Brant couldn’t remember ever being so excited to touch a woman. He’d thought Talulah had sent him home and that was that. So when she’d stopped him from leaving, and he could tell she was feeling the same desire he was, a wave of relief heightened the excitement.
“I’m glad you changed your mind,” he murmured against her lips. “I’ve been dying to get my hands on you all night.”
“I hope it won’t cost you your friendship with Charlie,” she said, obviously worried.
Brant didn’t want to think about Charlie. He wasn’t out to hurt his best friend. That wasn’t what this was about. If Charlie had any chance with Talulah, Brant wouldn’t be here. But Charlie didn’t. Talulah had made that clear. “I hope so, too. But I can’t seem to resist you.”
Her hands delved into his hair, and she parted her lips as he kissed her. “What about your truck? You don’t think Charlie will find it, do you?”
Her skin was so soft. And the smell of her... He ran his lips over her collarbone, breathing in the scent he remembered and liked so well. “No. It’s in Ellen’s barn. There’s no way he’d ever think to look there.”
After helping her out of her dress, he immediately unsnapped the black sheer bra she was wearing and filled his hands with her breasts. She melted into him. But then she stiffened and twisted her head to look out the window. “He wouldn’t come up to the house...”
Would Charlie go that far? After the way he’d spoken about Talulah, Brant wouldn’t put it past him. To be safe, he guided her up the stairs where peering in the windows wasn’t such an easy possibility.
He peeled off her panties and tossed them aside before pressing her up against the wall and kissing her again as he slid his hand between her legs. When he found the wet warmth he’d been seeking, and she gasped, he used the opportunity to deepen their kisses.
“Your clothes,” she said breathlessly as she tried to undo his belt.
Scooping her up in his arms, he lowered her onto the bed. “We’ll get to that soon enough.”
He was as eager to remove his clothes as she was—to feel her naked body against his—but he knew the next few minutes would go entirely too fast if he got naked, too.
He preferred to make this last.
Climbing onto the bed, he straddled her as he took his time kissing her mouth and neck before meandering down to her breasts and sucking on one nipple and then the other.
He caressed her stomach and legs as he moved lower, settling his mouth between her legs—and felt a measure of satisfaction when she began to arch her back and grab handfuls of his hair.
“I want you inside me,” she said as her muscles grew taut, but he could feel her thighs quiver and guessed she was close to climax. He planned to make that happen first.
When she groaned and her body began to spasm, he knew she’d reached that release. “That must’ve been good. Goose bumps broke out on your whole body.”
“Don’t get conceited about it,” she joked.
“Will you do me a favor?” he asked.
She sobered, and when their eyes met, he thought hers were among the prettiest he’d ever seen. “What?” she asked.
“Put on my T-shirt again. It turns me on to remember you coming down the stairs in it.”
“That was pretty ill-timed.”
“Don’t ruin this by mentioning the rest,” he said.
She pulled it on as soon as he handed it to her, and by the time he’d tossed the rest of his clothes on the floor, he was staring down at the Elway Ranch logo on her chest. The only thing better than seeing her in his shirt was knowing she had nothing on underneath—and that he had complete access.
Taking a moment to admire the sight of her, he reached under the soft cotton fabric, seeking the curves and warm skin he knew he’d find, and his pulse began to race in anticipation.
It was late—Talulah had no idea what time exactly—when she felt Brant move in the bed beside her and realized he was awake. She assumed he was getting up to leave, until she felt his hands delve once again beneath the T-shirt she was wearing.
“Do you want your shirt back?” she asked, half-asleep. She knew he had to go, but was reluctant to lose the comfort and warmth of his body, especially since the weather had finally cooled off and a chill wind was blowing through the open windows.
“I can leave without it,” he said. “I doubt anyone will see me this late.”
“You never know. I’ll give it back to you, just in case.”
“Not yet,” he told her when she attempted to remove it.
“Don’t you have to get up early for work tomorrow?” she asked.
“I do, but I’d rather have this than sleep,” he said, his voice a low rumble in her ear as he spooned her.
Nudging her hair to one side with his chin, he kissed the nape of her neck, and she felt him grow hard. “I want to take you from behind,” he said as his hands moved around to cup her breasts. “Would you let me?”
She actually liked that he was eager to explore and experience her body in different ways. “Yes.”
His hand slid down her stomach and he used his fingers to arouse her before pushing inside. Having a man behind her wasn’t usually her favorite way of making love, but she found it erotic and exciting with Brant. And she was surprised when, after he reached climax, he stayed inside her as long as possible and continued to curl his body around hers.
“Don’t you have to leave?” she whispered when his breathing evened out and he seemed to be drifting back to sleep.
“In a minute,” he replied, but they must’ve faded off together, because the next thing she knew, early-morning sunlight poured through the bedroom window and someone was calling his name from outside.
“Who’s that?”
Brant felt Talulah come awake beside him as someone shouted his name. “My brother,” he mumbled, recognizing the voice as he struggled to drag himself out of a deep sleep.
“Is something wrong?” she asked, but before he could answer, Kurt yelled from outside again.
“Brant? If you’re in there, bro, you’d better get your ass out quick. Charlie called me looking for you about twenty minutes ago. I bet he’ll be coming here next.”
Talulah sat up instantly. “What would Charlie want with you this early in the morning?”
“I have no idea,” Brant said. “But he knows I’m generally an early riser.” He climbed out of bed and grabbed his jeans off the floor so he could get his phone from the front pocket. It was after seven. Damn. He was normally on the ranch by now, especially when it was hot. The earlier he got up and finished his work, the sooner he could call it a day and escape the summer heat.
“Has Charlie been trying to call you?” Talulah asked, pulling the sheet up to cover herself.
“Yeah. Several times.” Charlie’s calls had started last night around ten. Brant just hadn’t noticed; his phone was the last thing he’d been thinking about.
“What does he want?” she asked.
“I don’t know. Probably to talk about you. I can’t say for sure. He didn’t leave a voice mail, and there’re no texts from him, either.”
“Brant?” his brother called up again. “Are you there?... Hello?... Talulah? Do you know where Brant is?”
Brant crossed to the room to see Kurt, head tilted back, gazing up at the open window. “I’m coming,” he called down. “You’d better leave before Charlie sees you. You have no excuse to be here, either.”
“I could say the air conditioner you brought over quit working, so you sent me to take a look at it. This place—well, Talulah,” he corrected, “is a Charlie magnet. He’s obsessed with her.” He glanced around as if he expected Charlie to drive up at any moment. “Where’s your truck? I haven’t found it anywhere.”
“Then how’d you know I was here?” he asked, jamming his legs into boxers and then his jeans.
“It wasn’t too hard to guess, and Charlie will guess, too, if he hasn’t already.”
Talulah threw his shirt to him and Brant pulled it on over his head in one quick movement, smelling enough of her and her perfume on the cotton to know he needed to change before someone else picked up on the scent. “Okay. I’ll go out the back, and Talulah will let you in the front.”
“Go!” his brother said simply.
Brant yanked on his boots without bothering with his socks. Talulah tried to hand them to him, but he couldn’t take the time to mess with them. “Later,” he said, shoving his phone back in his pocket with one hand while pulling out his truck keys with the other.
She didn’t argue. She was in too much of a hurry to get dressed herself.
“I’ll call you,” he told her as he hurried out and took the stairs two at a time, careful to avoid the furniture, piles of books, sheet music, newspapers and lamp-topped tables as he weaved his way through the main floor.
Once he made it to the kitchen, he barged out the back door, running for the barn.
It wasn’t a long-distance sprint, but his boots weren’t meant for running. He was breathing heavily by the time he reached Ellen’s barn and slowed to a walk. He fully believed Charlie would never find his truck. It’d been too long since Brant had dated Ellen for Charlie to guess he’d use her property. And Charlie would have no way of knowing she was out of town. Brant wouldn’t have known himself if she hadn’t requested the air conditioner.
Still, he held his breath as he cracked open one of the heavy, wooden doors and peered inside.
His truck was there, and it didn’t appear as if anyone had come near it. He could see only his own footprints in the dirt.
Breathing a sigh of relief, he shoved the door the rest of the way, climbed behind the wheel and fired up the engine. It was a risk to leave the cover of the barn; he could easily be spotted if Charlie happened to be driving by as he pulled out. But he had to make a break for it sometime, and he figured sooner was better than later. The only thing that would stop Charlie from searching for him was finding him, and Brant couldn’t let that happen until he was home.
Once he’d backed out, Brant didn’t bother to close the barn. There was no time for that. He did the fastest three-point turn he’d ever done and tore down the drive.
His truck bounced and swayed over the ruts and rocks until he reached the pavement, but then he punched the gas.
He looped around town, going the opposite way he expected Charlie to be traveling and avoiding all the businesses in Coyote Canyon in the process. He was keeping an eye out for his friend’s Explorer while trying to decide what he’d tell Charlie if they did encounter each other. If he tried to justify his actions by saying that what had happened between him and Talulah didn’t mean anything, that it was only a fling, why couldn’t he have had that fling with someone else? Someone Charlie didn’t have any feelings for?
Brant wrestled with the answer to that question. She just...had this...magnetism, was more desirable than anyone he’d ever encountered, and he couldn’t seem to get enough of her.
Was that what had gotten the best of Charlie? Could Averil be right? Brant had gone back to Talulah’s even after being warned that he was playing with fire.
Was he falling into the same trap his best friend had never escaped?
The thought made Brant uneasy. Of course he wasn’t. He knew how to take care of himself, how to keep his emotions out of it. He’d always remained in control.
And yet...he couldn’t have stopped himself from touching Talulah last night, even for Charlie, and he knew it.
Talulah held her breath so she could hear more clearly and pressed her ear to the front door. After throwing on a pair of shorts and a tank top, she’d slid her feet into her flip-flops. Then she’d brushed her teeth, combed her hair and hurried downstairs to let Kurt in. But the second her hand touched the knob, she’d heard voices and stopped. At first she’d thought Kurt was talking to Brant, that Brant hadn’t gone out the back way, after all. He’d only left five minutes ago, except she could make out enough of what was being said to rule that out almost immediately.
“What are you doing here? Don’t tell me you’re sleeping with her, too.”
That was Charlie. She recognized his voice and the bitterness that oozed through it. From what she could tell, he was standing about ten feet away from the door—maybe coming up the walkway?
“The portable air conditioner we’re letting Talulah borrow isn’t working,” Kurt said. By the sound of his voice, he was closer to the door. Talulah assumed he’d been waiting for her to let him in when Charlie turned down the drive. “I came by to see if I could fix it before it gets too hot today.”
“So where’s Brant? Why didn’t he do it?”
“I guess he’s busy.”
Talulah had to hand it to Kurt. He affected the perfect careless tone, as if there was nothing going on.
“On the ranch?” Charlie pressed.
“Far as I know.”
“I looked for his truck in the drive earlier. It wasn’t there.”
Talulah heard the skepticism in Charlie’s voice and hoped Kurt would be able to convince him.
“Maybe he drove to the lower paddock,” Kurt responded. “Or he went out to get more feed. Why? What’s the emergency?”
There was a moment of silence. Then Charlie said, “No emergency. I’ve just been thinking about what you told me—that Brant had a concussion Saturday night. I feel bad about how I acted.”
“You feel bad? That’s why you’re here?”
“Not exactly,” Charlie replied. “I thought... Well, when I couldn’t find him, I thought... Never mind. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
“Neither do I,” Kurt said as if he was exasperated. “You need to get over Talulah, man. Why let her mess up your life fourteen years after the fact?”
She heard Charlie say, “I know you’re right. But that’s easier said than done.”
“What’s so special about her?” Kurt asked.
Stung by the question, Talulah felt her mouth drop open.
“I wish I could tell you,” Charlie replied, and then they each said something else that Talulah couldn’t hear, and Charlie must’ve gone back to his car and driven away because the conversation ended there.
Still, she was afraid to open the door, in case Charlie wasn’t quite gone. The less she saw of him while she was in town the better.
A loud knock made her jump. “Talulah? Are you coming?” Kurt yelled loud enough to make himself heard all the way upstairs. “The coast is clear. Can you let me in?”
He looked startled when she swung the door open less than a second later. “Oh,” he said, stepping back so they wouldn’t be too close. “You’re right there.”
She gave him a dirty look. “Yeah, I’m right here.”
His eyebrows went up. “What’s wrong with you?”
“What’s so special about her?” she mocked.
He had the good grace to give her a sheepish smile. “Sorry. You’re pretty and all that.” His gaze ran down over her. “Okay, you’re really pretty. I can see why Brant would be attracted to you. But I’ve never known my brother to risk his friendship with Charlie or anyone else over a woman, especially a woman who’ll be leaving in a few weeks.” He scratched his head under his baseball cap. “And Charlie is still stuck on you. After all these years! So I wasn’t just being a jerk—that was an honest question.”
“Believe me, it’s nothing I’m doing on purpose,” she said. “I’ve apologized to Charlie. And I had no plans to hook up with Brant. That’s not why I’m here.”
He studied her for a moment. Then a crooked grin appeared on his face—a grin that made him look just like his brother. “I guess shit happens,” he said and thrust out his hand. “In case you don’t remember me, I’m Kurt.”
She did remember him, barely. She’d only seen him in passing. “You’re the youngest in the family, right?” she said as she shook his hand.
“I was barely eleven when you left. But I can still remember it.”
Folding her arms, she tilted her head to the side. She knew what he was alluding to. “Because that was the only thing people were talking about?”
“For weeks,” he confirmed.
She rolled her eyes. “Lovely.”
“Well, for what it’s worth, you seem like an okay chick to me.”
Surprised by his quick bottom-line assessment, she laughed. “I guess I should be grateful for that, since you’re one of only a few in this town to have a positive opinion.”
“All you need is a few,” he said with a wink and looked beyond her into the house. “Since I’m supposed to be fixing an air conditioner, and I can’t leave right away without risking bumping into Charlie again, is there anything else you’d like me to do?”
She waved him inside. “You might as well come in. I’ll make you breakfast.”