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  Both girls were staring at her with wide eyes, hanging onto her every word. “Well, did you let him?” Kay asked with a low tense voice.

  “I didn’t.” Lacy shook her head, almost sadly.

  “Oh, my Lord, why ever not?” Denise couldn’t believe her ears.

  “I got nervous.” Understatement of the year.

  “Man, he really must’ve been pissed after that,” Denise said.

  “I made it up to him,” Lacy said with a slight smirk.

  “How?”

  “I uh…let’s just say my knees are a little sore this morning.”

  Kay put a hand over her gaping mouth. “So you got your hands on it?” She said the word ‘it’ with great emphasis.

  “And her mouth apparently,” Denise added with a dry chortle.

  Lacy smiled. Now who was the one who ate the canary? “I got both my hands and my mouth on it. And girls, let me tell you, that man is as magnificently and wonderfully made as rumor says he is.”

  “Please tell me you slept with him,” Kay begged, grasping both of Lacy’s hands in her own.

  “We never got that far,” Lacy admitted, letting out a long breath.

  “Of course you didn’t,” Denise said with another of her signature smirks. “I bet you finished him off with your mouth and he all of a sudden had something more important he needed to go do. Men!”

  Lacy realized Denise was speaking from experience, which made her feel bad for the other girl who always came off so tough and nonchalant. But she had to defend Jake. Apparently, he was nothing like other men. “No, oh God, no,” Lacy disagreed. “It wasn’t like that at all. I thought he’d want to get rid of me as soon as possible after he finished, but he didn’t.” A group of older women walked by and Lacy lowered her voice. “Jake returned the favor.”

  “He went back down?” Kay asked, envy dripping from every word.

  “He insisted. I couldn’t have stopped him if I’d tried. He was adamant about it and I let him.” The memory of Jake’s sandpaper tongue on her clit and his big finger inside of her had Lacy’s body all a-tingle. She fanned herself a little bit, which made the girls laugh. “Honest to God, it was amazing. I mean, nothing in my life ever prepared me for something like that…” Lacy’s voice trailed off and she shivered, reliving the way Jake had made her feel.

  Kay raised an eyebrow in Lacy’s direction and elbowed Denise beside her. “It sounds like someone finally took the train to ‘O’ town.” Lacy’s face turned bright red at their off-hand lewd references to something she saw as beautiful and meaningful, even if she hadn’t got to cum.

  “Well…” Lacy began, but Kay interrupted.

  “See? I knew it! How was your first time?”

  The red got even deeper. All the fun she’d enjoyed in telling her story was quickly zapped and Lacy found herself deflating. “It didn’t happen exactly like that.” The question was in both Denise and Kay’s eyes, ‘why not?’ Lacy decided to meet their curiosity head-on instead of pussy-footing around it. She almost giggled at her mental pun. “Don’t get me wrong. It felt so good, but then…then…then I felt this pressure.” Leaning forward, she whispered, “I felt like I was going to pee on myself. So, I made him stop and take me home.” She looked down at the ground. “I didn’t explain myself, either. I’m sure he thinks I’m crazy.”

  Off in the distance Lacy heard the rumble of big machinery. Jake was out there and eventually she’d be seeing him face-to-face, a thought that gave her mixed feelings. She wanted to see him, but she didn’t. God, she was so confused.

  “Oh, honey.” Kay stepped close to her and pulled her close. “I know what you’re saying. I’ve felt that feeling before.”

  Lacy looked at her with bashful eyes. “You have? Really?”

  “I have and I hate to be the one to tell you this, but it’s the feeling you get right before the most mind-blowing orgasm you’ll ever experience in this world.”

  “It is?” God, Lacy felt so dumb. She knew so little about this kind of thing. See, again further confirmation that Stephen was right.

  “It is, sweetie, so next time that sexy slab of man brings you to the edge, you just let him take you over.” Kay placed a comforting hand on Lacy’s shoulder. “You hear me? Trust me, you won’t regret it.”

  Let him? Ha! Fat chance. After last night, the last place Lacy ever thought she’d be again, was naked with Jake.

  * * *

  “Late night last night, boss?” Brad, one of the grounds crew guys at Willow Cove asked Jake when he passed him on the way to the storage shed.

  “Mornin’, Brad,” Jake answered simply, walking right past his employee and heading for his office. He didn’t usually share private stuff with the guys. Last night had been a success and a disaster all rolled into one and Jake still didn’t have a clue as to where to go from here. He and Lacy really had a good time together and there was undeniable hot-as-shit chemistry between them. Hell, she’d given him the most toe-curling blowjob he’d ever received and even let him go down on her. But the hard and fast fact remained that she’d also pushed him away—twice.

  What the fuck was going on?

  He tried to tell himself that it didn’t bother him. That he didn’t really care. But he knew the truth. He did care.

  Jake slammed the door to his office and flipped on his computer. Anything which kept him away from the clubhouse today was a good thing, so he was glad to find several emails waiting in his inbox. There wasn’t anything all that important, a few spam messages from women in Russia who wanted to meet him and offers for discounted baseball tickets. There was an email from his old boss. Jake used to call him Mr. Jetson but his name was Randy Harrison. Randy was a well-known professional golfer who’d retired into the industry. Now he was hired by companies to put his stamp on their golf course and bring his visions to life. It surprised Jake to find out that Randy was heading out to build his own dream course in South Carolina. He’d heard Jake was doing the course redesign at Willow Cove and Randy wanted to fly him out to look at the property. He wanted to go over some ideas with his former employee and friend. Jake was flattered. He not only would enjoy seeing what Randy had in mind, it would also give him an excuse for some time away to get his head together. “That’s exactly what I need right now,” Jake said to himself as he stared at the email. “A break.”

  He was going to have to walk on eggshells when it came to going to the clubhouse. Running into Lacy was unavoidable, but maybe getting away for a few days would lessen the awkwardness when they finally did see each other.

  “Seriously, boss,” Brad said when he came through Jake’s door with a steaming cup of coffee. “You look like shit, did you sleep last night?”

  In fact, he hadn’t. Jake had slept fitfully at best. He was thankful for the distraction of work this morning, but he wasn’t about to tell Brad why he’d been up all night. “Not a lot,” Jake said with a sip. “Damn night birds kept me up, squawking outside my window all night.”

  Brad eased down into the chair across from his boss. He’d become Jake’s unofficially right-hand man on the rebuild project and they’d spent many hours together. “Oh, birds, huh.”

  Jake nodded in response. “All night.”

  Brad leaned back and propped his feet up on Jake’s desk. “And here I thought it was because you went out with that little hottie from the clubhouse last night.”

  Jake fought the urge to spit the coffee in his mouth out across the room. The golf course and resort may have been six hundred acres, but it was a small world and word travelled fast. He shouldn’t have been surprised that Brad knew about his date. The question now became…how much did he know exactly?

  “Who told you that?” Jake asked in an even tone.

  “Oh, you know how it is around here. Word travels. So, how was it?”

  Jake hesitated, trying to figure out how to answer. “Confusing,” he finally muttered.

  Brad laughed out loud. “Sounds about right. I tell ya, if anyone ever comes
up with a way to understand women, well, that person will rule the world.”

  “It’s strange.” Jake wasn’t the kiss and tell kind. He rarely shared much about his love life, but last night with Lacy had been so confusing that he felt like he needed help working it out. “We talked yesterday.”

  “And you’ve had lunch together,” Brad interrupted. “Told you, it’s a small world,” he said with a shrug when Jake looked at him funny.

  “Yeah, and ate lunch together. I don’t know how to describe it, but there was this instant chemistry between us.”

  “Not the first time that’s happened to you around here.”

  Jake let the comment slide. Brad was right. When he’d first arrived at Willow Cove, Jake had been a bit of a serial dater. “No, not really. This was different. I mean, like real chemistry. Being near her was electric. She’s not like those other girls I casually dated. We had this great time yesterday and then I went to her room to pick her up to go to dinner.”

  Brad leaned forward in his chair. “You went to her room?”

  “It’s not like that.” Well, actually, it was, but Jake wasn’t going to give details. “Okay, so there was a bit of kissing and…some other stuff. But don’t get your hopes up, I’m not going to tell you.”

  Brad fell back into his chair. “Nuts!”

  “She seemed to be into it, but then all of the sudden, she just kinda freaked out and pushed me away.” The memory of it, and what could have happened, ate at Jake like a cancer.

  “So, dinner didn’t go so well, I take it.”

  “Dinner was great. I took her to the Landing over in Natchitoches.”

  “Pullin’ out the big guns already? You must really like her.”

  “I do like her, and at dinner she seemed to be suddenly interested in me again. We even went back to my place afterward. I suggested and she accepted. In fact, she insisted.” As he was telling Brad, it hit him that he and Lacy were supposed to have discussed Barnes and his Fourth of July party. But they never got around to it. Other things got in the way. Hell, he guessed he owed her some information.

  “God, I hate you. Most guys would kill to go out with the women you do, especially that Ms. Allen. Boy, she’s one tasty dish.”

  Jake fixed Brad with a stern look. “Careful, buddy.” A spike of jealousy had sliced into his gut. Okay, well, that answered a couple of questions. Dammit!

  “I’m just sayin’. You go out with these beautiful women and it’s them who insist on going back to your place. I’d give my left nut to have a woman insist on going back to my place.”

  Jake wasn’t interested in his friend’s nut at the moment, the situation with Lacy was confusing and he wanted a second opinion. “We went for a late night ride on my boat and got into it again, and again she pushed me away. She practically ran off down the road to get away from me. Am I moving too fast?”

  “You like her. I can tell.” Brad’s smile irritated Jake. Mainly because Brad was right.

  “I do and after last night, things are going to be awkward between us. Maybe I should just go and get away for a few days.”

  “Go where?”

  Jake turned the monitor of his computer around to Brad. “I got an email from my old boss. He’s been hired to build a new course and he wants me to come out and have a look with him.”

  “You can’t go right now. Not in the middle of the rebuild.”

  Jake leaned back in his chair. Sure, Willow Cove had brought him in to do the redesign and manage the course, and they had paid him handsomely. Despite his reservations about working with Barnes and his ulterior motive of proving himself, the people here had been great to him. But they didn’t own him and right now, getting away for a bit was something he seriously thought he could use. “I think I might go check it out.”

  “Where’s the course going to be built?”

  “Over close to Charleston.”

  “West Virginia?”

  “South Carolina.”

  “South Carolina?” Brad nearly fell off his chair. “Damn, there are some fine courses over that way. But, you can’t take off to Charleston right now. Maybe if you were just driving a few hours it’d be okay, but you can’t just up and go to South Carolina. What if something happens?”

  “You can handle it. Besides, I’ll only be a phone call away.”

  That was it, Jake had decided to go to South Carolina. He just needed to go up to the clubhouse and tell his boss he’d be gone for a few days. This job was nearly complete, Barnes and his cronies had gotten the message...there was really nothing holding him here. Was there?

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  “Ah, Ms. Allen. Just the person I was looking for.”

  The voice stopped Lacy in her tracks. She knew who it belonged to even before she turned around and it wasn’t anyone she wanted to see right now.

  “Doctor Barnes,” Lacy said, turning with a smile. “How nice to see you.” She plastered the best fake smile on her face that she could muster. “How are you today?”

  Just when she thought things couldn’t get any worse, they did. Doc Barnes was there, as always, the old toot never seemed to go home and he had the look of a man with something on his mind. Lacy stole a glance to the side and noticed another man coming up the stairs through a window. She couldn’t see who it was for sure, but he had broad shoulders and she feared it was Jake.

  “Won’t you come in and talk to me for a minute?” Lacy said in a panic, doing the last thing she wanted to do right now, ushering Barnes into her office before closing the door behind him. She opened the shades to let sunlight into her office and glanced out into the parking lot. Jake’s truck was still there, but there was no construction ongoing on the course that she could see. It very well could have been him that she’d seen coming into the clubhouse. It might be awful to be trapped in here with Percy Barnes, but at least she was out of Jake’s sight.

  Doc Barnes rambled on about something or other. He might very well be discussing the likelihood of upcoming nuclear war or the possibility of mining asteroids for precious metals, Lacy wasn’t sure. She wasn’t listening. Of course she was smiling and nodding along, tossing in a ‘how nice’ and a ‘great’ every so often when his voice slowed to a lull, but her focus was on the faint sound of voices she could hear coming from the other side of the door. Someone, a male for sure, was in the main business office having a conversation, but the voices were too muffled to tell if it was Jake for sure. Jenny was giggling a lot on the other side of the door, but then again, Jenny giggled a lot in general.

  “So what do you think of my idea?” Doc Barnes asked.

  “Sounds great,” Lacy said with a professional smile, wondering what the heck she’d just agreed to do. It was a shame that Jake had never given her his take on things. She sure could use some help at this point.

  “I just think we should double the blue streamers this year. I do love the red ones but we’ve had twice as many red ones for the last two years, it’s time for a change.”

  Lacy took a seat at her desk and opened the Fourth of July file that sat before her. She needed a moment to collect her thoughts and so she pretended to look it over while Doc Barnes sat across from her, watching her intently. A dislike for the grizzled old geezer filled her heart. He’d been mean to Jake’s family. Lacy had to clasp the edge of the desk to keep from saying something rude to him. Again, she heard voices outside. A deep voice. The knowledge that it was probably Jake made it hard for her to sit still. How she wished she had the right to run out and straight into his arms.

  This was sad. How had she gone from the extraordinarily dizzying heat of last night with Jake, to this? Sitting here with ol’ Doc Barnes, fearful to even step outside of her office because the hottest man on the planet might be out there and she couldn’t stand to see him look at her with disappointment on his face.

  But as she thought of Jake, she remembered other things he’d said. In a way, Jake had empowered her last night, made her feel like she had good ideas and it w
as time to make changes to this stale Fourth of July party Barnes so desperately clung to. And if there was ever a time to say something, this was it.

  Lacy looked up from the file and squared her shoulders. “Doctor Barnes,” she started with resolve in her voice. “I’ve been thinking. About the party.”

  Percy Barnes’ face changed. He instantly looked unhappy and his countenance chased the courage right out of Lacy’s body.

  “I think…” Lacy hesitated.

  She wanted to tell him she thought his party sucked and that a lot of other people thought so too. She wanted to tell him she had all of these great ideas that she thought people would love, and that she was going to make this the best damn Fourth of July party south of the Mason Dixie line.

  But when she opened her mouth, a squeak came out. “It’s great.”

  Doc Barnes folded his hands on his cane. “I beg your pardon.”

  Suddenly, the phone on Lacy’s desk rang. The red light flashing told her it was Jenny calling from the other side of the door and Lacy lifted it off the receiver and dropped it back down quickly. “It’s great. Your party. I think it’s just great.”

  Shame swamped her from the top of her head to the soles of her feet. What a coward she’d turned out to be, folding like a cheap suit under Doc Barnes’ glare. The red light on her phone lit up again and Lacy again quieted it. A second later there was a sharp rap at her door and the knob started to turn.

  Jake’s gorgeous face appeared in the doorframe a moment later. “Sorry to bother you, Ms. Allen. I’m going away for a few days and I just wanted to say goodbye to you before I left.”

  Lacy’s heart leapt into her throat. “Ja—” She looked toward Doc Barnes across from her. “I mean. Mr. Knight. How nice to see you again.”

  The blush started on her chest and Lacy could feel it spreading out all over her body, her neck was getting warm and her cheeks began to burn.

  Not now.

  Oh God, please, not now. She needed to remain professional in front of Barnes, but Jake’s sudden presence had her body tingling and her heart racing.