Luring Lucy Read Online Free Page A

around toward him and shouted, “Yes and
yes
!”
    The look on her face was haunted. Hungry.
    â€œLucy—” He couldn’t tell her yet what was in his heart. He had to get her past the emotional restrictions of being with a man who had been her husband’s best friend. He knew Lucy; she’d automatically rebel against the idea, finding it too intimate, too complicated. She’d rather have an indiscriminate fling with a stranger than risk the emotional complications of making love with a man she’d known for a very long time.
    â€œWhy, Bram? You can have any woman you want. You
have
every woman you want.”
    â€œI haven’t had you, so that’s obviously not true.”
    Her chest heaved, but she ignored his interruption. “They’re all young and sexy with flat stomachs and enormous boobs and legs to their chins. They’re not tired thirty-nine-year-old divorced mothers—”
    â€œOfficially, you’re not divorced,” he pointed out, just to stall hertirade. Voices carried on the lake, and though Bram doubted there was anyone around to hear, he didn’t want Lucy to be embarrassed later. “David died before the divorce was final, remember.”
    â€œ
Widowed,
then! They’re not like me.”
    â€œThank God,” he said with heartfelt sincerity. The dissimilarities from the women he usually dated were what made Lucy so special.
    â€œThe women you gravitate to are twenty-year-olds who fawn all over you and screw you all night and every day—”
    Bram laughed. He didn’t mean to, but the humor struck him and he just couldn’t hold it back. She sounded almost jealous—which thrilled him. And she looked appalled that anyone would want sex that much, which made his chest swell with tenderness.
    But he’d show her. Before the week was out, Lucy would learn to love sex as much as he did.
    â€œI’m forty-one, Lucy. Round-the-clock sex is for the young studs, not for me.” And with a grin: “Though once at night and a coupla times during the day with you would be a pretty nice balance.”
    Apparently grinning was the wrong thing to do.
    Big tears clouded her eyes and she started to stalk away. Contrite, Bram pulled off his sunglasses and followed her. He almost got squashed in the sliding door when she went to shove it shut this time—hoping, he knew, to close him out.
    He figured he’d been closed out too long already.
    â€œAre we going to keep marching in and out?” he asked, trying to tease her into a better mood. He didn’t want this to be a battle. He wanted to gently seduce her as she deserved. At least, he hoped to start it that way. Ending it with a hard ride would suit him just fine.
    Lucy headed down the short hallway of the one-floor house for the bedroom. “I’m going to go to the lake. You’re going to leave.”
    He followed her straight into the room. “Not on your life, babe. Not with you still planning to—”
    â€œGet out, Bram.” Her voice shook audibly and she looked none too certain of her position. She pointed to the door, trying to be forceful. Bram merely crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the wall.
    â€œWhy?” he asked. “So you can call that young worker back?”
    Her chin lifted with defiance. “Maybe.”
    Jealousy stabbed at him, but he resisted it. She was vulnerable now, doing things she’d never done before. Turning forty did strange things to women, so he could just imagine where her head was with her birthday not too far around the corner. Before the week was over, Lucy wouldn’t have a single doubt that she was an incredibly desirable, sexy woman. He’d prove it to her in a hundred different ways.
    Damn, he was looking forward to it.
    â€œIs he your type, hon? Midtwenties? Too dumb to really know how to pleasure a woman?”
    She looked briefly shocked at his bluntness.