Hungry for the sight of the boy Renee had given birth to, Mallory moved a little to the side and tried to get a better look at him.
She’d seen pictures. The PI had included plenty in his report—it was how she knew the truck—but those images didn’t show the sparkle of delight in Maddox’s eyes as his father lifted him out of the stroller and tossed him in the air.
Mallory held her breath. She had no doubt Jacob would catch him without trouble but she remained tense until Maddox was safe in those big hands once more. Both males laughed as they turned and Mallory got her first in-person look at Jacob Conners.
Oh, she knew why Renee had gone after him.
He was ruggedly handsome, not smooth or movie-star good-looking—no, there was nothing pretty-boy about this man. He was all tough alpha, with thick arms and sculpted muscles beneath a tight t-shirt, and if he were dressed in a flannel shirt with an axe in his hand, any woman with blood in her veins would think about jumping his bones not running away, because he definitely would not look like an axe murderer.
She was so mesmerized by the sight of him she didn’t notice Jacob had turned further and faced her direction until their gazes locked.
A jolt of pure lust rocketed through her, scorching her nerves as it darted through her veins, ramping up her heart rate and delivering a burst of heat to her core.
She’d never felt anything like it, never had such a visceral reaction to any man, let alone one she’d never met, and as she tried to reconcile the sensations bombarding her, she struggled to catch her breath.
Jacob Conners was a good looking man but she’d seen handsome men before and never had this kind of response to the sight of one.
The obvious answer for what was happening to her was one she didn’t want to think about because it wasn’t good.
It wasn’t good at all.
No, her reaction definitely was not good.
She couldn’t be attracted to the father of Renee’s child.
No. No. No. Definitely not. She couldn’t allow herself to feel anything for Jacob Conners.
Even if he returned the attraction sizzling through her veins, her stepsister had ruined any chance of them forming any type of intimate relationship.
She’d be lucky if the man allowed her into his son’s life, never mind his own. And she could forget his bed. He’d already had a Dawson woman there and Mallory had no doubt he wasn’t looking to hit repeat with another.
Except Renee wasn’t a Dawson, not by blood and not by name, and without question, not by nature. She’d been too old for Mallory’s father to adopt when he and Donna married, and in spite of both their parents urging Renee to change her last name she never had.
Until she’d married Rylan Conners.
Not having the same last name could be the one thing that saved Mallory from that proverbial door in the face.
Jacob had no idea Renee had a stepsister, or a living parent. What would he say when he found out everything Renee had told him about herself was a lie? He probably wouldn’t be shocked at this point.
With a frown, Jacob gave his head a little shake and returned to what he’d been doing before his gaze had locked with hers. Turning his back to her, he opened the rear door of his dual cab pickup and put Maddox in his seat.
The broken eye contact snapped Mallory out of her mesmerized state with a sharp indrawn breath and, taking advantage of the moment, she spun on her heel. Dodging around a group of teenagers, she walked quickly down the sidewalk in the opposite direction of where she had intended to go.
Without a destination in mind, she wove her way through the late afternoon pedestrian traffic to the far end of the main street, the last few minutes on replay in her head.
She couldn’t decide if it was the man or the boy who pulled at her the most. Did she want to know? There was no future for her with Jacob Conners so why entertain the idea?
No future outside of her being the step-aunt of the sweet little boy he’d fathered, anyway.
And that was assuming he allowed her to be part of Maddox’s life once he found out who she was—who her stepsister was.
No, it would be best to forget all about the burst of longing she’d felt when their eyes had locked. Nothing could come of it and there were more important things to concern herself with.
Like how she was going to convince a man who’d been burned by Renee to entrust his son with the grandmother neither of them knew existed.
3
Jake stared at the woman twenty feet away and tried to place her.
