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“Is that wise?” she asked.
“I’m not going to seduce you in a public place,” he said. “And I don’t think Miss Belle is going to go running to our parents to tell on us.”
He followed her to the door, then pulled it open for her, placing his hand on the small of her back as she stepped inside. It was a simple gesture, but Caley realized that Jake was taking any opportunity offered to touch her.
The owner of the shop, Miss Belle, greeted them both, then drew Caley along to the fitting rooms in the back. She stopped and turned to Jake, motioning to him. “Are you coming, too?”
“Oh, no,” Caley said. “He’s not my—well, he’s just a— I don’t think he’d be interested.”
“I’ll come,” Jake said, sending Caley a playful grin. “I’m very interested.”
Caley took the dress into the fitting room and slipped out of her clothes. Though the dress didn’t look like much on the hanger, when she put it on it was another story. The silky fabric clung to every curve of her body; the modest neckline plunged to a deep V in the back; the long sleeves fitted to her arms. She slipped out of her bra and then turned to examine the rear view. Emma had gotten the sizing perfect and had chosen a dress that would look stunning for an evening wedding.
Caley pulled open the fitting room door and stepped out. Jake had been sitting on a bench and the moment he saw her, he quickly stood, a tiny gasp slipping from his lips.
“Wow,” he murmured. “That’s some dress.”
Caley smoothed her hands over her hips as she turned. “It is nice, isn’t it?”
“Are you wearing underwear?”
She gave him a stern look. “It’s too clingy.”
“So, you’re not going to wear underwear. Where the hell am I supposed to put my hands when we dance?” he asked. “This is going to be a problem.”
“Are we going to dance?”
“You’re the maid of honor and I’m the best man. I think it’s a rule than we take at least one turn around the floor.”
Miss Belle hurried up and studied Caley critically. “We’ll bring the sleeves up a bit. I’d assume you plan to go…without?” She pointed to Caley’s chest.
“Do I have a choice?” Caley asked.
“Well, we have the stick-ons.”
“Can we see some of those?” Jake asked, a worried expression on his face.
Caley shook her head. “This will be fine.”
Miss Belle held out a shoebox. “Try the shoes so I can check the hem.”
Caley grabbed a shoe from the box and tried to put it on, but couldn’t keep her balance in the long dress. Jake slipped his hands around her waist and steadied her as she put on the dyed-to-match pumps.
“Perfect,” the shopkeeper said. “I’ll be right back.” Miss Belle hurried off to answer the phone, leaving Jake and Caley alone at the rear of the shop.
“Perfect,” Jake repeated.
“Stop saying things like that to me,” she murmured. “Sometimes I feel like you’re playing with me.”
He shook his head. “It’s how we are, Caley. It’s how we’ve always been.”
She turned and walked back to the fitting room, and Jake followed close on her heels. When she stepped inside, Caley tried to close the door behind her, but Jake slipped inside, then leaned back against the door.
“In all the time that I’ve known you, have I ever lied to you?” Jake asked.
Caley stared at her fingernails. Until that night of her eighteenth birthday, Jake had been the one person she knew she could count on for unadulterated honesty. “I don’t think so.”
“Who told you to take the toilet paper out of your bra the night of the Fourth of July dance at the park? Who told you you looked like a giraffe when you started wearing those platform shoes? Who told you not to go out with Jeff Winslow because all he wanted to do was feel you up?”
“You did,” Caley said. “But I went out with Jeff Winslow anyway. Of course, he did try to feel me up.”
“See?”
“Just because you never lie to me doesn’t mean that you don’t have the capacity to hurt me.”
He took a step toward her, then reached out and touched her cheek. “Does that hurt?”
Caley drew a shaky breath. It felt so good to have him touch her, his fingertips leaving a warm imprint on her skin. She shook her head. This time she wouldn’t make it so easy for him. This time she’d resist him.
Jake took another step closer and kissed her softly on the forehead. “How about that? Tell me it feels good.”
She swallowed hard, then sighed deeply as he kissed her temple. Did she have the strength? And was it wise to try and resist? It really didn’t seem worth the effort. “Yes,” she said. “It feels good.”
He hooked his finger beneath her chin and tipped her gaze up to meet his. And then he kissed her, his tongue teasing at her lips before gently invading her mouth. But it wasn’t like the kiss in the truck. This kiss was slow and sensuous, meant to melt all her resolve. Caley wrapped her arms around his neck and surrendered, enjoying the rush of heat that coursed through her body.
His hands slid down her waist to her hips, then circled to smooth over her back, left bare by the cut of the dress. Caley’s mind whirled as she tried to remember every detail of the kiss, forcing herself not to slip into some hazy state of desire. But in the end, it was impossible to maintain her composure. Jake seemed determined to prove that he was quite possibly the best kisser in the entire world.
When his hand moved to her breast, she moaned softly. He grazed his thumb across her nipple, bringing it to a hard peak, sending a wild wave of pleasure coursing through her. When he finally drew back, Caley was dizzy with excitement. Her breath was coming in quick gasps and her pulse was pounding in her head.
“If that ever stops feeling good, you just let me know and I’ll stop,” Jake whispered. He kissed the tip of her nose, then walked out of the fitting room, closing the door behind him.
Caley stumbled back until she leaned against the mirrored wall for support. Her trembling fingers touched her lips and she felt a smile growing there. After all these years, it was hard to believe that all her fantasies about Jake might just come true.
There was something powerful pulsing between them and it didn’t look like either one of them had the capacity—or the will—to stop it. And that made it all the more exciting—and dangerous.
“THE BURTBERT SNOW BOWL begins in fifteen minutes!” Brett called.
Jake and Sam looked over their shoulders at their brother and gave him a wave. “We’ll be ready,” Jake shouted.
They sat on the stairs that, in the summer, led down to the dock and the beach they shared with the Lamberts. The lake was frozen over and covered with snow, but Teddy Lambert had cleared an area big enough for skating or a pick-up hockey game.
Jake stretched his legs out in front of him and watched the last of the snowflakes drift lazily through the air. The storm was over and everything was covered with a sparkly powder. “So you’re getting married.”
Sam smiled as he traced a pattern in the snow with a stick. “That’s what I hear.”
“I gotta tell you, Sam, I was surprised when I heard you were engaged to Emma. But then when I heard you were getting married so quickly, I was kinda shocked. A month and a half is a pretty short engagement, don’t you think?”
“Maybe.”
“How much time have you two really spent together?”
Sam shrugged. “Three summers, here at the lake house. And then I visited her in Boston over Thanksgiving and we got together during Christmas break in Chicago and we just decided we didn’t want to be apart anymore.”
“Why not live together then?” Jake asked. “Give yourself some more time.”
“Because Emma wants to get married,” Sam said.
“What do you want?”
“Why so many questions?” Sam asked, a hint of irritation creeping into his voice.
“That’s my job as your best man. To be sure you’re making the best choices.”
“I want what Emma wants. I want to make her happy,” Sam said.
Jake hadn’t been thrilled when he heard about his little brother’s plans to get married, but he chalked that up to surprise. But now that he had a chance to spend some time with Sam and talk to him, Jake realized that twenty-one was far too young to take such a giant step.
He’d spent the last ten years working his way through a variety of females, trying to figure out what made them tick, enjoying the full spectrum of pleasures in their beds. But it was only in the past year that he’d really come to understand what he needed in a relationship and the kind of woman he wanted to spend his life with. Sam hadn’t even started on that journey and already he was tying himself down. How could anyone know they were in love at that age? Neither Sam nor Emma had experienced anything of the world yet.
“You’re not even finished with college,” Jake murmured.
“Emma graduates in the spring and she’s just got a few independent study courses, so she’ll be spending more time in Chicago. I’ll finish at Northwestern at Christmas next year and then I’m thinking about law school. If we get married, we can start planning our lives together—and she can support me while I’m getting my law degree.”
“You can do all that without getting married,” Jake said.
Sam groaned, then leaned back on his elbows, staring out at the wide landscape of the lake. “Maybe I should have asked Brett to be my best man. Or Emma’s brother Teddy.”
“Marriage is a big step, Sam. You have to get married for the right reasons.”
“What reasons would those be?”
“Because you can’t imagine living without her. Because every time you look at her, you have to touch her, just to make sure she’s real and she’s yours. Because she’s the first thing you think about in the morning when you get up and the last thing you think about before you go to sleep.”
Jake drew a deep breath. This was the sum total of his knowledge about living happily ever after. It was what he’d decided it would take to tempt him into settling down for the rest of his life. And oddly enough, Caley seemed to meet all those requirements.
A shiver skittered down his spine. Women were supposed to confuse lust and love, not men. Still, Jake couldn’t ignore his feelings. Things weren’t the same as when they were kids. There was something deeper…something stronger drawing them together now.
He glanced over at Sam. “I’d hate to think you’re doing this to please Mrs. Lambert and our mother. All that Burtbert shit is really silly. We can still be one big family, even if we aren’t technically related.”
“It’s not about that,” Sam said.
“What is it, then?”
“We just want to start our lives together.”
“I know it seems like you’ll never get enough of her, but that kind of desire doesn’t last. It’s not all about sex,” Jake said. “There has to be something more.”
“Oh, we haven’t had sex,” Sam said. “Emma wanted to wait until we got married.”
Jake gasped. “You haven’t— I mean, not even a little?”
“Well, a little. But not the whole way.”
Jake groaned and buried his face in his hands. “How can you possibly make a decision about the rest of your life when you don’t even know if you’re compatible in the bedroom?”
“Lots of people wait,” he said. “And it’s not like I haven’t done it. And Emma has, too. We just haven’t done it together.”
“Well, maybe you should,” Jake said. “Just to make sure.” Hell, he’d never even tried to regulate his own desires for women—and since Caley had arrived back in town, Jake didn’t even feel in control of his libido. How did a guy just put those feelings on the back burner? Wasn’t it scientifically proven that abstaining wasn’t good for the male body?
He took a deep breath. “Why not just wait a little longer? It couldn’t hurt.”
“I love her,” Sam said. “And she loves me.”
“I love Emma, too,” Jake said. “And Caley and Teddy and Adam and Evan. The Lamberts are like our family.” Jake sighed softly, searching for another argument that made sense. Who was he to try to explain what went on between a man and a woman? Hell, he couldn’t begin to fathom his obsessive attraction to Caley. All he knew was that it felt good when he was with her, so good that he never wanted to let her go.
He pushed to his feet and offered his little brother a hand. “Come on. If I know Brett, he’s going to want to strategize before we get the game going. The last time we played football with the Lamberts, they beat us bad. They’ve got Evan’s wife now and she’s gone through natural childbirth three times. She’s no wuss.”
“And Caley plays like a guy,” Sam said.
“Don’t worry about Caley, I can handle her. You just take care of Emma.”
Sam grinned. “Until we’re married, she’s still a Lambert. And the enemy.”
They walked up to the lawn, now covered in a foot of powdery snow. After a few minutes, all the players were congregated at the center of the field. When Jake saw Caley, he gave her a wave and she returned his greeting with a hesitant smile. She looked so cute bundled up against the cold that it didn’t take more than a moment for his mind to begin a fantasy of slowly peeling off all those layers of clothes. Jake drew a sharp breath and closed his eyes. Now was not the time to think about getting naked with Caley!
Once everyone was gathered, Brett raised his hand. “Welcome to the first, and possibly only, Burtbert Snow Bowl. In the tradition of our annual summer Toilet Bowl football game, we have decided to bring back the time-honored trophy.” He pulled a toilet plunger from behind his back and everyone laughed and clapped, surprised to see the trophy after so long.
“The last time this was awarded was eleven years ago last summer and, according to the inscription, it was won by the Lamberts.”
“On a touchdown run by Caley,” Jake said. He looked at her. “Remember? Adam threw you the ball and you just took off down the field. No one could catch you.”
She gave him an odd look. “I don’t remember that.”
Jake shrugged. “I do. It was a great play.”
He slowly walked around the perimeter of the crowd as Brett went over the rules, stopping when he stood behind Caley. His gaze fixed on Sam and Emma. “They look happy,” he murmured. “What do you think?”
Caley glanced over her shoulder at him. “Yes,” she replied.
Brett pointed to the list of winners, written on the wooden handle with a marker. “Our captains today will be Sam and Emma. By my count, we’ve got even teams with Evan’s wife, Marianne, and Ann’s husband, John, so no one has to sit out.”
Teddy disagreed. “We have three guys and three girls and you’ve got four guys and two girls. You call that even?”
“John just had knee surgery last year,” Brett said. “And Marianne played college soccer. I’d say it’s even.”
The coin was flipped and the game began. Brett played quarterback for the Burton team and when he went out for a long pass to Ann, Caley stepped out in front of her and snagged an interception.
She started off down the sideline and Jake took off after her, making up the distance between them in a few seconds. He grabbed Caley around the waist and picked her up off her feet, then fell into the snow near the goal line, taking the impact with his body.
