A Bad Boy is Good to Find (23 page)

“Sure.” Con sounded indignant. Then his mouth turned up at the corner. “Okay, so it wasn’t turned on all the time, but it was there. Like Maisie said, we’ve got spiritual light from within, we don’t need wattage.” He winked.

Lizzie couldn’t help chuckling. How did he always manage to make her smile? He was smiling too. In fact, he looked a bit too cheerful for someone who’d just learned his father was dead and his brother had disappeared off the face of the earth. Lizzie didn’t know whether to be annoyed or relieved or worried.

As if he heard her thoughts, Con turned to Maisie. “Did you find anything out about my brother?”

Maisie wiped her fingers on a paper napkin. “Gia was on the phone all afternoon. We couldn’t find a single trace of him. Social services never heard of him. Is there another name he could have used?”

“I don’t think so.” Con stiffened.

Lizzie swallowed. “Maybe he went to stay with a friend and they left social services out of it?”

“The woman at social services suggested we check records, you know, births, marriages…”

“Deaths.” Con’s mouth flattened into a line.

“There’s no reason to believe he’s dead.” Maisie said it softly. Tilted her head to the side.
How sweet and caring of her
. Her blue eyes sparkled with moisture, and a simpering smile flickered across her pale pink lips. Lizzie’s skin prickled with irritation.

So Maisie was starting her campaign to seduce Con. They were perfect for each other, both had the emotional depth of an alligator.

Lizzie grabbed Con’s hand. “We should go into town and check the records tomorrow.” It wasn’t so much an act of reassurance as one of self-defense. This was turning into
The Con Beale Show,
and she was getting sidelined. If she didn’t watch out, he’d end up marrying Maisie in the final moments of the show and no one would notice she was missing.

Taking her cue, Con shifted closer and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. He kissed her cheek.
Damn
. Why did his lips still spark a tingling reaction that sneaked right into her? His infuriating spicy smell crept up on her too.

“I’d like that.” His lips were almost on her ear. “I’m glad you’re with me, Lizzie. I couldn’t go through this alone.”

Her heart squeezed.

Yeah, yeah, cue the violins. “I’m exhausted. I think I’ll hit the sack.”

Would he follow her? Or would he stay down here chitchatting with Maisie?

“Me too.” Con helped her to her feet.

She heaved a sigh of relief.

Of course, being Con, he took his time thanking the chef for the meal and working the room until everyone was smiling.

He really was her exact opposite, wasn’t he?

As he finally took her hand and led her up the stairs, the horrible drama of the day’s events started to pound in her head.

This was all her idea
.

What on earth would she say to him now?

Chapter 17

U
p in the room, Lizzie stripped down to her black underwear, grateful to have fewer layers between her and the muggy night air. She didn’t bother to suck anything in. He’d hardly care what her body looked like after the day they’d had.

Con undressed while she sat on the bed, scratching at the mosquito bite on her ankle.

He washed his face and underarms at the basin. Filled a glass and drank it. Gargled and spat, rinsed it, then held it up. “Want some water?”

She shook her head and drew up her knees, wrapping her arms around them. “You scare me. How can you act so calm after today?”

“What do you want me to do? Break down sobbing?” He tossed his towel over a chair and strode toward the bed. “Move over.”

She moved, making room on the bed for him. She couldn’t make him sleep on the floor after what she’d dragged him into today. Didn’t even want to.

“Would you like a hug?” she asked shyly.

“Why? You think that’s going to make me feel better?” He stretched out on the bed, muscles cracking. His onyx stare made hair rise on the back of her neck.

“No, of course not. I don’t know.” She turned on her side and faced away from him. Her emotions had been pretty much stretched to the limit today, and there was a real danger she might cry. She bit the inside of her mouth hard and dug her fingernails into her palm.

“Hey.” He rested his hand on her hip. Her skin tingled under his fingers. “I know you just wanted to have a little fun with me. You didn’t know what you were getting into.”

“That’s for sure.” Her words emerged on a sob. She gritted her teeth as a tear crept from behind her squeezed eyelids.

“Don’t cry over me. I’m fine. In fact, I’m glad we’re here. I’ve been shit scared of this place for years. Now I’m back, it’s just another place. And the old man is dead. It sounds a terrible thing to say, but that’s a weight off my mind.”

Lizzie turned to face him. He let his hand slide over her hip, soft and reassuring.

“But it’s all on camera,” she said, her lip quivering. “Surely you don’t want the whole world to know…?” She swiped at a tear on her cheek.

“I don’t mind.” Con looked calm. He smudged her tear away with his thumb. “In a way I’m glad the camera’s here, so I can set the story straight. I have a feeling I’m going to be a different person after this whole experience.”

“You are? How?”

“Because I’m not pretending any more. I’ve been pretending since the day I left that patch of ground you saw today. Pretended I was older to get a job, pretended I was someone else so I could get arrested in Mississippi and they wouldn’t send me back here. Pretended—”

“You got arrested on purpose?” she cut in.

“Sure.” He picked up a curly strand of her hair and toyed with it. “Free food, school classes, you know? I used another guy’s name so they wouldn’t send me home.”

“Oh.” Another tear fell. Con leaned in and kissed it away. His lips soft and warm on her skin.

“I lied about my experience to get work as a mechanic. I’d finally found something I was good at, that I had a real knack for, but I didn’t have any qualifications. I got used to working the angles, being whoever I needed to be to get by.”

His face was inches from hers and she could smell his skin, musky and soothing. He leaned in and kissed her again, this time on the nose.

A strange crumpled sensation pulled at her stomach. Why wasn’t she mad?

“I’ve always lied about my age. I honestly think you are the only person I’ve ever told my real age to.”

“The same as mine,” she murmured.

“Exactly. I’m even born in March, like you.”

“Pisces?”

A smile crossed his lips. “Yup.” He kissed her other cheek “Just like you.”

“But we’re not alike at all,” she whispered, fresh tears welling in her eyes.

“Why not?” He tipped his head back and looked at her, dark eyes narrowed. “Maybe we’re more alike that you think.”

“Because you’ve been through all this…” She waved her hand in the air to compensate for words that wouldn’t come to her.

“Hard times? Lies? Bullshit? Don’t be so sure we’re not alike. You’re going through all that right now.”

“Not like you.”

“Sure it is. The circumstances are different, but the hurt is the same. You’re all alone, making up crazy stories to hustle up some cash. Do you think they really believe you want to marry me?”

“You don’t think they do?”

“I don’t know. I think Raoul does. He’s a true romantic.” His mouth tilted into that familiar crooked smile.

Lizzie squeezed her eyes against the tears but they trickled over her cheeks anyway. Her throat was tight. “I’m sorry, I don’t know why I’m crying, I just can’t seem to—”

“Hey, that’s okay.” He stroked her hair. Leaned in and kissed her cheek in a way that made her skin buzz. “It’s good to let your emotions out. Don’t want to keep them all bottled up inside where they can drive you crazy.”

“How come you don’t?” She swiped at her eyes with the back of her hand.

“Don’t what?” He stroked her shoulder.

“Show emotion? Cry?”

“I don’t know. I guess I just don’t feel that much anymore. Kept everything battened down so long the bolts are rusted. Don’t let that happen to you.”

He cupped her cheek, wiped a tear away, then leaned in to kiss her. “I’m glad of our lie,” he whispered. “Because I like being with you. I like you, Lizzie.”

The next thing she knew, his lips were on hers, hot and forceful, his tongue in her mouth. She shuddered as he gripped her round the waist and pulled her right into him, her belly pressed against his flat stomach.

Hot relief flooded through her as she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tight. She kissed him back even harder as her hands groped into his hair and her breath came in loud gasps. Too much emotion, too much feeling, all with nowhere to go, and it hurt.

Suddenly they were tugging at each others’ underwear and he climbed over her, panting and rolling on a condom he’d rustled up from somewhere. She couldn’t think, couldn’t talk, didn’t know how to do anything but try to press her body against his.

He gave her a rough kiss as he entered her. Something ragged inside her tore a little further, splitting her open and making her cling to him tighter. He pressed against her, grinding, sending shivers of dangerous arousal rippling through her and crashing against the swells of raw emotion. She gripped his neck, gasped and moaned as he increased the tempo, thrusting her deeper and deeper into a frenzy of tortured excitement.

She clawed at his back with her fingertips, wanting him even closer as her teeth grazed his cheekbone and her lips sought his.
Oh, Con. Why do things have to be so complicated?

He moved inside her more slowly now, rocking her hot, wet and slow. Their hips rolled together, and she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him so tight, not wanting to ever let go.

I love you
.

The words danced on her lips for a split second before she bit them back.

Those days were over.

But as Con showered her face with tender kisses she couldn’t help thinking that they might be at the start of a new day.

A series of hard thrusts and deep tongue kisses pushed her over the edge into an explosive climax. She heard her startled cry followed by Con’s groan as he followed her into a post orgasmic realm of breathless silence.

Afterward they lay there, her fingers in his hair as his head rested between her breasts. His hands, one on either side of her torso, held her as if she might try to wriggle away.

“I’ve missed you, Lizzie,” he said, after a long, peaceful silence.

“Missed me? We’ve been together every minute.”

He looked up, hair dipping to his shiny dark eyes. “I’ve missed being close, being intimate. Affectionate.”

She tousled his hair. “Me too.”

Something inside her pulled sharply. A tug of warning.

“Con, why did you come after me? I mean, if you really never loved me. Why didn’t you write the whole thing off as a deal gone south?”

How could she have been so sure he loved her if all the time he was just acting? No one was that good an actor.

A funny fluttering in her stomach accompanied the thought.

Con hesitated. Licked his lips. He slid sideways off her chest and moved up the bed until his head was level with hers.

He ran his thumb lightly over her lips, then pulled his hand back and shifted up onto his elbow. She heard him inhale.

“My father got my mom started drinking. She didn’t drink at all until she met him. He used to brag about it. How she used to be such a prim and perfect little lady until he…” His expression darkened and he looked away.

When he looked back at her, the fierce expression in his eyes made her flinch. “I’ve always prided myself on being
nothing
like my father. Anything he’d have done, I’ll do the exact opposite. You’ll not see me gambling, drinking myself under a table, starting fights. Never. I’ve never laid a hand on a woman and never will.”

He combed his fingertips through her hair, gentle. “But I did give you those first sips of champagne.”

Lizzie bristled. She wasn’t the naïve innocent he assumed. “You think I never tried alcohol before? I’ve been dragged along to cocktail parties since I was eight. I probably had my first spiked Shirley Temple before I turned ten. My mother started cocktail hour at four p.m. every day.”

“But you didn’t. You didn’t want to be like her. You were quite happy with a tall cool glass of chocolate milk—” he hesitated, and the corner of his mouth lifted into a smile.

She stiffened, gritted her teeth.

“And I loved that about you. A woman who knows her own mind! You didn’t try and impress me with pomegranate martinis and champagne with gold bits floating in it. I’d never met anyone like you, Lizzie. You far exceeded my wildest expectations.”

Lizzie’s mind raced, trying to process all this information, most specifically the exact usage of the word
loved
in this context. “Loved” as in “I loved her like no other woman” or as in “I loved her Mary-Jane shoes.” Her graduate-level classes in English Literature had not provided her with adequate interpretive skills.

“But,” he looked sheepish. “You were hard to get close to. Suspicious.” He raised an eyebrow. “Wary as a tiger someone’s just thrown a fresh, thick juicy steak at. Like, where’s the catch?”

“Little did I know,” she said coolly.

“Well, exactly.” Con shrugged and smiled. “You’re a smart cookie.”

“Not smart enough, apparently.”

“Hey, I had more tricks up my sleeve. Champagne being one of them. A glass here, a glass there, and soon you were bubbling over into my affectionate arms.”

His smile threatened to break into a grin.

“You know, you really piss me off, Conroy Beale.”

“I’m just being honest. I guess that’s new for both of us, but I think it’s the best way to go, don’t you?”

His wary glance, suddenly shy and boyish, snuck under her skin.

“I guess I do. So you felt guilty about getting me started drinking when your father did exactly the same to your mother.”