Seducing Sam (11 page)

Huggie just watched silently, his
gaze going from Sam to Carly and back again, but he didn’t say one word.

“Right.”  Ed looked at Sam

Sam looked once more at Carly, his
heart beating a little faster, his blood thrumming  a little slower, a little
hotter.  He knew the others were watching him, but he was only interested in Carly.

Her expression was a mixture of
disbelief, embarrassment, horror and – yeah, something more, something that
flickered in her eyes when she looked at him.

Was that heat?  Jesus, yes. 
Unmistakeable, fleeting, but definitely there.  Any hesitation he might have
had vanished.

Switching his gaze to Ed, he nodded.

“Can’t wait to have my bike
polished.”  Triumphantly, Ed fanned his cards on the table.  “Look and weep,
man!”

It was a good hand, no doubt about
it.  Lisa gave a sigh of disappointment, grunting when Carly nudged her sharply
in the ribs.

Huggie kept his gaze on Sam’s
cards.

Ed leaned back in the chair.  “All
yours, Sam.”

He had no idea.

Sam's eyes locked onto Carly’s as
he slowly placed his cards on the table. Her eyes widened.

Lisa let out a shriek of joy.  Ed
slapped the table with his palm and hooted.  Huggie rolled his eyes.

Swallowing, Carly stared at Sam.

“Might as well collect your
prize,” Ed said happily.

Carly didn’t look delighted. 
Right then, she looked like she was going to bolt.  In fact, she stood up and actually
backed up a couple of steps.

Call him sick, but that helpless
movement actually had him feeling like a predator.  Like she was the prey and
he was eyeing her off, which, bloody hell, some part of him knew he was doing.

He wasn’t even aware he was
moving, one minute he was sitting, the next he was standing, moving around the table
and approaching her, his gaze locked on hers, his hands slightly out to the
sides as though getting ready to catch her if she fled.

Her eyes widened and she swallowed
nervously.

“Come on, Carly!” Lisa whistled
loudly, the sound breaking through Sam’s haze, reminding him instantly that
there was an audience.

And that Carly was mortified.

Shit, maybe he’d mistaken the heat
in her eyes.  What was wrong with him?  He’d never done such a thing before,
taken a kiss from a woman who, apparently, wasn’t as into him as he was into
her.

That was a bloody first.  And what
freakin’ shitty timing.

He almost stopped, actually
slowing down, about to tell her it was all right, to let her go, but then she
licked her lips, that little pink tongue just peeking out to swipe across her
lower lip, and almost instantly heat speared through him.

Damn his good bloke side, for the
first time he shoved that firmly down.  She might not be willing for this kiss,
but he wanted it.  Needed it.  One kiss, one taste, that was all.

She didn’t shift, didn’t move,
frozen in place as he advanced, and then he was right there, standing so close
to her that he’d have been hard put to slide a finger between them.  Her head
tipped back as she looked up at him, and towering above her, he had the sudden
overwhelming urge to grab her, kiss her ruthlessly, and drag her off to his bed
for hours of pure, unbridled debauchery.

Oh God, yes.

He started to lower his head, his
hands reaching for her, when she caught him by surprise.

One swift lunge, one fleeting
press of her lips to his, and then she was gone, slipping so fast to the side
that he was still bent over, his mouth partly open while he blinked.

What the hell…?

“Done!”  Carly almost yelled.

Ed yelped, Lisa laughed, and
Huggie grunted.

“You arse,” Carly said.  “You
asked for it.”

Straightening, Sam’s common sense
returned.  Jesus, he’d been about to kiss Carly senseless, regardless of who
was watching.  He’d never had his emotions run away like that before, his
control vanish.  And, even more sobering, she hadn’t seemed to want his kiss
anyway.

That was sobering enough to make
him take a deep breath, and pushing the glasses back up his nose, he shoved his
raging hormones down, turned, and managed to grin at Ed.  “Thanks.”

Rubbing his just-kicked shin, Ed
gave him the thumbs up.

Safely on the other side of the
table, Carly was gathering the toothpicks together.  Lisa plopped down onto
Huggie’s lap and gave him a smacking kiss on the lips.

Lucky bastard.  At least someone
got more than a peck.

Moving forward, Sam gathered up
the cards, seeking a way to bring some sense of normalcy back, because sure as
hell he could feel the sudden tension radiating from Carly.

“Hey,” Ed said.  “I hear you’re a
nurse.”

“Yep.”  Relieved that someone was
introducing a topic, Sam stacked the cards neatly.

“Weird job for a bloke, isn’t it?”

“Maybe I’m a weird bloke.”

Ed laughed.

Lisa looked at her watch and stood
up.  “Come on, Huggie.  Its ten thirty and we have to drive over to your Mum’s
to pick up the kids.”

Huggie surged to his feet, his arm
going around her shoulders.  “Okay.  ‘Night, all.”

“I’ll see you to the door,” Ed
said.  “You staying for a nightcap, Sam?”

Sam glanced at Carly, but she was
packing the cards and toothpicks into a small box.  “No thanks, Ed.  Had an
early morning this morning, so I think I’ll call it a night.”

“Sure.”  Ed also glanced at Carly,
but with a shrug, he followed Lisa and Huggie out into the hall.

Hesitating, not wanting to leave
things so awkward between them, but not quite knowing what to say or do, Sam
said, “Goodnight, Carly.”

The brief smile she flashed him didn’t
reach her eyes.  “Night Sam.  Thanks for coming.”  Crusher came running in and
she bent to pick him up.  “Want something to snack on before bed, boy?”

Taking that as his cue to leave,
Sam followed Ed into the hall.  After bidding everyone good night, he returned
home.  The evening definitely hadn’t turned out the way he’d thought, and Ed’s
friends weren’t anything like he’d suspected.

But Carly’s lips, well, the kiss
had been brief, too brief, but the softness of them was in his mind.  Brief,
soft, warm.

She had to be the first girl he
knew who didn’t want to kiss him.

Musing over the unusualness of it,
but not egotistically, Sam put his jeans back into the cupboard and draped the
t-shirt over the back of a chair for the next day.

SJ didn’t move from his position
on the bed when Sam dropped down onto the mattress.  Rolling with Sam’s weight,
SJ came to rest against Sam’s leg, his back legs flopping across Sam’s calf.

“Don’t move on my account,” Sam
told him.

SJ didn’t even open his eyes a
fraction.

“And you better not stalk
Crusher.”

SJ’s whiskers twitched.

Lying back against the pillows,
Sam linked his hands behind his head and stared up at the ceiling.  It was the
weirdest evening he’d known.  Fun, happy, but that last part, man, he’d never
known himself to be so, well, dominant.

Yeah.  Dominant.  What was with
that?  She’d looked at him so helplessly and that had made him turn all kind
of…predatory.

Giving his forehead a quick
scratch, he thought about it.  He’d never felt like that about a woman before,
not ever in his whole life.  Not even with his old girlfriends.  There was
something about Carly that just brought an almost single-minded purpose surging
through him.

Shifting his fingers to scratch through
his hair, he frowned.  Man, he had to get a grip on himself.  Whatever was happening,
it wasn’t him.  It had to be this crush-like thing he had on her, the dreams
he’d been having.  Yeah, that was it.

Maybe he needed to talk to
someone.

Or maybe he just needed to get
himself back in order again, stop thinking about the generously curved woman
across the road with her soft brown eyes and plump lips, and concentrate on
something else.  Like surfing.  Yeah, in the morning he’d go surfing, clear his
head.

With a nod of purpose, he flopped
over onto his side.

And dreamed all night about a
fleeing temptress who he couldn’t catch, no matter how much he howled at the
moon and gave chase.

~*~

Ed was lucky to be alive.

“Lucky I didn’t smother him in his
sleep,” she informed Crusher, who whined while staring at the dog biscuit she
had in her hand.  “Lucky I didn’t kick his skinny arse up and down the street. 
Geez, what kind of a stunt was he pulling?”

She’d asked him that as soon as
everyone had left.  He’d protested innocence, believed he was on a winning
streak and pleaded ignorance to even guessing that Sam had a winning hand.

Not that it mattered.  The very
idea of betting her kissing Sam was ludicrous, but she couldn’t get it through
Ed’s thick head, so she’d given up after threatening him with death if he ever
pulled a similar stunt in the future.

The dickhead had laughed and gone
to bed, no doubt to sleep well.  She’d tossed and turned all night.

Tossing the dog biscuit to
Crusher, who caught it and scampered off gleefully, Carly sighed and stared out
the sliding glass door.

Yeah, talk about dreams.  Sam had
been chasing her, thrilling her to her soul, two steps behind her, his hands
reaching for her, his eyes gleaming with heat.

Scoffing to herself, she watched a
bird settle on the fence.  It cocked its head at her before fluttering away.

As if a man like Sam could go for
a girl like her.  She’d seen the stunning redhead he’d taken out, not to
mention the other woman when they’d first arrived in the neighbourhood.  He had
beautiful women chasing him, slim women, tall and elegant.

She was anything but tall, slim
and elegant.  The very opposite.  Lucky to throw together a decent outfit, plus-size,
and medium height.  The top of her head barely made it above Sam’s luscious
pecs.  Hell, the night before he’d actually had to bend down to kiss her.

Oh man.  Kiss her.  Unable to help
herself, Carly went all dreamy, a smile curving her lips.  It didn’t take much
to bring his scent back to her mind, all clean male with a hint of soap.  The
heat from his muscular body, the way he’d bent over her, so tall and
protective, as though shielding her from the stares of the others in the room.

It was just a fancy, she knew it,
wishful thinking, but she liked to believe she saw a hint – just a teeny, tiny
hint – of desire in his beautiful hazel eyes.

Even if it was just fanciful imagining,
it was something to snuggle deep down inside her soul for those nights when she
needed something warming to think about, to go to sleep with when troublesome
thoughts kept her awake.

Such as the problem of Jonathon.

Bloody Jonathon.  Snapping out of
her daydream, Carly rubbed her brow.  She’d searched through the boxes she and
Ed had unpacked, but she had no freakin’ idea for what she was looking.  Sooner
or later she’d have to ring the dickhead and find out exactly what he wanted
her to find.  Or start going through the boxes yet to be unpacked.

But first things first…Carly
sucked in a deep breath.  She had to go over to Sam’s place and apologise to
him for Ed putting him in such an awkward predicament.  Bloody Ed refused to do
it, just shrugged off her arguments, jumped on his Harley and roared off to
work.

Bastard.

One of them had to be the
responsible adult.  Bugger it.  She’d rather hide in the house all day but she
didn’t want anything ruining the budding friendship with Sam.  He was a nice
bloke, they’d probably all be living in the same neighbourhood for a long time,
and she didn’t want any awkwardness between them all.

Throwing back her shoulders, she
left the house, locking the security door behind her before heading over to
Sam’s.

SJ was lounging on the swing
chair, his head hanging off the side.  Watching her with interest, he flicked
his tail.

Liking cats, she stopped on the
veranda beside the swing chair and offered her hand to him.  “Hey, SJ.  You’re not
going to hold Crusher against me, are you?  He’s actually Ed’s dog, not mine.”

SJ sniffed her fingers, gave her
the eyeball, and then butted his head against the back of her hand.

Laughing, she stroked under his
chin.

Immediately closing his eyes, he burst
into ecstatic purring.

“Aren’t you just the handsomest
lad,” she cooed.  “Such a handsome, ginger fellow.”

“Friend for life,” a deep voice
remarked from the doorway.  “Never seen SJ take to someone so fast.”

Almost immediately her heart beat
fastened, a flush of pink stealing into her cheeks. 
Idiot!  Grown-up,
remember?  Be the grown-up!

Taking a deep breath, she gave SJ
one last stroke over his head before standing up and turning to look across the
veranda to where Sam stood, one big hand holding the security screen open.

God, he looked so damned yummy. 
Baggy board shorts, his skin looking to be newly kissed by sunlight, the light,
golden tan so delicious against his sandy, sun-streaked hair that was pulled
haphazardly back and tied at the nape.  A loose tendril tickled his cheek,
clinging briefly to his strong jaw line before sweeping down to one broad
shoulder.

No shirt.  Bare chest. Oh God, her
senses were going into over-drive.  The pectoral muscles in his chest were
mouth-watering, but combined with a six pack and those muscled arms, it was
enough to make her want to fall to her knees and thank God for making such a
perfect specimen.

Instead, she said politely, “I
want to apologise.”

Man, she should enter acting
school.  Apart from the slight huskiness in her voice, she thought she’d done a
pretty good job of hiding her spurt of lust.

His hazel eyes, so clear behind the
glasses he pushed slowly up his straight nose, regarded her steadily.  “Oh.”