“But I can’t get him to make love to me.” More tears came, and Kimber shook her head. Damn, she hated this crybaby stuff. It wasn’t her style. But she’d never had such an emotional week. “I laid under the man, nearly naked, and offered—

begged—him to make love to me. And he didn’t. His will is stronger than his desire.”

Luc dropped another soft, soothing kiss on her mouth. “Not true. He’s just…hung up.”

“Yeah, on my virginity!” She sighed and wiped hot tears off her cheeks.

“Maybe…if he knew I didn’t have it anymore— Maybe if you took it…” He groaned. “Oh, you’re killing me, sweetheart. Killing me.” As if to prove his point, Luc rolled her to her back and nudged his hard cock against her. “I would love to be your first and be honored… You don’t know how much. But I think Deke needs this.”

Kimber opened her mouth to question Luc, but he placed a finger over her lips to silence her. “Again, his story to tell.”

“Then we’re doomed,” she snapped. “Because that man is not going to give in.”

“He will. I think he’s on the edge right now.”

Luc paused and propped himself up on his elbows and looked down at her with a solemn expression. “The minute I told Deke what had happened, he grabbed his car keys and ran out the door. I had to run a footrace to make it to his Hummer before he peeled out of the garage. The entire trip to your dad’s place he made phone calls, cursed, prayed. He drove a hundred miles an hour, at least, and gripped the steering wheel so tightly, I was surprised he had any blood flow left in his fingers. I thought he was going to come undone before we reached you and found out you weren’t seriously hurt.”

What did that mean? Kimber looked up at Luc, lashes fluttering, mind racing. In her book, that indicated that he cared.

More than cared. But how much more?

“I’ve never seen him like that,” he added.

Luc was trying to tell her that Deke loved her. Why? Everything seemed hopeless, since Deke himself would never tell her that.

“Let’s pretend for a minute that he…”

“Loves you,” Luc supplied, cutting into her hesitation.

“Okay.”

“It seems like time and patience is the only way out of this dilemma.”

“Maybe not.” Luc shifted, rubbing her lower lip with his thumb. “I have an idea, but it’s a gamble. A big one,” he admitted. “To agree to it, you’d have to trust me completely.”

“I do. But wouldn’t it just be easier for you to tell me his secret, and I could pretend I didn’t know.”

“You couldn’t pretend your way around this. Besides, that wouldn’t help Deke deal with it, and he needs to.”

Kimber was curious as hell, but point taken. “All right. If I took your gamble, I’d have to trust you. What else?”

A small smile. Another soft kiss. “You’d have to be totally committed. And willing to deal with the consequences if he doesn’t take the bait.” The gravity of Luc’s words grabbed at Kimber’s stomach and pulled hard. He was deadly serious.

She let loose a shaky breath. “Could it backfire?” His expression said that he didn’t want to admit the truth, but he wasn’t going to lie. “Yes.”

“But you think it will convince him to overcome his fear of being with me?” For a long moment, he fell silent. “No guarantees, but I think it’s our best chance.” Luc wasn’t pushing, but Kimber could tell he was definitely hoping she’d agree to his grand plan. “If I do this, what’s in it for you? Deke said once you were hoping I’d stick around for marriage and babies.”

“Guilty.” He had the good grace to flash her a sheepish smile. “I’d love those things, and I think you’d be perfect in our lives. But ultimately, if you disagree, I think you can at least help make Deke whole. Besides being my cousin, he’s also my best friend.”

And he didn’t have to say that he loved Deke as both a family member and a friend. Concern and caring softened his dark gaze. Kimber didn’t need to think twice. “Then fill me in on the details. Let’s go for it.”

CHAPTER 13

The summer afternoon baked inside Jack’s swamp hideaway. Deke’s shirt clung to his skin. It was humid, hot. Very hot. And not just the weather.

In deference to the heat—or just to drive him insane—Kimber drifted around the kitchen dressed in a little white robe, so thin it was damn near see-through.

Auburn hair streamed down her back in soft waves that begged his fingers to tease them. The air of no-nonsense, afraid-of-nothing challenge that she wore like comfortable clothes turned Deke on. That same quality infused her gaze now. Half of him respected the hell out of her for it; the other half wanted to show her exactly why she should lose the bravado and be very afraid.

Unfortunately, Kimber wasn’t just unique, daring, or smart. She was downright mouthwatering, too. Her peaches and cinnamon scent lingered every time he got near her. It made him hungry, hard.

And he was getting damn weak. Blowing out a shaky breath, he walked into the attached den to escape Kimber’s come-hither stare and the temptation she represented. It was going to be a long few days or weeks until Jack and Logan could get to the bottom of the Colonel’s bomb-setting freak. And until then, for her protection, Deke knew that he, Kimber, and Luc weren’t leaving this place.

Her sudden, sweet laugh carried across the room and snagged his attention again, latched onto his cock. Resisting the urge to watch her was impossible.

With a curse, Deke turned back. She talked to Luc, who, shirtless and smiling, chopped something Deke assumed would be part of dinner eventually. And Kimber was lapping up his every word, flirting, her gaze licking at the bulge of his shoulders, the solid slabs of his pecs. In return, Luc nuzzled her neck, whispered something in her ear. Kimber shivered and curled against his cousin.

Goddamnit, he didn’t need this!

But he was lying. He did need this—sex—her. The reality was, she didn’t need it.

It was up to him to be the grown up and exercise control. Save her from herself and what she only half understood.

Deke turned away and flipped on the TV, determined to distract himself and the erection screaming for her. Whatever Kimber and Luc did, they could do alone. It was no big deal to him. If they wanted to make google eyes at each other, fine.

Brave words. But all through Seinfeld, Deke kept glancing over his shoulder. Luc and Kimber together…it wasn’t fine. It was twisting his stomach, whipping up fury.

The same old lies he’d been telling himself weren’t working anymore.

Luc finished chopping whatever green stuff he’d been making into edible pieces and set it in a bowl. He stored it in the fridge, then closed the door with a sway of his hips and a salacious smile for Kimber.

If that wasn’t enough to make Deke want to break something, Luc drew her into his arms, his fingers making their way down her narrow back to the soft curve of her hips. Then he kissed her, a sexy linger of lips on her neck, a slow layering of his mouth over hers. Kimber melted, molding against him, arching her head back into his waiting hand and baring more of her graceful neck. Luc took full advantage of her tempting skin under his lips and nibbled at her. She moaned in his arms. Deke’s balls hurt. His chest hurt. Even his fingers hurt. He looked down to see that he was practically crushing the remote control. In the few minutes since they’d distracted him, Seinfeld had ended, replaced by Friends. When the hell had that happened?

Damn it, he couldn’t take this. With a curse, Deke flipped off the TV and bounced to his feet. He opened his mouth to say…what?

Not say, do.

March across the floor, drag Kimber into his arms, and carry her off to the bedroom. His mind spun with that fantasy. Deke wanted to give her pleasure, watch her take it. All that…but even more. He wanted, more than anything, to get deep inside her, take a part of her she’d never given to any other man, and stay there.

He wanted to claim her.

At that thought, all the blood rushed out of his brain, to his cock. Damn, lust hit him in the chest with such force, he almost couldn’t breathe. Between one gasped breath and the next, his dick became hard enough to bust concrete, and his resolve weak enough to allow X-rated images of himself thrusting into Kimber’s tight body to bombard him without mercy.

Bad, bad, bad!

Desire wasn’t a want anymore. It had grown to need. He needed to touch her.

Needed to know that, no matter what, he was somehow imprinted on her, the way she was on him. When had that happened? Why?

Torn, he stood there staring at Luc and Kimber sharing the intimacy of wet kisses in the kitchen, hungry, gaping—going out of his fucking mind. Then Luc added fuel to the fire, trailing a hand from her jaw, over her collarbone, then down inside that little white robe. With a smooth slide of skin on skin, Luc edged the cotton aside and off her shoulder, baring the side of her breast to Deke’s gaze. And her hard, blushing nipple.

What little blood had been in his brain jetted south to join the rest, like a flood running down a mountain.

With a velvety glide of his thumb, Luc stroked her plump nipple, prodding it, soothing it. She gasped, shifting closer to him so her thighs brushed his. God, what he wouldn’t give to be there next to her, turning her to face him, delving down into her mouth, possessing her sweet pink tongue as he tore that nonexistent robe from her body. He took a step forward.

Neither one seemed to notice. Instead, Luc skated his fingertips down the side of Kimber’s bared breast, then anchored it onto her hip. He sent his free hand into action, sweeping the robe off her other shoulder. Completely bare breasts. A pair of lush nipples begging for attention Deke was dying to give. Luc ignored them.

Instead, he tugged gently on the belt still tied at her waist.

He didn’t unknot it…just dragged her closer. With a graceful sway, she curled her body around Luc’s and lifted her rosy lips for a kiss. Even in profile, the desire softening her face punched him like an uppercut in the gut from a prizefighter.

Sweat drizzled between Deke’s pecs, down his back.

Damn, just looking at that woman did him in. Watching her as arousal dawned across her face and flushed her body was imploding his sanity.

Luc stepped back and sank into one of the little chairs around the kitchen table, then wrapped his hands around Kimber’s hips, engulfing them. Damn, sometimes he forgot what a little thing she was. Fragile. Breakable. He should think of her as untouchable.

He didn’t.

Over her bare shoulder, Kimber shot him a coquette’s gaze.

Zing! That one glance tugged on his cock before her lashes fluttered, drifted back open. But it wasn’t just sex she made him crave. He’d been horny plenty of times in his life. This was different. Totally new. It scared the hell out of him.

Their gazes remained fused, and the electric power of it kept slamming him and shimmying through his body. He felt the jolt of her stare all the way down to his balls. The sensation bounced up again to the middle of his chest and squeezed when she bit her plump lower lip, looking shy, uncertain. Aroused. Then Luc pulled her onto his lap, gave her a long, lingering kiss, and whispered against her mouth, making Deke edgy, angry, needy.

To hell with this! He took a handful of steps closer. As he did, Luc turned Kimber to perch on his thighs, plastering her back to his chest, so they both faced him now.

So Luc did know he’d been watching them? The challenge in his cousin’s gaze to do more than be a spectator was a dead giveaway. Kimber’s stare held pure invitation.

Deke stopped short.

This was bad. Really bad. They’d lured him in, set him up. Even though he knew he should turn away, walk outside, get the fuck out, their gazes still set his balls on fire. He didn’t move a muscle.

The speed at which Luc undid the lacy little belt circling Kimber’s lean waist could only be called prolonged torture. In absolutely no hurry, he unknotted the top half of the belt in a slow unwinding. He trailed the silken tie against Kimber’s knee, edging it up beneath the hem of the robe until she gasped and her nipples peaked. Her areolas were dark and ridged and enticing.

“Should I?” Luc asked him, hands poised on the last fold of the tie at her waist.

Deke swallowed. If Luc did that, Kimber would be naked, completely. Her body would be exposed to his ravenous gaze, available to Luc’s thorough touch. No one spoke, breathed, moved…except one of Luc’s fingers inched down between Kimber’s legs to brush over what had to be the sensitive area just above her clit.

Deke shot his cousin a questioning glance. What the hell was he doing? What would he do? Luc merely answered with a smile, a raised brow…while that damn finger worked little circles right above Kimber’s pussy.

Silence stretched, punctuated by Kimber’s occasional jagged breath. Slowly, Luc withdrew his finger and wrapped both hands around the tie again.