Macy nodded and took another sip of her drink. Just seeing her lips move over her glass made his body stir. He readjusted the way he sat so that he wouldn’t make it so visibly obvious how much he wanted her. “Makes sense,” Macy was saying. “My schedule for dating has been a bit off-kilter.”
“So you’re saying you haven’t been on a date in a while?”
“Ah, let’s see.” She tilted her head back, giving him a glance of her beautiful neck, sculpted just for his lips. He cleared his throat, hoping it would settle the stirring in his pants, but it didn’t. “I went out a few times with this one man for lunch. Does that count?”
“It depends. What does he do for a living?”
“He’s a pilot.”
“A pilot?” he asked. Macy didn’t strike him as the type of woman who went for flyboys. Of course, she also didn’t strike him as the type to go for former athletes, either, especially because of the special word she called him. There had to have been another reason. “Were you talking about work?”
Duke wanted to know if she’d kissed the pilot, but refrained from asking. He didn’t want to know. He didn’t want to think of some other man making her squirm as he did yesterday.
“His house won first place last year in his neighborhood.”
“Then you didn’t date him. He was a client. If he was a smart pilot, he would have flown you to another city for lunch.”
“So what do you have in mind? I bet you can’t think of much, now that you’re in slowpoke Tallahassee.”
“Tallahassee’s not so bad,” he said honestly. The weather was different, especially for this time of year, but prior to his outing Santa, the people had been friendly. And then of course, there was Macy.
“How do you like it?”
Duke leaned back in his chair and smiled appreciatively at her beautiful face. Just looking at her made him grin. Her smile challenged him. He couldn’t use any line as he could on another woman, and he wouldn’t want to on her. “I have to admit, I’ve absolutely fallen in love with this town.”
The same reddening flush from earlier reappeared at Macy’s cheeks. “I see.”
The fact that she clearly tried as hard as she could to resist him affected him. Duke had to shift in his seat and remind himself that he was a grown man, not a boy easily aroused by a smile, but there was just something about Macy. “Do you? Do you really?”
In an apparent attempt to change the subject, Macy cleared her throat, but Duke leaned in closer and took her hand again. “I know you may think it’s soon, Macy, but I can tell by the way you react every time I touch you, you’re just as curious about where things can go between us.”
“I—I...” She fumbled for words and stuttered.
“I am just asking for you give me a chance.” He leaned closer and pressed his lips against hers. She tasted sweet like tea, but he knew she had her own sweetness. He had tasted it yesterday and had to abstain from taking more. Macy was the type of person who needed to take things slow. He respected the fact she had two children. As a matter of fact, he couldn’t wait to meet them. But in the meantime, images of making love to her flooded his mind. The feel of her mouth made his body pulsate. It was all he could do to keep from taking her on the table right now. But he knew he couldn’t.
People from nearby tables oohed and ahhed at the two of them, and a few of them even clapped. Macy pulled away for a split second, and then her body melted into his, just as it had done yesterday. Her hands clasped the sides of his face as she pulled him closer to her. She was an expert kisser. If they weren’t in public, Duke would have pushed everything and acted on impulse. His heart slammed against his rib cage. A car horn sounded behind them, and though he was sure he wasn’t the cause of it, he heard tires screech against the street.
Pictures formed in his head: Macy and his mother standing in the kitchen talking and laughing. Picturing his mother while he was kissing Macy wasn’t ideal. But he thought it meant something. That kind of domesticity, something he’d never pictured before, especially not while kissing a woman. Reluctantly he pulled away.
He liked the way her long eyelashes fluttered as she tried to come back into focus. When she did, she blinked and smiled shyly. “Mmm-kay.”
Chapter 5
Birthdays in his childhood had always been a big event, Duke reminisced, pulling his Ferrari into the circular driveway of Macy’s ranch-style home off Mistletoe Court for her birthday celebration. The family didn’t have a lot of money growing up, but they always had a good time. Family and friends would come from miles away to eat and then head out to swim on the beach. Many would spend the night, which was already cramped with three brothers and two sisters having to share two rooms. The girls, of course, had their own room, but the male cousins slept in his room, thus making it impossible to walk across the floor in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.
Duke pressed his lips together, impressed with Macy’s style of home. From what he’d learned, she used to live in the office of Winter Paradise. It was easy to see how that Victorian-style house had been a home and how it turned into her place of business. Her new house was quite impressive itself. He’d prefer a spread like hers for himself one day. Once Duke had graduated from high school and didn’t have to live with his siblings, he thought he would always want his own spread. Living in New York and DC hadn’t helped him see his dream come true, but being down south certainly had opened his eyes for him.
The ranch-style home sat on a large piece of property far from the curb. At one end, the garage connected to the outside porch, which was lined with three rocking chairs on one side and a hanging swing on the other. On the side where the garage door was, there were four large windows decorated with a trim of white lights. Near the end where the swing was stood a bay window with a dressed Christmas tree.
When Macy reminded Duke this morning on the phone about her small party, she failed to clarify how many people were coming. What Macy defined as an intimate gathering turned out to be at least a dozen cars or so parked in her driveway, street and lawn. When she had originally asked him over, Duke was under the impression she’d invited her family, maybe Pablo and Monique. Judging from the cars parked outside, he doubted he’d be able to get any alone time with Macy. As disappointing as that was, he was still eager just to be under the same roof as her. Before getting out of the car, he reached into the backseat for the rectangular box, perfectly wrapped in a light pink. He’d discovered over the past few days that her favorite color was, surprisingly, pink. With her job, he would have half expected Macy to like red and green. The contents of the small box rattled. A smile tugged at his lips. He couldn’t wait to see her face when she opened it.
As his foot hit the first step, he heard a group of girls screaming from upstairs. He reache
d for the doorbell, but before he could pull his finger away the door jerked open. Duke straightened to his full height and flashed his award-winning, camera-ready smile.
“Duke Rodriguez, well damn, ain’t this something. I’ve been a fan of yours for quite a while,” exclaimed a stocky man with arms big enough to bench press his Ferrari. He was close to six feet tall, but not by much. What he might have lacked in height, he made up in muscle. The man must have been a professional bodybuilder. “I’m Mario Polizzi.”
Duke extended his hand, swearing privately this man was trying to break his hand for no reason...then he quickly made the connection. “Oh, Macy’s...” He couldn’t bring himself to say “ex-husband.” This man was obviously more of a meathead than someone who was smart enough to hang on to a woman like Macy. Mario’s loss was his gain. Duke smiled and gave his hand a firmer shake. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”