Luring Lucy by Lori Foster Read Free Book Online Page A

understood why. He wasn’t just a sexier-than-sin, macho ladies’ man. He was also a sensitive man, caring about the kids’ needs and attentive to them all as a family. For the first time she realized how he might have felt like an outsider.
    She stood, smiling slightly, and, using her free hand, ran her fingersthrough his fair hair. It was tangled from the hot wind, thick and soft. “Of course you could have those things, Bram. You just have to stop tomcatting around and settle on a single woman.”
    She meant her tone to be teasing, but instead it sounded gruff. Touching him, even casually now that he’d made his desire known, unsettled her.
    Bram hesitated, his lips pressed to her wrist, then he shook his head. “I’m not looking for a new woman these days, Lucy. Right now, all I want is you. And tonight I mean to show you just how much.”
    The sensual threat nearly made her gasp with anticipation. Her knees trembled, and desperately she locked her legs to stay upright. Lucy watched him leap from the boat, then offer her his hand. She didn’t know if she could touch him after he’d said such a thing. She was beginning to realize that this wasn’t just a lark for Bram. He wasn’t just teasing to make her forget about a fling. He wasn’t merely flirting to ease her transition at turning forty. He wasn’t just in search of a quick and easy sexual adventure.
    He really did want her.
Bram Giles, lover in hot demand, bachelor in every sense of the word, wanted her. Not just as a conquest, not just because she was handy and desperate. He wanted
her
, as an individual woman. As a woman he found sexually attractive.
    â€œGive me your hand, Lucy.”
    She looked at him, saw the implacable command in his eyes, the erotic promise. She felt helpless against him and couldn’t resist. She reached out to him.
A sexual fling with Bram Giles.
    Talk about shooting for the moon!
    They’d taken no more than five steps up the cement walkway when two women, scantily covered in string bikinis, left the shop and started down the walk toward them. The women looked to be in their late twenties, perfectly toned and perfectly tanned, theirhair Barbie doll long and just as blond. One of them carried a six-pack of beer, the other a brown paper bag filled with a variety of chips.
    They stopped talking when they saw Bram. Even their body language changed, from casual movement to seductive fluidity. They no longer walked, they swayed.
    Trying to be inconspicuous, Lucy released Bram’s hand. She knew what was about to happen, what always happened when women caught sight of Bram. They’d flirt and simper and strike up a conversation. She didn’t want to be in the middle of it when it happened. At nearly forty, she was feeling every single year of her age and didn’t care to stand side by side with model look-alikes.
    The problem was, though she released him, Bram held on. And he ignored the women, managing to nod politely while not quite looking at them. He dragged Lucy along reluctantly in his wake, and despite herself she snickered when the women frowned at her. “Now you’ve confused them.”
    Bram lifted a brow at her. “Hmm? What was that?”
    Stunned, Lucy realized he really hadn’t paid any attention to the women. She indicated them with a toss of her head. “You missed your newest fan club.”
    Bram glanced over his shoulder toward the women, then smiled. “Sorry. I was thinking about something else.”
    â€œReally?” She found it a little incredible that he had missed the women’s attention altogether.
    Bram gave her a crooked smile. “Tonight. I was thinking about tonight and how long I’ve waited and how damn good I know it’s going to be.”
    Lucy only had time to gasp before they stepped into the small grocery shop and icy cold air blasted them from a struggling window air conditioner. Bram tugged her