Rekindled by Maisey Yates Page B

and otherwise do a lot of things
     that a woman he was in a serious relationship with might do.
    Or what he assumed they might do.
    He’d never had a real, serious relationship. Some long-term casual dating of the same
     woman, yes. But he didn’t have women come into his house and cook for him. Do his
     laundry. For heaven’s sake, the woman he was sleeping with was handling his dirty
     socks.
    There was a whole level of intimate there that he’d never arrived at with another
     woman, and it had happened with Lucy by default.
    Which meant that her going back to her house at some point in the night was necessary.
     It was on the same property, yes, but it added some boundaries. That way, when she
     got out of bed in the morning, she was coming to work to make him breakfast. Not rolling
     out of bed to make breakfast for her lover.
    Boundaries.
    Mac looked up from the log he was getting ready to split and watched Lucy walk up
     the porch steps and into the house. And he watched her ass in those tight black pants
     she was wearing.
    Boundaries. Freaking, stupid boundaries.
    She was working, which meant going into the house to instigate a little bit of foreplay
     would be a violation of those boundaries. It was part of the unspoken rules they’d
     slowly sunk into over the past two weeks.
    Lucy slept in her house, and when she was working, they hardly spoke. Then, at dinner,
     the rules started to relax. They ate together, talked. Then Lucy did the dishes. Sometimes
     he did them because, since dinner was more relaxed, the moments after always felt
     like a gray area in terms of Lucy’s responsibilities.
    Then, after that, they went upstairs to his room, and all professionalism and boundaries
     ceased to exist. So did clothes. There was just the two of them and a day’s worth
     of tension to burn off. Sometimes it required half the night to burn through it. And
     they used half the night if necessary.
    They were both a little sleep-deprived.
    But it was worth it. He brought the ax down on the top of the log, putting his sexual
     frustration into the motion. Because it was the only way he was burning through anything
     in the next few hours. All he could do was exhaust himself.
    Although he needed a break. Definitely. He set the ax down and stripped his shirt
     off, using the fabric to wipe the sweat off his chest. He slung it over his shoulder
     and headed down toward the house. Surely Lucy would have some lemonade or iced tea
     for him. Which was all he wanted from her. Honest.
    He pushed the front door open and walked in. Lucy was dusting. It was very domestic
     and weirdly sexy all at the same time, and he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to
     do with the onslaught of feelings that tumbled down on his head.
    “Hi,” he said.
    Lucy turned, eyes widening. She was good for his ego. “Hi yourself.”
    “I’m thirsty. I was wondering if there was anything to drink?”
    “Lemonade,” she said, turning back to her dusting.
    He walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge, a completely surreal feeling shrouding
     him in a fog. Even without kissing there was some weird domestic vortex that seemed
     to be surrounding them both.
    Strange, because it wasn’t something he’d ever had, and yet he recognized it. And
     a strange part of him wanted it. Which was even weirder because he knew that this
     was a lie. This kind of quiet, sweet union. And forget one existing that could be
     this companionable and also be filled with crazy hold-on-to-your-hat sex. Nope. Wasn’t
     possible.
    Of course, there were Lucas and Carly. Mac didn’t know about their sex life, and he
     didn’t want to, but he knew they were happy. So happy it made his gut hurt to look
     at them. He was happy for Carly. Thrilled for his sister, and for his best friend,
     that they’d found some happiness after having had such tough childhoods.
    But they were two in a million. That kind of thing just wasn’t out there for him.
    Especially not with