Reilly's Wildcard (2 page)

“Of course,” he replied, charmed by her. “I forgot that part.” He stepped back and shook his head. What was he doing? Reilly felt like an idiot. A young, infatuated teenager, when in fact he was twenty-five years old. He’d dated plenty of beautiful women, and he’d never once been so completely fixated. He reached out and took her hand in his, teasing her knuckles with his thumb. “Ready to face the crowd?”

She nodded and moved away from the wall. “Thanks for being my white knight.”

“My pleasure,” he said, aching to keep her all to himself for another few minutes. There was more to Lucy than met the eye, and he desperately wanted to know everything about her. If there was a God, he’d get his wish too.

Lucy let Reilly seat her at the table they’d vacated earlier. He waved a waitress over and ordered another drink for them, then leaned a little closer to be heard over the noise and said, “So, tell me more about yourself, Lucy.”

“I’m not that exciting,” she said in an attempt to bring the temperature in the room down a few degrees.

“I have a feeling you’re being modest.” Reilly smiled slightly, then gestured toward Sarah, who was currently dancing with a yummy blond. “So, are you here for moral support for Sarah, or is there another reason you came here tonight?”

Lucy’s heart fluttered at the sensual tone in his voice; then the first half of his statement sank in. It was the perfect opening to mention the singing gig, but Lucy chickened out. What else was new? “Everyone is talking about the restaurant and the five mysterious brothers who own it. I was curious, what can I say?”

He chuckled. “You make us sound like celebrities or something.”

Lucy looked over at the bar and spotted a man who bore a striking resemblance to Reilly. He appeared older, and his hair was shorter. There was something rougher about him too. “Is that one of your brothers?” she asked, pointing to the man who was currently cuddled up next to a laughing brunette.

Reilly smiled. “That’s Sam. He’s the oldest. The woman he’s holding is Julie, his better half.”

“They look happy together.” She wondered what that would be like. Her ex had turned out to be a total mooching loser. Lucy knew very little about happily-ever-after relationships.

“I figure he’ll propose before long.” Reilly looked back over to where Sarah was dancing and frowned. “Your friend is tempting the beast. You can bet Brodix isn’t going to like seeing her dancing with blondie there.”

Lucy frowned. To get Brodix’s attention tonight, Lucy had talked Sarah into coming to the Blackwater Bar and Grill dressed to seduce. The plan was for Brodix to walk in, see Sarah looking sexy and hot, and go all caveman. So far, Brodix was a no-show, and the plan was quickly going to pot. “Well, Sarah is a big girl, you know? She hardly needs to ask permission if she wants to dance with a cute guy.”

Reilly’s gaze landed on her, his brows scrunched in anger. “Cute?”

Judging by the sneer in his tone, Lucy assumed he didn’t find that notion pleasant. She didn’t have the nerve to tell Reilly that the blond couldn’t hold a candle to him. Ever since high school, she’d been hyperaware of him. When she’d seen Reilly outside the restaurant working on the sign one day a few months back, Lucy realized the feeling hadn’t gone away with the years. And as pathetic as it sounded, she kept finding one reason or another to drive by the Blackwater just to get another peek at him.

“Sure,” she answered, unable to resist the urge to tease him a little. “He’s tall, blond and has a sexy Southern accent. A woman would have to be blind and deaf not to appreciate all that.”

Reilly leaned toward her, and she forced herself to stay still, although her heartbeat was at full gallop. “I take it you aren’t seeing anyone?”

“No.” She swallowed back the lump forming in her throat. “You?”

“Nope.”

She relaxed a little at the knowledge that no other woman had a claim on him. “Oh, that’s good.” Lucy took a sip of her drink. Liquid courage wasn’t her usual MO. Then again, most men didn’t send butterflies to flight inside her with a mere glance the way Reilly did. She’d already drained the first cosmopolitan she’d ordered earlier and was halfway into a second.

“We work together,” Lucy said, thinking of his earlier question. “Sarah and I work at the newspaper together.”

Reilly’s gaze widened. “You’re a reporter?”

“No, a copy editor. It’s a busy, often stressful job that puts food on the table and keeps a roof over my head.”

“Ah, I see. Not exactly your passion, huh?”

“No, but it’s not the worst job in the world either. I can’t complain.”

When she lifted her glass to her lips, Reilly stopped her with a hand on her arm. “Easy, there.”

Her face heated. “I’m a little nervous.”

“Why?”

Did she dare tell him that she was interested in him? That she’d been interested in him for months? “I’m…attracted to you.” She decided to keep the fact that the attraction hadn’t started up tonight, but years ago.

His grin was just this side of sinful when he said, “Ditto.”

An electric jolt zipped along her spine. He was so close, it rattled her. God, he was intoxicating. “Ditto?”

“Yep. In fact, it’s all I can do to be good right now.”

“What would you do if you had permission to be bad?”

“This,” he groaned. He dipped his head forward and fastened his mouth to hers, angling his head as if for a deeper taste. He opened his mouth and stroked his tongue against her bottom lip. Lucy trembled as if he were the only man who had ever kissed her.

He lifted up and stared down at her. Her lips still tingled from his touch. “Cherries.”

She blinked, unsure what he’d said. “Huh?”

“Your lip gloss,” he explained. “It’s cherry flavored.” His voice sounded rough and uneven. “I wondered.”

She touched a finger to her lips. “Oh.”

Lucy forgot all about a singing job at the bar and grill. Sarah’s dilemma got pushed to the side too. Even the drunken idiot took a backseat. Everything had vanished the moment Reilly’s lips met hers.

“I want to be alone with you. To get to know you better. Come home with me, Lucy.”

Oh boy. She so didn’t trust men. Her ex-husband David and his cheating, user ways had ensured that. But as Reilly smoothed a palm over her back, her defenses began to crumble. She’d gone too long; that was the problem. There’d been no one since David. The divorce had been final a year ago last month. Lucy had tried to act as if it hadn’t affected her when the end had come, but it had. She’d been left with plenty of emotional scars thanks to the whole debacle. Wasn’t she due for a little excitement? A little fun? To be treated to a night of decadence at the hands of a man who knew how to treat a woman?

On the other hand, even though she’d admired him from afar and he’d come to her rescue tonight, Reilly may as well be a stranger. Did she dare?

“I don’t know,” she said, afraid to take a chance. Lucy looked out at the dance floor and saw her friend engaged in a conversation with a well-dressed, dark-haired man. Reilly had a wilder edge about him, with his shaggy, dark brown hair and the dare in his gaze. The man holding Sarah’s attention had neat, close-cropped, midnight-black hair, a crisp white dress shirt and black slacks. Had Brodix finally shown up?

“He came in a few moments ago,” Reilly said, answering her unspoken question. “For a second, I thought there was going to be bloodshed.”

As Lucy watched, the man Sarah had been dancing with stepped back, allowing Brodix to take over. For a few minutes, Lucy couldn’t take her gaze off the pair of lovers. The way Brodix looked at Sarah turned Lucy’s heart to mush. When had a man ever looked at her with so much love and devotion? Easy—never. When Sarah turned and gave her the nod, indicating she’d be leaving with Brodix, Lucy turned her attention back to Reilly. “Should I worry about Sarah?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know Sarah well, but from what I’ve gathered, your friend is pretty strong-minded. She can hold her own with my brother, believe me.”

“Fine,” she said, knowing it was the truth. “But he better not hurt her.”

“Nah, Brodix cares about Sarah. He might not be happy about the article, but he’s fallen damn hard for her.” Before Lucy could reply, Reilly took her chin in his palm and murmured, “Why the indecision about coming home with me? I don’t have any expectations. There isn’t a more sinister plan, I promise. Just you and me alone with a glass of wine and each other’s company.”

Lucy’s mouth went dry at the intensity in Reilly’s eyes. He had the look of a tiger about to pounce. “I don’t even know you,” she explained. “We only just met.”

“I know, and it’s crazy,” he bit out. “This will sound like a line, but I want to get to know you.”

As his touch drifted over her cheek and the heat from his gaze burned her up, a crack formed in the wall around Lucy’s heart. “I don’t believe in things like instant attraction,” she blurted out, frustrated that she couldn’t make sense out of what was happening between them. “Two strangers meeting and falling for each other in a crowded room. That sort of thing is for romantic comedies and fairy tales.” Another thought struck her. “Besides, don’t you need to be here for the grand reopening?”

“It’s only a few hours until closing, and there are five of us, not including the staff. They can manage without me.”

“But—”

“Maybe another one of these will change your mind,” Reilly said, interrupting her protest with the brush of his lips to hers. Lucy sank against him, accepting the kiss. Hell, surrendering to it. She tasted the warm, heady flavor of the man, laced with just a touch of alcohol. She should end the kiss. Go home and get in her pajamas and enjoy the last half of the romantic suspense book she’d been reading lately. Yep, she should definitely end this.

Reilly’s lips were soft as they coasted back and forth, barely touching hers. As his tongue darted out, a shiver of excitement raced the length of her body. When he pulled back and stared down at her, Lucy could see the raw hunger in his pale green eyes. She well understood how he felt. Her entire body was screaming for more of his flavor.

She was done denying herself. Lucy pushed Sarah and Brodix out of her mind and turned all her attention on Reilly. That quickly, a blazing heat in Reilly’s eyes matched her own rising temperature. They would both experience something exciting tonight; she knew it in her bones. Honesty forced her to admit that Reilly scared her a little. No, that wasn’t right. It was the way he affected her. He so easily turned her body to fire, and all he had to do was smile. That kind of power was frightening to a woman who had already been burned by love.

Still, she wasn’t the backward wallflower she had been in high school. And she wasn’t the starry-eyed girl she’d been when she’d fallen for David. She was a confident woman now. She, and no one else, was in control of her own emotions.

Lucy took her cell phone out of her purse and tapped out a message to Sarah, then stood and looked down at Reilly. “I’m ready if you are.”

His grin destroyed the last vestiges of her resistance. The juncture between Lucy’s thighs dampened as his gaze went on a heated journey over her body.

“Give me a sec,” he said, then strode across the room and whispered something to his brother Sam. When both men turned and looked at her, Lucy’s face flamed. What had Reilly told him?

When he came back to her and took her by the hand, he said, “I let Sam know I was taking you home so Sarah and Brodix could have time to talk.” He winked. “What’d you think I told him?”

She slumped in relief. “Suffice it to say I feel sort of stupid now.”

He squeezed her hand in reassurance. “We’re just going to have a drink and get to know each other, Lucy,” he said. “No pressure, okay?”

She nodded and let him lead the way out of the restaurant. Once they were in the dark, close confines of his car, Lucy swore a feral smile skated over his face. Her stomach went all jumpy.
Please don’t let me live to regret this.

Chapter Two

When they arrived at a ranch-style, taupe house at the end of a cul-de-sac, Reilly opened the front door and flipped on the light. He looked over at her. “So, this is home, sweet home.”

Lucy placed her purse on the entryway table and looked around the room. “Your house is lovely.”

Reilly smiled. “I like it.”

Lucy was suitably impressed. The décor was simple and uncluttered, the colors warm and inviting. The light oak end tables and coffee table were lovely works of art with intricate designs carved into them. The comfortable-looking couch and loveseat in hunter green and beige stripes appeared perfect for a lazy Sunday afternoon. It was welcoming and cozy, two things Lucy didn’t know much about with her cold, boring apartment. When she spied the large entertainment cabinet with the same patterns as the tables etched into the smooth wood, Lucy turned to Reilly and asked, “The artistry in the tables and cabinet is beautiful. Did you build them yourself?” She knew the Jennings brothers were good with their hands. Rumor in Blackwater had spread quickly about how the five of them had done the remodeling of the restaurant themselves.

“No, that’s my brother Vance’s handiwork. He and his construction crew did much of the work at the bar too.” He took her by the hand and led her into the kitchen. “What would you like to drink? I have wine, beer, or I can make coffee.”