by Tawny Weber
“I guess we’re still stuck for a while,” he said, sounding more resigned than angry.
Larissa turned around, her breath catching when she saw how close he was. Tilting her head up to look into his face, she arched her brow.
“You’re crowding me,” she told him. Knowing she was tempting fate, she pressed both palms against his chest to try and push him back. He didn’t budge. But oh, baby, his chest felt wonderful. Hard and warm, her fingers tingled as they curled into the soft cotton of his shirt.
“I know,” he replied, reaching up to brush her tangled curls off her cheek, then sliding his finger along her jaw. “I can’t seem to help myself.”
“You’re going to have to. We’ve already established that last night was a mistake.”
“Did we?”
She swallowed, having to get past the lump in her throat before she could reply.
“Didn’t we?”
“I thought we established that we’d made mistakes in how we’d handled things between us in the past. Not that things between us were a bad thing.”
Eyes huge, Larissa studied his face, trying to figure out if he meant that he didn’t think it’d been a mistake to open that door between them again. Did this mean he wanted more? That he thought they had a future?
She was afraid to ask—even herself.
Before she could figure out how to extricate herself from this conversation and the probable heartbreak that would go with it, there was a sound at the far end of the mall.
“Well, good morning.”
Larissa jumped back from Jason so fast, she banged the back of her head on the wall behind her. Wincing, she rubbed the forming lump as she looked past his shoulder.
“Conner?” she whispered.
Jason’s jaw clenched and he closed his eyes as if praying for patience—or mentally cussing up a blue streak. Then he gave a deep sigh and turned around, too.
“Conner,” he greeted, stepping forward to shake their friend’s hand. “Here to release us?”
“Man, I’m so sorry. You’ve been here all night, haven’t you?” He gave them both a long look, his gaze lingering for a second on Larissa’s bare shoulders. She quickly wrapped the blanket around her, grateful she’d put her skirt back on. “I just got a call from security that the motion sensors detected movement and realized what must’ve happened.”
“What’s up with the power?” Jason asked.
“The entire eastern seaboard is out. Something about the power grid being overtaxed due to the heat wave. I’m so sorry. If you’d called, I’d have tried to figure out how to get you out.”
“No cell,” Jason said. Conner nodded. Larissa just stood there. She didn’t know what to do. Jason knew there hadn’t been anything between her and Conner, so why did he sound so irritated?
“So how are the two of you this morning? An entire night together, I’ll bet you patched everything up, right?” he asked, sounding like a little boy asking for confirmation of Santa’s visit.
“No,” Larissa and Jason said in unison.
Conner gave them both a long, intense frown, then shook his head sadly. If Larissa had ever known her father, she figured that’s how he would have shown his disappointment.
“Oh. Well.” He gave a long hum, like he was mentally regrouping, then raised his brows. “Well, what do you say we all go out for breakfast? Do some talking. Or I can order in.”
He was acting all nervous and weird, like some big business deal was riding on his getting the two of them in agreement.
What in the hell was he up to? Larissa’s eyes widened. Was he giving the space to someone else?
“What’s going on?” Larissa demanded.
Conner grimaced. Then, seeing the impatient look on both their faces, he finally admitted, “I’d hoped, given a little time together, the two of you would have worked things out.”
“Worked things out?” Jason’s voice was low. Calm, even. But Larissa heard the furious undercurrent. She stepped between the two men, knowing she wasn’t much of a deterrent but hoping they both cared enough about her to hesitate before mowing each other down.
“What are you talking about?” she insisted. Then she thought back to the look on his face the previous day. Mischievous calculation, with a little bit of glee. Her eyes widened. He hadn’t… Had he? “Conner?”
“You locked us in here on purpose?” Jason asked, biting off the words.
“Nope. That was fate stepping in to play her part.” He looked around the store, taking in the gutted candle and empty jar on the floor, and grinned. “Looks like she did a good job.”
Jason growled.
Larissa pressed her hand to his chest to keep him from moving. She was surprised to feel him take a deep breath and calm down at her touch. Blinking quickly to move past the shock that she might actually have some influence on him, she gave Conner a long, furious look.
“I’m not sure if I’ve got this right,” she said in her calmest, sweetest tone. She hoped it disguised her desire to kick him where it hurt. “You arranged to bring Jason and I back together?”
He nodded.
“The meeting, the presentation, that we just happened to end up here at the same time… They were all part of some elaborate scheme?”
He nodded again.
She gave a low growl and her foot twitched. This time it was Jason who put his hand on her shoulder, calming her down.
“Why?” Jason asked, sounding so mellow they might have been talking about the weather.
“Partially because I felt bad about my part in your breakup,” Conner admitted, looking sheepish. “I shouldn’t have let you think that something had happened between me and Larissa.”
“Correcting any assumptions about our relationship was up to Larissa, not you.”
Jason’s words made her wince. He was right. Instead of telling him the truth when she should have, she’d used his accusation as an excuse to justify her own doubts. She’d seen his lack of trust as a way to get out before he realized he’d made a mistake.
Larissa pressed her lips together to keep from crying as she realized she was as bad as she’d always accused Jason of being. First chance to escape and she’d taken it. And she’d used Conner in the process. All because she was a chicken who was so afraid to fail at romance that she’d throw away her chance at having a real relationship. A relationship that meant ups and downs, highs and lows. Yes, there would be romance and great sex, but there’d be fights and disappointments, too.
She’d spent so much of her life reading romance novels and sighing enviously when the couple declared their love, then closing the book at the end, that she didn’t know what to do—what to expect—after the I Love You part.
“Well, whoever it was up to, I felt bad. I mean, you two had a good thing going. You were clearly meant to be together and it sucked that things ended the way they did,” Conner explained, now talking a little faster as he stepped out of his comfy CEO role and backslid into acting like a geeky teenager trying to make his buddies happy. “Even if you didn’t go forward together, I thought maybe if you could heal the past, you might be able to go forward separately.”
Larissa just stared, not knowing what to say. Jason crossed his arms over his chest. She figured they were all better off not knowing what he wanted to say.
“I wanted to try and put things right,” Conner muttered.
“You waited all this time to put things right?” she asked incredulously.
He nodded.
“Couldn’t you have strapped on a diaper and a pair of wings instead?” she muttered.
“I don’t have the legs for the cupid look,” he said with a grin. When nobody returned it, he shrugged. “Look, I didn’t lock you two in. I didn’t even realize you were here until security called to let me know that people were locked inside and I realized it must be one or both of you.”
A sudden thought smacked her upside the head. Larissa stepped forward, her hands fisting on her hips.
“Was the offer of a storefront a lie? A part of your weird scheme?” The feeling of betrayal was huge. Was this how Jason had felt when he’d thought she cheated on him? And wasn’t it ironic that Conner was the center of both their betrayals?
She wanted to pound on something. The bench, the walls, Conner himself.
But down a few layers, beneath her anger and hurt, was a huge sense of relief. Larissa hadn’t realized until just this second how glad she’d be to not have her store here. How much she really wanted to stay in the Victorian. With or without the rest of her dream, the Jason and true love forever part of it, she still really wanted the simple joy of owning her own bookstore.
A part of her, the part that’d taken all those business classes and reworked that damned business plan a million times, was silently screaming “no.” No way, she couldn’t give up such an incredible opportunity. This was just loser thinking. Her, worrying that she was going to lose out to Jason. Or guilt, since it was so hard to take away a business opportunity from someone she knew really needed it.
“Of course not,” Conner said, apparently having taken it upon himself to cause stress and confusion in every aspect of Larissa’s life. “The store is available, just like I said. But instead of the committee deciding, I’m leaving it up to the two of you.”
“That’s crazy,” Larissa said, not looking at Jason. After everything she’d admitted already, everything she’d shared, there was no way she was going to tell him that she was having second thoughts. But she definitely didn’t want to try to talk him into giving up the store. Especially in light of the fact that she suddenly didn’t want it. “How are we supposed to make a decision like that?”
“I don’t know. Maybe talk to each other?”
Larissa was about to snap that they’d already tried that. Then she shut her mouth. Because, really, they hadn’t. They’d gone down on each other. They’d drove each other crazy. And they’d yelled at each other.
But talk? Not so much.
“We’ll figure it out,” Jason said, again in that quiet, mellow tone. Larissa half-turned to get a good look at his face, wondering why he wasn’t more intense. He met her eyes, giving her a long look that sent her stomach tumbling over itself. So many emotions were there in the blue depths of his gaze.
Confusion was clear. So was desire. She saw a little bit of anger and something else. Something powerful and scary that made her heart race and hope climb way too high for her comfort.
“How are we supposed to figure it out?” she asked, wetting her suddenly dry lips and trying to calm her pounding pulse. She was asking about more than just the store, but wasn’t sure if Jason realized that.
“We just need a little time,” Jason told her.
Was he seeing into her heart and giving her the answers she most wanted to hear? Or was he obliviously hitting the ones that would only add to her pain later?
“Great,” Conner said, his overly jovial tone cutting through the tension. “Then I’ll let you two get to it.”
He gave them a double thumbs up at odds with his CEO haircut and three-piece suit and skirted around them to head for the front doors.
Larissa and Jason stood silently while he keyed a code into the box on the wall and the bolts slid free of their secure position. Then he twisted the key in the lock. Larissa stepped aside a little so she didn’t get mowed down in case Jason decided to rush the door.
“Give me a second to gather my stuff,” she said when nobody moved.
“Actually…”
She stopped, her bare feet sliding on the floor as she turned to hear what Conner was going to say. He had a weird look on his face. Similar to the look he’d had yesterday afternoon, just like the look he’d had when he’d confessed to playing matchmaker a few minutes ago.
“Conner…” she warned, hurrying toward him.
“I think you two need to work a few things out,” he said as he opened the door.
Before she could reach him, though, he stepped through the doors and quickly slid the key in to lock them from the outside.
“What the hell?”
She ran toward the doors and shook the handle, yelling over her shoulder to Jason, “Stop him. He’s locking us in here again and leaving.”
And the sonofabitch did. Larissa cursed, beating her fist on the glass as Conner pocketed the keys and gave her a jaunty little finger wave. Then he glanced at his watch and held up two fingers. She responded by holding up one.
He just laughed and walked away.
Larissa hit the door a couple more times. Then, furious and knowing she’d regret it but unable to stop herself, she kicked the brass plated door with her bare foot. She gave a little scream as pain shot all the way up to her shoulder.
Seething, she spun around. Jason was leaning on the far wall, his arms crossed over his chest. He looked like he was waiting for a freaking bus.
“Why didn’t you stop him?” she accused, her fists digging into her hips while she tried to catch her breath.
Jason wasn’t winded. Of course, she didn’t think he’d moved at all, so that had to factor in. He just stood there against the wall, looking all casual. Had he lost his mind?
“Because I didn’t want to.”
Oh, yeah. He’d definitely lost his mind.
Knowing she was on her way to looking like the bride of Frankenstein and not caring, Larissa gave her curls a frustrated tug, repeating with each pull, “You. Didn’t. Want. To?”
“Nope,” he said with a shake of his head. When she stomped over to him, he didn’t move, except to arch his brow.
“Why didn’t you want to stop him from locking us back in the same miserable state we’ve just spent the last twelve hours in?” she asked, her voice rising with each word.
“I didn’t want to,” he said, slowly uncrossing his arms and reaching out to take her hands. “Because I want to fix things with you.”
14
JASON WASN’T SURE HOW to fix things. He didn’t even know exactly what he wanted fixed or in what way. He just knew he didn’t want to leave things the way they were.
From the tight look on Larissa’s face, maybe she’d have preferred leaving things at their earlier goodbye. He grimaced. Yeah, this pitch was guaranteed to go well.
But what was he pitching for? Now that he stood here, committed to making one last plea, his brain was blank.
“What do you want, Jason? Do you want it all tied up in a tidy bow?” she challenged, the frustration in her voice clear on her face as well. She threw up one hand, narrowly missing his face. “Maybe we can be friends? Or what was it you suggested earlier? Your version of bootie call buddies?”
“Well, you always said I had a fine bootie,” he said lightly, more to buy time than because he thought smart-ass comments would earn him a smile.
He was right. He got an eye roll instead. But the tension seemed to drain from Larissa’s shoulders and she gave him an indecipherable look before shrugging.
“Look, the only thing we need to fix is this store situation. The rest—” She gave a wave of her hand, whether to dismiss the past or shoo away the present, he wasn’t sure. “We said all there is to say about that last night.”
“Actually…” He took a deep breath and paused, looking at Larissa. She was gorgeous. Her curls were now a fuzzy halo around her head. The skillfully applied makeup of the previous day was gone, leaving her pale and hollow-eyed. Tension and hurt lingered in her huge dark eyes, and she was wrapped once again in that body-disguising blanket.
Gorgeous.
“Actually,” he said again, “I’m not happy with the way we settled things. Not before, and not now.”
Her sigh was shaky, nerves playing across her face. She shook her head and gave him a pleading look. “Let’s not do this, please? We said things, I said things, that I regret. I shouldn’t have compared you to your father. I’m sorry. I really am. But beyond that, I just want to let it go. We need to get out of here and get on with our lives.”
It w
as his turn to shake his head.
“It’s not that easy,” he told her. Risking everything, he reached out to take her hands in his. He felt her pulse speed through her slender fingers as she tried to tug away, but he held tight. He needed the contact. And if she got mad and tried to take a swing, this should minimize the damage.
“Look,” he said quietly, staring into the dark depths of her eyes. “I don’t want to let things go. I especially don’t want to let you go.”
“I beg your pardon?” She pressed her lips together, blinking fast as if trying not to cry. Then she shook her head. “I don’t think this is funny, Jason.”
“I’m not trying to be funny. I figure Conner did us a favor, bringing us back together like this. And since having an interfering friend create a second chance like this is probably a once-in-a-lifetime thing, we shouldn’t waste it.”
She gave him a suspicious look. “Seriously, is this another pitch to get me to have sex with you?”
Jason grinned, not so much at her words but at the way she blushed when she said them. They’d spent almost eight hours doing each other every which way, and talking about it still made her cheeks turn pink. God, he loved her.
The realization hit him like a swinging tree branch. Reeling, he sucked in a breath and vowed that this time, he was going to make it work. This time he wasn’t going to run away. Not from Larissa, not from commitment, and definitely not from his feelings.
“Not a pitch,” he assured her, trying to recapture his smile. “But do me a favor and keep sex between us front and center in your mind.”
“Why?”
“Because we’re incredible. We’re hot and wild and make each other feel things that nobody else can,” he insisted. Thrilled that she didn’t deny his words, he continued, “We’re great together. I’ve climbed mountains, kayaked oceans and dropped out of planes and none of that comes even close to the thrill I get when I’m making love with you.”
Her eyes huge, she took a shaky breath and stared. She reached out, her palm barely grazing his cheek before she pulled back and balled her hand into a fist at her side. Then, her brow knit tight, she shook her head.