“So, are you Mackenzie or what?” the guy asked her again, his words slurred.
“I … uh…”
“You ready to get out of here, love?” Lucas asked, pushing to his feet and placing his hand on Mackenzie’s back, leaning down until his nose was inches from her neck. Despite the fact that he was a grown man and knew better, he inhaled the fresh scent of her hair.
She smelled like strawberries.
Lord, help him.
Mackenzie turned her head slightly, but then Lucas was pressing his nose against the soft skin of her neck, his lips brushing her shoulder. He felt a tremor run through her, and an answering one shot through him.
He should’ve pulled away. It would’ve been the noble thing to do, but by then, his cock was rock-fucking-hard, and he wasn’t sure he was capable of moving away. Ever.
“Hey! Bartender! I’d like a beer down here,” the drunk bastard exclaimed.
“Yes. Yes, I am ready to go,” Mackenzie said firmly, twisting on her stool until she was facing Lucas directly.
Holding out his hand, Lucas helped her down. The soft skin of her fingers brushing against his had his breath catching momentarily.
And then their eyes met for the first time without the mirror. He found himself lost in her chocolate-brown gaze, unable to look away although he knew he should.
There was no doubt in his mind that his dry spell was about to end. It didn’t matter that he’d sworn off women for eternity, Lucas knew that if this woman gave him the slightest signal that she’d go home with him, he was a goner.
Catching a glimpse of Marla making her way down to the end of the bar, Lucas knew it was time to hightail it out of Dodge. He grabbed his wallet from his back pocket, pulled out two twenties, and slapped them on the bar. Marla noticed the movement and nodded at him.
“Come on,” he encouraged Mackenzie, linking his fingers with hers and pulling her behind him as he made a beeline for the door. He snagged his jacket from the rack on the wall on the way out, sliding it over his arm.
Once they were outside, the cool January breeze caressed his overheated skin, and Lucas thought for a minute that he might be able to regain his equilibrium.
“Th-thank you,” Mackenzie said, wrapping her arms around her body as she followed him down the steps and into the parking lot.
“For?” he asked, confused.
“For saving me.”
“You do that often?” he asked, nodding his head toward the bar.
“What?”
“Blind dates?”
She laughed, the throaty sound not helping the heat in his veins to dissipate.
“No, I don’t. First and last time.”
Lucas nodded. He needed to get away from her, and the only way to do that was to send her on her way. “Where’s your car?”
Mackenzie spun around slowly, her body trembling from the chill in the air. “Over there.”
She was pointing to the side of the building. The same area where he’d parked his truck, so he placed his hand on the small of her back and guided her around the building. It was dark, the single light in the parking lot not reaching the far side of the building. Without thinking, Lucas pulled her against him, keeping his hand firmly on her hip while he navigated her past the parking stones and the potholes, not wanting to see her fall in those sexy fucking heels.
Or at least that was his excuse.
“You okay to drive home?” he asked when she stopped behind a nondescript little Ford Focus.
“Uhh…”
She was watching him intently, her pretty brown eyes roaming over his face. He waited for her to answer, fighting the grin.
“I didn’t have anything to drink,” she admitted, tearing her gaze away.
Lucas suddenly felt bereft without the intensity of her gaze on him. Not thinking, he lifted his hand and placed his finger beneath her chin, tilting her head so that she would look at him again.
Mackenzie was tall, probably close to six foot with the heels, which put her almost eye level with him. At six three, Lucas didn’t often encounter women who were close to his height, and he decided that he liked the fact that she was.
Their eyes met, locked. The only time he looked away was when his gaze slid down her face to hover on her sweet, pouty lips.
He suddenly had the urge to taste her.
But he was a gentleman, and gentlemen damn sure didn’t rescue damsels in distress just to make out with them in the parking lot of a seedy little backwoods bar. Not to mention, he wasn’t twenty-five.
Or interested.
Right. Not interested. Keep telling yourself that.
For a brief, mind-numbing second, Lucas thought Mackenzie was going to kiss him, and for the first time in as long as he could remember, he wasn’t flooded with outrage at the thought of taking a woman to bed and waking up beside her the next morning.
But then everything went to shit.
“Hey!” the drunken voice sounded from a few feet away, and Lucas turned to see the asshole from the bar standing behind him. “Where’re you goin’?”
“Can I help you?” Lucas asked sternly, turning and instinctively stepping in front of Mackenzie.
“That’s my date,” the guy yelled.
“That?” Lucas asked, confused.
“Yeah,” he slurred. “That woman.”
“That woman has a name,” Lucas growled, suddenly pissed that a guy like this could end up with a woman like Mackenzie in the first place.
You don’t know her, dumbass.
Lucas ignored the annoying voice in his head, doing his best to focus on the situation at hand.
“Her name is Mackenzie.”
Mackenzie’s firm hand gripped Lucas’s arm, pulling his attention to her as she stepped around to his side. “It’s okay,” she said, her voice soft. “He really is my problem.”
“How do you figure?” Lucas questioned, more confused than ever.
What the hell was it with these people?
“I invited him here.”
“Did you ask him to get shit-faced drunk before he came?” Lucas countered.
“Well, no, but—”
Maybe it was the fact that he hadn’t been with a woman in seven months, just a couple of months after his wife had left him, or just because he hadn’t met a woman who made his body ache the way this one did in a long damn time, but whatever it was, Lucas did something he’d never done before.
Sliding his hand behind Mackenzie’s neck, beneath the silky fall of her blonde hair, Lucas pulled her to him and brushed his lips against hers. When her hands came up and gripped his shirt, pulling him closer, not pushing him away, Lucas’s good intentions snapped.
She smelled so damn good, her skin was so fucking soft, and her lips… She tasted like ambrosia.
Unable to resist, Lucas sealed his mouth with hers, thrusting his tongue inside, and was surprised to the tips of his boots when she kissed him back with as much, if not more, passion than he dished out.
Her soft, sexy moan nearly sent him to his knees.
That was until the drunk jackass came out of nowhere, pushing Lucas hard, which, in turn, sent Mackenzie to her knees on the gravel.
A red haze clouded his vision at the sight of Mackenzie on the ground, and before he could think better of it, Lucas turned and landed one punch to the drunk asshole’s jaw, knocking him out cold.
“Are you okay?” Lucas asked, squatting down in front of her, sliding his hand over her knee. It was too dark for him to see, but her hiss told him that she wasn’t okay.
“I’ll be fine,” she said, her voice shaky.
Helping her up, Lucas got her steady on her feet. “Give me a sec, would ya?”
Mackenzie nodded.
Realizing he couldn’t just leave the asshole in the parking lot to sleep it off — although the idea had merit — Lucas made his way over to him, slapped him on the face a couple of times to rouse him. Finally, the guy’s eyes opened.
“You asswipe. You fuckin
g hit me.”
“You’re lucky that’s all I did,” Lucas grumbled as he yanked the guy to his feet. “Don’t move,” he instructed Mackenzie before pushing the guy back toward the front of the bar, intending to leave him inside, where he could become someone else’s problem.
And that was exactly what he did.
Only, when he came back, Mackenzie and the little silver Ford Focus were gone.
And his night officially had gone to shit.
Chapter Three
“Damn it,” Kenzie cursed as she hobbled into the house, trying her best not to bend her left knee. She had made the mistake of going out to the barn, wanting to make sure she had supplies in the event the weather got as bad as the weatherman had promised. Of course, had she listened to Ralph, she wouldn’t have needed to check anything. The man had everything covered, which he’d adamantly told her. Twice.
She hadn’t considered how painful the short trek would be.
After fleeing the parking lot incident at the bar two nights ago, she had come home to find that her little brush with the gravel had left her with a battered left knee, and even two days later, the damn thing wasn’t doing much better. She didn’t need a doctor, she knew that much; however, a little triple-antibiotic ointment and some Band-Aids probably wouldn’t hurt. But she’d been putting that off because her first-aid kit was looking a little sparse these days. Apparently, it was time to give in and run into town, because the damn thing kept bleeding, and it was more irritating than anything else.
Glancing at the clock, she noticed it was after eight in the morning, which meant the small pharmacy in downtown Embers Ridge would be open. Figuring she could kill two birds with one stone, she made a quick phone call to the vet, letting them know she was going to come in to pick up an antibiotic for her cat, Jasper. She had learned last week that curiosity very well could kill a cat. Jasper, always having lived inside, had snuck out the door, and by the time Kenzie had found her two hours later, Jasper had managed to get a rather nasty cut on her paw, which had resulted in a quick trip to the vet. They had sent Kenzie and Jasper home with instructions to keep an eye on the cut. She had, but unfortunately, it wasn’t getting better.
Twenty minutes later, Kenzie was pulling into the parking lot of the pharmacy after having stopped at the vet’s office long enough to race inside and grab Jasper’s medicine. There was a threat of more ice in the forecast, something that was relatively unheard of in this part of Texas, but this had been a freakishly cold winter so far. Unfortunately, Kenzie was wearing shorts, because putting anything else on was a recipe for disaster. Since her knee continued to bleed randomly and since she’d never bothered to buy any casual clothes when she’d moved to Embers Ridge, she wasn’t fond of ruining what she did have. And now she had to get out of the car for the second time, which she truly wasn’t looking forward to.
Pulling her heavy jacket tight to her body, she pushed open the door, fighting the frigid wind as she climbed out of her car and hobbled to the front door. By the time she was inside, she was freezing and shivering, cursing herself for being so stupid. Surely she had a pair of sweatpants that she could’ve parted with. This was ridiculous.
Making her way to the back of the store, Kenzie located the aisle with the bandages and antibiotic ointment. On her way to the front register, she detoured down the candy aisle, figuring she might as well grab something to curb the chocolate craving she’d been battling since the night of the parking lot incident. It was that or risk the possibility of going crazy. Or worse, having to get out in the cold once again just to indulge herself when she finally did give in. Which she undoubtedly would.
Holding her items close to her chest, Kenzie glanced down as she made her way to the front, trying to keep the small box of bandages from slipping from her hands when she bumped into something big and … hard.
“Careful, girl.” The deep, rough voice was so familiar her body ignited instantly, even though she was about to have another collision course with the ground. If it hadn’t been for the strong arms that enveloped her, she would’ve done just that.
Somehow she managed to hold on to her items, even as she looked up into those mesmerizing green eyes that had haunted her dreams for the last two nights. “Lucas.”
“We’re gonna have to stop meetin’ like this, darlin’,” he said, his rumbling tone doing little to curb the heat that had infused her body.
At least she wasn’t cold anymore.
“Are you…?” Lucas released her when she was steady on her feet as he glanced down at her legs. “Why the hell are you wearin’ shorts?” he asked.
All of the heat that had been traveling through her body made a sudden detour right to her face. “I…” Hell, she didn’t even know how to answer that.
And then Lucas was squatting down in front of her, his big, rough hand wrapping behind her left knee. The sensation was absurdly sensual, although she knew he was just looking at her scrape. “Is this from the other night?”
“Yeah,” she managed to mutter, sounding breathless and silly. “No big deal. Just came in to grab some Band-Aids.”
“Two days later,” Lucas said as he rose to his feet.
“Yeah,” Kenzie replied, a little frustrated at his tone. “Sorry I wasn’t watchin’ where I was goin’.” Feeling a little embarrassed, both at her less-than-graceful encounter with Lucas and with her lack of clothing, she knew it was time to take her leave.
“My fault,” Lucas said, his gaze meeting hers.
Unsure what to say to that, Kenzie forced a smile and then nodded as she stepped around him toward the register. The young woman was staring at the two of them like they’d lost their minds. Considering there were no other customers in the store, the girl probably found their brief interaction amusing, which didn’t help Kenzie’s embarrassment.
After paying for her items, she slipped her purse back on her arm, and then the small plastic bag, as she headed for the door. Before she could push it open, a big arm reached around her, doing it for her. She didn’t have to look back to know who it was, and she wondered for a brief moment whether the universe was out to get her. Wasn’t it bad enough that she was hobbling along with blood staining her leg? She probably looked like she’d crawled out of a hole somewhere.
“Thank you,” she said as she stepped out into the frosty morning air, gripping her jacket as tightly as she could.
When she reached her car, that same arm came around and opened her door for her. This time Kenzie did turn around, only to find Lucas was standing directly behind her, his eyes locking with hers instantly.
“So you live here?” he asked quickly.
Sighing, she knew she couldn’t be rude. After all, he was just being a gentleman. And it hadn’t been entirely his fault what had happened the other night. The kiss that had rocked her world. The kiss she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about. Since she’d been the one on the other side of that kiss, fusing her mouth with his, she was partially to blame, as well.
Don’t look at his mouth. Don’t look at his mouth.
Oh, damn. She was looking at his mouth.
“Darlin’, keep lookin’ at me like that and I’m gonna kiss you again.”
The rich, dark rumble of his voice caressed her like a physical touch, and she was suddenly grateful that she could sit down. Which she did, breaking the hold he had on her and sliding into her car.
“You didn’t answer my question,” Lucas said, his hand planted on the top of the open car door.
What question?
His gruff chuckle made her insides tremble, and she knew she needed to get the hell out of there before she did something stupid. Like invite him to her house.
“I live off 198,” she said.
“The old Catlay place?”
“That’d be the one. My grandfather left it to me.”
Lucas’s eyes softened. “I’m sorry for your loss. Glenn was a good man.”
Unsure what to say to that, Kenzie muttered a thank you bef
ore pulling her legs into the car and turning the key. She was freezing. “I need to get home,” she finally said when it was apparent he wasn’t going to leave. “Looks like we might get some ice.”
The sky had darkened, and there were small droplets of water already forming on her windshield, which meant if she didn’t hurry, she wasn’t going to beat the storm, and she knew without a doubt that her little Ford wasn’t going to do well on the icy roads. She’d been meaning to get the tires changed, but since she hadn’t been driving much, she’d put it off.
“Be careful,” Lucas said as he took a step back and then closed her door for her.
Kenzie fought the urge to look up at him one more time before she put the car in reverse and backed out of the small space.
And as she drove out of the parking lot, as more water began to dot her windshield, she suddenly wished she had a reason to invite Lucas back to her place.
Chapter Four
Lucas made his way back inside the pharmacy when Mackenzie’s car pulled out of the parking lot. He’d stopped in to grab a few things, not wanting to make a trip into the neighboring town because of the weather, but after running into her — literally — he had forgotten just what it was that he needed.
Fifteen minutes later, he’d grabbed a can of stew and a package of crackers, figuring that would be the extent of dinner for the night. Well, that and maybe a fifth of whiskey. That was what he was really wanting, something to dull the thoughts that had been plaguing him for the last two days. The ones that had started about the same time that his lips had touched Mackenzie’s in that damn parking lot of the bar. Not that he was getting the whiskey at the local pharmacy. Lucky for him, he had that at home.
As he made his way to the register, he thought about Mackenzie’s knee. It wasn’t bad, just a little scrape, but the injury appeared to be in just the right place — the bend of her knee — to keep it from healing quickly. It didn’t sit well with him that she’d gotten that damn scratch because of him, either.
“Hey, Lucas,” Tracey greeted when he set his items on the counter.
“Hey, Trace. You headin’ home soon?” he asked as he glanced out the door. “Weather’s gettin’ bad.”
Cowboys Last All Night Page 18