Page 43 of Falling for the Maverick

His focus had always been on succeeding in business, first in with Brandt Dry Cleaners, then as a rancher. With women, he’d always had an escape plan.

But now he had to ask himself if he wanted to fall under the spell of a woman who wouldn’t allow him to escape.

It wasn’t the first time that he had to ask just what he had gotten himself into. But if his meddlesome matchmaking sister hadn’t paired them together for the wedding party, he wouldn’t be sitting across from Michelle entertaining licentious thoughts about what he wanted to do with her.

It all began with a kiss in a parking lot that shocked them both. Once their lips touched, they knew something had changed between them and they wanted to know what it was. Lucas was still searching for the answer, though he didn’t know whether it would be the same as Michelle’s.

She’d admitted that she liked him a lot, but there were degrees of liking. Did she like him enough to take their liaisons to another level? Or was she content to keep things as they were and continue to see each other in secret?

His only consolation was that he’d given her a deadline. By the end of the month, she’d have to decide. Meanwhile, their relationship was not only messing with his head but the rest of him. How many cold showers could he take? His libido was all over the place, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to conceal his body’s reactions whenever he was around her.

It had been pure torture for him that night at his ranch when she sat between his legs on the recliner. She’d had no idea that if he hadn’t shifted her body so her bottom hadn’t encountered his groin, she would’ve known just how aroused he’d been. It had taken more than five minutes before his erection went down.

* * *

“Is there something on my face?” Michelle asked Lucas.

Lucas slowly blinked. “No. Why?”

“Because you’re staring at me.”

A slow smile spread across Lucas’s features. “That’s because I like looking at you.”

Michelle lowered her eyes, picked up her napkin and dabbed the corners of her mouth. It wasn’t the first time she’d caught him staring at her; however, this time there was something in his eyes that was different. It made her feel slightly uncomfortable.

“Weren’t you taught that it’s impolite to stare?” she chastised softly.

Leaning back in his chair, Lucas did not break eye contact. “Yes, but you are the exception. I only stare when there’s something worth looking at. And you are worth me being, as you claim, impolite.”

Her eyelids fluttered as she tried to bring her fragile emotions under control. “Why are you changing the rules, Lucas? We agreed to be friends.”

“Friends, Michelle? After our first kiss there was no way we could be friends. Women who are my friends don’t sit between my legs and then expect me to remain in the friend-zone with them.”

Michelle’s jaw dropped when she recalled attempting to sit on his lap in his recliner. “I didn’t know,” she whispered.

“Of course you didn’t know because I was able to move you to a position where you couldn’t detect my hard-on.”

She huffed. “Okay. It won’t happen again.”

“What? Sitting on my lap or turning me on?”

“Both, Lucas.” She didn’t understand why he was making a mountain out of a molehill. Nothing happened. They’d sat together watching the sunset, and when she left his house she’d given him a chaste kiss with none of the passion she was beginning to feel for him. Still, she’d realized that night that if Aaron hadn’t objected to them being together, things would have turned out differently.

Without Aaron’s opposition, Lucas would’ve been able to come to her home to pick her up, and she wouldn’t have had to sneak around and take another route to his ranch to see him. How could something so normal between a man and a woman become so complicated? They were supposed to be mature adults, not kids looking to avoid the wrath of their parents. She felt like they were a modern-day Romeo and Juliet, and the secrecy was making her both physical and emotionally fatigued.

Lucas had set a deadline at the end of the month, but Michelle was ready to end it now. She wanted this date to be their last, so she could continue her life as it was before they’d shared that passionate kiss in a parking lot. A kiss that had awakened feelings she thought long dead after her last relationship imploded.

Two years. That was how long it had taken for her to repair her broken heart and regain the confidence she needed to embark on another relationship. What she hadn’t counted on was her friend’s brother who, within seconds of meeting him, had reminded her she was a woman capable of intense passion.

She’d never had a man look at her the way Lucas Brandt had.

“What’s bothering you, Michelle?”

“Us, Lucas.”

“What about us, bae?”

“I’m not sure we can continue to do this. Sneak around to see each other to keep the peace between our families.”