Getting Lucky (12 page)

Damn, now he was definitely going to have to apologize to Tucker for interrupting him and Delaney that first night.

TJ sighed. He loved Delaney and Tucker and he fucking hated lying. But the truth about who Hope was and why she was here wasn’t his secret to tell.

And of course, all of this was already complicated and, yes, crazy. Of course, getting involved with Hope from the beginning was a bad idea. And of course, he’d realized that
after
he’d opened his big mouth to help.

He’d thought he’d given up keeping secrets the night Michelle had walked out of his house for the last time. Secrets hurt, and they never stayed secrets.

Fuck. This was all a mess.

The minute he’d felt his dick stir, he should have known it would be.

When the front screen door bumped shut behind Tucker and Delaney, TJ turned to Hope. “I should have run the girlfriend idea by you before I said it,” he started.

Where the hell else was he going to start?
I need you to leave now before things get more difficult
or
take your clothes off
? Those were the only other things going through his mind at the moment.

“I’m surprised, but not upset,” Hope told him.

He could not look away from her lips.

He was a breast man and Hope had
very
nice ones, but damn, there was something about her mouth. He was a little obsessed with it. And considering she had been using it to talk almost nonstop about things he didn’t talk about with anyone, that was nothing short of amazing.

“You’re not upset?”

“I figure you had a good reason for saying it.”

It was
that
—the confidence she seemed to have in him and the sense that she knew him—that was driving him the most nuts. How could she know him? How could she trust him already? How could she have him pegged? He knew for a fact he was hard to figure out. He’d been told so on multiple occasions by a variety of people. It was a badge of honor of sorts after having his entire private life spilled all over town.

But Hope definitely wasn’t put off by his surly, complex façade.

“And you just trust my reason?” he asked, kind of wanting to hear her say it.

“They’re your family and this is your house. I’ll follow your lead.”

“It was the easiest way to explain why you’re here and that we were…”

“Kissing,” she supplied when he trailed off.

That had been more than kissing. He’d been trying to drink her in. He’d been trying to absorb her and possess her. Given one less layer of clothing, one firm surface or three more minutes, and he would have been buried deep in her body and fucking her brains out.

He wondered what she’d think if he told her that.

But looking into her huge green eyes, he knew she would love it.

So maybe the crazy notion of her already knowing him wasn’t so crazy. He definitely felt as if he was figuring her out quickly. Maybe she didn’t have many inhibitions, but there was more to her than the hippie he saw on the outside.

That did not, however, mean she wasn’t crazy.

Hell, his intense attraction to her was the first clue that she had to be crazy. That was his type. At least that was the type he was naturally drawn to. A guy could change though.

And a guy could only be grateful he wasn’t dead, in prison or addicted to something so many times before he wised up.

Crazy girls would be the death of him if he let them.

“Yeah, the kissing,” he finally said. “Hard to explain that any other way.”

“Except that there
is
another explanation.” She moved in closer. “We are very attracted to one another, the opportunity presented itself, and it felt really good.”

That was the biggest understatement he’d heard in a very, very long time.

“That will still lead back to the question of what you’re doing here in the first place.”

“You don’t want them to know about me and Dan?”

“You and Dan are between you and Dan,” TJ said, really wishing that was true. Unfortunately, in Sapphire Falls, and particularly in the Bennett family, everything was between everyone. Dan wasn’t technically a Bennett, but he was a close family friend. Once you were important to one Bennett, you were important to all of them. And that meant your business was their business. “It’s a touchy situation. I think you and Dan need to meet and talk before anyone else gets involved. If he wants to keep Jo and Peyton out of it, then I’ll respect that. I hope you will too.”

She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and thought about that. Finally, she said, “Yes, I will. Of course I will.” She shrugged. “I don’t really have a lot of experience with family dynamics. You, on the other hand, seem to have
a lot
. I’ll take your advice here.”

A lot of experience with family dynamics? Yeah, that was one way of putting it.

“Thank you,” he said sincerely.

“And I don’t mind playing your girlfriend for a bit,” she said. “Especially after that kiss.”

That kiss. The kiss that was going to haunt him for days—and nights—to come. “Thanks.” But he was hesitant to be too enthusiastic. After all, the girl was crazy.

“I should warn you, though,” she said.

And here it came.

“I’m a very touchy-feely girlfriend.” Hope ran her hand over his abs and up to his chest.

He grabbed her wrist before she could do it again. As it was, his entire body was hard and pulsing with the need to be up next to—and inside of—hers.

“I’m not a very touchy-feely boyfriend though,” he said. Which wasn’t true either. Not that he’d been a boyfriend in a long time. He had a possessive streak though, and public displays of affection were a by-product of that. He also had a very healthy sex drive. Private displays of affection were a by-product of
that
.

But he was a
fake
boyfriend in this case, so the displays of affection would—and
should be
—limited.

“That’s okay,” she said cheerfully. “I’ll follow your lead on the family stuff and the story and you can follow my lead on the touchy-feely stuff.”

And saying she was his girlfriend suddenly made the list of dumbest things he’d ever done. That was an impressive list, too.

“How about you pretend you’re shy and quiet?” he asked. “Let me do all the talking.”

He knew even as he said it that his suggestion was like asking a tornado to come and go quietly without damaging anything. It just wasn’t how nature worked.

Hope laughed. “Come on, TJ, they wouldn’t believe it if I played shy and quiet.”

“You’re not that good of an actress?” If that was true, he was actually glad. He’d had his share of women’s theatrical performances.

“They know
you
too well. You don’t go for shy and quiet. You go for extroverts who have a little wild streak. Or a big wild streak.”

He blinked at her. “It would be great if we could convince them that was no longer true.”

She shook her head. “It’s going to be hard enough to convince them that you’ve got a girlfriend you haven’t mentioned.”

“They don’t know everything about me,” he grumbled. But they did. They didn’t necessarily know the names of all the girls he dated—or more specifically, slept with—because he never dated anyone from Sapphire Falls. Not anymore. But they knew those women were casual affairs, on both parts. They also knew he didn’t intend to get serious about anyone again. He hadn’t been kidding about the circus and monkeys. Delaney hadn’t been there for all of that, but Tucker and the rest of his family had been. He wasn’t dragging them into anymore Big-Top shows.

“You and I both know that’s not true,” Hope said.

She turned and headed toward the camper. He followed. Like a damn puppy.

“How do
you
know it’s not true?” he asked. “You just met them.”

“There’s a vibe,” she said with a shrug.

She opened the camper door and TJ was struck again by how tiny the thing was. It held a queen-size mattress with maybe two feet of space at the front and a few cupboards and cubbies. Otherwise, the mattress was all there was room for. No one but a child could stand up inside of it. And there was no way TJ would fit in the thing. No way.

“It was there with your dad, too,” she said as she rummaged in a duffle bag on the floor of the camper. “Obviously, you’re close to your family. You wouldn’t keep a serious girlfriend from them.” She pulled a black tank top out.

He narrowed his eyes. “I thought you were
not
psychic.”

“I’m not. But I am very, very—”

“Intuitive,” he finished for her. “Yeah, okay.”

Maybe he didn’t know the full definition of that word.

Or maybe he wasn’t used to a woman being quite so focused and interested in him. That sounded stupid. He’d always had plenty of female attention, and he’d known his two most serious girlfriends—including the one who had turned into a wife—for most of his life. They knew him.

But he couldn’t shake the idea that Hope
knew
him. And wanted to know everything. And would keep studying him until she did.

That should feel creepy, especially considering they’d met today and she could have an APB out for her arrest for all he knew.

But it didn’t feel creepy. It felt nice. A lot like it had when she’d been massaging his shoulder by the pond. As if things were releasing, as if things were flowing better in him, as if he was letting go of stuff.

Which was
not
how he’d felt kissing her. That had been about things getting tight and hard and hot.

TJ shook his head. Maybe she wasn’t a psychic. Maybe she was a witch or something. Or maybe all hippies were like this.

He sighed. He’d grown up in small-town America, which meant that he had seen a lot of the same things, the same type of people, over and over. And over. But he knew that just because someone wore a lot of bracelets, it didn’t make them a hippie.

There was, however, an air about her that felt a little magical.

And that could completely be the kiss they’d shared, and that he wanted about a thousand more of.

Then she pulled his shirt off to replace it with the tank top. Just stripped the shirt off. Leaving herself naked from the waist up. Again.

Her breasts were no less spectacular this time around. Maybe more so. Because he’d kissed her. He’d broken through that no-physical-contact wall, and now his body didn’t understand why it couldn’t be up against her, wrapped around her and embedded deep inside of her right now.

Thankfully, she pulled the tank over her head and then down over her breasts and stomach. But she wasn’t wearing a bra and her sweet nipples poked against the cotton, begging him for attention.

“You don’t believe in bras?” he asked, his tone harsher than he’d meant it to be.

She shook her head. “They’re very constricting.”

“Well, you need to cover those up. My brother won’t be able to walk without tripping over his tongue.”

“Your brother who is madly in love with Delaney, you mean?” Hope asked, reaching back into the camper.

TJ didn’t question how she knew Tucker was madly in love. A person didn’t need to be psychic or even very, very intuitive to know that Tucker was head over heels for Delaney. “He’s in love, not dead.”

She shrugged into a bright-pink linen vest that hung past her butt and had sparkly beading down the front. “Better?” she asked.

He nodded. “A little.” The thing was, Hope was beautiful and very much not his typical physical type, and his brother would be as interested in
that
as he would be in her breasts. Or almost as interested, anyway.

He yanked his shirt back over his head, inundated with the scent of her that had already seeped into the fabric and the warmth from her body. “You’re right,” TJ said. “Shy and quiet and sweet are not my type.” It was a good reminder for
him
as well.

She frowned. “I didn’t put sweet on my list.”

“Trust me, sweet isn’t my type.”

“I’m sweet.”

And oh God, she felt like his type. He shook his head. “Doesn’t matter, because you’re not really my girlfriend.”

She didn’t say anything to that.

“But you’re also right that I wouldn’t keep a serious girlfriend from them, so we’re going to have to have a reason that they didn’t know about you.”

“I’ll do whatever you want me to do, TJ.”

And whether the huskiness in her voice was real or imagined, it still worked to rev TJ right back to the place he’d been when they’d been interrupted.

“Does Adrianne know you’re from Arizona?” he asked.

“Who’s Adrianne?”

“At the bakery. Delaney said you met her this morning.”

“Oh, yeah, she was the one who gave me directions to your house.”

“Does she know where you’re from?”

“Yes.”

He sighed. Of course she did. Hope probably knew all about Adrianne too. She’d probably asked Adrianne question after question, delving into the deep, dark secrets of her… Okay, Adrianne might not have personal deep, dark secrets. Or maybe she wasn’t a sucker for blonds with gorgeous breasts and big green eyes. Either way, it was possible he was the only one spilling his guts to Hope.