Simply Sinful

“Borrow.”

“What’s the difference?” Catherine held up a yellow blouse, made a face and hung it back on the rack. “I know I swipe yours.” She came out of the small walk-in with a white turtleneck and a pale blue satin jacket. “Here. Leave the jeans and try this. The jacket’s quilted, by the way. It’s supposed to be chilly tonight.”

Kayla glanced at the outfit, more casual than her usual Brooks-Brothers type look. Still, when she tried on the clothes, she had to admit she looked okay. Catherine made a show of walking around her twice, hands on her hips in a judgmental pose. “Perfect. Better than all those trousers and silk blouses you wear. So stuffy—even Mama wouldn’t have left the house like that.”

“Mama liked to dress her own way,” Kayla said, thinking of the woman who had raised her girls alone. A woman with a heart of gold, but tarnished luck.

They hadn’t had much money, but their mother had always made sure she looked her best before leaving the house. Unfortunately her best too often fell short. She looked like what she was: the checkout girl at the local supermarket, an aging woman still attempting to look younger than her years. Until Catherine had taken over clothes shopping, the Luck sisters had usually gone to school looking like miniclones of their beautiful, but flamboyant mother.

“Men definitely took notice,” Catherine said.

“Too bad she never looked at them. Maybe things would have been different.”

“Maybe Mama wouldn’t have died of overwork and a broken heart?” Catherine shook her head. “She chose her life.”

“She liked pining for Daddy, that’s for sure. You ever wonder if Daddy pined back?” Kayla asked.

Her sister shook her head. “I think one kid scared him to death, two made him worse than a coward.”

“Do you really have to sound so…full of hate?” Kayla muttered.

“I don’t hate him. Actually I don’t feel much about him at all. But truth is truth.” Catherine pinned her with her steady gaze. “I don’t think all men are like him if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“Not in the love ’em and leave ’em department,” Kayla agreed. “But in the can’t keep their hands to themselves department, men are all the same.” After all, her parents had had Kayla and Catherine within one year of each other. If that wasn’t a prime example of too much lovin’, as her mother liked to call it, then she didn’t know what was.

Catherine lowered herself onto her frilly white bedspread. “You know, a guy not keeping his hands to himself can be nice.”

For someone with Catherine’s confidence, maybe. Kayla joined her, staring at her fingers spread over her jean-clad legs. “Are you going out tonight?” Kayla asked.

“You bet. Dancing at Shooters.” She snapped her hands in the air. “With Nick.”

Nick had been Catherine’s best friend for years. Kayla suspected he’d once been in love with her beautiful sister, too. But Cat wasn’t interested and Nick had moved on, apparently content as Cat’s best friend. And Catherine was alone.

Kayla narrowed her eyes and took in her sister’s miniskirt and tights, her stretch top that showed off delicate curves. Catherine didn’t have Kayla’s lush figure, but she attracted her own share of attention. Kayla admired her sister but she also knew she had her own share of insecurities. Cat covered them well but the truth was obvious. Both Luck sisters had been scarred by their childhood experiences.

Each Luck sister had reacted in a different way. Instead of becoming a social butterfly, Kayla had learned to push men away. Although she had a lingering desire for hearth, home and a white picket fence, she knew better than to believe she’d find it or the perfect man to share her life with.

Catherine placed a sisterly hand over hers. “Maybe you’ve never found the right guy. The one who will put you first.”

“You think he exists?” Kayla asked but Kane immediately came to mind. He was the one man she didn’t want to push away physically or turn off emotionally. He was the first guy who made her feel special, who made her want to take chances.

Catherine shrugged. “I don’t know. But if the light in your eyes is any indication, you do. And I’d hate to see you lose that special someone out of fear.”

She grinned. “He was different and sexy and…”

“And?”

“He listened,” she said, somewhat embarrassed. “He was interested, if I’m not mistaken, but I’ve been out of the game too long to know for sure.”

Catherine shook her head. “You don’t need experience to know if he makes you feel special. This guy could be it.”

Kayla had the sense that Kane was most definitely it. “I don’t really know him,” Kayla reminded her sister.

“But you want to.” Catherine read her mind as she had so many times in the past. “And just wait until he gets a look at you tonight.” Walking back to the closet, Catherine reached inside and tossed something across the room.

Kayla stood before the full-length mirror behind the door. She spun around once more, shocked at the woman whose reflection she saw there. “I don’t even recognize myself,” she said, as she added the finishing touch, a wide headband that would provide both warmth and style for the night ahead.

“That’s because you’ve been so busy hiding behind conservative clothes and a job that involves geeks not hunks. You’ve just forgotten there’s a woman inside.”

Was Catherine right? Of course she was. Between her old accounting job and now running her aunt’s business, Kayla had stifled her sense of self. Add to that her self-imposed lack of a love life and things seemed pretty pathetic about now.

Her sister placed her hands on Kayla’s shoulders. “At least this guy has brought my sexy sister out of her shell.” Catherine grinned.

“He’s a customer,” Kayla said. As if that meant anything. As he’d said, the customer thing was an excuse to let her say yes to a date without thinking too much. It was eerie how well Kane McDermott had understood her.

“Since when do you date a customer?”

She met Catherine’s gaze in the mirror. “I don’t,” she admitted.

“I know. And that’s why I think you should go out and feel for once. Take things from there.” Catherine plucked at the headband, straightening it to look suitably stylish. “The clothes are just the trappings of freedom. The rest is up to you.”

Catherine turned her toward the door to the bedroom and steered her into the hall. “I’ll drop you off at the restaurant. It’s on my way and, besides, I want to get a look at this guy firsthand.”

“Checking him out, Mom?”

Catherine shrugged. “We’ve always looked out for each other. No sense stopping now.” She glanced at Kayla. “You think about what I said. You might live to regret it if you don’t.”

Kayla took her sister’s advice, all the way to the outside of the restaurant. He’d given her directions to it during their brief phone conversation and Catherine had given her a lift. Kane waited on the top step, his elbow resting on the brass railing. Irresistible in a black leather jacket, he could show her his charms anywhere, anyplace, anytime, she decided.

Catherine’s whistle brought Kayla back down to earth.

“I take it you approve?”

Catherine answered with a grin. Kayla finger-combed her hair and stepped out of the car. Kane was by her side in an instant. During the brief introductions and small chitchat between Kane and Catherine, Kayla could barely concentrate.

Was her sister right? Was this man, this date, a not-to-be-missed opportunity? Could he be someone in her future? Kayla wasn’t sure, but she was about to find out. And who deserved an honest chance more than Kane McDermott, the first man to excite her and impress her?

The first man to look past her appearance and who genuinely seemed to like the woman within.

WITH HIS HAND ON her back, Kane steered Kayla out of Fenway Park and into the dimly lit Boston streets. The Sox had won in extra innings and the woman beside him hadn’t uttered a single complaint about sitting through the long game or the continuing drop in temperature. Under ordinary circumstances, he’d call the date a hit, but Kayla was no ordinary woman, any more than she was his real date, a fact he had to keep reminding himself of time and again.

“Did I tell you I loved that restaurant?” she asked.

Only about ten times, he thought, wondering why the hell the notion pleased him so much. “The meal or the atmosphere?” he asked.

She laughed, the sound doing more to warm him than his heavy leather jacket. “Both. Wall-to-wall books…” She spread her arms wide, knocking into the people emptying out of the stadium along with them. “Oops.”

Her laughter was contagious, her love of something as simple as books, refreshing.