Ten first dates, p.30
Ten First Dates, page 30
I was starting to get pissed. “Just shut up,” I demanded. “I don’t think Mrs. Young heard you.” I meant Cash’s mother. But then I realized Cash’s mother was also Faith’s mother and I broke out in a cold sweat.
“Relax.” Dak clapped me on the shoulder. “Did you just kiss and feel around a little or more than that?”
I pictured the blonde, digging her nails into my flesh and begging for my cock. I cleared my throat. “Definitely more than kissing. She probably has splinters on her ass.” Normally I wouldn’t give out details but I was kind of pissed off at her deception. I’d asked for her number. I had talked about going out on a date and she’d never once mentioned Cash was her brother.
The guys all cracked a laugh.
“You going to ask her out?” Miles asked, undoing his tie and stuffing it in his jacket pocket.
I realized I had left my jacket down by the pond, wrapped around her shoulders. “I asked for her number but that’s when I thought she was a sexy stranger, not Young’s little sister. So there is nothing to do now except try to bury the whole damn thing deep like a dog does with a bone.”
“Sounds like you buried that bone alright,” Dak said.
They all laughed again.
Oh, I had. I had buried it very deep. It made me hard all over again just thinking about it.
Miles spoke again. “Dude, let’s remember this is Young’s sister. Show a little class. What if it was your sister?”
“If it was my sister I’d knock Mac’s fucking lights out,” Train said. “My sister is only a couple of years younger than Faith.” He eyed me. “Touch Natasha, you're a dead man.”
“I’m not going on a tear through everyone’s family tree,” I said, annoyed. “I didn’t even know she was Cash’s sister. She said she was a catering server.”
“Damn,” Dak said. “Then I’ll stop messing with you, because you acted on false information.”
“Thank you,” I said. Then I sighed. “Damn it, why am I such a fucking idiot when it comes to women?”
“That is a great question. We’ll all been there, bro,” JJ said.
“I’m too impulsive.” I shoved my hands in my pockets. “That’s how I end up in these messes.”
“You do have a habit of seeing a pretty face and diving all in,” Miles said. “I still can’t figure out how you ended up living with that crazy ass Mary Frances.”
I winced. I had no desire to think about my ex when I could taste Faith’s skin. “Can we not talk about her tonight? That was definitely worse than sleeping with Cash’s sister.”
There wasn’t even a comparison, frankly. If it wasn’t for Cash, I wouldn’t regret a single second I’d spent with Faith.
Train coughed. Dak elbowed me.
Cash was approaching us.
“Shit, did he hear me?” I asked.
“Nope. He’s still smiling,” JJ said. He put his cigar to his lips. “Act cool, bro.”
“What’s up?” Cash said.
He was more than smiling. He was grinning. He had a swagger to his walk. Like he was proud to be married. It made me happy for him and slightly jealous. All these guys that I’d gone to LSU with now had women they loved in their lives. Me? I was hooking up with my best friend’s sister behind the barn.
I needed to reevaluate my life choices.
CHAPTER SIX
MacKay
I excused myself from the guys to go grab a drink and I intentionally walked past the group of wives and girlfriends, trying to catch Faith’s eye.
It was a bold move. She was in a huddle of women, all together, heads down as they chatted and laughed.
“Did you need something Mac?” the bride, Sera, asked me when I basically hovered for a second around them, like an awkward boy at a middle school dance.
Seven sets of eyes stared at me, waiting expectantly.
“What?” I cleared my throat. “Oh, I’m going to the bar. Just wanted to see if any of you ladies needed a drink.”
“That’s awesome, thanks,” Sera’s sister, Toni, said. “I’ll take a beer.”
Before I knew it, I had a full drink order from half a dozen women and had no choice but to walk away, mentally repeating them all so I didn’t forget.
“I’ll help you,” Faith said, with a smile that bordered on a smirk. She had dried and curled her hair and was wearing lipstick.
There was no physical evidence of what we’d been up to. Which was ironic because I still looked a fucking mess.
“Thanks,” I said.
She fell in step beside me. “Why are you limping?” she asked. “Is that my fault from your rescue attempt? Or what happened afterward?”
“No. You may have wrecked me in various ways tonight, but you don’t get credit for my limp. This is permanent.” Sometimes it was more prominent than others, depending on weather and my workouts and alcohol and random other factors. That it chose to be obvious right now pissed me off.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said, sounding genuine. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“Nope.” A career-ending injury that left me with a fucked-up foot permanently was not something I wanted to discuss with a hot woman I had just banged behind a barn.
“I figured as much. And I guess you’ve also figured out I’m not on the catering staff.”
Her casual tone made my nostrils flare. “It has come to my attention, Faith.”
“I wasn’t trying to lie.”
“No?” I glanced down at her, then regretted it. It reminded me of kissing her. “If you hadn’t told me anything, sure, fine, that’s on me for not asking. But you straight-up lied to me.”
“I wasn’t planning to lie. It just slipped out.”
“Why?” I would not fall for that contrite look she was aiming at me.
“Because if you knew who I was you would never have kissed me.”
“That is very true.” Kissed her, touched her, fucked her… “I can’t even look your brother in the eye right now.”
She pulled a face. “I’ll tell him it was my fault and that you didn’t know. He’ll believe me. It usually is my fault. Though I’d like to point out that I did tell you my name.”
That made me stop ten feet from the bar and grab her elbow so she stopped walking as well. “Do not, I repeat, do not tell Cash anything about this. Not a word.”
Faith started to nod.
But I was so horrified, I kept going and added, “This never happened. Do you understand me?”
Instantly, I knew that was the wrong thing to say.
Her contrition disappeared and was replaced with a seductive stare that made my nostrils flare and my cock harden.
“No?” she asked, and her voice was low. Her gaze swept over my mouth, my chest, and lingered on my cock. “It certainly felt like it happened.” She leaned closer to me.
At that moment, she didn’t look like anyone’s little sister. She looked like the woman who could make me forget everything but her.
I leaned back, suddenly unnerved, but unable to stop myself.
“It felt like you were deep inside me and I was having a big, huge, earth-shattering orgasm…” She took a step toward me. “It felt like I was super wet for you and your cock was rock solid and throbbing for me.”
Damn. It definitely had felt like that. I took a step forward too, drawn to her like a magnet.
“But if you say it didn’t happen, it didn’t happen.” She shrugged. “Bye, MacKay.”
She took a step back and turned to leave.
“Where are you going?” I asked, confused and irritated and really fucking turned on. “I thought you were helping me with the drinks.”
“Get someone on the catering staff to help you,” she said.
Her expression and tone made it clear that I had pissed her off. Big. Time.
With that, she gave me a wave and walked away.
I stood there, feeling like I had just been hit by a hurricane.
Hurricane Faith.
Swearing, I walked to the bar. Carefully. With a limp and a hard cock.
Faith
For the first hour after I walked away and left MacKay standing there frowning at me, I’d been furious with him. For his thoughtless words and the way it made me feel. Like what had happened between us was easy to dismiss.
For the next hour following the first hour after I walked away I was irritated with myself. For not being honest with MacKay. For being swept along by my teen emotions and current physical attraction to him.
The hour after that, I was simply waiting for the reception to end so I could sulk in my room, fall asleep, and hopefully wake up in a much better mood about the whole situation. I wanted to reach a state where I could just think of it as a sexy interlude by the pond and not overthink it or have any regrets.
I’d been looking forward to this wedding and now instead of dancing and enjoying myself, I was constantly on the lookout for MacKay and generally feeling sour.
I’d chosen to stay away from alcohol because I wasn’t a big drinker to begin with, but in my current mood it would not end well.
At least I was capable of some good decisions.
Going behind the barn with MacKay had clearly been a poor one.
I ate a s’more around the bonfire and watched my brother Cash sitting next to his new wife, holding her hand. They were a cute couple. He was good with her kids and she seemed to appreciate and understand his personality. Unlike me, my brother wasn’t a big talker.
He would be furious with MacKay if he knew what had happened between us. I knew MacKay was right about that, though I could question why Cash would think he had any right to an opinion since I was a grown woman. But I couldn’t change his feelings and I knew it would ruin his friendship with MacKay. So, I knew I needed to listen to MacKay’s directive and keep my mouth shut.
Which spiraled me through being furious with MacKay, with me, my brother, and with the situation all over again.
I sighed as I stood a little removed from everyone. The fireworks started going off as a grand finale to the wedding reception. I had a blanket from the s’mores station around my shoulders and my arms crossed over my chest.
MacKay suddenly appeared by my side, though he maintained ample space between us. He was easily four feet to my right.
“I’m sorry, Faith,” he said, glancing over at me.
My heart started racing, but I kept my gaze on the sky and the burst of red streaks over the pasture. “For what?”
“For what I said. The way I said it. It was…”
I turned to look at him. “Assholish?”
He grimaced. “I was going to say rude but that works too.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I said, trying to sound more casual than I actually felt. “Like you said, it never happened so there’s no point in worrying about who said what afterwards.”
“It’s just that your brother would kill me and his friendship means a fucking lot to me,” he said. “Trust me, it’s not that I don’t want to. I really fucking want to.”
He didn’t say specifically what he wanted but frankly, my feelings were a little hurt and I didn’t care to discuss it in great detail anyway. “I know. It’s fine.” I pulled the blanket tighter around me.
“Why are you so beautiful and interesting?” he asked, his tone morose. “It’s not fair.”
I almost laughed. He sounded melancholy and more than a little drunk, but the words were balm on my stinging ego. He seemed to have halved the distance between us. “You’re drunk, aren’t you?”
“Very much so,” he agreed. “Like, a lot drunk if I’m being honest.”
“I hope you have a ride home.”
“I’ll take a car service.”
I studied his profile. He actually had a drink in his hand and when he lifted it to his mouth, he missed and splashed liquid on his chin. Served him right. He swore.
“Your suit jacket is in my room. If you go in the house, through the kitchen, and past Cash’s office, it’s the guest room on the right. I left it on my bed when I fixed my hair.”
“I did not follow a single word of what you just said,” he said. “You lost me after “go in the house.” Will you just show me?”
He had to be kidding. The man who didn’t want to get caught wanted me to escort him to my bedroom for a suit jacket? He had money. He could buy a new suit and write this one off as gone or he could pick it up later.
He looked adorably sexy, pleading, sweet, and drunk. It was a bad combination for my ability to resist him.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I said. “Tomorrow I’ll toss the jacket outside in the tent and it will look like you took it off at the reception and forgot it. You can come back and get it then.”
“I think it’s a better meet-cute if you show me your room.”
Oh, Lord. I was amused, in spite of myself. “You don’t really understand what a meet-cute is, MacKay. What you just said doesn’t even make sense.”
“I know that we met and you’re cute,” he said.
I couldn’t help myself. I laughed. “I think you need to go home and pass out.”
“I think I need to go to your room.”
MacKay was probably way too drunk for a repeat of our earlier adventures. Which was both disappointing and a relief. I wasn’t sure I could resist him and I wasn’t sure I wanted to deal with the fallout of opening myself up to him again.
Maybe I should just let him get his jacket. Or maybe that was just asking to get caught.
“This is a bad idea.” I was caving. I could feel it. I gave him a stern look, hoping he would just drop it.
“That didn’t stop us before,” he said. He took another sip of his drink. He made it to his lips this time but he did sway slightly on his feet. “Come on, Faith. Just let me grab my jacket.”
He didn’t care about his jacket. There was nothing in the pockets except for a used condom. I knew that for a fact because I had looked. This was risky. And pointless.
When I didn’t answer, just pursed my lips, he clearly could tell I was wavering. “It will take three minutes,” he coaxed. “No one will know.”
“You’re not thinking straight. You do know that, right? If you weren’t drinking, you would never want to do this.”
“All I know is that you hit me like a hurricane and I just want one very brief, very small, very little…” He held his fingers up with half an inch between them. “Moment with you alone before I have to never see you again.”
Hit him like a hurricane?
Well, hell.
There it was. My resistance crumpled like a tissue.
Who wouldn’t want to hear they’d hit a man like a hurricane? Especially the first man they’d had a major crush on?
“Fine,” I said. “Three minutes, MacKay. Just to grab the jacket and go.”
He grinned in triumph. He held his hand up like he was in court. “I do.”
“Do what?”
“Solemnly swear.”
What he was swearing to, I had no idea. I doubted he did either.
He looked very pleased with himself. This is destined to be a disaster.
And yet what did I say? Not something smart like, “Bye.”
I didn’t walk away.
I didn’t send him home in a cab.
Instead, with what might be considered the devil tapping me on the shoulder, I said, “Go in the kitchen and wait for me.”
Maybe, if I was lucky, he’d forget what he was doing, lay down in the adjacent family room on a sofa, and fall asleep. That would be the end of me and MacKay Lennox and whatever the heck this day with him had been.
But that is not what happened.
“Wait for you?” Mac reached out and ran his finger across my bottom lip. His smile had been replaced by an intense seductive stare. “I think I’ve been waiting my whole life for you.”
It was a line. A drunken proclamation of a man who wanted to get laid for the second time at this wedding.
But I couldn’t help myself. I felt everything inside me soften. My nipples hardened and I sucked in a lungful of air quickly, feeling like I couldn’t breathe.
“Go inside and wait for me,” I repeated in a soft murmur, mesmerized by his eyes as I stepped away from his touch, tightening the blanket around my shoulders.
And that’s exactly what happened instead of me telling him to go home.
After that?
Nothing but trouble.
Thanks for reading At First Glance… to keep reading MacKay and Faith’s sexy love story, preorder BUT FIRST, WHISKEY now!
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BUT FIRST, WHISKEY is a grumpy boss, brother’s best friend, rom com with a Happily Ever After!
ALSO BY ERIN MCCARTHY
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USA Today and New York Times Bestselling author Erin McCarthy sold her first book in 2002 and has since written over seventy-five novels and novellas in the romance and mystery genres. Erin has a special weakness for high-heeled boots, martinis, and Frank Sinatra. She lives with her renovation-addicted husband (he built her a bar, so it’s all good!) and their blended family of kids and rescue dogs.
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