A Tangled Web (A Books We Love Erotic Romance) (3 page)

Aware of his own stiffness, Derek made some adjustments behind the bar.

The beauty's breasts would just fill his hands. Her red lips appeared full and soft, just right for kissing. She was petite and her dress hugged her gentle curves. He slid his eyes down to her legs again. He yearned to touch every part of her body.

She blinked a few times and he knew she was trying to adjust her eyes to the dim lighting in the cocktail lounge. After coming in from outside when it was still daylight, hers was a normal reaction.

Derek folded his arms, spread his feet wide apart and watched her.
Will she react when she sees me?
She had before.

The hot babe took one step, stopped and looked straight at him. Their gazes met and he felt like they'd connected in a place where they were alone. In the room. In the world. Her expression softened and she parted her lips.

Her date took her arm and she jumped as if she'd forgotten he was standing at her elbow. As he steered her towards a booth, he said something to her and Derek caught her name.
Erin
. A lovely name for a lovely woman.

A couple coming from the opposite end of the room, where they'd been waiting for a table, snagged the booth ahead of them.
Erin
's guy shrugged and urged her towards the bar and two vacant stools close to where Derek stood. She hung back and stopped abruptly when she saw how close they would be to him. "Mitch, are you sure you want to sit at the bar?"

She spoke quietly, not looking at Derek.
So, his name is Mitch.

"Why not?"
Erin
's date shrugged again. "Another booth will open up soon. Meanwhile, we can get off our feet and enjoy a drink," he said, patting the stool next to the one he'd climbed onto.

"You can even order your meal and eat at the bar if the wait's too long," Derek said, flashing a smile at
Erin
.

She flushed, which meant she obviously remembered him and, pleased and shaken, he felt his cock surge.

Mitch was blond and muscular. Athletic-looking and not unattractive. But Derek had the feeling he wasn't right for
Erin
. Maybe it was because he didn't want him to be. No. He shook his head. He knew people well and he felt a connection to this woman that didn't allow for a margin of error.

"Yo,
Erin
, I see someone I know back there. I'll only be a few minutes," her boyfriend said, slapping her on the back.

Yo?
What was he? Some kind of leftover hippie or yuppie or whatever? Mitch left her sitting there alone without even ordering her a drink first. She deserved someone with better manners. Derek leaned his elbows on the bar in front of her. "What can I get you?"

She jumped as if he'd startled her. Yet she knew he was there. So something else was jangling her nerves. Excitement? Anticipation?

"Did I scare you by coming so close?" he asked, grinning.

"Something of the sort. My…uh…friend wants a Budweiser. I'd like…" She smiled. "Sex on the Beach."

"So would I, sweetheart," he said, chuckling. "How can that bozo just waltz off and leave a beautiful woman like you?"

Derek moved away to get a glass off the shelving behind him.

"I don't mind," she said, making no objection to his disrespectful reference to her date. "I can take care of myself."

What is that supposed to mean?

She wasn't wearing a wedding ring and she called Mitch her 'friend'. So she was single and Derek was too. The problem was that his freedom would be short-lived.

Her boyfriend returned before he got her drink made. Since he'd so rudely left, he could have stayed away long enough for them to get acquainted.

She was sporting one helluva big diamond on her right hand. Perhaps she'd been engaged or married before.

"How about turning the TV onto a ballgame, buddy?" Mitch, looking up at the darkened screen, asked Derek.

"Customers here don't like TV while they're eating," he said. "Especially sports. That television is mostly for the help to watch when business is slow, and that doesn't happen often."

"Besides, that's why you brought me here,"
Erin
told Mitch. "So we could have a quiet dinner."

"She isn't too fond of Reagan's," Mitch said, nodding his head towards
Erin
while fondling her leg.

So, that's the kind of guy he is. A sports nut. And a groper.
Derek wished he could deck the guy so he'd be forced to unhand the lovely lady. "I'm not familiar with the place," Derek said. If
Erin
didn't like sports bars, he wanted her to know she wasn't alone.

Mitch, apparently displeased with him, swivelled his stool sideways so he faced
Erin
with his back turned to Derek, but Derek listened in on their conversation as much as he could. At first, Mitch did most of the talking, and Derek wondered if she was quiet because she knew he was eavesdropping. Or was she, he hoped, so aware of him sexually that she was too shaken?

After her second Sex on the Beach, she became more animated and soon she'd warmed up to her date so much that Derek suspected she was trying to seduce Mitch. Not that it would be difficult. Any man who wouldn't fuck
Erin
at every opportunity would have to be crazy or dead. So why was she trying that hard?

If Derek could foil her plan to screw Mitch, he would. He didn't like the guy. It was hate from first sight.

A booth opened up and Derek handed him their tab to take with them. Mitch slapped down some money for a tip, picked up his and her drinks and hurried off to grab the available table before someone else did.

He'd left
Erin
behind, leaving her to fend for herself. But smiling at Derek, she slipped a light blue card under the dollar bills before following Mitch.

He picked it up and read…

Wives-R-Us

Household Executives

Dinner Parties Are Our Specialty

Ambiance, Organisation, Home Decoration

Three Charming Ex-Wives With Experience

Leanne Andrews, Margo Hunter and Erin Fox

The address and telephone number for the business were printed on the back. Interesting. She was right. She could take care of herself. He smiled.

Ex-wives. She had been married before. He hadn't but…

Derek read the card again. Open Monday through Friday. His smile faded as realisation set in. Today was Saturday, and a week ago he would have called her the first thing Monday morning. But a week ago, he hadn't made the promise that sewed up his entire future.

Regretfully, he dropped
Erin
's pale blue business card in the trashcan behind the bar.

Chapter Three

Erin
had looked over her shoulder as she and Mitch were leaving Club Rendezvous and Derek was watching. Arms folded at his waist, feet wide apart, as she'd discovered he was prone to stand, he wasn't smiling nor did he wink.

She felt guilty about leaving her card for Derek when she was out with Mitch, but she wasn't sorry. He wasn't wearing a wedding ring, and if Mitch wouldn't go to Angel's wedding with her, she needed a single man who would. Derek was devastating enough to impress everyone there, maybe even more than Mitch. And he was a highly sexual being she'd like to know better if she found it necessary to ask a date.

Of course, she couldn't expect Derek to provide an engagement ring, but first things first. She could somehow come up with a diamond, while she couldn't buy or borrow a man.

Mitch had gotten pretty aroused during dinner and so had she. He'd kept his hand on her thigh on the way back to her house and now that they were in her bedroom, he was eyeing her hungrily. Unzipping her dress, she let it slide to the ivory carpet and he froze with his hand on his belt. She lowered her lashes and smiled seductively. He undid the buckle and fumbled with the fastener on his pants. She pivoted, giving him a view of her ass, which was mostly exposed with only the thong and the narrow, lace garter belt.

When she looked at him again, his breath had quickened so that she could see his chest rising and falling. He let his pants drop and she admired the way his hard-on stretched the fabric of his low-rise briefs. She rubbed her finger along the rigid length, and moaning, he pushed them down enough so that his penis popped over the top and she smiled with satisfaction. She stroked his throbbing rod, and he took her face between his hands and kissed her hard.

She rubbed against him while he tongue-fucked her mouth, thrusting his tongue in and out, faster and faster. She pulled away to push his briefs down his legs, bending her knees as she did so. When her face was at a level with his cock, she kissed the head of it and he moaned again. Her pussy was clenching and her breasts were engorged. He stepped out of the constricting piece of clothing and, as she slowly rose, she darted out her tongue to lick him. But before she could, he pulled her face close and pushed the head of his erection between her lips. Her heart pounded as he held her captive with his penis in her mouth.

"Suck me," he demanded.

His voice was thick with emotion, but she'd planned to seduce him into a long bout of mind-blowing, can't-get-enough-of-it fucking. She hadn't bargained for him just wanting a blow-job. He pumped his male member in and out of her mouth the same way he had his tongue. She was on her knees now and resented the way he was using her. The scent of her perfume hung heavy in the air, and she could feel her secretions wetting her pussy and trickling down her leg, but she wanted him to stop pumping into her mouth. Her vagina ached with desire, and she needed him to bring her to a screaming orgasm. That wasn't going to happen the way things were currently going. No one was going to be satisfied but Mitch. She tried to pull away.

"Don't stop. I want to mouth-fuck you. I want to shoot my juices down your throat. You can come this way too if you'll just let yourself. Suck hard and make me ejaculate."

She felt a rush of adrenaline at his words and, caught up by the fervour that made his voice husky, she drew hard and slid her mouth along his pulsing cock. Excitement fired her body as she realised the power she held over Mitch. He might be holding her kneeling before him, but she possessed the ability to satisfy him or not.

"I'm about to…" His knees buckled slightly as he shot his cum, and the power struggle ended as she sucked it down greedily. Her pussy quivered and she convulsed, her orgasm wetting her legs.

On his knees now, he clung to her, and
Erin
could feel his heart pounding against her black lace-clad breasts. One of her knees had pushed through the fine mesh of her hose. She hadn't even managed to get undressed, let alone perform the striptease she'd planned.

"I love you," Mitch said, softly.

"I love you too,"
Erin
whispered
. Of course I do
, she reminded herself. She rose from her ivory bedroom carpet. This was the moment she'd waited for, but she couldn't elicit a proposal in such disarray, the taste and smell of his fluids coating her face and tongue. "I'll be right back," she said, unsure what the feeling was that bothered her.

He stood and kissed her. "I'll be waiting."

Crossing the room to her peach tiled bathroom, she washed up. She'd definitely turned him on. Mitch was whistling. He was sated for now, and this was a good time to find out how he felt about marriage. She couldn't just wait and hope it would happen. He had to propose soon. Time was of the essence.

After making herself presentable, she re-entered the bedroom to find him propped up against the pillows on her queen-sized bed, the frilly gold and peach bedspread folded back. A glass of Chardonnay sat on her nightstand and he held a bottle of beer in his hand. He'd apparently made a trip downstairs while she was gone.

"You're a handy man to have around,"
Erin
said, seating herself next to him and leaning back. She'd kept her skimpy 'outfit' on in case she could lure him into a bout of fucking a little later.

Mitch chuckled. "I've learned a few things from my marriages. I also cleaned up some spots on the rug."

"You
are
good. Do you miss married life?" she asked, crossing her fingers.

"Not a bit. I can do what I want when I want."

Erin
sat up straight. "If you marry the right person, you can still do that."

"Who are you trying to kid?"

"Mitch Mitchell! You've never once considered us getting married?"

"
You mean you have
?" His tone of voice and facial expression told her that he was genuinely incredulous.

"We have a great time together and fantastic sex." Well, mostly fantastic, at any rate. The words rang hollow but she went on. "I think you and I make a great pair."

"So why ruin everything?" Mitch asked.

That was the way she'd felt when Joseph had tried to talk her into marriage, but she'd gotten used to having someone else around and she missed that, especially now that Joey was away most of the time. "I'm tired of living alone." She hated the pleading tone that had crept into her voice.

He broke into laughter. "Sorry, honey, but I love having a place to myself. Watching the TV shows I like and staying up as late as I want, drinking beer and scratching my ass if it itches."

Mitch put a hand on her thigh and she shoved it away. He wasn't painting a pretty picture. He was not by any means the world's best lover, she realised belatedly, but he must think he was to talk that way. And she had let him convince her.

"Come on,
Erin
. I love being with you, but we both know you're not into sports as much as I am, and you'd hate watching athletic events on the tube all the time."

"I enjoy my privacy, too, but in a house as large as this, we could watch different shows in different rooms, and it's not like we'd be tripping over one another."
Ohmigod, that's a lovely picture of marriage.

"It wouldn't work. I'd feel uncomfortable living in a mansion that's decorated so girly-girl and la-de-dah."

"Feminine and elegant? Is that what you're saying?"
Erin
clipped her words in anger. "You'd rather live in a second floor apartment with leather furniture and a big flat-screen TV. Is that it?"

"Exactly. Sorry, but I'm a simple guy and you're a classy lady. It's a wonder we hit it off, but we did and I'm enjoying every minute. I'm in this relationship for a good time, and a long time, I hope. Perhaps forever, but I never want to get married again. To you or anyone else. I like going home to my own pad at night. So let's drop the subject. Okay? What we have is good."

Tears burned the back of
Erin
's eyes. She had definitely misjudged him.

He snapped her supporter. "Want to have makeup sex?"

"I'm not in the mood now, and Mitch…I think you'd better leave. What we have may be good, but it's not enough."
Not even close. But I needed you and now I need someone…else.

* * *

If
Erin
's eyes weren't still wet from tears when her cordless phone rang, she would have checked the identifier. If she'd checked it and seen that it was her cousin Angel calling, she wouldn't have answered.

Angel's sing-song voice bubbled into her ear. "I'm so happy I caught you at home."

Erin
managed to sit upright in bed and run a hand through her hair. She hadn't slept but felt as if she'd awakened from a nightmare. Unfortunately, it was all real. And it was all over.

She'd burned her bridges and told Mitch she never wanted to see him again. She could tell he didn't believe her and she wasn't sure she believed herself. But what was the use of continuing with no chance of a future together?

It wasn't just because of the upcoming wedding that she was bummed. Once she'd started thinking about a life's companion, and she had been for some time now, she'd become convinced she wanted to marry again. Mitch was certain he never would.

Maybe he was right about them not being suited. Maybe, as Lea suggested, he wasn't her type. Their lifestyles were different and their goals were, too.

"I thought you might be out with your fiancé," Angel went on. "Or is he there? If this isn't a good time to talk, you can call me back."

"Now is fine. He's already left." As usual, Angel was acting thoughtful.
Erin
didn't want to talk any time, but now was as good as any, she supposed. The night was already ruined. "Congratulations on your wedding news."
Erin
tried to sound cheerful but even when she felt that way, she never sounded as joyful as her cousin.

"Thank you so much. I'm really very…lucky…to find someone like…him."

Some of the sparkle had gone out of Angel's voice.
Erin
, slapping her pillow to fluff it, sat taller. "He's the fortunate one if you're the same person you used to be, and I'm sure you are."

"Thank you. I really have missed you, cuz. We always had such good times together."

"Yes, we did."
Erin
picked up the glass from the wine Mitch had brought her and walked downstairs to refill it. Looking into a mirror she passed, she found the seduction outfit now looked tawdry. "Tell me about your fiancé."

"He's tall, dark and handsome. Seriously. Anyway, the reason I called is that I'd like you to be my maid-of-honour. Or matron. Whichever you call a divorced woman."

Ouch
. "Are you sure, Angel? You must have lots of close friends. Don't feel like you have to ask me."

"No, I don't. I mean I really want you, but I don't have close friends. I'm not sure why, but people don't take to me. It's been that way with females all my life, and since I've been grown, men don't seem to either."

Erin
thought she knew why, but she didn't want to have this conversation. How could she tell her cousin that she was so sickeningly sweet, people thought she was a phony?

"I'm sure that's not true. You're just modest."
             

"Will you be my bridal attendant, please? I have a wedding to plan in a short time."

"Okay. That is…I'd be honoured. What colour gowns are the attendants wearing?"

"You're the only one, except for a flower girl, and I'm having blue and yellow for my colours. So you can choose which you want for your dress. In fact, you can choose your gown. Or better yet, why don't you and I go shopping together? It's been such a long time since we did. I haven't bought my wedding gown and you can help me pick it out."

Something wasn't right. Angel and her mother were best friends, unlike Erin and hers. Barbara once compared Julia and Angel to Siamese twins. That might be another reason she didn't have close friends. Hanging out with your mom all the time scared off peers and lovers. Why wasn't Julia eager to help her only daughter select a wedding dress?

"Please,
Erin
. Say 'yes'. We can meet at a shopping centre. I'll find out which ones have bridal boutiques and we'll shop and have lunch together."

Angel was all bubbly again and
Erin
couldn't stand it. She'd lost Mitch and her chance to save face by attending her cousin's wedding with a fiancé, as well as all hope for married bliss of her own. She felt desolate and a day of looking at wedding dresses was more than she could take.

"I'm sorry, Angel. I just can't. Between my fiancé and business, my every waking moment is filled. Plus, "she added, feeling a flash of excitement, "Joey is coming home for the summer and I want us to spend a lot of time together."

* * *

"Back to square one,"
Erin
announced. Sitting down behind her desk, she slumped in her chair. "I need a man and a diamond ring."