He turned and found her leaning against the nearest truck, legs crossed at the ankles and arms folded across those amazing tits, straining the limits of the world’s tightest black t-shirt. Sunlight filtering through the treetops bounced off her shiny, dark hair, giving it an amber aura that matched her eyes. At the moment, those eyes were loaded with daggers, all of which were aimed at him. Deservedly so.
Didn’t change a thing though. If possible, it increased his urge to stalk over there and stake his claim on the wild-eyed beauty. He settled for the stalking part. And some looming over her, which he did with his hands tucked safely in his pockets.
“You didn’t want to lose me. Admit it.”
She admitted nothing. Just stared up at him wearing a defiant, sexy smile. “Exceeding the speed limit, failure to stop, reckless driving. I’m shocked at your blatant disregard for the law.” She tsked. “Maybe I should make a citizen’s arrest.”
“Go for it. You’ll have to hold me until an officer arrives. Think you could?” He moved closer, still keeping hands off, yet essentially pinning her to the vehicle. “I, for one, would enjoy your attempt to restrain me. Very much.”
Tires crunching over gravel and the accompanying toot of a horn interrupted whatever saucy thing would likely have flown from Sara’s lush, red lips. Instead, she pushed past him, brushing her tits against his arm and copping a feel of his groin in the process.
“Seems you’re already half-cocked at the idea.”
He threw his head back and laughed up at the trees. The silent surroundings gave the sound a booming quality. He really did have his work cut out for him this weekend. Making sure Sara behaved—he could do that. Holding himself to the same standard was looking to be the more difficult task.
She paused and looked back when he didn’t trail after her. “Are you coming?”
He snagged the bottle of Scotch from his trunk, closed it and caught up with her in two strides. One hand positioned on the small of her back, he leaned in close to her ear. “When we’re naked later, babe, you won’t have to ask. You won’t even be able to ask, because you’ll be moaning my name at the time.” He smacked her ass hard enough to make her jump, then abandoned her to join his brother on the Chambers’ deck.
Conn raised his eyebrows at Curtis’ wide grin. His brother’s gaze drifted to Sara, currently clipping across the floorboards, cheeks aflame and arms swinging, a tight fist balled at the end of each one.
“You responsible for that?” Conn asked.
“Oh yeah.”
Conn laughed under his breath. “I’ve never seen Sara rattled. Didn’t know it was possible, actually.”
“You told me to make sure she doesn’t cause any trouble.” A zing of awareness hit Curtis squarely below the belt when Sara looked his way. “Best way I can do that is to keep her off balance and otherwise occupied.”
“With you.”
“Hey, just doing what needs to be done so your big event goes off without a hitch. I take my duties as best man seriously.”
This time, Conn’s laugh rang in the summer air. “Your selflessness is noted and appreciated.”
Curtis waited for the attention Conn’s laughter had drawn to subside. When the last pair of curious eyes turned away, he lowered his voice to a more private, serious level. “Hard to believe Sara and Nia came from the same mold.”
Conn shifted where he stood. “There’s more to that story, that’s all I can say.”
“All right.” He didn’t pry or push. But his brother’s lack of disclosure had fully engaged his cop brain. Sticking close to Sara this weekend just got that much more intriguing.
Sara
All her dad’s prized steaks had been devoured. Most of the salads and desserts too. Plenty of booze remained, but that didn’t come as a shocker, given the party’s limited, and apparently straight-laced, attendees.
Sara edged her way out of a conversation between her mom and Conn’s that involved mind-numbing minutia such as last-minute changes to tomorrow’s seating plan for dinner. If listening to that didn’t merit another drink, she didn’t know what might. She grabbed a beer from one of the coolers, used her jeans to wipe the moisture from the bottle and headed off the front deck in search of Nia.
“Hey, Sara, wait up. I’ll go with you,” Lindsay, the eldest Lawler sibling and other bridesmaid, said as she jogged to Sara’s side.
Now they were buddies? Not likely. Sara had only met Lindsay a few times prior to today, but those were enough to know Nia’s soon-to-be sister-in-law would like nothing better than to unseat Sara as Nia’s best friend. And that was so not happening.
“Getting bored with the pastor?” Sara asked, though judging from Lindsay and Ben’s cozy position on one of the outdoor loveseats, they’d been anything but bored.
“Ben’s a really nice guy. But I suppose ‘nice’ is synonymous with boring by your standards. I doubt Ben’s the type of guy who’d break in to a furniture store and have sex in the showroom.”
“His loss.” Well, burn. Good to know Lindsay, if not the whole family, had the gory details of her life down pat. She didn’t blame whoever had brought the Lawlers up to speed. At ten years old, life had handed Sara the biggest batch of lemons possible. She’d been making toxic lemonade ever since.
But not this weekend. For once in her life, she wasn’t going to fuck things up. And that included playing nice—relatively, anyway—with Lindsay.
“I’m not sure what’s so interesting around back. If it’d only been our dads that’d snuck away from the front deck, I’d say mine had insisted on showing off his homemade smokehouse or the bat houses he installed in the trees. But Curtis, Conn and Nia all left too.” There, look how normal and congenial she could be. Somebody should put a gold star in her journal for good behavior.
“It could be Curtis doing the showing off. I keep telling him if he gave a woman half the attention he invests in his car, he might find himself with an actual girlfriend instead of a little black book full of crossed-out names.”
“Maybe that’s why he focuses on the Mustang.”
“Sad but true. Unlike Conn, my other brother does not want to be caught.”
“If you’re trying to warn me off—no need.”
“Really?” Lindsay gave Sara the raised-eyebrow treatment. “Because a person would have to be not only blind, but utterly sensory deprived to miss the ‘I’m not sure if I want to dropkick you or fuck you’ looks you two have been shooting each other.”
Sara snorted at the accuracy of the description. Anything she might have said in response died on her tongue as they rounded the rear corner of the house. She left Lindsay in her dust and cut across the yard.
At the sight of Sara storming their way, her dad, Nia and Conn formed a tight line. A human wall designed to block her view. Too late for that, she’d already seen what they wanted to hide—a shiny orange chainsaw, sitting quietly but far from innocently on the woodpile.
“What the hell is that? Tell me I’m not seeing what I think I’m seeing.”
The color drained from her dad’s face. “Sara, honey. I planned to talk to you about this tomorrow, after everybody left. Then, while I was giving Conn’s dad and brother a tour of the property, we got to talking about the maintenance and responsibility of living out here, surrounded by forest on three sides. How expensive it’s gotten the past few years, paying somebody to come out and cut up the fallen trees for firewood when I could do it myself. I’m sorry you had to find out this way. I should’ve taken Edward and Curtis into the garage to see the saw I got, not brought it out here where it could upset you.”