“Yeah, I know.”
“You’ve really been persistent in spending time with me, so if you thought a lasting relationship would come out of this, it’s not going to happen. I’m not looking for one.”
She blinked at him. “Oh my God. Are you serious?”
Her response confused him. “Yeah.”
“Why is it when a man pursues a woman he only wants sex, but when a woman pursues a man, she’s trying to tie him down?” She leaned forward. “Here’s a little piece of news for you, Mac. There are a lot of women out there who aren’t looking for anything more than a good time. I’m one of them. I saw you. Thought you were hot as hell and wanted to fuck you. It’s that simple.”
At her words, he inhaled sharply. God, the woman really did hold nothing back. She’d most likely be the same way in bed. And didn’t that thought cause his gut to clench.
“I’ll forgive this one little slipup of yours because I get the impression you have been out of the dating scene for awhile, and I can see why you took my actions the way you did. But, are we clear now?”
He swallowed. “Perfectly.”
She smiled and squeezed his forearm. “Good. Now, what would you like to do with the rest of the day?”
He knew exactly where the day was headed. There’d be no stopping them, and he wasn’t going to fight it. “I want to make you dinner,” he said. And added meaningfully, “At your place.”
Chapter Five
Mac checked the grocery bag for the fifth time to make sure he had everything packed. Fucking nerves. Since he’d returned from the race, the fact that it’d been years since he’d been with a woman for the first time had started to get the better of him. He’d been fine until he’d borrowed Lance’s truck to run to the grocery store to pick up what he needed to cook dinner. Then reality had given him a stinging bitch-smack across the face. Where?
In the condom aisle.
He hadn’t bought protection in over a decade. The wide assortment presented before him had almost made him lose his cool. Glow in the dark? Really? In the end, he’d ended up grabbing a box of extra ribbed. The nerves were temporary, though, a mind-over-matter situation. He always got edgy before he took the walk to face his opponent.
Unfortunately, his need to be prepared had brought forth a serious case of holy-shit-he-was-having-sex-tonight awareness. Made him think stupid-as-shit stuff like, what if he was rusty? Or clumsy?
The hell he would be.
As soon as he saw Gayle tonight, all that raging lust would take control again and he’d dominate the fuck out of her bed. Just as he did in the cage.
Oh, yes, he would.
Damn, he liked this new way of thinking.
While he’d battled his demons on the course, Gayle had become his today—his in-the-moment. She wasn’t his future—and thankfully she was on the same page with him about that—but she was a symbol of the future he could hope to have with somebody, someday.
Taking Gayle’s hand had been the hardest thing he’d ever done. But he’d done it. He’d taken one huge step toward letting people into his life again. It terrified the living crap out of him.
The back screen door squeaked open, then snapped shut. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw Lance step into the kitchen.
“Hey,” his friend said.
Other than to borrow his truck, he and Lance hadn’t really spoken since last night. Seemed clearing the air with his friend was becoming a constant part of being back in Kansas. “You were right. Gayle’s gotten under my skin, and I was freaked the hell out. I was struggling with my attraction to her.”
Lance regarded him evenly. “All said in past tense. Something change?”
“Gayle took me to a mud race.” Mac exhaled with what may have sounded like resignation, but was anything but. “She has a way about life. She just enjoyed every damn second we were out there. She made me want to enjoy it. I hadn’t felt like that in a long time, and I kissed her. It felt good. Right. So, yeah, something changed.”
He waited for Lance to respond, but all he got was a squeeze of the shoulder as Lance walked past. Before he walked out of the room, his friend said, “She’ll be good for you, Mac.”
Staring at the empty doorway, he hoped to hell Lance was right, and this wasn’t the biggest mistake of his life. Taking a steadying breath, he gathered up the bags and started the trek across the field.
As he reached the edge of her yard, Gayle stepped out onto her porch and an unfamiliar sensation squeezed inside his chest. A smile tugged his lips. Just like that, the hours of edginess were gone.
“Hey, handsome,” she called.
He strode across the lawn, taking in her pale yellow tube-top sundress. The tops of her shoulders were slightly pink from the day in the sun, and her auburn hair hung freely around their slender curves. He trotted up the stairs, and his grin broke free at her bare feet.