Basic Attraction (3 page)

The man was nuts. No one had ever found anything the least bit remarkable about her hair. Including Mark, her ex-boyfriend, who had suggested she crop it so it wouldn’t create wind resistance when she ran long distances.

She headed towards the first dark corner blindly. Luke followed her. She could feel him behind her, hovering, leaning towards her, his skin radiating warmth and smelling like fabric softener from the sheet he had slept on.

Glancing behind the furnace, she let her eyes adjust to the gloom and saw nothing but dust and dead spiders. Stepping back, she was stopped cold by his chest. “Oof.” She made an indistinguishable sound and stumbled forward again.

His hands grabbed her arms to steady her. That was exactly what she didn’t need—hot, calloused fingers pressing into her flesh, a firm grip, and that little chuckle whistling past her ear.

“Steady, Sheri.”

That wasn’t happening, she thought wryly. Steady would mean she wouldn’t be imagining what would happen if she turned around and pressed her breasts against his bare chest, kissing that Big Bang tattoo, licking down each destroyed sunbeam…

She cleared her throat. “Maybe we need to branch out. You check over there behind the steps and I’ll check over to the right.”

Without waiting for an answer, she strode away from him as quickly as she could without pulling up her arms and setting off on a dead run. She checked every inch of the basement, while Luke gave a halfhearted glance around. There was no Mookie.

She felt like crying. How could she lose a whole cat? Desperate, she opened the washer and the dryer.

Luke laughed at her. “You’re giving that cat way too much credit.”

“Well, he’s got to be here somewhere!”

The tears started down each cheek silently before she could stop them. She pictured Mookie trapped in an air duct, suffocating slowly and tragically. Or lying dead in the street. She pictured Angel coming home from her vacation to the devastating news that her cat was gone. Or what about Kiri, Rick’s daughter? She was coming back with Rick and Angel to spend the rest of her summer vacation with them. Angel said that the five-year-old had been chattering on and on about getting to meet Mookie since she’d never had a cat before.

She still didn’t.

Luke swore softly but grotesquely.

Ignoring him, she started for the stairs. “I’m going to look outside for him. Maybe he got hit by a car. Or attacked by neighborhood cats.” She took a ragged breath. “He doesn’t even have any claws. He’ll be mincemeat for alley cats.”

As she passed Luke, she suddenly found herself caught up in his arms, being pressed into that glorious chest she had been daydreaming about moments before. His arms wrapped around her tightly and his thumb raced up and down her back. She leaned into him after only a microsecond’s hesitation and stifled a sob.

“Shh,” he murmured into her hair, his breath tickling her eyelashes. “We’ll find him. Don’t worry.”

“You think so?” she asked pitifully, pulling her head off of his chest long enough to gaze into his deep blue eyes.

“I know so.” His hands on her back stilled. She watched his mouth move with fascination. “Trust me. And in the meantime, there are no alley cats in Pigeon Forge, so I’m sure he’s safe.”

Then he was leaning forward, tilting his head, and she knew that he was going to kiss her. Oh, God, he was going to kiss her, and she was just going to stand here and let him. She ought to stop him. She really should. It wasn’t a good idea at all—

Her thoughts cut out as his lips brushed against hers briefly and tenderly. He sighed into the kiss, his eyes stormy and unreadable.

Then he was done, and she was left quivering with shock, wondering how a man who wore T-shirts with rude sexual phrasings on them could be so gentle and compassionate.

He stepped away. “Let’s go check outside.”

Nodding like a bobblehead doll, she followed him up the stairs, resisting the adolescent urge to press her fingers to her lips.

After heading outside in the summer heat to the small fenced-in backyard, they searched under the deck and behind every bush and tree. They repeated the process in the front until there was nowhere left to look. Sheri tried to tell herself that at least there was no evidence of an orange body lying in the street from a hit and run.

“What do we do now?” she asked, knowing the answer.

“Nothing. We wait and see if he comes home. I’ll keep an eye out for him.”

They were standing in the driveway, and Luke was dancing around on the balls of his feet, his skin burning on the hot asphalt.

“Stand on the grass.” She refused to think that he was cute. Even barefoot and shirtless in a pair of jeans, he wasn’t cute. He was scruffy. Like a dog. Nothing else.

He sheepishly leapt onto the grass. “It’s hot out here.”

Glancing at her watch, she let out a cry of dismay. “Oh, no! I’m late for my yoga class.”

“Yoga?” His eyebrow shot up until it was nearly hidden under his blond bangs.

“Yes.” She found it relaxing. She waited for him to make fun of her, maybe crack a new age joke or two. He didn’t laugh at her. It was much worse.

His voice was hoarse. “Has it made you…flexible? Can you put your legs up on your shoulders?”

Her jaw dropped open. “
What
?”

He was close to panting and drooling, his thoughts obviously deep down some guttural path she couldn’t even begin to imagine. One she’d really, really like to imagine. With him. It was just that, until now, she had always been the aggressor with men, and it had never particularly occurred to her to suggest putting her legs on her shoulders or his shoulders or anywhere other than wrapped around her partner’s thighs.

Luke wouldn’t wait for her to suggest it. He would just do it himself. She swallowed hard.

“Well, can you?”

“That’s for me to know and you to find out.” She tossed off her old childhood standard comeback but realized immediately it hadn’t sounded quite right.

He raised an eyebrow. “I’m looking forward to finding that out then.”

“That’s not what I meant! I mean to never find out!” She fished her keys out of her shorts pocket, flustered. It was time to abandon ship. “I’m leaving now.”

She bolted down the driveway to her car, which was parked at the bottom. She called back over her shoulder, “I’ll stop by later to see if you’ve found Mookie.”

“I’ll be here.”

That’s exactly what she was afraid of.

Angel Weiss was a happy woman. She had found ‘the one’ in Rick and made the decision in the last few days that, after an amazing summer with him, she did not want to go home to Chicago. She wanted to make the move to Pigeon Forge permanent and settle into domestic bliss. It seemed that Rick was of a similar mind because, two nights prior, he had proposed to her. They hadn’t even had a chance to tell anyone except Rick’s daughter, and Angel was still glowing at her good fortune. And as with all woman who have suddenly seen their lives mapped out in stunning clarity, the future full of love and family, she was determined to see her good fortune repeated in the lives of those she cared about. Starting with her brother Luke.

She had decided that, beyond a shadow of a doubt, her best friend Sheri and Luke were made for each other. They just didn’t know it yet. It was up to her to make sure they figured it out.

The first time Luke and Sheri had met, she had thought Sheri was horrified. Later, she had come to understand that this horror stemmed from Sheri’s realization that she was attracted to Luke. Luke was more than a little interested in Sheri. Put them together and sparks would fly.

Propping her feet up on the coffee table of the rental condo they were staying in, Angel relaxed on the sofa and listened to her boyfriend playing prince and princess with his daughter. Just hearing his voice booming with happiness made her start to smolder on the inside.

“Don’t worry, Princess Kirsten. I’ll slay the mean old dragon for you.” Rick bounded into the room wielding a rolled-up newspaper like a sword.

Kiri followed him, decked out in her finest pink tulle princess gown and a tiny silver crown, screaming gloriously.

“There it is! An ugly, orange, fat dragon!”

He headed towards the couch, where Mookie had been sleeping peacefully in Angel’s lap. At the sight of Rick and Kiri descending down on him, Mookie gave a startled glance around and leapt to the ground, bounding off to hide in the bedroom.

“Begone, evil beast!”

“Daddy saved me!” Kiri enthusiastically jumped on the sofa and bounced six or eight times in excitement.

“Brave, Daddy.” Angel put her hands over her heart and fluttered her eyelashes up at her grinning lover. “But you scared a year off Mookie’s life.”

Rick dropped a kiss on her forehead then sank onto the couch beside her. “He has nine lives. He’ll recover.”

She bit her lip thoughtfully. “I’m feeling guilty. Do you think I was wrong to, uh, not be completely forthcoming about Mookie’s whereabouts?” She spoke carefully, well aware of Kiri’s curious ears picking everything up next to her. The kid was remarkably astute.

Rick raised a brow. “Doll, I seem to remember telling you it was a big, bad, rotten idea, and you didn’t agree with me at the time. I’m not an advocate of matchmaking in general, and this is a match that is doomed to fail.”

She protested. “They’re perfect for each other.”

“They have nothing in common. Nothing.”

“Sure they do.” She couldn’t think of anything off the top of her head, but she was sure there had to be something.

“Who ya talkin’ ‘bout?” Kiri spoke through her fingers, which were wiggling her loose teeth.

“Angel’s brother, Luke. Do you remember me telling you about him?” Rick said.

“Yes.” She nodded enthusiastically. “He sent me a princess light chaser Barbie. With extra shoes and a purse.”

“He did?” Angel was stunned. Luke was a good guy, she knew that, but shopping for Barbies? That was an amusing image.

“Is he my uncle now?”

“He will be as soon as Angel and I get married,” Rick said.

“Wow.” Kiri looked awed. “Before, I didn’t have any aunts or uncles. Now I have a whole bunch.”

Angel was amused. She didn’t know if getting her three brothers and two sisters was a real bargain for Kiri or not, but for a child who hadn’t had any before, she supposed it was better than nothing. She was bound to receive all manner of inappropriate gifts from them, Luke aside.

“Now if only I could have some cousins.” Kiri wiggled the tooth again solemnly.

“Someday, sweetie, but not today,” she said cheerfully while Rick smothered a laugh behind his hand.

Her guilty feelings disappeared. So what if she’d failed to mention to Sheri or Luke that she had brought Mookie with her? It was the only thing she’d been able to think of to throw the two of them together. With any luck, right now, Sheri was panicking over the missing cat and Luke was comforting her. Which would lead to seduction. Right?

Which held the promise of future cousins for Kiri.

She gave a pleased matchmaker’s smile.

Which was followed immediately by the doubt that Rick was right and she had no idea what she was doing. But Luke was her closest sibling and she wanted him happy, damn it.

Sheri would make him happy. Angel was sure of it.

The yoga class hadn’t worked one bit. Sheri was a massive ball of tension as she showered and changed after class. She didn’t know which was worse—the missing cat or Luke Weiss. Both were tying her neck up in knots.

Her cell phone rang as she combed through her wet hair. Dashing around the kitchen table for the phone, she knocked a potted plant off the table and onto the floor, where it promptly broke. She dodged the flying clay parts and clumps of dirt and sighed. She hated it when she was clumsy. It reminded her of her gawky youth.

Being all legs and no grace, she had been a walking disaster as a child. She had actually gotten into athletics to gain confidence and control of her giraffe-like limbs. She had, but whenever she made a klutzy move now, she was reminded all too clearly of those painful memories.

Her heart sank when she saw who it was. Angel. Just what she needed. She was going to have to lie about Mookie. She couldn’t spoil Angel’s trip with the news that her pet was missing. But she wasn’t particularly good at being deceptive either.

“Hello?” she said tentatively as she rescued the basil plant from the pile of dirt and set it in the sink.

“Hey! How are you?”

“Fine. Okay. How’s California?” Sheri winced. She already sounded guilty.

“It’s great. We’re having a good time. Kiri’s a great kid.”

“Oh, good. So are you relaxing after all the house hunting?” Rick had bought the house for them to have more space together—space that was supposed to include the cat. Sheri prayed that Angel wouldn’t ask about him.

“Oh, yeah. We’re just spending time with Kiri, sightseeing, and when she’s with her mother, there’s been plenty of time for…other things.” Angel snickered. “It’s amazing what being away from work can do for the sex life.”

As if she would know. Her time away from work was not spent in naked gymnastics. “I’m glad you’re having fun. I love your new house, by the way. It’s great.”