The Playboy Takes a Wife. Crystal Green

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СКАЧАТЬ fidgeted, her skin too aware, too flushed with thoughts she shouldn’t be having.

      The forbidden nature of them kicked her brain into high gear; all the impulsive reasons she’d moved from the only home she’d known in the States to come down to the resort area where her parents had met.

      “When my grandparents passed away, I realized what I needed to do with my life,” she said, voice thick with emotion. She missed them so much, wanted them back so badly. “They raised me in San Diego, but, after they died, staying there didn’t appeal to me.” She swallowed, tacking on a harmless falsehood just to cover the reminder of why she was really in Mexico. “Not when I realized there was so much to be done down here.”

      “Your grandparents raised you?”

      Alicia flinched, crossed her arms over her chest. “My mom and dad…passed out of my life. A long time ago.”

      Another adjustment to the truth.

      Lucas Chandler stood away from the wall, so devastatingly handsome, so confusing to her. Couldn’t her body just ignore those dimples, that inviting gaze?

      He ambled closer, a growing hunger in his eyes, his interest in her so obvious that it almost took her breath away.

      Closer…mere inches away.

      Inhaling his scent, she got dizzy. Her head filled with scenarios, hints of fantasies—

      Skittish, she took a casual yet significant step away.

      She didn’t want to offend him by assuming he was hitting on her, but she was trying to be a careful girl. Especially lately, after her view of life had been so blasted apart by what her grandfather had told her as he lay dying.

      From a few feet away, she heard Lucas chuckle. When she chanced a look at him, she saw a vein in his neck pulsing.

      Stop him from getting close again. “I think it’s time to go inside now. The children are waiting and—”

      “We shouldn’t be standing out here by ourselves.” His grin wasn’t amused so much as wry. “I know. One photo with me and there goes your reputation. You’re obviously held in some esteem around here, and we don’t want to ruin that.”

      “That’s not what I meant.”

      But he was right. The last thing she needed was this man standing only a few tension-fraught feet away from her, his skin giving off heat and the smell of musk and soap. She’d been around enough to know his type; he could make a girl think that whatever trouble they could get into was right.

      Back when she was sixteen, she’d learned this well. Swayed by an older crowd—one her grandparents didn’t know about—she’d given in to peer pressure on a summer night with a boy named Felipe.

      And she’d liked it. So much. Too much.

      Afterward, she’d been dogged by all the moral lessons she’d learned from church and her grandparents; she’d even wondered what was wrong with her that she’d enjoyed it so much.

      Needing some kind of stabilizer, Alicia had made a vow to wait for intimacy again until marriage. Then she could be a good wife, and sex would be respectable with her husband.

      She was no angel—not even close. But now, more than ever, she tried her best to be.

      There was a cryptic flicker in Lucas’s eyes. It seemed to make him change his mind about being so close to her, because he grinned tightly and nodded while he turned away. Like the gentleman she’d seen all day, he held open the door for her to enter the building, his gaze suddenly a million light-years distant.

      The sound of happy chatter greeted her, and she was drawn to it—charity, a cleansing of the soul.

      But as she passed by Lucas Chandler, she met his gaze, seeing that it was anything but removed. Seeing that it was so filled with a lingering admiration for her that she couldn’t help picking up her pace and fleeing.

      An hour later, most of the boys had retired to their rooms, signaling the end of the reception. The reporters had been ushered away by David long ago, when the food had become less than a novelty and they’d gotten itchy to take pictures again.

      Thank God for their absence, because Lucas was done with business for today. Come to think of it, he’d actually lucked out by avoiding the press in his more private moments. He’d all but lost his head out there with Alicia, almost forgetting what a picture alone with him would’ve cost her.

      He really hadn’t been thinking clearly, not with the way his body had been reacting to hers, growing more responsive with every step he’d taken toward her. And he was used to getting what he wanted from women too easily not to be miffed by her reluctance.

      Still, he’d respected her refusal to turn their alone time into something more, had seen the warmth in her eyes when she’d talked about being with the kids. Lord knew Lucas didn’t hang out with many people who had ambitions beyond planning the next party or acquiring the next “big thing” that would make them a Donald Trump overnight. She was refreshing, so why change her into one of his social casualties?

      Especially since he was supposed to be turning over that new leaf.

      As David summoned the limo and took a phone call outside, the last of the orphans said goodbye to Lucas. Gabriel, the kid who’d been so friendly at the beginning of the day, had seemed oddly shy at the reception, adhering to Alicia—who’d kept her distance from across the room—the entire time.

      But, now that the excitement had died down, the dervish Gabriel was back, zipping over to Lucas with the verve of a tightly packed hurricane. He was carrying the jacket Alicia had been wearing.

      “Hi,” he said, giving the material to Lucas and shuffling from foot to foot.

      Alicia followed him over, and Lucas perked up even more.

      “He’s practicing English on you,” she said, acting as if he hadn’t invaded her personal bubble earlier.

      Maybe her polite cheer would force Lucas to be a good boy around her.

      “Well, then…” He hunkered down to eye level with Gabriel. “Hi, back to you, too.”

      That was the boy’s cue. Gabriel started to rattle off a breathless description of all the food he’d eaten today, and Lucas listened attentively. Somewhere in back of him, an enterprising reporter clicked away with a camera. Obviously, at least one of them hadn’t gone home, after all.

      Photo op. Lucas had stumbled into a nice one, hadn’t he?

      It wasn’t until Gabriel stopped chatting and started watching him with those big dark eyes that Lucas realized his throat was stinging with an emotion he couldn’t identify.

      What the hell?

      Brushing it off, he chalked it up to seeing evidence of the good those English lessons had done.

      He abruptly stood, averting his face, ignoring thoughts of all the numb days that had been linking his existence together.

      His sight settled on his brother, who was lounging by the doorway, tucking his phone into a suit СКАЧАТЬ