“Michael Larson? I actually know him already,” Jessica said, thoughtful. “He lives three streets over from me. I met him at an art show in Cincinnati last year. I even thought about asking him out because he was interesting, but he had some leggy blond on his arm.”
Melanie’s eyes grew wide at that one. “Close call on that one. That would have been awkward.”
Jessica snorted. “If I was seriously interested in Will, I guess it might have been. From what I remember, Michael Larson had a pony tail, very intense good looks and created giant metal sculptures. His work was very symbolic.”
Melanie gathered up the dirty dishes from their lunch, stacking them on her arms. “You don’t have to take the book to Will. He usually drops by several times during the week.”
Jessica pulled the condom out of her pocket and heard the table of older ladies start giggling again.
“This is what I need to talk to him about. The book just gives me a good excuse to track him down. I refuse to spend my week thinking about the things he insinuated. I want this over and settled as soon as possible. The next time I see Everett Williams, I want to do nothing more than just nod and go on.”
Chapter 6
Michael pulled a shirt over his head as he went to answer the insistent buzzing at his front door. His scowl faded when he noticed the very tall, very attractive redhead standing on his front step.
“Mr. Larson,” Jessica said, saying his name instead of hello.
“Yes, and frankly I’ve never been happier to be myself,” Michael said, smiling and letting his gaze take in her completely.
Jessica snorted at Will’s son flirting with her. This one was very practiced at the game, she concluded. There was no mistaking who he was now that she saw him up close. Michael Larson was a smaller replica of Will, only with a head full of hair.
“I’m Jessica Daniels. You’re a lot quicker on the uptake than your father. He has to dig deep for charming social banter.”
Michael laughed, and gestured her in. “I should have known you were already taken. The good ones always are. Come in and tell me more.”
When she walked by him and he got a look at the back of her, Michael just smiled wider. Way to go Dad, he thought enviously. Fine looking woman, and tall—in fact, she was probably almost as tall as his father.
“You look familiar,” Michael said, smiled warmly at her. “Do I know you?”
“We met at the art show in Cincinnati last year. You had a lovely blond on your arm most of the time. I also remember your work was very interesting. A person couldn’t stand near one of your art pieces and not feel what’s going on. Your art is very powerful.”
“Forget my Dad and the blond,” Michael said easily, morally lifted by her praise more than the fifteen thousand dollar check he had just cashed for one of his pieces. “Want to go out with me?”
“Too late. You should have dumped the blond and asked me a year ago. I’m here to fight with your father, who gave me this,” Jessica said, holding up the condom packet in two fingers. “One horny man in your family is all I can handle at a time.”
Michael let loose a bark of laughter that shook the hallway of his house.
“No shit?” he said proudly. “My brother Shane is not going to believe this. Dad must really like you.”
Jessica snorted. “Hardly. If anything, your father and I seem destined to crash and burn together. He’s determined to make me his rebound woman after his divorce. I’m really not interested in playing that role in his life. Where is he, so I can get this fight over with?”
Michael raised his eyebrows at her vehement statements but motioned her to follow him down the hall.
At the patio door leading out into the work area, Michael stopped and turned around to face Jessica Daniels again. He could feel the energy emanating off her, feel her looking ahead trying to get a glimpse of his father. Michael mentally crossed his fingers that his father got this right.
“You know, for a year now my father has been passing up leggy blonds half his age looking for you,” Michael told her, grinning at her consternation. He pointed to the condom in her hand in case Jessica Daniels tried to pretend she didn’t understand what he was explaining. “I just thought you should know that before you pass up the chance to use what Dad gave you. Frankly, Ms. Daniels, my father is the best man you’re ever going to come across in your life.”
“Children often idealize their parents, Mr. Larson. Maybe there are unpleasant things about your father’s personality that have eluded you up to now,” Jessica told him, irritated more when Michael Larson only smiled at her as if he knew something she did not.
“I didn’t say he was perfect. I said he was a good man. Be careful out there. Dad’s probably covered in marble dust,” Michael told her, sliding the door open for her, “and he probably has his music cranked up too loud to hear you coming. Just stand where he can see you. He’ll eventually leave the zone and notice.”
Jessica nodded. She stepped forward, stopped, and then sighed as she turned back. “You’re a good son, Mr. Larson.”
“Michael—please. If Dad bought condoms to use with you, we’re practically family,” Michael teased, laughing at her frown.
“I hardly think that’s the case,” Jessica said sarcastically, walking out into the work area.
What could have been a beautiful arbor was covered with a metal roof shielding a long expanse of courtyard from the weather. There was an eight-foot privacy fence surrounding the whole yard, which was nothing but work area. Near the house were piles of metal, several tool boxes, and a dozen or more weld spools. These were obviously the tools of the metal worker.
As she walked farther down the area, she heard the distinct chink, chink of a hammer and chisel chipping away at some stone. Then she saw him. Behind safety glasses, his amber gaze was focused intently on what he doing. A man’s figure was being further revealed with every stroke of the hammer, she saw.
And just as Michael Larson had warned, there was a set of white headphones running from Will’s ears to his front jeans pocket, the same pocket he had pulled the condom from earlier. Jessica couldn’t stop herself from wondering if everything in Will’s pocket was just as warm as the condom packet had been.
Shaking her head to clear the erotic distraction, Jessica strode forward and placed herself in his view. Will stopped hammering immediately. Walking to a nearby table, he laid the tools from his hands next to others on it. He motioned her forward, pulling the headphones from his ears and the player from his pocket.
With little other choice, Jessica had to move forward. Then her gaze went immediately to the new statue. Her breath caught. The part of the torso that was finished was even more perfect than the one he had taken her to see.
“What number is this one?” she asked, forgetting for a moment why she had come.
“Seventeen,” Will said, picking up a small, fluffy brush and running it over his body to sweep the worst of the dust away.
“You’ve improved since the one I saw,” she said softly. “You really are exceptional.”
Will walked over to her. “You can touch it if you like, but be careful of the edges. It’s not smoothed out yet.”
“No,” Jessica said, clearing her throat. “That’s all right.” She took a step back from him. “I brought back your book.”
“Thanks,” Will said. “I completely forgot about it. I could have picked it up later in the week.”
He took the book and tossed it on the tools table. It wasn’t the real reason she’d come by, and they both knew it. Though he had to give her credit for coming by so soon.
Will studied her nervousness and fought a grin.
“Is the book the only reason you’re here?” he asked bluntly, his knowing gaze daring her to lie again.
“No,” Jessica said, pulling the condom from her pocket and holding it out to Will, who just smiled at it. “This is yours. I don’t want it.”
“Actually, it’s yours. I’m not planning to use
it unless it’s with you,” Will informed her.
“Stop saying that,” Jessica ordered loudly, her voice rising with her anxiety. “We are not dating. We are not doing anything else. I don’t want you to be interested in me that way.”
“Who are you trying to convince? You picked me up, remember? Besides, the truth was in your kiss,” Will said sternly, reaching out a palm. “Give that to me before you rip the package.”
Relieved he was acting sensibly regardless of his words, Jessica put the condom packet into Will’s hand only to be surprised when he reached out his other hand and pulled her forward by the pocket of her jeans. He slipped the condom into one of her front pockets, and then pulled her hips against his firmly.
“I’ve been waiting for you, Jessica Daniels. Don’t keep me waiting too much longer. But in the meantime, I really, really want you to kiss me with some real passion,” Will whispered against her mouth. “I want it as badly as you wanted me to kiss you the first day we met.
“Will,” she said his name starkly, shaking her head from side to side. He was so stubborn. Jessica hated his persistence, but she also couldn’t remember the last time she’d craved a man’s kiss as much as she did Will’s.
“Ssssh—kiss me. Let me kiss you. We owe it to ourselves to explore this attraction between us,” Will whispered. “I’m sorry I messed it up the first time.”
“No, really I don’t want this,” Jessica protested, but Will’s hands stroking her hips and lower back were starting to change her mind.
“You told me the truth about my art, so I’m going to tell you the truth about us,” Will said softly, his lips on her cheek. “We are going to be so damn good together that you’re going to forget all the other men you’ve known.”
Jessica snorted despite her fear that Will was right. The only man she ever still thought about with any regularity was the one she married, even though she couldn’t remember the details anymore. She only remembered the want and the want never left her. She had often thought that all the men after her first had just been a way to fill the lonely years without her husband, but she certainly wasn’t confessing that to Will.
“I’ve known a lot of men, Will,” Jessica cautioned. “Most of them were good men. Many of them were good in bed. If you want honesty, then you’re going to have to accept I’ve lived the kind of life most men dream about living.”
Will sighed and pulled her tighter. “Stop trying to piss me off. I got that much information from Steve Lipton’s warnings. Right now, I just want you to kiss me so we can find out what we have. Damn it, Jessica, I want your permission and your cooperation this time.”
Frowning, Jessica ran her hands over his shoulders, his very broad, very attractive, very masculine shoulders which ran down to a chest men decades younger would envy. It was honed from what he did, she now realized, honed by the hammer, the chisel, and who knew what other tools he used to coax people out of the stone.
“Will—this is so not a good idea,” Jessica insisted, even as Will ran a hand up the middle of her back to her neck, lining her entire body up with his in a very exciting way.
“Chicken,” he taunted, laughing with his mouth inches from hers. He could see the longing in her today just as much as she saw his the day of their bike ride.
This level of need, Will decided, this was the only reason to ever kiss someone.
“Damn you,” she said, leaning into him and putting her lips urgently on his. His moan of pleasure against her mouth had her hand going to the back of his head. She kissed him, pulled away, and then dove back, slanting her mouth in another direction. He tasted just as good from every angle, Jessica thought, falling against Will in relief.
With Jessica’s full weight in his arms, Will had to plant his feet more firmly to hold them both up. Mother Nature was making the urge to get horizontal almost overwhelming. Jessica’s mouth on his was all energy and motion, all encompassing desire, and gloriously all for him today. Her desperate kiss was even better than he had imagined.
He locked strong arms around her, lifting and pulling her onto him as he leaned back. Her toes almost left the ground and her thighs went around one of his legs. Deciding to oblige her, he lifted a thigh to rub against her crotch, making her shiver and groan.
“Okay. Stop,” Jessica said hoarsely. “Just stop. Please.”
“If I start begging you to let me use the condom, would you change your mind? I’m only a few seconds away from it,” Will informed her, pulling her hips against his and putting the evidence of his need against her fully.
“Will,” Jessica said, trying weakly to push herself off him. “I don’t want to get this involved with you.”
Will lifted his thigh against her crotch again, gaining another groan from both of them. “Really? You sure have both of us fooled then. I pegged you for a more sexually honest woman.”
“Will, that’s all this is—it’s just sex,” Jessica said.
Will lifted a hand trembling with passion to her face. “Who disappointed you so badly, Jessica Daniels? What experience sent you into the arms of men who couldn’t touch your heart? This,” he insisted, pulling her tight against him, his leg firm and hard against the ache he was purposely creating, “this is not just sex. This is me telling you, showing you that you are the most incredible woman I have ever met. Yes, I want inside you. I ache for you, just like you do for me.”
Her heart was going to explode, Jessica thought. The panic was so large she almost couldn’t breathe around it. All she could do was shake her head in denial.
“No. No, you are weaving a dream around me just because you haven’t been with anyone since your wife,” Jessica whispered softly. “What we have—this is just sex, just chemistry. I admit we have a lot of it. I admit I—I admit I want you back.”
“My marriage was over long before it was officially over, Jessica,” Will answered firmly, feeling the words in a way he hadn’t since the divorce was final. “And this is a hell of a lot more than just sex. If all I wanted was sex, that’s easy to find.”
“Yes. It is,” Jessica agreed.
“This is more than just sex,” Will denied emphatically, lifting her hips to his again, sliding her up his leg until his erection was pressed between them. “This is the best kind of foreplay. This is me letting you know that I want to see you fly apart for me. I want to learn what you like, what turns you on, what you need. Then I plan to exceed all your expectations.”
Jessica used her hands to push away from Will’s chest and off his leg. She put two steps distance between their vibrating bodies. Her instinct to push him to the ground and climb on top of him was almost strong enough to make her do it. Getting physical with Will literally robbed her of common sense every time.
“I’m not emotionally equipped for anything more than sex in my relationships,” Jessica said quietly. “I haven’t felt more for a man since my husband died. And I’ve dated some good men, really good men, Will.”
“Yes, I know you have,” Will said harshly. “Steve Lipton seemed like a great guy, and I think he really cared about you, but I’m still glad it didn’t work out with him. I want you for myself.”
Jessica couldn’t have been more shocked. What in the hell had Steve told Will, and why had Steve said anything in the first place?
“I swear it always amazes me to find out how much guys talk to each other. Used to be only women shared the intimate stories of their lives,” Jessica said, running a nervous hand through her hair.
Will smiled at her embarrassment. “Don’t worry. Steve didn’t share any of your preferences in bed. I’m sure he instinctively knew I’d prefer to find out for myself. He just said you never loved him.”
Jessica stared at the partial statue without seeing it as she was wondering what had possessed Steve to confess the details of their relationship to Will. “No. I never loved him. There’s no sense in denying it.”
“So is that the problem? Are you afraid you’re going to love me, Jessica?” Will asked.
>
Jessica laughed mirthlessly. “Will, I already know I’ll never love you. I’m afraid of disappointing you and hurting us both if we get involved. I’m not a heartless woman. I don’t enjoy the suffering of the men I’ve ejected from my bed. I bleed and hurt, but then I move on because I know that’s the only sensible choice. You’re the kind of guy who wants to own a woman, body and soul. I am not that kind of woman,” she said tightly, but meaning every bit of it.
“How do you know what I’m like, what I would expect?” Will asked, unable to believe she thought so little of him and what they could be to each other.
“The very first day we spent time together, you shut me up by kissing me roughly. You punished me for speaking what I considered only a truth,” Jessica said softly. “I’ve been with men like you before, Will. I won’t be silenced or controlled by my attraction to a man. It’s just not who I am.”
Will walked to his tools table and started rearranging them, getting them ready to store away. He’d never be able to work calmly now. He was too upset at Jessica and her stubborn ideas about them.
“I told you I panicked. That’s not the kind of person I am normally. I’ve honestly never done anything remotely like that to any woman before you. Damn it, Jessica, you stripped me bare with your insights and I overreacted. I was already attracted to you, even though I was in denial then. Then when I touched you, I got carried away. I’m sorry,” Will said emphatically, packing his tools into a wooden box he retrieved from beneath the table.
“Will?” a softly feminine voice called.
Jessica swung a startled gaze to the willowy, sleekly groomed blond standing near them with tears in her eyes. She would be barely five foot six on a good day in heels.
Will also swung a startled gaze to the woman, then his forehead wrinkled. “What’s wrong? Are the kids okay?”
She shook her head, sending her chin length bob swinging and more tears flowing. “It’s not the kids. It’s Luke. He’s asked me to leave.”
Jessica watched as the woman ran the rest of the distance across the pavers and flung herself into Will’s arms. To be fair, the woman didn’t really give Will a choice except to catch her and hold her. Will’s irritated gaze went to Jessica’s over the woman’s head.
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