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scowled, leaning forward to jab a finger in his direction, “I’ll have you know that Vince asked me to go away with him this weekend. Not the other way around.”
    “Okay.” Mac grinned and she had to glance down at her hands on the pretext of cleaning non-existent dirt from under her fingernails. A reserved man by nature, on very few occasions had Alise witnessed an honest show of emotion from him. But when he did… whoa boy . The full, sensual lips he’d inherited from his Irish-Italian father lifted and crinkled the corners of the exotic tilted eyes of his Eurasian mother. Gorgeous.
    Simply…gorgeous. The rarity of the smile punched the breath from her chest. “Look, I believe you,” he continued. “It just seems to be moving a little too fast. You’ve been dating, what? Two months?”
    “Three,” Alise corrected, holding up the same amount of fingers. “And no, we are not ‘moving too fast’. Besides, when you haven’t had sex in two years, there’s no such thing.”
    Mac blinked.
    Then blinked again.
    “Two years?” he croaked. After clearing his throat, he bent forward, pinning her with an incredulous stare. “You haven’t had sex in two years?”
    Alise groaned, squeezing her eyes shut. Damn, she hadn’t meant to let that slip. She lifted her lashes, peeking out from under them and wanted to cringe. He stared at her as if she were some kind of fugitive from the freak show—horrified disbelief and fascination. She squashed the urge to pat her chest and check for a third breast.
    “Could you please not gawk?” she snapped. “We all don’t have stacked Amazons fighting to get into our beds.” An image of the tall, built women Mac dated—the opposite of her—flashed through her mind and she scowled.
    “You want to get a stacked Amazon into your bed? Sorry,” he apologized at the sound of her dark growl. He shook his head. A heartbeat of silence. “Two years?” She rose from the edge of her seat and he held his hands out, palms up, as if warding off her 7
    Naima Simone
    imminent attack. “Look, you can’t blame me for being surprised. I mean, look at you, Alise. A beautiful redhead and successful business woman. Surely there hasn’t been a shortage of opportunities. Why haven’t you—”
    “Gotten my groove back?” Alise supplied. Again he laughed, and once more her heart dived south of nowhere. Maybe she should confess the truth. Just lay her cards out on the table and allow the proverbial chips to fall where they may.
    Well, Mac, funny thing. Since I’ve moved to New Eden I’ve been suffering from a terrible case of unrequited love. Just recently I decided to move on because I realize this man will never truly see me. He will never recognize me as the woman who loves him, who would give him everything if he but looked at me.
    Oh yeah. By the way.
    That man is you.
     
    Mac stared at Alise Layton, caught somewhere between appalled and floored. Part of him still couldn’t grasp her stunning revelation. Petite—only reaching his shoulder in heels—and slender, he hadn’t lied when he’d called her beautiful. The soft, tumbling curls framing her heart-shaped face shone bright like the pulsing heart of a flame.
    Elegant auburn brows arched over dark brown, expressive eyes while her wide, mobile mouth was always curved into a smile or grin.
    Alise had moved to his picturesque hometown of New Eden, Washington a little over a year ago and she’d immediately captured his attention. Hell, how could anyone miss her? Like the flame her hair reminded him of, she was never still. After handling the lease for her gift and coffee shop, he’d sat back and watched in awe as she conquered a town that could be cliquish to newcomers with her joy and enthusiasm. No one could withstand the sparkle in her brown eyes…including him.
    He’d only given the title of “friend” to one other person. In the short time she’d made New Eden her home, Mac had come to count Alise as another, bringing