Epilogue #2
“I’ve got you,” the stranger said, moving out of the shadows. And suddenly, Mackenzie was gazing up into a pair of stormy blue eyes she would have sworn she’d never see again.
Her heart froze, right there in her chest.
It couldn’t be…
But it was.
She blinked, disbelieving, but the mirage didn’t shift. Sure, he had ten years on the gangly teenage boy she used to know: dark stubble on his jaw, and a weary look on that gorgeous face, but she couldn’t have forgotten him, even if she tried.
Jake Sullivan.
Her best friend, once upon a time. The first boy she’d ever loved.
The only man to ever put a dent in Mackenzie’s invincible heart.
And he was looking at her like they’d never met.
Jake carefully placed the mysterious vixen back on solid ground. He’d been ready to snap at whoever stumbled in, interrupting his moment of solitude. Then he felt the soft curves pressed against him, and caught a glimpse of a heart-stopping face framed with inky black hair.
Suddenly, he didn’t mind the company.
“Thanks.” The woman sounded breathless. “It’s these boots, they’re a hazard.”
“Not your usual style?” he asked, amused.
She laughed, a bright, warm burst of sound that filled the dark space and immediately put him at ease. “Umm, no. Can you imagine hiking through the woods in these things?”
He took in the wicked heels and patent leather. “Good point.”
He could imagine her doing plenty of other things in them though. Clothing-optional things…
He shook his head, wondering for a moment if he’d wandered into some fantasy life. Then he remembered: it was Halloween. He’d been driving all day to make it back to the Cape, but it figured Sweetbriar Cove would go all-out when it came to the holiday.
“Let me guess, you’re on a secret mission?” he asked, teasing.
“Well, if I told you that, it wouldn’t be a secret now, would it?” The woman gave her an impish grin, and Jake chuckled.
“Unless you need a partner in crime. I could be useful.”
“Oh, really?”
“Sure. I’m great at ordering takeout food, and picking a good movie on Netflix.”
She laughed. “Those are pretty important skills.”
“They wouldn’t see us coming.” Jake agreed, smiling now.
The woman was looking at him carefully, almost like she wanted to say something, and Jake braced himself for the usual blink of recognition, and then the excited questions. He was used to it by now, after a career in the NFL – and the accident, which was splashed across ESPN for weeks.
But this woman wasn’t a sports fan, or maybe she just didn’t expect to see Jake Sullivan, star linebacker, moping in the dark of a small-town gazebo, because her expression smoothed out, and that playful smile returned.
“You’re not in costume,” she noted. “You better watch out, or someone will fine you for not having enough town spirit.”
“Some things never change. I grew up here,” he explained. “I’m just back for a visit. And who says I don’t have a costume? The best spies blend into a crowd.”
“Whoops. I’m not exactly blending in this, am I?” She looked down, and Jake couldn’t help but follow her eye-line back to the skin-tight black bodysuit.
Damn. Incognito she wasn’t. Hell, she could stop traffic at twenty paces.
He snapped his eyes up. “That’s OK. You can stun the enemy into submission, while I sneak in unseen.”
“Sounds like a plan.” She smiled, and Jake wondered what her story was.
Definitely another out-of-towner like him, maybe visiting friends for the party.
She couldn’t have been a local. If they had women like this in Sweetbriar Cove, he would have found a reason to come back years ago, instead of flying his parents out to meet him wherever he’d been under contract around the country.
“So what about you?” the woman continued. “What would you be, if you could pretend to be anyone for a night?”
Jake felt the question ricochet straight to his heart.
God, if he could have anything, be anyone, he would pick himself – six months ago.
Back when he had the world at his feet. Fame, money, women, a team he would have taken a bullet for; the chance to walk out on that field every Friday night and do what he loved best. He was living his dream, everything he’d spent his whole life training for…
Right up until the night some drunk kid driver smashed a two-ton pick-up truck through the rest of his life.
But that wasn’t a story for this mysterious siren.
He swallowed back the pain and bitterness, and forced another easy smile. “I don’t know. You’ve probably got the right idea. James Bond, I guess,” he added. “Maybe then you’d meet your match.”
“Is that right?” she arched an eyebrow, flirtatious. “You think you could handle me?”
He grinned. “You don’t strike me as the kind of woman who could be handled,” he quipped back. “But I’m sure I could give it a try.”
“Promises, promises.”
Their eyes met, electric, and Jake could have sworn there was something familiar about her playful stare. But he would have remembered if they’d met before.
A woman like this, you didn’t forget.
The moment stretched, and he couldn’t look away. For a moment, he could only hear his heartbeat, suddenly booming like thunder in his ears. They were alone in the dark shadows of the gazebo, and suddenly – inexplicably – he wondered how her lips would taste.
Would she kiss the way she laughed: warm and unbridled? Or were those gold-flecked eyes of hers hiding a wild, sensuous streak?
Then the woman glanced down, her cheeks flushing. “I should get back…” she said quickly, gesturing back to the town hall.
Jake knew he should let her get back to the party, and whatever lucky man she had waiting, but something stopped him from moving aside.
He didn’t want to sit alone in the dark any longer, counting all the ways his life had blown apart.
He didn’t want to face the fact that after ten years away, telling himself he was bigger and better than this small town, he was right back where he’d started, all over again.
He wanted to forget it all, just for a moment. Pretend that she really was some mysterious vixen, and that he was a man who had all the answers.
Before he could stop himself, he closed the distance between them, and reached to push a strand of that sleek dark hair off her cheek. Her eyes flashed with surprise, but she didn’t step away. She paused a moment, blinking up at him, and then her gaze dropped to his mouth.
Her lips parted. Her head tilted, moving in, and it was all the invitation he needed to slide his hands around her waist, pull her against his body, and kiss her, like it was the most natural thing in the world.
And it was. His mouth found hers, and just like that he knew: kissing her was as easy as breathing, and necessary as air.
Jake tugged her closer, feeling those curves pressed against him all over again. But now, he took his time – slipping his hands around her waist and feeling her melt against him, molded perfectly, like she was made to fit.
Her lips parted, inviting, so he slid his tongue deeper to taste her; warm and sweet, with a whiskey kick that took him by surprise.
He should have known there was more to her than meets the eye.
The woman kissed him back, passionate and unleashed, and God, he could have lost himself in her arms. For the first time in months, everything just melted away, and he felt whole again: exactly where he was supposed to be.
It was like walking out on the field, making that perfect spiral pass to the twenty-yard line with the wind behind him and the crowd cheering his name.
A moment of sunshine, pure and bright cutting through the stormy shadows?—
She suddenly pulled away. Jake was still caught up in the rush, and how right she felt against him, but the dark-haired woman was shaking her head in disbelief.
“What are you doing?” she whispered, almost to herself.
“Wait,” Jake reached for her again, needing just another moment of sweet escape, but she was already backing away.
“This isn’t me,” she blurted, “It’s the costume. And the boots. I told you, these are dangerous boots.”
And then, before he could say another word, she turned and fled, racing down the gazebo steps and out into the night.
Jake sat down with a thump, his heart still pounding in his chest.