Loving Lily (3 page)

Do not stare
at her boobs, you ass.
 
Women do not like
it when guys do that, especially when the boobs are as perfect and amazing as
hers are,
he told himself firmly.
 
It was difficult not to look, though.
 
Physically, Lily was his favorite kind of
woman—not too skinny, curves in all the right places.
 
She wore black leggings and a long pink
t-shirt that hugged her butt intriguingly.
 
The color complemented her pretty brown hair
and eyes.
 
Her flip-flops showed off
hot-pink nail polish.
 
She sent him a coy
look from under her eyelashes.
 
He winked
at her, delighted when she blushed prettily.
 

She was
beautiful, yes, but he could already tell that the best thing about her wasn't
her looks.
 
It was her sense of humor.
 
She'd joked around with him, despite his size,
which he knew intimidated a lot of people, men as well as women.
 
That she felt comfortable enough in herself to
be silly right from the start was a refreshing surprise.
 
Except for his sister, women were either
frightened by him, or over-aggressive, especially when they discovered he wrote
novels.
 
Which is why I hide out up on my mountain.

"So, what
brings you to my little town?" he asked.
 
And are you staying?
he
wondered, privately.

She kicked a
rock down the asphalt.
 
"I've booked
a room long term at the bed and breakfast in town.
 
If I like it here, I might stay.
" She
glanced up at him and shrugged.
 
"I might not
. "

He smiled at
her, steadying his bike with his hand.
 
"It's a nice place.
 
Quiet.
 
And we're not far from Lebanon in New
Hampshire, so
there's places
to go if you need to get
away from the trees.
" He
waved a hand to
indicate the woods all around them.

Lily kicked her
rock again.
 
"I think I would like
some quiet
. "

"Where are
you from?" He forced his eyes away from her cleavage yet again.

"I used to
live in New York, then Philadelphia
. "
She
shrugged.
 
"It was time for a change.
 
I thought of going to California, but I
didn't feel like dealing with rockslides and wildfires. "

He laughed.
 
"California isn't all mudslides and
earthquakes.
 
And sometimes we get
wildfires here, when it isn’t flooding. "

She lifted a
shoulder.
 
"Yeah, I know.
 
No place is perfect.
 
Have you been to California?" she asked, sending
the rock down the road again.

He wondered how
she managed to kick it without stubbing her toes.
 
"I've visited.
 
Some parts are unpleasant and smoggy, like LA,
but some parts are beautiful.
 
The
Sacramento Valley is gorgeous. "

She stopped,
biting her lip.
 
"So why didn't
you
move there?"

He glanced at
her, fixating on where she was still chewing on her lip.
 
God.
 
Her mouth was wet and pink and he had a sudden
urge to kiss her until neither of them could breathe.
 
Did she have any idea how sexy she looked when
she did that? He kicked his brain into gear and answered her question.
 
"I went all over the world when I was in
the military.
 
When I quit ten years ago,
I wanted to come home. "

"You were
in the military?" she asked, walking again, as if she hadn’t just been
tormenting him with her mouth.

Matt followed.
 
He could see her car with the flat tire just
around the curve up ahead.
 
"Yeah.
 
Navy
SEALs.
" He
didn't elaborate.
 
The last thing he wanted to do was talk about
that.
 
Instead, he deflected.
 
"So, what do you do for a living that you
can just pick up and move to the middle of nowhere?"

She tossed him
a grin.
 
"You won't believe me
. "

His eyebrows
lifted.
 
"Oh
yeah?"

"No one
ever does," she said, stopping by her car.
 
She kicked the tire.
 
"Stupid car
. "

He dropped his
bicycle in the grass on the side of the road and joined her, leaning on the
side of her car.
 
The blue paint was hot
from the sun, but it felt good on his sore backside.
 
He'd taken a few too many hills this morning
on his bike and his muscles were already beginning to protest.
 
"Tell me anyway
. "

She sighed,
running a hand through her hair.
 
The
brown strands caught the sun, flashing reddish highlights.
 
Matt watched her tuck it behind her ear.
 
"I’ve done pretty much everything:
waitressing, administrative work, I even spent a year doing fieldwork for the
EPA
. ”

He stared at
her in disbelief.

“I’m serious.
 
About ten years ago, I went back to school and
got a teaching degree.
 
I spent a few
years teaching math as an adjunct professor.
 
Then my parents died, and my
grandparents,
and I found that if I was careful, I could
live off of my inheritance. ” She shrugged.
 
“I don’t need much
. ”

He blinked.
 
"You're a math teacher
.
"
Damn
, he thought privately.
 
She's smart, too.
 
And she doesn’t need my money.

"You don't
believe me?" Her voice took on an edge.

He held up his
hands.
 
"Oh, no.
 
I believe you. "

She eyed him
skeptically.

"Please
don't hurt me," he added plaintively.

She burst out
laughing.
 
"You're, like, ten feet
tall! I'd have to climb up you like a tree and bash you in the head to hurt you.
" She
tilted her head.
 
“Even then I think you’d probably survive
. ”

He grinned,
even while he fought down his cock's sudden interest.
 
It was the image of her climbing him that had
him sweating.
 
He wanted her to do that.
 
He wanted her to climb all over him.
 
Oh boy
, he thought, angling his body
sideways so that she wouldn't see his erection.
 
She has no idea how beautiful she is, does
she
?

She kept
laughing, her pretty brown eyes sparkling.
 
Matt shook his head, clearing it of all the
dirty things he wanted to let her do to him.
 
He was about to reply when his brother's truck
came around the corner.
 
Saved by the
pickup
, he thought ruefully.

Alex drove up,
checked out the situation,
then
did a u-turn, backing
up until his tow truck was almost touching her SUV.
 
He cut the engine and hopped out.

Matt waited for
the inevitable exclamation from Lily.
 
It
wasn't long coming.

"Holy crap!
There are two of
you," she said incredulously.

Chapter Two

Lily looked
from Matt to his brother.
 
They were
twins.
 
Identical twins
, she told
herself.
 
From their messy dark hair, to
their hazel eyes, to their ridiculously hot bodies, they were exactly the same.
 
If his brother hadn't been wearing jeans
and a red t-shirt, she wouldn't be able to tell them apart.

"Alex, hey.
 
Glad you could finally make it.
 
We were about to go off into the woods to hunt
for our food," Matt joked.

Alex rolled his
eyes.
 
"Oh please.
 
It's only been ten minutes since you called. "

"We're
famished.
 
And hot.
 
And thirsty," Matt complained, smiling.

Lily chuckled
when Alex walked over and cuffed his brother upside the head.

"Stop
being such a crybaby.
 
Just because you
get to laze around all day writing your books doesn't mean the rest of us have
to jump when you call.
" Alex
tried to cuff Matt
again, but this time his brother ducked and poked him in the waist.
 
Alex twisted away, laughing.

"Lily,
this is my useless brother Alex.
 
Alex,
this is Lily, damsel in distress. "

Alex wiped his
hand on his pants and held it out to her.
 
"Pleased to meet you
. "

Lily shook his
hand, so like his brother's.
 
Well,
except for the grease
, she thought.
 
"Likewise
. "
She let him go and turned to her car.
 
"So, can you get me to town? I've got a
room waiting for me at a bed and breakfast. "

"You're at
Betsy's?" Alex asked.

Lily nodded.
 
"Yes.
 
Betsy's Bed and Breakfast.
" She
snorted.
 
"With a name like that, how could I
resist?"

"You won't
regret it," Matt said.
 
"Betsy's omelets are to die for
. "

Lily looked at
him.
 
He was checking out her flat tire
with more concentration than it warranted.
 
An ex Navy SEAL who writes books?
She
wondered if he'd read any of Matt Swift's novels.
 
She loved those thrillers, not that she'd had
time recently to read, what with selling the house and packing up her entire
life.
 
He was crouched down now, checking
something out under her car.
 
She wanted
to go over and poke him so he'd pay attention to her again.
 
But you're a grownup and in control of your
baser urges
, she told herself.
 
Right?

"It looks
like just your front tire so I'll have you hooked up and ready to go in a few
minutes," Alex said, walking over and kicking his brother in the thigh.

Matt twisted
around and glared.

"Come on.
 
Help me with the chains. "

Fifteen minutes
later Lily sat squeezed in between the two men in the front of the tow truck.
 
The men had thrown Matt's bike on the back and
the three of them were heading into town.
 
Her right thigh pressed up against Matt's in a
way that was making her sweat more than the warm weather called for.
 
She lifted her hair off the back of her neck
for a moment, wishing she'd put it in a ponytail that morning.

"Sorry
about the AC.
 
It broke a while ago and I
haven't had time to fix it," Alex said, obviously noticing her lame
attempt to cool down.

"It's okay.
 
There's a nice breeze today," Lily
replied.
 
How to explain that it wasn't
the temperature that had her flushing?
Hmm, don't explain it.
 
Just pretend you're fine
, she told herself.

Matt shifted in
the seat.
 
Lily tried very hard not to
stare at his legs and failed.
 
The thick
muscles in his thighs flexed as he adjusted his shorts.
 
Again.
 
She wondered if he had a wedgie or something.

"I'm glad
the heat wave broke a couple days ago," he said, his leg rubbing up
against hers.
 
"It would be way
hotter in here if it hadn't
. "

Lily clamped
down on the low buzz of arousal zipping through her.
 
Now was not the time to develop a useless
crush.
 
Though it's funny how Matt is
the one who's turning my crank, when both brothers look the same
, she
thought, bemused as Matt shifted again.
 
Maybe
it's because I met him first?

"Are you
okay?" she finally asked him when he'd moved his leg against hers for the
fourth or fifth time.