Buch lesen: «The Last Marchetti Bachelor»

Madison stepped away from Luke.

Since their one unforgettable night together, Luke was constantly on Maddie’s mind.

When she was close to him, any semblance of her lawyerly deductive reasoning flew right out the window. And when they were in the same room, she felt a physical ache to be in his arms.

Maybe if she had never known the magic of letting him possess her…

And here she’d thought that finally losing her virginity would simplify her life. Ha!

She still wasn’t certain why she’d let Luke—client, confirmed bachelor and longtime buddy—be the first.

But if things could get more complicated, she wasn’t sure how….

The Last Marchetti Bachelor
Teresa Southwick

www.millsandboon.co.uk

For Karen Taylor Richman and Joan Marlow Golan.

Thanks for encouraging me to take a chance.

I hope you’re as pleased with the results as I am.

TERESA SOUTHWICK

is a native Californian who has recently moved to Texas. Living with her husband of twenty-five years and two handsome sons, she is surrounded by heroes. Reading has been her passion since she was a girl. She couldn’t be more delighted that her dream of writing full-time has come true. Her favorite things include: holding a baby, the fragrance of jasmine, walks on the beach, the patter of rain on the roof and, above all, happy endings. Teresa also writes historical romance novels under the same name.

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Epilogue

Chapter One

“I understand leaving without telling me goodbye.” Luke Marchetti’s deep, accusing tone said he didn’t understand at all. “But I don’t get why you didn’t tell me you were a virgin.”

Madison Wainright froze in her bedroom doorway and took a deep breath.

Turning to face him she whispered, “Luke.”

“In the flesh.”

And what exceptional flesh he had. He stood beside her queen-size four-poster bed, his thick dark hair still damp from his shower. His smoldering bad-boy good looks took her breath away—the well-shaped nose, square jaw shadowed with whiskers, and dormant dimples. When he scowled, like now, they were barely there. But she’d seen him flash a smile, unleashing dimples that looked as if a sculptor had pressed thumbs into soft clay. The effect could melt most feminine hearts. Except hers, of course. But with that white terry cloth towel loosely knotted and slung low on his lean hips, he could be the poster boy for tall, dark, dangerous and tempting.

“Why, Maddie?”

While he’d showered, she’d debated whether or not she could face him after doing “the deed.” Finally she’d slipped on jeans and a T-shirt. Now she pressed a cardigan against her breasts, as if that could shield her from his gaze. Since he’d already seen her without a stitch, it was rather like closing the barn door after the horse got loose.

“Why am I leaving my own condo? Or why didn’t I tell you about the ‘V’ issue?”

“Either. Both.” He lifted his powerful shoulders in a shrug.

He was her three-dimensional definition of the word hunk, not that she’d had gobs of personal experience evaluating the opposite sex in various stages of undress. But she was nothing if not opinionated. And her opinion was that she liked his tall, lean body. She liked the hair on his chest.

Stubbornly she resisted the urge to sigh. Even now she remembered the way her right palm had tingled as she’d run her hand across the oh-so-masculine contours. Now, in the daylight, she added visual to her tactile memory and saw that the dusting of hair tapered to a vee just above the spot where his pesky plain white towel tenaciously clung as if by magic to his hips.

He looked out of place in her frilly, feminine surroundings: lace curtains covered the windows; vases filled with flowers adorned the dresser and nightstand; wreaths and bows and pictures of Victorian women hung on the walls; even the bed, covered in white eyelet, shouted that this was a woman’s world. The sight of floral sheets, twisted and tangled from loving Luke the night before, flooded her with guilt.

She was no longer Southern California’s last twenty-five-year-old virgin. But, why, why, why had she let it be Luke?

She swallowed twice before regaining the power of speech. “I realize this is my place. As a thoughtful hostess concerned about your privacy, I figured it would be better if I slipped out quietly.” She tried for an impersonal, businesslike tone, so the breathless quality in her voice was a dismal failure. “Just call me Martha Stewart,” she added, struggling for lightness.

Ignoring her humor, he asked, “Better for who?”

His manner was almost friendly and conversational, but his blue eyes narrowed at the same time as his full, sensual lips thinned. She knew she would never forget the feel of his mouth on several of her most super-sensitive spots.

“Better for both of us—to spare us the awkward morning-after-the-night-before dialogue.”

“Sharing the experience afterward is the best part. But you wouldn’t know about that, since it was your first time.”

“Are you making fun of me?”

“Never. I’m annoyed that you neglected to tell me.” He crossed his arms over his chest.

The defensive pose limited her view. But her disappointment was mitigated by the impressive muscles that bunched in his biceps.

“Okay. Busted. You’re right. I’ve never done this before. On top of that, I don’t read women’s magazines. I don’t know the top ten topics of discussion the morning after spending the night with a man for the first time. Or the politically correct behavior. My experience is in the courtroom, not the bedroom. I don’t like feeling inept. There are things I can do to get ready for court, but there’s no way to prepare for—what we did last night. I was just trying to spare both of us an uncomfortable situation. I’m sorry I was such a disappointment.”

His nostrils flared slightly, as if he was a beast in the wild scenting his mate—again. “I never said I was disappointed. Just the opposite.”

She met his gaze, and her breath caught at the primitive look in his eyes. Electric-blue, she thought. What does that mean? Probably that she would get zapped. Again. Which was exactly why she’d wanted to slip out quietly, even though this was her place.

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, making his mouth seem even more exciting, if possible, than last night. She already knew that one touch of his lips to hers made her other four senses stand at attention, anxiously anticipating their turn.

Somehow, she had to sever the sensuous spell surrounding her. She studied his face and said the first thing that came to mind. “You didn’t shave.”

“I don’t have a razor. And a good thing, too. If I’d taken the time, you’d have escaped.”

Still in the doorway, with freedom so near, she clutched her sweater tighter. “Escape. Right. I do have work to do.”

She sounded like a moron but hoped he wouldn’t notice. Or that he would be noble and just let her off the hook.

“What’s your rush? It’s Sunday. Even a workaholic like you is off today. If nothing else, city hall has the good sense to close the courts on the weekend.”

Apparently, he wasn’t feeling especially noble this morning. “True. But most of a lawyer’s work is done before setting foot in the courtroom. Besides I have groceries to buy, and—”

“Hold it, Maddie.”

Maddie. He was the only one who ever called her that. It had been her undoing last night. She’d always been Madison. Her mother had insisted on it. She’d picked up the habit of correcting anyone who tried to shorten her name. Why had she never admonished Luke?

“What?” she asked.

“Ever since Nick, you vowed never to get involved with another Marchetti man. I know for a fact that you’ve never been with another man. I have to know—why me?”

He was right about her vow. She’d made it just over a year ago, after her relationship with his brother Nick hadn’t worked out. His heart belonged to another woman. That didn’t come as a big surprise. She wasn’t the sort of woman men fell for. Growing up the way she had tended to do that to a girl. The split with his brother had been amicable, and Luke had offered her a shoulder to lean on. Which she had refused. Even though his shoulder was just one of many parts to admire in such a fine specimen of a man.

Her career had to be her focus. She didn’t want an intimate relationship. Although it would be a humdinger of a challenge to have a relationship less intimate than she had shared with Luke last night. So what in God’s name had possessed her to sleep with him? Because he swept her away? He had, but it was so not like her to lose control.

She just didn’t have any answers. “Objection. The question is irrelevant.”

“It’s relevant to me.” He sighed heavily. “You’re twenty-five. You’re a beautiful, green-eyed redhead.”

“You should get your eyes checked.” She pointed to her nose. “These freckles are hateful little suckers and pretty unattractive.”

“I like them. I imagine a lot of guys like them. In fact, I bet guys hit on you all the time. So why now and why me?”

“I wish I knew.”

If only she could chalk up her weakness and temporary suspension of brain function to too much liquor at his brother’s wedding the night before. But she’d only had the one glass of champagne Luke had fetched for her to toast Alex and Frannie, and she hadn’t finished that. Luke had been attentive from the moment she’d arrived at the elder Marchetti’s home without a date for the wedding. Her law firm represented the legal interests of Marchetti’s Incorporated. Since she’d become a friend of the family, she was the representative chosen to attend. Alone. Luke had been alone, too, which she didn’t understand since he was a babe magnet.

He’d just said guys must hit on her all the time, and she could say, “Right back at you.” A man who looked like him had to give the general female population whiplash when he walked into a room. Yet in all the time she’d known him, he’d never settled on one woman. Why in the world would she be foolish enough to believe she could be the one?

But she’d been grateful for his presence beside her at the fairy-tale June wedding. For some reason, as the festivities had wound down, she’d been oddly reluctant to return to her lonely town house. He’d taken her for a drive. When it came out in conversation that he’d never seen her place, she’d invited him over. One thing had led to another. But he deserved a more articulate answer to his question about why him.

“I’m not sure why, Luke,” she started. “Motive and opportunity.”

He flashed a grin and treated her to the world-class dimples that made her knees weak. “Spoken like an up and coming attorney.”

Cursing the fact that she hadn’t made a quicker exit, she met his intense, blue-eyed gaze. “That’s right. I’m a lawyer on the fast track. I was handpicked by Jim Mallery to take over his clients when he retired. Virgin, high-powered attorney is an oxymoron. Sort of.” She shrugged.

“That doesn’t answer my question. Why me?”

“That’s the opportunity part.”

His lips thinned for a split second. “I was hoping for something less premeditated. Something more along the lines of that you lost your head and couldn’t help yourself.”

She hoped he would never know that he’d just hit the nail on the head. But losing her head was a half step from taking a blowtorch to her heart. Burned once she was naive; burned again she was just stupid. Nick fell for someone else because he realized she, Madison, wasn’t love material. She wouldn’t make the mistake of letting herself be vulnerable again.

“I would have appreciated advance warning that it was your first time,” he said.

“Why? What difference would it have made for you to know that I’m a vir—” Heat started in her neck and radiated upward into her cheeks. “I mean that I was a virgin.”

He pushed away from the bedpost and walked toward her. He stopped at a point where another of his long strides would put him a whisper away from her. A delicious fluttering started in her abdomen.

“It makes a big difference,” he said, an angry edge to his voice. “Number one, I might have backed off. Number two, it’s a big responsibility.”

“Why?”

The word popped out of her mouth before she could stop it. Followed quickly by mortification. Curiosity had put her in the top 3 percent of her law school class. Now she just felt socially backward and pretty much humiliated.

“A woman’s first time has an impact on every subsequent encounter. There are things a guy can do to make it easier—to make it good.”

“It was good,” she blurted out.

The slow half smile that turned up the corners of his mouth excited her at the same time it made her nervous. Had she just given him some sort of secret to use against her?

“I’m glad,” he said. Then he frowned. “I don’t buy the opportunity part of your explanation. This is me,” he said, tapping the chest she’d so recently admired. “I know guys must come on to you all the time. You still haven’t explained why me.”

She sighed. “I’ll answer that as best I can, Luke, but I’m not sure I know myself. I was caught up in the magic of the wedding.” She smiled, and couldn’t help that it was sad around the edges. “It was wonderful to be a part of a big happy family again.”

“You’re still hung up on Nick?” His voice was just this side of a growl. “Did it bother you hearing their announcement about Abby’s pregnancy?”

“I was never hung up on Nick.” There was no point in elaborating. He didn’t need to know that guys figured out fast that she wasn’t lovable. “I realized that it wasn’t him as much as your family I missed. I never had that, a large, loving family,” she said wistfully.

Or one that loved her at all.

“I thought you had a brother.”

“I do. Older. But we’re not close. Not with my parents, either.”

“So you were raised by wolves?”

She laughed. “Just the thought would give my mother the vapors. No. Boarding schools, accelerated classes, a law degree. Oh, my,” she said, struggling for humor as a defense against the assault of lonely, painful childhood memories.

“I think there’s more to it than that.”

Uh-oh. This was exactly what she’d been trying to avoid. “Don’t, Luke.”

“Don’t what?”

“See things that aren’t there. I’m not looking to get involved.”

“With me?”

“With any man. But the last Marchetti bachelor tops the list.”

“I’m not looking to get involved, either.”

“Good,” she said, popping that tiny bubble of disappointment before it even got started. “Why not?” she asked before she could stop herself. Her penchant for blurting out questions was her greatest strength and weakness.

He lifted one muscular shoulder in a casual shrug. “I figure after all this time of it not happening, it’s just not in the cards for me. But there’s no reason why we can’t be friends.”

After what we did last night? she wanted to shout at him. But she kept her cool and said, “I don’t want to waste your time.”

“Shouldn’t I get to decide if it’s a waste? It’s my time.”

“Which would be squandered on me. I’m offering you a painless out.”

“You think love hurts?”

“Exactly,” she said. Mostly she meant loving and not having it returned.

He shook his head, and she hated the pitying look he leveled at her. “I’m not sure I buy your explanation.”

She shrugged. “Every crime has motive and opportunity.”

“And you think what we did was a crime?”

“Maybe more like a misdemeanor. But certainly not very smart. Don’t you agree?”

“Not by a long shot.” His eyes narrowed. “I don’t buy this act of yours. You’re not a swinging-singles woman. In spite of your profession, you’re not a manipulator. You’re not a calculating person. I think for the first time maybe in a long time, you let yourself feel. We were good together, Maddie. We like each other. You got caught up in the moment. You already admitted it was good. From a woman’s first time, there’s nowhere to go but up.”

Oops. She had given him a weapon to use against her. “It can’t happen again, Luke.”

“It could,” he said. He raised one dark eyebrow in a suggestive expression that easily kicked up her heart rate. “If you’d let it.”

“I won’t. Even if I wanted to, which I don’t,” she hastily added, hoping he wouldn’t suspect that she’d just lied. “Your family is one of Addison, Abernathy and Cooke’s oldest and most influential clients.”

“But you dated Nick.”

“That was before I was handpicked to handle your company’s legal business. Now there’s a huge potential for conflict of interest.”

“There’s no conflict. I’m definitely interested.”

“Be serious, Luke.”

“I’ve never been more serious. I don’t see how us being friends would be a problem.”

“Because you’re not a lawyer. At the very least, a close personal association with a client suggests the appearance of impropriety. And even if I believed in love, it would be unprofessional of me to continue seeing you. I’m nothing if not professional.”

His gaze raked her from head to toe. “In jeans and T-shirt you look about eighteen. But denim on you in court would sway judge, jury and opposing male counsel to whatever you were selling.”

“You’re not helping,” she said, blushing furiously.

“Good. I hope I’m making it hard as hell for you to dismiss me.”

“I’m not dismissing you. But all we can achieve is a friendly working relationship.”

“We achieved way more than that. And we can’t go back, Maddie.”

Yes, she could. And there was no time like the present. “The name is Madison.”

“Since when?”

“Since we woke up in bed together.”

Four weeks after Maddie—correction Madison—had shut him down, Luke sat in his office trying to focus on the spreadsheet program staring at him from his computer screen.

It was almost quitting time, but his bachelor condo held little appeal. And his thoughts kept straying to a petite, green-eyed redhead, her shoulder-length hair curly and wild after he’d run his hands through it.

He leaned back in his leather chair, linking his fingers before resting his hands on his abdomen. He was CFO of Marchetti’s Incorporated. The family restaurant business was thriving, and he had a million things to do. But even the word spreadsheet brought visions of him and Maddie tangling her bedsheets into his mind, in direct competition with his concentration. Four weeks, for God’s sake. She’d made it clear that they had no chance. Why couldn’t he get her off his mind?

He was over thirty. He’d known lots of women. He’d done more than his share of dating and a good percentage of those dates had ended up with him spending the night. But he’d easily forgotten them. Why not Maddie? And, dammit, she would never be Madison to him. Frustration curled and knotted in his belly. Did a redhead’s legendary temper spill over into stubbornness? Because she’d picked a hell of a time to display it. What was wrong with having a friendship? He knew better than to ask for forever after.

He got the feeling that her hesitation to get involved went deeper than she’d told him. He supposed it could have something to do with him, with the fact that he was the black sheep of the family. The only one with blue eyes, more keep-to-himself than outgoing, and the only one just under six feet tall. Except for his sister, Rosie. The point was, he was different. He figured he’d caught a recessive gene not to fall in love; therefore, home, hearth, family wasn’t in the cards for him.

So why should Maddie take a chance on a guy like that? Especially after her relationship with his brother had fizzled?

Still, Luke would bet his Marchetti’s Incorporated stock options that Maddie had been telling the truth about not being heartbroken. After discovering she was a virgin, he was even more convinced. Or was that just wishful thinking?

The intercom on his desk buzzed, startling him from his thoughts. He leaned over and punched the button. “Yes?”

“Miss Wainright to see you,” his secretary said. “And I’m leaving for the day.”

Just the sound of her name booted up his pulse. “Send her in,” he answered, trying to keep the hot-damn-I-can’t-believe-she’s-here tone out of his voice. “Have a nice evening, Cathy.”

“Thank you,” she answered before clicking off.

Maybe Maddie had changed her mind and they could achieve more than a friendly working relationship. What other reason could she have for coming to his office? Glancing at his computer monitor, he was reminded that she had been handpicked by a senior partner to handle his family’s legal affairs. There could be a dozen things other than his scintillating personality and animal magnetism that had brought her here. She was unpredictable; the night spent in his arms was proof of that.

He’d best not count on anything with the enigmatic Ms. Wainright. Until notified to the contrary, he would assume she’d come to see him about business concerning Marchetti’s Incorporated. The more business they did together, the sooner he would be able to get her out of his mind. That’s the way it always worked for him.

His office door opened, and the counselor in question walked in. “Hello, Luke.”

“Hi.” He stood up. His father had drilled it into all four of the Marchetti boys to stand when a lady entered the room.

“Do you have a minute?” she asked.

“Of course. Take a seat,” he said holding out a hand to indicate the leather wing chairs in front of his desk.

He’d rolled up the sleeves of his white dress shirt to just below his elbows first thing that morning and loosened his tie. He resisted the urge to straighten it and button his cuffs. With Maddie, he’d experienced an unforgettable, intimate night. He was a loner, not charming like his brothers. He’d learned forever wasn’t in the cards for him. But he couldn’t shut the door on the present, either. No way were the barriers going back up between them. At least on his part.

In fact, he figured it couldn’t hurt to remind her. “To what do I owe the pleasure of a visit from the golden girl of Addison, Abernathy and Cooke?”

The color in her cheeks deepened to a becoming rose, and he knew his barb had produced the desired result. Her blush highlighted her soft skin and the freckles dotting her nose. He liked the way she couldn’t quite hide them with makeup. There were exactly six. He knew because he’d kissed every last one.

She was still standing halfway between the closed door and his desk. Her hesitation to come closer and to answer him put a bump in his ego road, slowing it down. In fact he became uneasy. Usually direct, forthright and no-nonsense—the fact of her virginity being the only exception—this was a Maddie he’d never seen before. Her restrained behavior was unusual. Not to mention the worry puckering her forehead.

“It’s nice to see you, Maddie.”

She flinched. “I asked you to call me Madison.”

“I remember.” He’d always been good with figures, but hers was his favorite. He recalled every curve, every square inch of silky, sweet-smelling skin in spite of the tailored green suit she wore with the jacket buttoned to her neck. “So what brings you here? Business or pleasure?”

“It’s personal, Luke.”

Was she finally beginning to see things his way? She wasn’t exactly wearing the expression of a woman looking to pick up where they’d left off. In fact, she looked pale, and tired.

“What is it, Maddie? Are you okay? You look like someone died.”

“Someone did.”

His chest felt tight and he had trouble drawing in air. The names of his loved ones flashed through his mind. Ma, Dad, Nick, Joe, Alex, Rosie, their spouses, his niece and nephew. Then common sense asserted itself. If something had happened to one of them, Maddie wouldn’t be standing in front of him with the news. Come to think of it, as long as his family was fine, he couldn’t see that he had much of an emotional investment in the person she was here to discuss. In fact, he’d go it one better. Whoever had died couldn’t directly affect him, so whatever had brought her here after four long weeks was a lucky break for him.

He took a deep breath. “Okay. I’ll bite. Who died?”

She swallowed once, then walked toward him. Finally she sat down in one of the chairs facing his desk and set her briefcase on the floor beside her. “I don’t know how to tell you this.”

“Just spit it out. Who died?”

She swallowed twice, then looked him straight in the eye. “Your father. Not Tom Marchetti,” she added quickly.

“Since I’m not adopted, I haven’t a clue what you’re talking about.”

“There’s no easy way to say this. Tom Marchetti is not your biological father, Luke. The man who is—was—your father passed away.”