“Oh, I am flattered and honored,” he said with a lazy drawl. “Mi casa es su casa. Help yourself to anything you want.” He waved his hand with a flourish.
“That’s awfully generous of you. Anything?”
His steady gaze locked on her. “Anything.”
Heat flickered in her eyes before they skirted to the table. The teasing between them had escalated to full-on flirting, but she must not be completely comfortable in the new role. Probably because it had been a while since she’d had to pull a man in. Certainly not while she was married, but with her body she had the tools to do it.
Recently divorced women were a unique breed. Seldom in a rush to get into another serious relationship, they presented the perfect opportunity for a short fling.
“I’ll keep that in mind. For when I want something,” Talia said, facing him boldly now.
Their friends watched the exchange between them closely, and from their raised brows, he suspected they were just as intrigued by the conversation as he.
He let his gaze lower to her mouth. She wore a shade of lipstick slightly lighter than her skin, drawing attention to the bee-stung temptation of her full lips. He pushed his hair back from his face and her gaze lifted to follow the movement. His throat seized and his hand paused for a fraction of a second before falling away. He knew women, and there was no mistaking the look she sent him. He recognized lust when he saw it.
“When you want something, don’t be shy. Make sure you ask for it.” He saw the heat in her eyes again, but this time she didn’t look away.
“I’m going inside to warm the bottle,” Shawna announced, grabbing Talia’s wrist and dragging her toward the house.
Ryan leaned toward Tomas. “Okay, I know you pretended to be her man at the housewarming party, but tell me the truth. Is there something going on between you two?”
Tomas turned to his friend. “Not yet.”
Chapter Nine
Talia observed Tomas out the kitchen window. Funny how you could see someone and not pay much attention to them. Then one day, the blinders come off and all the characteristics you’d overlooked suddenly become apparent. He used to annoy the hell out of her, though she’d be a liar if she claimed not to have noticed his physical appeal. Overall, she saw him with new eyes now.
She’d never had any desire to venture this far out into the “boonies” before, where the houses were few and far between, but all of a sudden she was glad she’d called Shawna and invited herself on the hour-long drive. She took a swallow from the can of soda she picked up on the way inside.
“Stop looking at him,” Shawna said from behind her.
“Nothing wrong with looking,” Talia responded. She turned away from the window.
To get to the kitchen, she and Shawna had passed the living room and she’d hung back to take a peek, curious to get a better handle on Tomas and his personality. The room was filled with large, traditional furniture in dark hues. A chocolate couch and a black leather recliner with a cup holder had clearly seen better days but looked comfy. He had a collection of miniature classic cars stacked on shelves behind a locked glass case that loomed almost to the ceiling. The floors looked like the original hardwood had been stripped and refinished so they gleamed under the overhead lights, and in front of the fireplace a beige area rug with running horses on it added a warm accent to the masculine room.
Above the fireplace mantle, an enlarged photo hung in a gold frame. A considerably younger looking Tomas, perhaps in his late teens and with longer hair, smiled with people she assumed must be his mother and three brothers. The boys all looked alike, each good-looking in his own way, though Thomas stood out because of his lighter colored eyes. His parents had blessed the world with four handsome young men.
When she’d entered the enormous eat-in kitchen, Talia had placed her purse on the table and walked over to run her hand along the six-burner Viking range, which suggested Tomas had a love of cooking. Surprising, as she’d never expected him to be the cooking type. Where she’d gone for light and bright in her own kitchen, he’d chosen walnut cabinets and polished steel handles. Being nosy, she’d opened the Viking refrigerator and found it filled with foodstuffs—fruits, vegetables, juices and the like. Clearly Tomas would never starve to death out here far from civilization.
With Madison on her hip, Shawna stood at the counter fiddling with the bottle warmer. Madison babbled happily, as if she knew she was about to be fed. “You know what kind of guy he is. He’s a flirt and a womanizer,” Shawna said.
“I don’t want to sleep with him.” Not entirely true. The more she thought about it, the more attractive the idea became.
“I hope not. What you’re going through will pass. Divorce is not the end of the world.”
“I hate the word divorce,” Talia said. Her throat tightened. “Such an ugly word. I still haven’t gotten used to the idea that I’m actually a divorcée. I never thought I’d be in this situation after being married so long.” Even in the last days, when her marriage ran on fumes and she and Carter slept in separate bedrooms, she hadn’t expected this end result. “The ink barely dried on our divorce papers before Carter started seeing that woman. She’s twenty-one years his junior. Barely out of diapers! And you know what he said to me today?” Her neck muscles tensed as she thought about his visit to her condo. He’d come by to drop off a box of her personal items accidentally left at the house when she’d moved out.
“No, what?” Shawna somehow managed to lift the bottle from the warmer and test the warmth of the contents on her opposite wrist, all while balancing her wriggling daughter in her arms. Mothers were a rare breed of magician.
“He said, ‘There’s something I need to tell you and I wanted you to hear it from me first. Paula and I are getting married.’ I swear I almost hit him, but I gave him a good piece of my mind. I tossed out every curse word I could think of and told him to never speak to me again.” The speed with which she’d been replaced still lingered like the aftertaste of a bitter pill.
“Since you work together, that won’t be easy,” Shawna said reasonably.
Talia huffed. “I don’t have anything to say to him, and I don’t want him to say anything to me.” She pretended to study her manicure. “Do you think he was seeing her before we divorced?” she asked quietly.
“I don’t know, Talia. He said he wasn’t.”
They hadn’t made love in over a year before the divorce, no longer able to summon the energy or strength to feign interest in a physical relationship when the emotional one had deteriorated so spectacularly. She had been celibate, but there was no guarantee he’d been.
“Whether he did or didn’t doesn’t matter now anyway,” she announced. “I’m divorced, not dead, and it’s time I get my groove back.”
“Please tell me you’re not thinking of getting it back with Tomas.”
“Why not? He’s single, I’m single. Tomas fits the bill, and you’re right, I already know what kind of man he is.” She’d seen his flirtations, and Shawna had told her about his escapades with numerous women over the years. “I’m not looking for another husband.”
“Your ex-husband has moved on, and so will you—when the time is right.” Shawna could always be counted on to be reasonable and careful.
“What if the time to move on is right now?” Talia asked.
Shawna sat down in one of the chairs around the table, her daughter in one hand and the bottle in the other. Madison took the bottle and gulped greedily. “You just got divorced.”
“So did Carter.” Talia crossed her arms over her chest.
“But you’re not him. Give yourself time. What’s the rush?”
“You’re the most cautious person I know. I probably shouldn’t take advice from you.” Talia softened the comment with a grin.
Unable to deny the truth, Shawna smiled wryly. “Fair enough, but how about this? If you want to start dating right away, let me introduce you to a few of Ryan’s other friends. Or try dating online. Ca
ra found the man she’s seeing on one of those singles sites. It took a few tries, but they seem to be a perfect match.”
Talia returned her attention to the scene outside the window. “Hmm…I don’t know.”
The thought of setting up an online dating profile and fielding offers from amorous men who may or may not be truthful about the details they shared didn’t appeal to her. It meant entering the unknown, and she wasn’t so sure she had the desire to go through the trouble.
“Anybody but Tomas. He’s dangerous and you’re vulnerable,” Shawna warned.
“Dangerous?” Talia laughed. “Don’t worry. I can handle myself. Besides, how bad could he be?”
“Real bad. Don’t get me wrong, I love Tomas, but I don’t know what it is, he gets women to do all kinds of crazy things. They simply forget who they are. He says he moved out to the country because he likes the slower pace, but sometimes I wonder if it’s because he wants to avoid the hordes of women who hound him. He has restraining orders against at least two of them.”
“Now you’ve got me even more curious,” Talia murmured.
“What?” Shawna asked sharply.
“You heard me.”
“I see the way you’re looking at him. Stay away from him. He’s absolutely the wrong man for you.”
Talia studied Tomas, sitting with his legs spread wide, arms crossed over his chest. He didn’t have to move—or do anything, in fact, to have women gravitate to him. Since she’d returned her attention to the window, two had approached, flirtatiously touching his arm. One had gone so far as to play in the hair brushing his shoulder.
A mild pulse of awareness filled her. She twirled a lock of hair around her finger. She wanted to be like those women—to touch him, his hair, and his hard body. And she wanted him to touch her, to explore and make her feel alive and desirable again. She hadn’t had her sexual needs tended to in so long, and he would know what to do.
Tomas might be the wrong man for a long-term relationship, but he was the right man for what she had in mind.
****
Hours later, when darkness fell and guests started to leave, Talia lingered. Luckily she’d followed Shawna in her own vehicle, so when her friend was ready to go, she made up an excuse to stay behind. Shawna sent her a warning look, but she didn’t say much else before she and Ryan left.
Talia helped with the clean up, clearing dishes, tied up trash bags, and did whatever she could to delay her departure. When the last of the stragglers had gone, she went into the kitchen and wiped down the counters. Covered leftovers were put away in the refrigerator and then she focused on washing pots, pans, and utensils while Tomas finished up outside.
She had put away the last of the dishes and was wiping her hands on a towel when she sensed him behind her. She turned to see him leaning against the doorjamb with a Corona in his hand, watching. He did that a lot. Observing, paying attention to people as if turning things over in his mind. As she was the only one there, she was the focus of his watchful gaze. How long he’d been standing in the doorway, she had no idea.
Seconds dragged by and neither of them made a sound.
He walked slowly toward her, and the closer he came, the louder her heart beat. Now she was about to execute her plan of seduction, she became extremely nervous. Her mouth dried and butterflies filled her stomach. An irrational need to bolt surged through her, but she suppressed it. She hadn’t stayed behind only to succumb to nerves.
“All done in here,” she said in her brightest voice, but it sounded false and nervous.
“Thank you for your help. You didn’t have to wash the dishes.”
She shrugged. “I wanted to.”
He tipped the beer toward her, but she declined his offer with a shake of her head. He upturned the bottle and chugged the remnants, the entire time keeping his eyes on her. His Adam’s apple bobbed once, twice as he swallowed. Even when he set the empty bottle on the counter he didn’t take his eyes from her.
He tilted his head to the side. “Why are you still here, Talia?”
She swallowed and had the distinct feeling that because she was out of practice, she was unprepared for what was to come. She seldom felt out of her depth, but he was so big, so virile, so unapologetically male. “I wanted to help you.”
He studied her with an intense, probing look. “Just being helpful?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
“I didn’t think you knew how to do household chores.”
“I didn’t have to growing up. We always had hired help…” He raised his brows, and she realized how pretentious she sounded. “I do know how to clean up,” she insisted, a defensive note to her voice. “I just don’t have to because—”
“Because you have someone else to do it.”
His gaze skipped to the front of her dress, doing that thing he did, undressing her with his eyes so she felt naked. He was so brazen about it; it was obvious he didn’t give a damn if she noticed. Her breasts suddenly became heavy, as if weighted down with a foreign substance.
He came closer, invading her personal space. The temperature in the room rose to scorching as his focus moved to her mouth. “You have nice lips.”
She felt like a gazelle being stalked by a lion, waiting, wondering when it would pounce. Lust coiled in her loins as high voltage electricity surrounded them, and her nipples throbbed and jutted against her dress. It had been a long time since she’d felt sexual in any kind of way. She laughed to ease the tension, her heart fluttering like the violent flap of a bird’s wings.
“You should see pictures of me as a child. I had to grow into these lips.” She touched her fingers to her mouth.
The corners of his lips didn’t budge, not even a fraction. “I’m going to kiss you,” he said calmly. “Do you have a problem with that?”
She couldn’t move, could hardly breathe. Helplessly frozen as if bound by ropes. What breaths she did take were filled with the scent of him. “No.”
It’s what she’d been hoping for, what she’d wanted, why she’d stayed behind under the pretense of being helpful. She wanted kisses and much, much more.
“I didn’t think you would.”
His cocky self-confidence should annoy her, but instead it made her hornier. His index finger slowly traced the curve of her jaw line and the outer edge of her bottom lip. The benign touch sizzled across her skin and spurred her heart into a gallop at breakneck speed.
With a hand to her waist, he drew her close, molding her soft curves to the steely strength of his body. He lowered his head and did exactly as he said he would.
From the minute their mouths meshed together she free-falled into the seductive pull of his lips. One large hand cupped her face as if she were made of the finest porcelain, his coarse thumb skimming the surface of her skin beneath the cheekbone. He was gentle at first, but then she edged closer, wanting more than this tender passion as fire licked through her veins with frightening speed.
He let out a low growl, his velvet tongue pushing past her lips to let the crisp bitterness of beer fill her mouth. He kissed with such fervor her head tilted back at a sharp angle. Guiding her to the counter, he tightened his hold. The edge pressed into her back, but no discomfort could distract her from this indelicate raid on her senses.
Tomas angled his head and shifted his hand into her hair. His fingers weaved through the strands to massage her scalp in a circular pattern that sent erotic sensations down to her nape. He traced the corners of her mouth with his tongue, tasting and teasing until she could barely stand the torture, shaking from the force of desire and whimpering in need. His mouth caressed hers, and she felt like she was floating on air, drifting weightlessly upward. She’d never been kissed like this, and she didn’t want it to end. Clutching his shoulders, she determined to hold onto him and not let him go if he tried to stop.
He cupped her bottom and massaged the soft flesh, guiding her leg upward so he was in the cradle of her thighs with his hard length pressed into her belly. Passi
on she hadn’t experienced in a long time erupted in her blood, making her feel alive, wide awake and aware of his every touch.
He lowered his lips to her neck, leaving a trail of flames wherever his mouth touched. She gasped when he sucked the engorged nipple of her breast through her bodice. Locking her arms around his neck, she held him in place. Mentally reeling, she moaned at the heightened ache he’d created with such a simple touch. But this was just what she needed. To be wanted with such keen desire nothing else mattered but satisfying it.
Boldly, she lifted his shirt, fingers hunting for the hot, hard flesh of his back. She traced the muscles there and a tremor fizzed through him. When he lifted his head, his need was laid out as plain as writing in his angular face. His clear brown eyes had darkened to chestnut, and his chest expanded with each labored breath.
He didn’t say a word. He didn’t have to. He simply lifted her in his arms and walked out of the kitchen.
Chapter Ten
As soon as he placed Talia on the carpeted floor of his bedroom, Tomas began to undress. The first item he removed was the T-shirt. Enraptured by the strip tease, Talia watched as each inch of his perfect body was revealed. When he finally shed all his clothes, she stood in admiration of his physique. Confident in his own skin, he waited with aplomb while she scrutinized him from head to toe, a man clearly used to being naked.
Her inspection started at his thick neck and brushed with longing over his golden skin. His muscles had muscles, a body so tight there wasn’t an ounce of surplus flesh anywhere. Washboard abs you could literally wash clothes on, broad shoulders and muscled thighs. He resembled a gladiator from centuries gone by, and she easily imagined him in a coliseum fight to the death where he would come out the victor.
The Wrong Man (Love Unexpected) Page 6
