Just a Kiss: The Bradfords, Book 5 (12 page)

Want slammed into him. Hell yes, he was talking about sex. Okay, she wanted to rile him up? He’d show her riled up. “You’re my
wife.
And as long as that’s true,
I’m talking about everything from laughing at jokes, to touching someone’s shoulder, to dancing at a town dance.” He frowned at her to show he was serious, but she was practically beaming at him.

“No one else knows I’m your wife.”

“
You
know it and I know it. That’s enough to keep you from…”

“Laughing at other people’s jokes?”

He knew that sounded ridiculous. For some reason, he didn’t care. “Right.”

“Even if they’re funny?” She was clearly teasing him.

“Yes.”

She grinned. “What if a woman tells the joke?”

“Even then.” He felt the corner of his mouth twitch though. “The only person you act interested in or amused or impressed by is me.”

“And turned on by, right?” she asked, her smile turning from entertained to seductive. “You’re the only one I get turned on by.”

“
Yes
.” He couldn’t help it—he had to touch her. He moved forward and stroked his hand up and down her bare arm.

“And, to be clear,” she said, “this forsaking all others that we both managed to mess up goes both ways.”

Oh, he really liked the jealousy from her.

“There won’t be any other women, Eve.” Hell, there hadn’t really been in all this time. Now that he was here with her, how could there possibly be anyone else?

“You’re right about that,” she said firmly. Then she took his face in her hands. “I know what I gave up when I gave you up. I’m not doing that again. If I say it’s only you, then it’s only you.”

“You said it was only me before.” God, the hurt was still there and still surprisingly strong.

“I was stupid. And chicken. And wrong. Give me a chance to prove I’m sorry.”

He wanted her to. He wanted her to be sorry and he wanted her to prove it. Maybe it wasn’t the most chivalrous attitude, but at least he was giving her chance. That had to count for something. “Okay.”

“Okay, what?”

“Prove it.”

Her eyes brightened. “Yay.”

“You’re excited about that?” This might be really, really bad.

She brought his hand up to her mouth and placed a kiss on his knuckles. “Of course. I’ve always wanted to seduce somebody.”

Yep. Really, really bad.

Or very, very good.

She was a natural. A simple touch of her lips to his hand and he was practically panting.

“Seduce, huh?” Kevin was proud of how normal his voice sounded, even as his heart pounded so hard he felt it in the bottom of his feet.

“Oh, yeah.” She said it with a huskiness he wasn’t sure he’d ever heard from her. “And I think I’ll be pretty good at it.”

“How—” He had to stop and clear his throat. “How so?”

“Well, I was seduced by the best.” She leaned in closer.

His hands went to her hips, partly so he could touch her and partly because he needed to control how close she got. “Is that right?” One thing he was sure of was that he did
not
want to hear anything about the other men that had been in her life.

She looked up from where she had her hand on his chest to his eyes. “You, Kevin.” She laughed lightly. “I was talking about you.”

Okay, that was better. Then he asked, “The way I seduced you was the best?” He remembered it being awkward and fumbling.

She was still smiling. “Definitely.” She tipped her head to one side. “Seduction is about more than kissing and touching and undressing, you know.”

He drew in a deep breath. She was probably right. But he was having a hard time not focusing on, and imagining, all three of those things at the moment.

“You were seducing me every time you were waiting by my locker with a Hershey’s kiss, every time I found a note in my Algebra book when I sat down to study at night, every time you held my hand, and every time I looked up in church and saw you standing there singing along to the hymns.”

Kevin smiled too. “I wasn’t thinking about having sex with you
every
single minute of the day.” He made a little circle on her hip with his palm. “Every other minute, sure, but not every Hershey’s kiss was about trying to get a real kiss.”

He’d been a teenage guy. He’d thought about getting Eve naked plenty. But he’d wanted to spend time with her, wanted to make her smile, wanted to know he was thinking of her too.

“I know.” She moved a little closer, sincerity in her eyes. “And
that
was what was seductive,” she said softly. “I knew that you wanted more than sex. I knew that you really cared about me too. And that’s what I need to do for you now.”

She was already doing it. The thought hit him square in the chest. She’d bought him jelly beans instead of chocolate kisses, but she was here, with macaroni and cheese, making him smile, encouraging him, offering her help and it was all making him want to keep her around indefinitely—both dressed and naked.

“Okay,” he finally said.

“Okay?” She seemed surprised, but that quickly melted into a huge smile.

He groaned. He was already a goner.

“Yeah,” he finally said. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”

He was in trouble. But watching the sparkle in her eyes go from surprised to pleased to mischievous made him positive he wouldn’t mind losing this battle.

Having Eve do the seducing would be a nice change—for the entire ten minutes it took her to talk him into doing pretty much whatever she wanted.

Chapter Four

“Eve can take you for breakfast and get you to school,” Kevin told Drew as Eve dished a second helping of mac and cheese for Tanner and refilled Drew’s salad bowl. “Then I’ll be home when you get home from school and we’ll be able to hang out and have dinner before I leave for Omaha at five-thirty. I’ll be gone while you sleep so you won’t even know I’m not here and Eve will stay here with you on those nights.”

Drew chewed and watched Kevin. He’d already explained that they were brothers, had the same dad, and that he intended to stay until Heather got back home. He’d even told the kid that they could still hang out after his mom was back. He’d put it out there for the other boys too, assuming it was important for Drew’s friends to understand their connection as well.

None of them seemed overly impressed or concerned.

“I only work three days a week though,” Kevin went on since he didn’t know what else to talk about, “the days I’m off I’ll be here the whole time. We can do more those evenings. Maybe go to a movie or a ballgame.”

That was the wrong thing to say. And he’d known it. Kevin watched Drew’s eyes go to his plate at the mention of the ballgame.

“What kind of movies do you guys like?” Eve asked, including Tanner and Matthew.

“I liked
Tron
,” Tanner said.

“Yeah, really cool,” Matthew agreed. “And
Transformers
.”

“
Star Wars
kicks all of those movies’ butts,” Dooley said.

“New
Star Wars
or old?” Eve asked.

“New as in the most recent made or the most recent chronologically?” Dooley asked.

“Any.”

“The old ones, as in the ones made first, are by far the best. By far. But I think all of them beat out
Tron
. What do you think, guys?” he asked, pointing his fork at the boys.

“Never seen
Star Wars
,” Tanner said.

Dooley looked at Matthew. “Please tell me you have.”

“I saw one of the old ones. I like that big bear that walks around.”

Dooley’s fork clattered against his plate. “No.” He shook his head. “No. You’re ten years old, right?”

Tanner and Matthew both nodded.

“Then it is
not
okay that you haven’t seen all the
Star Wars
and it is unacceptable that you think Chewbacca is a bear.” He looked at Kevin and Eve. “We’re going to have to fix this.”

Eve grinned. “Agreed. How about you, Drew? Have you seen
Star Wars
?”

Drew shrugged.

“Drew doesn’t watch movies much,” Tanner said, reaching for his milk. “His mom makes him do educational stuff.” He rolled his eyes and drank.

“Yeah, his mom doesn’t like guns and fighting and stuff. But he sometimes watches stuff at my house,” Matthew said. “We saw
Green Lantern
.”

“I really liked
Green Lantern
,” Eve said. She winked at Kevin. “Ryan Reynolds. Not a bad way to spend two hours.”

Kevin couldn’t help but smile. She and Dooley were a great team. Awkward silences were not an issue and they were even getting information about Drew in spite of the fact that his little brother wasn’t saying a word.

“
Green Hornet
was good too,” Matthew said.

“Yeah,” Dooley agreed. “That car was awesome.”

“Are you Drew’s brother too?” Tanner asked Dooley.

“Nope. I’m Kevin’s best friend.”

“Is Eve your sister?” Tanner asked.

Kevin looked over to find him addressing Drew. He held his breath. Would Drew talk to his own friends?

Drew shook his head though and Kevin’s heart felt heavy.

“She’s Kevin’s girlfriend,” Matthew said, his tone making it clear that Tanner was stupid.

“So Kevin kisses Eve?” Tanner asked.

Dooley laughed. “Oh, yeah, Kevin kisses Eve.”

“Dool—” Kevin started.

“Eve kisses Kevin too,” Eve said.

He turned to her quickly. “Eve—”

Dooley laughed. “I’ll bet she does.”

“Like my mom kisses my dad?” Tanner asked, his nose wrinkled.

“Well, I don’t know how your mom and dad kiss,” Dooley said. “But I’m pretty sure she’s going to kiss him the way my girl kisses me.”

“There’s different kinds of kissing,” Matthew said wisely to Tanner and Drew.

Not that Drew looked any more interested in this than he had the movie discussion.

“Duh,” Tanner said.

Kevin was getting a headache. They weren’t talking about anything blatantly inappropriate but the first night of having the boys over for dinner might not be the best time for them to go home and announce they’d talked about boys and girls kissing.

“Maybe we should change the subject,” he said.

“What are big brothers for if not to teach their younger brothers important things?” Dooley asked.

Having Dooley here was the mistake if they were going for positive role models. No doubt about it.

“You’re right, Dooley,” Eve said.

Great. The last thing Kevin needed was for Eve and Dooley to be on the same page with anything other than Star Wars.

“I think Kevin is the perfect guy to teach Drew and his friends all kinds of things.”

“Like what?” Matthew asked.

Yeah, like what?
Kevin prepared himself to stop anything R-rated. But surely Eve wouldn’t do something bad for the boys. He could trust her with them.

And that was nice.

He wanted to trust her. With something. And this was a really good place to start.

“Like kissing isn’t the only way to show someone you care about them.” Eve picked up two of the dinner plates and turned toward the sink.

“That’s true,” Dooley said. “There’s lots of ways of showing someone how you feel.”

“You can give them flowers,” Tanner said.

“Sure,” Eve agreed, picking up two more plates. “And you can say nice things to them, tell them you like their smile or that you think they’re funny.”

“My mom makes my dad cookies,” Matthew added.

“Cookies are a great way to show someone you love them,” Eve said nodding.

“So’s lingerie,” Dooley said, draining his tea glass.

Kevin kicked him under the table, but Eve caught his eye and gave him a wink.

“Yep, dressing up in special ways can show someone that you’re excited to spend time with them,” Eve said, covering Dooley’s comment smoothly.

She was awesome. This was probably one of the most unconventional seductions ever, but she was doing it to him by doing dishes.

Sam had been right. Three days was more than enough time for her to get under his skin. It had been only about eight hours at this point.

Kevin stood and grabbed a bowl and a plate and met her at the sink. “You can also help people to show them you care,” he said rinsing and putting the dishes in the dishwasher.

“Right. Like scrubbing their toilets,” Eve said with a smile, “that’s a sure sign of adoration.”

Adoration. Now there was a good word.

He had to touch her. It couldn’t wait. “You can hold their hand.” He linked their fingers and tugged her close.

“My mom holds my hand when we go to the mall,” Tanner said.

“Because she wants to keep you close,” Kevin said, keeping his gaze locked on Eve’s.