Marriage On The Cards. Susan Carlisle

know.” Dylan smiled at her, set her heart fluttering. “I’ve seen your office, remember?”

      “That’s right.” Mackenzie nodded. “So...you see my point?”

      “No. I don’t.” Dylan put a stack of pancakes on a plate for her. “I have a maid. Problem solved.”

      Mackenzie could never imagine her life with a maid, which was yet another difference between them, but she decided to move on to a different subject. Dylan saturated her pancakes in butter and syrup, piled crispy bacon onto her plate and served her hot coffee. He ignored her calorie concerns, citing that everyone should allow themselves to have at least one cheat day a week and this was it. His logic, and the fact that he seemed to like a woman with a good appetite, encouraged her to devour the pancakes along with a second helping of bacon.

      “I really don’t normally eat like this,” Mackenzie said, looking guiltily at her near-empty plate.

      “Do you want more?” Dylan asked. “There’re a couple of pieces of bacon left.”

      Mackenzie pushed her plate away from her and cringed. “Uh-uh...no. I’ve eaten too much already.”

      Dylan had managed to charm her into complacency and all she could think of now was how many calories she had just consumed.

      “Hey...” Dylan leaned on his forearm and stared at her face. “Mackenzie...please stop beating yourself up about the food. Okay? Give yourself permission to have a little fun.”

      After they cleaned up after breakfast, Dylan convinced her that the next logical step was to step down into his hot tub.

      Mackenzie went to the guest room to change into a pair of Dylan’s boxer briefs and a T-shirt. She called to check on Hope and then quickly sent Ray an I’m OK text message before she emerged from the room wearing Dylan’s makeshift bathing suit.

      “I look ridiculous,” she complained to Dylan.

      Dylan was in his surf trunks, bare to the waist, and barefoot. “Not to me you don’t.”

      Dylan circled behind her and pulled the extra material of the T-shirt toward the back. “Here...let me tie a knot back here or the shirt will float up when you get in the water.”

      Now standing in front of her, he eyed her appreciatively. “There. Perfect.”

      Mackenzie looked down. Dylan’s adjustment to the outfit pulled the front of the shirt tight over her breasts.

      “Was that for my sake or yours?” she asked, half-teasing, half-serious.

      “Both...” Dylan wasn’t shy about admiring her with his eyes. “Definitely both.”

      She felt self-conscious walking out to Dylan’s hot tub, but once she slipped into the hot, bubbling water, Mackenzie forgot all about her silly outfit. Dylan was right—this was bliss.

      “Aaaaah.” Mackenzie sank down farther into the water.

      “Uh-huh...didn’t I tell you?” Dylan slid in beside her.

      “You did.”

      Beneath the water, Dylan reached for her hand. Pleased, she intertwined her fingers with his, dropped her head back, closed her eyes and let her mind go blissfully blank. Time moved but they didn’t. Not for a while. Not until the sun, beating down on her scalp, finally became too hot to bear. Mackenzie sighed deeply, opened her eyes and moved to the middle of the hot tub. Dylan’s interested eyes followed her every move. She leaned back and dipped her hair back into the water so she could cool off her scalp, and to slick her hair back. When she stood up and turned around, Dylan was smiling at her.

      “What?” Mackenzie asked. “Why are you grinning at me like a Cheshire cat?”

      Dylan’s eyes drifted down to her breasts. “Can’t I admire you?”

      Mackenzie followed his gaze. The wet T-shirt had molded itself to her breasts, leaving nothing to the imagination. Mackenzie immediately sunk down in the water to her neck.

      “No...” Dylan shook his head. “You’ve got to stop doing that.”

      Dylan was at her side, his arm around her waist; he kissed her as their bodies floated backward toward the side of the hot tub. Dylan lifted her into his arms, spun around and pulled her onto his lap. Then he kissed her again, his tongue taking possession of her mouth, his hand taking possession of her breast. He was already aroused; she could feel it against her thigh.

      “When I take you back upstairs, Mackenzie...” Dylan whispered sensually into her ear. “I don’t want there to be anything between us this time.”

      Mackenzie knew that Dylan was referring to the fact that she hadn’t let him take off her top when they had made love. Her body wanted Dylan again, and so did she.

      “Dylan...” Mackenzie moaned pleasurably into the sun-warmed skin on his neck. “Take me back upstairs...”

      * * *

      After they made love for a third time, Mackenzie took a shower, alone, in the guest bathroom. Dylan offered to share his shower with her, but for some reason, even after all of the lovemaking, a shower seemed somehow too...intimate. Mackenzie hurried through her shower, got dressed and made the bed. She tried to arrange the decorative pillows exactly as she had found them but finally gave up.

      Dylan was lounging in the den, flipping through TV channels, waiting for her. “What would you like to do with your free afternoon?”

      Mackenzie smiled a mischievous smile. “There is something that I’d really like to do.”

      “What’s that?”

      Mackenzie’s smile widened. “Drive the Corvette.”

      She thought that Dylan was going to shut her down immediately. To guys like her brother, Jett, and Dylan, their cars were their babies. And they didn’t let anyone get behind the wheel.

      He shocked her when he said, “I’ll let you drive her. We can take her down to Ocean Beach Pier. Have you been to the restaurant on that pier?”

      Mackenzie shook her head no.

      “Have you ever tried fish tacos?”

      She wrinkled her nose distastefully. “No...”

      “Then today is your lucky day, Mackenzie!”

      They gathered their things and then Dylan handed her the keys to his pride and joy. She slid into the driver’s seat and wrapped her hands around the steering wheel. As she backed out of the garage, she was half expecting him to have a change of heart and scream for her to stop. It didn’t happen. They rolled down the windows, turned on the radio to a classic-rock station and headed to the pier. She wanted to open her up and really test the horsepower under the hood, but she didn’t. The last thing she wanted to do was leave even so much as a scratch on a car this valuable. They parked and walked down to the beach. Dylan’s phone had been ringing and beeping with texts and emails. He finally just shut his phone off and left it in the car. She didn’t ask about who was trying to contact him, but she knew his recent history. He was a single, good-looking guy with deep pockets and a party pad. She didn’t doubt his friends, both male and female, were missing one of their regular spots to party at the beach.

      They walked side by side, but Mackenzie wasn’t ready to hold hands in public. They never stopped talking, that’s what she liked about hanging out with Dylan. She wouldn’t have thought that they’d have much to say to each other, but they did. He made her laugh; he was silly and goofy and liked to joke around. He’d never really taken life too seriously when they were kids, and he still didn’t. He still liked to have fun, and he wanted to take her along for that ride.

      “Okay...be honest...” Dylan had just demolished five fish tacos. “You shouldn’t have judged, right?”

      The Ocean Pier Restaurant was built on the side of the pier. They were sitting at a small table