The action unbalanced her and Alec grabbed her arm to steady her. The heat of his hand transferred through the thin material of her shirt and shot like sparklers along the entire side of her body. “Let go,” she said through her teeth, trying to shake free of his hold.
His grip didn’t hurt, but it didn’t loosen either. “I’m not the enemy, sugar.”
Sugar. The word whispered through her like a yearning sigh.
Damn it! The enemy was the traitorous reaction she had to that simple word. The way the man made her soft inside when Lilly Durand needed to be strong. Independent. You could only trust yourself, she knew that, certainly not some man on whom you’d developed an out-of-character, temporary-but-now-smothered crush.
“Lilly,” Alec hauled her closer, until his nearness dizzied her. She swayed again on her feet and felt the entire world rocking beneath her.
“Lilly,” he repeated, sliding his arm around her waist now. “Are you okay? You told me closed places make you claustrophobic.”
She blinked up at him, owlishly. She’d confessed that? Surely she hadn’t added that it was because she used to hide in the closet when her aunt and uncle fought, hurling insults and household goods at each other for hours at a time.
“This isn’t happening.” Lilly put a hand to her head, trying not to let his nearness scramble her thoughts again.
Then, without warning, the elevator doors shushed open, and cold air slapped her face, driving the dizziness away. She wrenched from Alec and leaped out, onto what appeared to be the building’s second floor. Walking backward, she shot a finger at him.
“I don’t want to see or speak to you again.”
Chapter 2
Alec Thatcher leaned against the back of the concierge desk, elbow-to-elbow with his second cousin Kane Hathaway.
“You look like hell,” the other man said cheerfully. Wearing a gray business suit and matching dress shirt, he appeared not to have a care in the world. “No sleep?”
Alec shot him a disgruntled look. “Shouldn’t that worry you? Shouldn’t you be asking if I need a new pillow or if my mattress isn’t satisfactory?”
“It’s not your accommodations that’s the problem. Guys like you, what keeps you awake at night is a business deal. Or a woman.”
“Neither,” Alec said, then sighed. “I can’t get the botched wedding out of my head. Who does that? What brand of asshole do you have to be to call off an imminent wedding via text?”
“That’s on him,” Kane pointed out. At thirty, he was the same age as Alec. They’d always hung out during family events and were nearly as close as he’d been with his brother Simon. “Right? So shake it off and settle in to enjoy your mom and dad’s anniversary celebration week.”
“Yeah.” His parents had invited family and close friends to the resort to observe thirty-five years of marriage. The gathering had been the brainchild of his mother, and they’d all been delighted at this sign she was rejoining and re-engaging with the world after five years of implacable withdrawal.
“Good,” Kane said. “Now how about replacing your grim expression with something more upbeat? You know, a frown turned upside-down is a smile.”
His sunny tone was annoying as hell and Alec knew the other man was poking him just because he could—like every sibling or almost-sibling ever—but that didn’t stop him from bristling. “It’s the maid of honor,” he heard himself say. “It continues to bug the hell out of me that she looked at me like I’m shit on her shoe.”
Kane’s brows flew up. “Huh? When? I thought the ceremony was called off before the participants made it to the beach.”
Shit. The decision he’d come to after his sleepless night was that he was going to put Lilly Durand out of his mind. For good. Now he’d have to tell Kane about her.
“She’s here, staying at the resort with the jilted bride. I ran into her yesterday and she didn’t seem pleased to see me.”
“Ah.” Kane rubbed his chin. “Let me guess. Guilt by association?”
“I’m supposing so. Because during the few days of pre-wedding events, we got along just fine.”
“Hmm.” Kane’s mouth quirked. “By that you mean you got her into your bed?”
A group of young women stepped into the lobby then, wreathed in smiles, their legs long and their pretty dresses short. Chattering like brilliantly feathered birds, they had glossy hair and pink lips and their gazes flicked past Alec and Kane, then backtracked for a longer perusal.
His second cousin gave them an easy, appreciative smile. “There’s a sight to improve a man’s outlook,” he murmured. “Nothing better in the world than women in a jolly mood. They require so little work to keep that way.”
Kane had a rule against involving himself with high-maintenance females. Which, if you listened to him, were just about all of them, especially right around the time their sisters got engaged, or when they had an upcoming birthday, or when a special holiday was on the calendar. Kane hadn’t found anyone he considered worth the effort to hold onto long-term. It was all light and breezy for him.
For Alec too. For a long time, serial dating and casual fucking had suited him just fine.
Hell, that made them both kind of sound like assholes, he thought, frowning.
“There’s the long face again,” Kane remarked, his attention returning to Alec as the knot of women moved off in the direction of the restaurant. “Let’s start over. You found yourself with a hot one and now she’s giving you the cold shoulder…”
“Lilly is not a ‘hot one,’” Alec said reflexively, sending the other man a sharp glance. And he hadn’t gotten her into bed, though before the called-off wedding he’d fully intended to do that very thing. “Don’t talk about her like that.”
Kane brought up his hands, palms out. “Sorry, sorry. Meant no disrespect. Just trying to get the story and give my buddy a little support.”
“Never mind.” Alec wished like hell he could leave his post and go for a beer
