Getting Lucky (22 page)

But with Hope…

TJ knew as he worshipped her breasts that he would be unable fuck her until he’d tasted and touched every inch of her in full sunlight. He’d already spent more time on her nipples than he sometimes did on the entire act. He wanted to know every freckle, every
pore
on this woman’s body. And he somehow knew that she would treat him to the same. Hope
enjoyed
things. She relished things. She absorbed things. She would make sex so much more than what he was used to.

And he couldn’t wait.

“TJ!”

He froze at the intrusion.

No. No, no,
no
. It couldn’t be.

A female voice that was not Hope’s was the last thing he wanted to hear.

Especially the female voice belonging to his mother.

He pulled back and looked up at Hope. Her cheeks were flushed, she was breathing hard and she had a slightly dazed look in her eyes that he fucking loved.

And his mother was in the front yard.

“More family coming to check on you?” she asked. Definitely breathless.

Dammit
.

His mom would go into the house to find him. It would take her about a minute to get to the kitchen—and the kitchen window.

He reached for Hope’s dress and pulled it up her body. The body that seemed made for being
uncovered
.

He retied the strings behind her neck and gave her a wobbly smile. “My mom.”

Hope’s eyes widened. “No kidding?”

“I’m absolutely positive Delaney was the first person Mom talked to this morning,” he said.

Hope took a deep breath. “She has good timing.”

“
Good
timing?”

“Five more minutes and you would have been naked too.”

His cock swelled at that and he almost reached for her again.

She must have read it in his eyes, because she put a hand on his chest and stepped back. “Mom.”

He huffed out a breath. “Right.”

Hope turned toward his flowers in the bed at their feet. “I love your herb garden.” She knelt on the grass at the corner where he’d planted sage and mint and oregano.

TJ pulled in a deep breath. Okay, they were going to talk about herbs.

“Uh, thanks.”

“You use these for cooking?” she asked, looking up at him.

And all he could think was that she was on her knees in front of him.

The screen door off the kitchen slapped shut behind him and he heard his mother’s voice again. “TJ!”

Herbs. Garden. His little hippie girl kneeling in the dirt and grass that was as much a part of his home as the house behind him.

Even that thought stirred him, and TJ had to force his attention away from Hope and the way the sunlight caught in her hair and made the stars and the tiny pink gem in her ear sparkle.

He turned toward his mother, hoping that his emotions weren’t plastered all over his face.

“Hey, Mom.” He didn’t pretend to be surprised to see her. He wasn’t, and she knew he wouldn’t be.

“Good morning!” Kathy Bennett’s smile was wide and sincere as she approached.

TJ smiled in spite of himself. He and his brothers had inherited their height and brown hair from their father, but their blue eyes came from their mom. Their love of the land, their work ethic, their appreciation for home and roots, and their dedication to family and friends came from both parents.

“I brought banana bread,” Kathy said. She smiled up at TJ but brushed right past him to get a good look at Hope. “Hope, I’m Kathy, TJ’s mother.”

Hope rose and gave Kathy a smile that TJ would have labeled ethereal. And he had never in his life used that word, even in his head.

But the girl looked like a pixie or an angel or a fairy or something standing in the morning sun with the breeze ruffling her flowing dress, her blond hair falling around her in waves with the light blue streaks and her big eyes and her sweet smile.

His entire body clenched at the idea that she was here with
him.
She was his. For now. Temporarily. But who would pass up a chance of even an hour with an angel?

“It is so nice to meet you,” Hope said, extending her hand.

“Oh, you too, honey.”

Kathy reached out to shake it, but Hope sandwiched Kathy’s hands between hers and held on, stepping closer.

“I’ve now met two of your sons and your husband. I have to tell you that you are surrounded by wonderful men.”

She couldn’t have said any more perfect words to his mother, and looking at Hope’s face, TJ was again torn—was she saying it to win Kathy over or did she mean it? She seemed sincere. But she was also really good at reading people and finding the right things to say and do to get on their good side.

Complicated. That’s what this was. How could he forget?

Oh, yeah. Naked breasts.

“Well, they all seem very taken with you as well,” Kathy said. “Tucker said he’s never slept better than last night after you…pulled on his ears?” She finished the sentence with a question mark.

So Tucker had been the one singing Hope’s praises, not Delaney. Interesting.

Or something.

Tucker was a pushover for a pretty girl. That was no secret. But once Hope had helped Delaney feel better, Tucker was president of her fan club. Well, maybe vice president. Delaney might head it up.

Hope laughed. “It’s a wonderful technique for tension in the head and headaches.”

“Maybe you could give me some ideas for the arthritis in my hands,” Kathy said.

Sneaky. That’s what his mother was. TJ shook his head. She wasn’t over here because Tucker’s earlobe story had made her think of her arthritis. She was here because one of her sons had a woman staying with him. Period.

But…

TJ glanced at Hope. If she could help his mother with her painful joints, he’d…want her even more. Which seemed impossible.

“I have something wonderful I could put into a cream for you,” Hope said, rubbing his mother’s hand between her, sliding over the knuckles that had grown larger and crooked with the arthritis. “And I can show you some acupressure points for pain relief.”

“I would love that.”

Something in his mother’s voice made TJ look closely at her eyes. She was watching Hope’s hand work over her own with a look of surprise. She wasn’t grilling Hope about where she was from or her family or her interests. She wasn’t insisting Hope come to dinner—for more grilling. She was quiet and still. Those two words were as rarely applied to Kathy as they were to Delaney and Tucker’s four boys.

“Mom, you okay?” TJ asked.

She nodded. “That feels so good.”

“Come with me to the bakery this morning,” Hope said. “I’m going to talk to some of the other girls about essential oils and meditation and some other things you might find helpful.”

Kathy looked up at Hope and a small smile curled her lips. Not her usual friendly, outgoing smile. Not her devious smile. Not her I’m-on-to-you smile. A small, sweet smile that TJ wasn’t sure he’d ever seen.

“I’d love to.”

TJ watched them walk back toward the house together, still hand in hand, and all he could do was shake his head.

Hope was pulling his mother in.

It was usually the other way around. Kathy Bennett was impossible to resist, and she gathered friends like she gathered flowers for the dinner table—in colorful bunches because they made her happy.

But now Hope was gathering Kathy up. Hope was drawing Kathy into
her
world. She was doing something for Kathy, where Kathy was usually the one doing for others.

TJ ran a hand through his hair.

He was completely screwed.

He was never going to get this woman out of his system. And it didn’t even have to do with her breasts. Much.

Chapter Eight

Scott’s Sweets was the most adorable shop Hope had ever been in.

She didn’t eat sugar and sweets, and yet she knew she could sit at one of the little round, white wooden tables for hours and simply inhale the scent of coffee—which in truth she thought was one of the best substances ever created—and baked goods. She’d lived on coffee for years. But when she’d decided to go caffeine-free for the summer, she’d had to break up with her favorite morning lover. Same with sugar. She’d discovered the addictive white stuff after leaving her mother’s house for college and had indulged for a long time—and several pounds. Kicking that habit had been as hard as the caffeine. Resisting the Oreos on TJ’s table last night had required considerable effort. Of course, distracting herself by touching and leaning on TJ had helped.

And it had been good for their story.

The story she’d repeated for the girls Delaney had gathered in the shop off the town square.

“A lot of people think that because essential oils come from plants, they’re harmless,” Hope said. She had four bottles of different oils in front of her on the table and all of the women gathered had taken a chance to smell and look at them. “But that’s not true. They’re very concentrated and can cause skin irritation, respiratory distress and other problems. That’s why we mix them with carriers—other oils, lotions and butters.” She picked up a bottle. “It’s important to know how to mix them properly because the carriers offer different things as well. Butters absorb slowly, so you’ll get a longer-acting effect. Lotions absorb more quickly, so they’re great for sore muscles and such. Oils are somewhere in between as far as absorption.”

Hope was in her element. She got excited about this stuff. It was new to many people but could be so helpful. She loved the idea of giving people possibilities for pain relief, improved sleep and mood, and all the other things essential oils could do. The oils had worked for her for everything from stomach upset to improving her memory.

But she was hardly an expert. She often talked from her own personal experiences, so in preparation for today, she’d studied her mom’s journals and a couple of Melody’s favorite reference books last night to brush up. She was also sticking with the basic oils and not getting into combinations that she knew even less about.

“Different oils have different effects, of course, and the way you can use them also varies. You can use them topically, aromatically, you can even ingest some of them.”

“Are these okay for Lauren while she’s pregnant?” Phoebe asked.

Lauren was a gorgeous, very pregnant brunette who was sitting next to Kathy across the table from Hope. She was married to another of TJ’s brothers, Travis.

Hope was good with names and details about people. The group around her included Delaney and Kathy and the shop owner, Adrianne, all of whom Hope had met. In addition, there was Lauren, the bubbly redhead Phoebe, and another beautiful blond, Kate.

Initially, there had been two other tables of customers in the shop having coffee and visiting, but they had also joined the mini-class when Hope had started talking.

The only other person in the shop was a girl working behind the counter and moving in and out of the kitchen. She wore a Scott’s Sweets apron and a nametag, but Hope hadn’t been able to read it and no one had introduced her.

“We always err on the side of caution and assume the oils do cross the placenta,” Hope said, concentrating on the topic at hand rather than the fact that she was surrounded, literally, by women who cared about and were a part of TJ’s life. There really were a lot of them. And she could have sworn they were slowly inching their chairs closer to her. “It’s best if they’re used only for nausea or insomnia, and not every day. Same for when you’re breastfeeding.”

“I’ve heard that there are oils for sinus infections,” Kate said. “Adrianne has a hard time with those.”

“Oh, absolutely,” Hope said. “You can breathe them in, or my favorite is a Neti pot. It looks like a magic lamp you rub to get a genie at your beck and call.” She grinned. “You can add a number of oils to a saline water solution for the irrigation.”

She was impressed, and a bit amazed, by the fact that these women cared for one another as much as they did for themselves.

What would it be like to have so many people involved in your life and aware of your issues? Hope wondered. Stifling? Or comforting?

“Delaney said you did some acupressure on her last night too,” Kate said. She was sitting on the edge of her seat and looked excited.

Hope nodded. “For stress relief. There are pressure points in the hands and feet.”

“And she said you mentioned improved orgasms,” Kate said.

All of the women focused on Hope at that.

She nodded. “There is a lot that can be done to improve your sex life. Oils, acupressure, massage, meditation, yoga.”

“Levi doesn’t believe they can get any better,” Kate said.

Hope lifted an eyebrow. “Levi is your husband?”

“Fiancé,” Kate said and grinned. “Do you have anything that can shrink an ego?”

Hope laughed. “I’m thinking if the orgasms get even better, he’ll just take credit and it will make his ego even bigger.”

Kate laughed too. “You’re absolutely right. Have you met Levi?”