by Gemma Snow
“I’m teasing,” she said, suddenly not so convinced she was. Neither man appeared all that convinced, either. “Honestly, the guys I was with in college were enough work all on their own, thank you very much. I can’t imagine having to deal with all that testosterone and ego twice over.”
Micah’s face appeared to sculpt before her very eyes, transforming from intensity to amusement.
“Dec and I skipped college,” he said, innuendo thick and heavy in his voice.
Christ on calamari. What the hell was that supposed to mean? Because, whatever it was intended as, Lily’s mind was on a whirling loop of some decidedly un-celibate images that had nothing at all to do with the awkward fumbling of her early partners.
But before the silence between them could stretch any further and before Lily could ask exactly what Micah had intoned in that rich and deep voice, all edged in mystery, and before she could do something really stupid like inch closer to the hot-as-the-bonfire Dec, the back door of the house swung open and Madison came running out.
“Lily!” Her hair was a mess and she had missed a button on her flannel shirt. Even if Lily hadn’t witnessed the ever-so-graphic welcome of her sister on the kitchen counter, the truth would have been unmistakable.
“Mads!”
But Lily didn’t care. Unorthodox relationship or not, if what Dec and Micah had said was right, then Madison’s lovers made her happy and where Madison was concerned, that was the only thing that mattered to Lily. Given the incredible post-coital glow around her sister’s smile, Lily had no doubt that she was doing more than just fine.
“How long have you been here?” Madison—damn it, Maddy—asked, pulling back to look her over. “God, I’m so happy to see you. So you’ve met Micah and Dec?” She indicated the two men sitting around the fire pit.
“Oh, yes.” Lily couldn’t help herself. “They were just explaining to me how it’s a Triple Diamond welcome to witness you guys defacing the furniture.”
Micah tried valiantly to stifle a laugh and Dec didn’t bother, almost spewing his beer across the patio. Maddy blushed bright red and her eyes nearly popped out of her head. Montana had changed her sister, no doubt about that, and yet, Lily hadn’t seen Madison look so relaxed, so at ease, in a long time.
“You saw that?” she asked, clearly knowing the answer.
“Pretty sure NASA has satellite images of that,” Lily responded. “So stop stalling and introduce me already!”
Maddy’s blush didn’t dissipate, but she did turn around and indicate that the two men who had been standing a little awkwardly by the back door should come join them. Lily didn’t blame them. The first Meet the Family sesh had gotten off to a rather graphic start, after all.
“Lils, this is Ryder and Christian,” Maddy said, gesturing to a handsome blond man first then the man with dark hair and tattoos peeking out from under the wrists of his worn leather jacket. They were both large men and Mr. Badass especially would have intimidated her if they both weren’t wearing such hang-dog expressions on their faces.
Lily couldn’t help it. She laughed out loud then walked up to first Christian, then Ryder, giving them both large hugs, which, judging by their slack-jawed expressions, came as a surprise to both men.
“You guys make my Mads happy, so I don’t give a damn what you do on the kitchen counter,” she said. “And so what if it’s a little unusual? Not my place to judge.” She grimaced. “Just promise me we can eat outside while I’m here.”
The two men relaxed a little, then Maddy poked Ryder in the chest. “We have people coming over and you promised me a real cookout, so get moving.” She turned on Christian. “You too.”
“What can I do?” Lily asked, feeling more at ease, at home than she’d felt in a long time. Being around Madison had that effect. Or maybe it was all this fresh, crisp air and open sky. Of course, it couldn’t be anything else.
“Nothing,” Maddy said. “Just watch the fire and try to pretend Dec’s not hitting on you.”
“I heard that, Sweet Cheeks,” Dec called from his spot on the bench. Maddy just rolled her eyes.
“Honestly. But don’t worry, we prepped yesterday so there’s not much left to do. I told a few friends to arrive around fiveish, so we’re right on schedule.”
“Except for these two bums,” Christian said, as he unfolded a table and placed it on the lawn near the patio. “Did you get bored playing fetch?”
“I could teach Rosie to ride your Harley better than you can,” Dec replied, a glint of excitement in his eyes. Oh, yeah, he liked tempting the beast, there was no doubt of that. Micah had the same fire in him, too, but his was all stealth where Dec’s was all flash.
“Children,” Maddy cut in. “The party, please.”
Christian grumbled and shot Dec the middle finger before going off in search of more booze. Maddy hadn’t been exaggerating about how fast she could get the party going, and not twenty minutes later, burgers were sizzling on the grill, hot, spiked cider and cold beers were out on the table beside a dozen sides and people were streaming up the dirt road to the ranch.
Maddy introduced Lily to all of them. Georgie, who couldn’t have been much older than Lily herself, owned a ranch a few miles down the road. She wore her hair in a thick, messy braid that matched her messy smile and Lily liked her in an instant. She also liked Darla, who owned a B&B in town and came armed to the teeth with fresh desserts. Elsa was Maddy’s first call for wedding cakes, Cade was the Chief of Police, Mary Lou and Deana were school teachers, Sawyer, James and Austin were firefighters… The list went on until the entire patio was filled with people, all expressing their excitement at meeting the famous Lily Hollis.
It didn’t take long for the party to hit full swing. Maddy switched on several strings of lanterns over the patio and Micah got the fire really roaring as drinks flowed and conversation came easy. All these people, successful in their careers, happy in their home in Wolf Creek, they all seemed perfectly…fine with Maddy’s arrangement. No one even murmured an ill word under their breath, not when Christian wrapped his arm around Maddy’s waist or Ryder kissed her full-on in front of the fire team. It was kind of amazing. Maddy had found her community here, men who loved her and a town, at least, a large portion of a very small town, who supported her and her family. It was kind of incredible and Lily’s heart filled with warmth and joy for Maddy and the new home she had found on the Triple Diamond Ranch.
“You’re looking awfully introspective for a woman with a party being held in her honor.”
She felt his presence before she turned around, but Lily would have known from a mile away that Micah was standing just behind her, having come out from the house with a new case of beer.
“Something on your mind, Lily?”
She had been trying to ignore him. Hell, she’d been trying to ignore Dec, too, if she were being honest with herself. But even with all the madness of the party and meeting new people and the music and the drinking, she’d been so aware of both of them through the whole night, of the intensity in Micah’s eyes as he stoked the fire, in the seductive humor that Dec clearly used to keep his demons at bay. She’d barely known either of the men an afternoon and, yet, she couldn’t deny the feeling of knowing them.
Which is completely absurd.
“I’m just thinking about how happy I am for Maddy, is all,” Lily replied, finally looking up at Micah’s half-shadowed face. “She really has a life here. I can’t think of anyone who deserves it more.”
Micah had a slow, wide smile and, try though she might, Lily couldn’t ignore the way it made her feel, like the taste of hot cider, like the warmth of the flames licking her skin. This was freaking nuts. She hadn’t so much as looked at another man in years, and now she had a case of the hots for two of them. Note to self—don’t drink the water in Wolf Creek.
“What about your life in San Francisco?” Micah asked and, damn, if that low, knowing voice didn’t suddenly make her want to spill her every secret. “Maddy says yo
u run quite a successful business.”
Lily had to smile, watching Maddy and her friends dancing to the music against the autumn night.
“She’s always been my biggest cheerleader,” Lily said. “My parents are in San Francisco, but we’re a small brood. Ever since Madison left, it’s been different.” Lonely.
“You could always follow her,” Micah said. “This part of the world could use a smile as bright as yours.”
Then he was gone, slipping back into the party’s rhythm without another word. Leaving San Francisco, returning to her research—it was already complicated enough. Surely she didn’t need to go about adding honey-rich voices and burning-hot smiles to the mix. And yet, as she watched first Micah then Dec from across the patio, Lily had the feeling that she might already be too late to stop it.
Chapter Three
God, she was pretty. Dec McCormick’s vocabulary really didn’t run this side of pretty. He’d admit it to himself, if no one else, that he went for the crude, R-rated, T & A version of things. Hot, sexy, stacked. Pretty was for poets and men who didn’t get laid.
Ha. And when was the last time he’d put any serious effort into getting laid? Sure, he kept up the flirtatious, charming thing because it was fun and a pretty easy spiel to fall into, but when it came to getting laid…he just hadn’t cared. He could pinpoint the day he’d stopped caring, too. Eight and a half months ago, almost to the day.
But none of that changed the fact that Lily Hollis, now twirling her sister around the patio in some makeshift dance floor and laughing at something Georgie Jean had said, was pretty. Really pretty. She was slighter than Maddy and a little taller, too, with long, dark-brown hair that she had pulled into a messy ponytail. Her pale skin was dusted with freckles and her green eyes sparkled when she laughed. Hell, even her laugh was pretty and that was something Dec had never thought he would hear himself think in his entire life—and he’d nearly gotten engaged.
The thought was so sudden and wrenching that Dec almost spit his beer all over Cade Easton, who was sitting next to him glowering at Sawyer Matthews across the patio. Whatever. Dec had enough of his own drama and he definitely didn’t need to delve into whatever bad blood had been between Sawyer and Cade since the summer after they’d all graduated Wolf Creek High School together.
He pushed away all thoughts of his not-marriage and his not-getting-laid and the half-growling police chief sitting behind him and focused again on Lily Hollis. She was sipping a fruity drink, sangria maybe, and her eyes widened at something one of the other women said, her mouth pursing around the straw in it. A guttural sound lodged in his throat at the mere suggestion of what else that mouth might be capable of.
Nothing, asshole. Right, because pursuing Lily Hollis was pretty much right at the top of the Dumbest Ideas Ever list. Not only was she Maddy Hollis’ sister and all around best friend, something Maddy made no secret of, but she was also temporary. She was visiting, nothing else. She wasn’t going to stay.
Just your type then, Dec…
Either way, getting involved with Lily could only lead to disaster. He wasn’t an idiot. He’d seen the spark of desire in her eyes, though Dec hadn’t quite figured out if it had been directed at him or Micah. Hmmm, nothing a little persuasion couldn’t fix. If he wanted it to. Which, he was surprised to find, he actually did.
Dec glanced at the dwindling party, at Georgie and Darla and Elsa and the others. They were smart, beautiful women who were more than capable of holding their own. Hell, Georgie had a ranch and Darla and Elsa ran their own businesses. Wolf Creek had some badass women, that was for damn sure. And, yet, not a one of them stirred the same reaction in him as that very first sight of Lily Hollis had, a reaction growing stronger with every minute he watched her.
Folks started leaving and even the goodbye hugs and pecks on the cheek didn’t make him feel a damn thing. Right, ’cause he hadn’t felt a damn thing in eight motherfucking months and the fact that he was feeling it now was not uncomplicated.
He grabbed another beer from the cooler at his feet and saluted the fire station team goodbye before taking a long drink. The stuff was good. A new brewery had opened on the outskirts of town, run by two brothers, if he remembered correctly, and they knew their beer. He wasn’t opposed to getting to know their beer very intimately tonight, either.
It was just… Jesus, it was just that he, the veritable flirt, charmer, bad boy, hadn’t actually wanted a woman since Aubrey and though he was happy to find that his dick hadn’t just shriveled up and died, this was…complicated. Plus, if he so much as pursued Lily Hollis, he’d have Madison’s two very large, very protective bodyguards to deal with. And he’d take them over a set-down from Maddy herself any day.
“Where is that famous McCormick smile?” Speak of the devil and she shall appear by your side with a tipsy smile and danger in her eyes.
Dec raised an eyebrow. “Sweet cheeks, you know if I so much as look at you, those retrievers gonna come a runnin’.” And, sure as shit, he could see Christian and Ryder on their way over to the fire pit where he and Maddy sat. A quick glance around told Dec that most of the party had gone home and it was just the handful of them left. Great, just what he needed, a chance to get more intimately acquainted with the way sangria looked on Lily’s lips.
“I’m going to tell them you said that,” Maddy said, but her eyes held humor and amusement. “But, really, why the sulk? There were plenty of beautiful women for you to dazzle tonight.”
Dec’s smile felt forced. Because I don’t want any of them. I don’t want anyone.
Maddy’s smile faded and she placed a hand atop his, dropping her voice to speak again.
“You know,” she began, the amusement all gone from her expression and tone, “I had a bad time of it with my ex. I don’t know what the guys have told you, but I found him in bed with another woman, less than a week after we got engaged. So, if you ever want someone to commiserate with, you know where to find me.”
This time his smile, though wan, felt a hell of a lot realer. “That sucks,” he said, shaking his head. “But thanks, Mads, I appreciate it.” Of course, that didn’t mean he was going to take her up on it, but the point remained. Before Dec could say anything else, though, a weight on the bench beside him caught his attention and he turned to see Lily smiling over at him. Shit on a stick, it had been hard enough just watching her from across the yard.
“Hell of a party, guys,” she said, taking an unsteady sip of sangria from a still-full cup. Or, rather, refilled cup. “I appreciate the welcome.”
Micah settled on her other side, snorting out a laugh as he did and something that sounded suspiciously like the second welcome…
“I’m just happy you’re here,” Maddy said, cuddled between Christian and Ryder on the other side of the fire pit. It should have been weird—hell, it had been, back in the beginning. But now Dec couldn’t picture her without both of them, not for a second. They really were a package deal. “So when do you start your fieldwork? Do we get to laze around for a few days before you have to play brilliant scientist?”
Dec cocked his head to the side. “Fieldwork?” he asked.
Lily opened her mouth, but Maddy beat her to the punch. “Lils is finishing her master’s in horticultural biology,” she said. “She’ll be out here for a while doing field research.”
Dec’s eyes widened. “You’re getting your master’s?” he asked, unable to keep the surprise from his voice. Jesus, she was pretty and smart as hell.
“I almost finished it five years ago,” Lily admitted and it wasn’t his imagination that her voice had gotten low, as if it were some sort of confession. “I just needed to complete one more independent data set for the degree. Anyway, this place is great for fieldwork.” She dug her phone out of her pocket, exposing a sliver of pale skin below her shirt, and Dec had to work to resist the urge to growl. Maybe he was regressing—how much time in a cabin in the mountains did it take to turn a man into a bear?
“Th
is is the Tanacetum vulgare,” she said, holding up a photo of yellow flowers with bunched, disc-shaped heads. “My research team is investigating the properties of the soil it grows in because sometimes the flower is toxic when ingested and sometimes it’s not. I thought I’d take a look around on horseback in the morning and see what I could find.”
“Wait a sec—let me see that again.” Dec held his hand out to her and she placed the phone in his palm, biting her lower lip with a confused expression. “Micah, take a look at this. We totally have this shit growing in the yard, don’t we? Near the kennel and out by the ropes course?”
Micah took the phone and looked it over, nodding after a moment. “Yeah, that’s definitely it.”
“You’re kidding!” Lily clapped her hands together, excitement taking over her pretty face and making her look five years younger, though she was plenty young already, especially for someone who was going back to her master’s. “This is perfect! If you guys don’t mind, I could come up sometime tomorrow and take a look?”
“You could stay the night.”
The words were out of his stupid mouth before Dec had the chance to clamp his teeth shut. What the ever-loving fuck was he doing? Inviting Lily into their cabin, even though they more than had the space to spare, was tantamount to opening a church door and letting the devil through. Jesus Christ, he’d better go ahead and take a bite out of every apple in the orchard because there was no way this could be anything other than temptation.
“Oh, I wouldn’t want to impose on you guys like that,” she said, but there was just enough hesitation in her refusal for him to push.
“Not an imposition at all,” he said, “we’ve got the spare room and you can get an early start, if you’d like.”
She looked him square in the eye, a secret feminine power behind her large, green gaze. Then she ping-ponged back to Micah, who shrugged and offered her that half-smile Dec knew so many women fell so hard for.
