Fall Into Temptation (Blue Moon Book #2)(28)

Gia sighed and wondered what kind of gossip tornado had just been stirred up. Juggling the tower of food, she shut the door behind her and headed into the dining room.

“Gia!” Evan called excitedly from the stairs. “You’ve gotta come see this.”

She put the food down on the table and jogged up the stairs. “Marco?” she called when she reached the second floor.

“Polo!” Evan and Aurora’s voices sang from a bedroom at the front of the house.

Gia found them standing with Beckett in front of a bookcase. A few dusty volumes took up residence on the otherwise empty shelves. She raised an eyebrow. “You’re not usually so excited about reading, Evan,” she commented.

Evan rolled his eyes. “Not the books. Show her Beckett!”

Beckett grinned and shook his head. “Go for it, kid.”

With gleeful enthusiasm, Evan pressed a knob that was carved into the molding around the shelves. She heard a metallic click and the entire bookcase silently opened out.

“It’s a secret passage!” Evan announced.

Aurora grabbed Gia’s hand and dragged her toward the dark opening. “Come on, Mama! Let’s hide!”

“Here,” Beckett said, handing Evan a flashlight. “Let your brother go first and we’ll follow him.”

Evan grabbed the light and ducked behind the shelves. “Come on, Gia!”

Aurora slipped her hand out of Gia’s and hurried ahead. “I walk with Van,” she announced and danced after her brother.

The passageway was narrow and black as night once Beckett pulled the shelves back into place behind them, the beam of Evan’s flashlight was the only sliver of light cutting through the darkness.

Gia saw the light climb higher in front of them. “Watch your step,” Evan warned, from above.

“It’s a staircase,” Beckett said softly, coming up behind her.

He wasn’t touching her, but she was so aware of his presence she felt him as distinctly as if he had his hands on her.

The stairs were steep and narrow, only wide enough for one person at a time. As if she conjured them, she felt Beckett’s hands come to rest on her hips. A low hum escaped her throat and his fingers flexed into her hips.

“We’ll wait for you outside,” Evan called down.

“Wait! You have the light,” Gia yelped.

“Beckett’s got another flashlight,” Evan assured her. “Come on, Rora. We’ll surprise them on the other side.”

Above them, Gia heard a click and saw fading daylight filter into the passageway and then it was gone. The darkness stopped her dead in her tracks. Beckett came to a halt on the step below hers. He was still taller than she was. She could feel his breath in her hair.

“Tell me you really do have another flashlight,” she whispered.

“I do.”

His lips brushed her ear and Gia let out a little gasp. She was so aware of him, so ready to be touched.

“The things I want to do to you right now,” Beckett whispered grimly against her neck.

Gia leaned her head back against his shoulder to give him better access. The scrape of his teeth behind her ear drew a purr from her. “Forbidden fruit,” she whispered. It was a reminder to them both.

“Gianna, I need you to get up these stairs before I take you right here.”

“Beckett.” She breathed his name as if it belonged to a deity.

His hands came around her, palms to her shoulders. And while his mouth delicately dined on the skin of her neck, he stroked down to cup her breasts through her sweater. Through the layers of fabric, Gia felt her sensitive peaks harden. Boldly, she grasped his hand and led it under the neckline of her sweater. His palm slid over the thin lace of her bra and she gasped at the pleasure that erupted when his fingers gently tugged at her hardened nipple.

“Red,” he growled in her ear. “Move. Now.” His hand slid out from her sweater and slapped her on the butt.

Gia sprang to life, taking the rest of the stairs quickly even as Beckett fumbled with the flashlight.

She pushed through the door at the top of the staircase and found a grinning Evan and Aurora.

“How cool is this?” Evan asked. “We’re on the third floor!”

Gia barely spared the cavernous room a glance. Guiltily, she put on a cheerful face. “That was pretty cool. Are you guys hungry? The food’s here.”

At her insistence, they trooped back downstairs using the actual staircase instead of the passageway. Gia pointedly refused to look at Beckett until her racing heart beat was under control again.

They dove into the food in the dining room, talking and laughing and staging a mock fight over breadsticks.

She was impressed with how relaxed Evan seemed here. Rather than the sullen, quiet kid who’d moved to Blue Moon Bend, here was the chatty, carefree boy of old. He and Beckett compared teachers at Blue Moon Middle School, finding a number that they had in common. Evan’s comments of “he must be like a hundred years old” were punctuated by Beckett’s advice on how to stay on the good sides of certain faculty.

She hoped it was a sign of things to come with Evan. The reemergence of the happy boy with boundless curiosity.

So many mistakes had brought them to this point, she thought.

But perhaps, in the long run, they wouldn’t be considered mistakes. After all, falling for Paul had brought her Evan and Aurora and she couldn’t imagine her life without either of them.