Welcome to Temptation (27 page)

The first chord sounded from "Some of Your Lovin'," and Sophie said, "Oh. Thank you."

"Don't mention it." Phin nudged her away from the box and toward the booths, and she moved away, swaying a little bit to the music, caught between misery and hope, but mostly glad just to be with him again, which was pathetic. One of the men by the bar caught her eye and smiled, and she stopped swaying. She was already enough of an outsider without calling attention to herself. Phin put his hand on her back and said, "Over there," and she saw Wes and Amy in their usual booth, far back in the corner.

Dusty sang behind her, soft and low, and she thought,
No matter what I do, Liz and the others are
going to hate me, and I'm going to be an outsider stuck in a booth in the back
.

"Sophie?" Phin said, and Sophie said, "I'm tired of this. Make your mother a happy woman. Go on without me."

She moved to the center of the dance floor and began to dance, losing herself in the gentle swing of the music until the guy at the bar got up. Not you, she thought, and turned away from him to see Phin shaking his head.

"Care to dance?" he said.

"That'll start talk," she said, and moved away from him.

"No, dummy." Phin slid his arm around her waist and pulled her back. "This is the part where you fall into my open arms and never stand a chance."

He smiled down at her, and Sophie relaxed into him, so glad to have his arms around her again that she didn't care what he said next. She moved with the music, and he pulled her closer.

"It's too late to stop the gossip anyway," Phin slid his hand down to the small of her back and moved his hips into hers. Sophie felt the heat start again and took a deep breath. "Anybody who's seen us knows we've been together," Phin whispered in her ear, making her shiver. "That's how the gossip started. They just looked at us and knew."

"Oh." She moved with him, letting her cheek rest against his shoulder, and he held her tighter and her breath came faster. "This is the sexiest song in the world," she said a couple of minutes later, through so much heat she was blind with it.

"It is now," she heard him murmur, and when she lifted her face to smile at him, his eyes were dark and hot. "It's been four days since I've touched you. You're driving me crazy."

"Good," she said, putting her face against his shirt again, and he kissed the top of her head.

"Careful with that," she said.

"Hey," he said, and when she looked up, he bent and kissed her on the mouth, a quick kiss that turned
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into something longer, as rich and sweet as the song they were dancing to. He stopped moving and held her close, right there in the middle of the dance floor, and she forgot everything and kissed him back, clinging to him as the heat spread and her knees went weak.

When he broke the kiss, the music had stopped and he looked as mind-whacked as she felt. "If they didn't know before, they do now," he said, and then he looked past her shoulder, and his face changed.

"Oh, Christ."

"What?" she said, still dizzy from his kiss, but he was already pulling her toward the crowd around the table where Frank and Zane were squaring off.

"Family values," Zane was sneering. "You and your town council brag about your family values, but you won't do a damn thing to stop a porn film right in your own backyard."

"I'm not making a porn film," Frank shouted back, and Sophie said, "Oh, no."

"And nobody wants to do anything about it," Zane said, talking to the crowd now. "You all just sit home, holding on to your secrets, pretending there's nothing wrong. Well, there's a lot wrong, and I know it all." I've warned everybody and nobody listens, so I'm telling you all now: You stop that damn movie, or none of you will have a secret left. Especially you, Lutz."

Frank stepped closer. "I told you, I wouldn't make porn. I support family val—"

"Your family values?" Zane's laugh spurted out. "Hell, your kid is fucking my wife, and your wife is fucking me."

Frank went white, and Phin said, "Okay," and pushed through the enthralled crowd to Zane.

"Not that she's any good," Zane said, looking atGeorgia, and when she made a little cry of protest, he added, "Hell,Georgia, even Jell-O moves when you eat it."

"You're done," Phin said to Zane as he reached him. "Go home." Zane toasted him with his glass. "And here's your mayor who is fu—" Phin had him by the throat before he'd finished. "I said, go home," he said, and then Wes was there, too.

"Let go of him," he said, and Phin did, and Zane tried to say something through his bruised throat. "I wouldn't," Wes said to Zane and hustled him protesting to the door, making it look like no effort at all, and Davy followed them both out.

Frank was staring atGeorgiaas if he'd never seen her before, and Sophie went to her. "Zane lies all the time," she said to Frank, putting her arm around a still-frozenGeorgia. "He—"

"He's not lying about you, is he,Georgia?" Frank said dully. He turned to look through the mass of fascinated faces. "Where's Rob? Was that true?" He looked at Sophie. "Was that true about Clea and Rob?"

"I don't know," Sophie said. "I really don't. I just know I wouldn't trust anything Zane says. He's awful, Frank."

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"It's all true," Frank said, and left without a backward glance atGeorgia.

"Frank!" she cried, and it came out like a mew.

"We'll take her home," Phin said from behind Sophie, and she nodded.

*

"Well, that was ugly," Phin said, when they'd dropped Georgia off at home and made sure she was marginally all right. It had started to rain as they left the Tavern andGeorgiahad cried right along with it, the mascara running in black tracks down her face while the rain ran silver down the windshield and Sophie thought vicious thoughts about Zane.

"What is
wrong
with that man?" Sophie said now.

"He's trying to hold on to his wife," Phin said. "Men get tense when their women leave."

"Not Frank – Zane."

"I'm talking about Zane." Phin slowed to take the turn out of the Frank's development and onto the main road. "Sophie, are you making porn?"

"No," Sophie lied, and felt like hell. The rain was sheeting down, and the wipers clicked back and forth, and she tried to concentrate on how happy she was to be back with Phin again, but guilt got in her way.

"Zane just wants Clea's money," she said, to change the subject.

"He wants her, too." Phin squinted through the windshield. "I've never heard one man say 'my wife' so many times. He's all but branded her."

"She is spectacular."

"Yes, she is," Phin said. Sophie lifted her chin and he added, "Don't even try it. You know I wouldn't have her."

"Just wanted to hear it," Sophie said. "Not that I have any right to assume—" She broke off as Phin pulled to the side of the road and cut the engine. "What? Is the rain—" Phin turned to face her in the light from the dash. "Okay. I know you've been mugged by my mother, but you've got to get past this. You want me to tell you I love you?" Sophie opened her mouth and Phin said,

"Because I've known you ten days. That's too damn fast to start planning futures, don't you think?" The rain pounded on the roof and Sophie felt lost. "Well, ye—"

"And you're mad because I wasn't happy you'd met Dill," Phin said. "Well, you're going off to Cincinnati day after tomorrow. I'm not happy about seeing my kid lose somebody she likes."

"She only spent an hour with me," Sophie said.

"You got me in the first minute," Phin said, and she flushed. "I'm so nuts for you I'm not even asking the questions about that damn video that I should. I don't care. I just want you. Can I come see you in
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Cincinnati ?"

"Yes," Sophie said, her heart racing as fast as the rain.

"Can I see you Monday before you go?"

Sophie smiled in the dark. "Yes."

"Can I see you tomorrow?"

"Yes."

"Can I see you naked tonight?"

"Oh, God, yes," Sophie said, and met him halfway for his kiss.

Several minutes later when they were both breathless and the car was back on the road, he said, "Listen, that stuff you said on Wednesday, about me crossing the tracks to get to you, that was just to annoy me, right?"

"Well, you're definitely crossing a river," Sophie said.

"Don't buy into that, Sophie. That's so damn dumb, I can't—"

"That's because you're the one on the Hill," Sophie said. "I understand from a very good source that you're either born there or you earn your way in."

Phin was quiet for a long moment. "I may be a little late coming to see you tomorrow," he said finally. "I'll be killing my mother first."

"Yeah, well, if I'm a little late coming to the door, it'll be because I'm disarming my brother."

"Still hates me, huh?"

"I cried some when you left."

"Oh, fuck." He reached for her hand in the darkness. "I'm sorry." She laced her fingers with his and closed her eyes because it was so nice to be alone with him again, in the dark, just talking. "Not a problem. Davy's not that good a shot anyway."

"Screw Davy. Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Sophie said. "I'm excellent, actually."

"That you are." He turned down the lane to the farm, taking his hand back to park in the sea of mud that was the yard. Then he curled his arm around her neck and pulled her close and kissed her again, and she fell into him, warm and safe. Everything she'd felt while they'd danced came back and she gave in to it, knowing it would only get better. "You do that so well," she whispered, and he said, "We do it well. Imagine if we practiced," and kissed her hard again.

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An hour later, they were in her bedroom, damp from the rain that came in the open window and from each other, tangled in her sheets on her lumpy, noisy mattress, gasping in each others arms. "We're getting good at this," Phin said between breaths, and Sophie nodded, too satisfied to do anything but agree. He stroked her back, and she stretched like a cat, feeling all her muscles because he'd made them throb. "I could stay like this all night," she said, and then realized what she'd said. "I didn't mean—" she began, and he cuddled her closer and said, "Good idea. How do you feel about sex in the morning?" She said, "With you?" and he said, "No, with Wes. Of course with me," and she smiled, but then somebody knocked on the door and broke the moment.

"Go away," she called, but Davy said, "Sophie, I have to talk to you."

"If he's trying to do the brotherly thing and warn you that I'm only after one thing, it's too late. I just got it." Phin drew the tips of his fingers down her back and made her shiver. "Get rid of him, and I'll try getting it again."

"Sophie,
now
."

She'd never wanted to leave a bed less. "Hold on," she called, as she rolled out of Phin's arms and grabbed his shirt from the floor.

"That's my shirt," he said, but she shrugged into it and held it closed as she opened the door.

"Amy has a problem." Davy's voice was low and his face rain-spattered and dead serious, and Sophie felt a chill. "Get rid of him and come with me. Fast."

"Okay," Sophie said, her heart pounding, and closed the door.

"About my shirt," Phin said. "Take it off and come back here," and Sophie slipped it off and threw it to him.

"All yours," she said, and picked up her dress. "Thank you for a lovely time – let's do it again real soon." Phin sat up. "I was planning on doing it real soon. Where are you going?" She threw him his pants. "I forgot, Davy and I have plans, and I can't stand him up just to have more incredible sex with you. That would be antifamily."

"What kind of plans?" Phin said, and she shoved his shoes closer to the bed. "So I gather we're in a hurry here?"

Sophie leaned over and kissed him, staying in the kiss a little longer than she should have because he felt so good, "I really have to go," she whispered against his mouth. "But I really do want this again. I missed you so much. I'll call you later tonight, I swear."

"The telephone is so impersonal," he said, and caught her to him, pulling her back down on the bed and if it had been anybody but Davy and Amy who needed her, she'd have fallen. But it was Davy and Amy, so she said, "Thank you, I have to go," and rolled off the bed.

She left him sitting there, looking puzzled and not a little grumpy, and when she got to the landing where Davy was leaning against the wall, she whispered savagely, "This had better be good."
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"Where's Harvard?" Davy said. "We need him off the premises."

"He's getting dressed," Sophie said. "And he's not in a good mood, so don't call him Harvard. And by the way, next time,
I
get to dump the guy I'm sleeping with."

"Later for that, we've got trouble," Davy said, and Sophie felt chilled again. Phin came out of the bedroom, buttoning his shirt. "Just like the Waltons ," he said, as he walked past them.

"No, we have better music than the Waltons ," Davy said, and then held Sophie's arm until they heard the front door slam. "You can make it up to him later," he told her as he pulled her down the stairs and out the back door.

Sophie followed him as the instincts of disaster that had been dogging her from the beginning kicked into high gear. He led her around the side of the house in the pelting rain into the dark of the trees, and she saw Amy standing there, hugging herself.

"I'm sorry, Sophie," she said, looking like a soaked little cat. "Davy says this is a screw-up, but I didn't know what else to do."

"What?" Sophie said. "I still don't know—" Then she went cold as she saw the old blue-and-pink-fish shower curtain at Amy's feet, wrapped around something that looked horribly like a body. "Tell me that's not a—"

"That's Zane," Davy said, turning his collar up against the rain. "And thanks to Amy, he now sleeps with the fishes."

There you go, her instincts said.
Told you so.

~10~

Sophie said, "What??" and Amy said, "No, I didn't kill him. I just sort of ... moved him."

"Moved him?" Sophie turned back to Davy. "What—"