Embraced (2 page)

“I just got off the steroids and antibiotics. I’m a lot better than I was.” She closed her eyes again, realizing for the first time just how tired the trip had made her.

He had a frightening flash of her alone on the floor of her small bedroom, passed out from a coughing fit, and a small shudder passed through him. Grimly, he stated, “If you were mine, I’d wait until you were more fully recovered and blister your bottom good.”

His aggressive words were at odds with the way his hand stroked tenderly over her forehead, delving into the mass of thick red hair in a soothing, rhythmic motion meant to hasten her to sleep.

Meg drew a deep, cough-free breath. “Lucky for me, I’m not yours.” He watched her yawn and continued to pet her softly, hypnotically. He knew the exact moment when she finally surrendered to sleep, her body relaxing completely, rosebud mouth slightly opened.

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Carolyn Faulkner

Unable to resist, he pressed his full lips to hers in a Prince Charming kiss. “Unlucky for me, Sweetheart.” Barrett grabbed up the startled dog, who was accustomed to sleeping next to his mistress, and tucked the whining pooch under his arm. “I know how you feel, Pup. I’d rather be in bed with her, too.”

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Embraced

t Barrett’s insistence, Meg ended up spending the next three days of her vacation in bed. Mandy had Aarrived early that afternoon, full of enthusiasm and sympathy for her illness, as well as apologies that she had been greeted at the door with her least favorite family member. “It’s down to just me and Barrett since David and Hayden moved out,”

Mandy moaned while camping out on her best friend’s bed. She leaned forward conspiratorially. “Don’t tell Barrett, but I got a speeding ticket trying to get home quickly so you would have to spend as little time as possible with him.”

“Mandy, I don’t want you getting yourself into trouble with Barrett just because I don’t like him.” For “don’t like him,” read

“don’t think I could keep my hands off him for very long,” Meg thought wryly.

Meg saw her friend’s hand go compulsively to her bottom, as if she’d already received her punishment and was trying to rub the pain away. “Too late. $87 dollars too late. Barrett is going to kill me!!”

No, Barrett would definitely not kill Mandy, but he definitely WOULD spank her. “Last time I got a ticket, it was only $44, and Barrett gave me one spank for each dollar. I don’t want to get 87 spanks!!” she wailed.

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Carolyn Faulkner

“Can’t you just hide it and pay it out of your savings, or something?”

“No, damnit,” the pretty brunette explained. “I can pay it out of my own money, but everyone in this blasted town knows everyone else. I know the cop that gave me the ticket - Jimmy Randall, and worse than that,
Barrett
knows Jimmy Randall! It’s only a matter of time before Jimmy tells Barrett about it.”

There didn’t seem to be any way to help her friend. Mandy was going to have to either tell Barrett about it and take her medicine, or live in dread for the next few days or weeks. Meg knew what her friend would do. She’d avoid it, pay the fine, and hope against hope that Officer Randall never had occasion to speak to his good friend, Barrett Costas. Riiiiiiighhhhhttt.

Meg was a favored person in the Costas family – by
almost
everyone – and the occasion of her annual visit, as well as news of her ill health, traveled fast. Her bedroom soon became like Grand Central Station. Both of Mandy’s brothers, who had moved out to live in their own places nearby, came to visit regularly. Hayden arrived first with a gold box of Godiva milk chocolates, causing Barrett’s eyes to narrow. Frowning, he watched the affectionate by-play between Hayden and Meg closely, noting that she had greeted each of his brothers with a warm hug and kiss, whereas she avoided physical contact with him like he had the plague. His middle brother sat much too close to her on the opposite side, crowding her some, but she didn’t seem to mind. The frown deepened, threatening to permanently crease his face.

He and Hayden were going to have to have a serious talk about poaching. Even if Hayden didn’t
know
he was poaching.

Unable to bear watching his rival take Meagan’s hand in his, he

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Embraced

hustled the younger, only slightly smaller man out of the room in a rude manner, on the flimsiest of excuses.

Meagan was befuddled at Barrett’s behavior, but not surprised. He’d been a marvelous caretaker, providing breakfast in bed, making sure she took her asthma medications and glaring people out of the room if he thought they were tiring her. For the first couple of days, she really did sleep a lot, but after the third day spent in bed, her eyes popped wide open at 11:30 PM, and she could not force herself to go back to sleep. Butch’s head came up when she got out of bed, but Mandy commanded him to stay as she threw a long lacy white robe over her pretty pink cotton nightgown, padding barefoot into the kitchen in search of she didn’t know what.

She walked slowly, loving the house itself. She’d always told Mandy to will it to her, but she’d had been adamant that the house was Barrett’s. The rest of them would get land upon attaining a certain age, but the house had been their eldest brother’s since their parents died when he was 16 and he went to work to support and raise them all. It was a beautiful, big ranch house, full of nooks and crannies and character. The kitchen was one of her favorite rooms, and that’s where she ended up, peering into the fridge and freezer as if it held the answers to life’s greatest questions. And of course, it did . . . Ben and Jerry’s Mystic Mint ice cream. Ambrosia!

Meg was just reaching for the cardboard pint when a low grumbled made her squeal in surprise. “What are you doing out of bed, little girl?”

Her hand fluttered over her heart, which was threatening to escape her ribcage. “Cripes, will you not sneak up on me like that!! You’re going to give me a heart attack!”

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Carolyn Faulkner

Barrett leaned a hip against the counter. “I wasn’t trying to sneak. You were looking like you’d just discovered gold.”

“Better – B & J’s,” she wiggled her prize under his nose triumphantly. “Want some?”

“No, thanks.” It definitely wasn’t ice cream he wanted.

That frilly white dressing gown and nightshirt didn’t do much to dampen the inevitable affect she had on him. He watched her gather a bowl and spoon. “Should you be eating that this late at night?”

Obviously he thought she shouldn’t be. Barrett’s tendency to issue orders and inherent belief that he knew what was best for everyone was one of the things Meagan liked least about him, but instead of picking a fight, she sat down at the round oak kitchen table and said quietly, “Probably not. But I woke up suddenly about a half an hour ago, and couldn’t get back to sleep. I think I’m slept out.”

He nodded in agreement, and she was pleasantly surprised, half-expecting him to order her back to bed. After ladling a couple of small curls of ice cream into the bowl, she put it back into the freezer and sat down again. Watching her eyes practically roll back into her head at the first frosty lick brought various parts of him to full attention. She was so unselfconsciously sexy, licking the spoon, swirling the creamy confection in her mouth . . . and he knew that she had absolutely no idea how turned on he was getting.

Some women would have been eating that way to put on a show for him – get him interested. Hell, he had enough money to interest most anyone in a skirt, and his size was usually a plus, too. But Meg ate that way because she reveled in the feel and taste of the treat. A natural sensualist. A virgin, he’d bet his life on it.

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Barrett shook his head to clear his thoughts, hoping to calm his raging hormones. “Do you feel any better?”

“Yes, much, thanks.”

“Try an easy day tomorrow – don’t do anything strenuous for another couple days.”

“Humph. At that rate, my vacation’s going to be over before I get to have any fun!”

A raised eyebrow. “Fun as in . . .”

“Hayden’s been promising me for the past umpty-ump years that he’d teach me to ride. I want to learn how to ride and take care of a horse. There’s a showing of Monet at the museum in San Antonio that I wanted to hit. I want to see Barb and her new baby . . . “

His mind couldn’t hear past Hayden teaching her how to ride and care for a horse. Jealousy raged inside him until he consciously tamped it down. Barrett didn’t think that Hayden would be the one teaching her. No, not at all.

Meg leaned back in the chair with a sigh, ice cream chilling the inside of her stomach. “Mmmmmmm. That was fantastic.”

She washed out her bowl and set it in the dishwasher, then indulged in a full body stretch. “I think I’m going to make another attempt at getting to sleep.”

Impulsively, Barrett crossed the few steps that separated them, pulling her to him in one swift movement. Her ample breasts flattened to his broad chest as he held her tightly with a strong arm across her back. His free hand found its home in her long, soft hair, fingers delving close to her warm skull to arch her face to his

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Carolyn Faulkner

lips. Kisses rained gently on her eyelids, the corners of her mouth, the tips of her chin and nose. Before he melted his mouth to hers, he deliberately caught her eye. She looked stunned. Bamboozled.

Shell-shocked. Vulnerable. Her pupils were dilated, and his lips captured her small sound of surrender as he took her mouth passionately. Mmmmmmm.

Sweet, minty chocolate.

Barrett had been unsure of his reception at first, but she amazed him by pressing herself completely against him. He knew she could feel his arousal poking unabashedly against her tummy, but also that her nipples had become hard little pebbles when his tongue touched hers. A large hand cradled her breast possessively, but when she would have pulled away his arm remained a steel band across her back. Callused fingers plucked delicately at the achingly stiff nipples. Whimpers bubbled up from her throat and he drank them like the offering they were. His mouth wandered wetly across her jaw line to nibble an earlobe, her breath heavy in his own ear. Was that her moaning, or him? He wasn’t at all sure who it was. The sound was very raw and animalistic. Couldn’t be her. Barrett followed his instincts, kissing down her neck, across her collarbone. Unable to resist the temptation any longer, he deliberately placed his open mouth over the pink cotton nipple, instantly wetting the material, molding it to her as if it wasn’t there.

His lips contracted, sucking insistently and she shuddered – arching away from him violently.

Surprised, he let go. Meg was bent over, clutching her robe and nightgown tightly at the neck with an arm protectively over the breast he’d suckled. “No,” her voice was ragged, but strong.

“Don’t do that to me.”

“Meg – “

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“I can’t stand that. Please.” When she straightened, he saw that she was dangerously close to tears, instantly taking several steps closer to her. She backed away. Lightening fast, he grasped her wrist, where she held her robe together. Fast, short breaths and a frightened look worried him.

“Are you ok? Did I hurt you?” He’d’ve sworn she’d had no pain from him. On the contrary, her pleasure in his touch had been blatant.

Red gold locks half covered her face, as she shook her head no.

He sighed. “You don’t like my mouth on your nipple?”

Meg cleared her throat and wouldn’t meet his eyes. She pulled experimentally against the hold he had on her wrist, discovering that unless he decided to let her go, she wasn’t going to go anywhere.

A thought struck him. “Or did you like it a little too much?” The husky whisper rasped along her nerve endings as if he’d touched her with his fingertips.

The truth of his words made her renew her struggle, but he simply pulled her tightly against him again. “I’m glad that you liked it.”

“I never said that,” Meagan met his eyes, chin out belligerently.

“Your body said it for you.”

“I didn’t like it,” she maintained.

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Carolyn Faulkner

“Did it hurt you?”

Meg remained silent, finding something fascinating in the collar of his shirt.

“Answer me, Sweetie,” a man of action, he gave few warnings.

With her gaze traveling further down, he found himself watching the top of her golden head bobbing back and forth.

“No? I’m glad. I didn’t want it to cause you pain. I wanted to pleasure you with my mouth.”

“Please don’t do that to me again,” A dark splotch appeared on his T-shirt, and he realized that she was crying.

He cradled her cheeks in his palms and coaxed her to look at him. “Baby, I want to do a lot more than that if you’ll let me.”

Meg’s misty hazel eyes opened wide. “No, I – I can’t stand it. It’s – it’s too –“

Suddenly, the light dawned, and he cradled her to him, rocking slowly back and forth. “Don’t cry, darlin’. Shhhhh.”

For the second time in less than a week, she found herself lifted easily in his arms. He moved the sleeping dog off her pillow and tucked her carefully into her bed after removing her robe, then sat on the edge, holding her hand as Hayden had done. She had become docile as soon as he hugged her, not even protesting a ride in his arms. Instead she had tucked her wet face against his neck and sighed. Meg stood quietly when he undid her robe and scooted her under the covers. Her smaller hand was dwarfed in his. He brushed his fingertips over the palm, and she squirmed.

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Embraced