Thorn's Challenge - Brenda Jackson [8]
He wanted her, plain and simple.
First he wanted to start off kissing her, to reacquaint himself with her mouth until he knew it just as well as he knew his own. Then he wanted to get to know her body real well. He had always admired it from a distance, but now he wanted to really get into it, literally. He’d had nearly two years to reconcile himself to the reality that Tara Matthews was not just a bump-and-grind kind of woman. He hadn’t needed to get up close and personal with her to realize that fact. He could easily tell that she was the kind of woman who could stimulate everything male about him, and fate had given him the opportunity to discover what it was about her that made his senses reel and heated up his blood. The relationship he wanted to share with her would be different than the one he had shared with any woman, including Patrice. This time his heart would not be involved, only certain body parts.
“Are you in this game or not, Thorn?”
Dare’s question captured his attention and judging from his brother’s smile, Dare found Thorn’s lack of concentration amusing. Dare, the oldest brother at thirty-seven, was sheriff of College Park, a suburb of Atlanta, and didn’t miss much. “Yes, I’m in the game,” Thorn stated with annoyance, studying the cards he held in his hand once more.
“Just thought I’d ask, since you’ve lost a whole lot of money tonight.”
Dare’s words made him suddenly realized that he had lost a lot of money, three hundred dollars, to Stone who was looking at him with a downright silly grin on his face.
“It seems Thorn’s mind is on other things tonight,” Stone said chuckling. “You know what they say—you snooze, you lose—and you’ve been snoozing a lot tonight, bro.”
Thorn leaned back in his chair and glared at his brother. “Don’t get too attached to my money. I’ll recoup my losses before the night’s over.” He pushed back his chair and stood. “I think I’ll stretch my legs by walking to the living room and back.”
“Tara’s not in there, Thorn. She’s upstairs reading,” his brother Storm said smiling as he threw out his last card. At Thorn’s frown he chuckled and said. “And please don’t insult my intelligence by giving me that, I-don’t-know-what-you’re-talking-about look. We’re not stupid. We all know you have this thing for her.”
Thorn’s frown deepened. He wondered how long they’d known. His brothers were too damn observant for their own goods. Even Stone, whom he’d always considered the less observant one, seemed to have sensed the tension between him and Tara. “So what if I do?” he snapped in an agitated voice. “Any of you have a problem with it?”
Dare leaned back in his chair. “No, but evidently you do since you’ve been fighting it for nearly two years now,” he said, meeting Thorn’s frown with one of his own. “We knew from the beginning that she was your challenge and even told you so. It’s about time you come to terms with it.”
Thorn leaned forward, both palms on the table, and met his brothers’ gazes. “I haven’t come to terms with anything,” he snapped.
“But you will once you put that nasty episode with Patrice behind you,” Dare responded. “Damn, Thorn, it’s been three years since that woman. Let it go. To my way of thinking you never actually loved her anyway, you just considered her your possession and got pissed to find out you weren’t the only man who thought that. As far as I’m concerned she was bad news and I’m glad you found out her true colors when you did. You’re a smart man and I don’t think you’re into self-torture, so relax and stop being stubborn and uptight and get over what she did to you. And for Pete’s sake, please do something about your sexual frustrations. You’re driving us crazy and it’s gotten so