The Secret Wedding Wish. Cathy Gillen Thacker
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himself. But men on the prowl for romance didn’t hide on the outside terrace in the rain on a dark and stormy July evening.
Wondering if his hair would feel as silky and thick as it looked beneath her fingertips, she turned her glance away and concentrated on her coffee. She wished he would quit contemplating her as if he wanted to kiss her. Wished she would quit wanting him to. Just to satisfy her considerable feminine curiosity, of course, since she had never been kissed by a man with a mustache.
“Don’t you have something better to do?” she asked wryly.
He shrugged and his smile widened as he spoke in a low, sexy voice that did funny things to her insides. “Don’t you?”
So much for shooing him away.
For the first time Janey noticed he had some coffee with him, too. Irish, if her nose was telling her correctly.
He took a sip as he eyed her seriously. “Where’s Chris?”
“Video arcade.” Was it her imagination or was this terrace getting smaller by the minute? She swallowed around the sudden parched feeling in her throat and tried to pretend being alone with him like this didn’t bother her in the least. “Since the storm knocked out all the cable TV for the evening, and the kids can’t swim or play on the tennis courts due to the rain, the management gave the kids free tokens to use.”
Deciding she was much too close to him, she backed up a step.
He smiled at her as if reading her thoughts, but stayed where he was, lounging against the rough-hewn log wall of the lodge. “Chris must have liked that.”
“Oh, yeah.” Janey warmed at the caring in his voice. “There are probably fifty kids down there.”
He turned, so his shoulder was bracing the wall, and let his glance drift lazily over her. His smile broadened as he returned to her eyes. “Enough machines?”
Janey’s heart skipped a beat at the sexual awareness shimmering between them. She hadn’t wanted anyone in such a long time. She didn’t know what to do with the yearning. “They’ve got a couple of busboys down there, running some sort of competition and keeping order.” Everyone had seemed very happy when Janey left to find amusement for herself—or was it really distraction from all her ridiculously uncalled-for, unexpectedly romantic thoughts?
He drained the rest of his coffee, then set the empty mug on one of the tables to the left of them. “You made the right decision—letting Chris go to camp after all.”
“Yes, well…”
He went back to leaning against the building, his muscular arms folded in front of his solid-looking chest. He studied her with narrowed eyes, then ascertained gently, “But you’re still not happy about it, are you?”
That was putting it lightly, Janey thought. Chris was so much like his father. Ty’s unrealized athletic dreams and the resulting bitterness had poisoned Ty’s soul, as well as his marriage to her. The only saving grace had been Ty’s love for Chris, and his determination to shield his son from his own shattered hopes. She didn’t want Chris’s thwarted goals or frustrations in that regard poisoning their relationship, too. But she knew, with the odds against actually achieving the kind of pro career Chris dreamed about, that it was a definite possibility if he started on this track and did not get where he wanted. But loath to get into all that with Thad, she said simply, “He still has to get permission from his summer school teacher.”
Thad continued regarding her seriously. “I imagine that can be arranged.” He edged closer. “I’ve been thinking about what you said, though. About your brother Joe’s stardom giving Chris unrealistic expectations of his own.”
“And?” Janey drained her mug and set it aside, too.
“All kids his age have stars in their eyes. But there’s a way to bring him back to earth.”
“I’m listening,” Janey murmured.
“He wanted to work off his tuition anyway, right?”
Janey nodded.
“So let him work at the practice facility, picking up towels and stuff in the locker room, for an hour or two every day. Let him see how grueling and demanding the sport is for professional hockey players.”
“I agree that would definitely help, in that regard.” Janey bit her lip uncertainly as a gust of rain-drenched wind blew across them, making her shiver.
“But?” Thad prodded, as he reached up to brush a strand of hair from her face and tuck it behind her ear.
Tingling all over from just that light casual touch, Janey shoved her hands in her pockets and tried not to think how it would feel to be held against that broad chest as she turned her face up to his. “How is being around all those jocks going to help him stay serious about his schoolwork?”
Thad gave her the slow and tender once-over. “I’ll talk to him, tell him how much I learned playing on a college team. And I’ll have the other players who went the university route talk to him, too.”
“Thanks.”
“So does this mean we’re not enemies anymore?” he teased, his electric blue eyes twinkling.
Janey’s mouth dropped into a round O of surprise as she fortified herself against the sexy mischief suddenly in his eyes. Sensing that this commanding coach could be dangerous to her heart if given half a chance, she unlocked their gazes, vowing she would not let this shift into a flirtation. “I never said—”
“Didn’t have to,” Thad murmured, coming so close she couldn’t help but inhale his clean, pine-scented fragrance.
“I know your type,” he informed her softly as he wrapped both his arms about her waist, and guided her close.
“And that is?”
He lifted her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to the back of it, sending another tingle of awareness arrowing through her. Still holding her eyes with provoking gallantry, he said, “You think you want Mr. Sensitive.”
Janey’s heart raced as her arms flattened against his chest, holding him at bay. “I hardly find anything wrong with that.”
“When what you really want is a Real Man.”
Janey did her best to smother a laugh. The one thing she never had been able to resist was a sense of humor. “And what category are you in, pray tell?” she teased right back.
“Kiss me,” Thad urged huskily, his head already lowering as he looked deep into her eyes. “And see.”
Chapter Three
Thad hadn’t planned this. He knew it would have been better had he not gotten involved with Janey Hart Campbell at all in a personal way, but there was just something about her that kept him coming back for more, that had him wanting to take her in his arms and kiss her passionately from the very first. And now that her soft lips were beneath his, and he could feel the sweet surrender of her body melting into his, there was no stopping with just one kiss, no pretending something incredible wasn’t happening between them. Planned or not. Passion like this came along once in a lifetime—if you were lucky. And though instinct told him that Janey hadn’t been well-loved in the past, Thad knew that was something he could easily change. All she had to do was give him a chance. And he would show her how wonderful an unscripted liaison like this could be.
Janey had figured Thad’s mouth would be warm, his kiss as sure and utterly sexy as the rest of him. What she hadn’t counted on was the way it would make her feel—reckless and wonderful. Or how she would react to the silken warmth of his lips, the sheer male insistence of his kiss, the invasion of his tongue. She’d expected to resist his advances a lot more. After all, it had been years since anyone had wanted her like this, since she had even considered allowing something as simple as a kiss. And yet the moment he took her into his arms, and gave her a long thorough kiss meant to shatter her resolve,