Lakeshore Secrets: The McAdams Sisters - Kate McAdams (By The Lake Series Book 1)

by Leah, Shannyn

  He captured her giggle with his mouth and forgot about the meeting at the hotel, the resort, the stress and obligation he had gained from his father’s death and felt only the desire that had never been extinguished.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Hours later sitting on the floor with their backs alongside a pillow hill they had created against the table, they were curled together with one blanket wrapped around them as they watched the fire dim.

  Kate snuggled her head against his bare chest trying to ignore the remorse overshadowing her desire to relish in the tenderness between them. When he had asked to kiss her the answer had nothing to do with how they had ended up there but yet this guilt was gnawing away at her and constantly distracting her from this incredible afternoon. Marc had wanted this, she wanted this and if they stayed the night they could have more than just this one afternoon and indulge in the future they planned all those years ago. What if he finds out? What if his uncle isn’t as honest as he claims? What if she had to walk away from this again? From him!

  “I’m going to need to put more firewood in the fireplace,” his words startled her.

  She didn’t want him to go anywhere. What if, all the what ifs, actually happened? She would never get to feel how perfect she fit against him like two adjoining puzzle pieces. She shook her head. “I don’t want you to go.”

  He kissed her forehead. “You will when the fire dies.”

  She tilted her head and caught his mouth with her own. “I’m sure we can figure out other ways to warm each other,” she said against his already warm delicious lips.

  He chuckled, then his mouth travelled alongside her cheek, tracing her jaw line, to her neck and she welcomed him tilting her head back and giving him access to any part of her he sought to run his silky lips across.

  He abandoned her suddenly, just when she thought he was going to trail all the way to her toes and slipped into his briefs before adding more wood to the fire.

  She wrapped the blanket around her and pouted up at him. With the poker he stirred the coals around with the same fortitude he stirred her life up. She was doomed. She had full intentions of not sleeping with him, at least not here, and she had full intentions of being just friends, afraid of more, afraid of his uncle. But her heart seemed to dismiss the reality overtaken by him.

  The phone rang and she jumped. The clock must have read well past mid-afternoon by now, but she wasn’t sure exactly what time it was. It felt like time had stopped as he had caressed and kissed her entire body on the sofa, then the floor and...

  Lost in her own thoughts she’d missed her opportunity to pull him down to her and convince him they didn’t need to answer that phone. He trailed into the kitchen and picked up the phone. They were probably offering to send someone out.

  She heard him say hello, agree, thank, agree again with the caller all the while her gut was tightening like a twisting wrench around a sink pipe. Her breathing wound down like the dimming fire. Her body stilled as she analyzed the one-sided conversation. How important was this meeting? More important than this? His uncle was sure putting a big chance on it that it wasn’t. But surely Marc would assume they could continue this after the meeting. Only she knew better.

  “Kate?”

  She modified her anxious face into a seductive grin as she twisted toward him allowing the blanket to completely drop from her shoulders leaning her naked arms over the pillow hill and propping her face down on her hands, trying her damn hardest to achieve provocative. She arched her eyebrows at him as her reply. It not only hopefulness added to her provocation, but she doubted her voice was going to speak without an uneasy tremble. “They can arrange for someone to pick us up now,” he said. He was holding the phone low with one hand covering the receiver.

  She pouted her lips into an over-exaggerated frown. He was across the entire room and she wanted him to see it.

  His grin rose. “Do you want to leave?”

  Slowly, keeping her eyes locked on his like the jaw of a vicious shark latching onto its prey and slowly shook her head.

  “Should I leave?”

  Was he serious! Get back here and wrestle with me under these blankets! And that had nothing to do with any arrangement. She shook her head again.

  “Should we take advantage of their offer and spend the night?” Then he flashed her a seductive smile and she nearly melted into the blanket like a snowman built beside the roaring fire.

  She nodded and her voice produced a weak “Yes.”

  He put the phone back to his ear and let them know they would be keeping the cabin for the night. Thank goodness!

  She turned, rolling her eyes towards the heavens and thanking cupid for darting them together rather than apart. She stood on her shaky feet and grabbed one of the smaller afghans, wrapping it around her body.

  “Hungry?” he asked.

  Famished was a better word for her rumbling stomach. Was it hunger rumbling in her stomach or nerves? It didn’t matter either way.

  She climbed onto one of the stools. Marc was rummaging through the basket again. She watched. There was a little bag of pancake mix with a mini bottle of syrup or pasta sauce and noodles. A little “keep them over for the night” basket, just as she ordered. Sneaking groceries into the resort would have looked suspicious and been a little difficult to hide.

  Marc decided on pasta. Kate just sat back while he pulled cooking supplies from the cupboards. She remembered him rummaging around her kitchen looking for cooking supplies, showing off amazing skills his mother had taught him.

  He stopped in front of her with two wine glasses. “I’m going to mention this idea to my family,” he said pouring them each a glass.

  “What idea?”

  “The sleigh rides they offer here.”

  “For the resort?”

  He nodded, sliding her glass across the counter towards her.

  “Thanks,” she said before taking a sip.

  He began explaining what the benefits of having sleigh rides at the resort would be if they added them. She listened. He was serious as he spoke about his idea, ever the professional businessman, just as he’d transpired earlier giving her pointers on Peyton’s business adventure. She was getting excited listening to his idea. It sounded fabulous, just like the ride they had taken. When he was all finished she asked, “Do you like working at the resort?”

  “I do.”

  “Are all your siblings working there?”

  He shook his head. “Violet runs the wedding planning. Emma runs daily events like yoga, exercise, game tournaments that sort of thing. Anya used to manage the kitchens and was a top chef but she left after dad died and left me scrambling to replace her. Then there is Izzy.” He shook his head. “She’s not currently employed with us.”

  “Does she work somewhere else?”

  “She doesn’t work.”

  “Oh.”

  “Exactly my thoughts but currently not shared with the rest of the family, including my mother.”

  “Maybe she needs some time after your dad. Abby is going through some things with Gran just passing. I mean she basically tricked us all into coming here for a free vacation and some quality time.”

  “Maybe.”

  “So, what about Melissa?”

  “What about her?”

  Did he really have to make her ask? “What does she do at the resort?” Yeah, that’s what you want to know.

  He sent her a grin over his shoulder. “She’s my secretary.”

  “Your secretary?” Secretary’s generally sleep with their bosses, look at the pretty little blonde in Derek’s office. He was definitely banging her.

  He nodded looking away again to focus on stirring the sauce he was heating.

  “You hired her?”

  “Are you jealous?” She wasn’t jealous. She was curious. There was a huge difference.

  “No. Should I be?”

  “No. She’s been working for my father, right out of University.”

  Hmm, th
at wasn’t the life she had envisioned for Melissa. That wasn’t the life Melissa had led everyone to believe would be hers. Marrying into a wealthy family worth equal or more value than her own and never having to actually work was more her vision. It was an odd trait for a woman so keen on being better than everyone else. That her father, the mayor of Willow Valley, even allowed it, surprised her.

  “Have you slept with her?” The words were out of her mouth before she could double think them.

  She caught his head shift at her bluntness but if he was shocked or surprised he didn’t let it show. “No.”

  That was an awful quick answer. In ways he reminded her of Derek, who always thought before he spoke but charmed you into believing anything. He was always sweet and flirtatious, talking his way into her pants and then straight into the maids.

  “Ever?” she pried.

  “No.”

  “Not even right after I left?”

  He turned then crossing his legs in front of him and leaning against the cupboard with his arms crossed over his bare chest still holding the wooden spoon. She wondered when he had grabbed his slacks from by the fire and how she hadn’t noticed. “Do you understand the definition of the word no?”

  “Depends who’s saying it.” Derek and his lies, lies and more lies.

  He nodded taking her words in. “Is this an ex you’re referring to?”

  A very recent ex.

  “I would never lie to you,” he said as a matter of fact in his serious no-nonsense tone. That struck a chord so deep she could have slipped from the stool and melted into a puddle of lies and deceit of her very own. It was more like a never-ending ravine. In a way she was just like Derek because it seemed every time she opened her mouth to Marc it was a lie or deception to hide other lies and deception. She held a one-sided shield of spikes between them. Karma. Maybe she deserved a man like Derek in her life and Marc deserved someone who was honest with him.

  She needed to move away from this subject before he asked her for the truth. “I am going to slip my robe on.” She couldn’t sneak away faster than a metal slinky slinking down the stairs.

  Her robe had landed over the couch kissed by wine, but she moved past it to Marc’s button up shirt and found it was dry so she slipped into it instead and pulled her underwear on. She figured if she was in his shirt, then she would get to stare at that chest all throughout supper. She had to keep it together. She was tempted to run out that door and out of his life and let him find an honest happiness she couldn’t provide. Being so selfishly close to having her own happiness gave her feet a mind of their own right over to the kitchen where he was dishing the finished food onto plates.

  He glanced over and grinned looking her up and down with approval. “Better than a robe.”

  She moved beside him and glanced at the plates of food. “That smells delicious.”

  “They say you can win a man through his stomach but I believe this is the way to win your heart.”

  She chuckled and nudged his side. “Oh you think so.” He spun around and wrapped one arm around her waist picking her partially up dragging her backwards her toes sliding across the floor until her rump hit the counter behind.

  A low surprised and pleasurable moan escaped her lips as Marc bent down and captured it with his mouth. Her groan was louder. She loved the taste of his mouth. She couldn’t get enough. She trailed her arms around the back of his neck combing her hands through his hair. A mouth she recognized and filled an emptiness inside her that she had tried to ignore all these very long years. He picked her rump up and onto the counter and she encircled his waist with her legs and pulled him against her. His warm hands slipped under her shirt sliding up her back to her neck where he grasped and lightly pulled her head away.

  “Are you hungry?” he asked

  “For you.”

  He groaned and kissed her again deep, hard and full of a lust that was so mutually heated between them they could flame the deadest coal bed together. He pulled her hands from around his neck and pressed her palms against the counter then he was gone.

  It took Kate a few seconds to open her eyes to find a grinning sexy Marcus walking away with their bowls. He passed the kitchen table and headed straight into the living room. How did he do that? Just stop midpoint and move on as though his adrenaline wasn’t pumping from head to toe? “Come on,” he said. “We missed lunch, it’s almost supper and you had a terrible breakfast.” Almost supper? And she had enjoyed her breakfast, even if it was part of the ploy of getting him out of the hotel.

  She rested her back against the cupboard regaining her composure with a few very deeply inhaled, needed breaths of air before she slid down and made her way to him. How did he have such composure after that?

  She glared at him playfully sliding the bowl across the table and purposely sitting on the opposite side of the table.

  “That’s cruel,” he said.

  She picked the bowl up and curled onto the chair pulling her bare legs against her chest and blowing on the bowl of warm food. “You’re one to talk.”

  “I wanted to snuggle.”

  She almost laughed out loud at his term snuggle but managed to keep a somewhat straight face. “After that kiss you initiated I want more than snuggling.”

  He looked like he wanted to laugh too but instead said, “You better stay on that side of the table then.” He twirled his fork in the pasta and brought it to his mouth. Before he bit down on it he said, “When you’re finished eating I will give you much more than snuggling.”

  She did laugh then. “Oh promises promises.”

  “I never break my promises.”

  She let the sharp pain that seared through her conscious slide and ate her pasta pushing the guilt further and further down.

  After she’d finished eating she set her bowl on the table but didn’t move toward him. He stared at her, his bowl of pasta still half full. She stood up and stretched high, his shirt moving above her thighs. “I think I’m a little tired now,” she said. She rubbed her stomach. “All that delicious pasta.” He watched her. “I think I’m going to go lie in that large queen log bed and have an afternoon nap.” He watched her as she began to slowly step away. She unbuttoned the top button. “But now with all that wood in the fire it’s awfully warm.” She unbuttoned the next.

  He stood. She grinned.

  He slowly walked toward her and she continued taking steps back until his shirt was completely unbuttoned just resting on her shoulders and her back was against the closed bedroom door. Tantalizing brown eyes stared down at her and he stopped inches from her body not touching but she could feel him. He bent down to her ear. She thought he was going to whisper something and she closed her eyes anticipating his deep sexy voice. Instead he kissed her neck. Soft at first, trailing her collarbone and his hands up her stomach in the middle of her chest and slid his shirt off her, sliding his hands down his arm and grasping her hands. He lifted them above her and kissed her.

  “Are you ready for more than snuggling?” he finally asked. She had waited over six years for more than snuggling. He definitely kept his promise, followed by a warm shower neither of them needed but it had nothing to do with need. Then they did end up snuggling in the warm thick sheets and quilts on the queen log bed, completely exhausted. Kate closed her eyes feeling like this was going to be the beginning of a love that had ended much too early.

  Chapter Nineteen

  They left early the next morning, reluctantly and not before a morning play date in bed followed by pancakes and a rendezvous in the shower...again. And to his surprise a company truck managed their way to the cabin to pick them up. He probably would have questioned them if Kate hadn’t been all over him like a lusting teenager he couldn’t resist.

  In the elevator they each hit the button to their floors and when the doors closed, and they found themselves alone in the four walled cube, he quickly caught her in his arms for a last kiss. She laughed. Each floor chimed as they passed until, too quickly, the d
oor opened and they were at her floor. She pulled away. “Have a safe ride home!” she called with a last wave and wink.

  Marc slunk back against the wall. What had just happened? He hadn’t felt so whole in years. Lord, how he had missed her smile, laugh, sense of humor, everything that was her...not to mention her lips, her body. He shook his head sauntering out of the elevator. He wasn’t sure where they stood, what they were doing, but it felt so good he didn’t want to question it. She was considering coming home to start a business with her family. That would land them in the same town. Once again. And then would they have the future?

  His uncle caught him in the hallway, showered and dressed in a plain grey suit with a smile across his face. Marc felt underdressed still in the day before outfit. A dry cleaned suit awaited him in his room. “Good morning,” his uncle greeted, his hands casually in pants pockets.

  “Morning,” Marc said, skipping the usual suspicion that was beginning to be a pop up like weeds around his uncle.

  “Looks like you had a good night. The car is being pulled around, pack your things and I will meet you in the lobby.” He patted Marc’s shoulder as he passed, heading to the elevator.

  “Everything went smooth with the deal?” Alright, so he was a little curious. They hadn’t had the lawyers draw up the papers, meet them out here, and drive this whole way for him to dismiss it over one rendezvous with Kate. An amazing rendezvous none the less.

  “Oh,” his uncle turned half way down the hall as if the thought had just come to him. “The deal fell through.” He waved a hand as though it was no big deal.

  “What do you mean it fell through?” Marc started making his way back down the hall toward his uncle. How could it fall through? Everything was in that contract from both parties.

  “Another day another deal, hurry up and pack. We have a long drive home.” He turned to leave again dismissing him, as usual, but Marc caught his arm. His uncle turned, a sharpness in his look from his hand to his eyes.

  “What happened?” Marc demanded. Enough of this beating around the bush.