The lights caught in the gold of Lucy’s hair. With her hair pulled up in a slapdash ponytail, no one could say she was trying to be glamorous. Yet, she was so damn beautiful. I conveniently had a perfect view of the shadowed valley between her breasts. Were I a sane man when it came to her, I’d appreciate the view and nothing more. Yet, I was crazed for her, so it wasn’t exactly comfortable to try to relax with friends when I was rock hard.

I was frankly relieved for the hum of conversation around us. Our table of friends was full, and conversation moved along at the usual bantering pace.

I loved that Lucy didn’t have a baseball cap on, which was her standard fare. Her ponytail was slightly lopsided with loose tendrils of her blonde hair framing her face. Her cheeks were flushed as she laughed at something Amelia said. She was slightly tipsy, and I figured I would need to give her a ride.

“Levi!” Jesse Franklin called from across the table.

I glanced over. “Yeah?”

“You must be going deaf. I said your name three times,” Jesse offered with a chuckle.

Frankly, I wasn’t paying much attention. Lucy’s mere existence beside me had muddled my brain. Well that, and all the blood had gone straight to my cock. I shrugged and returned his grin. Jesse was one of the guys on my crew, solid, steady and quick with a joke.

“We’re betting ahead on the Nenana Ice Classic for next spring,” Jesse explained.

“You’re betting now? It doesn’t even start yet,” I replied.

He was referencing an annual ritual where Alaskans bet on when the ice would break on the Nenana River every spring.

Beck caught my eye. “We’re having our own pool, so we have to bet early.”

“What’s the pool so far?”

Cade chuckled, glancing around the table. “Levi doesn’t like to bet unless it’s worthy.”

I rolled my eyes. “So what? I like it to be worth my while.”

Jesse chuckled. “Well, the pots already past five hundred from the station.”

Beck chimed in. “Last year, Levi wanted the winner to get a flat screen TV."

I felt Lucy’s eyes on me and glanced her way, shrugging sheepishly. “My TV broke, so I figured I might as well bargain for something good. Anyway, I’m in. What’s the minimum bet?”

“Twenty bucks,” Jesse said quickly.

“All right. I’ll get it to you tomorrow.”

Cade was seated at an angle across from me, his arm slung across Amelia’s shoulder. I felt Amelia’s curious gaze when I looked her way. Her eyes flicked from me to Lucy, and I wondered if Lucy had said anything to her. I knew they were best friends, yet I didn’t know how much Lucy shared when it came to things like that. I ignored Amelia’s gaze and listened as Jesse bantered with Beck over when he thought the ice would crack next spring. Lucy murmured something at my side, and I leaned down because I couldn’t hear her.

“What’s that?” I asked.

Her eyes caught mine, and need bolted through me. My mind suddenly flashed to last night—Lucy’s dark blue gaze, hazed with passion and locked to mine as her channel clenched around my cock and she came with a rough, breathy cry.

“Oh, I just said it’s silly to bet now. It’s not even winter yet,” she said with a shrug.

I grinned. “That’s what makes it fun. It’s totally random. Winning then is even better because you haven’t a clue if you might have a chance.”

She held my gaze for a beat, and it suddenly felt as if we were talking about something else altogether.

She stared at me, cocking her head to the side. “Really? I like to know,” she suddenly said.

“Know what?”

“Well, I like to plan, to make decisions based on contingencies,” she explained.

I bit my tongue. I wanted to ask her what kind of contingencies she’d considered when she climbed in my bed last night. But that would definitely piss her off.

Whether Lucy meant it or not, I was busy interpreting every damn thing she said the last few days. She was still a bit of a mystery to me. She’d been standoffish and guarded ever since I’d known her, but then she and Amelia started working together. She slowly got pulled into my social circle. She was a strong woman, her appearance belying her strength—inside and out. Beyond her obvious beauty and the fact that she called to my body in ways too powerful to ignore, half of my attraction to her originally had been the mystery and the challenge.

Last night had only deepened the mystery. She was a passionate woman, that itself didn’t surprise me. What startled me was the depth of vulnerability I sensed flickering behind her prickly exterior.

So I listened to her saying that she liked to know things, to plan, to have contingencies, and I filed that away. If I wanted a shot with her…

What the hell was I doing? I didn’t usually think about things like this. But then, Lucy was something else.

As I sat there looking at her, it felt as if we were all alone even though we were surrounded by friends, and conversation floated around us. It occurred to me I knew very little about her life beyond the surface.

She moved to Willow Brook in high school and graduated in her senior year. My family had moved here from Juneau right around the same time. I knew her mother in passing, but I certainly didn’t know much about her mother. If Lucy had a father who was involved in her life, he sure as hell didn’t live here in Willow Brook. Although the town’s population exploded every summer with tourists and seasonal residents, the core of locals was tight. You couldn’t live here and not eventually be known in passing by everyone else who lived here.

My passing acquaintance with her mother was solely because she was friends with Janet James and my mother. This was the entirety of my knowledge about Lucy beyond her friendship with Amelia and their small circle of friends. I supposed it should give me pause that I was suddenly quite curious about her. I wanted to know why she was so guarded and prickly, why she kept me at a distance, and dammit, I wanted to know why she’d initially rebuffed me so thoroughly.

I’d known what I felt between us. There was a spark, the flame of it flickering higher whenever we were near. Hell, now it was a damn bonfire, but it had always been there. Yet, she hadn’t even given me a chance. Until now.