Storm of Desire (3 page)

“Yes.” He took a chance and leaned closer. “I’m glad you and your friends picked my family’s bar to hang in when you got older.”

She laughed softly. “That’s because Rourke’s always had the hottest guys. My girlfriends had crushes on you and your brothers. All the girls wanted to date the Rourke brothers.”

“Oh?” He smiled, wanting to touch the tip of her nose. “And which one of us did you have a crush on?”

“I…had a boyfriend. I didn’t pay attention to any of you.”

The slight hesitation in her voice proved she lied. “I noticed you no matter how many were in your crowd,” he murmured, his voice going deep. “I always thought you were beautiful. I flirted with you, but you never flirted back.” He moved away. “Until that one time.”

She started to rise. “I thought we weren’t going to talk about that night.”

“Sit down. I won’t mention it again.” Wanting to kick himself for ruining the fragile truce between them, he turned back to the TV and switched on the sound. He needed to focus on something besides Sam and how much he wanted her.

“I liked coming to Rourke’s,” she said softly beside him. He turned to her then. “I felt at home there,” she continued. “You and your brothers were fun, always kidding around with us. We didn’t go there just for the hot guys.” She smiled that smile that made his pulse race. “Although the hot guys were a nice benefit.” She glanced away, then back to him. “I did notice you every time we came into your bar, and I liked that you flirted with me.”

“You did?”

“Yes.” Her husky voice was barely a whisper.

Her revelation shattered what little control he had. He tugged her closer, then looked deeply into her eyes, searching. Her eyes softened, and he had the answer he sought.

He reached out to stroke her cheekbones with his thumbs, then dipped his head.

“Aiden, no,” she whispered, pushing away.

Confused, he released her. “I’m sorry, Sam. I thought you….”

“I do…I don’t. I can’t.” She sucked in a deep breath. “It’s been so long, and there’s so much between us.”

He touched her face. “I’d never do anything you don’t want.”

“I know that.” Her gaze locked with his. He couldn’t look away. Like the sun shining through clouds, desire replaced the confusion in her eyes. “Sam,” he whispered and leaned closer.

She pulled back and jumped off the couch, so suddenly that he nearly did a face plant in the cushion. Her breathing ragged and her eyes wide with a fear he couldn’t name, she backed away from him.

“Aiden, I thought…I mean…No, I mean…I can’t do this.” She turned and ran from the room.

CHAPTER FOUR

SAM DASHED TO HER ROOM
, shut the door and leaned against it. Tears stung the back of her eyes. Embarrassment and tension warred inside her. She was a grown woman, a lawyer, for God’s sake. Yet, coming here, to her mother’s house with its hurtful memories, had sent her spiraling into the past. How many times had she run into this bedroom after a fight with her mother? Or worse, when she’d come home from school to find her mother fooling around with some guy on that very same sofa she’d left Aiden sitting alone on.

Then there was the day she’d walked in on her mother and Kurt in bed. Kurt, Sam’s boyfriend all through college and law school. God help her, she could still see the two of them. She put a hand to her face and scrubbed away the tears.

She’d fled the house that awful day, fled to Rourke’s Bar, and right into Aiden’s arms.

How she’d behaved with Aiden that night had made her no different from her mother. She’d used a man for sex. Used Aiden. When she’d realized what she’d done, she’d run. From Aiden. From home. From Fenwick. Guilt threatened to swallow her, even now. And here she was again, lusting after Aiden.

Arms hugging her middle, she strode to the window and opened the blinds. Menacing clouds, thick and gray, filled the sky, sleet slashed the window, and ice coated the branches of the bushes that ringed the house. She should have stayed in Richmond.

She pressed her forehead against the cold windowpane, needing the coolness to settle her. She
had
to fight these urges. She wouldn’t be like her mother. She wouldn’t.

Aiden had said he and her mother were friends. Were they more than that? Had her mother kissed that dimple in his cheek or run her hands over his muscled chest? Sam took a step back and flattened a palm to her stomach, fighting the nausea that knotted her gut.

It had been two years since she’d been with a man because she’d put all her energies into her work. Still, it wasn’t enough. She wanted what she’d found that night with Aiden.

She’d needed to get away from Richmond this weekend, to think with no distractions.

Aiden wasn’t a corporate attorney trying to best her. He was the man who’d awakened her sexuality. And that made him far more dangerous than the most cunning attorney.

She couldn’t concentrate here with the storm raging outside and the storm raging inside her.

Aiden.

She heard footsteps in the hall, then a light tapping on her door.

“Sam? Are you okay? May I come in?”

“I’m okay. Come in.” The door opened, but she continued to stare out the window. Aiden’s reflection joined hers in the darkening glass. He put his hands on her shoulders.

“I’m sorry, Sam. I shouldn’t have tried to kiss you.” He drew a sharp breath. His hooded eyes met hers in the glass.

The stress of the last few days—the uncertainty with her career, the tense drive up the coast, now Aiden—overwhelmed her. Choking back a sob, she put a hand to her mouth.

“Oh, sweetheart.” Aiden drew her to him. She leaned back against his firm chest. His heartbeat vibrated through her, oddly enough, calming her. He kissed the top of her head and she relaxed. She should pull away, but he felt so good, and it had been too long since she’d felt secure in a man’s arms.

“Whatever possessed you to visit Lisa now?” he asked quietly. “This storm’s the worst in a decade.”

“I knew she was away.”

Their eyes met again in the window. His brow furrowed. “Why did you come if you knew your mother wouldn’t be here?”

“I thought it would be a good idea to drive up early for the conference and stop here. I needed to think, to be alone.”

He laughed softly. “How’s that working out for you?”

His words made her smile.

“What did you have to think about?” he asked. “Maybe I can help.”

Any decision she made had to be her own, and she didn’t want to involve Aiden in her problems. “Thanks, but I’d rather not talk about it.”

He hesitated a moment, then stepped back and turned her to face him. “Guess what?”

She sniffed, appreciating his refusal to pry. “What?”

“My brothers and I took over the bar when Dad and Uncle Sean retired. We’ve built it up into a first-rate bar and restaurant.” He smiled, even as he seemed to stand a little taller. “Everything I need, I’ve got right here at the beach.”

“Not too many people get what they want,” she said softly.

“Oh?” His eyes darkened. “And what do you want, Sam?”

You.

Her response shook her even as the window rattled from an onslaught of sleet, breaking the spell that held her.

“Peace,” she said.

Aiden smiled and touched her chin, the look in his eyes so gentle it made her want to cry all over again.

“Then peace it is. Come. Let’s get something to eat.”

CHAPTER FIVE

THE STORM INCREASED
in intensity with each long, slow, passing hour.

They worked together in the tiny kitchen preparing a meal of ham sandwiches and soup. Aiden’s raw sexuality filled the space, making the small room even smaller. When they reached for the can of soup at the same time, their hands touched, and awareness spiked Sam’s nerve endings. She stilled and raised her gaze to his. The question in the depths of his eyes matched the answer swirling through her. As if caught with her hand in the cookie jar, she backed away. He shot her a crooked smile, a knowing smile.

A flush spread from her neck to her face, and she hurried to the freezer to pull out a package of rolls.

“Wine?” he asked.

“What?” she asked distractedly, the coldness wafting from the freezer doing little to cool her raging hormones.

“Do you want wine with dinner?”

“Yes. Okay. That’s fine.” God, she felt like an idiot standing there with the freezer door open.

Shooting her another knowing smile, Aiden pulled a bottle of pinot noir from the wine rack.

“This wine is very good,” Sam said later as they sat across from each other at the kitchen table.

“You sound surprised.” Aiden took another spoonful of the chicken vegetable soup. “Don’t you think I know my wines?”

“Of course, but who knew canned ham, soup, and pinot noir would make such a delicious meal,” she countered.

“Maybe it’s the company,” he said softly.

Wine glass in hand, he turned toward the window. Did he regret finding her here? His hawk-like nose and firm jaw, with his days-old stubble, gave him a dangerous air, provoking a long-buried craving in her for risk, for wildness.

What was it about this man that incited such yearnings? No man had ever made her feel the way Aiden Rourke had then, or now. Even before that magical night, she’d fantasized about him, wanted him. His solid masculinity had never failed to reach out to her and turn her to liquid heat. She set down her wine glass and pressed a hand to her stomach, as if she could stop the longing that churned there.

He turned and smiled, showing the dimple she’d always loved. “A penny for your thoughts.”

Samantha forced herself to pick up her wine goblet and study the rich burgundy liquid. “I’m surprised my mom has such a great collection of wines. Mom was never much of a drinker. But this is quality stuff.”

Aiden saluted her with his glass, took a sip and set the glass on the table. “It’s Uncle Sean’s doing. You do know he lives here, don’t you?”

Samantha choked on her wine. Aiden pushed back in his chair, ready to help her, but she waved him away. “I’m okay,” she managed. Aiden and her mom were just friends. Sam gulped deep breaths as relief, cleansing as the tides, rushed over her. They were just friends. The knot of dread that had settled in her chest at the thought of Lisa and Aiden together began to unravel.

“But Mom never let a man live here,” she said more evenly. “Plenty of them stayed overnight, though. How long has Sean been here?”

“About a year.” Aiden paused and looked at her intently, appearing to study her expression. “You don’t talk to your mother much, do you?”

She shook her head. “We’re not close. We talk on the phone once in a while and email each other, which is how I knew she was away.”

“But she never told you about her and Sean and that they were going on a cruise together?”

Sam’s face heated. “I didn’t ask who she was going with and she didn’t say. I assumed it was one of her boyfriends. My mom and I don’t talk about men. Ever.”

Aiden leaned forward, clearly curious. “What happened between you and your mother?”

“Let it be, Aiden.” Sam finished her drink and grabbed the bottle to pour another glass. Her hand shook slightly as remembered humiliation washed over her. An image flashed in her mind like the lightning that had earlier lit the sky. Her mother and Kurt in bed together, the sheets in disarray around them.

“Sam? Are you okay?”

The thunder and lightning had stopped but sleet pelted the windows, sounding like hundreds of stones, and the keening wind continued its ominous refrain, mirroring her unsettled thoughts. The lights flickered for a few seconds, then held steady.

She gripped her wine glass tighter. Her mother’s betrayal had cut deep. Through the years she’d been hurt and humiliated by her mother’s having sex with random guys. But the fact that her mother had thought so little of her own daughter that she’d gone to bed with Kurt had crushed a part of Sam’s heart. She’d never gotten it back.

“Sam?”

She turned her attention back to Aiden. “I told my mother she needed a generator,” she said, unable to keep a note of anger out of her voice.

Aiden gave her a questioning look, but only said, “I think we’d better ready the candles and flashlights.”

Sam cleaned the kitchen while Aiden stacked wood in the fireplace so they’d have heat if the power went out. The cats had been fed and were hiding again. Sam couldn’t blame them. The storm grew stronger as the evening went on.

Aiden stepped into the kitchen. “Do you need help?”

“I’m done.” She hung up the dish towel and turned to him. God, he was hot, especially with his hair softly curling around the collar of his sweater. She clenched her hands at her sides, resisting the urge to reach out and see if his hair was as silky as she remembered.

She cleared her throat. Unlike her mother, she could control her hormones. She
could
. “I guess we’d better go into the living room and watch the weather reports on TV while we still have power.” Her gaze slid over Aiden’s dark blue sweater, appreciating the way it stretched across his broad chest and how his faded jeans hugged his long, muscular legs.