One Unforgettable Kiss

by A. C. Arthur

  The building was on the corner of Maple and Grove Streets. There was a black streetlamp still sporting the multicolored spring fling banner just a few feet away from them. The light was excruciatingly bright, bringing even more attention to the fact that they were holding hands.

  “I shouldn’t be here,” he said. Harper stopped looking around to see if anyone was outside at the moment, and stared at him.

  “Neither should I,” she replied.

  He was rubbing his thumb over the back of her hand at this moment. Attempting to pull away again was certainly an option, except that Harper didn’t want to break the contact. The warmth from his hand was comforting, his strong grip protective and the heated spikes moving quickly throughout her body foreign, but not unpleasant.

  “I should go,” he said.

  “Me too,” she replied.

  Yet neither of them moved.

  There was space between them, even though their hands were connected. His body wasn’t touching hers, and while she felt as if she were being physically drawn to him, Harper hadn’t moved an inch.

  So why did it suddenly seem warmer?

  “Thanks for agreeing to donate to the veterans,” she said because she didn’t know what else to say.

  “It’s no problem,” he replied.

  Then, finally, after more silent moments, Harper figured this situation was absolutely ridiculous. She yanked her hand away from his—not realizing he’d lightened his grip so that her extra effort made her look even more preposterous.

  “I’ll also apologize for what just happened back there. I don’t know what they were thinking, but getting a tourist roped into their shenanigans probably wasn’t the plan.”

  “I’m not a tourist,” he told her in a very exacting way. He didn’t sound like he was offended, but that he wanted her to know this for certain. It was odd, but then, wasn’t this entire situation?

  “Fine. Well, I apologize. Good night.”

  “I’ll walk you to your car.”

  “It’s not—” Her words trailed off as he once again took her hand.

  “Which way?” he asked.

  “Down here on the corner,” she replied.

  Now she was walking down the street with a guy she didn’t know. This was strange. And it was dangerous. And she should know better.

  “Well, good night, again,” Harper said when they reached the car. She kept her back to the driver’s door and her eyes on him.

  He was standing with his legs slightly spread, hands tucked into the front pockets of his slacks. Again, Harper noted how attractive he was and how that thought exacerbated the unsettled feeling in the pit of her stomach.

  “Good night, Harper,” he said.

  Once again neither of them moved.

  It was confusing, because just fifteen minutes ago Harper had wanted nothing more than to run out of the hall and to her car. She lived on her grandfather’s farm, on the outskirts of town about twenty minutes from the hall. Tonight was Sunday, which meant that Pops and her dad were sitting in front of the television watching whatever sport they could find. Uncle Giff and Aunt Laura would be at their house a little closer to town, probably sitting in front of their television, too. There wasn’t much else to do in Temptation on a Sunday night, except maybe stand around with a strange—yet undoubtedly sexy—guy.

  He came straight toward her, stopping only a breath away. A breath that Harper immediately sucked in when he closed his eyes and shook his head. Before Harper could make another move, he was gone. He moved even faster than he had before, because by the time Harper found her breath and let it out slowly, a hand going to her thumping heart, he had disappeared around a corner.

  What the hell had just happened?

  Harper had no clue. What she did know was that she wasn’t going to forget her first and only Sadie Hawkins dance, or the undeniable arousal that her highest bidder had awakened.

  Chapter 2

  He was undressing in front of her. Slowly unbuttoning the three buttons at the top of his shirt before pulling it up and over his head. His body was magnificent—bulging muscles, ripped abs, narrow waist. It was like a Playgirl centerfold.

  When his strong fingers touched the button of his pants, Harper sucked in a breath. He was actually getting naked. The tightening of her nipples at that thought drew her gaze down her own body. She was already naked. Lying on her bed, legs spread wide in open invitation.

  Had she invited him to her place? Her room? Her...

  He stepped closer to the bed now, his pants unbuttoned, his chest bare. His gaze was hot, sending heated glares down her body until every inch of her exposed skin felt as if it were on fire.

  “Show me what you want,” he said, his voice thick with desire. “Show me how to please you, Harper.”

  What?

  No, she couldn’t.

  It was wrong. Wasn’t it?

  She lay back against the pillows then, heart beating wildly as her throat tightened and the heavy fog of anxiety began to settle in. She was a healthy twenty-nine-year-old woman who had a right to know what she wanted and to ask for it. No, to demand it. She deserved that, didn’t she?

  Especially after all that Harper had been through, all the humiliation and embarrassment she’d endured over the years. And not just in Temptation, but even during the four years she’d spent in Virginia. She’d been a trouper, as her father would have said. She’d stood strong in the face of adversity each and every time.

  So, yes, dammit, she deserved something for herself. For once in her life, she deserved pleasure that she so often dreamed of. And tonight, she was going to take it.

  With that resolution in mind, Harper opened her mouth to speak. She let one hand fall down to cup her breast while the other moved farther down to rest on her cleanly shaved mound. She was going to show and tell him what she wanted. He’d bid and donated a good chunk of money on her behalf tonight, and he wanted her. She wanted him, too, so much that she was ready to take the biggest risk of her life. She was about to invite him to make her...

  Harper’s eyes popped open at that moment. She sat straight up in her bed. Her bedroom was empty, but her heart was still beating fast, and between her legs moisture still pooled as a reminder of her arousal. But he wasn’t there. She’d been dreaming about a man she didn’t even know. Fantasizing about someone she would never have.

  Some things never changed.

  * * *

  “I told Mama it wasn’t going to work. You’re just not interested in men. Don’t know why you’re still trying to keep that a secret.”

  Harper picked up the to-go cup of coffee and considered tossing the hot liquid into Leah Gensen’s perfectly pretty face. Then Harper thought better of that act, knowing it would draw too much attention to them. Ignoring Leah’s snide comment was the next option. Harper had made a habit of doing just that since she and Leah were in second grade. But Harper wasn’t seven years old anymore, and she couldn’t help it if Leah hadn’t figured that out yet.

  “No secrets to be kept,” Harper said as she used her free hand to retrieve three dollars from the back pocket of her jeans. “But the next time your mother wants to play matchmaker, she should take note of the fact that you’re available. Especially since your third divorce was finalized last month.”

  Leah’s pert, glossy, red-painted lips turned upward into a smirk as she narrowed her gaze at Harper.

  “At least I’ve had a man,” Leah snapped.

  “And I’ve got a college degree and own a business, while you’re serving coffee at your aunt’s coffee shop. You want to continue keeping score of who’s doing what, go right ahead, but I’ve got work to do.”

  Harper dropped the money for her daily large coffee and plain bagel on the counter and turned to leave.

  “That’s my girl,” Smitty Hallern said as Harper passed the table near
the front window where he always sat.

  “Hi, Mr. Hallern,” Harper said after mustering a smile.

  Smitty played poker with Harper’s grandfather on Saturday nights. He had enlisted in the army the same time as her grandfather but had received a medical discharge when he’d suffered a severe asthma attack.

  “Don’t let ’em get to you today,” Smitty said with a nod toward the front counter, where Leah and the other customers stood. “They always need something or somebody to talk about. Tomorrow they’ll be on to a different story.”

  Harper shrugged. “It’s their life. They can live it how they please.”

  It was an awful life, Harper thought—sitting around a café all day talking about people and what they did or didn’t like about them. Pitiful, really.

  “That’s true,” Smitty continued. “But it ain’t good for you or people like you to hear all that negative talk. That’s what happened to Teddy and Olivia’s marriage. People kept talking about them and what they were doing with those TV folks. It got right messy around here with the rumors flying around. People got hurt, and then Olivia packed her kids up and left.”

  Smitty went off on tangents often. Normally, it was something about the “good ol’ days,” as he and her grandfather called them. To which Harper would simply listen and smile. It was nice to hear their memories, and sometimes she even managed to learn a little about how the world was sixty years ago.

  This morning, however, she had a headache. She’d been up for hours already, after waking from the disturbing dream. She was tired and cranky, and Leah hadn’t helped the situation at all.

  “Right, I’ll keep that in mind, Mr. Hallern,” she said and pressed her back to the front door of the shop.

  “Yeah, gossip can cause lots of pain,” he continued with a nod. There was a newspaper spread out on the table in front of him, a half-full cup of coffee and crumbs from what looked like a muffin he’d already eaten on the small plate to his left. “But it looks like the kids are coming around,” he said, rubbing a hand over the tight black-and-gray curls at his chin. “First the oldest boy came on home, and now I hear you ran into one of the other sons last night.”

  That caught Harper’s full attention.

  “Last night?” she asked. “Who did I run into last night?”

  “Garrek Taylor. He’s the one who placed the winning bid on you. At least that’s the news going around this morning. Connie was in here about an hour ago whining about the check he wrote to the Veterans Fund instead of to her group of cackling hens.”

  He shook his head then, and Harper swallowed. Her throat was suddenly dry.

  “That was Garrek Taylor?”

  “Yep,” Smitty said. “The navy pilot. Millie came in right behind Connie, and those two got to talking. Millie thinks she knows all there is to know about the Taylors. Probably ’cause she used to be spitting jealous of Olivia for marrying Teddy. Crazy, that’s what womenfolk can be sometimes.”

  Harper was still trying to wrap her mind around what he’d just told her. Garrek Taylor, one of the infamous Taylor sextuplets, was back in Temptation. The story was that his mother had packed up her six children who were seven years old at the time, and moved to Florida. She’d left behind their family reality show and her cheating husband. Now, not only was Garrek the second of the Taylor sextuplets to return to town, but he’d bid on a date with her. He’d also invaded her dreams, bringing her to a fevered point she’d never been to before—in real life or a fantasy.

  Could this week possibly get any worse?

  * * *

  “Welcome home!” Gray said the minute Garrek opened the door.

  His older brother didn’t wait for a return greeting or an invitation to come in, but instead pushed past Garrek until he was completely inside the little room Garrek had rented at the Sunnydale Bed-and-Breakfast.

  It had been eight years since Garrek had seen Gray in person. The last time he’d actually laid eyes on his brother was via a Skype call, at the reading of their father’s will, nine months ago.

  “Hello, Gray,” Garrek said as he closed the door and walked to where his brother stood next to a dark green sofa that faced the oak television stand.

  He’d been up for the last hour reading and hadn’t yet decided when he was going to pay his brother and his new family a visit. It seemed he no longer needed to contemplate that act.

  “It’s good to see you, man,” Gray said and then stepped closer to pull Garrek into a hug.

  Garrek and Gray were the same height, six feet even, but Gray had a broader frame and a penchant for expensive clothes, while Garrek was much more understated in his dark blue Levi’s and black Maryland Terps T-shirt.

  “It’s good seeing you,” Garrek admitted as they pulled apart. “Congratulations are in order.”

  Gray took a seat on the couch, and Garrek noted his brother wasn’t wearing the tailored suits an international businessman, like him, would. Today he wore khaki pants, a white button-down Polo shirt and brown leather shoes that Garrek was certain had cost a small fortune. As the CEO of his own electronics company, Gray was a wealthy man. In fact, all of the Taylor sextuplets were wealthy, after Gray discovered the money their father had left them a few months ago.

  “Marriage, new house and a baby on the way,” Garrek continued. “Just like old times—Grayson Taylor does it big or he doesn’t do it at all.”

  Gray smiled and Garrek chuckled as he sat on the other end of the couch. That was one of the things he admired most about his brother—his ability to get whatever it was he wanted done, and in grand fashion. Garrek was much too introverted to be the type of go-getter Gray was.

  “Two babies on the way,” Gray added. “You didn’t get my last letter that said Morgan is carrying twins?”

  Garrek shook his head. The letter was probably in the huge stack of mail he’d dumped into the bottom of his suitcase when he began packing for this trip. He’d taken some things out to read this morning, but it was information that Gray had sent him a while ago.

  “Wow, twins!” Garrek stated and extended a hand to Gray. “Like I said, you always go big.”

  Gray accepted his brother’s handshake and shrugged. “But I don’t know that this was all on me. You know she already has a set of six-year-old twins.”

  “Right, Gemma told me about them. Jack and Lily, right?”

  Gray nodded. “Yeah, they’re the best things that have ever happened to me. All of them, and coming back here. I can’t imagine my life without them now.”

  Garrek didn’t know how those words made him feel. Gray had always been about his business and traveling the country. He’d never planned to settle down beyond his penthouse in Miami and his always-fueled personal jet. Hearing him talk about this woman and these children who had somehow changed him amazed Garrek.

  “So tell me what brings you here. And why didn’t you call me to let me know you were coming? Morgan and I would have gotten a room ready for you at the house.”

  “Nah,” Garrek told him with a shake of his head. “This was a last-minute decision, and I don’t want to put you out in any way.”

  “Don’t be silly, man. You’re my brother—you couldn’t put me out. Especially not in that big house. I know you remember there are five bedrooms in that place.”

  Garrek did remember. Gray was living in their childhood home on Peach Tree Lane.

  “Yeah, I remember. But you’ve got your family there now. It’s your house.” Garrek leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, and shook his head, because he was still trying to grasp all the changes that had happened in the past few months. The ones with Gray and the other Taylor sextuplets, and the ones with him personally.

  “You’re welcome to stay there, but I’m not gonna push. Morgan will do enough of that when she sees you today. So come on—she was about to start cooking breakfast when I left the ho
use. Her exact words were ‘bring him home to eat with us.’”

  “Ah, no. I’m just going to hang out here for a while and catch up on some reading. I’ll try to stop by later or maybe tomorrow.”

  Gray shook his head. “Look, Garrek, I know how you like to stay to yourself. I remember we used to give you hell about that growing up. But I get it, you want your space. Joining the navy and flying planes gave you lots of distance from our family and all that came with it. Unfortunately, you’re back in Temptation now. The place where there are no secrets, no privacy, and people who act like you’re related even though there’s no blood connection.”

  Garrek had known that when he came here. He’d known, and yet he hadn’t thought to go anyplace else.

  “I hadn’t planned to stay long enough for anyone to even know I was here. I mean, I was gonna call you, of course. But I don’t know anyone in this town, and they definitely don’t know me.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong,” Gray said as he stood. “It’s almost ten a.m. By this time everybody in Temptation knows that Garrek Taylor is back in town.”

  Garrek stood, too, staring at Gray with confusion. “How would they know that? I just got here last night.”

  “And you paid twenty-five hundred dollars to take the town tomboy on a date. Bright and early this morning, that check you wrote landed on the desk of Shirley Hampstead, town comptroller, who plays bingo with Joya Martina, Georgia Sanford and Millie Randall. Millie’s the director of Temptation’s Chamber of Commerce, and her office is right down the hall from Shirley’s. Joya volunteers at the hospital on Monday mornings, and after Shirley told Millie, Millie called Joya, who saw Wendy, Morgan’s sister, in the hallway on her way to work and told her. Wendy called Morgan and now,” he finished with a shrug and a smile, “I’m here to bring you back to the house for breakfast.”

  “Wow” was all Garrek could offer in response.