“Never kid a nun. They don’t take kindly to it.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
“Not believing . . .” Cole shook his head. “Something else I wouldn’t brag about to a nun.”
“You’re just trying to make me nervous.”
“Is it working?”
It was, but no way was Leena confessing that to him, or to his aunt the nun.
“You don’t have to answer that,” he said.
“I don’t intend to,” she assured him.
“One more thing . . .”
“I have no interest in anything else you have to say,” Leena loftily informed him.
“Are you sure? I really think this is something that would be of great interest to you.”
“I am so
totally
not interested that I can’t even begin to tell you.”
“Okay.” He shrugged. “So you’re not interested in the fact that I can see through your dress? I thought you might want to know, but hey, it’s your call.”
“What?!” Leena immediately looked down.
“Your dress,” Cole repeated. “I can see through it.”
“Where?”
“Pretty much from the waist down.”
She lifted her head to fix him with a narrow-eyed glare. “You’re just trying to freak me out.”
“I’m telling the truth.”
“Oh yeah? Then what color is my underwear?”
Only after Cole focused his attention on that intimate part of her anatomy did Leena belatedly realize that this line of questioning wasn’t prudent.
“Never mind,” she quickly said.
“Pink. Your underwear is pink.”
“A lucky guess.”
He squinted a bit, highlighting the crinkly laugh lines at the outer corners of his eyes. “Pink with polka dots.”
Damn. She knew she should have changed lingerie. One of the premier rules of fashion was to make sure your lingerie enhanced your outfit—not sabotaged it.
Pink polka-dotted underwear didn’t go with this wild outfit. She should have worn something nude.
That seemed to be the word of the day.
Appropriate lingerie didn’t solve the dilemma of her apparently semitransparent dress. Sure the material was kind of sheer, but when she’d looked at herself in the bathroom mirror it had seemed okay, aside from the how-low-can-you-go bodice.
So what had happened? Had she inadvertently pulled a Princess Diana by standing with the sun behind her like a giant spotlight?
She looked over her shoulder. Sure enough, that was the problem.
Leena quickly changed positions so the sun was at her side instead of behind her.
“Is that better?” she asked before remembering who she was speaking to.
“Depends on your point of view,” Cole replied.
“Is this point of view as revealing as the previous one?”
“If you’re asking me if I can still see through your dress, then the answer is no.”
She heaved a sigh of relief.
“But now you’re on the verge of going topless.”
Leena frantically looked down.
Cole laughed. “Just kidding.”
“Idiot!” Infuriated, she smacked his arm . . . hard.
“Ouch!”
Misty the Pekinese barked protectively, leaping up and down at their feet before taking a mouthful of Leena’s dress in her teeth and yanking hard.
Rrrrip.
The next thing Leena knew, her ankle-length Regency dress had turned into a micromini.
“Nice legs,” Cole noted.
Leena and the dog both growled in reply.
“That’s a cute look,” Sue Ellen told her sister as she rejoined them.
Leena growled again. She hated her cottage-cheese thighs. Okay, maybe
hate
was a little intense. They weren’t her strong point, was the way her agent had put it in their better days. Her agent’s and hers. Not her thighs’ better days. Her thighs hadn’t had any better days.
The thing that really burned her butt was skinny size-zero models saying they hated their fat thighs. That was just so wrong on so many levels.
On a good day, dressed in the right pair of shorts, Leena could actually feel okay about her thighs. But not today. Not with Cole commenting on her polka-dotted underwear and then her legs. She felt he was mocking her, laughing at her behind her back just as he had when they’d been kids.
She’d already socked him once today. She refused to stoop to his level and hit him again, as much as she was tempted. Besides, the yappy guard dog at his feet might yank off a hunk of her flesh next time.
“I hate to break up your little tête-à-tête,” Sue Ellen said, “but we’ve got to get this photo shoot going.”
“I am not having my photograph taken in this outfit,” Leena said between clenched teeth.
“I just told you, you look great. Doesn’t she look great?” Sue Ellen asked Cole.
Cole nodded. “Really great.”
“He looked through my dress.” Leena realized how silly her words were the moment she said them.
Sue Ellen frowned. “What are you talking about? He’s not Superman with X-ray vision.”
“I was standing with my back to the sun and it made my dress transparent . . . Never mind. I told you this dress was a mistake the minute I put it on, but would you listen to me? Noooo. And you,” Leena turned her anger toward Cole, “standing there and making fun of me.”
“I assure you, I wasn’t making fun of you,” Cole replied.
“Great legs,” she mimicked.
“Thanks,” he said wryly, “but mine look better in shorts.”
“See, that’s what I’m talking about.”
He raised one dark eyebrow. “My legs?”
“Your attitude.”
“I’m not the one with an attitude. You are.”
Sue Ellen clapped her hands. “Children, we’re running out of time here. You’ll have to continue your bickering later.”
“I told you, I’m not being photographed in this dress.”
The distant rumbling of thunder reflected the increasing tension in the air. A storm was rapidly approaching.
Sue Ellen cast a worried look at the sky and then at her sister. “But you have to be photographed in that dress. And fast.”
“No way!”
Leena stormed off to her trailer. She wanted to place her hands on her butt to make sure her barely there dress covered as much of it as possible, but she refused to show any vulnerability.
Not that showing cellulite was much better.
She climbed the steps to the front door and yanked it open as another much louder clap of thunder made her jump. Only when she was inside did she realize that Cole had followed her. A tide of anger rose inside her, taking energy from everything that had gone wrong in her life lately.
“What are you doing in here? I’ve had enough of your insulting brand of humor for one day.”
Cole was clearly clueless; otherwise, he would have gone running for his life. Instead he stood there and gave her that you’re-acting-hormonal look that men sometimes gave women. “If you’d just calm down and listen to me a minute—”
“Why? So you can lie and tell me you weren’t making fun of me?”
“I wasn’t.”
Leena decided to call his bluff. She didn’t believe he was attracted to her. There was only one way to prove it.
“Fine.” She crooked her finger and beckoned him closer.
He moved cautiously, sensing perhaps that she was up to something.
Her kiss caught him by surprise. She saw his eyes widen a second before her lips met his.
She’d turned the tables on him, and she fully expected him to back up or reject her. She didn’t expect him to return the kiss . . . and deepen it.
This wasn’t supposed to be happening. This wasn’t what she’d planned. The man was a prime-time kisser. A master. He took it slow, as if savoring the very taste of her.
She parted her lips for him. How could she not when he was doing that yummy move with his tongue along the crease of her mouth? Cole didn’t rush her in order to stake his claim. But his groan told her he was enjoying this sensual oral exploration as much as she was.
It was almost a religious experience. Like Moses, he’d parted the Red Sea, in this case her red lips. Now he was at the pearly gates, sliding his tongue past her pearly white teeth into the dark dampness of her mouth.
Did the fact that his aunt was a nun have something to do with her weird visuals? Who cared?
He pulled her closer until she was plastered against him, her lush breasts pressed against his muscular chest, his hands sliding down her back to cup her generous bottom.
Blind passion took over all her senses. Mouth to mouth, body to body. His hands speared through her hair, tilting her head to increase the intimacy of their hot kiss. Her hands slid beneath his T-shirt to climb his spine. His skin was so warm beneath her fingertips.
The embrace was quickly spiraling out of control when a brilliant bolt of lightning immediately followed by a deafening clap of thunder made them jump apart.
A second later Sue Ellen and a shivering Misty tore into the trailer.
“It’s raining cats and dogs out there. Or dogs and dogs. Here.” Sue Ellen thrust the little dog into Cole’s arms. “You take her.”
Leena lifted trembling fingers to her mouth. Unable to stand there and pretend that nothing had happened, she beat a hasty retreat to the bathroom, where she closed the door and locked it.
But there was no escaping the fact that her pass at Cole hadn’t made him retreat, blowing her theory that he was just making fun of her right out of the water. Which left her more confused than ever.
Sister Mary came knocking on Leena’s door later that evening, with a covered dish in hand. “Welcome to Rock Creek.”
“I’m not a newcomer,” Leena felt compelled to say. She didn’t want to be accepting food under false pretences. Especially from a nun. “I grew up here.”
“Yes, I know. But you’ve been gone a long time. You do eat, don’t you? You’re not one of those anorexic or bulimic models, are you?”
“Do I look like I don’t eat?”
“You look normal, but looks can be deceiving.”
“I’m not skinny by any stretch of the imagination.”
“Does that bother you?”
“She hasn’t invited you inside yet? That’s not a good sign, is it?” These two comments came from a woman who’d just joined Sister Mary.
“You must be Sister Mary’s sister,” Leena greeted her.
“Do you like it when people introduce you as Sue Ellen’s sister?”
“Well, uh, no,” Leena admitted.
“I don’t like being referred to merely as someone’s sister either. Or as Cole’s aunt. I’m Nancy Crumpler.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Sorry that I’m Cole’s aunt? Why’s that?”
“No, I meant I’m sorry that I referred to you as Sister Mary’s sister. And sorry I haven’t invited you both inside sooner.” The earlier rainstorm had passed but the air had a chilly edge to it. “Please come in. Would you like some coffee or something?”
“By something are you referring to an alcoholic beverage of some kind?” Nancy asked, then added, “What?” when nudged by Sister Mary. “You don’t think we should find out if she has a drinking problem?”
“You seem surprised by our appearance here this evening,” Sister Mary said. “Didn’t Cole tell you we’d be stopping by?”
“I thought he was kidding.”
“And why is that?”
“Well, he, uh, he seems like the kind of guy who likes to kid around,” Leena said weakly.
Nancy fixed her with an eagle glare. Not that Leena had ever seen an eagle glare, but if she had, she was sure it would’ve looked just like Nancy’s steely-eyed stare. “And by that you mean . . . ?”
“He told me that both his aunts are very proud of him.”
“And why shouldn’t we be?”
“No reason.” Leena set the covered plate on the dining table. “Would you like some coffee or lemonade?”
“We’d like some answers. What?” Nancy sounded increasingly crabby as Sister Mary nudged her again. “I’m simply speaking the truth. You should be happy about that.”
“You don’t have to be so blunt about it,” Sister Mary reprimanded.
“I don’t see her offering any information.”
“You haven’t given her much of a chance. So, Leena, tell us about yourself. We know you grew up here and . . .” The nun prompted her.
“I’m not a Catholic,” Leena blurted out.
“No surprise there,” Nancy said. “Tell us something we don’t know.”
“I make really good mocha madness brownies.”
“From scratch or from a mix?” Nancy asked.
“From scratch.”
Nancy nodded approvingly. “That’s good. What else?”
“I’ve never made cupcakes.”
“I meant something else about yourself besides your baking abilities.”
Leena felt as if she were in the midst of the Spanish Inquisition. “Are you two always this . . .”
“Direct? I am,” Nancy said. “My sister tends to be a little more . . .”
“Empathetic,” Sister Mary suggested.
Nancy turned to face her. “So empathetic that you were giving last rites to a hamster.”
“The hamster wasn’t dead. I merely prayed for its continued recovery.”
“Tell her how many times you’ve done that.”
“Prayed for someone’s recovery? More times than I can count.”
“I meant prayed for one of Cole’s animal patients,” Nancy said.
“Why do you care?” Sister Mary said.
“Because it’s silly to pray for an animal.”
“You think it’s silly to pray at all.”
“So?”
Leena cleared her throat. “Uh, did you want me to leave you two alone to speak privately?”
Nancy frowned at her. “Why would we want that?”
“Because you seemed to be speaking about private matters.”
“Nah, everyone in town knows how we feel. They’ll know all about you before long too. That’s why we want to know first. Because you’re working for Cole now and we always check out his employees. So tell us, why’d you leave Rock Creek and why did you come back?”