Chapter 5
Suddenly, I hear Miles bellow, “There you are, Megan! Come over here
and meet my best buddy, Sam! He’s technically my boss at Tire Depot, but I
don’t like to remind him, or he gets a
big head.”
I turn to shake hands with whoever Miles is talking to, and suddenly,
I feel like I’ve been kicked in the nuts.
Or actually…the taint.
Yeah, this feeling right here…it’s too deep for a nut kick. This
panic-seizing, gut-twisting, body-tremoring attack overwhelming all my senses
has a taint kick written all over it.
Because I’m staring into the stunning blue eyes of my ice fishing
companion from the past two weekends.
“Sam, this is my baby sister, Megan, visiting us all the way from
Utah. Megan, this is my best friend, Sam.” Maggie’s smile falters with
recognition as Miles, her…brother—oh
fucking fuck, her brother—drapes his arm over her shoulder and smiles back
at me.
Like a moron, I instantly bring my beer to my lips and take three
slow glugs. Whatever I can do to avoid touching her outstretched hand right now
because I’m convinced the second I touch her in front of her brother, Miles
will know I’ve thought about her naked no less than nineteen times.
And now I’m thinking about her naked
again.
I nod stupidly and continue to chug my beer like a damn college frat
boy as Miles and Maggie watch me curiously. Finally, I pry the cold glass from
my lips long enough to give her a head nod.
A fucking head nod.
Only douchebags who call a girl basic would give a fucking head nod.
I look down at where she’s still holding her hand out for me to
shake, and God help me, my traitorous
eyes scan the rest of her body at the same time. Her perfect round tits are
covered beneath this short black lace dress. It’s way too fucking dressy for
the likes of Pearl’s, but hell if she doesn’t look sexy. She’s wearing black plaid tights and little ankle boots with
a big ass heel that bring her up to my chin. I’d gotten used to her being at my
chest in her snow boots. The same boots
she was wearing when I kissed my best friend’s little sister in my fucking
fishing hut.
My mind instantly begins trying to remember everything I said to
Miles about his sister in his truck earlier. Jesus Christ, this is bad.
Suddenly, Maggie reaches out and forcefully grabs my hand to shake.
“Hi Sam, my friends call me Maggie. Miles is the only one who still calls me
Megan…even my parents say Maggie. It’s
nice to meet you…for the first time.”
She’s talking slow, and I feel myself nodding with buggy eyes as I
attempt to swallow back the cotton in my mouth and ignore the sparks shooting
up my hand from her touch. “Nice to meet you for the first time, too. How long
have you been in town visiting?” Jesus
hell, I sound like a robot on acid.
Her dimple flashes when she realizes I’m not going to spill the
beans. “I just arrived a couple of hours ago.”
I unclench my jaw and belatedly realize we’re still shaking hands.
“Today?” I can’t help but say it as a question because where the fuck has she
been staying for the past week if Miles thinks she just got into town today?
“Yes, I was visiting my boyfriend in his hometown on the East Coast
and decided to stay in Boulder for a few weeks before heading back to Utah.”
My eyes are blinking, and I can’t stop them because my mind is
completely jumbled up right now. I can’t differentiate the lie from the truth.
Is she still with her boyfriend and was lying to me? Or did she tell me the
truth, and she’s lying to Miles?
This is why you don’t break your own
rules, Sammy. Girls with baggage are never easy.
Excerpt 2
Chapter 11
“Maggie,” I state, my voice deep in warning. “Stop worrying about
Sterling and live in this moment. We are in the middle of a hot spring,
surrounded by rocks and mountains and snow and nature and…life. Your ex should be the last thing on your mind. You should be
taking this all in.”
“I am taking it all in,” she snaps back defensively.
“But are you? Are you really?” I stare deep into her eyes, not in
judgment but in understanding. “I know you have a plan, but sometimes plans
need to be forgotten so you don’t miss
out on life.”
“Life? Like right now? With you?” she says the words slowly like each
one is a sweet she’s tasting for the first time.
“Hell, maybe,” I reply, my voice growing deeper from the darkened
look in her eye. “You seem busy living for a fictional future. Maybe it’s time
to stop turning the pages for a bit.”
The corners of her lips twitch as she watches me for a breath. Her
tongue darts out to wet her lips as she pulls her bottom one in with her teeth.
She turns around to prop her arms on the rocks, her eyes taking in the scenery
all around us. She exhales heavily and then turns to sit on her knees in front
of me.
My eyes take in that luscious body of hers, curvy in all the right
places and smooth like velvet. Leaning in until her face is only inches from
mine, she says, “Kiss me, Sam.”
“What?” I ask with a laugh and pull away from her, assuming this must
be her idea of a joke.
She bites her lip and narrows her eyes with determination. “Kiss me.”
“What are you doing?” I shift nervously in the water to put more
space between us. I swear to God, the temperature of the water has just risen
ten degrees.
Lifting her shoulders, she replies, “I’m living life in the moment.”
“But you want your ex back.” A fact she shouldn’t need to be reminded
of.
“I do…someday.” Her eyes wander down to my chest. “But he’s not here
tonight. And you’re a short-term kind of guy, and I’m a temporarily single
girl. So why don’t we live in the moment right now…together?”
“You don’t want this,” I reply with a shake of the head, gulping down
the contents of my glass in one swig. I set it down and hoist myself up on the
edge of the rocks, needing some cool air to clear my head.
“I think I do,” she replies, lifting her brows at me. “I know I do.
I’ve wanted it since the day we met.”
“Bullshit.”
“It’s true. Why do you think I threw myself at you in your fishing
hut, Sam?”
My body roars to life at that memory, of her body close to mine, of
feeling her in my arms and tasting her perfect lips. Maggie could kiss. Even in
her haste, she knew how to kiss.
Maggie moves closer to me like a tentative cub tracking its first
prey. She kneels between my legs, and I
tense when she runs her hands up the outside of my calves. “You’re a good guy,
Sam. You may not be a long-term kind of guy, but that’s not what I’m looking
for from you anyway.”
Her hands roll over my quads, shooting a zinger right up my groin to
my cock. I reach down and grip her hands harshly to stop their movement. “What
are you looking for exactly, Maggie? Be very fucking specific.”
Her long black lashes are wet from the steam as she looks up at me
and quirks her brow as she replies. “I’m asking for no-strings fucking.”
“Jesus Christ,” I growl and have to force myself to look away from
her. She looks way too fucking hot right now in that little black bikini, her
breasts pressing together from the position of her hands on my thighs, and her
blue eyes wide and innocent. My dick develops its own heartbeat as it presses into my board shorts.
How did this evening turn into Maggie seducing me? I’m fucking nine
years older than her, for God’s sake. I should be the one seducing her. But all
of a sudden, she’s the alluring bait dangling right in front of me, and I’m a
fish who hasn’t eaten in weeks.
I look at her with pleading eyes. “Your brother will kill me.”
She smiles a sexy smile, that dimple in her cheek ever present.
“Miles doesn’t need to know about my sex life.”
