Those Sweet Words

Chapter 2-1

Chapter 2

AFTER DINNER, ATHENA DECLARED dishes as someone else’s responsibility and disappeared for a poker game with a couple of their foster siblings, who’d come to town for the wedding. Ari had gone up to watch, and Maggie holed up to do a little telecommuting for her firm in L.A. Wanting some quiet and a chance to find a little balance again, Pru shooed Kennedy and Flynn off to the family room for a visit. It seemed she hadn’t been able to quite catch her breath since she fell off the ladder and into his arms.

What was it about accents that were so damned sexy?

She could hear Flynn’s clearly from the family room as she washed and stacked. “Tell me true, deifiúr beag, how are you?” There was a wealth of affection in the term, and Pru wondered what it meant.

“I’m home,” Kennedy said simply.

Flynn made a noise of disbelief. “You’re as much a gypsy as me. You expect me to believe you’re really okay with putting down roots again?”

“I enjoyed my travels, but you had me pegged that last night in Kerry. I was running.”

“From Xander?”

“From mistakes. It’s more complicated than that, but I’m in too good a mood to rehash all of it now. Suffice it to say, I don’t have any reason to run anymore. I’ve loved him most of my life, Flynn.”

“You’re really happy here?”

“I really am. I’ve missed my family. I still want to travel some, and I will for the book, but I don’t feel the need to go anymore.” She gave a contented sigh, and Pru could hear the smile in her voice when she spoke again. “Love will do that to you.”

“And I suppose now you’ll tell me I only need the love of a good woman?”

Pru figured a man like him must’ve had the love of more than a few. Because, damn, her long neglected lady parts were sitting up and taking notice. And unless she was very much mistaken, he’d taken some notice of her, too. Aside from the whole falling on him part.

Just what would it be like to have Flynn Bohannon in her bed?

Even as the thought formed, she pushed it away again. He wasn’t her type. He was charismatic and gorgeous, with a serious case of wanderlust. A born heartbreaker. She’d loved a man like him once with all her heart, and he’d left her shattered and alone. Pru knew better than to expect anything else. Maybe, if she only had herself to think about, she’d consider it. But she was a mother now—or nearly. Her focus had to be Ari.

Still, it couldn’t hurt to just look. Not looking at a man like him had to be illegal in some countries. Pru paused just beyond the threshold of the family room to do just that. He was so…well put together. He had a swimmer’s build—long, lean limbs, with powerful arms, as she had reason enough to know. All that wavy, black hair fell into his eyes and just begged for fingers to run through it. Would it be as soft as it looked? What about the neatly trimmed beard? She’d never been a fan of beards before, but Flynn’s worked, framing that strong jaw. Watching him in easy conversation with Kennedy, his bright blue eyes twinkling beneath a thick fringe of lashes—why were they always wasted on men?—she wondered if there’d ever been anything between them beyond friendship. There was no question that Kennedy had always been in love with Xander, but Flynn had seemed poleaxed at the announcement of her engagement. Was that because it seemed fast or because he thought there’d been a chance for something more?

“Are you really ready for this?” Flynn asked. “Isn’t there anything else you want to do before you tie on the old ball and chain? Any carousing or adventures?”

Pru stepped into the room. “Considering she did most of her carousing with Xander…”

“True story,” Kennedy admitted.

Flynn winced as he sat up, before his grin spread wide. “Kennedy Reynolds, were you a wild child?”

Kennedy feigned an innocent face.

Pru gave her the side eye before holding her thumb and forefinger a fraction of an inch apart.

Kennedy shrugged. “Well, maybe a little.”

Pru zeroed in on the hand Flynn rubbed along his nape. “Are you hurt?” Had she injured the poor man by falling on him?

“What? Oh, no. I’m just all kinked from the car. It’ll go away in a day or two.”

“Pru can fix that. She’s a massage therapist. You should let her work on you.”

That benign statement sent Pru’s brain skittering down a path that involved Flynn, naked on her table, with nothing but a sheet covering that magnificent—

“Well, if you think you can sort out this knot before bed, I’d probably sleep better for it.”

Pru blinked. “Sure, I can do that. It’s the least I can do for crashing into you.”

“Better me than the ground. It would hardly do for the maid of honor to break a leg days before the wedding. Where do you want me?”

Anywhere I can get you. The thought bloomed before she could stop it, along with heat in her cheeks. “Um…”

“Should I sit or lie down?”

For the massage, you s*x-starved i***t. Get a grip.

“I’ll see what I can do here, and if you need something further, I’ll get you on my table. Move over to the ottoman.”

He complied, scooting to the back edge as instructed.

Rubbing her hands together to warm them, Pru moved behind him. She considered asking him to take off his shirt, but given the direction of her thoughts, that seemed like a bad idea waiting to happen.

I am a professional, damn it.

Determined, she laid her hands on his shoulders, switching into professional mode and analyzing his muscles by touch, searching out the size and shape of the knots, finding their edges.

“So, Pru, what will it take to bribe you into sharing stories? I feel like I need to hear about Kennedy the wild child.”

“Oh, I’m not sure even you are that charming,” she teased.

“Is that a challenge, Miss Reynolds?” He tipped his head back to meet her eyes and his hair brushed over her hands. Yeah, soft as it looked.

Pru’s pulse jumped.

A professional charmer, she reminded herself, digging into the knots. Better to steer clear.

“Not even your blarney can overcome the sacred bonds of sisterhood,” Kennedy announced.

Pru laughed. “Sure, let’s go with that.”

Her sister gave a mock glare. “It hardly matters anymore. Xander’s reformed now that he’s the sheriff.” She grinned and gave a saucy wink. “Mostly.”

“He’s the sheriff?”

“Interim. But that’s just until the formal election in November. He’s going to win by a landslide.”

“Sheriff or no, I bet you’d still be able to talk him into skinny dipping at Opal Springs,” Pru said.

“Skinny dipping, is it now?” Flynn wanted to know, drawing out his Irish as he looked to Kennedy.

“No better way to spend a hot summer night,” Kennedy said.

“I can think of a few.” The words were out before Pru could stop them. She rushed to cover her gaffe. “But I’m pretty sure y’all had that covered, too.”

Flynn’s laughter was pure delight. “What about you, Pru? Did you ever take a walk on the wild side and swim in the buff?”

Kennedy answered for her. “No way. Pru is the good, responsible sister, who never stepped a toe out of line and made the rest of us look bad. We might have hated her a little for it, if not for the fact that she was also the one who covered our asses.”

The good, responsible sister.

It was undeniably true. She’d lived her life following the rules. She liked rules. Liked order. Life ran smoother that way. So why did the teasing rankle?

“The poison ivy you got on your ass was hardly a motivation to follow your example,” Pru countered.

Kennedy winced. “Okay, you make a good point. But thinking back to that summer…still gonna call it worth it.”

Satisfied she’d mapped the problem areas, Pru began to press and knead at Flynn’s shoulders. She didn’t have any memories like that. Of something reckless and fun that she could look back on to say she’d really lived. She’d always done the safe thing. She’d needed that after her childhood before Joan. Lord knew, now that she was taking on a child of her own, safe was the only option. And that thought was just a little bit depressing.

Beneath her hands, Flynn tensed, sucking in a breath before relaxing back against her with a groan of pure, unadulterated pleasure that had Pru’s thoughts veering in a wholly unprofessional direction. “Jaysus, woman, where did you get those hands? That feels incredible.”

The heat and strength of his back pressed against her front felt pretty incredible, too, and made her wonder all about the other ways she could get him loose and limber. And sweaty. She really wanted him sweaty.

“Told you she was good,” Kennedy said.

Pru swallowed against a throat gone dry. “Better?”

“Much.”

She stepped back. “Well, then. I’ll leave you two to visit.” She needed to get the hell out of here before she lost her apparently flimsy self-control.

Flynn rose and caught her hand as she started to move past. It was the second time he’d done that today, and it flustered her even more than she already was. He flashed her a devastating smile. “Thank you.”

Two simple words, delivered in that unreasonably sexy brogue, left her weak in the knees. Then he lifted her hand to his lips, peering up at her through those thick lashes. “Hands this talented should be pampered,” he said.

Christ almighty.

Digging deep, Pru managed to find a smile in return. “Nice try, but I’m still not telling you all of Kennedy’s secrets.”

Her sister hooted with laugher. Flynn straightened, wholly unabashed, and released her, but not before dragging his thumb down the center of her palm.

Heat flaring low in her belly, Pru made her escape.