CHAPTER ONE
Willa
“Y’all. The hottest guy I’ve ever seen just walked in,” Tessa said, jaw pretty much on the floor.
I glanced over my shoulder and groaned. “He’s hot alright,” I said. “Because he’s the devil.” I hunkered down at the bar and focused fiercely on my martini. Please don’t let him see me, I thought.
The three beautiful faces of my sorority sisters and members of my college dance team turned my way, eyebrows raised drunkenly.
“Um… what?” Tessa asked, her bright red corkscrew curls bouncing.
“Oh my God, he’s coming over here,” squealed Trinity as she flipped her long, dark hair over her shoulder. It hit Macey in the face.
“What the hell, Trin?” she asked.
“Just uncovering my tits. I know a breast guy when I see one.”
She wasn’t wrong, I thought. But when it came to women, Declan Whittaker was kind of an everything man.
I quickly turned and faced him. I had to get it over with. He had seen me. He was grinning at me, his blue eyes sparkling in his stupidly handsome face.
“Go away!” I mouthed and made a shooing gesture with my hand.
Trin fluttered her long eyelashes his way, but Dec’s eyes never left mine as he took a long pull from his beer. He walked over in that slow, easy way of his.
“Willa,” he said in his gravelly, deep voice. He gave me a chin lift like I was one of his dude bros. “What’s up?”
I surveyed him out of the corner of my eye.
He looked freaking hot, as usual, in a bespoke dark suit and blue shirt that highlighted those damn eyes of his.
His jaw could cut glass, he had just the right amount of facial hair, and his floppy black hair—that should have looked messy—somehow looked perfect on him.
Tessa was absolutely right. He was, in a few words, the hottest man I’d ever seen. And he knew it.
His grin showed off a dimple as he walked right up to me and put a thick, strong arm on either side of me.
Dec was big and broad, tall and muscular.
He ticked all the usual boxes of things I looked for in a man.
Hell, any woman would be lying if they said he didn’t check all their boxes, too.
And maybe even some they’d never thought about before.
“Go away,” I practically snarled at him.
His response was to chuckle, stare at my cleavage until I blushed, and stand up.
He towered over me. And that was saying something since I was five-ten.
Declan was at least six-five, though he tried to claim he was taller since he had two brothers even taller than he was.
“Looking as fine as you are feisty tonight, Wills.”
“Wills?” Tessa mouthed at me as I gave him a hard eye roll.
“Why don’t you go hang with the rest of the fuckboys over there,” I waved at a few of his guys already seated at a table. They were watching us with broad smiles on their faces. They waved back enthusiastically.
“Oh, ironing board. You still haven’t gotten over me, have you?”
“I hate you,” I hissed. I couldn’t believe he was still calling me by the old nickname he’d given me when I was flat-chested as a teenager.
I’d been a late bloomer and hadn’t really developed until I was seventeen.
Declan had reminded me of it every time he’d seen me in a swimsuit when we were growing up. The jerk.
He winked at me and looked me over from head to toe. “Careful, sweetheart. You know there’s a thin line between love and hate, don’t you?”
I tried not to growl at him while he calmly checked out my friends. “Ladies,” he said, tipping an imaginary hat to them, before he turned to join his friends.
But I could feel his eyes on me from across the room.
His gaze was hot on my back, and my evening out with the girls quickly turned into one of disappointment.
Why did Declan Whittaker have to ruin everything?
He’d ruined my self-confidence, several friendships, a couple of relationships, and now this?
“Ugh,” I groaned. “Let’s go somewhere else,” I pleaded.
My friends looked at me with questioning eyes. “We’re not going anywhere until you spill,” Macey said.
“Fine. I’ve hated that man since birth. He’s that horrible, foul next door neighbor I’ve told y’all so many stories about.”
Their mouths fell open. “That’s him?” Trinity’s dark brown eyes were wide.
“Yep,” I popped the ‘p,’ tossed back the rest of my drink, and wished for more.
“I think it’s empty, girl.” Tessa patted my shoulder as I tilted the glass to try and get the last drops of liquid at the bottom.
“I’m just going to say what we’re all thinking,” Macey made a wide gesture to include herself, Tessa, and Trinity. “You never said your evil enemy was the best-looking guy on the planet.”
“Oh,” I said darkly, “we are so much more than enemies.”
***
“Willa!”
I rolled over in bed and took off my silk sleep mask.
I knew that horrid voice. I jumped out of bed and wobbled dizzily towards the window.
I had drunk more than I thought tonight.
I looked down just as several pebbles bounced off the glass.
It scared me and I jerked back a little, but I still saw him.
Declan. Standing under my window and waking me up. For no damn reason, probably.
I pushed the creaking wooden window casement of our centuries old farmhouse as fast as it would go.
“What the hell do you… Ow!” A pebble hit my cheek.
“Shit, sorry!” Declan winced and ducked readying himself for retaliation, but I didn’t have anything to throw back. “I threw them before I realized you were opening the window.”
I narrowed my eyes. “What do you want?” I rubbed my face where the pebble hit me and was thrilled to see blood there. I held out my hand to show him. “You made me bleed, asshole!”
He grinned. The stupid fucker grinned. That was it. I grabbed the bottom of the window and pulled down, but it didn’t budge.
He got the hint and started climbing the tree outside my window. Soon he was eye-level with me. “I really am sorry. Let me see.”
I leaned forward hesitantly, surprised when he rubbed his thumb lightly over the tiny cut. As usual when he touched me, I felt that dreaded heat run through me and settle low in my abdomen. I lifted my eyes to his and we stared at each other for a second.
“Doesn’t make you any less gorgeous,” he whispered. His eyes dropped to my lips as he settled himself more comfortably in the huge old oak tree. He leaned towards me, and the familiar magnetic pull between us grew stronger. For a minute, I thought he was going to kiss me.
Panicked, I broke the spell by stepping back from him. Out of reach. I cocked an eyebrow and crossed my arms over my chest, ignoring how his eyes dropped there immediately. “What. Do. You. Want?”
“Come hang out.”
I realized he’d changed into athletic shorts, a T-shirt that did nothing to hide how cut he was, and a backwards baseball hat.
“We’re all drinking on the dock.”
My father and his best friend, Declan’s father, owned Wixby River Farms together.
They had built the floating dock years ago.
It sat in the middle of the lake behind both our houses and had been the favored hangout of all my siblings and Declan’s siblings for most of my life.
“Who all is there?” I asked suspiciously.
“Me, Aidan, Livy, Cara, and Edward.”
So, his brother, two of my sisters, and my oldest sister’s fiancé then.
I had to admit, it sounded fun. And it was the kind of thing I usually got left out of.
Me and my best friend Siobhan, who was Declan’s sister, had always been stuck in the middle.
We’d been considered too young for the older kids, but we felt too old to hang out with the younger kids. It had been a difficult place to be.
“Fine,” I relented, trying not to show how pleased I was to be invited. “This isn’t some kind of trick? You’re not going to put dead spiders in my hair or something?”
“Not a trick. I swear.” He held up his hands to show he was innocent and almost fell out of the tree. “Shit!”
I couldn’t help the snort of laughter that escaped, and then he laughed, too. Our eyes met again, and the laughter petered out as we looked at each other.
“Where are your friends?” He spoiled the moment.
I made a face and pointed a finger at him.
“I knew it! You just want to hook up with one of them. I should’ve known y’all wouldn’t want me to come to the dock.
” Old feelings of hurt were trying to surface, but I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of seeing how I felt.
“Just get out of here. They’re trying out rooms at the resort for the weekend.
I’m sure any of them would be happy to get with you. Go away.”
I started pulling my window down.
“Wait!”
I stared at him, hands on my hips.
“I didn’t ask for that reason. I… well, I guess I wanted you to come alone.”
“Why?”
“So we could all be together like old times. As best we can, I mean, without Siobhan.”
My bestie was killing it in New York as a chef after graduating from culinary school. I frowned. “Why did they send you to get me?”
I started out of the window.
“Uh, Wills?”
“What?” He was staring at me, and if it wasn’t so dark I would swear he was blushing. Declan never blushed.
“I think you might need some, um, different clothes.” His eyes roved my body once more before he looked away.
“Oh, crap,” I pulled my robe closed. I was wearing a mildly sexy negligee. “Sorry.”
For once he didn’t say anything, like “I don’t mind a bit,” while he leered at me. He just kept his face averted from me.
“Fine. I’ll change and then meet y’all over there.”
He shook his head. “Nah. I’ll help you climb down once you change.”
And he did, handling me carefully, no sign of the boy who’d pushed me out of more trees than I could count. Low ones of course. He didn’t want to hurt me too badly and get in trouble with either set of parents.