Cole’s heart contracted with emotion as she turned quickly and walked away, leaving the Luccas with their privacy.
Maybe she had made things better. At least the truth was out, and it was a truth Scott had needed to know for more than half his life.
*
Two hours later, wandering past picnic tables filled with enough food for three times the twenty guests at the barbecue, Cole thought she found the answer.
Scott and his dad were arguing, and laughing, about the best way to marinate chicken for the barbecue.
It was at this moment she realized that in all their time together she had seldom heard Scott laugh. Oh, he could be silly and found things funny. But there was most often a bit held back, even in his laughter. It was as if he thought he didn’t deserve full-on soul-shaking happiness.
Too bad. Because she was about to deliver it in daily doses from now on.
She waited until he passed her, then snagged his arm and drew him inside and up the stairs to the bedrooms on the second floor. Once there, she realized yet another surprise. She had never spent a night under this roof.
“Which room is yours?”
Scott pointed to the last door on the left.
Cole moved toward it, pulling him by the hand. When they were both through the entry, she shut the door and looked around.
It was a teenage boys’ room. And, amazingly, it hadn’t been touched during the vandalism. It was like a time capsule of the Lucca boys. She could almost smell the long absent locker-room dirty-sock ambiance. It was full of evidence of growing-boy stuff, from Star Wars to The Sopranos. An Independence Day poster hung beside one for Tomb Raider and another for Call of Duty. A PlayStation sat on the desk between twin beds. Cole moved over and tapped the poster of Lara Croft. “Impressive rack.”
Scott grinned at her. “I was more in lust with her hardware.”
After a perusal of a room that time forgot she wandered back to the door and punched the lock. She turned and leaned her back against it.
Scott shook his head. “What are you doing?”
“Making sure you can’t get away.”
“Why would I want to do that?”
“Because we are going to have wild monkey sex in your old bedroom right now while your parents are entertaining downstairs.”
The look on his face was comical. “Ah, Cole, that’s probably not a good—”
“That’s the point. Live on the edge. Feel fully alive.”
He smirked. “Come over here and I’ll let you feel how fully alive I’m getting.”
Cole shook her finger at him. “Not just yet. Show me what you got.”
He ducked in his chin. “Listen, Cole—”
“Take it off, Agent Lucca. Take it all off.”
A slow grin pushed those sexy dimples into his cheeks as he reached for his T-shirt and pulled it over his head.
Cole sighed in appreciation of the view of all that smooth and ripped muscle. Abs for fingers to climb. Delts worth licking. And obliques to grip as she slid down his body. Nothing was really flat. His torso rippled and tucked and bulged just enough in all the right places. Yet he was no caricature of male beauty. He was real. Hair on his chest, a few scars that suddenly made her feel better about her new imperfection. He was not perfect, and all hers.
When her gaze met his again she felt her whole body become aroused.
“Keep going.” Where had her breath gone?
Those damn dimples deepened. “Anybody ever tell you you’re a nasty girl?”
“You’re a bad influence.”
“God, I hope so.” He shucked off his boots and reached for his zipper. Camo pants hit the floor along with his briefs in quick shucking movements.
Cole smiled. Oh yes. They were going to have fun in the narrow confines of his bed. “Looks like you’re happy to see me.”
He made a little pumping action with his hips that surprised and delighted her, his erection dancing happily along. “Come and get it.”
She watched him with a rapt fascination he’d never seen on any woman’s face but hers. For him. All for him.
He sighed despite his assurance of what she had in mind, when she reached for her top. As she undressed before him he didn’t see the thin lines of fading red or the bruises or anything but the lovely wonderful body of the woman he loved more than life.
When she reached for him, hand closing over his ready-to-go erection, he pulled her in and kissed her with everything he had to give.
And then he slid a hand between her legs and felt the glistening proof of her readiness for him.
He pulled her down on the bed beside him and kissed her until she was shivering. Then he lay back in what had once been a lonely boy’s bed and pulled her astride.
He watched her face as she raised herself up and then slid her body down over his. He watched her mouth open in pleasure at the filling that almost stopped his heart.
When she began moving on him, he thought he might not last. But then she looked down at him, a hard little frown on her lovely face.
“Don’t you dare. I’ve waited weeks.”