Tempting Mr. Wrong (Wrong Man) by Kerri Carpenter Page B

his retreating form. She was botching this up. At the same time, she knew she needed to concentrate on her interview, not on flirting with a guy who had made it clear that their kiss was a mistake.
    Although, she still had high hopes she could change his mind. She turned her attention back to the Young Heroes website. First she would get a new job. Once that was out of the way, she would return to Operation Lance.
    …
    Lance downed his coffee in record time. Placing the empty mug on the console table near the door, he weighed his options. The old house had about a million windows. Great for natural light but a killer to replace. Why Chris and Gretchen had decided to go for such an old fixer-upper was beyond him.
    He thought he understood what Chris had done with the house. It seemed like he’d put his attention into the areas the family used. The kitchen was immaculate, the bathrooms and bedrooms looked great.
    But in terms of security and safety, the place was a mess. When Chris was around, he’d probably figured he could take care of his family. But Carly had been living here on her own with a child for almost a year. He eyed the flimsy lock on the front door, the ancient windows, and the lack of any kind of sensor lights outside, and blew a long, frustrated breath out.
    No more. Chris asked him to make sure Mya and Carly were okay and that’s what Lance intended to do. He would do everything possible to leave them with the safest house possible.
    Carly’s lack of attention wasn’t really a shock. With her flighty attitude and propensity toward focusing on only the positive, there was no way she would have noticed something as mundane as an alarm system.
    He looked toward the kitchen. Carly was flighty, for sure. She was also a bit whimsical. Not to mention, she was fun, bubbly, vivacious, and spirited. Lance frowned. That’s why the last couple days had felt so off. Something was going on with her.
    There had been no tents or forts built. He hadn’t seen her dancing around the kitchen or singing along with Mya to one of the many, many cartoons she watched.
    Had it been their kiss?
    Lance counted the number of windows in the living room and jotted it down in his notebook. It had only been one small kiss. Nothing to get her panties in a twist over. Except he was lying. It had been one hell of a make-out session. He didn’t even have to close his eyes to feel Carly in his arms, taste her sweet lips against his, or smell her intoxicating scent as it worked its way into his subconscious.
    The woman was a spitfire, all fire and passion wrapped into a tiny, enticing body. For the hundredth time since they met, he imagined what it would be like to unleash all that fire and passion in the bedroom.
    Lance ran a hand over his face and thought about Carly Quigley. Gorgeous—that was a given. All that red hair begged for him to run his hands through it, wrap it around his fingers, and tug her head to his. Then her enticing lips would be right where he wanted them. Again.
    If Lance was being honest, he was still a bit hot and bothered by the thought of the other night’s swing set make-out session. Carly might be a shit cook, but damn could she kiss, and Lance was ready for another round.
    He chastised himself even as he took one more measurement. It didn’t matter if she was older now, or how physically attracted to her he was, at the end of the day, she was his best friend’s sister. He had no business thinking about the way she kissed. Not to mention that even if circumstances were different and it would be okay to take things further with her, he still wasn’t staying in North Carolina. He glanced down at his notepad. While he’d been researching alarm systems, he’d taken a little detour and looked up more of the places he wanted to visit. Vegas, New Orleans, Napa Valley, Joshua Tree, Park City. He had a bucket list that was growing bigger with each passing day and he’d made a promise to himself to check off each