Kate sighed. Who had declared her house the new Grand Central Station?
Quickly tugging on the ankle-length aqua-colored robe and knotting the belt at her waist, Kate flew down the carpeted stairs in bare feet.
The top half of her oversize front door was composed of colored beveled glass, which allowed her to make out the outline of the person standing on her front step.
A male person, she judged, given the breadth of the shoulders.
Another delivery? Somehow, she doubted it.
As she made her way to the door, Kate picked up her cell phone from the side table and dropped it into the right-hand pocket of her robe. Just in case she needed to make an emergency call. One of the lessons her father had inadvertently taught her was to be prepared for all contingencies.
Stopping short of the door, she raised her voice and called out, “Who is it?”
“Jackson.”
Relieved that it wasn’t Jonah popping up on her doorstep, Kate opened the door before she thought the situation through. Before the question, what was he doing here and how did he know where she lived, had a chance to take root.
For a fleeting moment, Kate felt vulnerable. But she banished that with her customary bravado.
“Party end sooner than you thought?” she asked wryly. She held the door open and stepped back so that he could come in.
Party ended the minute you left, Jackson caught himself thinking, but he wasn’t about to admit it out loud for a whole host of reasons, the most important of which was not wanting his new family lawyer to think that there was no difference between him and Jonah. He was the civilized brother.
Although he wasn’t feeling entirely civilized right now, not when he found himself staring at a woman wearing only a bathrobe and who was, more than likely, barefoot up to the neck under it.
The scent of jasmine and vanilla in the air didn’t exactly help keep his mind on the straight and narrow.
Subtly taking in a breath, Jackson said, “No, it ended right on schedule. I just wanted to come and thank you in person.”
So he did realize that she was running interference when she’d taken Jonah away, she thought, pleased. For a while there, she wasn’t sure. But, being a lawyer had taught her to never assume anything without having it clearly delineated. So, adding just the right touch of innocence to her voice, Kate asked, “For?”
“For taking Jonah outside before he wound up causing a scene.” His mouth curved in a humorless smile. “He has a tendency to get carried away without taking any of the consequences into consideration. I don’t exactly relish being embarrassed, intentionally or not.”
“Who does?” she countered quietly.
About to say something further, his line of vision drifted over to the vase with its two dozen plump, pink roses.
“Oh, they came.” Jackson made no effort to hide the pleasure in his voice. “Nice to know you can still rely on some things.”
She followed his gaze. The roses seemed to grow more gorgeous every time she looked at them. “You must have ordered them the second I walked out.”
“I did.”
She’d left the party just a little after six. That was late in the workday for florists. “I can’t believe that you found someone to deliver them at a moment’s notice at that time of the evening.”
“You’d be surprised what you can get if you offer to pay triple the rate.”
My God, she thought, considering the price of roses these days, that must have amounted to practically a small fortune.
“There was no need—” she began to protest.
“There was a need,” he contradicted. He liked watching her in action, not to mention that he appreciated her handling Jonah. This was just his way of showing his gratitude.
Kate felt like baiting him just a little, although for the life of her, she wouldn’t have been able to explain why.
“What if I was allergic to flowers?” Kate posed, amused.
“You’re not.”
Her amusement faded ever so slightly. More personal information. “How do you know that?”
“Same way I knew your address. I know things.” The look on his face was unreadable. “I like to familiarize myself with the people I—um—” He realized that there was no really graceful way for him to conclude his statement.
“Hire,” she supplied with a serene smile. “Don’t worry, I’m not offended.” What bothered her was that he’d investigated her, but in a way that was his right. And what made him a savvy businessman. “I am very secure in who and what I am. Lawyers are generally hired guns when it comes to corporate types.” She looked at him pointedly.
He couldn’t begin to visualize her as a “hired gun.” However, just wearing boots and a hand-stitched leather holster…
He cleared his throat, stalling for a second as he reined himself in. What the hell was going on with him? “Even family lawyers?”
“Even family lawyers,” she assured him, then explained. “In essence, you’re hiring me to protect Jonah from himself even if he doesn’t like the idea.”
He was instantly alert. “You told him?”
“Not yet,” she was quick to reassure him. “But when I do, he won’t like it.” It wasn’t much of a guess. Jonah was locked into a heavy-duty romance with money and what it could do for him.
“I’ll take care of that—telling him,” Jackson clarified in case she wasn’t following him. “You shouldn’t have to be subjected to his first reaction to the news.”
“I can take it, Jackson,” she assured him with an amused smile. “I’m a big girl.”
There’s no disputing that. The top of her robe was parting a little with each breath she took. Jackson forced himself to look into her eyes.
“Did I interrupt something?” He nodded at her robe, still keeping his eyes on her face.
Kate had gotten so involved in the conversation, in having him here, she’d almost forgotten she was wearing next to nothing. She looked down at the robe and saw that it was parting. She tugged it back into place.
“Oh. No. I was just getting out of the tub when you rang the doorbell.”
“Unwinding?” After dealing with Jonah for the first time, he could understand the need.
Her shoulders rose just a tad, then fell again. “Something like that.”
“Jonah didn’t try anything…?” He let his voice trail off.
“Jonah was fine,” she quickly assured him, unconsciously placing her hand on his arm. “He was more than a little inebriated. We had coffee at that little shop on the corner and then I put him in a cab. He’s going to have to get his car tomorrow,” she added before he could bring that up.
“Wallace will get it for him.”
The name was unfamiliar to her. “Wallace?”
“Wallace Brubaker. Jonah’s all-around assistant. Wallace has been with him since Jonah was a teenager.” Humor curved the corners of his mouth. “I’m not sure that Jonah could get dressed in the morning without Wallace.”
Kate raised her eyebrows. “Maybe it’s about time your brother learned a few basics like that,” she suggested. “Might make him more in tune to the real world.”
The scent of her bath salts was getting to him. Vanilla and jasmine. He assumed that they were clinging to her skin. Whatever the case, the combined scent was definitely getting under his skin. It was a struggle to keep focused when his mind kept drifting to far more stimulating subjects than his brother.
He needed her to get dressed.
“Speaking of which,” he said, trying to keep his voice light, “maybe you’d like to do that, too?”
Puzzled, she asked, “Do what?”
“Get dressed,” he said, tactfully looking away.
Which made her look down at her robe again. The belt had loosened again, allowing for more movement. Very specific movement. The robe was parting a lot lower than she would have ever intended on her own. One more careless shrug and it was all over.
“Oh.” This time the
single word was bursting with thinly veiled embarrassment. She tugged the belt tighter, bringing the two halves of the robe closer together. “Maybe I should get dressed,” she agreed, attempting a segue.
Jackson nodded, deliberately keeping his eyes focused above her neck. “Good idea. I’ll wait down here.”
She wondered if he realized that he’d just invited himself to stay, or was he just accustomed to doing that without thought? Even so, she sensed a tension running through him. Somehow, she doubted that this time around the tension had anything to do with the subject of Jonah.
Stopping halfway up the stairs, Kate turned around, unable to resist asking, “Am I making you uncomfortable, Jackson?”
He came to the foot of the stairs and looked up. There was a small smile on his lips that she couldn’t begin to fathom. “You have no idea,” was all he said to her.
It was enough to warm her. And warn her. She was standing on very thin ice.
Taking a deep breath, Kate promised, “I’ll be right back,” and went up the rest of the stairs a lot more quickly.
Jackson tried not to notice the way the damp robe clung to her curves as she went.
But he couldn’t help himself.
Kate couldn’t remember when she’d gotten dressed so fast. The closest was the time she was in college and she’d woken up with only twenty minutes to get dressed and get to her constitutional law final. This time, she made it in less than five.
Part of her hurry was because she didn’t want to keep Jackson waiting. And part of it was because some small part of her was afraid that Jackson might rethink the situation, and his gallantry, and decide to come up to “help” her get dressed.
The thought of being naked around the man had her fingers getting in each other’s way as heat traveled up and down her body.
When she sailed down the stairs five minutes later, Kate was wearing jeans and a dark blue pullover, its sleeves pushed up on her arms to just below her biceps. She was still barefoot and her hair was secured in a ponytail. The only makeup she’d hastily applied was lipstick. She looked like a freshman in college and nothing like the young woman who had graduated in the top five percent of her class at Stanford.
Jackson was exactly where she’d left him, at the foot of the stairs. Except that he was facing the door rather than looking up.
He turned around when he heard her, about to comment that he’d never known any woman to get dressed as fast as she had, even during an earthquake. But the comment died the moment he looked up at her. A last-minute effort kept his jaw from dropping.
The woman who had come to his rescue at the party had been a gorgeous, sophisticated creature. The one he now stared at had a sweetness to her he hadn’t glimpsed at first.
“Where’s your big sister?” he asked.
Kate was aware of her appearance. As if she’d just fallen off a turnip truck. But she wasn’t trying to impress this man. She was just trying to be herself and this was how she looked when she wasn’t being a lawyer.
“Very funny. Sometimes I like to be casual,” she told him.
Maybe she liked being casual, but there was nothing casual about his reaction to her, Jackson thought.
The next moment he reminded himself that this was his lawyer. He wasn’t supposed to react to her on anything but a professional level. A casual, teasing flirtation was one thing, but this was something else. Something that he hadn’t felt in a very long time. Something that he really didn’t welcome.
“Most women over the age of fifteen wouldn’t venture out in public without any makeup,” he observed.
Yet there she was, fresh-faced and beautiful. She made him nostalgic for simpler times. Times when all he had to concern himself with was his own life and the future was wide open. And the threat of unbelievably gut-wrenching pain was not even a remote reality.
“This isn’t public,” Kate pointed out. “It’s private.”
She realized that her words could easily be misconstrued. If it had been Jonah on the receiving end, she was fairly certain he’d attempt to make the most of “private” and she might have even been forced to fight him off right now.
She flushed and murmured, “You know what I mean.”
Yes, he knew what she meant. Thank God one of them was grounded. Opening his jacket, Jackson took out the envelope he’d brought with him. The contents of the envelope—as well as wanting to personally thank her—was why he’d actually come here in the first place.
“Before I forget—” he handed the envelope to her “—I thought you might want this.”
Accepting the manila envelope, she looked down at it. It was thick and bulky. Kate raised her eyes to his.
“The papers for the original trust fund I take it?” she guessed.
Jackson nodded. “The very same.”
She appreciated the effort, but she hadn’t wanted him to go out of his way. The man was undoubtedly tired.
“You didn’t have to come over with them tonight,” Kate told him. Tired, she was in no shape to go over legal papers.
Jackson waved a dismissive hand at her protest. “It was the least I could do after you distracted Jonah for me.”
Kate smiled and lifted one slender shoulder in a shrug. “Oh, Jonah’s not so bad,” she told him.
While he appreciated the fact that she seemed to have identified the real Jonah, he needed her to understand that she still had to be careful around Jonah.
“Don’t let him know you think that.” Jackson was dead serious. He’d seen his older brother go through more than his share of women. Some had actually been decent. Others had been there strictly because of Jonah’s money. All had made him accustomed to getting his way. “Otherwise, he’ll be pledging his undying love to you within a week.”
“Don’t worry, that wasn’t a personal observation, that was strictly from a lawyer’s point of view,” she told Jackson, then, to reassure him, she added. “I’m not about to get involved with him, either.”
It was only after the word was out that Kate realized her slip. The look on Jackson’s face when their eyes met told her that he’d caught it, as well.
“‘Either’?” he questioned, his tone indicating interest.
Kate had always prided herself for being good at damage control. Now was no different. She rose to the occasion.
“Meaning I don’t get involved with any of my clients, not in that way.” This needed more explaining, she could tell. “I can be understanding. I can give you a shoulder to cry on, a hand to hold in trying times, a sympathetic ear to listen to your troubles.” And then she delivered the most important part of her statement. “But all my other body parts are strictly mine and not for lending out.”
He laughed then, amused, charmed and definitely intrigued. But then, if he was being honest with himself, he’d already been all of those things before he ever reached her doorstep. But he wasn’t at liberty to enjoy any of those sensations—because he remembered the other side of the coin and he was not about to open himself up to that—ever again.
“I think I’m going to give your mother a finder’s fee for bringing you to my attention.” She seemed puzzled and Jackson went on to say, “I have a very strong feeling that this is going to be one hell of an association, Katherine.”
The butterflies in her stomach that had suddenly and without warning risen up from their dormant state told her that she shared the same feeling.
In spades.
Which meant trouble.
Chapter Seven
“Can I offer you some coffee?” Kate asked, doing her best to sound nonchalant.
She had a sudden, urgent need to keep busy, to do something with her hands. This unsettling restlessness stirred up inside of her and she wasn’t quite sure how to handle it. She hoped that if she just kept busy until it went away, she’d be all right.
Coffee’s not what I’d like you to offer me.
The thought streaked across Jackson’s mind without preamble, surprising him as much as he rea
soned it would have surprised her, had he said the words out loud. But there was no way he could turn the thought into reality. Not with her.
Although he hadn’t exactly been a monk, Rachel’s death when he was in college had scarred him. The pain he’d gone through, losing her, wasn’t something he wanted to endure again. The easiest way to avoid pain was to avoid a real relationship. Which is what he did.
If things looked as if they might, even remotely, be taking a serious turn, he broke it off. It was as simple as that.
And right now, he had the uneasy feeling that what hummed between him and Kate could very easily become serious if he allowed himself to give in to the very primal urges ricocheting inside his body.
Besides, having any personal relationship with this woman might, by its very existence, taint the nature of the trust fund he was trying to have resurrected. At the very least, it would make for a hell of a tabloid story, one Jonah would bring to the news media’s attention in an effort to get what he felt was rightfully his.
But despite his resolve, Jackson still couldn’t help wondering what Kate’s body would feel like, pressed up against his. Not being able to scratch that itch just made him more aware of it.
The corners of Jackson’s mouth quirked into a quick, enigmatic smile. “No, but thanks for the offer. I should be going,” he explained. “I’ve already taken up too much of your time.”
She didn’t see it quite that way. He’d brought over the paperwork she’d requested. That in turn would help her get a jump start on Monday morning.
“Well, don’t feel bad about that,” she told him. “It’s part of the package. You have me on retainer, remember?”
Her reasoning amused him. “Does that mean I was getting charged by the hour when you came by to the office tonight?”
“I haven’t quite worked that out yet,” Kate told him, an easy smile on her lips. “I was initially coming there for these papers,” she pointed out, holding up the envelope he’d just given her. And then her smile reached her eyes. They crinkled. “Don’t worry, Jackson. I’m not that mercenary. Consider coming to your party a freebie.”
Fixed Up with Mr. Right? Page 7