My eyes fall closed as he leans down to kiss me… yes…
The bell rings over the door as someone barges in and we explode apart like a grenade detonating.
“Why is this music so loud?” Lindsay shouts as she charges in, heading straight to the stereo. She turns it off and we’re suddenly one too many bodies in this small silent bakery.
I glance at Malcolm. He’s watching me with a smile on his face and I can tell he’s trying not to laugh. It’s contagious and it takes everything I have to hold in the giggle that’s trying to burst out of my mouth.
Lindsay is rambling on about the sales and inventory and what she has planned for the rest of the week. My ears are ringing and my head is spinning with deliciously dirty thoughts of her son. I don’t hear a word she says.
My brain clicks back on when I hear her say my name.
“Sorry?”
“I said you can go. Malcolm and I will finish closing up.”
“Actually, I was going to walk Charlotte home,” Malcolm says.
“But Tracy lives across town, why would you—oh.”
Her face turns shocked and then bitter as she looks at us, finally clicking that there’s been more than just mangled danishes heating up in her bakery all day.
“Absolutely not,” she snaps. “There are still dishes in the back!”
“Edgar is coming in tomorrow morning,” Malcolm quickly says as he grabs my coat and his.
“The floor needs to be mopped!” Lindsay practically shrieks.
“I’ll come in early and do it tomorrow,” Malcolm says as he throws me my coat. I catch it and quickly put it on. “The delivery guy is just going to mess it up tomorrow morning anyway, so there’s no point.”
Lindsay’s mouth drops open as she tries to think of another excuse to keep her darling boy away from Tracy’s scandalized tramp of a niece.
But she’s not quick enough. Malcolm whisks me out the door and I barely have time to wish Lindsay a goodnight before we’re on the sidewalk outside, hurrying away from the bakery.
My pulse races with excitement as we turn the corner, free from Lindsay’s staring eyes through the window.
There’s a lightness in my chest as he walks me home. We talk the whole way. He asks me questions and listens to the answers.
He’s much different than the friends I had in New York. I’m starting to realize they were all fake fair-weather friends. We only talked about the stuff we had and gossiped about others. It wasn’t like this. We didn’t share things and ask about one another’s feelings and emotions. It was all fake.
Malcolm is real. As real as it gets.
I need some real in my life.
“So, you don’t want to move out of here?” I ask him, shocked that someone like him would voluntarily stay in a town like this. He could be the king of New York if he wanted to be.
“I like it here,” he says as we pass a house with a pink and red Valentine’s Day wreath hanging on the door. “It’s the perfect place to raise a family and that’s what I want to do.”
I look around, seeing the town with new eyes. The old van parked in the driveway that I thought was a rusty piece of crap this morning becomes a nice reliable family vehicle, bringing kids to soccer games and the family on their summer vacation. Maybe I was too hard on this town. Maybe it’s not so bad after all.
Maybe I have to give it a real chance.
By the time we get to Aunt Tracy’s house—my new house—I’m head over heels for this guy. He’s sweet, charming, gorgeous, and sexy. But at the same time, I can tell he’s got another side to him. A dark, alluring side that has no qualms about shoving his girl against the wall as he takes her from behind. That sweet mouth can turn dirty on a dime. I can tell. I can tell in the way his hands were squeezing me just tight enough to let me know that he’s the boss. I can tell by the way his intense possessive eyes shine whenever he looks at me.
I want to see more of that side of him. I want to tease it out of him. I want that side to come out and play.
“This is it,” I say when we come up to the driveway.
I turn until we’re facing each other. That possessive gaze is back in full force as he looks down at me.
He’s got my pulse racing like never before. I can tell this man is going to make me fall in love with this town.
I might already be there.
“I’ll see you tomorrow?” he asks as he steps in close.
I swallow hard as his hand drifts through the space between us. He grabs my hand and holds it as his eyes melt me with the most intense eye contact I’ve ever experienced. My body is on fire as I stand here, transfixed by his gaze.