J.D. strolled over, his eyes fixed on the same tableau. He glanced at her. “You’d think it would be enough that in their quest to vanquish the other they took one hundred and fifty of my hard-earned dollars at poker tonight.”
“That’s because you can never remember about straights and flushes, dumbass.”
“Ouch. You’ve been in a mean mood since before we dealt the first hand.”
Her gaze slid toward his. “Mention PMS and you die.”
He raised his hands in surrender. “You’re sunshine. You’re cotton candy. You’re warm, wiggling puppies.” Then he took another swig of his beer and continued. “And do you got anything going on Sunday? I could use some company when I change my oil.”
“I’m busy on Sunday.”
“Okay, I can switch to Saturday afternoon, but we’ll have to be quick because I have a hot date with -”
“J.D., I’m not going to help you Sunday, Saturday, or any day.”
“But you always help me do car stuff.” He sounded put out and halfway insulted.
“Too bad.” Stevie took a big swallow of the sauvignon blanc she was drinking. Tonight had called for a beverage with enough acidity to match her mood as well as pair well with the fish and chips the Bennett brothers had provided as the pre-poker meal. “I don’t have a single favor left in my bag.”
She’d doled out enough for a lifetime, hadn’t she? Helping the guys fix their cars, helping her ex find his way back to his fiancée, helping Jack rehabilitate his reputation by entering into an engagement-in-name-only.
J.D. pointed a finger at her, clearly still sulking. “You’re just mad that your guy went AWOL.”
“He’s not my guy.” Though, as she’d known it would, the fake news of their impending marriage had spread faster than the vineyard fire in the WWII-era flick A Walk in the Clouds. Of course, Jack’s sudden absence had just as quickly made the rounds of the Edenville coffee bars and tasting rooms.
Moments after she’d patched up the leaks in Emerson’s good sense and sent him back to his princess bride, she’d discovered that Jack had disappeared. Man hadn’t been any help. She’d merely shrugged her shoulders, handed over the old key, and said the man hadn’t left any message behind for Stevie.
The dumbass was her for asking about one, she thought with a scowl.
J.D. glanced over at her again and she could tell he was still miffed. That’s what happened when you were too nice. People kept expecting you to be that way.
“Don’t give me that dirty look, Steve,” he said. “It’s not my fault you can’t hold on to a man.”
A red haze came over her vision. “I swear I’m going to -”
“Hold my coat while I punish J.D. for that remark,” a smooth voice put in.
Jack.
“You won’t talk me out of it this time,” he added.
She shrugged. “This time, I won’t bother.”
“Hey!” J.D. said. “I was just razzing the girl.”
Jack shoved J.D. in a way that wasn’t as friendly as it might be. The other man stumbled back, grumbling, then joined the rest of the poker buddies - Seth, Chuck, and Ben - on the other side of the room. Jack took J.D.’s spot, leaning against the back of the couch beside Stevie’s perch.
She didn’t look at him. “My hero.”
“My ass.” He slipped an arm around her waist and brushed his mouth against her cheek. “Is that the word around Edenville? That you’ve lost another one?”
“I don’t care what anyone says about me.”
He didn’t try to argue with her, and instead nodded in the direction of Liam and Kohl. “What’s going on here?”
“They’re fighting over my sister, Giuliana.”
Because she still wasn’t looking at him, she felt rather than saw his stare. “Looks like darts to me,” he said.
“Yeah.” She sighed. “But it’s about Jules. She and Liam had a thing ages ago that’s not completely faded. It pisses Kohl off. It pisses Liam off that Kohl’s trying to move in on his old territory.”
“Sounds like it makes you a little sad.”
It embarrassed her that he’d picked up on it. She shrugged a shoulder. “I don’t know that Kohl is right for my sister, but I’m afraid too much time or pain has passed between her and Liam for it ever to be right with them again, either.”
“Maybe you could try spreading around some of your special matchmaker pixie dust,” he said lightly, then went quiet a moment. “Thank you for bringing Emerson and Roxy together again - it appears she’s back to happy, though I’m not convinced the idiot deserves her.”
“He’s all right. I think what he feels for your sister is so big it just took some getting used to.”
“Yeah? Well, I still want to break his face.”
She didn’t answer. Liam and Kohl’s voices rose as they continued hashing out their dart game. It had escalated from a simple cash bet to an exchange of insults and a call for higher stakes. “Geez,” she said, shaking her head. “Why are all you men so stupid?”
“An eternal, unanswerable question in the same vein of why they bother manufacturing fat-free potato chips or how it could be illegal to marry both in a set of blond, busty twins.”
Stevie slid him a quelling look.
He laughed and leaned over to brush her cheek with his lips again. She knocked him away with her elbow and he rubbed his ribs, smiling. “Damn, I missed you.”
“Shut up.”
Then Jack did, focusing on the opponents as the two men exchanged death grips. “Am I understanding what they just agreed upon?”
“Liam’s an idiot. If Kohl wins, he gets the two-acre vineyard. If Liam wins, Kohl quits working for Tanti Baci.”
“Liam’s smart,” Jack corrected. “If he wins, Kohl’s away from Jules. If Kohl wins, he’ll likely be splitting his time between the little vineyard and Tanti Baci - again, distancing him from your sister.”
“You’re right.” An embarrassing sting pricked Stevie’s eyes and an undeniable melancholy pulled on her already-low mood. “I can’t watch this.”
“What’s wrong?”
Shaking her head didn’t dislodge the despondent feeling. “I don’t want Tanti Baci to lose Kohl. I don’t want Jules to despise Liam any more than she already does, which she will, because once she hears about this she’ll see it as sabotage instead of…” A stupid tear ran down her cheek and she lifted her shoulder to rub it surreptitiously away.
“Stevie?”
“Just sock me or something, okay?” She slid off the couch to land on the soles of her ragged sneakers. “Right now I despise myself for being such a soft, sentimental sap.”
Jack caught her elbow and turned her to face him. The touch, his face, it was like the punch she’d asked for. She sucked in a breath. That powerful spark of attraction, those handsome features of his - both brought home to her just how much she was at the mercy of him. How could it be like this? How could her body burn and her heart pound from looking at him when she wanted to hate him so much for leaving without a word?
“Sock me,” she said again, desperate now to remember how dangerous it would be to care for him. “I could use the distraction.”
“You could use something that will put you in a better mood.” He blew out a dramatic sigh. “And since I owe you for running out a couple of days ago like that, then I’ll make the sacrifice.”
Her eyebrows drew together. “What sacrifice?”
“You can use me.”
Heat rushed between her breasts and up her neck. “Use you … how?”
“Like you always do. Quick and dirty. I keep telling the mirror that no one can make me feel slutty but myself.”
She released a little laugh. “Shut up,” she said again.
“I have a bedroom just down the hall. It has an iron headboard and I have a collection of silk ties. You strike me as the type who would like to tie me down.”
Her skin went hot at the thought, until her brain caught up to his last words. You
strike me as the type who would like to tie me down. “As if I would with all the guys in the house,” she blustered, then flattened her hand to push at his shoulder.
He caught her wrist and yanked her against him. Hard.
Her heart pounded against his chest, her skin flushed hot again, her gaze stuck to his. “Where did you go?” she heard herself whisper.
“There wasn’t any place far enough,” he murmured, then took her mouth in a deep, claiming kiss.
Stevie pressed herself tighter against him, resenting any distance now, as one elbow hooked his neck and the other hand took a grip of his shirt. Jack didn’t back off, but banded a forearm around her ribs while his palm slid under her extra-large sweatshirt to find the small of her back. His fingers dipped beneath the waistband of her jeans to the second knuckle, the tips flirting with the shallow, sensitive crevice of her bottom.
A shudder ran through her and she felt herself go wet. Her mouth opened wider to welcome the heavy thrust of his tongue.
Then there was clapping in the distance. Woots and whistles. Stevie jerked way, mortified to be making out in front of her poker buddies. But her hand was still fisted in Jack’s shirt and it wouldn’t heed her mind’s command to loosen. What would the guys see in that possessive grasp?
To cover the moment, she slapped on a saucy grin and started backing out of the room, towing Jack with her. His mouth smiled but his eyes were serious as she tugged him toward the stairs.
“My room’s that way,” he said, pointing in the opposite direction.
“My limo’s this way,” she said, continuing to pull him along. “I drove the Caddie tonight.”
He groaned. “No sheets, no pillows, no two of us on the mattress until morning? It’s going to be like that, is it? Leather and lust?”
“I’m afraid so,” she said, mustering up some sympathy to infuse her voice. “I’m taking you up on your quick and dirty offer - though I’ll let you play with the dashboard dials afterward.”
Afterward, he didn’t seem to have the energy to climb up front. She had pushed him into the back of the vehicle, and he’d yanked her after him, where they set about a session of torturous necking like two teenagers on prom night.
Her legs straddling his lap, she’d feasted on his mouth and speared her hands through his hair. He’d shoved up her sweatshirt and found the front release of her bra. When her naked breasts met his callused palms, they’d both groaned. He’d flicked her nipples, causing her to rub against his erection, nearly ready to come with just that sensation.
“Wait, wait, wait,” he’d said against her mouth, as if he knew how close she was.
“Don’t want to wait.” She’d circled her hips, pressing her clitoris against the seam of her jeans and the iron hardness of his shaft.
His hands had tightened on her breasts. “God, Stevie.” His thumbs had scraped over her nipples.
She’d been about to explode.
His hand had slid down the back of her pants again, maybe to halt her enflamed movements. “Mon anqe,” he’d said, his mouth trailing down her neck. “Mon anqe.”
His wet mouth, his naughty fingers, that sweet, seductive French had sent her over the edge. She’d ground against him, coming, coming, and he’d groaned, his hips lifting to meet her halfway.
Their breaths sounded loudly in the confines of the Caddie when it was over. “Hell,” Jack said. “The last time I came like that … I can’t remember the last time I came like that.”
“Mmm.” She buried her face in the curve where his neck met his shoulder and inhaled the scent that was unique to him. Her bad mood, she realized, was all due to having been cut off from this: the way he smelled, the way he felt against her, the way he could make her lust … and laugh.
“I’m going to have to sneak back inside all sticky,” he complained, but his hand gently stroked the back of her head. “You did it again, Stephania. I feel so cheap.”
She didn’t answer, because all she could think about was how much it was going to cost her when he left for good.
*****
The old adage was true, Jack thought, as he unlocked the front door of the “castle” at what he called My Aching Back vineyard. Everybody had an opinion. He’d already heard his mother’s view on his decision to purchase the two acres - I hope this means you’re staying long enough in one place to unpack your suitcase - and now Liam was talking like a real estate agent with a surplus of condos to sell.
“You know,” his friend said, “instead of doing the winemaking in this building, you could put up a few walls, put in some different plumbing, and live in the place.”
He opened his mouth to explain he wasn’t putting down roots. “Look -”
A dark-haired tornado blasting through the door interrupted him. Both he and Liam glanced at each other as the tornado advanced. From a foot away, Giuliana Baci placed her palms on Liam’s chest as if to shove him back. But at the contact, they both froze. His friend’s jaw tightened.
“Jules…” He looked down at the place where she’d made contact. ”You haven’t touched me in ten years.”
The young woman took a breath, then snatched her hands back and tucked them in the crooks of her elbows. “Never mind that,” she said, her face reddening. “What’s going on between you and Kohl?”
“That’s my question,” Liam said.
“It’s none of your business!”
Liam lifted a brow. “That’s my answer, too.”
“How could you make Kohl quit Tanti Baci?”
“I didn’t make him quit, did I?” Liam said, his voice tight. “I lost the damn bet.”
Giuliana vibrated with anger. “How could you wager that in the first place? The winery needs him. I need him.”
Liam’s expression turned stonier. “You have him still, don’t you?”
“Yes, but only because of - she whirled to confront Jack - ”you.”
Jack decided that was his cue to leave. He hadn’t won a round with a Baci woman yet and he didn’t suppose today was the day that would change. Offering her a charming smile, he backed toward the exit. “I have some, uh, work outside.”
Giuliana narrowed her eyes. “I’m worried about how buying the vineyard from Kohl fits in with the game you’re playing with my sister.”
Instead of answering, he kept on smiling and increased the speed of his footsteps. Still, he only made it as far as the door before he ran into an obstacle. Standing on the front porch was his own beautiful, frustrating nemesis. His smile died as he took in the sight of her. With her painted-on jeans and her blow-job mouth, she was enough to make a man forget his name. But it was her tough talk combined with her romantic heart that really got to him.
The last time he’d seen her, she’d been driving off in the limo, leaving him to make his way into the Bennett house feeling a half-ashamed fifteen. Damn woman.
“What is it you want?” he asked, pretending there wasn’t an itch of embarrassment at the back of his neck. And that magnet-pull of attraction. Shit, he should be used to that feeling by now.
“You bought this place,” she said, tilting her head as she studied his face. “I don’t think -”
“I’ve already heard plenty of thoughts on the subject.” He clapped his hand over the itch and brushed past her. Thank God he’d had the foresight to wear work clothes and bring along some tools to remove the stump of an old, gnarled vine that had been left at the end of one row. Screaming muscles and a lather of sweat would drown out the opinions he hadn’t asked for nor was interested in.
But, of course, it couldn’t be that easy. His nemesis dogged his footsteps as he grabbed the digging bar and pick and headed for the southeast corner of the vineyard.
“There are other ways to remove -”
“This is the way I want to do it.” The old man who’d conceived of the place had wanted to work the land with his own hands and that appealed to something in Jack, too. Sometimes the only thing that made sense was dirt and hurt.
Upon re
aching the offending stump, he started slamming the bar into the ground at its base, prying at the tenacious roots to release their hold. That’s what he needed, he thought, a way to release the hold this place and this woman was having on him. He’d escaped to Reno for two lousy days and then he’d been drawn back, powerless against the compulsion to return to Edenville. To Stephania.
He impaled the dirt with the bar, thrusting with a force that radiated up his arms. God damned powerless.
“I feel as if -”
“Look, Stevie,” he said, his voice harsh as he glanced at her over his shoulder. “I don’t care what you feel.”
She jerked back.
And he felt like a jerk. Damn it again!
Straightening, he turned to face her as the sweat rolled down his face. It stung his eyes. “That didn’t come out right.”
One of her brows rose. Yeah, she had his number. He’d spoken the truth, though there was a nuance to it. He didn’t want to care what she felt. And yet…
A car pulling to a stop in front of the vineyard caught his attention. He recognized the man in the driver’s seat. Hell. Could this day go any further south?
He headed toward his father as the man stepped from the car. Stevie caught his arm. “I don’t know why you’re angry with me.”
He glanced down at her hand. Even now, in this minute, when he didn’t want it to - powerless again - there was something about her touch that arrested him. But that wasn’t her fault.
“Of course you don’t,” he said softly. Jack’s father caught his eye and he acknowledged his presence with the lift of his chin. “Excuse me for a few minutes.”
Her hand slipped from him. He didn’t look back as he walked away, though he knew his voice carried over his shoulder. “And for the record … you didn’t want Kohl to leave Tanti Baci. So I bought the place from him after he won it from Liam. I did it for you.”
Wondering why he’d been compelled to make the confession, he approached his father. “Dad.” His other sons and Roxy called him Papa. But Jack had never swayed from the American version and he wondered if that’s what made his father see him as so different. So untrustworthy.
Then He Kissed Me Page 21