Tempted by the Billionaire: A Hometown Hero Series Novel (7 page)

Anna shook her head. “There’s no point.” The hopelessness in her tone almost broke Willow’s heart.

“Well, let’s catch up soon though. Just the two of us.”

Again, Anna flashed an overbright smile that spoke of a deeper inner-sadness more than any howling burst of tears could have. “Sounds good.”

Despite the fact that Anna was clearly suffering, Willow was relieved as heck to escape Number Eleven. She shut her own front door gratefully and reclined against it. She felt a huge pity for Anna and Ike. And she would focus on that another time. But in that moment, her own emotional drama was making it hard to concentrate on anything else. Her eyes drooped shut.

Married
.

And unfortunately for Willow, this sense of pain was not a new one. The certainty that she’d been desiring another woman’s husband. And now, as then, it filled her stomach with lead-like gravel. Like the silly, naïve child she’d been years earlier, she had let herself get swept away in the romance of how simply gorgeous Mattias McCain was.

She groaned, and pushed off the door, just as it reverberated with a resonant, persistent thud.

And her heart answered. Oh, her heart. It beat in time with the door, heavy and expectant in her chest.

Her heart didn’t seem to understand that some doors were better left closed.

CHAPTER FOUR

“What do you want?” She demanded. She didn’t need to see who was standing there. She just
knew
. Of course it was Mattias.

He pushed past her, into her home. It was the first time he’d been properly inside, and he took a moment to take stock of the hallway, and beyond it, the lounge.

“I need to talk to you,” he said seriously, his face intense, his eyes wary as they scanned her expression.

Willow frowned, and her heart raced inside her chest. “Why?” She closed the door behind her, and brushed past him, moving to the lounge. He caught her hand as she walked past, holding it in his and rubbing a thumb along her knuckles. Willow’s body reverberated in responsiveness, but she refused to acknowledge it. She pulled her hand free, and clasped it behind her back.

His intense stare didn’t shift from her face. “Because you stormed out of next door before I could talk to you.”

She straightened her spine. “Talk about what?” She challenged, though she knew, of course.

“About what got you so steamed up.”

A beat passed. An intense, throbbing beat of awareness. “Are you married, Matt?”

His blue eyes searched her face, his expression unreadable. “Yes,” he admitted thickly. “But we’re separated. And in the process of divorcing.”

Willow felt a wave of pain, but she tried to disguise it. “Why didn’t you tell me this sooner?”

His frown was a small flicker on his handsome face. “Why would I?”

Willow wrapped her arms around her waist and walked slowly away from him. He followed. “It’s just the kind of thing you generally mention.”

“I came to Haymarket Bay to sort my head out.” He sighed heavily. “Like I said earlier, I didn’t expect to meet someone like you.”

Willow clamped her teeth together. “You have no business thinking about meeting
anyone
.”

His laugh was raw. “No. You’re right. Unfortunately, you’ve had me pretty hypnotized since the first day I saw you.”

“Stop it,” she whispered, stepping into her kitchen to put some physical space between them. She flicked the kettle out of habit, and turned on her grinder. It was noisy, and Matt waited until she’d switched it back off again before he began to speak.

“You have to let me explain, Willow.”

“No, I don’t.” She scooped the freshly ground coffee into her French press, and added boiling water.

He stepped into the kitchen, moving towards her with obvious intent. She was pressed against the bench, and he stopped walking right in front of her. With his palms on the bench on either side of her body, he had her effectively trapped. He stared into her eyes, the intensity of his gaze sending her pulse skittering wildly through her body.

“Meghan and I are finished. We were finished years ago, really. If I’m honest, my marriage was over before it began. I never cheated on my wife, but I did let her down.” He lowered his mouth, so that his lips were just a millimetre from her ear. “I hurt her, and I regret that. But I don’t love her.”

Willow closed her eyes, her brain waging an internal battle. She had never wanted to kiss someone so badly. Her bones felt weak with desire. But wasn’t it just history repeating itself? She moaned softly, and against their will, her hands lifted, to bunch in his shirtfront.

“I can’t get involved with a married guy,” she whispered, dragging her lower lip between her teeth and biting down on it.

“What about a soon-to-be-divorced-guy?” He asked coolly, wondering why the hell he was ignoring his own reservations to pursue this woman. She was Isaac and Anna’s best friend. He’d come over to make it clear that they shouldn’t get involved, and instead, he’d ended up making a complete play for her.

Her heart turned over in her chest. She wanted to kiss him. Her lips were tingling with the need to press against his warmth, and feel the satisfaction that she knew he would give. But Willow was not one for repeating past mistakes. She forced her hands to push at his chest, and to her chagrin, he didn’t resist even slightly. He stepped away respectfully, his eyes intent on her face.

She shook her head slowly from side to side. “I’ve been down this path before.” She shrugged her slender shoulders and turned away from him, glad to have something as menial as making coffee to do.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” He asked quietly.

She poured the coffee into two cups, black and strong, without asking how he had it. When it came to coffee, her way was the only way. She passed one to him, her smile tight on her lips. “I guess it means that I have a thing for married guys.”

Matt expelled a slow, frustrated breath. He was tempted to point out that he wouldn’t be married much longer, but he suspected that wouldn’t make much difference to Willow, in her current mindset. She obviously had some experience with being ‘the other woman’, and until he understood that, it was impossible to know how best to tackle this. And why did he want to so badly? Why wasn’t he heeding common sense and walking away from her?

“You know,” he drawled cynically, cradling the mug in his big, burly hands, “For a writer, getting a story out of you is like getting blood from a stone.”

She grimaced. “I know. It was just a dark time in my life. I’m ashamed of myself, still.”

“What for?”

She sipped her coffee and focussed on the fridge magnet she’d got from a holiday to Alaska. It was a picture of a woman in a bikini, on the ski slopes, with the slogan, “Grin and Bare it!”. It had made her laugh, so she’d bought it. But it didn’t make her laugh now. “I didn’t know he was married. But I rushed into the whole damned business before I really knew anything about him.”

An unwelcome sense of anger washed over Matt. And something else. A confusing emotion that made his gut tighten. “And was it serious?”

Willow dropped her eyes, leaving the bikini skier to carry on unsupervised. “I thought so at the time.” She sipped her coffee, relishing the strength of flavour in the bold brew. “But obviously not.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Well, because Ashton was married. Maybe he loved her, maybe he loved me, but he hurt us both. He lied to us both.”

“I’m sorry, Willow.”

“Yeah, well,” she shrugged dismissively. “It’s done. It happened. I’m over it now.”

Matt disagreed, strongly, but he knew he needed to find some kind of inner sensitivity. Something he didn’t frankly possess much of. “I’m not like him, Willow.”

“Aren’t you?” She said on a sigh. She placed her coffee cup down, and swung up to the bench, so that she was sitting and staring at him.

“No.”

“Facts seem to state otherwise…”

He laughed, and moved closer to her. “Because I didn’t tell you my wife and I are in the process of divorcing and that I’ve come to stay with Isaac and Anna because I needed to be with friends at the moment?”

“Yes, frankly.”

“Why do you care so much?” He pushed, though he knew the answer to the question. If she wanted to ignore the current of attraction slamming between them, he couldn’t.

Willow looked down at her hands, clasped in her lap. “I don’t like liars.”

“I never lied to you,” he retorted calmly, moving closer still, so that he could stand in the apex of her thighs.

She nodded, her dark eyes wide. “You did, though. You lied by omission at least. You should have told me sooner.”

He nodded. “Perhaps. But by the time I realised this could be a real problem, I was worried you’d scare easy.”

Willow laughed nervously. Her stomach in knots, her hands once again moved of their own accord, to lightly hold his shoulders. His muscles bunched beneath her fingers; he was warm and he was strong, and she was weak. “I’m not scared. But I’m not getting in the middle of another marriage. Not in my life.”

He lifted a hand and cupped her cheek. “Was it terrible?”

She tilted her head into his warm grip. “Yes.” She closed her eyes against the memory of the past, and the strength of the present. “He made a lie of everything I felt. He was the first man I ever loved. The only man I’ve loved. And he was never really mine. I had no business being with him. Every time we kissed or made love, we were insulting his wife, but he knew and I didn’t.”

She blinked her eyes open to find him staring at her face.

“Did she stay with him? Or kick his ass to the curb?”

Willow’s lips twisted. “I think they’re still together. I left. I moved here. I didn’t want anything to do with him once I found out what he was capable of. How could I ever trust him?”

Matt felt his heart turn over in his chest. He could well understand how a man – any man – could fall foul of their marriage because of Willow. Not only was she stunningly beautiful, she was intelligent and interesting, standoffish in a very sexy way, and totally fascinating. In short, she was temptation on legs, but that shouldn’t matter. No man in a proper marriage should be tempted by someone else. There was no excuse for it.

And Matt didn’t much like being tarred with the same brush. His situation was completely different.

She lifted her hand to his, still pressed against her warm cheek, and rubbed her fingers across his. “He didn’t wear a ring either.”

He nodded steadily. “The ring is back in my safe. I took it off the day we decided to separate.”

“And when was that?” Her need to know everything about him was becoming overwhelming.

Matt sensed that his answer wouldn’t please her. He shook his head slowly, and brushed the pad of his thumb over her lower lip. “Our marriage has been dying for a long time. She left me two weeks ago.”

“Two weeks?” She recoiled from the intimate touch of his hand to her face, and glared at him disapprovingly. “How do you know it’s really over?”

“It’s over. She wants out. I want out.” His expression showed his guilt. “I could never forgive her for…” he shook his head, clearing the sentence from the air. “Megs made some bad decisions, but I can’t blame her. I chose my love for the army over her, time and time again. I shouldn’t have married her, knowing I didn’t really love her enough to make it work.” He put his hands on her thighs, digging his fingers into flesh, his eyes heavy on hers. “I’ve had my own experience with extra-marital affairs. I don’t believe in infidelity. I despise it. I’m not asking you to get in the middle of my marriage.”

Willow felt a sharp stab of something in her ribcage. “What are you asking me for then?”

His laugh was a husky sound in the balmy night air. “A chance.” He’d been at the frontline of a high-risk war for years. He’d battled his way across the desert, and led men to face a foe that was fearless and gruesome, and yet he felt a lurching sense of foreboding now. He had to take it, though. He had to see if this weird connection he’d sensed from the first moment they’d met was as strong as he hoped. He pressed his lips to hers, lightly at first. Just enough to show her his intention, nothing more.

She didn’t pull away. Instead, she let out a small puff of warm air, and her hands lifted to his chest, her fingers splayed across his muscled abs. He deepened the kiss, separating her lips and teasing her tongue. They meshed as one, and passion tore through him like a river of volcanic lava. Impossible to stem, it burst within his body.

He pushed his body closer, and at the same time, cupped her rear with his hands, pulling her forward on the bench, so that their bodies were almost fused. She moaned softly as she wrapped her legs around his waist, and her hands tore to his hair.

Matt needed more; so much more. But instinctively, he knew that pushing his advantage now would get him nowhere. Willow was cautious, and she had every right to be. She’d been in the middle of one marriage, and he wasn’t about to drag her into his own marriage breakup. He would stop kissing her. He would. Eventually.

But for now, the feeling of her warm, slender body in his arms was too good to resist. He let his fingertips glide over her back, softly hinting at what pleasures he wanted to bring her body. They tangled in the dark mane of her hair, pulling at it, releasing it from the topknot she habitually wore, and encouraging it to tumble down her back.