by Marie Force
The thought of what she must've endured filled Mac with white-hot rage that would've frightened him if he'd been in his right mind. Thanks to fatigue that lingered like a wet blanket, he clearly wasn't thinking straight. Mac McCarthy didn't get "involved." The word wasn't even in his vocabulary. So what was he doing in her shower? Or bathing her son? Or tending to her every need? What the hell was wrong with him?
Let's face it. Sex with her would definitely not be the usual no-strings deal I prefer. The realization caused his burgeoning erection to wither and roused him from the shampoo-scented dream state he'd slipped into. He returned the bottle to the rack and ran a razor over his face before stepping out of the shower. When he heard a sharp knock on the screen door, he wrapped a towel around his waist and went out to answer it.
Glancing at the sofa, he noticed Maddie had dozed off with Thomas in her arms. The sight of them tugged at his heart and made him forget for a second that he was on his way to the door. A second louder knock got his attention.
"Mr. McCarthy?"
"Right. Come in." Mac swung open the door to admit the delivery guy from the Beachcomber who'd brought the dinner he ordered before his shower. "Just put it on the table." Mac found his wallet, grabbed four twenties, and handed over the cash. "Keep the change."
"Wow, thanks."
Mac saw him take a measuring look at Maddie and Thomas on the sofa and then at him in a towel before he headed out the door.
"Did you seriously just answer my door wearing nothing but a towel?" Maddie asked in a sleep-roughened voice.
"Yeah, so?"
"Oh my God." She struggled to sit up while accommodating the sleeping baby. "It'll be all over town in less than an hour that I'm doing Mac McCarthy. That's just what I need."
Mac wanted to shoot himself for being so stupid. Needing a second to figure out how to handle this latest challenge, he leaned down and took Thomas from her. Even though he was careful, his fingers still brushed against her breasts, causing her to pull back from him.
"Sorry." He walked Thomas into his crib and settled a light blanket over him. Before he left the room, he combed his fingers through the baby's hair. "Don't be in any rush to grow up, buddy. It's not all it's cracked up to be."
Steeling for a fight, he returned to the living room and stopped short in his tracks. "I'm sorry," he said, moved by her tears. "I wasn't thinking."
"Why would you? No one in this town has ever thought anything less than the best of you."
"I'll make sure people know exactly what's going on here."
Her uneven burst of laughter surprised him. "Gee, thanks. That'll make it all better."
He sat next to her on the sofa. "I'm really sorry. It never occurred to me—"
"What's done is done. You'd think I'd be used to it by now."
Mac had no idea what to say to that, so he thought it best to keep quiet.
"Someone told you, didn't they?"
The soft, weary tone to her voice went straight to his heart. "I don't believe it."
When she looked up at him with caramel eyes still damp with tears, the need to offer comfort overtook his better judgment. He slipped an arm around her and brought her head to rest on his shoulder.
At first she resisted, but he resisted right back. "I don't believe a word of it," he said more forcefully this time as he buried his fingers in her soft, thick hair to keep her head right where he wanted it.
"Why? Because I didn't fall at the feet of the almighty Mac McCarthy at the first opportunity and beg him to have sex with me?"
"For one thing."
The teasing comment earned him a genuine burst of husky laughter, the sound of which was so sexy and so appealing that the breath seemed to get stuck in his throat on its way to his lungs.
"So I've dented your ego, then, huh?"
"Very badly," he replied in a grave tone as he combed his fingers through her hair. He kept waiting for her to tell him to stop, but she didn't.
"I'd apologize if I didn't think the dose of humility was good for you."
So the bitter, world-weary Madeline Chester could also be quite witty. The discovery, on top of all the others, made his heart race. "I'd say the least you could do to make it up to me is to have dinner with me." He gestured to the bags on the table. "What do you say?"
"What's on the menu?"
"I was jonesing for a lobster, so I asked Libby to send over a couple."
Maddie stiffened against him.
"What?"
"It's ripping through town right now that Mac McCarthy is half-naked in my apartment and buying me lobster. They'll be speculating about what he's getting in return."
"Maddie…"
"Let's just eat." The laughter of a moment ago was replaced by sorrow. "They'll say what they're going to say no matter what I do. The truth is never a consideration where I'm concerned."
With his finger on her chin, he urged her to look at him. "I never meant to cause you any trouble."
"You started causing me trouble the second you stepped in front of my bike."
"The only part I regret is that you got hurt."
"Stick around. You'll grow to regret a whole lot more than that."
"Is that an invitation?"
She drew back, horrified by the corner she'd painted herself into. "No!"
"Sounded like one to me," he said in a playful tone, leaning in to close the distance between them. He could no more fight the magnetic pull than he could avoid taking the next breath.
Her expression shifted from wariness to fear. "Don't."
"Why not?" he whispered.
"Because nothing can come of it."
"You don't know that."
"Yes, I do."
"You make me want to prove you wrong." He brushed his lips over hers, gratified by the gasp that escaped from her tightly closed mouth. "Kiss me the way you did before."
"I w-was asleep. That doesn't count."
Her stammer drew a small smile from him. "You're right. It doesn't. This one does, though." Ignoring the press of her hand against his chest as well as the way her eyes widened in shock and maybe dismay, Mac fitted his mouth over hers and sank into the satiny softness. He moved his hand from her arm to cup her cheek but kept his lips still against hers. He'd made the first move. Now it was up to her.
Mac thought he'd go mad waiting for a sign, a signal, anything to tell him she wanted more. Just when he was about to give up, he felt her uninjured hand on his neck and the first tentative brush of her tongue against his bottom lip.
Green light.
Mac devoured her with sweeping thrusts of his tongue into the sweet depths of her mouth, steeped in her addictive flavor. At first she seemed too taken aback by his ardor to respond, but when her tongue finally tangled with his, meeting him thrust for thrust, Mac fought off the urgent need for more.
Many minutes later, he pulled back from her, breathing heavily, feeling more spent by one sensuous kiss than he normally did from the full act. Opening his eyes, he found hers fixed on him. Unable to process all he saw, he took the coward's way out by burrowing into the smooth column of her neck and pressing hot, open-mouth kisses to her heated skin.
"Mac." She sounded as breathless as he felt.
"Hmm?" At the base of her neck, he found a sensitive tendon and rolled it between his teeth.
She cried out.
"Sorry." Mortified by his overwhelming reaction to her, he rested his head on her shoulder and tried to regain control.
Her fingers sifted through his hair in a soothing caress that made him want to stay right there for a long, long time.
"It didn't hurt," she said after a charged moment of silence.
"No?"
She shook her head, and her fragrant hair brushed against his face, sending another surge of hot-blooded lust to his lap.
Encouraged, he ran his tongue lightly over same spot on her neck.
A shudder rippled through her. "I don't want to be what you expect me to be," she said softly.
Raising his head, he found her eyes in the encroaching darkness. "And what's that?"
"Easy." Her quiet dignity touched him in places he normally kept walled off and unreachable. "Cheap."
Mac chose his words carefully. "Sweetheart, I've had easy and cheap, and you're neither."
Incredulous, she stared at him. "How do you know that?"
"Gut instinct."
"And your gut is never wrong?"
"Hasn't failed me yet."
"People in town will speak poorly of you if you get involved with me."
"Maddie, I've never once given a crap what anyone thought of me, and I'm not about to start caring now."
"That's easy to say when you've been loved and adored your whole life. You have no idea how vicious people can be."
He dropped another light kiss on her swollen lips. "If it means I get to spend some more time with you, I'd be willing to find out."
"You say that now…"
"How about that lobster?"
She held up her injured hand. "I might need some help."
"You got it." He scooped her up and carried her to the table. "After dinner, we'll change the bandages and put some more ointment on those cuts."
"Oh goodie. Something to look forward to."
He grinned at her, enjoying her cutting wit. "Give me one second to throw on some clothes." When he returned a minute later dressed in clean cargo shorts and a Miami Dolphins T-shirt, he leaned down to bring his face in close to hers. "I want you to know that I'm not here because I feel like I have to be."
Her pretty lips formed a surprised O. "No?"
Mac shook his head. "Today has been fun—not the part where you got hurt, but everything since then."
"Clearly, you don't get out enough."
Wiggling his brows at her, he uncorked a bottle of white wine and poured it into mismatched glasses he'd found in her cabinet. He handed one to her and raised his in toast. "Here's to getting out more."
Maddie made him wait an uncertain, breathless moment before she touched her glass to his.
Celebrating the small victory, Mac got busy with the lobsters.
Linda McCarthy paced the length of her wide back porch without noticing the spectacular sunset. She'd succeeded in luring Mac back to the island, but nothing else was going according to plan. If she didn't find a way to get him to come home, the whole town would be talking about her son being shacked up with that … that woman!
He hadn't given his own mother even an hour of his precious time, but he had plenty of time to spend with a woman most people considered the town tramp. Not that Linda had anything against Maddie. She was a good worker at the hotel and at the house one afternoon a week. However, she wasn't someone Linda wanted to see with any of her sons, especially Mac.
Linda didn't believe in a mother having favorites, but Mac had always been special, a son any mother would be proud of. Watching him pitch his team to the state championship his senior year remained among her fondest memories. When he suffered the injury that ended his professional baseball aspirations, her heart broke right along with his.
And then he picked himself up, refocused on his education and emerged with an engineering degree that led to his current career as the co-owner of a thriving business. Along the way, she'd hoped and prayed he would meet a woman who'd complement and support him as he continued along his successful path.
That certainly wasn't going to happen once the local woman she had in mind for him heard he'd stayed overnight with Maddie Chester. He'd just made his mother's plan to find him a suitable wife on the island a lot harder than it would've been otherwise.
The phone rang in the kitchen. Hoping it might be Mac, Linda rushed inside and groaned when she heard her sister's voice. "Hello, Joan."
"Why didn't you tell me Mac was coming home?"
"Because I wasn't sure which day he was getting here." No way would she admit he hadn't bothered to share his travel plans with her. Joan would take too much pleasure in hearing that.
"Teensy just called. Her grandson delivered lobsters to Mac at Maddie Chester's apartment."
Linda suppressed a groan. Three hundred pounds on her slimmest day, "Teensy" was the island's biggest gossip. If she knew Mac was shacking up with Maddie, everyone else knew, too.
"And get this," Joan said, clearly enjoying the scoop, "Mac answered the door in nothing but a towel!"
Linda would kill him. "He knocked her off her bike and hurt her badly. He's helping her until she recovers. There's nothing more to it than that."
"Teensy's heard they looked awfully cozy."
When she was finished with Mac, Joan would be next on her hit list. "Honestly, he's been in town for eight hours. What do you think could be happening when she's bruised and bloody from falling off her bike?"
Joan's chuckle infuriated Linda. "Use your imagination. He's a red-blooded man, and she's always willing. A few scabs won't slow her down."
"That's just unkind, Joan, and beneath you." It really wasn't, but Linda had no desire to start World War III with her sister. "Mac is doing an honorable thing by helping her. I don't appreciate you making it into something dirty."
"Don't get pissy with me. I'm not the one who answered the door in a towel."
"I have to go. Big Mac's home, and he's hungry."
"Before you run away, I heard from Josh today. Ellen's expecting again! We're having a regular baby boom in our family."
Linda wondered if a head could actually explode. "Congratulations. That's wonderful. They sure do stay busy, don't they?"
"Lucky for me. Talk soon."
Linda slammed down the phone with a swear word that never usually left her lips.
"Well, good evening to you, too, my love." Big Mac kissed her forehead. "What's got you all fired up?"
"Your son! That woman and Teensy." Linda banged around the kitchen fixing him a plate of the spaghetti and meatballs she'd eaten earlier. "How could he answer the door wearing only a towel?"
Big Mac plugged his cell phone into the charger and turned back to her. "What's that you said? Teensy answered the door wearing only a towel?" He made a face of supreme dismay. "I just lost my appetite."
"Not Teensy! Pay attention, will you? Your son answered the door at Maddie Chester's apartment wearing only a towel! And he's buying her lobster!"
"God, what a swine. Where did we go wrong with him?"
"You don't get it! It'll be all over town by morning that he's sleeping with her! Then who will want him?"
"Any woman would be lucky to land him."
"No one wants a guy who's been with the easiest girl in town."
"Lin," he said in his disapproving tone. "She's a nice girl."
"With a reputation that would make a porn star blush." Linda plopped his plate down on the table. "I need to fix this. Fast."
"Linda… You know how these things always go. Remember when you fixed Sophie's cousin up with Grant when she was visiting LA?"
Linda stared at him, incredulous. "How is that my fault? Sophie failed to mention her little cousin had just been sprung from the psych ward."
"Then there was Debbie's niece, who you sicced on Adam…"
"When I asked him to show her a good time in New York City, I never said he should spend the whole weekend in her hotel room. And if she didn't know she had chlamydia, how was I supposed to know?"
"Of course Tina's songwriting sister wasn't exactly the one for Evan."
"Tina never told me that her sister was more interested in boozing her way through Nashville than in songwriting. But Evan figured it out."
"Not before she puked in his new truck."
Linda scowled at him. "Whose side are you on anyway?"
"Yours, love. Always."
"Coulda fooled me."
"These meatballs are exquisite."
"Don't go using that McCarthy charm on me. I know all your tricks."
"So matchmaking isn't your thing. You have many other talents. Such as making meatballs t
hat melt in my mouth."
"Mac needs a wife. He'll be having babies in his forties at this rate."
"Maybe if you'd been a little sweeter to his friend Roseanne when we were in Miami this winter, he might not be shacking up in town tonight."
Hands on hips, Linda faced off with him.
"What? I'm just saying…"
"She is all wrong for him. I had her number in five minutes. His head was turned by the way she looks, but he'll figure her out soon enough—if he hasn't already."
"Let's face it, babe. There's not a woman out there who'll ever meet your standards for any of those boys."
"That's not true! I want them to be happy. I want them to have what we've had all these years. Is there anything wrong with that?"
"Aww, honey, of course there isn't." He reached for her hand and drew her onto his lap. "But you've gotta let them get there in their own way and in their own time."
"I've tried that, and now I have four sons in their thirties who have no intention of ever settling down and having families. They'll regret that later, Mac. You know that as well as I do."
"Maybe so, but they'll be their regrets."
"I don't want them to miss out on love." The thought of it broke her heart. "Where would you be today if I hadn't saved you from yourself?"
His big laugh rang through the kitchen. "God only knows."
"See? That's all I want for them, too."
"Promise me you'll leave Mac alone while he's home."
Linda hesitated. How could she promise that?
He drew back from her so he could see her face. "Linda…"
"Fine! I'll leave him alone." She intentionally didn't use the word "promise" and made sure he couldn't see the fingers she crossed behind his back.
Mac gathered up the trash bag full of lobster shells and followed Maddie's directions to the garbage cans. He tossed the bag into the can and turned to go back upstairs when the flare of a cigarette lit up the darkness, illuminating Tiffany's face.
"What're you doing hanging around here?" she asked.