LITMIR.BIZ

      CHAPTER FIVE

      KENDRA SLID HER ARMS around Deuce’s shoulders, which was all the body language he needed to completely close the space between them.

       A soft moan rumbled in her throat as he tested the waters by grazing her teeth with his tongue. In that instant, it all came back. The magical kisses of an eager, sweet girl. The memory of that extraordinary night hit him as hard as the surf that they’d let pound them as they’d lain naked on the sand.

       He touched the dip of her waist and skimmed his hands over the curve of her backside, hardening instantly against her stomach, moving automatically against her hips.

       “Deuce.” He could feel his name tumble from her lips as she reluctantly broke the kiss. “Newman.”

       Newman?

       Then he realized the dog was parting them by pulling on his leash. He gave the leather strap a good tug. “Hey bud. Gimme a break.”

       That was enough to kill the moment. Even though her blue eyes were darkened by the same arousal that twisted through him, Kendra backed up.

       “Listen to me,” she said softly, but with a whispered vehemence that made him look hard at her. “I’m not the same girl I was back then.”

       “No, you’re not,” he agreed, pulling her just enough into him so there was no doubt of the effect she had on him. “Now you’re a woman.” He traced his thumb along her jaw. “Smart, willful and…beautiful.”

       She dipped away from his touch, the darkness in her eyes shifting from arousal to wariness.

       “I’m smart all right,” she insisted, and he sensed she was telling this to herself as much as to him. “Too smart to…” Her voice drifted as she managed to untangle herself from his arm. “I’m going home now.”

       He smiled at her. “I like you, Kendra.”

       She backed up farther and gave him a dubious look. “What are you up to, Deuce Monroe?”

       “You don’t trust me at all, do you?”

       Her eyes suddenly widened. “Do you think seducing me is going to win you the bar? You think I’ll just back down from this fight because you swept me off my feet and into bed?”

       The words punched him. “No.” Truthfully, the thought hadn’t even occurred to him. “I just…like you.”

       Nothing on her face said she believed him.

       “Why don’t you stay until I close up?” he suggested. “We can talk about the business, about how we can…figure this out.”

       “You don’t want to talk.”

       No, he didn’t. But he would. “Come on, Kendra. Stay. I can take you home later.”

       Newman skittered toward the street, suddenly impatient with the conversation, and Kendra went with him as though she felt exactly the same. “Just lock all the doors when you leave. And put the cash in the green zipper case in the bottom drawer of the office.”

       “Oh, yeah, I’ll put the cash in the office that doesn’t lock.”

       “The desk does,” she said, reaching into her pocket. “Here.” She held up a key chain. “The little gold one locks the cash drawer. Leave it on Diana’s kitchen table and I’ll stop in and walk Newman in the morning.”

       Maybe he’d leave them on his dresser so she’d have to come in his bedroom to get them. Maybe, if he hadn’t lost his touch, she’d be right there in the bed next to him in the morning.

       He reached for her hand. “I’d really like if you’d stay.”

       She shook her head in warning. “My car’s right there,” she said. “Bye.”

       Before he could get a grip on her arm, she’d taken off with the dog in tow, hustling down the street. Guess he had lost his touch.

       He let his arousal subside as he waited in the street to see her get into a car and drive away. Pocketing the keys, he watched until the taillights disappeared at the bend away from the beach.

       He touched his mouth, the feel of her lips still fresh. He was not done with her. Not by a long shot.

       The front door of the bar flung open and two of his old teammates came bounding out, their laughter loud, their guts showing that beer consumption had replaced batting practice as their favorite pastime.

       “Man, Deuce, it’s good to have you back.” Charlie Lotane pounded Deuce’s back. “This is going to be an awesome bar. You got the touch, man.”

       “Ya think, C-Lo?” The old nicknames came back easily. “I was just wondering if I’d lost it.”

       “Deuce, you are the man!” Charlie assured him over his shoulder. “We really needed a place like this in the Rock. Way to go, bro.”

       “Thank God you came back, Deuce.”

       Deuce watched them disappear down High Castle and suddenly wondered just what the hell he’d come back to prove. That he was still “the man” who could pack Monroe’s? That he was still the main event in town? That he could still see adoration in Jack’s little sister’s eyes?

       Was he that shallow and insecure?

       The door burst open again and he welcomed the distraction.

      NEWMAN CURLED INTO the corner of Kendra’s living room, as at home in this beach bungalow as he was in Diana’s mansion. He was sound asleep by the time Kendra realized exactly what she needed to do in order get her head back on straight.

       She needed to read her notebook.

       She’d never been one to buy a diary, with a pretty filigree lock, or an embroidered design on the cover. It seemed so planned and pathetic, as though a formal diary somehow legitimized her longings. Plus, she’d known at a very young age that such a girlish item would be too tempting to Jack…and the thought of him sharing her diary with the boys in the basement still sent a rush of heat to her cheeks.

       So she’d kept a simple spiral notebook, college-ruled and ragged at the edges. It never drew anyone’s attention; instead it blended in with her many schoolbooks, another tool of a brainiac child bound and determined to get to the Ivy League.

       But this was no ordinary notebook. The dates of the entries were far apart, but over the course of about a dozen years, it was just about full. Written on both sides of every page, in a script that had started out awkward, moved to a girlish flourish, and ended up as scratchy as a doctor’s prescription.

       She hadn’t looked at the book in at least four years. But tonight, her body still humming from the electrical charge of that kiss, she’d gone to the bottom of a box of rarely worn sweaters to find a piece of her heart that had never quite healed. Sliding her nail into one of the curled corners, she wet her lips, still warm from the taste of Deuce.

       The man could kiss and that was a fact.

       In truth, it had been right in the middle of that heart-tripping lip-lock that the notebook had flashed in her mind like a big red flag. Warning. Warning. Serious, severe discontentment and disappointment ahead.

       She lifted the cover. “Perhaps we need a little history lesson,” she whispered to herself.

       She opened it randomly, to about the fifth or sixth page.

       The words “Mrs. Deuce Monroe” decorated the margins. The O’s in Monroe were hearts. Kendra laughed softly. She had to. Otherwise, she’d cry. The penmanship was classic third-grade, early cursive.

       Tomorrow, my family is driving all the way to Fall River for my brother’s baseball tournament. And guess what???? Deuce is coming too!!! In our car!!! His parents said he could drive with Jack!!! I will be in the car

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