The Virgin's Revenge (9 page)

He pulled away, only enough to separate their lips, his gaze meeting hers while they both struggled to breathe right again. Maybe she’d read too many books, but she finally knew what writers meant when they said a man could stare searingly into your eyes. Cole’s gaze set her completely on fire. Head to toe, every inch of her practically vibrating.

“Who cares what they think?” he asked, voice rough.

Not her. She didn’t even know who
they
were or why
they
mattered. Especially not when that heated look came over his face again and his hold around her waist tightened. Like he was going to kiss her again. Like she was going to kiss him back.

“Wow, will you look at that? It’s already eight o’clock!” Susie’s slightly shrill voice suddenly broke the silence around them, her red-tipped fingers curling around Amanda’s shoulders, already pulling her out of Cole’s hold. “If you’ll excuse us for just a second, Cole, I need to borrow Amanda for a quick conversation in the ladies’ room. Thanks!”

Amanda stumbled backward under Susie’s not-so-gentle yanking. By the time she had her feet properly under her, the wooden door to the bathroom had swung shut behind them and Susie was pushing her toward the sinks.

“Have you completely lost your mind? Making out with a guy in the middle of Shaky Jake’s? Why not just take out an ad that screams you’re banging him? It’d be more subtle.”

Amanda squirmed under that penetrating gaze. “We weren’t making out—”

“Honey, that man was investigating your tonsils in front of God, Country and every wagging tongue in this place. Sure, their jaws are on the floor right now, but I guarantee you, in the next five minutes, all of them are going to realize they have Locke’s cell number and most of them are going to try to use it.”

Amanda felt all the excitement drain out of her. Locke. Finding out she was making a spectacle of herself in a bar—even if it was Shaky Jake’s—would go over about as well as telling him she wanted to work in a lingerie store. Then she remembered. She had
permission
, didn’t she? Grating as the word was, Locke had promised to stay out of her affairs with Cole. Oh sure, the phone calls would probably make him take a hammer to his cell phone, but if Cole wanted to kiss her in the middle of Main Street, he could, and no one would come running to ruin it.

Which would be perfect if Cole had wanted to kiss her on his own.

He’d certainly kissed her like a man who wanted to kiss her on his own.

She thought.

Maybe.

Oh, how the hell would
she
know?

Amanda covered her eyes with her hands. “Oh, Susie, I’m in it now.”

“In what? Trouble?” Susie laughed. “You sure as shit are. If I hadn’t stepped in I think he was going to throw you on that table and take care of that virginity problem for you right there with everyone watching.”

She dropped her hands, pinioning her sex-obsessed friend with a gimlet glare. “There’s a big leap from a kiss to public sex.”

“Not that way he was doing it.
I
almost needed a cigarette.” Susie winked at her, then hugged her. “I’m so happy you finally got him to come around!”

“That’s just it,” Amanda interrupted, pulling out of the embrace. “I didn’t
do
anything, Locke did.”

“Locke got Cole to kiss you?” Susie’s face screwed up in confusion. “You’re going to have to explain that one.”

“Not much to explain. I overheard them last night. Locke has something on Cole, I guess, because he’s bullying him into dating me.” She couldn’t bring herself to admit her brother was after far more than a casual boyfriend for her. Not now, when just anyone could walk in. And probably would, the nosy bastards.

Susie stared at her open-mouthed for a few seconds. “Why? Why would Locke do that? Hasn’t he been behind the evil plan to keep you a vestal virgin for all time?”

Actually, not so much. Sure, he’d give anyone looking at her a pointed glare, but it had been the elder twins that did most of the vigilant guard-dogging. Andrew had joined in later because it was fun making her lose her temper.

Amanda shook her head. “I have no idea why he’d do this. Maybe he thinks if I’m utterly humiliated once Cole dumps me, I’ll come home and never leave again.”

“Come on now, Locke would never want you publically humiliated. Even I know that man would rip out his own spleen for any of you.”

Actually, Amanda hadn’t figured that part out yet, but she wasn’t in a forgiving enough mood yet to start dreaming up excuses. There wasn’t a good enough excuse for this. There just wasn’t. “It doesn’t matter why. All that matters is that he’s pushing Cole to do something he’d never do, which is be interested in me. And Cole is going along with it.”

Susie’s eyes remained closed as she sighed, seemingly gathering her thoughts. Her mouth opened once, closed, then opened again, this time with her forefinger raised to make a point. “Asshole!”

That would be Locke. Whenever she was reduced to simple name calling, that one was always Locke.

“I know.”

“Only
your
brother would think it was okay to arrange a boyfriend in this day and age. I swear, I could just…
throttle
him.”

“Not until I get a crack at him.”

“It’d probably take both of us to fit our hands around his giant neck,” Susie grumbled.

Amanda laughed miserably. It probably would.

“So, what are you going to do? I mean, you can’t just go along with it.”

“Why not?” Amanda asked. “Isn’t that what Cole’s doing?” That was the part that stung. He was just doing what Locke commanded, like everyone else. Somehow, she’d never expected that from him, and it made her angry all by itself. Her plan, thin as it was, rose in her mind, coasting on the wave of anger coursing through her again. “It’d serve them both right if I changed the game on them.”

“Amanda.” The maternal tone in Susie’s voice was filled with censure.

“I’m only going along with it to a point, okay?”

“Yeah, what point is that? The altar? The delivery room?”

Amanda crossed her arms, daring her friend to argue. “The bedroom.”

Susie scoffed. “You’re going to
sleep
with him?”

“I’m going to seduce him, thank you very much.”

“And then what?” Susie copied her pose and added a lot more attitude. “Sex makes things complicated, more complicated than you realize. It’s not something you want to play games with.”

“That’s the point. Locke doesn’t understand that this
isn’t
a game to me,” Amanda replied, though she didn’t want to admit the lines were blurring already. Kissing Cole had nothing to do with her plan. She’d forgotten she even had a plan the second his lips touched hers. He’d completely wiped out her ability to think. How much more intoxicating would it be if she ever got him into her bed?

It didn’t matter. She couldn’t worry about that. If she did, she’d have to worry about Cole treating her like every other woman he’d slept with, and that wouldn’t do at all. She’d lose her courage, and she needed that more than anything else right now.

“It’s my life, and Locke’s playing with it. If I don’t do something drastic, he’ll never stop. I tried talking. I tried leaving. Being reasonable doesn’t get through to him, and you know it. The way I see it, turnabout is fair play. I’ll seduce Cole and then end it. I’ll get what I wanted, Cole will be out from under whatever Locke has on him and Locke will have learned his lesson. He’s gone too far this time. Now he’s going to learn.”

Susie chewed her lip, her fingers twisting a fat curl around her fingers. “I still think you should talk to Cole about this, Mandy. Seems like there’s a lot of room in there for you to be wrong.”

“Yeah, about what?”

“About Cole’s feelings for you, for one.”

“No.” Amanda shook her head, not willing to even entertain the idea of Cole having feelings for her. Pity, maybe. If she talked to him, things like that kiss were going to stop. Her lips still tingled. If she closed her eyes, she could still feel him, the faint bristle of his chin against hers, taste that flavor she couldn’t quite pin down but wanted more of. A
lot
more of.

“I’m going through with this, Susie, and nothing you say is going to stop me.”

Chapter Five

That sneaky, rotten little brat.

Cole leaned against the wall of the alcove between the bathrooms, torn between seething and banging his own head against the wall. He’d only come over to make sure the women had privacy, not to listen in on their discussion. A couple of people had tried to get to the bathrooms, but he’d been able to deflect them with a glare or a well pointed finger, depending on who it had been. Once he realized he could make out Amanda and Susie’s conversation, he was never more glad to have a completely fake reputation as a hardass thanks to his leather jacket and his bike. Despite everyone remembering when he used to wear actual pocket protectors, the rep gave him an air of danger no one wanted to mess with.

Except the Jackmans.

Every single one of them, out to get him. But he couldn’t blame them completely. He should have seen it coming. If not Locke’s pronouncement—no one could have seen
that
coming—at least Amanda’s duplicity.

Of
course
she knew what was going on. The Great Underwear Caper in her house that morning hadn’t happened by accident. He just hadn’t given it the thought required because he’d been blinded by mile-long legs, delicious-looking breasts, tiny belly gems and shiny feathers. The Amanda he’d known all these years would never have let him stare at her near-naked body. She’d have kicked him in the balls, just like she’d planned to do to that sap kid. And he’d walked right into her trap, kissing her because she’d sounded a little sad.

Who was he to call Billy a sap after that?

His conscience twinged, but he wasn’t in the mood to listen to it tell him Amanda’s voice wasn’t the only reason he’d kissed her. And it sure as hell hadn’t been the reason he’d been about to kiss her again when Susie interrupted.

Instead, he tilted his head closer to the door to hear better.

The women were still talking, Susie trying for an imploring tone, but she didn’t know how stubborn and tenacious Amanda could be. Susie had probably never seen her cute friend take down a muscle-bound older brother with a full body arm bar, holding him down until he was nearly in tears. He, on the other hand, had taken pictures. He knew exactly how far a Jackman could travel on will alone.

“Amanda, I know revenge sounds great while you’re mad—and you’re right to be mad—but we both know you’ve been in love with Cole since you were a teenager.”

Excuse me?

“Not love. I never said I was in love with him. I said it was a crush, okay? Everyone gets them.”

“For ten years?” Susie’s disbelief almost rivaled his own.

Amanda? In love? With
him
? That was so not possible. He was a smart guy by most standards. There was a big difference between not thinking about her take on things and completely missing something as serious as that.

Wasn’t there?

“It doesn’t matter what it was. It was stupid. Daydreams and nothing more. It was never gonna be anything more, not the way Cole is. Even if he could commit to a relationship, now that Locke’s done this… God, I can’t even imagine how pathetic he must think I am, that my brothers had to find a man for me.”

His temper was doused at that. That pained note in her voice was back. He ground his teeth against it, wanting to be mad, but… Damn it. That sadness was real and it was wrong. Knowing she hurt, it bothered him in ways he couldn’t figure out how to process. He just knew that he hated it. Hated being the cause of it.

“You don’t know how it feels, Susie. To be so…useless. I can’t take care of anything, not even myself. If Cole hadn’t been with me today, I would never have gone through with getting a car. I just want to be able to stand on my own two feet. Make my own decisions about what I’m going to do and who I’m going to be with. I spent ten years wanting a man who looked right through me. Now he finally sees me, and it’s for all the wrong reasons. I don’t want to be that stupid girl anymore.”

Susie was quiet for long seconds. Seconds Cole used to feel like the lowest life form on Earth. Was that really how she saw him? Incapable of commitment? Ruled by his past hurts, like some two-dimensional cartoon that couldn’t grow up? Was that what everyone thought?

Probably. If anyone else had said it, he’d have scoffed, but Amanda knew him. Knew all his whys and why nots. If she didn’t understand, something was wrong. Really wrong. The knot in his gut grew razor blades. He wasn’t sure if it was anger or injury causing it. He only wished he could limit it to those seconds there outside the bathroom door, but he had a feeling he was going to be playing this conversation in his head over and over for a long, long time. Possibly forever. Maybe longer.

“Does it really matter why, if he sees you as you are and figures out you’re the most amazing woman he’s ever known?”

Cole looked the wooden door, surprised at Susie’s question. He frowned, trying to think of an answer.

Amanda came up with one first.

“But I’m not amazing. I’m just me. And let’s face it, Suze. That’s never been good enough before.”

Cole looked down at his boots. With a sigh, he pushed away from the wall and headed back to their booth. He sat down, frowning, trying to think of a way through this one.

Much as he’d like to blame this all on her brothers, a good portion of this mess was his own fault as well. Somehow, the seven of them had marginalized Amanda until she thought she had nothing to offer anyone, least of all herself. If that was true, it changed her insistence on moving out on her own from simple stubbornness to a herculean effort to spread her wings.

She only wanted to be able to take care of herself. He thought back to his first years on his own. Shitty apartment with shittier furniture. His couch had been a discarded weightlifter’s bench from the elder twins’ old set. His bed had been little more than a mattress on the worn-out carpet, and the place had been infested with bugs. But the day he’d moved in had been one of the proudest of his life. Almost as great as the day he’d moved into something better. He’d had those experiences, learning as he went, because that was what he’d had to do. No one was going to rush in and pay his bills for him. No one else was going to work out his goals for him, either. Despite the occasional laundry trips to his parents’ house or the bags of leftovers his mother insisted he take back with him, he’d sunk or swum on his own.