Men Times Three (16 page)

She lifted one side of her mouth in a half grin. “Plenty soft, too.”

He slipped his hand to hers. “The idea of you sleeping anywhere but with me feels a lot like heartburn.” He rubbed his chest. She let her gaze slide down his chest to his lap and back again. She turned her hand over to clasp his.

“That's rough.”

He nodded.

She smiled and shut the truck door. “We'd better get to work. Marnie'll give us hell if she comes back and we're behind schedule.”

Marnie. He'd ask Marnie his questions. Holly may not have told her parents and brothers what had happened in her marriage, but Marnie would know.

 

When they were heading back toward the inn, Holly's mood shifted to horny. She hated confrontation and make-up sex was the best. “Tonight, we'll shut the door of the camper and lock out the whole world.” She ran her fingers up the inside of her thigh in suggestion.

Deke's firm mouth kicked up and he slanted a sexy glance her way. “Oh, yeah? And how will we do that?”

She leaned on the passenger door and opened her thighs. Her khaki shorts gave plenty of room for his fingers to roam. He couldn't mistake the invitation.

He patted the seat next to him. “Slide on over here.”

With a grin she felt in her heart, she slipped into the middle seat, belted herself in and set his hand on her knee. He grinned and drew circles up the inside of her thigh, sending whorls of intense sensation to her sex.

Her breasts rose and her nipples peaked. She pulled the material over her crotch out of the way of his fingers. Soon his touch would scorch through anything that stood between them. The truck veered in the lane again as he watched her. He swore and corrected immediately.

“Touch me, Deke. Right there where I'm wet.” She slid her finger into her mouth and sucked. He squeezed the fleshy part of her thigh in his large palm and the flare of desire in his eyes made her wetter. He stretched his little finger north toward her center. “Pull over,” she breathed. “Please.” Pressure built in her lowest reaches and need overrode her good sense.

Midday on a rain-slicked road was a dangerous place to play this game. The danger heightened her edgy need.

But Deke was still able to think clearly and turned the truck onto an overgrown driveway entrance. “This is a summer home. No one is here yet.” But he didn't drive the length of the lane. Instead, he parked the truck in the deep shade, out of sight of the passing traffic.

She undid her seat belt and gave him a delighted whoop.

“You're not fooling me, Holly. You want me to forget about your ex. You want to distract me.”

“I want sex, Deke. I told you I have a strong libido. That's all there is to this.”

He narrowed his eyes and she felt the burn through her chest and held her breath. “I don't want to talk about Jack. I don't want you to be concerned.”

He turned in the seat and she took that as a good sign. If he was facing her fully, she could drag him down onto the seat and get his mind on her and off their disagreeable discussion. “What I want,” she said, “is you. Now.”

Suddenly his hands were on her thighs, opening them. He slid his fingers up to her center and moved the crotch of her shorts out of the way. Finally. She melted as moisture pooled and heat rose between them.

He tugged her down to the seat, shucked her out of her shorts, then set her left foot on his headrest. Thrilling at his touch, she arched her hips toward him in total surrender. He made her feel this way, made her want to give him everything, made her want to abandon herself to him.

He set her legs wide as he gazed at her. Cool air touched her heated slit as a warm pool of moisture grew with each second. Blood rushed to her labia and her flesh opened to receive him. How much more could she surrender?

How much more could he want?

She shied away from the answer. Not her heart. Surely, not that.

And then he was there, his lips kissing and licking her fleshy mound. She clasped his head, burrowing her fingers in his hair and held him to her. Intense pleasure rolled up through her belly and out the top of her head and he hadn't actually touched her core. But anticipation brought orgasm closer as she rolled her hips up to meet his audacious mouth.

He teased her by blowing air across her sensitive flesh until she dug her hands into his scalp and moved his head to bring him to her.

She felt his lips move against her and his muffled voice came from between her thighs. “Why me?”

He stopped. Just as she'd begun to crash against a wave of release. She groaned in desperate need. She cried out. “What?”

“Anyone could get you off, Holly.” He lifted his face, his eyes glittering hard as diamonds, his lips and chin wet with her juices. “You said it yourself. You're a slave to your needs. Anyone would do, anyone
could
do this for you. So why me?”

Why not him?
But that was too cavalier. In the few short days and nights they'd been together, Deke had come to mean more to her than she'd planned. Desire ebbed as she pulled her sex-filled mind back from the brink of letting go.

She thought of the laughs they'd shared, the intense attraction that had steamrolled her into his bed that first day. His expression of pride in his future home where he'd shared the floor plans and for just a smoke-moment of time, she'd wanted the home to be hers, too.

“I don't understand,” she whispered, but it was more to herself than to him because she wasn't sure what she wanted with Deke.

Being Deke, he nuzzled his chin against her soft belly. “If you're not happy with me worrying about your ex, then that's too bad. I know about him now and I can't unknow it. We can't just fuck each other anymore. We lost that free-and-easy time. It's gone. So, we chuck the whole agreement about no baggage and accept that we both have some.”

She nodded and blinked away a tear. He was such a gentleman.

Dare she think of him as a keeper? Her heart hammered a tattoo that rattled her chest. “Oh, God, Deke. You're right. We've moved past the beginning now, haven't we?”

He licked her clit and suckled it gently, pulling her straight back into orgasmic waves of sensation. “Oh, Deke. Yes,” she panted between strokes of his tongue, arching and needing more. Dying a little as more waves rolled through her. “I'm coming.”

He entered her with three fingers at once, then turned his hand to make her scream with a deep, forever orgasm that roared up through her belly, into her chest and down her arms. Her head swam as she let the sensations take her to the sky and back again.

She was limp as a rag doll, but Deke was able to lift her to straddle him as he slid to the center seat. The feel of him, full and hard, brought her back to awareness as he rocked up into her. The strain of control made his lips firm, his eyes dark and his face flushed.

So she took him over the edge with her again, clinging and rolling her hips in time with him.

She shattered on him again and when she opened her eyes, he buried his face in her neck. A wet sensation where they were joined warned her they'd been rash.

“Bareback?”

He mumbled against her skin. “I'm sorry.” His head whipped back, his eyes stark. “I'm healthy. I got checked a while back and haven't been with—”

“Then we're okay. I've been very careful since my divorce.”

A roar of tires spewing gravel startled them. Deke looked out the cab window. “That blue car. It's him! He saw us. He must have.”

“Maybe this is a good thing. He'll know I've moved on,” she said, doubting every word. “Maybe he'll leave now and never come back.” Jack had always been possessive, but she truly thought he was past the worst of that behavior. He'd been easing back, letting go, she would swear it. Unless that was wishful thinking. She'd spent a lot of her early years with Jack in that very pursuit. She'd wished her family liked him, wished they could settle in one place, wished he was happy with his work, wished he was more social, wished for a child to help open his heart.

Eventually she'd given up the wishes. Hard reality had finally moved her to leave him. Her love had been slowly, inexorably squeezed out of her by his demands and pettiness.

When he'd shown up at her door one night, horny and lonely and needy, she'd taken pity on him and let him in. The sex had been some of the hottest they'd shared.

After that, she'd allowed him the odd visit and even made a call or two herself. Sex with Jack was easy and reliable and the biggest mistake of her life.

Instead of being brave and looking toward her future she'd clung to that one piece of her past. She'd fooled herself into thinking Jack felt nothing more than sexual convenience where she was concerned. How stupid.

She should have refused him the night before she left to come here. If she'd cut him off in the hall he might have come to terms with the end.

But no. She'd let him play her the way he always had. She rubbed her arms to ward off the chilling dread and hoped Marnie got back soon. She needed to talk about this.

Calling her family would be a mistake. Her brothers Seth and Damien would be here in a flash and heaven help Jack if they found him. If they got an inkling that Jack was stalking her, there'd be hell to pay.

She couldn't quite believe Jack would go that far. She pulled out her phone and checked her messages.

Nothing.

If Jack had gone quiet, maybe it was because he'd finally accepted the end. She hoped so.

“Did he leave a message?”

She closed her eyes and squeezed them tight. “No.”

“You have to stay with me. You can't be at the inn, vulnerable. Kylie should move out, too. TJ's got that spare room and since he left to see Marnie, there's room at his place.”

“Maybe you're right. It couldn't hurt to make sure Kylie's safe at TJ's. And I never really wanted to get my things out of the camper. I thought it was what you wanted.”

“Since we've moved from the beginning of this thing into the middle, then we're in it together.”

She wasn't stupid enough to be alone where Jack could find her. He'd want sex just to prove he could get it. What he thought of as seduction most people would see as emotional blackmail at best, coercion at worst. She shuddered to think how forceful he could become if he was angry and jealous.

E
li O'Banion stood in front of the Friendly Inn with his knapsack at his feet, his hands on his hips and his head cocked. The place looked different in ways he couldn't believe. He hadn't asked for details on the transformation and now he was blown away by the changes. It was as if Jon Dawson had never lived here. Except for the solidness of the building itself, all reminders of the old curmudgeon were gone, replaced by feminine touches.

Flower baskets hung from the veranda overhang. Leaf litter was a thing of the past and the Adirondack chairs on the veranda had been painted a bright red. A matching swing hung from the rafters on the other side. It had bright white and blue striped seat cushions. The windows shone clean, too.

Change had come to the Friendly Inn and Eli would be part of it. Cool. He loved change. Always.

That's why he traveled. He loved new challenges and couldn't wait to see what was around every bend in the road.

His next stop was the Himalayas. And he could barely wait to get there. Just as soon as he got the money he needed, he'd be gone.

A woman in a bedroom window on the second story stretched to reach the top of the glass, a paper towel in her hand. She was the source of the shiny windows on the main floor.

His cock twitched as she mashed her breasts against the window in her need to stretch as high as she could go. Black hair to her hips, luscious breasts and a tiny waist. Her skin was dark gold and exotic.

He'd seen a lot of lovely women in his travels, but she was a blend of beauty that defied a label.

Maybe she belonged on a cleaning crew from one of the local hotels. TJ had talked about picking up some extra help.

He waved up at the window but the woman was engrossed in finding spots she'd missed. She was digging at something on the glass with her thumbnail. Fly specks most likely.

He knew all about fly specks, had counted them on a window in a Jamaican police station. Two hundred and forty-seven tiny brown specks.

He bet Jon Dawson had accumulated just as many on each and every window in the inn.

Nothing like cleaning fly shit to piss a woman off. He gave up waving and decided to knock on the door instead. As he walked up the steps to the veranda he cleared his mind of her luscious breasts moving across the glass.

He knocked several times, then opened the door and poked his head in. The first thing he noticed was the fresh scent, then when he stepped all the way inside, the clean and welcoming living room gave him pause.

A feminine squeak sounded from above and he turned to look up. The window washer pulled ear buds out of her ears. “Hi, can I help you?” A stream of black hair threatened to fall across her face so she scooped it back and out of her way.

A real-life Rapunzel.

“I'm looking for TJ,” he said. Oh, shit. Now that the hair was behind her he could see that the window had been damp. Her dark nipples were clearly showing under the twin wet spots on her T-shirt. He swung his knapsack to cover his sudden woody and watched as she bounced downstairs. Braless.

It was good to be home.

Her breasts were teardrops. Heavy on the underside with a gentle slope down from her shoulders. They swung with every step she took. She stopped halfway down the staircase and froze. She watched him warily. “Who are you?”

“I'm his brother, Eli.”

“You three look so much alike, it's weird.”

“My hair's lighter than either of them. And I'm smarter, better looking and—”

She held up her hand. “I didn't ask for a glimpse into your sibling rivalry.”

Eli had seen some exotic beauties in his travels, but none could match her. She was tall, for one thing, and moved with a dancer's grace. Her hair swung heavily to her hips. Most women would have tied it back for cleaning chores.

He expected her to have dark brown or black eyes, but hers were a strange blend of green and gray, which added to her mystery.

“TJ's not here,” she said. Damn if her nipples didn't pucker and make his mouth go dry.

“Deke around then?” He had to stop staring, but it was impossible. He'd traveled the world only to land back here and find her? Crazy.

He ducked his head, aware he'd been gawking like a fourteen-year-old boy. He offered her his hand, half afraid he'd pull her into his chest. When he got tongue-tied and awkward, anything could happen. He'd always followed his instincts and, so far, they'd worked.

But the cynical measuring look in her gaze made him think twice. No, whatever his instincts said wouldn't work on this one.

She didn't move, effectively refusing to shake his hand. He stepped back and let his hand drop to his side. “You part of the hotel cleaning crew?”

She set her expression to bland. “I've been mistaken more than once for a cleaning lady, but no.”

“Sorry. No offense, but I saw you working on the window upstairs,” he explained, feeling like he'd stepped in something smelly. “The place looks great.” He spun and made a gesture that included the living room and registration nook. He turned back to face her and caught her staring. “Look your fill?”

“Actually, yes. You're smaller than your brothers, right?”

“Not where it counts.”

A flush raced up her neck from her chest, but she ignored his parry. She stepped down into the room and brushed past him. He caught a whiff of ammonia, clean and sharp. Under that, the scent of a shampoo with flowers in it. He'd always liked shampoo scents. They were always more mysterious on women than in the bottle.

She walked to the draperies. “I made these. The others were nearly rotted through.”

He nodded. “The whole inn's impressive cleaned up this way. Very homey and welcoming. Jon made most of the furniture, you know.”

“So I've heard.”

He waited and when she didn't speak again, he said, “Well, I guess I'll catch up to my brothers when they get here. Nice to meet you?” The question hung for a long moment while he waited with clear expectation.

“Kylie Keegan. I'm the prodigal cousin.”

“Jon's granddaughter?” Suddenly the thing he'd stepped in had an odor all its own.

She shrugged. “Not that he cared.”

“Oh, he probably cared, but not in a good way.”

“So you knew my grandfather. Yes, he took one look at me”—she pointed to her exotic face—“and went white as a ghost. No pun intended.”

“Jon had some strange ideas. No argument there.” The old man was all kinds of wrong, but it was a shame such a beauty had been exposed to him. “I'm sorry. Your meeting must have been strange.”

“Stranger is the fact that I'm here now. He included me in his will.”

“I heard something about that, but no one told me the circumstances.” He put his hands up. “None of my business, of course.”

She narrowed her gaze and sized him up. It took all of ten seconds to see that somehow, he was lacking. In character? In looks? In whatever way a woman sized up a man, he guessed. Fine. She didn't feel the spark he did. Fair enough.

But something flashed between them, some essence of dislike or surprise. And then he understood. “You've got his eyes,” he said, surprised he'd notice. “He had that same piercing quality and color, although it looks better on you.”

She stepped back. “No, I have nothing of his. Nothing.”

“Jon could look at a person and see right through whatever bullshit you thought you were giving him.” He shook his head in memory. “He caught me with a girl once and—never mind.” He'd thought Jon would call her parents, set her father onto him. But Eli waited for days before he realized Jon was all bluster.

“Am I doing that now?” she asked quietly.

Pulled back from the memory, he asked. “Doing what?”

“Piercing you with my gaze and seeing behind the face you present to the world? The charming, sexy traveler who's breezing in and out of here?”

“Yeah. You are.” Her assessing glance made him feel small. He shifted his gaze from hers and found himself focused on her chest again. Great, now he really did look like an ass. He shifted his bag onto his shoulder. “I may travel a lot but this is my home. And I'm always happy to come back to the Peninsula.” He shrugged. “Always glad to see my family.”

“Huh.”

She apparently didn't believe him. Not a word. “My brothers probably whined about me. You shouldn't believe everything they say. They're jealous as hell I come and go as I please. They both got rooted way too early. TJ's stuck with this business, and Deke fell for Misty until she tore his heart out.” He didn't know the details but the effect on Deke was clear.

She looked shocked. “So, wanting roots is a bad thing?”

“I didn't mean that—”

“Yeah, well. When you've been rootless most of your life, you get a different perspective.” She turned the tables on him and took her own measure down his chest, waist, then snagged her gaze on his knapsack. Then she moved down to his legs to end off at his well-worn sneakers. “The happy-go-lucky globe-trotter.”

“You say that like it's dirty.” His brows knit together.

“I don't care for men who go in for the sex tourism trade. It's disgusting.”

There it was, the reason for her instant dislike. Not that he gave a shit. “I'll just head out back, maybe Deke's out there by now.” He left on an Arctic-cold blast of anger and headed to the kitchen. Once outside he took a deep, clean breath of cedar-washed air.

The ground rules had been set. She didn't like him, nor would she ever. In a way, that made this visit easier. She was interesting enough to pique his interest. This way, he could keep a lid on it.

And when it was time to leave, nothing would hold him back.

 

Kylie returned to the front bedroom and tackled the rest of the window. She scrubbed and sprayed window cleaner, then scrubbed some more. Finally, with a sense of accomplishment and tired arms, she could stop scrubbing and focus on giving the glass a shine. She'd left her ear buds dangling onto her chest in case Eli showed up again. She didn't want to give him the chance to sneak up on her.

TJ and Deke had spoken of their brother several times in the last couple of days. Eli was a footloose loser who wandered the globe in search of pussy. Any guy who spent as much time as he did in places like Bangkok and Amsterdam was a hound, plain and simple. When she'd blurted out her opinion of such men, she'd felt his shock, but she wasn't sorry.

She'd let him know her opinion and that was that. He wouldn't try to charm her again. She saw through him and he knew it. The problem of the charming Eli O'Banion had been solved, and quickly.

She'd seen the way his eyes had lit with interest when she'd been at the top of the stairs, the way he'd followed every movement of her breasts as she'd walked down to meet him.

Her nipples had gone hard because the window she'd been cleaning had been cold and damp. This early, the front windows were shadowed, the glass still dewy.

She hadn't expected an audience, let alone a sex-starved behemoth of a man. It took a lot of man for Kylie to think in terms of behemoth, but every O'Banion she'd met qualified. She'd never seen such big men before.

He'd certainly looked his fill, but that meant nothing. Men were fickle, randy and always looking. What was peculiar was her reaction to
him
. She hadn't felt her sex drive rev up for either of his brothers.

Must be something in his bearing or his eyes. Or maybe it was just the way he looked at her, as if she were the only woman to ever get his full attention.

For the first time since arriving, she felt a shiver of alarm at the quiet seclusion of the inn. They were alone here. No one else was on the property. He could come upstairs behind her and wrap his bear-sized paws over her mouth so she couldn't scream.

Then he could drag her off the chair, to the floor…

Ridiculous.

Wouldn't happen. Charmers relied on charm, not brute force.

But there had been that one guy in college who'd charmed her into a first date. All night long he'd whispered sexually loaded comments into her ear, thinking to arouse her, when all he'd done was turn her off. When he'd driven her home, she'd had a hell of a time getting out of the car intact. She'd managed to escape his grasping, grabby hands, but she'd made sure to avoid him and his friends after that.

She'd never felt like a victim, but just more wary than before. While she'd seen interest in Eli's gaze, it hadn't been lust-filled like college-dude. Eli had been interested not scary.

When he'd turned around to check out the living room, she'd checked out his impressive backside. Nice butt! Strong thighs, trim but solid waist and shoulders broad enough to swing from.

Yes, much like the other O'Banions. He'd ducked his head and she'd seen the intriguing tail end of a tattoo curled up behind his ear. A snake? Maybe. But definitely reptilian.

Now
that
made Eli different from his brothers. She couldn't see TJ with a tat, no way. He was too staid, too serious. While Deke might very well have a tattoo, it wouldn't be a reptile. He'd have something warm-blooded or of special significance to him. A tattoo for Deke would have to have an emotional connection.

Eli had a grin that could charm a Siren and she'd been wrong to compare him to TJ and Deke. The man had way more charm.

Charming, not forceful. That was Eli.

Now that she'd thought about it, she may have been wrong to tip her hand so soon. A guy like him might see her as a challenge and set out even harder to win her over.

She sprayed ammonia cleaner on the glass and wiped with vigor. Being compared to Jon Dawson had been odd. Hard to believe she could share any of that man's DNA, let alone carry it forward. Had the old man seen his own eye color looking back at him that day she'd visited? If he had, he might actually have been offended.