He had never been so relieved as he was when he found them still standing, clothes still on if rumpled. Her adorable kerchief only slightly askew. That red lipstick was smeared over those impossibly full lips, but otherwise, she was untouched.
He’d wanted to murder his brother just the same.
A month-long trip had fallen off his tongue in an instant.
A month with the girl.
Just the two of them.
To be trapped with a woman who was far too young for him, who was obviously in love with his idiot brother, and who had no clue how fucking attractive she was? It was the last thing he needed. Lucas foresaw a month of multiple showers a day just to rid himself of uncomfortable and likely unavoidable erections. He’d have to hide that fucking lipstick before he shoved the girl to her knees and demanded she wrap those ruby lips around his cock where they belonged.
That would scandalize her.
A virgin.Fuck.
And yet, given the situation with the Hubbards, perhaps he could work this quandary to his advantage.
He’d have to. It was the only way.
“He’s just annoyed because Marie will be traveling with me for the next month.” Lucas took a bottle of Topo Chico from the wet bar. “We leave in the morning.”
“Oh?” Winnifred glanced between him and Daniel but didn’t look disappointed by the idea of losing her private chef only days after she’d come back from Paris.
“Ondine will stay here to cook for all of you.” Lucas returned to the divan, sparkling water in hand, and ignored Daniel’s glare. “It makes the most sense.”
“Sense,” Daniel muttered as he swirled his drink. “Right.”
“Daniel.” Winnifred’s voice carried the warning tone that had at leasttriedto cower both boys since they were small. “That’s enough.”
“Is it? I think we’ve just gotten started.” Daniel turned to face them both, glass raised in a mocking toast. “I think this calls for a celebration. To my dear brother, cockblock extreme with impeccable timing.”
Lucas screwed the cap back on his water. “You’re drunk, Daniel.”
“And you’re a controlling bastard. We are who we are.”
The word bastard fell between them like an anvil. It wasn’t a direct hit aimed at the fact that Lucas’s mother had never actually been married to their father. But it wasn’t not, either.
“Tell me, was it difficult?” Daniel sneered. “Watching her face when you delivered your little order?”
“It was business?—”
“Business?” Daniel’s voice cracked with disbelief. “You call stealing the woman I’m falling in love withbusiness?”
“Oh, for Christ’s sake,” Lucas snapped. “You are not in love with her. You barely know her name.”
“Daniel!” Winnifred gasped. “How many times have we heard this before? You are not in love with anyone, much less the cook!”
“The fuck I’m not!” Daniel shouted, standing with a sudden movement that tossed half his drink out of the glass and onto theexpensive carpet. “You don’t know. It’s different this time. For one, she doesn’t give me that look.”
“What look?” Winnifred’s tone suggested she already knew the answer.
Lucas shook his head. He was getting a migraine, like he did every time Daniel dropped bombs like this on the family. The last time Daniel had been in love, it had been with a waitress in the Hamptons who had demanded a million dollars not to release a video of Daniel snorting enough coke to fell a small elephant. The time before that, a model from Los Angeles nearly talked him into financing a multi-level marketing scheme. Something about bag charms.
“The look that says you think I’m an idiot.” Daniel’s free hand gestured wildly, sloshing more scotch onto the Aubusson. “Marie listens when I talk. She laughs at my stories, even the stupid ones. There’s something about her.”
“Something like big tits and a pretty mouth?” Lucas wondered aloud, though he hated himself for characterizing her like that
Even if it was true. He couldn’t afford to fixate on the precise shape of Marie’s red mouth, like two rose petals curved together. Or on the fact that her breasts were a legitimate work of art, high and full and with a certain bounce that would be as effective as any hypnotist’s pendulum. He’d been hard-pressed not to stare when she wore the slinky silk dress that made her look deliciously naked. But tonight, in the simple black top that clung to her in all the right places, it had taken everything he had not to follow her outside, shove her against the wall of the pool house, and discover the exact weight of one of those pretty peaks when it filled the palm of his hand.
