TheTemptationNotJustifiedAReFinal (7 page)

“And
this is my other brother, Roarke,” Derrick was saying, but Roarke could hardly
hear the words. In fact, he could barely breathe.

Someone
must have sucker punched him in the jaw. How else to explain the ringing in his
ears as he watched the woman whose memory tortured him day and night—the woman
he’d spent the night making love to—stand next to his brother as he professed
they were a couple.

“Do
you two know each other?” Derrick asked.

Celeste
recovered first. “Oh, sort of. We met at Avery’s Juke Joint last week.” She
smiled up at Derrick, and rabid jealousy uncoiled in Roarke’s belly. She faced
him again. “He and his friends hung out at our table for a while. Small world.”

Fear
filled her eyes, pleading with him to remain silent about the night they’d
spent together.

“I
agree,” Roarke managed. “Small world.”

Like
a rewinding movie reel, his brain replayed in graphic detail their night
together. Their damp bodies intertwined, her thick thighs clenched around his
waist, her mouth drifting down over his chest and flicking his hard nipples
with her moist tongue.

He
could see the faint impression of her untethered breasts beneath the blouse,
and his body quickened to life.

He needed
to stop thinking about her in that way.

To
avoid crushing the glass, Roarke set the juice on the breakfast bar and shoved
his hands into the pockets of his slacks. The last thing he wanted to do was get
a hard-on for her in front of his family.

“How
long have you two been together?” He maintained a nonchalant tone to his voice.
He dreaded the answer to the question, but it was essential that he know.

“How
long has it been, babe?” Derrick asked, slipping his arm around Celeste’s
shoulders. He proceeded to answer the question himself. “We met over a year
ago, but we’ve been together for a few months.”

A
few months
. The
words cut through him like shrapnel.

No
wonder she left the way she did. He’d been a one-night stand, a passing fling
for her before she returned to her relationship with his brother. His gaze
shifted to where Derrick rubbed his palm up and down Celeste’s bare arm—the
same arm he’d licked rainwater from. His neck muscles worked to dispel the slow
burn creeping across his throat.

He
was usually a good judge of people, so he couldn’t understand how he’d missed
her dishonesty. Had he really been so enthralled by her physical appearance he
missed the cues to her lack of character? To think he’d entertained the thought
of pursuing her and a lasting relationship. It infuriated him and made him
question his own common sense.

There
hadn’t been any signs . . . well, yes, one. A huge, glaring sign he’d chosen to
ignore. She’d left him without a word, not even a note. She’d never intended
for their night together to be anything more than sex. She’d made a fool out of
him.

The
flow of conversation continued between the others, and Roarke felt an upsurge
in his body temperature as he watched her smile and chat with his brothers and
sister.

He
despised cheaters and cheating. She’d used him, and in the worst way possible.
She’d made him a party to the one thing that was anathema to him.

His
gaze held fast to her face. With the moment past, she now bore the look of
someone with a clear conscience, as if their night together never occurred.

He
couldn’t stand the sight of her.

Chapter
Six

After
Derrick brought in the luggage from the car, he left Celeste and went into town.
She should have gone with him, but she didn’t think she’d be good company.

Her
hammering heart pushed blood through her veins so fast she felt light-headed.
She rested her head against the cool glass of the window in the room where she
would spend three nights. Her bedroom, situated between Cassidy’s and Roarke’s,
should have been the maid of honor’s room, but Cassidy insisted on giving it to
her because there would be no other rooms available once the rest of the family
arrived. The bride-to-be also quickly pointed out her aunt and grandmother
would not approve of anyone sleeping in the same bed unless they were married, just
as Derrick had said.

Celeste
opened her eyes and stared out at the rolling blue waves, wishing she could
enjoy the tranquil beach scene before her. She couldn’t. Not with her insides
turned upside down at the god-awful situation in which she found herself. Roarke
and Derrick were brothers!

Derrick’s
lighter-colored skin and narrower nose were products of his white mother. The
only true resemblance she saw between both men was in their height and strong
jaw. Otherwise, no one would ever suspect they were brothers.

Her
so-called vacation could potentially turn into a big mess. She didn’t know if
she could successfully carry through this weekend charade with Roarke here.

A
knock on the door interrupted her thoughts. On leaden feet, Celeste made her
way across the thick carpet, past the four-post bed and antique dresser.

When
she opened the door, her stomach felt as if it dropped ten stories. Roarke
stood there, his face lacking the warmth to which she’d grown accustomed during
their brief time together. His cold gaze met hers, rooting her to the spot.

“What
are you doing here?” she asked.

“What
do you think I’m doing here?” he responded. “Are you going to let me in?”

“It’s
not a good idea.” An invisible fist squeezed tightly at her throat. These were not
the type of circumstances under which she wanted to see him again.

His
face hardened, and his voice turned raw. “You think I don’t know that?”

He
didn’t move, waiting, until she stepped aside and allowed him in.

Once
inside, he stood with his back to her after she closed the door. Conflicted,
her emotions vacillated between happiness and trepidation. She had cradled the
memories of their night together like a secret cache she could bring out and
enjoy whenever she needed a boost. She’d thought about him often and had longed
to see him again. But not like this. Not with the accusatory look in his eyes.

He
faced her. “What did my brother tell you about our relationship?”

“Not
much.” She stood with her hands clasped in front of her, not sure what to do
with them, not sure what to do with her entire body, really, because of the
surreal situation. She wanted to touch him, to run her hands over a muscular
chest she’d grown to know well, to fall into his arms and hear his easy
laughter once more instead of the angry diatribe she feared he would soon
direct at her.

“Probably
because we don’t have much of one.”

Easy
to figure out. “Why not?”

“Ask
my brother.” A sarcastic laugh and shake of his head followed. “You—you’re a
piece of work. You deserve an Oscar for your performance last week. I asked
you, point-blank, if you were in a relationship, and you said no.” His angry
eyes raked her from head to toe, filled with nothing approaching the seductive
warmth from Friday night. Her fingers tightened around each other. “People like
you make me sick. You run around satisfying your own physical lusts, and to
hell with everyone else and how it affects them.”

Shocked,
Celeste said, “No, that’s not what happened. I’m not the kind of person you
think I am. I—”

“Don’t
bother with your explanation. Do you really think I give a damn?”

She
sucked a painful breath into compressed lungs. “No, I’m sure you don’t. Are you
going to tell him?”

With
a bark of bitter laughter, Roarke shook his head in disgust. “Is that all you
can think about? How much longer can you continue the lie so my brother doesn’t
know the kind of woman you truly are? Don’t worry, I won’t say a word. I won’t
let anything ruin my sister’s wedding, and I won’t let you forge a deeper rift
between Derrick and me. As far as I’m concerned, what happened between us never
took place.”

Their
night together had been excellent, earth-shattering. Unlike him, she couldn’t
pretend it never happened. She’d gone to the university’s Web site to read his
bio, and after Googling him, she found links to articles he’d written about
astronomy and physics. She couldn’t get him out of her mind and had lost count
of the number of times she’d pulled up his online image.

“Thank
you.”

“I’m
not doing it for you!” The words seemed to be torn from him, and his anger made
her insides quiver in distress. He advanced on her and stopped a few paces
away. “How did it work? You planned to seduce a man, and I happened to be the
fool who came along and walked right into your trap? Ensnared by the high
heels, the short little dress, and the sexy voice . . .”—he swallowed hard—“the
sexy voice that makes a man wonder what it sounds like when you’re screaming
his name? Derrick and I don’t get along, but he doesn’t deserve this. Did you
think about him even once when you were clawing my back at the hotel?”

His
harsh words stung since nothing could be further from the truth. She’d donned
the clothes to be attractive, yes, but he suggested behavior far more salacious
than she’d intended. Celeste hadn’t been out trolling for sex, and she resented
the charge that she had been.

“Did
you really want me thinking about him while I was having sex with you?” she
shot back. Her taunt was like brandishing a red flag at an angry bull. A muscle
in his jaw pulsed, and his nostrils flared. She half expected to see smoke
drift below his nose. Before he could speak, she continued. “We’re both adults,
and we both got what we wanted.”

“So,
what, you were just looking for a good time? It could have been Lucas, or even
Xander, right? He’s married, but that probably doesn’t matter to someone like
you.”

“I
don’t sleep with married men. For the record, we were two consenting adults,
and it was one night.”

“It wasn’t
just one night!” He looked about to explode. “It was
all
night. We
couldn’t get enough of each other, or did you forget that part?”

She
couldn’t forget, and every word he said was true. “No,” she responded in a
small voice.

They’d
made love with the ease and familiarity of people who’d been lovers for years. He
knew where to touch and where to kiss, zeroing in on each spot as if he’d
received a map to all her erogenous zones ahead of time.

Her
skin warmed at the thought. Being so close to the hard body she’d spent the night
wrapped around tested her nerves.

“If
you haven’t forgotten, do you think I have? When I look at you, all I see is
you naked, under me, over me . . . and you’re my brother’s girlfriend! I don’t
sleep with another man’s woman, no matter how seductive she thinks she is.”

Celeste
closed her eyes against the sensual mental picture his words conjured. The
brief moment allowed her to catch her breath and modulate her voice to an even
tone. “What happened between us is my problem, not yours. But for the record, I
did not set out to seduce you or anyone else. If you recall, you suggested we leave
Avery’s and go somewhere else. When I tried to leave,
you
asked me to
stay.”

“So
it’s my fault?”

“No
one is at fault here. I—”

“Are
you serious?” His eyebrows arrowed down in disbelief. “Do you really think you
haven’t done anything wrong by deceiving me and my brother?” He laughed without
humor. “Derrick sure can pick ’em, but I can’t even blame him this time. You
don’t look anything like the kind of woman you really are. You even had me
fooled. Poor guy thinks he’s found a good one this time, except he found
someone sneaky enough to hide who she really is. The kind of woman who’ll open
her legs for any man she picks up at a club and go back to his room for hot sex
like a cheap hooker.”

Jaw
slackened, her mouth fell open in shocked anger. The sting of his words
couldn’t have hurt more if he’d actually hit her. In one sentence he sullied
the time she’d spent in his arms, turned it into something tawdry, and insulted
her at the same time. She swung at him in defensive anger. The slap landed so
hard her palm stung in protest from the force. His head barely moved, as if
he’d anticipated the blow and braced himself before it landed.

“You
. . .” Celeste stopped. To her chagrin, her voice shook; her body became rigid.
She collected herself before proceeding. “You’re no saint. It takes two,
doesn’t it? What does that make you for taking me, a woman you’d just met, back
to your hotel room?”

The
sardonic smile and the way his eyes traveled up and down her body were just as
crushing as his next words. “A man who knows an easy lay when he sees one.”

She
brought up her other hand even quicker than the first time, determined to land
another blow, but he didn’t let her. As he reared back, his hand came up with
whiplike speed and captured her wrist. “No way,” he bit out. “You only get
one.”

Celeste
tugged, but his grip only tightened. “You have no right to talk to me like that.
You don’t know anything about me.”