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Act Like You Love Me
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
One
Laney Marshall, like many people, enjoyed a guilty addiction...to Amazon. To be fair, living in Blossom Branch, Georgia, was partly to blame. Atlanta’s glamorous stores were an hour and a half away. When a woman needed a new set of earbuds or a hard-to-find book for a coworker’s birthday, one-click ordering was a lifesaver.
Whether it was UPS, FedEx, or even the postal service, Laney knew most of the delivery people on sight. So when her doorbell rang after dinner on a Friday evening, she swished the curtain aside and checked the porch.
The meal she had consumed while sitting in front of the TV rumbled in her stomach. Her heart stopped for a full ten seconds. Even at eight o’clock, there was plenty of light outside, thanks to the recent time change.
The man on Laney’s porch was not a courier of any kind. He was Blossom Branch’s most famous citizen, Brit Sheffield. The kid who’d made it big. Star of stage and screen. Bordering recently onsuperstarif the tabloids were to be believed.
And Laney had seen him naked.
To be fair, the naked thing was a million years ago when she still believed in fairy tales, but that image was hard to forget.
She opened the door a crack. “What are you doing here?” she whispered. He looked both the same and different—tall and brooding, with his broad shoulders hunched into a leather jacket that evoked Chris Evans, at least when Chris wasn’t wearing his Captain America uniform.
They hadn’t seen each other in a very long time. Four years, to be exact.
The fact that the two of them texted each other several times a week was a fluke of their long-standing friendship, nothing more. They certainly weren’t friends with benefits. Not now.
She had too much self-respect to beavailableanytime Brit showed up.
“Let me in, Laney,” he said, his words laced with irritation or impatience, or both. The male, gravelly baritone had the power to make her legs wobble even now.
Any one of a dozen houses nearby might have nosy neighbors on the lookout. Gossip was the life’s blood of a semirural town. Reluctantly, Laney stepped aside to let her unexpected guest enter. In the process, she inhaled the faint but tantalizing scent of expensive aftershave.
As she shut the door and locked it, she noticed the black SUV in her driveway. Its tinted windows gave it a Secret Service vibe. “A rental?” she asked, more for something to say than out of any real curiosity.
When he nodded, the overhead light caught gold highlights in his chestnut waves. His cut was shorter now. Back in high school, he’d been the stereotypical bad boy with hair that brushed his shoulders. Laney remembered the way it felt to sift her fingers through the thick waves.
She cleared her throat. “Have you eaten?” She wasn’t entirely surprised to see him. Maybe her subconscious had tried to warn her this moment was a possibility. But his presence in her small house was still a shock to the system. Being close to Brit Sheffield again caused stress fractures in her hard-won peace.Look, butdon’t touch.
He shook his head. “No. As soon as the plane landed in Atlanta, I grabbed a car and hit the road. You don’t have to feed me, though.”
That last was a pitiful attempt to be polite. For an actor, he was painfully transparent. “It’s homemade chicken pot pie,” she said.
For the first time, his expression lightened. “Have I died and gone to heaven?”
“Bathroom’s down the hall on the left. You wash up. I’ll have it ready when you come back.”
In the kitchen, she put her hands to her hot cheeks.Focus,Laney.
She pulled the casserole dish out of the fridge and scooped out a man-sized portion. Because the microwave wouldn’t do justice to the flaky top crust, she put the plate in the oven and set a timer. The leftovers hadn’t been chilled long enough to need much.
When Brit reappeared, the sexy leather jacket was gone. His turned-up sleeves revealed manly forearms dusted with golden hair. The watch on his left wrist probably cost more than her car. But the sleek timepiece suited him.
