by Anne Rainey
“I need to know if this is going to work,” Merrick said, his gaze bouncing from her to Jackson then back again. “You two have been going at it for the full two months you’ve been here. It’s driving me crazy, and I can’t afford to be any crazier than I already am right now. The baby will be here soon and I need to focus.”
“I don’t see the problem,” Jackson said, his voice full of confidence. “Grace is a good worker. I have no beef with her whatsoever.”
She clasped her hands in her lap and just barely kept herself from saying something she’d regret. “The only problem I have is that you can’t take no for an answer.”
He chuckled. “Really? Because I don’t recall asking a question.”
Technically, it was true. He hadn’t asked her on a date. But he’d hinted. At times it even seemed he took great pleasure in pushing her, making her imagine things she had no business imagining. Having sexual fantasies about her boss was surely a no-no. She peeked over at him and caught him staring at her. The heat in his gaze couldn’t be missed. He wanted her. He might not have spelled it out, but the signals were there. She’d effectively evaded them too. Working every day with him was stealing her control, though. She’d snap soon, and then where would she be? Just another of Jackson Hill’s conquests, she was sure of it. He hadn’t tried to hide the fact that he wasn’t into long term relationships. And she wasn’t interested in being a notch on his belt. That left her with one solution. Quit working at Vaughn’s Business Solutions. The thought made her gut clench.
“I want to talk to Jackson alone for a minute. Take a break, okay?”
She saw something in Merrick’s expression that worried her. He’d had the same look the day Ronny Walsh had put a tack on her chair in her seventh grade science class. She’d made the mistake of crying about it in front of Merrick. She didn’t know what Merrick did, but the next day Ronny had come to her with an apology. It hadn’t been her intention to get Jackson in trouble, only convince Merrick to transfer her so she wasn’t in such close proximity to the infernal man. She suddenly felt very guilty.
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” she said, unable to hide the worry in her voice.
Merrick looked down at his watch, then back at her. “It’s noon, time for lunch anyway.”
Merrick wasn’t letting up. She would get nowhere with him now. Grace sighed and stood, but as she glanced over at Jackson, she was surprised to notice he didn’t seem at all concerned. Did the man have no sense of self-preservation? When he winked, she wanted to throttle him. She threw her hands in the air. “I give up. I’m going job hunting. I’ll be back in an hour.”
As she yanked the door open, she wondered for the hundredth time why she’d thought she could handle working with Jackson Hill. Surely she’d been under some sort of spell when she’d accepted Merrick’s job offer. There simply wasn’t any other explanation.
***
It was all Jackson could do not to laugh as he watched Grace stalk out of Merrick’s office. He’d gotten to her, and she was running scared. It was only a matter of time now. He’d been lusting after the little blonde imp from the moment he’d spotted her at one of Merrick’s family’s cookouts. He’d tried the subtle approach, but that had gotten him exactly nowhere. She’d shot him down like a clay pigeon. The more he’d gotten to know her, the more he’d come to realize that Grace used sarcasm to keep people at arm’s length. Especially him. She was damned good at holding him off. Jackson was getting desperate. If he didn’t get her to submit soon, he’d explode.
“Quit thinking about her.”
Merrick’s voice dragged him back to reality. “I wasn’t,” Jackson lied.
Merrick rolled his eyes and sat back in his chair. “What the hell is it with you two? I can’t figure it. It’s as if you like fighting with her.”
“The truth?”
“No, I’d rather you lied to me,” Merrick ground out. “Yes, I want the truth.”
“Just remember, you asked,” he warned. “Fighting with Grace is like foreplay. It turns us both on. She wants me as much as I want her. She just can’t seem to let her guard down long enough to let me in. I’ve yet to figure out why.” He leaned forward in the chair and said, “Maybe you can help me with that one.”
Merrick shook his head. “You are aware that I’m not only her cousin, but your boss, right?”
Jackson recognized Merrick in overprotective mode. But Jackson had no intention of staying away from Grace, now or ever. “Is this the part where you warn me away?”
“Grace is my employee, and I protect my employees. You’re in dangerous territory, flirting with her. Sexual harassment isn’t something I take lightly, Jackson.”
Jackson went rigid. “Did she say I sexually harassed her?”
“That’s not the point. The point is I protect what’s mine.”
“I would never hurt Grace.”
“But you are making her uncomfortable, and I can’t have that. Either back off or I’ll move her to a different position.”
Merrick had just tossed down the gauntlet. If Jackson pushed the issue he could lose Grace and probably his job, not to mention his friendship with Merrick. Still, he wasn’t about to make a promise he knew damn well he couldn’t keep. Jackson rubbed his jaw and decided to lay it all on the line.
“This isn’t a game to me. I care about your cousin. You can fire me, pull Grace under your wing or whatever, but I won’t stop pursuing her until she tells me to stop.”
Merrick slammed his fist on the desk. “What the hell is up with you? I’ve never seen you act like this. You’ve never dated an employee. Why Grace?”
Jackson had wondered that himself. “She’s the most annoying woman I’ve ever met. She tells me to go to hell and I get a fucking hard-on. She threatens to maim me and I start drooling. Damned if I can figure it out. But until I do, I won’t let up. She wants me, she’s just fighting it. I scare her.” Jackson rubbed his jaw and thought for a second. “No, that’s not right. I think the idea of being with me scares her.”
“Grace doesn’t scare easily,” Merrick mused. “But you’re right. She’s been watching you like a caged lioness. If you aren’t careful, she’ll have you for lunch. Grace can be damned mean when cornered.”
It was now or never. Time to make a deal with the devil. “I have a solution. One that will please everyone.”
Merrick drummed his fingers on the desk for several seconds before saying, “I’m listening.”
“The Interop Convention in Vegas is coming up,” Jackson stated, referring to the nation’s biggest information technology convention. Businesses from all over the world attended to view new cutting-edge technologies. It was May, and the convention was a week away. “I want to take Grace with me when I go. If she’s still resisting my irresistible charms after that, I’ll back off.”
“You and Grace in Las Vegas for a week? You think I’ll agree to this?”
“I think you want Grace to be happy. I think you want harmony back in your office. Let me take Grace to Vegas. Not the whole week. Three days, that’s all I’m asking, and I promise you’ll have both.”
Merrick got out of the chair and paced. Jackson was almost afraid he was going to fire his ass right then. He had every right too. Jackson was surprised when Merrick said, “If Grace wants to go, I won’t stop her. But it’s her choice, not yours. You won’t force her because you’re her boss. Understood?”
Jackson said a silent prayer that Grace wouldn’t fight him on this one. “Understood.”
Merrick came around the desk and leaned against the edge. “One more thing.”
Jackson stood, sensing a battle coming. “Yeah?”
“Grace is like a sister to me, to Blade and Lacey too. I’d be very careful with her if I were you.”
He nodded. “I know how close you all are, but this is between Grace and me.”
Merrick crossed his arms over his chest. “Grace is all grown up now. Chloe says she can take care of herself, but that doe
sn’t mean I won’t kick your ass if you make her cry. Remember that while you’re trying to sweet talk her into going to Sin City with you.”
Jackson laughed. “Hold off on buying the tar and feathers until after I get back, will ya? I wouldn’t want you to waste your money.”
Merrick shook his head. “You have to get her to agree to the trip first. I’m not so convinced you’ve got what it takes.”
“We’ll see.”
“Yeah, we will.”
Merrick called his name as Jackson started to leave. He stopped as he reached the door and turned. “Yeah?”
“Has Grace told you about her car accident?”
Jackson’s stomach bottomed out. “What car accident?”
“When she was nineteen, she was in a real bad wreck. We weren’t sure she was going to make it those first twenty-four hours. It was hard on all of us. The thing is, Grace is the youngest of the Vaughns. I guess you could say she’s sort of the baby we’d all like to wrap in cotton if she’d only let us.” Merrick paused before adding, “If you really care about her, you should know the accident left a lasting impression on Grace.”
Jackson squeezed the doorknob. “In what way? Emotionally?”
“Ask her that.”
He nodded and opened the door. As he made his way down the hall to his own office, an image of a beat-up nineteen-year-old Gracie sprang to mind, and it nearly made Jackson throw up. He didn’t like thinking of her as fragile. She was usually so tough and she handled herself so well around him it was easy to forget just how delicate she really was.
Chapter Two
Grace sauntered back into the office, feeling better than she had in weeks. She’d taken a two hour lunch. The first hour had been spent sucking down a latté and devouring a grilled chicken Caesar salad while she attempted to make future lunch plans with some of her old business contacts. She wasn’t convinced it would get her anywhere as far as a job offer, but it never hurt to try. The second hour she’d taken the time to go to her cousin Lacey’s gym and get in a workout. It didn’t quite take away all her frustrations, but it had helped.
Now as Grace moved through the office and spotted Candice, they both smiled a greeting. It still surprised Grace that Candice and Blade were married, much less soon-to-be parents of a baby boy. The marital bliss and pregnancies in the Vaughn family were enough to make a single woman envious.
As she approached her desk, Grace wrapped the strap of her purse around the back of the chair and sat. She tried to concentrate on the new software she’d been working on, but it wasn’t any use. All she saw was Jackson’s grin as she’d walked out of Merrick’s office. It’d been juvenile of her to take her problems to her cousin. She should have known the way Merrick would react. He was always much too protective of her. She could go into Jackson’s office and confront him, make him tell her what the two men had said after she’d left. Had Merrick fired him, punched him, or both?
“Stop frowning; your face will stick that way one of these days.”
Grace looked up from the flat screen monitor to find Jackson grinning down at her, his hands in his pockets. God, the man was yummy. His close-cropped dark hair and chiseled cheekbones had always made her think of a tough guy from an action movie. His hard, muscular frame wasn’t anything to overlook either. For the first time she wondered if he’d ever been in the military. He seemed ex-something. SEAL. Marine. Sniper. Dangerous and sexy, both of those words described Jackson Hill’s powerful physique and hypnotic silver eyes.
“So, no black eye. Am I to assume you two didn’t engage in a fist fight then?”
He tsked. “We’re adults. We solve things like men, not prickly teenagers.”
She let that one pass, though she had at least a dozen good comebacks on the tip of her tongue. “Still have a job?”
Jackson pulled his hands out of his pockets and braced himself against her desk. As he leaned down, she could smell his masculine scent, like the jungle, wild and untamed. “Hoping Merrick fired me?”
Her cheeks burned at his words. “I shouldn’t have gone to Merrick. I’m sorry.”
Jackson reached out and touched her cheek. “That almost seemed sincere, Gracie.”
She jerked backward, out of his reach, and growled, “Screw it, I’m not sorry.”
Jackson’s grin disappeared. “Come into my office. I need to talk to you.”
“Jackson, this isn’t—”
He cut her off with a hand in the air. “I need a little privacy. Please?”
Grace didn’t really have a choice at that point and she damn well knew it. Jackson was simply too adorable when he murmured please in that sexy baritone of his. She stood, but before she could follow him into his office, she asked, “Were you ever in the military?”
His head cocked to the side. “Yeah, the Marines. I did a four-year enlistment right out of high school. Why?”
She sighed. “Just curious.”
“Uh, okay.” He turned and started toward his office, Grace watched the way his ass moved beneath his black dress slacks. God, the man was delicious. A squeeze. Just one squeeze and she could live the rest of her life with a grin on her face.
As he closed the door to his office, panic welled up. Most men didn’t send her blood rushing through her veins, and she never felt panicky around them. With Jackson she was the helpless field mouse cornered by the hungry tom cat. Not a happy image.
Jackson moved around his desk and sat, indicating she should sit in one of the chairs across from him. She sat and braced herself, unsure what this new mood of his was all about. He seemed pensive, and she wasn’t used to that. Jackson was usually flirtatious or ribbing her until she wanted to pull out her hair, or his. Those were moods she could handle. This serious side had her fidgeting in her seat.
“I want to know why you went to Merrick. Is it so horrible working for me?”
Grace clutched the arm of the chair. He was asking for the truth. Since the moment she’d started at Merrick’s company, Jackson had never actually pushed her into dealing with their mutual attraction. He seemed content to let them dance around each other. Dodging him and suppressing her insane attraction to him had just become a thing of the past, though.
“It’s not so bad. You pissed me off and I reacted. I’m sorry.”
He glanced down at his desk and frowned, then moved a few files around. As he leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest, he said, “Yeah, that’s the part I’m fuzzy on, Gracie. What set you off? One minute I was talking to you like any other co-worker, just shooting the breeze, the next thing I know you’re growling and stomping off. What did I say?”
She would have to admit it now, or try to lie. She sucked at lying to Jackson. He always saw right through her, somehow. Another infuriating thing about the man. “You were talking about your night with Ginger,” she blurted.
“Ginger? What does she have to do with anything?”
She rolled her eyes and stood. “You know, for an educated man, you can be so dense.” Grace started for the door, but she never managed more than a few feet before a pair of large, strong hands pulled her to a stop. She swung around and glared. “Let me go.”
“You were jealous,” he stated, as if she hadn’t already figured out that part on her own.
“Hallelujah! Give the man a cigar.”
“How do you think I felt when you threw Antonio in my face? And don’t say you didn’t mention him just to piss me off, because we both know the truth.”
She’d gone out with Antonio, a cute guy from accounting, on the off chance she’d be able to forget about Jackson. It hadn’t worked. She’d spent the entire evening comparing the two men, and she’d found Antonio lacking big time.
“I wasn’t talking about Antonio like he was an all-you-can-eat buffet, though.”
She watched a muscle in Jackson’s jaw twitch angrily. It made her want to lean in and lick him. “Don’t piss me off by lying. I respect the women I date. I don’t expound on their attributes with friend
s and co-workers, and you know it. I mentioned going to dinner with her, that’s all. You damn near shot out of my office like a cat that’d just gotten her tail stepped on.”
His imagery stung her pride. “That’s not true.”
He leaned close and murmured, “Stop lying, sweetheart. You were jealous, same as I was when you mentioned Antonio.”
She tugged her arm and got exactly nowhere. “Fine, I was jealous,” she admitted. “Can I go now?”
“No. We need to fix this. We can’t continue working together if you’re going to run to Merrick every time you feel cornered.”
She made a point of wiggling her arm. “Then stop cornering me.”
He released her, and she stepped back. He stepped forward. Grace held her ground, though his nearness sent fire dancing through her veins and her pussy throbbed with need.
“You like it when I corner you,” he said as he looked her over. “You’re just too chicken to admit it.”
Grace narrowed her eyes. “Take that back.”
He grinned. “Nope. It’s true. You’re too chicken to take what you want, and we both know it.”
“We work together. Getting involved is a bad idea.” Crap, even she knew that was a lame excuse.
He pointed to the door. “Exhibit A: Chloe and Merrick.”
Damn, she hated when he was right. “That’s different. Merrick wasn’t a stalker.”
He laughed. “And I am?”
“You may as well be.”
“How about you just prove you aren’t a chicken. Put me in my place, Gracie.”
She knew exactly where this was leading. “I suppose if I go out with you, it’ll be proof. That’s so pathetic.”
He shook his head, looking entirely too sure of himself. “Go to the Interop Convention with me. Spend three days in Las Vegas by my side. Prove you can resist this chemistry arcing back and forth, and I’ll leave you alone.”
“You just want to get me drunk so you can take advantage of me. Perv.”
Jackson stepped closer and touched the tip of her nose. It was completely platonic, nothing flirtatious in the touch at all, and yet he might as well have touched her breast, she was so turned on. “You know better than that. I would want you alert for what I have in mind.” He paused before adding, “What do you say? Can you handle three days in Vegas with me? Or is it too much temptation for you?”