Shit! He yanked away from Alyssa.

Luc barely noticed. Instead, he pulled her onto his lap.

With one hand, he threaded his fingers into her hair, angled her mouth under his, and sank into her. Deep. Like he didn’t care if he came up for air anytime this century.

What the hell?

Alyssa curled her arms around Luc’s neck and wriggled on his lap. Clearly, she hit something sensitive because Luc growled, lifted her until she straddled him, then ground her against his cock.

As she threw back her head, a cascade of pale blonde hair landed in Deke’s lap.

Luc’s mouth descended, closing around one of her nipples. He wasn’t teasing.

There was no toying in this touch. It was all fierce intent.

“Luc! Yes!”

His cousin’s response? He merely transferred his attention to her other breast, curled a passionate fist into her hair, and grabbed as if he planned to bend her to his will.

“Are these nipples hard for me?” Luc demanded. He stared at her as if she was the only other person in the room. As if she was the only other person on the planet.

“Yes, they’re so hard for you,” she whispered as she rubbed them against his chest, then rotated her hips, wriggling on his cock again. “I’m so wet for you, too.

Feel…”

Alyssa made a great show of untying the little bows at the sides of her hips. With a gyration and a wiggle, the little black panties drifted to the floor.

A light dusting of neatly shaped pale pubic hair made a landing strip across her mound. The rest, from what Deke could see, was bare.

Lust fired Luc’s dark eyes. His gazed fixed on her pussy as he laid her down over his lap, until her head rested in Deke’s.

Alyssa’s gaze drifted up, hazy but uncertain blue eyes meeting his. Aroused.

Totally. Luc had done that to her. Both of them had forgotten he was here, and now she silently asked Deke if he was going to jump into the party.

She was damn sexy and was willingly offering her pussy.

Hell, yes! But he reached out and couldn’t make himself touch her.

His hands dropped to his sides.

What the fuck was wrong with him? He’d wanted Alyssa. For years. A glance down her body told him she more than lived up to the hype. Dimensions like a centerfold, feline movements intriguing to watch.

And he didn’t feel much of anything. Deke met her gaze and shook his head. No.

As desirable as she was, he wasn’t interested anymore. Physically, he was aroused.

Of course. Watching Luc devour her and her loving every minute of it was hot.

But it was auburn hair he wanted to plant his fists in. It was pale, virgin skin he wanted to touch. It was hazel eyes he wanted to drown in as he sank into her body and claimed it.

Deke closed his eyes, wishing like hell he could block Kimber and the fact she was marrying McCall out of his head.

Impossible.

A sharp, feminine gasp caught Deke’s attention. Luc’s hands surrounded Alyssa’s mound, parting the folds of her pussy, his thumb brushing across her clit in a light, irregular rhythm.

“You are wet,” he crooned in approval. “But not wet enough for what I’m going to do to you.”

“What’s that, big man?” Alyssa panted the question, baiting Luc. “What do you want? Maybe I won’t give it to you.”

Dark determination stomped across Luc’s dark face.

“You’ll give me everything, then give me more. For you, I’m going to be hard all afternoon. All evening. All night. I won’t stay out of you. I won’t leave any part of you untouched.”

“I won’t let you leave any part of me untouched,” she murmured, spreading her legs wider and lifting her hips to Luc.

His thumb raked across her clit slowly, repeatedly. Her nipples stood up, blushed, begged as she tensed, thrashing her head from side to side.

“Luc!” She screamed his name. Her back arched, and she cried out in a long, wrenching climax.

At the sight of her, his cousin lost it—all semblance of normalcy, civility, restraint.

Deke knew exactly where this was headed. Alyssa was about to become real familiar with Luc’s dark side, thanks to one of his marathon sex sessions. She looked more than up to the challenge.

“Take everything,” Alyssa offered with a sultry blue gaze. “I’ll stay wet, keep you hard, give you more than you imagined possible.”

With a growl, Luc tore away Alyssa’s skirt, leaving her totally bare except for those sexy stockings and lacy garters. Luc’s chest heaved as he looked down at her.

His cock tented his jeans, and he dived into the zipper, yanking on it viciously, clearly wanting the binding garment off. He pushed the denim down to his thighs, along with his underwear. As his cock sprang free, he grabbed her hips, and prepared to thrust inside her.

Deke reached into his pocket and extracted a condom.

“Luc.”

His head snapped up. Wild dark eyes. Feral. Unfocused. Indomitable. Quickly, Deke handed the little foil square to his cousin. He laid another handful on the table. Luc gave a shaky nod and ripped into it, racing to get it applied. Alyssa tilted her head back and sent Deke a smoky look.

Maybe it was an invitation. Maybe not. He didn’t care.

Instead, Deke stood and wandered to the front door. He paused long enough to see Luc position himself over Alyssa, the bulge of his strong arms pinning her to the buttery sofa as she curled her legs around his hips in welcome and smiled. He shut the door behind him, in search of the nearest bar, as the first female moans rent the air.

“What’ll you have?” A saucy smile in a tight pair of short shorts greeted Deke.

“Whiskey double. No rocks. Bring me two of them.” The bark in his order must have communicated to her. She clicked her heels together and hustled off. He prayed she came back quickly so he could get on with getting drunk and dissecting his fucked-up life.

The little waitress wasn’t gone long before she returned with his order and a bowl of pretzels. He shoved those aside and gulped down his first drink. The burning path of the alcohol blazed down his throat, to his stomach. Fire exploded, heavy warmth seeped through his veins, and he welcomed it. How else could he reconcile the fact he’d just turned down the chance to fuck Alyssa Devereaux because he only wanted a woman who was never coming back to him?

From the pocket of his jeans, he withdrew the scrap from this morning’s paper.

McCall’s smug smile taunted him from the black-and-white image. Kimber stood under the singer’s arm, looking up at him. What was that expression? Adoration?

Excitement? Did it matter?

No. But Deke wondered how the hell she could look at him with such tenderness in her eyes and offer herself so sweetly, then agree to marry someone else three weeks later.

The only available answer stabbed him in the heart. She hadn’t loved him. She’d offered herself out of pity, nothing more.

Unfortunately, no matter how much he denied it to Luc, Deke knew he’d fallen hard for Kimber. He’d always wanted her, even when she’d been seventeen, and he’d known better. Even three weeks ago, when she’d been naked and giving under him, he’d known better. And he almost hadn’t cared. But he’d listened to his fear and done the sane thing. The right thing.

Now, she was gone.

At the moment, Deke wished very much that he’d been reckless and given into the hot lava of need thundering in his veins, urging him to take her and make her his. Then she’d be in bed with him and Luc right now, wrapped around him, taking the hard drive of his cock and answering with her cries. And he wouldn’t be in a bar in Lafayette, horny and hurting and wondering how she could marry a jack off like McCall. Wondering what to do without her.

What if Kimber had stayed? What if the worst had happened? No, not if; when. If she had stayed, it would have happened. Luc would have insisted. How would she have handled it?

Deke grabbed his second drink and tossed it back. Only when his mind was slightly fuzzy did he allow himself to think about Heather. Complicated. Barely sixteen. Sparkling when life made her high and beyond consolation when life kicked her. Often, she’d shown both emotions in the same day. Deke had tried to keep up.

But to someone whose life was one giant bundle of feelings, who believed that all of them should be experienced and expressed, none filtered—he’d just basked in her bright persona. In the end, that volatility had been her undoing.

He slammed his drink back to the table and signaled for his check. Saucy Smile brought it, took his money, and sashayed away.

Feeling like an old man at twenty-nine, Deke stood and stepped out into the evening air. Humid. Breezy. Summer enveloped him in its cloying fragrance. Pain crushed his insides.

Kimber wasn’t Heather. She had better control over her emotions, true, and was far more mature. But she could be hurt. She could emotionally bleed. Deke had seen that the night he’d shoved her out the door with all those vile words. Kimber had been sheltered, unlike Heather. She hadn’t seen the worst of life, thanks to the Colonel and her brothers. What would she do if she suddenly found herself in Heather’s situation?

Deke didn’t know. And even if he felt like a two-ton weight sat on his chest for the rest of his life, he should be glad he hadn’t taken a chance to find out that answer the hard way.

At nearly nine that night, Deke climbed behind the wheel of Luc’s Jeep. His cousin eased in beside him, grim and exhausted.

“You sure you don’t want to stay the night?” Deke asked.

Luc turned, gazing back toward the dark, sleeping house. “No.”

“You okay?”

Nodding, Luc gripped his thighs. Luc looked completely spent physically and emotionally.

Deke understood the pleasure of fucking a beautiful woman. He sensed a certain drive in Luc though, as if his long sex marathons were attempts to banish some inner demons, not merely find the extreme edge of physical pleasure.

“Fine.” Luc hesitated. “Did you wait long?”

“A while.” He shrugged. “No big deal.”

“How long?”

“I don’t know.” Deke focused on the road to avoid the question. The answer would only send Luc into some guilt spiral he didn’t need to put on himself.

“How long?” The bleak demand in his voice lashed through the Jeep.

Sighing, Deke caved in. Luc would figure it out sooner or later. “About two hours.”

“And you were gone for…what? Three or four hours prior to that? Damn it to hell.” Even under the streetlights, Deke could see the shame controting his cousin’s fluid features.

“Stop beating yourself up, cuz. She sounded like a very happy woman.” Luc had made her mindless, driven the woman to orgasm until her cries nearly shook the walls.

Luc sent him a sharp stare. “Did Alyssa say something to you?”

“No. She fell asleep after you bathed her. What I overheard before then made me think she fell asleep with a smile. What happened between you two?”

“You know damn well. It’s happened before.” Luc whipped a shaking hand through the tangled mess of his dark hair. “I lost my head.”

“Why beat yourself up? This doesn’t happen every time you have sex. It doesn’t even happen often. And Alyssa sounded like she was having a great time.” Luc nodded half-heartedly, reluctantly conceding the point. “Because this time the need was stronger. Alyssa was amazing. I felt… I don’t know. Connected…or something. I can’t explain it.”

He sighed, then grimaced. “I really wish I’d had more control. Alyssa was so tight.

She said she hadn’t had sex in nearly two years.”

“Really? Then why did she agree to fuck us in the first place?” After hesitating, Luc shook his head. “I doesn’t matter. I’ll send her flowers tomorrow and that will be it.”

“You’re not going to see her again?” Somehow that didn’t surprise Deke. Luc never liked to be reminded of his losses of control.

“Why do you ask? Still hot for her?” Luc slanted Deke a sly stare. “If we come back here, are you planning to fuck her?”

“No.” Deke frowned as light bulbs went off in his head. “That’s why you brought me here, isn’t it? You knew I wouldn’t fuck her.”

“I suspected. It was a gamble. If you’d touched her, I would have known that you weren’t in love with Kimber.”

Shit, now he’d dug his own grave. Luc had the proof he needed to keep needling him to try and win Kimber back. And he would be relentless.

CHAPTER 11

After the concert, the suite was packed. Band members, press members, roadies, groupies—all kinds of people crammed the hotel room that only hours ago had felt enormous. Alcohol flowed everywhere. White, powdery lines were laid out on the glass-top coffee table a few feet away. A young woman, maybe legal, knelt and sniffed. Around her, a handful of partygoers gathered, waiting their turn. In the corner, Ryan had an inebriated, braless blonde on his lap. Her nipples stabbed her tight turquoise shirt as Ryan fondled them using one hand. His other hand snaked up her skirt, pulled her thong free, and toyed with her sex—in plain view. Kimber looked away when he unsnapped his leather pants.