She's No Angel (10 page)

She was a tempting dichotomy that he couldn’t quite understand. But he wanted to, which surprised him.

Gage’s stare blazed with heat, the kind that needed an outlet. Brett had to admit he was glad that outlet wasn’t going to be his face.

“Lexi,” Gage growled. “Don’t you remember what happened last time?”

Lexi’s back stiffened and her shoulders straightened. He couldn’t see her face, but already he knew her well enough to realize she was glowering.

“Yes, I do, but this is none of your business.”

To Brett’s surprise, Gage’s eyes softened and the wicked glint disappeared. “I just don’t want to see you hurt again.”

She shook her head, the soft wisp of curls scraping across her back. “Not gonna happen. Not this time.”

“That’s what you said last time.”

Tilting her head to the side, Lexi touched her chin to her shoulder and looked back at Brett through lowered lashes. “This time I mean it.”

Brett wasn’t sure if that was a warning to him or herself. Either way, the promise made the pit of his stomach tighten, but he wasn’t entirely certain why.

He didn’t want to hurt her. He wanted to protect her, to give her whatever she needed and to see a happy smile on her face.

Blowing out a slow, measured breath, Lexi looked up into Gage’s eyes. “So, other than testing my patience, did you have another reason for stopping by?”

10

G
AGE
SHOOK
HIS
head as if trying to pull everything back into focus. “Yeah. Hope asked me to check on you. Need any help hauling stuff to the picnic tomorrow?”

Lexi wished Gage would leave. The past five minutes had been filled with tension and she wanted them over. Had he really needed to walk in right then?

“Nope, got it all covered.”

“Hmm,” was his only answer. With Gage there was no telling if that was acceptance or a stall tactic while his brain figured out some other way to get what he wanted. “She also mentioned something about a girl’s weekend in Charleston that I was supposed to remind you about.”

Lexi swore silently under her breath. She’d completely forgotten that was coming up. They’d scheduled the trip weeks ago. A last hurrah before Hope and Gage’s wedding in a couple months. Hope didn’t want a bachelorette party, so this weekend was as close as they were going to get.

She’d have to remember to call in Annabeth Pierce and see if she could run the store. Lexi really hated to leave her baby in anyone else’s hands, especially since weekends were usually her busiest time. But she’d do it. For Hope.

Flashing the widest smile she could manage, she said, “Yep, tell her I can’t wait.”

Gage flipped one last wary glance at Brett before he leaned down and pecked her on the cheek. “Holler if you change your mind and need a hand.”

From behind her, and closer than she’d realized, Brett’s voice touched her. “She has two right here if she needs them.”

Lexi really wished he’d kept his mouth shut.

Gage trained a knifelike gaze on Brett. Lexi held her breath. She jumped when Brett’s hands landed, soft and possessive, on her shoulders.

She wasn’t sure that she liked that at all. The testosterone levels in the room were going to kill her. If the two men she was standing between didn’t manage to maul each other first.

“Would you two stop? You’re like posturing baboons. If either of you starts throwing shit in my kitchen I’m going to be pissed.”

Behind her Brett snorted. Gage’s lips twitched, but not enough to prevent his frown.

He turned and headed for the back door. “Lock this door, Lexi. I don’t want to come in here again and see it open.” And with that parting shot, he left.

Lexi sagged, unintentionally letting Brett take the weight of her body. “God, he’s a pain in the ass sometimes.”

His hands slid down her arms and his chin dug into the crown of her head. “He’s being a good big brother and protecting you.”

“His idea of protecting is my idea of smothering.”

“Cut him some slack. Having a little brother is bad enough. I worry about Hunter all the time. A sister would have driven me crazy. Especially one as headstrong and independent as you.”

“Growing up I was hardly headstrong or independent. I was scared of my shadow.”

“All the more reason for him to be protective. Trust me, old habits die hard. Hunter’s twenty-two now and I still worry about him.”

Brett’s hands rubbed up and down her arms, settling on her shoulders. His thumbs dug into the muscles of her neck and the top of her back.

She groaned in appreciation. His hands were magic. And his mouth. And his eyes. And the rest of him wasn’t bad, either.

Her brain told her to step away, to put some distance between them, but the languid, liquid warmth spreading through her entire body forbade her to go anywhere.

Lexi realized she didn’t know much about this man who’d seen more of her than anyone else in a very long time. At first she hadn’t wanted to know. Knowing meant caring, and she couldn’t afford that.

She’d had no intention of letting him in. But that hadn’t stopped it from happening.

Liking him was inevitable. She wasn’t usually the kind of woman who had sex without some connection with her partner. There was no doubt that her body went up in flames when Brett was close. Hell, it went up in flames every time she thought about him.

But that was chemistry and biology. Getting to know him was more.

Soon enough he’d leave for the life he had back in Philadelphia and she’d stay in Sweetheart. Maybe knowing that would be enough to keep her from falling for him. There wasn’t a future, there was just right now.

Her body thought right now was just fine. The rest of her was still leery of letting him get too close. It would be so much easier if they could keep this just about sex.

But today had made that impossible. At first, when he’d pulled away from her on the treadmill, his rejection had slammed into her, making her insides ache with it. And then she’d realized he wasn’t rejecting her. He wanted something more than a mindless grope in the supply closet.

Happiness and hope had bloomed unchecked. Logically she knew the reaction was seriously stupid, but she couldn’t stop it.

“Hunter’s seven years younger than I am. While we were growing up our mom worked two jobs to keep us fed and clothed. I took care of him. He’s about to graduate with a degree in electrical engineering. I’m hoping he’ll be able to come work for me. Eventually.”

Pride rang through every one of Brett’s words. Lexi tried not to let it matter that he was sharing this with her. Telling her about his family.

“You have the kind of relationship that’ll work? The thought of spending every day locked in battle with Gage makes my head hurt.”

A shiver of dread snaked down her spine at the mere thought. She loved the guy, but he could be a pain in the ass to deal with sometimes. She had to give Hope credit for knowing just how to handle him.

“Yeah. We get along really well. Don’t get me wrong, he pisses me off sometimes, but I’m pretty sure that’s normal. We’ll figure it out. Besides, I trust him implicitly and would rather work with him than anyone else.”

He was close with his family. That surprised Lexi, although she wasn’t sure why. Had she expected him to be a smart-ass, driven, results-at-any-cost kind of man who didn’t care about anyone and had sprung fully formed from the devil?

Even she realized that wasn’t true. And if she admitted it to herself, she had known for a while that he wasn’t as terrible a person as she’d wanted him to be.

She wouldn’t have been able to sleep with him if he had been. Her libido might not have cared, but the rest of her had some integrity.

The pressure of his hands changed. Instead of soothing his touch became arousing.

“Picnic, huh?”

His stubbled jaw brushed against her exposed skin. Another shiver raced through her, but this one was all electricity and awareness.

“The annual Fourth of July picnic. I’m providing dessert for the entire town.”

The corners of his mouth dropped. She could feel the tug at his lips against her skin. “Does that mean you’ll be working all night?”

His tongue whispered up the side of her throat. His teeth scraped gently across her thumping vein, making her pulse leap higher and faster.

She’d never been so grateful for preplanning.

“No.” Her voice was breathy with barely suppressed longing. “I’ve been stockpiling stuff all week. And I finished the last of the pies this morning.”

“That’s what smelled so good when I came in.”

Grasping her shoulders, Brett spun her around. The room revolved a little more than it should have. Her head was woozy with single-minded passion.

He stared at her, his piercing blue eyes silky with anticipation.

“About that bed.”

* * *

T
HE
NEXT
MORNING
,
Lexi bent to load another box into the back of her SUV. She didn’t often have to make huge deliveries—like a car full of enough goodies to feed the entire town—but the space was nice. Especially when she catered. Willow had been trying to get her to branch out into wedding cakes, but she’d been resisting. Baking one was no problem, but the decorating...it wasn’t her favorite thing and took time away from discovering new goodies to bake.

She’d been toying for a while with the idea of posting at her old culinary school for a baker with those skills. The store was doing well enough that she could afford the expense of more help. And someone who wanted to work in cakes could build that side of her business. Jenna would be thrilled. She often had to order cakes from Charleston or Hilton Head for the events she catered.

Brett exited the back door of Sugar & Spice. He brushed against her, gently pushing her out of the way so he could load in another stack of boxes. While she’d grabbed a couple, he had five balanced perfectly in his arms. His biceps flexed beneath the weight.

“If you drop those I’m gonna be upset.”

He flashed her a smile filled with confidence and sexy charm. “I know what I’m doing. These are nothing. I worked construction in college. You should try hauling around cinderblocks and sacks of cement.”

Well, that explained the calluses on his hands. And the tight biceps.

She tried to picture Brett with a tool belt around his hips and a hammer in his hand. Of course, after last night, the vision included him without his shirt on. She had to admit she liked the idea of him using his hands.

He was good with them.

But the dress slacks and suits he normally wore were pretty damn incredible, too. They were like pretty packaging hiding the stunning body beneath. Unbuttoning his shirt last night had been like unwrapping a present on Christmas morning.

Lexi’s mouth went dry. She wanted to do it again. Right now. But they’d be late, and her mother would never let her forget.

She settled for swiping a tongue across her suddenly dry lips and drinking in the sight of him in tight jeans and a light blue polo that perfectly matched his eyes.

He turned around from grabbing another load and stilled midway to the open hatch. “If you don’t stop looking at me that way I really am going to drop these boxes and I won’t give a damn.”

Heat flared beneath Lexi’s skin. “What way?”

“Like I’d taste better than all the chocolate loaded in this car.”

Oh, my. He had tasted better than anything she could ever create in her kitchen. It was funny, a few weeks ago, loading all this temptation into the back of her car would have really stretched the limits of her control. All the delectable scents mingling together.

Now the only thing she could smell was Brett, with the underlying hint of sex to tempt her to sin.

“Nothing tastes better than chocolate,” she finally said.

The last of the boxes were loaded into the back. Rounding the hood, Lexi jumped into the driver’s seat while Brett slipped in beside her.

She still wasn’t entirely certain how this had become a joint venture. They’d gone back to her place last night, finally enjoyed her bed and woken up together. Brett hadn’t even really said anything about joining her...he just had, pitching in as she’d done last-minute preparations.

The drive down Main to the gazebo and community park in the center of town only took a few minutes. The space was normally used for more formal occasions, serving as a romantic wedding backdrop on most weekends. Today, it was filled with the young and old. At the far end of the open meadow, a bouncy castle and a slide had been erected. A horseshoe pit had been dug and a volleyball net set up. Beneath the gazebo’s overhang, the line of chairs normally used during weddings had been replaced by long rows of tables.

A group of men congregated around several large barrel smokers in the gazebo. Her dad and Gage were among them, along with several more members of the town council.

Hope, her mom, Jenna and Tatum, her friend and owner of Petals, the local florist shop, materialized at the back of her car almost before she’d pulled to a complete stop.

Lexi jumped out, using the button on the remote to pop open the hatch.

“I told your brother he should have stopped to help...” Her mom’s slightly censorious voice trailed to a startled stop.

Distracted, Lexi looked up from the box that she’d grabbed off the towering stack. Her mom’s mouth hung open and her eyes were round. Her friends who’d gathered had the same shocked expression on their faces.

“Good morning.” The low, sonorous tone of Brett’s voice had a spike of heat and unease twisting through her. Leaning her head around the side of the open SUV, she looked at him standing beside her car. His arm was propped casually against the open door.

He flashed the group of gaping women one of his charming grins. It seemed to galvanize everyone. Suddenly her friends were all busy, chattering and pointing and looking anywhere but at Brett.

Sugar
. Lexi crinkled her nose.

Her mom moved forward, offering him a hand. “Nice to see you again, Brett.”

He inclined his head. “My pleasure.”

Hope snatched her arm, pulling her behind the barrier of the open car. She whispered, “Lexi Harper, what the heck is going on?”

Her other friends joined them. Lexi threw a desperate glance through the window only to realize that her mom had managed to drag Brett several feet away and currently had him engaged in deep conversation.

She probably didn’t want to know about what. Lexi just hoped it had nothing to do with her childhood. She’d already humiliated herself plenty in front of Brett Newcomb without dredging up unwanted memories.

“Nothing’s going on,” she mumbled.

Tatum snorted.

Jenna just stared at her expectantly, waiting for the details to spill. Hope, ever the journalist, couldn’t resist the urge to dig.

“Gage told me Brett was at your store yesterday afternoon, but he didn’t tell me y’all were sleeping together.”

That surprised Lexi. “How do you know we’re sleeping together?”

Jenna finally volunteered some information. “Mrs. McKinnon has been telling anyone who’ll stand still long enough to listen that Brett didn’t come back to the inn last night.”

Lexi groaned. Great. In about five minutes the entire town was going to know that she was sleeping with him. Just what she needed. Couldn’t she have kept this to herself for a little while? Hell, they’d only just made it to bed last night.

“And even if she hadn’t, I’d have known,” Tatum offered. “That glow in your eyes and the way he keeps glancing over here waiting for another glimpse of you. Waves of heat are rolling off you both. He’d devour you right here and to hell with what anyone would think.”