That throat clearing again. Well, that would start getting on his damn nerves. Regretfully, he pulled away from her, looking down into her beautiful face. He could smell her lust for him. He would bet Dez was as wet as he was hard. Maybe they could just go to the Ritz and have dinner after some serious fucking? Nah. Dez was too nice a girl for that.

Dammit.

“Excuse me?”

Mace glowered at the strange voice speaking to him. Without looking away from Dez, “Who is that?”

“That’s my ex…Matt…uh…somebody…”

Mace beamed in absolute delight. She’d forgotten the man’s name. The name that once belonged to her. Good job, Llewellyn.

Growling low, Mace turned just his head to glare at Dez’s ex. The man physically blanched and probably didn’t even realize he backed up several steps. Mace really wanted to shift right then and there. Rip the man’s throat out and bring his lifeless corpse back to Dez as a kind of pre-wedding gift. Although right in the middle of Macy’s…that might be a bit tacky. Even for him.

“Go. Away.”

Whatever expression Mace had on his face, he didn’t have to repeat himself. No-neck stumbled back a couple more steps, turned, and quickly walked away with a “See ya, Dez” tossed over his shoulder. Mace watched until he couldn’t see him anymore, then he turned back to Dez. He still had her undivided attention. Good.

His hand slid around to cup her cheek, using his thumb to trace the line of her mouth. “That was better than I’d ever imagined. Like ten thousand times better.”

Dez swallowed. “Good to know.”

They gazed at each other, and Mace wondered if she’d be amenable to a quickie in one of the changing rooms. Just to take the edge off. Nah. She was too nice for that. Dammit.

“Mace Llewellyn! What the hell are you doin’? Let that little girl go.”

Mace ignored Sissy Mae, but Dez apparently remembered they weren’t alone. That they were actually in the middle of a major department store, making out in the lingerie section. Her hands suddenly released the grip she had on his hair and began to push on his chest as she pulled away from him.

He growled. Really, how attached could Smitty be to his sister? Would he really notice if Mace killed her?

She lost her fucking mind! What the hell was she doing? Why hadn’t she decked him? Kicked him in the nuts? Set his hair on fire? Something! Other than kissing the presumptuous bastard back.

Her sisters were right. She had no friggin’ sense.

“Are you okay, darlin’?” Dez looked into the face of a woman who had to be Smitty’s sister. She looked exactly like him, only a smaller, girl version.

Dez took a deep breath as she took another step away from Mace. “Yeah. Yeah. Sure, I’m fine.”

The woman took hold of her wrist with a vicelike grip. “Well, why don’t you and I stop by the little girl’s room. Give you a little time to compose yourself.”

Mace suddenly tore his eyes away from Dez’s face to glare at her rescuer. “She looks fine to me.”

“That’s cause you’re a boy and you wouldn’t know any better.” She walked off, yanking Dez behind her.

Christ! What a strong female. Strong as an ox.

The two women wandered around until they discovered a bathroom, while the woman introduced herself in one long rush as “Sissy Mae Smith. Smitty’s baby sister. Everybody just calls me Sissy. Or Sissy Mae. Some call me Mae. But I really don’t like that. So you can call me Sissy. Or Sissy Mae,” while dragging Dez into the bathroom with her.

Thankfully empty, Dez gripped a corner of one of the bathroom sinks and took in a couple of deep, calming breaths.

“That Mace sure does have a way, don’t he?”

“You could say that.” Dez splashed some cold water on her face. As she dried off with a paper towel, “You know, I’ve been up against guys covered in the blood of their coworkers. I’ve faced off against stone-cold contract killers who thought they had nothin’ to lose. I’ve even gone toe to toe with a sixteen-foot python that had recently finished digesting its owner and I could tell he wanted me as the tasty dessert. And yet, none of that freaked me out as much as Mace Llewellyn does.”

Sissy chuckled as she put on a dab of lip gloss. “Yeah, I know. That’s our Mace.”

Dez turned and leaned her butt against the sink, her arms crossed in front of her. She opened her mouth to speak but realized she had nothing to say. Or maybe she had way too much to say.

Sissy continued to touch up her makeup, but Dez could feel the woman watching her. She hated that. If there was something to say, then freakin’ say it.

“What?” The woman caught her making out in the lingerie department; normal pleasantries one has with a stranger didn’t seem to apply anymore. “Why do you keep staring at me?”

“Can I ask you a question?” Sissy’s accent flowed as thick as molasses. And she spoke as fast as Smitty talked slow. If the two didn’t look so similar, Dez would have never guessed they grew up in the same house.

“Why not?”

Sissy put her makeup away in her small leather purse and turned to face Dez. “You and Mace—”

“Whoa, Gidget. There is no me and Mace.”

“My name’s Sissy Mae. Or Sissy. Or—”

“What I’m trying to say is that there is Mace period. And Dez period. There is no combining of the two. We are two separate sentences.”