Thorn's Challenge. Brenda Jackson

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СКАЧАТЬ you any amount of money that he is,” Storm said grinning. “Thorn can do anything he wants to do, including taming Tara.”

      “Don’t hold your breath for that to happen,” Chase said chuckling. “Have you ever really noticed the two of them around each other? They’re both stubborn and strong-willed. I say he can’t hang.”

      “Okay you guys, pull back,” Storm said, slowly stroking his chin. “Thorn’s a smart man who plans his strategies well. Hell, look how he has trained for those races he’s won. If he goes after Tara with the same determination, then there won’t be anything to it. Therefore, I say taming Tara will be a piece of cake for Thorn.”

      “No, it won’t,” Chase said chuckling. “In fact, I’ll be willing to bet a case of Jack Daniels that it won’t.”

      “And I bet you a new set of tools that it won’t be, too,” Stone added shaking his head with a grin.

      “And I bet you a day’s wage and work for no pay in your restaurant as a waiter that it will, Chase. And I also bet you that same set of tools that it will, Stone. Thorn can handle any challenge he faces,” Storm said, with confidence in his voice as he gathered up everyone’s cards to start a new game.

      Thorn had been sitting back listening to his brothers make their bets. He looked over at Dare who just shrugged his shoulders. “Making those kinds of bets aren’t legal, and since as a sheriff I’m duty-bound to uphold the law, I’ll pass,” he said jokingly. “However, if I were a betting man, I’d say you could pull it off, but it wouldn’t be as easy as Storm thinks. Calendar or no calendar, Tara’s not going to let you just waltz in and sweep her off her feet. You’ll have to set yourself up on a mission,” he said, grinning, as he remembered the tactic he’d used to win the heart of the woman he’d loved. “Then you can’t play fair,” he added, thinking of the technique his brother-in-law, Prince Jamal Ari Yasir, had used to woo their baby sister, Delaney.

      Thorn nodded. Set myself up on a mission and then play unfair. He could handle that. He’d put his plans into action later tonight when everyone left. Tara wouldn’t know what had hit her until it was too late.

      Way too late.

      Three

      Tara’s heart, beating twice as fast as it should have, slammed against her rib cage when, after the card game was over, it became obvious that, unlike his brothers, Thorn had no intentions of leaving.

      She closed the door and turned to him. The air in the room suddenly seemed charged. “Aren’t you leaving?” she asked, as she leaned against the closed door.

      “No. I think we need to talk.”

      Tara inhaled deeply, wondering what he thought they needed to discuss. While upstairs in her bedroom she had managed to get her thoughts and her aroused senses under control after convincing herself that her earlier reaction to Thorn had been expected. After all, from the first she had been physically attracted to him and memories of the kiss they had shared a few months back hadn’t helped matters. Then there was the way he always looked at her with that penetrating gaze of his. After thinking things through logically, she felt confident that the next time he looked at her as if he would love to gobble her up in one scrumptious bite, things would be different. She would be more in control of the situation as well as her senses.

      “What do you want to talk about?” she asked, wondering if Chase had mentioned anything to him about the charity calendar.

      He met her gaze. “About us.”

      She lifted an arched brow. There was no “us” and decided to tell him so. “There’s no us, Thorn. In fact I’ve always gotten the distinct impression that you don’t even like me.”

      Boy, was she wrong, Thorn thought. If anything he liked her too damn much. There were several emotions he’d always felt toward Tara Matthews from the first and dislike hadn’t been one of them.

      He took a couple of steps forward, bringing him right in front of her. “I’ve never disliked you, Tara.”

      She swallowed deeply against the timbre in his voice and the look of melting steel in his eyes. That’s the same thing his brothers had claimed when she’d told them how she felt last year. They had argued that Thorn was just a moody person and told her not to take it personally. But a part of her had taken it personally.

      “My brothers think you’re my challenge,” he added, not taking his eyes off her.

      “Why would they think that?” she asked. She had wondered about it the first time the brothers had mentioned that very same thing to her. But none of them had given her any further explanation.

      “Because they don’t think I can handle you.”

      She frowned. “Handle me? In what way?”

      His gaze ran provocatively down her full length before coming back to meet hers. “Evidently not the way I originally thought,” he said, thinking just how much he had underestimated his brothers’ cleverness. They had set him up from the first.

      “Of the five of us, I’m the one who’d always had a better handle on Laney than anyone, so I assumed they meant that I couldn’t handle you because you were as headstrong, willful and unmanageable as she could be at times. And although you seem to have those traits, too, I now believe they meant you were my challenge for a totally different reason. I think they meant that I couldn’t handle you as a woman. There’s a big difference in the two.”

      They gazed at each other for a long, intense moment and then she asked. “And what’s the difference?” She knew she might be asking for trouble, but at the moment she didn’t care.

      The room crackled and popped with what she now recognized as sexual tension and physical attraction. It hadn’t been dislike the two of them had been battling since they’d met. It had been primal animal lust of the strongest kind.

      He took another step closer. “If I were to group you in the same category as Laney, I’d have no choice but to think of you with brotherly affections since I’m almost eight years older than you. But if I were to forget about the age thing and place you in the same category as I do any other woman, then that would make you available.”

      Tara frowned. “Available?”

      “Yes, available for me.”

      Tara swallowed again and ran her sweaty palms down over her slender waist to settle on her hips. She wondered what his reaction would be if he knew that in all her twenty-seven years she had never been available for any man. Although she and Derrick had dated for a number of years, they had never slept together, which meant she was probably the oldest living virgin in the state of Georgia. But that certainly didn’t make her open game and she resented any man thinking she was his for the taking. Derrick had taught her a lesson and she had no desire to forget it any time soon. “Sorry to burst your bubble, but I’m not available for any man, Thorn.”

      Thorn continued to stare at her. Yes, she was definitely his challenge, and he liked challenges. “I think differently,” he finally said.

      Tara blinked once, then twice when she actually saw the corners of Thorn’s lips move and his mouth suddenly creased into a smile. It was definitely a rare Kodak moment and she would have given anything to capture it on film. He had the most irresistibly, devastating smile she had ever seen. It contained СКАЧАТЬ