Dane - A MacKenzie Novel (2 page)

The Devil’s dark hair was longer than she
liked on a man, almost to his shoulders, and his eyes were as black
as coal. Probably because he’d been hauling it in hell before he’d
decided to move to Fort Worth, Texas. A short beard covered his
face and a wicked looking tattoo swirled over his shoulder and part
of the way down his arm. His chest was scarred, and she couldn’t
even begin to imagine what had happened to him to cause such marks.
Her gaze lowered, following the black smattering of hair that
disappeared beneath his jeans, and all rational thought left her
head as she noticed the sizable bulge behind his zipper.

“You’ve got some mighty friendly neighbors,
Cade,” the man next to the Devil said, his smirk evident in the
slow drawl of his voice. “She can’t take her eyes off you.”

Bayleigh felt heat flush her cheeks, and she
brought her eyes back up to meet his. The keys bit into the palms
of her hand reminding her she had them, so she tossed them to the
walking hard-on a little harder than was probably necessary. He
snapped them out of the air and glared in her direction, and the
urge to turn tail and run was prevalent in her mind, but instead
she turned around and calmly and put one foot in front of the
other.

“What the hell do you think you’re
doing?”

She knew it was him that spoke without having
to turn around. His voice slid across her skin like rough velvet,
and she shivered at the demand in it. Not that she expected the
Devil to be an easy man or be without a modicum of power, but she
liked to think she had enough self-control to ignore the dangerous
seduction of his voice and keep walking.

She eyed the distance to her front door and
looked back in his direction. He’d taken a couple of steps forward,
and there was no way to get away from him if he came after her. He
narrowed his eyes as if he could read her mind, and shook his head
slowly, warning her not to try it, so she swallowed her fear and
turned around to face him.

She was an idiot
. Running would have
been the smart thing to do if the look on his face was anything to
go by. She could have made it. Maybe.

“Most of us sleep here in the middle of the
night,” she finally said with more bravado than she felt. Never let
them see you’re afraid. Her father had repeated the mantra
constantly during her childhood. “I figured since it was your first
day in the neighborhood, you might want to start out on the right
foot.”

“You thought wrong,” he said. “And this is
far from the middle of the night. The sun’s already coming up.
Maybe you’re just lazy.”

Bayleigh’s eyes narrowed at the insult. She’d
never been accused of being lazy a day in her life. But while her
father’s advice rattled around in her brain, something her mother
always told her came to mind, just as it had every time she’d moved
from school to school and had to deal with the inevitable “new kid”
bullying.

Kill them with kindness
.

So she smiled as sweetly as possible and said
the only thing she could think of to strike terror into his
heart.

“You know, there are a lot of elderly people
that live on this street.”

“So?” he growled. “And then there’s you. Let
me guess. You’re single?”

“I’ve been engaged,” she said, narrowing her
eyes.

“I can see that worked out well for you. I
take it he couldn’t manage to bring himself to the altar?”

“Something like that,” she said softly, the
old feelings of not quite being good enough surfacing before she
could tramp them back down.

“Look, I’m sorry,” he said. “That was out of
line. I promise I’ll leave everyone on the whole damned street
alone if they’ll leave me alone.”

Bayleigh felt the beginnings of a headache
forming at the back of her skull. Between the lack of sleep and the
one-two punch her new neighbor had just delivered, reminding her of
her former fiancé and the myriad of inadequacies she hadn’t
realized she’d had until she’d met him, she decided she wasn’t in
the mood to be nice after all.

“Oh, no. No need to apologize. If anything
it’s my fault for getting in at one this morning after working a
fourteen hour day,” she said sarcastically. “It was inconsiderate
of me to expect you to move in after the sun came up. Tell you what
I’ll do to make it up to you.”

She smiled—a smile that her brothers would
recognize as trouble. Her new neighbor must have recognized it too,
because his eyes narrowed to black slits and the muscles in his
arms bulged as he crossed them in silent warning.

“You don’t really mean that about having
everyone leave you alone,” she said sweetly. “You seem like such a
friendly and outgoing guy. I’ll make sure to mention how great you
are to everyone over the next couple of days. Before you know it,
the whole street will be knocking on your door and introducing
themselves. It won’t be a month before you’re hosting the
neighborhood barbecue. You’ll also be picking up prescriptions,
mowing lawns, and eating macaroni salad with every meal so you
won’t hurt their feelings.” She batted her eyelashes at him as he
seemed to pale before her eyes. “Welcome to the neighborhood.”

Laughter followed her into the house and she
slammed and locked the door behind her. She knew it hadn’t been him
laughing. Dollars to donuts a smile had never cracked that face.
The Devil didn’t smile. It would pay to remember that. And so what
if she’d been slightly attracted to him. Bad boys were supposed to
be attractive to the opposite sex. It was a hormonal rule. But then
he’d had to go and open his mouth.

Tears threatened to fall as she recalled his
words. He’d been exactly right. She’d been engaged for over a year,
and Paul hadn’t been able to go through with the actual wedding.
He’d liked her well enough as a friend, but she was too outspoken
for a corporate attorney’s wife. Her body was too curvy. Her
language not lady-like enough. And how could she expect Paul to
spend his life with a woman who didn’t respond to him in bed?

It’s not that she couldn’t have orgasms. She
had great orgasms with her vibrator. It was just that sometimes it
took her longer to get there than her lovers had thought was
reasonable. She’d just be warming up, and all of a sudden, they’d
twitch and groan and it would all be over. The last date she’d been
on was three years ago, and she hadn’t even bothered to move it
into the physical stage. The thought of disappointing anyone else
had been more than enough to keep her celibate.

Paul had been a bastard. She knew that
now
. But at the time he’d chipped away at her self-esteem
until she’d barely recognized the person she’d become. She barely
ate, trying to slim down the curves he found so distasteful. She
barely spoke, knowing if she didn’t talk then nothing would come
out of her mouth that would embarrass Paul. And she faked her
orgasms just so he would think she was putting a little effort into
their lovemaking.

She knew Paul had been a controlling prick by
the time their wedding date had come around, and she thanked God
every day that he hadn’t shown up to the church that day. He’d
saved her a hell of a lot of grief in the long run, but he’d
damaged part of her, and she was still working like hell to get
back to the person she really was. To not let those old doubts
sneak up on her.

Bayleigh wiped away the tears that had
managed to escape and padded back into the bedroom. It didn’t
matter what her new neighbor thought. No one had ever said the
Devil was nice.

Now if she could avoid him for the rest of
her life, he’d make the perfect neighbor.

***

“Oh, baby,” Shane, Cade’s youngest brother,
said, still laughing at Cade’s expense. “I think I’m in love. Are
you sure you don’t need a roommate?”

“Shut up and let’s get the rest of this stuff
inside.”

Cade hefted his flat screen TV off the truck
and headed inside, ignoring his brothers’ laughter. He should have
known they wouldn’t be able to drop it. They were like pit bulls
the moment they sensed weakness.

The urge to go next door and apologize for
his behavior was a heavy weight on his chest. He’d hurt her, and
there’d been no need for it. When he’d mentioned being left at the
altar, her face had paled and her blue eyes had lost the sparkle
he’d found perversely arousing when she’d been arguing with him. It
was as if the life had all but been sucked out of her. Hell, he’d
actually enjoyed watching her in action. It wasn’t often he ran
across a man who had the courage to argue with him, much less a
woman.

Cade scowled as he overheard the conversation
from the other room.

“She’d never go for you, Shane,” Declan said.
“You’re the runt of the litter.” Cade thought it ironic since Shane
was every bit as large as his two older brothers. “A woman with a
body like that could only appreciate a real man.”

And boy did she have a body, Cade thought,
irritated his brothers had noticed. She was his neighbor, dammit.
Didn’t that mean he had some kind of claim? He shook his head in
disbelief. His brothers were turning him into an idiot. He wasn’t
about to claim any woman.

He headed back to the truck for another load,
but they followed him with their incessant chatter, as if they were
women instead of warriors. It didn’t matter she had the kind of
body that had always been his weakness. He liked curves. No, he
loved
curves. And she had assets that would fill his hands
nicely—breasts that were luscious and full and an ass that would
look spectacular bent across his lap as he spanked the rounded
globes until they glowed red.

Dammit.
He’d be coming in his jeans if
he kept up that avenue of thought. The distraction of a sexy
neighbor wasn’t what he needed at the moment, and she wouldn’t be
an easy woman to get involved with. She’d have expectations, and
she wouldn’t hesitate to give her opinion if he did something
stupid. That is, if his first impression of her was correct—and his
first impressions were always correct. The best thing he could do
was stay far away, despite the erection that hadn’t disappeared
since she’d twitched those curves across the scrawny patch of grass
between their houses.

“You know, when I was checking the security
around the house last night I noticed you could see right into her
bedroom from the back deck,” Shane said, shaking his head in mock
sympathy at Declan. “It’ll be totally wasted on Iceman here. But I
can certainly appreciate attributes like that on a woman. And did
you see all of that hair? It’s enough to make a man want to
beg.”

“Fifty bucks says she’s not a real blonde,”
Declan said.

“Oh, you’re on, brother. I’m sure if I stand
on the deck long enough I’ll be able to tell you one way or the
other.”

“What the hell is wrong with you two?” Cade
bit out. “You’re reducing yourselves to becoming peeping Toms? Just
go to the nearest bar and pick up the first blonde you see. You’ll
be asking for a headache messing with the one next door. I can
already tell she’s going to be a pain in the ass.”

“Not if you become a pain in hers first,”
Shane said, wiggling his eyebrows.

Cade’s brothers were well aware of the kind
of sexual appetite he had. He was the kind of man who demanded
everything from his lovers. His thought had always been that there
should never be anything sexual between a couple that was
considered too dirty or taboo, and he stayed far away from women
that didn’t know the score going into an affair. There was no way
in hell his neighbor wouldn’t run away in horror at the things he
wanted to do to her.

“And she does have a fine ass,” Shane
added.

“I’m going to kill you,” Cade said.

Shane ignored the threat and said, “I swear
there’s something about her that’s familiar though. I’ve seen her
somewhere before. It’s hard to forget someone that looks like she
does, but don’t worry, it’ll come to me.”

“Maybe she’s on one of those
Girls Gone
Wild
videos,” Declan threw in.

Cade tuned his brothers out and thought about
the neighbor. He’d run a background check on her, as well as
everyone else on the street. Old habits were hard to break. And it
wouldn’t be long before Shane realized who she was.

Her name was Bayleigh Scott, and she owned a
lingerie boutique in the square by the university. She was
twenty-eight and came from a military family—a large family—just as
he had, and one of her brothers was on the same SEAL team as
Shane.

Cade knew Brady Scott in passing, and he knew
her other brother, Brant almost as well as he knew his own
brothers, but there was no way that either of her brothers would be
happy if Cade pursued Bayleigh. Hell, he’d feel the same way if one
of his buddies showed interest in his sister, Darcy.

The agents and SEALS he called friends were
too hard for women like Bayleigh and Darcy—men whose lives
consisted of constant danger didn’t have qualms about adventuring
into the darker sides of sex, especially after coming off a
mission.

The background check he’d done on Bayleigh
didn’t do justice to what he’d just seen with his own eyes. The
file hadn’t said she had a body that would make him instantly hard.
His cock had almost burst from his jeans the moment she’d pranced
across his driveway in those tiny shorts and thin tank top. She
hadn’t been wearing a bra, and even now his hands wanted to touch
and his mouth wanted to taste.

She’d looked him over as thoroughly as he’d
looked at her, and she’d been almost entranced by the sight of his
erection. Her tongue had dashed out to lick her lower lip and he
swore he almost felt the motion along his cock. There’d been
interest in her eyes, no doubt about it.

It had been too damned long since he’d been
laid. When the itch took over or the dreams of Carmen became too
frequent, he found the nearest woman who would have him and fucked
himself into oblivion, until the past was buried again and the itch
was gone. It was the best he could do with the hand in life he’d
been dealt. He never expected anything more, and wasn’t prepared to
give anything more in return. Life was sometimes a bitch that way.
But the thought of going to another woman wasn’t nearly as
appealing as it should have been. Hell, Bayleigh Scott was already
complicating his life.