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She cut him off, throwing herself at him, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck, bringing him down to her level. Her tongue swooped into his mouth, capturing his tongue, claiming his mouth. Her hands clasped the sides of his face. His libido went into overdrive as she allowed him to bring her back down to the couch.
He still didn’t have a clear idea why she was crying, but his body could only react to her soft lips against his. Her long dress was gathered around her thighs. Duke kissed her neck and then her shoulders. He peeled back the top of her dress for just a peek at one perfectly pink pert nipple. He ducked his head down for one quick taste. She gasped beneath his touch, and her fingers dug into his shoulders.
The front door slammed shut, and like two naughty teenagers, Duke and Macy scrambled to sit up. He helped her pull the top of her dress up and adjust her hair back over her shoulder. Her eyes were still glassy as she giggled and pulled his shirt down. He hadn’t even realized she’d managed to pull it up so much.
“Hey, Mom!” Gia said, coming down the hall. She leaned over the ledge and looked at them.
“Are you crying?” MJ asked.
With a choked sob, Macy began to cry again. Duke cursed inwardly. Now the kids were going to think he was some sort of creep.
“They’re happy tears,” she reassured them.
“I think I upset your mom with her birthday present,” Duke tried to explain. The kids came down the hall and into the living room. Gia sat on the couch and pulled MJ into her lap.
“What happened?” she asked.
“He just gave me a wonderful present that I never thought I’d ever get the chance to see.”
“What did he give you?” MJ asked.
“My parents...” Macy sniffed. “It was a video of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, the day I was born.”
Duke eased back into the cushions of the couch with satisfaction. Finding the tape and getting it shipped here had been totally worth the effort, just to see the look of surprise and appreciation on Macy’s face. His gesture to bring her a piece of her past opened up the doors for a brighter future for the two of them.
Chapter 6
With the Thanksgiving holiday behind them, the Christmas spirit began to spread to everyone in town. Thanks to Duke’s help, Macy completed one of her most successful weekends yet. He’d turned out to be more reliable than expected. What she did not expect was her overflow of emotion for him. This celebrity crush was manifesting into something else, and Macy had no idea what to do with it. Since laying eyes on him in person, he’d had such a profound effect on every aspect of her life, and it was hard accepting he would be gone after the New Year.
Every day after he did the morning show, Duke would show up at Winter Paradise, just as promised. He worked diligently, helping her get all her homes done ahead of schedule. At the office, he bonded with Andy and Spencer while loading and unloading the shed. For Serena, he would call up his single friends and talk her up. If she ever made it to New York City or DC, she was going to have a busy time.
And then there were the evenings when Duke would insist on driving her home, and of course Gia and MJ would beg him to stay for dinner. When he talked about going out and finding a Christmas tree to chop down, the kids invited themselves to tag along, which led to an impromptu road trip after school. Of course, upon returning home, they had to show him the proper way to decorate a tree. Macy and the children always decorated their trees alone. But having Duke in the house with them seemed natural.
In just a short amount of time, Duke had become an intricate part of her life. And now Macy had plenty of time to work on his home. The Wainwrights ended up deciding not to go with Macy’s company, which was fine with her. The positive side of not working with the Wainwrights meant it now gave her more time to work on Duke’s place. After receiving written permission from the owners of the house Duke rented, Macy set forth a plan to work on the decorations.
Taking her eyes off her work for a second, Macy briefly looked up and spied Duke straddling the other end of the black shingles on the roof with the hammer in one hand, a nail in the other and an extra nail in his mouth. His triceps glistened in the sunlight. Sweat trickled from his brow, and he’d never looked sexier. The man concentrated on his task at hand, and maybe more so because they were finally able to work on his house, albeit in the evening. Of course he would have to have a two-story colonial-style home. It was pretty; Macy had seen the prestigious neighborhood when she searched for a home for her family. No matter how successful her business was, this neighborhood was still nowhere near her price range.
They’d spent the earlier part of their afternoon wrapping lights around the four pillars on his front porch. With the shutters being black, Macy thought it would be best just to light candles and hang wreaths on the four large windows on the bottom floor and hang more from the ones on the second floor. They were working on framing the top of the house with white lights, and more or less eye-flirting with a few stolen glances, her batting her lashes at him, and sending a few smiles back and forth after getting caught checking out one another.
And she had to give the man credit where credit was due; he certainly did know how to fill out a pair of jeans. The dark blue Yankees shirt he wore wasn’t too bad, either. It fit across his broad chest like a second skin. She could almost feel those strong arms around her now. But Duke had been nothing but a gentleman. And as much as she hated to admit it, she was waiting for him to kiss her again. The thought of making out with him on her couch caused such a fire in her belly that she barely needed a jacket for the cooling weather.
“Are you watching me?” Duke asked with the nail still between his lips.
“I’m just making sure you’re hitting the nail on the head.” Macy recovered her composure. “I would hate for you to knock a hole in your roof. It might not rain right now, but the summers are notorious for afternoon showers.”
“Lucky for me I won’t have this house in the summer.” Duke chuckled. He swung his hammer once and then extracted the other nail. Carefully he scooted closer toward Macy with the other string of lights following him.
The comment left a sour note in Macy’s ears, reminding her once again he would be leaving. Was there really a point in getting involved with him? Monique had highly encouraged it after their talk last Sunday at her birthday. She’d known Duke since college and said she hadn’t ever seen the glow he’d been sporting since getting involved with her. Serena had confirmed the same thing about Macy when they were alone at work together. Both women felt an affair was exactly what was needed. But Macy wasn’t sure she wa
s that kind of girl.
Duke was a heartthrob in the outside world. He was used to fast living, fast cars and fast women. And he was going back to that world. Macy’s everyday life as a working soccer mom didn’t fit in with that. Right now, he was miles away from it. Though a lot of people were mad at Duke for outing Santa just before Thanksgiving, he still had a huge following. A few people in town had stopped them when they were out together. There were the occasional homeowners who conveniently stayed home once they heard Duke Rodriguez was helping her out for the chance to meet him. She’d seen the photos in the tabloids of Duke spotted at celebrity and political events and had no idea how she would handle seeing him in person at a red carpet event with women throwing themselves at him.
She didn’t think she could have a brief affair. No matter how good it physically would have felt, she didn’t think she could survive the heartache once it ended. She knew she would get too attached to him, and recovering from a broken heart was not on her list of things to do.
Inhaling deeply, Macy tried to think about how she was going to handle things. She didn’t want to fall in love with a man like Duke Rodriguez. A Mariah Carey tune about what she wanted for Christmas blasted from her truck’s radio.
BAM!
