by Kylie Brant
Kaly whirled around and groaned audibly. “Don’t you take a hint, Jackson?”
The ember at the end of his cigarette flickered in the darkness. “May I point out that I was here first? And to answer your question, not very well, I’m afraid. When I want something I’m like a dog with a bone.”
“I’m sure you share several other characteristics with the canine family,” Kaly agreed sarcastically. “Our conversation is over. Finished. Let’s go back to avoiding each other again. I know I was happier.”
Jackson studied her. “I don’t think that’s what you really want,” he said finally. “You’re as aware as I am of the electricity between us. It won’t do any good to run from it.”
Kaly turned away, wrapping her arms about her middle. “Jackson, please,” she whispered rawly. Why was he doing this? What could possibly have happened to change his distrust to outright pursuit? And what was she going to do about it? She longed for some distance between them, preferably miles. She needed time to regroup her defenses, time to remember all her very rational reasons for staying away from him.
He wasn’t going to give her that time.
Jackson dropped his cigarette and nonchalantly ground it beneath the pointed toe of his boot. His body crowded hers, his hands cupping her bare shoulders and drawing her back against him. He dipped his head, nuzzling her hair, her neck, before answering. “Let’s see what you really want,” his husky voice dared her. “Kiss me the way you did in the pasture. Just once. Then tell me you don’t feel anything for
“Oh, really.” Kaly’s voice dripped with disdain. She tried and failed to suppress the immediate leap of excitement she’d felt at his words. “Do you honestly think I’m going to respond to such an infantile attempt to manipulate me?”
He turned her around and pulled her into a loose embrace. His lips inched closer to her own, his breath brushing her face as he whispered, “Do you know how many questions you ask? Well, all I’m asking is that you have the courage to find an answer.” He touched his lips to hers softly. “Just ... one.”
Kaly stood stiffly in his arms, determined to withstand the onslaught of his kiss. She’d prove to him once and for all that sexual attraction did not take precedence over logical reasoning. It didn’t require a scientific mind to figure out what he was doing. She could remain unmoved by his blandishments. She could!
Jackson lifted his head slightly. He smiled down at her with pitying amusement. “Afraid, huh? I really thought I sensed more of a competitive spirit in you. But you’re too frightened to take me up on my challenge.” He gave a satisfied smirk. “You must have it worse than I do.”
That did it! He was right, damn him. As childish as it seemed, as fatuous as his taunts were, she could never resist a dare. It was a flaw that her brothers had used against her time and again. When she was ten she had been ready to jump off the garage roof because Rick had said she couldn’t. Only the arrival and anger of her oldest brother had saved her from herself that time. Now she was about to give in to a challenge again, just because the look on Jackson’s arrogant face, so smug and superior, made her blood boil. She’d show him she was more than a match for a know-it-all cowboy! Kaly reached up determinedly, pulled his face close to hers and fastened her lips on his.
Jackson pulled back and mocked, “That’s not a kiss. At least not the kind that’s going to determine anything. What’s the matter? Scared of what will happen if you really let yourself go?”
She nearly gave in to the urge to give him a hard kick, but became determined to get her revenge another way. This time she drew his head down to hers and kissed him gently, licking his lips and scraping her teeth over them. Her tongue probed at his mouth and she nipped flirtatiously at his chiseled lower lip. The reason for the kiss faded from her consciousness as enjoyment of her explorations filled her.
A jolt shook Jackson’s big body at her boldness. He pulled her closer to him and took over the momentum of the kiss. No longer was he a passive recipient. His mouth claimed hers avidly, greedily convincing hers to open, to grant him access to the moist chamber. Kaly conceded willingly, already lost under the relentless pressure of his mouth on hers, of his tongue sweeping the recesses of her mouth with practiced expertise. Their tongues twined together like lovers eager for the pleasure each could give the other.
At last Jackson tore his lips away from Kaly’s, breathing heavily. He leaned his forehead against hers, struggling to regain the control he’d lost so rapidly. “I’d say the electricity is definitely there,” he muttered hoarsely. “Sparks fly every time we touch each other.”
Kaly looked up at him dazedly. “Science was never my favorite subject in school,” she murmured, fighting to keep her hands from smoothing back the dark hair that had tumbled down his forehead.
“Well, I’d certainly give you an A plus in chemistry, based on that display.” Jackson slackened his grip on her and stepped back. The two looked at each other uneasily.
“Here you are, Kaly.” Paul’s jovial voice sounded behind Jackson and both started guiltily. Neither had been aware of their host’s arrival, so absorbed had they been in each other. “I’d hoped to convince you to finish that dance Jackson interrupted.”
Kaly took one last look at Jackson’s impassive features and said, “Thank you, Paul. I think I do feel like dancing some more.” She took his outstretched hand and accompanied him back into the house.
Jackson lit another cigarette as his narrowed gaze followed the couple’s exit. It would be a little while before he was fit to return to the house, he acknowledged wryly. Every time he touched Kaly he was rocked by how easily she set him off. So much for his famous control. And she was still running from the feelings he awoke in her.
He leaned back against the railing. She could run a little longer. Then he and Miss Kaly Scott had some unfinished business to take care of.
Chapter 7
Paul monopolized Kaly for the rest of the evening. He had a sharp sense of humor, but Kaly was hard-pressed to recapture the earlier enjoyment she’d found in his company. That was Jackson’s fault, of course. More than once her eyes strayed to him, but he never seemed to look her way. He appeared to be having a marvelous time, squiring one woman after another onto the dance floor. His seemingly easy dismissal of what had happened earlier between them was puzzling, but not entirely unwelcome. She had been shaken anew by the passion that had so quickly flickered to life between them. It had been a relief to be given time to recover.
And so it was with a great deal of dismay that she heard his voice behind her saying to Paul, “Sorry to deprive you of your dance partner, but I’m ready to leave, and Kaly’s riding back to the ranch with me.”
She whirled around to face Jackson’s implacable visage. “I came with Jeff and Carrie. I can ride back with them,” she answered.
“Look around. Jeff and Carrie left a while ago with a group to go have a midnight breakfast in Los Pueblos. I told them I’d drive you home.”
She studied him closely. She almost believed he had engineered this situation. Almost, except that he’d been ignoring her for two hours. He was the last person she wanted to be alone with right now, but the man in front of her seemed a far cry from the amorous lover on the terrace. In fact, impatience was implicit in his face and stance.
Paul interceded. “I’d be glad to see Kaly back to the ranch, Jackson.” He gazed meaningfully at her. “It would give me a chance to spend more time with her.”
She reluctantly turned him down. “No, thanks, Paul. It would be silly for you to make the trip when I could ride with Jackson.”
Paul looked nonplussed, then recovered enough to squeeze her hand and murmur, “I’ll be in touch, Kaly. Count on it.”
She felt acutely uncomfortable under Jackson’s derisive stare. She extricated her hand and murmured a good-night to Paul. She looked around one last time as Jackson’s relentless hand at the small of her back was directing her toward the door.
“I really should say good-nigh
t to the other guests.”
“I already said your goodbyes for you.”
That stopped her in her tracks. “You don’t know how I appreciate your acting in my behalf,” Kaly retorted, her tone implying just the opposite.
“You’re welcome,” he responded imperturbably.
The car ride was silent, disquietingly so. Kaly gazed out the side window into the darkness.
When Jackson finally spoke, she jumped. “I hope you didn’t give Paul the wrong impression by spending so much time with him tonight. He’s been known to move pretty fast when he wants something, and you were giving him plenty of encouragement.”
Kaly was stunned by the accusation. She turned to gaze at him in astonishment, but he continued to face the road. The darkness hid his expression, but his profile was etched in granite.
“Paul,” she said, stressing his name, “was a perfect gentleman. Unlike someone else I could name.”
Jackson ignored the reference. “I’m just saying that it wasn’t smart to use him like that. He’s the kind of man to expect something in return.”
“Pardon me?” Each syllable dripped icicles. “What do you mean ‘use him’?”
This time Jackson took his eyes briefly off the road to answer her. “I mean that you were using Paul to make me jealous tonight, and it was a dangerous game. You shouldn’t give out signals like that to men when you have no intention of following through with them.”
Kaly was almost speechless. How like him to throw out so many illogical, outrageous statements that she wouldn’t be able to decide which to respond to first. But she’d had enough of his sudden switches of attitude and his earthy remarks. “I don’t know why you think I would need to use Paul for any reason. He’s an intelligent, charming man. Why wouldn’t I want to pay attention to him for his own sake?”
Jackson answered laconically, “Because you want me. I know it and you know it. You don’t need to play games to get me jealous. He’ll just get in the way, and I don’t share what’s mine.”
“The only way I ‘want’ you is boiled in oil!” Kaly’s tone was scathing. “And I would never sink so low as to use one man to gain the attention of another. You must be mistaking me for one of the dozen other women you danced with tonight.”
She barely waited for the car to come to a halt in front of the house before she slipped out the door and hurried up the walk, ignoring Jackson’s calling her name behind her. By the time she reached the front door, though, Jackson was there, opening it for her. Kaly sailed through without speaking and continued into the hallway, heading for the stairs.
“Wait a minute,” Jackson said as he shut the door behind them and moved toward her. But it was the ringing of the house phone, not his command that made Kaly halt. Jeff and Carrie didn’t appear to be home yet, and she hoped suddenly that this call wasn’t bad news. She laid her purse on the walnut Queen Anne table in the hall and hurriedly followed him into the office. Jackson looked up, saw her and held the receiver out silently. Alarmed, her eyes asked wordless questions, but he was turning away to pour himself a nightcap.
She answered hesitantly. “Hello? Oh, Paul.” She looked up to see Jackson’s eyes on her as he approached her and handed her a glass of wine. She shook her head, so he placed it on the coffee table in front of the couch. He remained standing, listening to her end of the conversation unabashedly.
Acutely aware of Jackson’s interest, Kaly kept her responses to Paul short. “Yes, I got home all right. You didn’t have to...” She listened for a few more moments and responded weakly, “That sounds fine. I’ll talk to you later, then.” She hung up the receiver and turned toward the door, loath to hear the sarcastic remarks she was sure were on Jackson’s lips.
But the door to the office was closed, and six-feet-three inches of rugged male were propped against it, surveying her over the rim of his glass. “Sweet of Paul to call and make sure you made it back okay. Staking his claim already?”
Kaly ground her teeth. “Move away from the door, Jackson. I have nothing else to say to you tonight.”
“I disagree.”
“This is absolutely childish.”
“But effective,” he pointed out. “You may as well sit down. We have something to discuss, and you’re not leaving until we’re finished.”
Kaly looked around the room in frustration, but her only exit, short of climbing through the window, was blocked. Unless she chose to try to walk through two hundred pounds of solid muscle. She sat down on the couch. “Where did you learn your charming manners,” she snapped. “Terrorist Tactics 101?”
Jackson shrugged. “I’m not going to let you avoid this any longer, if that’s what you mean.”
Kaly raised her eyes as if supplicating the heavens. “I sense a serious lack of brain activity going on here.” She looked back at him and said, enunciating distinctly, “I’m not trying to avoid anything, Jackson, and most assuredly not you. I just want to go to bed. You know, that place where normal people spend the majority of their sleeping hours? And I’m going to bed because I’m tired. Not because I fear you, but because I fear what more of this banal conversation will do to my powers of concentration. Is any of this making sense to you?”
Jackson’s eyes narrowed and he clenched his whiskey glass tightly in his big fist. “Keep pushing, Kaly,” he invited softly. “You’ll get a firsthand demonstration of what I can do to your powers of concentration.”
She looked away at his words. She remembered only too well how little control she’d had each time in his arms. She decided that baiting him was probably not the safest way to bring this evening to an end, so changed tactics abruptly.
“I’m tired, Jackson, and I just want—”
“You just want to escape upstairs and hide. Hide from what’s happening between us, from the feelings you have every time I kiss you and from making a decision about what to do about them,” Jackson announced. He wasn’t going to let her hide anymore. He’d give her all the time she needed once she admitted what was happening between them and agreed to give it a chance.
Kaly shot him a fulminating look. “Why do you keep telling me what it is that I want and feel? There is nothing for me to decide. I already know what I want in my future, and it doesn’t include you.”
“You may have your schooling and hopes for a career mapped out, but you don’t have the slightest idea what you want beyond that. You think you can just fill your life with those two things and that it’ll be enough. Well, it just doesn’t work that way. I know, because I’ve tried it. No matter how busy you are, you still need more in your life than work.”
If Kaly hadn’t been so incensed she would have been amused at how similar his dialogue was to her roommate’s. “Are you quite finished, Dr. Freud?”
Jackson grinned wolfishly. “Not by a long shot.” He left his post at the door and walked over to sink down on the couch next to her, picking up her wineglass and pressing it into her hand. “And neither are you. Because no matter how much you want to deny it, this attraction between us isn’t going to go away. It’s just getting hotter and hotter. At least, that’s the way it’s been for me. For you, too, if the way you kiss me is any indication.”
“Will you quit it? There is absolutely nothing between us!” Kaly shot up from the couch, and this time Jackson didn’t try to stop her. He watched as she paced agitatedly in front of him. “Okay, I’ll admit there’s a certain…” She searched vainly for a word to describe what was between them.
“Attraction,” he supplied.
“...attraction between us. But I for one am sure I can handle this. ..this...”
“Chemistry.” Jackson sat back. He was starting to enjoy himself.
“...without giving in to...”
“Sex,” offered Jackson.
Kaly paused and stared daggers at him. “I was going to say lust, and I will thank you to stop putting words in my—”
“Mouth.”
“Stop that! You make me so mad I could—”
> “Spit?”
The contents of her glass were streaming down his face before she was even aware that she’d moved. She stared at the results of her loss of control in horror. Even more terrifying was the calm, almost negligent ease with which Jackson mopped himself off with his handkerchief. Then he rose from the couch. Kaly took a few steps back. She was ready to run at the first signs of retribution.
He slowly slipped his stained suit jacket from his muscled shoulders, all the while maintaining eye contact with her. Next he untied his tie and pulled it from his shirt.
Kaly measured the distance to the door and dismally acknowledged that she’d never make it. Her eyes swung back to Jackson, who was unbuttoning his damp shirt.
“Um. . .” Kaly wet her lips nervously while she inched her way toward the door. “You understand that was an accident, right?”
He remained silent, slowly moving the next button through its hole.
She moved a few more inches, speaking desperately. “I didn’t plan to do it. I didn’t even know I was going to do it until I did it. I mean, doing it wasn’t something I meant to do. That’s what I mean. And you pushed me, Jackson, you know you did. But still...” A few more inches to the door, another button. “But still, Jackson, I won’t hold a grudge if you won’t, so let’s let bygones be bygones...”
Kaly’s speech ended in a yelp as she swung open the door and made a rush for freedom just as Jackson lunged for her. She fled, using all her natural grace, as well as fear for her safety, to impel her. She was halfway up the hallway stairs before she realized she no longer heard the sound of his booted steps behind her.
Instead she heard, “Aha.”
She turned warily to see Jackson leaning nonchalantly against the hall table, tapping her purse against one of his palms. “What do you suppose we have here?” he continued, as if to an unseen audience. “Why I do believe that it’s Miss Scott’s purse, containing, no doubt, all sorts of personal belongings.” He grinned wickedly as he pointed it at her. “How badly do you want this back, honey?”