Sympathy for the Devil (International Bad Boys Book 4) (8 page)

“Sounds a little dry.”

“It was. But now that I’m back here, it’s all I can do to keep my balance. My love for my parents. My hatred of cancer. The wonder in a kiss. And you. It’s overwhelming.”

“You need to start small, with simple pleasures. Simple feelings.”

“I’m listening.”

“Lie back on your board and watch the sun rise.”

She began to lower herself.

“Not on your front. On your back.”

“You lie on your front.” She’d watched him.

“You want to feel something simple, this is the way to do it. Lie back on the board, eyes to the horizon. Just lie there and watch the sky and feel the water all around you.” He watched her lie back, all dark-eyed, angelic approval. “That’s my girl.”

“You won’t go far?” There was still so much sea and all of it deep.

“Not going anywhere,” he murmured and leaned across from his own board and kissed her, a soothing kiss warm and gentle.

He kissed her shoulder next and the slight swell of the underside of her breast. He traced a path across her ribs, down over her belly. “Do I need to remind you how to breathe?” he whispered wickedly and she drew in a breath and let it out with a shudder.

“What are you doing?”

“Reminding you how very simple things can be.”

He slid her down the board until her buttocks teetered on the edge of it and her legs dangled in the water each side. She closed her eyes on a juddering breath and felt the warmth of his forearms beneath her thighs, and then he set his lips to the material of her bikini bottoms, and swiped his tongue over her center and, oh.

She was definitely feeling it.

A warm and talented tongue accompanied by gentle waves of sucking, and the tongue grew bolder and the waves grew stronger and she put her hands in his hair for stability or maybe for encouragement and gave herself over to him. No thought, no examination, just surrender.

“Just feel.”

Words to live by as he pushed back her bikini bottoms and exposed her clit and licked into her again, circling and teasing until finally he fastened his mouth over her fully and started suckling all over again and that was the end of her. She was gone, screaming her release to the sky.

She was floating on the board when she finally came back to earth and Caleb was several feet away, facing away from her, all alone in the water. She turned her head to see what had caught his attention and watched as the curve of the sun edged above the horizon.

Oh.

“Hey, Bree.” His voice was half playful and wholly reverent. “Don’t you love it out here?”

And then he tipped her off the board and heaven help her she was feeling it.

“W
hat do you
mean you invited Bree over here for drinks on Friday?” Eli asked of his lovely lady wife, and Caleb paused, a fork full of brown rice and flavorings halfway to his lips. Eli had a fork full too, because Zoey was trying out rice salad recipes on them. This one had red chili, parsley and ginger in along with the rice. It was better than the others, but it still wasn’t good.

“I mean I texted her and asked her here for drinks on Friday afternoon,” Zoey repeated. “Friday afternoon being the time of the great Jackson food and drink fest, is it not? You know, that time when you and your brothers get together with more friends and co-workers than could comfortably fit into several back yards?”

“Yes, but—”

“Is there anywhere in this conversation that I’m saying that you have to go out of your way to be nice to her? Bree sent me a list of a dozen photographers and offered introductions to any that I found appealing. I’d like to talk to her about the various choices and options available. Maybe I’d even like to show her some costumes and see if she can pare down that list a little more. I really do not understand your dislike for her, Eli. Help me out here.”

But Eli couldn’t do that and not betray his brother, thought Caleb grimly, before setting his fork back in the bowl. “I invited her too.”

Eli shot him a quick sideways glance and half the makings of a frown.

Zoey’s smile came swift and bright. “Did she say she’d come?”

“I hope she’ll come. She’s thinking it through.”

“Tell her to think yes,” said Zoey. “What else does this salad need?”

“You mean
besides
less brown rice?” Caleb wasn’t entirely sure why they needed rice salad in the first place. They never had before.

“The rice is there to soak up all the alcohol people consume. The rice stays. I am a conscientious host.”

“You could always try being a little less conscientious,” Caleb offered.

“Nope. I am a conscientious
beast
. I’m also a realist. I know I’m a rotten cook.”

“Really?” said Eli as Caleb choked on his amusement.

Eli thumped him hard between the shoulder blades by way of helping a brother out.

“They’re your friends.” Zoey eyed them both sternly. “What do I have to do to make them eat this?”

“Cook the ginger and chili on the BBQ with some olive oil and soy sauce, toss the cooked rice on at the last minute and swap the parsley out for chives,” Caleb suggested. Never let it be said that Justine Jackson hadn’t taught her boys how to prepare food.

“Genius.” Zoey was all smiles. “The job’s yours.”

“Thanks,” he muttered dryly.

“I’m willing to grate the ginger and chili for you. And chop the chives. And cook the rice.”

“I’m grateful?”

Both he and Eli watched as Zoey and the remains of her latest rice salad attempt disappeared up the stairs. “I indulge her because I love you,” he told Eli and meant every word.

“Do you have any idea what you’re doing when it comes to Bree Tucker?”

Okay, so they were going there. “Course I do.”

But Eli was on a roll. “She betrayed Cutter, and she all but broke
you
.”

“She was eighteen. She didn’t know what she wanted back then. Or how to get it.”

“Does she know what she wants
now
?”

Good question.
The
question. “I’m working on it.”

Eli pinned him with his all-seeing grey gaze. “I’m carrying too many secrets here, man. They’re getting heavy.”

“I never asked you to carry anything.”

“What did you expect me to do? Watch you and Cutter rip each other apart over some girl who didn’t want either of you?”

“Her name’s Breanna. And I’d have a care what you say about her.”

“You’re gone on her. Again.”

Seemed about right.

Eli seemed to take his silence as permission to swear up a storm.

“You done?” Caleb asked curtly once his brother had run out of breath. “Cause I’m only going to say this once. Yes, I plan on bringing Breanna Tucker back into our lives. Get used to it. If it comes to talk of long ago—and maybe it will—you saw nothing. I told you nothing. Stay out of it and let me deal. All I want from you is for you to make Bree welcome if she comes here on Friday. Zoey’s halfway to liking her already. Cutter sees her as a friend. She doesn’t need your animosity.”

“If she screws you over—”

“Then it’s on
me
.”

“If she screws you over this time,” grated Eli. “It’s the last chance she’ll ever get from me.”

M
ore than anything,
Bree didn’t want to mess up her re-entry back into Caleb Jackson’s world. She wanted to do right by him this time, she wanted to do right by everyone, and not make the kind of mistakes she’d made before. Both Caleb and Zoey had asked her to Friday drinks at the marina and she’d said she’d think about going. She’d been thinking about nothing else.

Walk in there blind, and trust that together she and Caleb would find a way to make this thing between them work? That’s what he was asking of her. Take a chance on him. Let the past go and look to the future. Was it really that simple?

Bree thought not.

“If you ask me, that cake batter is well and truly mixed,” her father said from the door, and Bree abandoned her thoughts and turned her attention back to baking.

She switched off the mixer, unplugged it, pulled the beaters out and let the mix drip off them before setting them on a plate and offering them to him.

But her father didn’t take them. “What’s bothering you, Breanna?”

She was very tempted to say nothing, but there was a lot to be said for anteing up and taking what was coming to her.

“You want to maybe go and sit out on the verandah with me so we can talk? I’ll throw in coffee? And later on in the day, cake.”

Her father strolled out and Bree readied the cake for the oven and made a fresh pot of java. It was her father’s first cup, and Bree’s third. Maybe that was why she felt so jittery.

“It’s not some huge end-of-the-world problem,” she murmured, when she put his coffee down in front of him. “Caleb asked me to drinks this afternoon at the marina, that’s all. And saying it out loud makes it sound like nothing. Only it’s not quite nothing.”

“Sounds like a date to me,” her father said noncommittally.

“It is. And I want to go but there’s a catch.” Step one—confession. It came before apology and then came atonement. “I cheated on his brother all those years ago, before I left.”

Her father eyed her steadily.

“With Caleb.”

Her father looked at her for quite some time and Bree squirmed, because, yes, this was ugly.

“Not the best move you’ve ever made,” he offered finally.

“No. So, I just wanted you to know that so that if—when—that becomes general knowledge, you won’t be surprised. Caleb seems to think that Cutter and the rest of his family are going to welcome me back into their world with open arms. I’m not so sure, but if I want to have a chance at a relationship with him then it’s time to find out.”

“Do you want a chance at a relationship with him?”

She nodded.

“Bree, he’s not—

“Reliable? Seriously invested in me? Someone to settle down with? I know that, Dad.”

“I was going to say that he’s not someone you should treat lightly. You need to know where you’re going with this and what you want from him.”

Oh.

“How close were you and the eldest boy all those years ago?”

“Not that close.” Bree could feel a dull heat begin to creep into her cheeks. “I never got overly physical with Cutter, if that’s what you mean.” She didn’t mention Caleb.

“Is he still interested in you too?”

“No. He was friendly down the street the other day, but that’s just Cutter. He’s not interested in me romantically.”

“Are you sure?”

“Pretty sure.”

“Then, it won’t hurt to talk to him before your big date with his little brother. Let him know where your interest lies. Tell him you’d like to know in advance if there’s going to be any hard feelings.”

“And you think Cutter’s going to fess up his feelings just like that?”

“Not at all. But he will have been forewarned.”

“And if he finds out that it was me and Caleb all those years ago?”

Her father’s lips tightened. “I daresay things are going to get interesting if that comes to that.”

“I should stay away?”

“Not a bad idea.”

Bree sighed. “I don’t want to stay away.”

“Yes,” her father offered dryly. “I’m getting that. Maybe you need to brush up on your apologies.”

“I’m going to need an apology the size of Australia.”

“Quite possibly.” Gotta love a parent who gave it to her straight.

“What do
you
think the Jacksons are going to think of me when they find out what I’ve done? They’re not going to want me anywhere near them. They’re not going to trust me to do the right thing by anyone.”

“It was a long time ago, Breanna. You were eighteen and not mature enough to handle the situation perfectly. We’ve all been there.” Her father smiled wryly. “You don’t even have to be eighteen.”

Bree rubbed at her temples with the heel of her hands. “Dad, I—how did you know when you were in love? Because I do have feelings for Caleb and they’re overwhelming. I look at him and my world gets so much bigger and brighter. Wide angle lens after ten years of micro focus.”