His Unexpected Lover (The Thorpe Brothers) (4 page)

He thought back again t
o the conversation at the bar earlier tonight and smiled at the thought of the cute woman who had just gotten free of a murder charge.  She was sweet in a fluffy kind of way.  He was pretty sure that Ash’s problems were over tonight.  The four of them had been discussing Ash’s upcoming nuptials in Ryker’s office before they’d found out that all four women had gone to Durango’s to celebrate Mia’s freedom. 

Axel laid the still sleeping Kiera on his bed and contemplated Ash’s reaction tonight
about the conversation between the women.  Ash was going to propose to Mia, Axel thought.  Well, maybe he’ll wait until the morning.  Axel wasn’t sure that Mia would understand anything Ash asked her tonight. 

Axel considered his woman, laying curled up on his bed, exactly as he’d pictured her so many times over the years.  Well,
not quite exactly as he’d imagined her.  She’d been naked in his dreams. 

He bent down and took off her shoes, smiling slightly when her toes curled up
as if they’d been scrunched into the shoes for too long and were now aching to be free of all restrictions.  He held the shoe in his hand, looking from the shoe to her foot with fascination.  In college, she’d worn sneakers or flats and he’d been turned on every time she’d come near him.  Now he had to contend with these sexy heels that made her legs look several feet longer?  He was a gonner! 

He smiled, enjoying the possibility of getting lost in Kiera’s newest form of sexy.  He wouldn’t mind having that kind of trouble one little bit. 

She needed to be comfortable, he thought as he took in her dark lashes against her pale, white skin.  And as a gentleman, wasn’t it his duty to help her sleep off the alcohol in comfort?  Besides, this dress had probably cost her couple hundred dollars at least.  She would ruin it if she slept in it.  And Axel really didn’t want her to blame him if she ruined her dress.  It would get all wrinkled because he knew that she snuggled up in her sleep in a way that would bunch the tailored material up around her waist. 

It was such a lovely dress too!

His fingers moved carefully down her back, letting the zipper slide through the material, itching to touch the skin slowly revealed to his hungry eyes.  But he kept his fingers on the fabric and not on her soft, silken skin.  He peeled the dress down over her shoulders and legs, almost groaning when she shifted her body to make the process easier.  He almost suspected she was awake and tormenting him, but then she sighed in her sleep.  He knew from past experience how she slept.  He’d stayed awake several nights just watching her, enjoying the way she curled up next to him.  He remembered how her warm breasts pressed against his chest.  He remembered many nights when he’d felt those breasts, felt the way she’d rubbed against him in her sleep.  It didn’t matter if they’d just made love throughout the night, every time she’d done that, he’d wanted to roll her over and make love to her again.  In his mind, her breasts had been absolutely perfect and he’d never gotten tired of exploring their sensitive, pink peaks or the soft, white mounds. 

Well, to be honest, he’d thought everything about her was perfect.  He’d enjoyed hours in bed with her, exploring every part of her body.  She’d protested
at times, even fighting him back in an effort to get the upper hand sexually but even back then he’d been stronger and he’d always won their tussles.  He’d pin her to the bed and have his way with her, taking his time tasting, kissing and enjoying every inch of her delicate skin despite her screams of frustration and need.  It had only turned him on more when she’d done that. 

Damn!  His body was hard and aching for her and he
hadn’t even touched her.  No woman had ever had this kind of power over his body.  Not before he met her and certainly not after. 

He carefully hung the dress up in his closet,
enjoying the sight of her dress mixed in with his suits and tailored shirts before moving back to the bed, pulling the soft blanket from the bottom of the bed up to cover her.  He refused to let his eyes wander over that pretty black bra.  Nor would he allow his eyes to explore that black, lace thong!  Why the hell was she wearing a thong? 

Hell, now he was going to picture her every day, in every one of her professional suits wearing some color of thong! 

This was not fair!

He almost slammed his bedroom door as he stormed out of the room.  After a pointless cold shower, he flopped onto the bed in
one of his spare bedrooms.  He’d always loved this house with the extra bedrooms and lots of space.  He lived further out of the city than his brothers, but that allowed him much more privacy.  He had ten acres of land and his house sat right in the middle of it.  He had a couple of horses that he enjoyed riding and even a vegetable garden that he tended on the weekends.  Unlike Ash who enjoyed working with wood and Xander who worked out at the gym like a fiend, he’d found gardening to be a great stress reliever.  He had no idea what Ryker did to relieve the stress of work related issues.  He wasn’t even sure if Ryker acknowledged stress.  In fact, now that he thought about it, he suspected that his oldest brother worked to relieve the stress of work.  All four of them regularly showed up at the gym for sparring in the boxing ring so perhaps that was what Ryker did to let off steam. 

He stared up at the ceiling, wondering what Kiera did for relaxation now. 
Did she live in one of the apartments closer in to the city?  Or did she prefer being in the outer suburbs, wanting more fresh air and space? 

The distance from the city tended to be a hassle sometimes.  The traffic could be bad, but since he worked long hours, most of his drive
s into or back from work were during off hours, often early in the morning before most people were coming into the city for work or later in the evening when they were already at home and eating dinner.  When he had to stay in the city late at night for a social event or because of work, he would simply crash at one of his brothers’ places for the night.  They reciprocated by coming out to his place on the weekends to ride his horses or just hang out and eat his fresh produce. 

Thinking of Kiera in the other room made him smile with satisfaction.  He’d wanted her here for so long.  All the years, all the changes to this house, he knew now that he’d always had her preferences in the back of his mind.  He wasn’t sure about all of them, and he hadn’t even been aware of doing it, but he’d built this house with her in mind based solely off of the conversations they’d had during their short time together six years ago. 

He’d worked hard to renovate this old house and the barn behind it.  He’d done some of the work himself but Ash had helped him with a lot of the more complicated issues of restoring an old house.  Ash was much better at woodwork but between the four of them, they’d gotten this place in shape and he loved it.  It might still look old, but there were modern conveniences all over. 

In fact, it reminded him of that bar where he’d first seen Kiera.  The late evening sunshine had been lighting her hair on fire.  In normal light, she looked like a gorgeous brunette.  But that day, with the sun behind her, the light had sparked diamonds all through her curls, turning some of them to red and auburn mixed in with the darker colors.  He’d been fascinated by her hair even before he’d looked into her soft, chocolate eyes. 

Rolling over, he punched his pillow, forcing thoughts of his former lover out of his mind.  Or at least trying.  He couldn’t completely obliterate her from his thoughts because she was only one wall away from him.  He didn’t get much sleep that night, thinking about Kiera back in his bed after all these years.  So when the sun woke him up, he gave up on trying to get back to sleep.  He checked on Kiera and found her to be still sleeping.  He quietly grabbed a pair of jeans, showered and went downstairs to his favorite place in the house.  The kitchen. 

The kitchen was
a large, brick and stone room with a huge stove off to one side, a double oven and even an inside grill for those days when it was too cold to get outside and grill steaks, chicken or whatever he wanted.  There were lots of windows and light coming in with roughhewn rafters and a cabin feel to the room.  It was huge and spacious and designed around how he liked to cook.  All of his brothers enjoyed cooking, but none of his brothers had his gardening talents.  Not that they would know it since they all lived in the city with no place to even try their hand at gardening.  Which meant that they were constantly nagging him for tomatoes, cucumbers and whatever else he’d planted in the spring. 

This year, he was having a bumper crop of peppers
.  There were banana peppers, green, red and yellow peppers and, his favorite, jalapeno peppers.  Grabbing a bowl, he walked outside barefoot and snagged a fresh, red tomato off the vine, some jalapenos and banana peppers and then bent down to dig out an onion and a potato from his potato barrel.  He felt like a Spanish omelet, he thought as he came back inside and started coffee. 

He smiled at the thought of Kiera waking up.  He
wished he could be there to watch it but he stayed downstairs, making coffee and reading the newspaper while he waited for her to stir. 

When he
finally heard her move upstairs, he poured a cup of coffee for her, adding in a touch of sugar, then brought it up the stairs.

“Good morning,” he said, leaning against the doorway as he watched her look around, trying to get her bearings. 

Kiera pushed her out-of-control hair back from her eyes and looked around, not recognizing anything but the man standing in the doorway.  She blamed her dry mouth on the drink last night and not on the fact that the man wasn’t wearing a shirt and those jeans hung low on his slim hips.  Her reaction had absolutely nothing to do with those muscles rippling along his lower abdomen, or the amazingly ripped shoulders and biceps the man had developed. 

This definitely wasn’t fair, she thought with increasing resentment as she tried to hold the soft blanket in front of her.  “Where am I?” she asked, her voice hoarse. 
She was already embarrassed that she was wearing only her favorite black, lace underwear but now she was self-conscious that she was so affected by the man standing in the doorway looking like some sort of Greek god and she had no idea where she was or what happened last night after getting into his car.  The leather seats had been so comfortable and she’d been so tired.  It had been a long, first week at her new job, punctuated at the end with the traumatic sight of the man she…not loved anymore, but of the man she’d loved at one time in her life.  A time long ago. 

“At my house,” Axel replied, moving into the room and handing her the cup of steaming hot coffee.  “You look like hell,” he commented.

Kiera didn’t bother to argue with him.  She knew she looked awful but her highest priority right at the moment was caffeine.  He could say just about anything right now but until she had coffee, she wasn’t going to argue with him. 

She sat back against the pillows, feeling painfully self-conscious as she gripped her coffee in both hands
while desperately trying to hold onto the blanket as well.  She honestly wasn’t sure which was the more important task, getting caffeine into her system or hiding her body from his too-knowing eyes.  “Why am I at your house?” she asked.

One sardonic eyebrow went up and he smiled slightly. 
“Because you were too drunk last night to tell me where you lived.”

Her eyebrows went up with that bland statement. 
“You didn’t bother to read my driver’s license?” she asked with rising anger.

He tilted his head.  “
Hm…I didn’t think of that,” he replied.  He hadn’t thought about it because he’d wanted her here.  Case closed. 

She bit her lip and looked around, her fingers trying to bring the blanket higher but that uncovered her toes.
She curled her legs underneath her, not wanting any additional skin to show.  She remembered too vividly what he liked to do when he saw skin and mentally she wasn’t able to fight him off.  Not that he would try anything, she told herself.  They’d finished together long ago.  There was no reason he might want her now.  “Did we…?” she asked, leaving the statement hanging. 

He knew exactly what she was asking and decided to have a bit of fun with her.  “Did we make love?” he asked, and enjoyed the fire that sparked into her eyes.  “Did you scream out with your release the way you used to whenever I touched you?”
He waited for his words to sink in.  “Did we spend the whole night in each other’s arms, satisfying the craving that obviously hasn’t died out even after years of being apart?”

“Stop it,” she whispered, her tongue darting out and licking her lips, feeling the need start to throb once again inside of her. 
She didn’t want to feel this way about Axel. He’d broken her heart once and it had taken her a long time to start living again.  She might have walked out on him that night, but he’d pushed her out the door with his assumptions that she’d drop everything to follow him when he wouldn’t sacrifice anything for her.  She’d been devastated that semester, not even able to take summer classes because she’d been so upset about his betrayal. 

“Stop what?” he asked, his eyes looking down at hers with that heat, that intensity she’d never been able to ignore.  “Stop saying what we both
want?” he suggested.  He didn’t move into the room, staying right there in the doorway but it didn’t matter.  His presence was more powerful than movement or space.  “Or stop offering what you so desperately need?”