His Southern Temptation - By Robin Covington Page 0,28

first she’d been too young—he’d barely noticed her except to be slightly embarrassed by her hero worship. Then, at the end of his junior year of college, he’d caught sight of Taylor in her skimpy cheerleading uniform on Main Street and rear-ended the local preacher’s wife.

The joke, it seemed, was on him.

Gone were the braces and the awkward glances, replaced by womanly curves, tempting smiles, and real possibility. Hiding his attraction nearly killed him at times—raging hormones in his early twenties didn’t help—but you didn’t hit on the little sister of your best friend. Especially when she was an innocent and you…weren’t.

A year later, hidden deep in the barn during a lake party, he’d finally given in, peeling off her clothes and making love to her with a passion that scared him shitless. It had also knocked some sense into his lust-addled brain. She could do so much better than the reckless, screwed-up second son of a local farmer who was weeks away from Marine boot camp and the dangerous life of a soldier. Taylor was a good girl in the truest sense of the word, and when he’d touched her, the last thing he’d wanted to be was good.

So he’d left her alone to live her own life. And now he wanted that life to be with him.

Beck started talking again, interrupting his thoughts. “At least the room was nice until I got a call to come bail this asshole out of jail.”

“I wasn’t arrested, so there was no bail,” Lucky said.

“Wait! What?” Jack asked, his coffee mug hitting the table with a thump.

Lucky explained the events of the night before, only leaving out the part where he groped Taylor in the maintenance closet. Jack’s expression morphed from curious, to mortified, to downright thunderous by the time he explained who Mr. Clean worked for and the look he’d leveled at Taylor.

Jack was the first to speak. “Holy crap. I had no idea Taylor was even here, much less dancing at the Gent on our case.” He skewered Lucky with a look that demanded an explanation. “How the hell did that happen?”

“She’s staying at Elliott House…” Lucky mumbled into his coffee cup, “…with me. I told her about the case and she went and got the job all on her own, and I couldn’t talk her out of it. Fast-forward to last night.”

His announcement was greeted with silence, both men staring at him with a mixture of “this is gonna be good” and “you are so screwed” written on their faces. Jackson and Beck knew his history with Taylor—Teague was clueless, but that was because he still thought his sister was in diapers.

“So, did you sleep with her yet? Again?” Beck asked.

“No.” He cleared his throat, hesitant to share details of Taylor even with his best friends. “Not yet.”

“Why not? She doesn’t want you anymore?” Jack asked.

Lucky pushed his plate away, his appetite suddenly gone.

“No, she wants me.” Wanting wasn’t their problem. “She wants us to have a three-week booty call while she’s here packing up.”

“You should take her up on it. You’re both adults,” Beck said.

“What about Teague?”

“What about him? It’s really none of his business.” Beck shrugged. He’d said this several times before, and Lucky could tell he still didn’t understand his hesitation. Once Taylor had hit eighteen, Beck thought the code of brotherhood that made little sisters off-limits was stupid. Lucky believed his opinion would be different if he had a little sister. “You two have been hooking up plenty over the years.”

“Yeah, but that wasn’t here. Right under his nose.” Lucky knew his logic was flawed, but it did seem different to fool around in Elliott. It was like “Vegas rules” applied to everywhere but here.

“You could tell him,” Jack said.

“Oh sure. I can just see me having that conversation. Teague, old buddy, I know you’re already pissed that she was picked up in a raid at a strip club, but I’m going to sleep with your sister, again and repeatedly, in every way possible and then dump her ass when she goes back to Hawaii.” He’d be lucky to get a two-second head start before he beat the shit out of him. “I’ll just pick out my casket now.”

“I wouldn’t recommend saying it like that, but if you told him you wanted a relationship with her—”

Lucky cut him off. Usually he gave the best advice, but this time he was wrong. “Jack, she doesn’t want that. She’s not staying here and she’s not looking for