Chapter 24
LACEY
I took in a breath through my nose. The smell of home washed over me.
Silly girl. It wasn’t home. It was the scent of Bodie’s shirt that made me feel warm and snug inside.
I was playing with fire right now and I knew it.
Nothing good would come out of me and Bodie hooking up.
But a whole lot of bad sure might. As much as I wanted to hold him close, nestle his cheek against my chest, and let us both forget about everything waiting for us back home, I couldn’t.
He’d never think of me as more than Luke’s little sister. No matter how much I might want him to.
“What’s wrong? What did I say now?” He stood, his chest filling my vision as he rose to his full height.
“Nothing. It’s just been a long day. Do you care if I use the bathroom first?
” I tried to rewind to a time when I didn’t crave Bodie’s touch.
When being this close to him didn’t make me want to throw myself into his arms. It didn’t work.
For as long as I could remember I’d had a major crush on Bodie Phillips.
He studied me for a moment, making my skin feel like it was baking under a hot July sun. “Go ahead.”
I stepped into the bathroom, eager to wash the frustration of the day away and douse the warmth being alone with Bodie had sparked.
Without a change of clothes I wouldn’t be able to do much, but at least I could scrub the makeup off my face and freshen up a little bit.
Too bad I didn’t have a shirt to change into.
I’d give about anything to swap out the stupid Lick Me shirt for something more comfortable and less of a reminder of how I’d failed the family name.
When I finished in the bathroom, I opened the door a crack. “I’m coming out now.”
Bodie’s answer came from close by. Too close. “Thanks for the heads-up.”
“Are you decent?” I couldn’t afford to surprise him with his pants down. The sight of him fully clothed sent my hormones into a tailspin. No telling what might happen if I actually caught a glimpse of forbidden skin.
“Pretty much.” He held his shirt in front of the door. “Sorry I don’t have anything else to offer, but if you want to change, I just put this one on before I left tonight.”
Nothing would make me happier than to trash my stupid T-shirt, but could I spend an entire night surrounded by the remnants of Bodie’s body heat and still be able to hold myself in check?
The scent of fabric softener drifted past my nose, a much better option than the mixture of hopelessness and despair my shirt had absorbed in the holding cell.
I snaked my hand through the crack in the door and grabbed it. “Thank you.”
“You bet.”
A moment later I stepped out of the bathroom, Bodie’s shirt hanging halfway down my thighs. Just having the opportunity to wipe off my face and swap my shirt had given my mood a little bit of a boost.
“Wow.” He stood by his bed, his gaze drifting over me.
“What?” The sheer intensity of his stare made my cheeks warm. I briefly met his gaze then sucked in my breath as my eyes roamed over his bare torso. I’d been right—his pecs were carved from granite. No wonder every time I’d pressed against them it felt like solid rock under my hands.
“Nothing.” He ducked his head but not before I caught a flush of pink on his cheeks.
Maybe we both felt a little out of our element.
Instead of making me feel better, that thought caused a bolt of awareness to crackle through me.
Bodie probably just felt uncomfortable being saddled with me for an evening.
He couldn’t have the same kind of thoughts about me that I’d had about him.
I shed my shoes and jeans while Bodie took his turn in the bathroom.
As I curled up in a ball and pulled the covers up to my chin, I tried not to think about the events of the evening.
But I couldn’t hold the memories at bay.
My stomach tightened as Adeline’s last words looped through my head.
“You’ll never make this work. I should have known better than to try to work with you. ”
My chance to save the town and redeem my family name had disappeared with Adeline’s temper tantrum. Not that I blamed her for being upset. I had single-handedly ruined the bachelorette party. Why couldn’t I have just let the guy suck on my shirt and called it good?
I clenched my hands into fists then released them, trying to alleviate some tension.
I couldn’t because I didn’t want some stranger, granted a very good-looking stranger, putting his lips anywhere near me.
It was my right to decide who had access to my body.
And the only man whose lips I wanted roaming over me didn’t want to have anything to do with me. At least not in that capacity.
The bathroom door opened. “I’m coming out.”
“Okay.”
“Damn, it’s dark out here.” His feet shuffled on the carpet. The sound of Bodie getting settled under the covers brought a slight sense of comfort and a tidal wave of anxiety. “You okay?”
I waited a beat before answering. “Yeah.”
“It’s going to be fine. You believe me, don’t you?”
Rolling to face the direction of his voice, I took in a deep breath. “I want to.”
“It will. You’ll find someone else to have the first wedding.”
“But the story . . . I don’t know if the reporter will be on board if we don’t have Swynton royalty involved.”
Bodie’s chuckle sent a wave of warmth through me. “Swynton royalty? Is that a thing?”
“May as well be. I think Adeline’s crowned herself queen.”
“We don’t need Adeline. You’ll figure something out.” He yawned. “You always do.”
His faith in my ability to always find a solution had to be misplaced.
I tried to close my eyes and give in to the sheer exhaustion I’d been battling since I climbed into the limo this morning.
My body craved sleep. But my brain operated on overdrive, trying to sort out options on how to handle the latest development in my quest to save the town.
Bodie’s breath evened out. I lifted the neck of his shirt to my nose, hoping his scent would calm down my frayed nerves.
All it did was make me hyperaware of how close he was.
Close enough to reach out and touch. Close enough to hear the breath leave his lips on an exhale.
Close enough to guarantee I wouldn’t get a wink of sleep.
I lay there for what seemed like hours. The more I tried to fall asleep, the more wide awake I became.
Until I finally gave up and threw the covers off in frustration.
I’d cycled through the first five stages of grief since I’d been lying in the dark, a process I was unfortunately too familiar with, thanks to the therapy sessions my dad had forced on me when my mom passed.
Now I was stuck in the all-is-lost phase.
“What the hell’s going on over there?” The sound of Bodie’s voice made my heart stop.
I tried to infuse my voice with sleepiness. “What?” I mumbled.
The mattress groaned as he shifted. “You’ve been tossing and turning more than a pig in a mud bath over there.”
“Nice.” Figured he’d compare me to a swine. If I’d harbored even a smidgen of hope that he might consider me a romantic interest, comparing me to a muddy pig had obliterated any chance.
“Neither one of us is going to get any sleep if you don’t talk about it.”
I stuck my lower lip out in a pout. He couldn’t see it though so it wasn’t worth the effort. “I blew it. I may as well resign as mayor and turn everything over to Swynton.”
Bodie’s mattress creaked then he sat down on the edge of my bed. “Look, you had a setback but all’s not lost.”
I scooted away, not wanting to roll toward him into the indentation he’d made. “It feels that way. I finally had everyone working toward a common goal. People were excited about being featured in the magazine. It would have given us such a boost.”
His hand patted the mattress, coming closer and closer. It landed on my hip. “Where the hell are you? Give me your hand.”
Heat prickled my hip. That wouldn’t do at all. I slid my hand on top of his, breaking the connection with my lower body. The hip bone connected to the pelvis bone. The pelvis bone connected to . . . I couldn’t go there.
“You’re being way too hard on yourself.”
I sat up, dropping his hand. “I got arrested. For assaulting an officer.”
Bodie laughed. “It was an honest mistake.”
“Have you ever been mistaken for a stripper?” As the question left my lips, I immediately regretted it. With a body like his, Bodie definitely could have been a stripper. Based on what I’d seen of him, he put the actual strippers to shame.
He sighed. “I can’t say that I have.”
“I’m an idiot.”
“Come here.” He reached for me, drawing me into an awkward hug.
My cheek pressed against his naked chest. His scent surrounded me, invading my personal space, heating my blood to an uncomfortable degree. With my face smashed against him, he wrapped his arms around me.
“Bodie, I . . .”
“Shh. I don’t want to hear you being so hard on yourself. You can’t even see how important you’ve been to the town, to the people who put their faith in you, to . . .”
“To what?”
“To me.”
My cheeks tingled. He had to be able to feel the heat radiating from my face onto his chest. I pulled my head back and tilted it up in the direction of his. Darkness shrouded the room but I could make out the outline of his chin by the sliver of light that came through a crack in the curtains.
“What do you mean?” I whispered, my heart stalling while I waited for a response.
His hand came up to cup the back of my head. “You’re special, Lacey.”
“Special as in I require major adult supervision, or—” His lips sought mine, cutting off my self-deprecating remark. Heat exploded inside my chest, rocketing through my veins, igniting every nerve ending I had and some I hadn’t been aware of before.
His mouth on mine was so much better than the almost-kiss we’d shared at the warehouse.
I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it for weeks.
I wrapped my arms around his broad shoulders, clinging to him as his kiss took me soaring, like climbing to the top of that wooden roller coaster I used to love as a kid.
He pulled back first. “I’m so sorry. That was out of line, I—”
I got to my knees, meeting his mouth with mine again.
My tongue played along the seam of his lips, testing, tasting.
His hands roamed my back, tangled in my hair.
I’d imagined how it would feel to have Bodie’s lips on mine so many times over the years.
Tonight far exceeded my expectations. My hands danced over the curve of his shoulders, hard biceps, the contours of his back.
His skin was smooth under my touch. So much better than what my limited imagination had been able to conjure.
The darkness provided a layer of safety. Tomorrow I’d have to face him and the repercussions. But tonight, tonight everything I needed, everything I wanted, was right there in front of me.
I wrapped my arms tight around his shoulders and pulled him down next to me on the bed.