Page 16 of Daring Lance

Betty, who Willow recognized from a recent building meeting, smacked Courtney on the back. “Make sure to take your vitamins, Lance, before she shows you some of the apps she’s downloaded!”

Willow let out an exaggerated sigh. “You walked right into that one, Lance.” She looked down at the group, each dressed in their Sunday best, a variety of floral muumuus, and simply shook her head.

“Don’t forget to text us,” Bernadette called to them. “We need to get going, bingo starts in forty-five minutes, and we don’t want to be late.”

“Isn’t the Grand Salon on the first floor? They’ll be there in three minutes.”

Willow shook her head. “You’d be there in three minutes, Lance. They’ll barely make it on time.” Willow blew out a long breath and then retreated from the balcony and back into her kitchen where she walked back and forth across the small space.

“Willow? What’s wrong? I thought we were having breakfast?”

She stopped pacing to look at him. “Lance, the entire building is going to be gossiping about us in a matter of minutes. Aren’t you freaking out?”

He shook his head and slowly blinked his eyes.

Willow’s heart practically stopped. “Will you please stop doing that!”

“Doing what?”

Willow threw her hands up in the air. “That thing you do with your eyes. You stare at me and then slowly open and close your eyelids in a slow blink. It’s driving me crazy!”

Lance took a step toward her and then another.

“In what way?”

Willow’s pulse raced. “In ayou-turn-my-insides-into-mushway.” She wasn’t sure if she had spoken out loud, but when he took another two steps toward her, she realized she probably had.

“Willow?” He took an additional step forward to stop less than six inches away from her.

She immediately raised her hands to stop him from coming any closer. “Lance?”

He put an end to the distance between them by gently grasping each of her forearms and pulling her to him. “Have you forgotten that you want me?”

Willow’s heart beat so fast that she was sure he could see her pulse ticking in her neck. “I, ah, no, we, ah, need to work on Lily’s—”

He bent his head, his lips hovering above hers. “We have all day, Willow. The bingo marathon won’t end until late this afternoon.”

“Yes, but—”

He pressed a soft kiss against her lips. “No ‘buts,’ Willow, only ‘yes.’”

“Only, yes?” She took two gulps of air, afraid if she didn’t, she might pass out in his arms. She was crazy and had definitely lost her mind when it came to Lance Bennett, but right now she was glad to have tossed away all common sense because if there was one thing she knew, it was that she wanted him bad.

“Yes.”

Lance blinked, again taking his time in that seductive, slow-motion way he had perfected, and Willow swore he must have spiked the cream cheese on her bagel with a roofie. His lips hovered above hers, and she stopped breathing all together.

“Willow—”

Her heart raced, and she dared to splay her hands across his upper chest. “Yes?”

His brows furrowed. “Is that your stomach growling? When was the last time you ate?”

Willow knew her eyes had to have widened to the size of softballs. She quickly placed her hand on her abdomen, silently willing her stomach to quiet. “It’s okay; I’m fine. I, ah, tend to get distracted when working, so I may have forgotten to eat dinner yesterday and maybe lunch. But it’s not a big deal. I’m not hungry.”

Lance lifted his head, and Willow knew that whatever had almost happened had no chance of occurring now. Why couldn’t she have had more than a bite of the bagel he had prepared for her? Damn it, she had been three hundred carbs away from potentially doing the wild thing with Lance. Well, maybe not the wild thing, she reluctantly conceded, but she was pretty sure that he hadn’t intended to place a simple peck on her lips and then turn away from her. Damn! Damn! Damn!

He chuckled and then did plant a chaste kiss on her lips. “I think we should feed you breakfast before we further explore how badly you want me.” He grabbed her hand and led her to the kitchen table.

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