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Authors: Kele Moon

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BOOK: A Kiss for Luck
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He dropped his bag to the floor and walked into the living room looking too delicious for words. It was bad to lust over one’s best friend, but tonight she couldn’t help herself.

“You got off early,” she said, unable to hide her delight.

“Yeah, it was surprisingly slow considering the day we had. Hardly any reports came in after six and there were so many of us on for New Year’s. It’s usually a bad night.” Jackson sighed as he flopped down on the couch next to her and started untying his boots. “David probably sent me home ‘cause I was gonna get overtime for filling in.

Sorta sucks.”

Clara took a sip of her wine, watching the muscles play over his back as he struggled with his boots. “Well…then lucky me,” she whispered in a husky tone she couldn’t mask.

Jackson’s head snapped up and his eyes narrowed at her. “How much wine have you had?”

“Not much, maybe a glass or two.”

Jackson reached for her glass, taking a drink and then raising his eyebrows. “Nice.

Strong, but nice.”

“I didn’t think you liked wine,” Clara said, surprised.

“I don’t mind it.” Jackson shrugged and went back to working on his boots. “But if I feel like crying into a drink I usually choose whiskey. Does the job faster.”

“I’m not crying into my drink,” Clara huffed, even if it was true.

11

Kele Moon

“Hey, I’m not judging you. I’ve been thinking you needed to get good and drunk for months now. I’m a strong believer in drinking away problems.”

“You don’t have any problems.” Clara pulled her feet beneath her and turned toward Jackson. “You’re so carefree. Never married, never even had a real serious girlfriend. You’re lucky, relationships suck.”

He smiled. “Just a glass or two, eh?”

“Maybe three,” she conceded reluctantly. “How come you don’t date more? You’re a good-looking guy. Lots of women would love to go out with you. Ask the nurses at my hospital if you don’t believe me.”

“I date,” Jackson said, not looking at her as he went back to his shoes.

“I’ve never met anyone you’ve dated, not in ages, not since that one. What was her name? Amelia?”

“Annie.”

“Right, Annie. She was nice,” Clara said, remembering the pretty blonde. “What happened to her?”

Jackson kicked his boots aside and stretched his bare feet toward the fire. “She wanted to get married.”

Clara tried to hide her surprise and realized she and Jackson never really talked about these things. “And you didn’t?”

“Not really.”

“Why?”

“Christ, I don’t know,” Jackson barked in frustration. “It just didn’t feel right, okay?”

“Well, you’re better off,” Clara said, deciding to ignore his outburst. “Marriage is a miserable institution. Why’d you let me do that?”

12

A Kiss for Luck

Jackson quirked an eyebrow and looked at her in disbelief. “I begged you for months not to marry that asshole. You were so mad we hardly spoke for ages afterward.”

“Yes, that was bad,” Clara said, feeling guilt over their past arguments about Frank.

“You’re such a good friend. I’m sorry I didn’t listen.”

Jackson looked at her for a long moment, and then turned to stare at the fire as his shoulders sagged. “I’m not that great of a friend, Clara.”

“Oh, but you are,” she said, setting her wine down. “You’re letting me stay here and you won’t even let me help you with the bills.”

Jackson shrugged, still looking at the fire. “I like having you here. It’s not a big sacrifice.”

He looked sad for some reason and that nearly broke Clara’s heart. She leaned against him, intent on giving him a sisterly hug, but got sidetracked as she placed her hands on his broad shoulders. He was so solid, very different from her husband, who was much slighter in build than Jackson.

“Wow, you smell good,” she whispered, leaning in to breathe in the spicy scent of his aftershave mixed with the crisp smell of his wet hair. “Frank never smelled this good.”

Jackson’s breath caught and he was deathly still for a long moment. Then he grasped her shoulders and pushed her gently away from him. “On second thought,” he said. “I think you’ve had enough to drink. You ought to go to bed before you end up with a hangover tomorrow.”

“It’s not even midnight,” Clara complained, leaning back against the couch and feeling oddly disappointed at being pushed away. “It’d be bad luck to go to bed now.”

Jackson reached for her wineglass and drank its contents in one gulp. He looked suddenly nervous as he ran a distracted hand through his hair. “Since when do you believe in bad luck?”

13

Kele Moon

“Since I’ve had so much of it,” Clara said and turned to look at the clock, seeing there were only a few seconds to midnight. “Oh look, it’s almost here!”

Wanting to start off the New Year on the right foot, she reached out to Jackson, feeling the first signs of stubble as she cupped his cheeks and brought his lips to hers when she heard them announce midnight over the radio. His body became rigid with obvious shock. His lips were soft but unyielding. It was a chaste kiss, but a kiss nonetheless and Clara couldn’t help but feel better about the next year.

“What was that for?” Jackson rasped, looking shaken as he stared at her wide-eyed.

“It’s New Year’s,” Clara explained, feeling giddy and refusing to let go of him as she slid her hands to his shoulders. “I needed someone to kiss at midnight, you know, for luck. I need it—lots of it.”

“Right, New Year’s,” he said with a distant tone and then contemplated her for a second. “Well, that wasn’t a very good kiss, was it? Not gonna gather much luck from that.”

“I don’t think it matters. Just so long as you get the kiss in at midnight.”

“It’s still midnight,” he murmured and Clara squeaked in surprise when Jackson pulled her to him. “Might as well do it right.”

Clara was stunned when Jackson leaned in and kissed her a second time. His lips were warm and possessive as they moved over hers. His fingers laced into her dark curls as he nipped gently at her bottom lip. Instinctually she parted to him, feeling white-hot fire spear though her when his tongue swept into her mouth. She mewled in acceptance and desire coiled inside her, pooling at her center, creating a dull ache that beat in rhythm to her rapid heart rate.

No kiss had ever affected her so profoundly. It didn’t matter that this was her best friend. Images swirled in her mind, making her wonder what it’d feel like to have him hard and naked against her. She was breathless, stunned and overwhelmed with the rush of longing invading her senses, making her blind to everything but the need for 14

A Kiss for Luck

more of him. If he could do this to her with one kiss she would never have to fake anything. With Jackson she would want it to last forever.

When the need for air overtook them, Jackson groaned and pulled away and her whole body mourned the loss of contact. Clara’s disappointment halted when she caught him looking at her with heavy-lidded eyes dilated in desire. His breathing was shallow and with a sense of feminine pride, she realized the kiss had affected Jackson just as much as it had her. She’d never had a man look at her like that, not even Frank.

For a moment she thought she saw more than just hunger in his gaze. A raw desire so profound, if wine and lust hadn’t clouded her judgment she would have pondered it.

Years of fantasies swirled in her head, the ones she locked away in the smallest corners of her mind. When she was young, they had been soft and fanciful. Later when she’d been forced to endure Frank’s attentions, she would close her eyes sometimes and try to imagine Jackson’s lips on hers or his body pumping into her and it had almost made it bearable. Now here he was, wild eyed and flushed with excitement for her.

She should have played it safe, but she leaned forward and kissed him once more, savoring his stunned gasp against her mouth as she licked at his lips then slipped her tongue past them like he’d done to her. Jackson responded instantly and crushed her to him, kissing her back like a man starved. His passion shouldn’t have been surprising, but it was. It stole her breath and left her body humming in need.

Months without sex, years without passion, and it must have worn on her because she literally ached for him. It didn’t even matter that he was her best friend, that by moving against him seductively and inviting more intimate attentions she could be doing permanent damage to their relationship. All she knew was she wanted him and she told him so in a breathy sigh when she pulled away to inhale the alluring scent of his aftershave.

Jackson took a deep breath as his head fell back against the couch. “We can’t do this.” He gripped her shoulders and pushed her away. “You’re drunk.”

“I’m not
that
drunk.”

15

Kele Moon

“You’re drunk enough and I couldn’t bear you hating me,” Jackson said, looking genuinely conflicted. “You mean more to me than that. Much more.”

It didn’t matter that Jackson sounded more than sincere, her pride stung. Frank had often called her cold and she’d dismissed it, but with Jackson it was more than she could bear. Perhaps there was something wrong with her? She was too plain and her mother was always saying she was too thin. Maybe her breasts were too small. Jackson probably preferred them bigger. Her hair was unmanageably curly and brown. Hadn’t he always preferred blondes?

She started to get up when she felt tears in her eyes. Being reminded of how undesirable she was wasn’t how she wanted to start the New Year. It was what she had hoped to do away with.

“If you didn’t want me all you had to do was say so,” she whispered, feeling a sob trap in her throat as she turned away from him, determined to go straight to the spare bedroom and pretend none of this had ever happened.

“Clara, wait!” Jackson jumped from his seat. “You don’t understand.”

“Oh, I understand. I’m not pretty enough for you,” she snapped, unable to hold back her temper. “You’re just like Frank!”

A fresh flush flooded his face and his eyes sparkled with fury. “Don’t you dare compare me to that asshole!”

“Why don’t you tell me I’m cold next? An Ice Queen. Isn’t that what you’re thinking?”

Jackson laughed incredulously as he reached out and held her arm, stopping her retreat. “Cold? It’s taking every ounce of willpower I have not to rip your clothes off and fuck you right here. If you weren’t my best friend, I’d already be inside you!”

Clara’s eyes widened at his bold words. Despite her anger and embarrassment, a wild side of her responded to the images his harsh statements created. So intense was her reaction that she wrenched her arm out of his grip and turned so her back faced him. That couldn’t be true. Guys like Jackson didn’t want girls like her. Even if they had 16

A Kiss for Luck

been best friends since ninth grade, he was still out of her league. He was gorgeous, a firefighter, one of those big, buff guys women fantasize about.

He had always been perfect and beautiful in that way. A football player in high school, popularity came easily to him. They only became friends because he needed a tutor for math and science in order to remain on the team. Being generally inept socially, she had clung to Jackson when he had offered her friendship at a time in her life when the offers were few and far between.

She hadn’t let go. Not through college, and not when she battled through her internship with hardly any time to sleep, let alone hang out on Saturday nights at Jackson’s favorite pub. Even after she married a man who hated Jackson, she still found herself running back to him when she needed someone to feel safe and secure with. He had done more than make high school bearable. He made her life bearable and having him admit to wanting her felt too good to trust. Terrified of how vulnerable she was to him, she tried to convince herself he was being Jackson, unendingly sweet and understanding of his mousy, soon-to-be-divorced best friend who had desperately thrown herself at him after drinking too much wine.

“You lie,” she breathed, unable to think of something more fitting.

She gasped when his large hands wrapped around her hips and pulled her to him.

His strength was to his advantage and she couldn’t wiggle away when he thrust against her, pushing his erection against the small of her back.

“Does that feel like a lie?” he breathed next to her ear in a voice laced with anger and lust. “I’ve wanted you for longer than I can remember. So don’t tempt me. Drunk or not, I’m almost past caring.”

17

Kele Moon

Chapter Two

Clara couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. It took almost more than she had not to curve back into him, answering his mating call with one of her own. Her heart was beating furiously against her ribs and moisture pooled between her legs as she felt Jackson’s reaction to her. His voice was so raw, it left her wondering what he would do if she responded.

Jackson sighed, obviously taking her stunned silence as denial. “Go to bed before I do something we’ll both regret.”

There was defeat in his voice and Clara panicked. He was going to walk away and leave her. She wouldn’t be able to bear it. She grabbed both his hands when he would have released her waist.

“I want you too,” she said with her back still to him. It was easier to speak when he couldn’t see her face. “I-I have for years. Even when I knew it was wrong I still thought of you, not Frank, not anyone else.”

She felt decidedly more sober than she had before. Still she was able to draw on the warmth of the wine and let herself be bold. She untied her robe, letting it hang open, revealing her nightgown. Before Jackson could react, she drew his hand to her throbbing center. She held his wrist as his fingers rested on the silk of her panties, hot but still not moving.

“Feel,” she urged when Jackson seemed too stunned to act. “Feel how much I want you. You’re not the only one.”

Jackson’s breathing was heavy as if he were trying and failing to control himself. It almost seemed as if his fingers were acting of their own accord as they gently brushed against her and then rose up to slide past the lining of her panties. Her breath caught as 18

BOOK: A Kiss for Luck
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ads

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