Men Times Three (22 page)

Intrigued, Holly moved to the table to stare down at the plans. “These cabins are tiny. Don't we have anything large enough for families?” She did a quick mental inventory of the rooms upstairs. None of them had connecting doors, so people with children would either have to share or get a separate room.

Kylie frowned. “Was this place supposed to be couples only?”

They all looked from the plans to TJ. He shrugged. “Who knows what Jon was thinking? I doubt he ever planned to operate. He spent years just woodworking.”

“He didn't like people enough to want anyone to stay here.”

“I hate that I'm related to him. What if I carry a gene for reclusive asshole-itis or something?” Kylie complained.

Eli laughed and nodded. “I don't know that you're just a carrier, you—”

Kylie glared so hard Eli bit off his words.

Deke glanced Holly's way and nodded toward the door. She sidled out to the hall with him while TJ slipped out the back door. No one else wanted to be caught in the crosshairs.

“Marnie's at TJ's working on the Web site already,” Deke explained when they were out of the line of fire.

“That was fast.”

“She's got to get back to the city. Her partner Dennis has been calling. I guess he wants an answer.”

“Kylie and I want to know what she's decided as well.” Holly had come around completely to the idea of running the inn for guests.

“I want to know what you've decided,” Deke said, pulling her around to face him. His pupils dilated. Arousal? She didn't think so. Fear?

“What's wrong?”

“I'm ready, Holly.”

“You're always ready.” She slid her hand to his fly, but no erection greeted her. He lifted her hand away and kissed her palm. He bent his head, his lips brushing against her. Once, twice. When he looked at her again, she saw a glitter in his eyes.

“I want to finish building my house. Make it a home with me, Holly. You wanted a family before. Make one now with me.”

She shook her head. “So soon?” She'd married Jack in haste. “I made a rotten mistake the last time I married.”

“I won't push. We'll take our time. I just want to know you feel the same way I do. That we have possibilities.”

A smile lit her soul. “Major possibilities.” She gave him a nod that went on and on, until he palmed each side of her head and planted a deep kiss. “Love me, Deke.”

“I will. Love me?”

“I do.” This time, she'd do it right. Her family would love Deke, Marnie and Kylie would vouch for him. Jack was behind her, the mistake she'd learned from. She and Deke could move into their future, free and unfettered.

Without baggage. “Let's keep the camper, Deke, so we'll always have to pack light.”

“No baggage for us, babe.”

Raised voices came from the kitchen and they took the cue to leave. They could share their news after the dust settled between Kylie and Eli.

At the road, Holly asked him to pull over. She climbed out of his truck and walked to the ditch. “What are looking for?”

“The old sign. I saw it earlier. It was too heavy for me, so I thought you could get it into the truck.” The only evidence that it had been there was a dead patch where it had lain for years. “Deke, it was here less than an hour ago. Who could have taken it?”

She spun and searched both directions along the road. Dark still trees filled each side. “Why would someone steal it?”

Eli leaned out his window. “Firewood? We'll make a new one.”

“But Grandad made it.”

“He built an entire inn and all the furniture in it. Are you really going to miss one sign?”

She shook her head. “Of course not. It's just odd that it would be gone right after I found it.”

“W
hy'd you have to say that?” Kylie lashed out at Eli the moment they were alone in the kitchen. “You practically called me an ass!” And in front of his brothers, too. And Holly. They'd been so hot for each other earlier, she'd had high hopes their snarky ways were behind them.

“Sorry, it slipped out.” But he didn't look sorry at all. He looked edgy as he crept to the kitchen doorway and glanced out into the hall. He motioned for her to stand behind him and peek with him. She held her ground.

He grabbed her hand and tugged. When she looked where he indicated, she saw Holly and Deke in midkiss in the hall. Arms wrapped around each other, bodies aligned, their posture was seriously intimate. Their murmured words and gentle kisses were more than sexy, they looked soul deep and yearning. “I didn't think they'd ever leave.”

Clearly, he didn't see the kisses for what they were. Declarations. Touched and oddly embarrassed by the show of soul deep intimate feelings, she pulled Eli away from the doorway. By his expression, he was oblivious to Deke's blatant display of his deepest feelings.

“I don't think they're ever coming up for air,” he said.

She pinched his arm. “Never mind them. You won't distract me from the cabin plans or what you said.”

“We can argue again,” he let his gaze drift slowly down her body, “or not. Your choice.” After the expression of love she'd just seen, Eli's sexual innuendo felt raw and shallow.

She wanted more. She wanted the intimacy and the trust Holly had with Deke.

“Don't try to distract me with sex. It won't work.”

“Fine.” Eli stepped around her. With exaggerated care, he made certain not to brush so much as her arm as he left the kitchen. He sauntered in a fluidly powerful stride out to the log truck. Heat blossomed between her legs as she watched him move.

The man was a spectacular pain in the ass.

She went back to studying the floor plan. There was no reason to deny the change she wanted. It seemed simple.

There must be a logical reason for Eli to argue against the change, but she'd been so fast to take offense she hadn't given him a chance to explain.

From the kitchen door she watched Eli climb onto the logs still left on the truck deck. He scampered across the pile of logs, obviously checking for something. Fear clutched her heart. By moving about so quickly, he was asking for a fall.

Afraid to call out in case she spooked him and the logs tumbled, she sidled out the door.

She blinked, aware of choking fear as she imagined the worst. She wanted him on solid ground, safe. Wanted him where she could touch him, talk with him, fight with him if necessary but safe on the ground.

She approached the truck slowly, hoping that he'd see her.

If he startled and jerked, the logs could shift, trapping his leg or worse.

“Kylie,” he said on a wry note when he spied her slow steady pace. “What are you doing out here?” He sat on the log at the top of the pile. The sharp scent of cedar heightened her awareness. Her heart thudded so hard she felt the pulse in her ears.

“I'm wondering what the hell you're doing taking your life in your hands by climbing around on a pile of logs.” Looking hot and adorable and so manly she could barely stand it.

She stared at his feet braced over three feet apart on uneven logs. His jeans pulled taut across his crotch, and from her worm's eye view, the man was, well, built. His chest widened from his hips to his shoulders, clad in plaid, blue today, like his eyes. Eyes that narrowed and gave her as good as he got in the inventory-taking.

Moisture pooled as her hands itched, her mouth went dry as her lips tingled at the memory of kissing him. At the way he'd had her at the brink of orgasm with nothing more than a brush of his fingers. She was crazy, wanting a man this much.

He could make her angry in a heartbeat with nothing more than an insolent look. But there was another side to the man, too. A capable, solid side she responded to on many levels.
No.
Everything about the man was wrong.

She needed roots, permanency, the feeling that her life was finally on an even keel. She didn't need a man with itchy feet who wouldn't look back if his home was on fire.

But what she
wanted
was sex. For the first time, she
wanted
, with a desire that reached into her marrow, hot, her ligaments, icy, until everything melted and oozed and ran with need to pool in her panties. She squeezed her thighs together.

Eli slid his hard hat higher on his forehead but kept his gaze trained on her. The moment stretched. Electric. Needful. Taut. “You wait right there,” his voice came hard, throaty and firm.

She couldn't have walked away if he'd been breathing fire with talons for hands. She wanted to be scorched, scratched, taken. And since he wasn't some mythical creature, but a flesh and blood man with need in his gaze and sex on his mind, she would stand and wait. And want.

He scrambled down off the truck to stand two feet away, facing her. “What can I do for you?”

“Take me. And shut up about it.”

 

Kylie Keegan was crazy as a loon. He'd offered not five minutes ago. “You changed your mind about tonight and you were right. Sex with you will likely kill me. Or both of us.” He ran his hand through his hair then stared at his fingers. The tremble he saw would only get worse if he stayed. “I'm moving my stuff over to TJ's.”

“Are you? Right now?” She crossed her arms and took hold of the hem of her tank top.

“You wouldn't.” He looked around the clearing, but it looked as if everyone had left. Blood pounded down to his cock. Soon he wouldn't have enough left in his brain to think with. “We already don't like each other. After sex, we'll hate each others' guts. Believe me, it happens.”

She lifted her top over her head and dropped it to the ground. “Then we have nothing to lose, do we?” Her breasts were free to the cooling air, nipples dark purple and hardening as he watched. Infinitely kissable.

She had a tiny waist for such a tall woman and hips he could ride for hours. “Come here, Eli. I'm cold.”

She wedged her hands into the pockets of her cutoffs. The bulge of her hidden fists emphasized her flat belly. Her breasts jiggled and he didn't need to hear any more.

He drew her close to share his heat. “To be clear because we have a habit of misunderstanding each other: You want sex. With me?”

“I want sex with you.” She wrapped her arms around his waist, her breasts soft against him. “Don't get me wrong. What I really want is permanence. I want marriage and children and I want the Friendly Inn. But for now, sex with you will be enough.”

Her words rattled around in his brain, his empty, bloodless brain. “Why?”

“It's going to end anyway, because you'll be leaving soon. Which means I can relax and enjoy myself and not worry about trying to, um, like you.”

He knew there had to be something wrong, but he was beyond trying to sort things out. She was offering and he was willing. “Maybe we'll be friends.”

“Don't hold your breath.”

Her smile, the first one she'd ever directed at him, blew what was left of his brain to smithereens. He cupped her exquisite jaw between his palms and kissed her.

Her lips went soft, giving, while her mouth was moist and invited him in. He took the invitation and pressed his tongue inside to find hers. She played and coaxed and tantalized.

Different from before, this kiss held no rancor, no anger, just heated invitation and welcome.

He lifted his head, watched while her eyelids drifted open. Her green eyes clouded with desire. “There, I knew we could get it right,” she breathed.

Half his mind said to leave her be, that he had no right to take a woman who wanted the things she did. No matter what she thought, sex between them would change things. She'd start to see him as the man who would give her the home, children and roots she craved.

While the Himalayas waited, he would never be that man. Without thought, he caressed her breast and plucked at her engorged nipple. She felt so fucking good pressed against him.

With her offer fresh in his mind, his other half said Kylie was an adult, fully cognizant. She was the one who'd asked. “Are you sure you want this?”

Another lift of her lips that bounced around his belly and lodged in his cock. “I'm sure. Take me, Eli, take me all night long.”

 

Marnie listened to Dennis's whine, letting the sound grate along her last nerve. “I want you back here this weekend; I've got things to do.”

She saved her work with a click of the mouse and thought of hanging up on him. “What happened with Tisha? Last I heard she was back at work with no problems.”

“She's fine. She's great. We worked things out.”

“How?” Dread and suspicion made her grip the phone harder. “Dennis? How did you work things out with her?” But she knew, in the marrow of her bones, that he'd slept with her.

“Did you look at the figures I gave you? Did you talk to those people?” he asked. The people were other club owners in various parts of the country. They all claimed to make terrific profits and even more so since the economy tanked. People need relief in hard times and they were willing to pay and play hard to get it.

“It's tempting,” she hedged. “You were right about getting the renovations done quickly.” Mike, their DJ, couldn't hold them for ransom with his claims of bringing in the crowds. She was sick of hearing how the place would be dead without him.

“We'd be open in under a month,” he promised. “Word of mouth would have us full in no time. Believe me.”

“Like I said, it's tempting.”

“So,
now
will you be here this weekend? We can go over the finer points.”

She looked at her laptop, made some rapid calculations on how fast the cabins could be built. Holly and Kylie were better at decorating than she was. She trusted their judgement with the cabin decor.

“I'll be there late tonight. We'll spend the morning going over everything. Be ready.”

“I'm always ready, baby.”

According to the people she'd spoken to, Dennis had done his homework. His concept for the club was solid. He'd always been good at ideas and start-up. It was the day-to-day grind of a business where he fell down. If the new version of BackLit took off in a way the dance club hadn't, she'd be able to buy him out sooner.

The sound of TJ's pickup truck drew her attention to the living room window. As she watched him climb out of the cab, she was struck again by his size and breadth. Absentmindedly, she reminded Dennis of the early morning meeting and ended the conversation.

TJ had opened his plaid shirt and removed his hard hat. His tool belt was gone, too. His shoulders sagged with weariness, but he opened his tailgate and tugged out a thick square of weathered wood. He had to stretch to get both hands on either side as he pulled at it.

When she took a closer look, she gasped. He'd remembered. She warmed at the sight of the weary man making good on a promise made weeks ago.

She dropped the phone to the sofa and yanked open the front door. “TJ! The sign! You remembered.”

“Of course.” He looked at her curiously. “I said I'd fix it up for you.” A man of his word. He tightened his grip and carried the heavy wooden sign into his garage as if it weighed nothing.

Some small piece of her heart broke off and sailed out across the yard toward the eldest O'Banion.

“Oh, TJ,” she whispered. “You sneaky thief.”

Freer than she'd felt in a long while, Marnie wandered out to the garage.

She watched TJ for a long time as he sanded the sign Grandad had made. It had been in the ditch for years, a victim of wind and weather. The whine and burr of the sander hid her presence as TJ focused on the work. At the first break in the noise, she moved in. “Hi.”

“Hi, yourself.” He lifted his protective glasses and watched her approach. “Get a head start on the Web site?”

“I did. And then I called Dennis.”

“Oh.” He froze and stared at her, curiosity warring with cool objectivity in his eyes. He wanted her to explain but didn't want to ask. How soon she'd come to read his fleeting expressions and body language.

“Just for a couple of days.” She walked her fingers from his belt up to his shoulder and back down. Slipping her hand to the bulge in his crotch, she licked her lips. “But first, I thought I could thank you for the sign.”

“My pleasure,” he said, running his hand across the carved lettering. Tension rested across his shoulders.

“You look tense. Let me take care of that for you.”

“Here?”

“Why not here?” This is where he'd stolen so much of her heart. “There's no better place.”

“I can think of a few. My bed, for one.” She opened his belt buckle and jeans. “I'd love to reciprocate in the house. After a shower.”

She chuckled, amused that he still didn't get it. His cock was already hardening as she dropped to her knees.

It wasn't hard to make him surrender. His protests died the moment her wet mouth enveloped him. He leaned against the bench at his back and braced himself as he accepted her offering.

Salty hot flesh filled her mouth. Earthy scents surrounded her while guttural groans rained down from the solid man she could bring to his knees. A flick of the tongue, a light suction, a stroke of her fingers across his scrotum, and TJ O'Banion was hers to do with as she wished.

She kissed the length of heavy vein that ran from root to tip, tasted the slick bead of essence that wept at his eye. Deep wet strokes of her tongue, fluttering kisses from her lips and sly coaxes from her fingers took him over as she stole control.

“You're so good,” he groaned, as his cock flexed in her mouth. She loved the moment right before she took his seed, the anticipation, the heady sense of power, knowing this man had lost all reason. Had given his mind and body completely over to her.