"Go down swinging." He caught her hair in his hand and pulled her laughing mouth to his.
It wasn't a laughing matter. She discovered that very quickly. His lips were hot and clever and had hers parting in sighing response. The lazy sweep of his tongue sent shock waves of need vibrating out to her fingertips.
It should have been familiar. She'd kissed him before, tasted him before. But those casual brotherly embraces hadn't prepared her for the instant, undeniable jolt of pure animal lust.
Part of her mind tried to draw back, to remember that this was Josh. Josh who had scorned her prized collection of dolls when she was six. Who had dared her to scramble with him on the cliffs when she was eight, then had carried her back to the house when she gashed her leg on a rock.
Josh who had smirked at her adolescent crushes on his friends, who had patiently taught her to handle a five-speed. Josh who had always been somewhere right around the corner wherever she had gone in her life.
But this was like kissing someone new. Someone dangerously exciting. Painfully tempting.
He'd been expecting it. Hadn't he dreamed, hundreds of times, of tasting her like this? Of having her go taut in his arms, her mouth answering his with a kind of banked fury?
He'd been willing to wait, just as he'd been willing to dream. Because he knew she would be his. He knew she needed to be.
But he wasn't going to make it easy.
He drew back, pleased that when her lashes slowly lifted her e
yes were dark and clouded. He hoped to God the same jittery desire that was churning in his gut was churning in hers.
"You're awfully good at that," she managed. "I'd heard rumors." She realized she was in his lap but wasn't sure if he'd pulled her there or if she'd simply crawled onto him. "I believe they might have been understated. Actually I did sneak outside one night and watch you put the moves on Babs Carstairs out by the pool. I was impressed."
Nothing she could have said could have been more perfectly designed to make desire wilt. "You spied on me and Babs?"
"Just once. Or twice. Hell, Josh, I was thirteen. Curious."
"Jesus." He remembered exactly how far things had gone with Babs out by the pool on one pretty summer night. "Did you see—No, I don't want to know."
"Laura and Kate and I all agreed she was over-mammaried."
"Over—" Before he could laugh at the term, he winced. "You and Laura and Kate. Why didn't you just sell tickets?"
"I believe it's perfectly natural for a younger sister to spy on her older brother."
His eyes glinted. "I'm not your brother."
"From where I'm sitting, I'd say that fact saves our immortal souls."
The glint turned into a grin. "You may be right. I want you, Margo. There are all manner of incredible, nasty, unspeakable things I want to do to you."
"Well." She let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. "So much for our immortal souls. Listen, I have to say this change is a little abrupt for me."
"You haven't been paying attention."
"Obviously not." She couldn't take her eyes off his. It would be wiser to, she knew. She had survived all the games men and women play by always, without exception, staying in control. Those eyes, gray and cool and confident, warned her that that wouldn't be an option with him. Not for long. "I'm paying attention now, but I'm not ready for the starting gun."
"It went off years ago." His hands skimmed up her sides, brushed her breasts. "I'm way ahead of you."
"I have to decide if I want to catch up." She laughed and scrambled off his lap. "It's just too weird, the whole concept of you and me and sex." Then she rubbed a hand over her heart because it was plunging like a mare in heat. "And it's surprisingly tempting. There was a time, not that long ago, I'd . have said what the hell, it'll be fun, and raced you to the bed."
When he rose, she laughed again and put the table between them. "I'm not being coy. I don't believe in it."
"What are you being?"
"Cautious, for once in my life." Suddenly, her eyes were sober, her mouth soft instead of teasing. "You matter too much. And I've just figured out that I matter, too. Not just out here," she said, gesturing toward her face. "Inside. I've got to straighten out my life. I've got to do something with it I can be proud of. I have all these new plans, all these new dreams. I want to make them work. No." She closed her eyes a moment. "I have to make them work. To do that I need to take time and effort. Sex is distracting if you do it right." She smiled again. "We would."
He tucked his thumbs in his pockets. "What are you going to do? Take a vow of celibacy?"