“We’ve only just met each other.”

“When it’s the real thing,” Nicole said, also surprisingly free of mockery. “It happens like a train wreck. You see it coming but you can’t look away.”

She already knew that. Damn it, she already knew. She’d done love once, and it had been glorious.

And painful.

And yet…God help her, she might have been willing to try again.

If Mac had been willing. But she couldn’t, wouldn’t, compete with the memory of his ex-wife. “You guys are off the mark on this one.”

She had other things to think about. Such as getting the money together for the next round of renovations. “So,” she said with false cheer. “Who’s up for a trip to my storage unit to see what antique I can bear to part with this month?”

Groans met this, and Taylor smiled. Friends. If they were all she ever had, it would be enough.

She’d make it enough.

9

INSIDE, MAC LOOKED AROUND for something to get busy with. Something that would take his mind off the one incredibly sexy blonde he should never touch again. He looked at the pile of leftover two-by-fours from the framing they’d finished weeks ago. He’d asked someone to stack them, and of course no one had. Fine. He could use the distraction.

Halfway through the load of lumber, he was breathing hard but still thinking. Thinking that Taylor was driving him crazy.

From outside he heard female voices raised in laughter. He could pick out Taylor’s, of course, though he refused to look. He thought he could even smell her. He stacked the wood faster, but it didn’t help. That sensual scent she wore made him think of long, hot summer nights. Of dancing beneath shimmering moonbeams, skin to skin. Of deep, drugging kisses-

Careless, he walked too close to the stack of wood and bashed his shin on a two-by-four.

That wasted a few moments, hopping around, swearing colorfully. With renewed grimness and a very sore leg, he stacked the rest of the wood, then pulled his T-shirt away from his damp skin. Damn, today was hot as hell.

He’d just picked up a set of plans when a scream prompted him to drop them and run to the window. Just outside in the front yard, where only moments ago he’d flattened Taylor to the ground and pressed his body to hers, were the three women.

Two of them were screaming in terror, not that they were facing any danger to make them scream like that. Not unless you counted one dangerous to his mind and heart Taylor Wellington, who, with a particularly evil laugh, lifted the hose.

He was certain she had no earthly clue how she looked, hair wild, skin glowing and damp, and her smile…it wrecked him. She looked wet, and mischievous, and sexy as hell, which didn’t help his disposition any.

She leveled the hose on Suzanne and Nicole.

Within seconds the three of them were drenched, and catfighting like Mac hadn’t seen since he’d cancelled cable the year before.

Like a very weak male, he pressed closer to the window. Nicole grabbed the hose from a huffy Taylor, and he raised a brow. Suzanne went down on her butt with a squeal, and he winced. And when she got right back up with a warlike shriek, he could only shake his head.

Then Nicole tackled both Taylor and Suzanne to the grass and rolled them around in a tangle of limbs.

Mac had his nose pressed to the glass now, and he was quite certain he shouldn’t be hard as a rock watching them go at it.

And when they finally dropped the hose and fell to the ground laughing like goons, he had to take a deep breath. They’d gotten it out of their system.

Good, he could work now.

Then Taylor laughed at something Nicole said.

Laughed and looked…happy, Mac realized with a sudden hitch in his gut. So carelessly happy with her clothes clinging to her, her eyes bright with humor.

And nothing like the image he’d had of her when they’d first met. That bothered him, too, how much he wanted to cling to that other Taylor, because then he wouldn’t be so attracted.

There had been a time in his life when he’d wanted nothing more than a deep, abiding love. A family. He’d wanted it all, but that had passed.

Ariel had made certain of it.

Now he didn’t need that kind of a connection in his life. He didn’t need anyone.

But as if she could feel him and his conflicted thoughts, Taylor turned and looked right at him.

Gazes connected. Held.

And Mac stopped breathing.

After a long moment, she turned away, leaving him to let out a slow breath.

Nope, he didn’t need anyone. Not ever again.


MAC SPENT the next week working like a dog on the woodworking portion of the job-normally his favorite part-thinking it should dispel the feel of Taylor in his arms, the taste of her in his mouth.

Should, but didn’t. He spent every night at his kitchen table, trying not to look at the mountain of bills, drafting up the plans for his own renovation, hoping he got approval for one of the bids he had out there in order to pay for it.

By the end of the next week, he still hadn’t heard from the town council, and the stress level was rising. He went to work early on Friday, thinking a little manual labor might help.

Taylor’s car wasn’t out front, but in a town like South Village, where a parking spot was more prized than the actual car, that didn’t mean much.

But Taylor, the moneyless princess, was still very much a princess in that way. She wanted her car parked right out front, and more times than not, she actually managed it.

Mac figured once a princess, always a princess.

He, on the other hand, had to park a good three blocks away, even though it was still practically the crack of dawn.

The building was silent. Letting himself in with the key Taylor had given him, he walked up the stairs. They’d come so far in all these weeks. They were working in the apartment across from Taylor’s today, putting in kitchen cabinets, and for a moment he let himself relish all they’d done up to this point.

The place was looking good, really good. With all the wood trim, brick and wood accents, the natural charm and personality of the old building was shining through.

He put on his tool belt because he liked the weight of it, and because he liked the work. He wasn’t, and never would be, a Cadillac contractor, someone who ran a job and yet never picked up a hammer.

He wanted to lift a hammer. Hell, he wanted to do it all.

He looked around for the plans, and remembered he’d left them in Taylor’s room when he’d been with the painter. A glance at his watch reminded him it wasn’t quite seven.

Taylor Wellington was not a morning person. He’d learned this. Though she always appeared by eight, perfectly dressed and perfectly made-up, looking stunning as usual, she rarely spoke until she’d walked across the street to the coffee house and purchased a very large coffee.

Mac enjoyed watching the process, though he’d cut out his tongue before admitting it to her. Except for business, they hadn’t spoken since the water fight. He told himself that was a good thing.

Letting himself into her apartment was easy, he had a key for that, too. But walking into her bed room, where he’d left the plans, wasn’t quite as simple. There were scents in there, scents of soap, per fume…and the woman who wore them. There were clothes, perfectly folded as always, but clothes that made his fingers itch to touch. And then there was the bed, with the luxurious sheets and fluffy pillows that made him want to climb on, jerk her close and mess up both the woman and the bed.

Those luxurious sheets started moving, and were tossed aside as Taylor sat straight up. Her hair was wild, she wore no makeup, and nearly no clothes.

What she did have on made him swallow real hard. It appeared to be a teddy, all pale yellow lace.

The teeny tiny straps had fallen off both shoulders, rendering gravity his greatest ally as the generous curves of her breasts nearly spilled out, until she put a hand to her chest. “Mac?”

“I…I’m sorry.”

She just blinked.

He knew he should spin around and walk out the door, but he couldn’t quite feel his feet. “I didn’t think you were home.”

Another slow blink.

Oh God. Go, just start walking. Do the noble thing here, Ace, and get the hell out. “Your car isn’t out front.”

With a huge yawn, she raised her arms over her head and stretched, allowing the lace to slip another fraction of an inch.

His heart nearly came right out of his chest. “Uh…” He waggled a finger in the direction of her chest. “Your pjs…they’re falling.” Oh man, she was incredible, all soft and glowing and rosy from sleep. She stretched and yawned again, her legs shifting, pulling the sheet down to her thighs. The little-and the key word here was little-nightie barely covered her panties.

If she was even wearing any.

The thought made it difficult to breathe, as every ounce of blood in his body headed for parts south.

Another stretch from the princess, and this time she added a little moan of pleasure at the feeling of her muscles loosening. The sheet fell all the way off, and her creamy thighs came into view, along with the smallest peekaboo hint of matching yellow lace between them.

Mac nearly moaned, too. Was she teasing him on purpose? And was that the morning chill making her nipples pout up against the lace, or something else, something like…him? Be professional, he told him self. Get out. Now. He even backed up a step, but then his feet stopped working. “Taylor.”

“Hmm?” She yawned, eyes closed.

His eyes narrowed as the truth sank in. “You’re not awake.”

Her eyes jerked open. Her body stiffened in mid-stretch. “Mac?”