The Day He Kissed Her (16 page)

He immediately raised his head and glanced Lily’s way, her breath catching as he pointed to his watch. He held up all ten fingers, closed his fists, and then flashed them again. Twenty.

And the look he gave her was hot enough to melt her panties—if, in fact, she had been wearing panties. Which she wasn’t.

Her stomach rolled over and the heat inside her curled hard and fast. Twenty minutes to go.

“What’s the sign language for?” Raine asked.

Lily shrugged, playing dumb.

Raine studied her for a few moments, and Lily looked away, not comfortable with the sly smile on her friend’s face. Raine held her empty wineglass aloft. “You want a refill?”

Lily shook her head. “I’m good for now.” Truthfully, she was afraid to drink any more, because she was afraid of losing control. The only way she could do this with Mackenzie was if she kept the control.

Control was key.

“Huh.” Raine glanced from Lily over to Jake and then back to Lily. She set both empty wineglasses on the table beside the margarita bar. “I’m going to assume that you and Mac are heading out early.”

Lily didn’t take her eyes from Mac. “Why would you say that?”

“Because there is no way either one of you can hold out much longer. Jesus, Lily, I’m getting horny just watching the two of you watch each other.”

Lily’s cheeks burned, and she finally dragged her eyes from Mac. “Is it that obvious?”

“Yes,” Raine replied with a giggle. “It is.”

Great.

“I guess we’ll be at the top of the gossip food chain by tomorrow morning.” Lily glanced around, and when she caught the Lancasters looking her way, she averted her gaze. Was Lily ready for that kind of speculation?

“Nah.”

Lily looked at Raine in surprise. “Excuse me?”

“You two are already the topic of most conversations,” Raine said with a grin. “That’s why Shelli pulled out the big guns.”

“Shelli?”

“The blond who’s doing everything she can to get Mac to take her home. Though it’s not working.” A pause. “Not this time, anyway.”

The two women were quiet for a few moments, and then Raine spoke, her tone serious.

“He’s a good guy, Lily. Not many people know the real Mackenzie because he doesn’t want them to. I like that he’s opening up with you. I like that a lot.”

Lily didn’t know what to say to that, so she said nothing.

“Maybe you’re the one who will get through to him, the one who will finally make him see that he doesn’t have to be alone. He deserves love and happiness as much as anyone else. Maybe more so considering the shit card he’s been dealt.”

Panic settled in Lily’s gut. How had this flirtation and experiment suddenly become something so much bigger?

“Raine,” Lily said urgently, “it’s not like that.”

Raine’s eyebrows shot up.

“Whatever this is…this thing that Mac and I are exploring, it’s not like that.”

“Like what?” Raine asked.

“It’s not a permanent thing, and we’re both fine with that. Really, this is just two adults…two consenting adults hanging out and getting to know each other.”

“And having lots of hot monkey sex?”

Lily blushed but refused to look away. “Isn’t that what consenting adults who hang out together do?”

“Well, I know you’re not going to spend the night playing Scrabble.”

“No.” Lily shook her head. Oh God, there went the butterflies again. “No, we’re not going to play Scrabble, but that doesn’t make whatever this is a serious thing. We’re just hanging out.”

Raine snorted—she actually snorted—which kinda offended Lily.

“You can think that all you want, but you’re both fooling yourselves. I’ve never seen Mac act this way with a woman before.
Never.
He’s been undressing you with his eyes all night, and every time Blair or any other guy comes near, I expect him to pound his chest and roar like King Kong. This might not be a permanent thing in your minds, but it isn’t something light or casual either. You guys aren’t kids planning a covert sleepover.”

Lily’s eyes found their way back to Mac. He was smiling at something Jake said, his arm around his buddy as the two of them chatted with Steven Edwards. Something tightened inside Lily, something hot and a little painful. He looked relaxed and happy, and, man, did she like that look on him.

Could Raine be right?

“Just promise me you won’t close yourself off from the possibility of something more with Mac, because I know that he will. He doesn’t think that he wants what Jake and I have. He doesn’t think he needs what Cain and Maggie have. But he does. Hell, Mac needs it more than anyone I know, and I think that maybe…I think that maybe you do too.”

Lily tore her gaze from Mac, but Raine had already slipped away, her lithe body lost among the burgeoning crowd in line for the margarita bar.

With a sigh she rolled her shoulders, trying to ease the tension that sat there, but it was no use. She was wound too tight and suddenly nervous as hell. She shook out her hands and wiped damp palms across the tops of her thighs.

God, this is going to be a disaster.
She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been with anyone. The baseball player in Texas? Maybe?

Lily’s cheeks burned as she remembered that night. Jake had already left for Crystal Lake, and she was alone in Texas. Her brother had taken a turn for the worse, and she’d drowned her sorrows in a bar around the corner from the hospital. She’d ingested way too much tequila and had allowed a jock to take her back to his hotel room.

She didn’t remember much other than the walk of shame the next morning and him calling her a dead fuck.

Frigid.
That’s what her ex-fiancé had called her just before he’d told her that her sister, Maddison, was a better lay. All this time, Lily had thought she was just bad at sex, that her body wasn’t made right. That she wasn’t quite right…but Mackenzie had blown that theory out of the water.

Turned out, she was just waiting for the right man to come along, the right man who could push all the right buttons.

Warm breath caressed the back of her neck as two large hands slid around her waist and she was pulled back against a hard body, effectively pushing away all thoughts of Raine and commitment and anything else that might have been knocking around the back of Lily’s mind.

“Five minutes, Boston. Say your good-byes now.”

Mackenzie’s voice slid over her as she melted into him, and she shuddered when his right hand splayed over her rib cage, resting just beneath the curve of her breast.

“I don’t…”

His mouth brushed across the sensitive area beneath her ear and she shuddered.

“Let’s just go,” she said hoarsely. She wanted to erase all the memories and pain inside her, and Mackenzie was the key.

Mac’s hand slid to hers, and he led them through the crush of people at the silent auction table before cutting across the dance floor to the other side of the room.

Lily nodded to the few people she knew personally, and they paused as Mackenzie scooped up his tux jacket from their table and nodded to a few men she didn’t know. A couple of guys tried to waylay him, but he sidestepped them like a pro, and before Lily knew it, they were at the exit.

The air was heavy with humidity, and in the distance, she could see the last bits of daylight dropping below the horizon. An owl hooted nearby and she shivered—an omen?

“No turning back now, Boston.”

Lily glanced down at their hands, still linked together intimately. His skin was golden next to her paleness, the fingers long and masculine. Even though Mackenzie had an office job in the city at some big architectural firm, she knew he still got his hands dirty. The pads of his fingers were rough.

She breathed in the hot, heavy air that was full of Mackenzie, and the ache in her lower belly grew stronger by the second.

Her heart was racing. Her cells were buzzing. Her body was alive.

Lily St. Clare had never wanted anything or anyone as badly as she wanted Mackenzie Draper. If she lived to be a hundred years old, she was pretty damn sure she’d never feel this way again.

“Are you going to talk all night or take me back to your place?”

Mackenzie’s eyes bored into her as he tugged her behind him, into the dark, toward the parking lot. He gave her one searing-hot kiss before securing the seat belt across her lap, and then he hopped into the truck, the key in the ignition and the motor turning over within seconds.

He pulled out of the parking lot and pointed his truck toward the lake.

And he didn’t say one more word.

Chapter 16

Mac pulled his truck up the driveway of the cottage and cut the engine. It was pretty dark out here with the barest hint of a moon—he’d left in such a rush that he’d forgotten to leave the outside lights on—and it took a bit for his eyes to adjust.

He turned to Lily. Her hands were clasped in her lap, the long elegant fingers working each other—a nervous gesture. He got that.

Hell, he was more worked up—and maybe more nervous—than when he’d lost his virginity to Dawn Marcoux in the tenth grade after the annual homecoming football game. She was two years older than him and she’d dragged his ass into the boathouse out at the Edwards twins’ after-party. She’d taken off all her clothes—it had been the first time he’d seen a woman naked—and she’d proceeded to teach him things he’d only read about in his older brother’s
Penthouse
Forums
.

Since that first time, he’d been with a lot of women. It wasn’t something he boasted about; it just was. He’d been blessed with the Draper good looks and charm, and like bees to honey, once the girls started hanging around, they’d never left. They’d made it almost too easy for him, and he was used to getting what he wanted, whenever he wanted.

He was always in control.

But with Lily he didn’t feel in control. Not one bit. Christ, his body felt like it was on fire, and like an animal, his only thought was to rip her clothes off and possess her. He didn’t want tonight to be like that, like New Year’s Eve. There hadn’t been much room for talking or tasting and touching that night. It had been about connecting on a physical level. It had been about release.

And now, if he didn’t slow things down, he was going to blow early and there was no way he was going to let that happen.

Not with Boston.

Not tonight.

Mac took a moment to get his shit together because he wasn’t entirely sure that he could speak. His body was coiled so tightly that he was afraid every damn muscle he owned was frozen, including his vocal chords.

“Hey,” he managed to say.

Her head jerked up, and when her eyes met his, he felt as if he’d just been knocked on his ass. Maybe he should have taken that as a warning because no one had ever affected him like that with a look.

But he didn’t.

“Hey,” she answered softly.

Christ, even the sound of her voice was doing all kinds of weird things to him.

“I’m not going to lie, Lily, if I could take you right here in the truck, I would.”

She swallowed. Hard. And his eyes moved down to where her breasts strained against the top of her dress. Those delectable nipples pushed against her top and he fought the urge to open his mouth and taste them.

Jesus, but she was perfect.

“There’s enough room in here,” he whispered. “I could make it work. I could position us against the window. I could push up your dress. I could slide inside you, and I’m guessing it would be hot as hell.”

Her chest rose and fell rapidly, and he loved that she was as affected by all of this as he was.

Mac slowly undid his seat belt and moved across the seat until he was so close to her, that even in the dim light from the dashboard, he could count the freckles across the bridge of her nose.

They looked like little bits of pale gold.

He bent forward and licked them, feeling like he was going to come apart when he heard her gasp.

His mouth hovered above hers, hands slowly slipping into the back of her hair, working the knot that laid against her shoulder until he was able to free the silky strands.

She strained against him, and it took everything that he had to hold still as she moaned and reached for him. Mac let her slide her mouth across his. He let her put her tongue inside his mouth.

Hell, he even let her tug on his bottom lip and press against him—though he paid the price with a sharp tug between his legs. Already he ached with need and his dick was hard. He was going to have to slow this down because he wanted tonight to last.

Every. Single. Minute.

That thought alone had fueled him and got him through the week.

She made this noise at the back of her throat that damn near did him in, and he had no idea how he was able to resist her—but he did.

He nipped at the valley between her breasts and then, eyes locked to hers, slowly reached across her chest and opened the truck door. His knuckles brushed over her nipples as he did so, and she inhaled sharply, her eyes widening, her lips parting.

“Get out,” he said.

She licked her lips and exhaled. “What if I don’t want to? What if I want to do it—”

“It?” he interrupted. He couldn’t help himself and swooped in for a tug at her lips. He breathed against her. “Do you mean sex?”

Lily squirmed against him and nodded. Her hands were on his shoulders, and she pulled herself toward him. “Yes. Right here. Right now.”

“I’m not going to screw you in a truck, Boston.” He paused. “Not tonight anyway.”

Her eyes darkened as she swiped that hot tongue over her lips.

Mac groaned and leaned away from her, because he knew that if he didn’t get his ass out of this truck, he was going to lose his shit completely.

“Out,” he growled like an animal.

He didn’t give her a chance to refuse or to beg or to put her mouth on him again—because he knew he’d cave. He’d collapse like a goddamn row of dominoes. Mackenzie rolled back toward his own door and slid out of the truck, a little weak in the knees, but considering what was going on between his legs, it was no surprise. He had a monster hard-on.