Skin (McCullough Mountain 2) by Lydia Michaels Page A

caught her elbow
and she quickly tugged her arm free. “Why are you doing this?”
    He frowned. “Because I want to and I thought
you might’ve wanted me to.”
    Her head shook like an imbecile. “I don’t.”
If they crossed that line, their friendship would be over and it
would only be a matter of minutes before he realized she wasn’t at
all what he was used to.
    His lips parted and his expression
shuttered. He stepped back and dropped his hand. “Oh. Then I’m
sorry.” He turned and grabbed the back of his neck, which was
flushed. “I should probably get going.”
    He wouldn’t look at her. No! This couldn’t
happen. She said no, so nothing should change, but her stomach
knotted as she realized it was too late. Her lashes fluttered as
her vision blurred.
    Should she call him back? Maybe she should
just let him use her. She’d enjoy it. Have some self-respect,
woman! “Finn, don’t go…”
    He held up his hand, much like he did at the
mall when she’d offended him. It must not make any sense for a man
like that to be rejected by a girl like her.
    “I gotta go,” he said and the next thing she
knew her front door was shutting.
     
    * * * *
     
    Finn drove until he reached his property
then he pulled over to the side of the road and punched the
steering wheel. “ Fuck!”
    Why did he do that? He was so damn stupid.
Of course she wasn’t into him. He wasn’t any prize. He’d just
thought he’d seen something in the way she looked at him. No one
had looked at him like that in a long time. But he was wrong.
    She thought of him as just a friend. He’d
thought of her as the same, but sometime over the last few days
that changed. Erin disappeared from his life like she’d never
existed. He’d barely given her absence a moment’s thought. Yet,
when he’d upset Mallory at the mall, he could think of little else.
He rushed through his workday just to run with her at the field.
When he arrived and waited for her, only to have her never show, he
suffered the terrible fear that he’d ruined their friendship.
    But it was more than that. When she showed
up after her run at the park, she looked beautiful. Her hair was a
mess, her cheeks flushed, her breasts pressed against her fitted
tank top. His eyes had roamed over her shapely thighs and he had to
fight the entire way through dinner not to kiss her.
    Listening to the water run while she’d
showered was pure torture. He’d imagined her naked and wasted at
least six minutes debating if her nipples would be soft pink like
her lips or tan. But none of that mattered.
    Yes, she was a beautiful woman, but she was
so much more than that. Finn didn’t have girl friends. He
got along with his sisters, but other than that, they were it. The
way he was around Mallory was a totally novel experience. He liked
her, really liked her. And now he was thinking like a fifth
grader.
    “Gah, no wonder she shot you down.”
    The worst part was he might have seriously
fucked up their friendship. He glanced at the clock on the dash and
considered going back and asking her to forget the whole thing, but
it was late and she had work in the morning.
    He threw the truck into gear and barreled
over the road, heading home. When he went to sleep that night his
bed seemed a little colder, a little less comforting, and lot
lonelier. Maybe he wasn’t meant to have a partner in this life.
Maybe he should go back to Erin.
    His mind immediately rejected that idea.
Erin’s long legs and trim hips were no longer what he wanted. After
seeing how Mallory actually listened to him when he spoke, he had
no desire to return to a girl who had mastered ignoring him. Erin
never cared about what he thought or what motivated him.
    Mallory cared. Or she did. His last hope
before sleep took him was that he hadn’t ruined what friendship
they’d had together.

Chapter Seven
     
    The first week of work did wonders for
Mallory’s spirit. Everyone was nice to her and she was glad she
talked herself into