Let Me Be The One (21 page)

Working like hell to ignore the way her curves fit against him so perfectly, and the fact that the robe was gaping open over her naked breasts while one beautiful thigh was bared at the front opening of the fabric, he said, “We’ve always been friends, Vicki, and we always will be.”

He felt her nod against his chest as he stroked her back and shoulders. He knew he shouldn’t keep giving in to the need to touch her like this, but if this was going to be the last time, then how could he help himself?

With his other hand, he tipped up her head so that they had to look at each other and get past this. And make sure their friendship was safe.

“We had sex and it was great, but we’re both adults.”

She nodded again, but she still looked too serious. Too worried. It was going to kill him to do this, but for Vicki he’d bury what was in his heart and play it easy for her. Simply because she needed him to do it to make her feel better.

“Just one thing I was hoping you’d promise me. As you probably know, rumor has it I’m pretty impressive.” He raised his eyebrows at her and lowered his voice, “Don’t tell anyone the truth, okay?”

“The truth?” Her laughter was the sweetest sound she’d ever heard. She shook her head before saying, “Trust me, the truth would make it hard for you to get out of your front door unaccosted ever again.”

A moment later she was sliding from his lap and back onto her seat. She picked up a piece of bacon and popped it into her mouth. “What’s it like being so good at everything? Cooking. Baseball.” She shot him a wicked glance that had his blood pressure spiking. “Sex.” She finished the bacon with a lusty sigh of appreciation that was way too close to the sounds she’d made in his bed for him to keep from sweating as he sat next to her. “Truly, it must be exhausting.”

“I’m bad at some things.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Name one thing.”

Making you fall in love with me the way I’ve always been in love with you. You only ever saw the jock while you let those artist assholes chase you. And hurt you.

“Making a clay pot.”

She laughed, but shook her head. “You’d get there with practice.”

“Okay, then, I’m a shitty outfielder.”

She pointed her fork at him. “Bull. Remember that game in high school when they played you in center field? Hate to break it to you, but you were great.”

The word
great
from her lips instantly brought back the night they’d just spent together, and as their eyes met and held he was
this close
to chucking it all in and pulling her back onto his lap so that he could kiss her and touch her and love her again.

Only, just as he was about to draw her back into his arms, Vicki gave the barest shake of her head, so small that he wasn’t sure she even knew she’d done it.

But he heard what she wasn’t saying out loud as if she’d screamed it at him.

No.

* * *

“So, how’d it go last night?”

Vicki nearly jumped out of her skin at Anne’s question as she finished putting the little sculptures she’d just made for Summer’s birthday party into the kiln in her studio.

She’d hit a snag on her still-unnamed fellowship project and had put it away for a few hours to try to sketch herself out of the hole she was in. But when the sketching didn’t work either, she realized she had to face facts.

After what had happened last night with Ryan—what amounted to the most beautiful, stunning, mind-blowing lovemaking of her life—she simply couldn’t get her brain to focus on work.
On top of that, she was incredibly nervous about going to a family party, even more now that their fake engagement had morphed into an accidental night of sizzling hot sex.

She could have gone to a toy store to buy Summer a standard gift, but she knew it would make her feel better to get her hands in clay and make one. Evidently the little girl had just gotten a new poodle puppy from Zach’s girlfriend, Heather, and was head-over-heels for it.

After she’d made a really fun poodle out of the clay, she decided to make a pretty Oak tree for Mary Sullivan, and then when she was done with that, she’d tackled a well-read hardback book in clay for Sophie to put in the library. Vicki had been working with such serious intent for such a long stretch on her fellowship project that she’d been almost giddy from the pleasure of making the cute and funny sculptures.

She barely noticed the sun falling lower in the sky as she moved from one little project to another. What fun it was to have a big family to make things for. She wouldn’t have time to make a wine bottle for Marcus or a pair of ballet shoes for Lori, though. Next time.

Her hands had stilled on the book spine she’d been pressing into the clay with her fingertips.

Next time.

What on earth made her think there was going to be a next time?

Pretty soon, she’d be moving out of Ryan’s house. She hoped she and Ryan would be able to find time to get together to catch up on life on a regular basis, of course, but once she was no longer living at his house, the two of them would be going their separate ways.

Anne’s question had startled her out of her somewhat depressing musings and brought her right back around to the previous night.

And all the amazing sex she’d had with Ryan.

“Everyone liked the dress. Of course you knew they would. It’s an awesome dress.”

Anne’s smile was wicked...and pleased. “Awesome, huh?” She raised her eyebrows. “Dare I hope my awesome dress ended up in shreds in your gorgeous man’s bedroom?”

Vicki automatically started to shake her head, but quickly realized there was no point in trying to pretend it hadn’t been the most glorious night of her life. Especially with the engagement ring Ryan had given her hanging between her breasts on the gold chain.

It had been a long time since she’d had another woman to confide in. Justifying it by telling herself that Anne’s knowing only gave more credence to the false engagement, Vicki pulled the ring out from under her tank top. “He gave me this.”

Anne’s eyes went wide as she grabbed it, inadvertently pulling Vicki forward while she inspected the ring. “He has great taste. Are you free tonight for a bottle or two of champagne? And could he bring a few of his gorgeous baseball playing friends?”

“I’d really love to,” Vicki said, “but I’ve promised Ryan I’ll go to a family birthday party with him tonight.”

Anne clapped her hands together. “Even better—you can wear another one of my dresses. Who needs this fellowship when I have you to wear all my clothes?”

She had pulled Vicki halfway down the hall by the time Vicki could get out the words, “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea.”

Anne put her hands on her hips. “Why? You were stunning last night. And clearly, the dress made an impression on your man.”

But that was just the problem. Ryan had
loved
the dress...and he’d loved stripping it off her even more. Vicki’s body started heating up all over just thinking about it.

If she wore another one of Anne’s brilliantly sexy designs, he might think she was trying to say that she wanted a repeat of last night. Which, of course, she did, because how could anyone
not
want that?

But, God, this morning had been awkward enough.

Last night had been an accident. A sexual slip-up. Two bodies in motion colliding without pre-meditated intent.

She couldn’t imagine how awkward it would be if he thought she was actually trying to seduce him this time. Instead of letting her down easy, he’d be forced to take much more drastic—and obvious—steps.

But since she couldn’t say any of that to her out-of-the-big-lie-loop friend, Vicki grabbed onto the only excuse she could think of. “The party is for an eight-year-old. I’m sure everyone will be wearing jeans.”

“Or pretty little sundresses,” Anne shot back. “A couple of days ago I didn’t know why I was so compelled to make this dress, since I can’t use it for the fellowship. Now I know. It’s my engagement gift to you.”

With that, Vicki knew she had no choice. She let Anne drag her into her own studio and hand her a pretty summer dress made of dozens of light and colorful layers.

And, despite knowing better, she couldn’t help wanting to knock Ryan’s socks off one more time.

Chapter Twenty

Ryan stood in his brother Gabe’s living room surrounded by his family, a big group of strangers, and a dozen rambunctious eight-year-olds. And yet, all he could see was Vicki.

Summer had just barreled into Vicki's waist to give her a huge hug. Clearly, the eight-year-old girl loved the poodle sculpture Vicki had made her. She’d surprised Sophie and his mother with fun little sculptures, as well, and he knew they wouldn’t stop gushing over the unexpected gifts for a very long time.

As she chatted animatedly with Summer, there was nothing fake, nothing affected about Vicki, not from her soft hair to her unpainted fingernails to the sweet curves that had transfixed him since he was a teenager. To make matters worse for the hard-on he was working like hell to hold at bay, she was wearing another pretty dress that simultaneously hid and showcased her incredible figure as the breeze played through the fabric.

Ryan’s chest squeezed tight at her beauty.

Smith handed him a beer. “Some pretty big bets were going down today in the production offices for the playoff games. You ready to make us all some money?”

Ryan took a slug from the bottle, his eyes never leaving Vicki. “I’ll do my best.”

But instead of taking the hint that he wasn’t up for shooting the breeze tonight, Smith kept right on talking. “I enjoyed the shaking down we did today for your school sports fund. Kind of nice to be on the other side of the demanding, for once. Ever feel like everyone just wants something from you?”

Depending on his mood, Smith could be disturbingly blunt...or as opaque as it got. Clearly, he was in one of his deep
—
and talkative
—
moods.

“Well,” Ryan drawled, “considering my brother just told me to pitch a no-hitter so he wins his money back on a bet, yeah, I guess I do know how that feels.”

“You’re lucky to have her, you know.”

Ryan finally shot Smith a look to see what he was playing at. “Vicki?”

“You’ve been friends since you were kids, so you know she’s not hanging around because of what you could do for her, or for the fame that comes with being your fiancée.”

“She’s not my
—
”

“Right.” The one word was loaded. “Funny how the way the two of you look at and touch each other makes it hard for any of us to remember that it’s all just a lie.”

Ryan’s teeth clenched at the way his brother had just pointed out the obvious. He couldn’t keep from wanting Vicki. Loving her. Not even when she’d all but asked him to do just that this morning when she’d called their night together “weird” and then said her silent
no
to ever being intimate like that again.

Frustration had him lashing out at a brother who didn’t deserve it. “Not everyone is as good an actor as you are.”

Smith gave him a hard look. “Then maybe you should quit trying so hard to pretend.”

Finally, his brother left him alone again and Ryan’s gaze immediately went back to Vicki.

All day he’d been turning their situation over and over in his head. Yes, he knew she thought making love had been a mistake. A
weird
mistake. But he hadn’t forgotten the way she’d responded to his touch...and that there hadn’t been one single weird thing about the way she’d arched and cried out against him and begged for more.

The thing was, even before he’d known just how amazing it was to make love to her, Ryan had wanted more.

Everything.

He wanted everything.

Not just to give Vicki his heart, but to know that she wanted to give hers to him, too.

Ryan hadn’t had to fight for much in his life. School, sports, friends, women—they’d all come easily. Even his friendship with Vicki had always been natural, comfortable—easy
—
right from the start.

But he wasn’t satisfied with friendship anymore.

Not when he wanted what his parents had shared.

Not when he wanted what his brothers and sisters were finding for themselves, one after the other.

And not when he held Chase’s baby daughter, Emma, in his arms and wondered what his and Vicki’s children would look like.

All her life, Vicki had kept reaching, kept believing, kept trying to turn her most passionate dreams into reality.

Now, it was finally his turn to reach. To believe. And to try.

Ryan Sullivan had finally found something that mattered enough to fight for.

Love.

* * *

“I’m so glad you could come to Summer’s party,” Mary Sullivan said when Vicki joined her on the patio.

“You know how much I love spending time with your family. And Emma is positively gorgeous.” Zach and Heather’s dogs had clearly adopted the baby as they flanked her pink and purple vibrating baby seat. A moment later, Jake helped Sophie up from the nearby couch, her belly looking even bigger than it had just a day ago. “And I’m so glad things worked out so well for Sophie and Jake.”

Summer’s grandmother, who had flown out from Minneapolis for Summer’s birthday party, smiled and said, “Congratulations on your engagement.”

Vicki worked to smile back and say, “Thank you,” without faltering. Thank God Mary already knew the truth, or she would have felt even worse about the situation than she already did.

The other woman turned to Mary. “You must be so thrilled to know that another one of your children has found
the one.
”

Mary put her arm around Vicki and didn’t miss a beat in the game of pretend they were playing. “I couldn’t be happier for Vicki and Ryan. He had such a crush on her when they were in school together. It was amazing for me to see him be so serious about a girl when he’d always been so relaxed about it all before.”

Wow, Vicki thought, now I know where Smith gets his acting chops.