Taming the Lone Wolff(75)
Sitting on the settee to put on her shoes, she looked up at him. “We promised we’d help decorate. I don’t want your sister sending out a search party.”
“You’re right.” He shrugged into his shirt and ran his hands through his short hair. “We might as well get it over with.” He reached for her one more time and kissed her forehead. “But tonight you’re mine—right?”
Winnie laughed ruefully. “After what happened just now, do you really think I’ll say no to you later?”
Larkin’s grin was wicked. He squeezed her butt. “Who knows? Women are capricious creatures.”
Winnie wasn’t about to get into a battle she was destined to lose. Already today she had let him talk her into sex when she’d been convinced it was a bad idea. She really didn’t have a leg to stand on.
Larkin insisted on descending the ladder first. Which meant his big arms surrounded her as she backed down. Thus giving him a far-too-close vantage point of her legs and other parts. When she stood on the landing, his eyes were hot. “What if I can’t wait until tonight?” He backed her into the ladder, his hips anchoring hers. “It won’t take long.”
She realized he was serious. And his need and hunger did something to her insides. A combination of smug happiness and desperate yearning filled her like a helium balloon. For a man like Larkin Wolff to want her so badly healed a few of the rough edges of her youthful pain.
Before she could answer one way or the other, a man’s voice sounded from below. “I know you’re up there. Come on, you two. Annalise is breathing fire because we’re all late.”
Winnie looked down, way down, at the top of Kieran’s head. “We’re coming,” she called, tugging at Larkin’s hand and heading for the next ladder.
“I would have been coming,” he groused, his voice pitched low enough so only she could hear. “If he hadn’t interrupted.”
“Behave,” Winnie whispered. “This will be fun.”
Decorating the outdoor tent for Sam’s birthday was definitely a family affair. The weather couldn’t have been more perfect, and the forecast for Saturday was identical. This was a milestone birthday for Sam, so Annalise had bought every inch of black crepe paper in Virginia, or so it seemed. There were balloons to blow up, satin ribbon swags to design and hang, and all around the room, black-and-white photos of Sam. Sam as a kid with his dad at Wolff Mountain, Sam on his college graduation day and one poignant picture of Sam standing with the Wolff boys in front of the castle. Annalise appeared just in the edge of the picture, her gaze trained on the man she would one day marry.
Even though Annalise could have been only sixteen or seventeen when the photo was shot, the heart-wrenching look on her face was entirely adult. The naked emotion in her eyes was one Winnie understood all too well. In fact, the picture made her so uncomfortable she turned her back on it and walked away to another part of the tent.
Devlyn Wolff joined her as she assembled small posies of white roses and tucked them into ebony lacquer vases that would serve as table centerpieces. To her surprise, he pretended to help her, though his big hands mutilated the flowers. “I think you’d better let me do this,” she said, waving him off.
He perched on top of the table where she was working, his feet propped on a chair. A big, handsome man, he exuded charm and sex appeal, though Winnie was immune. As the head of Wolff Enterprises, his responsibilities were legion, yet here he was in the midst of a family gathering, seemingly content to be frittering away a Friday afternoon.