Bound to the Bachelor (17 page)

“Come back to bed,” Beau said.

She glanced over her shoulder at him. “This is a nice photo.”

“It’s a bit faded now. I was thinking of digging out the negatives, getting some fresh prints made.”

She returned her attention to Ben’s brash smile. “He looks like you.”

“Yeah. He used to tell people we were twins, even though I was half a foot taller than him most of the time.”

She walked back to the bed and slid beneath the covers.

“Do you think about him much?”

“Every day.” There was something about the way he said it that made Lily feel like she was on shaky ground.

“Sorry, we don’t have to talk about it you don’t want to.”

It had to be a bad memory for Beau, she guessed. She knew from Andie he’d been out on the river that day, along with Heath, the three of them floating down the river on inner tubes, a common summer pastime in Marietta.

“It’s okay.” Beau crossed his arms behind his head, his gaze fixed on the light fitting. “It used to be a real thing for me, a monkey on my back. But I made my peace with it a while ago.”

“It’s a terrible thing to go through,” Lily said.

A muscle flickered in his jaw, and for a moment his gaze was so distant, so remote and sad, she knew he was thinking about what had happened.

How Ben had slipped off his inner tube and gone under.

How Beau and dived and dived, trying to find his little brother in the murky water.

How the rescue divers had found Ben snarled in the branches of a submerged log.

Wanting to comfort him, she rolled onto her side and slid her hand across his body, pressing a kiss to his shoulder.

“I’m really sorry,” she said quietly.

He slipped his arm around her, pulling her closer, and she rested her head on his chest.

“Sometimes I think about what he’d be like. What he’d be doing. He was a little hell-raiser a lot of the time. He would have given mom and dad grey hair if he had the chance.”

She didn’t say anything, just waited, and after a moment he started talking again.

“I used to have this dream all the time where we’re in the car, and Dad’s dropping us off at the river, telling us he’ll be back in a couple of hours. And I keep trying to turn around and push Ben back into the car, or tell Dad to keep driving. To change what I know is going to happen. But it’s like the dream fights back, twisting and turning until we wind up in the river again, and Ben disappears, and I dive in to save him…”

Lily tightened her arm across his body, aching for him. Beau had been fifteen years old when the accident happened, but he’d relived the horror over and over again in his dreams.

“You don’t dream about him anymore?” she asked.

“Sometimes, but different dreams now. There’s one where I walk into the house and he’s just sitting at the kitchen table like he never left, and it’s so good to see him, I don’t even bother asking where he’s been all this time.” Beau’s voice was so low it was little more than a rumble, his chest vibrating beneath her ear.

“I have dreams like that about my mom. I keep meaning to look it up in a dream book to see what it’s supposed to mean.”

“That someone died and you miss them, is my guess,” he said dryly.

She lifted her head so she could see his face. “Listen to the cynic.”

“And you’re not a cynic?”

She thought about it for a moment. “I’m a selective cynic. I reserve the right to still be surprised by life when something awesome happens.”

“Hedging your bets,” he said.

“Sure. Why not?”

He was silent for a moment. “Can I ask you something?”

“Only if it’s deeply, deeply personal and revealing,” she joked.

“Why did you leave home when you were only sixteen years old?”

She wasn’t entirely surprised by the question. She’d felt his curiosity the other night when she’d sketched in the details about her bequest from Luther.

Drawing back from him a little, she thought for a moment about how much to tell him. Then she realized he had a right to know everything, since he had taken it upon himself to step between her and her violent stepbrother. It was only fair he understood what he’d landed in the middle of.

“I had to,” she said simply. “It was either stay and be raped by my stepfather, or go.”

Beau’s whole body tensed in response to her words.

“Jesus. Where was your mother?”

“She didn’t believe me when I told her what he’d tried to do.”

“You mean he actually tried to rape you?”

She could see the anger and outrage in his face and couldn’t help but feel warmed he could get so worked up on her behalf, even though what they were talking about was ancient history.

“He came into my room and tried to force himself on me, but I got lucky and smacked him in the nose.” She remembered something then. “Hey, maybe it wasn’t an accident when I clipped you the other day. Maybe I’ve got some special Ninja skill around noses.”

“Come here.”

Beau held out his arm, inviting her close again. After a moment of hesitation she wriggled closer, resting her head over his heart. His belly tensed beneath her hand as he lifted his head off the pillow, then he pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

“I’m sorry you had to go through all that,” he said quietly.

“Yeah. So am I. It kind of sucked,” she said philosophically.

Her words squeezed a laugh out of him, and she turned her head and kissed his chest.

“I don’t want to kill your vision of yourself as a lady killer, but you give good snuggle,” she said.

“You should see my spooning technique.”

“Are we talking inside spoon or outside spoon?”

“Outside spoon. Inside spoon is for girls.”

She feigned outrage, lifting her head, trying not to laugh at his silliness. “Why? Because it’s the receiving spoon? Don’t tell me your masculinity is that fragile?”

“My masculinity is just fine, thanks for asking. I just prefer being the outside spoon.”

“I think you should give inside spoon a chance,” Lily said. “‘Roll over.”

Beau started to laugh. “No way.”

“Yeah, way.”

She pushed at him, trying to force two hundred and fifty pounds of solid muscle to bend to her will. He didn’t so much as budge.

“Want to try again?” he asked, still laughing at her.

It was hard to stop from laughing as she did her damnedest to move him, slipping both hands beneath him and trying to shove him over onto his side. She was about to give up when Beau moved, but instead of rolling away from her, he rolled toward her, and before she knew it she was pinned beneath him.

“Not quite what I had in mind,” she said dryly.

Then she felt the nudge of his hard cock between her thighs and smiled.

“This is what my grandmother warned me about, you know.”

“What is?” he asked.

“Spooning. It always leads to forking.”

She had a ringside seat as he lost it, the corners of his eyes creasing attractively as he flat-out belly laughed, his gaze alight with amusement.

She couldn’t hold back her own smile – didn’t want to – as she basked in his appreciation of her joke.

“Just for that, I’m going to prove your grandmother right,” he said, eyes still bright with laughter.

“Please do. In fact, I think I’m going to insist upon it.”

He leaned across to the bedside table, and she watched as he tore the top off a condom packet. He rolled to one side, easing the latex on with one practiced move. She watched the play of his hand down his own length, hugely turned on by the sight of him touching himself.

Perhaps, when she was feeling less greedy, she’d make him perform for her. The idea of watching him take himself in hand… yeah. She would definitely be up for that.

Beau’s gaze found hers as he rolled back on top of her, notching into place between thighs she spread wide in welcome. He nudged inside, giving her just the head, teasing her. Waiting to see how she’d react. She reached behind him, grabbed his ass and squeezed.

“Quit pussyfooting around, Bennett.”

He slid home then, and her smile faded as thousands of nerve endings roared to life. He leaned forward and kissed her, a soft, tender, lazy kiss, and then he started to stroke into her, the golden hair on his chest abrading her nipples deliciously, his hairy legs powerful between her own, his ass clenching and contracting beneath her fervent grip.

Lost in pleasure, on fire for him, she gave herself up to whatever he willed, and when she came minutes later, he kissed her, swallowing her cries, his own climax taking him almost simultaneously.

She was so hazy and warm and blissed out afterward, she didn’t object when he urged her onto her side and wrapped his body around hers.

“See?” he said, his voice a low, lazy growl near her ear.

She had to agree – he gave awesome outside spoon.

It was the last thought she had before she fell asleep.

*

Beau felt like
a miscreant teen as he hustled to get Lily into the car early the next morning. They’d both tacitly agreed life would be easier if Andie and Heath believed she’d spent the night in the spare bedroom, which meant they needed to get her home before dawn.

“Right now I hate Heath for being an early riser,” Lily complained as she secured her seat belt.

He glanced across at her, taking in her flushed cheeks and tousled hair. It had been beyond him to let her leave his bed without one last taste of her. Then they’d gotten carried away in the shower. Even now, when they were racing to get her back to Heath and Andie’s, under the cover of darkness, he wanted her again.

He kept waiting for the need, the desire, the heat, to diminish, but it didn’t. If anything, it was getting stronger.

And it wasn’t just about sex.

Yeah, he wanted her body. But he also wanted her laughter. He wanted to tease her and watch her eyes light up as she plotted her retaliation. He wanted to ease the tightness from her shoulders when she talked about her past. Most of all, he wanted to make sure she was happy – because if anyone had earned a big helping of happiness, it was Lily Taylor.

She was tough, but she was also vulnerable, and so freaking generous with her heart and time and money it worried him. She needed to make sure she kept enough for herself, that she didn’t burn herself out worrying about everyone else. She needed someone to look after her for a change.

Speaking of which.

“I’m going to get a couple of the guys to drop off one of our SUVs this morning, okay? So you don’t need to worry about getting around.”

“It’s okay. Andie’s already offered to drop me off, and I’ll organize for someone to come sort out my tires. If I get onto it early enough, it’ll be done by the end of the day.”

“What about the broken window?”

“I don’t know. I guess they’ll have to order it in.” She frowned, and he realized she’d forgotten about the window.

“The car will be here before eight.”

“Beau. I can’t accept a car. Thank you. It’s incredibly generous of you. But I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“Why not?” he said stubbornly.

“Because I had a really great time with you last night, and I don’t want to ruin it by setting up false expectations.”

They were pulling into Heath and Andie’s driveway, and he concentrated on the road for a second, trying to parse what she was saying. Was she talking about his expectations, or hers?

“I don’t want anything in exchange for the car, if that’s what you’re worried about,” he said stiffly. “No strings. No obligations.”

Lily gave him a small, strained smile. “Can I think about it?”

He pressed his back teeth together. What was there to think about? It was a car. A much safer, newer, more powerful car than the piece of shit she was driving around in at the moment.

“Sure. Suit yourself.” He could hear the terseness in his own voice. But he couldn’t force her to do anything.

“It’s just if you lend me your car, people will start talking, you know?” Lily said. “Andie will think there’s something going on between us, and she already has this little secret fantasy of you and me getting together…”

Beau threw her a startled look. “She does?”

His sister had never said a word about it to him.

“Andie’s still high on happy hormones at the moment. She wants everyone to have what she’s having.”

Lily said it wryly, inviting him to laugh at the idea, but when he pulled up in front of Andie and Heath’s place and glanced across at her, he saw she was studying her hands, her expression pensive.

When she realized he was watching her, she smiled, her expression becoming rueful and knowing.

“Don’t look so worried, Beau. Your lone wolf status is not in danger.”

He opened his mouth to tell her his lone wolf status was the last thing on his mind, but she leaned across and pressed a quick, hard kiss to his mouth.

“Thanks for a great time.”

She opened the door and slid out.

“Lily,” he said, leaning across to catch the door before she could close it.

“Yes?”

There were so many things he suddenly wanted to say, for a second he didn’t know where to start. Then he realized this was neither the time nor the place for him to attempt to spill his guts to her. For one thing, it was freaking freezing. And any second now Heath was going to be up and about and last nights’ little excursion would be public knowledge.