“Buster’s actually okay?” she asked, her voice hoarse. “You’re sure?”
“As sure as I am that Jojo and I are seriously screwed up,” he said, then inhaled a long breath. “I don’t know how I’m going to make this up to you, sugar.”
“I don’t know how you’re going to make this up to me either,” she said, indignant now. “And so you know, you are seriously screwed up.”
“Yeah.”
“Your mom’s going to kill you,” she said, glaring up at him. “I can’t wait to tell her.”
For a minute she thought he wasn’t breathing. “That would be okay with me,” he finally said in a mild voice.
“But I guess I can’t, because my rental is waiting. I’m going home tonight. Now.”
He stiffened. “I wish you wouldn’t.”
“Alec…”
“You’re starting to shiver,” he said, gathering her closer as if he could transfer his body heat to her. It was working, she could feel warmth where they were pressed against each other, breasts to chest, hips to hips. “I should take you back,” he murmured.
But he didn’t move, instead continuing to hold her, his hands stroking over her in slow caresses. Lilly ordered herself to do something besides stand like a doll in his embrace, but now that the panic was over, she found herself enervated. And the petting…that was hard to put a stop to, not when it made her feel cherished. Treasured.
It was all wrong, all of it, but right now she could only absorb every sensation.
“Don’t be mad at Jojo,” he eventually said against her ear, his hot breath causing a shiver to roll down her neck.
“Why did she make up such a thing?”
“Because of me. She wanted to give me a chance to persuade you—”
“No,” Lilly said, forcing herself to sound firm. “I explained.”
“And I heard you. So I’m only asking for a baby step. Just stay at the resort until after the party tomorrow night,” he said.
The party for which she’d bought the smokin’ dress. How she’d wanted Alec to see her in it, when she’d stood in front of the mirror at the boutique and pretended that she might have a different kind of life.
He kissed the top of her head. “That’s all. Stay for the party. I’m not asking for anything more.”
Of course, he didn’t say he wouldn’t ask for anything more later. That later he wouldn’t press her for all the things she was unable of giving or knew nothing about how to give.
As if sensing her hesitation, he cradled her face in his hands and drew it back so he could stare into her eyes. “Just this single baby step.”
For now. That hovered in the air, but she didn’t think she had the willpower to refuse him, not when he was looking at her with such tenderness.
When she sighed in defeat, he smiled. It wasn’t triumphant, but warm. And maybe a tinge relieved. The last of her resistance melted into a puddle at their feet. “Single step,” she reminded him.
He nodded. “And just think, sugar, this way you get to tattle on me to my mom.”
She gave him a stern face. “It’s not tattling, young man, if it’s a true transgression.”
Chapter 12
Walking back to the resort, Alec kept his arm around Lilly, not only to keep her warm but to keep her from getting lost again. “I couldn’t believe it when you took off like that along the beach,” he said. “Didn’t you hear me calling for you to stop?”
“No complaints, since it was your fault I was rattled in the first place.”
He kissed the top of her head, damp from the fog and her tangle with the waves. “Someday you need a pet to go with those kids you’ll be a great mother of.”
When she sent him a speaking glance, he lifted his hand, a gesture of peace. “Shutting up now.”
“One. Baby. Step,” she reminded him.
It was impossible to dodge the worry that it was the only one she’d ever allow him—the one step of staying for the party. That afterward, she’d disappear from his life just as she’d faded from his view on foggy Dragonfly Beach. Perhaps if he shared with her the depths of his alarm when he’d lost her that afternoon she’d take pity on him and promise more…
But no. He was only after an “exploration” as Jojo had aptly put it and so he could be patient with his demands of Lilly. That didn’t mean he wasn’t going to cement what she’d agreed to, though. “We’ll detour through the lobby to get your bags and cancel the car,” he said.
“I’m a mess.” Her hand went self-consciously to her hair, and he grabbed it to kiss her knuckles.
“How are you going to un-mess without your things?” he said. “Though I think you look like a beautiful mermaid I just dragged out of the sea.”
When she was dealing with the car rental, he tipped a bellman to take her suitcases up to his suite. Kane strolled up just as he was communicating his room number.
His second cousin looked at him with a glint of humor in his gaze. “Well, well, well.”
“Don’t start,” Alec said, watching the young man trundle Lilly’s items toward the elevator with distinct satisfaction.
“How does it feel losing your mind?” Kane asked. “Is it a slow slide into insanity or does it happen in a single moment, like a brick coming down on your head?”
“One day you’re going to explain this fear you have of women,” Alec said.
“It’s a fear of having to stick with a single one,” Kane retorted, grinning.
“You know, that makes you sound like an asshole.” Alec frowned at the other man. “Seriously.”
Instead of answering, Kane’s gaze had caught on a male figure striding through the lobby, his long legs making quick work of the spacious expanse
