Carly Phillips - Hot Item

“Well?”

She sighed, drawn back to the present. “Apparently, after Myron-that’s the man with the toupee-jumped into the pool, Darla joined him.”

Riley raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

“Things got really loud and rowdy, and thanks to the noise, someone called the police. By that time, Darla was standing on the diving board ready to cannonball.” Sophie paused. She really didn’t want to continue this part of the story.

“Go on,” Riley said through clenched teeth.

Sophie closed her eyes and said, “She was naked.”

“Oh gross,” he muttered.

“Anyway, she was skinny-dipping and Rose got upset and went in after her to pull her out. She claimed all she really wanted to do was get her sister wrapped in a towel and sobered up.”

“But?”

“But when she jumped in after her, her bathing-suit top fell off and that’s when the cops arrived and arrested them for indecent exposure,” Sophie finally finished, and opened her eyes to see how Riley had taken the news.

Not well if his flushed cheeks were any indication. “And the Florida cops have never heard of issuing a warning to a bunch of stupid people?” he asked.

Sophie winced. She’d thought the same thing. “Apparently it wasn’t the first time.” Before he could work himself up further, she reached for his hand. “I’ve got to go bail them out. Amy can’t do it because she’s laid up with a migraine and can’t move. Why don’t you wait here-”

Riley groaned. “I’m coming with you,” he said, obviously resigned to his fate.

RILEY HAD SEEN his share of precincts. He’d bailed high-school and college buddies out of county jails after juvenile pranks and drunken brawls. But he’d never had to rescue a relative from their own blatant stupidity.

A relative he couldn’t afford to claim as his, yet he also couldn’t ignore the sense of responsibility he felt for the older women. Blood was one hell of a motivator, he thought as he entered the police station with Sophie by his side.

Sophie. Now there was another complication in his life. He’d hoped having sex with her would finally get her out of his system. After all, that was the way it usually worked. Sex, some good times, some more sex and Riley and his woman of the moment went their separate ways. Once his marriage had ended, he’d never had the desire to stay in a long-term relationship and he’d never thought to give another one a try.

Thanks to a few psych classes in college and a couple of sessions with a shrink, he also knew why. Spencer had rejected him despite his best efforts to prove himself and as a result, deep down, the great Riley Nash believed he wasn’t worthy of love and acceptance.

“What can I do for you folks?” the desk sergeant asked as they approached.

“We’d like to post bail,” Sophie said.

“For Darla Atkins and her sister, Rose.” Riley realized they didn’t know what last name Rose went by.

The burly man behind the metal desk leaned back in his chair. “A dollar short and a few minutes late,” he said, laughing. “Somebody beat you to it.”

“Who?” Sophie asked.

But even before he turned around, Riley already knew. His stomach clenched and nausea washed over him, but he straightened his shoulders as he turned to see his father.

“The ladies should be out in a few minutes,” the man behind the desk said. “You realize we had to teach them a lesson, Mr. Atkins.”

Spencer nodded. “Just don’t count on it sticking, Joe.”

“You’ve got your hands full with those two,” the younger man conceded, then turned his attention back to the ringing phone and the paperwork on his desk.

Riley stared at Spencer, acutely aware of Sophie standing behind him. After days of worry, he had no doubt she wanted to hug Spencer and then give him hell for causing her such concern. Instead she stood back, giving him time and space with his old man.

He turned to him now. Instead of demanding answers to a litany of questions as he’d always imagined he’d wish to do, Riley found he just wanted to speak his mind and get the hell out. “So tell me how it is you sort out your priorities,” Riley said, speaking without polite preliminaries. “You’ve always ignored me, but how the hell do you justify taking off on your business and leaving Sophie to handle your mess?”

Riley held up a hand to forestall Spencer from answering before he finished. “Yet you show up now to bail your rowdy sisters out of jail as if you haven’t been MIA for days?” Riley shook his head in disgust.

Spencer bowed his head. “I don’t expect you to understand.” He shoved his hands into the pockets of his expensive trousers.

“Riley, let’s give him a chance to explain,” Sophie said, softly. She reached out and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

Too bad he was past being comforted.

“You and I have a lot to talk about,” Spencer said to Riley. “Too much to cover right now.”

Riley stared into hazel eyes so like his own they unnerved him. “Don’t worry. I don’t expect anything from you. Not anymore. So give whatever time you have right now to Sophie. Just one favor though.” He forced out the word for his mother and stepfather’s sake.

“Anything.”

Riley scowled, but stepped closer so no one would hear. “Since you never bothered to claim or acknowledge me when I needed you to, don’t bother doing it now. My mother, father and his campaign will thank you.”

The color drained from Spencer’s face. Riley forced back the wave of guilt. After all, he wasn’t the one who’d denied the relationship for years.

“I can see where having a gay father would be an embarrassment.”

Riley shook his head. “You’ve got it wrong. I could care less. But Harlan’s my father and he’s spent his life preparing for a run for Washington. The fact is that his constituency is solid right wing and I’m only looking to protect him.”

Something suspiciously like pride flashed in Spencer’s eyes. “He raised you well.”

Riley inclined his head.

“Then he not only has my gratitude but my promise. I won’t interfere with his campaign in any way.”

In other words, Spencer wouldn’t publicly claim Riley as his son and that’s all he needed from this man.

He glanced at Sophie. “I’ll meet you outside.”

Her eyes were damp as she nodded.

Riley walked out the door, knowing he’d gotten what he came for. Neither his life nor his stepfather’s life would change in any way. But instead of the relief and satisfaction he expected, Riley only felt a bone-deep emptiness.

SOPHIE LOOKED at the man she’d known all her life. Suddenly Spencer’s hair seemed grayer, the grooves in his face deeper.

“I don’t know you at all,” she said, the disappointment growing inside her.

He’d always treated her differently than her sisters, with more affection and respect, as if he’d sensed how much she’d needed his attention. But in light of all she’d learned in the past few days, she no longer took pride in his special treatment. Not after the pain she’d heard in Riley’s voice and seen in his eyes.

“You know me better than most,” Spencer said, his voice grim.

“That’s not saying much, now is it?” Within the offices of Athletes Only and at home among family, nobody held back any punches. Sophie wasn’t about to do so now. “As far as work goes, I need you home if you still want a business to return to.” She filled him in on the details and problems he’d left behind. “Now for the rest. Keeping your sexual preferences private is one thing. Denying your only son is another. How could you?”

He paused, as if searching for a way to explain. “It’s all part and parcel of the same thing. Do you think that boy deserved my baggage? The news was bound to come out someday. Don’t you think he deserves to be known for his achievements and not his father’s issues?”

“You’re saying you denied him in order to spare him potential embarrassment?” She shook her head in disbelief.

“Didn’t he just admit as much by asking me not to acknowledge him now?”

“He did no such thing!” Sophie pounded her fist on a metal desk, her frustration mounting. “If you’d done right by him all along, this wouldn’t be an issue. His stepfather would have worked his way around any pitfalls as Riley grew up. Instead you left a bombshell for them all to deal with whenever it might explode. You set Riley up as a boy who wasn’t worthy of his father’s love and now he’s a man who thinks he never will be. He’s standing by the only family he’s known and that’s admirable, but at what expense?” She blew out a puff of air, knowing that anything she said couldn’t change the past.

“I did what I thought was best. That’s what parents do for their children. Someday you’ll see that for yourself.”

She doubted she’d have that chance given her hangups, but that wasn’t her concern right now. “I can’t imagine what it’s been like to keep your secrets,” she said, softening her tone. “But I hope you’ll find a way to fix things, if not for yourself then for Riley.”

“The best thing I can do is to give him what he asked for. Nothing.”

Sophie swallowed hard. “I disagree. Statistics show that children need their parents.”

His hand cupped her shoulder in the fatherly way he’d always done. “Statistics aren’t emotions. That’s something else you need to learn for yourself.”

She opened her mouth to speak, but Darla and Rose interrupted them, the commotion they caused disrupting the entire precinct. Both women wore wet bikinis covered by towels. Their makeup ran beneath their eyes and their hair was matted around their heads.

Sophie sighed. Riley might want to deny this part of the family, but they were vibrant and chaotic, independent and refreshing, much like Riley himself. And something told her that he needed them if he was ever going to release the hold he kept on his heart.

LEAVING SPENCER with the convicts, Riley and Sophie drove home in silence. Either she knew better than to ask questions about how he was feeling or she was equally disturbed herself. Either way, they’d gotten what they came for, Riley thought. It was time to go home.

But not before he finished the night with Sophie. She entered the house ahead of him and immediately headed for the kitchen and pulled a bottle of chilled wine from the fridge.

“I noticed this in here earlier.” She scrounged around for a corkscrew and opened the bottle like a pro. “I don’t know about you, but I could definitely use a drink.”

“Make mine a double.”

She laughed and held out his filled glass. “To…” She trailed off.

“To us,” he said, unable to think of anything he’d rather drink to.

She clinked her glass against his. “To us.” In her eyes he saw longing and desire.

What he didn’t see was a woman who’d demand more than he could give and that surprised him. Then again everything about Sophie shocked and pleased him. He never knew what to expect next except an innate understanding of him, something nobody had had before.

She took an extra long sip of her drink.

“That rough a night?”

She swallowed another. “I told Spencer off,” she said, looking down into her glass. “I let him know he was dead wrong in the choices he’d made regarding you.” She swirled the liquid around and around. “I said I didn’t know him at all.”

He paused, his glass at his lips, and swallowed the dry white wine. “Why?”

“Why what?”

“You and Spencer have a special relationship. He means a lot to you, yet you let him have it. Why?”

She raised soft eyes, revealing too much. “Because you’ve come to mean something to me, too.”

He reached out and lifted the glass from her hands, placing it on the counter. Then lacing their fingers, he pulled her close.

“Sophie?”

“Yes?”

“Thanks.”

Her smile warmed him straight to his toes. After meeting Spencer, he thought he’d never be warm again. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him close, pressing her lips against his.

He groaned and, cupping her face in his hands, he tilted her head and deepened the kiss. He needed this. He needed her.

He thrust his tongue inside her mouth and she moaned aloud, her small hips gyrating against him, seeking relief he knew he could give. Relief he needed, as well.

Unable to wait, he lifted her into his arms and headed for the bedroom.

“I knew when I met you that you were the kind of guy to sweep a girl off her feet.”

“Only the right girl,” he said, nuzzling her neck in part to inhale her fragrant scent and in part to stop any further talking.

Sophie shut her eyes and savored the moment. They’d found Spencer, which took a huge weight off her shoulders, and she was alone with Riley, which made everything right in her world at this moment.