Meanwhile, Lincoln had made good use of his opportunity to get to know new people by asking simple, but probing, questions about the other guests. There was no small talk about current movies or the recent bad weather. Instead, he wanted to know about everyone’s favourites hobbies and what made them choose their careers and other topics usually not delved into in general conversation. Amber had learnt new information about every person at the table, including those she was closest to, which was a surprise. She certainly hadn’t known Julia had decided to train for a ten kilometre run, until the other woman admitted it tonight.
Julia had never shown an interest in running before and, as she talked, Amber searched her face for some indication she was only doing it because Scott and Derek wanted her to, but she seemed genuinely excited by the idea. Perhaps this was what Julia had meant about them opening her up to new experiences. The thought Julia was living her life to the full made Amber happy. The fact Lincoln had elicited the information on their first meeting, when Amber didn’t even know, was less comforting.
No-one learnt anything new about Amber, however, because Lincoln never got around to asking her any questions—at all. Amber wasn’t one to crave attention, but she did like to contribute to the table conversation and the cold shoulder she’d received did sting a little, especially when she didn’t know why she was being ignored. He’d sure as hell seemed interested in her when they’d arrived.
They were halfway through the main course of lightly grilled salmon steaks with garlic potatoes, steamed asparagus and a tangy pesto sauce when Trina managed to throw in a question of her own. “What made you become a landscaper, Linc?” she asked.
“I like working with my hands,” he replied in the same low tone that had rumbled over Amber’s skin for the past hour. The sound of it made her tingle all over. Perhaps she was allergic. “When I was growing up I created my own fruit and vegetable garden in the backyard, much to my mother’s displeasure. She didn’t like the idea of her son going to school with dirt under his fingernails. But every time she turned around I was back out there. Eventually she gave up on me.” His tone remained relaxed, but there was a hard edge to his mouth that made her wonder how vehemently his mother had objected to his garden. To her, it seemed like a lovely interest for a child to have.
“The idea of taking a bare patch of dirt and bringing it to life appealed to me in a way nothing else did,” he continued. “So much can be done with a small patch of earth. Whether it’s growing food or flowers, the variations in colour and form are endless. There are a thousand shades of green alone. Nature provides an amazing palette for those who take the time to enjoy it.”
There was a moment of charged silence before Trina gave a breathy laugh. “Goodness. That sounds a hell of a lot better than being stuck in an office all day like most of us.” She rested her chin on her upturned hand as she gazed at Lincoln with obvious appreciation. Amber wondered if she should offer to switch seats. She had a feeling Trina wouldn’t mind rubbing shoulders and bumping elbows with Lincoln.
“I won’t disagree with you there.” He returned Trina’s smile full force. “My office is the grass beneath my feet and the trees around me. My only ceiling is the sky over my head. I can earn my living pretty much anywhere and I do it by making the Earth healthier and more beautiful. There is nothing else like it in the world.”
This time the silence was damned near deafening. Amber glanced around the table to see everyone reflecting on Lincoln’s words. She was pretty sure most of the diners were now in danger of quitting their day jobs and buying a fancy set of gardening shears.
“Hell, Linc,” she said as she picked up her wine glass. “Make the rest of us look shallow why don’t you?”
Everyone laughed and, just like that, the spell Lincoln had cast was broken. There was a clatter of cutlery as the eating of dinner resumed.
“What about you, Amber?” He looked directly at her for the first time since they’d sat down at the table and the weight of that green gaze caused the tingling to get worse. Yep, she was definitely allergic. “I’m sure you had an equally compelling reason for becoming an accountant. If you’re honest about it.” His words sounded good, but she was close enough to recognise his smirk for what it was. He was laughing at her again.
That was why he hadn’t asked her any questions until now! Once again, he’d decided he already knew what her answers would be and he’d found them wanting. Well, far be it for her to disappoint him. She didn’t answer to him or anyone else and she had no need to justify herself to a man who thought getting dirty on a regular basis made him more ‘real’ than her. It was soil, not a divine blessing.
“Screw that,” she said out loud, holding up her glass. “I did it for the money.”
A cheer rose from the table and she was toasted with laughter from several directions.
“Why am I not surprised?” Lincoln muttered under his breath.
Amber scowled. Those were the words of someone who’d never worried where their next dollar was coming from. His comment annoyed her enough she couldn’t resist the urge to stir him up.
“Don’t get me wrong.” She laid a hand on his forearm where it rested on the table and she felt the muscles bunch beneath her fingers. “I totally care about the environment too.”
“How’s that?” he asked with a teasing grin. “I suppose you recycle your organic soy latte takeaway cup and call it doing your bit for the planet.”
She gave him a plastic smile. “Only if there’s a recycling bin handy. Otherwise, I throw my cup in a regular bin,” she looked up at him through her false lashes before she added, “and I don’t even feel guilty about it.”
He barked out a laugh, and shook his head at her. “Figures.”
Amber settled back into her chair, tossing her hair back over her shoulder. “And what do you do for fun? Read Henry David Thoreau and pretend to be a hermit?”
Turning toward her, he placed one arm along the back of her chair and leaned closer, invading what little personal space she had left. “If you’d ever read Thoreau you’d know that despite living in a self-built shack in the wood, he was not a hermit. And neither am I.”
She snorted. “And for that we are all eternally grateful. Truly.”
“Would you two like a room?” Scott’s bemused voice interrupted them. “We have a spare in the back. I’m sure no-one will notice if you slip away.”
Amber froze in her seat, though her gaze darted around the table to see eight sets of eyes staring at them. Apparently Lincoln’s smirk was contagious. Now everyone wore one.
She drew her hand back from the table just as his arm vanished from her chair.
For a moment she considered excusing herself to get some water from the kitchen. However, any move to leave the table now could be interpreted as eagerness to go in search of that spare room, which would only lead to more ribbing. She stayed put and kept her mouth shut. Thankfully, Lincoln did the same.
Derek saved them both when he pushed his chair back from the table and rubbed his hands together as he rose. “Who’s ready for dessert?”
The group gave a hearty chorus of agreement and both Scott and Julia stood to start clearing the empty dinner plates.
In the noise and commotion that ensued, Amber kept her gaze firmly on her wine glass, twirling the stem back and forth between her fingers. She was surprised when Lincoln clinked her glass with his own.
“Cheers,” he murmured into her ear. “If nothing else we make bloody good entertainment.”
Amber couldn’t help but laugh. At least they had that.
Chapter 5
Amber.
She looked like a poster girl for everything he hated about mainstream society. A rich princess who spent more time worrying about her shoes than what went on in the world around her. In cities like this you couldn’t move two metres without tripping over someone like her. And yet, he couldn’t keep his eyes off her.
She wore her armour well, he had to admit that. With
the artful tumble of brunette curls and the emerald satin dress that hugged her luscious curves in ways that made his mouth water. Heaven knew his palms itched to test the firmness of her high, round arse. She was as beautiful as she was gregarious. No doubt about it, Amber O’Hara was a bright, shiny example of the modern career woman.
Lincoln wasn’t ordinarily drawn to bright and shiny. If anything, he preferred to give her type of woman a wide berth. The current seating arrangements made that difficult.
For the past hour he’d been conscious of every movement she made as she sat beside him at the table. They’d hardly spoken a word to each other since Scott had so blatantly told them to get a room. That didn’t stop him from being keenly aware of her presence—the scent of her perfume and the way her legs shifted under the table. Her bare arm grazed his from time to time and he was losing his fucking mind. He’d done his best to ignore her through dinner in an effort to keep the extent of his attraction to himself, but apparently that only ticked her off more. The moment Julia suggested everyone move into the living area while she and Derek prepared tea and coffee, Amber shot out of her chair as if she couldn’t wait to get the hell away from him. He couldn’t blame her, they hadn’t exactly gotten off to an amicable start.
Remembering his earlier words, he felt a pang of regret. He wasn’t the kind of man who went around being rude to women, and yet something about Amber made him want to provoke a reaction from her. Maybe he’d just wanted to see what she was made of under all the makeup and fancy clothes. Whatever the reason, she’d met him blow for blow and, if he wasn’t mistaken, she’d revelled in every furious moment.
It hadn’t taken him long to realise her prickly attitude only extended to him. He’d watched her greet her friends with the kind of warmth that came from true friendship and pleasure. Then, he’d seen her introduce herself to those she didn’t know with equal welcome and openness. She’d sure as hell never looked at him like that. Instead, when her gaze returned to him, and it did return to him over and over again, she’d seemed to visibly bristle at the very sight of him.
She didn’t like him and he had no interest in women like her. Yet, here they were… getting under each other’s skin.
When she left the table and stepped out onto the balcony he followed, pulling the glass door closed behind him to provide them with a modicum of privacy. They might be watched by curious eyes, but at least they wouldn’t be overheard.
Tucking his hands into his pockets, he stood beside her. Together they took in the city lights spread out before them. The sight was pretty spectacular, he had to admit, but not something he’d ever wanted for himself. The cost was too high. Long hours hunched over a desk day after day, living off bad coffee and a minimum of sleep. That kind of lifestyle paid the outrageous mortgage that came with a place like this, but left little time or energy for actual living. Lincoln preferred a simple life, relatively free from gadgets and dress watches and the so-called security of owning twenty different t-shirts—all of them in various shades of white. He’d grown up surrounded by that sort of consumerist bullshit and as soon as he’d been old enough he’d walked away from all of it.
These days he owned the few basics he needed to make his way through life in relative comfort and nothing more. It wasn’t a lavish way to live, but it meant he had more of the two things he valued most: freedom and time. The freedom to toss everything he owned into the tray of his utility truck and disappear whenever he felt like it—which happened about every six months or so—and the time to experience life in all its variations. Whether he was hang gliding off a cliff or making love to a woman, he had always felt the same endless need to connect with life, and with people, on the deepest level. These were the things that fed the empty parts inside him, and he wasn’t about to give them up for the sake of a pretty view.
At this particular moment though, the only connection he was interested in was the one he wanted to make with Amber. His body was keen to probe all kinds of deeper levels with her. Every time she glared at him the urge only got stronger. What the hell was wrong with him?
His musings were interrupted when Amber turned to him with a huff. “I have to ask, is there some reason why you don’t like me?” She stared up at him, hands on hips and sparks of fire in her eyes. “Have I somehow offended you with my existence?”
He blinked in surprise at the directness of her question. He liked women who got to the point. It showed a bone-deep self-confidence he would admire in anyone. “No. You haven’t offended me.”
“What a relief.” She threw her arms up in the air. “I’ll be able to sleep tonight.”
“I’m sorry for teasing you. I’ll try to stop.” He also tried to hold in his grin, but even that seemed beyond him. “I can’t promise anything though.”
“Do be a good boy and try hard, won’t you?” Her voice was pure condescension smothered in syrupy sweetness. “Because honestly, I’d prefer not to go on sniping at each other. It’s important to Julia you have fun tonight and I don’t want to ruin that for her.”
The dedication she showed to her friend was unexpected. In his experience, women like Amber were usually more focused on their own enjoyment than on whether someone else got what they needed from a situation. “You really care about her.”
“About Julia? Of course. We’ve been friends for a long time and she needs friends around her right now.”
Her choice of words gave him pause. Amber appeared to be on good terms with Scott and Derek, but it was possible she was only pretending to approve of their relationship, while actually believing Julia needed to be saved from the position she’d found herself in. “How so?” he asked, hoping to draw out her true intentions.
The fire in her brown eyes sparked brighter than ever. “This transition to a polyamorous relationship hasn’t been easy for her. Most people claim to be fine with it when they first find out, but then over time things change. Some distance themselves. Others avoided talking about Derek and Scott, as if ignoring their presence doesn’t hurt Julia.” She sighed, shaking her head as she stared out into the darkness. “Sometimes people don’t know how to act so they avoid acting altogether. When what they need to do is own up to feeling awkward, have a laugh, and get the hell over it already.”
After a few moments of silence, she looked up at him. She must have seen the blatant shock written all over his face because her features scrunched up as she asked, “What?”
“Nothing,” he said, shaking his head. “I agree with you.”
She gave a curt nod. “Good. Because what those three people share is incredibly special and I’ll stand up to anyone who says different, old friend or otherwise.”
Finding people who were so open-minded was rare, and he honestly hadn’t expected it to come from a woman like Amber. Yet here she was, fuming at him like a tigress waiting for a reason to defend her cubs. He decided it would be prudent to put her out of her misery. “You don’t have to worry about me. I’m happy for Scott. For all three of them.”
“Good,” she said again, seeming to deflate now she’d said her piece.
They were silent for another moment, before he added, “I couldn’t do it though, personally.” He looked at her, his gaze dropping to her mouth for a lingering moment before returning to her eyes. “I don’t share.”
The corners of her mouth lifted before she admitted, “Neither do I.”
“That’s good to know.”
She chuckled, deep and throaty. His body hummed at the sound of it.
“Is this the part where you comment on how the moon makes my skin glow and my dress is the exact colour of my eyes?” she asked.
She didn’t strike him as a woman who would be impressed with pick-up lines and, since she’d been nothing but brutally honest with him, he decided to return the favour. “Your eyes are brown, not green. And I’m imagining all kinds of things about you I can’t say out loud.”
That eyebrow of hers lifted to an imperious height. “And why is that?”
> “Because each and every thought has the potential to get me slapped across the face,” he said with a laugh.
Curiosity lit her eyes and her mouth quirked at the corners, as if she was struggling to decide if it was worth her while to find out what was going on inside his head. He knew she’d come to a decision when she said, “Try me.”
He took a step closer, so they were mere centimetres apart. “I’m imagining what you look like naked. And what your arse would feel like cupped in my hands.” His gaze dropped to her lips when she licked them. A dead giveaway his words were having the desired affect. “Right about now I’m imagining your lipstick leaving a mark around my cock.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly before he added, “But that’s my problem not yours.”
She stood there, eyes wide and mouth hanging open, for a long moment before she visibly shook herself. She placed her hands on her hips as she faced him with a regal tilt of her chin. “Maybe the women you usually attract are happy to dirty up their knees to please you, but I don’t play that way. If you want to get something from me you’re going to have to learn to give.”
Lust streaked through his body and his tongue curled at the thought of tasting her. “If that’s what you’d like, I’d be more than happy to go down on you first.”
Amber gave an exasperated cry and threw her hands up in the air. “That is so totally not what I meant.”
“But you can’t deny that’s how it sounded.” He laughed out loud at the emotions vying for dominance on her face. Shock, embarrassment, laughter, and unless he was totally off base, a healthy dose of arousal.
“Okay, yes, you’re right.” She shook her head, her cheeks flushed. “Well, now we’ve got everything cleared up, I’m going back inside. We have officially called a truce. Correct?”
He held one hand out toward her. “Truce.”
Long, slender fingers wrapped around his and they shook on it. “And you’re going to have fun at this party,” she commanded as she continued to hold his hand.
Lost in Amber: Steamy Contemporary Romance (Finding Forever Book 2) Page 3
