Kitabı oku: «Desiring the Reilly Brothers», sayfa 5

Chapter Seven

Brian just stared at her.

He tried to talk, but his throat closed up tight.

He’d been thinking about her all the way home from the restaurant. Liam’s words had rattled around inside his brain until Brian was forced to wonder if maybe his big brother was right. But if Liam was right, then that meant that Brian had wasted five years of his and Tina’s lives. So, his brother wasn’t right, Brian told himself. Liam didn’t realize that Brian had only divorced Tina to protect her. To save her years of misery.

Sure he regretted letting her go.

Never more than right now.

The old-fashioned wooden clock on the wall ticked loudly, sounding like a much steadier heartbeat than Brian’s at the moment. Moonlight filled the shadowy room, streaming in the front windows like a silvery fog. Lamplight from the bathroom behind her, backlit Tina, defining her outline with a glow that was almost otherworldly.

But she was all too real.

And Brian was a doomed man.

Every inch of him went on red alert. He felt like he was strapped into a jet, parked on a carrier, readying himself for the roar of engines and the heartstopping jolt of takeoff. Adrenaline pumped and his blood raced.

A second later, Tina started talking, and he fought the hunger to pay attention.

“…I locked myself out of Nana’s house after my shower—”

He held up one hand for quiet. “You went outside dressed like that?” he managed to croak, and wondered if the fact that he found that idea incredibly sexy was a sign that he was truly twisted.

She smiled, slowly, wickedly. “I’m perfectly decent,” she said. “Not like I went for a walk down Main Street. Besides, it’s a big towel.”

Not big enough, Brian thought frantically. She looked…beautiful. And edible. And irresistible. And so many other things, he could hardly name them all. Her dark, curly hair brushed her shoulders, and her darker eyes glittered with expectation and a hunger he remembered only too well. His fingers itched to explore the length of her tanned, smooth legs and when she smiled, her lips looked full and luscious.

Then his gaze locked on the towel, knotted between her breasts. His breath hitched. Was the knot slipping?

Please.

Slip.

“Anyway,” Tina said and strolled—there was no other word for it—strolled to the double bed on one side of the room and sat down on the edge. He swallowed hard as that towel edged apart slightly and rode high—too high—on her thighs. “I know you have a spare key for Nana’s place and I didn’t think you’d mind if I waited for you up here.”

He watched her and wondered if she’d sat just there on purpose. Moonlight played over her, gilding her in a soft silver glow that made her even more beautiful than usual.

“No. Don’t mind,” he ground out and swallowed hard. His brain was clouding over. Not good. His body was pumped and eager. Also not a good thing.

Tina scooted around until she was stretched out on the bed, long legs crossed at the ankle, her back against the headboard. The moonlight loved her. As he watched, she lifted both arms and stretched lazily, as if she didn’t have a care in the world. As if she wasn’t nearly buck naked in his bed.

As if she wasn’t driving him crazy with a wild desire that had a stranglehold on him.

“It’s a nice apartment,” she said, letting her gaze slide around the small room.

Now she’s making small talk? he thought furiously. He was a man on a knife’s edge and she wanted to talk about home furnishings? Bullshit. She was playing this out, deliberately torturing him. She knew what she was doing and knew what it was doing to him. No way was she actually admiring his place. He knew exactly what she was seeing. The studio apartment was small, efficient and anything but homey. But it had always suited him fine.

Until now.

Now, he didn’t think the place would be big enough if it were a castle.

He’d still be able to smell her perfume.

Okay, key to his survival here, was to get Tina the hell out of his place as fast as possible. Preferably, without touching her or smelling her hair or…hell. Anything.

“C’mon,” he said, grabbing up his keys and shifting his gaze away from her. There’d be no help for him at all if he kept looking at her. “I’ll take you downstairs and let you in.”

“What’s your hurry?”

He looked.

She turned slowly onto her side.

Brian stifled a groan, but it almost killed him.

Head propped up in one hand, Tina kept her gaze locked on him as with her free hand, she inched the hem of the towel up a little higher on her thigh.

His heart pounded in his chest. He forgot how to breathe. His eyes glazed over.

And then the towel parted. One half of the pale blue terry cloth fell away, displaying a tantalizing slice of Tina’s naked, curvy body to perfection.

Brian groaned. “You’re killing me.”

“So not what I had in mind,” Tina said softly, making no move at all to cover herself.

He scraped one hand across his face, frantically trying to get a grip. And losing. “Your towel fell.”

“I know.”

“I know you know.” Damn it. Why was she doing this? Was this a game? Payback maybe, for him getting the divorce? But if that’s all it was, why wait five years to claim it?

And if it was more, what did that mean?

And if he asked himself any more questions, that didn’t have answers, he really would slip over the edge into insanity.

“This is nuts,” he blurted.

“Maybe.”

His gaze locked with hers, studiously avoiding noticing her bare, beautiful skin. “You’ll be sorry.”

Tina smiled and shook her head. “Not if you’re as good as I remember.”

Like a punch to his gut, her words hit him hard and left him shaky. He was only human, right? Mere mortal? And faced with Tina Coretti, Brian was willing to guess there wasn’t a man alive who could have walked out that door.

Still, he had one last hope. “I, uh…don’t have any condoms here.” Actually, he’d gotten rid of his stash purposely, since he figured with the bet on, keeping a supply handy would only submarine his chances of winning.

She smiled again. “Doesn’t matter.”

“Uh, yeah,” he said tightly. “It does.”

“Brian,” she said, her voice dropping to a husky note that damn near killed him, “as long as you don’t have some socially icky disease, you don’t have to worry.”

Don’t have to worry. So she was on the pill. Okay, there went the last wall standing between him and glory.

It didn’t matter anymore why she was here or what she wanted. Maybe it never had. Maybe since the day she arrived in Baywater, they’d been heading right here. To this place. Maybe it was something they both needed.

She trailed her fingertips up, over her hip, pushing the other half of the towel aside.

His mouth went dry.

His heart hammered in his chest.

“So?” she asked, her voice a whisper in the moonlight as she repeated her earlier question. “Are you as good as I remember?”

Even a Marine knew when to surrender.

Brian grinned and pulled off his shirt. “Babe. I’m way better.”

She held one hand out to him. “Prove it.”

He tore off his clothes, and in seconds, he was there, beside her on the bed. He peeled the towel off her body, then cupped one of her breasts.

“Brian…” she whispered, arching into him, pushing herself into his touch, “I want you so badly.”

“I want you too, baby,” he murmured, dipping his head to taste her nipple. A lick, a nip of his teeth and his words muffled against her flesh. “I’ve always wanted you.”

She put her hands at the sides of his face and tipped his head up until she could look into his eyes. Brian read the hunger in those dark chocolate eyes of hers and something more. Something he didn’t want to think about. Or acknowledge.

She pulled him close and kissed him, nibbling at his bottom lip for a long moment before saying, “Then take me, Brian. Take me and let me take you.”

He was lost.

Groaning, he covered her mouth with his and swept his tongue into her warmth. Grabbing her tightly, he held her close, and took everything she had to give. His tongue mated with hers and his breath filled her as she filled him. He felt the heat of her, pressed along his body and thought wildly that he’d been so cold for five years. So damn cold and he’d never realized that it was because he didn’t have her.

She was the heat.

The light.

Tina Coretti was the missing piece in his life and even if it was for this one night, it was good to have her back. To feel the connection blistering between them. To realize that here, at least, there was nothing else in the world that mattered. Here there was only the two of them and the magic they created together.

She moved against him, and slid her hands up and down his back, scoring his flesh with long swipes of her short, neat nails. And he wanted more. He wanted her to somehow mark him permanently, so that he would always carry a reminder of this night. This moment.

His brain raced, blood pumped and an ache he hadn’t known in five long years built within. Sweeping one hand down the length of her body, he defined every curve, every line of her. He touched, caressed, explored. He tasted, as he shifted over her, trailing his lips and tongue along the line already drawn by his hands. She moved in his grasp, wriggling and sighing softly into the night.

And no music had ever sounded sweeter.

He ached for her.

Sliding down her length, he kissed every inch of her as he moved along her body. She lifted her hips, arching into him, digging her head deeper into the pillow beneath her. Her fingertips scraped across his shoulders as she reached for him, but he evaded her touch, determined now to explore all of her. To rediscover every hidden delight. To touch her as he had before—and as he’d dreamed of doing since.

“Brian,” she whispered throatily, “I need you inside me.”

“Not yet, babe,” he answered, then nibbled at her abdomen, making her hiss in a breath. “Not yet.”

Tina didn’t think she could stand much more. Oh, she’d thought herself prepared. Thought that she remembered what it was like, being with Brian. Being the sole focus of his attentions.

But she hadn’t.

It was so much more than mere memory could provide. The sensations coursing through her ebbed and flowed and rose up again, nearly swamping her with their strength. Her mind fogged over and her heartbeat tripped and staggered. Breathing was almost impossible. She couldn’t think clearly enough to draw a breath—only remembering when she was on the verge of passing out from lack of air. Her vision swam and silvered in the moonlight and she lifted her head from the pillow to look down at the man moving over her.

She reached for him again, but he shifted, sliding around and down the front of her as though he were determined to taste every square inch of her body. She felt the fluttering nips and licks of his tongue and teeth and she shivered in his grasp.

Oh, she hadn’t counted on this, Tina thought wildly, frantically as his hands moved over her hips, her thighs, exploring, defining. Then he was kneeling between her legs and Tina sucked in a gulp of air like a dying woman hoping for five last seconds of life.

“Brian-” she reached for him.

“Shut up, Coretti,” he said, smiling, then scooped his hands beneath her bottom and lifted her hips off the mattress.

Tina grabbed fistfuls of the quilt beneath her and held on. He held her suspended, then deliberately hooked her legs over his shoulders and Tina watched him as he lowered his head and took her.

His mouth covered her, his lips and tongue did incredible things to flesh suddenly extremely sensitive. She held on tightly, fingers cramping in the fragile quilt fabric. The world tilted and only Brian’s grip on her behind held her steady.

She couldn’t look away. Her gaze locked on him.

He swiped her center with a long stroke of his tongue then nibbled at her core, and Tina groaned, rocking her hips into him, following the rhythm of his touch. She staggered toward a release that hung just out of reach and with every intimate caress, Brian pushed her higher, further.

Her breathing quickened and she reached for him again, and threaded her fingers through his hair as she held him to her. Kept his talented mouth in place as her body quickened and raced toward completion.

And when she screamed his name, she let herself fall, knowing that he held her safely.

Seconds trembled past and she shivered again, then opened her eyes to find him watching her, hunger dazzling his eyes. Slowly, he eased her back down onto the mattress, then moved to cover her body with his.

“I’ve really missed you, Tina,” he said, dropping a soft kiss at the corner of her mouth.

“Oh, Brian, it’s been too long.” Her hands swept up and down his back, sliding over the familiar as though it were new.

“Don’t think about that now,” he said, frowning as he bent to kiss her once, twice. “Don’t think at all.”

“Don’t give me time to think,” she said and lifted her arms to encircle his neck, holding him tight, welcoming him with her body as well as her words. Welcoming him with everything she had. Everything she was.

He entered her body on a sigh and she felt—for the first time in far too long—complete.

Instantly, they were caught up in the rhythm. The slap of flesh to flesh, the thunder of hearts beating in time and the desire that pulsed around them, drawing them closer and uniting them into a single unit—as it always had.

Tina held on to him, lifting her legs, locking them around his hips and holding him tight, pulling him in deeper. Rocking her hips in time with his, she followed the frantic pace he set and gave herself up to the wonder of being in his arms again.

Her body quickened, sparkling with a renewed need that Brian hurried to meet. He thrust in and out of her heat, claiming and reclaiming all that had once been his. And she felt the strength of what they’d had and lost shimmering in the moonlight around them.

Her heart ached as her body sang and all Tina could do was hold him, cradle his body within hers and make these moments with him a memory that would sustain her long after she went home.

As the first tremors rocked her, Tina held him even tighter and raced with him to a climax that shook the foundations of everything they most believed. And as his body emptied into hers, she heard him whisper her name like a prayer.

“Damn it.”

Tina tipped her head back on the pillow of his chest and looked up at him. Smiling, she ran the tips of her fingers across his broad chest and said, “Not exactly the reaction most women look for after incredible sex.”

“Incredible, huh?” His mouth twitched, then a heartbeat later, he was scowling. “That’s not what I meant.”

“Well,” she said, turning into him and sliding up the front of his body in a deliberately slow, sinuous move, she brushed her hardened nipples against his chest. “Then I don’t want to talk about whatever you do mean. Not now, anyway.”

“No, we have to talk about this….” His voice trailed off as she slid slowly back down his body, trailing kisses and long swipes of her tongue over his flesh as she went. “Tina, cut it out.”

She smiled against his abdomen. “You don’t really want me to stop, do you?” she teased and shifted even lower.

“Yes—no—”

“Well, that’s clear.” Tina couldn’t let him talk. Not now. She didn’t want him regretting what they’d done because she wanted to do it again. And again. And again.

And not just because she wanted his baby growing inside her.

She did.

But more than that, she wanted Brian’s body growing inside her, filling her, pushing her to heights she’d never reached with anyone else. She wanted him to want her as much as she did him.

She wanted him to love her as she did him.

That thought crashed through her mind and she at last admitted the plain, pitiful truth.

She’d never stopped loving her husband.

She’d never gotten over Brian Reilly.

And she didn’t want to try.

That’s why she wanted his child. If she couldn’t have him in her life, she at least wanted a part of him to love.

“You’re distracting me,” he muttered.

“Good,” she said and lifted her head long enough to smile at him. Then she bent and kissed his hard flesh, stroking the sensitive tip of him with her tongue. He gasped, dragging air into his lungs.

“Still distracted?” she asked.

“Come here,” he demanded and sitting up, reached for her, dragging her along his body until he could flip her onto her back on the mattress. He kissed her, taking her mouth, stealing her breath, giving her his. His tongue met hers in a tangled dance of promise.

“No more talking.”

“Who wants to talk?” she countered, grabbing at his shoulders, pulling him close. This is what she’d missed, she thought wildly. Being a part of Brian’s life. Being able to turn to him in the night and find this warmth, this need, this hunger for her.

How she’d missed Brian.

She parted her legs for him and he moved quickly, eagerly, to enter her again. As if he couldn’t bear another moment apart from her. Tina took him inside and felt the first staggering blasts of reaction dazzling within. He moved, his hips rocking, and sent waves of dizzying pleasure surging through her.

Tina planted her feet on the mattress and rocked hard against him, taking him deeper, higher inside. She moved, and he tormented. His mouth continued its tender assault on hers and as their bodies mated, they clung together, each taking something of the other.

He groaned and Tina swallowed the sound, burying it deep within. The first tiny tremors shook her as they built to an all encompassing finale and as Brian’s body tightened, she held him to her, and this time, they took the fall together.

Chapter Eight

The rest of the night passed in a glorious haze of passion. Minutes crawled past and bled into hours that swept them both along on memories and a rush of desire that had been dammed up too long.

Dawn was just tracking colorful fingers across the horizon when Tina stretched, yawned and turned her head to glance out the window.

Every square inch of her body felt thoroughly used. Brian hadn’t missed a trick and had, in fact, picked up a few new ones since the last time they’d been together. If her heart ached a little at the knowledge that he’d undoubtedly been with other women since they’d separated, she wouldn’t let him know it. She would bury that ache and keep it to herself. After all, she hadn’t exactly lived like a nun for the past five years either.

But she was honest enough to admit, at least to herself, that no one had ever touched her the way Brian did. With another man, it was simply sex. With Brian, it was lovemaking that bordered on the spiritual.

She shifted her gaze back to him and smiled. Even sleeping, Brian didn’t look innocent. He looked—dangerous. And he was. At least to her sense of well-being.

But with his dark blue eyes closed, she could indulge herself by studying him as she would any other gorgeous work of art. His chest rippled with muscles tanned to a deep, rich brown, despite his Irish heritage. A scattering of black hair swept down the center of his chest and disappeared beneath the pale green sheet they’d at last crawled under sometime during the night. One arm cocked behind his head, he slept with a smile on his face and damned if it wasn’t an arrogant, self-satisfied smirk.

But, since she knew a like smile was currently curving her own mouth, she couldn’t really blame him for it. One night with Brian was better than a hundred nights with anyone else. And how sad for Tina to discover that truth only to have to leave him again.

Hopefully though, this time when they parted, she would take a small piece of him with her. She dropped one hand to her abdomen and spread her fingers wide across it, as if already cradling the minute child that might be within.

“When a woman smiles like that,” Brian said softly, “makes a man wonder what she’s thinking about.”

Tina started, then guiltily moved her hand from her belly to reach for the sheet, pulling it up to cover her breasts. “Um…”

He grinned. “Good answer.” Then he turned onto his side, swept the sheet aside and cupped one of her breasts in his palm.

Tina sucked in a breath as his thumb and forefinger teased and tweaked her nipple.

“You’re not feeling shy all of a sudden, are you?”

Brian asked.

“No,” she said, “just a little tired.”

“Not surprising,” he admitted. “Even I usually require more than an hour’s sleep at night.”

But that’s all they’d had, she realized. Because neither of them had wanted to stop touching the other long enough to snooze, however briefly. Finally, exhaustion had slapped them both into sleep just before dawn.

When she didn’t answer, his hand on her breast stilled and his gaze narrowed on her. “Are you all right?”

“Sure,” she said, biting back her second thoughts, tamping down on the first stirring of guilt that was already beginning to nibble at the edges of her conscience.

“Yeah,” he said, sitting up to look down at her. “I’m convinced.”

The back of his neck itched.

Just like it did whenever he was in the field. Even at thirty thousand feet above the earth, a pilot could sense when there were missiles targeting his ship. And it was that very sixth sense that was jangling inside him now like a mission bell blowing in a hurricane wind.

“It’s nothing, Brian. Really.”

“It’s something,” he countered and told himself that he was pretty sure he wasn’t going to like it. All night, he and Tina had connected just like the old days. Despite the lack of sleep tugging at him, he’d never felt more alive than he had at this moment. And he knew without a doubt that once Tina started talking, that well-being was going to fly out a window. And still, he had to know. “Why don’t you just spill it?”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she said.

“Now I know we’ve gotta talk,” Brian told her and felt his stomach clench into fists of anxiety. Something was definitely up.

“Let’s not do this, okay?” she said and abruptly scooted to the edge of his bed and scrambled around on the floor, looking for the towel she’d discarded the night before.

“Okay, when Tina Coretti doesn’t want to talk,” Brian muttered darkly, “there’s trouble. And I want to know what it is.”

She shot him a look over her shoulder, blew her hair out of her eyes and gave him what she no doubt hoped would look like an innocent shrug.

“No trouble. Really. Just looking for a shower and some clothes now.” She didn’t want to have this talk now. Not when she knew it would lead to an argument of apocalyptic proportions. And Tina wasn’t sure she was ready for that. Not when her body was still humming from his touch and her heart was still aching with the knowledge that she loved a man who didn’t want her.

Where did the stupid towel go? she wondered. Not like it could walk off on its own.

“Why don’t I believe you?”

She glanced at him again, tugged the sheet with her, draping it around her body before dropping to the floor. “Beats me,” she said. “Maybe you have a suspicious nature?”

“Talk to me, Tina,” he complained and she heard the impatience in his voice and winced at it.

So much for the happy afterglow thing, she thought as she continued to grope her way across the floor, looking under tables and the edge of the bed for her wayward towel. “You know what?” She staggered to her feet, caught her toe on the hem of the sheet and stumbled forward a step or two. “Screw the towel. I’ll just borrow this sheet to go back to Nana’s house in. I’ll bring it back to you tonight.”

Then she made the mistake of turning around to look at him. Naked and comfortable with it, he was sprawled across the rumpled sheets, braced on his elbows as he watched her. Every square inch of him was gorgeous. He looked like a statue carved by a master craftsman. Well, except for the suspicion gleaming in his eyes.

“Not a chance,” he muttered.

“You don’t trust me with your sheet?”

“I don’t give a good damn about the stupid sheet, Tina,” he said, sliding off the bed and stalking toward her. “I want to know what’s going on inside that head of yours and you’re not leaving until you tell me.”

Tina took an instinctive step backward, then stiffened her spine and stood her ground. After all, she wasn’t ashamed of what she’d done. Well, not totally, anyway. It wasn’t as if she’d had to hold a gun to his head to get him to have sex with her, right? He’d enjoyed himself. Many times.

Although, said a little voice in the back of her mind, if he’d known what you were doing, he never would have slept with you.

But then, she reasoned, however faulty, that’s precisely why she hadn’t told him.

Until now.

She forced herself to look into his eyes, because looking anywhere else would only send her blood into a frothing rush—and she knew darn well that once he knew what was going on…there wouldn’t be any more rolling around on those rumpled sheets.

Their gazes locked and Brian studied her features for what felt like forever. Then slowly, her gaze shifted to one side as if she couldn’t quite look him in the eyes. Not a good sign.

“Last night,” he said, his voice low and dangerous, “when you said I didn’t have to worry about not having condoms…”

Tina reached up and pushed her hair back from her face. With her free hand, she clutched the sheet to her chest like some ancient battle shield. “Yes?”

“You did mean that you were on the pill, right?”

“Not exactly.”

His features froze over. Some unidentifiable emotion—panic maybe, or fear—clawed at his chest. She still wouldn’t look directly at him. Oh yeah, his sixth sense was never wrong.

“Not exactly?” he repeated, remembering just how many times he’d made love to Tina during the night. How many times his little warriors had stormed her undefended beaches. The air in the room got a little thin and he had to gulp in oxygen like a drowning man. “Just what the hell does ‘not exactly’ mean?”

“It means that I’m not on the pill, but you don’t have to worry.”

Not on the pill.

Four words guaranteed to strike fear into the hearts of men everywhere. The world shifted just a bit and he felt as though he were perched on the edge of a cliff and already sliding swiftly toward a crevasse that was going to swallow him whole. And there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it.

Don’t have to worry? he thought. What the hell kind of man did she think he was? Did she really believe he could make a child and walk away? Didn’t she know him at all?

Oh, God.

A baby?

His blood pumped and the furious roaring in his ears sounded a backdrop for the bass drum beating of his heart.

“And I shouldn’t worry because…”

Here it comes. Tina had known all along that she’d have to tell him. That she wouldn’t be able to not tell him. But it was different, now.

Back home in California, when she was talking to Janet, planning all of this, thinking it through, she’d done it objectively. She’d reasoned it all out and the plan had seemed fair to her. She would have the child she’d always wanted and Brian would have the opportunity to either be a part of the child’s life or not, as he chose.

Now though, guilt was a living thing inside her.

Now, she regretted the lie to him—though she didn’t regret her actions, not one bit. She wouldn’t trade the past several hours with Brian for anything. And hopefully, they’d created a child—and she would love it with all her heart.

The problem was, she loved Brian, too. And loving him, she could feel badly for tricking him into this. For taking advantage of the nearly magical chemistry they’d always shared. But if she had to live with guilt to have his child, then that’s just the way it would have to be.

She looked up at him and etched this image of him into her brain. Stern, his face set in hard planes and sharp angles, his eyes glittering with impatience and the first stirring of temper. Outside, the sun was creeping into the sky, sending the first pale rays of light reaching into the shadows of the room. Birds chirped, the wind blew softly and the day moved forward even while time seemed to click to a standstill here in Brian’s apartment.

He reached for her, his hands coming down on her shoulders, his fingers digging into her flesh, branding her skin with heat. “Tell me what the hell you think you’re doing, Tina. I’ve got a right to know.”

She steadied herself, taking a deep breath and blowing it out again before trying to answer him. Then tossing her hair behind her shoulders, she looked him dead in the eye and started talking. “Yes, you do. And I was going to tell you anyway, I want you to know that.”

“Tell me what?”

“That I want to be pregnant.”

He blinked, opened his mouth, then slammed it shut again, clearly waiting for more.

She gave it to him.

“And I’m really hoping that we made a baby last night.”

He let her go so suddenly, she staggered backward a step or two before regaining her balance. His eyes went wide and he looked at her as if she were a stranger who’d wandered into his room accidentally.

“A baby?”

Tina winced slightly at the horrified tone in his voice, but she stood her ground defiantly. A Coretti didn’t hide from responsibility. “That’s right. I wanted a baby and I wanted you to be the father.”

He reached up and shoved both hands along his skull, as if he were trying to keep his brain from exploding. “You wanted,” he said after a long, painful moment of silence. “You didn’t think I should get a vote in that?”

Tina’s lips quirked and her gaze slid past him to the bed and back again. “You voted yes, Brian. Many times as I recall.”