Page 1 of Daring Lance

ONE

“Yes, you are...you are definitely my favorite guys. Yes, you are!” Willow bent down, hovering on the threshold of the condo’s front door to allow each of the dogs to nuzzle her neck. “Don’t you worry. Lance may have had to leave you for a meeting today, but I’m here now, and you will have a great morning with me.” Giving each canine a scratch behind an ear, Willow stood up and shut the door behind her, the dogs following quickly on her heels into the apartment.

She took a few steps into the galley kitchen off of the front door and was immediately drawn to a paper bag resting on top of the kitchen counter. She quickly peeked inside the brown paper sack. “Oh, yum!” She let out an exaggerated moan as she ran the tip of her tongue across her upper lip. “It totally figures. Lance has good taste in bagels, too.” She shot a glance at the dogs sitting expectantly at her feet. “Hey, no judging. I’ll walk off the carbs today.” She grabbed a bagel from the bag, quickly taking a bite and licking her lips as she did. “Emm…he may not be my type, but he sure knows how to pick the best bagels.” That the lie slid off her lips so easily surprised even her. Despite having spent the last week trying to convince herself otherwise, Lance Bennett was definitely her type in so many ways.

Willow closed her eyes, savoring the seasonings from the everything bagel as they crossed her taste buds. She’d have to extend the boys’ walk for an extra couple of miles this morning, but it would be worth it. She thought about checking to see if he had any cream cheese but refrained. It was one thing to snag a bagel left out in the open, but raiding the fridge seemed to encroach upon a level of privacy she was not ready to breach, especially not with Lance. Repeating the guy’s name, even if only to herself, was enough to bring a burn to her cheeks. She certainly didn’t need to know what flavor of cream cheese he preferred.

“And I wouldn’t be your type, why?”

Willow’s eyes popped open, and she swallowed several times in an effort to force a hunk of bread down her throat. Holy crap, Lance was home, and he stood right in front of her tucking his customary black T-shirt into the waist band of his jeans. She caught a glimpse of smooth, flat abdomen and forgot to breathe. Damn, she had been able to avoid meeting him in person since the wedding of her best friend, Madison, and his brother Luke two weeks ago. She and Lance had communicated only by text when he needed the dogs walked, but her luck had finally run out, and here they were–face to face- and her mouth was stuffed with a hunk of stolen bagel. “Lanncceeah…” The bagel had lodged in a place that blocked her vocal cords, and as much as she tried, the dense piece of bread wouldn’t go down.

Despite several gulps of air, the bagel remained stuck, which only proved to her that she should have gone to the grocery store yesterday rather than show up at Lance’s this morning half starving. She bent over, sinking her head to her knees, certain that if Lance hadn’t previously thought she was a lunatic, he did now.

“How about some water? Will that help?”

Willow raised her head, then stood up, nodding eagerly. “Pluueaasss”

She cringed as she caught the grin that curled the corner of Lance’s generous lips. It was not lost on her that she might be dying from the loss of oxygen, and she still couldn’t help but notice the faint dimples that peaked out from the corners of his mouth. Even in what might be her final moments on earth, Lance caused her libido to go haywire. There was no doubt about it: she was definitely hopeless when it came to Lance Bennett.

Lance handed her a glass of water, and she eagerly chugged the contents. The bagel, as delicious as it had been, finally lost its dense consistency and slid down her throat. “Whew, thanks.” She took another drink of water and then placed the glass on top of the kitchen counter. “Well, that was embarrassing.” She raised her eyes from the spot on the floor that had fascinated her for the last several moments only to find Lance smirking at her.

“Bagel thievery can be embarrassing. I get it.”

Willow jerked her head back, a long strand of her thick black hair flying behind her shoulder. “I wouldn’t exactly say it was thievery. After all, you needed someone to walk the dogs while you were at work this morning. I like to think of the bagel as more like dog-walking compensation. If anything, you are getting off cheap.” She crossed her arms in front of her, more confident now that there was a consistent flow of oxygen to her lungs. If only he didn’t stare at her with those piercing blue eyes. They had the power to wrap themselves around her like a pair of tentacles. “Why are you home anyway? I thought you needed me to take Cooper and Harold for a walk this morning.”

Lance anchored his hands on lean hips, right above the waistline of his low-hanging jeans. Willow wondered if Levi Strauss had known what havoc he caused the libido when he’d invented low riders. Whew, if Lance hadn’t had that wicked gaze of his trained on her, she would have swiped at the perspiration gathering at her brow-either that or wrap her arms around the muscles outlined by his thin cotton T-shirt. No, she would not allow any wrapping to happen. Lance Bennett was not for her and never would be. He may be yummier than an extra-large, dark chocolate bar, but he was definitely not someone who she could spend her time fantasizing about. Even if he were interested in her, which he wasn’t or at least wouldn’t be for long. Willow couldn’t live with Lance’s M.O.It’s been fun, but bye-bye, darling. I’m off to my next assignment in South America or Mexico or Peru or wherever the job takes me. Nope, that was not the type of relationship Willow wanted even if he offered…which he wasn’t.

“My meeting was postponed until ten. I forgot to text you, sorry.”

Willow had to search her brain in an effort to comprehend his response until her long-forgotten question finally made an appearance. “Oh. I, ah, no problem. I can take the dogs for a walk anyway. Have to burn off the carbs.” She smiled weakly. “Do you have a baggie I can put the rest of my bagel in? I think I’ll finish it later.”

“Top drawer under the toaster.” Lance stood outside the kitchen area, his muscular arms— she assumed the result of manual labor and several hours at the gym each week-were crossed casually in front of his torso. “While you stash away the stolen goods, I’d like to hear more about why I’m not your type.”

Willow paused in the middle of stuffing her bagel inside of a plastic baggie, wishing she could snag a second one from the paper sack. “Huh?” she managed to eke out, barely. Crap, Lance wasn’t going to let go of what he overheard her crooning to the dogs.

“You said I wasn’t your type, and I want to know why because it sure didn’t seem to stop you from locking your lips with mine at the wedding reception.”

Willow struggled to keep her lower jaw from hitting the floor as her heart pounded and her brows shot to her forehead. She made an attempt at laughter and wanted to flee in horror when, instead, a small giggle came out sounding like a gurgle at the back of her throat. “Locking lips? Lance, I mean…, it was simply a kiss between the best man and maid of honor during some sappy, who-can-remember-it-anyway, song.” Willow glanced down at the dogs, both of whom looked at her as if they didn’t believe a word she said but might be persuaded to think otherwise by aMilkbone, while Lance continued to regard her with his never-ending grin. It didn’t help that his sandy blonde hair, a Bennett brothers’ trademark, lay tussled and tempting against his forehead, begging her to brush it away.

“The song wasPurple Rain, Willow. And we definitely kissed throughPrince’severy last lyric.”

Willow grasped a large hunk of her hair that had made its way to the front of her shoulder and now lay carelessly across her collar bone, twisting it between her fingers. “Who requestsPrinceat a wedding reception, anyway?Purple Rainis a stupid song to play at an emotional event. It forces you to react.”

Lance threw his head back and laughed while Willow pressed her palm against the heat of embarrassment that crawled up her neck. Maybe Madison, one of her two best friends and landlord, would let her out of her lease, and she could move to a different apartment this afternoon? Ugh, how had this happened to her? She and Lance had danced, as was expected of the best man and maid of honor at a wedding, and they had maybe swapped spit for a few seconds-okay, more like a few minutes, minutes she had spent hours thinking about over the last two weeks-but what was the big deal? Why did he have to make her feel as if she wanted to grab the dogs’ leashes and make a run for it? She didn’t want to explain why she had dashed off the dance floor and hadn’t stopped running until she had reached her hotel room that night. She’d been avoiding him ever since. That didn’t warrant discussion now, or ever.

“My cousin Shelia.”

“What?”

Lance’s smile had spread to his eyes, now brimming with a warm heat from their sapphire depths, and for the life of her, Willow could not look away from him.

“You asked who requests aPrincesong at a wedding, and it’s my cousin Shelia. She and her husband, Don, met at aPrinceconcert, like, I don’t know, forty years ago, and they have been torturing the relatives ever since withPrincesongs at every family gathering. I have to admit, though, hisPurple Rainalbum now holds a top five spot in my all-time favorite list.”

He raised a brow, his meaning she could only think intentional, and the burn that had previously crawled up her neck made a swift sweep up to her cheeks. “Yeah, well, the champagne they served at the wedding sure was strong.”

Lance bent his head ever so slightly to the side, his eyes widened in surprise. “I didn’t think you had any? I thought you said you didn’t like the taste?”

Seriously, was Lance put on this earth just to provoke her into wanting to become a hermit, never leaving her condo and certainly not attending a wedding ever again? “Ah, yeah, right. Anyway, I guess I will take the dogs for a walk now. You should probably get going to your meeting?” Willow took the dog leashes from a hook by the door, immediately causing the two canines at her feet to pant wildly as they ran circles around her legs.

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