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Our relationship had fizzled a long time before I walked in on him and Jessica in the shower. There hadn’t been any real connection, no intimacy—not just physical intimacy, although I did miss that, but also, and probably more importantly, no emotional intimacy.
Maybe this summer would change that, I thought as I put the key in the ignition. At least the physical part. Harmony’s boldness and proclivity for letting her freak flag fly—her words not mine—had inspired me. I could remain single and still have a scorchingly hot fling with a sexy stranger. My mind was saying sexy stranger, but my subconscious decided to pop Kane’s face into my head. He was not a stranger, but he was definitely sexy.
That slow dance was the most action I’d gotten in months, and my hoo-ha tingled just thinking about the way his hands roamed my back. His touch was intentional, like he knew exactly how to make me feel good.
A shiver ran down me as I thought about his hands in places not as innocent as my lower back, and I turned the key. When I did, I heard a revving sound that was my worst nightmare.
“Come on, just one more day, Sally,” I pleaded as I turned it again.
This time, it revved again but sputtered out. I was going to try once more when a knock on my window sounded, and I practically jumped out of my skin.
I turned and saw a man standing beside my car. The man I’d just been having very dirty thoughts about.
“Do you need a ride?” he asked. My window muffled his voice, but I still heard him.
My heart thundered in my chest at the thought of getting into his vehicle. I’d barely been able to constrain myself when I was in public, surrounded by a hundred or so people. I wasn’t sure I trusted myself in a private, enclosed space with him.
The last thing I wanted to do was make a fool out of myself. Again. I knew how Kane saw me. I hadn’t missed his expression or the way he’d tensed up after I’d suggested that sex was a reason to date someone. He still thought I was a kid in pigtails, tagging along with him and Remi. He treated me the same way he’d treated me when I was that kid. I was just someone he had to look after. He’d already ‘come to my rescue’ at the Pit Stop. I didn’t want him to see me as helpless and someone he needed to save.
I grabbed my purse from the seat beside me and opened the door. When I did, he took a step to the side, but he was still standing very close to me. Being this close to him caused my heart to race. As he stared down at me, arousal surged through my body.
The urge to rise on my tiptoes and press my lips to his was so intense that I had to actively fight against it to keep my heels on the ground. That compulsion was exactly the reason I didn’t trust myself to accept the ride.
Just go home, I told myself.
“It was good seeing you and great meeting Harper. She’s a doll.” I shut the car door and started walking away from Kane.
I’d made it two steps when I felt his large hand wrap around my wrist. The contact sent off a Fourth of July fireworks display of tingles throughout my body.
“What are you doing?” His gravelly tone ignited explosions of bliss to erupt low in my belly.
I closed my eyes and exhaled before turning my head to look over my shoulder. “I’m walking home.”
“It’s after midnight.”
“I walk home at night all the time in the city, and this is Wishing Well,” I pointed out, the subtext clearly being that I had nothing to fear in the safe small town.
His jaw ticked, and his nostrils flared, but he didn’t respond—his fingers still firmly, but gently, held my wrist. I told myself that he kept his hand there because he thought I was a flight risk, but as I looked into his whiskey stare, I wondered if he might be feeling the same attraction I was. There was something different in the depths of his milk chocolate gaze.
This was a new development. Maybe he didn’t see me as Remi’s kid sister after all. That thought had no sooner run through my head than he released his grip. His arms dropped to his sides.
Or maybe not.
“You’re not walking home. Alone. At night. I’m giving you a ride.”
His statement left no room for argument. All the fight in me to not embarrass myself vanished. His protectiveness wasn’t personal. Kane would give anyone who was stranded in the parking lot a ride. At least, that’s what I told myself as I nodded in agreement.
We walked in silence to his truck, and he offered me his hand as I stepped onto the running board and then climbed inside. The moment our fingers touched, a tingling thrill raced from my head to my toes. A tremor ran through me as I pulled my hand away and hoped that he didn’t notice my body’s reaction to him.
As I settled into the passenger seat, I took a deep breath, trying to ground myself in the moment. When I did, the fresh, woodsy musk that was uniquely Kane’s wrapped around me like a blanket on a chilly winter day, enveloping me in its manliness. As I buckled myself in, I noticed the Barbie mermaid hanging from the rearview mirror and couldn’t help but smile. Kane was the epitome of masculine energy; he radiated alpha energy, so knowing he drove around town with a mermaid Barbie hanging from his mirror made him even hotter.
Not that he needed any help in that department.
Kane climbed in beside me and must have noticed what I was looking at.
“That’s Macy.” His deep voice filled the small cabin and vibrated through me.
“Macy the Mermaid,” I repeated.
