Terms of Surrender (18 page)

“I’m big.” She pushed back, stood on her tiptoes, wiped a grease spot off his forearm, and smeared it across the baby soft skin on her cheek. “I’m gonna be even bigger someday, like you.”

Panting like a puppy after a long run, Laura barreled into the garage, collided with her sister, and deliberately bumped Lisa out of the way. “Unca Gage.
Unca Gage
. Aunt Harley says to come
fast
.”

Gage pushed to his feet. “What’s up, sugarplum?”

She grabbed his hand and tugged. “It’s a ’mergency. We have to save Aunt Harley.”

Gage allowed Laura to pull him out of the garage. As soon as he saw Harley sitting on the grass poolside, her feet dangling in the five inches of tepid water, her bikini leaving little to the imagination, he knew he should have put up more resistance.

He kept his voice cool, his desire in check. “Forgot to put on your life jacket?”

She wrinkled her nose at him. “Funny.” Sunglasses hid her gaze from him. As she turned her face up toward him, he noticed the tight smile on her mouth. “Look who stopped in for a visit.”

Gage followed the gesture of her hand and saw his dad a few feet away, a trowel in one hand, the watering can in the other.

Holy cow.
He hadn’t even noticed him standing there, he’d been so wrapped up in Harley and her bikini. No wonder she looked so uncomfortable.

Images from his youth flashed before him, an ever-present meanness that was there even when the violence was absent. He pushed the memories away, stepped around the pool, and took the older man by the arm to lead him away from the girls. “Dad, what are you doing here? It’s too hot for you to be outside this afternoon.”

“Fran was worried about the flowers.”

“Tell Mom the flowers are fine. I’ll water them.” Gage noted his pale complexion. “Come on. I’ll drive you home.”

A frown filtered across the old man’s face. “You don’t let them near the flowers, do you?”

“No, Dad.”

His dad turned toward the three females and wagged his index finger at the wide-eyed girls. “Mind me, Harley girl. You keep those young ’uns away from the plants or there’ll be hell to pay.”

“Dad, there’s no need to threaten them.” As the old man tipped to the side, unsteady on his feet, Gage’s annoyance morphed into concern. He caught his dad by the arm. “Come on. Let’s get you home and out of the sun.”

A few minutes later, he steered the truck into his parents’ driveway and turned off the vehicle engine, reluctant to go home and face temptation. “What’s Mom up to?”

The old man reached for the door handle, and when the door swung open, the heat from outside decimated the air-conditioned cab of the truck. “She was washing the kitchen floor when I left.”

Gage reached for the door handle. “Great, she must be feeling better. I’ll come in and say hello.”

The old man shook his head. “Another time, son. You know how she hates to be interrupted when she’s working.”

Still distracted by thoughts of Harley in her bathing suit, Gage nodded and restarted the truck. “Tell her to call me, will you?”

Within minutes, he was back at home, the heat of the sun warm against his arms. He should have gone straight into the garage and hidden there for the rest of the day. Instead, he was drawn toward the poolside giggles.

He pulled his iPhone out of his pocket and clicked off a shot of the girls splashing in the pool, Harley laughing at their antics.

She looked his way, her smile reaching her eyes, and he zoomed in and clicked off another shot.

“Gage, come join us.”

He dropped down on the grass beside her.

She tapped his knee. “Why don’t you take off your socks and runners and come swim with us?”

Her irresistible smile combined with the beaming countenances of the twins, hope spilling from their eyes, was all the coaxing he needed.

“It is pretty hot out here.” He peeled off his shirt, his shoes, and socks, and tried to focus on anything but the sexy woman at his side. “Do you girls have sunscreen on?”

Harley picked up a tube from beside her and held it up for his inspection. “Everyone’s slathered and protected.”

“’Cept you, Unca Gage,” Laura pointed out while she poured a bucket full of water over her sister’s head.

The other girl sputtered and squealed and retaliated, and soon the water fight was on. Gage laughed, but as Harley came to her knees, the tube of sunscreen in one hand, a dab of lotion in the other, the antics of the girls faded to the edges of his vision.

Her soft, sexy voice washed over him. “Laura’s right. We wouldn’t want you looking like a lobster at the supper table or we might be tempted to take a nibble.”

He’d like to nibble on her. Instead, he shifted back, out of reach. “I’ve been out in the sun since early spring. I’m not likely to burn now.”

“The girls think you should have sunscreen on, Gage.” She squirted another bit onto her palm, set the tube down on the grass and, rubbing the cream between both hands, shifted closer. “I think you should have some on, too.”

Gage closed his eyes and prayed for a miracle. A rainstorm appearing out of the cloudless sky would be perfect. Unlikely, but hey, that’s why they called it a miracle.

He felt her hands on his back. All decent thoughts vanished in a heartbeat, replaced by the image of her in her skimpy bikini as she knelt behind him and massaged the sunscreen onto his skin.

She leaned forward, her breasts bumping against the back of his shoulders. “How does that feel?”

It felt like he’d been in the sun too long. Hot and sweaty and maybe a little orgasmistic, too. In an attempt to contain his groan of pleasure, he gritted his teeth. “What have you been telling the girls about ’ex?”

Her hands stilled on his shoulders. She leaned forward again, her breasts brushing against his back. “Excuse me?”

“’ex. Kissy, kissy. Huggy, huggy. You and me making a baby. You know,
’ex.
” He glanced over his shoulder at the stunned expression on her face. “I’m quoting Lisa, by the way.”

A nervous laugh escaped her. She straightened and resumed the application of sunscreen, her touch no longer soft and teasing. “You mean sex?”

“Yes. Lisa calls it ’ex.”

“That’s because she can’t always say her s’s.”

“So?”

“So what?” She sounded a little indignant. “You think I’ve been telling them about sex?”

Gage thought of Harley’s soft lips on his and he strangled a groan of lust in his throat. “They got the idea of us kissing from somewhere.”

“Well, you were the one who told them that I kissed you.” The heat of her hands swept across his back, momentarily distracting him. And when she leaned forward again, her forearms and breasts resting across his back, a wave of pure lust hit him square in the groin. “Are the twins getting on your nerves? I can try harder to keep them out of your way. Gosh, they’re like whirlwinds, so fast I can’t keep up to them.”

He opened his eyes and saw that the girls were busy splashing in the pool, paying the adults responsible for them not a single bit of attention.

“Faster than this?” He reached behind, caught Harley by the waist, and hauled her onto his lap.

Surprised laughter spilled from between her lips. Gage glanced towards the girls again. They were still fixated by the water in the pool and didn’t notice the antics of the adults.

Keeping his voice low so he wouldn’t attract the attention of the girls, he asked, “’ex. Do you need a demonstration or something?”

She wiggled out of his arms, back to her knees so that she was between his legs, and reached to the side for the sunscreen. “Behave yourself.”

Her breasts swayed and nearly popped out of her bikini top. Gage reached up, removed the sunglasses from her face, and recognized the teasing sparkle in her eyes. “I’m being a perfect gentleman.”

She squeezed another dollop of lotion onto her palm, rubbed it between her hands, and Gage decided she was playing unfairly. As she set her hands on his shoulders, he reached up and covered her breasts with the palms of his hands.

She stilled on a sharp intake of air. “The girls—”

He peeked over her shoulder. “Aren’t paying any attention to us.”

She checked over her shoulder before she faced him and resumed rubbing the cream into his shoulders, down his arms, and across his chest, never taking her gaze from his.

Taunting. Teasing. Tempting. Turning him on with an intensity which left him short of breath and lightheaded. All the while, Gage explored the fullness of her breasts, the flatness of her belly, the softness of her naked skin.

When her hands slid lower on his chest and moved to his belly, he snuck another look at the girls playing in the pool. He grabbed Harley around the waist and with a twist, laid her on the blanket on her back and covered her with his body.

She smiled up at him. “Mmmm, best sunscreen a girl could ask for.”

His manhood throbbed against the side of her leg. “Do you feel like being naughty?”

“Very much so.” She removed his sunglasses, tossed them aside, and slid her arms around his neck.

Gage lowered his mouth to hers and lost himself in the feel of her body beneath him, in the headiness of their kiss, in the need to make her his. Everything he’d ever wanted wrapped up in one sexy package.

A crash from the garage brought him out of the heat of the moment. He rolled to his feet, pulled Harley up beside him, and ran toward the garage. Images of a child lying beneath his bike flitted through his head. When he spotted Laura and Lisa, he skidded to a stop.

“Are you hurt?” he roared, fear escalating along with the look in Laura’s big eyes. He’d never seen her cry, never seen a tear in her eyes. He suspected only the worst possible scenario could make her cry. “Dammit, is anybody hurt?”

Her mouth covered with one hand, her eyes swimming in unshed tears, Laura shook her head.

He pinned Lisa with a look.

Hands behind her back, the picture of perfect innocence, she kicked at something on the ground with her toe. “I’s fine, Unca Gage.”

His attention fixed on Laura once more and he noted the horrified expression on her face. Forcing himself to calm down, he took in the bike lying on its side in the middle of the garage.

He hunkered down beside it. “What happened?”

Lisa shrugged and went back to kicking at the cement. He turned his attention to Laura. “Well?”

Slowly, she pried her hand away from her mouth and whispered, “We didn’t mean to.”

“What happened, Laura?” he asked, fighting the fury and anger that churned inside of him. Anger at the girls for not paying attention to his instructions. Anger at Harley for bringing them into the oh-too-numerous dangers of his house. Anger at himself for forgetting children needed to be watched every second if he wanted to keep them safe.

More proof of why he would make a lousy father.

Laura glanced at her sister, but Lisa kept her gaze averted on the floor. The older twin turned back to Gage, bravely squared her shoulders, and fought back the tears that made her lower lip tremble. Gage wanted to pull her into his arms and comfort her.

Now wasn’t the time. She needed to learn about the dangers of the garage.

A single tear slipped from one eye and she scrubbed it away with the back of her hand. “I was curious, Unca Gage. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to break your bike.”

And then she broke down. She hung her head so he couldn’t see her face and quietly sobbed, her narrow shoulders shaking.

Gage glanced at Harley, took in her kiss-swollen mouth, and cursed himself for getting carried away.

What should we do?
he wanted to ask. As though she read his mind, she shrugged her shoulders. Tears brimmed in her big brown eyes, and he could tell she wanted to gather the broken hearted child in her arms and give her comfort, too.

Hell, if he wanted to, he could walk away and let her deal with the mess. He had faith that she’d do the right thing…whatever that was.

But they were his nieces, too. And this was his garage, his bike, his home. Mike was his brother and he’d taken the responsibility on himself when he’d brought them into his house.

Gage suffered a pang of indecision before he forged ahead. “Girls, this is serious. Not only could you have broken something that isn’t yours, you could have been seriously hurt in the process.”

Laura pulled her hands away from her face, clasped them together beneath her chin, and gazed up at him, the tears barely under control. And even though her bottom continued to tremble, at least she’d stopped crying.

“You girls are forbidden to enter the garage, do you understand me?”

Laura nodded, her wide-open eyes fixed on his face. He glanced at Lisa. She was still kicking at the floor as though she hadn’t heard him. “Lisa?”

Her big brown guileless gaze turned up to him. “Yes, Unca Gage?”

“Did you hear what I said?”

She nodded and smiled her toothy grin. “Uh huh.”

“Okay.” He glanced back at Laura, suspicions raised. “Lisa, go into the house with your aunt.”

If possible, it seemed Laura’s eyes grew even rounder.

Beside him, Harley touched his arm. “Lisa, what’s that on your hands?”

The younger twin stuck her hands behind her back, and that’s when Gage noticed the smudge of grease on her left cheek, across her belly, and the back of her bathing suit bottom. She hadn’t gotten that dirty when she was in here earlier with him.

Laura, who didn’t have a speck of grease on her, had a new kind of fear in her eyes. This time, he suspected it wasn’t for herself.

“Harley, take Lisa into the house and get her cleaned up. I want to have a word with Laura.”

Silent, apparently trusting him to do the right thing—although why she would, he didn’t have a clue—Harley marched Lisa toward the house.

And Gage wondered what the hell he’d done to earn her trust.

He hunkered down in front of Laura. “Want to tell me the truth?”

From beneath her dewy lashes, she gave him a sideways glance. “Don’t you believe me?”

He sighed, reached for her, and tugged her onto one of his knees. She looped her arms around his neck, her attention fixed on his face, adoration shining from her eyes…and some other emotion he didn’t want to face.