across her flat stomach.
Mac gave Eve a look that suggested he would be happy to pick up where they had left off. “So you’re not a married woman?”
“I’m free as a bird,” Eve confirmed.
“I thought you were a Dallas girl, born and bred. What are you doing out here in the far reaches of northwest Texas?” Mac asked.
“My dad bought the bank here in town. I’ve been the assistant manager for the past year.”
“I never expected any less of you,” Mac said, “graduating the way you did at the top of the class.”
Pretty and smart. That was a lethal combination, Jewel thought. Not that Jewel was competing in any way with Evelyn Latham for Mac’s affection. She and Mac were just friends. But she couldn’t help thinking that if Mac got involved with Eve, she would see a whole lot less of him, and she did enjoy his company.
“What are you doing here?” Eve asked Mac in return. “Aren’t you supposed to be off playing football, or something like that?”
Jewel couldn’t believe the woman had dated Mac but had no idea when the football season began and ended.
“It’s the off-season,” Mac said with an indulgent smile. For the first time it must have occurred to him that he didn’t have his cane. He looked around for it, and Jewel handed it to him. He took it and leaned on it. “I’m here visiting friends and recuperating from a football injury.”
“You were hurt?” Eve asked.
Jewel rolled her eyes. Mac gave her a nudge with his hip, and she straightened up.
“You could say that,” Mac said. “I guess you didn’t hear about it.”
Eve turned her mouth down in a delightful moue. “As you very well know I never cared much for football, only for the way you looked in those tight pants.”
The sexual innuendo was even more blatant this time, and Jewel felt uncomfortable standing there listening to it. “Sorry we can’t stay,” she said. “Mac was just giving me ride home.”
The pout that appeared on Eve’s face would have looked right at home on a three-year-old. “Oh, Mac. I was hoping you’d have dinner with me.”
“I still can,” Mac said. “I’ll take Jewel home and come back. What time and where?”
“How about eight o’clock? My house.” She gave Mac an address in the newest condominium complex in town.
Mac grinned. “I’ll be there.”
“Don’t dress up,” Eve purred. “I want you to be comfortable.”
“You got it,” Mac said.
With Jewel standing right there, Eve went up on tiptoe and gave Mac a kiss right on the mouth. Jewel noticed Mac’s arm went around her waist quick enough to draw her close, so the kiss wasn’t unwelcome. It went on a long time, and from the way their mouths shifted, their tongues were involved.
Jewel stood frozen, unable to move. At last the kiss broke, and Mac shot her a quick, embarrassed look. It was too little, too late. He should have thought of her feelings before he practically made love to another woman right in front of her.
Only it shouldn’t have mattered if he kissed somebody else. They were only friends.
“See you at eight,” Mac said as he backed away from Eve.
“I’ll be waiting,” Eve said in a sultry voice.
Mac went around to his side of the truck without stopping to open Jewel’s door. Not that she needed her door opened for her. She got in and sat near the edge of the seat, opening the window as soon as Mac started the truck and sticking her elbow out.
“Sorry about that,” he said after a few minutes. “I shouldn’t have embarrassed you like that.”
“I wasn’t embarrassed,” Jewel said. “Kiss all the girls you want. It doesn’t make any difference to me.”
“All right. If that’s the way you feel. Just so you don’t worry, I may not be back tonight.”
“Thanks for telling me,” Jewel said. “I won’t wait up for you.”
She really didn’t care. He was just a friend. He’d had another girlfriend most of the time she had known him. This was no different. Except, the whole time she had watched Mac kissing Eve the most stunning thought had been running through her head.
I wish it were me.
CHAPTER FOUR
MAC WENT TO EVELYN LATHAM’S HOUSE with one purpose in mind: to get laid. Eve opened the door wearing a clingy red velour jumpsuit that sent a wake-up call to his body. He was sure all it would take was one kiss to get the old machinery back into action. So he pulled her into his arms and kissed her and…nothing. Not a damned thing happened.
He worried about the situation all through supper and all through the glass of merlot they enjoyed by the fire he started for her in the stone fireplace. When they ended up entwined on the couch, he willed his body to react to the feel of her lips against his, to the feel of her body beneath his hands. He felt the sweat pop out on his forehead. But…nothing.
This wasn’t supposed to happen. Just because he hadn’t made love with a woman didn’t mean that he didn’t want to. He wanted to, all right. His damned body just wasn’t cooperating! He made up some excuse for why he couldn’t stay—his aching leg had come in handy for once—and bolted.
He drove around for two hours wondering if he was going to spend the rest of his life a virgin. What the hell had gone wrong? He hadn’t been able to figure it out but had finally conceded that driving around all night wasn’t going to give him any answers.
Then he remembered he had told Jewel he would probably be out all night. What was she going to think if he came back early?
That you don’t take your time.
Yeah. Probably she’d just think he’d gotten his fill of Eve already. He couldn’t imagine getting his fill of Jewel in bed. The thought of touching her skin, the feel of her hair against his body, the smell of her.
His body stirred in response.
It’s too late, buddy. You already missed the party. You have to do that when there’s a flesh-and-blood woman around.
And when it was some other woman besides Jewel. It wasn’t going to do him any good getting aroused by thoughts of her, because she was the last person he could have sex with.
Hell, his leg was killing him. He had some exercises he was supposed to do at night that he hadn’t done to relax the muscles. He needed to lay his leg flat in bed. He needed…he needed to know he could function as a man. The situation with Eve had been disturbing because it had never happened to him before. What if something was wrong with him? What if all those operations had done something to his libido?
You don’t have any problem responding to Jewel.
He recalled his feelings for Jewel, the ones that had sent him off in search of another woman. They weren’t as comforting as they should have been. He had felt the same sort of semi-arousal with Eve before he kissed her, but when it came time for action, his body had opted out.
Mac cut the pickup engine at the back door to the cottage. No lights. At least he’d be spared the ignominy of Jewel seeing him sneaking in at two in the morning. He didn’t want to have to make some explanation about why he was home early. He wasn’t about to tell her the truth, and he hated like hell to lie.
He eased the kitchen door open—Western doors were rarely locked, even in this day and age—and slipped inside.
“Hi.”
Mac nearly lost his balance and fell. “What the hell are you doing sitting here in