by Jane Jamison
She chuckled. “Wow. Modest much?”
He gave her a one-shoulder shrug. “Ain’t no brag. Just facts, ma’am.”
“Ouch. Ma’am? That’s what the bag boy at the grocery store called me. I felt so old.”
Yet his lustful gaze made her feel anything but old. “Old you’re not. Not by a long shot. In fact, Stormy Stevens, you’re the hottest thing to hit this town in”—he grinned, prefacing his joke—“forever.”
“Thanks. I’m glad you think so.”
“Stormy, I don’t want to push my luck, but do you think we could scrounge some food up?” As if on cue, his stomach growled. “I make a great omelet. Unless we want to save that for breakfast?”
Had he planned on staying the night? Did she want him to stay? If he did, did that mean something? Or was it a normal thing for him?
She sidestepped the issue to give herself time to think. “How about a sandwich? That’s the easiest thing to do. Or I could cook.”
He traced a finger along her jawline. “No need. A sandwich sounds great. Then maybe we could come back here.”
She nodded before she’d given it any thought. But what was there to think about? Milly was right. She’d needed a night like tonight.
“I’ll race you.”
He was up and moving before she knew it, tugging on his jeans over his amazing body. She lifted onto her elbow, having no intention of even trying to beat him to the kitchen. Not when she could watch him get dressed, which was almost as good as watching him take his clothes off.
She liked how he moved. Each gesture flowed into the next with ease. She loved how his muscles worked, how every part of him was outlined like an artist had carved his body out of living granite.
He checked her as he pulled on his shirt and buttoned one of the few remaining buttons that hadn’t been yanked off. “Are you coming or what?”
“Sure.” She pulled the sheet over her as she slid out the other side. “Could you toss me my clothes, please?”
Instead, he turned to the dresser and pulled open the top drawer. He started digging through her intimate apparel.
“What are you doing?”
“Looking for a nightie.” He twisted around to grin at her. “You know. One of those thin see-through things with little straps and a bikini bottom.”
“Why do you think I have one of those?”
His disappointment was all too obvious. “You don’t?”
“No.” She held the sheet over her body. Had she let him down?
“Then what do you sleep in?” His eyes grew bigger. “Maybe nothing?”
She hated to dash his hopes. “Look in the second drawer.”
He pulled it open like a kid looking for candy then grabbed one of her T-shirts and held it up. “You sleep in this?”
“Yep. I can’t afford nighties. Besides, I have a teenage daughter in the house.”
He tossed it to her. “Put it on and let me see you in it.”
Keeping the sheet around her by holding it under one arm, she slipped the faded shirt on then let the sheet drop. She took a deep breath, ready for his criticism.
“Damn.”
Sadness flooded her. After everything he’d said before, after all the sweet words that had made her feel so special, he hated her sleep shirt? “I’m sorry.”
“What are you sorry about?” He strode to her and took her into his arms.
She drew in his now-familiar scent. “I’m sorry that I don’t have anything sexier to wear.”
“I said damn.”
“Yeah? Is that a bad thing?”
“Hell, no.” He leaned away from her. “Maybe I didn’t put the right tone on it. I said damn, but what I meant was daaamn as in daaamn but you look hot.”
She giggled as he grabbed her shoulders, turned her around, and pushed her toward the door. ‘Now move, woman. Your man is hungry.”
My man? The words made her tingle.
A quick spank on her bottom had her hurrying out of the room. She let a satisfied smile surface since she had her back to him and practically skipped down the hall and into the kitchen. He stopped at the entrance while she scurried around, dragging out the bread, then the condiments, and a package of sliced ham.
“How do you like your sandwich? With mayo or mustard?”
“Do you have any hot sauce?”
“No. Sorry. I’ve never heard of anyone putting hot sauce on a sandwich.” She held the knife poised over the jar of mustard.
“I know. It’s a strange thing of mine, but I put hot sauce on a lot of different things.” He shot her a sultry look. “Next time, I’ll bring some so I can put it on you.”
“Oh.” Next time? She squashed the thrill those words gave her. Counting on a next time that might never come could lead to trouble and heartache.
“You should try the sauce sometime.”
She shook her head. “I don’t think so. My stomach isn’t that strong. But Jazz might try it. She likes hot and spicy stuff.”
“Where is she anyway?”
She tried to play it nonchalant. It wouldn’t do to let him think she’d let Jazz stay the night at a friend’s with the idea of sex with him in mind. “A friend of hers invited her over to hang out. I guess it’s not called a sleepover once they hit the teen years.”
“Of course not. Not that I’m an expert or anything. Boys didn’t really spend the night at each other’s houses. We hung out, all right, but that was usually while at the diner or at a keg party.”
“I hate to think about Jazz drinking. Does that go on much around here?” She’d thought bringing her daughter to a small town would keep her away from drinking and drugs. If the teens of Forever drank, she hoped they at least stayed away from drugs.
“I wouldn’t worry too much. Julie Martin’s a good kid.”
She stopped cutting the sandwich in half. “How’d you know she was staying at Julie’s?”
She’d caught him in a bad situation. She could see it on his face and in his eyes. Although she had some experience with men—actually only C.J.—the short time she’d spent with him had taught her to recognize when a man was trying to hide information. She turned to confront him.
“What? I didn’t. I mean…”
“Answer the question, Rent. How did you know she’s staying with Julie?”
“Hey, it’s a close-knit community. You can’t step on a bug without the whole town knowing.”
Now he was trying to evade answering. Which was as close to lying as a person could get without actually saying the lie. “That’s bull.”
His gaze dropped to the knife in her hand as she took a step toward him. “Baby, if you’ll put down the knife, we can talk about this.”
She set it on the counter and took another step closer. “Answer the damn question.”
“Okay, so here’s the deal. I asked you out tonight and I wanted to make sure we got to spend some alone time together. So I asked Jebb Martin if he’d get Julie to ask Jazz to spend the night. It’s not like the two girls aren’t friends. They are.”
“Let me get this straight. You made sure my daughter was out of the house because you planned on getting me into the sack. Is that right?”
He held his hands up then backed up as she took yet another step toward him. “No. It’s not that way. I didn’t know if we’d have sex. Of course, I was hoping we would. Wait. That didn’t come out right.”
She’d pushed him back into the living room. He’d planned the seduction and she’d fallen for it. She thrust out her hand and pointed at the front door. “Get the hell out of my house.”
“Baby, listen—”
“Don’t call me baby. And I’m only going to say this one more time. Get out. Now!”
He stopped and crossed his arms. “No. I’m not leaving until you listen to reason.”
The anger she’d felt earlier had been mixed with hurt. But now the anger had morphed into fury. How dare he not get out when she told him to leave?
“Either you go now on
your own steam or I’m going to call Jackson Carr and have him throw you out on your ass.”
“Try it.” The defiance of his expression left no doubt that he meant his dare.
She grabbed her cell phone off the side table and started punching buttons.
“Okay, okay.” He started moving to the door. “Hang up. I’m going. We don’t want our little lovers’ spat to get around town. If you’ll just let me get my boots out of your bedroom, I’ll get out of here.”
“Screw that.” She pointed at the door again. “Go. I’ll get your boots for you.”
He started to say more but opened then shut his mouth instead. Turning the doorknob, he looked back once then strode outside, leaving the door open.
She watched him, debating whether or not she wanted to give him his boots. The idea of him walking home in his bare feet appealed to her. But he was right. If anyone got wind of what had happened, it’d be all over town in a day. She hurried to the bedroom, snatched up his boots, and ran back to the front door.
“Here.” She threw the boots at him. He caught one but missed the other.
“Stormy, come on. Let’s talk about this.”
She didn’t bother answering. At least not with words. Instead, the slamming of the door was her answer. Whirling around, she leaned against it and let the tears fall.
Chapter Four
Stormy laid another order on the pass-through between the counter and the diner’s kitchen. The usual customers had made their way to Milly’s and the morning service was starting to wind down. Soon she could take a break if she wanted it. Problem was, whenever she stopped working, her mind took her back to the previous night.
Rent had gotten under her skin in more than one way. He’d made her furious by setting up the sleepover for Jazz and then trying to hide it from her. But what made her even angrier was her reaction. Granted she’d opened up to him, giving him her most precious gift, but she hadn’t expected to feel as badly as she had when he’d gone.
She must’ve cried for hours. But why? She hardly knew the man. Even his lie hadn’t warranted that kind of a reaction. And yet he’d hurt her as C.J. had when he’d walked out on her, leaving her to deal with his father, who had offered her money to get an abortion. She’d wanted to throw his money back at him just like she’d done with Rent’s boots. But she’d kept it to help her get away from them.
“Stormy, you have a customer at the counter.” Milly jerked her head to the side.
“Thanks.” Stormy pivoted, order pad and pencil in her hand, ready to take the order. She turned back to Milly. “I’m sorry, but I’m not waiting on them anymore. If you want to fire me because of it, then say the word and I’m out of here.”
Ty rested on his elbows to lean over the counter. “Stormy, please don’t act that way. I’m not my brother.”
She whirled back to face him and slapped the pad down. Although she could sense every eye in the diner on her, she couldn’t stop herself. “Maybe not, but I’ll bet money you knew what he’d done. Hell, how could you not when all three of you showed up at my door?”
The buzz of excited murmurs surrounded her, warning her to stay quiet. But she was too upset to stop. “I may not have much experience with men, but I know enough to recognize when I’m being played. And you guys played me good.”
Ty’s blue eyes, so much like Rent’s, bored into her. “It wasn’t that way.”
She fisted a hand on her hip. “Oh, really. Then tell me. What way was it?”
Ty glanced around the diner. “Can we talk about this privately?” He lowered his voice. “Do you really want all these people knowing your business?”
“He’s right.” Milly pushed her from behind. “Here. Take this bag of trash out for me. You can talk outside.”
“Yes, boss.” She grabbed the bag from Milly then headed toward the rear door that led to the back of the row of stores where all the Dumpsters were. Ty reached out to take the trash, but she jerked it away. She’d gotten along fine without any man for fourteen years and she’d keep getting along fine for another fourteen years if she had to.
Ty waited patiently for her to toss the bag into the container. She turned back to him, ready to tell him she had nothing more to say, then came up short. The sunlight reflected off the blond hair curling around his ears, showing off the lighter streaks in it. His face was rounder than Rent’s but still had a strong jaw and nose. Although it was still morning, stubble covered his jaw and traced around his mouth, calling attention to his lips. Darker eyebrows and eyelashes served to make his blue eyes even bluer.
Crap. Why do the Malone brothers have to be so damn handsome?
But she couldn’t let that bother her. If Ty was anything like his brother, she couldn’t trust what he was about to say.
“I want to apologize.”
Did he mean for Rent? Or was he admitting that he helped his brother in his setup? “So you had a hand in getting Jazz out of the house, too.” She hadn’t meant for it to sound like a question because it wasn’t.
He blinked, drawing her focus to his long eyelashes. This is so not fair. I’d have to pay big bucks for eyelashes like those.
“Yeah, I did. All of us did.”
“That’s what I thought, since the three of you showed up at my home.” The hurt that had left her sobbing last night came back to sucker punch her in the gut.
He came up next to her and she didn’t move. She wanted to feel the strong connection again. The sensation swept over her and she drank it in. Her libido jumped to life, bringing out her nipples and the moisture between her legs. She closed her eyes for a moment and imagined what it would be like to have his hands sliding over her body. Rent had told her they all wanted her. Had he lied about that, too?
“To be honest, we really did think you understood that Rent meant to include us. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but that’s the way it is around here.”
“I’ve noticed. I don’t understand it, but I get that a lot of folks like it that way.”
“Would you like it that way?”
Would she? She had to admit that she’d given it some thought since moving to Forever. She stumbled on her words but finally got them out. “Don’t go trying to change the subject.”
“Again, I’m sorry. We did set it up for Julie to invite Jazz. Not that she didn’t want to. She likes Jazz and jumped at the idea.”
She poked her finger in the middle of his chest. “You had no right. My daughter and her friendships are off-limits.”
Wow. He’s as hard as a rock. She wanted to poke him harder just to feel his chest again but resisted the urge.
He heaved a big sigh. “You’re right. We were totally out of line. But we were desperate. We’ve wanted to date you, to see you from that first day when we walked into Milly’s and saw you waiting on Old Man Jacobs.”
She remembered that day because she’d noticed them, too. They’d blocked the sunlight streaming in from the door, making her turn toward the shadow falling over her. The light had flowed around them, cocooning them in a halo of brilliant white. When they’d stepped farther into the diner, she’d had to rush to the back to catch her breath.
“Still.” She was weakening, either from his apology, the attraction between them, or his genuine expression.
“Will you forgive us?” He got closer.
Her anger was gone, lost in the spell that was Ty Malone. “I’ll try. But don’t do anything like that again.” Were there going to be more chances for them to lie to her? She realized that she was willing to risk it.
He drew a cross over his chest then took her hand and placed her palm where he’d made the cross. “We won’t. I promise. Does that mean you accept my apology?”
“Yes. On one condition.”
He tilted his head. Did all the Malone men do that? Now that she thought about it, a lot of the men in Forever made that same gesture.
“Name it.”
She brought her gaze to his. “Tell me if what Rent said is true.”
/>
His frown came and went. “What did he say?”
“And you said it before. You said we. Not you.”
“Yeah?”
“He said that you guys want me. Not just him but you and Beckett, too.”
“He lied to you.”
She would’ve sworn her heart skipped a beat.
“But not about that.”
The blue of his eyes changed, adding bits of the same color of amber she’d seen in Rent’s eyes. His body language changed, too, suddenly becoming stronger, more in command. It was as though he’d switched on the Machismo Button. He was even more alluring, sexy, but now with an edge of danger to him. An edge she couldn’t resist.
Cupping her face in his hands, he brought his mouth an inch from hers. She flinched at his touch, but it was a good reaction. She leaned against the Dumpster, her heart that she’d imagined had skipped a beat suddenly pounding at a rapid speed.
His kiss was intense right from the start. He slanted his head and nibbled on her bottom lip. She moaned even as her inner voice shouted at her to push him away. But he’d put the same spell on her that Rent had done.
Her arms slid around him and pulled him closer. The Dumpster rattled as he shoved her against it. His hands flattened on the metal beside her and his body pressed against hers, holding her in place.
She lifted her leg and he grasped it. Taking his hand, she dragged it up her thigh then under her skirt. Now it was his turn to moan as he found her panties and pushed the material out of the way.
Her abdomen tightened as his fingers found their way between her folds and covered her pussy. Thrusting her hips forward, she urged him to rub her clit.
He plundered her mouth as he massaged her and her juices wet his hand and her legs. She wanted him and she didn’t care where they were.
A growl escaped him and he tracked his tongue down her neck to her cleavage that showed above the rounded hem of her low-cut blouse. She offered him her breasts even as she clung to his shoulders.
He fumbled with her buttons but soon had her blouse open, exposing her push-up bra. “I need to have you.”
She clutched his hair, keeping him at her breasts. “Then take me.”
