“Do you know where she runs? Like how far and the route she takes?” Nick asked, looking really uncomfortable with the question.
“Not really. I’m not a runner. I mean, I see her go by our houses sometimes,” Lily said.
More often, now that Nick moved in.
Did that mean he hadn’t run with her the other day?
“And…uh…I guess there’s no easy way to say this, but…if I wanted to run without…running into her?”
“Oh,” Lily said, relieved, but puzzled.
He wanted to avoid a woman with a body like Audrey’s?
She didn’t think anybody who looked like him would want to avoid someone who looked like Audrey.
“I like to run alone,” he said. “That’s all. Really. It’s just time to clear my head, and she followed me the other day and…well, she talked the whole time.”
“Oh. Of course.” Lily nodded, gleeful at the thought of Audrey, half-dressed and nearly bouncing out of her bra and annoying Nick every step of the way.
It shouldn’t make Lily so happy, because Audrey’s husband had walked out on her just like Lily’s had, and Lily knew how awful that was. Lily felt bad for everything Audrey had gone through, but still…She didn’t want Audrey to have Nick.
“If you cut through my backyard on the side farthest from yours, then take the first left, then a right, it will take you out of the neighborhood the back way. From there, you might be able to run without seeing her, because I think she stays in the subdivision.”
He grinned. “That would be great. Thanks.”
“Sure,” she said. “Anytime.”
He looked like there might be more he wanted to say, but then thought better of it and just put his empty glass down on the counter and said, “Well, I guess I’d better be going, finish the lawn before it gets any hotter.”
“Okay.”
Lily went to open the door for him, and he reached for it at the same time, which meant they ended up almost bumping into each other, and when they pulled away, she went left and he went right.
Which meant, they ended up even closer.
He gave a little chuckle. “Hang on.” And caught her by the arms, to keep her from moving again the same way he did, she thought.
Which was fine.
It was…almost a polite gesture.
Nothing more.
She didn’t move at first, didn’t want to if she was honest with herself, just stood there breathing in the scent of him, a big, strong man who’d been outside doing manly things, and the sheer heat of him, which seemed to be radiating from his body.
And then he froze. “Damn,” he muttered, turning his head back to her.
“What’s wrong?”
Had she done something? Completely given herself away?
Would she be forever embarrassed in his company and have to live with him being right next door forever and knowing she wanted him as much as Audrey? Would he be getting tips from someone else on how to avoid Lily?
Still, he held her gently by the arms, mere fractions of an inch from being pressed up against him, and he wasn’t moving away.
“Audrey’s out there. I saw her through the kitchen door,” he said.
“Oh.”
“And she sees us,” he said.
Okay?
So?
“I don’t understand—”
“Lily, she followed me into the kitchen two mornings ago and practically jumped me as Jake was coming downstairs.”
“Oh!”
“I thought I made it clear, as politely as possible, that I wasn’t interested, but maybe I didn’t. Because she’s been stalking me ever since, and Jake is daydreaming about going out with her daughter. So I’d rather not piss her off completely, if I don’t have to.”
“Okay.” Lily said, still frozen there, half an inch from him and liking it. Liking it a lot. “But what does that have to do with…this?”
He took a breath, chest and shoulders rising, coming that much closer to actually touching her, and she wanted him to touch her. She was tingling all over, like her body was singing, it was so happy. Like she’d already anticipated this slight touch a dozen times in the few seconds they’d been standing here, her waiting and waiting for things she couldn’t bring herself to ask for.
He was just so big and strong. So much…a man.
And it had been so long since she’d been this close to a man.
If she was really honest with herself, she’d admit she’d never been this close to a man as appealing as him. In a completely physical way, of course. She didn’t really know him. She just knew that her body really wanted to know his better.
“Well,” he said, dipping his head ever so slowly until his lips were resting somewhere near the base of her throat.
Not touching her.
Not really.
Doing something oh so sexy that was almost like touching.
Breathing on her, breathing in her, like a man taking a moment to savor a great meal he knew he was going to love before he ever took the first bite.
Bite!
She couldn’t think about him taking a bite of her.
Men didn’t take bites of her!
She wasn’t that kind of girl.
Maybe she should have been.
Maybe she regretted that right this minute, but still…
“If I could just do this for a moment,” he whispered, his arms sliding carefully around her.
“Mmm-hmm,” she said, her voice coming out a little squeaky and weird.
“And you were to put your arms around me, just for a minute…”
“Okay.” She was all too happy to comply.
She’d been thinking about touching him for days. Touching him in all sorts of ways, in all sorts of places that made her blush.
And actually touching him was even better, she found.
His body was solid as could be, all hard and sexy, muscles curving and sloping one into another, her hands sliding up his biceps, to cup his broad shoulders, one hand even sneaking onto the base of his neck and into the ends of his hair.
“There you go,” he said, like he really liked that. “Just like that.”
Oh, yes.
Just like that.
Lily took a giant gulp of air, her breasts rising to the point where they just barely brushed his chest.
He sucked in a breath, then gave a shaky little laugh.
“She’s watching everything we do,” he said. “And if it’s okay with you, I think if I just do this for a few moments…”
And then he stroked the tip of his nose along the side of her neck, lips so close they left a trail of heat and longing in their wake.
Lily whimpered. Couldn’t help it.
If