A_Little_Harmless_Fascination

by Melissa Schroeder

  “Really?”

  “If you don’t come with me, I will call Maura and tell her I’m worried about you.”

  He gave her one of his long-considering looks. “That’s mean of you.”

  “I never said I was nice. It’s a mistake that many men have made before you. Meet you down at the jeep in five.”

  She didn’t wait for an answer. Once she got to the jeep, she unlocked it and slipped in, waiting for him. It had been tough to ignore him up there the last few days, but she had. He had gone out a couple of times, asked for directions, but she hadn’t been invited. Nor had she invited herself. They had some strangeness between them after the scene on the beach, and she guessed they both had needed space.

  When she had talked to Adam about it, he had asked if they were sleeping together. And, she thought back, he had said they would. Soon. Until she’d talked to Adam, she had thought the attraction was one-sided. Apparently she had been wrong.

  The door opened, and Conner got in, still frowning.

  “Get over it.”

  He gave her a surprised glance. “No, my sister called. Seems like that Rory character is causing some issues.”

  “Oh, Rory. He’s Zeke’s friend, right?”

  “Not sure. Just, the way she talks about him…like there is something bothering her.”

  “Yeah, two hot Irish guys—that would bother me, too.”

  She pulled out on Kam Highway and wondered if he really did see Maura as a little girl still. She glanced in his direction and noticed the confused expression.

  “You do know she is a grown-up, right?”

  “Shut up. You don’t have an older brother. Thinking about my sister wanting a guy—”

  “Or guys.”

  When he said nothing, she glanced at him again. He’d closed his eyes. “Ugh. I don’t even want to think about that. My sister is still fifteen years old in my heart.”

  Oh no. What woman could resist a guy who said things like that?

  “She’s lucky to have you.”

  She knew her voice sounded thick. She could feel him study her, but she didn’t want to look at him. Through years of living with the most fucked-up family in Georgia, she’d learned to hide emotion. She didn’t like anyone to see her weakness.

  “So, you think I need to go to this swamp meet?”

  She snorted. “Swap meet, and yes. You need to get your sister something there. And, there’s Lin’s Market, Tom Lin, and Hawaiian Ice. You cannot beat that, bruddah.”

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  She hit the gas to speed around a minivan full of kids. “And you like those?”

  “I’m better with rules than without.”

  “And that’s why you’re a Dom.”

  Again, she felt his study. “How did you know?”

  “I write erotic romance, Con. Seriously, did you think I wouldn’t pick up on it?”

  He shifted in his seat. “I’m not used to people knowing about that part of my life.”

  “You are a practicing Dom, right?”

  “First, I don’t have to practice at anything.” His sardonic tone made her laugh.

  “Okay. But, you are a Dom. I didn’t read that wrong.”

  “No. I just haven’t had the time to get to a club lately.”

  “Work has interfered with more than just the typical social part of your life, huh?”

  He didn’t say anything for a moment. Jillian glanced at him and noticed he was studying the fog hanging around the mountains. He was flexing his jaw as if he was grinding his teeth. Did she push him too far? She had a habit of that with men. More than once she had stepped over the line of what she should ask them. Or what they thought she should ask them. It was a problem she had lived with all her life. Her grandmother had always said she asked too many questions. Problem was that her parents had encouraged it. Her father had constantly marveled at her curiosity and said that it showed she was brilliant.

  "That has been a problem."

  For a second, she didn't know he was talking to her.

  "I can see that it would be. Something like that takes trust, and you have to build the relationship."

  She sensed he shook his head as they went through the darkness of the first tunnel through the mountains.

  "Not really. If you’re a regular member of a club, you can easily find a sub for the night. There are people who have no problem hooking up for play for a while."

  "That's not you though, Conner."

  As soon as she said it, she knew it to be the truth. He wasn't a man who would want a sub for the night. He would want a woman completely and absolutely involved, one who submitted only to him.

  Heat threaded through her veins as they hit sunlight again. Damn, the man was too tempting to resist. Almost.

  "Yeah, not my thing. When I was younger, yes. At my advanced age, though, I find it tiring hitting the clubs."

  "You are not old."

  He chuckled. "My sister and my doctor disagree with you. But, I would say that I’m not old, and definitely not settled. Just—the club scene is not what I want. I’m sure a lot of people my age think the same way."

  "And some of them don't. Some of them will always hit the clubs."

  "Yeah, I guess. But then, different strokes and all that."

  "I would have never known you to be so laid-back."

  "Shit," he said when the full sun hit them. He pulled down his sunglasses. "Sort of hits you without warning."

  She laughed. "Yeah it does."

  "Back to that, I am laid-back as long as someone isn't breaking the law and isn't involved in my life. I don't think I want to know what goes on in most bedrooms. Live and let live."

  "Wow, that's...different than I expected."

  She sensed his amusement and looked over at him. He was smiling at her. The sun was picking up the silvery threads that wove through his hair. Why did she find that attractive?

  "Yeah, but then you don't know me that well. You know me through Maura, and I feel differently—or did—about what she should be doing. I had to raise her and make sure she didn't do something stupid."

  "Have you ever known her to do something stupid?"

  Then, as soon as she asked the question, they both started laughing. "Okay, yeah, she is kind of goofy.”

  “And she was naïve, especially when she got to Georgia.”

  “She was, but she was focused. At the time, she liked guys, but she just didn’t have time for them. Didn’t want to make the time for them.”

  “Well, she had you. And you looked out for her.”

  She pulled into the Aloha Stadium and into the shortest line to pay for parking. “Not any more than any other person would have.”

  After giving the woman her two bucks, she drove around to the other side of the stadium and parked. When she turned off the car, she realized he was staring at her.

  “What?”

  “Not everyone would have done what you did. A lot of people would have let her make some really stupid mistakes, but you didn’t.”

  She brushed that away. “Naw, she would have been fine.”

  He shook his head, not breaking eye contact with her. “No. She might have, but she also would have made some really stupid mistakes. You saved her from that. It was much easier to do my job knowing she was living with you.”

  Something warm unfurled in her chest then spread to the rest of her body. She swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat. Feeling giddy because of a simple compliment was just silly, but she couldn’t help it. She valued Conner’s opinion on things, mainly because she respected him. Not many men would have done what he did with his sister, but a good man did. Conner was definitely a good man.

  Before she could think better of it, she leaned across and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

  “Thanks.”

  He looked a bit stunned by the gesture, and she started to feel like an idiot. He just kept staring at her. She pushed the feelings aside and decided that they both needed spa
ce.

  “Come on. Let’s go spend some of your money.”

  He hesitated, then nodded and got out of the car. She drew in a deep breath, released it, and then grabbed her purse.

  She would be better with the activity around them and a cup of Kona. Maybe, just maybe, she could forget the weirdness of the situation and move on.

  Brushing away her worries, she smiled at him. “Let’s go.”

  Chapter Four

  Conner watched Jillian haggle over the price of a beach towel with a vendor with a new appreciation. It was a skill he would have never guessed she had. He knew with her money she really didn’t have to worry about the price. She lived comfortably, but apparently she liked to argue. As he watched her settle her hands on her hips, he realized she liked to argue a lot.

  He normally didn’t like women who argued. Women with a backbone—that was another matter. In fact, he didn’t like the “wilting willow” type. He liked women who were strong and independent. Arguing for the sake of arguing wasn’t his thing. With Jillian, he didn’t seem to mind. In fact, the few times they’d argued over things, he’d found it stimulating. The idea of an argument actually had his arousal humming.

  When she finished, she walked over to him with a bright smile on her face. “I love winning.”

  “You saved a dollar,” he pointed out.

  She shrugged. “I still won.”

  He laughed and followed her along as she made her way through the collection of tents that made up the swap meet. It had looked more like a scene from M*A*S*H when they had first driven up. Tents wrapped around the parking lot of the stadium several rows deep. But when they had walked into the middle of them, the place had come alive. Jillian had been right. A person could find just about anything they wanted in these tents. Purses, towels, kitchen items, suitcases, toys—and holy lord—shirts. There were more shirts than a person should see in a lifetime. It was a tourist’s wet dream come to life.

  "So, you bring all your tenants here to shop?"

  She worked her way around a couple pushing a buggy.

  "No, but then I have locals a lot of times. Or military guys. I do tend to get them up there because I am so close to Kaneohe, but also a little ways away. I guess a break from work every now and then is good. And I will do weeks, so I get military families coming or going."

  "You have a lot of contact with the military?"

  "Hard not to on the island, but yeah, I like to rent to them. Rarely is anything damaged and they pay on time. If anything goes wrong, I can always go to the military and get compensated to a point."

  Sensible. Another contradiction. Just when he thought he might have her figured out, she changed and went off in another direction. She stopped at a tent with table after table of food.

  "This is Lin's. I have to come here at least once a month to get some pineapple crack."

  She beelined her way to an area in front of the cash register. From what he could tell, all the locals knew her, and this tent was no different. She picked through the bags and found one she liked. He looked over the food and found the strangest combination of Asian food he had ever found in one place. He had done time overseas, so he knew how to eat like a local, but it was just odd to find it all in one tent.

  She went up to the counter with a big bag of what looked like salt, and a bag of what looked like diced pineapple.

  "Morning, Jillian, how are you doing?"

  "Pretty good. Showing a haole the way around the swap meet. It's his first time."

  "And of course you bring him here," the older man said with a smile as he glanced at Conner. “Aloha.”

  “Aloha,” he said, still feeling weird using a word that seemed foreign to him. He had seen movies where they had used it, but it was odd to use it in his everyday conversation.

  "A trip to the swap meet isn't complete without a stop by Lin's. At least, not for me."

  “That’s because you are akamai.”

  “That I am,” Jillian said with a smile. She paid for the items and then they walked out of the tent. “A hui hou.”

  “What did he call you?” Conner asked.

  She flashed him a smile. “Smart. And then the a hui hou is sort of like ‘see you later.’”

  He nodded as she handed him the bag that had the salt in it. "The salt is for your sister. Although, she could easily order it online."

  "You really are like a local."

  Jillian shook her head. “Don’t let them hear you say that. I’m still a haole like you.”

  “You’ve lived here for years.”

  She shrugged. "I came here a few years ago because Maura wouldn’t shut up about it. Family was starting to get on my nerves, and I just didn’t have the patience to deal with them anymore. So, I took a break. Then I fell in love. It was the first place in years where I have fit in, where when I said home, it felt right."

  He knew what she was talking about. Or he thought he did. Many would look at her life and say she was lucky. The daughter of parents who loved her, and when the worst thing that could have happened did, she found herself living with rich family members. But he knew better. He knew that she had been taken on as the child that no one wanted, and while they had raised her, he knew from her comments that she hadn’t had a great teenage experience. They were not only strange, but they were not welcoming. Apparently, she found her place to live.

  They stopped at a food stand and she ordered them both some coffee. While she was paying for their drinks, it hit him that he didn’t consider Miami home. Not really home. Sure, Maura made it more so, but there was that connection he had been missing since he left home for college. Almost forty and he still hadn’t found it.

  “How about a tattoo?” she asked, pulling him out of his thoughts.

  He choked on the drink of coffee he’d just taken. The warm liquid shot up his nose, and he winced. She handed him a napkin.

  "What?" he asked.

  She smiled and nodded to a tent on the other side of him.

  "It's just henna. Don't look scared."

  "I'm not scared. I'm just not into tattoos on me."

  She pulled her glasses down on her nose so she could look over the top of them. "What about on other people?"

  He could tell from the sparkle in her eyes that she was fucking with him. He looked down her arms at a sleeve of tattoos that must have taken hours to get. "Depends on the person. I especially like yours."

  "Really?"

  "Yeah. That and your belly-button ring."

  Her lips curved as she pushed the glasses back up and turned to walk away. The woman moved like a freaking temptress. He knew it was innate to her, like breathing. She didn’t do it on purpose. That didn’t mean he could ignore it. His hands itched to touch, to tease, to spank. That full ass swinging in her barely-there shorts...he was sure the lack of blood in his brain wasn't good for his health.

  He caught up to her. "So, is your belly the only place you're pierced?"

  "Wouldn't you like to know?"

  He slipped his hand around her upper arm and gently tugged her to the side of a tent at the end of one of the rows, out of the pedestrian traffic. It was heating up, the air stifled by the arrangements of the vendors, and the humidity was rising by the minute. The scent of her filled his senses.

  "Yeah, I kind of do want to know where else you're pierced."

  She smiled up at him, and he could tell she was going to brush him off. The Dom in him was already beating his way out. He had lain dormant for months, but with Jillian around, those dominant tendencies were surfacing again.

  She patted his cheek. "I only share that with intimate friends."

  Jillian turned to leave, but he grabbed her arm again.

  "Don't mess with me, Jillian. I don't like it, not that way."

  Her eyes narrowed as she looked down at his hand on her upper arm.

  "If you're not interested, just say ‘leave me the fuck alone, Conner.’"

  He waited, holding his breath. He hadn't meant to
challenge her, hadn't known this was so important right now. It was. More than he had ever expected, it was beyond that now. Why this woman, right now, he had no idea. But the need he had building in him was starting to take over any sane thought he had. He knew right now if he didn’t have her soon, there was a good chance he might just go a little insane. If she said to fuck off, he would be screwed.

  When she didn’t say anything, Conner let loose the breath and nodded. "Good, then we understand each other. Just know that when I ask you that question again, I will expect an answer."

  With that he released her, waited for her to walk, and then followed her into the path of the shoppers again.

  She didn’t say anything for a few minutes as they strolled through another set of tents. Then she said, “That wasn’t an invitation.”

  “What?” he asked, knowing just what she meant.

  “Just because I didn’t say it, it wasn’t an invitation.”

  “Understood. Just as long as you know that from now on out, I believe I have every right to work on getting that invitation.”

  She stopped and looked up at him. She hid her eyes behind those sunglasses, and it was still bothering him. With Jillian, he always felt he was missing something she was hiding. Not on purpose, not really. But he had a feeling she had spent a lot of her time hiding a lot of things from most people.

  “Pretty cocky, aren’t you?” she asked with humor threading her voice.

  He smiled. “What can I say? You bring it out in me.”

  She groaned. “Oh, that was bad.”

  “You gave me the setup, so you can blame yourself.”

  “I might have, but it doesn’t mean you needed to go there.” She opened the bag of pineapple bites. “Here, take one.”

  He did and instantly knew why she called them pineapple crack. Sweet, tart, and as soon as he finished that one, he needed another. He grabbed a few more as they started to walk again.

  “That should be illegal,” he said. “I think if I had those every day, I might gain fifty pounds in a week.”

  She laughed, and the sound of it had his heart doing more than a little two-step. She never giggled or muffled her happiness. It was always out there for you to hear…and see. “Yeah, I told you, crack. What are you going to buy Maura?”