Free Off Limits by Lia Slater Page B

words. But the idea of playing around with Kara, seeing her vulnerable and under his control, was something he’d fantasized about for more years than he wanted to admit.
    From adolescent teen to grown man, his thoughts had been dominated by this woman more than any other. He’d tried to move on after she married Clint. After all, it had only been a stupid heart-wrenching crush that motivated him to proposition her on her wedding day.
    The intense love he felt for her today hadn’t blossomed until a few years ago. Along with a friendship he refused to lose.
    His brother was a fool for letting Kara go, but their divorce gave Austin the perfect opportunity to try what hadn’t worked ten years ago.
    And maybe he’d make her squirm just a bit, to get back at her for breaking his heart. Yeah, he’d only been a kid back then, but he still remembered how she’d looked on her wedding day. Dazed and unsure. Like she’d needed a knight in shining armor to stomp in and demand she not go through with the vows.
    He’d wanted so badly to be that man, to save her from binding her life to his brother, who, even back then, was untrustworthy. A cheater. Austin had wanted to save her bad enough to open his big mouth and tell her how he’d desired her ever since he laid eyes on her.
    Nothing had changed. In fact, his desire had only grown over the years. She’d gotten more beautiful and sensual with age. And as she sat before him, her breathing elevated, her body tense, he wondered if she felt the same about him.
    Only one way to find out. Years of fantasizing led up to this moment and he planned to take full advantage.
    Her jet black locks shimmered off the lamplight and cascaded past her shoulders in waves. The same curls had called to him on many occasions, and the urge to stroke his fingers through them couldn’t be denied now.
    She shivered under his touch as he pulled her silky locks into a loose ponytail. The scent of calming lavender drifted up to his nose and he inhaled. He loved the way she smelled. The way she talked. The way she walked.
    He loved that she listened to him when he was having a bad day. He loved it when she took time out of her hectic career as the head RN at one of Colorado’s busiest emergency rooms to call him and tell him about something funny or strange that had happened to her.
    He loved it all.
    Too much. And he’d missed her like crazy the past six months.
    “Austin.” Her voice trembled intimately, and his cock tightened against his jeans.
    “Yeah, sugar.” He was lost in the soft silken heaven. His fingers weaved around the strands and tugged lightly on her scalp as he gripped.
    Like a fucking dream come true.
    How had he survived the years knowing she was being touched by his brother? Hell, he didn’t want to remember that. Only the here and now.
    “Please let me go so we can talk.”
    “Talk?” He’d had more than his fill of talking with Kara. Countless afternoons where he’d weaseled his way into a lunch date. Many evenings when Clint was away on a “business trip” and Austin just happened to be in the neighborhood with a pizza and a bottle of wine.
    He’d kept his hands to himself then because of his loyalty to his brother. But now that Kara was single...
    Well, talking was at the bottom of his long list of Things to Do with Kara Reynolds .
    “Yes. Talk.” She swiveled her head to look up at him, making him loosen his grip on her hair. Her long dark lashes hovered over her baby blues. So many times he’d caught himself getting lost in their eternal indigo depths. Not only were her eyes sexy as hell, they spoke of her intelligence and playful attitude. “You said we have some things to settle. What did you mean by that?”
    Her voice was lower than he’d ever heard it. An intimate husky whisper made only for him. A tone she’d never dared use before as his friend and sister-in-law.
    All the lines they’d drawn for themselves before were blurred, and it excited the hell out