Tempt Me If You Can

by Janet Chapman

  “I’m sorry. I know you’re just trying to help,” Maddy said.

  “Because I love you. It’s killing me to see you running around with a huge smile on your face all the time, when you’re barely holding it together inside. When was the last time you did something just for yourself? The only new outfit I’ve seen you buy in the last six months is a new set of scrubs for work.”

  “Oh, please,” Maddy said, rolling her eyes. “I do not have martyr’s syndrome; I just don’t have time to lie around with cucumbers on my eyes, sipping mint juleps.”

  Eve led her toward the hall. “As of tonight, everything changes. You are going on a date with a handsome man, and you’re going to forget about everything except having fun.”

  Maddy tried resisting. “Slow down, dammit; I’m not ready to have fun with William! You said yourself that he’s too much man for me. He’s going to eat me up!”

  At the bottom of the stairs, Eve wagged her finger at her. “Honest to God, if you’re wearing your panties when you get home tonight, I will never speak to you again.” She unbuttoned the top two buttons of Maddy’s blouse. “The minute you get to the restaurant, order a drink and chug it down to relax yourself,” she continued. “But only one drink.” Eve spread Maddy’s collar to expose some cleavage, then grabbed her hand to lead her toward the kitchen. “And you do the driving tonight.”

  “I can’t drive if I’m drinking.”

  “One drink. But even if you drank an entire fifth you’d still be safer than letting William drive.”

  As they entered the kitchen, William stood up from the table.

  “I picked these for you, the prettiest lass around.” He held out a fistful of … goldenrod from off the side of the road?

  Maddy reached for them, but Eve plucked them out of her hand. “Okay, you two,” she said, herding them toward the door. “I’ll put these in a vase. ’Bye. Have fun.”

  William stopped on the porch and turned to Maddy. “When I was with Trace this afternoon, he told me that every Wednesday there’s something called ladies’ night at the bars in Ellsworth. Would ye prefer to go there instead of the restaurant?”

  “No!” Maddy and Eve yelped.

  “I’m quite hungry,” Maddy said more demurely.

  William started to take her arm, but Eve took hold of his arm and stopped him, her eyebrows raised. William sighed heavily, reached into his pants pocket, and took out his truck keys.

  He handed them to Maddy. “I thought you might like to drive this evening,” he said, smiling tightly. “So I can concentrate on learning the road signs. I’ve been told there’s also a set of traffic lights in Oak Harbor.”

  The knot in Maddy’s belly suddenly eased, and she all but skipped down the stairs to his shiny new, fire-engine red pickup truck. “Okay,” she said, climbing into the driver’s seat. “But it’s your job to watch for moose.”

  William hated feeling out of his element. And Kenzie’s list of dating rules had confused him more than they helped. Why did this century have so many blasted rules?

  In his homeland, when a man found a lass who was willing, they got straight to business. And if they both felt they’d had a good time, they continued on together until one or both of them found someone they fancied more. Permanent unions were political, not for love.

  Love was a woman’s notion, anyway, invented to make her feel secure enough to have bairns. Whereas in this century, people got married and never had children, often staying together even though the woman was barren.

  After explaining modern courtship, Kenzie had handed William a box of little packets. William had ripped open one of the packets, unrolled the little disk, and stared at the thin tube in confusion. When he realized what it was and exactly how he was supposed to use it, he’d started cursing.

  Kenzie had walked out of the barn with a laughing warning that Eve would run William through with a sword if he knocked up her best friend.

  Now William looked out the windshield, trying to remember the things Mabel had suggested he talk to Maddy about. “They’ve set the foundation for my house,” he said, grabbing the door handle when she brought the truck up to speed rather quickly.

  “Already?” she asked. “So did you set it in the sheltered cove like Samuel suggested, or up on the bluff where Elbridge thought it should go?”

  “I wished to place it far out on the point, where it would be surrounded by water on three sides, and every room would have a good view, but the men persuaded me that nor’easters would likely sweep it away. And they said it would cost a small fortune to heat, and that I’d constantly be washing the salt spray off the windows.”

  “So where are you building it?”

  “High up on the bluff where Elbridge suggested. Everyone seemed happy with the decision.”

  “What style of house are you building? A New England cape, or a more modern design?”

  “It’s going to be more of an Irish keep.”

  “You mean, like a castle?”

  “Nay, it won’t be that big. It will have only eight bedrooms.”

  “Eight!” She glanced over at him. “It’s going to take a year to build a house that size.”

  William finally let go of the door handle. Maddy appeared to be quite a good driver. She sped down the winding road much as he liked to do, but she didn’t let the tires stray onto the gravel. He must need more practice, because when he moved the steering wheel only a wee bit, the damn truck seemed to bolt for the ditch.

  “Robbie MacBain found a good local carpenter for me,” he told her, “and the gentleman agreed to hire more men so I can be moved in by next spring. Was that a stop sign?” he asked, looking over his right shoulder as a signpost went flying by.

  “No, it said ‘yield.’ It was a triangle, not a hexagon.”

  He relaxed and faced front again. “I have a question to ask ye, Maddy. Is it common practice for a woman to ask a man out on a date?” She didn’t answer, and her cheeks turned a soft pink.

  “I only ask because Hiram made a comment about how young women today are always chasing after anything in pants.”

  She slowed the truck abruptly, bringing it to a full stop beside a red sign that said “stop,” then turned right and shot off again.

  “Hiram then went on to say the affliction seems to be contagious, as the older women at the assisted-living center have started being quite forward. So, is a lass asking out a man common practice or not?”

  “Hiram is ninety-one years old,” she finally said. “When he started dating, women had just won the right to vote.”

  “So is that a yes?”

  He heard her sigh. “It’s a sometimes. Sometimes women ask men out, because if we have to wait for them to ask us out, it might never happen.”

  “I was going to ask you out,” he said softly. “I knew that if I wanted to spend some time alone with you, I should ask ye to go on a date.”

  She slowed the truck again and blinked at him. “You were?” Her gaze drifted down to his forearm, exposed by his rolled-up cuff, then her cheeks darkened and her breath hitched.

  She snapped her gaze back to the road and resumed speed.

  William suddenly decided modern society could take all its blasted rules and shove them. “I was thinking that after dinner we might drive to Dragon Cove so I can show you my house.”

  Maddy glanced over at him, her gaze straying to his arm again before she looked back at the road. “I … I think I’d like that.”

  And that’s when William knew that no matter what century it was, some things would never, ever change.

  William found that he quite liked the concept of dating; he couldn’t remember spending a more entertaining and enlightening meal with a lovelier woman. And a rather talkative one too. The more Maddy drank, the more she talked, and the more she talked, the more enchanted William became. She’d even admitted that Eve had said she could only have one drink to calm her nerves—a little tidbit she’d divulged after finishing her third Long Island Iced
Tea.

  William had taken a sip at her insistence, and decided it wasn’t like any tea he’d ever tasted; the fumes alone could have brought down a bear. When he’d asked why she felt the need to calm her nerves, Maddy had explained that dating was like riding a horse, and that when a person repeatedly fell off, they sometimes needed a little liquid courage to climb back on again. Then she’d gone on to say she was limiting herself to only three drinks tonight, as four seemed to be her tipping point for outright stupidity.

  When she’d obviously lost count and ordered her fourth drink, William had followed the waiter to the bar and he’d instructed him to cut out the liquor. He was glad Maddy was comfortable enough to let her guard down with him, but he preferred his women consciously willing.

  He’d limited himself to two drinks of warm straight whisky, unwilling to let his own guard down as long as Maddy was in his care.

  All in all, he felt the evening was a success. In fact, he even got to drive. Maddy had handed him the keys as they’d stood up to leave, saying she certainly wasn’t drunk, but maybe it would be better if he drove.

  It was his first experience driving at night, and once he left the town of Oak Harbor and was traveling a dark road, the headlights were more of a hindrance than a help. He tried to turn them off, but no matter which button he pushed, he couldn’t make them go out. Total darkness would have allowed his eyes to adjust, whereas the headlamps only shone a few hundred paces in front of the truck, so he had to go very slow for fear that something would suddenly appear in front of him.

  Maddy complimented him several times on the drive back to Midnight Bay, and said he should be able to get his license very soon.

  William decided the more time he spent with the lass, the more he liked her.

  He slowly made his way down the dirt road going into his land, then stopped at the edge of the cove and shut off the engine. And still the lights didn’t go out.

  “Are the blasted lights going to stay on all night?” he muttered.

  Maddy giggled. “They’re on a timer; they’ll go out in a minute or two. They stay on so you can walk to the house without tripping over anything.” She giggled again. “I haven’t been down this road since high school. We used to come here to drink and go parking.”

  “How does one ‘go parking’? If you’re parked, you aren’t going anywhere.”

  The dash lights let him see her surprise. “You’ve never been parking?”

  “I believe we’re parking right now, are we not?”

  Her expression went from surprised to somewhat … intense.

  The headlights suddenly went out, plunging them into darkness, and Maddy giggled again. “We’re certainly not going to be able to park in this truck with the stupid console between us.” There was enough moonlight that William could see her smiling as her fingers feathered over his forearm. “But I guess that’s why they make backseats,” she said huskily.

  He glanced over his shoulder and would have laughed if he hadn’t known she was serious. Full-grown men and women made love in backseats? He’d get a leg cramp just trying to undress her.

  “Come on,” he said, opening his door. “Let’s head up to the bluff so I can show you my building site. Stay there; I’ll walk around and get you, so ye don’t trip and fall.”

  On her side of the truck, he took hold of her hand as she slid out, then laced his fingers through hers. “Are ye cold, lass?” he asked when she hugged herself with her free arm. “Here, I’ll give ye my shirt,” he said, letting go of her to unbutton it.

  “No! You should leave it on,” she said, her voice sounding husky as she stopped him by grabbing both his wrists.

  William heard her breath hitch, and suddenly her hands were gone from him.

  William unbuttoned his shirt, pulled the tails out of his pants and shrugged it off, and then wrapped it around her shoulders.

  “Ohmigod,” he heard her whisper on an indrawn breath, which was quickly followed by a strangled giggle.

  “Slide your arms in the sleeves,” he told her. As soon as she did, he took her hand and led her up the new road the crew had carved through the trees. “Can ye see well enough?” he asked, wrapping an arm around her waist and tucking her against his side when they reached the uneven ground of the building site.

  She stumbled anyway, and William immediately steadied her. When she leaned against him, her eyes wide, he cupped her face in his palms, tilted her head, and covered her mouth with his just as her soft, sweet lips parted in surprise.

  He felt her breath hitch, and as she leaned into him more forcefully, he smiled. He knew exactly what the lass wanted, and he was all too glad to make her happy.