Forbidden Fling (Wildwood 1)

“Why what?”

“Why do you care?” His voice sounded strained as he tried to keep it low. “First my father attacks you, then my brother. Neither of which you deserved. And both in public. You should be raving mad, not trying to protect me from my own damned family.”

“Don’t ask me why I care.” The first hint of anger touched her voice, and she came to the edge of the porch with a stance he was beginning to recognize—spine a little straighter, chin a little higher. “That’s demeaning. What kind of person do you think I am? Why wouldn’t I care? You’re not your father or your brother. I certainly know how far an apple can fall from the tree, how quickly family members can turn on each other, and how easily they can abandon you when you need them most.

“I also know how badly that hurts. How it can leave an empty space inside a person. Make you feel like you don’t belong, even when you do. I don’t think anyone deserves that. I think family should stick beside each other. I realized all that too late and lost my sisters because I was young and selfish and left too soon. But I was only eighteen. I didn’t know any better. Your father and your brother do know better, and the way they treated you today is bullshit. So yeah, I’m pissed . . . but not at you.”

His stomach seemed to squeeze and float at the same time. He didn’t know how she said so much so quickly. He was dumbstruck at her insight into people, relationships, and human nature. Awed at how open and forgiving she was after all the shit she’d been through.

He put one foot on the stair and gripped the railing, looking up at her. “You impress the hell out of me.”

She looked at her feet and shook her head. And then they stood there in the warm night, with the rhythmic chirp of crickets and the occasional hum of a car engine in the distance.

Ethan’s overwhelmed brain cleared, like his body hit the “Reset” button. Without the tangle of problems clouding his mind, he really saw Delaney for the first time all night. Saw the way her pretty little yellow sundress followed the curves of her body, the way her hair fell forward over her shoulder and framed her face, the way her legs seemed to go on forever before they ended in sparkly little sandals.

And he suddenly ached all over. He didn’t understand how he could still want her so badly. He’d never been addicted to anything, but just looking at her standing on his porch made a clawlike craving sting in his gut. Made his mouth water. Made him want to take risks he’d never contemplated before.

“Delaney—”

“I know it might be hard to believe,” she said, starting down the stairs, “but Jack and Austin aren’t the biggest pricks I’ve ever dealt with. I’m a big girl, and I may not always win the war, but I can hold my own in the battles. I know how to handle guys like this. Guys that thrive on power and authority. And I know how to do what needs to get done. I’m a survivor, Ethan.”

She stopped on the last step, putting them eye to eye. “What I don’t know how to do is make sure others survive. I don’t know how to save anyone else. I guess I’ve always made sure of that. So stop worrying about me and start worrying about you. If you don’t put up some walls and protect yourself from their manipulation, that light inside you will eventually go out.”

Light? She saw a light inside him?

She lifted a hand to his face and cupped his jaw. “You’ve been through enough. You have a great life here. A good job, great friends, everyone in town respects and likes you, all the single girls can’t wait for the day you look their way. I’m not going to come into town for a week, or a month, turn everything upside down, and leave. That’s not right.” She ran her thumb over his cheek and smiled. “So we’re good?”

Panic blipped through his chest. He covered her hand with his to keep her from leaving, while he fought for something to say that would fix everything and make her stay. But she was so freaking rational, so goddamned logical, he was having a hard time finding anything to work with. And with the bar, his

grandfather, his family, his aunt, and his job in the middle of this, he didn’t even know if he should.

“Delaney, let’s—”

“It’s not a big deal.” She curled her fingers around his and lowered their hands. “And I’m not going to make it one. I just wanted you to know so you wouldn’t worry. I’m good, so we’re good.” She nodded. Smiled again. “Okay?”

Say okay and let her go.

He shifted on his feet.

One little word.

Let her go. Right your world.

“No.” He heaved a sigh and rubbed his eyes. “No, it’s not okay.”

“Ethan . . .”

Her goddammit-I’m-barely-holding-on-here plea was lost on him. He slipped his arms around her waist and pulled her warm little body against his.

She pushed at his shoulders, leaning away. “You know I’m right. You know it’s what you need.”

“No.” He lifted a hand and cupped the back of her neck. “You are what I need.”

He pulled her mouth to his and kissed her. She mewled, the sound frustrated, but her hands fisted in his shirt and held him close.

Ethan softened his mouth, tilted his head, and kissed her again. This time, she whimpered and her body loosened. The feel of her melting against him pushed heat through his body. He moaned and slid the hand at her neck into the silky strands of her hair, and when she parted her lips to gasp, he pushed his tongue into her mouth.

She opened to him immediately, hungrily, and met the stroke of his tongue. The warm, wet slide made everything Ethan had been holding back—the lust, the confusion, the fear, the anger, the want, the longing—break through his barriers like a flood. The wave wiped everything from his mind but Delaney and brought profound relief.