Free Someone Like You by Susan Mallery Page B

dumb kid. But I would have remembered you naked.”
    â€œApparently not.”
    Partying? She turned the idea over in her mind. Had that been it? Of course. It made sense. But at the time, she’d been crushed.
    â€œI don’t know if I should laugh or cry,” she admitted.
    â€œWhy don’t you tell me what happened and I’ll help you decide?”
    He was sitting so close she could feel the warmth from his body. If she moved just a little, they would be touching. The thought made her stomach clench and her heart flutter.
    She set her wineglass on the end table. “As I said, it was my eighteenth birthday. I went out to dinner with my dad, then when he went to bed, I crept over to your house. Your mom was already asleep, so I tiptoed inside and waited until you got home.”
    She thought back to that long-ago evening. How scared and excited she’d been. How she’d thought that night would change everything. It had, but not in the way she’d imagined.
    â€œYou always teased me about being jailbait,” she told him.
    He reached up and fingered a strand of her hair. “That was to remind me as much as you.”
    â€œReally?” His words made her want to beam. “I don’t care if you’re lying, it’s nice to hear.”
    â€œIt’s the truth. So there you were, waiting in my bedroom, which I still can’t believe. What happened?”
    She winced. “The one thing I never would have dreamed. You walked in, hit the lights and I dropped my dress to the floor. I wasn’t wearing anything underneath. You took one look at me, ran into the bathroom and promptly threw up.”
    He stared at her incredulously. “No way in hell.”
    â€œDo you think I’d make up an embarrassing moment like that? You were the first guy to see me naked. I’ve been emotionally scarred ever since.”
    She could tell he didn’t want to believe her.
    â€œI would have remembered,” he said.
    â€œApparently not. And all this time I’ve wondered what you thought of me and that night. I can’t believe you don’t remember it.”
    He took her hands in his. He had big hands, with long, thick fingers. Wasn’t that supposed to mean something?
    â€œI’m sorry,” he said as he looked into her eyes. “I can’t tell you how sorry. And speaking for the twenty-two-year-old I was back then, I’m damned disappointed to have missed the opportunity to take advantage of your gorgeous, naked self.”
    She smiled. “I was determined we were going to make love.”
    â€œI wouldn’t have said no. Except for how I would have felt about your father.”
    â€œHe actually never wanted to do it with you.”
    Mac grinned. “Thanks. That’s not what I meant.”
    â€œI know. He was there for you and you wouldn’t have wanted to repay him by deflowering his daughter.”
    â€œExactly. But I might have worked past the guilt.” His humor faded. “Are you okay? Are you really scarred?”
    â€œI got over it.”
    â€œI’m sorry, Jill. It wasn’t about you. Like I said, I was partying pretty hard.”
    â€œI know. It’s fine.”
    She liked how her hands felt in his and the way he brushed his thumbs against her skin. She liked the regret in his expression and how the night was so quiet and they felt like the only two people in the world. She especially liked the heat in his eyes and the way he seemed to be moving closer. She swayed toward him.
    â€œWant to consider a rain check?” he asked, his voice low and tempting, just before he kissed her.
    Jill didn’t have an answer, which was just as well,be cause the second his mouth brushed hers all brain power ceased. There was only the moment and the man and the magic of what he did to her.
    He teased her with just the right amount of pressure. No wimpy almost-kiss, no plunging right for her tonsils. Instead he