He glanced at the dogs. “You’re okay with them still?”

  “They’re awesome.”

  Great. So he and the dogs now ranked the same.

  Without admitting she was cold, Vanity stepped in closer to steal his heat. After a few seconds, she said, “I know you don’t like lies.”

  New alertness surged into his veins. “No, I don’t.” Wondering what she was up to now, he put his arms around her and rested his chin on top of her head. “Did you lie to me, darlin’?”

  “You don’t have to use that silky voice on me.”

  Silky voice? The things she said... “I didn’t—”

  “I did lie,” she blurted, making him go rigid.

  He tipped up her chin. “About?”

  “Lynn said I could return the dogs to her.” She snuggled back in, her face to his neck. “I hope you don’t mind, but I told her that you insisted she have at least a week to get rested up.”

  That was it? “I do insist.”

  He felt her smile against his throat. “Good, then I didn’t fib after all.”

  It was ridiculous to keep her standing there in the brisk night air. But he wasn’t ready to let her go.

  “Stack?”

  “Hmm?”

  She leaned away to make eye contact. “I won’t pry. I promise.”

  “Thanks.”

  “But...”

  There were always buts. He waited.

  “If you’re lingering so you can talk to Whitney again, you can just tell me to go. Since we don’t have any type of agreement—”

  “Wrong.” Damn, how did she so easily get him twisted up? “The original agreement is gone. Now we have a new agreement.”

  “A new one?”

  Damn right. And soon as he figured it out, he’d explain it to her.

  Eyes wider, she said, “But—”

  Stack put his mouth over
hers, kissed her quiet and then softly admitted, “I’m lingering because I wasn’t ready to let you go.”

  She didn’t look spooked by his possessive admission. Actually, she looked really pleased.

  A good time to state his intentions. “New agreement—when you have free time, you save it for me.”

  Her eyes widened. “I wasn’t seeing anyone else right now anyway. Were you?”

  “No.” With Vanity around, how could he even think of another woman? “You’re it.”

  She looked startled by that bold statement. You’re it. True enough for him, but would it scare her off?

  Showing uncertainty, she licked her lips and spent far too long thinking about it. “Sooo...neither of us will mix it up?”

  “Right.” Truthfully, he couldn’t bear the thought of any other man touching her.

  It irked that she tacked on, “For as long as it lasts?”

  He’d make it last as long as he needed. “Fine.”

  Vanity gave it quick consideration. “Fine.”

  He started to exhale in relief.

  “But I have a stipulation.”

  Damn. “Let’s hear it.”

  “A onetime thing would be no big deal. Anything more could get awkward if we let it. So promise me now, when it ends, it ends. No blame and no hard feelings.”

  So she already expected it to end? Until she said it, he had, too. With his career on the fast track, he didn’t want to complicate things with a time-sucking committed relationship. But all the same, he didn’t like having it spelled out. “You do seem to have a thing for stating the rules up-front.”

  She gave him a stern look. “I relocated all the way from California. Your friends are, for the most part, my only friends, too. I don’t want there to be a falling-out.”

  Like a knockout blow, it hit him. Vanity had lost her entire family, then followed her best friend to Ohio. She and Yvette were close, he and Cannon were close. Vanity didn’t want to risk losing anyone else, not for any reason.

  Definitely not for a fling with him.

  With a lot to think about, Stack opened her car door and waited for her to get in. Once she’d fastened her seat belt, he leaned down, cupped her face and took one more taste to last him through the night. “No awkwardness, I promise.” How the hell he’d keep that promise, he didn’t know. But he knew he wouldn’t let her be hurt, so if it came to that, he’d work it out. Somehow. “If you need help with the dogs, let me know.”