He groaned as he pulled me close, kissing me with one of those kisses that made my heart pound out of control and my toes tingle. I wanted him inside of me with an almost desperate need, like a drowning man reaching for a lifesaving piece of debris. He pulled my skirt out of the way, ran his hand between my legs, his fingertip pressing almost roughly against my clit. And then he guided himself to me, brushing against me like his lips against my shoulder. I lowered myself against him and… Oh, dios mio!
I settled back, raised my face to the ceiling. And then I began to move, controlling the motion until he was touching me in every place deep in my belly that was screaming for relief. His hands moved over my thighs, my breasts, clutching them through the material of my dress. I laid my hands over his and looked at him, watched him watching me. The way he looked at me threw me off for a second, making me hesitate in my movement. And then he pulled me down to him again, and I was lost, caught in a wave of pleasure that I knew would end.
But, Lord help me, I didn’t want it to end.
Chapter 13
Lucien
I was watching her again, but I knew she wasn’t asleep this time. Her eyes were closed, but she was dancing her fingers over mine, playing a rhythm against me that only she could hear.
“Can I ask you something?”
She made a sound that could have been a sigh. Or it could have been a yes.
“Has it always been just you and your father?”
In an instant I went from holding a soft, pliant woman to gripping a stone. She slid her hips over and turned onto her back, looking at me with that cautious stare that was becoming so familiar.
“Why?”
I shrugged. “I want to know more about you.”
“Why?” she repeated.
I ran my finger slowly over her bare belly, bringing it to a rest right in the center of one nipple. “Why do you think?”
“Did you have an affair with your sister-in-law?”
I groaned, but I didn’t pull away, despite the fact that I wanted to. I bit back my anger and took a deep breath.
“No.”
“Then why did she say those things? Why did she come all the way to Kemah to see you?”
I lay my arm on her chest, resting just below those beautiful breasts. “I never slept with her. But she’s been trying to talk me into it for more than a year. She’s…she’s not a nice person. She used to be, but she changed. The car accident, Jacob, everything falling apart around her… It’s changed her.”
“And Kemah?”
“I don’t know. She said she had to tell me something, but she was so high, I have no idea if it was real or just a delusion brought on by the pills.”
Adrienne looked up at the ceiling. “You should have told my father that.”
“It’s family stuff. I didn’t think it mattered.”
“Everything matters. Someone’s sending you threats.”
I nodded, more because of the concern I could hear in her voice than because I agreed with her. Family was family. I was always taught to protect family over everything. If Jacob found out about the way Lynn had been coming on to me, he would never forgive me. I never would risk that.
“No,” she said.
“What?”
She looked at me. “No, it wasn’t always just me and my dad. I had a mom. A sister.”
Her voice changed when she said that. And the kaleidoscope of sadness that I’d seen in her eyes from that first night in the bar was back. I waited. I didn’t want to push her. But I slid my hand over her ribs, let her know I was there.
“My dad was a cop. My mom used to worry so much whenever he went to work. She was always so afraid that one night we would get a knock on the door informing us that he’d been shot in the line of duty. But it wasn’t about him the night the knock finally did come.”
She reached up and brushed a piece of hair out of her face. She was staring at the ceiling like there was something important up there.
“Amelia, my sister, was an incredible nuisance. She always wanted me to play with her, always wanted some sort of attention. That night, I was trying to color in my favorite coloring book, and she kept coming over, begging me to help her with her Barbies. I hated Barbies. Hated the whole dress-up thing. My dad always said I was born missing that gene that makes girls want to dress up and wear makeup and whatever else. But Amelia, she had it in spades.”
She bit her lip as it began to quiver. I slid my hand over her side, drawing her closer against me.
“My mom suggested that we all get into the car and go get the ingredients for this new chocolate cookie recipe she’d just found. My mom was one of those women who was always buying those housewife magazines, clipping recipes and trying them out. And Amelia loved helping her out. But, again, that was just not my thing. I elected to stay home. I was nine, so staying home alone was a new thing. I took every opportunity I could, even if they were just going to be gone for a few minutes, like a quick trip to the grocery store.”
“But they never came back.”
She shook her head, a single tear rolling slowly down her cheek. “A drunk driver hit them before they were even half a mile from our house. They both died on impact.”
“I’m sorry.”
She shook her head, rubbing her hair against the pillow where she lay. “I should have been in the car. If I’d been in the car—”
“You’d be dead, and your father would have been alone.”