“Fuck, it’s cold,” he announced, pulling the door shut behind him. “I’ll turn on the heat.”
“Push your seat back instead,” I ordered loudly.
He stopped mid-stretch, hand hovering over the middle dash of the car where the heating controls were. Lachlan quirked a brow.
I pressed a hand to his chest, gently shoving him back as I moved into him. “I know a better way to get warm.”
At his hesitancy, I froze. “Unless … you’re afraid of getting caught.”
In answer, he pressed a button at the side of his chair, the buzz of the electric mechanism filling the car as his seat moved back. I grinned and climbed over, straddling him. His shirt was so wet, his skin peeked through the white where it stuck to him. “What about your sterling reputation?”
Lachlan’s eyes flashed. “Fuck it.” He gripped my shirt hem and wrenched it upward as I raised my arms to help. The wet material hit the passenger seat with a slap that made me chuckle. A chuckle that died with a low moan as his hands moved up my damp waist to squeeze beneath my wet bra. I reached back to unclip it, uncaring we were in public. The rain concealed us, and honestly, the man just made me lose my mind.
“We seem to have a habit of getting caught in the rain,” I joked.
“And needing to fuck after it,” he said, but there was no teasing in his voice. Just lust. I noted his use of the word needing. Not want. Need.
I watched as he caressed my body with his gaze, hot on my hard nipples, then lingering on my scars. Something unreadable crossed his expression and then he stared into my eyes. “You’re so beautiful.”
His tender sincerity made me feel weirdly shy, and I was not shy. “Saying that while I look like a drowned rat, you must mean it.”
But Lachlan didn’t seem in the mood for joking. He drew me close, taking my right nipple in his mouth. I exhaled on his name as he sucked and laved. A whimper of need escaped me when he stopped. “Look at me.”
I did, arching my back, pushing into the hard need of him beneath me.
Our eyes held, and my desire tightened as he gently squeezed my breasts, his thumb caressing my nearest scar. “You’re the most truly alive person I’ve ever met.”
I sucked in a breath at the compliment. “Lachlan.”
A fierceness, something akin to anger, sparked in his blue eyes. “When you meet him, the man you want to settle down with … make sure he’s perfect.” His voice was hoarse as he confessed, “I don’t think I could live with anything else.”
Emotion clogged my throat. At what he said. And what he didn’t say.
Afraid of those feelings, I smirked, bent my head to his and murmured against his mouth, “To hell with perfect. Perfect is boring.” Then I kissed him. Hard. Hungry.
His big palm cradled the back of my head, holding me to him as he took over. Just as voracious, just as devouring.
And it was so much more than just a kiss.
27
Lachlan
“You know, if you’re going to brood, this is the wrong place to do it.”
The familiar feminine voice jerked Lachlan out of his musings. He spun in his green leather captain’s chair and smiled at Lucy leaning against the doorway to his stage office. “You’re back.”
She pushed off the doorjamb with a glamorous smile and sashayed across the room toward him. Her silk summer dress rippled with the movement, and he thought about how elegant she was in her high heels and how it wasn’t quite as sexy as Robyn’s athletic grace.
Damn.
He’d started doing that, and he wasn’t quite sure how to stop.
Comparing every woman to Robyn.
“I’m back.” Lucy sighed and settled her pert bottom on his desk in front of him. “And glad to be back.”
“Kept your room for you.”
“I noticed. Thank you.”
“How did the meetings go?”
“Okay, I guess. Nothing sparked my passion.”
“Maybe you should start screenwriting. Write something you want to star in.”
Her lips parted. “I, uh … I actually already have started writing. You think I can do it? That I’m capable?”
“I think you’re capable of anything you put your mind to.”
She gave him a tender smile and then glanced back toward the door. Beyond it, they could hear members talking and laughing together. “The castle is busy.”
“Summer approaches.”
“Of course.” She chuckled as she turned back to him. “I know busy is good for you, but I prefer it quiet.”
Something in the back of her eyes, a shadow, caught his attention. “You okay, Luce?”
If it was there, it abruptly disappeared. “I should be asking you that, Mr. Broody. Is everything okay?” Her expression hardened. “Nothing bad happened while I was gone, right?”
“No. It’s been quiet.”
“That’s good. How’s Mac, the family, Arro … Thane?”
Lachlan wasn’t stupid. He was aware of some attraction between his friend and brother. However, he knew Lucy. She wasn’t the settling-down type. Didn’t trust anyone long enough to do it. And for that reason, she’d stayed away from his brother. Lachlan couldn’t say he wasn’t thankful. Thane’s heart had already been broken by his wife’s sudden death. The last thing he needed was to become entangled with a charming but elusive American starlet with a mysterious past.
“Everyone is well.”
“And Robyn? Or is she the reason for the brooding?” she teased.
Lachlan exhaled heavily. If he admitted what he was feeling out loud, it might make the inner turmoil worse. But he wasn’t a stupid man, prone to bouts of self-denial. He understood his feelings, recognized them. He just didn’t know what to do with them.
Lucy leaned toward him. “Hey, are you okay?”
“Luce …” He shifted uncomfortably and then pushed out of the chair. Restless. He strode over to the tall, narrow window adjacent to his desk and stared out at the golf course and woodlands beyond.
“You know you can talk to me if something is bothering you.”
His pulse quickened. “Luce … remind me that I have no room in my life
