Inside, with the door shut behind her, the young woman wrapped her arms around herself and licked her bottom lip in what seemed a nervous gesture. “I, um, know you weren’t expecting me. It was sort of an—an impulse.”
“Oh?”
“Yes. I jumped in my car and before long I was almost here. Then it started pouring rain and now…” Her voice drifted off and she shrugged, her gaze going to her feet. “And now I’m dripping all over this beautiful carpet.”
She was right. She was as wet as his bathtub fantasy, and probably cold, too. He gestured up the stairs toward the great room and its crackling fire. “Let’s get you warmed up and dried off.”
He tried to be a gentleman and keep his gaze above her neck as she preceded him into the other room but, hell, he knew he was no gentleman. So he confirmed what he’d already suspected by running his gaze from her nape to her heels. She was just his type.
Except she was his brother’s fiancée. Or was she? It could still be a trick…
Stopping in front of the roaring fire, she faced him again. Another rush of words spilled out, giving him the idea that she chattered when she was anxious. “My mother would kill me if she knew I came up here. ‘Lauren,’ she’d say in that disapproving tone of hers, ‘is this another one of your Bad Ideas?’ That’s just how she says it, with capitals. Capital B, Bad. Capital I, Ideas. ‘Another one of Lauren’s Bad Ideas.’ ” A nervous laugh escaped before her hands came up to try to suppress it.
Lauren. Her name was Lauren. It didn’t ring any bells, but Luke didn’t keep tabs on Matt’s social life. Maybe he should, if his brother was really going around snatching up just the sort of women that Luke liked. For God’s sake, Matt shouldn’t be allowed to have everything Luke wanted.
She shivered and he spotted a wool throw draped over a nearby chair. He grabbed for it then brought it to her. As she took it from his hand, she looked up at him, all big, blue eyes. Her pink tongue darted out to wet that pouty lower lip.
“You’ve got to be wondering why I’m here, Matthias.”
“I’m not—” Matthias. But something made him hold that last word back. He ran his hand through his hair, buying himself some time. “I guess I am a little surprised to see you.”
She gave another small laugh and then turned toward the fire. “This whole engagement thing has been a little surprising, don’t you agree?”
“Yeah.” He could be honest about that, anyway. “I suppose so.”
She continued to study the fire. “I mean, we don’t know each other that well, right? You’ve worked with my father and Conover Industries for years, of course…”
Hell, Luke thought. She was Conover’s kid. Ralph Conover’s daughter. Ralph Conover, who’d been the first to cozy up to Matt after he’d cheated Luke out of his fair chance to win the Barton family holdings.
“…but there’s the fact that we haven’t talked that much or ever really been…um, alone together.”
What? Luke stared at the back of her head and the gold curls that were starting to spring up there. His brother was engaged to marry a woman he’d never been alone with? Luke had a guess to what that was code for and, if he was right, it meant Matt hadn’t suddenly developed a yen for cute curvy blondes.
Instead, it meant Matt had developed a yen to more tightly cement his relationship with Conover Industries. Luke’s mind raced ahead as he imagined all the implications this could have for Eagle Wireless, his own smaller company. With Conover Industries and Barton Limited “married,” Eagle could find its own perch in the wireless world very precarious.
God. Damn. It.
Lauren turned toward him again, clutching the throw at her chest. “You haven’t said what you think about that, Matthias.”
Because Luke hadn’t had enough time to think it through completely. He cleared his throat. “I suppose some people would find it a bit odd that we haven’t…” Since he didn’t know precisely what Matt and Lauren had or hadn’t, he let the sentence hang.
“Touched?” she conveniently supplied. “Even kissed, really?” Then color reddened her cheeks. “And we certainly haven’t made love.”
Staring into her big, blue eyes, suddenly Luke could picture—in vivid detail—doing just that very thing with her. He saw it on his mind’s high-def big screen, the two of them making love in that big bathtub upstairs, Lauren’s soft, wet thighs wrapped around his hips. Or on that quilt-covered bed, her blond curls spread out against the pillowcase.
Her eyes darkened and he heard a tiny gasp as her breath suddenly caught. Was she reading his thoughts?
Or did she feel that same sharp tug of attraction that he did?
Could she possibly share the images dealing out like X-rated playing cards in his mind?
Blond, curvy Lauren, and Luke, the mean twin.
The cheated twin.
He lifted his hand and trailed one knuckle along the downy softness of her cheek, wondering if she would taste as sweet as she looked. His fingertip touched the center of her bottom lip and he saw her eyes widen.
Oh, yeah, the message in them made it clear that she felt the attraction, too. And the bit of confusion he could read as well told him she hadn’t felt it for Matt.
Luke ran his thumb over her bottom lip this time, moving inside just a little so that he grazed the damp inner surface. She stood frozen before him, trapped between the fire and his touch. In the sudden heavy silence of the room he could hear the light, fast pants of her breath. Color ran high on her cheeks.
God, she was beautiful.
And we certainly haven’t made love.
She’d said that, and that’s where Luke’s brother had slipped up. If she were Luke’s, he wouldn’t have wasted any time before taking their engagement—even one motivated by business reasons—to a more serious level.
Okay, be honest. He wouldn’t have been able to stop himself.
The pulse along her throat was racing, begging him to touch it with his mouth. And now that her hair was starting to dry, he could smell her shampoo, something flowery, but not cloying. It was a fresh smell and he wanted to rub himself against it. He wanted to smell her on his own skin.
Really, it came down to one very simple thing. He wanted his brother’s bride-to-be.
“M-Matthias?” she whispered.
Luke didn’t flinch at the wrong name. Instead, he tucked a damp curl behind her ear. At the sight of the goose bumps that raced down her neck in response, he smiled, careful to keep the wolfishness out of it.
But he felt wolfish.
Smug, satisfied and ready to eat Goldilocks up in one big bite.
And then he’d want to do it again, this time taking his time to savor every taste.
His hand lingered near her shell of an ear. He’d mixed up his fairy tales, hadn’t he? The wolf was Little Red Ridinghood’s nemesis, wasn’t he? But no matter. Lauren was most certainly Goldilocks and Luke hadn’t felt this predatory in a long, long while.
Catching her gaze with his, he grazed his thumb along her velvety cheek.
She released her grip on the wool throw. It fell at her feet as she circled his wrist to pull his hand away from her face. “What do you think you’re doing?”
Goldilocks wasn’t quite so ready to test out feather mattresses as he’d thought. But that was okay. He needed some time to process all this himself. “Nothing you don’t want,” he reassured