Love You
Page 1
KISS YOU
“While you were busy being charming and wrecking all my thoughtful plans, I was trying to nail this account.” Darcy knew she wasn’t being fair but it was easier to fight with him than what she really wanted to do.
“And I wasn’t?” He scowled. “I worked my ass off this weekend.”
He had. And they’d loved him. “I’ll admit you were impressive. But don’t let it go to your head. You did what you do every weekend. You played.”
“We both worked our asses off, okay?”
“Okay,” she conceded. “But I finagled that entire picnic lunch, practically had to promise my first-born child, and didn’t get one word of praise from you. Not so much as ‘this looks great, Darcy.’ All you did was stuff your face.”
“You want credit? Fine, I’ll give you credit.” He leaned over and planted his lips on hers, the move so surprising that Darcy froze.
He rolled over so that he was practically lying on top of her and tucked his hands under her head so he could take the kiss deeper. The pull of his mouth made her forget everything. Her frustration, her disappointment, the fact that they were in her grandmother’s house with the door open. She twined her arms around his neck as he explored her mouth with his tongue.
He tasted like beer from the Indian restaurant and desire. So much desire that she lost herself in him… .
Books by Stacy Finz
The Nugget Series
GOING HOME
FINDING HOPE
SECOND CHANCES
STARTING OVER
GETTING LUCKY
BORROWING TROUBLE
HEATING UP
RIDING HIGH
FALLING HARD
HOPE FOR CHRISTMAS
The Garner Brothers
NEED YOU
WANT YOU
LOVE YOU
Collections
THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME
(with Fern Michaels, Shirlee McCoy,
and Sarah Title)
SANTA’S ON HIS WAY
(with Lisa Jackson, Maisey Yates,
and Nicole Helm)
Published by Kensington Publishing Corporation
Love You
STACY FINZ
ZEBRA BOOKS
KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP.
http://www.kensingtonbooks.com
All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.
Table of Contents
KISS YOU
Also by
Title Page
Dedication
Copyright Page
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Epilogue
To my husband, Jaxon.
ZEBRA BOOKS are published by
Kensington Publishing Corp.
119 West 40th Street
New York, NY 10018
Copyright © 2018 by Stacy Finz
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
To the extent that the image or images on the cover of this book depict a person or persons, such person or persons are merely models, and are not intended to portray any character or characters featured in the book.
If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the Publisher and neither the Author nor the Publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”
Zebra and the Z logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.
ISBN: 978-1-4201-4194-8
eISBN-13: 978-1-4201-4195-5
eISBN-10: 1-4201-4195-3
Chapter One
Someone was breathing on Win Garner’s neck. Warm puffs of air that felt like dog’s breath. Lucy or Ricky? Nah, the two Labrador retrievers lived with his parents. He racked his brain to remember if he’d brought someone home. Maybe that brunette he’d played darts with at Old Glory. Nope. He didn’t do that anymore.
He rolled to the other side of the bed and in his half-asleep state, chalked the sensation up to a drafty apartment. Or a dream. Or a ghost. He didn’t really care which one because according to his internal clock, he was still on snooze control.
Then it happened again. A soft little tickle across his cheek. He swatted it away and rolled onto his stomach. This time he felt the mattress dip and something brush against his arm. Something warm and distinctly human. The realization startled him awake and he jolted upright.
“What the hell?” He reached for the lamp, thinking once he turned it on he could use it as a weapon. Bad idea because he didn’t have a lamp or anything that could be used as a weapon, except a baseball bat, which he kept with his sports gear. And his sports gear was scattered all over his puny apartment, which meant it was probably within arm’s reach. Somewhere.
“Shush,” someone said in the dark. “It’s just me.”
He searched his memory for “me” and came up empty. But “me” was definitely female. Soft, round, and very good-smelling. Six months ago, it wouldn’t have been too unusual having a strange woman crawl into his bed in the middle of the night. But Win was on the wagon from anything that was bad for him, which included hookups of any variety. Been there, done that, nearly had the shotgun wedding to prove it.
“Who’s me?” he asked as the fog began to clear and his brain began to sharpen.
“Darcy.”
Darcy? He hadn’t met a Darcy that night. The brunette had been an Ida. He remembered because the name was unusual for someone in her thirties. And she’d kicked his ass in eight ball, which was also unusual. The only Darcy he knew was the receptionist at his family’s extreme sports company, Garner Adventure.
“Darcy Wallace?” he asked tentatively because if she was here someone he cared about was in the hospital. Darcy and Win’s brother, TJ, made the trains run on time at GA. This also entailed notifying the rest of the family whenever an emergency came up. And in the adventure business they came up a lot.
When she didn’t answer, he swung his legs off the bed and stumbled in the dark to the light switch.
Holy shit!
Darcy Wallace lay in his bed in a fire-engine red lace teddy, spiked heels, and nothing else. Her breasts were spilling out of the cups of the lingerie and her blond hair curled around her shoulders in a style reminiscent of every high school girl’s senior yearbook photo.
Whoa, not the Darcy he knew. Not even close. He shut his eyes, hoping to erase the picture. She was every dude’s wet dream and she wasn’t supposed to be. She was supposed to be Garner Adventure’s office sweetheart, not a freaking centerfold. He opened them just long enough to take two long strides to the bed and flip the covers over her.
“What are you doing here, Darce?” It came out like a growl, not because he was angry, because he was … affected. And he didn’t want to be.
She wouldn’t make eye contact and her face turned as red as the teddy. “I’m … uh … here for sex.”
It was the story of his freaking life. Women loved him. Young, old, single, married, it didn’t seem to matter. From the time he was old enough to grow whiskers, they’d been th
rowing themselves at him. And in the interest of fairness, he’d been throwing himself right back. But not Darcy. She was … well … a friend. Sort of. The truth was unlike the rest of the female population, Darcy barely gave him the time of day. Until now.
She tossed the blanket off, stretched her arms down at her sides, and lay stiff as a board, like she was waiting for an undertaker to come get her. “Okay, let’s get to it then.”
He blew out a breath. “Since when am I your type?” he asked, and continued to stand there, a bit shell-shocked, wondering if perhaps this was someone’s idea of a practical joke.
Her face got even redder. “You’re everyone’s type. But apparently, I’m not yours.” She jerked the blanket back over her and tugged it up to her chin.
Until six months ago, every woman was his type. He was trying to change that image and Darcy wasn’t making it any easier. His gaze flipped to the front door, which he would’ve sworn he’d locked after coming home from Old Glory.
“How’d you get in?” He checked the clock on his desk, which was cluttered with cups from the Juicery. Jeez, it was two in the morning.
“I have your key, remember?” When he did overnights with GA’s tour groups she took care of his cat. Correction: The neighborhood cat that had turned out to be a lousy mouser. Someone had to feed the mangy thing.
He sat in an old, overstuffed chair the last tenant had left behind and ran his fingers through his hair. Pants would probably be good but he didn’t know where they were and couldn’t seem to focus on anything other than her. “Let me ask you something. How would you react if one of your guy friends showed up in your bedroom in the middle of the night, uninvited? I would hope you’d call the cops.”
She sat up and leaned her back against the headboard, clutching the blanket until her fingers looked like they were ready to snap in half. “Is that what you’re going to do, call the police?”
Hell no. Win’s eldest brother was the police chief. One look at this scenario and Colt would automatically blame Win, accuse him of seducing their shy, little receptionist. Except from where Win was sitting, Darcy wasn’t so shy. Or little. From what he’d seen, she was a curvy package, round in all the right places.
And the fact that he was even contemplating Darcy’s curves was violating his new policy against casual hookups. But old habits die hard.
“No,” he said, and flipped his hand between them. “But I’m still not clear on what you’re doing here.” Win never would’ve pegged Darcy as the booty-call type. But it was always the quiet, demure ones who surprised you.
“I told you.” She leaned forward and appeared to be summoning her gumption. “Sex. I was in the mood.”
“And you just thought you could break into my house, get into my bed, and I’d put out?”
“Exactly.” She bobbed her head.
He supposed he had a reputation that was hard to shake. But come on. It was dangerous sneaking around someone’s apartment, not to mention disrespectful. On the other hand, Win had never gotten much respect. That’s why he was going cold turkey.
“Why do you want sex?” Stupid question. But it was two in the morning and he wasn’t firing on all cylinders. “Let me rephrase that. Why do you want sex with me?”
“Because I’m guessing you’re good at it and I didn’t think you’d make such a big deal out of it. It’s not like I’m asking you to marry me.”
Not a good enough reason, at least not for Darcy. And not for him to quit his moratorium. “Darcy, you can’t just jump into bed with someone for sport.”
“Why not? You do it.” She had a point.
“Not anymore.”
She actually had the audacity to roll her eyes.
“What, you don’t believe me?”
She took a strand of hair and curled it around her finger. It was a nervous gesture, not meant to be seductive. Yet, it was sexy as hell. “If I was someone you were attracted to, you would.”
He’d been attracted to Ida but he’d come home alone. Proof that he was sticking to the program. “Nope. After Britney I’m a changed man.”
Britney, the wack-job blackjack dealer who’d nearly tricked him into marrying her, was now married to someone else. Thank God.
“I would never do what she did to you,” Darcy said.
No, she wouldn’t dupe him into believing she was pregnant with his baby when it was really someone else’s. “That’s not the point, Darce.”
“What exactly is the point then, Win?” She gave him a withering glare.
“The point is that you coming here like this in that”—he waved his hand at the teddy that was now concealed under yards of his ugly plaid comforter—“was not a good idea. And it has nothing to do with whether I’m attracted to you. For God’s sake, Darcy, we work together.”
“So.” She shrugged. “It would be a one-night thing. Don’t tell me you haven’t had flings with some of the tour guides.”
Too many to count but Win was taking the Fifth. “What’s your sudden interest in sex?” Another asinine question.
Before she turned away, Win caught a new shade of red creep up her cheeks. So, their girl Darcy wasn’t getting any. Granted, Glory Junction was a small town but it was so flooded with tourists—hence the reason why an adventure-tour company did so well here—that she should’ve been spoiled for choice.
“Darce, look at me.” When she wouldn’t, he walked over to the bed, which was a singularly terrible idea because she looked so vulnerable and sweet huddled under the covers that he was tempted to give her what she wanted. Take one for the team.
“If you’ll just turn around, I’ll get my stuff and leave,” she said, her voice tinged with humiliation.
He looked around the studio apartment, which was roughly the size of his sister-in-law’s walk-in closet, and wondered what precisely was Darcy’s “stuff.” And then he saw the white down puffy coat strewn across his couch. “That yours?” He nudged his chin at the jacket.
“Yes. Could you hand it to me, please?” Darcy clearly didn’t want him to get a second look at her in the teddy. Kind of a disconnect for a woman who five minutes ago wanted to do the nasty.
“It’s seventy-five degrees out.” June in Glory Junction.
“I know but I don’t own a trench coat.”
He grabbed the puffy jacket and handed it to her.
“Turn around, please.”
Quite frankly, he wanted another look but being a gentleman, he complied. “So how long has it been?”
“Huh?” He could hear the rustling of nylon and a zipper.
“Can I look now.” She said “yes” and when he turned back around the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man was taking off her come-fuck-me stilettos. “Since you last got laid?”
“Not that long ago,” she said, clearly lying.
“So at two in the morning you got an itch to come over to my place?”
“Something like that. Could you please forget this ever happened?” She looked around his apartment.
It wasn’t the best but he didn’t need much, mostly just a place to sleep. He put in a fair number of hours guiding everything from extreme skiing expeditions to white-water rafting trips for Garner Adventure. Lately, he’d been thinking about taking on more responsibility at the family business to prove he was more than the Garners’ prodigal son. While he and his three brothers owned an equal share of Garner Adventure, everyone but Win had his own calling. Colt, the oldest, was Glory Junction’s top cop. TJ, next in line, was GA’s CEO and all-around business tycoon. Josh, just a couple of years older than Win, was a former army ranger and war hero.
Other than dropping out of the Olympic team ten years ago, Win’s claim to fame was … nothing. He was considered the family screwup. And the Britney shitstorm hadn’t helped matters.
“You’re not hot in that?” He was sure the puffy coat came in handy during Glory Junction’s punishing winters. But even in his underwear, Win felt the cloying spring night on his skin.
“A littl
e. But I’ll be home soon.” Darcy lived with her grandmother, Hilde Wallace, on the outskirts of town.
When Win was a kid, the widow Wallace had caught him and his buddies TPing her house. Out of guilt, he’d gone back the next day to clean up the mess and she’d made him cookies and hot cocoa. She’d pretty much been his dream woman ever since.
Darcy had come to live with her about a year ago. That’s really all he knew about her background. She hadn’t grown up in Glory Junction like the rest of them and they didn’t stand around GA, talking about their pasts. Although last winter she’d been the first person he’d confided in about the whole Britney fiasco. It had been the only substantive conversation they’d had since she’d started the job. Darcy was reserved and pretty much kept to herself. That’s why her coming here tonight was so out of character.
“Hang on a sec,” he told her as she started for the door, then rummaged through his closet. “You can wear this.” He tossed her a GA T-shirt that would be long enough to pass for a dress. At least on her.
“Can I change in your bathroom?” She pulled the puffy coat tighter as if she wanted to disappear inside of it and his eyes automatically moved to her breasts.
For a woman who was trying to get him in the sack, she wasn’t exactly pulling out all the stops. “Sure.”
She vanished inside the john and he took the opportunity to find his jeans and slip them on. When she came out, the T-shirt replaced the jacket, which was slung over her arm.
“You okay?” he asked, feeling like whatever happened here tonight might put a crimp in their work relationship.
“Of course.” She stuck out her chin but Win swore her bottom lip quivered.
“No hard feelings, right?”
“Nope. I’m sorry I forced myself on you.” And for the second time, those baby blues of hers wouldn’t meet his.