Ever Tempted (4 page)

I was verbally paralyzed. So I leaned in to kiss her cheek.

Her sun-kissed skin was hot under my lips.

Whew. The sky was blue. The grass was green.

I breathed the way I’d practiced at the hotel and focused on the light behind her. The ache in my joints subsided.

“I hate to be rude, but would you excuse us?” Allie took my arm.

The group raised their glasses and gave excusing nods. Whispers began again, and the volume of the crowd increased to the same previous dull roar as they sent us curious, amused glances.

I stood there dumbly. What had I been about to do? Had she said something?

Her skin glowed, and her eyes sparkled as she stepped up beside me.

“We need to go someplace private. It’s time I yell at you.” She squeezed my hand almost painfully tight and pulled me through the crowd.

Here it came.

“You didn’t answer my calls.” She kept her voice so no one else could hear.

I tugged at my collar. “I couldn’t.”

Every corner of the patio was filled with people.

“You could have called me, texted me, used old-fashioned post.” Her voice was a tender whisper of ache.

“I couldn’t do that, either.” I couldn’t look at her. Her full pouty lips would have undone all I’d worked on the past few weeks. And when I wrote, I tended to get very emotional and sometimes explicit in conveying my thoughts when it came to her. That wouldn’t have helped in trying to stave off the shift.

I gave a few little ladies by the window of the east wing a warm smile as we stepped inside. “If I spoke to you, I would have been back here in your arms, and that would not have been good for you, my dear.”

“You shouldn’t make my decisions for me. That’s one of the main things we fought over the last few weeks.” She let my hand go and walked in front of me, searching every room.

I snorted drily. That was one of the things we’d fought about a hundred years ago too. Me making decisions for us. Maybe one day she’d see that I’d carried over a hundred years of wisdom with me, which qualified me as a better decision maker.

The lighting sent sparkles through her dangly diamond earrings. They landed on her neck. Oh, to kiss that neck. Spikes of need impaled me. “Trust me, if I’d been home, you’d have been in danger. It was a terrible battle with only thoughts of you in my head to keep me company. If I’d been here, alone with you, you wouldn’t have been able to stop me from touching you. And then, I couldn’t be sure of what would happen.”

People were clumped by the empty recess under the stairwell.

“Damn. The ballroom. Surely, it’s not full.” Allie’s stubborn jaw was set.

Great. Now she wouldn’t look at me at all.

The ballroom was full.

She tugged me into the library and into her office, a closet-sized room with a computer and screens showing enhanced views of all the areas of the property that could be easily breached by intruders. A security system update. Good call. I liked it. But that was a subject for later.

The light perfume of Allie’s skin found me in the small enclosure. I trembled.

Maybe ten television screens full of people all over the house and beyond would give me the illusion of being chaperoned.

Allie turned on me, her eyes full of raw fury. “Where were you?”

I undid my coat buttons. It was hotter in the security room. “Two towns over, a safe distance away.”

Allie placed a finely manicured hand on her hip. “Where did you sleep?”

“A motel.” Okay the jacket had to come off.

“The whole time?” She leaned back against the desk.

“The whole time.”

“You had to have left sometime. No one in their right mind could sit in a hotel room for two straight weeks, hours on end.” Allie crossed her arms.

“Andy Griffith.” My throat went dry. God, she was gorgeous when she was enraged.

“Andy Griffith? What are you talking about?” Allie frowned.

“I watched every rerun at least three times. Now I hear that damned whistle in my head. Constantly. It’s annoying. Oh, and I can tell you every facet of the town Mayberry, how many jars of pickles are in Aunt Bea’s cupboards, and how old Opie was when he got his first black eye. Need I go further?”

“Why would you watch that show? Not that it isn’t a great classic, but…” Allie shifted her weight to her other foot and stared at the screens.

“It’s the only thing on the television that didn’t have some sort of present day temptation, either spoken or implied.” I leaned on the desk.

She crossed her arms and looked back to me. “How could you leave me like that?”

I took her hands, but she pulled them back.

She fidgeted, but finally slipped her hands behind her.

Needing the closeness, I caressed her cheek. “You have no idea how many times I asked myself that question over the last two weeks. But I had to. It was hard as hell, but very necessary, so that we could move on. Trust me, you don’t remember how it hurts to miss someone the way I do. I thought you’d be strong enough to wait just a little longer if I could find the strength to stay away.”

Her chest swelled with anger. “My body may have only known you for a few weeks, but my soul sure as hell knew you were gone. I’ve been a wreck. After all we’d been through over the last month and all the fear I had, I needed you. But you were off vacationing.”

“Trust me. It was far from a vacation.” The smell of the dilapidated motel room and the dirty memory of the naked woman’s skin touching mine somehow found its way into the security room to plague me.

“You must have been miserable.” Allie turned her head away.

“You have no idea.” Revealing the truth was inevitable, but I didn’t want her to kick me off the property. As upset as she was about my absence, I’d need to wait a day or so to let her cool down before I hit her with blow number two.

Allie stared at one of the computer screens where Shelby and Kaitlyn scurried through the crowd. Her jaw worked, wiggling her dangly earring. “Don’t ever do that again.”

I took her delicate hand and placed it on my cheek.

She still wouldn’t look at me, but she didn’t pull away. She gave away the tiniest flinch of a smile.

I leaned into her hand, the contact sending icy hot chills into my joints. Why couldn’t I be normal? Have the normal male reactions? Oh, they accompanied the animalistic responses, but they weren’t dominant. “Listen, I know you deserve an epic apology from me for leaving like that, but I believed I had no other choice. It was stay and be in animal form the whole time, or get miles between us.”

She finally graced me with her full attention. Her gaze traveled over my face and my clothes. “You’re different.”

“Yeah, I shaved. Showered too.” I nudged a little closer to her.

I can’t be mad when he smiles at me like that. But I still might kick his ass.
Her thoughts came through to me. Finally.

“That’s probably a good thing. You don’t need to stink up your tuxedo with two weeks of sweat. You’re going to need it tomorrow when we get married.”

I coughed and choked at the same time. Tomorrow. Married tomorrow. Getting married was fine, what I’d always planned, but so soon? I had to tell her what happened at the hotel and then I’d need at least two weeks to a month for her to get over being mad at me. After she threw something at me. Probably something heavy. And probably something glass. She had a history of doing that when she was pissed.

She withdrew her arms and hugged herself. “I thought you’d be happy. This is a disaster.”

I stepped closer, careful with my words. “No. My hesitation at speaking doesn’t mean I’m not happy, but—”

“There’s always a but.”

“And lately it’s been me. I’ve been an ass. I never get things right. I mean well. I swear, I do.”

Renewed hope shined in her eyes and her voice shook. “So, you’re not mad?”

“No. God, no.” Folding her into my embrace, I rested my cheek on her head. “I just wanted a little more time to talk with you about some things, about life.” The life she’d have with me, the guy who always f—

“We’ll have plenty of time. I just wanted you to get back the day you lost.”

I cupped her face. “The day we lost.”

“I’m not trying to force you into, well, you know, the after stuff, the honeymoon—”

I interrupted her worries with the kiss I had dreamed about since my first seconds in that godforsaken hotel room. Our lips tangled in mixed gasps. When the trembling started, I pulled back but handled myself very well. For the first time, I didn’t have to run.

Looking into her eyes as she caught her breath, I rested my forehead against hers. “I can barely wait, Allie. If you only knew how excruciating it’s been to wait all these years, and then here you are right in front of me, and I can’t touch you.”

“You could.” Her voice was soft, quiet, sensual.

“I’m going to strike that from the conversation and change the subject.”

“I don’t have a mind reading gift to know you’re still thinking about it.”

“Stop teasing me. I might be dangerous.” Stepping back, I pulled at my tie, loosening my collar.

“I’m used to danger by now,” Allie said.

“I don’t think my nerves will be able to handle it through another wedding.” I grabbed her hands and held them together. “I’ve been worried sick about something happening to you.”

She leaned closer and dropped a light kiss on my neck, then my earlobe. We collided with the shelf behind me. Something toppled over and crashed onto the floor.

“You have to stop that.” My brain said pull away. I leaned into her kisses. “We need to talk.”

“No talking.” Her lips continued an excruciating descent to my collarbone. Beside us was more shelving. Had this room gotten smaller? Damn. Fear of the unknown becoming more real by the second, I slithered sideways, but she wouldn’t let me go without a struggle.

“No. Stop.” I grabbed her shoulders and held her at bay. My breathing became more labored. Trembling, I fought away the itching under my cheekbones where large cat whiskers normally stabbed through. Leaning on the desk behind me, I deposited her out of arms’ reach. “This is torture at its worst.”

She drooped, pouty lips puckered into little hearts. “I would never knowingly torture you.”

“You torture me by existing.” I allowed myself one brief kiss, but stayed a safe distance from her embrace.

“We’ll just not touch till tomorrow. Maybe that will help?” she suggested.

Just as I was about to protest by slamming our entangled bodies against the door, it opened.

“Where is Cole Kinsley? I hear him, but I can’t find him.” Shelby Renee Moss, a sweet but irritating half of a set of life-saving twins who worked at the manor, jerked the door the rest of the way opened and propped a finely manicured hand on her hip. With the other, she pointed at me and drew me out with her finger. “Me and you. Outside.”

“Somehow I think you’ve forgotten I have seniority over you. You’ve bossed me around enough lately.” I tried to keep the mood fun-loving. God knew I didn’t want Allie to find out about the hotel room incident this way.

Shelby pointed at the front entrance. “Come on. You can visit with Miss Prancy Pants later. We have business.”

I kissed Allie and moped out the door with Shelby, my head down and my shoulders sagging.

“You’ve done it this time,” Shelby said over her shoulder. Her blond hair was a little longer than her sister’s, and she was the fashion guru of the two. Today she wore an off-the-shoulder, long, form-fitting red dress with a slit up one leg. It was a nice look that revealed a tan she actually had to work for, unlike Allie.

“Not everybody can be as dashing as your soul mate,”
she thought to me in an extra sour tone.
“Keep it up, and my lips might get a little loose where your motel room adventures are concerned.”

I’d wondered how long it would be before one of the twins heard my concerns about the hotel room incident. They missed nothing.

Another reason why I felt semi-safe leaving her with them while I did my canine soul searching.

I followed, thankful for Shelby’s discretion.

Shelby stopped by the third row of trees in the front yard. Searching for anyone around us, she looked over my shoulder and down the drive. When she was sure we were out of the earshot of guests, she turned on me. “What the hell did you do?”

My hands in my suit pockets, I stared off at the sweeping gardens of the front grounds. “There are so many things; where should I start?”

“You could start with being in the bed with some naked woman while you were away? What the hell? You were supposed to be taking time to find yourself, not all the STDs you could get in two weeks or less.” Shelby’s livid gaze pierced me. She shoved a lock of golden hair over her ear, revealing more of a golden loop earring.

I turned to her. “You’ve only heard my thoughts or saw them. I’m not sure how your little tricks work exactly, but what you’ve seen or heard wasn’t the whole story.”

“I have exactly fifteen hours until you’re married. If I decide to let her go through with it. I saw you naked, in bed with another woman. That’s plenty enough for me. I thought you were different. Any good best friend would run straight to Allie and warn her of her pending marriage to a womanizer.” Shelby’s lips pursed into a perfect furious heart.

“It was right after my shift back. My mind was foggy, and my vision hadn’t returned to normal. I wasn’t all there. I walked into my room and thought Allie had found me. I ended up tackling some girl that in a haze looked exactly like Allie. Luckily, I figured it out before it was too late. I swear that’s the truth. Take your mental backhoe into my brain and dig a landfill if you’d like. That’s the only thing you’ll find.”

Shelby’s suspicious gaze faded as she walked over to a white rose bush bordering the drive. She pinched the bridge of her nose. “It’s impossible for you to stay out of trouble. I thought your dead ex being out of the picture would lessen some of the drama around you. What’s worse is that’s not even why I wanted to talk.”

The change in Shelby’s voice got my attention. “What’s up?”

She turned and crossed her arms, her long leg revealed with the movement. “Besides you being a nimrod, there’s a problem with the pond.”