Bold (4 page)

“So lush.” He fondled and rolled her nipples. “So perfect.” Worshipping her peaks and globes, he once again began a pace that stoked her arousal inside and out.

While she nearly wept with happiness, Reece made her feel cherished and more beautiful than she had ever felt before. He touched her with so much tenderness, so much passion.
This
was what she had dreamed her first time would be. With the man she loved more than life itself.

Chills skittered across her skin as his palm smoothed down her rib cage, grazing her abdomen to tug on her bellybutton ring. His other hand lay against her back, guiding her down to all fours. Those gentle fingertips turned firm, melting into the flesh of her hips as he pulled her to him. His pace quickened as he pounded into her once, twice, three times, with enough impact that her groans rent the air.

God. He was so deep, thrusting into her with abandon. The slapping sounds their bodies made and their musky scents blending together left her breathless. She glanced over her shoulder just as her orgasm roared to the surface. It was too late for her to prolong the inevitable, and heat and shockwaves rolled through her like a thundercloud, leaving a path of ecstasy in its wake. She cried out, trembling with each quake rippling through her core.

She had barely begun her descent when Reece fell over the precipice along with her. Holding her flush to him, his rigid cock buried deep inside her, he released a long and low groan. His hips jerked once, twice, and then a fiery flood of heat filled her.

When the blood stopped roaring in her head, all that remained was heavy breathing—his, hers—and their hearts beating as one.

Her arms went noodly and she collapsed into the dusty folds of the drapes, Reece falling atop of her. They shared a moment of quiet laughter, and then he sealed his lips to hers. Limbs tangled, they lay together, until the creak of a door broke them apart.

“Reece? Tabs?”

Tabby recognized that voice. It was her brother.

“Fuck,” Reece moaned.

In a rush of movements, the two of them started to gather up their clothes.

“I can’t find my thong.” She panicked, her head swinging from side to side in search of her briefs, while her heart throbbed wildly against her chest. If Devon caught them like this, there was no telling what he’d do.

“Tabby? Where are you?” Concern heightened Devon’s voice.

Attempting to slip her last shoe on, her foot caught on something and she stumbled. “Here. We’re here.” Scooping up a pile of costumes she had chosen before Reece arrived, she slid beyond the stage curtains. Bright lights burned her eyes and they began to water. She squinted hard through a window of tears. When she became accustomed to the glare, she blinked, not liking what she saw.

Devon was frowning. If she wasn’t mistaken, a hint of suspicion darkened in his glare.

“Where is Reece?” he demanded.

“Where do you think?” Reece sauntered out onstage with an armful of the material that they had only moments ago used for a bed.

“What’s she doing here with you?”

She flinched. It was the first time Devon had ever shown any reservation when it came to his best friend.

“Harold. The old fool is becoming senile. He sent both of us on the same errand,” Reece said.

“That doesn’t explain why it’s taking you guys so long.”

Reece’s mouth thinned. “What are you insinuating?”

She barely held her eyelids from splaying wide at their aggressive interplay. “He caught me trying on the costumes—we took a break and had a movie montage. You should have been here. It was a blast,” the words rushed out.

Devon stared from one of them to other. Finally, he released a pent-up breath. “Hey, man. I’m sorry.” His chuckle still held a measure of unease. “It’s just that both of you look like you’ve been rolling around on the floor. I have half the defensive line of the Giants football team mooning over Tabs back at the site. Guess I’m a little on edge.”

Sparing a glance toward Reece, she realized Devon was right. Streaks of dust covered his face and his hair was a mess, spiking up in areas. If she looked the same, then Devon’s concern was warranted.

What was she saying? Devon’s concern
was
warranted. Only moments ago she was making love to his best friend and her body still tingled from his touch.

But damn, she was happy—so very happy.

She searched for some measure of guilt but couldn’t find an ounce of it. It had taken her a lifetime to get Reece to see that they belonged together and no one, including her brother, would come between them. Timing was the problem. Apparently like her, Reece understood that now was not the time to reveal their mutual attraction to her brother because he remained silent.

“I’ll help you load these things, and then we can get back to Tabby’s admirers. They’ve been asking about you.” Another scowl showed how Devon really felt about her newly acquired friends.

Reece tossed the theater curtains into the back of his truck and her thong peeked from between their folds. She almost laughed as he stealthily pushed the panties deeper into the curtains before Devon saw them as he walked up.

“I’ll see you both back at the site.” Devon climbed into his own vehicle and sped off.

A moment of awkwardness hung between Reece and her before she broke the ice and walked over to him, her arms circling his waist as she laid her cheek against his chest. It felt so good when he cradled her against him.

“Tabby?”

“Huh?”

“You know this was a mistake.”

For a second she wondered if she’d heard him correctly. “What?” She gazed up at him, almost choking on her emotion when she glimpsed his troubled expression.

He stepped out of her arms, placing distance between them. “I’m so sorry. I’ve betrayed my best friend and taken advantage of you.”

This couldn’t be happening. She swallowed hard, hurt and disappointment morphing into anger. “The hell you have.”

“Please. Let’s not make a bad situation worse.”

“Bad situation?” Her eyes widened. “Worse?” she repeated, her voice pitching, as she began to pace. “I can’t believe this.”

“Darlin’, please.”

“Don’t
darlin’
me, Reece McGrath. You have taken something beautiful and-and precious, and turned it into something sordid and humiliating.” Sudden fury shook her, or was it embarrassment for the years she’d loved him? “I thought you had finally opened your eyes. That this meant—

“Oh God,” she breathed. Heat spread across her cheeks when she realized what had happened between them had only been lust for him—had meant nothing. He had no intention for them to become a couple.

It hurt to realize she had only herself to blame. Throughout the years she had dogged him. Hell. In the auditorium she nearly begged him to take her. A sudden spasm came out of nowhere, squeezing her chest so hard she couldn’t breathe. Before she made a bigger fool out of herself, Tabby whirled around and headed toward her Jeep.

“Tabby?”

Ignoring him, she yanked open the car door and slid inside, quivering like a leaf caught in a hurricane. How could she have been so wrong? When she saw Reece approaching, she hit the locks.

He tried the door to no avail. “Come on, Tabby. We need to talk.”

No. She needed to go. With trembling hands, she started the vehicle.

“Tabby?”

Jamming the Jeep into gear, she hit the gas pedal. Tires screeched and big rolling tears fell. Blindly she drove down the winding road, for how far and long she had no idea. When she couldn’t see anymore, she pulled over and stopped the car.

She had loved Reece forever. Childhood memories forced her forehead against the steering wheel and made her chest burn with emotion. He’d always been there for her. Protective. Supportive. Caring. There had to be something between them. There just had to be.

Time. He needs more time
. The desperate thought whispered in her ear. That’s what she needed—more time.

Patience and fortitude had dogged her throughout the years. She could hold on longer. In time he would grow to love her. All he needed was to see her as a woman—not a child. The words raced through her mind.

Then she raised her head. Staring through a mist of tears, she realized today proved he no longer viewed her as a child. He had made love to her as a man loved a woman. They had shared the sacred act of give and take.

No. A chill shivered up her back as she released a weak, pitiful whimper.

Love and sex were two entirely different things. What they had done was fuck. She had given her heart, while he had taken, sated a physiological and basic male need. Opportunity and her willingness had been her downfall.

A sob caught in her throat.

What a fool she had become. She tried to control her outburst, but it was useless. When she finally ran out of tears, she felt the need to scream, to rage, to strike out and hurt Reece as badly as she had been hurt, but this wasn’t his fault.

Suddenly the clouds parted in her mind. Clarity opened up so quickly she felt dizzy.

Devon had been right about Reece and she had been wrong, so wrong.

If she was to survive, Tabby had to accept the truth. Reece would never come to her as she had dreamed. It was time to wake up.

Facing the facts hadn’t been easy on her, but necessary. After the festival she would close the book on her childhood, return to school, and move on with her life.

Now if only her heart would go along with her new plans.

For the umpteenth time, Reece mentally chastised himself. He couldn’t believe what he allowed to happen. Making love to Tabby was the last thing he had on his mind when he arrived at the school. But the pain rimming her eyes when he had stumbled over his apology came back to haunt him.

He had hurt her.

As he maneuvered into a parking space, he could see the work on the cottage had come to a stop. Devon was chatting with Jack, both of them staring in Reece’s direction.

When he got out of his vehicle and approached, Devon eyes narrowed. “What’s wrong?”

“Wrong?” Reece answered, when he knew that everything was wrong. Tabby had led him down the streets of heaven only for him to have an attack of guilt—a mental tug-of-war between his conscience and desire for a woman who had turned his world upside down.

“You look like someone ran over your dog,” Devon said.

Reece forced a laugh. “Nah. I’m just tired. I’ll be glad when these booths are finished.” Yet what was really needling him, dug so far beneath his skin that it was beginning to feel part of him, was Tabby—her touch, the taste of her lips and the feel of her body moving against his.

Jack looked over Reece’s shoulder. “Where’s Tabby?”

“She mentioned a couple of things she had to do. I don’t know when she’ll be back.” One thing he knew for damn sure was that she wasn’t coming back to the building site. Not after she left like a bat out of hell, driving in the wrong direction.

“We’re finished here.” Jack wiped his hands with a rag, tossing it over a sawhorse. “If you see her, let her know I’m getting cleaned up and I’ll meet her at the Seaside Pub.”

As the man went to retrieve his friends, Devon breathed, “Over my dead body. Are you joining me to make sure these jocks stay in line tonight?” He quickly snapped his fingers. “Forgot about your date tonight with Lauren. Maybe the two of you can join us after dinner.”

Lauren?

Reece also forgot about his date with her, as well as the four men who would be sniffing at Tabby’s heels all night. He didn’t relish witnessing firsthand their attempts at seducing his woman, but he had no choice because tonight was the first night to pay up on the bet he’d lost to Hauk.

His woman? Now where the hell had that come from?

Could this day get any worse?

“Yeah. We’ll be there after dinner,” Reece groaned.

After begrudgingly thanking Tabby’s friends, he said goodbye to Devon and began to lock up the supplies inside the small cottage. Thursday they would paint the house and attach the shutters and other trim after it dried. Then they’d focus on the sultan’s tent. It was almost over.

He should be happy, but he wasn’t.

Less than an hour remained to get home, shower and get to the restaurant. Climbing into his truck, he realized the last thing he wanted was to go out to dinner with Lauren. The woman was attracted to him, and before this afternoon he could have said the same, but not now. Everything had changed. Now he couldn’t think past the knowledge that another man might hold Tabby tonight, and he had no right to stop it from happening.

The weariness inside him intensified as he drove home. During the drive, the feeling that he had let something precious slip through his hands niggled at him. The truth of the matter was, Tabby deserved more than he could provide. Most of the time he was traveling out of state and sometimes out of country. A man like him would suck as a husband. And he didn’t even want to think what kind of an absentee father he’d make.

Where that line of thinking came from he had no idea, but it didn’t make him feel any better about what he had to offer a woman.

Pulling into his garage, he remained in the vehicle, thinking how he had screwed up one of the most exquisite moments in his life. In a burst of self-reproach, he swung the door wide and got out and entered the house. Immediately, he noticed something he never had before.

Silence. No dog. No cat. Not even a damn bird to welcome him home.

Yet before today—before Tabby—he had been content with his career and life.

He had plenty to be thankful for. Both he and Brody were successful. Between them their mother was set for life. The wife of a dead sailor had it rough. Their childhood hadn’t been easy. She had sought odd jobs to keep her children fed and clothed, scraped every penny to put Brody through school while Reece had buckled down on his studies and received scholarships.

“Damn you,” he groaned. Tabby had thrown a huge wrench into his perfectly planned world.

On leaden feet he walked through the spacious kitchen that bled into the family and dining room, making an open room. No matter where he stood, he could gaze out over the ocean. The four-bedroom house was too large for a single man. What had he been thinking when he built it? At the time he had considered what type of house would be good for resale. Yet he had been fooling himself. He never planned to leave Whispering Cove.

As he entered his bedroom, decorated in dark tones and distinctly male furniture, bulky and heavy, he tore his T-shirt over his head and stopped, smelling paint thinner, dust and something distinctively erotic.

“Tabby,” he whispered.

He hadn’t noticed until now that her scent coated his skin. The woman had marked him as thoroughly as if she had tattooed her damn name on his ass, or more accurately, his heart.

No. Not his heart. It couldn’t be his heart.

They were friends—only friends.

After undressing, he slipped into the shower, soaping and rinsing quickly, before stepping out on the throw rug to dry off.

He would have been dressed and out of the house sooner, but he added a little extra cologne to smother Tabby’s scent, only to end up smelling like a gigolo in a French whorehouse. Try as he might, her sweet fragrance lingered, even after he jumped back into the shower and changed his clothes twice. Now he prayed Lauren didn’t get the wrong idea and think he was trying too hard.

The drive to the restaurant had been a short one. He sighed when he saw the parking lot jam-packed, so he drove down the street and pulled his vehicle to the side of the road, turning the ignition off. The rich aroma of charcoal and barbeque mixed with the usual seafood fare wafted in the cool night air.

When he entered the steakhouse, Lauren was waiting for him at a table. She smiled sweetly as he slid into the booth across from her.

“You look nice tonight, Lauren.”

And she did.

Instead of the uniform she wore at the police station, she had on a sundress with a light wrap that joined her long blonde hair to drape across smooth, creamy shoulders. Shoulders he had once thought about exposing and nibbling on, but they didn’t appear that appetizing tonight.

“So do you.”

“Thank you.” He reached for idle chatter while his mind wandered to the Seaside Pub, wondering if Tabby had arrived. “Did you have a good day today?”

“A slow day is a good day for us.” She paused, angling her head as she curiously stared at him. “Everything okay?”

“Just a lot to do. Guess I’m a little tired.” And distracted, but he left that excuse unspoken.

She took a sip from her wineglass. “How are the booths coming along?”

“The cottage will be finished tomorrow, and then we’ll start the sultan’s booth structure either later that evening or early Friday morning. It shouldn’t take us more than three hours.”

“You’re cutting it close.”

He sighed. “You’re telling me.” It seemed as if he was cutting a lot of things close these days.

“Sultan’s tent? That sounds interesting. Did you have a harem of women in mind when you thought of that idea?”

“The design of the sultan’s tent was Tabby’s brainchild, the cottage as well.”

“Hmmm…” Lauren raised an inquisitive brow. “Sounds like the two of you work well together.”

There was that insinuation again that Tabby and he worked well together.

He made a noncommittal throaty noise before he picked up his water glass and took a drink. “What’s good here?”

He grabbed the menu, hiding his thoughtful expression behind it. Not only did he and Tabby complement each other on the job site, they were beyond believable in bed. Memories of her hands touching him, her rapid breaths, her sensual cries, made his cock twitch.

“Since this is my first time here, I can’t say.”

Shit. He was such an idiot.

“That’s right.” Where the hell was his game face when he needed it? And, why couldn’t he get thoughts of Tabby out of his fuckin’ head? “So what looks good to you?”

Returning his gaze to the numerous items available, he attempted to focus, but the image of Tabby in his arms returned with a vengeance.

“Reece?”

He lowered the menu and gazed at Lauren across the table.

“Where are you tonight?” She softly added, “Because you’re not here with me.”

“I’m sorry.” He placed the menu on the table and ran a hand over his head. “It’s just this damn festival—” The partial truth came easily.

“Since we both have to eat, why don’t we order and then call it a night? I’m supposed to help Andie with some of the festival arrangements early tomorrow.”

He wanted to take Lauren up on her offer, but instead he took the gentlemanly approach. “I thought perhaps we’d stop in the Seaside Pub after dinner. Maybe dance.” At least that had been his plans earlier in the week.

Before she could respond, a male waiter clad in black slacks and an iron-pressed white shirt and tie stepped up to their table. “Sir, would you like a drink or cocktail?”

Several shots of whiskey with a beer chaser came to mind. “I’ll take a beer, and I think we’ll start with stuffed mushrooms, if the lady agrees.”

“Sounds delicious.” Her eyes twinkled as she gazed at Reece.

“Are you ready to order?” the waiter asked.

After selecting two prime ribs, baked potatoes and rice, Reece found himself at a loss. He never had a problem talking to women. Of course, he had never been with one woman while thinking of another either.

“So is my brother treating you right at work?”

“Brody is a pleasure to work for.”

Knowing that she had only lived on the coast for about eighteen months gave him thoughts on what next to say. “How do like Whispering Cove?” He couldn’t remember where she lived previously.

“It’s beautiful here and the people are so friendly. It’s a great place to raise children.”

He had never looked at his hometown in that vein, but now that Lauren mentioned it, the quiet village had been a wonderful place to grow up. Maybe that’s why Brody and Andie had decided to remain there and raise their family. If he ever considered having children, Whispering Cove would be his choice too.

Their conversation flowed easily through the appetizers and the clam chowder, but slowed during dinner. As he raised another juicy piece of steak to his mouth, he realized it was nearing nine. The Seaside Pub would be in full swing. Tabby would be in full swing. His only saving grace was that Devon would be in attendance to look after his rambunctious sister, and due to the damn bet with Hauk, so would Reece later tonight.

“Reece, this has been lovely, but it’s getting late.” Lauren studied him as if dissecting him limb by limb. “I should leave.”

Guess he hadn’t been successful in hiding the fact he was preoccupied.

As she started to rise, he said, “What about dessert?”

“Skipping it. I’m saving up for the festival’s goodies.” Lauren tugged her wrap around her shoulders.

Crawling out from behind the booth, he reached in his pocket and pulled out a couple of large bills, throwing them on the table before he followed her outside.

When they reached her car, he realized he’d really messed this date up. “Good night, Lauren.” He opened her door, and then leaned in, kissing her on the cheek. “We’ll have to do this again.”

“I’d like that,” she said. Yet he got the distinct feeling she wouldn’t be holding her breath.

He watched the taillights of her vehicle fade before he headed down the street to the Seaside Pub. It was a short walk, besides there might be a chance he wouldn’t find another parking spot any closer. If he’d been smart, he would have gone straight home. Hauk would understand. But nooooo.

Reece McGrath couldn’t do the smart thing.

He was rewarded for his impetuousness when he stepped inside the pub, coming face-to-face with the woman who had effectively left her brand on him.

Tonight Tabby had exchanged her beloved knee-high boots for four-inch spiky stilettos that complemented every curve of her silky legs. He got an eyeful since her black leather skirt had to be the shortest he had ever seen. Her matching halter top plunged low in the back, as well as in the front, displaying more than it concealed.

Holy shit! Devon must be having a coronary because Reece’s heartbeat had screeched to a halt. He had yet to close his mouth and raise his chin from where it lay somewhere on the floor.

“Reece.” Indifference bounced off his name.

“Can we talk?” he asked hesitantly, gauging her mood.

“Nothing to say. Today has already been forgotten. Have fun.” She spun around, and just like that she brushed him off as easily as if she had flicked a pesky insect off her shoulder.

Tabby’s survival mode kicked in, screaming,
Keep it together
. She would never let Reece know he had demolished her as thoroughly as if he had been the wrecking ball and she the weak, unstable building waiting to be torn down. But that’s exactly how she felt running into him. Her damn legs even threatened to give out beneath her. Add a huge dose of embarrassment and shame and she was well on her way to winning the biggest loser award, and it had nothing to do with losing weight.

Narrowing her sights on the bar, she prayed she wouldn’t trip, fall or worse, break into tears. She’d cried enough. Now it was time to pull up her big-girl panties and have the time of her life tonight, forgetting about Reece.

“One-fifty-one and Coke,” she hollered over the loud crowd.

Hauk gave her a concerned glance. “That’s your third, Tabby.”

“My man can count,” Vic said with a giggle. She put a knowing palm on his shoulder before she moved from behind the bar to join Tabby.