by Amy Olle
Emily swallowed back bile, recalling the last time she’d seen Luke.
Or rather, the last time he saw her.
Naked.
A groan slipped from her. He must’ve had a great laugh at her average-breasted, short-legged, butt-naked expense. Her satisfaction at having managed to wipe that smug smile off his face, if only momentarily, disintegrated like cotton candy on her tongue.
On the drive to rescue her car from the pound, he hadn’t said more than three words to her, spiced with a few grunts and overlaid with one long, deep, menacing scowl. While he was tense and snarly, for once, all Emily felt around him was relaxed. Peaceful.
The peace was long gone now as Luke and the woman curled their way through the tables. The palm of his hand rested at the small of her back. An intimate touch in a public place.
Emily sighed and turned away from the sight.
To find Mina and Noah watching her.
She tossed up a weak smile, which quickly sputtered out. She stuffed a chip into her mouth.
Mina cradled her chin in one hand and gazed in the direction of the bar. “He is awfully pretty, isn’t he?”
Noah frowned thoughtfully. “You think?” he asked, showing no signs of jealousy.
“Oh, yeah.” Mina snagged a chip off her plate. “It’s not really debatable.”
Emily lifted one shoulder in a peevish shrug. “Too bad the effect is ruined the moment he opens his mouth.”
Two intelligent gazes sharpened on her face.
Mina lifted her glass and took a small sip. “You don’t like him?”
Emily studied her plate, pretending the interest she’d had in the nachos just a moment ago.
“They say he’s a hero,” Mina said.
Emily’s head snapped up. “Who says?”
“Yeah, who says?” Noah wanted to know.
Mina waved a nacho through the air. “Everyone.”
Emily risked another glance over her shoulder. Luke, having dropped the blonde at the bar, was in close-quarters contact with a petite, dark-haired woman in the middle of the room. He peered down into her face as she spoke, a soft smile curving his puffy lips while he listened intently to her.
Emily’s stomach gave a little wrench.
“He’s been nominated for an award.”
“What kind of an award?” Noah asked.
Mina lifted her shoulders. “Some award given to police officers.”
Noah rolled his eyes. “It’s bad enough he’s a cop. They have to give him an award for it now, too? And why am I always the last one to know about these things?”
Mina consoled Noah with a soft pat on the back. While he soaked up her touches, Emily toyed with her ponytail. When she was satisfied they were thoroughly absorbed in one another, she whipped around for another glimpse at Luke and the woman.
Only to find her view blocked by the planes of a flat stomach.
She looked up, past the span of a gray T-shirt hugging lean muscles, and into the chiseled perfection of his face. Her heart dropped into a frenzied rhythm.
“I just heard the news,” he said, his charmer’s smile firmly in place. “Congratulations, you two.”
Noah stood and pulled Luke into a man hug. “About time you made it over here. Your admirers are a voracious bunch.”
Side by side, the resemblance between the two men was striking. There was no denying their beauty, but as gorgeous as Noah was, next to Luke, he appeared as merely a blurry copy of the original.
“Nothing could keep me away. I hear wedding bells and I’m as giddy as a schoolgirl.”
“Glad to hear that, since you’ll be there, too.” Noah’s smile flashed bright. “As a groomsman.”
Luke winced. “Not content to be the only miserable bastard in a tux, huh?”
“I believe in sharing my good fortune.”
Luke’s mouth bent with a wry twist. “I’ll be sure to return the favor someday.”
Noah slid into the booth next to Mina. “You remember Mina’s cousin, Emily?”
Luke’s unnerving green eyes swiveled to Emily. Caught by surprise, she made the mistake of looking directly into their emerald depths. His gaze caressed her face, and then dropped lower, down the column of her neck to settle on her breasts. Her pulse skittered.
“How could I forget?” he murmured, almost as if the thought truly puzzled him.
“And yet that’s exactly what you did.” The words traveled straight from her brain to her mouth, unfiltered.
“A mistake I intend never to make again.”
A shiver passed through her. Seeing it, a green spark lit in his eyes, and as if by some dark magic, transported them to the beach, where she stood before him with every inch of her naked body exposed to his hungry stare.
“So, we’re to be cousins, are we?”
His words crashed into her and she blanched.
His gaze swung back to Noah, severing their connection. “I always doubted the rumors about you, but if you aren’t a genius, you’re obviously not a complete buffoon. You’ll forever be my hero for bringing two such lovely women into our family.”
Emily snorted.
At the same moment, Mina’s soft smile warmed and she looked so happy, Emily couldn’t begrudge her.
“Let me buy the next round.”
“It’d be impolite to refuse.” With Noah’s remark, Luke slipped away.
Emily sagged in the booth. She snatched up her glass, downed a large gulp, and returned the mug to the tabletop with a graceless clunk. She tossed a pointed look at her cousin.
Mina’s hands shot up. “No, you’re right. He’s perfectly wretched.”
Her light scent stayed with him as he crossed to the bar. He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her.
Naked.
Her nipples hardened against the cold. The soft fuzz between her thighs beckoning to him in the dark.
The images, unwanted and unnerving, kept coming like that, one after another. They stalked him, until his head ached with the effort he exerted to banish her from his mind.
She’d even tormented him while he slept. He’d dreamed of her in his bed, her pale skin translucent atop his dark sheets. She’d called to him, but he’d refused her.
So she’d teased him. Her knees had parted and she’d drawn a shocking pink vibrator to her body. Her head dropped back when pleasure overtook her. A chorus of her greedy moans rained down on him, threatening to wrench the orgasm from his body.
He’d jolted awake and, throwing back the sheets, shot from his bed. In the shower, he’d cranked the nozzle and shoved his face under the spray, trying to cleanse her from his mind. The water had rushed over the sensitive skin of his back and torso, but only served to call forth the memory of her emerging from the lake.
His cock had given an agonizing jerk and he regarded his erection with baffled surprise, both at its appearance after so long and at the fact that Emily Cole was the cause of it.
A lot of women had tried to stoke his desire. Beautiful, available women. Not one had succeeded. At least, not fully. Not since That Day.
Not until now.
The shower had done nothing to wash away his want of her, and instead, one hand had slipped down his body, over the clenched muscles of his abdomen, to stroke his rock-hard length. Exquisite sensation had torn through him. He’d pressed the flat of his palm against the shower wall and with his other hand, pumped his rigid shaft.
His body roared with the knowledge. Her. He wanted her. He had to have her.
With one final tug of the long hardness between his legs, his thoughts had scattered with the orgasm screaming through him.
Now, as he approached their table with the round of drinks, he pondered how it’d happened. How, in a single night, she had turned everything upside down. How, in a single, erotic power grab, she’d gone from the woman he wanted to fuck with to the woman he wanted to fuck.
His gaze bored into the back of her head. His face felt weird, stiff and twisted in an odd, scrunche
d up kind of way. Like he was scowling, except he never scowled. He was far too good-natured for such petulant displays.
He slid into the booth beside her and her light, flowery scent reached out to him. His body grew taut and molten at once.
He glared down at her.
She shot him a pitying look. “What’s the matter? Bad hair day?”
He laid a hand over his heart. “Daaaamn, prison changed you.”
“Prison?” Mina and Noah said together.
Emily offered them a weak smile, and then lanced him with toffee-brown daggers.
He could pick out at least three distinct shades of brown in her eyes. His favorite, near the center, was a deep, burnished whiskey. His balls tightened.
He bared his teeth. “You don’t like me.”
She shrugged her dainty shoulders and took a diminutive sip of her drink. A kiss of moisture remained on her small mouth when she returned the glass to the table.
“Everyone likes me,” he felt compelled to point out.
Her snort of disbelief rankled. “Because y-you’re so modest, no doubt.”
That was it. Time to hit the reset button on this debacle and return things to the way they were before she showed him every delicious inch of her naked body.
He eased back in the booth and folded his arms over his abdomen. “Ah, I get it. There’s something wrong with you, isn’t there? A personality disorder, maybe?”
A lick of fire flared in her eyes.
An answering spark shot to his groin.
“It is odd, I’ll admit,” she said. “I mean, w-why w-would I dislike the cop who, w-with zero evidence and even less reason to be suspicious, has accused me of an array of grievous crimes ranging from distracted driving to frowning?”
“Are you still mad about that? I apologized, didn’t I?”
“I’m sure you were just doing your job to the best of y-your abilities.”
“That’s right,” he said. “It’s hard, thankless work keeping the streets of Thief Island free from thugs and hoodlums.”
“Is it hard work keeping track of all the w-women you accuse of felony frowning?”
He wanted to kiss her.
“Don’t be silly. Lack of respect shown to a public servant isn’t a felony. Tactless and repugnant, maybe, but not a felony.”
She sighed. “Experienced as you are with moral corruption, I trust you’re right.”
From across the table, his brother and soon-to-be sister-in-law watched the exchange with wide eyes, their heads volleying like spectators at a sporting event.
Over Noah’s shoulder, Kate emerged from the women’s restroom.
Luke tilted his pint and downed the last drop of Guinness. He pushed to his feet. “Speaking of moral corruption, I need to talk to our brother about his children.”
Noah straightened. “What about them?”
“Their obsession with My Little Pony has gotten out of hand. It’s time for an intervention.”
Noah laughed and Luke clapped him on the shoulder. “Congratulations again, you two. Let me know the details when you have them.”
He turned to go, but pulled up at the last second. With an exaggerated snap of his fingers, he swiveled toward Emily. “Oh, I almost forgot.”
She regarded him with dark mistrust. Smart girl.
“I have your panties with me. Would you like them back?”
She choked on the chip she’d just popped into her kissable mouth.
“You were in such a hurry to get dressed, you must’ve forgotten all about them.”
Her damnable mouth moved with little pinches and odd twitches while she struggled to find and form words. Insults she wished to hurl at him, most likely.
Except she didn’t.
In a flash of movement, she bounded from the booth and made to move around him. He shifted his weight and blocked her. Startled Tootsie Pop-brown eyes flew to his face.
He braced for her retribution. Would it be a cool dressing-down or a fiery tongue-lashing? He hoped the latter.
Instead, her expression crumpled and she shoved her way past him.
Disappointment sliced through him. He turned in the direction she fled.
“Hey.”
Luke looked down at Noah’s hand clamped on his arm.
“Are you two going to be able to play nice?” Worry shimmered in Noah’s dark eyes.
“No worries, brother.” A cruel smile twisted Luke’s lips. “I always play nice.”
Chapter Six
Emily banged through the back door and burst into the parking lot. A wall of humidity smacked into her. Clouds had rolled in with the night and a light, warm mist kissed her skin.
Footsteps sounded behind her.
She knew he’d followed her even before she whirled on him. “Wh-why did y-y-you do that?”
“Tell me why you don’t like me.”
“I didn’t start this, y-y-y-you did. Y-you’ve hated m-me from the b-beginning.”
His hard expression splintered. “That’s not true.”
“It is.” She loathed the ring of anguish in her voice. “Why are y-you so against m-m-m-me?”
His hand came up and she shrunk back.
He went still. His green eyes locked on to hers, and with a slow, deliberate motion, he showed her his palms.
She sucked large gulps of air into her lungs while her fingers grappled for the pendant around her neck. He made a soft, soothing sound and slipped closer. His hand slid beneath the curtain of her hair and kneaded her nape.
Rain began to fall in a steady patter. Soon, her muscles eased under his warm touch.
“I am not against you.” He spoke softly next to her ear.
“Y-you pulled me over three times in four days.”
A lock of his dark hair, now wet with rain, fell across his forehead. “I was curious about you. So I made up reasons to pull you over and talk to you.”
Shock siphoned the stinging frustration from her. The intensity in his eyes pulled her in, sweeping her out to sea.
Many long moments passed before she was able to unscramble any words. “W-will you stop?”
“Yes. I promise.” He untangled his hand from under her hair. “Is that it? Is that why you don’t like me?”
At the hitch of vulnerability in his voice, her heart constricted. She shook her head. “Never mind. It doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to me.”
She startled at the snap in his tone.
“Please.” He took a measured step back. “I want to know.”
Her gaze fell to his throat. “Sometimes… you m-m-make me feel…”
“What? What do I make you feel?”
Her hand flitted over her collarbone. “Sometimes y-you make me feel s-s-stupid.”
She barely registered the slash of devastation that ripped across his face before he was on top of her, pressing her back to the brick wall.
“My God, Emily. How could you think that?”
“Y-you’re always laughing at m-m-me.”
A curse slipped from his lips and his shoes scraped across the gravel parking lot when he pushed away from her.
He shoved both hands through his wet hair so that it stood on end. “It’s just… teasing.”
She’d never seen him so serious. So distressed. A bone-deep weariness clung to the area around his eyes, and the feeling struck her that she was seeing him for the first time. The real Luke.
“I’m so sorry,” he said. “Please believe me when I say I’ve thought a lot of things about you, but stupid was never one of them. Not even close.”
His words shone like a light, banishing the shadow of pain from her heart.
“I b-b-believe you.”
A breath shuddered through him. “Thank you.”
She licked her dry lips. “Wh-what other thoughts?”
A wrinkle puckered between his eyebrows.
“Y-you said you’ve had a lot of thoughts… about me. Wh-what other thoughts?”
With a sardonic s
mile, he dropped his head and studied the ground. “You don’t want to know about those.”
“I do.” The words burst from her. “I really do.”
His gaze heated while he searched her face. “They’re bad thoughts.”
“Bad thoughts?”
“Downright wicked.”
A bevy of butterflies tickled her stomach. “Wicked?”
His eyelids grew heavy. “If I told you, you’d have more than enough reasons to hate me.”
“Hate you?”
“Why are you repeating everything I say?”
She gave another shake of her head. “I d-don’t know.” The lie fell easily from her lips.
It was a habit. A trick she’d learned early on to help her speak clear, stutter-free words, or to buy herself time when the words wouldn’t come.
But she didn’t want to talk about her childhood coping mechanisms. “I don’t think I w-would hate you.”
An odd mix of confusion and resolve played across his features. “I can’t stop thinking about you—picturing you—” His throat worked as he swallowed. “Naked.”
Heat swept through her. She searched his face for clues to any hidden meanings behind his words. “You’re doing it now? Teasing m-me?”
His perfect features softened. “No, Emily, I’m not teasing you now.” His fingertips brushed across her cheek. “I wish I were.”
Molten liquid spread from the tips of his fingers on her skin to her belly.
His gaze skidded to her mouth. His lips parted.
She slanted toward his warmth. Large raindrops plopped on her face when she lifted her mouth up to his.
He bent his head low and her heart thrashed against her breastbone.
Then his lips brushed hers in a feather-light kiss.
She held herself still, unsure what to do. His tongue licked at the corner of her mouth and her world tilted with a dizzying swoop. To steady herself, she clutched his shoulders.
He nibbled her bottom lip, taking soft little tastes of her. His tongue gave a gentle nudge, and when she opened for him, he licked inside.
Before Luke, she’d kissed exactly one man. Those kisses, from her college boyfriend, Joshua, were soft and warm and neat. They were nice kisses, if a little awkward.
