Mr. Irresistible

by Karina Bliss

  With a last chuckle he looked at her, his eyes gleaming. “I guess you have a point. I’m normally quite good at this.”

  “I’ll add ‘Casanova’ to the list—after ‘intimidating thug.’”

  “Let me start again,” he said quietly. “I trusted a woman I shouldn’t have. But it was a mistake and I’m gutted by the impact on her family, which is why I haven’t compounded their misery by publicly calling their mother a liar.” He took a purposeful step closer. “Anything else?”

  Kate struggled to return some sanity to the conversation. “You hardly know me.”

  “Not yet,” admitted Jordan. “But I want to know you. Very well.”

  “You want to sleep with me, you mean.” The man was insufferable.

  His gaze swept over her like a blue searchlight. “Hell, yes.”

  She blushed, despite herself. “Are you always this direct?”

  “When my instincts are this strong.”

  “Dogs follow their instincts. Sensible people temper instinct with reason.”

  “Sensible people tend to focus on reasons not to do things, which leads to very boring lives. Do you lead a boring life, Kate?”

  She slipped back into the concealing shadows. “That’s beside the point. I’m not attracted to you.”

  “You know, I’m getting pretty sick of you denying it.” He reached for her and pulled her close, and she wondered how she’d ever misread any expression of Jordan’s as guileless. She dragged herself away from him, appalled at the heated charge she felt at his touch.

  “Electric, isn’t it?” he said. “Makes you wonder what it would be like if we did this.” Strong arms closed around her, and his mouth took hers in a scorching kiss. Kate’s heart pounded until she was deaf to everything but its frantic beat. She opened her mouth to him, unable to resist.

  Other senses kicked in. The smell of him, healthy male mixed with citrus. The feel of him, hard muscle beneath his silk shirt, his long hair touching her bare shoulders.

  And, dear heaven, the taste of him, and the way he moved his mouth against hers. She had never felt lust like this. It was wonderful.

  It was horrible.

  Kate wrenched away and, breathless, stumbled to the stone balustrade for support. Other sounds reasserted themselves—the bass beat of the music, the distant clink of glasses and chatter of conversation.

  How could she have so forgotten herself here? Anyone could have seen them. Peter included.

  She spun around and glared at Jordan. That she should be reduced to acting like some cheap slut in public, and by such a man…!

  In the moonlight, his white shirt glimmered as she watched him struggle to bring his breathing under control. Kate couldn’t read his expression.

  “Come home with me.”

  She steeled herself against the husky invitation. “This is yet another attempt to stop me from writing about the camp, isn’t it?”

  It was the wrong thing to say. He stiffened and moved back into the light, where she could see him clearly. “You’re right,” he said coolly, “we do need to get to know each other better first. I could threaten your boyfriend’s job, I could scare you with lawyers, I could pull Triton’s advertising from the paper if you connect me with the camp again…. Yes, I’ve thought of—”

  “You can’t intimidate me.” She turned to go, determined not to let him see how badly he’d unsettled her.

  “But I’m not going to do any of that, Kate, because I believe in your integrity, and I know when you’ve calmed down you’ll give me the benefit of the doubt.”

  She slammed the glass door behind her and walked to the bar on shaky legs. Peter dropped an arm lightly around her waist and kept talking to his boss, Brian, about rewriting software to take into account changes in taxation law. When Jordan came inside, Kate moved closer to Peter, anchoring herself to his solid familiarity.

  Across the room, Jordan smiled.

  “Are you okay?”

  Kate loosened her grip on Peter’s arm and nodded, watching Jordan leave. With a sigh, she turned to her boyfriend. “I’m a little tired.” And she was. Suddenly exhausted.

  He massaged her neck, knowing exactly where the sore spot was. “I should take my girl home,” he said to Brian, and his habitual devotion nearly made Kate weep.

  “When are you two setting a date?” Brian had been asking the same question for three years, about as long as Peter had.

  “No time like the present,” Kate heard herself say.

  Peter stared at her. “Are you serious?”

  She took a deep breath. “Yes. Let’s get married and live happily ever after.”

  Delighted, he leaned forward and kissed her, then pulled back in surprise at her passionate response. “Whoa there, Brian’s got a pacemaker.”

  “Never mind that,” said his boss, “let’s get the champagne in.”

  Kate buried her face in Peter’s shoulder and closed her eyes. The kiss had been nice, familiar and comforting.

  She was safe.

  “DIDN’T YOU SAY you’d dealt with this, Jord?” Luke strode into Jordan’s kitchen and threw the newspaper on the table. One look at his weary partner and Jordan headed to the fridge, handed Luke a medicinal beer, then gestured to a stool at the island counter.

  “Sit down. You look beat.” He went back to turning steaks in the marinade. “How’s life in Beacon Bay?”

  “Insular.” Luke drained half the can before he spoke again. “I’m still getting a hard time from the council, and we can’t find enough tradesmen, so I’ve been helping out at the building site.”

  He held out his hands, blistered and callused. Jordan cast them a cursory glance, more intent on scrutinizing his friend’s face. The terrible bleakness that had marked it since his divorce had disappeared.

  Satisfied, he reached for his own beer. “You’re a goddamn wimp, Carter.”

  “As opposed to having a future in shampoo commercials?” Luke gestured to the newspaper. “No direct references to Camp Chance, but Ms. Brogan’s second character assassination—hilarious though it is—still doesn’t reflect well on a trustee of a kids’ camp. And we need credibility with the locals—” Luke stopped abruptly. “What is that bloody noise…a cat?”

  “Yet another reason why Christian and Kez should have made me godfather of that baby and not you. At least I recognize the species.”

  “They wanted a role model for their daughter, not a partner in crime,” retorted Luke. He crossed to the ranch slider and opened it. The two men winced as the thin howl gathered volume.

  “Kezia’s out buying colic powder,” Jordan explained.

  The crying grew louder as Christian came into sight, dark hair disheveled, blue eyes desperate. Tiny feet sticking out from the pink bundle against his shoulder pummeled his ribs.

  “I’ve run out of options.”

  “Give her to me.” Awkwardly, Luke took the baby and started jiggling her, using muscles that had once powered him to swimming glory. The baby’s cries petered out to surprised hiccups. Luke grinned at Jordan. “Who’s the perfect godfather now? Huh? Huh?”

  Hiding a smirk, Jordan gathered lettuce, cucumber and tomatoes and started making a salad.

  Christian raked a hand through his tousled hair, making it worse, and retrieved his soda, sitting neglected on the bench. “Okay, where were we? Oh yeah, working out what to do about Kate Brogan.”

  Jordan picked up his beer, took a reflective sip. He still couldn’t believe how badly he’d mishandled the situation, but Kate’s ‘I don’t fancy you’ bullshit had provoked him to prove otherwise. “The fiery, feisty, infuriating and fabulous Kate Brogan.”

  Christian choked on his soda. “Don’t tell me you’ve got the hots for the enemy?”

  Picking up a knife, Jordan quartered a tomato with deft strokes. “Don’t panic, she thinks I’m an immoral, arrogant, lunatic.”

  “Two out of three ain’t bad.” Luke stopped jiggling the hiccuping baby. “I assume your arrogance stopped you f
rom clarifying the third?”

  “Actually, I tried, but her disapproval extends beyond Penny to my lifestyle.” Jordan savored another sip of beer. “Still, I’ve never liked the pursuit to be too easy.”

  “You and your bloody challenges,” complained Luke. “The camp’s too important to…oh, crap!” Little Maddie had puked on her godfather’s black T-shirt.

  “Actually, that’s the other end,” Jordan said helpfully, but Luke didn’t hear because Maddie had started to wail again. For a minute or two there was chaos while he and Christian attempted to mop up.

  Slicing through the cucumber, Jordan started humming.

  Sheepishly, Luke gave the disgruntled baby back to Christian, who returned to pacing. “Yeah, darling,” he crooned, “tell Daddy all about how stupid Uncle Jordan thinks with his—”

  “I’m back.” Kezia dropped the shopping bags. “Oh honey, you have worked yourself up, haven’t you?”

  “Yeah, I have,” said Christian. He kissed his wife, relinquished the howling baby and turned back to Jordan. “Listen, muttonhead, this project is too important to jeopardize on the first woman who doesn’t find you irresistible.”

  Patting the whimpering infant’s back, Kezia turned toward them, her expressive brown eyes wide. “This sounds serious.”

  Ignoring the snorts from his two friends, Jordan saluted her. “At last, someone who gets it.”

  “The day you settle down is the day I’m your chief bridesmaid,” Christian said.

  Jordan frowned. “Not that serious.”

  Kezia went into the kitchen and, with easy familiarity, found a teaspoon and gave Maddie her medicine. Only half joking, she asked, “Could she be ‘the one,’ Jord?”

  Only half serious, he answered, “That depends—”

  “On whether she puts out,” Luke murmured, and he and Christian laughed.

  Jordan turned his back on them and spoke to Kezia. “We have a couple of…issues, I think you women call it, to work through.”

  “She hates him,” Christian explained.

  “She thinks he makes a habit of seducing married women,” Luke added.

  Trying not to laugh, Kezia handed Maddie back to her father. “Stop exaggerating.”

  Jordan crumbled some feta into the salad. “And then there’s the boyfriend.”

  “Oh,” said Kezia faintly.

  “So, yes,” he admitted expansively, picking up the knife and a bunch of basil, “a few issues.”

  “Here’s another one.” Luke grabbed the discarded newspaper and thumbed to the classifieds. He shoved the engagement section under Jordan’s nose. Peter Walker and Kate Brogan are delighted to announce…

  “Son of a bitch.” Jordan dropped the knife in the sink and stuck his finger under the running water, watching his blood swirl down the plug hole.

  “This is serious, isn’t it?” Luke asked in awe.

  “Nothing a plaster won’t fix.” Grabbing a paper towel, Jordan wrapped his finger, then turned to see Christian standing next to an old-fashioned pistol wall mounted behind glass. His friend reached for the little steel hammer beneath the inscription, In case of emergency, break glass. “Don’t even think about it,” Jordan growled.

  “‘If a woman ever reduces me to your state, shoot me,’” Christian quoted. Jordan had said that a year earlier, when Christian had been in emotional meltdown over Kezia. He and Luke still argued over which of them got to pull the trigger when the time came.

  “I’ll never be as pathetic as you were.” Jordan looped his arm around Kezia. “Have I told you how pathetic he was?”

  “Many times.” She smiled across the room at her husband. “But I never get tired of hearing it.”

  “You’ll keep, wife.” Christian’s gaze was full of lazy promise. Maddie started to cry again.

  While her parents attended to her, Luke turned to Jordan. “So back to this column…What now, hotshot?”

  “Did she mention the camp? No.” Jordan tossed the offending newspaper in the trash. “Problem solved.” His mind was still on the engagement. He should have told Kate about how Peter had spoken about her writing; she would never have tied herself to such a loser. “For Pete’s sake, give me that baby.”

  He took Maddie and turned her so that her little belly pressed against his palm. With the other hand, he rhythmically patted her back as he started a circuit around the dining room table. He was the oldest of a large family, and two of his sisters had kids. But babies were his favorite.

  Gently, he kissed Maddie’s flushed cheek. “Luke, go grill the steaks on the barbecue. Christian, make the dressing for the salad. Kez, pour yourself a glass of wine and put your feet up.”

  Recognizing an expert, Maddie stopped crying and, with a tremulous sigh, closed her eyes. Jordan swung around the curve of the table and started back. All three adults were staring at him.

  “Amateurs,” he confided to Maddie.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  “I WANT YOU TO APOLOGIZE to Jordan King.”

  Looking at Peter’s set face across the café’s Formica table, Kate’s heart sank. Although she’d known Peter would be unhappy when he read her second Jordan King column.

  She pushed away her croissant and gave him an abridged version of the skirmish at the party, leaving out the kiss. “I can’t let him think he’s intimidated me. Surely you can see that?”

  “What I see is a woman whose ego is threatening my career.” Peter ran a hand through his hair, unwittingly teasing it into spikes. Everything about him bristled with disapproval.

  “How can you suggest I write that column for personal glory? It allows me to make a positive contribution to society.”

  “By attacking the man whose money will pay for our wedding and our house? It took me two years to win Triton over. I won’t give that up for anything…or anyone.”

  Kate tried to get her bearings. “Please be on my side, Peter.”

  “Of course I’m on your side—” he took her hand and she sagged with relief “—when you behave sensibly. Obviously, you can’t admit your mistake in print, but you can apologize in person.”

  Kate withdrew her hand. “Does my integrity mean nothing to you?”

  “Does my job mean nothing to you? You know the only reason Brian’s considering letting me buy into his company is because I secured the Triton deal.” Her upset must have shown on her face, because he softened his tone. “What’s going on, Kate? You used to be able to compromise.”

  She wanted to tell him everything, but then her fiancé would confront Jordan and that would definitely jeopardize his contract. “I’m still the same person, Pete,” she said, but the words rang hollow.

  “I need more coffee.” A few feet away, he hesitated, before adding, “Make the right choice, Kate. Please.”

  Life turned on a phrase sometimes, she thought numbly, watching him line up at the counter.

  Logic, common sense, even their history reassured her that marrying Peter was the right thing to do. But…

  But.

  Was it fair to get engaged when her emotions were in such turmoil? These days she felt unsettled and…sullied. Even her decision to conceal the full story was tainted by the awareness that, if she told her fiancé everything, she’d have to confess she’d kissed Jordan back. That she’d felt far more for Jordan than she ever had with Peter.

  Kate realized she was tearing her uneaten croissant to shreds, and covered the mess with a napkin.

  She crusaded for accountability, yet she’d been shirking it in her personal life. That was why she felt dirty. Because of that kiss alone, she had no right to propose to Peter, or to be using him as a safety net. The knowledge had hit her within an hour of their engagement, but she’d gone through the motions of accepting congratulations, putting the notice in the paper, choosing the ring. Pretending nothing had changed.

  She held out her hand, watched the diamond on her finger sparkle. Make the right choice, Kate, please.

  There is no choice.

  Swal
lowing hard, Kate slipped the ring off her cold finger and laid it on his place mat. She wanted to run, but sat tight. Peter came back and handed over her cup. Then he saw the ring, and the coffee spilled into the saucer. “Okay, now this is a complete overreaction—”

  “I’m sorry,” she said in a rush, “this is all my fault. I’m not ready for a commitment.”

  He sat down hard in his chair. “But you proposed to me.”

  Kate tried again. “I know, and I don’t want to lose you. But I…I need more time.”

  Peter stared at her. “We’ve been dating for years.”

  “It’s not a breakup, Pete,” she said desperately. “It’s only a…a postponement of an engagement.” Oh God, she was making a complete and miserable mess of this. “Let’s just go back to the way things were.”

  “But we’ve told everyone—family, friends, colleagues, clients.” His bewilderment gave way to anger. “There’s even been a notice in the bloody national paper.”

  Kate swallowed. “We’ll still be dating.”

  “Which makes it appear even weirder that you’re breaking off the engagement.”

  “If it helps,” she said miserably. “I’ll tell everyone I’m the bad guy.”

  “So I get the pity vote. Oh, this just gets better and better.”

  Not knowing what else to say, Kate bowed her head.

  For long minutes there was only the sound of Peter drumming his fingers on the table. “Okay,” he said at last, “here’s what we’re going to do.”

  She looked up hopefully.

  “We’re going to stay engaged for another month, until my shareholding in Brian’s company is confirmed. That also removes the farcical aspect of this whole thing.” He shoved the ring across the table. “At the end of the month, we’re going to announce an amicable parting of the ways. But right here, right now, let’s you and I get something straight. We’re finished.”

  “Don’t,” she said. “We can get through this.”

  “I’ve given you so much,” he said, “so much, Kate. I stuck with you through your dad’s disgraces, through coming second to your bloody siblings, through the rise of your career—and, incidentally, your ego—even through your attacking my best client. Now you want to publicly humiliate me.”