Second Chance Temptation

by Joss Wood

  Levi looked horrified. “I’d rather shoot myself in my already injured foot.”

  Carrick grinned at his sarcastic reply and looked at Tanna. “What do you say, Tan?”

  He was asking her to wear her mom’s stunning gowns and her amazing jewelry, drink champagne, and talk art and fashion with some of the best minds in the business? Oh, yeah, she was so in.

  Attending the event didn’t mean this was her life anymore. It was just one night of pleasure. Surely she was entitled to a little fun before returning to London?

  It would be a night to remember. “Sure.”

  “Excellent. I’ll get Jane to email you Mom’s photos and you can choose the gowns you want to wear.” Carrick stood up and pulled out Sadie’s chair as she rose with him. “We don’t have time to get anything altered so keep that in mind.”

  Tanna nodded. “I’ll liaise with Jane and we’ll get it sorted.”

  Carrick, his hand on Sadie’s back—interesting—bent his head to kiss Tanna’s cheek. “Thanks, Tan. Later, Levi.”

  “Later,” Levi replied, flipping open the lid to his computer.

  “Don’t kill each other,” Carrick told them as he ushered Sadie out the back door.

  Tanna grinned. “We’ll try.”

  * * *

  At the marina, Levi settled himself into the passenger seat and glowered through the windscreen as Tanna pulled into traffic, heading for Carrick’s house in Beacon Hill.

  He hated not being able to drive his own vehicle, Levi decided. Handing over control, even something as simple as driving, annoyed him. Levi felt relieved when Tanna pulled up to her magnificent childhood house in Beacon Hill and parked his luxury Lexus SUV under the magnolia tree. He’d been concerned about how she’d handle his super-expensive car, but she hadn’t seemed intimidated and she handled the large vehicle like a pro.

  After Carrick and Sadie left, Tanna told him she had a two-hour appointment in the city and her closed-off expression suggested he not ask any further questions, which, honestly, just made him want to know who she was meeting and why she wanted to keep it a secret. Her reticence intrigued him; the Tanna he used to know couldn’t keep a secret to save her life.

  But Tanna was no longer the girl he’d loved. She was now a fully independent woman who marched to the beat of her own drum. He’d adored his fiancée but this version of Tanna was, in many ways, even more intriguing. Tanna-today had an edge to her he found exciting and whenever he thought he had her pegged, she moved the goalposts and kept him guessing. Tanna-today was exciting, mysterious and more than a little addictive.

  Levi—understanding she wouldn’t share any personal information with him until she was good and ready to do so, which might be never—had asked her, since she was headed in the same direction, to drive him to the marina so he could touch base with his staff and see how his business was faring in his absence.

  So, after arranging for Tanna to collect him later, he’d spent an hour in his office with his manager before taking a tour of the marina.

  He was paying for his physical activity now, but he couldn’t regret his actions. He wasn’t a rule-from-the-office boss. He liked to get down and dirty, and he worked the business from the ground up. He greeted his staff, approved some requisitions and checked on his maintenance crew. Levi was very aware winter brought many problems to the marina; with the recent winter storms, he was worried his staff wasn’t monitoring the snow loads, especially on the finger piers. The weight of the snow could push the piers under the water, taking the electrical connections with them.

  It had happened before, and it wasn’t a scenario he ever wanted to repeat. Winter at the marina was quiet but it was also a never-ending ball ache. And that was without him being incapacitated.

  But his staff had everything under control and he hadn’t been needed. The thought both pleased and terrified him.

  “Are you sure I can’t take you home?” Tanna asked.

  “Stop fussing, Tan,” Levi told her and he heard the irritation in his voice. “I know you are itching to look at your mom’s collection of dresses. We can order lunch. From previous visits to Carrick’s house, I know that there’s an awesome Chinese place around the corner and they will deliver.”

  He’d been watching her eyes earlier when he made the suggestion about her wearing her mom’s clothing—where the burst of inspiration came from, he had no idea—and quickly realized he’d never seen such a spark of excitement in her eyes, that particular expression on her face.

  It was part sadness, part delight, all enthusiasm.

  He wasn’t sure if she was eager about wearing her mom’s clothes, or the exhibition, or thrilled to be involved in Murphy International’s business again.

  In the hospital, all those years ago, she’d spoken about the PR role her mom played in the business and often told him that when she graduated with her degree in art history, she wanted to follow in her mom’s footsteps.

  Her mom had been a PR wizard and it was her hard work that made Murphy’s one of the most prominent and visible auction houses in the country.

  But then Tanna left and took a completely different path, forging another career in emergency medicine. A career she didn’t talk about much. Or at all.

  Tanna pushed her sunglasses onto the top of her head, pulling back her black curls to reveal her beautiful face. “I really do want to look at her clothes. I’ve been racking my brain trying to remember what the collection contains since it’s been over twelve years since I last saw it.”

  Tanna stared at the oversize black front door in front of her. “I used to go and hide out in her closet when I was a kid.”

  Levi nodded. “You probably scuttled in there when times got tough, when you needed a connection to your mom. When you needed a mom.”

  Tanna turned to face him, surprised. “How do you know that?”

  Because he knew her, just as she knew him. Despite spending so much time apart, they were still, somehow, in sync. He with her and she with him.

  Levi thought back to their earlier conversations and Tanna’s reflections about his dad. Her observations had been remarkably astute, and it was funny she easily looked past his dad’s charisma to the man beneath. Just like she looked past Levi’s reticence and self-sufficiency to find the pieces of himself he kept hidden from the rest of the world.

  Seeing Tanna was still waiting for an answer, Levi shrugged. “Good guess.”

  Not wanting to get into it, Levi opened his door and sighed at the blast of frigid air swirling in through the open door. Tanna took the hint, hopped out of the car and ran around the hood. Opening the door behind him, she pulled his crutches off the back seat and handed them to him before taking a dayglow yellow beanie from her coat pocket and pulling it over her ears.

  “Hey, that’s my hat!” Levi protested. His favorite, in fact.

  “I found it in the laundry basket.” Tanna didn’t look remotely fazed. “And you don’t wear hats.”

  “I do when I’m skiing.”

  Tanna cocked her head, her smile a touch smug. “Are you skiing now? Are you going to be skiing soon?”

  She had him there. Levi shook his head and jammed his crutches under his armpits. “Were you always this annoying?”

  Her laughter cut through the icy winter air. “Oh, I’ve honed my skills over the years. And, scarily, I’m making a concerted effort to be polite.”

  God help him.

  Eight

  Levi settled himself in Carrick’s library, grateful to get off his feet. He accepted Tanna’s offer of a cup of coffee and after dialing in their lunch order, he pulled out his laptop and booted it up.

  He had work to do—specifically, Brogan Family Trust work—and could do it as well here as he could at home. After telling Tanna, for the third time, that he was fine, he asked her to get the door when their lunch arrived before waving
her away.

  Time passed quickly, the doorbell rang and a minute later he saw Tanna’s long, bare legs—her butt barely covered by something looking like a black bandage—as she streaked past the library door.

  What the hell was she wearing?

  “Tanna!” he bellowed.

  Two seconds later she stood in the doorway and Levi snapped his teeth closed so his tongue didn’t hit the floor.

  She wore the smallest dress he’d ever seen, made from a slinky fabric clinging to her every curve and showing off her finely muscled, long, smooth, tanned legs. Her feet were slender, ending in red-tipped toes. On the inside of her left foot she had a tattoo of a starburst and a gold ring encompassed the third toe on her right foot.

  He forced his eyes up... The dress was comprised of various slits and rips, revealing a large portion of her tanned stomach and most of the right cup of her bright red bra.

  “What the hell are you wearing?” he croaked.

  Forget getting a little revenge, this woman was going to kill him.

  Tanna picked up the tattered hem of the ripped skirt. If he could call the strips a skirt. “It’s a grunge dress, from the eighties. I’m not sure who the designer is. I’d have to look that up, but it’s exquisitely made.”

  It was a pile of rags. And it was probably worth a freakin’ fortune.

  This...this was a great example of why women were so difficult to figure out.

  The doorbell rang again and Tanna started to turn. He yelled at her to stop and threw up his hands at her puzzled expression. “You cannot answer the door wearing that dress. Do you want to give the delivery guy heart failure?”

  Tanna looked down, grimaced and met his eyes. “Dammit. Okay, I’ll get changed.”

  Levi reached for his crutches and hauled himself onto his feet. “I’ll get it. You...” He closed his eyes, bemused. Dammit, how could something so...okay, ugly—he wasn’t brave enough to say the word out loud—look so good on her?

  It was an enigma.

  “Go get changed, Tan.” Please, for the love of God, put something decent on before I do something stupid. Like rip that so-called dress off your body...

  Then again, he doubted anyone would notice any damage to the dress, or whatever the hell that thing was.

  Tanna left and Levi told his heart to hang in there. Taking a couple of deep breaths, he ambled down the hallway to the magnificent foyer, where a Jackson Pollack dominated the one free wall. Years ago, Carrick had taken him on a tour of the historic house, casually telling him about the Vermeer in the sitting room and the Dalí in the dining room. In one of the reception rooms there was a credenza once owned by the Sun King. It had, apparently, started its life at the palace at Versailles.

  And he’d thought his dad was rich. He was, in money and in assets, but in art and collectibles, the Murphys had him beat. Not that it was a competition...

  After paying the deliveryman and tipping him well—it was cold and windy and the guy had been cheerful—Levi took the food to the kitchen and walked back into the hall. Calling for Tanna, he was surprised when her voice came from a room two doors down.

  On his crutches, Levi walked down the long hallway and stopped at a partially open door. He pushed the door open and saw Tanna standing in front of a mirrored wall in a room holding a ballet barre and a wood parquet dance floor. Floor-to-ceiling mirrors covered three walls. Food forgotten, he stared at her, entranced.

  He wasn’t a guy who knew a lot about clothes but he had been raised in a house filled with girls so he could, just, describe the gown Tanna wore as a black tulle dress in a series of layers. It was as tame as the previous outfit had been crazy, but this dress, concealing most of Tanna’s exquisite body, was sexier, more intriguing.

  He stepped into the room and rested his back against the barre, trying to ignore his reflection in so many mirrors. “I think Carrick skipped this room when he took me on the tour all those years ago.”

  “My mom was an accomplished ballerina. I took lessons all my life and we both used this room to practice,” Tanna explained. She gestured to a plain door across the room. “There’s the built-in closet, if you want to take a look.”

  “Yeah, dresses aren’t my thing,” Levi replied, his tone dry. “I wouldn’t know what I’m looking at.”

  Tanna turned and smiled at him. “Fair enough. To educate you, the dress I’m wearing is a Jean Patou, circa 1930.” She stroked the fabric like it was the soft coat of a well-loved cat. “Confession time. I love clothes. I especially love old clothes. I’m a design nut and I love what clothes say about a certain time in history. It’s crazy I spend my days in a very practical, very unflattering jumpsuit.”

  Her eyes clouded over, and she stared off into space for a minute.

  Levi wanted to know what was going through her very agile brain. “Tell me about your job.”

  Tanna lifted the top layer of the dress and examined the hem, giving it far more attention than it deserved. “I respond to emergency calls. I treat the patient and I get him, or her, to a hospital. Nothing much to say.”

  Wrong. There was so much to say, to discover.

  “Did you decide on emergency medicine because of your accident? Do you enjoy your job? When did you realize emergency medicine was what you wanted to do?” Levi asked, seeing the crack in her psyche and pushing his way through.

  He caught the panic in her eyes and saw her tense. Why was she feeling uncomfortable? Why did talking about her career—the one thing that should be easy to discuss—make her close up and shut down? What was he missing?

  Tanna gestured to a couple of garments bags draped over the barre, a clear indication she was about to change the subject.

  “Jane, the PR person, and I decided on three garment changes. I can’t decide between a wool dress by Pierre Cardin which is adorned with vinyl from the late sixties, a Karl Lagerfeld and a Grès.”

  When he didn’t respond, Tanna sent him an uncertain look and flicked her thumbnail against her chin. She looked at the closet and flushed, and Levi lifted his eyebrows, intrigued. What was she up to now? What was she about to ask?

  “Out with it, Murphy. My Chinese is getting cold.” He didn’t give a rat’s ass about food but he was desperate to know what made this gorgeous woman blush.

  “There’s a dress that’s amazing but...”

  “But?” Levi prompted her when she stopped speaking.

  “It’s pretty daring. That doesn’t bother me. I’m happy to show some skin...” He was okay with that too, actually. Her skin was amazing. “But I’m not sure if it suits me.” Tanna cleared her throat. “If I try it on, will you tell me what you think? Will you be brutally honest?”

  “Have you ever known me to be anything but honest?” he asked her.

  Tanna released a small laugh. “True. Hang tight. I’m going to change as quickly as I can. Then we can eat.”

  Levi leaned against the wall, easily imagining Tanna moving across this floor, dressed in pink leotard and tights, her skin glistening from the exercise. Great, another fantasy to keep him awake at night. And since he already had a thousand, he really didn’t need any more.

  Switching mental gears, Levi wondered how long she’d danced before she gave it up. Despite spending so many hours with her while she was in the hospital, there was still a lot he didn’t know about her.

  He hadn’t known she loved the history of fashion as much as she loved art, that she could cook pasta like an Italian mama or that her out-of-tune singing made his ears ache.

  He wanted to know more. Sometimes, when he allowed his defenses to drop, he wanted to know everything.

  You asked her to stay because you wanted a little revenge, some payback. Seems like the tables have turned here, Brogan.

  Levi sighed, reluctantly admitting he wanted to know everything, including the noise she’d make when he slid into her and
whether her skin still smelled of wild cherries, and he was desperate to discover if any other tattoos adorned her incredible body.

  Tanna released a small cough and Levi pulled his eyes off the floor and onto the vision standing in front of the built-in closet in the corner of the sparsely furnished room.

  Basically, her dress was a series of folds, covering the tops of her thighs and falling to the floor in a cascade of heavy cream. The top consisted of two triangles, plunging to her navel. Acres of warm, sun-kissed skin were on display and Levi, needing to hold on to something because he felt like the world was teetering, reached behind him to wrap his fingers around the barre.

  Then Tanna turned around and he nearly died. Right then, his vision tunneled, and his functioning knee buckled.

  There was no back to the dress and Tanna held up her heavy curls, stretching her spine, and through the gap in the side of the dress, he saw the profile of her pretty right breast.

  It was official; he was down. If his leg wasn’t in a cast, he’d have been on his knees, panting.

  “You’re killing me here, Tanna,” Levi said with what was left of his breath.

  Tanna dropped her hair and it tumbled down her back as she slowly, oh, so slowly, turned. “Do you like it?”

  Like it? Like was too tame a word...but he couldn’t explain his inability to speak, let alone find adequate adjectives.

  “It’s not vintage but there is an amazing photo of my mom in this dress and I wanted to know whether I could pull it off as well as she did,” Tanna babbled. “I mean, I know I won’t look as good as her, my mom was stunning, but if I can wear it, I’d like to. But I’m repeating myself... So...what do you think?”

  Was she kidding him? He couldn’t think, that was the goddamn problem! “Come here, Murphy.”

  A small frown pulled Tanna’s finely arched brows together, but she collected the long skirt in her hands and lifted it halfway up her shapely calves to walk toward him.

  When she was in touching distance, Levi traced the edge of her bodice with his index finger and smiled when she shivered. Still unable to speak—would he ever be able to again?—he reverently touched her collarbone and ran his fingers up her neck before pushing into those heavy curls, his hand cupping the back of her head. Her small hands rested on his chest and he watched her sexy mouth lift up to his.