Take a Chance on Me(40)

She pressed her lips together, propriety and desire warring inside her.

“To sleep,” he added quickly, as he ran his hand up her thigh. “I like the way you feel next to me.”

A shiver ran through her. The bed had plush, down pillows, a rich, velvety comforter, and Mitch. He’d be strong and warm. Wrong and right collided and merged into one insurmountable temptation.

Their eyes met and that delicious hint of sexual tension spiked between them.


She gave up the virtuous fight. “All right.”

He swung back the covers and she climbed in. The tribal tattoo rippled as he leaned over to flick off the Tiffany light on the bedside table. He scooted down, his solid body sliding against hers. He turned toward her, smiling in the pale moonlight cast through the window. “Maybe you’d better face away or I’ll risk getting carried away.”

She rushed to turn over, the ache he evoked warming her belly.

His arm slid over her waist, and he pulled her close. Out of nowhere, the urge to weep swept over her. In the darkness, emotion swelled to the surface, and she blinked back fresh tears.

Behind her, his breath was slow and steady. She placed her arm on top of his and automatically their fingers tangled. His leg slid against hers. The tickle of his hair against the smoothness of her skin was delicious. He kissed her temple, and the covers rustled as he put his head on a pillow.

She was in bed with another man, and it didn’t feel wrong the way it should. It felt all too right.

She stared at the bedside clock as its red numbers blurred, then came back to focus when the tears subsided.

“So you understand about Steve?” she blurted into the darkness, unable to stop her confessions to this man she didn’t really know but somehow felt was integral to her life. “I wasn’t nice when I woke up from the coma: I cried uncontrollably. Raged. Had hysterical fits of temper. He didn’t even blink when I’d lashed out or yelled at him to go away. He just stayed right by my side. My whole world was in upheaval, my family in chaos, and he was like an unmovable rock.”

Mitch’s fingers squeezed hers, but he said nothing, so she went on. “It endeared him to my family in a way nothing else could have. My mom, in particular, treated him like a son. Steve grew up in a very bad home. All he ever wanted was a normal family, so mine adopted him. I didn’t want to make them unhappy, not after . . .” She swallowed, unable to think about the rest. The real reason she was going straight to hell with no chance at redemption.

Mitch pulled her closer.

“So, can you see? Do you understand why I couldn’t leave him?”

“I understand, Maddie.” His voice was a soft, sure whisper in the darkness.

“Why couldn’t I love him the way I should?” It was the same question she’d asked herself millions of times. No matter how hard she’d tried, she’d been unable to talk herself into it.

“Because life’s not that neat.”

No, it wasn’t, which made her wonder what kind of disaster lurked around the corner.





Chapter Eleven



The next morning, while Maddie slept curled in his bed, Mitch called the garage.

“Tommy’s,” Mary Beth Crowley said, her voice hinting at the last bit of drawl left over from her Carolina days.

“How’s my favorite girl this morning?” Mitch asked, teasing her like he always did.

Mary Beth was a thirty-five-year-old, five-foot, blond-haired firecracker who ruled Tommy and half the town with an iron fist. Head of the Junior League and on every committee known to man, she was not the kind of woman you wanted on your bad side.

“Don’t you give me your smooth talk, Mitch Riley. You should be ashamed of yourself, taking advantage of a poor runaway bride on her wedding day.” The sound of the Juicy Fruit gum Mary Beth always chewed snapped in his ear.

“Yeah, well—”

Mary Beth cut him off, talking right over him. “And in her wedding dress! Have you no shame?”

Apparently, when it came to Maddie, he didn’t.

“You know the whole town is talking about this,” Mary Beth continued, and Mitch kept quiet, picking up his coffee mug and leaning against the counter while she lectured.

When she finally wore herself out, he said, “You’re absolutely right, Mary Beth. Is Tommy around?”

More gum snapping, followed by what Mitch was pretty sure was a bubble. With the sigh of the truly resigned, she said, “Hang on, sugar.”

A minute later, Tommy got on the line. “Hey, good news. She’s lucky and it’s only a busted alternator. I called over to Shreveport and they have the part. I can send Luke to get it and have this baby fixed by the end of the day.”

The “good news” felt more like a kick in the gut, and Mitch put his mug down as a cold sweat broke along his forehead, chilling him inside and out. What would Maddie do without the excuse of her car to keep her here?

“You still there?” Tommy asked.

Mitch shook his head, trying to clear the rush of panic from his brain. “Yeah, one sec.”

“’Kay.” The rustling of Tommy’s papers in the background was like nails on a chalkboard to Mitch’s ear.

Would she leave? Sure, they’d agreed to day-by-day last night, but without her broken-down car she had no reason to stay. She could just as easily go find herself in the next town over.