Lakeshore Candy: The McAdams Sisters (By The Lake Book 4) Read online

  Abby might be tiny as a toothpick, but damn she was sexy in all the right places. Her curvy hips, her rounded rear end, plus her never-ending, long trim running legs.

  Riley shook his head. You have to stop doing that, acknowledging her gorgeous body. It seemed almost impossible, especially at this late...or was it early...hour. It is bad enough her ridiculous jokes make you laugh when you don’t deserve it, or the sweet compliments she gives chips away at the stone wall you’ve built around your emotions. He shouldn’t feel happy, joy, or pleasure because he didn’t deserve any of them.

  “Doesn’t this feel great?” Her excited holler followed her into another sprint ten feet away, flaring her arms in the air like she won a marathon.

  Just watching her was making him exhausted. She was like the Energizer Bunny twenty-four-seven. Some nights she barely got a wink of sleep and moved through her day on a high, no doubt a sugar high. Her morning routine consisted of pouring half a cup of sugar into her coffee or tea...maybe that was an exaggeration...but who knew exactly the amount when she tipped the shaker letting the sweetness pour out until satisfied with the concoction. But she also ate candy like a child loose in a candy store and she hid candy like a squirrel hiding nuts in a tree. There were stashes of candy throughout his apartment: in the cupboards, under the couch and behind the television. Behind the television? Let a logical person explain that one, he certainly couldn’t figure that one out. He could only imagine the Easter egg hunt through her own house.

  “You should come running with me every morning.”

  Riley used to run, but there were a lot of things he used to do.

  Abby was back in front of him, jogging backwards again. The messy bun she had tied at the top of her head flopping with each bounce. That wasn’t the only thing bouncing around. Had his eyes really just trailed down the front of the t-shirt she was wearing? It was another one of her twin brother Avery’s, band t-shirts with the logo across the front that she’d taken scissors to, cutting away the sleeves and slicing slits across the sides. It wasn’t the cuts or slits holding his attention.

  When Abby stopped running suddenly, not paying attention to him or noticing he was too busy staring at her chest to notice, he crashed straight into her.

  Damn it.

  Abby screamed at the impact, her hands latching onto his shoulder, digging her long painted black nails through his shirt and into his skin as they lost balance.

  Damn it.

  They fell backwards. He fell on top of her small body, but he managed to wrap an arm around her waist and protect her back from slamming into the ground, while the palm of his other hand hit the sand slowing the impact.

  Damn it.

  Damn it he liked her body against his.

  Lying underneath him, Abby’s eyes stared up at him, startled at first, then a slow smirk found her lips and she craned her neck back laughing like he hadn’t nearly just crushed her.

  It was kind of funny. But there was no way he was going to laugh.

  Abby gasped, seeing the humor he hadn’t caught creeping across his face. “You’re smiling!”

  He rolled his eyes. “You’re a klutz.”

  “Whatever. You ran into me,” she accused.

  “You stopped running without warning.”

  Abby sighed and a smile followed. Abby owned particular smiles for each of her reactions to everything. This smile was by far his favorite. He’d learned the one that reached midway to her eyes, showing off her straight white teeth and lighting her eyes in a content manner, was her real smile.

  It shifted to that mischievous brave smile and he braced himself for a smart remark to follow.

  “If you hadn’t been staring at my breasts you might have noticed I stopped.”

  Busted. Shit.

  She’d noticed the direction of his eyes and found amusement in it. He didn’t find the action amusing and lately he found himself struggling more each day not to notice things like that about Abby. He was a man after all and she was a woman, and an attractive one at that, but he wasn’t looking for a woman. Not now...not ever.

  Tell that to the bulge in your pants. Damn it.

  Abby laughed, pulling him from his thoughts. “Oh relax Riley. You’re a guy and I’m a girl...”

  That was his reasoning exactly. Although when she said it, the words made it sound like he had no self control. He needed to get his self control in check.

  “You’re going to notice these things. Don’t get those cute black boxers of yours in a twist.”

  Cute black boxers? She’d noticed that was all he was wearing in the kitchen? She seemed as observant over him as he was over her. He’d noticed the jersey short shorts riding high up her thigh and the way her buttocks peeked out the back when she jogged in front of him on their way to the beach.

  “Maybe if you got off of me you wouldn’t be struggling not to notice.”

  He was still on top of her? Shit.

  How did he not notice her full breasts pushed against his chest until just now, or that she was latched to him like a slug, holding her own weight against the entire length of his body?

  As she relaxed he noticed how perfect their bodies mashed together. At that thought, only leading its way down a road of trouble, he let her go, dropping her the two inches onto the sand.

  “Ouch! Riley! Dammit!” she cried, as if it hurt.

  Riley climbed to his feet trying to maintain his composure and trying not jump away from her like she was too hot to touch. He was the one on fire and he didn’t want to burn her. She would get burned. What woman in his life hadn’t been burned?

  Abby stayed on the ground all coiled up from her overreaction and directed her pursed lips twisted to one side at him. These were the looks that were chipping away at his wall and inviting feelings back into his body.

  “Way to let a woman down.” These witty comments from Abby were a bulldozer crashing down the wall around his heart.

  Riley offered his hand and her warm tiny fingers tightly gripped his as she jumped to her feet and dusted the back of her legs and high-rise ass that he couldn’t not notice.

  She finished by slapping her hands together. “Before you tried to mount me on the sand...” She paused to wait for a reaction, which he wasn’t about to give her, she continued with a shrug, “...I was going to suggest racing up Blake’s beach stairs.”

  Why didn’t this woman ask to go back home to bed? Like to sleep. Not in his bed. That image wasn’t hard to form.

  “I’m not racing up Blake’s stairs.”

  Abby tugged his hand and he tried to ignore the heat that friendly touch sent through his body. She managed to drag him to the bottom of the stairs that weaved up the cliff, without him noticing.

  “Come on. I have a meeting with my sisters in the morning and I need to let off some steam.”

  Riley didn’t need to ask why a meeting with her sisters required burning off steam. The little chatterbox had already informed him all about the gift show in September they were setting up for to wholesale their all-natural product lines to other businesses.

  Abby continued on anyway. “I wanted to hand-make my product and personally sell it to people. My sisters want to mass produce it and ship it out across the country,” she complained, like it was a bad thing. They were going to be making a shit load of money. They were setting up at the trade show to get their product out and sell to small businesses, but their intention was to find wholesalers in order to ship the product out by the skid rather than by the box. He could relate to their desire to become established. He’d quickly made his mark in the independent label recording industry long before the night that changed everything. He’d had the desire, the drive, and the passion to succeed until everything had changed. It wasn’t about the money with Abby though. It was almost like she didn’t care about money at all.

  “Let’s go.”

  He clenched his jaw. She didn’t listen to no. “Alright. But if I win we are going back home.”

  Misch
ief glimmered in her playful eyes. “And if I win we are going swimming.”

  “Fair enough.”

  “Skinny dipping.”

  Skinny dipping?

  Lord almighty, he better run.

  Chapter Three

  “BOXERS TOO,” ABBY yelled at Riley, already stripped down to her birthday suit and bobbing over thirty feet away in the water. She’d torn off her clothes so quickly he hadn’t even got a glance at her naked body as she dived into the water. Not that he should be glancing at all.

  “We are going to get arrested,” he called back, hoping it would bring her to shore to dress and head back to his apartment.

  Skinny dipping. After three in the morning. Seriously?

  They were going to end up in a lot of trouble. Luckily, they were far enough away from the public beach preventing the cops who cruised the strip who kept an eye out for vandalism from seeing them.

  “I’m sure it won’t be the first time for you.” Her voice carried across the rippling water.

  It would, in fact, be the first he was ever in trouble with the law, but he wasn’t about to tell her that tidbit of information. It would only lead to other questions about his life before Willow Valley. That part of his life wasn’t open for discussion. Period.

  Riley stared across the waves of cold water, stripped down to the very boxers she was referring to, only seeing Abby’s upper silhouette glimmering under the setting moon. Even the moon was tired and dropping away for the sun to come out.

  Abby was naked in that pool of water. Naked, wet, shimmering and silky smooth.

  He swallowed the thought away.

  This was the most ridiculous, adolescent brainwave she’d come up with yet and she came up with some pretty out-there ideas.

  The part of his body that was still covered was having totally un-childlike feelings at this point. Strong, masculine desires he hadn’t felt for a helluva long time consumed him and mixed with unfamiliar feelings. His feet dug into the sand, keeping him from diving into the water.

  Riley had felt lust before, that wasn’t a new feeling to him. The crowds he ran with, before moving away from the city, always had lots of willing women to satisfy his manly needs and he’d dipped in to plenty. His promiscuous ways were what essentially began the trouble that changed his life.

  However, his reaction to those women in no way compared to his body’s reaction to Abby. He couldn’t quite put his finger on what exactly it was he felt, but this recent development scared the hell out of him and he found himself thinking, I could take her now and warm her body in the cold pool of liquid or go lie back on the couch and simply hold her.

  What in the hell was that? Lie on a couch with her and hold her? What kind of thought was that? Never in his entire life had he wanted to just lay with a woman and hold her. Ever.

  Riley needed to maintain control over his irrationality because he didn’t want the cravings to just lay with a woman. The thought was ludicrous to him. Unfortunately for him, he knew exactly what it felt like to just lay with Abby. They’d done it a few times when they fell asleep on the couch watching television...and he liked it.

  Liked it? Liked it! Riley wasn’t even sure if these unfamiliar feelings were real or he just needed to get laid. Deep in his gut he had a hunch it wasn’t the latter.

  “I didn’t see you as the sore loser type,” she called, impatiently waiting for him in the water.

  Even her voice was causing commotion in his body...under his boxers to be exact. How was he supposed to go skinny dipping and remain...

  He glanced down below his waist knowing if he didn’t get in that water Abby wouldn’t let him live it down. If he did get in that water he had to stay a foot away from her body or she’d know exactly what he was thinking, feeling, craving, and wanting about her.

  Riley sent a silent message to his manhood before tearing his boxers off. He dived into the cold, refreshing liquid that wrapped around him as he swam to where his feet no longer touched the muddy floor of the lake. A good ten feet away from Abby.

  Riley ran his fingers through his hair he’d let grow out around his shoulders, then ran his hands over his face and across the stubble he trimmed at the beginning of the summer from the full beard he’d sported all winter. He’d never worn a beard before three years ago. He’d only let it grow in when the laziness of not caring about his appearance invaded his ordinary grooming patterns. He hadn’t cared about anything those months, just who was scoring him the next dime bag.

  When Riley had come to Willow Valley, he’d felt like the hair was a shield he could hide behind and protect him from the vultures of the town. But summer was hot so he trimmed it away, leaving only stubble. He’d almost trimmed it right off, but then he liked the way Abby was always running her hands along his jaw line, whenever her teasing and taunting was in play.

  Abby.

  As per usual she was a beaming ray of sunshine no matter the hour and was watching him closely with her dark, dramatic eyes. The hotness that crossed the surface of the water between them was reason enough to swim back to shore, dress and retreat to his bedroom...where she surprisingly didn’t go. Was that boundaries? It would be the only boundary she knew.

  “I’m going to admit it,” she said, her lips just grazing the water leaving droplets he wanted to lick off.

  Lick off! No, no, no! No licking.

  “I didn’t think you would do it,” she finished.

  Riley hadn’t planned on skinny dipping when he’d started up Blake’s stairs. He’d planned on winning and going home. His legs were longer, leaner and he’d been convinced he would win. She was faster, smaller and he wasn’t about to shove her down the stairs like she cheatingly did with him, beating him to the top of Blake’s stairs.

  “I didn’t doubt you wouldn’t,” he retorted.

  She laughed, her loud hearty laugh that surfed the waves to his ears relaxed him...a bit. That was Abby’s real laugh too. She had a laugh to match each smile, always leaving people wondering about her. Hell, when they’d first met she’d certainly left him wondering.

  Skinny dipping? Skinny dipping! Two grown single adults.

  If they’d stayed partially clothed, he in his boxers and her wearing her bra and underwear, to swim that would have been much more appropriate for friends. The word appropriate was somewhat unknown to Abby, who pushed the sky to the limit. Like she had pushed his determination to remain a loner with her continual efforts to go out with him or plop herself down beside him at the beach when he’d been content sitting alone.

  It hadn’t been until last fall when her grandmother, Grace, passed away and Abby was so far lost down a road he hardly recognized her that they’d connected. Watching her heart break her spirit, he hadn’t planned on connecting, but he related on a level to what she was dealing with and he’d stepped up to the friendship plate, even if he hadn’t intended on doing so. There was something about Abby that made his mind not listen to reason. But that was all that was between them: a friendship.

  Tell that to your body.

  “Have you ever been arrested?” Her curiosity was like the daily news, always looking for a new story to plaster on the front page.

  “Have you?” Answering her question with a question was usually the best way to distract her, since she liked to talk about herself as much as she liked to ask questions.

  “The first time...” Why did it not surprise him that she’d been cuffed more than once? “...I was about seventeen and broke into one of the beach huts and got busted...” Her voice was seductive, her tone low and dramatic. Abby mastered dramatic, seductive, mysterious, and troublemaking in a perfect circle and somehow managed to leave everyone outside wondering if half the words she spoke were factual. “...doing it, with a tourist who swept me off my feet.”

  Abby was making her way slowly closer to him and he should have been making his way slowly away. But there was that pull she had on him.

  “Kate was livid because Sydney got knocked up at sixteen.” Th
ose were two of her three sisters. “I wasn’t foolish like Sydney or sweet and loving. There was no way I was having a baby.” She chuckled, reliving the memory. He could relate. He didn’t want children either. He never had. The career he’d built so quickly and successfully had been his proudest and biggest accomplishment. He hadn’t been looking to add any more responsibility to it. “Anyway, no charges were laid and I was stuck doing community work for the whole summer.”

  “The first time?” He couldn’t help but betray his normal, don’t inquire rule. He figured if he didn’t ask her then he wasn’t obliged to answer when she asked him.

  Abby was now only a couple feet away from him. Naked. Skinny dipping. This was the worst idea ever. Yet, his body hadn’t ever felt so alive.

  “Yeah. In case you haven’t figured it out, I was kind of a trouble maker growing up.”

  He had figured it out alright.

  “Your turn. Have you ever been arrested?”

  What was the harm? “No.”

  “Really?” What was the point in answering her at all if she was going to question it?

  “Really.” He said the second clarification in a tone that would keep her from asking again.

  “Oh...” The disappointment in her voice matched the disappointment on her face.

  Disappointment? Why was she disappointed?

  “I sort of pegged you as a running from the law kind of guy,” she said. “You know like you did something really bad and now you’re hiding out.”

  He was hiding only it wasn’t from the law.

  Her voice dropped low. “Do you have a dark past Riley?”

  It depended on her definition of dark.

  She was a foot from him. She needed to back up.

  “Abby I don’t want to discuss my past.”

  She rolled her eyes dramatically raising out of the water enough to give him a good show of the top of her bare breasts, which sent an exhilaration through his body, before dunking completely under the water.