Finding himself once again growing tense, he drew yet another deep breath and forced himself to relax. He need only practice patience for a short while longer. For. soon, the opportunity would present itself to him.
Then the master sergeant would see how it felt to lose his woman.
Lily's forehead furrowed as she glanced over at Zach. Had his shoulders grown wider since the last time she'd looked? She could swear that the longer they were confined in the car, the more space he took up.
Watching his hands as they tapped a restless rhythm against the steering wheel made her strangely itchy. They were tanned, tough-skinned, and sort of beat-up-looking, marred by nicks and calluses. His nails were clean and clipped, but his left thumb sported a nail that was ripped below the quick on one side.
She looked down at her own hands with a rueful smile. They weren't exactly smooth as silk themselves. But she was a chef, so cuts and burns were a hazard of the job. Besides, compared to Zach's, hers could have belonged to some pampered magnolia blossom on one of those old-time southern plantations. With his wide palms and large-knuckled fingers, Zach's hands were just so indisputably male .
A moment later she snuck a peek at his mouth, and found her gaze lingering on the thin, pale scar that bisected his upper lip. Her nipples tightened to attention, and the spot deep between her thighs went all tight and achy, and she jerked her gaze away. Oh, man. This was not good. This was not good at all.
She was suddenly hornier than a convict out on parole, and where the heck had that come from? She'd never tried to deny Zach's hunk appeal but she had sort of blithely assumed his insulting attitude toward her would act like a vaccine against it. Surely regular booster shots of his lousy personality would render her permanently immune.
But he'd played nice today. Well, nicer, anyway, but when one was used to dealing with Baboo the Barbarian, almost human behavior made an amazing difference, and she'd found her opinion of him softening considerably. The deciding factor, of course, had been that hint of vulnerability he'd displayed this morning talking about his parents. It had tugged at every sensibility she possessed, worming its way more deeply into one of her soft spots every time her thoughts drifted back to it.
And wasn't that just too pathetic for words? Good grief, women had been falling for that tough-guy-disguising-the-hurt-inner-boy ploy for centuries. She shifted in her seat, straightening her spine defensively. Well, if she couldn't be smarter than that, she'd simply have to be vigilant. Because no way on earth did she plan to fall victim to that sorry cliche.
Still, sneaking looks at his mouth, she couldn't help but speculate. Zach was well traveled and came from a monied background that usually landed its brethren deep in the Old School Tie network. So how in heaven's name had he gotten from there to the macho Marine thing he had going? And why did the conviction keep sliding into her mind that far from preppie polite, he'd kiss like a guy from the wrong side of the tracks?
She pressed her spine hard into her seat back. Good glory, Lily, are you out of your cotton-picking mind? The man thinks you're a money-grubbing slut, and you're wondering how hekisses? Why not just bash your head against the nearest concrete surface while you're at it? It would involve about the same level of intelligence .
Swiveling to glare at Zach as if he'd been the one to suggest she rate his sex appeal, she snapped, "If you're so darned concerned about your sister being taken to the cleaners by every Tom, Dick, and Harry she encounters, why the heck didn't you ever bother to teach her some basic money management skills?"
Zach's hands, which he had consciously been keeping occupied to prevent himself doing something real stupid with them, froze on the steering wheel midtap. Then he turned to stare at Lily. Where the hell had that come from? Was this the same woman who'd been so relentlessly, annoyingly cheerful all day? It didn't take Sigmund Freud to know what his problem was, but what had gotten her panties in a twist all of a sudden?
When it came right down to it, however, he really didn't give a good goddamn what her reasons were. All he knew was that he was ripe for a fight… and she'd just obligingly hand-delivered one right to his door.
Turning, he braced his arm along the back of the seat and gave her a slow, insolent appraisal. Not until hot color flooded the surface of her skin did he drawl, "And you consider this to be your business why , sweetheart?"
"I consider it to be my business, bud, because Glynnis is only a few days shy of her twenty-fifth birthday, and she didn't even know the bare bones of handling her finances until I started giving her some pointers a couple of months ago."
"Oh, yeah, I can just imagine how that worked. It takes a real humanitarian to point her money into your bank account."
" What money? Have you ever paid the slightest attention to your sister's struggle to make ends meet? Yes, she lives in that lovely beach house, and her allowance is generous for a young woman her age. But it must be obvious even to you that she barely has a rudimentary grasp of economics. She was sent to European finishing schools and raised to expect the very best. No one ever bothered to tell her the reasons she couldn't keep spending in the manner to which she was accustomed before I sat down with her and explained why it was no longer viable. For heaven's sake, Zach, where her contemporaries are shopping Nordstrom Rack if they're lucky. she's still buying couture. She didn't even know how to balance her darn checkbook until I taught her!"
He stared at her. There was a ring of truth in her voice that he didn't want to hear, so he shoved it away with a flatly stated, "Bullshit." But agitation, born from an old familiar guilt, began to churn in his gut.
"It is not bull crap," she said hotly. "You know what I think? I think you must be one of those control freaks who likes keeping his womenfolk in ignorance. What is it, some kind of power trip that provides your kicks or something?"
His sister was the only family he had left, and Zach had been on edge for three days, worrying about her. Anger and guilt and a sense of his own failure exploded in his gut and rose in a red tide to erode his control, and reacting for perhaps the first time in his adult life without considering the consequences of his actions, he grasped Lily by the shoulders and hauled her half out of her seat. Pulling her toward him over the console, he bent his head until their noses were a fraction of an inch apart and rasped, "You are full of shit, lady, you know that? If I was even half the control freak you accuse me of being I'd still have more candidates for victims than I'd know what to do with. I've got big, tough Marines to push around—I sure as hell don't need to dominate my little sister to get my rocks off."
To his surprise she didn't have an immediate smartass comeback, and he was on the verge of congratulating himself for finally scoring a point off her when he became aware that she was staring fixedly at his mouth. He stilled… and felt the quiver that ran through her.
Slowly, her gaze rose to meet his. She swallowed and her tongue stole out to slick across her lower lip, and his dick shot from dormant to raging hard-on so fast he was surprised his little head didn't get a concussion rapping against his fly. He dropped her so quick her breasts bounced as she plopped back in her seat, and he reared back against his door, scrubbing his ringers across his forehead.
Jesus. What the hell just happened here? Had she really been looking at his mouth like she'd like to take a big bite out of it, or had the strain he was under finally popped a vein in his brain? Then his eyes narrowed. Or maybe she was switching her attention from his sister to him. After all, he had a lot more money than Glynnis.
That theory would have held together a lot better if Lily looked anything like a woman who controlled men through sex right this moment. Instead, she sat there blinking, and when their eyes met, scalding color climbed her throat.