"All right, already. No need to get snappy. It was just a suggestion." Tammy tossed her golden locks with dark roots. "I thought red looked more like a chick who'd ride on a Harley with a guy like Luke."
"You're absolutely right." A tremor of disappointment rippled through her. Of course, a wild, red-haired "chick" was exactly the woman for Luke. Conservative, four-eyed librarians weren't meant to rip about with the resident bad boy. Why did she feel disappointment at having it spelled out for her? She knew she wasn't the woman for him.
"Hmm." Tammy snapped her out of her reverie. Uh-oh. She recognized the gleam in Tammy's eyes, having seen it countless times before. Trouble. Tammy's man-alert radar was going off. "Well, if things don't work out with Tim, I might have to look Luke up. Doesn't he start on the library tomorrow?" She dropped Olivia a heavily mascaraed wink. "I might have to stop by and see my sister. Maybe we could double date with you and Adam. Luke would be right up my alley. That is, if the thing with Tim falls through."
Something green, ugly and perilously akin to jealousy reared not just its head but its entire body in Olivia. And maybe I'll have to bitch slap you. She stunned herself with her vehement reaction. It was as if her encounter with Luke had opened a Pandora's box of passion inside her. She struggled to contain her emotions. She had no claim on Luke. None whatsoever. Nor did she want any. However, it struck her as supremely warped if her sister wound up in bed with him. And in Tammy's vocabulary dating translated to sex. If she had to, she'd sacrifice herself on the familial altar. "Stop by, but Luke's off-limits. He's mine, whether he knows it or not."
Tammy, who changed her affections at the same rate the wind blew, didn't blink at Olivia's about-face. She threw up her hands, surrendering the subject. "Cool."
"Now that's the best news I've heard all day." Luke's lazy, sexy drawl wrapped around her from behind.
Dismayed, she pivoted in slow motion to face him. He stood framed in the doorway, laughter crinkling the corners of his eyes. But it was the flicker of fire in his blue eyes, a carnal familiarity that weakened her knees. Her fingers clutched at the familiar edge of the nicked countertop.
What had she gotten herself into? She'd wandered into quicksand and the more she struggled to get out, the deeper and faster she sank.
* * *
Luke crossed the buckled linoleum. Olivia stood frozen in front of the sink. He stepped between her and her sister.
"The gentlemanly thing to do would be to leave and pretend you didn't hear that." Her laughter rang light and flirtatious, threaded with an undercurrent of steel. She cut her eyes frantically in Tammy's direction.
Tammy merely leaned against the counter as if she were settling in for the latest soap opera installment.
"You're right about that, honey. But then I've never suffered from that particular affliction." Luke slipped his arm around the indent of her waist. Even though she stiffened against him, she was careful not to pull away. For whatever reason, she was playing to Tammy's audience. Only an idiot or a misguided gentleman wouldn't take advantage. Luke was neither. He tugged her closer, absorbing her fragrance while she gazed up at him with a forced smile. "That's one of the things you like about me, isn't it, sugar?"
Her delicate little foot ground down on his instep with painful accuracy. "Just one of many things."
"Why don't you let Tammy finish up here and you can show me the barn?" He extricated his aching foot from beneath hers. If she had declared them an item, he damn well wanted in on it. Her last update had confirmed she despised him. Never a dull moment with Olivia.
"I'd love to, but I need to finish washing up the pots."
"Go ahead, Olivia, live a little. Trust me, the best view is in the loft." Tammy winked and hustled them to the door.
"What about Pops?" Olivia looked as if she were being forced to walk the plank.
Luke nudged her out the door and down the stoop. "He's napping on the front porch."
Chickens scattered as they followed a dirt dogpath through the overgrown yard to a barn in even more desperate need of repair than the house.
Olivia waited until they were out of earshot. "You weren't supposed to hear that."
She deserved to squirm for crushing his foot. "I've always known the best barn views were from the loft."
"Not that. You know…" She shoved her glasses up on her nose, a gesture he'd learned was a measure of her nervousness.
"What?" It was so much fun to tease her.
"You know very well what. You weren't supposed to hear me tell Tammy you were mine." The words rushed out.
Luke slowed their pace. Once they reached the barn, which put them out of sight of Tammy's probing eyes, Olivia wouldn't waste any time putting distance between them. For good measure, he looped his arm over her shoulder, pulling her close to his side.
"Physical contact isn't necessary."
"Come on, honey. You don't want her to think you're averse to my touch, do you?" He toyed with the thick braid hanging over her shoulder. "Not after you told her I was yours. That has a nice ring to it."
"I got carried away."
The barn, once red based on the odd remaining paint flakes, loomed before them, barely standing on this side of dilapidation. One of the massive double doors stood ajar, hanging on by one hinge. They slipped inside.
"I like it when you get carried away. I don't believe I've ever had a woman stake a claim for me so boldly before."
The air stirred around them, musty with the smell of old hay and tools that had worked the earth and been returned with bits of soil clinging to them. From a darkened corner, a chicken squawked her protest at their arrival.
Olivia ducked from beneath his arm and stood just inside the door, captured in a shaft of sunlight slanting through a missing board. "You know good and well … Luke Rutledge, that I didn't mean it." She crossed her arms over her chest.
"Damn, woman. You are hell on my ego."
"You possess enough ego for you and a couple of other men as well." Olivia narrowed her eyes.
"You wound me."
"Uh-huh."
"So, why'd you say it if you didn't mean it? Why's it so important for your sister to think we're an item? What could possibly induce you to align your fair self with someone as reprehensible as me?"
"You don't understand my sister. She changes men as often as she does nail polish. She was interested in you." Olivia pressed a hand to her forehead and shook her head. "She even suggested double dating. You and her with me and Adam."
Maybe when hell froze over. "It might be a good time." He pushed her button.
Olivia's head snapped up and she planted her hands on her hips. "Never."
"Why not?" He wasn't interested in the least in Tammy, but he had the distinct impression Olivia was jealous. Of him. He rather liked the notion.
"In Tammy's book, dating means sex. They seem to go hand in hand for her." The light streaming in behind her picked out subtle shades of red in her dark brown hair.
"Ah." He saw, but did she?
"It seemed rather sordid if she slept with you after we…" She squirmed in obvious embarrassment. "Well, you know, after what happened." A gust of wind startled dust motes into a dance about her head.
"Did it ever occur to you that I wouldn't leap into bed with your sister after … you know?" He couldn't resist mocking her.
Her perplexed expression proclaimed it hadn't. "Most men find my sister appealing."
"Perhaps you've confused appealing with available. And I'm not most men." He stepped toward her, stung that she thought so little of him. "Do you know what I think, Lady Olivia?"
She retreated, shifting out of the sunbeam's path into the shadows. "No. And I don't want to know."
To hell with that. He didn't particularly like the picture she'd painted of him. Lady Olivia was about to face a few home truths. "First, let's clear one thing up. Your sister could table dance naked in front of me, and I wouldn't be interested. Got it?"
She nodded mutely. He didn't i
magine the relief in her eyes.
"Good. Now here's the most important part." He was damn tired of this buffer of denial she kept throwing up. He stepped close enough to see his reflection in her dilated pupils. "It's not about sordid. You can't stand the thought of me touching her the way I've touched you."
"Don't be ridiculous." He recognized knee-jerk bravado when he saw it.
"It's not even close to ridiculous." He reached out and wound her braid around his hand, a rope of thick silk against his callused palm. Her pulse fluttered wildly at the base of her throat like a snared bird when he traced the shallow indent of her collarbone with the fingers of his other hand. His blood thundered a response. "Don't hide behind your convenient conventionality. At least have the guts to admit you can't bear the thought of sitting across from me at dinner and thinking I might touch her this way." He trailed his thumb along the downy soft of her neck, past the stubborn line of her chin.
Luke didn't know whether it was his taunting words or his touch that provoked it, but he saw the truth flash in her eyes. "Yes."
"Say it. Tell me."
She turned her head aside. "I can't bear the thought of you touching her that way." She faced him once again, his hand still wound in her hair, her head at a haughty angle despite her admission. "Are you satisfied?"
"Not by a long shot, but that'll do for now." He drew her closer. "I liked it when you staked your claim." She braced her palms against his chest to stop him. "It turned me on."
"Probably everything turns you on." She sounded more hopeful than disdainful.
"Being deliberately insulting isn't going to work, you know." He took one of her hands in his and slowly brought it to his mouth, kissing the fleshy pad of her palm. The air between them shifted and changed, like the motes of dust and hay swirling about. Did she feel the heavy thud of his heart beneath her other hand? "And just to clarify, everything about you turns me on."
Her pulse raced against his fingers where he grasped her wrist. "Does that line work with all your women?"
"I wouldn't know, since I've never used it before." He rubbed the velvety skin of her wrist.
"Luke…" Her faint protest lost its meaning as her other hand clutched at his shirt instead of pushing him away. Her eyes darkened to a smoky gray.
She might be the prim and proper librarian on the outside, but inside she was fire and passion. She liked it when he spoke candidly, whether she admitted it or not.
"You're confusing now with the other night … the costume … the mask."
Perhaps she'd deluded herself with that theory. He knew better. They were custom-made for one another. "Baby, it doesn't have jack to do with costumes and masks. Everyone wears a mask. It's knowing what's real beneath it that counts. Maybe you had to put on a mask to find the real you." His mouth was warm against her racing pulse. "Because this is real."
"Stop." Her hand, fisted in his shirt, trembled against his chest.
"The way your hair smells, the touch of your skin, the way you taste…" he probed the valley between two of her fingers with the tip of his tongue, her sharp intake of breath hissed in the quiet of the barn as want slammed his heart against his ribs "…all make me hot for you."
"Don't talk that way." Despite her protest, she didn't move away. "I don't want to hear it."
"Why not? Because it makes you all hot and bothered too? Because you like it too much?" He read the answer in her parted lips, the darkening of her eyes. "You could always kiss me to shut me up."
"Or I could walk out." It was an idle threat and they both knew it.
"Yeah. That too. But I think you'd rather kiss me. I know that sounds like a much better plan to me."
"You're not a man of few words, are you?" she teased wryly.
"Not with you. You seem to bring out the best in me." His comment held a measure of truth.
"That's a scary proposition." Her eyes sparkled in the dim light.
Her playfulness charmed him. "Proposition? Are you flirting with me, Lady Olivia?"
"Absolutely not." She shook her head. "You and your ego. I'm trying to shut you up."
"I've told you how to do that."
She slid her hands over his chest and up his shoulders. Her mouth hovered a breath away from his, so close he inhaled the faint scent of cinnamon. His gut clenched in anticipation. No mistaken identity, no rum punch, no simmering anger. Of her own free will, Olivia was about to kiss him.
"Oliviaaaaaa. Olivia, are you in there?" Adam's voice shattered the moment. In an instant, Olivia transformed from a provocative woman on the verge of making him a very happy man to a withdrawn, uptight shell. What in the hell was Adam doing here?
* * *
"I thought that was your motorcycle out front. What are you doing here?" Adam bristled at Luke. He turned to Olivia before Luke had a chance to respond. "And what were you doing in the barn with him?"
"She was showing him our antique tractor." Tammy stepped around from behind Adam, her tone daring him to infer otherwise. "We keep it in here to protect it from the elements."
She shot Tammy a grateful look. Of course, Tammy's story would carry more weight if the barn itself didn't appear ready to succumb to the elements at any second.
"You never showed me your antique tractor." Petulance was not a pretty sight on the face of a grown man. And unfortunately for her state of mind, she'd shown Luke a lot of things Adam had never seen. Would never see.
Olivia waded knee-deep in the testosterone surging between Adam and Luke. Luke opened his mouth, the look on his face clearly spelling trouble. She poked him, subtly of course, in the ribs and jumped into the conversational fray, not trusting Luke not to throw out some outrageous answer.
"I didn't think you'd be interested in the tractor. Luke offered me a ride out and then I'm picking up my car. Why are you here?" She'd read somewhere that the best defense was a good offense.
"I tried you at home and when you weren't there, I knew you must be out here." Adam slung a casual, albeit proprietary, arm around her shoulders. "I wanted to check on my girl. You feeling better?" Adam looked down his nose at his older brother. "Thanks for taking care of her for me."
Once upon a time—two days ago to be exact—Olivia would've enjoyed Adam's attention. She would've reveled in his assumption that the two of them belonged together. Olivia wasn't sure whether she should pin it on a change in circumstances or a change in her, but now his arrogant possession aggravated her. And she wasn't the only one. Luke radiated tension like a palpable force.
"The pleasure was all mine," Luke drawled.
"No doubt," Adam countered.
Sacrificing tact for expediency, she shrugged off Adam's arm. She found herself oddly compelled to defend Luke in the face of Adam's derision. "He was quite the gentleman. But you seem confused that I need a keeper. No one has to take care of me—especially not on your behalf."
Beth may have been right about Adam. He certainly exuded patronizing arrogance today.
Adam quickly backpedaled. "You're absolutely right. Of course you're capable of taking care of yourself. Although my brother as a gentleman is hard to imagine."
At one time she'd have thought it something of a stretch as well, until she considered she'd practically begged—okay, forget practically, she had begged—Luke to have his wicked way with her while she was mildly—okay, okay, very—intoxicated. It was a perverse day when she had to defend Luke's honor not once, but twice, to maintain some semblance of conscience. "He was every inch the gentleman."
Her face burned at her poor choice of wording.
"Maybe I could give you lessons," Luke drawled the challenge.
"I imagine there's very little you could teach me," Adam threw back.
Kissing popped into Olivia's mind, but, mercifully, not out of her mouth. Luke could teach Adam a whole lot about kissing because he was very, very good at it.
"Don't be too sure about that." Luke bared his teeth in a mocking grin. With his jaw darkened with a shadow of a beard and hi
s hair hanging loose, he looked sexy and dangerous and her heart slammed against her ribs.
Adam ignored Luke's taunt and cupped Olivia's elbow. His touch didn't wreak the havoc Luke's did. Not even a pitter-patter. "If you're done here, let me take you to pick up your car and then we'll have dinner together." Adam clearly expected her to fall in with his plans.
Luke clasped her other arm. "I'm dropping her off at her car."
She caught Tammy's eye. "Gentlemen, thank you both for your kind offer, but my sister is taking me to pick up my car."
Olivia strolled around to the front of the house, flanked by Adam and Luke, while Tammy brought up the rear. Pops snoozed on the front porch, blissfully unaware of the circus unfolding around him.
She stopped between the Beemer and the Harley. "And as for tonight, I have plans."
"Plans? You've never had plans before."
She'd never had back-to-back orgasms with Luke before either.
"Guess you're out of luck, bro." Luke threw fuel on the fire.
Rather than looking at Olivia, Adam glanced around the farm with a hint of desperation. "Maybe tomorrow. I'll call you." He glared at Luke. "When we can have some privacy."
"Okay. That's fine." She'd be busy then as well.
"And I'll see you tomorrow morning." Luke's voice slid down her spine, laden with innuendo, bringing to mind a much better way to start the day than with a cup of coffee. He made a construction visit sound like an early morning rendezvous. Or maybe her mind was just obsessed with sex these days.
"The ribbon-cutting ceremony is at nine." She sounded appropriately prim and proper.
"I'll be there at eight."
"I'll be there by eight-thirty," Adam joined in.
Luke captured her with his blue eyes. "Be prepared for some changes." His voice dropped. "It'll be noisy. Maybe dirty. Definitely messy. But I can guarantee you'll be satisfied when it's all over."
She swallowed hard. She was close to satisfaction and he'd only talked. "You'll know if I'm not."
"I don't doubt it for a minute."
Adam didn't move until Luke did.
"Sure I can't take you to your car?" Adam tried again.
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