Brenda Jackson The Westmoreland Collection: ZaneCanyonStern

by Brenda Jackson

  Stern stood. “Whatever the reason, it did matter.” He placed his cup down on the tray. “Come on and walk me to the door. It’s getting late.”

  He went over to her and reached out his hand. She took it as she stood. He couldn’t resist letting his gaze move up and down her body. “You look beautiful tonight, JoJo.”

  She smiled as she walked him to the door. “I actually felt beautiful tonight. I’ll do this again. The hair, the makeup, the dress. It’s a good change.”

  “Yes,” he said when they came to a stop in front of the door. “It’s a nice change.”

  Giving in to temptation, he locked a curl of her hair around his finger. “You didn’t cut it.”

  “No, I didn’t cut it. Ritz just trimmed the ends.”

  “Whatever he did, I like it.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Don’t cover it up with a cap for a while.”

  She chuckled. “Can’t make you that promise. Can you see me changing spark plugs with curls falling in my face?”

  He grinned then. “I guess not.”

  “But Ritz showed me how to work it back into this style whenever I want to.”

  Stern didn’t know what there was about her hair that made him want to go after her lips whenever he put his hands in it. He felt himself staring deeply into her eyes. Then, as if of its own accord, his mouth slowly inched closer to hers. Why was his body aching so intensely to hold her in his arms?

  The moment their lips touched, merged, latched together in a hungry connection, she let out a small gasp. Whether it was one of shock or one of pleasure, he wasn’t sure. All he knew was that she tasted of sweet coffee and he wanted to consume every inch of her mouth.

  The moment she leaned into him, his hands automatically left her head to wrap around her waist as their tongues dueled in a fiery exchange. There had been no reason to kiss her tonight. But then he quickly decided that yes, there had been. Tonight she was a woman who deserved a man’s attention and he had no problem giving it to her.

  He finally released her mouth, then leaned in and kissed around her lips several more times, inhaling her scent and feeling her quiver in his arms. And just like with those other kisses, she had again followed his lead. She’d kissed him back just now in a way that made him want to kiss her that much more.

  “Stern?”

  “Hmm?” he said as he continued to place soft kisses around her mouth.

  “Why are you kissing me?”

  “Because I want to.”

  He hadn’t said it to be smart. He was being completely honest with her. So he decided to carry that honesty a little further. He pulled back slightly and touched her chin with the tip of his finger, tilting it up to give her another full kiss on the lips. “In case you haven’t figured it out yet, JoJo, there’s something happening between us that I don’t think either of us expected.”

  “What?”

  He smiled as he took a step backward. Instead of answering her question, he said, “I’m leaving town on Monday for a business trip to Florida and won’t be back until Thursday. Let’s do something when I get back.”

  “All right. What about going bowling on Friday night?”

  “How about the lodge?”

  She raised a brow. “The lodge?”

  “Yes. Let’s spend the weekend at the lodge.”

  “But we just got back from the lodge.”

  “And I want to go again,” he said. “Something is happening between us. I don’t know what it is, JoJo, but I think maybe it’s time we find out.”

  He leaned in and kissed her lips again before opening the door to leave.

  Nine

  “Hey, JoJo, you need to look like a girl more often,” Sony Wyatt said, grinning. He was standing with a group of guys who worked at the shop as they passed around her pictures from Saturday night. She had brought them in for Beeker and Wanda, but it seemed the pictures were now making the rounds.

  “Funny, Sony,” she said, grabbing a hose to flush out the carburetor of the car she was working on and ignoring the men’s whistles as they looked through the pictures.

  “You don’t look like the same person,” Leon Shaw, another worker, added.

  She rolled her eyes. “Well, I am the same person, and need I remind the four of you that I am also your boss? So be nice.”

  “Did Stern see these?” Charlie Dixon wanted to know.

  She lifted her head from underneath the hood of the car. All the guys who worked for her knew that she and Stern were best friends. “Why?”

  “Just wondering.”

  She shrugged and placed her head back under the hood to finish up the work on the Corvette. Charlie would be surprised to know Stern hadn’t needed to see the pictures because he had seen the real thing. In fact, she was still trying to wrap her mind around just what had happened Saturday night from the time she’d walked into the Punch Bowl and met Walter’s gaze to later that same night when Stern had kissed her good-night in her foyer. Even now, she was tempted to touch her lips to remember what she’d felt at the kiss he had placed there.

  And it had been a real kiss. Nothing he’d done as part of any lesson. She had enjoyed it, and she had a feeling he had, too. For a moment, they had forgotten they were nothing but best friends and had kissed like...like two people attracted to each other. Even now she couldn’t understand it. Oh, she understood perfectly from her end because she was in love with him. But what had driven him to kiss her like that? That’s what confused her more than anything, and she wouldn’t be satisfied until she found out the answer.

  At least he was aware something was going on. Before he’d left his exact words had been, “In case you haven’t figured it out yet, JoJo, there’s something happening between us that I don’t think either of us expected.”

  She drew in a deep breath, wondering if there was a way she could multiply those feelings so he’d realize the full extent of what was happening. It had already happened to her. How could she make sure it happened to him?

  A few hours later, back in her office doing paperwork and still trying to wrap her mind around everything about this past Saturday night, Wanda knocked on the door. Recognizing the knock, JoJo called out for her to come in.

  “Apparently you didn’t tell me everything about Saturday night,” Wanda said, entering the office and taking the chair across from JoJo’s desk.

  Knowing she wouldn’t be getting any work done for the next minute or so, JoJo closed the file she was working on. “And just what do you think I didn’t tell you?”

  “How you apparently pissed off Walter Carmichael.”

  JoJo nibbled her bottom lip. She’d told Wanda the same thing she’d told anyone else who’d asked about Saturday night: things between her and Walter hadn’t worked out and when they left the club they’d gone their separate ways. That hadn’t been a lie...she’d just deliberately left out everything involving Stern. “What makes you think I pissed him off?” she asked, even though she knew she had.

  “Because he just called Beeker and wants his auto records transferred to Carl’s Automotive across town. He told Beeker he doesn’t plan on ever coming back here again.”

  JoJo stood and crossed the room to pull open a drawer in the file cabinet. “Great! He’s the last person I want to see anyway,” she said, pulling out Walter’s folder and slamming the drawer shut. She then went back to her desk, sat down and handed the folder to Wanda.

  Wanda leaned back in her chair. “Hmm, so tell me, JoJo. How can there be trouble in paradise when you hadn’t quite reached the island yet?”

  JoJo looked across her desk at Wanda. “Do you really want to know?” Before Wanda could respond, she said, “Then I’ll tell you.” She allowed herself an irritated breath before saying, “Walter Carmichael is a jerk who assumed I had gotten all d
olled up on Saturday night just so he could poke me. All he did the entire evening was try to talk me into leaving the club with him so we could find the nearest bed. What ever happened to two people getting to know each other first?”

  Wanda smiled. “I think that went out the window when women became just as interested in one-night stands as men. Couples don’t want to get to know each other anymore. All they want is to get into each other.”

  “Well, that’s not what I want.”

  Wanda nodded. “And I assume you told him that and he didn’t take it well.”

  JoJo rolled her eyes. “Like I said, the man’s a jerk. How could I ever have thought he and I could get something going?”

  “So, your plan to replace Stern in your heart didn’t work. What do you plan to do now?” Wanda asked.

  JoJo closed the file on her desk again and leaned back in her chair. “Nothing. I’ll grow old and die a virgin.”

  “Doesn’t have to be that way, you know.”

  JoJo bristled at Wanda’s words. “It does have to be that way. At least for me it does. I’m not into one-night stands or casual sex, and there hasn’t been another guy who has caught my eye.”

  “Then don’t concentrate on another guy. Just concentrate on the guy you really want.”

  “Oh, please, I wish it was that simple. But as you know Stern is off-limits.”

  “Why? Because he’s your best friend?”

  “Yes.”

  Wanda didn’t say anything for a moment. “Haven’t you ever heard of friends with benefits?”

  “Of course.”

  “Then get with the program.”

  JoJo shook her head. Wanda was old enough to be her mother and the woman was promoting sex. “That sort of thing wouldn’t work for me and Stern, either. We aren’t just friends—we’re best friends. Besides, he’s still freaking out over those kisses.”

  Too late she realized what she’d said and quickly opened the folder again when Wanda sat up straight in her chair and stared at her. JoJo knew the possibility that the woman hadn’t caught her last sentence was too much to hope for.

  “What kisses? You and Stern kissed?” Wanda exclaimed after sucking in a shocked breath. “And don’t you dare shut up on me now, JoJo. You might as well tell all. Don’t let me ask Stern for the—”

  “You wouldn’t dare,” JoJo said, rising from her seat to lean over her desk toward Wanda.

  Wanda’s blue eyes shot up as she leaned forward, too. “Wanna bet?”

  No, JoJo didn’t want to bet. She had all but admitted to Wanda last week that she had fallen in love with Stern and she wouldn’t put it past Wanda to try her hand at matchmaking. “Okay, we kissed. More than once.”

  “And?”

  JoJo rolled her eyes. Did the woman need all the details? “I enjoyed it and I believe he did, too. It started out as a lesson on how to improve my kissing technique for Walter and—”

  “You’ve got to be kidding,” Wanda interrupted in an incredulous tone.

  “No, I’m not kidding.”

  “And Stern went along with it? Giving you kissing lessons for Walter?”

  “Yes, and then he felt bad because he lost control.”

  JoJo wondered at the smile that touched Wanda’s lips. “Go ahead, JoJo. I’m still listening.”

  “Well, anyway, we kissed again Saturday night after he took me home.”

  Wanda raised a brow. “Saturday night? After he took you home?”

  “Yes.” Seeing no way out of it, JoJo leaned back in her chair and decided to tell Wanda the whole story.

  “Wow,” Wanda said, after JoJo finished telling her what happened. “So you and Stern are going to the lodge this weekend to figure out things.”

  JoJo shrugged. “He’s the one who has to figure things out. I already know why I get into our kisses. But I’m sure it has to be confusing for him since he doesn’t feel about me the way I feel about him.”

  “Are you sure that he doesn’t?”

  “Of course, I’m sure. Why would he?”

  Now it was Wanda’s turn to shrug. “Um, I don’t know. It could be because you’re a nice person, the two of you have a special relationship and he knows you better than anyone. It could also be that he sees what others don’t see.”

  “What?”

  “The fact that you have inner beauty and outer beauty.”

  JoJo shook her head. “Thanks, but no. With Stern, it’s a man’s thing. He all but said so Saturday night. That’s why he lost control.”

  “But he knows something is happening between the two of you and he’s willing to investigate to find out what, right?”

  “Yes.”

  A huge smile spread across Wanda’s face. “Then use this weekend to your advantage. You already love him, so do whatever it takes to make him fall in love with you.”

  JoJo frowned. “I may not know a lot about men, but what I do know is that a woman can’t make a man fall in love with her.”

  “There is a possibility she can. Especially if he’s halfway there. So take a chance and shock Stern this weekend. Suggest that the two of you become best friends with benefits and see what happens.”

  * * *

  “So, how was the trip?” Riley asked, entering his brother’s office.

  “Great,” Stern said, smiling as he looked up from a stack of papers. “That land deal in Florida is a go.”

  Riley smiled. “Good news to hear. And I also hear you’re headed back to the lodge this weekend.”

  “Yes, both JoJo and I need a break.”

  “The two of you just got back less than two weeks ago,” Riley said, sliding into the chair across from Stern’s desk.

  “And we’re going again. We enjoy it there.”

  “Apparently. And I saw the pictures that Megan took of JoJo’s makeover. She looked gorgeous. I’d forgotten how much hair she had under those caps she likes wearing. And those legs. Wow!”

  Stern frowned. “Aren’t you getting married at the end of this month?”

  Riley threw his head back and laughed. “Yes, but I can still appreciate a beautiful woman when I see one. And don’t worry. Alpha has my heart, totally and completely. Who has yours?”

  Stern lifted a brow. “My what?”

  “Your heart.”

  A sly grin touched Stern’s lips. “Okay, I admit it. Alpha has my heart totally and completely, as well.”

  “Smart-ass,” Riley said, chuckling. “You know what I’m asking.”

  “No,” Stern said, shaking his head. “Honestly, I don’t.”

  “If you don’t, I have a feeling it won’t be long now before you do,” Riley said, standing and heading for the door.

  “What do you mean by that?” Stern called out.

  Riley paused before he opened the door and glanced back at Stern. “Man, you’re in love and don’t even know it.”

  A short while later Stern stood in his office, looking out the window. Now yet another person assumed more was going on between him and JoJo than just friendship. In a way, he shouldn’t be surprised by Riley’s assumption. Zane claimed most of the family believed there was more going on.

  Riley was wrong. He already knew how he felt about JoJo. He had fought the truth for as long as he could but would now admit that he’d fallen in love with her. He might have loved her all along like Zane and the others suspected, or he might have realized his true feelings just recently. It didn’t matter at this point. The most important thing was that he loved her.

  But that only compounded his problems.

  He wasn’t a man who pined after a woman, but he had longed for JoJo this week. He had talked to her every night on the phone while in Florida but it seemed as if she deliberately kept the conversations brief. He wasn’t sure if he�
��d imagined it or not. But, to be fair to her, she’d had busy days this week and had wanted to get to bed early. It wasn’t her fault that he had missed her, ached for her, yearned for her.

  He had found himself watching the clock and counting the days. Thursday hadn’t gotten here soon enough to suit him. He had planned to stop by the shop after he’d landed and left the airport. But when he called, Wanda told him JoJo had left early for a dentist’s appointment. So, instead of going straight home he had come into the office instead.

  Now he couldn’t wait until tomorrow. Until this weekend.

  Because he realized that Zane was right and Stern wanted more than just friendship with JoJo. He wanted forever. But how was he supposed to change the nature of their relationship without scaring her off?

  Zane had made another prediction, too, one Stern hadn’t bought into. For some reason, Zane suspected JoJo might have feelings for him. Stern would admit he had racked his brain trying to recall a time recently when those feelings had been displayed and he couldn’t think of one. For the past few weeks she had been into Walter Carmichael and trying to turn herself into the object of the man’s affections. Well, Carmichael had blown it and lost out. As far as Stern was concerned it was his turn to do something the other man hadn’t done: win JoJo’s heart.

  Stern shoved his hands into his pants pockets. Tomorrow evening he and JoJo would leave town for the six-hour drive to his hunting lodge for the weekend. During that time he would make his move. They’d be returning on Sunday, so he would only have Saturday night.

  He had one night. One night to prove that they could move their relationship to a whole new level and become much more than best friends.

  Ten

  Stern tilted his Stetson back and blinked several times when JoJo opened her door. “Your hair.”

  “What about it?” she asked, handing him her overnight bag.

  “It looks like it did Saturday night.”

  JoJo chuckled as she pulled the door shut and locked it behind her. “Is that a crime?”