Page 54 of Off-Limits Love
Mak tilted her head back and gazed up at him, her smoky eyes and full lips drawing him like nothing had in a very long time. Years, if he was honest. But when it came to an answer? “Y-you’re m-my friend,” was the best he could come up with.
ChapterFifteen
It made no sense for Mak to ask Ana to drop her off at Sam’s on the way home when Finn lived next door and would drive right by on his way home.
At least that’s what Mak told herself when the night drew to an end and the girls were cuddled up with their guys dancing, teasing, flirting, or just staring deeply into each other’s eyes like they couldn’t wait to get somewhere private.
Ana lived close and was just across the highway on the other side of the four-lane, but Finn was right there. And he didn’t seem to want to let her go, either. Which, if she were honest, left her feeling more than a bit flustered and confused about her need for breathing room.
She had all sorts of doubts in her head as to why she’d so determinedly set the friendship boundary when there was so much to like about him. When that red-flag meter Zoey mentioned had yet to go off.
But when she thought of the chaos in her life at the moment? Adding Finn still didn’t seem like a good idea. In fact, it seemed like a quicker way to disaster and pain.
Stop living in fear.
She lifted her chin and squared her shoulders, telling herself fear wouldn’t win. But that didn’t change the fact letting Finn think there could be more wasn’t fair to him.
She wasn’t sure she could be a girlfriend in a new relationship—should he even want that—when she was already a single mom and caretaker, starting a new business…
Who had time for all the work a relationship required? The emotional capacity to open up and be vulnerable and—bein a relationship, period? If that was even what he wanted, because like it or not, Finn was a man, and men wanted a lot of things that had nothing to do with relationships, and she wasn’t a casual kind of girl. Never had been.
Still, they’d danced nearly every dance—with Hudson insisting Finn not be a “Mak-hog” and allow him one. Finn had reluctantly released her to Hud, but not until he’d muttered something in Hudson’s ear that Mak wasn’t able to hear.
Hudson, being the ornery scamp that he was, just grinned and winked at her, earning a scowl from Finn that lasted the entirety of the allotted one dance.
Hudson’s friend had eventually joined the fun, and Mak couldn’t help but sense some tension between the two when Hudson caught Jameson’s gaze straying to Isla a few too many times.
Jameson and Isla had even wound up dancing together—until Hud had pointedly made himself a third wheel.
Since Isla wasn’t old enough to drink and her brothers were determined to make sure she didn’t, she was safely walked to her Jeep to drive herself back to what Mak had heard was an elaborate mansion on the island where the young woman worked as a live-in nanny.
The group had said their goodbyes at the luxury hotel’s entrance, with Mak feeling loved due to the many hugs she’d been given by her new friends.
The cool night air felt good on her skin when they emerged from the hotel lobby. The bar was still hopping, and Quinley and Ana had told her Rhys Lachlan considered expanding the bar into one of the ballrooms to accommodate the crush and make it an actual nightclub since the island didn’t have one. Apparently plans were in the works.
Given the high-end vibe of the hotel and the fun-loving crowd, she had no doubt the expansion would go over well with locals and tourists alike.
After yet another round of hugs between the ladies, everyone said their goodbyes and walked to their respective vehicles. They made it to Finn’s truck, and he moved with her to the passenger side to open the door like the gentleman she knew him to be.
It wasn’t until that moment she realized the truck was lifted and she couldn’t get in even with the vehicle’s side steps, not without exposing quite a bit of thigh and rear in the borrowed shirtdress Ana and Quinley had insisted was perfect for her.
Mak shivered when she heard Finn’s deep rumbling chuckle as he realized her dilemma. He stared down at her, a twinkle in his dark gaze and handsome face as he stepped closer.
“Need a lift?”
His low murmur held the slightest trace of stutter with thick consonants, but they were there, and she hated that he still felt so nervous around her.
Finn had touched her all night. His fingers at her waist, back, or around her hips when she’d sat on his lap because every seat was taken.
Despite several offers from Hudson to change companions, Finn hadn’t allowed her to sit with his younger brother. If anything, every offer had resulted in Finn cuddling her a bit closer until she’d leaned against him with an arm around his shoulders and the musky, woodsy scent of his cologne teasing her senses as much as the fingertips that felt like fire scorching her skin wherever he touched.
Throughout the course of the evening, Finn had brushed her hair over her shoulder and discreetly wiped a drop of her drink from her lower lip before bringing the digit to his own lips to absorb.
He’d kept a hand on her knee, thumb stroking lazily back and forth across the skin and bone, leaving a breath-stealing drag of tingles behind that had her imagining that hand moving higher.
And now?
Holding her gaze, he shifted and leaned low to scoop her up bridal-style, but then just held her against his broad chest. She wrapped her arms around his neck for balance, holding her breath at the way he looked at her.
