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“Oh my god.” She had to place a hand to her chest to keep her heart intact. First, because Zoe knew how much Milly had dreamed about traveling. But there’d been college, then she’d landed her dream job straight out of grad school, and Dillon came along, quickly followed by a proposal, and then Zoe had been diagnosed. There was just never a good time.
Until now.
“Where are you going to go?” Kat asked.
“England,” she said automatically. “I want to go visit all of the places Jane Austen wrote about.”
“Your Downunder Mr. Darcy is smiling right now,” Kat said.
“Yeah.” And her sister was smiling too. Visiting England had long been a dream of Milly’s. Although when she imagined it, her sister was there with her, making every memory that much brighter. “But before I start having an allergic reaction to all of the feels coursing through my body, I want to get to the other dare.” She flipped the card. “Love is Blind. Have a friend blindfold a cute guy, then you kiss him. See if he can guess who puckered up once the blindfold comes off.”
“Lucas,” her friends said in unison.
No was on the tip of her tongue, but then she thought of how Zoe would handle the dare and decided to go for it. It was all in the name of fun, right? What was the harm in asking? He could always decline, which would be a little embarrassing. But embarrassing was better than regret—and she didn’t want to regret anything about tonight.
Tucking her note inside her purse for safekeeping, she adjusted her glasses and flagged Tim down. “Can I borrow a clean dish towel?”
“Sure thing.”
When Tim returned with a dish towel the three ladies all strutted over to the other side of the bar. And Milly’s strut was dialed to a ten. Fake it till you make it, babe. Not to mention Lucas was tracking her every move. It was as if they were completely aware of each other. The closer she got, the faster the pulse in her neck pounded, until she was nearing stroke levels.
Yes, she’d always had a tiny crush on him, but she’d never had this reaction before.
“Sadly, I’m not wearing a belt,” he said when she walked up to him. “But I can borrow Nolan’s.”
“No belt needed. We came prepared.” Milly held up the towel. The play was that Gemma would spin him around, Kat would caress his shoulders, then Milly would kiss him. Not a kiss kiss, just a quick peck on the lips.
“You open for a game of Love is Blind?” Kat asked, then explained the rules.
Once again, a crowd had gathered, and his buddies burst out laughing, followed by a series of catcalls.
“Didn’t know you were into blindfolds, Macintyre,” Nolan said, but Lucas didn’t break eye contact with Milly. If he was embarrassed, he didn’t show it. In fact, he looked intrigued.
“Are you sure? You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” she said gently.
“Oh, I’m just waiting to see where this leads.” The humor in his smile echoed his voice. He turned around and every female eye in the bar dropped to his butt and the way he filled out those slacks.
Milly tied the dishcloth around his head, then Gemma spun him in circles. “Okay, you have to guess which one of us kisses you,” Gemma said.
“Challenge accepted.”
Kat walked confidently into his personal space and ran her hands down his abs, and he smiled. Then Gemma tested his bicep and the guys whistled. Finally, it was Milly’s turn and her stomach rioted with nerves. Was she really going to do this? Was she finally going to do something bold—like kiss Lucas Macintyre?
“I’m waiting,” he said, and she went damp.
I’d better get seven years of mind-blowing orgasms for this, she mentally said to her sister.
Wanting to feel just how hard his body was, but not wanting to take things too far, Milly put her hands on his shoulders and went up on her toes. When she still wasn’t tall enough, she threaded her fingers through his hair and pulled his head lower.
His lips split into a smile right before she brushed them with her own. He didn’t grab her or take control, he just stood there with his elbows casually resting on the bar top behind him, letting her control the pace. She meant to make it a chaste kiss, she really did. But her mouth didn’t seem to be listening, because one brush turned into two, and finally, by the time she pulled back, everyone was chanting, “Mac-in-ty-re.” Milly felt like doing some chanting of her own. She’d broken out of her shell, kissed a sexy guy, and she’d had fun doing it.
“Hey, Mills,” he breathed into her mouth.
“How did you know it was me?”
“Because you taste sweet and sexy,” he said against her lips. “And the air seems to catch fire when you’re around.”
“Oh,” was the only word she could form. She’d felt the fire, but she didn’t know he had. The only men she knew who said those kinds of things were in the pages of a romance novel.
