"Are you happy?"
"Yes, I am happy, or I’m getting there, anyway.” She let the words settle around her, wondering for a moment if she truly meant them, or if they were merely something Marilyn would say. It occurred to her that she hadn’t been happy in any real sense of the word for so long that it was a foreign feeling. She had momentary happiness when she was with her family, or laughing with friends, but to feel content in her life, happy, as Killian asked, was a new and tender feeling.
Scary, really. As if at any moment the other shoe would drop. It was a sobering thought.
As if she had called his name, she looked up to find Theo watching her from across the bar. He was dressedcasually in jeans and a dark button down that fitted lovingly over his wide shoulders. The sleeves of his shirt were rolled up over his forearms, and the top two buttons undone, exposing the strong, tanned column of his throat.
Earlier, on her blanket, with his shoes off and his feet in the grass next to her, he had been so relaxed with her and her family. It was so easy to imagine other scenarios where he sat next to her, barefoot and smiling with two little girls next to them. The longing of it nearly made her breath skip.
Stop that.Those were dangerous feelings, and she was much more practical than that. Instead, she focused on the powerful lines of his body standing tall among the people surrounding him. He held a beer in his hand, talking to a group of people, but his eyes were on hers.
Direct. Heated. Waiting.
She knew hers were just as revealing. If she closed her eyes, she still felt his rough palm cupping her breast in her kitchen. Could hear his ragged breath in her ear while they watched her silk robe stroke her nipple into a stiff, aching point while he ground his cock into her. A throb of longing in her belly pulsed lower, down to the insides of her thighs, and back up to spread between her legs. This feeling she knew exactly how to handle.
“Jesus, you’re an open book.” Johnny hooked an arm around her waist and pulled her into him, wrapping her in his arms when she tried to pull away.
“What do you mean?” She frowned at him. His wide shoulders blocked her view of Theo.
Johnny buried his head in her neck and whispered in her ear. “You’re not thinking.”
The rough scratch of his beard scraped her, and she tugged away in irritation. “What’s that supposed to mean, and where’s Charlotte?” She grabbed his ear and yanked like she used to when they were kids.
“Ow.” Johnny stopped whatever he was doing to her neck. “I’m saving you two from making fools of yourselves in front of everyone,” he said grimly. “Come on, let’s dance.” He herded her out to the dance floor, keeping his big body between hers and Theo’s.
“You’re being annoying.” She looked around him, but Theo was no longer there. Damn. “And where’s Charlotte?” she asked again, angry all over again on behalf of her friend. “Weren’t you supposed to go out tonight?”
“At Bingo night with her mom,” he smiled goofily. “She wouldn’t let me go, but I’m meeting her later.”
Amber softened at that smile. “You really like her, don’t you?”
“I wouldn’t go to Bingo for just anyone.” He spun her around and when she was back in his arms, he looked more serious. “Be careful, Amber.”
And there it was, the nebulous feeling that she couldn’t quite shake.
She searched his eyes. “What do you mean?”
“Everyone’s watching what happens with you two. You’re working for him, the morning runs, and now he’s meeting your family. If things don’t work out, it’s not the golden boy of Northfield that’s going to feel the damage, it’ll be you. I don’t want to see you hurt again.” He searched her eyes, and Amber remembered Johnny as a fifteen-year-old kid fighting over her honor.
“It’s fine. There’s nothing going on between us,” she lied. “I’m just trying to get him to loosen up a little, you know, be a man of the people and all before the big election.”
Sure. If loosening up meant hot-as-sin food fights in her kitchen where she ended up topless. That was definitely to benefit his political career. Very selfless of her, really.
She smiled, bright enough to block out any more of those sensible thoughts. Everything wasfine.Fine. She had it all under control. She knew not to get attached. Please. She could write a book on not getting attached. “You don’t have to worry about me, you know. I’m not a kid anymore.”
He spun her out and back gracefully. “I’ll always worry about you.”
“Hey, what did Theo want to talk to you about yesterday?” She asked when they came back together.
“He wanted to know about us.” He dipped her low and she held onto his shoulders.
“What did you tell him?”
Johnny spun her again, and when she came back, he was grinning that bad boy smile. “Not a goddamned thing.”
“I keep tellingpeople that happy hours are supposed to be happy.” Ford slid onto the barstool next to Theo.
“It’s not happy hour.” Theo said. He watched Amber being touched by yet another man, this time the one she’d stuck her tongue out to the night she was fired. The kid bear-hugged her, and her little white sundress swung back and forth teasingly across the back of her thighs. He set her down and she immediately settled under his arm, smiling up at him.
