Not So New in Town (21 page)

“You and Julia sure talked for a long time.” Lucy threw her beach bag in the backseat of Brogan’s car. “What about?”

“My house. She’s ordering an appraisal.” Brogan didn’t meet Lucy’s eyes as he buckled up and turned the key in the ignition.

“Ah. Well, if anyone knows about pricing and selling houses, it’s Julia. You’re smart to be using her.”

Brogan grunted as he turned toward the high school. Hmmm. Not too talkative, about Julia anyway. Okay. Change of subject. “You ready to play some football? Parker is beyond excited. You’ve been elevated to hero status.” Another grunt. Brogan kept his focus on the empty stretch of road ahead of them. A bad vibe came over Lucy. In her mind, she pictured a sheepish look on her lover’s face as he avoided eye contact right before breaking up with her. Lucy’s stomach rumbled, not from hunger, but from panic. “Everything okay? If you want to be with the guys tonight, I totally understand.” Don’t dump me…
please
. “I’ve got plenty of work to catch up—” Brogan swerved into the empty parking lot at the First Baptist Church right outside her neighborhood and slammed the Jag in park.
“What the—?”

“Come here,” he growled and pulled her across the leather console until his lips locked with hers in a demanding kiss. In less than two heartbeats, he made her forget who she was. Stunned, she didn’t participate until Brogan slanted her head for better access, caging her head between his hands. She groaned and circled his neck with her arms. This was more like it.

“I don’t want to be with the guys tonight. I want to be with you,” he whispered against her lips. His heavy breathing echoed inside the quiet car, and he rested his forehead against hers. “If I hadn’t promised—”

“Shhh. It’s all good.” She cupped his face, memorizing his every feature. “I’m looking forward to watching you
old
men try to relive your glory days. I can’t wait to be head cheerleader. You know tradition states that head cheerleader always dates the quarterback.”

Brogan blanched. “Your cheerleading doesn’t involve singing, does it?”

Lucy shifted back to her seat. “Maybe.”

“Just be sure to sing when the opposing team has the ball. It’s sure to break their concentration.”

“Absolutely. I’m not above playing dirty.” They both laughed and squeezed each other’s hands.

* * *

After the touch football game, Lucy, Parker, and Parker’s friend Jason piled in Brogan’s car. They headed for the lake for swimming and grilling hot dogs, burgers, and s’mores. Brogan had supplied some appetizers from BetterBites and a few cases of his specialty beers. The boys ran screaming toward the lake, jumping and splashing and being, well, boys. Lucy helped some of the other moms set up the condiments and paper products on the picnic tables while the men fired up the grills.

Brogan tapped Lucy on the shoulder with a cold beer in his hand. “So, what’d you think?”

“About what?” She finished straightening the red plastic tablecloth.

“My spectacular playing out there. Did you see that pass I managed to make with three boys pulling on my jersey?” A cocky smile spread across his handsome face.

“Uh, was that the one where you passed the ball and then landed flat on your butt in the mud? Or the one where you threw an interception, and they ran it down and scored?”

“Neither, smart-ass.” He hooked his arm around her neck. “As head cheerleader, you’re supposed to do more fawning and gushing over my amazing arm and bulging muscles.”

“That was your last cheerleader girlfriend. Don’t confuse us again,
Bro
.” Lucy couldn’t keep the snark from her voice. Brogan questioned her with a strange look. “What? I’m just saying—
ooh!
Put me down!” she squealed as he hauled her over his shoulder and trotted over the sand toward the lake. “
N-o-o-o!
Not in my clothes!”

Brogan dropped her in the middle of the long dock. At the end, the boys were jumping into the water, showing off with cannonballs and jackknives. “Lose the clothes. You’ve got two seconds.” He kicked off his leather thongs and peeled his T-shirt over his head. Wolf whistles pierced the air from the shore.

“Woo-hoo! Now we’re talking.”

“Flex those muscles, Buns of Steel.”

“Lordy, I feel a faint comin’ on.”

Lucy glanced over her shoulder at the other women drinking beers, making catcalls, and laughing. Brogan paid them no attention, too focused on what Lucy hid beneath her clothes.

“Now, Lucy,” he gritted as he started to untie her knotted camp shirt.

She toed off her Toms, brushing his hands away to finish the job. “Payback’s a bitch, dude. Remember that.” She shimmied out of her short white shorts.

Brogan whistled through his teeth. “Nice.” He fingered the silver circle holding the skimpy triangles of yellow fabric together. Passion and desire lit his eyes, making Lucy wonder how long the suit would remain on her body.

“Aunt Lucy, you coming in or not?” Parker called from the middle of the lake.

“She’s coming.
Right
now.
” Scooping Lucy up in his arms, Brogan marched to the end of the dock.

“I’m perfectly capable of walking on my own, Mr. Atlas.”

“Hope you can swim.”

Before Lucy could respond with a biting comeback, she was flying through the air. Then she landed with a big splash in the warm lake water. As she surfaced, pushing hair from her eyes, Brogan popped up right next to her, shaking the water from his hair like a dog.

“You lose your bikini?” Hope laced his voice as he reached for her. Lucy ducked, adjusting her suit under the water, resurfacing a few feet away.

“You wish,” she said, treading water. With a predator’s gleam in his eyes, Brogan stroked toward her. Lucy squealed, splashing him in the face before kicking as hard as she could to escape. “Parker. Boys. Attack Brogan. Now,” she yelled and laughed at the same time. “Hurry!”

“Here, Aunt Lucy.” A neon-pink noodle glided over the water in her direction. Lucy straddled the noodle to stay afloat. The boys jumped and horsed around, wrestling with Brogan. More dads joined the fray, and boys were lifted and tossed in the air with much whooping and hollering.

“Might as well enjoy the show.” Some of the moms had drifted out on rafts and noodles, and one handed Lucy a cold beer.

“Thank you. And what a show it’s turning out to be.” Lucy laughed, enjoying the beer cooling her throat.

“I hope they don’t drown each other,” Jason’s mom, Sally, said, shifting on her raft.

“The scenery is migh-tay fine,” said one of the young moms who’d been howling from shore. The women all nodded in agreement and toasted with their beers. And by scenery, they weren’t referring to the pine trees clustered on the shoreline or the low sunset creating a pink glow. No. They meant Brogan and his sleek, wet, powerful body as he simultaneously dunked two boys by the head. “Oh, baby,” someone murmured. “You don’t mind if we ogle your delicious boyfriend, do you?”

Boyfriend? Okay. Lucy resisted the urge to enlighten everyone that she and Brogan were merely sleeping buddies. It might make her sound a little slutty or sleazy or horny. Or all of the above, which she was.

“Certainly. Ogle away.”

“Sweet mother…that man could eat popcorn and drip greasy pizza cheese on my satin sheets any day of the week.”

Lucy nodded. She couldn’t agree more.

* * *

Only a few parents remained as Brogan and Lucy helped clean up around the bonfire. It was close to ten o’clock. All of Margo’s homemade brownies had been consumed, as well as the remaining beers and bottles of chilled white wine by the adults. Brogan helped load the last of the supplies in the back of Tom and Sally Martin’s car. Parker, Jason, and two other boys had left to spend the night out together, which meant he had Lucy to himself for one more night.

“That’s the last of it,” he said, closing the hatch to the Martins’ car.

Tom shook his hand. “The boys had a great time. Nice seeing you back on the football field.” Brogan grinned. It had felt good too. The Martins waved their good-byes as they drove away on the dirt road.

Turning slowly back to the lake, Brogan watched as Lucy tossed a few leftover dirty cups in the garbage and dusted off her hands. One bonfire still burned, illuminating the dark shoreline. The smell of burgers and smoke lingered in the air. A silver path created by the half-moon sparkled over the still water. Lifting her head, Lucy caught him staring.

“What? Why the big goofy grin?”

Brogan crossed the sandy grass in four strides and reached her. “Finally, alone.” He pulled one of her loose curls. Lucy followed, leaning into his chest where he’d wanted her all day. “Time to start that second date.” He pressed his fingers into her waist over the white cover-up, tilted his head, going for her luscious mouth.

“Start?” Lucy looped her arms around his neck, touching her lips to his and kissing all the lucid thoughts from his head. He wrapped his arms around her and squeezed, lifting her off her toes.

“We’re going to get all hot and bothered, making out, groping each other under the moonlight, and then I’m going to whisk you home and back into my bed,” he said in between nibbles and kisses on her mouth and down her throat. He grabbed her hand and dragged her over to where the blanket was already spread over the rough ground. The trees rustled in the slight breeze, and the loud sound of chirping crickets filled the night air. Guiding Lucy to her knees, he joined her on the blanket and quickly stripped off her cover-up, leaving her in that perfect, skimpy, teeny-weeny bikini. His hands had drifted to her barely covered breasts when she stopped him with her palms pressed against his chest.

“Wait. Are you sure we should be doing this, here…now?” Her eyes were feverish with excitement. “What if someone sees us?”

Shee-it. At this point, he didn’t care if all of Harmony sold ringside seats.

“We’re perfectly safe.” Pushing her down, he hovered over her, bracing his weight on his arms to keep from smashing her into a sand pie.

“Brogan?” she asked, blinking, sounding confused.

“Yes, it’s me. How nice of you to remember.”

Lucy appeared dazed. “Just checking. Not sure if this is real or fantasy,” she whispered as he lowered himself and nibbled on her neck, tasting a little sunscreen and a lot Lucy.

“The only fantasy here is the one coming true inside my head. The one where I’m in this exact spot, making out with the prettiest girl in town.” Her sigh filled his ears. And like each time before when he’d started kissing Lucy, their kisses grew more frantic and needy.

Moments later he lifted his head. “Having trouble seeing in the dark. You don’t mind if I do a more thorough examination?” She bit into her lower lip, trying to suppress a moan as his hand cupped her breast over her bikini top. Brogan worked his other hand behind her neck and quickly loosened the bow holding up the top. Pushing the triangles of fabric aside, his palms made contact with her taut nipples. He shot her a heated look and then gave his full attention to the perfect mounds heaving before him.

His mouth closed over one tight peak. Lucy bucked beneath him as she gripped his shoulders, stinging his flesh with her nails. Her eyes mirrored his passion as he sucked and kissed his way around her breasts. An overpowering need slammed into him. The need to taste her all over. To lick her satin skin from the top of her creamy breasts to the bottom of her ticklish toes. The need to possess her tonight…now.

“Mine,” he murmured as he licked a path from her ribs down to her curvy belly. Lucy moaned, panting his name and writhing beneath him, but Brogan, intent on his task, held her down as he nipped at her waist and lower. Her flesh quivered and contracted everywhere he touched, making him bolder in his purpose. He started to peel down her bikini bottoms when she gasped.

“Uh, Brogan”—
pant, pant
.

He needed to taste her, breathe in her essence, and then he needed to claim her…own her…bind her to him. He pushed off her bottoms. He slid his palm up the smooth length of her thigh. “I want to give you this.” He gently worked his fingers between her clenched thighs. “Open for me.” Lucy hesitated for only a half second. Her legs spread wide, she shuddered as he ran his fingers across her slick flesh.

“Oh
my
,” she groaned.

He cupped her behind, lifting her hips for the access he craved. Breathing her scent, a thought struck him like a thunderbolt of lightning.

He needed her.

For more than her marketing abilities. He needed her on a daily basis. His heart probably knew this fact way before his head had climbed on board. But Brogan chased the thought away, refusing to give it power and refusing to admit that she controlled him. He focused on giving her pleasure…putting her first. He rubbed his stubble along her sensitive inner thighs, loving the sound of her labored breathing as he kissed a hot trail toward the core of her silky flesh.

“You’re so slick…for me.” He kissed her inner thighs before sliding his tongue inside her heat.

“B-Brogan,” she moaned, arching her back and thrusting her hips up with a physical demand for more.

“Mmm, my favorite dessert.” His tongue danced around her swollen flesh as he teased with bold strokes. Her head thrashed from side to side; moaning, she clutched the blanket with her balled fists.

“Like that?”

“Sweet, merciful coconut muffins! Don’t toy with me,” Lucy yelled.

Laughing, he swirled his tongue at the center of her core. She grabbed his head and pulled him tighter, sighing her pleasure. He held her hips with a firm grip and twirled his tongue around her silken folds, sucking until she arched her back and breathed his name.

Desire singed his insides, pouring through his veins. Her pleasure left him hungry and wanting, aching with need to plunge deep inside her. Lucy panted and quivered from the aftereffects of her orgasm. Suddenly, she pulled him down on top of her.

“I want you…
now
,” she groaned and then gave him a kiss that made him mindless, stroking her hand across his chest and lower, working it inside the band of his swimsuit. He pushed his trunks down to release his throbbing cock. He had no defenses against the melting look in her liquid gray eyes. He became dizzy in the head, and his lust overwhelmed him. Locking her legs around his waist, she rocked her hips and he willingly answered her body’s request and plunged inside her wet, sweet heat. He deepened his thrust, her hips arched, matching his rhythm, and her eyelids fluttered closed.