When I finished rubbing my hands over my mouth and chin, I eyed Mac’s still-tense posture, the way she was avoiding me already. I didn’t think I could do this every time something happened between us. It was one step forward, three steps back. At this rate, it would take her a year to admit she had feelings for me and another decade before we got married.
So, I did what I thought might speed things along. “Thinking of making a break for it?”
Mac’s attention came to me, and I resisted a fist pump. “No,” she snapped.
I chuckled, rocking back on my heels. “You sure? Because you look like you’re ready to run.” Her eyes narrowed, and I added smugly, “Again.” I might as well have called her a coward and reminded her that running was exactly what she’d done after the first time we’d kissed.
“I’m not going anywhere. If the cops want to talk to me, then I’ll tell them what happened.”
“Well, we probably shouldn’t tell them everything that happened.”
She sucked in a breath as if she was shocked I’d bring it up.
“I’m fine to keep the stakeout make-out between you and me,” I offered.
Mac groaned. “Please don’t call it that.”
Grinning, I said, “I can’t help it. It has such a nice ring to it.”
“Well, maybe you wouldn’t be so smug about this whole thing if you’d been the one embarrassing yourself on top of a hay bale?—”
“Technically, you were on top ofme,” I interrupted.
But she ignored me and kept right on talking. “—having anorgasm,” she hissed, “without even taking your pants off.”
I nodded seriously. “Well, it is cold out here. If I didn’t have my pants on, I’d probably have a hard time, incidentally, rising to the occasion.”
But Mac wasn’t laughing at my joke. Hell, she wouldn’t even look at me. For the first time, I realized she was more than a little embarrassed. She was dead serious.
“Mac,” I said, making sure I had her attention. “I swear, if you are ashamed or humiliated right now, I will lose my mind. It was hot as hell. Feeling you come apart like that was ...” I struggled to find the words. “Unbelievable. A fucking revelation. For the love of sweet tea and Dolly Parton, do not be embarrassed. If that car hadn’t interrupted us, you wouldn’t have been alone in the orgasm department. I would have been right behind you, coming in my pants like a teenager.”
Mac’s expression was surprised and a little shell-shocked. But then her gray eyes narrowed, shadows of mistrust and years of animosity sneaking out around the edges. “Are you fucking with me right now?”
I laughed incredulously and waved a hand in the general direction of my zipper, where I was still half hard and hopeful.
“Oh,” she breathed, eyes trained on my pants. “Well, maybe?—”
Before I got the chance to hear the end ofthatsentence, an SUV from the sheriff’s department came down the drive with lights on but no sirens. It caught Mac’s attention, and she turned away, whatever she’d been about to say forgotten.
I sighed, thinking what piss-poor timing we had and wondering what she’d had in mind.Well, maybe ... we could pick up where we left off? Maybe ... now that I know how it could be with clothes on, we could try it without? Maybe ... I could suck you off behind that hay bale?Any of those would have been fantastic options.
Instead, I took the opportunity to quickly adjust myself in my jeans and followed Mac to the parking lot to meet the deputy climbing out of his vehicle. In theharsh automatic floodlights, I noticed they’d sent Jamie Matthews. He’d been a couple of years ahead of us in school and a star on the football team. He was still tall and muscular beneath his uniform, but I had a few inches on him now.
Jamie nodded stiffly in greeting when he reached us.
“The chain was down. They cut the lock on the gate with bolt cutters,” the deputy said, eyes scanning the area, straight to business.
Damn. Last time, the gate had still been latched, and they’d walked onto the property. That made me wonder what they’d been planning to do if they’d needed a getaway car.
“Yeah, we latched it around nine,” I said.
Jamie nodded. “What time would you say it was when you heard the vehicle?”
I pulled out my phone to look at my call log because I hadn’t even thought to check the time right when it happened. But Mac answered, “It was 10:04. I checked my watch right after.”
The deputy’s eyes narrowed, and he glanced between us. “What were y’all doing out here?”
“Nothing,” Mac replied at the same time I said, “Stargazing.”
