Page 28 of Save the Last Dance (Take the Backroads #1)

“Good luck!” Nina peeked out the window again, hoping for a glimpse of Mack. She wanted to find him before she lost her nerve. Or her mental image of him without a shirt. “Gram, are you ready to go?”

Smiling down at her phone, Gram shook her head. “No need to worry about me. Harlan is on his way to deliver another load of hay for the maze and he said he’d take me out for ice cream afterward.”

“Really? You’re sure you’re not too tired?” Nina didn’t want to neglect her granddaughter duties now that she was finally back in town to help out more. “Your therapist said to build up slowly to longer outings.”

“A new man in her life puts a spring in a woman’s step.” Gram arched an eyebrow. “You ought to know.”

“No comment.” Nina kissed her grandmother’s cheek. “Why don’t you sit out in the front of the building until he gets here at least? There are more comfortable chairs there.”

She backed through one of the swinging kitchen doors and held it open for Gram as she pushed her walker into the main gathering area of the hall.

“Well, look who’s here?” Gram cast Nina a sly glance as the front doors opened and Mack strode through, a hard hat under one arm.

A surge of longing hit Nina so hard she nearly tripped.

“Are you almost ready?” he asked, his voice a sexy rumble in the room that made her blood run hotter.

“All set.” She couldn’t take her eyes off him as he kicked aside a small throw rug so it wouldn’t get in Gram’s way.

“You two run along.” Gram settled in her seat with her phone and gestured for them to leave. “Harlan will be here any minute.”

Nina exchanged a look with Mack and just that shared glance set her body on slow burn.

“Okay, Gram.” Nina wasn’t about to argue. She looped her hand around Mack’s arm, not caring who saw or what the town thought. She needed to touch him. “Would you mind driving?” she asked him.

His molten stare made every one of her nerve endings come to life.

“I thought you’d never ask.” He pushed open the door for her and held it as they walked out into the purple light of the sinking sun.

Nina couldn’t help but remember her grandmother’s advice to Bethany as they hurried toward the El Dorado and the privacy they’d wanted all day.

She’d definitely be communicating with Mack a whole lot tonight.

Mack put the old V-8 engine to the test on the way home.

Nina in the seat beside him, casting him looks that provided excellent motivation to channel his inner Dale Earnhardt. The prize at the end of this ride beat any race winnings, that much was for damn sure.

He would have gotten her back to his place faster, but he had to make a drugstore run for condoms. Amazing how the purchase still seemed illicit, especially when he had to buy them from the same old guy who used to sell him root beer barrels when he was ten.

The package of condoms rested inside Nina’s purse now, even though she’d been too chicken to enter the corner store with him.

He pulled into the access road that led to the converted barn at the back of his family’s property.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been here.” Nina stared up at the turn-of-the-century white dairy barn that used to be a part of the Finley farm as he parked the car on the gravel driveway. “I’d forgotten how pretty these old barns are.”

“Are they?” Mack noticed only her. Could think about only her.

He levered open his car door and jogged around the hood to get her door while she stared up at the massive structure in the twilight.

“They really are. Look at the big shutters and sliding doors. And the stone foundation adds a lot of character, too.” She took his hand and he drew her out of the car, her long, lean body a feast for the eyes.

“I’ve got a better view right here.” He wanted to kiss her then and there, to lay her down on the long hood of the El Dorado. He’d love to see her like that, her honey-blond hair spilling over the white paint.

“Oh?” Nina twirled a strand of hair around one finger. “Keep talking like that and we’ll never make it to your room.”

His thoughts exactly.

“Come on.” He slid an arm around her waist and walked her to the main doors. There was a regular entrance to the building on the other side, but he let himself in the side by sliding one of the huge doors on the metal track.

Her vanilla scent went straight to his head. She wore some kind of lightweight, gauzy blouse that had distracted him all damn day, his eyes roaming the fabric for hints of her skin beneath.

“Wow.” Nina’s eyes went wide in the dim glow from a cast iron pendant lamp, her voice echoing in the empty expanse of concrete flooring and wooden walls. “Where did everything go?”

“Scott sold most of the equipment.” Mack stepped around her toward the door which led to what had once been the field hand’s quarters. “It’s odd to think the dairy barn was built for cows but hasn’t had an animal in here besides Luce for over fifty years.”

“This would make a great bar, wouldn’t it?” She spun in a slow circle, staring up at the massive wooden frame of the building beneath the tin roof. “You’d put Lucky’s to shame with this place.”

He laughed as he opened the door and flipped on the light switch.

“I’m not sure there are enough residents of Heartache to fill it.

Come on in.” Stepping aside, he gestured for her to enter the small living quarters, careful not to touch her yet.

Once he did, there’d be no stopping and he wanted to seduce her thoroughly.

“Keep in mind I wasn’t expecting company. ”

Turning on her heel, she stalked toward him with slow strides. Or maybe it only seemed slow to him because he couldn’t wait to close that door behind them and have her all to himself for the night. The moment seemed too damned good to be real.

“I’m having major déjà vu,” she admitted, pausing just a step before the threshold .

He could almost feel the tension thrumming from her as her fingers shifted positions on her handbag, her breath escaping in a rush. How he going to wait until they got upstairs?

“Yeah, big-time.” His pulse slugged hard through his veins, every heartbeat demanding he touch her. “Except now, I think I’m a whole hell of a lot more nervous.”

She edged closer, as if maybe she was going to walk through the door. But her gaze held his. Then, before he knew what hit him, she flung both arms around his neck and kissed him.

Oh, yeah.

All the nervous tension shifted, channeling into desire as full awareness made him appreciate the nuances of having her body all over his.

Her lips nipped and licked his in a sexy assault on his senses that left him reeling.

She tasted like cinnamon mints, her tongue playing over his while his brain fought to catch up.

He reveled in the return of this side of her—the wild, impulsive, in-with-both-feet Nina who’d burned a swath through this small town and turned heads wherever she went with her infectious laughter and passion for everything she did.

She’d changed in eight years, and she’d obviously made an effort to tamp down this side but…

wow. She’d set it free now, though, as she pressed against him as if she couldn’t get close enough.

Then his body took over. He wrapped both arms around her waist and lifted her, carrying her into the converted apartment while the door closed shut behind them.

He fumbled to find the handle and lock it, and then his attention was all on Nina.

Setting her down, he gently pried her handbag out of her fingers then set it on a hallway table, grabbing the bag of condoms from inside.

“I’ve missed you,” he told her between kisses, walking backward with her toward the stairs to the loft, the creaking boards of the old planked floor newly refinished and still smelling faintly of sealant even after a week.

“I’ve missed us.” Her words, so damn honest and real because she never could be anything else, shot right to his chest and lodged an ache there.

They got as far as the stairs when he stopped to cup her face in one hand, trace her cheekbone with his thumb. He dropped the bag with the condom on the stairs, needing to touch more of her.

“Nina?” He studied her in the light reflected from a lone lamp in the living area behind them. “I hope you can stay all night.”

He knew one time wouldn’t possibly be enough to satisfy them. His hands already traveled her body in a fast, restless scramble to memorize every new curve and hollow, every sensitive spot he’d forgotten.

“You’ll have to kick me out of that bed.” She looked over her shoulder, the movement shifting her featherweight blouse to expose a new expanse of lightly tanned skin below her collarbone. “Assuming you have one somewhere?”

“I’m not sure we’ll make it that far.” He lowered his mouth to taste the skin at the base of her throat. So. Good. “The seconds crawled by like hours today.”

She arched her neck to give him better access. “I stared at you out the kitchen window instead of watching the clock. Anyone ever tell you that you look incredibly hot in a hard hat?”

“Not as hot as you look in the apron you wear in my fantasies.” He hooked a finger in the V of her blouse and popped the first button.

“An apron?” Her fingers clenched his shoulders so hard he felt her nails right through his T-shirt.

“And nothing else.” His lips followed the path of his fingers as he unfastened buttons.

Her heart raced beneath his kiss, her breath coming fast against his neck.

“Sounds impractical.” She lifted up on her toes, bringing the curve of one breast nearer his mouth.

“Not for what I have in mind.” He shoved the open blouse off her shoulders until she had to let go of him to slide it down and off her arms.

The impatient shimmy did mouth-watering things to her pink-lace-wrapped curves. Her breasts were more generous than he remembered. He must have stared a second too long because she smiled with a knowing grin.