Chapter Nine
You sure you want to do this?” Zack halted outside the door to the Bungalow and eyed his brother.
He and Nick had spent the day together working on the cabins, and though the hours had passed with them getting along well enough, Zack found it difficult to imagine the man honestly wanted to continue their time together into the evening.
Or that he wanted to do it so publicly. He had to know what everyone thought of Zack.
“Got to show off my big brother,” Nick replied. The words sounded sincere.
Zack eyed Nick. “This could be your downfall. You might be ostracized.”
“You don’t give them enough credit.” Nick pulled the door open and country music pounded out. The bar was packed. “They protect their own, yeah, but I’m one of their own now. They’ll see that I’m good with you, and will cut you some slack.”
“What about Cody?” Zack stepped inside the building. His nerves pulled tight at the base of his spine, keeping him from taking more than a couple steps forward. “He might take issue with you spending the evening with me.”
Cody had declined to come out with them tonight. Which hadn’t surprised Zack.
“Cody will be fine,” Nick assured him. “He doesn’t trust easily. Years of rejection will do that to a person.”
Sounded like Zack and Cody had some things in common.
Nick perked up at the sight of a blonde in the corner, and waved. “That’s my fiancée, Joanie,” he explained. He nudged Zack to move, and the two of them headed across the room. As they did, conversation came to a halt. The music continued blasting from the speakers, but no one danced.
Every single pair of eyes was focused on them.
“It’s all good,” Nick said, while giving a smile of greeting to the people they passed. “Stop looking as if you’re ready to snap someone’s head off and it’ll help.”
Zack forced a more pleasant expression to his face and thought about Holly. She would have called him out on his scowl too. She probably would have laughed in his face and told him he wasn’t nearly as scary as he thought.
He wondered where she was tonight. After working with Nick all day, he’d been dropped at the house, but she’d been nowhere to be found. Zack had considered staying in for the evening and working, yet that had held little appeal. Truth be told, he’d wanted to come out with Nick. Hell, he’d wanted to come out with Holly.
She was probably out on a hot date, though.
So instead of hanging at the house as if he had no life, he’d showered and changed into the least dressy clothes he’d brought with him. He was still overdressed.
“Zack.” Joanie Bigbee smiled warmly up at him as they reached the table. Nick had talked about her a lot during the day. She owned the local cupcake store, and apparently had go-go boots and short skirts that brought his brother to his knees. The man was a goner.
She also had blue-tipped hair, and her eyes said that she was not only intelligent, but that she knew how to hold her ground. If he wasn’t mistaken, they also said that she’d rip him apart if he hurt her fiancé again. He liked her on the spot.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” he said. He expected her to offer a handshake. Instead she stood and reached across the table, wrapping both arms around his neck in a warm embrace. This made conversation around them start again. The noise level quickly returned to normal.
“Sit,” she urged when she pulled away.
Before doing as she asked, he made a quick sweep of the room. Most people were still watching, but no one seemed ready to do anything about him being there. From what he knew about small towns, he’d expected someone to offer to kick his ass just for walking in the door.
“Take a seat, man.” Nick pushed him to the empty bench before sliding in next to Joanie.
The number of firsts Zack had experienced in the last two days kept piling up. Why not add spending an evening at a honky-tonk to the mix? He often went out on Friday nights anyway. Usually with some babe who was more interested in his money than his wit. But this was fine.
Actually, his first impression of the relaxed atmosphere was favorable. There were pool tables in the back, a dance floor in the middle of everything, and tables scattered all around. Most seats were full, and the dance floor was filled to capacity. Everyone looked to be thoroughly enjoying themselves. It didn’t seem to be a bad place to hang out.
“So tell me about working with Nick.” Joanie stretched a hand across the table and rested it on his. The motion made him feel included. “I hear he can be a real slave driver,” she said.
Before Zack could answer, a woman slid onto the bench seat beside him.
“Hey darlin’,” she drawled. Her perfume was strong but not off-putting, and her cleavage was expansive. And it was right up in his face. She gave him a wide, inviting smile.
“Gina,” Joanie groaned at the newcomer. Nick simply chuckled under his breath. “Could you not give us five minutes before you pounced?” Joanie asked.
“In five minutes, honey, any number of women could snap him up,” Gina replied. She gave Zack a lidded look and pouted her lips suggestively. “I sure do love you Dalton boys.”
He stuck out his hand. “Winston, actually. Zack.”
She took his hand in hers and petted the back of it. “Dalton, Winston. Either works for me. As long as they come as good-looking as you. I’m Gina Gregory. I’m single, looking, and I know how to give a man a good time.”
He didn’t quite know how to take her.
Actually, he did. He could probably take her in the bar’s restroom in about two minutes flat.
“Nice to meet you, Gina.” He preferred a woman in his bed.
Also, he didn’t think he preferred her. He glanced over Gina’s shoulder toward the door, wishing Holly were there.
No Holly, but he did see a couple of the guys who’d been coming on to her the night before. At least she wasn’t out with them. Shoe man wasn’t in the group, though.
The thought of her spending the evening with him put a sour taste in Zack’s mouth. That guy had been weird.
“Gina was one of the first to welcome me to town,” Nick explained, pulling Zack’s attention back to the table. A waitress stopped by and they each ordered a beer, then Nick picked his story back up. “We had one lovely evening together, her and me.”
Gina snorted in disgust. “You used me.”
“I—”
“Used her,” Joanie finished for her fiancé. She looked at Zack. “Nick wanted me, and I didn’t want to be caught. So he took Gina out to make me jealous.”
“It worked,” Nick muttered.
“Except someone at this table got used,” Gina fired back. The words were said in a joking manner, but Zack sensed residual hurt riding below the surface. “I was looking good that night too. And I didn’t even get kissed. I just got to him too late, is all,” she explained to Zack. “He’d already seen Joanie. Like your other brother, apparently you boys take one look and you fall head over heels.”
Gina propped an elbow on the table and shifted on the seat to face him, putting her breasts even more on display. “I’m making sure you see me first.”
Zack’s eyes widened at her words and he moved his gaze from her chest up to her eyes. “I’m just here for one more week,” he explained.
“Yeah. That’s another thing you all say. You boys show up, thinking you’re going to leave again. But you don’t.” She shrugged as if she had him figured out. “So I’m claiming you as mine.”
Across the table, Nick coughed a laugh behind his hand. More like a guffaw. What in the hell was Zack supposed to do about this? He’d been out of his element ever since he’d driven across the county line four days ago.
“I . . . uh . . .” At his faltering, he reminded himself that he was a respected lawyer and that he knew how to speak to a person. “I think you’ll find things different this time around,” he managed to get out. “I am leaving. I have a job in Atlanta.”
One he was ready to get back to. One more brother to go, and he could go home.
“We’ll see.” She eyed him from beneath fake lashes and carefully applied eyeliner. She was a good-looking woman, and any other night he might take her up on her offer.
The offer of sex only. Which was blatant.
Even if she did imply that she wanted more.
The beers arrived and he grasped for one as if he hadn’t had a drop of liquid in a week.
Gina scooted closer, going for full-body contact. Everything about her was soft. Which wasn’t so bad.
But instead of being turned on, he thought about being wrapped around Holly on the back of the four-wheeler that morning. She’d been soft too. And she’d fit perfectly between his legs.
She’d also smelled like sunshine.
“How about a dance, big guy?” Gina purred up at him. “You look like you could twirl a girl around the floor.”
He shot a desperate look across the table to find Joanie suddenly interested in something in her purse, while Nick was completely focused on his phone.
Those two were no help at all.
“Come on.” Gina grabbed his arm and pulled. “Let’s leave these two to themselves.”
Unsure what else he could do, Zack went. It wasn’t like he had any better offers.
The minute they stepped onto the floor, the music turned slow and Gina looked up at him with a sexy pout. He chuckled lightly. At least she wasn’t playing games. She made her intentions clear. He pulled her into his arms and wondered if someone like her wasn’t what he needed for the night.
“How are you enjoying our little town?” Gina asked as she snuggled closer and wrapped her arms around his neck. They began to move.
Normally when he danced it was at an elaborate charity event or a gala that either his date or his firm had talked him into. Sometimes an upscale bar. Everything at those places was proper and classy.
But there was nothing proper or classy about what was going on around them tonight.
There wasn’t a couple on the floor who wasn’t grinding against each other—or looking like they wanted to be.
He brought his attention back to Gina, and damned if he didn’t catch himself doing a bit of grinding of his own. She had the kind of body that made it hard not to. “To tell you the truth . . .” he said, trying to refocus his attention. He didn’t want to give her the impression this was going anywhere. And really, he wasn’t the grinding-in-public type. “I get the feeling I’m high on the list of discussion points the last few days.”
“You got that one right, darlin’.” She laughed and her chest bounced up and down against his. The move made him more uncomfortable than turned on. “They’re also talking about your car. That’s one hot ride.”
Again, he thought about Holly. She liked his car too. He’d like to see her hair loose and blowing around her face the way it would if he took her out on the open road.
“I bought it for myself earlier this year,” he said.
“Were you celebrating something?”
He had been, but he didn’t want to share that with Gina. “Just always wanted one,” he said. Which wasn’t a lie.
“Well, it sure is enough to turn a girl on.”
She moved closer as she spoke, and his leg ended up between hers. The move was unintentional—by him—and made him begin to sweat. He caught sight of Nick and Joanie watching him from their table. When he shot his brother a look of help, Nick merely lifted his beer in salute.
And then Zack shifted his gaze to the door.
He couldn’t say what had made him look. He hadn’t seen it open, and most certainly hadn’t been able to hear it open. It was just . . . as if he’d known.
Holly stood there, the door swinging silently closed behind her.
She had not taken his suggestion of wearing less makeup to heart. In fact, he would say that tonight she was enacting her revenge on his words. And hell if she wasn’t winning.
What she’d done was manage to turn the head of every man in the room.
Her eyes were painted with black and gray. They were dark and sexy, and they said she knew how to do bad, bad things to a man. Her skin had taken on a dewy, soft look, as well. And her lips curled in a heavy glistening pout.
Ringlets of curls cascaded down her back, making him think of Goldilocks. Only she didn’t look so sweet. One side was pulled behind her ear and pinned in place, and he had the craziest urge to go over there and mess it up.
He wanted to jam his hands in her curls and pull her mouth to his.
With pleasure, he trailed his gaze down the rest of her.
She wore a silver halter dress that wrapped tight around her torso. It cinched at her waist before circling up around her neck. The skirt flared out to end just above the knee. The whole thing gave her a Marilyn Monroe feel.
And she shimmered each time she moved.
Zack swallowed.
Her figure was just as impressive an hourglass as Gina’s, but not nearly as much skin was showing. At least not in the front—though with that halter top, one small move and it could be.
He lowered his eyes over her legs until he reached her feet. Hot-pink boots that had stilts for heels and laced up the front. The boots reached halfway up her calves and had a row of tiny matching bows running up the backs. The shoes glittered as much as the dress did.
She looked like a pinup girl, just waiting her turn to step in front of the camera and slip out of her clothes.
He lost his footing and trampled on Gina’s toes.
He grimaced. “Sorry about that.”
“That’s okay, hon,” Gina soothed. She’d laid her cheek against his chest as they’d moved, and she lifted her head now, going for her own pinup look. But he only caught it out of the corner of his eye.
Because he was looking at Holly again.
Two men had already approached her to dance, and she hadn’t gotten five feet into the building. She wowed them with a sultry smile, and said something that sent them on their way. Then she was looking at him.
He gave her a pointed look up and down and a tilt of his head. Touché, he silently said. The girl had had a point to make, and she’d done a damned good job of doing it. She was smoking hot, makeup and shoes and all.
Looked like he’d be eating some jacked-up pancakes soon.
Which he was suddenly looking forward to.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Gina said in front of him. She’d stopped dancing and was staring up at him.
“What?” He glanced down at her before going back to Holly.
Gina grabbed his jaw and pulled his face around to hers. “Holly? Really?”
“What do you mean?”
“I swear, you Dalton—Winston—boys. You saw her first, didn’t you?”
He was thoroughly confused. “First what?”
He glanced at Holly again. She was eyeing Gina.
“I heard about how you came to town. You ran over her granny’s gravestone and she gave you a ride to her house. I thought the rumors about her leaving the movie with you last night weren’t true. Thought you’d just given her a ride home. But there was more to it, wasn’t there? You’re just like your brothers. You saw her first and you fell like a dying man.”
“I didn’t fall.” What was she talking about?
And then he got it.
“You mean for her?” he asked. “No.” He shook his head. “I haven’t fallen for her.” He didn’t fall for people. Not anymore. “Holly’s just my friend.”
Though at the moment, he wouldn’t mind if she was more. He wanted to see how that dress unfastened.
“I don’t know how I’ve managed to miss each of you,” Gina muttered in disgust, disentangling her limbs from his. “I’m always one step behind.”
With her words, she huffed out a sigh, and she was gone.
He was left standing in the middle of the dance floor to a crooning tune about lost love, and being bumped on all sides by couples who needed to get a room. Holly lifted a brow at his predicament, and then her lips turned up in a gorgeous smile. She was laughing at him yet again.
He held out his hand. Surely she wouldn’t leave him standing there like that.
She didn’t hesitate. She gave a nod, and then she slithered her way through the thickening crowd of gyrating people until she was standing in front of him. She was much taller in her heels. Her mouth was almost lined up with his.
“I see Gina found you,” Holly raised her voice to be heard. Her mouth was an interesting shade of red tonight. Deep, berry red. It made the words juicy and ripe dance through his mind.
He nodded and held up his hands for hers. “It took all of about two seconds. I take it that’s common?”
“New man in town? And he’s hot? That’s got Gina written all over it.” When she skipped his hands and wrapped her arms around his neck instead, desire coursed through him for the first time that night.
She thought he was hot? He did not need to know that.
He didn’t let himself look down into the vee of her dress, though Lord God, it was the hardest thing he’d ever not done.
“Did you have a good time with Nick today?” she asked. She’d leaned into him and put her mouth close to his ear so she could be heard. Her cheek brushed against his, and he caught her scent again. Sunshine. Fresh and bright and hot.
He turned his mouth to her ear. “I did. Thanks for your help.”
He was insanely turned on, but he was pretty sure she was feeling nothing. She was simply snuggling with him because that was what everyone else was doing. And because it was easier to be heard that way.
“No problem,” she replied. “I’m glad to see that it worked out.”
He kept his hands at the sides of her waist, fighting the urge to slide his leg between her thighs. Now he wanted to grind up against someone.
“I couldn’t find you when I got home,” he said. “I met Nick here after I cleaned up. Thought you might want to come with me.”
“I was busy all afternoon. Just got back.”
He couldn’t help but wonder what she’d been so busy doing.
They got bumped, and he slid his hand to the back of her waist to keep her steady. His palm landed on warm, bare skin, and he squeezed his eyes shut in mental anguish. Dancing with her might just give him cardiac arrest.
When he opened his eyes, an angry glare caught his attention from across the room. The man was standing on the platform where the pool tables were, a woman draped on his side, and he was locked in on Zack as if he intended to make it his life’s mission to remove him from the premises.
Apparently not everyone was so welcoming after all.
But then he recognized the guy from a picture in the Marshall home.
“I think one of your brothers is giving me a dirty look,” he said into Holly’s ear.
“Which one?” She pulled her head back.
“I have no idea.”
When Zack nodded to his left, Holly followed with her eyes. “Oh, that’s just Brian.”
“Okay. And why do you suppose Brian is looking like he wants to rip my head off?”
She giggled, and when her breasts moved up and down against his chest, he barely held back a groan.
“Probably because I’m all snuggled up to you.” And then she snuggled closer. “He thinks he’s my protector.”
He wasn’t the only one. Zack remembered Nick’s words from earlier that day.
“Holly,” he said carefully. His teeth scraped against each other. “You do know what all that snuggling does to a man, right?” She was young, but surely not that young.
She laughed again.
Her breasts jiggled again.
She tilted her head back and when her eyes met his, her smile was so bright and pure that he wanted to figure out a way to be that happy himself.
“But we’re just friends,” she said.
Her words caused a little flip in his heart.
“I’m also a man.” He put a couple of inches between their bodies. “And though I’d take on your brother if that’s what it came to, I’m going to need you to dial it back a notch.”
“But this is how you were dancing with Gina,” she teased. She wiggled up to him again, and her hip brushed over his growing erection. She didn’t seem to notice. “Was she getting you all hot and bothered too?”
He lost his ability to pretend she wasn’t turning him on, and let the heat coursing through him fill his eyes. “Gina was doing nothing like this to me,” he admitted.
Holly quit wiggling then, and she flicked her gaze over his face. It felt like he was being scrutinized by one of his law professors on the eve of a big exam.
“I really am turning you on?”
“Sweetheart.” He had the desperate urge to press her hard into his groin. To hold her there until she invited him back to her bed. But he was more of a gentleman than that. At least with her. “You’re a very good-looking woman. I’m a warm-blooded male. And you’re rubbing every last one of your curves against my body. Yes. I’m really turned on.”
“Oh.” Her mouth formed a small O and her eyes shifted away from his. “I’m sorry.”
“No need to be sorry. Just be aware.”
“I didn’t mean to . . .” She trailed off and looked pained. “I thought maybe I’d make a few men jealous tonight. Shake out the ones who could be serious and the ones who aren’t.”
Cold water . . . meet a raging hard-on.
He’d suspected she wasn’t into him, but to have it so bluntly explained was harsh. And it wasn’t like he’d even planned to do anything about it.
But damn.
“I can assure you,” he promised, “that every man in here right now is jealous.”
Holly stared at the hard angles of Zack’s face. He was attracted to her.
A lot.
Which should not excite her nearly as much as it did, but hot diggity, Zack Winston wanted her.
He was a successful, intelligent, extremely sexy man, and she would have never guessed she could turn him on to the extent that he implied.
Implied was the wrong word.
She saw it in his eyes. Felt it in his touch. He was most definitely ratcheted up a notch. Or three.
And damned if she didn’t want to crank him up a little higher.
They danced quietly for a few more minutes as she pondered this turn of events. Yeah, he wasn’t the man for her. She knew that. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t sample a bit of the wrong man, did it? Especially when the wrong man got her all hot and bothered.
After silent deliberation, she decided to play with fire. What were a few singed fingers? You only lived once.
“What if I tell you that I’m turned on too?” She tilted her head back to look up at him.
His brown eyes seemed almost black as he peered down at her. His hand at her back burned her like a brand, and when his fingers curled into her bare skin, just the slightest amount, her nipples tingled to life. Then he glanced at her lips.
She didn’t breathe. Was he going to kiss her? Right there?
With everyone watching?
Talk about hot!
But then he pulled his gaze from her mouth. “Then I’d have to point out that I’m the wrong man for you,” he murmured in a way-too-sexy, bedroom kind of voice. “I’m not looking for a wife.”
The air went out of her chest. Honor was so overrated. “I got that, Romeo. You flash that sign around like a neon light.”
He nodded. “So it doesn’t matter that there’s attraction. It’s just chemistry.”
“And touching body parts.”
“Right.” His hand shifted on her back. “Touching parts. Which we should probably stop doing.”
“Because we’re not right for each other.”
“Exactly.”
Only they didn’t stop.
He glanced over her shoulder before coming back to her. “And because I don’t want your brother thinking he needs to try to kick my ass. I’m not wearing my fighting clothes tonight.”
Strained laughter slipped from her, releasing some of the pent-up tension. Not all of it, for sure. Because duh, she was still in Zack’s arms.
She peeked over her shoulder at her brother. He was still watching them. Very carefully. She made a childish face at him, but did decide to put a bit more distance between her and Zack. Because Brian might just decide to kick his ass.
“I promise I won’t let him,” she said.
Incredulity flashed back at her. “First you laugh at me at every turn, and now I’m supposed to let you protect me from your brother? Uh-uh.” He shook his head. His hand still burned at her back, palm flat and every finger splayed out, and she still wanted to take his clothes off and lick him all over. “If he wants a fight, I’ll give him one. I can’t have you making me look like a girl.”
The idea of Zack fighting her brother over her made her grin. Her brothers had intimidated many a man over the years—not that she’d ever considered dating near the number they’d flashed their big-brother glares at—but there’d never been an instance in which the mere idea of seeing a man fight gave her the instant hots.
She could get into watching Zack throw a fist for her.
She could get into a lot of things with Zack.
Which they’d just said they wouldn’t do. Because it was just chemistry. And because they were friends.
With the reminder, she decided he had a point. She didn’t need to sleep with her friend. Knowing her, she’d do something stupid like fall for him. And then he’d break her heart.
She released him. Bodies still moved around them, and a country tune still saturated the air. She felt like they were the only two people in the room. “So how about that bet?” she asked. Time to lighten the mood. She held her arms out at her sides so he could take in her appearance. “Ready to admit I won?”
He checked her out from head to toe. As he did, she grew warm on the inside. Warmer.
She knew she looked good tonight. That had been the plan.
Just as they hadn’t seen her mirrors, rarely did anyone in Sugar Springs see her put this much true effort into her looks. For some reason, the thought of dressing up around the guys she’d been pals with her whole life never felt right. And it often embarrassed her.
But if she was going to catch one—and she was actually on the fence about that at the moment—then maybe she should start putting in the effort.
“That dress is killer,” Zack said.
“And the makeup?”
He studied her intently, and she found herself wishing she’d worn even more. Maybe he did have a point. Maybe she hid behind the makeup. She certainly wanted to hide from his scrutiny now.
“The makeup has every man in here wanting to take you to bed and not come up for air for a week.”
Including him? She had to wonder.
“You owe me pancakes,” she said. The music chose that minute to stop, and her words sounded overloud in the confined space. The people around them turned to watch.
Zack didn’t take his eyes off hers. “I owe you pancakes,” he agreed.
She licked her lips. It was time to get away. “I’m going to . . . uh . . .” She flailed her hand out to her side, before finishing lamely, “Find someone else to dance with.”
He nodded.
She stepped back. They remained in the middle of the crowd as the music once again started up, neither of them moving away, and she wondered if he’d say something else. Like . . . Don’t go. Stay here and dance with me.
She wanted him to.
But he didn’t.
Instead he motioned with his head to the bar. “There’s a guy over there who’s been watching you since you came in. Dark hair. Looks respectable. My guess is he’s after more than a night or two.”
Her heart pounded in her chest. Really? He was directing her to another man? Okay, fine. Good idea. She needed another man. One who’d stick around for longer than two weeks. She followed his gaze and then gave an approving nod.
“That’s Keith Justice. He’s actually at the top of my list of possibilities.”
A muscle twitched in Zack’s jaw.
“Go dance with him,” he said. He gave her a casual wink. “Be sure to snuggle up to him like you did me. He’ll like it.”