by Elle James
“Some of these boneheads have worked with us in the past.” Merlin pointed to them, one by one. “Rucker’s in charge of this motley crew including Dash, Bull, Dawg, Blade, Mac and Tank. They owe us a round of beer since we kicked their asses on the obstacle course last week.”
“Yeah,” Rucker said. “It won’t happen again.”
“Keep dreaming,” Merlin said. “And say hello to Ivy.”
As one, the men he’d named raised a hand and said, “Hello, Ivy.”
Ivy nodded. “Nice to meet you all. I’ll apologize upfront. I won’t remember all of your names.”
“Don’t worry. After a few beers, they won’t remember their own names,” Merlin said.
Gwen waved a hand toward a blond-haired man walking toward the group. “Ivy, meet Beau Talbot. He’s another member of Merlin’s team.”
“That’s Beau ‘Jangles’ Talbot,” Woof said. “And, yes, the man can dance.”
Jangles held out his hand. “Nice to meet you, Ivy. If things don’t work out on your blind date with this guy,” he nudged the man she’d kissed at the bookstore, “I’ll gladly fill in.”
The big man glared at him with a killer look.
A shiver of excitement rippled through Ivy as she finally turned to the man Gwen had set her up with.
“Ivy, this is Magnus McCormick,” Gwen said. “The guys all call him Duff. From what I understand, it’s Scottish for black.”
“On account of he’s always in a dark mood,” Jangles said.
Zip tipped his head. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Duff smile.”
“Maybe Ivy will coax one out of him,” Destiny said.
Magnus.
Ivy’s cheeks heated as she held out her hand. “Nice to meet you…Magnus.” She prayed he hadn’t remembered her and her impetuous kiss.
“Well, then, let your blind date begin.” Merlin clapped his hand on Duff’s back.
Everyone stood staring at Ivy and Duff as if they were waiting for them to do something.
Ivy’s cheeks burned.
The band started playing, with a sweet, slow song.
Duff touched her arm. “Wanna?” He tipped his head toward the dance floor.
Ready to escape the scrutiny of the others, she nodded. “Yes, please.”
He held out his hand.
She placed hers in his and an electric current rippled up her arm and spread throughout her chest and low into her belly.
She let him lead her out onto the floor and fold her into his arms.
For the first full minute of the music, Ivy remained stiff and unbending as he led her in a two-step around the dance floor.
After the fourth lap, she finally loosened up and relaxed. “Did you find that introduction as awkward as I did?”
He nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
Her lip quirked on one side. “You don’t have to call me ma’am,” she said. “My name is Ivy.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said and kept moving in a circle around the floor, in a surprisingly fluid motion for a man his size and breadth.
She liked the way she felt in his arms. On the dance floor and back in Gwen’s bookstore when he’d caught and held her after her fall.
So far, he hadn’t mentioned their previous meeting. Ivy was safe from the embarrassment of being reminded of her actions.
The song ended and a lively line dance began.
“Drink?” he said in his gruff way.
She nodded. “A light beer would be nice.”
He started to lead her back to the group at the table. Every one of the men was watching them, as well as Gwen and Destiny.
Ivy stopped on the edge of the dance floor. “If you don’t mind, I’d rather go to the bar with you.”
He snorted. “We’re the goddamn show.” He placed his hand on the small of her back and steered her toward the bar.
“Hey, Duff.” A pretty bartender smiled at them.
“Hey, Hope,” Duff acknowledged.
“What can I get you and your lady friend?” she asked.
Duff turned to Ivy, his eyebrow cocked.
Ivy smiled at the bartender. “Light beer.”
The bartender pulled the handle of one of the beer taps, filling a clear glass mug with frothy gold liquid. She set the mug in front of Duff and glanced at Ivy. “Bottle or tap?”
“Tap is fine.” Ivy turned to Duff. “You come here often?”
“Every chance they get,” the bartender said. She winked at Ivy. “I’m Hope. I manage the bar.”
Ivy reached across the bar and shook Hope’s hand. “I’m Ivy.”
Hope filled a mug and set it in front of Ivy. “You’re new here. Are you Duff’s girl?”
Ivy shook her head. “We just met,” she said, her cheeks hot. “Blind date.”
“Duff and his friends are regulars at the Ugly Mug.” She smiled at Duff. “That’s the first time I’ve seen you out on the dance floor, man. She must be special.”
He grunted and raised his mug toward his friends at the table. They each raised their drinks at him, obviously still watching them. “Fucking circus sideshow.”
“They mean well,” Hope said and turned to help another customer.
Ivy chuckled. “I take it this blind date wasn’t your idea either?”
Duff shook his head. “Merlin and Gwen, sticking their heads into other people’s business.”
“You didn’t have to agree to the date,” Ivy said, maybe a little miffed he didn’t sound pleased about being set up with her but mostly because he hadn’t remembered their kiss. At the same time, he might think she’d orchestrated the date, having found out who he was from Gwen. How pathetic would that make her look?
“No, I didn’t have to agree,” he said.
“And you don’t have to stay here with me if you don’t want to,” she added, staring into her beer mug.
Silence stretched between them.
Ivy glanced up to find him staring at her.
“What if I want to?” he asked in his deep, resonant voice.
She raised her mug. “I’m game if you are.”
He touched his mug to hers. “Game.”
She shook her head. “You really don’t talk much, do you?”
“Some people talk too much,” he said. “I’m not one of them.”
“Glad to hear that,” she said and sipped her beer. “Mind if I talk a little?”
He lifted his chin. “Knock yourself out.” And he drank a long swallow of his beer.
“How long have you been in the Army?” she asked.
“Twelve years,” he said and drank another gulp.
She tilted her head. “I don’t detect a Southern accent. Where are you from?”
“Military brat. Spent most of my childhood on various military bases, Stateside and overseas.”
Ivy nodded. “That would explain the lack of a typical Texas drawl.”
She drew in a deep breath and asked what she’d been dying to ask since she’d discovered her blind date was a man she’d kissed on a whim. “Did you know who they were setting you up with before you came on this date?” she asked.
His hand stopped with his mug halfway to his mouth. A slow smile started at the corners of his lips. “If you mean, did I know it was the stranger I’d kissed in Gwen’s bookstore…no.”
Ivy gasped, her cheeks flooding with a rush of heat. “You remembered.”
He nodded. “Hard to forget.”
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have kissed… It was presumptuous of me… Oh hell. I didn’t think I’d…” Her voice faded off. Ivy wished a hole would open in the floor and suck her through.
“You didn’t think you’d ever see me again?” He chuckled.
Ivy took a deep drink of her beer, hoping the big mug hid the blush sure to be making her face a bright red. “No. I didn’t expect to see you again.”
“Neither did I,” he said.
“Yet, here we are, awkward and under a microscope with our friends observing.”
<
br /> They turned together to see the table of men and women still staring at them.
“Can’t even kiss again, to know whether or not it was a mistake the first time.”
Ivy turned back toward him, heat rising up her neck and spreading through her body.
His gaze bore into hers, making goosebumps rise on her arms.
“Who said we were going to kiss again?” she asked, her normally clear, concise tone nothing more than a breathy whisper.
He lifted one shoulder. “It was the first thought on my mind when I saw you tonight.”
That electric current she’d felt when he’d held her hand rippled through her again, with no contact whatsoever. Just a look from those dark, sexy eyes.
When she didn’t comment, he raised his beer and drank.
Her mouth suddenly dry, Ivy drank from her mug, not tasting the icy cold beer as it ran down her throat. The alcohol numbed her nerves ever so slightly.
When the band played another slow song, Ivy met his gaze. “Wanna?” She tipped her head toward the dance floor.
A slow smile lifted the corners of his lips. He set his mug on the counter and held out his hand.
Ivy laid her hand in his and let him pull her off the barstool onto her feet.
Whatever this was igniting between them, she prayed it was two-sided. Because she sure was feeling it and wasn’t ready for it to end.
Chapter 3
The evening was looking up for Duff with Ivy in his arms. He two-stepped around the dance floor, remembering why he enjoyed dancing so long ago.
A stab of guilt hit him in the gut. The last time he’d held a woman in his arms and danced the two-step had been with Katie, his wife. At their wedding reception.
Eight years had passed. He was a different person from the happy newlywed he’d been then. He hadn’t been in the Army long, just through Ranger school and fresh from marrying his high school sweetheart.
A lot had changed since then. His marriage had lasted a total of one week. Katie had drowned in a boating accident on their honeymoon. Rather than succumb to his sorrow, Duff had pushed himself to his limits, joined Delta Force and deployed as many times as they would send him. When he wasn’t deployed, he climbed mountains, sky-dived and rode his dirt bikes. Hard.
He didn’t slow down. Slowing down gave him too much time to think. To second guess life choices. To miss Katie and to regret that they hadn’t had the life they’d dreamed of or the half a dozen kids they’d wanted.
Holding Ivy in his arms made him slow down. He had time to think. The guilt he felt wasn’t because it was Ivy and not Katie he was holding but that he liked holding Ivy. All the years since Katie’s death, he’d only slept with women to satisfy his physical needs. He hadn’t kissed them.
Until Ivy.
She’d been standing precariously on a step ladder, placing old books on a top shelf when he’d passed her.
The step ladder had tilted, she’d squealed and fallen.
He could do nothing other than hold out his arms and catch her.
The auburn-haired beauty had landed perfectly in his arms, hers wrapping around his neck. For a long moment, she’d stared up at him, her green eyes rounded. “Oh,” she’d said, her lips forming a sexy circle.
For a long moment, she’d stared at him and he’d stared back. Then she’d tightened her arms around his neck and kissed him.
It had felt so right, he’d kissed her back.
When she opened to him, he pushed his tongue past her teeth and caressed hers in a long, sensuous glide that left him wanting so much more.
The shuffle of feet and the sound of the bell ringing over the door brought them both back to their surroundings.
“Thank you for catching me,” she’d said.
He’d lowered her legs to the ground, her body sliding across his until she stood.
Her hands had rested on his chest for a brief moment. Then her cheeks reddened, and she stepped away. “Again, thank you.” She leaned up, brushed her lips across his again, spun and hurried away to help a customer with her question.
He’d been so stunned by the encounter, he hadn’t thought to ask for her name. When he’d finally come to his senses and looked for her, she’d disappeared.
Gwen had been so busy with a rush of customers, he hadn’t wanted to bother her. Besides, she might read more into his interest than he was willing to acknowledge at the moment.
But that kiss had been the first memorable one since his last kiss with Katie. It had awakened in him feelings and desires he’d thought long dead. More than just the physical desire to have sex.
He felt as if his body and soul had come alive after a long, painful death.
And he wasn’t sure he was ready for that.
“What?” Ivy looked up at him, her eyebrow rising. “Did I step on your toes?”
He frowned. “No.” But he couldn’t continue dancing. “It’s hot in here.”
She nodded. “Want to sit this one out?”
He hooked her elbow and started toward the table with his team.
“Wouldn’t you rather go back to the bar?” Ivy asked, resisting the pressure on her arm.
“No.” Duff had the undeniable urge to get off the dance floor, out of the bar and onto his motorcycle. He wanted to drive as fast and far away as he could get. “I’m sorry. I’m not good at this. Don’t take it personally.” He marched her over to the table, pulled out a chair and handed her into it.
“Was that a smile I saw on Duff’s face over at the bar?” Zip asked with a grin.
Duff’s jaw hardened.
“Didn’t know the old guy could dance,” Woof said. “I guess still waters run deep with our man Duff.”
“Pull up a chair,” Merlin half-stood.
“No, thank you. I have to go.” Duff turned to Ivy. “Sorry.” Before anyone could say anything else, he turned and left the table, the bar and hurried out to his motorcycle.
Once outside, the fresh air and the breeze helped to calm him. He sat for a long time on his bike, going over everything about meeting Ivy.
When he’d kissed her in the bookstore, he’d been safe—or so he thought—in assuming he’d never see her again. The kiss had been a shock, but he didn’t think he’d have to deal with his emotions since he was sure, in a state as big as Texas, he wouldn’t run into her.
Then to see her tonight in the Ugly Mug…it changed everything. She wasn’t just a passing thought, a mirage or a ghost. Ivy Fremont was real, beautiful and a threat to the wall he’d built around his heart and soul. With that first kiss, she’d forged a crack in it—a crack he couldn’t reseal. He couldn’t let her into his world. He wasn’t good for her. Hell, he hadn’t been good for Katie. She’d drowned, and he hadn’t been able to do a damned thing to save her.
Then why was he sitting there? Why didn’t he just fire up his engine and drive out of the parking lot and put miles of road between him and Ivy?
For the same reason he’d sprinted out of the Ugly Mug. She’d awakened in him something he could no longer ignore.
He stared at the entrance to the Ugly Mug, debating going back inside and starting over with the woman.
Hell, she’d probably tell him to fuck off. He’d dumped her.
No, she was better off without him.
Still, he couldn’t bring himself to start his engine. He sat staring at the bar, willing Ivy to come out. Then maybe he would talk to her and explain why he’d run out of the building like a scalded cat.
Knowing he was a fool, he waited. And waited.
After Duff practically ran out of the bar. Ivy sat with the team, her gaze on the exit, her head spinning with questions.
“What the hell happened to Duff?” Gwen voiced the one question foremost in Ivy’s mind.
She couldn’t answer. “Excuse me. I need to go to the ladies’ room.” Ivy pushed to her feet before she realized she had no idea where she could find the bathrooms.
Gwen stood with her and hooked her arm. “I’ll sh
ow you where it is.”
After they were out of earshot of the rest of Duff’s Delta team, Ivy shook her head. “I don’t know what happened. One minute, we were dancing and having a good time. The next, he stopped in the middle of the floor and shut down. That’s the best I can explain what he did. He just shut down.”
Gwen frowned. “That jerk. I’m so sorry. I had no idea he’d act that way. With most of the rest of his team all finding their significant others, Luke and I thought it would be good to set up Duff. From what Luke says, Duff’s always been a loner when it comes to women. They all thought it was time he met his match, so to speak.” Gwen squeezed her arm. “I’m sorry I dragged you into my first attempt at matchmaking. What a disaster.”
“I’m fine,” Ivy lied. “It’s not like we knew each other. It didn’t work out. At least he didn’t lead me on for any longer than necessary to determine we weren’t meant to be.” She would have liked to know what triggered him to decide to leave her, his friends and the bar so suddenly. “Maybe he had a bad relationship at some point in his life that makes him gun shy. You know, once bitten...”
“You’re being too kind.” Gwen’s frown deepened. “He could have at least waited to dump you until the party was over instead of humiliating you in front of his friends.”
Ivy shook her head. “Really...I’m fine. It’s just that the beer I drank is going right through me. But I think I will head home. I’m tired after working at the shop all day.”
“I’m really sorry.” Gwen fished her keys out of her purse and handed them to Ivy. “I understand if you’d prefer not to come back to the table. Just wait long enough for me to get Luke to walk you out to my car. I’d hate to add insult to injury and have someone accost you in the parking lot after I invited you to the Ugly Mug.”
“I’ll get the bouncer to escort me out,” Ivy said. “Don’t bother Luke with me. You two have fun. I’ll play it safe.”
“Are you sure?” Gwen’s brow twisted. “I wish you would stay. But I completely understand your desire to leave.”
“I’m going home to put my feet up.” Ivy forced a smile for her friend. “To me, that sounds like heaven.”
