by Linda Joyce
“Thank you.” Lia offered a halfhearted grin. “You’re a good big-brother’s best friend if ever there was one.”
Lucas shook his head. “I’m not here because of Craig.” He gently lifted her chin. “I’m here because of you.”
The tenderness in his voice hooked her soul. She was a fish on the end of Lucas’s line. Did he mean to reel her in or leave her dangling? He had for the last year. Rejection now would absolutely kill her.
Lia shrugged, hoping he couldn’t see through her guise. “Old friend. Good neighbor.”
“Right,” Lucas snapped with an impatient growl. With one swift move, he pulled her close and crushed his lips against hers. Her surprise melted into hopefulness. She sagged against him. The warmth of his lips and the heat radiating through his hands warmed her and enveloped her in the softest of silk. All her worries floated away, drifting up as though carried on a hot air balloon. Lucas filled all of her senses.
When he broke their connection and frowned, Lia’s eyes widened. He couldn’t possibly lament the kiss. She chewed her bottom lip. She wouldn’t allow him to think, only feel. There would be no regrets between them. The woman in her, not Craig’s little sister, needed him. Leaning in, she teased his lips with the tip of her tongue. “I’m right here. Don’t go away…neighbor.” She added the last word to keep things light.
“There’s nothing old-friend-like or neighborly about this.” Lucas kissed her again. His warm hands drifted over her shoulders, burning a trail down her arms and resting on her hips. His kisses stoked a fire burning inside her, the heat increasing. She tensed her muscles, then relaxed into the delight of desire dancing in her heart.
Lia leaned closer, wrapping her arms around his neck. A magnetic current flowed between them and lit her up inside like an amusement park’s night-light parade. The buried longing she had for him erupted into joy.
She pushed her fingers through his hair. Touching him zinged arousal to the core of her being. He was the one, the only one. She wanted him forever.
Lucas pulled her onto his lap. Overflowing with anticipation, she wiggled into comfort. He reclaimed her lips, covering her mouth eagerly, hungrily. She shivered with pleasure. That feeling had no beginning or end…it just was…like floating on clouds in heaven with angels serenading them.
“Amelia?” Lucas whispered.
She hated it when he broke the kiss. She reached for him again.
“I think we need to talk about this before…” He kissed her forehead tenderly.
“Talk?” Trembling, she touched her lips where his lips had been, then leaning closer, she sought more nonverbal communication.
“Yes, talk.” Lucas leaned back out of her reach.
Her blooming desire withered only a bit. Every ounce of her being wanted to rip away his clothes and make love to him. Wanton woman replaced nice girl-next-door. “No.”
“We have to clear the air…before—”
“Lucas Dwyer, are you going to make me beg?”
He sighed with exasperation. His reaction shouldn’t have surprised her. Lucas always wanted to do the right thing. This once she had to convince him now was perfect. “Kiss me again. No talking. Just kissing.”
His eyebrows rose. He scooted back several feet, his back resting against the brick wall and his legs stretched out long. He laced his fingers together behind his head, and she wanted to believe the move was to keep himself from reaching for her. Clearly, he wrestled with some mental demon.
Then he patted the floor beside him.
“Really?” she groaned. Taking him up on the offer, she sat next to him, hip to hip, and waited. His kisses weren’t chaste or brotherly. He had to see her as a woman. Waiting a minute more wouldn’t hurt, but he wanted to talk now? The ache deep in her core said he better talk fast, otherwise her need for him would take control. For once, she wouldn’t stop it.
When the silence grew, she folded and unfolded her hands, forcing herself not to touch. Her fingers itched to caress him. Another few seconds ticked by. She hummed and gently rocked. She folded her arms and held her elbows. Dread dropped like a brick in her gut. Maybe he didn’t feel the same sizzle when he kissed her. Maybe he wanted a second chance to know his attraction to her didn’t run deep. Or maybe he couldn’t get past her being the little sister. If he regretted kissing her for one single second, it would leave a hole in her heart, one the size of the state of Kansas.
“Lucas?”
Lucas punched his fist into his open hand. The smack of skin against skin startled Lia. “This isn’t what I had planned,” he told her.
“You came with a plan?” There was nothing about any plan she wanted to hear. “Let’s talk plans later.”
“Amelia, let’s take a moment here.”
“How many moments?”
Lucas sighed and raised an eyebrow.
“Fine. We’ll do this your way for now. How did you find me?” She rushed her words. She refused to hear regret come from his lips. He could have another thirty seconds. Only that long. Her lips refused to wait any longer. This could be her final chance to convince him of her feelings, and she intended to take it.
Whatever the aftermath, she’d deal with it later.
“Craig called.” Lucas seemed to regain his composure. “Evidently, the police called him since the truck’s insurance is technically in both your names. He’s worried. Called me. Asked me to check on you.”
“Craig. Craig. Craig.” Lia pulled away. Anger welled in her chest, but need fought a good battle. A minute more and she’d use everything in her seduction arsenal to bend Lucas’s will.
“So you’re going play the big-brother card here?” Rejection pumped in her heart. It couldn’t be true. It couldn’t be true. “As you can see, I’m fine. I keep telling you and Craig. I’m a big girl now. In fact, I’m a grown woman. I can take care of myself. A few tears do not mean I can’t handle things. You can report to him that all is A-OK.”
Lucas flinched as if she’d slapped him. Maybe he had really come because of her. Not because she was Craig’s sister? No matter how comforting his kisses and hugs were, she wouldn’t accept pity. Especially from him. History would not repeat itself. She wasn’t a rejected high-school girl or his best friend’s grieving sister. She was a woman—who wanted a man, who wanted her—just for who she was.
“I’m sorry you had to come all the way here, only to turn around and leave. I’ll be fine. As I said, I’m staying with a friend. Karen will be back with Jack in a minute.” But she’d be darned if she would let him leave without truly looking at her like a man looks at a woman.
She rose and began to remove the ugly sweatpants.
“Are you staying here or at her house?” Lucas choked out his words.
“Why?” She wiggled out of the pants and kicked them to the side. She prayed she had his full attention. Raising the old t-shirt over her head, she revealed her bra and panties.
“Because”—Lucas swallowed hard—“I brought a sleeping bag. I can stretch out here on the floor or on her couch.”
“But—”
“You can’t seem to get it through your head. I’m not leaving you alone tonight,” Lucas growled, jumping up and reaching for her.
Lia grabbed his shirt and hung on. Planting her lips against his, she kissed him hard. His hands roamed her body. He rained kisses on her face and neck. Her heart danced pirouettes and high leaps in a ballet where she was a ballerina and Lucas, her cavalier.
“You need to get this through your head. I’m not leaving you alone tonight,” she said huskily.
With a short hop, she jumped into Lucas’s arms, wrapping her legs around his hips. His hands cradled her butt, and he backed toward the old chaise in the corner. When he sat, she straddled his lap and kissed his face, his neck, ignoring the slight scruffiness of his beard. Her heart pounded like a hundred drummers playing in a marching band. The first taste of joy lifted her spirits so high she could float all the way to the moon.
“Slow down, Am
elia.” Lucas’s voice was low and full of strained emotion. It reminded her of warm honey, the way it soothed. Her heart beat faster. Sensations tickled her insides in new and delicious ways.
“This isn’t exactly what I envisioned,” he said, nibbling on her earlobe.
“Shut up, Lucas,” she whispered back while unbuttoning his shirt, dying to feel the warmth of his flesh. “No need to talk. Just feel.” She placed his hands over her breasts. It may have been an involuntary reaction on his part, but his slight squeeze produced a blooming of desire in her. She wouldn’t let him turn back now.
She was waiting on an art show.
She was waiting on a crop.
She wasn’t willing to wait a minute more to make love to Lucas Dwyer.
Sliding his shirt over his shoulders, the fabric fell, the cuffs still wrapped around his wrists. She traced fingers down his smooth, hard chest until she reached the top of his jeans. He leaned back against the wall, shoulders relaxed, allowing her full access. A sexy grin spread across his face. He didn’t make a move to prevent her fingers from unbuttoning the single button. She playfully tugged at the zipper.
“I would’ve never taken you for a vixen.” Lucas’s body tensed. His fingers kneaded her flesh gently.
“Shhh. This is the only kind of talking I want to do.” She stroked the hardness of his manhood.
Lucas scooped her up and laid her on the chaise. She glued her gaze to his body as he slowly, too agonizingly slow for her, unbuttoned his cuffs, and let his shirt drop to the floor. Like an experienced male stripper, he removed his socks and jeans. Lia stared at the man she loved. Lucas in briefs made her knees weak. Every inch of his body was lean and muscled, a hard-working farmer’s body wearing a farmer’s tan like a tattoo. Her insides clenched, craving to consummate and end the physical longing enslaving her body.
“Amelia,” Lucas whispered, stretching long beside her on the chaise. She rolled on her side to face him. “There’s something I want you to know,” he continued. His fingers reached for the hooks on her bra and released them. He tugged and tossed the barely-there garment over his shoulder. Captivated by his eyes, his face, his lips, she barely heard his words. Her body hummed a symphony of desire.
“What?” she murmured, aching to feel the heat of his hands on her. She bent her leg and, with her foot, traced a line down his calf. As she reached to remove her panties, he slapped at her hands.
“There is only you and me”—he slid her panties down and they went the way of her bra, over his shoulder—“right now.”
On her back, Lia stretched and arched her hips as he moved on top of her, his elbows bracing his upper body, the weight of the rest of him settled over her. His hardness pressed into her apex in a series of short thrusts. Her body contracted around him.
“Right now,” she said, moving under him for the perfect fit. Leaning upward, she captured his lips. “You. Are. Mine.”
Lucas groaned and crushed his lips against hers.
Their bodies rocked together. With each simple motion, her core craved more of him.
She’d waited so long for Lucas. The feel of him. Hard. Soft. Strong. Gentle.
Need shoved away desire.
She rocked against him faster. His thrusts matched hers.
Closing her eyes, she gave herself over to the sensations tingling every last nerve. Heat raced through her body. She arched her pelvis more, clawing at Lucas’s back. All awareness dissolved. Only she and Lucas existed in a cocoon.
“Amelia!” Lucas cried. His body tightened.
“Oh,” Lia groaned. “Heaven.”
Fireworks on the Fourth of July. Skyrockets at midnight. Nothing compared with making love to Lucas.
He thrust harder.
She’d reached a peak, but then her climax shot higher.
Time had no meaning. Desire surged, pulsing steadily.
Lucas’s body relaxed.
She floated back to earth, back to the chaise in her studio. She opened her eyes to find Lucas studying her.
“I love you,” Lucas said, planting a kiss on her nose.
Her breath caught. Her chest tightened.
Had he really said it?
Her body vibrated from her head to her toes. “I lo—”
“Shhh, Amelia. Don’t say anything. Let’s just enjoy right now.”
“But—”
Lucas silenced her objections, peppering kisses down her cheek, neck, and chest. He cuddled her into an embrace, snuggling her closer to him.
Later she would hear all about his plan. The future now shimmered with the light of a million stars. Hope surged through her and knitted fragile links between her and Lucas.
She’d make him understand just how much she loved him. She had a plan, too.
Chapter 12
Lucas grabbed for his jeans when he heard sounds echoing in the hallway. He managed the zipper and buttoned up as Karen slid the studio’s door slightly open.
“I’ll take Jack,” Lucas said to her, leaning in the doorway, trying to appear casual, as though Karen was used to seeing a half-dressed man in the studio. He reached for Jack’s leash. “I’m going to stay here with Amelia tonight,” he whispered. “Anything you must have out of here before you can leave?” He hoped she took the less than subtle hint. The last thing he wanted was for Amelia to wake and awkwardness over his presence to fill the room and mar the evening he had planned.
With eyes wide as saucers, Karen shook her head and stared at his bare chest. He crossed his arms to cover himself from the woman’s intense scrutiny.
“Nope. Not a thing.” She winked. “Glad you’re here.” She turned and sauntered down the hallway toward the elevator. A few steps away, she turned back. “Lucky Lia.” She whistled low.
Lucas slowly slid the door closed, but only halfway. He winced at the squeak and vowed to bring WD-40 from his truck to silence the noise. Pulling a blanket from the antique armoire in the far corner of the large space, Lucas covered Lia as she dozed. Jack jumped on the chaise and settled next to her. “Good boy.” Lucas praised the dog. “Stay with her. I’ll be right back.” Jack rested his head on Lia’s side as though he understood every word spoken to him.
Grabbing his cell and his boots, Lucas turned sideways to exit the studio through the narrow opening, then slid the door closed the rest of the way, hoping for a silent escape. Every sound from the building—the elevator, doors closing, and people chatting—echoed in the hallways ricocheted from every hard surface. The noises reverberated in his ears, ratcheting up the tension mounting in his chest. And the last thing he needed was for Craig to call Amelia and wake her up.
Lucas tucked his cell phone in his front pocket, backed to the hall’s brick for balance, then bent to pull on his boots. Before he finished with the second one, his cell phone vibrated. He shot to standing, scraping his heel as he crammed his foot all the way into his boot. Pulling out the phone, he said, “Give me a few minutes. Let me call you back.”
“Sure. But only five,” Craig said.
Lucas ended the call. He walked on the balls of his feet to keep his boot heels from clunking against the concrete floor. “How do women walk in high heels?” he muttered.
Thirty steps later, he reached the elevator, feet cramping, but at least Amelia hadn’t woken.
Once outside, Lucas let go of a deep breath. It was one thing to have a poker face, but quite another to have a poker voice. With Craig worried about Amelia, rightly so after the events of the day, Lucas considered the best way to express his feelings for Amelia to her brother. To blurt out, “I love your sister,” would be weird. True, he and Amelia had a brother-sister relationship in the past, but his feelings ripened into much more when he became a man, when he went away to war, and since he had returned home.
Opening the tailgate on his truck, he parked his butt on it, ignoring the few people passing on the sidewalk. Pulling out his phone, he contemplated exactly what news to share with his best friend. If Amelia were anyone else’s sister, h
e’d be telling Craig how he loved her and wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. If not on a farm, at least in the country. Heaven knew, he’d never survive the city.
“If I say, ‘I love your sister and want to marry her,’ he’ll laugh his ass off, or worse yet, when he finds out what just transpired, he’ll want a duel at dawn. How did a man born and raised in the country come to equate vast open spaces, glorious sunsets, and fresh everything with an inferior lifestyle?”
“Are you speaking to me, young man?” An older man approached on the sidewalk. His cane tapped against the pavement as he walked.
“No, sir. Talking to myself.”
“Crazy are you?” the man asked as he continued walking.
“Yep. Crazy about a woman.”
“Continue on, then,” the man said as he passed. “Try telling her about it rather than talking to strangers.”
Lucas saluted the older gentleman, then pushed Craig’s number, deciding to only answer questions asked, and not volunteer any additional information until he and Amelia had a chance to talk about what the future might hold. Maybe they’d begin their discussion over dinner tonight. Music, wine, and a meal at Tavern City down the street. Tonight, they’d make love. The studio had a romantic vibe, especially with all the candles. Lia clearly liked that.
“About time. Twelve minutes isn’t five,” Craig said, brusquely.
“She’s fine,” Lucas replied, trying to keep his voice even.
“You’re sure? I know how sensitive she is. I hate that I’m not there. I’m glad you’re my proxy.”
Lucas groaned inwardly. He had not been the least bit brotherly with Amelia. He was going for lover. But he would stick to his plan. Only answer questions asked.
“She’s obviously upset about the loss of her paintings. I’m going to take her to dinner—”
“That’s a great idea!”
“I’ve to get some WD-40 out of my truck and lube up the squeak in the studio door.”
“What do you think of the place? It’s the perfect place for her to paint. By the way, the police called me back.”
