“Wow,” she murmured, leaning in to get a look at the television’s inner workings, “I wouldn’t even know where to start.”
Her hair was in his face now and the soft, silkiness of it brushed against his skin and filled his mind with the scent of flowers. Brian closed his eyes tightly, grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her out of the way as quickly as he could. And even then, it didn’t diminish the flash of heat rippling from his fingers, straight up his arms to rattle around in his chest. Touching Tina was like touching a live electrical wire.
“If you’ll stay the hell outta the way,” he muttered, not daring a look at her again, “I’ll try to fix it.”
“Pardon me,” she said, but she smiled and didn’t move away. Instead, she settled down and crossed her legs. Leaning her elbows on her knees, she rested her chin on her hands and watched him. “You always could fix just about anything,” she said.
He tried to shrug that away. He wasn’t going to be led down memory lane. Not when he was already on pretty shaky ground. “I was always good with my hands.”
“Yeah,” Tina said on a soft sigh, “I remember.”
Oh man, he was in deep trouble here and sinking fast.
“Look,” he said as he backed out from behind the TV while still trying to keep a safe distance from her, “maybe you’d better call a TV guy tomorrow and—“
“What?”
He looked back over his shoulder at her and narrowed his eyes suspiciously. Then he held up a thick black cable with a silver connection head on it. “I think I found the problem,” he said.
“Really?” Her lips twitched and the dark brown of her eyes shone with amusement and…something else.
Tearing his gaze from hers, Brian turned around, screwed the silver head back into the wall plate and instantly the picture and sound on the television set blasted into life.
Tina reached out and shut it off.
“Why’d you unplug the cable, Tina?”
She shrugged again and this time, the strap on her other shoulder slid down. The only thing holding her tank top up now, was the swell of her breasts.
“Why’ve you been avoiding me, Brian?”
“Doing things my way now?” he asked, “Answering questions with a question?”
“Oh,” she said and shifted around until she was kneeling on the floor right in front of him. “I have an answer, I just don’t think you’ll like it.”
“Try me.”
“Okay,” she said smiling, “but remember, you asked for it.
Then she leaned forward, took his face between her palms and kissed him until Brian was sure his eyeballs were going to pop right out of his head.
And he wouldn’t have missed them.
Six
Instantly, Tina realized her mistake.
She’d thought it a simple thing, getting Brian to kiss her. After all, years ago, she’d had plenty of practice in turning Brian on.
But what she hadn’t counted on, was her own reaction to the kiss.
She’d planned on being the logical one.
The cool-headed one.
The one in charge.
But there was no one in charge now.
They were on a runaway train and with every passing second, that train picked up speed.
Brian pulled her close and with one hand at the back of her head, held her in a bruising grip. Her heart raced, her blood pumped and her brain clicked off.
All that was left was sensation.
The feel of Brian’s mouth on hers. The warm slide of his tongue as he tasted her, explored her. The strength of his hands on her body and the hot brush of his breath on her cheek.
He groaned tightly and Tina felt an identical response shuddering within her. It had been too long since she’d felt anything like this. Too long since her blood sparkled like freshly opened champagne. Too long since her brain fuzzed over and her body tingled.
She kissed him back, putting everything she had into it, claiming his mouth with the same ferocity he took hers. Their tongues tangled together in a wild dance of need and she held on to him as the earth beneath her seemed to tilt dangerously.
His hands moved over her, roughly, demanding, and she loved it. His calloused palms scraped her flesh and sent chills racing along her spine. He tore his mouth from hers and hungrily trailed his mouth along her neck, following the line of her throat and down, lower and lower until Tina held her breath, let her head fall back and silently prayed for more.
And then he gave her more and she sighed his name like a blessing.
He slid the edge of her tank top down, pushing it over her breasts until he’d freed them from the fabric and Tina held her breath again, waiting.
“Tina…” he murmured and dipped his head, to take first one, then the other of her nipples into his mouth.
Her breath sighed from her lips as she felt the dazzling sensations rocketing around inside her.
His lips and tongue defined the rigid points and as he suckled at one of her breasts, his fingers teased the other until Tina couldn’t think. Couldn’t breathe.
He seemed insatiable. As if he couldn’t taste enough of her. As if the taste of her were more important than his next breath. And his hands continued to move over her, stroking, sliding, up her back, over her breasts, and down over her hips to her thighs and then inward, to the warmth of her center. He cupped her and even through the linen fabric of the shorts she wore, Tina felt his heat. Felt the incredible pressure of his touch on her and knew she needed more. Needed to feel flesh on flesh.
“Brian,” she murmured, kissing his neck, his jaw, nibbling at his bottom lip as he lifted his head to look at her through dazed eyes. “I want you. I want you so much.”
Brian struggled for air. It felt as though an iron band was around his chest, squeezing. Every inch of his body was alive and screaming. Need radiated from him, and his instincts were all telling him to stretch her out on the floor and take her, hard and fast.
She rocked her hips against his hand and he groaned, gritting his teeth and fighting the hot flash of desire nearly choking him. He touched her center and even through the soft fabric covering her body, he felt her heat, pulling at him.
“Brian, please—“
He looked at her, meeting her gaze and momentarily, he lost himself in the shadowy depths of her eyes. She wanted him. He wanted her. Why did this have to be any more complicated than that?
But it was.
On too many levels.
Sure, the bet, he thought and knew that one more minute in her arms and he’d throw away the stupid bet and any amount of money for the chance to be with her. But there was more at stake here, too. They’d been apart five years. It hadn’t been easy, but it had been the right thing to do. Did he dare risk screwing it all up now, making it harder on both of them, just for the sake of losing himself in her one more time?
Her hips rocked again and she pulled herself closer, tighter, to him. One arm went around her and he allowed himself a moment to revel in the feel of holding her again. To feel her hair soft against his neck, the press of her breasts against his chest and the soft brush of her breath. He knew her sighs, her moans, her every mood.
And he’d missed her more than he’d ever thought possible.
“Brian…”
“Tina,” he said her name on a sigh that ripped from his chest and tore free of his soul.
“Don’t—” she warned, shaking her head and holding on to him even more tightly. “Don’t walk away. Don’t deny us—“
He touched her.
Because he wanted to.
Because he needed to.
His thumb scraped across the fabric strained tight over her center and Tina reacted instantly. She clutched at his shoulders and opened her legs further, giving him access.
“Touch me, Brian,” she whispered and her voice echoed inside his head, his heart.
She turned over onto her back and lay across his lap and Brian shifted his hand far enough to dip beneath
the waistband of her shorts, slide across her abdomen and then slide down farther. She rocked in his grasp and her every movement created torture for him as she moved against his hard body, pushing him closer to the ragged edge.
And still he couldn’t stop. He could at least have this. Give her this.
His fingers deftly moved beneath her panties to touch her warm, damp flesh.
At his first touch, she arched her back, moving into him, sighing his name. Again and again, he stroked her, at first slowly, teasingly and as she crested closer and closer to her climax, he quickened his rhythm and watched her expressive face as the first tremors of delight shook through her.
Her eyes widened, she bit down hard on her bottom lip and lifted her hips into his hand, his touch, claiming him as much as he claimed her. When she cried out his name, he groaned again and held her while she reached her peak and then fell to earth.
“Brian?” she asked a moment later, lifting both arms to encircle his neck.
She looked more beautiful than he remembered. Her brown eyes were warm and rich and filled now with a lazy satisfaction that was already giving way to new needs. Needs he wouldn’t—couldn’t—fulfill. Brian grabbed her wrists and shook his head.
“What?” she asked, wariness creeping into her expression.
“I’ve gotta go,” he said and gently lifted her off his lap and pushed himself to his feet. Pain radiated through him and Brian realized he hadn’t been that frustrated since he was a kid. A cold shower probably wasn’t going to do it this time. With an ache this big, this deep, he’d need an oceanful of cold water.
“Are you kidding?” she demanded, slipping her arms through the straps of her shirt and rearranging her clothing as she stood up to face him. “You’re leaving? Now?”
“Especially now,” he said tightly.
His hands itched to hold her again and other parts of his body were even more interested in getting close again. Deliberately, Brian turned his back on her and stalked to the front door.
“Was that just me, Brian?” she demanded and the tone of her voice prodded him to turn around to meet her gaze just as he hit the front door.
He saw hurt and confusion along with the anger in her eyes and told himself it was his own damn fault. He never should have trusted himself inside this house alone with her.
“Was I alone in there?” she asked, waving one hand behind her toward the living room.
He wanted to say Yeah, I felt nothing, because that would surely be the easier way. But the whole Coretti polygraph thing had him in its clutches again and Brian discovered he couldn’t lie to her. Not about this.
“No,” he said, his voice just a ragged hush of sound, “you weren’t alone.”
“Then how can you leave?” she asked. “If you feel anything of what I’m feeling, how can you leave?”
“Don’t you get it, Tina?” he asked, hitting the screen door with the flat of his hand and stepping out onto the porch, “It’s because I’m feeling what I am that I’m leaving.”
She threw her arms across her chest and held on tight. Glaring at him, she snapped, “That makes no sense at all.”
His body aching, his mind hurting, his soul emptying, Brian just said, “Yeah, I know.”
Then he left.
While he still could.
For the next three days, Brian stayed as far away from Tina as humanly possible. He even considered moving onto the air base for the duration of her visit. But he just couldn’t seem to make himself do it. Oh, he didn’t trust himself anywhere near her, but at the same time, he didn’t want to cheat himself out of at least seeing her from a distance.
Stupid.
Losing control of the situation had been stupid and Brian couldn’t even remember how he’d lost it. All he could remember was the feel of Tina in his arms again. The soft sigh of her breath. The amazingly responsive woman he’d missed so desperately.
“When are you going to admit it?”
Brian snapped out of his thoughts, which had once again been centered on Tina, and looked at Aidan, across the table from him. “What?”
Aidan sneered at him and jutted his elbow into Liam’s side for emphasis. “D’ya hear that?” he demanded. “He’s not even willing to admit to us that Tina’s getting to him.”
“She’s not,” Brian lied and didn’t even feel guilty for it. What was between he and Tina wasn’t anyone’s business. Not even his brothers.
“Right,” Connor said from beside him and reached for a tortilla chip out of the basket in the center of the table. “You’re just avoiding going home because you hate the dogs.”
“I do,” Brian reminded him.
“Uh-huh,” Liam put in, “but they’ve never kept you away from home.”
“Fine.” He threw both hands up in mock surrender, then reached for his beer. Taking a long swig, he swallowed, then said, “You guys win. Tina’s making me nuts. Happy now?”
While his brothers grinned and nodded knowingly, Brian shifted his gaze to the crowd dotting the tables at the Lighthouse. Always, there were families. Kids, of all ages, parents, grandparents. He’d never really paid attention to them before, and maybe that was because it hurt too much to see happy families when his own marriage had ended.
But for some reason, the last few days, all Brian had been noticing were families. His friends and their kids. Military wives driving into Parris Island to hit the Commissary for groceries. And he couldn’t help wondering if he and Tina would have had kids by now if he hadn’t insisted on a divorce. But following that thought, he wondered if he hadn’t saved them both a lot of heartache by ending things when he had.
What if they had had kids, and then divorced? How much harder would everything be? And how unfair to children, torn between two parents.
His gaze fastened on a little girl, no more than two or three. She had dark, curly hair and big brown eyes and looked just as he imagined a daughter of his and Tina’s would have looked. She was beautiful, he thought, just a little wistfully. And if a ping of regret sounded in his heart, then he was the only one who would know it.
“I don’t know about the rest of you,” Aidan said, snagging a chip for himself, “but I’m real happy to hear it.”
“Oh, me, too,” Connor put in. “Good to know I’m not the only one suffering here.”
“You guys are lightweights,” Liam said with a sly smile.
“Hey,” Connor argued, “you’ve had a few years to deal with this whole, ‘no women’ thing. We’re new to it, thank God.”
“And not long for it,” Aidan remarked, pointing his beer at Brian. “At least, one of us isn’t.”
Brian bristled. Sure, things were tougher than he’d thought and damn, he’d come close to losing the bet—and himself—in Tina the other night. But he’d stayed strong. Stayed dedicated.
Stayed frustrated.
“Don’t worry about me, boys,” he said tightly. “I’m doing fine.”
“Right. That’s why you’re here with us instead of at home.”
Brian ignored Connor and looked at his older brother. “You enjoying this, Liam?”
“I am,” he said and cradled his bottle of beer between his palms. Slanting a look at Brian, he said, “You know, maybe there’s a reason Tina’s in town right now.”
“Sure. It’s fate, huh?” Brian said with a snort.
“Would it be so surprising?”
“Yeah, it would. I don’t believe in fate,” Brian said flatly. “We make our own decisions.”
Aidan and Connor exchanged a glance and a shrug, then kept quiet and listened.
“And if you make the wrong decisions?” Liam asked.
“Then you pay for them.”
“Like you’re paying now?” Liam mused.
“Who says I’m paying?” Brian argued and when his voice got a little loud, he winced and hunched his shoulders as a woman at the table next to them gave him a quick look. “Damn it, Liam, Tina has nothing to do with this bet.”
“I’m
not talking about the stupid bet, Brian,” his brother said softly, as if only the two of them were at the table. “I’m talking about you letting Tina walk out of your life.”
“That’s over and done,” he murmured, refusing to look at any of his brothers. Instead, he stared at the label on his beer bottle and picked at the edges of it with a thumbnail.
“Is it really?” Liam said on a sigh. “I wonder. If it were really over, wouldn’t you feel safe going home?”
Brian snapped him a look then swept his gaze over Connor and Aidan who were both doing their damnedest to look invisible.
Scowling at his sudden discomfort, Brian reached for his wallet, pulled out a bill and tossed it onto the table. Then standing up, he looked down at his brothers, but focused solely on Liam. “I’m trying to stay away from Tina for her sake, if you’ve just really gotta know what I’m doing.”
“Okay,” Liam said nodding. “I’ll buy that, if you can.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I think you know, Brian. You just don’t want to admit it.”
“I don’t remember asking for advice, Father,” Brian pointed out, feeling his temper spike.
“You’re right,” Liam said and he smiled again, even wider this time, as if to prove to both of them that Brian’s temper didn’t worry him. “But consider this a freebie.” He leaned forward, forearms on the table and stared steadily into Brian’s eyes. “You’re not avoiding Tina for her sake, Brian. You’re doing it for your own. You’re hiding from her because you don’t want to admit that you never should have let her go.”
“Bullsh—”
“Ah,” Liam said grinning, “fascinating, well-thought-out argument.”
Brian huffed out a breath, dug in his pockets for his car keys, then glared at the booth full of Reillys. “You guys are making me even more nuts than Tina!”
He stomped off, and after a second or two, Aidan held up one hand toward the waitress and silently ordered another round of beers for the table. Then he glanced first at Connor, then at Liam. “Brian’s a dead man,” he said, smiling.
“Oh, yeah,” Connor said, “a goner.”
The Tempting Mrs. Reilly Page 6
