Page 29 of His Southern Temptation

Jack was the first to speak. “Holy crap. I had no idea Taylor was even here, much less dancing at the Gent on our case.” He skewered Lucky with a look that demanded an explanation. “How the hell did that happen?”

“She’s staying at Elliott House…” Lucky mumbled into his coffee cup, “…with me. I told her about the case and she went and got the job all on her own, and I couldn’t talk her out of it. Fast-forward to last night.”

His announcement was greeted with silence, both men staring at him with a mixture of “this is gonna be good” and “you are so screwed” written on their faces. Jackson and Beck knew his history with Taylor—Teague was clueless, but that was because he still thought his sister was in diapers.

“So, did you sleep with her yet? Again?” Beck asked.

“No.” He cleared his throat, hesitant to share details of Taylor even with his best friends. “Not yet.”

“Why not? She doesn’t want you anymore?” Jack asked.

Lucky pushed his plate away, his appetite suddenly gone.

“No, she wants me.” Wanting wasn’t their problem. “She wants us to have a three-week booty call while she’s here packing up.”

“You should take her up on it. You’re both adults,” Beck said.

“What about Teague?”

“What about him? It’s really none of his business.” Beck shrugged. He’d said this several times before, and Lucky could tell he still didn’t understand his hesitation. Once Taylor had hit eighteen, Beck thought the code of brotherhood that made little sisters off-limits was stupid. Lucky believed his opinion would be different if he had a little sister. “You two have been hooking up plenty over the years.”

“Yeah, but that wasn’t here. Right under his nose.” Lucky knew his logic was flawed, but it did seem different to fool around in Elliott. It was like “Vegas rules” applied to everywhere but here.

“You could tell him,” Jack said.

“Oh sure. I can just see me having that conversation. Teague, old buddy, I know you’re already pissed that she was picked up in a raid at a strip club, but I’m going to sleep with your sister, again and repeatedly, in every way possible and then dump her ass when she goes back to Hawaii.” He’d be lucky to get a two-second head start before he beat the shit out of him. “I’ll just pick out my casket now.”

“I wouldn’t recommend saying it like that, but if you told him you wanted a relationship with her—”

Lucky cut him off. Usually he gave the best advice, but this time he was wrong. “Jack, she doesn’t want that. She’s not staying here and she’s not looking for anything permanent.”

“And you want something permanent? With her, or are you considering the concept in general?” Jack asked.

“Both. I left the military because I was tired of living by the damn gun every single day. The work I did”—he paused, trying to nonverbally communicate what a bunch of classified documents said he couldn’t tell—“didn’t encourage making plans for a future. You understand?” Both his friends nodded, their expressions serious. He wasn’t sure if Beck really understood, but Jack was aware of the unit he was assigned to and what it meant when he went completely dark for periods of time. “But whenever I did think of a future, Taylor always popped in my mind.”

The three of them were silent for a few moments, drinking coffee and lost in their own thoughts.

“I still don’t see the problem.” Beck dug into his pocket for his keys, motioning for Lucky to let him out of the booth, but he stopped when he saw their twin expressions of disbelief. “What? You can’t have sex for the sake of sex?”

“Not with Taylor,” Lucky said in unison with Jack. Good, at least they were in agreement on that score.

“Whatever. You want her. She wants you. You want more, with her. Seems simple to me.”

That was Beck—keep it loose and when things got tough, jump out of an airplane. His friend sighed, frustration oozing out of every word.

Beck shook his head. “Don’t you get it? Sleep with her, remind of her of how good you are together. You’ve got three weeks to convince her there’s more between you and why it’s worth staying in Elliott. Everyone’s a little more receptive after a couple of orgasms.”

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