His Southern Temptation (15 page)

Tonight they’d all gathered to share food and a lot of laughter. His mom and her sister, Dolly, had retreated to the house. Michaela and Jack sat on the porch swing talking to Beck and his latest bedmate and Taylor. Teague had left a couple of hours ago with a DC socialite named Olivia who didn’t seem to care much for the alfresco gathering.

He looked at his father, watching the older man drink his beer and stare into the fire in the pit. Owen Landon’s face was aged, but still had the same strong profile Lucky admired as a boy. Never an easy relationship between them, they’d found common ground the last few weeks working side by side.

“Dad, I’ve been thinking about what you said and I have an answer. I’m not sure it’s the one you want, but it’s mine.”

“I’m glad to hear it.” His father paused, turning to look at Lucky in the shadows of the falling evening. “Selling this place to strangers has no appeal, but I don’t want you saddling yourself with this commitment when you’ll be itching to go back to your old life six months from now.”

“I understand.” He really did get it. He’d told anyone who stood still long enough that he wanted off this farm as soon as he could get the bus fare. “I’m tired, Dad. I’m bone-weary of living the life of a soldier. I’m tired of adding to the body count I’ve left in my wake.”

“Son, I’m sure you did what you had to do for your mission. To make sure you came home to us.” His father’s voice cracked on the last bit, and Lucky choked down his own emotion. The night air, so breezy and light moments before, was suddenly heavy with the importance of this conversation.

“I did. But it doesn’t stop it from running through my head.” Lucky sucked in a huge breath. “I did those things, and they will always weigh me down. I was under orders. I was a good soldier, but what they asked me to do should not be done in the gray areas.”

Lucky stilled at the touch of his father’s hand. The unexpected contact gave him strength to go on.

“I want the farm because the thing I would think about when I was lying in the sand waiting for the bullets to start flying was being here. Building something. Creating something instead of blowing it up. I can’t imagine a better way to spend the rest of my life or a better way to forget the old one.”

“You don’t have to buy it, Lucky. You can stay on and help like you’ve been doing for a while longer.”
“I know the financial burden of this place has been hard on you guys. My buying you out takes that off your shoulders and gets us back on firm financial ground. It’s my time to be the one worrying about how the bills are going to get paid.”

“We’ll have Teague draw up the papers.”
Hot damn
. His father’s smile flashed in the dark as he rose from the wall, and Lucky grinned back in return.

“Thanks, Dad.”

“You’re welcome, son.” Owen nodded toward the direction of the house. “I’m going up to the house with the old folks.”

“I won’t tell Mom or Aunt Dolly you called them old.”

“I appreciate that. Waking up next to your mother is a pleasure I’d hate to give up.”

“Umm.” He really didn’t want to hear about his parents waking up together and anything being a pleasure.

His father laughed at his obvious discomfort and patted him on the back. “Now that you’ve found your place, work on finding a woman to share it with.”

Lucky’s gaze was immediately drawn to Taylor, her beautiful features highlighted by the light of the fire pit and her giggle floating on the wind. She hadn’t made a decision, and he promised himself he wasn’t going to push her for more than she could give.

He’d risked spooking her the other night, but it was impossible for him to avoid laying it all on the line when they’d connected on such an amazing level. Tasting her again, having her, had made him want things from her, with her, that were worth risking it all. Those things were the reason he had a ring in a blue velvet box hidden away. It was too soon for him to ask, but he knew what he wanted.

Lucky strolled away from the lake house, navigating the familiar ground until he came to the place where he’d fished and swum with his older brother. The breeze caused the tire swing to sway back and forth, the creak of the old rope mixing with the hum of the cicadas. In the gloom, he could make out the brass marker at the foot of the tree. He didn’t need to see it—the name of his brother, the date his life began, and the tragic date on which it was ended by a selfish drunk driver were etched in his memory.

The pang he felt in his chest like the sharp blade of a knife was equal parts grief and survivor’s guilt. Years of debriefing and psych evals from the finest of Marine Corps doctors had unearthed that little gem from his treasure trove of issues. He breathed in the scent of the honeysuckle growing nearby and embraced the peace of this place.

“You okay?” Taylor’s voice was barely above a whisper.

Not even turning around, he held out his hand, pulling her close when she laced her fingers with his. Lucky was afraid to speak or move. He’d rarely known perfection in his life, but this moment, with this woman—on his land—was as close to heaven as he was ever going to get.

“Good talk with your dad?” Taylor nuzzled in, tucking herself under his arm and winding hers around his waist. He leaned down, kissing the soft silk of her hair, nestling into her warmth and comfort.

“Yeah. The farm is going to be mine.”

She squeezed his middle in excitement, pushing out a little “oomph” with her enthusiasm. Propping herself on her tiptoes, she kissed him, long and deep, soft and tender. Kissing Taylor tonight, in this place, was like a benediction of his decision to stay—a blessing on his future. And he knew in his soul that his future was with her.

“Good for you,” she said when they parted.

“Thanks.” He looked out over the lake. The moon was bright on the far side, its twin shimmering in the surface of the water. “Remember that lake party right before I went to boot camp?”

“Yes. You took me to the barn…”

Lucky picked up the thread of conversation. “And I took you to the hayloft and stripped everything off this sweet body. I wanted you so bad I thought I was going to die from it.”

“You were my first,” she whispered.

Lucky froze. The sounds of the night the only thing he heard. Even their quickened breathing stopped in the moments after her revelation.

Lucky pulled back enough space to look into her eyes. “You were a virgin?’

“Yes.”

“I didn’t know. You acted…you said…” His mouth opened and closed, the questions on the tip of his tongue never quite making it out into the space between them.

“I didn’t want you to change your mind. I knew if you knew I was a virgin, you’d talk yourself out of it.”

“Tay.” His heart broke a little with the knowledge of what he’d done. What he’d selfishly taken. And then he was glad—overjoyed—to have been her first.

“Lucky. I’m glad I lied to you. I wouldn’t change it. I wanted you to be my first.” She nuzzled deeper into his arms, burying her face against his neck. “I’m glad that none of the losers I was with after you was my first.”

“Taylor. You deserved better than a horny college kid taking you on a blanket in a barn. You should have had romance, candlelight…something more than me pawing at you like a starving caveman.”

“It wasn’t like that. I remember every kiss. The way you touched me. The sound of my name on your lips. The scent of your skin and the taste of me on your mouth.” She looked him straight in the eye, making sure he heard every word. “I’ve had terrible luck with men. I always pick the ones who let me down, the liars, the cheats, the users. But you were perfect, and I’m so grateful you were the one.”

“I could be your last, too.” He leaned down to kiss her again. Taylor melted against him, her body responding to his touch with sweet surrender. Lucky tunneled his fingers through her hair, holding her still while he slowly explored all she offered.

He released her lips, trailing kisses across her cheek, and it was the most natural thing in the world to begin a slow dance with her under the moonlight. The music from the lake house, something country with the slow, sultry edge of a Cajun melody, guided them through the gentle sway. Taylor sighed, her body loose as she laid her head on his shoulder and let him lead their steps. Lucky memorized this moment and let go of everything but being here with this woman, in this place—all thoughts of how it could change floating away on the breeze.

The music ended, the chorus of night sounds resuming the rhythm. ”You want to go celebrate?”

“I thought that’s what we were doing,” she teased, a little breathless.

Her palm coasted over his erection, and he bit his lip at the rush of pleasure. He grabbed her hand, determined to take her to his special place and show her how much her wanted her to stay. Tonight he felt like he could do anything—including convincing Taylor to rearrange her dreams for him.

“Come on. I’ll take you to heaven.”

Chapter Nineteen

“I like your idea of the afterlife.”

Taylor opened her eyes, taking in the broad expanse of star-spangled night sky from her position lying in the blankets on the bed of Lucky’s truck. She turned her gaze to him and he shrugged, giving her a crooked half smile so sexy it caused her breath to catch in her chest.

“You come here a lot?” She glanced around the smooth glass of the lake, the grassy lawn leading down to the pier and the beautiful old shade trees tinted deep purple in the night

“Not as much as I want to. It’s a great place to relax, get away, think about things.” His voice was gravelly against her shoulder where he rested his head while his fingers idly traced figure eights on her belly. The touch, innocent enough, had kept her on the knife-edge of arousal for a while now. “This is my favorite place in the world.”

They’d sneaked into the barn, grabbing a cooler, a few extra beers out of the fridge kept in the tack room, and a couple blankets. Jumping into his truck, Lucky had driven onto the main road and reentered the edge of the Landon property via an old hunting trail. In the moonlight, it was gorgeous. Magical.

“It is amazing. I bet all the girls you bring here love it.”

“I’ve never brought a woman here before.”

Taylor’s stomach did a flip-flop at his answer.

“Thank you for keeping an open mind about us. I know it isn’t easy,” he murmured.

“Lucky—”

“Taylor, we have a chance to be together, and we both know how good it could be.”

She tried to laugh it off, not ready to talk about this with the moonlight and his delectable body wreaking havoc with her best-laid plans, plans that weren’t looking so hot the more time she spent with him. The idea of lonely nights and no one to share her life with was losing its appeal. She’d been alone for so long.

“Stay with me. Or make me understand why you can’t.”

She considered his question, trying to form her thoughts in a way that made sense of her jumbled emotions and fears. “If I stay, I feel like I’m just one of those girls who give up their free ride to follow a boy to college and then gets dumped when he finds a girl who puts out.”

“I already know you put out.”

“Funny guy. You should take it on the road.” She gripped his hand, gazing at the stars and making a wish to find the right answer. “I’ve done the research. Opening a spa business in this area is a very good idea. Your mother is hitting it at the right time. The money I would get from the sale of the house would be more than enough to cover my costs.”

“Good to know. What’s the catch?”

“I can’t wrap my head around staying here for a person. Disrupting all my plans for a person—for you.” She lifted his hand, pressing a kiss against his palm to ease the sting of her words. “You can’t base decisions like this on people. They let you down.”

“I never did. I
never
let you down.”

“That’s because we never expected much of each other.”

“Ouch.”

“It’s true. We’ve been about good times, hedonistic escapes from our lives. We were never about trust or depending on each other for our happiness.”

“We can be that way.” He shifted over, leaning up on one elbow to look down at her, the vehemence of his belief clear even in the gloom. “I want that from you. I want you to expect that from me. We deserve that kind of happiness.”

This was her moment to be honest with herself and with him. This was her time to dig deep and give him an answer, but she couldn’t form the words. Her research was solid—opening a business was always a calculated risk. The risk was in putting herself out there and becoming vulnerable to the hurt that only a lover could cause.

“I’ve been burned before. Bobby, other men I trusted and they let me down.” She touched his cheek, loving the tickle of his five o’clock shadow on her skin. “The number of people who happily stay together for the long term gets smaller and smaller every day.”

But her heart was whispering that it could be different with Lucky.

Determined to buy a little more time, she sat up and leaped off the tailgate of the truck. Walking over to the pier, Taylor dipped her toe into the water and shivered at the coolness of it in contrast to the heat of the summer night. She looked over to where Lucky was sitting on the tailgate, even from this distance his gaze devouring her with a desire that made her insides turn to goo.

Reaching up, she untied the halter top of her sundress and dropped it onto the pier. “Is it deep enough to swim?”

Lucky nodded, his eyes languidly traveling over her naked body. She loved how he looked at her. Turning, she jumped in and let the water wash away all the decisions and deadlines. When she broke the surface, she looked toward the truck.

Wait, where was Lucky?

The spot where he’d sat was now empty, a pile of clothes on the ground. Whipping her head around, she scanned the dark surface of the lake, looking for ripples, movement, any indication of where…

“Oh!”

His hand wrapped around her waist just as he surfaced behind her. Turning around, she shoved at him, splashing water in his face in laughing protest. He shook his head, flinging water over her, and tossed her a grin that lit up his whole face. And took her breath away.