“Why are they here so early?” I groan. Why can nothing be easy? Why can’t I date Mal for real and not have to put up with all of this? Whose bright idea was it to go on this show, when I’m obviously half in love with my golf coach and in no way interested in anyone else? Oh, yeah…I’m the genius.
Mallory grips my arm with alarming force. “I don’t have five million dollars to cover the breach in my contract.”
Her obvious panic halts my self-pity in its tracks. “I’m not going to let anything like that happen,” I say matter-of-factly. “But you should get in the backseat. Stay hidden. I’m going to park right up by the van. I’ll get out and chat with them, create some sort of diversion, and then you can get out the opposite side of the carand hot-foot it to the side entrance off the kitchen. That’s where Daisy said she’ll be waiting.”
There’s real fear and a bit of a wild look in Mallory’s eyes. I reach across the console and grab her wrist. Her head snaps down, and she stares at where my skin is touching hers.
“Hey. Look at me.” She slowly raises her gaze to meet mine. Our pulses sync, and my throat goes dry. I squeeze her wrist, willing her to believe that I’ve got this—that I’ve gother. “It’s going to be fine. Get in the backseat and hide for now, okay?”
She swallows. “Okay.”
She unlatches her seatbelt and squirms in her seat, getting herself turned around so she can stick a leg over the console. Mallory is not a large person, but my car is also not very large. She straddles the console, and the right side of her backside is inches away from my face.
I close my eyes because I am a gentleman, but this is a lot for me to handle right now, especially when my feelings for my golf coach have done a swan dive into the sea of unprofessionalism.
Mallory’s foot must slip, or she misjudges the curve of the backseat floor board, because she squeals and tips into me. My hands instinctively come up to catch her, and I end up palming her butt.
“Bradley! Get your hands off of me!”
I immediately let go, but without me supporting her, she falls all the way on top of me, so she’s sitting in my lap.
“Holland!”
“What? I did what you asked me to do!” I wrap my arms around her because I don’t hate this. Not one bit. “If you wanted to cuddle, you could have said something last night.”
She shoves me on the shoulder. “In your dreams.”
“You got that right.”
She rolls her eyes. She must think I’m kidding.
“Help me up.” She pushes off my chest, but there’s not very much room between her and the steering wheel.
“Careful.” I tug her closer to me.
“Holland.” She says my name, and it wobbles a little on her lips.
“What?” I ask her.
“Let me go right now.”
I’d like to dissect the morsel of hesitation I hear, as if I were a mad scientist poring over research in his lab. I do feel sort of crazed right now, so…
“Bradley!” Mal’s tone is firm now.
“I’m not trying to get handsy,” I tell her. “I’m trying to stop you from accidentally honking the horn and drawing attention to our little…situation here.”
Her eyes bulge, and she presses herself flush against me. She’s warm, and she still smells like peaches, and I want to bury my nose into the soft skin at her neck, and—
Focus, Holland!
I meet her gaze, our faces mere inches from each other. The warmth of her breath mingles with mine, and every filament in my body is pulsing with golden desire to brush my lips against hers. Her eyes are so green, and as they search mine, they transform from the color of a golf green to darkened emeralds. There’s uncertainty there. It’s not a common look from Mallory. She’s usually so decisive and so sure. Now, it’s like she’s wavering on the edge of something, listing toward me and toward an unknown future where things between us could be different. Less professional and more personal.
“What do you want me to do, Mal?” My voice is hoarse and low, and it cracks on her name. I don’t even care. I want her to know she has this effect on me. That I’m willing to lay myself bare for her.
Her eyes flare wide, and she sucks in a quick breath, opening her mouth. “I—“
She swallows and gives her head a slight shake. Her eyes lose their hazy luster and regain their usual determined glint. “I think if you let go of me, I can climb into the back from here.”
