What a Woman

by Judi Fennell

  He chose to ignore the sarcasm. “Why are you taking them there?” His grandmother’s room was next to his.

  “Because I need to be close to them during the night and I don’t feel like navigating the stairs in the dark when I’m tired?”

  This was turning out to be a nightmare. He didn’t want Mac that close. Bad enough she was sleeping under the same roof. “I thought you’d sleep on the sofa.”

  “Sofas don’t lend themselves to a good night’s sleep. If I have to pull two AM duty, I want to sleep well the rest of the night. So you and Renee are just going to have to keep it down.” She hiked a pillow in her arms. “So hop to it there, Hopalong, so I can get the babies up to bed before feeding time. And before your visitor gets here.”

  “There will be no Renee.” Why was it that the minute she said babies the image shifted in his brain? Why on God’s earth would he imagine her with human babies in her arms, taking them upstairs to cribs?

  Because you’re exhausted and frustrated. Get upstairs now before you do something you’ll regret.

  Or because he wouldn’t do something and he’d regret that even more.

  * * *

  MAC forced herself to turn away and head into the parlor. She didn’t care if there’d be a Renee or not, and she wasn’t here to ogle Jared. Heck, she was trying desperately not to want to ogle him ever again. That’s what the Renees of the world were for.

  But, damn, the man was one fine specimen.

  The thump thump of his crutches on the stairs almost drowned out the kittens’ meows, but these little guys—and gal—were hungry. Which meant she had to get them fed, then move them upstairs, not the other way around.

  Mac sighed. She was tired and wanted to climb into bed, but there’d be none of that until her duty was done.

  Why had she agreed to do this?

  It was a question she kept asking herself the entire time she prepared the bottles and carried them back to the parlor. She didn’t have an answer after she got all four set up with some creative pillow/bottle propping, and she gave up trying to come up with one by the time they’d finished eating.

  Face it, Manley, you aren’t over the guy. Just embrace the knowledge and chalk it up to life lessons. Then get your mind focused on finishing this job so you can get back to real life. That’s the plan; stick to it.

  She felt better after her conscience’s pick-me-up. There was nothing wrong with being attracted to Jared—he was a good-looking guy as the Renees of the world were so blatantly telling her. So she still had a crush . . . Didn’t mean she had to act on it.

  Now if only he wouldn’t kiss her again, she’d be fine.

  She herded the kittens into a laundry basket, filled a takeout container with kitty litter, and carried them up the stairs just in time to run into Jared leaving the bathroom. Shirtless.

  “Uh, bathroom’s all yours,” he said, scrubbing his damp hair that was dripping water onto his shoulders and tracking in tiny rivulets down his chest.

  The one she wasn’t supposed to be ogling.

  “Thanks.” Spending the night here was a really bad idea.

  “You know, you didn’t have to come back. Grandma wouldn’t have known.”

  “I would have known. My word means something to me, Jared.”

  “Mine means something, too.”

  “Then why are we having this discussion? Your grandmother asked me to stay; here I am.”

  He looked at her for a few seconds and swiped a hand over his mouth. “Then let’s be clear about this. She didn’t ask you to stay indefinitely. So one and done and we’re good, right?”

  Gee, the guy couldn’t make it any more obvious that he didn’t want her around. “Loud and clear.”

  “Good.”

  “Fine. Anything else?”

  He looked at her for a few more seconds, then shook his head. “After you.” He held out his hand and she walked past him, hanging a right at her door.

  “Good night,” he called after her.

  “Good night,” she said before she leaned against the back of the door to close it. Wow, look at her. Able to manage a complete sentence—okay that didn’t technically constitute her English teacher’s version of a complete sentence, but it was a pretty good result in the state she was in.

  With him in the state he was in.

  * * *

  IT was a long night. These old houses . . . He could hear every scamper of a mouse, every creak, every gust of wind.

  Too bad there wasn’t any wind. And he knew for a fact that his grandmother had had a pest control service out last week, so that killed the mouse theory.

  He couldn’t even lie to himself. He’d been listening for Mac. And he’d heard her. And it’d been killing him for the last—he picked up his phone and squinted as the screen light came on—four hours.

  The kittens shouldn’t be awake this long. When he’d fed them last night, they’d eaten, answered Nature’s call, then gone back to sleep—half hour tops. Twice.

  Something crashed in Mac’s room. Jared was on his feet before she’d finished some very inventive cursing and halfway to the door before he realized he didn’t have his crutches.

  He hobbled back to the bed, yanked the damn things from against the nightstand, and got to her room as fast as he could.

  “Are you okay?” He hit the light switch by the door.

  “Ack!” Mac shielded her eyes with her forearm—

  She slept in very short shorts and a T-shirt. With ruffles around the edges.

  Ruffles shouldn’t be sexy. But with the amount of abdomen showing . . . Then there was all that leg. Mac might not be tall, but she had legs that went up to her eyeballs. Toned, shapely, smooth . . . They’d wrap around a man’s waist just fine.

  “I heard a crash.” He shut off the light, needing to hide the evidence of what she did to him, but the image of her in those pajamas was seared into his brain. What the hell had happened to the sweatpants she’d shown up in?

  She scratched her head, and her hair—no longer in that ponytail—fluffed around her face as moonlight sifted through the lace curtains. “One of the kittens jumped off the bed and knocked the remote off the nightstand.”

  “He jumped? He could’ve broken a leg.” Her four-poster was high off the floor. “Where’d he go? And which one?”

  “The calico.”

  Larry seemed to be the problem child of the bunch. “Did you see where he went?”

  “If I did, do you think I’d be standing here wondering where to look first? It was dark before you turned on the sun, and now I have spots in my eyes from the light.”

  “Hey, I just wanted to make sure you hadn’t impaled yourself on anything.”

  “Well I didn’t, but I’m not so sure about the kitten. Go ahead and turn on the light since I’m prepared now.”

  Jared had to check to make sure he was prepared.

  Finding everything in, um, order, he switched on the light.

  Her nipples were hard.

  It was the first thing he noticed. Dammit.

  Then she got down on all fours to look under the bed, and her ass—

  He swung around. He didn’t need to see how her ass curved beneath shorts that hiked up enough to give him a glimpse—

  His crutch knocked into the dresser beside the door and he almost took a header.

  “Jared? You okay?”

  She looked back over her shoulder at him, and shoot-him-now, the image of that—

  “Yeah. Fine.”

  Not.

  He crutched past her, keeping his eyes glued to the floor, ostensibly searching for the kitten.

  “There you are, baby. Come on over here.” Mac tapped the hardwood floor with her nails.

  The words . . . Jesus, he had a serious problem if he was imaging her saying those words to him. “Is h
e under there?”

  “Yes, but he’s curled up in a ball under the middle of the bed. Can you use your crutch to scoot him this way?”

  “Sure.” Yeah, give him something to do other than stand here and fantasize about Mac calling to him like she’d called the kitten.

  He got himself onto the floor and swept the crutch softly behind the little thing.

  It scampered down toward the bottom of the bed.

  “No, come here!” Mac again tapped the floor. “Use your other crutch, too, Jared.”

  Because, yes, he was a giant scissors.

  Feeling like Johnny Depp in a title role, Jared lay on his right shoulder and hip, and scissored the crutches on either side of the kitten, herding him toward Mac.

  “Got him!” She plucked the little guy off the floor, then sprang to her feet.

  Jared got to his feet in time to see Mac dump the troublemaker back into the laundry basket, then put a pillow across the top.

  “You might want to turn that over so they can’t climb out,” he said, glad to see the ache in his ribs was gone.

  The one in his groin when he caught a glimpse of her taught abdomen with a belly ring sparkling in her navel, however, was a different story. That one was growing.

  “Okay, Mac. Glad everyone’s back where they should be. See you tomorrow.” He couldn’t get out of her room fast enough.

  Which meant that, of course he’d trip.

  The crutch skewed to the left, he went right, and he ended up on top of Mac with the mattress beneath her.

  For a second, time stood still and he was right back to that moment years ago when she’d fallen out of the tree onto his date, those big green eyes of hers wide and staring into his.

  Like they were doing now.

  Her lips, too, were parted just like they’d been then, only this time . . . Only this time he knew what they tasted like. What they felt like beneath his.

  And now he knew what she felt like beneath him. Every soft, curvy part of her, and the way her chest fluttered as she sucked air into her lungs—

  He groaned and it didn’t have anything to do with the pain. Well, not the pain from the accident, but one very tight, very aching pain down low, and it was all because of this woman. This gorgeous sexy woman who’d gripped the waistband of his shorts, her fingers lighting fires under his skin.

  “Mac—”

  “Jared—”

  Someone kissed someone. He wasn’t sure who it was, but there was no hesitation on either one’s part, and the kiss became full-on carnal in about three seconds.

  God, the way her fingertips shot sparks under his skin, the way the slide of her tongue against his urged him deeper inside, the way her hips cradling his erection made him thrust against her—

  The way four sharp claws dug into his ribs—

  “Holy mother of—”

  Jared reared back, breaking the kiss, and leaving one suddenly very pissed-off woman staring up at him.

  “Hey, I didn’t invite you to kiss me. If it’s so abhorrent, I’d think you wouldn’t have done it a second time.” Mac wiggled under him and if she only knew that that was not the deterrent she was trying to make it be. “Get off me you big, conceited oaf.”

  “Give me a minute, Mac.” He needed to be able to breathe, and between the kittens and Mac, he wasn’t sure he’d come out of this alive.

  “Jared, get off.” She shoved him and there went a whole new round of pain in his ribs.

  He rolled off her and onto the mattress, the ribs taking another jarring, but at least the pain made his dick quiet the fuck down.

  Mac’s effect was a whole other story.

  “Do you mind telling me what that was? A woman in your house is an open invitation for a mauling? What gives you the right to just up and kiss me whenever you feel like humiliating me? How dare you—”

  “Humiliate you?” Jared rolled onto his side and worked his elbow under him to sit up. “Humiliate you? Is that what you think I was doing?”

  Mac’s shoulders got squarer and she crossed her arms. “I am not the same kid who thought you were the cat’s meow all those years ago.” She glanced at the kittens in the basket. Whichever one had jumped on him wasn’t copping to it. Jared had a feeling it’d been Larry. “My apologies, guys. You all are worth way more than this slug.”

  “Slug?” Jared got to his feet, holding on to the newel post. “Slug? You were just as involved in that kiss as I was, Mac, so what does that say about you for kissing a slug?”

  “I was not—”

  “Don’t try to deny it. I was there if you recall. Right there. And that was your tongue sliding into my mouth. I wasn’t coercing you. I wasn’t forcing you. You grabbed hold of me and pulled me against you.”

  “I—” She crossed her arms tighter and huffed.

  “What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue?” Jared pushed off the post and stood in front of her. “You wanted to kiss me, Mac. Admit it.”

  She looked up at him, those big green eyes staring a hole right through him. Searing through him. Straight to the middle of his chest, and suddenly he was the one who was trying to suck air into his lungs.

  “Why did you kiss me, Jared? Why are you playing games with me? Do you think it’s funny to play on those feelings I had for you all those years ago? We have to be in this house together for a couple of weeks. Have to work together for Mildred’s sake. I can’t keep doing this. I can’t keep wondering if you’re going to try to humiliate me every time I’m here.”

  Jesus, he never knew words could hurt so much. “I wasn’t trying to humiliate you, Mac. I . . . you . . . we were there and it wasn’t something I planned. It just . . . happened.”

  She shoved herself off the bed and scooted toward the footboard. “Then make sure it doesn’t happen again, please. I’d hate to disappoint our grandmothers, but I’m not going to stay here and be something to relieve your boredom and give you a laugh or two.” She grabbed the bedspread and shook it. “Now if you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to settle the kittens down and get some sleep before I have to get up for work in the morning.”

  He looked at her standing there so rigid. Replayed her words in his head. He hadn’t been trying to humiliate her; he’d wanted to kiss her. She’d wanted to kiss him, too.

  “I’ll get out of here, but only because after that kiss, your bedroom is not the safest place for me to be. For either of our sakes.” He yanked the crutches off the floor and shoved them under his arms. “Hide behind your denial, Mac, but you wanted to kiss me every bit as much as I wanted to kiss you. This isn’t over.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  JARED scrubbed his head one more time with the towel, which he then tossed onto the washer in the laundry room, shivering as the cold water dripped onto his shoulders. He’d needed a cold shower to wake himself up this morning, since sleeping after that kiss had been as elusive as the no-hitter he’d been hoping to have before his career was over. God willing, he’d still have a chance at that.

  A chance with Mac, however . . .

  Chemical combustion aside, seeing her soft spot for the kittens and his grandmother, and, hell, even him . . . Mac had a good soul and if someone had told him that when they were kids, he would have told that someone to go dunk their head in the creek because Mac Manley had been a terror.

  Funny how time and distance could change a guy’s perspective. And, unfortunately, hers.

  “Jared!”

  “In the kitchen.”

  She blew back into the kitchen in all her tornado style, but even though he was used to it, he wasn’t prepared to see her as she was now.

  Mac in a skirt and heels was deadly.

  Toss in the ruffles on the edges of her blouse when she removed her suit jacket and she upgraded to catastrophic.

  Seriously, ruffles were not supposed to be sexy, but on
her . . . Jesus. Even if they didn’t remind him about last night, all that leg . . . And those heels.

  Black heels.

  With a ruffle at the back.

  And then there was her hair: loose and flowing around her shoulders as she spun around, waving a pair of keys above her head.

  “I got it!”

  “Congratulations.” And when she smiled like that it lit up her face and stole the breath right out of his lungs. Mac was simply . . . gorgeous.

  “. . . the financing went through, I could finally let out that breath. But Liam kept me from dancing out of my chair until all the paperwork was signed, and now I am the proud owner of a work van. I just need to get it wrapped with my company logo and contact info and then we’ll be ready for business. In the meantime, though, I’ve got the car magnets, which look great with the green against the white backdrop. Just how I envisioned it.”

  Mac was nothing like he’d envisioned. All those years when he’d thought about her—if he’d thought about her—he’d seen the child she’d been.

  She’s not a child anymore.

  Yeah. He got that.

  He cleared his throat. “This calls for a celebration.” He limped over to the cabinet and pulled out a pair of wine glasses. “I don’t think Grandma has champagne around here, but we could celebrate with a glass of orange juice before you show me the van.”

  She flopped onto one of the kitchen chairs and stretched her legs out in front of her. “I’d love to, but Liam needed it. He loaned his truck to Cassidy Davenport.”

  “Cassidy Davenport? What does she need with a pickup truck? Doesn’t her father own a fleet of sports cars? That’s more her ticket.”

  Mac shrugged and the ruffles swished some hair forward, leading right down to the cleavage he was trying desperately not to notice. He headed to the fridge. Maybe a blast of cold air would get his libido under control.

  After the cold shower didn’t? Good luck with that.

  “Apparently those aren’t family cars. All I know is she’s car-less and Liam has to get to work, and since he fits as well as you did in my truck, I had to give him the van.” She chuckled. “It stinks that I can’t use it, but I’ve gone this long without one, I can use the truck a little longer.”