The Lawson Boys: Marty (20 page)

Yep, this pose
had brought many a woman off her high horse and tumbling back into
his arms. It was his relaxed, I’m-just-a-naughty-boy pose that
women loved.

Unfortunately,
it didn’t work with Belle. She simply folded her arms beneath those
magnificent breasts and looked down at the floor. “I don’t want you
here.”

Pursing his
lips, Marty studied her. “I need more than that.”

“I think you
got enough already, don’t you?”

Oh ho. Now he
was seeing where this was going and no way, boy, no way in hell was
she going to take this and run with it. “Belle-”

“The door’s
that way.” She pointed, still not looking at him.

“I don’t give a
rat’s arse where it is, I’m not leaving while you’re jumping to yet
another conclusion. A big, fat, mistaken one, if I’m correct.”

This got a
reaction. Belle’s head snapped up and she glared at him. “The only
big, fat mistake I made was in opening my front door when you rang
the bell.”

“Ah, so you
admit that making love wasn’t a mistake.”

“That was the
biggest mistake.” Her cheeks flamed but she continued to gamely
meet his gaze.

“Oh no. You
just said the
only
mistake was in opening the door.” Leaning
down a little, he smiled. “You can’t just change the list of
mistakes, honey.”

“You’re at the
top of the list.”

He shook his
head, unable to stop his smile widening when she clamped those
luscious lips shut. “I’m on the top of your best decisions ever
list.”

“You are so
full of yourself.”

“Honey, you
were so full of me not long ago.” Holding up two fingers, he added,
“Twice.” And winked. “You enjoyed it, too.”

“You
egotistical arse!”

“Just telling
it like it is, honey.”

“And I’m not
your honey, so stop calling me that!”

“Baby.”

“I’m not your
baby, either.”

“Firecracker?”

“What?” She
shook her head. “No! Look, Marty…” When he simply quirked an
eyebrow at her, she seemed to run out of steam and slumped back
against the wall. “Just go away.”

“Why?” Subduing
his natural joking inclination, Marty moved forward, halting when
she held up her palm. “Belle, what we shared was magical. I can’t
just walk away now.”

“Magical?” She
shook her head again. “You got what you came for.”

“I didn’t come
for sex.” That was an added bonus, but not advisable to admit right
now. “I came for you.”

Chapter 6

“You keep
saying that.” Wearily, she ran one hand through the thick curls
flowing across her shoulders and down her back. “But really, Marty,
why did you come here? To warn me off embarrassing your family?
Talking to the media? You don’t have to worry about it, I’ve no
intentions of doing anything like that.” The thick lashes hiding
her eyes lifted, the green of her irises almost startling against
the black of the pupils. “I’m fine, your family is fine, everything
is fine. Okay?”

“No,” he
replied quietly, “It’s not okay. I didn’t come here to ensure your
silence and I’m a little insulted that you’d think so. Jesus,
Belle, how can you deny what happened between us?”

“I’m not
denying it.” Her gaze shifted a little, red tinging her cheeks.
“But it wasn’t your sole reason for coming here.”

“Fine. It
wasn’t, and I never said it was.” Ignoring her halting gesture,
Marty strode forward. This time she just watched as he closed the
distance between them, her expression almost resigned. Laying one
hand on the wall above her head, Marty leaned down to look her
directly in the eyes. “Here’s the truth, Belle. I was worried about
you. I knew you were upset, I knew the photo upset you even more. I
should have been able to simply inquire after your welfare but it
wasn’t enough, especially when I knew you were so upset that you
cried over that stupid photo.”

“It was
embarrassing.” She glanced away. “Now everyone knows.”

With one finger
against her soft cheek, Marty turned her attention back to him.
“Forget the stupid photo.”

“Easy for you
to say.”

“Fine. The
photo is out there, everyone knows you called Trevor out for
cheating on both you and his fiancée, so sad too bad.”

“So sad too
bad?” Her expression switched swiftly from sad to outraged.

“Yeah. I don’t
care about Trevor, I don’t care about the media.” Sliding his
finger down to her lips, he brushed the tip over the lushness.
“You’re why I’m here. I worried about you, I couldn’t get you out
of my mind, I couldn’t get our kiss out of my mind. I wanted to see
you again.” He blew back the hank of hair that flopped over his
brow. “To put it bluntly, Belle, you got under my skin.”

“Like an
itch?”

“Yeah.”

“So now you’ve
had the scratch you can go home.”

Geez, she had a
whip for a tongue at times. Marty shook his head. “Look, Belle, I’m
trying to explain why I came. Will you stop jumping to conclusions
and making this hard?”

“Fine.” Folding
her arms beneath her breasts, she looked up at him, those lush lips
pressed together and a storm gathering in her eyes.

Women. Who
could understand them?

With a sigh,
Marty dropped his hand to her waist, instantly feeling her stiffen.
Another new experience, he wasn’t used to women withdrawing from
him, they’d always thrown themselves at him. He’d never had to work
so bloody hard to convince a woman before of his interest.

Maybe because
Belle wasn’t just another woman.

“Okay,” he
said. “We’re going in circles and getting nowhere. Suppose you tell
me why you think I came?” As she opened her mouth, he warned, “Not
crudely, either. I want you to be truthful.”

“Fine.” She
glared at him. “I can’t imagine why you’d be interested in me
except as a novelty. I slept with Trevor, was dumb enough to
believe him, made a fool of myself, and think…”

“Yes?”

“I think you’re
just amusing yourself with me.”

Yeah, women did
lack commonsense at times. “Really?”

“Yes,
really.”

“I see.”
Wondering how to convince the stubborn female that he wasn’t here
for any freebies, Marty studied her face.

In return, she
quirked an eyebrow in silent challenge.

He stared her
directly in the eyes. “Right, I hear you. Now you listen to me. I
came to see you, as I’ve said countless times already. I didn’t
expect to make love to you, that wasn’t on my plan for today-”

“Today?” She
just had to leap on that one little word.

Ignoring her,
he continued, “I find you desirable. I want to get to know you
better-”

“You sure know
me a little better now.”

Jesus, she was
like a dog with a bone. “You’re a little fixated on that, aren’t
you?”

“Kind of hard
to forget.”

He couldn’t
stop the grin, his masculine ego over-riding his commonsense. “I
made quite an impression, huh?”

She returned
his gaze stonily.

With a sigh,
Marty straightened. “Look, I don’t know how to convince you that
I’m not here to amuse myself.”

“You won’t
convince me.”

She was right.
Looking down at her expression, the anger in her eyes and the
mulish set of her lips, Marty realised the truth. Right now she
wasn’t going to listen and anything he said was going to be
twisted. Jesus, what a woman.

Yeah, what a
woman, and one he wasn’t going to just let go. But right now he was
smart enough to back off.

“Okay.”
Stepping back, he held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. “You
win. For now. But I’ll be back, Belle.” Reaching out, he tapped her
lightly on the nose. “I’ll be back when you’ve calmed down and we
can talk.”

“Me calm down?”
Fire lit her eyes.

“Yep. But
meanwhile, here’s something to think about.” Snatching her up
against him, he kissed her hot and deep, quick and hard. Pushing
her back, he managed not to grin at her dazed look and the way she
unconsciously swayed towards him. “I’ll be back.”

Turning on his
heel, he walked out of the house, shutting the door firmly behind
him. Getting into the rental car, he backed out of her driveway and
onto the road, but as he left, he couldn’t resist one last glance
at her house. The curtain at her lounge room window twitched. Yeah,
she was watching, all right.

Turning onto
the main road, he headed back to the flat he was currently staying
at, his mind working on how he was going to convince Belle that she
was more than just a diversion and why the hell would she even
think it, anyway? Sure, Trevor had tricked her, but that was no
reason to be so out and out angry with him, Marty thought. Just the
idea of it had both anger and indignation flare to life inside him.
Hell, if he had any brains, he’d just head home and forget about
the generously curved woman, but unfortunately that wasn’t an
option. Not now, especially not after tasting her ample charms and
finding them to his taste.

It didn’t ease
his sudden spurt of anger, though, and he pulled into the car park
with a frown that was quickly turning into a scowl. Getting out of
the car, he locked it and headed for the flat.

Opening the
door, he was greeted by the sight of Alan sprawled on the sofa with
Sugar lying on his chest. Alan was eating from a bag of chips, and
the scattering of crumbs on his shirt and around Sugar’s mouth
indicated that he’d been sharing with her.

Taking one look
at Marty’s face, he drawled, “Didn’t go as planned with the big
chick, huh?”

“What makes you
think that?” Marty caught Sugar as she launched herself up at him,
cradling her wriggling body close. “Hey, sweetums. Has Uncle Alan
been feeding you junk?”

Sugar yipped
and licked his chin.

Sitting up,
Alan brushed the crumbs from his shirt. “You left looking happy but
returned looking like she’d given you a wedgie.” His grinned. “Did
she give you a wedgie?”

“No.”

“So what
happened? You ruffled her feathers with your charm?”

He’d done more
than ruffle her feathers, but he wasn’t telling that to Alan.
Flopping onto the sofa, he reached for the bag of chips. “She’ll
come around.”

Alan studied
him for several minutes in silence.

Sugar settled
herself at Marty’s feet and picking up the TV channel remote
control, he flicked over to the football game.

“Holy shit!”
Alan slapped his knee. “You had sex with the big chick!”

So much for not
telling the loudmouth anything. Marty sighed inwardly.

“And then she
kicked you out!”

“Belle did not
kick me out.”

“Then you’re
boinking technique needs work, because she obviously wasn’t
happy.”

“My technique
is just fine.” Yeah, better than fine in fact. He could still feel
her undulating against him, soft and curvy and hot, her moans
filling the air and her lush body pressing back against him, her
sheath clasping him tight. Shifting on the sofa to try and subdue a
sudden boner threatening to arise, Marty scowled. “Mind if we watch
the game?”

“So what did
you do to make her kick you out?”

“Nothing. I
didn’t get kicked out.” Marty glanced sideways. “I walked out.”

Alan’s eyes
narrowed. “But something happened.”

“What are you,
the guru for relationships? Because I’m telling you right now,
you’re expertise is shit.”

“You can’t fool
me. Something happened between you and the big chick. You had sex
and then come back here all shitty. What happened?”

Alan wasn’t
going to let up. Marty slid further down on the sofa. “I don’t
know.”

“You don’t
know?”

“No. Okay?”

“Not okay. Now
tell Uncle Alan what happened and leave nothing out.” When Marty
cut him a narrow-eyed look, Alan relented. “Well, leave out the
sex, unless there’s something there I can use.”

“I think you’ve
been hanging around Mike too much.”

“Mike won’t
tell me about his sex life.”

“I mean the
talking.”

“Hey, I’m just
here to help an old friend.”

“Could have
fooled me. Amuse yourself, more like.”

“Hey, I
volunteered to come here to have your back, man.”

“Volunteered?
You practically threw yourself under the car until I gave in.”

“To have your
back. Be your bud. We’ve been mates since high school, man, the
least I can do is be your support person.”

Marty shot him
an incredulous look.

Alan pointed
down at Sugar. “Plus, I baby sat your dog while you’re off making
sexy with your girlfriend. Do you know how much it hurts my image
to walk the fluff ball with the pink collar and leash? Only for a
mate would I do this. ”

“Belle’s not my
girlfriend.”

“So we’re free
to go to a topless bar tonight? There’s a strip joint-”

“No. I have
other plans.”

“Involving
Belle?”

Marty’s jaw
clenched a little. Maybe not. Maybe Belle needed the night to think
about things.

Alan held out a
can of beer. “If you’re going to sit and sulk, the least you can do
is relax.”

Popping the
tab, Marty took a swallow and grimaced. “What the hell is wrong
with women?”

“What’s right
with them?”

“That’s your
answer?”

“Just think
about it for a moment.”

Okay, it
did
make sense, which was more than he could say for Belle’s
cockamamie opinion. Geez.

Slouched down,
scowling, Marty sipped at the beer.

Utterly
content, Sugar rested her tiny chin on his foot and went to
sleep.

After several
minutes Alan broke the silence. “I’m disappointed in this new side
of you, Marty.”

Marty glanced
at him. “What?”

“Where’s that
go-get-’em bloke with the take-no-prisoners attitude?”