Chase stepped inside and closed the door, his gray eyes narrow and hard as he looked her over from her head to her ivory heels.
In spite of the barely contained rage emanating from him, Desire’s breath caught in her throat as the scent of his cologne wafted up her nostrils. Straight to Heaven, aka White Cristal. She recognized the woody, spicy fragrance with distinct hints of musk, jasmine, patchouli, cedar, amber, nutmeg, and rum that reminded her of a warm sunny day on a tropical island. How could Chase Hunter, a field worker on an Iowa farm, afford Straight to Heaven?
Desire had first encountered the fragrance on one of her wealthy clients and had liked it so much, she’d bought a bottle for her father last Christmas. He wasn’t impressed and had passed it on to Chad with her permission. Maybe Chase had swiped some from Chad.
The scent had been pleasing on other men, even Chad, but on Chase—God, the ingredients mixed with his own masculine pheromones was sending Desire sliding into a state of concupiscence, evoking feelings she’d long ago stopped dreaming of ever experiencing again.
“Why are you marrying my brother?”
Desire startled and took two steps back as his deep vocals pulled her out of her spell, turning the pleasure churns in her stomach to fury. Just like that? No, Hi Desire, how are you? You look great. It’s been a while. I’m sorry I screwed up. Can you ever forgive me?
She held his glare, even as she willed her lower lip to stop trembling. “Why did you sleep with my cousin?”
“Because you’re marrying my brother.”
Oh, he’d turned honest. Despite her fears of what his presence meant in her life, Desire felt a hot and awful joy at seeing him, of hearing his voice, of being this close to him, of smelling him, of having the chance to reach out and touch him if she wanted—and God she wanted to. She wanted to grab him, pull him in, lock her arms around his neck and glue her lips to his. But he’d done her wrong and then disappeared without an apology.
Pushing the lustful temptation aside, Desire squared her shoulders. “Well, if you hadn’t run away, and then stayed away, I wouldn’t be marrying your brother, would I?”
He flinched.
Desire dropped her gaze to his chest, rising and falling with his labored breathing. Why the hell had she said something like that to him? Chase was the one person in the world who had the power to turn her life upside down, make her say stupid things that might come back to haunt her. The words Carver Farm printed in bold black letters on the front of his T-shirt seemed to taunt her for feeling vulnerable to a mere farmhand, a boy her father always thought was beneath her, and a man who would definitely not fit in with the kinds of people with whom she now kept company.
“You’d be marrying me instead. Probably be married to me already,” he stated matter-of-factly, as if he was reading her mind and dared to challenge her opinion that he wouldn’t fit into her world. He took a step toward her.
Desire took another step back—her third away from him—and found her back against the wall, the satiny floor-to-ceiling drapes brushing against the backs of her thighs and her legs, adding to the sensuous sensations Chase’s proximity and his scent were causing from the front.
Inadvertently, her gaze wandered down to the huge bulge in his crotch and the outline of his shaft against his left thigh. She shivered from the memory of feeling Chase’s erection pressed into her belly for the first time in the garden that night, and then more intimately against the soft heat of her sex in the following week. He’d pulsed with life while she’d stroked him through his jeans, and she’d burned with untapped passionate hunger as he’d molded her breasts, kissed her neck, and fondled her through her clothes. She’d felt his excitement several times, but she’d never had the opportunity to see what Chase Hunter really had to offer. His private parts had been blurred out in the video, thank God, but the vision of him with those women was still very much alive in her mind.
Desire sucked in her breath as she felt the inner walls of her sex vibrate and spew more warm fluids into her panties. She couldn’t believe she was getting turned on at the twelve-year-old vision of Chase having sex with those women. See, that was why she needed to distance herself from him. He brought out the worst in her. She couldn’t afford…
“At least let’s be honest and truthful about our feelings. That has never been a problem for us.”
His comment pulled her out of her stupor. She met his stare head-on. “You have no right to talk to me about feelings nor about the truth after what you did, Chase. You humiliated me in front of all those people, the most esteemed in the region. They all thought I was part of your sick scheme. You have no idea how I’ve suffered because of what you did. They called me a pimp. Your pimp! I lost all my friends because of you.”
“I’m sorry.”
“If you were sorry, you would have stayed and cleaned up your own mess, explained to me why you had the need to embarrass me like that. What was your game? What did you expect to gain?”
His chest rose and fell on a deep sigh and the muscles of his jaws twitched under his facial hair. “I tried to explain. You wouldn’t see me. Your father called me a repulsive reprobate, and threatened to shoot me if I showed up at your house again.”
Desire’s eyes narrowed. “My father threatened to shoot you?”
“Yes.”
Her father was a gun collector, and he used to love going to the shooting range with his friends. But he always kept them locked away in a safe when she and Victoria were growing up. Ironically, it was one of his guns Victoria had used to kill Bryce Fontaine’s wife—a fact that still haunted her father, and probably what had caused his heart attack. He’d gotten rid of his guns after the tragedy, but he, like everyone else, knew it was too little too late. He couldn’t bring Pilar Fontaine or Victoria back to life.
“I don’t blame your father,” Chase said, tugging her back from the unpleasant past. “Without the facts, his reaction was justified. If I were in his shoes, I would have done the same thing. A good father would protect his daughter from the kind of man I used to be. I was a rebel. I would want the best for my daughter, too.”
And her father’s best for her, and her best for her father, was Chad, Desire thought on a tremor.
Last night, her parents hadn’t seemed surprised when she’d told them that Chad had proposed and that she’d accepted. They’d been overly excited, especially her father. And why not? She and Chad had maintained a healthy friendship throughout their lives, even while they dated other people. Perhaps it was their families’ closeness that had subconsciously led Chad to propose. Desire knew that her father’s one wish before he died was to walk her down the aisle. It was the reason she’d accepted Chad’s proposal—subconscious though it was.
Would her parents still be elated about her engagement to Chad if they knew that she and Chase had expressed their love for each other since she was eighteen? Would they encourage her to give her hand to one brother when she’d already given her heart to the other? Would her father still want to give her to the one man he thought wasn’t good enough for his baby girl?
“How long have you and Chad been—” He waved his hand in the air as if he were afraid to voice the word.
“Close?”
“If that’s what you call it.” His eyes narrowed and hardened.
“Why does it matter?”
“It matters. And if you’re worried about hurting my feelings, I can take it. I’m a big boy.”
That you are. Desire shifted her focus to the parking lot that was slowly filling up with the cars of the employees who worked on her block. She knew exactly what Chase wanted to know, but how could she be honest without admitting that she still had feelings for him, still loved him?
Chad’s and her relationship had remained strictly platonic until last Christmas when he’d kissed her on her lips while they’d been standing under the mistletoe in her parents’ Granite Falls home during a holiday party—the first one her parents had hosted in years. Maybe he’d kissed her because they were both unattached, and were feeling lonely at such a festive time. Nevertheless, after the shock of his unexpected advance had worn off, she’d recoiled, mainly because she’d been thinking of Chase at the very moment Chad had kissed her.
She’d longed for Chase, pined for him, even though he’d made a fool of her. He’d toyed with her emotions, made sweet promises to her, and then he’d gone and had a ménage à trois a few days later, made a video, then showed it to the world—her world.
What disgusted her most was that he’d had sex with those women during the time he and she had been sneaking around to keep their romance a secret. Innocent, eighteen-year-old Desire was still dependent on her parents back then. Chase was almost twenty-two, a grown man and very experienced when it came to women and the ways of the world.
Her overly protective father would have definitely shot Chase if he’d known what the two of them had been doing on a mat on the floor of an abandoned building down by the Mannis River at the edge of town. It was their own special place for making out until the night of the talent show. Chase was supposed to be the man to make her a woman.
She was sure Chase never expected her to ever find out what a lying, two-timing louse he was. He’d made a mistake in giving her the wrong thumb drive, and she’d made a mistake in trusting him. The fact that he’d broken off a date with Susie so easily and then kissed her a few hours later should have alerted her to his despicable character. But she was young and in love, and love, as they say, is blind.
The hopeful part of Desire had waited for Chase to come back and apologize, explain his side of the story, but he never did. And so as time passed, she’d tried to forget him by dating other men, only to be disappointed in each of them because none of them was her Chase, or when they dumped her after discovering she was one of those Summerses.
He plucked a strand of her hair from her cheek, and placed it behind her shoulder, making her quiver from the light brush of his knuckles against her skin.
She gazed up at him, speechless that his simple touch could still make her melt inside.
“I’ve changed,” he said in a husky voice. “I’m not the same man who left Evergreen. I changed that night in the garden, the night I kissed you and promised to be your Chase. I meant every word I said to you that night. I still mean them. Look.” He pulled a hemp string from inside his T-shirt, and held up the white wooden pendant she’d given him on her fifteenth birthday. “I still wear it. I’ve never taken it off. I’m still your Chase.”
Desire shuddered outwardly as she stared at the words on the heart-shaped pendant: Desire’s Chase. She’d been so infatuated with him. He’d been her only crush since she was eight years old. Her infatuation had grown into love and passion, but after being hurt, she’d had to trade that kind of love and passion for something sure and stable—the kind of relationship Chad brought to the table.
Chase’s nearness, his intoxicating odor, and the heat from his body were proving that it was impossible to forget the ecstasy that had begun in the garden and had lasted for one full week. Why had he shown up now, out of the blue, when things were going great for her? If she didn’t get back on the defense, she would be bringing down another scandal on her family name. One from which her father might never recover. She would be a fool to trust Chase again.
Taking a deep breath, Desire straightened her shoulders and raised her gaze to his. “I find it hard to believe that you’ve changed when you slept with my cousin the first night you came back home. And then here you are, less than eight hours later in my face telling me about our feelings for each other. You are still the repulsive reprobate my father called you, Chase Hunter. Why don’t you just go on back to your corn farm in Iowa and leave us all alone?”
Desire’s attempt to walk away was halted by Chase’s hands on her arms. Her back was against the wall and his hard, muscular body was pressed up against her front, his erection burning a hole in her belly. His face was mere inches from hers, his breath warm on her cheek.
“Why don’t you just tell me how you honestly feel about me?” he dared her. “Tell me why you’re marrying my brother.”
Desire swallowed. “Why do people get married?”
“For all kinds of reasons. Greed, pregnancy, money, status, desperation. You name it. What’s your reason? And why Chad?”
“Why not Chad? He’s a good man. The kind of man my father wants for me.”
“So, you’re marrying Chad because your father thinks he’s the best man for you.”
“Yes. He’ll make a good husband and father, and he—”
“Desire.”
Desire’s heart ricocheted to her throat at the sound of her name on his lips—the first time in twelve years. It was a whisper, soft and feathery like a lover’s lips lightly brushing her cheek. Only Chase could say her name with such sensuality. Her knees buckled. Her heart began to thump in her ears again.
Taking advantage of her weakness, he trailed his hands down her arms, all the way to her wrists. He laced their fingers together, like he’d done countless times in the week leading up to the talent show. He raised their hands above her head and pressed them against the wall. “Do you love my brother?”
“Yes.” She swallowed.
“I don’t mean like a friend. When he stands near you, like this—” He crouched down and rubbed his erection against her heat, causing a pitiful moan from her lips. “Do you tremble and sigh into his mouth like you’re sighing into mine now? Does he make your heart beat faster, out of control? Does your breath come out harsh and shallow like it does now? Do your throat and your mouth dry up, and does your tongue come out to lick your sweet luscious lips, over and over again?”
Desire yanked her tongue back into her mouth and squeezed her thighs together as the walls of her sex began vibrating and pulsing and aching and her body began to melt under his lewd questions. She moaned aloud this time when his hands traveled slowly down her arms, across her quivering belly. He tugged on her blouse, releasing the hem from the waist of her skirt. His fingers brushed the bare skin of her stomach, sending tingling sensations whooshing through her.
Dear God, she was about to have a mini orgasm right here, right now, fully clothed, up against the wall in her place of business with her door unlocked where anyone could walk in at any moment. She whispered his name, not knowing if it was a plea for mercy or an acceptance of pleasure as his fingers brushed against her thighs. He began lifting the hem of her skirt, slowly and sensuously. “Chase…”
“Desire.” His lips brushed one side of her mouth, making her moan and shiver. “You can’t marry my brother. It will be a mistake. You know it. I know it. He needs to know it, too. It’s best if you end it now rather than wait for this very thing to happen between us once you’re married. Is this what you want, Desire?” He trailed his lips from one side of her mouth to the next, his low beard tickling her skin, his warm wet tongue making light contact wit her lips, just enough to tease, to show her what she’d be missing if she married Chad.
“You want to commit adultery with your brother-in-law?” With her skirt bunched high on her thighs, his fingers crawled up her heaving belly, his destination clear to her. “You want to start another scandal in this godforsaken town?”
Scandal. The mention of that word was all Desire needed to pull her out of her second lustful stupor of the morning. She placed her hands against Chase’s hard chest, and pushed with all her strength. “You disgusting farmhand!”
He went flying back into the table of munchies. Miraculously nothing fell to the floor.
“So that’s it, huh? You don’t think I’m good enough for you?” he asked, nonplussed.
Desire pushed off the wall, yanked her skirt back into place and tucked her blouse back into her waistband. “You’re not good enough for any woman, Chase Hunter. You just tried to seduce your brother’s fiancée, and—”
“Not seduce. Save from a life of regret and unhappiness.”
“You slept with my cousin last night and here you are, hours later, trying to score with me.”
“You keep going back to me and Lisa. Are you jealous that it wasn’t you in the trailer with me last night?”
Desire was grateful that she’d stayed at her parents’ home last night. It wasn’t the first time Chase had taken a woman to that trailer, yet he had never taken Desire there during their week of bliss. He’d told her she was too good for a trailer. That trailer needed to be hauled away and burned.
“At least Lisa doesn’t pretend she doesn’t want what she wants,” he said, taking a step toward her.
“And I’m sure you helped her not pretend.”
“I did my best. But you already know about it since I imagine she gave you all the gory details on your porch this morning.”
Desire’s eyes flashed and her hands balled into tight fists. “That’s why I’m marrying Chad instead of you. Chad’s a gentleman. Something you can never be. You’re a—” She searched for a new adjective to describe him, one that would cut to the core. “You’re a—”
“A what?” he asked, taking another step toward her. “What am I, Desire?”
“Get out!” she barked. She was jealous, and mad at herself for allowing him to get under her skin like this. He was taking her back to that night, the worst night of her life.
“Gladly.” He turned and stormed toward the door, almost colliding into Lori as she came in.
“Oops. Excuse me,” Lori said, staring up at Chase, who’d stopped for a split second before continuing his charge out the door. “A new client?” she asked Desire.
It wasn’t unusual for Desire to entertain a male client. Many grooms had made initial contact in the past. She stared at Chase’s back, watching the powerful muscles in his shoulders and arms pump with anger as he stormed through the parking lot toward his bike. “No,” she said. “Just an unhappy in-law.”
Lori’s eyeballs widened as she dropped her tote on the floor.
The second she heard Chase’s motorcycle roar to life, Desire fell into a chair. She dropped her face into her hands and forced air into her lungs.
“Desire, are you okay?” Lori sat in the chair next to hers.
Desire raised her head and stared out into the parking lot at the sound of Chase’s motorcycle sputtering away, leaving a trail of smoke behind him. That bike probably had its own stories to tell, Desire thought, recalling watching one girl after the other climb on and off of Chase’s bike. Desire had longed for her chance, but her parents had forbidden her to ever get on that bike.
Desire’s blood heated up as she recalled the day when her dream had come true. Her parents were out of town, and her sister, who was supposed to pick her up from a friend’s birthday party on the other side of town, had gotten stuck at work and had asked Chase to bring her home. He’d been happy to oblige, and had promised to keep it between the three of them.
Desire smiled as she remembered snuggling up to Chase’s back, and wrapping her hands around his waist as he whisked her through town. His body had felt so hard and warm, and even though it was her first time on a motorcycle, she hadn’t been afraid. She’d felt safe with Chase, as safe as she always did when they’d done less risky things together.
Desire sighed. Something monumental had happened during that ride, and once she’d climbed off, both she and Chase had seen the evidence of her first period on his seat and on her pink shorts.
Chase had given her a peculiar look and said, “Desire, you’re a woman now.”
It was around that time that he’d stopped hanging out with her. He’d avoided being alone with her as much as possible. And when they were alone—which was mostly to help her with her homework—it was all business. No more boxing or karate lessons, no more doing anything that would require touching her. She was a late bloomer, but becoming a woman at age fourteen had been a curse for Desire, a curse she’d had to endure for four long years, until she was legal in the eyes of the law.
“Who was that man, and what did he want?” Lori asked, pulling her back from the past. “He looked pissed.”
Desire tucked her hair behind her ears, and her memories to the back of her mind. “He wants the bride to call off the wedding.”
Lori inclined her head, her dark wavy hair brushing against her porcelain cheeks. “What? Why?”
“He claims he’s in love with her.”
“Ohhh. So why’s he bringing his sorrow to you? Why not talk to the bride herself?”
He just did.
“Is he a friend, foe, or relative of the groom?”
“Half brother.”
“Oooh, this is juicy,” Lori crooned. “So which wedding is it? Gilford, Miller, Thompson, Lewis, Newman? Oh please tell me,” she pleaded, naming off the weddings Desire had been hired to plan for the next two years.
Hunter. “I’d rather not say.” She couldn’t say. She was so grateful that no one but her and Chad’s families knew about their engagement. It might have to stay that way for a while, at least until Chase went back to Iowa. “I hope he drops his stupid fantasies before he causes more trouble for that poor couple.” Poor being the operative word, she thought, as tension knotted in her stomach.
“I doubt that,” Lori said. “He doesn’t look like the kind of man who would take no for an answer. But God, he’s hot. Hot, hot, hot.” Lori fanned her now scarlet face with her hand. “I never saw him before. Is he from around here? I’ve met all the grooms we’re working with and none of them could compare to that hunk, not by a long shot. What woman would want his brother over him? The minute I saw him, I wanted to take my clothes off. Sex oozes out of every pore of his body. Wow!”
“Looks are deceiving,” Desire said in an effort to justify her own body’s treacherous reaction when she’d first spotted Chase walking across the parking lot.
“Then lead me to the table of deceit,” Lori said with a chuckle. “I’ll eat until I rupture, and then go back for more. Mmmm. I would love to have him for lunch.” She smacked her lips.
Desire opened her mouth to warn Lori to keep her covetous eyes off her man when she remembered that Chase wasn’t her man. She was engaged to his brother. The moment she’d accepted Chad’s proposal, she’d declared open season on Chase Hunter, and there was not a darn thing she could do about it. She and Chad were meeting Derrick Browne, a news reporter from Twin Town Times, for lunch, and by the end of the day, everyone would know she was off the market.
She glanced at her bare ring finger. The ring Chad had given her, the one she’d forgotten to bring with her today, was still in its box at the back of her sock drawer where she’d stashed it the night he’d proposed.
She’d hoped to be able to give it back to Chad last night with an apology for accepting his proposal in the first place. But things hadn’t gone as she’d hoped. The results of the tests her father’s oncologist had ordered a week ago had come back. His PSA level had increased. He was not in remission anymore. He could be dead in a year.
“See, baby girl, if you want me to walk you down the aisle, you gotta do it soon. I’d love to be able to hold at least one of my grandbabies in my arms before I die.”
Desire trembled now as she’d trembled at her father’s words—his dying wish, so to speak. She’s had no choice but to tell them about her and Chad’s engagement. Her father had wept with joy as he’d hugged her and praised her for making such a wise decision.
It had been so long since Desire had seen her father happy. How could she tell him that she’d only agreed to marry Chad to make him happy, when he hadn’t even asked her if Chad made her happy?
She’d made her bed. She had to go and lie down in it. There was no turning back now.
But there is, a little voice in her head said. It’s not public yet. You can still stop it. And hurt my father? No. I can’t. I won’t do it.
“What are you doing here so early, anyway?”
Desire shook off the chill as Lori went to rearrange the stack of crackers that had become undone when she’d shoved Chase into the table.
“Opening and setting up is my job.” Lori tilted her head and squinted her eyes at Desire. “Are you firing me? Are you trying to prove that you don’t need me?”
Desire pushed to her feet. “I need you more than ever now, Lori. You have no idea.”
“Good. ‘Cause that’s what I need to hear, boss.” Lori pulled her tablet from her tote and booted it up. “I spoke with the caterers for the Miller wedding, and they are fine with the extra fifty guests, but because it’s such short notice, it will cost them quite a bit more per plate. I checked with the groom and bride and they’re fine with the price increase…”
And thus began the most twisted business day of Desire’s life.