Craving a Hero: St. John Sibling Series, book 3 (10 page)

They lay panting, chest to chest, until their breathing evened out. He stroked her head, her hair, the sweat-dampened back of her tee. His contentment waning as reality made its way back into his head. With utter tenderness, he kissed her temple, his lips lingering. Then sighed.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"What makes you think there's anything wrong?"

She folded her hands on his chest, rested her chin on them, and peeked up at him. "You sighed and not in a satisfied way."

He stroked the hair back from her cheek. "You're one intuitive woman, Bright Eyes."

"Comes from being a—"

"CO, I know. But it also comes from being a woman. My mother has it. Dixie has it."

"So, what am I intuiting?"

"My sister's getting remarried."

"Nothing wrong with that," she said, tilting her head to one side, totally unprepared for what he was about to tell her.

He drew a deep breath, feeling every inch of her sprawled atop him and hating he couldn't keep her there. "You know from what I've told you that our family is pretty spread out geographically. Roman's here in the U.P. and Dixie's just north of Green Bay in Wisconsin. But the rest are scattered. Renn works in Texas, Mom and Dad live in Japan, and Jake's usually in shadowland somewhere on another continent."

He purposely didn't bring up that he'd soon be heading to Eastern Europe to shoot his next movie. But she was picking up on the vibe coming off his words, trying to figure out what came next. He felt it in the tightening of her body—saw it in the darkening of her eyes.

"So," he continued, stroking her back, "since we were all here for the Fourth of July and none of us had anything major pulling us too far away at the moment, Dixie and Sam have decided to get married while we're all here in the States."

She slid off him to his side, putting her back to him as though anticipating his answer to her next question. "When is the wedding?"

He rolled onto his side behind her and cupped her hip. "Monday."

"Monday?" She sat up, breaking from his hold, her voice small, almost lost sounding. "Monday as in tomorrow?"

"Yes."

She swung her legs off the bed.

"Odd day of the week for a wedding," she said, pulling on her panties.

"It's the one day of the week Dixie's restaurant is closed."

"Sure. Makes sense," she said, snagging her shorts off the foot of the bed where they'd landed.

He watched her step into the shorts and pull them up those long legs that wrapped themselves around him every time he buried himself in her.

"Are you coming back afterwards?" she asked without looking at him.

He hadn't planned to. But that was before he'd discovered Kelly—before he'd gotten a taste of…

A taste of what?
Love? Was that what this was? Or were they still exploring the possibility there was more between them than fantastic sex? Whatever the case, he wasn't yet ready to walk away from Kelly.

"I'm not needed on set for another week," he said, moving to the edge of the bed, closer to her

She tugged nervously at the hem of that tee he'd never forget her wearing as she made love to him.

"I'll be back," he said.

"Good," she replied in a small voice.

No. Not good. They had so few days left together. He didn't want to squander a moment of that time by being away from her.

"Come with me," he said.

She turned wide eyes at him. "To your sister's wedding?"

He stood and took her hand in his. "It'll just be a little family affair."

Something that looked like panic flashed across her eyes. "Wouldn't your family find my attending their
little family affair
presumptuous?"

He gave her hand an encouraging squeeze. "Not my family."

She frowned. "I don't know."

Desperate, he added, "Besides, my brothers will all have dates. You wouldn't make me show up alone, would you?"

Lie.

"Don't make me go to my sister's wedding stag," he said, hating he'd resorted to a lie, even a small one, to persuade her.

"It's short notice to ask for a pass—a day off."

He lifted her hand to his mouth and kissed her white knuckles then said, "As little time as we have left together, Kelly, I don't want to spend a minute of it without you. Please, will come with me?"

No lie.

CHAPTER SIX

He didn't want to spend a minute of the time they had left without her.
He'd actually said those words—voiced the same sentiments she felt. She'd have moved heaven and earth to get Monday off, if that's what it would have taken. Fortunately it hadn't taken that much effort.

But now, standing in Roman and Tess St. John's front parlor, watching Tess St. John descend the sweeping staircase of the grand Victorian mansion in a fine silk dress made Kelly want to sink behind the antique loveseat in her little cotton blend sundress.

Casual
, Dane had told her when she'd fretted over what to wear. What other lies might he have told her?

Tess' smile seemed genuine as she approached, hands extended. "You must be Kelly."

"Yes," Kelly said, managing a smile of her own.

Then Tess gave her the onceover. "Cute dress."

Kelly's smile faltered. "Dane said to dress casual."

Dane stepped from his brother's side to Kelly's. "It is casual. Look at me. I'm wearing jeans and a blazer."

"He's right," Tess said. "The St. Johns are a casual bunch. Relax, Kelly, you'll fit in with that dress better than I will with mine."

Okay, so he hadn't lied to her. Kelly exhaled, but still couldn't let go of the fact Tess' dress looked designer-tailored.

Tess fidgeted with a seam. "I'm a little limited these days to what fits what with junior on board. Getting thick in the waist, you know."

Dane's brother, Roman slung an arm around his wife and patted her tummy. "I, for one, love every one of those extra inches."

Tess gave him a playful slap and added in Kelly's direction, "Besides, even a country transplant like me finds it hard to leave the city girl behind completely. We dress up even when we jog."

Kelly chuckled, momentarily distracted from her discomfort…which had begun to well up in her the minute Dane had steered his rental into the driveway of the biggest house she'd ever been in.

"You have a beautiful house," Kelly said.

"Which she would have flipped and sold," Roman said, hugging Tess to his side.

To which Tess shot back, "I had a business I was building."

"But he wanted to fill the house with babies," Dane said, slipping an arm around Kelly's waist.

"Guess who won out," Roman said, drawing his wife into his arms in a way that made Kelly long for the same.

"We both did," Tess and Roman said in unison and the longing tightened deep in Kelly's belly.

"We best get rolling," Roman said, glancing at his watch. "We've got a two-hour drive ahead of us."

At the car, Tess cut Dane off before he could join Kelly in the back seat. "I'm sure you boys have some catching up to do. Besides, I'd like to chat more with Kelly." And she slid into the backseat next to Kelly.

Kelly swallowed hard. Two hours chatting with a city-born girl who'd grown up on the moneyed side of the tracks. Whatever would they talk about?

They'd barely backed out of the drive when Tess asked, "Have you plans for a family, Kelly?"

Kelly blinked, catching a backward glance from Dane, and sputtered, "I-I haven't thought a lot about kids…yet. I've been concentrating on my career."

"That was my Tess, too," Roman said, glancing at them from the rearview mirror, "when I met her."

Between Tess having asked the question, Roman looking at her in the rearview mirror, and Dane with his ear cocked toward the break between the front bucket seats, panic swelled through Kelly. What did they want to hear from her—what did
he
want to hear—if he even cared about her response?

She looked at Tess. The woman patted her hand and gave her a knowing smile. "What Roman says is true. I was all about my career and proving men wrong when we met."

"What happened?" Kelly asked before she could edit herself, yet at the same time grateful for change in subject.

"Love happened," Tess said with a wink. "Damn that cupid."

Kelly's stomach gave a funny little twist. Was that what was happening to her? Was she falling into love, rather than lust?

Of course she was. She'd known it the minute Dane had offered her an out just before burying himself inside her that first night together. But what about him?

She eyed the back of his head. What did he want by asking her to be his date to an intimate family wedding? Was this the meet-the-family date? Did he feel more than lust as well for her?

Ridiculous
. They'd known each other only a few days.

Want clogged Kelly's throat. She looked out the side window, hiding her emotions until she felt composed enough to face Tess again. "So, you're an architect. I'm a Conservation Officer. Looks like the two of us chose professions not too welcoming of the female sex."

#

Dane was glad Kelly and Tess had found something in common to talk about, even if it involved a little man-bashing. At least Kelly had finally relaxed, having found a kindred spirit in his sister-in-law.

But when he handed Kelly out of the car in the circular drive of The Farmhouse, the back half of which had been barricaded off with sawhorses, he saw the hesitation return to her eyes. Before he could say anything to reassure her, Tess snagged Kelly's hand and tugged her toward the house.

"Let's go freshen up before making our grand entrances. Besides, I've got a baby sitting on my bladder."

And off they went, into the house. Dane frowned at the closing front door.

"Come on," Roman said, slinging an arm around him and guiding him toward the back yard. "Tess'll look after her."

By the time the two women appeared on the back porch, Dane had hugged his way through his brothers, his cousins, his father who'd explained his mother was inside tending the bride, and one jittery soon-to-be brother-in-law.

At the top of the back porch steps, Tess and Kelly appeared. Tess was regal in her silk, but Kelly took his breath away. It was the second time today she'd had that effect on him. Maybe it was because all he'd seen her in up until today were her fatigues or jeans…and her underwear…and her altogether.

Those last two memories had him twitching in his pants. But there was something more going on with this girl—something that went beyond how good she looked naked or in that poppy-floral sundress with its wide t-straps hugging her beautiful, bare shoulders. There was a whole lot more to her than those lovely, long legs exposed by the tea length skirt of that dress and turned by the modest heel of her white pumps. He knew. She'd shared with him some of her darkest fears.

And he'd heard a lot more by listening to her talk to Tess about the trials of working in a man's world. Most of all, he'd sensed all Kelly could be in the passion she'd brought to their lovemaking. She was seeking more, whether she'd admit it or not.

And he too wanted more; the question being did he want more
now?

He met her at the foot of the stairs with a smile, and steadying hands for both her and Tess as they took the last step. "Roman's saving seats for us. They're about to start the ceremony."

#

At least she'd been spared the immediate barrage of introductions she'd been dreading. Not that the reprieve could last forever, Kelly thought, as Dane guided her into a seat between him and Tess. But, before she could fret too much about the introductions yet to come, the bride's small entourage appeared on the freshly white-washed back porch.

That the procession should start from the side of where everyone was seated struck Kelly as odd. But, how nice it was to see the glow of utter happiness in Dane's mother's face as she was escorted to her seat by a thirty-something, dark-haired man who fit Dane's description of Jake, something few would have seen had she been escorted down the aisle from behind the congregation.

They were followed by a pair of junior bridesmaids, identical down to their giggles.

"Our Cousin Annie's girls," Dane whispered, his mouth so close his breath tickled her ear.

The grinning Maid-of-Honor in a matching tea length dress trailing the twins so resembled them Kelly knew, even before Dane whispered the woman's name, she had to be Cousin Annie.

Then it was just the bride and her father at the top of those steps, the bride in a white cotton peasant blouse, the neckline embroidered with blue morning glories. The matching full skirt ended just below her knees and above a pair of ruby-red heels. She wanted to ask Dane about the dressy spikes with so casual a wedding-attire, but the bride was grinning in the direction of someone at the front of the gathering with such love, Kelly didn't want to break the spell of the moment.

Of course, the object of the bride's love was the groom, who was beaming back at her with the same intensity. This was the look of two people deeply in love, and Kelly envied them.

Then the music switched, but not to the conventional wedding march. Instead, Huey Lewis and the News belted out from the speakers
The Power of Love
and the bride and her father broke into a dance of a procession.

Kelly gaped from them to the laughing groom. Dane pulled her to her feet and she saw everyone stood swaying and gyrating and clapping in tune as Dixie and her father danced their way to Sam. The father of the bride swung her into the groom's arms, took a turn in the aisle with the mother of the bride, the music faded out, and everyone but the wedding party and minister sat down.

Dane leaned close and, in a low voice, stated more than asked, "Wasn't that fun?"

"It was…unconventional," she replied, not sure what she thought of what had just transpired.

"That's my family," he said, beaming.

#

By the end of the service, Kelly ruled the orientation of the seating well thought out and not just so the guests could have easily watched the father of the bride dance her into the arms of her groom. Granted it was the most unusual
giving away of the bride
she'd ever witnessed, not that much beyond the conventional ever happened in Copper Falls. In any case, she was certain her father would never have danced her down any aisle, even if he hadn't taken a bullet to his hip.

She'd decided the seating arrangement was perfect because of the natural slope of the yard that set the flower-trimmed trellis and the bride and groom in easy view of all who witnessed their loving exchange of personal vows. Even little Ben, the bride's preschool son whom Sam had chosen to be his Best Man, wasn't lost behind a sea of heads.

"Sam would have no other," Dane had told her when she asked about Sam's having chosen a five-year-old as his Best Man. "He said it was the next best thing to having his cousin Michael at his side."

The cousin whom Sam had been raised alongside like a brother, Ben's father and the husband from whom Dixie had been widowed.

"Marrying like that within the family must have taken some time to work through," she'd said.

"Not nearly as much as you might think," Dane said, then switched gears, hauling her off to meet the first round of relatives.

Brothers Jake and Renn, like Roman, were tall like Dane. But, while Renn was practically a twin to Dane with his Viking blond hair and blue eyes, Jake was dark, his musculature lean, and his eyes watchful.

She shook hands with the oldest of the St. John siblings, the one who was a St. John by adoption and found him sizing her up with the same intensity with which she sized him up. "Dane tells me you're military. Special Ops?"

"Formerly," he said. "I've moved on."

But not too far,
she surmised given his guarded demeanor.

Renn accepted her extended hand, but instead of shaking it, lifted it to his lips for a light kiss. "A pleasure, my lady."

"Don't let the act fool you," Dane said, extricating her hand from his brother's. "And it is an act. He plays a Renaissance knight at one of those theme restaurants where they joist while the patrons dine."

"The Joust," Renn said, giving her a courtly bow. Then, to Dane, he added, "At least I do my own stunts."

"I do my own stunts," Dane snapped back.

"Not all of them," Renn said with a wink.

"Most of them," Dane grumbled.

Jake just watched his two brothers with something just short of amusement. Then he caught her watching him.

"Join me at the punchbowl while these two verbally duke it out?" he offered.

"Oh no," Dane said, tucking her arm into his. "She has more people to meet."

As he steered her off, she nodded back at Renn and Jake. "Where are their dates?"

A triumphant grin split Dane's face. "They don't have any."

"But, one of the arguments you gave me for my accepting your invitation to your sister's wedding was that you didn't want to be the only one here stag."

"So I wanted to show them up. We can sometimes be a bit competitive."

"You lied to me," she said.

He frowned. "Hang up the damn CO cap for one day, Kel."

"Hey, I left my phone back at the camp." Then, unable to keep the smile completely off her face, she said, "I've never seen you annoyed like this."