And who he was doing it with.

Stumbling back, Dylan muttered a curse and tried to ignore the frenzied beating of his heart. He was still as hard as a concrete block, so hard in fact, he was surprised the heaviness of his c**k didn’t tip him right over.

Claire looked as aroused as he felt. Porcelain cheeks sporting a pink blush, lips moist and swollen from the kiss, br**sts heaving as she caught her breath.

“What the f**k?” he demanded with a scowl. “Why did you do that?”

She looked flustered. “I…I wanted to see if you were seriously into women.”

“Are you f**king kidding me?”

“I was curious,” she said defensively.

Dylan set his jaw and took a step toward her. “Has your curiosity been sated?” He lowered his hand to the painful bulge in his sweatpants and cupped his aching dick. “Is this a clear enough answer for you, Claire?”

A pair of wide brown eyes dipped to his groin, flickering with heat that made his c**k twitch. As she nodded in response, he could see her pulse hammering in the center of her throat.

Silence descended, broken only by the occasional muffled voices coming from the television in the living room. Aidan was still watching the game then, Dylan noted. Thank f**king God. He would have had a tough time explaining all this if he’d turned around and found Aidan standing there, especially after he’d ordered the other man to keep his hands off Claire.

“Any other experiment you want to try out on me?” he asked, unable to keep the sarcasm out of his tone.

“Um, no. I think I’m good.” Uncertainty washed over her face. “Why did you…why did you kiss me back?”

Million-dollar question right there. He was supposed to hate this woman, not lust over her.

Then again, who said one had anything to do with the other?

“Because I’m a guy,” he finally replied. “When a woman sticks her tongue in my mouth, I react on instinct.”

“Oh. Okay. Right.” She tucked a few strands of dark-red hair behind her ear, then proceeded to spit out a string of rapid sentences that were nearly impossible to keep up with. “Anyway, you were right and I’m crazy exhausted so I’m gonna turn in now but thanks again for everything you did today and I’m sorry for what I did just now but I’m sure I won’t remember it in the morning so do me a favor and don’t remind me of it, okay?”

His head was spinning so fast he felt like he’d just gotten off a Tilt-A-Whirl. “I…yeah, sure, okay. G’night, Claire.”

“’Night, Dylan.”

She dashed off and disappeared into the bedroom, leaving him alone to run both hands through his hair in frustration.

There were many women he had no business making out with. Close relatives, of course. His buddies’ wives, no duh. That Black Widow broad who’d axe-murdered all her husbands, nope, not touching that one. Last but not least, Claire McKinley. Yup, his brother’s ex-fiancée-as-of-this-morning was definitely not someone he should be locking lips with.

Disgusted and annoyed at his lack of willpower, he ordered his erection to retreat, then stalked back to the living room so he could spend the evening with the person he wanted to be making out with.

Chapter Five

“Show of hands—who thinks Dylan’s brother is a grade-A douchebag?” Seth Masterson promptly raised his own hand, and was joined by Cash McCoy, Jackson Ramsey and Ryan Evans, who all wore identical looks of condemnation.

“See, it’s settled,” Seth announced before taking a deep drag of his cigarette.

No sooner did he exhale a cloud of smoke into the late-morning air than a pretty blonde burst onto the café’s patio like a tornado.

“Uh-uh, no way,” Shelby Garrett said in a stern voice. “No smoking!”

Dylan grinned as Seth’s gray eyes flashed with indignation. Their resident badass had been warned several times to not even think about lighting up in Shelby’s place of business or else, and the woman clearly hadn’t been bluffing—she swiped the cigarette right out of Seth’s fingers and proceeded to drop it directly into his coffee mug.

“Aw, that’s cruel, Shel,” Seth grumbled. “Now what am I going to drink?”

“Oh, is there something wrong with your coffee?” she asked sweetly. “Go ahead and drink it right along with that nasty butt, seeing as you were determined to put those toxins in your body anyway.”

As the other men laughed and applauded, Shelby settled in the chair next to Ryan’s and glanced at Dylan. “Okay, finish your story. I just had to show my new part-timer how to take down a cake order.”

For the tenth time that morning, Dylan had to wonder what Shelby was even doing here. Not that he was complaining or anything. The wife of a former SEAL, Shelby was not only gorgeous, but so easy to talk to, and she was a California girl to the core. The moment she’d learned that the guys were incorporating surfing into their Sunday workout, she’d invited herself along and had been joining them bright and early on the beach every week.

Not much surfing to be done today, though. The water had been too calm, not a decent wave in sight, so eventually Shelby went for a walk while the men finished their workout, and then the six of them had headed over to the Coronado bakery/café Shelby owned.

Dylan had been in the process of telling everyone about yesterday’s wedding fiasco before Shelby had hurried inside to assist her employee, and now he quickly wrapped up the tale. Omitting, of course, the unexpected kiss Claire had planted on him—that was one can of worms he had zero intention of opening.