Taste for Trouble (23 page)

Then
he gently removed her hand from his shirt and stepped away from her. “Ah, no,”
he said. “I don’t think so.”

She
tipped her head. “You’re sure?”

“Yeah.
Yeah, I think so.” He regarded her with still green eyes until the urge to
squirm was almost unbearable. “I think I’ll turn in,” he said, hooking a thumb toward
the stairs. “It’s been...quite a day.”

She
nodded, relief and gratitude a vague pang in the vicinity of her heart. She
didn’t look forward to unpacking all the feelings she’d shoved down these past
few minutes. “Yeah. Well. See you in the morning?”

“Sure.”

He
ambled toward the stairs, lazy and loose, as if lust hadn’t just exploded
between them like a land mine. Bel sagged against the door of the freezer,
exhausted. Then he turned back.

“Bel?”

She
jerked herself straight. “Yes?”

“I’ll
behave for Kate. You don’t need to screw me into submission.”

“Oh.
Okay.”

“Just
so you know.”

She
couldn’t think of a thing to say. He turned and disappeared.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

James
forced himself to walk into the foyer and up the stairs. It wouldn’t do to have
Bel come winging out of the kitchen only to find him propped against the wall like
a shell-shocked accident victim.

But
he damn sure felt like one.

He walked
down the upper hall and slipped through the door to the suite of rooms he
shared with his brothers. He sank into the huge leather couch—God, was he glad
he’d ponied up for the biggest one available—and closed his eyes. Drew didn’t
look over. He was deep into a Wii tennis match and kicking ass, but Will
dropped the sports section and lifted a brow.

“How
was reform school?”

“Yeah,
how was it?” Drew drilled a backhand down the line. “Did they exhaust you with
their endless sexual demands?”

James
didn’t open his eyes. “You have no idea,” he said. And they didn’t. Hell,
he
didn’t even know quite what he’d been through. Bel had laid it all out for him
in frosty, precise syllables, but then she’d kissed him until his eyes were
rolling around in his head like loose marbles. And then she’d capped it all off
with a monstrous lie. Which meant there was only one thing a self respecting
guy could do.

“Hey,”
James said. “Throw me a beer, would you?”

“Hell,
no,” Drew said. “I’m—ah, shit, look what you made me do.” He glared at the
screen and James knew that unless the TV actually fell off the wall his pleas
for alcoholic refreshment would go unheeded.

“You
look like hell,” Will said.

“Yeah,
thanks.” James frowned at the coved ceiling. “I feel like it.”

“Oh,
come on. Time was, you could spend the entire day servicing reform school girls
and still go out and ogle strippers that night.”

“Bel
kissed me,” he said slowly.

Will
stared at him, his clever face for once blank with surprise. “At
reform
school
?”

James
scowled at him. “No, Will. In the kitchen just now.”

“Oh.”
The surprise faded and consideration took its place. “Bel kissed you. Huh.”

“Damn
it, James,” Drew said, reaching for a volley. “I saw her first. I
called
her.”

“What
are we, ten?” James rolled his eyes. “You don’t call women.”

“Whatever.”
Drew gave James a quick once-over then smirked. “Wow. You
do
look like
hell.” He pulverized an overhead with a grunt of effort. “Like Wile E. Coyote
after he rides that rocket off the cliff.”

James
thought for a moment. “That about sums it up.”

Will
winced on his behalf. “It was that bad a kiss?”

“No,”
James said. “That good.”

“Oh,”
Will said. “Uh oh.”

“Damn
skippy,” James said.

Drew
sighed as his opponent dribbled a drop shot over the net. “Crap.” He tossed aside
the controller in disgust and flopped onto the couch next to James. “So. It was
good, huh?”

“Great,”
James said. “Better than.”

“I
knew
it.” Drew slapped his knee, delighted. “That mouth.”

“That
mouth,” James agreed mournfully.

“Shit,”
Will said.

“Exactly,”
James said.

Drew
looked back and forth between them. “I do
not
understand you two. A girl
James really likes just laid an epic kiss on him unprovoked. That’s a
good
thing.”

“I
provoked her.”

“Irrelevant.”
Drew laced his hands over his belly. “It’s still good.”

“Usually,
sure. But not this time.” Will shook his head. “Not with Bel.”

“What’s
wrong with Bel?”

Will
and James exchanged a look.

“Bel’s...complicated,”
James finally said.

“So?”

“So
I don’t do complicated.”

“Why
not?”

Why
not, indeed? James didn’t believe for one minute that Bel was prepared to
follow through on that ridiculous exchange she’d demanded. But he
did
believe she’d enjoyed kissing him as much as he’d enjoyed kissed her. And he’d
enjoyed the ever-loving shit out of it. He could have spent all day exploring that
long, elegant body of hers. And those lips—God, her lips—full and soft and
curved in wicked knowledge. Her fingers, tangled in his hair, roving under his
shirt and across his skin, pulling him closer. He was getting hot just thinking
about it.

So
why hadn’t he called her bluff?

“Because
sex is nothing to mess with,” he said finally.

The
look Drew gave him was palpably skeptical. “That’s a new one coming from you.”

“I’m
serious,” James said. “When it comes to women, you either understand what you’re
getting yourself into or you end up in a heap of trouble. And I don’t
understand Bel. At all. She’s too—”

“Smart?
Pretty? Talented? Successful?”

“I
was going to say complicated.”

“So
you only sleep with the simple ones.” Drew nodded sagely. “That sounds like
fun. No missed opportunities there.”

“Hey,
I’m a simple man,” James said. “I live by simple rules. I work at family and I
work at soccer. Everything else—sex included—is either easy and casual, or
skipped altogether. Because between my career—which as you both know is
perilously close to the crapper—and my family—chock full of troublesome
bastards—I’m already up to my ass. I don’t have the time or the energy for
complicated, okay?”

“Not
even the kind of complicated that kisses you stupid?” Drew asked.

“Hey,
plenty of girls have kissed me stupid,” James said. “I don’t have Will’s great
big brain. It’s not that hard to do.”

“But
not like this,” Drew said. “Bel’s different.”

“She
didn’t used to be.” James frowned.

“No?”
Drew leaned forward.

“No.
She used to be...I don’t know. She was just
Bel
, you know? All that
snippy attitude coming out of that fallen-angel mouth?”

Drew
nodded in perfect understanding. “Entertainment in its finest form.”

Will
shook his head. “Will you two listen to yourselves?
Fallen-angel mouth
? Jesus.”

James
scowled at him but Drew kicked his ankle. “So? What’s so different now?”

“Something...happened.”

“The
kiss?”

“Maybe.”
Images swamped him. That trim, elegant body twisting with desire against his,
that cool, alabaster skin flushed and plump in his hands. That bullet-proof
composure of hers reduced to a ragged gasp he could feel against his lips.

He
shook free of the memory and willed his blood to cool off a few degrees. Jesus.
“Before she was just cute, you know? Fun. Handy. Now just looking at her lights
my fuse. Every damn time. And I don’t particularly want to look away.”

Drew
laughed. “You are so screwed.”

“I
know,” James said. “But it gets worse.”

“How
could it possibly get worse?” Will asked.

“I
don’t want her to look away, either.”

Drew
and Will exchanged a baffled look. “What does that mean?”

James
shifted, uncomfortable. But, hell, he needed help, and these were his brothers.
The Blake family credo had been designed with just such miserable situations in
mind. His fight was their fight, damn it. If there was a way to shake clear of
this, Will’s big brain and Drew’s sensitive heart were going to find it for him.
Whether they liked it or not.

“She
disappeared on me today. Twice.”

“She
ditched you?” Will’s brows shot up. “At reform school?”

“Not
physically, no. But she was gone all the same. It happened once at the school,
and once just now in the kitchen.”

“What
does that mean?” Will asked. “
Not physically
?”

James
shrugged and studiously avoided eye contact. “She was there. Her body was,
anyway. But I swear to God, there was nobody home. It was like she’d just, I
don’t know, vanished.”

“Vanished.”
Drew frowned at the blank TV screen. “Huh.”

James
lifted empty hands. How could he possibly explain it? Twice today he’d looked
to Bel for a reality check, for guidance. And both times, he’d found nothing
there. He’d gone looking for the essence of her, the heart, the soul, the
endless, seeking drive that defined her and found nothing but her empty eyes.

And
he’d been startled to discover how much he missed her.

“And
that bothered you?” Will asked. “Because you don’t want her, how did you put
it? Looking away?”

“No,
I don’t. I want her right here with me.” He didn’t hesitate, didn’t consider. The
words just popped out of his mouth, from the same dark slice of his unconscious
that he relied on to predict which way a defender was going to zig so he could
zag. “She’s—” This one didn’t come so easily. “—necessary, I guess.”

“Necessary,”
Will repeated, his tone flat.

“Not
in any unhealthy, co-dependent sort of way,” James said quickly.

Drew
laughed. “Somebody’s been watching his
Dr. Phil
.”

James
glared at him. “Okay, maybe necessary is the wrong word. But I like her. She
takes shots at me. She makes me think. It’s like she expects my A game and if I
don’t bring it, she’s not disappointed so much as disgusted. Because she thinks
I’m better than that.” He frowned into the middle distance, talking more to
himself than his brothers now. “And I like the way she laughs, all rich and
free and earthy. Girl who loves to iron like Bel shouldn’t laugh like that. But
she does, and I like how it feels when I’m the one who makes her do it. I like
the way she never lets herself cry and how she’s ruthless and hard and vulnerable
all at the same time.”

“James.”
Will dipped his chin and gave him a look from under beetled brows. “What the
hell are you talking about?”

James
shrugged, a little baffled himself. “Well, just now, for instance. She said
she’d sleep with me if I’d butter up to Kate and get her job back.”

“
What
?”

“But
it was such a lie. She had to disappear just to get through telling it. But I’m
not going to press her on it. Not right now, anyway. I have bigger problems.”

“Damn
straight,” Will said.

“You
don’t have problems,” Drew said.

James
considered the condition of his career and his unexpected predicament with Bel.
“I don’t?”

“Yes,”
Will said. “You do.” He glared at Drew. “He does.”

“He doesn’t,”
Drew said to Will. He turned to James. “It’s not a problem,” he said, grinning.
“It’s love.”

James
stared at him while the ring of truth reverberated through his entire body. “Oh,
Christ.”

Drew
laughed. “This is awesome.”

Will
smiled grimly. “Awesome. Right.”

Bel
was in the kitchen studying her latest attempt at a whole-grain braided bread wreath
when the doorbell rang. She jumped as Hank Williams’ “Lovesick Blues” yodeled through
the house. What on earth? She glanced at the skylight. It was fully dark, and
had been for the several broody hours Bel had spent trying to bake her way out
of the aftermath of that kiss. Who could possibly be ringing the bell?

Some
friend of the Blake brothers’, she imagined. Maybe they’d dialed Strippers R
Us. Well, they could just get off their lazy duffs and answer it themselves. She
was busy. Plus she was still pissed. At them. At James. At herself.

Mostly
herself. She could admit that now. God, she’d been so smug. She thought she’d
been so ready for it this time, all the heat and skill and
attention
James poured into kissing. Maybe the first one had rocked her world a little,
but she’d been prepared for this one. And forewarned was forearmed and all
that, right?