Author: Jaci Burton

She was quiet for several minutes, her palm resting on his chest.

“I love you, Mac.”

His heart slammed against his chest. Jesus Christ, he hadn’t expected that.

She smiled down at him. “I’ve always loved you. When I was eighteen I fell in love with who you were, at first because you were so different than any guy I’d ever known. I was crazy about your bad boy image, your independent nature, the fact you threw caution to the wind and did whatever you wanted. I craved that kind of life because I was imprisoned here; my life had been entirely laid out before me and I wanted to be free.

“But as I got to know you, I realized you were more than just this image I had of you. There was an inherent kindness within you, an honor and integrity that you couldn’t hide, no matter how hard you tried. That’s the Mac Canfield I fell in love with, the one I wanted to give my body and heart to.”

He closed his eyes. And he’d taken her heart and stomped on it, tossing it carelessly back at her as if she’d meant nothing.

When he opened his eyes again, he looked up at Lily.

“Lily, I need you to know—what happened that last night we saw each other…”

“I know. You did what you thought was best for me.

You didn’t want to take me down with you. You weren’t trying to run my life for me, Mac. You’re nothing like my father.”

“I loved you.” As soon as he said the words, he realized they were true. He wasn’t just making excuses for the way he’d treated Lily. He’d dumped her because he loved her, because he was scared to death she would follow him down the black road of his life, that she would end up miserable if she’d stayed with him. “I didn’t want you to be with me because I was afraid of where I was going, and I didn’t want to tell you how I felt, didn’t want you to be able to see it in my eyes. If I didn’t let you go after I made love to you, if I didn’t walk away after that first night, I would have never let you go.”

Tears streamed down her face. “Thank you. I needed to hear that.”

“I’m not finished.” He brushed a tear away with his thumb. “I loved you back then and I didn’t tell you. I’m telling you now that I still do.”

Those words were true, too. He’d spent a lifetime running from them, but he’d never been able to run far enough.

Lily had always been in his heart, had never left. She never would. “I love you, Lily.”

“You’ve never said that to anyone before, have you?”

she asked, sniffling.

“I’ve never loved anyone before.” He was on unfamiliar ground now, and it felt strange. Good, but really strange.

She was still crying when she leaned over and kissed him, the salt from her tears searing him. God, she was sweet.

He’d always thought she was too good for him, but maybe he’d earned the right to love her—maybe he did deserve someone like Lily now.

He didn’t know what the future held for them. His life had always been about right now, not tomorrow. And right now he wanted to love her again—really love her.

He tunneled his fingers in her hair and deepened the kiss, letting his tongue slide over hers, licking her, moving his lips in slow motion. It was tender, something he wasn’t used to, but it made his dick hard to love her this way. She moaned against his mouth.

He swept her underneath him, using his knee to part her legs and ease inside her. There was no hurry this time, just a slow lovemaking as he moved in and out of her, stopping when he was deep inside to grind against her clit, wanting to feel her come apart around him one more time.

With the light on he could watch her eyes, see them widen when he hit a spot that felt good to her. Her body and her face told him everything as she lifted toward him, tightened around his cock and whimpered her need.

He cupped her cheek with one hand, wrapped the other around her butt to bring her closer, kissing her as she spasmed around him with her orgasm. He drank in her shuddering cries and came with her, surprised at the tenderness and emotion of the moment. Afterward, he drew her to his side and wrapped his arms around her, content to hold her.

If he could have his way, he’d shut out the world.

Leave this mess they were in behind them and run, so they could just be Mac and Lily, a couple. They needed time to discover each other without all this bullshit going on around them.

But that wasn’t going to happen. The world intruded in a big way.

“Time’s running out,” she whispered against him.

Didn’t he know it. “Yeah. What do you want to do?”

She lifted her head to peer at the clock on the nightstand. “It’s still plenty early. Daddy won’t be in bed yet.

And I need to slip into his office and get on the computer.”

“Do you want to wait until he’s asleep?”

“No, because then he’ll be upstairs, and he’s a light sleeper. This will be easier to do when he’s awake.”

He nodded. “Okay, you’re in charge. Tell me your plan.”

“Why don’t you go downstairs and distract him?”

“How do you suggest I do that?”

She sat up. “You won’t have to do anything, knowing my father. Tell him I’m asleep and you came down to get something to drink. Once he has you to himself and away from me, he’ll no doubt try to convince you to leave me. He’ll probably try to pay you off or something equally repulsive, but at least it’ll give me enough time to hack into his database while you have him engaged.”

Mac grinned. “You have a wicked and devious mind, Lily West.”

She winked. “That’s why you love me.”

They hopped out of bed to clean up and get dressed.

Lily’s adrenaline was pumping. She was excited about this, didn’t think twice about tapping into her father’s computer. To her, this was a job. She wasn’t in any way hurting her Dad by looking into his files. Instinct told her he wasn’t involved in this—her father might be a lot of things, but he wasn’t a criminal. He was just a means to get information on Belanfield, a stopping point along the way.

She hovered in her room to make sure her father wasn’t upstairs, while Mac headed downstairs. Her plan was to listen for their voices. Once she was assured her father was down there and engaged with Mac, she’d slip into his office.

Her door open just a crack, she waited what seemed like forever, though in reality she was certain it had only been a few minutes. Mac made sure to be loud enough to alert her father that someone was downstairs in the kitchen. And Lily knew her father never went to bed early, so he had to be roaming the house. She tiptoed out of her room and leaned over the railing, leaning back as she saw her father leave the library and head down the hall toward the kitchen. Perfect!

She crept down the stairs, lingering at the landing.

Soon, she heard Mac and her father talking together. Okay, good enough. Mac would keep him busy for a while. She hurried upstairs and opened the door to her father’s office.

Thankfully, his computer was on.

Now the big moment—had he changed his password?

Though she’d helped him out when she was in high school, he changed his password after he went to college. But when she wanted on his system during her breaks, she’d fiddled with a few combinations and figured it out, though he’d never known about it. She typed in the code, nearly whooping for joy when she was granted access. Heart pounding, she inserted the jump drive and opened his contact database. It, too, was password protected, so it proved more difficult to access. But her father wasn’t all that sophisticated with his passwords, so she tried several combinations, rolling her eyes when she entered her own date of birth and the program opened.

Really, Dad, how simple could that be? She made a mental note to someday teach him how to guard his data a little more carefully. But at the moment she was glad he hadn’t. She copied the database files onto the jump drive, closed all the files, pocketed the drive and hightailed it out of his office.

That was almost too easy.

As soon as she closed the door to her father’s office, she heard Mac and her father’s voices raised in anger. Curious, she crept downstairs and headed down the hall toward the kitchen, lingering at the doorway.

“I could make you a rich man, Canfield.”

No surprise there. She knew her father was going to try and buy Mac off. She hated that her dad was so predictable. To him, everything was about money.

“I’ve got everything I need already. I don’t need your money.”

“You don’t need Lily.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. I do need her.”

Lily’s heart squeezed.

“You have nothing to offer her. I could give her so much more.”

Mac snorted. “You are so blind. If you hadn’t tried to tie such a tight leash around Lily, make her fit into your preconceived notions of what you thought she should be, then maybe you wouldn’t have lost your daughter.”

Oh, Mac was really letting her father have it, wasn’t he?

She crossed her arms and smirked into the darkness. He never held back, with her or with anyone else. She loved that he didn’t let her father intimidate him.

“You know nothing about my relationship with my daughter,” John sniffed.

“I know all I need to know. You pushed her right out the door—hell, right out of the state. She ran as far as she could away from you and you’re too proud to admit the mistakes you made.”

“She made the mistakes, starting with taking up with you.”

“No, you and I were the ones who screwed up. I let her think I didn’t want her, that she should do what you wanted her to do. I was wrong. So are you. If you open your eyes and accept her for who and what she is, give her the freedom to live the life she wants rather than some mapped out plan that you designed for her, then maybe she’d open her heart to you.

Instead, you still insist you know what’s best for her. Keep that up and you’re going to lose her forever.”

“You have no idea what you’re talking about.” Her father was about to say something more, but he turned and spotted her.

Lily swiped at the tears, hating herself for letting them fall. Her father would never, ever understand. Nor would he ever change. She’d always known that, but somehow she’d hoped… “I wish just once you would listen to someone. But you will never see reason. You’ll never change. We’re leaving, Mac,” she said, then turned and walked out of the room.

Mac caught up with her and put his arm around her.

“It’s done,” she whispered. “Let’s get out of here. I don’t want to spend a night under his roof.”

He squeezed her shoulder. “You got it, babe. A little too much pink for me, anyway.”

She laughed, thankful to have Mac at her side.

He didn’t coddle her as they packed up, and that she appreciated. She’d long ago gotten over her father’s inability to see her point of view, but admittedly, it still stung that he wouldn’t give, even a little. Mac’s words held such power, such an important message, and her father wouldn’t yield.

He would never change.

She forced thoughts of him aside as they left the house.

Mercifully, her dad wasn’t hovering nearby when they walked out the door and climbed on the bike. Not that she expected him to. John West had too much pride to beg his daughter to stay. He’d rather be right than loved.

She almost felt sorry for him.

Mac revved the engine after he started it up, and Lily grinned, knowing it would irk her father. They roared out of there and into the night, back to Wild Rider headquarters.

Back to her current ‘home’, much better than the one they’d left. She felt like she could breathe again as soon as she left her father’s.