“Thank you for the best day I’ve had in a long time, Anna.”
I angled my head up toward his face and, in doing so, sneaked a peek at those lips. I remembered so well how they used to fit against mine. How right.
No. I yanked my eyes up to his. There. Much safer.
Only it wasn’t. The way he was looking at me was filled with a smoldering kind of heat that made flames lick at my blood.
“No,” I sputtered. That was how much I wanted to kiss him. I had to reject it out loud. “I mean, thank you. Of course. But all I did was tag along.”
Neither of us looked away after that. We just stood there and stared at each other in the dim orange glow of the ancient light on my porch.
After a minute or an eternity, William suddenly took a step back and scrubbed his hands over his face. “I’ve got to go. If I don’t leave right this minute, I’m going to try to kiss you.”
His admission startled me more than it probably should have. He might’ve stepped back, but his eyes were still on mine.
“Maybe you should,” I whispered.
The heat in his gaze ignited, but then he closed his eyes and shook his head. “I’m not kissing you while you’re drunk, Anna.”
“I’m not drunk. I might’ve been a bit tipsy, but the fresh air has cleared my head.” Of the haze of alcohol anyway. Lust was what fogged up my brain right now, the beer long forgotten.
Almost as if it were involuntarily, he closed the distance between us and took my face between his big hands. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.” The word came out on a breath, but he heard it.
Our gazes clashed and held as he slowly lowered his head to mine. There was more than enough time to put a stop to it if I wanted to, but there was no part of me that didn’t want to feel his lips against mine again after all this time.
Unlike what I’d expected, his mouth didn’t immediately drop to mine. He brushed his lips against my cheek first. The lightest of touches that sent shivers traveling through me and gave me goosebumps on my arms.
I bit back a moan, and he brought his mouth to the hollow of my temple. All the while, his hands were never far away, his fingertips tracing my cheekbone and the tip of his nose running along my skin.
My hands went up and planted on his chest, feeling his heart racing against my palm. I curled my fingers into fists, bunching up the black material of his shirt and bringing him as close to me as I could get before lifting up on my toes.
I met his mouth there, pressing my lips against his for a kiss that was gentle and careful. One that made time freeze and nothing else seem important.
Something about it made me feel like I was the only person that mattered to him in the entire world. Yet there was also a subtle urgency to it, a desperation wrapped up in the old memories and feelings rushing to the fore.
I felt how much he needed me right then and there, just as we were now, but I also felt the passion and adoration of the people we used to be. It was a moment when the past and the present merged, and I swore it was still so good with him that I caught a glimpse of a future we’d never had.
Both of us came to our senses far too soon for my liking, and he rested his forehead against mine with his eyes still closed and our breaths mingling as we gasped for air together.
It took everything I had to go inside after I opened my eyes, but I drew on strength I hadn’t known I had and closed the door after saying goodnight. At first, there was only silence on the other side of the door.
Which meant he was still standing there.
I wondered what he was doing. Was he agitated and running his hands through his hair? Was he thoughtful and looking up to the sky, trying to figure out what the hell had just happened? Or was he still standing exactly as I’d left him, looking at the door, wishing that I’d open it and invite him in?
A few seconds later, I heard the soft padding of his footfalls and the squeaking of the stairs as he descended them, and a sigh rolled out of me.
I leaned with my back against the door to catch my breath, still feeling the press of his warm lips on mine. What the heck had I been thinking, kissing him?
And why was I already thinking about doing it again?
Chapter 19
WILLIAM
It took a grand total of forty-eight hours after my date with Anna for the media and my fans to catch wind that something was brewing in my hometown. I lay on my bed in the cottage, the large flatscreen TV mounted against the wall tuned to the news.
My face was plastered all over it, and I couldn’t help the rush of satisfaction I felt when I saw how the narrative about me had already changed. There were pictures of me and Anna riding our bike along the water, and others of us strolling through town, captioned with headlines like, “Who is Kent’s New Mystery Girl?” and “Rebound in Mackinac.”
So far, everything was going exactly according to plan. The press was suddenly focusing more on me being a “small-town boy at heart” and not the playboy they used to portray me as. The fact that I was really laughing in the pictures instead of the brooding, scowling, or smirking shots they usually got of me apparently made me relatable.
Suddenly, there were interviews and clips focused on other celebrities from small towns talking about how they’d fallen in love there. It was being painted as sweet, pure, and real.
There was an admittedly dickish part of me that felt a pang of gratification about how Angelina must feel about all of this. They weren’t saying bad things about her, which I was grateful for, but suddenly being a famous actress and LA royalty just didn’t quite measure up to being a small-town girl.
A grin spread on my lips as I imagined the tantrum she had to be throwing while watching this. There was nothing she hated more than the attention not being on her, and all of it was on me and Anna falling in love in quaint and charming Mackinac.
I’d never even considered the publicity the town would get from this, but some of the news channels were basically airing Mackinac promos with their coverage. It wouldn’t surprise me if tourism picked up significantly for a few weeks until this died down.
It really wasn’t even rational how happy that made me. I’d left this town in my rearview mirror a long time ago, but I hadn’t realized how much I still cared for it until now.
If the locals could gain from this plan as well, it would be a win-win-win situation. I’d have fist-bumped the fucking air if I was just a few years younger.
And, of course, as soon as I thought about being younger, my mind drifted back to my kiss with Anna the other night. The news and even my sense of satisfaction about how Angelina might be taking it faded to nothingness when I thought about that kiss.
Sweet baby Jesus. That kiss.
It had been a long time since a kiss had made me feel anything like that. After Anna had broken up with me and I’d gone to LA, there had been years during which I hadn’t kissed anyone. I fucked them, but kissing didn’t do anything for me, and therefore, I hadn’t done it.
Kissing Angelina was always hot, but that woman saw kissing as a prelude to fucking and nothing more—another reason why I didn’t buy her “nothing else happened” line. Her kisses were overtly sexual, her tongue used as an instrument to stroke desire.
It wasn’t anything like that with Anna. In that moment when my lips touched hers, it had felt like nothing had ever changed between us. Like I’d never left Mackinac at all and we’d been together these twelve years that I’d been gone.
When the kiss was over, it’d been a jarring bump back to reality—almost disconcerting to realize that the way it’d felt wasn’t really the way things were. It had taken me at least a minute to remember why I couldn’t just follow her into our house and get into our bed to make love to her.
I gave my head a firm shake, but it wasn’t enough to dislodge the memory completely. Anna even tasted the same.
Like strawberries.
I knew it was her lip balm, but still, it was something I’d always associated with th
e first love of my life.
It had been so bad after she’d first broken up with me that I hadn’t been able to eat a fucking strawberry—or even see one—without thinking about kissing and sex. There had been several uncomfortable times for a while there when I’d gotten hard while in the middle of a breakfast business meeting.
If I didn’t stop thinking about Anna, it was going to happen again. Sure, I wasn’t in a business meeting so it wouldn’t be as bad, but I still didn’t want to end up jacking off to the thought of my ex’s preferred lip-balm flavor.
Heaving myself off the bed, I left my room and went to find my sister. I hadn’t seen her since the day of the big date. She’d been out of town on a supply run to get some items for a wedding she had coming up, but I knew she was supposed to have gotten back this morning.
She grinned when she saw me as I came around the corner to the pool. Sitting in the shade of the old oak tree she’d always loved, she looked busy but radiantly happy. There were books and folders spread out on the table under the tree, but she waved me over anyway.
“Have you seen how well the plan is working already?” She beamed at me. “I really didn’t expect it to happen that fast.”
I sat down sideways on the wooden bench attached to the table, straddling it as I propped my elbows on my knees. “I saw it this morning. I’ve got to hand it to you, sis. There’s a job on my public-relations team if you ever want it.”
She gave me a smile and gestured toward the house. “I’ve got my hands full here, but thanks.”
I shrugged. “Anytime.”
Making space for her arms in front of her on the table, she pushed her work away and brought her eyes to mine. “So, tell me everything. Did you and Anna have fun together?”
“We did.” I tried to hide my grin, but she caught it anyway and frowned.
“What’s that all about?”
Fuck. “Nothing. It was just good to hang out with her again.”
Jessie arched her brows all the way up and shook her head. “Nope. Don’t try to swerve away from this. Tell me what that smile was about. I know you, and I know you don’t just smile like that for no good reason. You know I’m going to pull it out of you eventually anyway.”
My eyes wanted to roll at how confident she sounded, and it was on the tip of my tongue to tell her that I was a vault and no one could ever make me talk, but she had a point. No one except for my sister could make me talk.
Exhaling on an exasperated breath, I feigned nonchalance with my expression and in my tone. “We kissed, okay? It’s not a big deal.”
Jessie froze before her shoulders slumped and she covered her eyes with her hands, letting out a low groan. “This was supposed to be a business deal, William. Aren’t you and Anna over each other?”
“I thought so, but so what if we’re not?” I raised my shoulders, waiting for her to look up before dropping them.
She sucked her lips into her mouth—her nervous tell—before blinking too many times in rapid succession. A string of curses I didn’t even realize she knew came out under her breath before she narrowed her eyes at me.
“I never would’ve brought my best friend into this mess if I thought there were still feelings there.” She reached over the table to swat my shoulder. “William! You should have told me.”
“There was nothing to tell. It just kind of… happened. Why are you making this into a bigger deal than it is?”
“Because your breakup really did a number on Anna and the last thing I want is for her to get hurt again,” she snapped. “I knew there was some unresolved shit between you two, but I figured having some time to yourselves to talk would be good for both of you. Talking, William. Not kissing.”
When it looked like she was about to smack me again, I ducked and scooted out of her reach. “Hang on. Let’s just go back for a second here. Our breakup did a number on her?”
“Yes!” She suddenly looked perplexed. Genuinely confused. “You’re a fool if you think otherwise, dear brother, and I never took you for one of those.”
“She broke up with me,” I reminded her, repeating the words I’d said to Anna on our date. It was then that I remembered the never mind Anna had answered me with when I’d said the same thing to her.
Jessie rolled those green at me, but her face was expressive enough that it really hadn’t been necessary. “She cut you loose because she knew she was holding you back.”
Everything in me stilled. I swore, even my blood stopped flowing. “You’re going to have to break it down. This is all news to me. Holding me back from what?”
Our breakup had been a defining moment in my life. If there was something I was missing… “Holding me back from what, Jessie?”
“Your potential,” she said, dragging out the word like it should’ve been obvious. “Anna knew you’d make it big in life, but she also knew that wouldn’t happen if you stayed in this town. Especially not while waiting for her sick father to possibly get better while she had to work all hours of the day and night.”
Icy frost grew in my stomach. “What?”
My sister shrugged, some of the nervousness and fight draining out of her. Her eyes softened with understanding, and she reached out to take my hand, her gaze earnest on mine. “Anna couldn’t leave this place and she knew you wanted to. No matter what, things wouldn’t work out, so she let you go.
“She let me go,” I repeated, blinking as much and as fast as my sister had not so long ago. Must run in the family.
I swept the errant thought away, trying to grope my way back to the surface of the jumble of confusion I was suddenly smack bang in the middle of. At the time, I’d been so heartbroken, so devastated, that I hadn’t questioned her about the guy she was supposedly leaving me for.
Much later, once the devastation had turned to rage and I wanted to bash the guy’s head in, I’d questioned myself to no end about how I could have missed it. It had never made any sense to me that there could’ve been someone else in the picture.
Anna and I had spent every free moment together. When would she have had time to fall in love with someone else?
Eventually, my questions had burned themselves out. She refused to talk to me, and I refused to wander after her like a lost puppy or call her a million times when she’d made it obvious she didn’t want me anymore.
Then I’d moved to LA, still brokenhearted, my desperation to make it out of Mackinac for good fueled by grief, anger, and dogged determination to prove that there was more to life than Anna Holland. My inheritance had helped me along the way, and eventually, I’d put the island and Anna solidly behind me.
“What about the other guy?” I finally choked out. “There was never another guy, was there?”
Jessie shook her head, and her expression tightened with worry. “This might have been a really bad idea. There wasn’t another guy then, and there hasn’t been a guy since you, Will. Please be careful?”
Her words were like a shot directly to my heart. How was that even possible? There wasn’t another guy then, and there hasn’t been another guy since you, Will.
It might only have been fourteen little words, but they packed a punch capable of turning my entire existence on its head, and that was exactly what they did.
Chapter 20
ANNA
It had been a week since our date, and I hadn’t seen much of Will again after. Our kiss was on constant replay in my mind, but since he’d been a bit MIA, I hadn’t had much of a chance to talk to him about it.
In some of my weaker moments, I’d even tried to call him. It had only been a couple of times, and I wouldn’t have asked him about the kiss—I was just curious about our arrangement now—but he either hadn’t answered or he’d been busy.
After some stern talking-tos with myself, I finally decided to just give him some space. I knew he’d been confused about everything even before we’d kissed. Regardless of whether the kiss meant anything to him, it was clear that he needed some time away from me to sort things
out for himself.
In the meantime, I was trying to do the same thing. I was focusing on me and on what I knew for sure I was getting out of this arrangement, which was money and not a second chance with my high school love.
Jessie had given me my first payment, in cash to avoid a paper trail that could be discovered later on, and I was on my way back from the bank. I’d paid off a huge portion of my loan with just that first installment, and I felt like I was walking on sunshine instead of dirt.
I felt wonderful. Better than I had in years. Lighter and freer than I’d felt probably since the day before my dad’s diagnosis.
There was a small bubble of space inside me that still felt wrong about taking money from the Kents, but I was earning this money. It wasn’t a handout, it wasn’t charity, and I was helping them out with something that could’ve had the potential to blow up William’s career. It was huge to them, and they were compensating me accordingly.
When I’d told Jessie it was way too much money after she’d initially told me how much they planned on paying me, she’d laughed and told me that William stood to lose that amount within a week if his career imploded. She’d also said they would have offered me a lot more if they thought I’d take it.
She was absolutely right, though. I wouldn’t have taken a cent more from them. Even so, I had to admit that being able to make that deposit had put a pep in my step that made me proud to finally be doing something to make a dent in the debt.
I’d offered to help the Kents for free, but I was glad now that they’d refused. Dad was going to have a lot of questions about why the amount we owed had suddenly shrunk so much, but I’d figure out what to tell him before the time came.
For now, I was simply planning on reveling in knowing the amount had shrunk. Whistling under my breath, I made my way back to the Tourism Center.
Even Mildred wouldn’t be able to get me down today. I was so lost in thought that I bumped into someone, only snapping out of it when I looked up to apologize and realized I didn’t recognize her.
The Billionaire’s Second Chance: A Small Town Romance Page 12