When We Touch (Whiskey Creek 0.5)(24)
Author: Brenda Novak

She liked that they’d left the lights on, that she could see him. He was male beauty and athletic grace. “God, I love—”

He hesitated. “What?” he whispered when she stopped.

She’d been about to say, “Everything about you.” Those exact words almost came out despite her efforts to hold them back, but she managed a more acceptable substitution. “The way you make love.”

He stared down at her. “Thank you. I love the way you make love, too.”

That was nice of him, she thought. He sounded so sincere. Then she locked her legs around his hips, drawing him as deep as possible.

Chapter 11

Brandon reached for Olivia before he even opened his eyes, but she was no longer in his bed. His hands met with cool, crisp sheets instead. Only a hint of her perfume remained.

He rolled toward the scent, breathing it in, remembering. Then he shoved himself up on his elbows to listen.

Silence. She wasn’t showering. She wasn’t moving around in the kitchen.

She was gone from more than just his bed.

“Damn,” he muttered, disappointed. But at least his leg wasn’t painful. The terrible ache that was becoming such a part of his life had disappeared as completely as Olivia had. Of course, given how often they’d made love in the past three or four hours, he had too many biochemicals flowing through his bloodstream to feel anything unpleasant. But these days he checked for pain every time he woke up because he never knew when just walking was going to be a battle.

Today was a good day. He was exhausted after being up so much of the night, but it was the kind of exhaustion that comes with complete satisfaction. The only thing better would to be to feel her bare skin under his hands one more time.

He almost drifted back to sleep. But then he began to wonder if she was gone until she ran some errands, until after the wedding, or for good.

Dragging himself out of bed, he tested his leg to see if it would complain when he put pressure on it, breathed a sigh of relief when it didn’t and went to check the other bedroom.

“Already?” he grumbled when he saw it.

She’d taken her suitcase with her.

*

“Are you really with Kyle’s brother?” Nancy asked.

Olivia had been so busy this morning pulling together the last-minute details of the wedding that she’d managed to avoid spending any time alone with her mother or her sister. To get everything done, she’d had to stay focused. When Nancy and Noelle stopped for lunch, Olivia grabbed a sandwich and moved gratefully on without them to get the right colored candy for the reception.

Fortunately the jars she’d ordered online had arrived. That meant she didn’t have to use the less attractive ones she’d bought yesterday. But now that the chairs, tables and decorations were in place, and the caterers, minister and disc jockey were primed and ready, she only had to make sure everyone was prepared for the photographer at three. So she and her mother were getting a manicure while Noelle was having her hair curled and stacked in an arrangement that could’ve been featured in Bride Magazine.

“No. Brandon and I are just friends,” she said, pretending to be preoccupied with her nails so she wouldn’t have to look up.

“You’re staying with him,” her mother pointed out. “You’re staying with him instead of us.”

The nail tech had left to see to a walk-in customer. Olivia wished she’d come back. “He has an extra room, Mom.”

“You’re saying you slept in it last night?”

Olivia wished she could insist she had. She should’ve stayed in her own bed. She’d been a fool to get up and go find him, a fool to allow herself to get in so far over her head.

Did she want to be mooning over Kyle’s stepbrother for the rest of her life?

Definitely not—but she had a feeling it might go that way. She’d never had such a strong reaction to any man. Since they’d been together, she hadn’t been able to think of anything besides the tender way he’d held her and the feel of his mouth on hers…not to mention the many intimate places he’d put his hands.

She’d come to Whiskey Creek brokenhearted over Kyle and would be leaving brokenhearted over Brandon. That shouldn’t have been possible in such a short time. But it was her own fault. She hadn’t given herself a chance to recover from Kyle before taking on an even bigger threat to her peace of mind.

“More or less,” she muttered when her mother leaned forward, demanding an answer to where she’d slept.

“More or less?” Nancy echoed. “Oh, no! Noelle was right. She told me the two of you are sleeping together, but I didn’t want to believe it. I don’t know what’s wrong with you girls. First her, and now you! You’ll do anything to hurt each other.”

“What’s happened between Brandon and me has nothing to do with her or Kyle. We aren’t trying to hurt anyone.”

“Then why are you getting involved with someone so close to both of them?”

“Brandon has never been close to Noelle. He hasn’t even been close to Kyle. And I’m not ‘getting involved’ with him. I admit things got out of hand this weekend. I—I haven’t been myself, wasn’t prepared to deal with…temptation.” Or not in such a potent form, she added silently. “It’s not every day that your sister gets pregnant by the man you thought you’d marry yourself,” she went on. “Don’t you think that could throw a girl off track?”

Her mother winced, but Olivia could see the nail tech finishing with the other client and wanted to wrap up the conversation before she returned.

“Anyway, it’s over,” she continued. “I’m heading home after the wedding and trying to forget this weekend ever happened.”

“So it’s not an ongoing relationship.”

She pasted a pleasant expression on her face because the nail tech was walking toward them. “Of course not. Brandon’s going backpacking across Nicaragua in two weeks. Then he’s got the ski season. Who knows when he’ll be back in Whiskey Creek? And I’ve already moved my business to Sacramento, just like I planned.” A plan that had sounded so ideal in the beginning but had, in the end, cost her so much.

The worry lines on her mother’s face softened. “That’s a relief.”

“Why would it matter to you?” Olivia asked.

“Our lives are complicated enough at the moment. I don’t like what Noelle has done, but I can’t change it, either. At least I know Kyle will make a good husband. That gives me hope that we can all get past the rough start. I’m not sure I’m convinced of Brandon’s integrity.”