A Bad Boy is Good to Find (28 page)

“No way, what if someone—” She shrieked as her shorts and panties slid down her legs with one silky movement of his hand under the water. She reached out to grab them as they floated, separately, to the surface a couple of feet away.

“Con, they’re drifting. They’ll get lost!” She kicked against him, splashing.

“They’ll give someone downriver a nice surprise.” His gator grin gleamed in the moonlight. She gasped as her bra came unhooked. “You’ll have to loosen your arms so I can get it off.”

“No way!”

He focused on the little buttons of her blouse, undoing them in the darkness with skill. “Come on, wrap your legs around me, like this.” He maneuvered her thighs into position around his hips, so his erection teased her bare crotch. Moonlight glazed his striking features and the smile playing across his sensual mouth. “You look like a river goddess with your hair trailing out behind you.” He kissed her lips with gentle intensity that stole her breath and made her heart throb. Suddenly her top and bra were floating away on the quicksilver surface of the water and she didn’t seem to care.

“Did your Depo shot wear off yet?” His totally unromantic question made a giggle explode out of her.

“Why? You don’t want to get me pregnant now you might have an inheritance to share?”

Con laughed, his face right in hers. “Is that how rich people think?”

“You bet.” Her chest bumped against him as she chuckled. “And lucky for you I’ve still got another month left.”

“Thank God,” he murmured huskily, as he set about devouring her throat. As her fingers roamed over his back and up into his thick, wet hair, his erection thickened and hardened at her crotch. The silky water lapped at her breasts and she wriggled her hips, reveling in the sensation of the river water flowing over her sex and the delicious hardness of Con wrapped all around her.

She tightened her arms around his neck as his strong hands cupped her buttocks and he slid inside her, filling her. He buried his face in her neck for a hard love bite that made her nipples sting.

“Con, that’ll leave a bruise,” she gasped.

“I know.” He grazed her collarbone with his teeth. “I want everyone to know you’re mine.” His dark gaze roamed over her face.

“They already know. We’re getting married, remember?”

Con didn’t answer her question, instead he thrust hard, and she shuddered in response, gripping him. His eyes squeezed shut, and he kissed her lips so tenderly that it made her heart constrict.

Do you take this man to be your wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forth as long as you both shall live
?

Con held her so tight, his arms wrapped around her with such force she couldn’t imagine he’d ever let go.

I do
.

She pulled herself even closer, wrapping her arms and pressing her cheek to his as her eyes squeezed shut. A surge of emotion threatened to choke her.

It’s just lust
, she tried to tell herself, but as Con nuzzled her gently and rubbed her back, she got a sneaking feeling she was up to her neck in something a lot stickier and more complicated than lust. She wriggled as sensation built inside her. Rocked her hips against him, making waves in the water as waves of emotion rolled through her.

I love you
.

She struggled not to let the words slip out. She didn’t want him to have that kind of power over her. Or if he did, she didn’t want him to know about it, unlike last time.

Why couldn’t she control her feelings for this man
?

“What’s the matter?” Con’s soft voice made her realize that her sob of emotion had been audible.

“Nothing,” she lied.

She honestly didn’t know if it was love or hate or pain or tenderness or whatever, but she felt more for Con than she could express in words or thoughts.

He’d changed her, and if she wasn’t mistaken, she’d changed him too.

“Hold your breath,” he whispered.

“What?” she started to say, then she gulped air as he ducked them both below the black surface of the water.

Panic that tightened her legs around him turned to relief as they exploded up above the surface of the water again. Con’s cock danced inside her, and she gasped, water streaming over her face. Hands on her waist, he drove her to a fierce splashing climax and a scream that echoed down the bayou and out to the Gulf of Mexico.

Con’s wet hair hung to his gleaming eyes. The reflected moon danced in their black surface, vying with an expression so intense, so unreadable, that Lizzie couldn’t look away.

“Lizzie! Where are you?” Maisie’s voice pierced the viscous darkness, and the beam of a flashlight danced off a nearby tree.

“Oh, no.” Lizzie hid her face in Con’s neck.

“Don’t want cousin Maisie to catch you bare-assed in the bayou?”

“Not really.” She scanned the dark water for her clothes. Nothing.

“We can duck beneath the surface again.”

“No thanks!”

“Lizzieeeeeee!” That grating voice was getting closer. The beam bounced off the grass, illuminating Con’s white shirt. “Conroy? Where are you?”

“We’d better disengage,” whispered Con. Lizzie wiggled free of him. The water felt sensational on her aroused flesh. What did she care if Maisie saw her naked in the bayou making love to Con? She’d be jealous. You’d never catch Mr. Stick-Up-His-Ass Dwight going at it out under the stars.

“We’re here!” she called on impulse. “No cameras though, please, we’re X-rated.”

Con chuckled and Lizzie buried her face in his neck with a snort of laughter.

She hid her breasts against Con’s chest as the flashlight beam hit them dead on. “Oh, there you are,” said Maisie, casual as if she’d found them reading. “We’re off to a restaurant for dinner, and I didn’t want you to get left behind.”

“You hungry?” whispered Lizzie.

“Only for you,” Con breathed against her neck.

“We’ll find some leftovers in the kitchen. We both need an early night.”

“It’s a very famous restaurant. Authentic Cajun, Con, you’ll really enjoy it.”

Con shook with silent laughter. “Bring back some boudin for me, okay?”

Maisie paused, perhaps writing something down. “Will do. Alright then, see you later.”

They collapsed in giggles as Maisie strode away, flashlight beam bouncing with her purposeful stride.

“You know, you can knock your cousin but she’s quite a woman. Just needs the right man to straighten her out.”

Lizzie bristled at his arrogance. “She’s got one. His name’s Dwight and he’s a very dignified bond broker. I don’t think she wants a Neanderthal to carry her off over his shoulder.”

“Don’t be so sure.” His teeth flashed in the moonlight.

“Neanderthal! Just because you—”

Her words were lost as she gasped for breath when Con pulled them both under the water again. As they burst up, gasping, she pummeled him with her fists. It was a very token gesture as she certainly didn’t want him to let go of her.

“I like the way you look with water running all over you.”

“I bet you do. It’s that Neanderthal thing.”

“Yeah.” He looked at her steadily, eyes shining. “I’ve got it bad. I want to drag you back to my cave and make love to you some more by firelight.”

“We’ll I’m not going anywhere with no clothes on.”

“Then I guess we’re stuck here. I like it. No one here but us.”

“And the alligators and snakes and crawdads and herons and mosquitoes and…”

“Yes. Isn’t it beautiful,” Con’s voice was dark with wonder. “Look.” He pointed down the bayou where it rolled away in a lazy curve, iridescent with moonlight. Overhanging trees on the far bank kissed the water with their branches. The air pulsed with the heady thrum of tree frogs calling for their mates. “I’d forgotten how perfect it is here.”

Lizzie’s chest tightened, and not just because of the creepy crawlies.

“You’re shivering. We’ll get out.” He splashed toward the bank, holding her tight. “The vans have all driven away.”

“My hair’s wet. It’s going to tangle.”

“I’ll comb it for you.” He pushed a soggy lock behind her shoulder, supporting her with one arm like she weighed nothing. “You have the most beautiful hair I’ve ever seen, my river goddess.”

Sweet talker.
Still, with moonlight and the warm night air on her skin she felt beautiful, sexy and alive as Con let her feet down on the prickly grass.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been outside naked before.” She giggled as Con handed her his shirt.

“Yeah, I guess you kept your top on that time in the desert, didn’t you? This time was better. I could feel you right there with me.”

Lizzie blushed in the darkness. She hadn’t held herself back this time. Probably couldn’t have if she tried. Con had gotten right under her skin again, damn him.

They strolled back to the house holding hands, Con buck naked and totally unself-conscious, even when he kissed her and grew hard again.

He’d been irresistible as a fantasy man, in the role she’d conjured and he’d so easily assumed. But somehow as a real person, with problems and hang-ups and deep, deep flaws, he was even more dangerously captivating.

“Let’s find our way up to bed and get the sheets sweaty,” he whispered, as he pushed open the door into the dark house.

“Okay.”

Chapter 21

T
hey never did get around to combing Lizzie’s hair, and by the next morning it was a rat’s nest of tangles. Raoul was actually breaking a sweat trying to get a comb through it at the dressing table in the bedroom.

“Girl, whatever did you put in it?”

“River water,” murmured Lizzie.

“You washed it in the river? Your hair doesn’t need washing every day. You could have waited. And why didn’t you use conditioner?”

Lizzie chewed her lip to stop a sly smile sneaking across her face.

Raoul tut-tutted. “I’ll have to talk to that boy. He’s interfering with my professional responsibilities.” He spritzed more detangler on it. “Can you believe all the fuss they’re making over him?”

“What fuss?” Maisie had whisked Con away while Lizzie was barely awake.

“The local paper ran a last-minute story about him that’s out this morning. Got a big picture of him on the front page looking like a movie star. Has a whole bit about his tragic past and how he might be the missing heir to this place. They’re eating it up like shrimp étouffé. ”

“I guess it’s a slow news day.” Lizzie chewed her brioche, wondering why she suddenly felt nervous.

“Phone’s been ringing off the hook ever since. Some other news stations want in on the act. There are vans from Baton Rouge and New Orleans out in the driveway.”

“Well, that’s good, isn’t it? All the more chance he’ll find his brother.” So why did her stomach feel so queasy?

What would this brother be like if he was still alive? Not many people would have Con’s sunny disposition after a childhood like that. Maybe what that asshole lawyer said about calling the local prisons wasn’t so far off the mark.

She took another bite of brioche.

“Nervous about meeting the in-laws?” Raoul read her thoughts.

“I’m nervous about everything,” she confessed. “Con never told me any of that business about his family. It was a horrible surprise. What’s next?”

Raoul stopped combing. “Hey, if that was your story, would you tell it to the beautiful girl you wanted to marry?”

Lizzie bit her lip. “I don’t know.”

“You probably would. You’re the up-front, in-your-face type. I like that about you.” He started combing again. “And that’s why you’re perfect for Conroy. Some girls would have just let sleeping dogs lie. Who cares where he’s from, right? He’s cute.” He winked. “But not you. You’re not that easy.”

No? She’d been ready to tie the knot when he was a virtual stranger with a past she’d unwittingly invented.
Sucker.

Raoul paused again, held her gaze in the mirror with those all-seeing almond-shaped eyes. “I know why you’re here.”

Lizzie’s stomach tightened.
To make fifty thousand dollars fast
.

“You have all kinds of reasons you think you’re here for.” He leaned in and she could smell his expensive cologne. “But you’re really here because you needed to know all about Conroy. The good, the bad and the ugly.”

Did I
? She had no idea anymore. Hadn’t it been just a cruel joke? Maybe it always was more than that. About getting under Con’s smooth, tanned skin and seeing what made him tick. And now that she had…

She was crazier about him than ever
.

“Keep your head still. What are you doing?” The comb tangled in her hair as she sprung from the chair.

“I need air!”

“You need detangling, sweetheart. I wouldn’t go downstairs with all those cameras looking like this if I were you.”

She collapsed back into the chair, heart thumping. “I really do love him.”

“I know.” He sprayed more detangler on her hair.

“But,” she hesitated, watching his sharp profile in the mirror. “He doesn’t love me,” she said softly.

“Oh, yes he does,” Raoul replied without breaking his combing rhythm.

“No, really, you don’t understand—” She groped for the right words to explain without giving too much away.

“Sweetheart, there are a lot of things I don’t understand, but one thing I know for sure, that boy is head over heels in love with you. Now sit still or we’ll be here all day.”

Lizzie came downstairs to find everyone outside, in front of the house, filming Con and his supposed ancestral estate.

She stood in the hallway, wondering why no one had asked her to come on camera. Gia crashed in through the front door, running.

“Gia, am I having another dress fitting this morning?”

“Um, I don’t know. I need to find something. Ask Maisie.” And Gia darted past her.

Lizzie didn’t want to come out the front door into the shot, so she went out the back door and crept around the side of the house. Four TV vans with satellite dishes on top cluttered the long oak-lined drive. Con stood in front of a camera, next to a reporter in a bright blue suit. Dino crouched off to one side, filming the interview, and Maisie hovered next to him with her clipboard in her hands and an expression of fierce excitement on her face.