“So she couldn’t convince him to move on?”
“Not after she caved in and slept with him a couple of times. Some men think it’s the way back into your life.” She shrugged. “I guess some women think so, too. Sex messes up a lot of people.” She dug out the cleaning supplies and looked at her.
“You take the back bedrooms and I’ll tackle Grandad’s suite today.”
“Good luck with that.” Kylie turned to leave. “No, wait. I’d like to do his suite. If that’s okay.”
“Sure. No problem.”
Holly found Marnie on the veranda, painting the chairs they’d discovered in the basement. “The red looks great. Kylie was right about the color. It warms the veranda and makes it cheery.”
Marnie sighed and wiped the back of her hand across her nose. “I hate to admit it, but she’s been right about a lot of things around here. She has an eye,” she admitted.
“I like her.”
Marnie made a face that soon dissolved into a begrudging grin. “So do I. She’s got a lot of guts to take her place here with us and demand to be heard. I guess she’s a Dawson even if her mother did try to hide behind a different name.”
“It’s not that I want to disappoint you, but being here has opened my eyes to a couple of things.”
“Like Deke?”
“Yes, but actually, it’s more than him. I was so wrong to continue seeing Jack. I should have moved on right away, but I held on out of fear.”
“Of being alone?”
“No, if I were afraid to be alone, I’d have stayed married. I was afraid of the possibilities. It’s a big world outside of a difficult marriage to a controlling man. I took small steps away from him, but now I’m ready to run into the future and part of that run is this place. I’m full of what ifs and wants and excitement for a different future from anything I ever imagined.”
Marnie’s face went from sympathetic to surprised to delighted. “You’re ready to fly?”
“Headlong into the future. I want to quit my job, give up my new apartment and give this place a shot. I want to learn if this thing with Deke has the power to hold me, if I can handle the pressure of running a business.”
“And when it fails?”
“You can’t be sure it will. But if we fail here, it won’t be because we didn’t try.”
Her cousin nodded and set her red-tinted brush down onto the paint tray. “Better to have tried and failed than never to have tried at all?”
“Something like that.” She couldn’t tell Marnie about the conversation with Jack and about seeing that car that looked so much like his. Marnie would tell TJ and word would get back to Deke right away. This was her problem and no one else’s.
In the spirit of moving headlong into her future, she kept her thoughts about Jack’s whereabouts to herself. If she got any inkling that he was going to cause a scene or otherwise interfere with her life, she’d deal with it then.
For now, Marnie had enough to think about. “Are you going to the city soon? You might want to take a couple days away from here for perspective.”
“You call dealing with Dennis getting perspective?” She snorted.
“Sure.”
She nodded. “I’ll finish these chairs, then give the jackass a call.”
“What about TJ?”
She laughed. “He’ll wait. The problem is, can I?”
Three days later TJ felt the ache of defeat. He’d tried like hell to get Marnie alone, but she was quick as a mink and either dashed away or had someone with her. The logs he’d traded for would soon be delivered, and once they got here, he’d be swamped with work.
Every night, he thought of her at the inn, bonding with her cousin, when what he wanted was her bonding with him. He’d never been so frustrated.
Celibacy was easier when there weren’t any interesting women. But now that every sense he had went on high alert whenever Marnie was within view, his lack of sex was killing him. Slowly, painfully killing him. He wanted to tear the woods apart, tree by tree.
The kiss on the rock had been explosive. A tease of the worst kind. And now, nothing. Made him grind his teeth.
He’d been pushed to his limits before the kiss, but now, he was way past reasonable. Not only was she avoiding being alone with him, she was looking at him whenever they were in the same room.
She looked at him with desire.
With invitation.
With lust, not caring who was with them. Deke laughed so hard he could barely work and Holly and Kylie gave him sympathetic glances but quickly ducked their heads when he glared back.
He hated this game. It had been good fun and hot, silent foreplay when he’d thought it would last twenty-four hours, but this was ridiculous. She was making him ridiculous.
Didn’t mean he could stop playing though, because as ridiculous as they were being, it would be worse to lose.
He stared at her bags on the floor by the front door and then raised his eyes to watch her descend the staircase.
She was dressed to kill. “You’re leaving?”
“Yes.”
He tried not to track the way she moved, like a cat on the hunt, but he couldn’t tear his eyes away. He crossed his arms over his chest and waited, hoping she’d pounce like the feline she was.
No go. She stopped at the foot of the stairs, one hand on the newel post. Her knuckles went white as she held on. Good, he wasn’t the only one on alert. He eased away from the front counter and stood straight. She stiffened, ready to run back up if he moved closer. “Right now?”
“I’ve got to get back to head off a disaster.” She looked hot enough to sear. A short tight skirt, long legs that ended in stilettoes. She wore her hair down and the tips brushed just below her shoulders. A wide-belted green blazer topped off her outfit and put the city stamp all over her. She was high fashion, high maintenance and he could almost taste her.
“I had plans for this weekend.” He spoke softly so she wouldn’t spook.
“Did you now?” Her knuckles tightened and he smiled his response. She loosened her grip.
“You know damn well I did. You’ve been staying here all week bonding with Kylie, when I wanted you at my place.”
“I’ve been happy here. Kylie and I have come to some agreement over the last couple of nights.”
“I don’t give a rat’s ass about—” He ground his back teeth to stop from giving her any ammunition.
The smile she gave him was pure come get it.
So he did.
In one step he had her in his arms, his mouth on hers, his hands cupping her ass and dragging her hips into his. He pressed his erection against her as he held her tight, felt the press of her pubic bone, the softness of her thighs. She sighed into his mouth and slipped her tongue along the length of his in a drag race they could both win if she’d only allow it.
He’d planned to get her into his bed come hell or high water and not let her out until they were both drained. From sundown Friday to sunrise Monday, he’d wanted to be buried in her, awash in Marnie.
Instead, he was kissing her good-bye. Fuck! Life went to shit sometimes.
He broke into a sweat as she coaxed him for more. He tore his mouth from hers. “Don’t leave.” He held himself rigidly away from her.
“If I don’t go, I’ll lose everything. This time, my partner has messed up so bad I’m not sure I can fix it.”
“I had plans for this weekend.”
“You won’t believe me, but so did I.”
He growled. Sounded like an asshole, but he couldn’t help it. She was tearing him apart.
“It’s not as bad as all that, is it? I’ll be back as soon as I can. The bedrooms will be well on their way to done. We’ll be ahead of schedule.”
“Which means you’ll be gone permanently all that much sooner.”
She jerked. “Now, now, that sounds as if you—”
“Want you to stay?” No woman had ever frustrated him on so many levels all at once. He hadn’t eve
n slept with her yet and here he was…wanting. More than she offered, more than they’d shared, more than he’d ever wanted before.
She stepped back. “Maybe. Do you?”
“How could I want you to stay? We haven’t done anything more than kiss.” What the hell did he want?
“That’s right. Nobody makes decisions based on a kiss.”
Kylie and Holly walked in, with Deke trailing. He wanted to wipe the smirk off his brother’s face. Instead, he set her away and nodded. “I’ll see you when I see you, then. Good luck.”
Kylie gave her a tight hug and a warm smile to see her off. “I’ll have all the bed frames put together and the headboards stained by the time you get back. And I’ll start sewing the curtains for the bedrooms, too. You’ll see. They’ll be lovely.”
Marnie hugged her cousin back, then smiled for the group before Deke grabbed her bags and escorted her to her tiny car.
Each of the women had brought special skills to the inn. Marnie knew business, Holly had a decorating and cooking flair, while Kylie knew her way around handiwork, including sewing, painting and some renovation work.
The three of them made a great team. He wondered if Marnie saw it or if she was too focused on the club to realize she had a shot at making the inn viable.
Holly was next with a breezy wave and easygoing wish for a safe drive back to the city. She closed the door and spun to glare at him. “You need to do something, TJ. She’s stubborn to a fault. And she won’t give up on that loser partner of hers until it’s too late.”
“That’s my choice? Convince her to walk away from the business she’s built? The life she loves?” No one with half a brain made decisions on the strength of one kiss.
No one.
He growled again and stormed out the door after her. He watched as the bumblebee she called a car disappeared in a cloud of dust. He stopped with his hand on his truck door. Chasing her when he had work to do. Pathetic bastard.
“Deke!” He strode around the building, furious with himself. If he got the cabins built, Marnie would see the potential in the redeveloped inn and change her mind about leaving.
Now that would be a big enough thing on which to base a life-changing decision: potential, and the inn oozed it, especially with these three women running the place.
But unless she saw it herself, it was a stupid plan. If she left the city because of him, she may grow to resent the way he’d forced her hand.
His body thrummed with disappointment when he thought of another whole weekend without easing himself into her. But the cabins wouldn’t build themselves, and with Eli still not home, it wasn’t fair to dump the load on Deke.
He caught sight of his brother and hollered again. “Where the hell is Eli? And why isn’t he home yet?”
“What’s been shoved up your ass and got your guts in a snarl?” Then he laughed. “Oh. Never mind.”
“Fuck off.” He strode past his smirking brother and headed out for the pond. As soon as he hit the water’s edge, he knelt and stuck his head in deep, letting the icy water shock him nearly senseless. For a second there, all he wanted to do was float downstream to the ocean.
Maybe he’d be swept over the strait and into Canadian waters.
But he’d still have this hard-on and he’d still want that exasperating woman. He rose straight up out of the water with a huge gasp and shook off droplets like a dog. He wanted to howl.
Another whole weekend.
Nope. Couldn’t do it.
Marnie pulled into her reserved spot behind the club, edgy and out of sorts. “Please,” she muttered, as she climbed the back stairs to her office, “don’t let me find another threesome.” If she saw anyone getting laid and it wasn’t her, she’d scream.
Nothing this week had been harder than walking away from TJ O’Banion. That kiss at the pond had fed her dreams every night since it happened. Damn this club and damn Dennis even more. She should be at TJ’s place right now. This was an idiotic game of frustration she’d started. What kind of moron pushed a man to his limits when they wanted the same thing? But once she’d teased him and he’d teased back, her competitive side had come to the fore.
Damn her Dawson bullheadedness. Why couldn’t she have just slept with the man when he made it clear he wanted her? What was the big deal?
But the wiser side of her head said that sleeping with TJ O’Banion would change her life and not for the better. Once she had a taste of him, she might not be able to let go.
She had to remember her priorities. She’d be a fool to get involved with TJ. Sex with the man would bind them in ways too deep. He wasn’t the kind of man to keep things light.
Leaving him was the right thing to do for herself. And likely for him, too. He didn’t need a fling with a woman determined to leave him behind.
At the top of the stairs she held her breath and opened the office door. No Dennis. No threesome. The lights were on, but the security monitors were blank. “Great. What now?”
She couldn’t find an obvious reason for the monitors not to work, so she called her security company and sicced them on the problem. Was a simple phone call too much for Dennis to handle? He knew how important security was in a club.
She headed downstairs and threaded her way through the Friday after-work crowd. She found him at his favorite table on the back wall nursing a bottle and a shot. “You’re back,” he said and downed his glass. “Good thing.”
She slid in beside him on the banquette and watched the customers, rowdy after work and ready to party. They’d be busy tonight, and they were short staffed.
Thanks to Dennis. “You assaulted our new bartender?”
“Grabbed her tit, that’s all.” He shrugged.
“You admit it?” She sagged into the banquette and waved away the bottle when he offered it. Overload.
“Well, she shouldn’t wave them in a guy’s face.”
She wanted to slap him, but no matter how much power she put into it, she didn’t have the strength to kill him with one blow.
Pity. But maybe a quick death was too merciful.
Besides, if she started slugging him, she might not stop. The idea gained merit as she watched his put-upon expression. He really believed this was the bartender’s fault.
“Damn, I wish I could remember her name, but I’m too angry with you to remember my own.” She unclenched her hands and let them rest flat on the table.
“Why blame me? She’s the one who came into the office in a low-cut top and smiled like she wanted it.”
She held on to her composure, afraid not to. “She’s new. It was her first week.” She enunciated every word to try to get the lummox to hear her. “She wanted you to like her. You know, Dennis, like a person. She wore the top to encourage tipping and she smiled like a regular human being.” She couldn’t resist a moment longer. She smacked his shoulder. He didn’t even grunt, the slimy bastard.
An image of TJ by the water wafted through her mind. He wanted her and even with her teasing him, he would never try to force his advantage. TJ would never treat women the way Dennis did. He’d never intimidate a woman, or flat out grab what he wanted. She was proof positive. She’d flirted and challenged and tantalized him, then left him high and dry. He hadn’t been nasty or snide.
He must be furious that she left him. Maybe she should have invited him here. But if he were here, she wouldn’t be able to focus on anything but TJ. He was a distraction she couldn’t afford.
Right now, rather than dream about what she’d like to do with TJ all weekend, she needed to fix this mess Dennis had created with his grabby hands and cheesy expression. She smacked him again for good measure. His tequila slopped out of his shot glass. “Clean that up,” she snarled as she left him. “And you’re tending bar.” She took the bottle and handed it off to Jeff, promising him a bonus for the extra load he had tonight. “Make sure Dennis helps you.” She couldn’t believe she’d been forced to include Jeff in this spat.
She waited until Jeff
nodded at her and Dennis slouched his way over. She wanted to tell him to grow the fuck up, but that was not the way to handle a man-child. Dennis would pout and dig in his heels. Jeff controlled his expression, but laughter lurked under his control. Damn.
It had been wrong to let Jeff know she was furious with the other owner. But clearly, the entire staff knew about this mess and were waiting to see how it played out.
After all, if she screwed up with this, they could be out of their jobs.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” she promised Jeff. She shouldn’t have argued with Dennis in front of the staff, but damn, it felt good to let off some steam.
She stalked through the gathering groups of people. Tables were filling fast. She had a couple of part-timers she could call in a pinch.
After that, she’d call Tisha for an appointment to see her. Tisha. Yes, that was the bartender’s name. How stressed was she that she’d forgotten?
Maybe she could make this go away before Tisha found a lawyer and sued them right out of the club. But at this point, it would almost be a relief.
She found Tisha’s personnel file, called and left a message. Then and only then, Marnie sank into her chair. Tired of putting out Dennis’s fires, she missed the mindlessness of cleaning and sorting. The work at the inn had been physically demanding but mentally freeing. While she’d scrubbed and wiped and vacuumed and polished, she’d had time to ponder and to dream. Her grandfather had forced her, Holly and Kylie to work together. After the initial disagreement and disappointment with Holly, Marnie had come to understand that something was going on in her cousin’s life that no one knew about. Whatever it was, Holly seemed determined to handle it herself.
If she needed to stay on the Peninsula for a few months to get things sorted out, then so be it. Not everyone’s life was as straightforward as Marnie’s.
The mindless work had given her mind time to roam. It had been far too long since she’d been able to do any free thinking and she missed it. She got her best, most innovative ideas when she let her mind wander, open and free. That’s when possibilities walked in and grew into solid ideas.
The other day at the inn, she’d been waxing the wood door-frames and the lemony scent of the polishing cloth and rhythmic movement of her arm had opened her mind to the resort idea again.
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