Reckless Promise by Jenny Andersen Read Free Book Online

board. Tom looked up. "Hey, Mac. Need
something?"
    Yes. Poppy. She smiled at him and he
remembered the feel of her mouth under his and his brain started to
buzz. "Just checking. Ready to go up to the pool?"
    "Sure. See you up there, Poppy?"
    "All right. As soon as I change."
    Mac waited for her to give Tom another one of
those killer smiles and ground his teeth when she obliged. He
watched her leave the barn, trying to believe it had been his
imagination that she was hitting on Tom. But Tom's behavior, that
was something else. And he owed it to Alice to have a few words
with her husband.
    He followed Tom out of the barn and grabbed
his shoulder. "I want to talk to you."
    "Tom," Alice yelled from the veranda.
"Telephone."
    "Later," Tom said, and loped toward the
house.
    Mac looked back down the path past the stable
toward the cluster of cabins in time to see Poppy spring up the
stairs to her tiny porch. His anger bled away in appreciation of
her slim rear view. Enough to turn a man's mouth dry at a hundred
yards. His hands prickled with the memory of the way that lovely
rear had filled them the night before.
    She turned in the doorway and saw him
watching. Her flirty smile hit him like a bullet before she waved
and disappeared inside.
    He stood rooted to the path, riveted by the
fantasy image of her pulling off her shirt while she trotted into
the bedroom. A single yank and the snaps would part all at once. He
really loved western shirts, all those pearly snaps such
halfhearted guardians of the pearly skin underneath. He fantasized
prim, plain white cotton, shook his head, rewound the picture, and
replaced it with scarlet satin.
    Tom stepped into the fantasy, that stupid
leer back on his face, and Mac clenched his teeth. Enough fantasy.
He had to find out what the hell was going on. Tom wasn't going to
mess with his sister. Or with his fantasies.
    He wiped Tom out of the picture along with
the red satin, and tried black lace. Better. He walked toward the
lodge. Slowly. Good thing his feet knew the way, because Poppy
filled his brain. She'd be unhooking her bra by now, and stepping
out of her panties. He stumbled into the fence that surrounded the
pool.
    "Hey, Mac, hurry up," Tom shouted from the
pool. "Water polo. We need another player."
    "On my way." Mac strode into the house and
down the hall to his room. He had a mission. A promise to keep. If
Poppy was really hitting on Tom, he'd stop it if it was the last
thing he ever did.
    He hit the pool about five minutes later and
really tried to concentrate on the game, but couldn't keep from
watching Tom. He looked like the same old brother-in-law Mac had
known for five years, not the letch-on-the-prowl he'd seen a few
minutes ago.
    Mac had almost succeeded in getting his mind
on the game by the time Poppy arrived. When he saw her, the winning
goal slammed past him and the game ended, leaving him with nothing
to do but stare. Funny, he hadn't had any problems watching the
ball instead of the nearly naked brunette posing on one of the
loungers. Poppy made her look like the overly made up tramp she
was, and the way she scowled at Poppy didn't improve the
picture.
    He vaulted out of the pool in one smooth
motion and bent to pick up a towel. When he straightened and shook
wet hair out of his eyes, he found himself nose to nose—well,
collarbone to nose—with Poppy.
    Her hair smelled like hot, spicy sin.
    He closed his eyes and drew in a long breath,
then tilted his head just enough to let the flames of her curls
brush against his mouth. He felt her heat across the few inches of
space between them, and was lost.
    His body reacted as instantaneously, as
overwhelmingly, as embarrassingly as if he were eighteen again. In
about half a second he'd be poking out of his suit. The only thing
he could do was take a giant step backward. He hit the water with a
splash and sank to the bottom.
    When he came up for air and climbed out of
the pool, she'd moved away. Except that before he even