A Little Dare - Brenda Jackson [39]
With a deep sigh she opened the door and went inside.
She paused and watched all five men stand the moment she entered the restaurant. They must have seen her drive up and were ready to greet her. Tears burned the back of her eyes. It had been too long. When she’d been Dare’s girlfriend, the brothers had claimed her as an honorary sister, and since she’d been an only child, she’d held that attachment very dear. One of the hardest things about leaving College Park had been knowing that in addition to leaving Dare she’d also left behind a family she had grown very close to.
As she looked at them now, she began to smile. They stood in a line as if awaiting royalty and she walked up to them, one by one. “Thorn,” she said to the one closest to Dare in age. She gladly accepted the kiss he boldly placed on her lips and the hug he fondly gave her.
“Ten years is a long time to be gone, Shelly,” he said with a serious expression on his face. “Don’t try it again.”
She couldn’t help but smile upon seeing that he was bossy as ever. “I won’t, Thorn.”
She then moved to Stone, the first Westmoreland she had come to know; the one who had introduced her to Dare. Without saying a word she reached for him, hugging him tightly. After they released each other, he placed a kiss on her lips as well.
“I’m so proud of your accomplishments, Stone,” she said smiling through her tears. “And I buy every book you write.”
He chuckled. “Thanks, Shell.” His face then grew serious. “And I ditto what Thorn said. Don’t leave again.” His gaze momentarily left hers and shifted to where Dare was standing. He glared at his brother before returning his gaze to hers and added, “No matter what the reason.”
She nodded. “All right.”
Then came the twins, who were a year younger than she. She remembered them getting into all sorts of mischief, and from the gleams in their eyes, it was evident they were still up to no good. After they both placed chaste pecks on her lips, Storm said, smiling. “We told Dare that he blew his chance with you, which means you’re now available for us.”
Shelly grinned. “Oh, am I?”
“Yeah, if you want to be,” Chase said, teasingly, giving her another hug.
When Chase released her she drew a deep breath. Next came Dare.
“Dare,” she acknowledged softly, nervously.
She figured since she’d already been in his company a few times, not to mention what they had done together last night, that he would not make a big production of seeing her. She soon discovered just how wrong that assumption was when he gently pulled her into his arms and captured her lips, nearly taking her breath in the process. There was nothing chaste about the kiss he gave her and she knew it had intentionally lasted long enough to cause his brothers to speculate and to give anyone who saw them kiss something to talk about.
When he released her mouth, it was Stone who decided to make light of what Dare had done by saying. “What was that about, Dare? Were you trying to prove to Shelly that you could still kiss?”
Dare answered as his gaze held hers. He smiled at Stone’s comment and said. “Yeah, something like that.”
Shelly never had problems getting through a meal before. But then she’d never had the likes of Dare Westmoreland on a mission to seduce her. And it didn’t matter that she was sitting at a table in a restaurant next to him, surrounded by his brothers, or that the place was filled to lunch-crowd capacity.
She took several deep breaths to calm her racing heart, but it did nothing to soothe the ache throbbing through her. It all started when she caught herself staring at his hand as he lifted a water goblet to his lips. Seeing his fingers had reminded her how she had whimpered her way into ecstasy as those same fingers had stroked away ten years of sexual frustration.
She had caught his eyes dark with desire, over the water glass, and had realized he had read her thoughts. And, as