Last Virgin In California (Mills & Boon Desire) (10 page)

“Why, Lilah?”

She blew out a breath and shifted her arms to fold across her middle. “Because I could. Because the school needed the computers.”

“So you just went out and got them?”

“It’s easy for me,” she said and almost sounded apologetic. “I like talking.”

“God knows that’s true.”

She smiled a little. “And most people are more than willing to help if you tell them exactly
how
to do it. That’s my job. I run fund-raisers and arrange
donations and well…” She finally ran out of the steam and shrugged.

Oh, he’d be willing to bet that she excelled at that part of the job. She had a way of talking to a person and somehow reaching down inside them to find things they hadn’t known were there. She’d probably gotten donations from companies who had policies
against
charitable donations.

“Somehow, you convince them that they wanted to do it all along, don’t you?”

“Sort of.” She reached up and fingered the amethyst crystal hanging from around her neck.

“You do this all the time?”

“Is there something wrong with that?” she asked just a bit defensively.

“Not wrong,” he said. “Just…unusual. Jackets, computers, anything else you’re arranging for?”

“Turkeys for Thanksgiving, Toys For Tots, blood drives, Make-A-Wish Foundation…” She shrugged and asked, “Anything you need?”

He grabbed her and pulled her around to face him. His gaze swept over her features, her eyes, her mouth and when he looked again into her gaze, he actually heard himself say, “You, Lilah. I’m beginning to think I just might need you.”

“Wow,” she whispered. “I do believe we’re having another journal moment.”

S
omething indefinable had changed.

Kevin could almost
see
his words hanging in the air between them. Too late to call them back—even if he wanted to and he wasn’t altogether sure he did want to. It had been so long since he’d felt this…
alive
. Just looking at Lilah Forrest was enough to fan the flames inside him.

The way she moved, the way she thought, intrigued him. Her touch, her laughter, aroused him like no one ever had. Being near her and not being able to hold her, kiss her, taste her, was a sweet kind of torture that kept his body humming and his blood racing.

And he didn’t know what in the hell he could do about it.

Lilah pulled in a deep breath and blew it out before saying, “Would you like to come to dinner tonight?”

Dinner. With her and her father. Instantly, he imagined sitting across the table from Colonel Forrest, while trying to hide the desire he felt for the man’s daughter. Not exactly his idea of a good time.

But he couldn’t go anyway. “I can’t,” he said, “have to be at my sister’s house for dinner tonight.” Disappointment flickered across her expression and before he could stop himself, Kevin blurted, “Why don’t you come with me?”

Surprise widened her eyes and he enjoyed seeing it. Nice to be the surpriser for a change instead of the surprisee.

“I’d like that,” she said.

“Good. Pick you up at six.”

His words were still echoing in Lilah’s mind hours later. Her heart quickened every time she recalled the look in his eyes and the soft strength of his touch.

He needed her
.

But did he love her?

Well, he’d brought her here, hadn’t he? That had to mean something.

The Rogans, taken in a bunch, were a little overpowering.

Even Kelly, the only girl in the family, more than
held her own in the pitched battles that passed for dinner table conversation. Kevin and his brothers took turns passing Kelly’s daughter Emily around, each of the big men becoming cooing imbeciles as soon as the little girl smiled up at them.

The dishes were washed and put away by everyone, with all of them bumping into each other in the small kitchen. Laughter and arguments punctuated the air and Lilah felt, oddly enough, completely at home.

She envied the easy love the siblings shared and wondered if they’d ever really stopped to appreciate the closeness that was so clearly a part of them all. As an only child, Lilah had longed for brothers and sisters and now she could see how much she’d missed in her solitary childhood.

And seeing Kevin in his element only made her admire him more. With his family, he became the man that she’d only caught glimpses of in the last couple of weeks. Here, the starch came out of his spine and he was open, reachable to these people he obviously loved so much.

An ache settled around her heart as Lilah realized that she wanted to be important to him, too. She wanted to be a part of this family. And yet, in less than two weeks, she’d be leaving. Going back home. To her apartment. To her job at Charity Coalition. To loneliness.

Her gaze shifted, moving over the Rogan brothers until it stopped on Kevin. One look at him and her
blood simmered in her veins. Every nerve ending stood straight up and screamed. He laughed at something one of his brothers said and her breath caught. He cradled his niece in his arms and Lilah’s insides melted. He gently ran one hand up and down little Emily’s back and all Lilah could remember was his touch on her skin. His hands. His mouth. And she wanted him so badly, it was all she could do to stay in her chair.

“I know that look,” Kelly said and took a seat close by.

“Hmm?” Startled, and just a little embarrassed to be caught drooling, Lilah turned her head toward Kevin’s sister. “What look?”

“Oh, the one you get every time you stare at Kevin.”

So much for a poker face. “No, I…”

Kelly shook her head. “I get that same look on my face whenever Jeff comes home.”

“I didn’t realize I was being that obvious.”

“Don’t worry,” Kelly said smiling, “you’re not. I doubt if any one of the guys noticed. Including Kevin.”

“Swell.”

“Hey, don’t get me wrong,” Kelly said, reaching out to pat Lilah’s hand. “There’s definitely something up. Heck, this is the first time my big brother’s brought any woman to meet us since—”

Her voice trailed off and she paused uncomfortably.

“Alanna,” Lilah finished for her. “He told me about her.”

“He did?” Kelly grinned and sat back, giving Lilah a look of approval. “The plot thickens.”

“She hurt him.”

“Big time,” Kelly agreed. “But he got through it. And I can’t tell you how glad I am he’s dating you.”

Dating? Well, they were doing something, but she didn’t think dating was the word to describe it. Still, she didn’t correct the other woman, mainly because she enjoyed the notion of
really
belonging with Kevin.

He’s so much more than she’d suspected when she first met him. Not just a D.I., he’s patient, even when she flabbergasts him. He’s gentle with his niece and protective of his family. He’s loyal and kind and despite the stern expression he habitually wears, he’s a marshmallow inside, where it counts.

But on top of all that, the irritatingly logical side of her brain reminded her, he’s a Marine to the core. He’s responsible and organized and dutiful. He’s as orderly as she is chaotic. And a part of her, despite the wild yearnings of her heart, wonders if he wouldn’t, one day, be as impatient with her flakiness as her father generally was.

“Telling lies about me?” Kevin asked as he walked up to join them.

Lilah forced her mind away from the train wreck of her thoughts and looked up into forest-green eyes that sparked with a desire that churned up the embers carefully banked inside her.

“Hah!” Kelly said, taking her daughter from him. “No need for lies. The truth is hard enough.” Then she went up on her toes and kissed his cheek.

“And very interesting,” Lilah teased.

“Okay,” he said, his gaze shifting nervously between the two women before settling on Lilah. Holding out one hand to her, he helped her up and said, “Think I’ll take you home before Kelly has the chance to talk too much.”

She stood up, but kept her grip on his hand. Grinning, she said, “But we were just getting to the good stuff.”

“Uh-huh,” he said. “Maybe next time.”

“Oh, definitely next time,” Kelly said, reaching out to give Lilah a hug.

And as they said their goodbyes, Lilah hugged the words “next time” to her. They implied a longer relationship than the next couple of weeks. And for now, that was good enough.

Kevin walked her to the car, unlocked the door and opened it. But before she could slide onto the seat, he stopped her, one hand on her forearm.

“Gonna make me walk?” she asked, looking up
at him. Moonlight dazzled her skin, making it glow like fine porcelain. Her long blond hair twisted in the wind, and her big blue eyes fixed on him. Kevin felt their impact even in the dim light. He dreamed about her eyes every blessed night. All day every day, he carried her image in his mind. And now, he would have other pictures there as well. Mental snapshots of her with his family. Laughing, joining in the arguments, holding Emily while she slept. He would think of his brothers’ approving smiles and Kelly’s instant rapport with her.

And from this night on, whenever he was with his family, if Lilah wasn’t a part of it, he would miss her. He would notice her absence and wish she were there.

So much had changed for him the last two weeks, he hardly recognized his own life. But the need inside him, he knew. It had become a living, breathing thing that threatened to consume him. And the only way to conquer it was to surrender to it.

“I don’t want to take you home,” he said and he had to force the words past a throat nearly too tight to breathe.

She licked her lips and he followed the motion with his gaze. His body tightened even further and he flexed his fingers on the car door, to keep from snapping.

“I don’t want to go home,” she said. “Not now. Not yet.”

“Not yet,” he agreed and snaked one arm around her waist, pulling her to him, pinning her body to his. She tipped her head back and he swooped low, taking her mouth in a kiss designed to push them both over the edge of the cliff they’d been dancing on for a week now.

She gasped into his mouth and he swallowed her breath, exchanging it for his. He tasted her, sweeping his tongue into her mouth and caressing her warmth with long, deliberate strokes. And it wasn’t enough. He needed more. Wanted more. Wanted to touch her, hold her, explore every inch of her body with the tips of his fingers. And when he was finished, he wanted only to begin again.

Lilah leaned into him, relishing the hard, solid strength of him. The night air pushed at them, damp fingers trying to pry them apart, but the heat they shared withstood it. She kissed him, tangling her tongue with his, enjoying the rush of desire, the heart pounding thrill of being in his arms again. She didn’t want to think about tomorrow. Or next week. Or the week after.

All she wanted now, was to be beneath him. To feel him join his body with hers. She wanted to at last know what every other woman her age had long since discovered. The magic of becoming one with the man you loved.

And as that word rose up in her mind, she clutched at it. True, she thought. Love had happened where
she had least expected it. A Marine, of all things, had stolen her heart. Now she wanted to give him her body.

He broke the kiss and gulped for air like a drowning man rising to the surface of a freezing lake. His gaze swept over her features, then zeroed in on her eyes. Voice ragged, he asked, “My place?”

Lilah swallowed hard, nodded and said, “Fast.”

It wasn’t fast enough.

As if fate was taunting them, Kevin hit every red light on the drive to his apartment. Lilah’s nerves jangled like the bells on her wrist and she squirmed in her seat in a futile attempt to ease the throbbing ache settled between her thighs.

“I don’t believe this,” he muttered thickly as he came to a stop again. One hand fisting around the steering wheel, with the other, he reached across the seat for Lilah. She grabbed his hand and held on, her fingers threading through his.

A short, tight laugh shot from her throat. “Think someone’s trying to tell us something?”

“If they are,” he said, throwing her a glance, “I’m not listening.”

“Good to know,” she managed and gave him a smile that felt as tight as the knot lodged in the pit of her stomach.

He disentangled his fingers from hers and reached up to briefly cup her cheek. “You do something to
me, Lilah. Something I never expected. Something I’m not real sure what to do about.”

A long breath staggered into her lungs and she wasn’t sure if it was his touch or his words having this effect on her. And she didn’t care. “I know,” she said, swallowing hard. “I feel the same way.”

His jaw clenched and his finger curled into his palm. Then he let his hand drop to her lap and Lilah groaned, closing her eyes, concentrating only on the feel of him. Even through the fabric of her emerald-green skirt, his hand was warm, strong. His fingers played on her thigh and she leaned her head against the seat back, trying not to move.

“Finally,” he whispered and she opened her eyes long enough to see the light had turned green. Instantly, the car jumped forward and while Kevin steered the car through traffic with one hand, he used the other to begin the seduction they’d both waited for.

His fingers inched up the hem of her skirt and she felt the soft fabric sliding up her calves, across her knees and up her thighs. And when he stroked her bare flesh, she almost came off the seat. The lightest of touches, the gentlest of caresses, tingled her skin and set off a string of fireworks in her bloodstream.

“How much farther?” she asked and thought she sounded pretty good, considering the fact that she couldn’t breathe.

“Couple of blocks.”

“Too far.”

“Yeah.” His hand came down on her thigh and she felt as though his palm had branded her with the heat pouring from his body into hers. Then he slid his hand higher up, to the very heart of her. Her own heat seemed to call to him and he cupped her, pressing his fingers tight against her center. Lilah fought the constraints of the darn seat belt, lifting her hips into his touch, wriggling against his hand, creating a delicious friction that shimmered along her nerve endings.

“Soon, baby,” he ground out tightly.

“Soon,” she said, clinging to that one word as if it were a life raft bouncing on a churning sea. Her mind raced, her heart pounded and then he touched her again, this time dipping his fingers beneath the elastic band of her panties.

She gasped and let her legs fall apart, opening for him, welcoming him. She wanted to feel it all again. Experience that wild rush to completion that he’d shown her just a few days ago.

Cars flowed past them. Streetlamps became a blur of yellowish light flying by the car like streamers in the wind. The night crowded in around them, making the inside of Kevin’s car a refuge—a private retreat where only they mattered. Only the next touch. The next kiss. The next unspoken promise.

His fingertips stroked her and Lilah felt herself
quickening. Just like the last time, it wouldn’t take long. She grabbed hold of the armrest and braced herself for the explosion she felt coming.

But Kevin pulled his hand free with a muttered curse and before she could moan her disappointment, he turned his car into the driveway. “We’re here,” he said, and shot her a quick, desperate look.

“Then why are we still in the car?” she asked and yanked at the door handle, swinging the door wide.

“Right.” He climbed out of the car and was to her side before she’d righted her skirt. Holding out one hand to her, he helped her up, slammed the door and stalked toward his front porch, keeping a tight grip on her hand.

Lilah’s breath felt strangled in her chest. Her heartbeat thudded painfully against her rib cage. Her legs were weak and her insides seemed to be pitching and rolling. She’d never felt so wonderful.