Walker Bride Page 7

  The air in the kitchen became thick and hot. “I hadn’t expected company,” she said easing against him as his fingers dug into the skin on her hips though the thin fabric of the yoga pants. “How much of it did you see?”

  She felt his thumb making a small circle on her hip bone, and it was sending wild signals to all parts of her body. Signals she wasn’t sure she could continue to ignore.

  “There were wings,” he said as he stepped in closer to her and her back pushed up against the kitchen counter. “Butterfly or angel?”

  He lowered his face so that their mouths were a breath apart. Pearl wrapped her arms around his neck as they hovered close.

  Her mouth had gone dry, but she managed, “Perhaps you should look for yourself.”

  Those must have been the words that snapped his control. Tyson’s mouth came down on hers with a fury, and she accepted. Their lips parted ways as their tongues fought to dance and their bodies pressed together.

  Pearl dropped the damn forks on the ground and pulled Tyson’s hat off, dropping it as well. She wanted to run her fingers through the short crop of hair he always kept hidden.

  His hands left her hips and skirted just under her T-shirt so that they were on her skin. She sucked in a breath with the kiss that consumed her.

  Pearl lifted a leg around Tyson’s hips, and he took the invitation to lift her to the counter where she wrapped both legs around him and pulled him in closer.

  Breath had to be fought for. Heat now came from both the stove and their bodies.

  She realized they’d left the pan cooking. “The eggs,” she managed as his kiss swallowed up her voice.

  Tyson pulled back. “Damn it.” He broke from her for a moment and removed the pan from the burner. The eggs were burnt.

  Just as quickly, he turned off the stove and moved back to her, gathering her up around him and carrying her away from the kitchen.

  She pressed her lips to the throbbing vein on his neck, and he moaned as he took her to the living room and deposited her on the couch with a thud.

  “Ow,” she groaned.

  “Sorry,” he said as he lowered himself down on her and she tangled herself around him again.

  Tyson didn’t know what was going to happen, but dear God, he just didn’t care. Every part of him had stiffened the moment he saw her in that thin T-shirt. He couldn’t be held responsible for this.

  This wasn’t just his masculine needs taking over. She was as fueled up as he was.

  They were mature adults. Something like this was bound to happen anyway, right? They’d been skirting around it for months at dinners and parties. After she’d felt him up while she measured him, it had only added fuel to the fire that had been simmering.

  She ran her hands over his chest, and he was sure he’d growled an inhuman sound. Then she bit his lip, and that only caused him to grind his body closer to her.

  With her hands flat against his chest, she pushed him back, but her sapphire blue eyes remained locked on his.

  He watched, with great appreciation, as she lifted the T-shirt off her body, exposing her pale, soft skin for him to feast on.

  His eyes moved directly to the tattoo she had on her rib cage.

  “Chinese?” His breath could hardly carry the words.

  She nodded. “Breath of life.”

  “Sexy,” he said as he ran his fingers over the ink and she arched beneath him.

  God, he’d never wanted anyone as much as he wanted her right that moment. He was so thankful his sister talked him into driving to town to speak to her.

  Talk to her. He wasn’t supposed to be doing this. There was supposed to be business going on.

  Pearl reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him back down atop of her. Business was going to have to wait. They were working on another kind of partnership.

  Chapter Ten

  It wasn’t Tyson’s style to act on impulse, but something about Pearl Walker had him forgetting all about that. If he were coherent enough, he’d be thinking that beneath him, half dressed, was his brother’s cousin. He’d be damning himself for letting a simple gesture escalate to this. He’d be fighting harder so that his sister didn’t get hurt in the crossfire.

  But there was no stopping him. Her fingers were working the snaps on his shirt and a moment later her hands were on his skin.

  God was going to strike him down—and damn, it would be worth it.

  Pearl’s chest heaved under his as she pushed away his shirt. She nipped at his lip, and he was sure the maddening pace of his heart meant it was going to explode.

  The rush of blood nearly deafened him. Then there was the steady knocking of his heart in his ears. No—that wasn’t his heart.

  Pearl pulled her lips from his. “Someone’s here.”

  He kept still. “Do we just wait for them to go away?”

  Her eyes fixed on his, and she nodded. But the knocking continued. Then he heard the one voice that ripped the moment from them.

  “Tyson, I see your car. I know you’re in there. What are you two doing? Open the door,” Lydia’s plea continued with more persistent knocking.

  In one fluid motion, they were both off the couch and frantically dressing.

  “Did you know she was coming over?” he asked.

  “No. Did you?”

  “No. She sent me. Why would she follow me?”

  “Why did she send you?”

  He realized they never had talked about his reason for being there. Lust seemed to have gotten in the way.

  “You need a partner.”

  “I have one,” she said quickly raking her fingers through her hair and tying it back up on the top of her head.

  “No, Lydia says you need another one. You need more money for the building.”

  “She should have told me that,” she whispered as she headed for the door.

  “I was here to tell you that.”

  “So what do you have to do with it?”

  “I’m your partner,” he managed before she pulled open the door and his sister stood there staring at both of them.

  “Oh, good. You’re both here. Are you burning something?” she asked as she stepped inside. “Anyway, did you talk? Are we cool?”

  Tyson ran his hand over his head and realized his hat was on the kitchen floor. Seriously, it had to be very obvious what they’d been doing.

  “We didn’t get down to the specifics quite yet. I didn’t get here too long ago.”

  Her eyes widened. “Oh, I thought you came straight here.”

  He winced and hoped she didn’t notice it. “I was just telling her how you said that you needed another partner.”

  Lydia smiled that energetic smile that could quickly become contagious.

  “Pearl, I thought it would be better if he talked to you about his partnership. We could use more funding, and he’s willing.”

  Tyson pursed his lips. He didn’t quite remember telling her he’d do it, but that was how his sister worked. She spun things to benefit her—and it usually worked.

  Pearl smiled, but it was obviously forced. “We hadn’t gotten to that quite yet.” She shifted him a glance then turned toward Lydia. “I ruined my breakfast when I answered the door. What do you say we all go out, and we can discuss this new partnership?” Her words were strained, but by Lydia’s reaction, she hadn’t noticed.

  “I’d love that. Oh, there’s a new brunch menu at Toddy’s. What do you say?”

  They both looked at Tyson as if he were the deciding party. “Fine.”

  “If you don’t mind, I’m going to head upstairs and take a very quick shower. I wasn’t quite ready to receive visitors this morning. I’ll only be a few minutes. Help yourself to coffee,” Pearl added as she headed for the stairs.

  When she’d disappeared, Tyson walked toward the kitchen, Lydia close in tow. He picked up his hat from the floor, and the two dropped forks. He tossed the forks in the sink and placed his hat on his head when Lydia hauled off and punched h
im in the arm.

  He wasn’t sure if it hurt or if he was simply shocked.

  “What in the hell was that for?”

  Her eyes were narrowly staring at him, and her lips were in a tight line. “What are you doing?”

  “I was going to get coffee.”

  “That’s not what I mean, and you know it.” She wound to hit him again, but this time, he moved out of her way.

  “You’re crazy.”

  “You’re making a move on Pearl.”

  “I am not,” he said, fully convinced that since she was the one that took her shirt off, she’d made the first move.

  “You can’t sleep with her.”

  “I didn’t.”

  “You’re thinking about doing it.”

  “I’m a man. Of course, I’d think about it.”

  He flinched when she reached out to touch his arm. “Tyson…”

  There was a tone—a damn maternal tone. He was a forty-two-year-old man. He should be able to carry on with anyone he chose.

  “Lydia, it’s not like that.”

  She pulled back and crossed her arms in front of her. “Really? That’s not how it looks.”

  What was he supposed to say to that? If she’d walked right in she’d have gotten one hell of a show.

  Tyson let out a long breath. “I like her. Okay? Fine, I’ve said it. I like her.”

  “I need this business to work.”

  “And it can’t work if I’m seeing her?”

  Her eyes widened. “I knew it.”

  He held his hands up in surrender. “Stop. You don’t know anything.”

  “Every time Mom gets personally involved with a business partner, something goes wrong. You’re going to mess this all up.”

  “Okay then, I don’t want anything to do with it.”

  “You have to. I need you to be part of this.”

  Tyson lifted off his cap and ran his hand over his hair. “This is very confusing to me,” he said as he adjusted the cap back low over his forehead. “I’ll tell you what. Find another partner. I like her.”

  “There is no one else. No one I trust enough.”

  He bit down hard, so hard his jaw popped. Family was more important than any amount of money or any degree of lust. He knew that. He abided by that. And right now it really sucked.

  Pulling his keys from his pocket, he leaned in and kissed his sister on the cheek. “Tell Pearl I’m sorry I won’t be joining you.”

  Tyson started for the door with Lydia following. “Where are you going?”

  “You made it very clear I can’t help you and have her. I think you’re wrong, but you two had this arrangement first. I’ll always choose you, Lydia. You’re my family, my blood, my sister.”

  Pearl walked down the stairs and straight to the kitchen to find Lydia standing there alone.

  “I heard the door.”

  Lydia wrinkled up her nose and closed her eyes tight before opening them and looking at Pearl. “Tyson left. I think I upset him.”

  Trying to make it seem as if it didn’t matter, she simply nodded. “Okay, then just you and I for brunch?”

  “You’re not mad?”

  “Mad that you pissed off your brother? No, should I be?” She gathered her purse off the kitchen table. “Do you want to drive or shall I?”

  Lydia studied her for a moment. “You can drive. We can head over to the new building and look at it too. Sometimes just looking at it makes my day better.”

  “That sounds like a plan.”

  Pearl and Lydia walked to the front door, and Pearl locked it behind them.

  What had happened while she was in the shower, she wondered. Perhaps it was good that Lydia arrived when she had. Pearl’s family was temperamental enough. Did she really need a man in her life that was the same? After all, if he’d walked out because of some little disagreement with his sister, he wasn’t too open to others then.

  All the better.

  Right now her focus needed to be on her business. This venture with Lydia had to work out, or Pearl could lose everything, and she wasn’t willing to risk that, not even over a man that made her melt into a pile of goo as Tyson Morgan did.

  Chapter Eleven

  Brunch was excellent. Lydia filled the entire morning with talk of exciting plans for their business. She’d been in contact with a woman named Gia Gallo, who owned a small store not far from Pearl’s bridal store.

  “She’s this tiny Italian woman who sells gifts from Italy. She remembered seeing Bethany in her store before when I mentioned that I knew her.”

  Pearl lifted a bite of eggs to her lips. “You were name dropping?”

  “Seriously, when you can, you do.”

  Pearl wasn’t sure Bethany would like that much, but she wasn’t going to say anything. Lydia’s hands flew about as she told her that Gia had agreed to open her location in their building.

  “So not a wedding mecca anymore?” Pearl asked.

  “She has beautiful lace from Venice. Something old and blue?”

  “That’s all?”

  Lydia laughed. “No. That’s not all. She comes with rent.”

  Pearl had to look at it, in the same way, Lydia did. It was a business. They were doing this to make money and a lot of it.

  However, her mind wasn’t focused on the business at hand at all. It was wandering off to Tyson and wondering why he’d left without another word.

  She continued to listen to Lydia talk about her plans all the while wondering if Tyson would show up on her front stop for a third time tomorrow.

  ~*~

  Lydia’s truck pulled up the drive toward the Walker’s barn. Right on time, Tyson thought as he pulled a beer from the cooler he had on the tailgate of his truck.

  He watched as his sister parked and climbed out of her truck, an enormous smile on her face.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked as she walked toward him.

  “Waiting for you.” He held out the beer to her, and she took it. “Still can’t convince you to to keep your horse in our barn?”

  She laughed as she twisted the cap off the bottle. “He likes it here better.”

  At that moment, Tyson couldn’t blame the horse, or his sister, for spending all their time there. He found he tended to like it better too.

  Tyson reached into the pocket of his shirt and handed his sister the folded piece of paper he’d tucked there. “This is for you.”

  Lydia took it from him and opened it slowly. He watched her eyes widen and tears quickly well up in them. “Tyson, this is a lot of money,” she said looking back down at the check he’d handed her.

  “Is it enough?”

  “It’s more than enough. We didn’t need…”

  “Take it. I believe in what you’re building. I think it will do well for you. Susan’s already been talking about the kitchen she’ll be able to cater out of.”

  Lydia tucked the check into her pocket and held her bottle up to his. “To partnership,” she said

  He tapped his bottle to her. “Silent partnerships.”

  Tyson lifted his bottle to his lips, but Lydia lowered hers. “I’m sorry about everything I said to you today about Pearl. I had no right to…”

  “You were right. We’re partners now. All three of us. There can be no getting involved with partners.”

  She took a breath to speak again, but Susan was running up the road toward them waving. Tyson chuckled. “She’s been waiting for you. Some wedding planning something. It’s way out of my league.”

  Lydia moved in and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you for this. You won’t regret it,” she said as she turned and walked toward Susan.

  He took a pull from his beer. He’d never regret giving her his money, even down to his last penny. But he wasn’t so sure about the rest of it. Hormones and a beautiful woman might have put him in the position he’d found himself in that morning. He thought about that position—her beneath him, skin to skin. Taking another pull from his beer, he let the heat
of it settle in his belly. But there was more.

  He tipped his head back and let the small breeze drift over him. There was something more than just heat and attraction between him and Pearl, he thought.

  For the past few months, since Tyson and Eric had been bonding as brothers, Tyson had been bonding with all members of the Walker family and Pearl, of course, had caught his eye.

  Oh, he’d played it cool. He’d taken every dinner invitation extended his way—as a group. When Eric and Susan had moved back into the house and hosted a party, he’d lurked in corners all night and stole moments of conversation with Pearl here and there. And hadn’t she seemed always to have been here and there—near him?

  He drank from the bottle again.

  It had been building. Who could blame them for what had happened?

  Tyson let out a long ragged breath as he set the empty bottle in the bed of the truck, turned, and pushed the tailgate back up. Whatever there might have been between them, it was over before it started. They were business partners now and just as Lydia had said, there was no room in business for—well, whatever it might have been.

  He walked around the truck and pulled open the door. It was time to head home and dive back into life as he knew it. Susan and Eric’s wedding was only two weeks away. He supposed he’d see her then. Things would have died down between them by then and everything would be normal again. What a shame, he thought as he started the engine and gripped the steering wheel. He never did get to see that tattoo on her back.

  ~*~

  The alarm on the nightstand to her right, buzzed and rattled. Pearl turned and slapped her hand down over the top of it just as her cell phone buzzed next to it.

  She fumbled for the phone and turned off the secondary alarm.

  It was stupid she thought, now laying there staring at the ceiling in the twilight. It was too damn early to be up on a Monday morning, but she wasn’t going to chance even not being stunning, in case Tyson Morgan paid her a visit.

  Her heart rattled in her chest and she closed her eyes. Her mind drifted to yesterday morning when she was under him, their bodies pressed together. That wouldn’t be a horrible way to start today either, she thought as she swung her legs over the edge of the bed and stood up.