“Sometimes,” Lizzie answered, bringing his mind back to the moment. “But more often I worry about what she’d think of me if she knew who I really was.” As if she caught herself saying something she shouldn’t, she quickly added, “I mean, look how short my shorts are. She would totally think that’s slutty.”
“Slutty has more to do with attitude than clothing, and you’re too beautiful a person inside to ever look slutty.”
She shivered as a breeze swept off the water. The Cape was always cool at night, and the sea breeze made it that much colder. He’d like to have her in his lap now and to drape the blanket over her legs. He should have suggested that she change out of her skimpy shorts before going to the bonfire, but he hadn’t been able to think past his shock of her agreeing to go with him. Blue draped the blanket over her shoulders and placed an arm over her shoulder to hold it in place, hoping the way it hung to the back of her knees would keep her warm. She turned to face him, no longer shivering.
“Thank you,” she said softly. Her lips always seemed to be smiling, but now they were slightly parted, and she was looking at him like she was trying to decide if she should lean in a little closer, the same way he was trying to decide if he should take the initiative and press his lips to hers.
“Lizzie.” Her name came out as a whisper, surprising him, but standing there beneath the stars, with moonlight dancing on the water and Lizzie’s sweet perfume surrounding them, there was nothing he could do to rein in the emotions he’d been trying to temper for more than a year. Being in a group made it easier to distract himself from all the ways he was drawn to her, but now, as Lizzie’s hair blew across her cheek, he couldn’t resist tucking the wayward strands behind her ear. She had the silkiest, shiniest hair, and he’d dreamed of tangling his fingers in it as he ravaged her mouth and kissed her breathless. That simple touch, the brushing of his fingers over her skin, heightened the desire that rushed through him.
She licked her lips, and hell if it didn’t feel like an invitation, but Blue didn’t want to mess this up. He fought to shift his brain off of the fast track to her lips and focus on something else. Anything else.
He reached for the two sides of the blanket and placed them in her hand. “Here. This will keep the wind off your back.”
She watched him tuck the blanket into her hands, confusion riddling her brow and desire lingering in her eyes. “Okay. Thank you.”
They started walking down the beach again, and he knew he was on his last shred of self-control. “We should probably head back to your place and fix your oven before”—I take you in my arms and kiss you—“it gets too late.”
“Right.”
Way to go, jackass. Now things are even more confusing.
By the time they made their way back down the beach, their friends were gone and the fire was out. Blue hadn’t realized how long they’d been walking. On the way back to Lizzie’s house, Blue silently cursed himself. He was a fool for not backing off before they got that close—and an even worse fool for not kissing her when he’d had the chance, but she’d made it clear that she didn’t want to date him, which meant he had to have misread her signals.
Back at her house, he followed her down to the basement and knelt beside the oven to fish through his tools. Lizzie leaned against the counter, looking sexy as hell in those skimpy white shorts and fidgeting with the edge of his sweatshirt, which she still wore. She smiled, and he rose to talk to her. Christ, that didn’t help. She was only a few inches away, and when she lifted her eyes to look at him, he swore they darkened seductively. As if his legs had minds of their own, he stepped closer. The air between them thickened with desire, and he couldn’t resist caressing her cheek.
“I’ve been wanting to do that for so long.” Was there truth serum in the drink Hunter had given him? What the hell was he doing?
“Blue…”
It wasn’t a warning, and he was pretty sure she wasn’t telling him to stop, but he needed to be sure.
“I can’t help it, Lizzie. This is the closest you’ve let me get to you since we met. I won’t take it further. I just…” Want to kiss you.
“I’m not good for you,” she said so softly he almost didn’t hear her.
He searched her eyes, but she wasn’t giving anything away. “What does that mean?”
She held his gaze. “It means that we shouldn’t get close.”
“Lizzie—”
She pressed her finger to his lips. “This isn’t easy for me. I had a nice time with you tonight. It was wonderful to spend an evening out and to get to know you better and to…feel so much.”
He heard a but coming and was terrified of losing their connection. He slid his hand to the nape of her neck and stepped in closer. “I don’t understand.”
She dropped her eyes and closed them for a breath, and when she opened them, she said, “I’m sorry.”
“You don’t feel what I feel? Like there’s a force pulling us together?”
“I feel…” She swallowed hard, as if she could swallow whatever it was that she felt. “I feel like if you kiss me, I’m going to tumble into you.”
Thank the fucking Lord for little favors. He couldn’t suppress his smile.
“And…?”
She trapped her lower lip between her teeth. “And that’s not good. For you. Trust me. I’ll only let you down.”
“Lizzie Barber, you are a smart, beautiful woman, but please let me be the judge of that.”
***
LIZZIE WAS TRYING, really trying, to resist pressing her lips to Blue’s, but the powers that be must have had it out for her. Maybe it was for keeping a secret from her family or living a double life, but she was sure this was some sort of test of strength. Blue smelled musky and earthy, and his hand was hot on her neck. He was thick and powerful, but his touch was gentle and somehow possessive at once. The feel of his calloused hand made her want to experience his rough hands all over her naked skin. She wanted to know how his mouth tasted and if his kisses would be hard or soft, if he explored with his tongue or claimed and demanded. She wanted to go through every item on her Lick-It list and maybe even delve into her Fuck-It list. She’d never met a man who made her want to be wholesome and dirty at once, but she could see it in Blue’s eyes, the gentleman and the bad boy. It was a tempting combination, one she wasn’t sure she could resist for long. But she owed it to him to try.
He’d asked her out for a year. A year. What kind of guy pursues a woman for a year?
What kind of woman turns down someone as wonderful as Blue?
“Blue—”
Before she could say another word, he pressed his lips to hers. Her mind went numb, and her legs followed. She clutched at his shirt for support as he slicked his tongue over her lower lip, teasing her there before dipping inside and stroking over her tongue. Blue didn’t hurry the kiss. He deepened it, lingering over every surface of her mouth as if he were savoring every second of the hottest, most passionate kiss he’d ever experienced, the same way she was. It had been a long time since she’d kissed a man, but she couldn’t remember ever feeling like this. Her entire body was aflame, and what the heck was her leg doing? Sliding up his thigh? Her hips pressed into his, and—holy Moses—he groaned. Groaned! Like, Give. Me. More. She clutched at his shoulders, but that wasn’t nearly enough. As her chest tried to become one with his, her greedy fingers fisted in his hair and took the kiss deeper, but it still wasn’t enough.
Her cell phone vibrated, and her fuzzy brain reluctantly began to come back into focus. He had one hand splayed across her back, the other tangled in her hair, and his talented mouth was doing everything it could to deaden her brain cells one by one.
Yes. Please!
Her phone vibrated again, and then the world spun away. She heard a moan and realized it came from her own lungs. She had no business leading him on. Lizzie tried to force herself to pull away, but it proved too difficult. His kisses were all consuming. She wanted to stay right there in his arms, with
his mouth crushed to hers and his heart pounding so hard against her that it felt like it had climbed into her body.
They shouldn’t do this. It couldn’t go anywhere. He would never want a girlfriend who was the Naked Baker, and she couldn’t give that up until Maddy had her degree. Reality refused to be shoved aside. Reality sucked. She pressed her hand firmly to his chest, forcibly pushing him away as she gulped in air. He blinked several times without saying a word, and she gripped his shirt in fisted hands.
“Say something,” she pleaded. Oh God, what have we done? Their friendship was at stake, and the longer he remained silent, the worse she felt. “Blue!” She didn’t mean to raise her voice, but she was mad at herself for giving in to her desires—and equally as angry at herself for pulling away and making them stop.
He shook his head and narrowed his eyes, as if she were just coming back into focus.
“Sorry. I’m sorry. I thought…” He scrubbed a hand down his face and took a step back, but she was still clutching his shirt. He covered her hands with one of his and smiled.
“We can’t do this,” she managed in a thin voice she didn’t recognize.
“Why?” He stepped closer again, and she pressed back against the counter, afraid if she didn’t, she’d kiss him again.
“Because.”
“That’s not an answer,” he whispered as he slid a hand down her side to her waist, leaving a trail of renewed heat.
“I can’t,” she said, despite the voice in her head telling her to shut up. “My life is crazy.”
“So is mine.”
“It’s complicated.” It was a lame excuse, but the best she could muster while still reeling from their kiss.
“We’ll figure it out.” His face was serious, his voice earnest, and his hand on her waist was sending little shock waves of desire zinging through her. “Lizzie, I’ve wanted to go out with you for a year. How can you say no after that kiss? I know you felt the same fury of emotions that I did. I could feel it in the way you kissed me.”
Fury of emotions? She’d never felt such fierce desire, been so completely lost in a man. She pried his fingers from her waist and forced the words from her lungs. “We should fix the oven.”
“There’s a reason I didn’t stop asking you out.” His tone was gentle, but his words were confident. “I knew we should be together, and after that kiss, I’m sure of it. I’m not walking away from you, Lizzie.”
“I’m not asking you to walk away. Just…We can’t do that.”
His brows furrowed. “So, you aren’t asking me to walk away? You’ll go out with me again?”
“This wasn’t a date.” I’m so screwed. Solo shower sex was totally not going to cut it after that kiss.
“Right.” He smiled. “Go out with me tomorrow.”
“Blue…”
He took a step back and held his palms up in surrender. She instantly missed the heat of them on her skin.
“As friends,” he said. “Go out with me tomorrow as friends.”
She still had to edit her webcast. She should have had it done already, but she’d wasted all evening. No, I didn’t waste a second of it. She’d be up all night editing, and then she’d be exhausted Saturday. She definitely should not agree to go out with Blue.
She shouldn’t say yes. She shouldn’t smile. Why was she smiling? Why was she touching his arm? God! What was wrong with her? She tried to pull her hand away from his muscular forearm, but his skin was warm, his muscles hard, and his seductive eyes were stealing her ability to think straight again.
Oh, the hell with it. One more outing. As friends. She could do this, couldn’t she?
“Okay.”
Chapter Five
BLUE PACED THE bedroom on the second floor of his cottage on the bluff with his cell phone pressed to his ear and a grimace on his face as he listened to Duke complain about Trish’s newest role. It was late Saturday afternoon, and he’d already finished laying the hardwood floors in the bedrooms. He should be exhausted after staying at Lizzie’s to fix her stove until nearly one o’clock in the morning, then getting up to work at the crack of dawn. But he wasn’t exhausted; he was invigorated.
“I just don’t see what the issue is,” Blue said as he walked down the stairs. “She’s an actress, Duke. What do you want her to do? Turn down the most lucrative roles?”
“Hold on a sec, B.” Blue’s siblings had called him B for as long as he could remember.
While he waited for Duke to return to the line, Blue went into the kitchen and admired the cabinetry he’d built, and his mind drifted back to Lizzie and the kiss they’d shared. Even though he was no longer into meaningless hookups, he’d had his fair share of women over the years. Blue adored the intimacy of kissing. He loved the closeness, the feel of a woman’s breathing going shallow, the pressure of her lips on his, the urgency or languid enjoyment of the kiss. From a single kiss he could tell how deep their connection would go. There were surface kisses—the kind that he doled out to end a date when there wouldn’t be another. Then there were hurried, urgent kisses as a precursor to sex. Hot, steamy, let-me-take-you kisses. He loved those. But the most glorious kiss of all was the very first one. The kiss where both people were testing the waters, feeling for their bodily reactions and sensing those of their partner. Waiting to see if the first few seconds of coming together had the ability to obliterate everything else in the world. Twenty-four hours ago Blue would have sworn that his first kiss with Sarah Jane had been the most intense kiss of his life, but after kissing Lizzie, he realized that every other kiss, every other woman, paled in comparison.
“I’m back. Sorry, dude.” Duke’s voice brought Blue back to their conversation.
Blue pictured his brother running a hand through his thick hair. It was a mannerism all of the Ryder men shared. A frustrated hair rake they’d picked up from their father.
“No worries. Look, Duke, all I was saying about Trish is that she’s an adult. She’s in a competitive field. She’s going to take the best roles that come to her. She’s not a teenager anymore. You can’t control what she does.”
Duke laughed. “Shit. No one could ever control Trish. You know that. I just don’t want her to be known forever as that actress who played a role the equivalent of that girl in Fifty Shades of Grey.”
Blue walked outside. “Well, get over it. She’s secure in who she is, and things change quickly in Hollywood. A year from now no one will even remember this role.”
“Maybe you’re right. Hey, have you heard from Jake? He left two days ago for that plane crash out in Colorado, and I haven’t heard from him since. I’m getting worried.” Jake was their youngest sibling. He’d followed in their father’s footsteps as a search and rescue professional and traveled often. He always kept in close contact with family, and with Duke in particular. As the eldest, Duke tended to keep closer track of his siblings than the rest of them did, though they were all close.
“No, but they’re still dealing with the aftermath out that way. He’ll get in touch when he can.” Blue made a mental note to text Jake after they got off the phone. He stood back and admired the cottage. “You should see the cottage. Man, does it look great.”
“I can’t wait to see it. Did you decide what you’re going to do with the lighthouse?”
“Not yet. One thing at a time.”
“One thing at a time?” Duke laughed. “B, you’ve been talking about the lighthouse since the day you first saw it. Why the sudden halt?”
“I’ve got something else on my mind right now. Guess who I have a date with tonight?” Blue grinned just thinking about Lizzie. He and Duke had both spotted Lizzie at the same time at the wedding. All of the Ryder men were six three or six four and blessed with athletic builds and smart minds. Blue had to admit that when they’d first met Lizzie, he’d felt a stroke of competition with his older, very successful brother. And it felt damn good to come out on top.
“No shit? Lizzie finally agreed to go out with you?”
&
nbsp; “Yes, although she’s not calling it a date. I hope to change her mind on that point, though.”
“You’ve been courting her for a year. I haven’t heard you sound so sure about a woman since you know who.”
Blue’s family had the decency not to speak of Sarah Jane often, and when they did, it was rarely by name, which he appreciated. “I know. Let’s not bring her up, okay?”
“That was more than a decade ago. That woman’s probably got five kids by five different guys and tits that sag to the ground by now.”
“Duke.” Blue winced. “No need to slam her like that.”
“You really did get Mom’s genes, didn’t you? I’m telling you, you should have slept with every one of her friends back then. It would have made you feel a hell of a lot better.”
Blue had never been a vengeful person. He’d walked out of Sarah Jane’s apartment without a word after catching her with that asshole, and he’d never looked back or taken revenge.
He and Duke talked for a few more minutes, and when they ended the call, Blue sent a text to Jake, trying to elicit at least a smart-ass response.
Dude, you still alive?
Knowing Jake, he was probably holed up in a hotel room with a woman—his form of stress relief.
Blue locked up the cottage and headed back to his house, thinking about Lizzie and how glad he was that she’d agreed to go out with him again. He’d tried to distract himself from thinking about her too much today, which was why he’d worked at his cottage instead of on her kitchen, but with every board he’d installed, the hope that she’d want to go on another date, and another, and another, grew. Now he couldn’t shake the mounting desire that she’d want even more than that. When it came to sweet and sultry Lizzie Barber, one kiss was definitely not enough.
***
LIZZIE LOVED EVERYTHING about owning her own flower shop, from meeting new people every day to being surrounded by the scents of nature and the glorious colors of the plants and flowers. But by far, the best thing about owning P-town Petals was the location. Provincetown was an eclectic town that was home to about three thousand people in the off-season and nearly burst at the seams with upward of fifty thousand tourists over the summers, and it had always been Lizzie’s favorite place on earth. Provincetown was known for its harbor and beaches and the extensive diversity of artists and the community. Excitement vibrated through the town each week with an onslaught of tourists and a variety of shows and street entertainers. Even now, in October, there were still a large number of tourists. But Lizzie knew that in another month, the streets would be nearly empty and the buzz of excitement that made the town come alive would be tamped down to the gentle hum of residents reclaiming their quiet streets.
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