The Day He Kissed Her (3 page)

She inched her way backward and…

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to box you in.”

His voice came from nowhere. Well, actually that was wrong. He was right behind her and she was on all fours with her ass stuck in the air.

Jesus H. Christ.

Her eyes squeezed shut. She took a moment.

“Uh, are you okay?” he asked.

And then she took another moment.

“Jake said you needed to leave, so I’ll just move my car onto the road and you can back out.”

She nodded, lips tight, eyes still squeezed shut.

She heard his shoe scuff against the concrete, but then it stopped. Why did he stop? Why wasn’t he moving away from her? Everything inside Lily was wound so tight she felt as if she was going to explode.

“Are you sure you’re—”

“Will you just leave already?” she snapped. She sank back onto her haunches, shoulders rigid, jaw clenched so tight it was painful. Hair blew across her face, and she yanked it away, tucked it behind her ear, and wished that she could just disappear.

“Sure thing, sweet cakes.”

Sweet
cakes? Really?

She let out a weak breath and waited.

And waited some more.

“I don’t have all day,” she muttered.

“What was that?”

He was playing with her. She heard it in his voice.

“I said I don’t have all day, so if you could please move your car, I’d appreciate it.”

Mackenzie Draper moved alright—he moved closer to her instead of toward his vehicle. He was so close that his scent drifted over her. In her. He was all kinds of sexy musk, clean soap, and something that was entirely unique to him. Some intangible secret ingredient that her body picked up on.

It was annoying as hell.

What the heck was he playing at? Flush with anger now, Lily slowly got to her feet, though she was careful not to turn toward him.

“Where are you from?” he asked, his voice dangerously low.

“Does it matter?”

“Not really.”

“Then why do you care?”

“I don’t.”

“Then why are you still here?” She managed to say through gritted teeth. Her Boston accent was more pronounced when she was pissed, so Lily was willing to bet he’d have no problem figuring it out on his own.

“I’ll go when you turn around so that I can see if the front of you is as hot as the back end. ’Cause the back end is smokin’.”

“That’s incredibly sexist.”

“I know,” he said softly.

For a heartbeat there was nothing but the warm breeze in her hair.

And then he spoke. “Boston.”

She froze and blinked away an image of Mackenzie behind her,
inside
her
, his hands on her hips, his breath at her neck. His strangled whisper, “Boston” as he came. That’s what he had called her that night.

Boston.

Shit.

Slowly, Lily turned around and sucked in a breath at their close proximity. If ever a man was made in the image of a God, it was Mackenzie Draper.

He was dressed casually in a pair of worn jeans, bare feet shoved into Birkenstocks, and a plain white T-shirt stretched tight across his chest. His blond hair was brushed back off his face, waving almost to his shoulders, while his electric-green eyes bored into her with an intensity that made Lily a tad uncomfortable. There was something wholly alpha in that look.

He hadn’t shaved in a few days, and the dark stubble on his jaw only made him look sexier. His mouth curved into a slow grin, and
Jesus
, her nipples went hard.

Lily crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. She glared at him and didn’t budge when he moved so close that she could count his eyelashes, when he moved so close that that damn secret ingredient of his—the one that made her weak—was all up in her business. Christ, if he could bottle it, he’d be a billionaire.

The pulse at the base of his neck moved rapidly and she knew he was as affected by their close proximity as she was.

“So,” he said slowly, rolling out the word as if it was a secret. “That phone number you gave me was bogus.”

She considered not answering him, but something about his attitude pissed her off.

“Oops.” She thrust her chin forward. “Didn’t think you’d actually call.”

He bent forward and Lily held her breath as his mouth settled just below her ear, a whisper away from her skin.

“I called as soon as I woke up. I wasn’t happy that you were gone.”

She swallowed thickly, aware that the air was supercharged with something and it was that something that had her worried. She’d never been so physically affected by a man, and it scared her because it told her that she was close to losing control again. Just like she’d done New Year’s Eve.

With him.

Over and over again.

And control was something she wasn’t going to give up easily. She’d worked too hard for it. Come too far.

“Really,” she managed to say, refusing to back down. “Why?”

His mouth grazed over her skin, and she shuddered as he blew hot air across her ear before tugging on her lobe. He didn’t answer right away. He took a moment and let the tension drag out before he cupped her chin and forced her to look up at him. Forced her to look up into eyes that smoldered.

Eyes that make her weak, and weak wasn’t something she was interested in. Yet that control thing was vanishing like water down the drain, and for the first time, Lily felt a stab of fear.

“Boston,” he said, his voice low and intimate. “I wanted to talk because we weren’t finished.” He let that settle. “We were far from finished.”

Chapter 3

Mac rolled out of bed at the crack of dawn tired, pissed off, and horny as hell.

He’d barely slept, which explained his grumpy mood, but there was nothing he could do about that. And as for the other situation—he glanced down at his aching dick—a hot shower and a handful of conditioner should just about do it.

Christ. What the hell was wrong with him? It was as if time rolled back and he was seventeen all over again.

He thought of Boston and scowled.

She’d blown him off like yesterday’s news.

She’d politely asked him to take his hands off of her—which he did—and then she’d told him to move his “fucking” car or she was going to drive her BMW across Steven Edwards’s lawn.

Something in her eyes told him that she would do it too.

What the hell? Everyone knew that Steven Edwards was anal about his grass, and the fact that she was willing to drive across it told Mac just how badly she wanted to get away from him.

That’s what stuck in his craw this morning. He wasn’t being an asshole, but shit, he’d never had a woman bail on him like that. He was the one who left. The one who made the rules. The one who didn’t want a commitment.

Christ, even he’d never done an escape in the middle of the night. There’d never been the need because he had always been clear on the rules. He was up-front about that shit.

Mackenzie stared at his reflection in the mirror as he turned on the shower. He was a good-looking guy, there was no way around it, but he was more than just a pretty face. In fact, his looks were the least interesting thing about him as far as he was concerned, mostly because he was the spitting image of his father.

He was so much more than the bastard had ever been. Mac was smart, graduated with honors, and was on track to become a partner at the architectural firm he worked for in New York City. He was driven, dedicated, and when it came to the ladies, he was candid and honest.

He showed them a good time between the sheets and out of them, but when it came to anything else, he wasn’t signing up for it.

So what was it about this Lily that had his interest?

She was gorgeous, but she wasn’t his usual cup of tea. He’d always been attracted to leggy, athletic, brunettes—Lily was curvy and blond. Which was why New Year’s Eve had been such a surprise. She’d opened up that cab door and something in her eyes got to him.

It had been instant. Hot.

Their connection had been undeniable, and that night had been one he’d thought of a lot over the last few months. Never had he been with a woman who’d responded so…naturally to him, without any reservations at all. It had been as if she’d known what he was going to do before he did.

The hot water sprayed over his head and did nothing to temper the ache in his groin or the fantasies that played out in his head. He hadn’t said a word to Jake the day before even though he’d been dying to know her story—he’d just listened to a few casual conversations. He knew that Lily was a St. Clare, of the Boston St. Clares, and that she was a close friend of Jake’s.

But that’s all he knew because he refused to dig deeper and ask the questions he wanted answers to. He had no idea why she was in Crystal Lake or what her deal was. He only knew that she wanted nothing to do with him and she was obviously embarrassed that they’d spent the night together.

Subsequently, Mac’s mood didn’t improve a bit, and he was still pissed off when he arrived back at the Edwardses’ an hour after he’d rolled his ass out of bed.

It was Saturday of the long weekend, and they were taking the boat out to Pot-a-hock Island—Jake, Raine, Mac, Cain, and Maggie—another annual tradition, and with the sun shining high in the sky, it promised to be a great day. It was nothing more than a big party with hundreds of boats heading out to the island. There would be music and good times and fireworks.

Usually Mac looked forward to catching up with old friends—especially those of the female persuasion. Hell, he’d already had more than a dozen text messages from a few of them. But this year?

This year, things just didn’t feel the same, and he couldn’t put his finger on what exactly had changed.

Mac strode across the dock and spied Jake and Raine near the boat, anchored a few feet away. The two of them melted into each other as if they were one person, Jake’s hand buried in Raine’s hair as his other palm cupped her butt intimately. Mac glanced away, feeling as if he were witnessing something he had no right to see, a private moment between two of his best friends—two of his best friends who were now together.

Shit, was that it?

Sometimes he felt as if he was spinning his wheels when everyone else was moving forward. Cain had Maggie and a baby on the way. Raine and Jake had finally moved past all the bullshit and gotten together.

And Mac…

He shoved his hands through his hair and rolled his shoulders, clearing his throat so the two lovebirds knew they weren’t alone.

Mac was fine just where he was, dammit.

“You stick your tongue down her throat again and I just may throw up,” he said with a grin as he moved forward.

Jake snorted. “Whatever, Draper. You bring the beer and burgers?”

Mac set his cooler down and nodded. “You bring your mama’s potato salad?”

Raine jumped into the boat, her slim figure barely covered by a deep-blue bikini top and cutoff jean shorts. “We’ve got it,” she said. “Along with hot dogs and the portable grill.”

Mac glanced around. “Where’s Cain and Maggie?”

Raine shook her head and made an exaggerated sad face. “They’re not coming. Maggie wasn’t feeling well and Cain didn’t want to leave her alone.” She shrugged. “It’s just the four of us.”

That got Mac’s attention.

“The four of us? Who else is joining?”

His heart began to beat faster as he pulled his aviators down over his eyes and skimmed the beach behind him. He didn’t see anyone.

“Lily,” Jake answered.

Jake hopped off the boat and strode toward Mac, though he too was looking behind Mackenzie.

“You didn’t get a chance to meet her yesterday,” Jake said, “other than when you went to move your car.”

“The blond.”

Jake nodded, his eyes narrowed. “Yeah. The blond.”

Mac didn’t much care for the warning in his buddy’s voice. “You trying to tell me something, Edwards?”

“No,” Jake said, a slow grin creeping over his face. Funny, the grin didn’t quite reach his eyes.

“She’s a good friend is all and…”

“And?” Mac said, his eyebrows arched in question.

Raine stepped between the two of them, her hand on Jake as she planted a kiss on his lips. “Jake thinks that Lily is some fragile creature.” Raine tweaked Jake’s nose. “What he doesn’t know is that she’s a big girl and can look after herself. Besides…” She glanced at Mac. “It’s not as if she’d go for someone like Mac anyway.”

Okay, that pissed him off. What was with the tag-team thing the two of them had going on?

“And why would you say that?” he asked, trying his damnedest to not let his irritation show.

“Because you’re a player and she’s not.”

He stared at his two friends for several moments, not really knowing what to say. Partly because it was true and partly because he was pissed off and didn’t want them to know it.

“Whatever,” he muttered and shoved past Jake and Raine. He doubted Boston would come, not after the way she’d hightailed it out of the barbecue yesterday.

He’d just reached the boat when he heard Jake.

“Jesus, Lily. What did you do? Buy out the bakery?”

Mac glanced back and dammit if his heart rate didn’t spike when he caught sight of her. Maybe he should have thought more about the impact she had on him, but he didn’t. He drank her in, grateful that his glasses hid the covert moves his eyes were doing.

“Would you be surprised if I told you that I stayed up all night and baked this myself?”

“I’d be more than surprised,” Jake shot back. “Domesticity isn’t exactly your strong suit.”

“Screw you, Edwards,” she said with a smile, turning to Raine as she set down a large red, white, and blue beach bag brimming with containers. The two women nodded to each other but there were no girly hugs or anything like that. Lily smiled, said hello, and gazed down the dock at Mac.

Her long, blond hair was pulled back into a high ponytail and she sported large, black sunglasses that hid half of her face. Coupled with the short, yellow-and-white sundress that fell a few inches above her knees, plain white flip-flops on her feet, and the barest hint of gloss on her lips, she looked a hell of a lot younger than…Christ, he didn’t even know her age, but he was guessing late twenties.