Tease Me (17 page)

“What if you just decide to tell me the truth?”

She threw her napkin on the table and scooted from her seat. “What if I decide to
tell you to go to hell?”

He snagged her arm as she tried to pass him. “Don’t leave.”

She glared down at him. “Don’t order me around.”

He let go and she stomped off. Swearing, he tossed some bills on the table between
their plates of uneaten food and took off after her.

He caught up to her as she sailed out of the revolving doors.

“Grab me again and I’ll scream,” she warned him.

He held his hands palms up. “Do you need a ride?”

She looked at him as if he’d lost his mind, then turned away and started up the street,
away from the shoreline toward the center of town.

He fell into place beside her, wondering how she managed to keep such a fast pace
in heels. “We still need to talk about Damian.”

“We don’t need to talk about anything. I’ll take care of Damian. Minerva is my aunt
and my concern.”

“Why are you running, Lainey?”

“To get away from you?” she said sarcastically.

“I mean figuratively. What are you so afraid of? What is it that you think will happen
if you’re honest with me about how you feel?”

She stopped abruptly and faced him, hands planted on her hips. “Why is it that if
a woman doesn’t fall all over a guy because he’s deigned to admit he wants her, it
means she’s running from something? Did it ever occur to you that maybe I just don’t
want you back?”

“No.”

Her eyes popped wide and her mouth opened and shut like a fish’s. If he hadn’t felt
as if the rest of his life was on the line, he might have laughed. As it was a hint
of a smile teased his tightly pressed lips. Her eyes narrowed dangerously.

“Why, you pompous, conceited—”

“You want me back, Lainey.”

“Egotistical, self-centered, bullying—”

“You want me bad. You told me so. You’ve wanted me ever since you laid eyes on my—what
did you call it? My tight butt?—so don’t get all holier-than-thou on me because I’m
being honest. You’re running, Lainey. Flat-out, dead-run, hightailing it.”

Her expression faltered and her arms crept across her stomach, where she folded them
like a protective shield.

“And if all I wanted was you on your back for a quick fling before I flew off to ‘find
myself,’ then I gotta tell you, you’re too much work.” He raised his hand when her
mouth dropped open again. “But that’s not all I want. And because it’s not all I want,
I’m busting my chops doing anything I can to keep you from walking away from me. And
I’ll continue to bust them until you tell me why it is you won’t give me—us—a chance.”
He realized he was shouting and made a conscious effort to lower his voice. He stepped
closer and was heartened when she didn’t move away or, worse, slug him. She was looking
sort of lost and shell-shocked at the moment, and he couldn’t stand there and yell
at her any longer.

“Lainey,” he said softly. She looked down at her feet, then at some vague point past
his shoulder. He reached out and stroked her cheek, then her chin. She didn’t step
away, so he did it again, pushing a stray curl from her
face. “Instead of running away from me, why don’t you try running to me? I’m right
here. And as long as you’re here, I’m not going anywhere.” He gently but firmly turned
her face to his. “I don’t want to fight you. I want to make love to you. With you.”

She stilled. “You don’t even know me, Tucker. Not really.”

He stepped closer. “I know enough.”

“No, you don’t. You don’t know what’s inside me, inside my head and my heart.”

He closed the remaining distance between them. “Then why don’t you tell me so I do
know?” Her eyes were eloquent pools of restrained need, filled with confusion and
pain. His heart had become a tight ball of fear and anxiety, but he slowly allowed
it to expand. “Why don’t you tell me about your bad decisions so that I know how to
make you understand I’m not one of them?” He lowered his mouth closer to hers, dying
inside from the almost desperate need to taste her.

“I can’t make another rash mistake, Tucker,” she whispered. “I won’t survive it.”

He paused and pulled back enough to look into her eyes. “I’m not a mistake, Lainey,
rash or otherwise. If you can’t trust me, trust this.” He fitted his mouth to hers,
gently but not tentatively. He explored with soft kisses, easing her lips apart. At
the first touch of her tongue, his body tightened to the point of sublime pain. His
pulse sang and his heart pounded furiously inside his chest. Her response wasn’t bold
or wanton or remotely rash. It was sweet and gentle.… It was Lainey.

He pulled her into his arms. She opened her mouth to him, met his increasing urgency
with a matching need of her own. “I do know you,” he whispered against her lips.

“I know you’re mine.” Her only response was a tiny moan at the back of her throat
as she deepened the kiss, but it was enough to shake him. He felt his control spinning
away rapidly.

The quiet clearing of a throat brought him back to earth with a startling thud.

“Don’t stare, Matilda, it’s rude” came an elderly rasp of a voice.

“It’s sweet, Henry. The world needs more of that kind of thing if you ask me.”

“I didn’t ask. Stop gawking.”

Lainey broke contact and pulled away, her face on fire. Tucker worked hard at gathering
his control, then reluctantly turned, tucking Lainey protectively under his arm before
she could do something foolish, like escape. He nodded his head as the older couple
passed them. “Evening,” he said between a clenched-jaw smile.

The older woman beamed up at him, her faded eyes twinkling and a becoming blush lighting
her cheeks. “Quite a beautiful one,” she said, her gaze moving to Lainey, then back
to him.

His own smile thawed and became natural. He winked at her. “Why, yes, it most certainly
is.” He swallowed a chuckle as Henry took a tighter hold of Matilda’s elbow and shot
Tucker a possessive glare.

“Come along, Mattie,” he said. “We’ve got reservations.”

Undaunted, she winked back at Tucker, then allowed her husband to propel her down
the street. She patted his arm and said, “I’ve got no reservations about you, Henry,
my always gallant protector.”

Tucker shifted so that Lainey could see the departing
couple. Henry raised Matilda’s hand and kissed it. Matilda responded with a laugh
that made her seem far younger than her years. Then Henry made both Tucker and Lainey
laugh when he glanced over his shoulder at them and shot them a quick grin and a wink,
before continuing toward the hotel.

“Wily old codger.” Lainey smiled with approval at the departing couple.

Tucker tucked her closer to his side. “That’s what I want.”

“Who wouldn’t,” she replied with a last wistful glance. When she turned back to him,
her expression was sober. “It’s not you I don’t trust, Tucker. It’s me.”

“What is it you think you have to do to prove you can trust yourself? How will you
ever know you can unless you try?”

Lainey sighed and eased from his grasp. “I want to help Minerva. I want to get that
settled.” She looked at him, her eyes beseeching him. “For once, I need to follow
through on one thing and see it finished before I get involved in the next.”

She was mere inches away, yet Tucker felt as if there was an uncrossable chasm in
that tiny space. Another kiss could likely bridge the breach, but he knew that conquering
her resistance with kisses was a sure way to end up on her list of regrets. It had
to be her choice.

“Then let’s get Damian out of the way first.”

She blinked, obviously surprised by his easy acquiescence.

“Don’t get me wrong, Lainey. You can put up as many walls as you like. I will scale
them as fast as you build them.”

She lifted her chin. “Pretty bold words.”

“I have pretty bold feelings where you’re concerned.” Her expression faltered once
more, and he reached out and stroked her cheek again. “We’ll go at your pace, Lainey.
But we will go.”

NINE

Lainey protested his self-assured mandate immediately, mostly because just hearing
the certain promise in his words gave her a deep-down, private thrill that felt so
wonderfully right, she knew it had to be wrong. “I’m not going anywhere unless I—”

“Do you know if Damian gave Minerva a prospectus of any kind?” he interrupted.

Surprised by the question, she answered automatically. “Yes, I think so, but—”

“Where would it be? Can you get it?”

Lainey frowned at his continued bullying tactics. He’d certainly switched gears easily
enough. “I suppose so.” She tried not to pout. After all, he was giving her the space
she’d asked for, wasn’t he? She refused to admit even to herself that she was already
regretting yet another decision. But that didn’t stop her from wishing she could trade
this polite, businesslike Tucker for the hot and barely-in-control Tucker who had
whispered dark promises then kissed her in a way that made her believe he could keep
them. She swallowed against a suddenly dry
throat—the only thing dry about her at the moment—and twisted her fingers together
to keep herself from reaching for him and to hell with decisions, rash or otherwise.

“Whatever Damian gave her is probably in her apartment. She lives over the café.”
Lainey stifled a sigh and forced her mind to the business at hand. “She’s out with
Lillian and some of the other ladies tonight playing bingo at the community center.
They don’t usually get home till eleven or twelve.”

“Perfect. Let’s go.” He didn’t wait but headed toward the main street.

Lainey trotted after him. “Wait a minute. Let’s go where?”

“Minerva’s. I assume you have a key, right? Why don’t we go take a peek.”

“Tucker, I don’t know …”

He stopped, causing her to almost trip out of her high heels when she banged into
him. He steadied her with a firm hand that made her knees wobble for reasons that
had nothing to do with her shoes.

I want you
,
Lainey
. She couldn’t seem to look at him and not hear those words.
I want you
.

“Do you want to help her or not?”

“Ah … of course I want to help her,” she said, sounding more breathless than she should.
She made herself straighten away from him and smoothed her dress. “I’m just a little
uncomfortable about snooping through her things.”

“But you’ll do it?”

She frowned at him, wondering how in the hell one man could simultaneously make her
hair-pulling crazy and so sexually frustrated, she could barely walk straight.
“I don’t see where I’m having a real choice here. But what else is new?” She started
up the street without waiting for him to follow. “Why I’m trying so hard to make calm,
rational decisions around you, I have no idea. Doesn’t seem to make any difference,
you’ve got me doing things your way no matter what.”

Tucker’s deep chuckle came from directly behind her shoulder. “And I’m telling you
your judgment is and always has been fine. You’re just proving me right.”

Lainey ignored him and continued on around the corner, making it to the next one before
speaking again. “All the other shops will be closed by now, but I think it might be
a good idea to use the alley entrance.”

“Good decision.”

She shot him a hard look. “Don’t push it.”

He gave her a “Who me?” look, but it changed to a unrepentant grin under her continuing
glare. He shrugged. “Just making an observation.”

“Let’s get this over with.” She let them into the kitchen area of the darkened café,
then unlocked another door that opened onto a narrow staircase. “It’s up here.”

She could feel Tucker’s big, warm presence behind her as she climbed the stairs. Her
mind tortured her with images of what it would feel like to stop, turn around, and
let him step up against her … press her against the wall … search for her mouth in
the dark … find it, tease it with soft kisses.… She’d sigh and open for him … let
her hands trail up his sides and over his back … grip his shoulders as he took the
kiss deeper.…

She dropped her keys. “Oh.” She was almost panting at this point and didn’t trust
her knees enough to bend down and fumble around.

“I’ve got them.” His voice was a deep whisper, and it
was close. Oh, so close. She heard the keys jingle. “Lainey?”

“Yes,” she said breathlessly, feeling her body sway ever so slightly toward him. She
felt the warmth of his body, his breath lightly caressing her cheek as he crowded
her on the landing between the top step and the door to Minerva’s apartment.

“The keys? You want to unlock the door?”

“Huh?” It took another second for his words to register. Thank goodness it was dark.
Her cheeks were on fire—as was the rest of her body. “The keys, right.”

“They’re right here.”

She heard the jingle as he dangled the keys in front of her. She snatched them from
his hand, turned, and jabbed the key into the lock. She was a fickle fruitcake, she
told herself as she continued to jab at the lock. She wasn’t one step closer to being
the cool, calm, levelheaded woman she wanted to be. One second she was yelling at
Tucker to leave her alone and the next she was ready to jump his bones in a dark stairwell.
A dark stairwell leading to her aunt’s apartment no less! Maybe her self-improvement
plan was doomed to fail. Maybe she would never be able to change.