“No. I merely think she’s trying to find her future and hoping that Jesse McCall is the right path. I also don’t think it will take her long to sort it all out for herself.”
“Which is Luc-speak for you think that Kimber belongs with us and she’ll come to that conclusion quickly.” Freakin’ amazing. Deke shook his head. “You’re delusional, you know that? At best, Kimber is really applying herself to learning all about ménage so she can live it with someone else. At worst, she’s just horny. But you’ve got to get rid of this idea that there’s some perfect woman out there who wants to play house with us until death do us part.”
“She’s out there.” He sounded confident. “But that somewhere may be miles away or just down the hall. We don’t know yet.”
Deke shook his head, poured himself a cup of coffee, and counted to ten. Which did absolutely no good. The frustration still boiled up inside him, rising, drowning good sense and restraint.
“I don’t want a wife. I don’t want anything but a good f**k, and she isn’t it.” Luc said nothing for a full ten seconds. “Then you have nothing to worry about except keeping your word. She’s overcome her anxiety about being here and forgiven you for the terrible way you treated her when she first arrived.” Shit. Luc didn’t just state that they couldn’t go back on their promise to teach her all about ménage. But he implied it in every syllable.
“Besides,” Luc added. “It’s not as if we’re her only options. Have you forgotten the Catrell brothers?”
No. The sight of Adam and Burke with their hands on her was burned into his brain.
“I don’t think she wants them.”
“But she may be determined enough to learn to go with them, anyway.” True. Deke sighed. Kimber had him by the balls—in more ways than one.
“Think of it as keeping her occupied so we can protect her from the Catrell brothers, whom we know far too much about to kid ourselves,” Luc said.
Yeah. They were hard on their women. The tag team that never quit. They’d use her, grind her into little pieces, and spit her out when she couldn’t keep up.
Basically, he was screwed if he let her stay and screwed if he let her go.
“Fine. She’s here for the next thirteen days. Not a minute more.” Luc smiled as he shrugged on his shirt, took another swig of his coffee, and shuffled over to the sandals he kept by the back door. “I have to run to a local radio interview. We’ll have this chat again in thirteen days. In the meantime…Kimber is all sleep-soft and very sweet this morning”—he licked his lips—“help yourself.” As Deke watched his cousin grab his car keys and head out the door, he restrained the urge to hit walls, blocks of wood—Luc’s head—and cursed.
Help himself? Deke would love to. But it wasn’t going to happen. There was way more at stake than Kimber’s virginity and sophomoric crush on Jesse McCall. Way more than petty jealousy. And damn if Luc didn’t know it and plotted to tempt him.
He might as well start counting the days, probably on one hand, before he wound up breaking through Kimber’s barriers—mental and physical. It was inevitable.
And when it happened, everyone was going to suffer, Kimber most of all.
She woke for the second time that morning alone in Luc’s cozy, downy bed, tossed on someone’s discarded shirt—Luc’s?—and padded down the hall. Heavy-limbed and flushed, Kimber made her way toward the smell of fresh coffee. But she couldn’t pretend anxiety didn’t claw her.
When she reached the kitchen, the sight of Deke hunched over a cup of coffee, lost in his thoughts, brought her to a stop. Especially since they didn’t look like happy thoughts. Of course they weren’t. She was underfoot, and he didn’t want her here. She hadn’t heard any other part of his argument with Luc, but that sentiment had come through loud and crystal clear.
Which explained why she’d fallen asleep last night with Deke by her side, only to awaken twenty minutes later to find him gone. And why each time she’d awakened during the restless night, she’d found only Luc beside her. Not only had Deke chosen to sleep elsewhere, but he’d refused to come within five feet of her this morning when Luc had devoured her. The why behind that pressed sadness and shame down into her chest with crushing intensity.
Despite Deke’s seeming eagerness last night, after the orgasm, he’d apparently lost interest in her. Because he still saw her as a teenager? Because he liked and respected her dad too much? Maybe. But those hang-ups would be easy. A little nudge from her would get him past either. He wouldn’t be staring morosely into his coffee about those issues. The real problem would be harder to get past, especially if it was the one she’d had her entire dating life.
“Hi,” she murmured.
His head snapped up, and he drilled her with a stare that seemed at once hot and accusing. He drew in a deep breath. Bracing himself?
“Coffee?” he asked finally.
“Sure. I’ll get it.”
“Cups are in the cupboard above the coffeemaker.” Kimber nodded and retrieved her cup…and wondered what to say next. What was there to say? Should she apologize for the fact her tomboy ways seemed to turn him off? Once the skirt and lacy underthings had come off and he’d seen the real her, maybe it had been too…masculine. He wouldn’t be the first guy in her life to think that—just ask her prom date.
Cursing reality wouldn’t do a bit of good. She couldn’t escape the fact that after being raised motherless by military men, the Colonel and her two Navy SEAL
brothers had been her role models. She liked fatigues, enjoyed a good five mile run at o-fivehundred, hated panty hose, lace, and makeup. Most guys swore she had testosterone running through her veins. But the fun of flipping one over her shoulder and straight onto his back or drinking him under the table had lost appeal long ago. She wanted men to see her as a real female, not one of the guys who happened to have br**sts. With Deke and Luc, she’d been as girly as she knew how.
By all appearances it hadn’t been enough. All that want Deke said he he’d been harboring for her for years… More than likely, she’d cured him of it last night.
Changing wasn’t an option. She liked herself. Screw anyone who didn’t, Deke included. Yes, he turned her on. A lot. A hell of a lot. Even when she’d been seventeen, he’d fueled some dark fantasies in her adolescent brain. But in two weeks, she’d be with Jesse. He accepted her tomboy ways, even told her he found it adorable. This…fear eating at her hardly mattered. So why couldn’t she shake it now?
“Sleep good?” she asked into the thick silence.