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skimmed her upper lip and her gaze dropped to his chest. Out of the corner of his vision, he saw her hand shake as it floated toward him. It landed with a butterfly touch above his heart.
    “I need to think about this.”
    “You know where I live…and what I want.”
    John walked into the backyard and she deflated with a loud sigh. There was no denying they’d been kissing. Her wet handprints marked him as if she’d staked a claim. Damn, the man lit her burners like no one ever had. Her fingers trailed over a swollen mouth that could still taste him.
    Greedily, she wanted more.
    “I’m sorry.” Andrea peeked around the corner of the dark room before sliding in. She opened the freezer and bright yellow light framed her embarrassment. “I didn’t mean to walk in on anything.”
    “It’s okay.” Husky with unfulfilled passion, Livvy’s voice cracked.
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    “So? Tell me.” Andrea bumped the door closed with her hip, a paper-wrapped Popsicle in her hand. The darkness surrounded Livvy like a blanket, isolating her from the outside. She wanted to grab it and hold it close. John tempted her like Godiva chocolates, sparking an appetite in her that shocked her. She hadn’t known how hungry she was.
    “He isn’t looking for permanence.”
    “Are you?” Andrea asked.
    Livvy closed her eyes. She’d been hitting the snooze button on her biological clock for a while.
    She wanted the white wedding, the picket fence, the baby bottles. But those things were out of her reach right now. Many times she’d been told that one day she’d make some lucky man a very good wife. Vain or not, she believed that. So far, someday and some man hadn’t arrived together.
    Perhaps her standards were a bit high, but she had no intention of lowering them. She’d had
    relationships and affairs, some serious, some fun, some nothing more than avoiding empty nights.
    Nothing inflamed her like one caress of those navy eyes.
    Her face swung to Andrea and she saw not her baby sister but a mature woman about to be married, a wife long before her older sister.
    “Someday, sure, but John Murphy isn’t the type you bring home to Mama, you know? He’s the Inez Kelley
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    guy you sneak out to meet after your nice date drops you off. The kind you give your virginity to under the bleachers. He scares me.”
    Andrea stiffened and went into a mother-lion protective stance. “Scares you? How?”
    “Haven’t you looked into his eyes, Andy?
    There’s no laughter there. None. It’s very dark and secretive and…dangerous. Not in a beat-you-behind-closed-doors way but in an I-have-
    baggage-like-Samsonite kind of way. Intense.
    That’s the word. He’s intense…and it’s not that I’m frightened of him so much as what he makes me feel is scary, kind of out of control and reckless.”
    Livvy ran her hands over her face and stopped cold. Her hands smelled like John—rich, earthy, sexual. A coil of need wrapped tighter around her chest and she tried to dispel it by blowing through her mouth.
    “I don’t need this right now.” Livvy tried to shove the longing away but it hummed through her blood with a tempting growl. “I’ve got enough on my plate dealing with the Shack’s financial troubles. I do not need a man distracting me.”
    “Maybe that’s exactly what you do need,”
    Andrea offered. “The past couple months have been a real bitch for you. It’ll do you good to think about something other than cash flow.”
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    “I’m fine. The Shack is fine.” Livvy plastered a deliberately calm expression on her face. She’d eat glass before she let Andrea know how tight things really were. She wouldn’t let anything destroy her sister’s joy. “Don’t worry about me. I want you to have a wonderful wedding.”
    Andrea stared for a long breath then an impish grin appeared. “It looked hot. You were definitely wanting something else a few minutes ago.”
    “Oh, I want him.” Livvy smirked. “Maybe I just