"I did, but it got finished early. It was in Dallas, so Joel picked me up and we're riding back to Amarillo with you to help you get settled."
Jenny swallowed, then asked with a squeak, "You're riding with me?" Although she loved talking to him, Chase was a great conversationalist, being locked up in a truck cab with him for four or five hours would be sheer torture on a physical level. The more space she could put between them for the next couple of weeks, the better.
"I'm riding with you, Joel is following in his car." Chase stepped back from her and slapped the dark-haired guy beside him on the shoulder. "Jenny this is my baby brother, Joel. Joel, this is the prettiest doctor in Texas, and our new V.P. of Health and Safety, Jenny Anderson.
"Nice to meet you, Jenny," Chase's brother said, then stuck out his hand to her. Jenny noticed that although his words were genial, his lips were pinched and his jaw tense.
She thought Chase might have strong-armed him into helping her, and she wanted to let him off the hook. "It's nice to meet you too, Joel...you don't have to come with us to Amarillo if you've got other plans."
"He's coming," Chase told her firmly, his smile flattening as he looked at his brother.
"Really, it's not necessary," Jenny protested and shot Chase a look, then dropped Joel's hand and stepped back.
"I don't mind helping," Joel said and folded his arms across his broad chest. His shoulders were wider than Chase's she noticed, his muscles bulkier. She wondered what color his eyes were, they were still hidden by the mirrored sunglasses. Her eyes slid to his hands and she noticed a pale white line on the ring finger of his left hand.
Ut oh, Jenny thought, Chase had said Joel was 'happily' married, but the absence of his wedding ring didn't bode well for the state of that union. That could explain why he seemed agitated, and why Chase seemed so determined that he was going to Amarillo with them. Getting in the middle of their family drama wasn't something she was looking forward to. She knew she was going to have enough of her own once she got to Amarillo.
"The guys get you packed up okay?" Chase asked her and took her arm then started walking toward the stairs.
"Yeah, they did...a lot...thanks for sending them to help," she told him and squeezed his forearm. Chase looked up and Jenny saw Terri wave at him. When he smiled that smile at her, tension sparked inside of Jenny and she pulled her arm from his grasp.
It was easy to forget this good looking, easy going man was a player, but she needed to remember, because a broken heart was the last thing she needed to start off her new life with.
Getting attached to Chase Rhodes and making a fool of herself would be too easy to do too. She'd done that once with the wrong man, and she wasn't doing it again. Jenny was smarter than that now.
She walked up the steps in front of him and brushed by Terri to go into her now empty apartment. Jenny walked to her bedroom to check the closet one more time and make sure she didn't leave anything behind. The room looked lonely with no furniture in it, and she imagined her formerly packed walk-in closet would look the same.
Feeling around on the wall in the closet, she finally found the light switch then flicked it on, or tried to. It looked like the guys had been super efficient and had even removed the light bulb. She glanced back over her shoulder to see if they'd removed the one from the bedroom fixture too, and her eyes landed on Chase standing in the doorway instead.
"Just checking the closet to make sure I didn't forget anything," she told him nervously. His face was serious, not full of the laughter and playfulness it usually held.
"You did forget something," he said in that sexy rumbling voice of his and took a step inside.
"Yeah?" she said going over her apartment in her mind trying to figure out what she could have missed.
"Yeah, you forgot to say hello to me...properly," he told her then took another step toward her.
Jenny stepped back and her heart flipped a couple of times in her chest when she figured out he was staring at her lips. Tingles buzzed over her lips and she licked them trying to get herself under control. He took another step closer and her breathing got shallower . One more step and he was right in front of her. He put his hands on her shoulders then ran them down her arms. Every hair on her arms stood at attention rooted in the goosebumps that covered them.
"Chase, I--" she started in a shaky voice, but before she could finish telling him it wasn't a good idea, his mouth covered hers and he walked her to the back of the closet and pushed her against the wall. Moving his hands to her waist, he pulled her tightly to his body.
The kiss was drugging, thrilling and reawakened the intense desire he'd inspired in her the other night. Those teenaged hormones she'd been trying to control all burst into her bloodstream at once causing all kinds of havoc inside of her. Without permission, her hands moved to his chest then slid upward to loop around his neck, and she kissed him back hotly.
He pulled back and ran his tongue over the seam of her lips and she opened for him, then his tongue found hers and lazily reintroduced itself. Leaning into her, he deepened the heady kiss, and his hands moved lower on her hips. His solid length pressed against her in the perfect place, and her body wanted nothing more than to feel him there again.
The kiss went on forever then he pulled back to admit in a hot whisper over her lips, "God, I've missed you. I've been dreaming of doing that for a week."
His lips moved to her throat and Jenny sucked in a sharp breath, her nipples hardening as he found her pulse point and licked. She felt his hands glide up to her ribcage, then his thumb flicked over her nipple and Jenny's knees almost gave out.
"Chase we shouldn't be doing this..." she told him then pushed against his chest, although what she wanted to do was throw him down on the floor of the closet and have her way with him. They had to keep it professional, now. He was her boss, and not a long term kind of man anyway.
After Beau, that's the only kind of man she would be looking for, when and if she ever was looking for one, someone who could commit and was looking for the same thing that she was.
Chase Rhodes might seem like her idea of a dream man, kind, considerate and too good looking for her peace of mind, but he was far from it. She couldn't let herself forget he was a mama's boy and a player.
"This isn't a good idea, we need to keep it at friends," she said on a groan as he kissed her collarbone and licked the indention there.
"I have enough friends, I want you Jenny," he said in a sexy rumble over her skin that she felt all the way to her toes.
"You're my boss..." she reminded him.
"You're not on the clock, sugar."
"I'm not on the clock, but if we don't stop this and we have conflict over an issue, it could cause problems at work. I don't want to start my new job out like that."
He pushed back from her and put his hands on her shoulders, "Didn't the other night show you we have chemistry, darlin'? I don't give a damn if you work for me or not, it will still be there. Not exploring it would cause more friction, I promise."
He was probably right, but she was of the opinion that office romances never worked out well, and from what she knew of him she didn't want to explore that with him anyway. All it could bring is heartache in the long run, and maybe unemployment. "I told you I think it would be better if we just stayed friends, Chase."
"Well, I disagree," he said and his hands tightened on her shoulders.
"You'll agree if you want me to go to Amarillo with you. I'm serious, Chase." she told him, and peeled his fingers off of her shoulders then stepped around him.
He huffed out a breath behind her and she walked out of the closet then looked up to see the crew had taken the light bulbs from the bedroom fixture too. Quickly, she walked out of the bedroom before he tried to move in for round two. That kiss had knocked her socks off, but she couldn't let him see that, or he'd try again and her resolve would melt quicker than butter in a cast iron skillet.
She saw Terri talking to Joel in the kitchen and heade
d that way. They looked to be arguing. "Hi guys...I'm ready to go when you are," she said in a voice a lot lighter than she felt and they both turned to look at her.
"Terri is going to Amarillo with us for the weekend, and riding back with me on Sunday," Joel said. The look on his face said he wasn't too happy with that development, but Terri was smiling from ear to ear. Jenny thought her friend must not notice how irritated Joel seemed to be, and how it seemed her riding with him was the last thing he wanted.
"Really?" Jenny said and glanced at her friend. "I thought you had to eat dinner with your parents tomorrow?" She knew it was a family mandate that Terri make an appearance at the weekly family gathering, even though half the time they wound up in an argument before dessert. Jenny had been invited once or twice. Once had been enough for Jenny, she had skipped dessert and finished off the table wine instead.
"You need help, they need to have their indigestion without me this week. My brother called off last week, so I have a chip to call in," she told Jenny with a satisfied smirk.
"Your mama is gonna track you down and drag you back to the dinner table," Jenny said with a snort.
"Not if she can't find me...you think I told her where I was going?"
"I really have it handled, Terri..." Jenny said hoping she'd change her mind.
"Bull, you need me, so suck it up buttercup, I'm going with you whether you want me to or not," Terri said with determination in her tone and her hands on her curvy hips.
With a huffed sigh, Jenny nodded then said, "Okay, you can ride in the truck with me then and Chase can ride with Joel."
That really would work out better for her too. She wouldn't be stuck in the cab of that truck with Chase Rhode's magnetism for five hours. Joel's down-turned mouth kicked up to a flat line and Jenny figured that was as close to happy as he was going to get.
She felt a hand at her waist, then the heat of Chase's body behind her. "What's this?" he asked, his voice rumbling in her hair near her ear. The vibration and warmth sent tingles sliding along her neck to her breasts.
Involuntarily, she leaned her body back against his, looking up at him. "Terri is coming to Amarillo with us to help unpack."
"No, problem, she can ride with Joel," he said and kissed her hair. Jenny felt blood heat her cheeks and she glanced at Terri who had a shit-eating grin plastered on her pretty face. She noticed Joel's lips had drifted downward again and his shoulders tensed up.
"Fine," Joel said tightly then spun on his heel and headed for the front door. The man still hadn't removed his sunglasses, so she couldn't tell if he was as pissed off as he sounded.
"Really, Chase, she can ride with--"
His arm snaked around her waist and he pulled her back against him then said firmly near her ear, "No, she's riding with Joel, I'm riding with you to help drive...now get Chloe and let's get going."
There was no room for argument in his tone, and Jenny didn't feel like belaboring the point anyway. Joel could deal with his own issues, she had enough on her plate. She pulled away from Chase then walked across the kitchen and picked up the cat carrier. Chloe was curled up in an unhappy ball at the back. Her cat hated cat carriers almost as much as she hated men. Being in one usually meant she was going to the vet, and he was a man.
Once she had Chloe on the floorboard of the moving truck, Jenny hopped up in the passenger seat, because Chase insisted on driving. He stepped up and sat behind the wheel, then reached forward and twisted the key. The big engine roared to life and he put the truck in gear. As they pulled out of the driveway, Jenny looked in her side view mirror and mentally said goodbye to her old life tamping down the fear that she was making a mistake.
Once they hit the main highway, Jenny looked over at him and said, "Chase you know we really don't need Terri and Joel's help, why did you insist he come?"
"He needed to get away from Dallas for a little bit," he said and she saw his hands tighten on the steering wheel.
"He doesn't look like he thinks he needs to get away...he looks angry." Jenny told him.
"He's pissed off at the world right now...that's why he needs to get away to get his head screwed on right."
"Why's he so upset?" she asked.
Chase huffed out a breath and his jaw worked a couple of times then he finally said, "He found his partner doing his wife on his desk three weeks ago."
"Oh. My. God." Jenny said in shock.
"Yeah, that's evidently what Karen was yelling while Larry nailed her on Joel's desk. They thought he was out of town, but he came back early."
"Wow, no wonder he's so upset..." Jenny said with a shake of her head.
"Yeah, he lost his wife and his business partner in one fell swoop...that's a lot to digest," Chase said gruffly. "He's pretty torn up, so I made him come to Amarillo to get his mind off of everything."
"You're a good brother..." Jenny said and grudgingly added another credit in the plus column of her estimation of Chase Rhodes.
"I don't want him doing something stupid, and if I didn't do something my mama would skin me," he said with a tight smile then glanced over at her and finished, "Don't mention this to my mother if you see her."
Yep, definitely a mama's boy, she thought and that check mark in the plus column disappeared.
"She doesn't know?" Jenny asked.
"No, and Joel doesn't want her to know right now. She'll get in the middle of things and drive him crazier than he already is...not to mention she'd probably wind up in jail for killing Karen."
Jenny snorted and folded her arms over her chest and told him, "His wife would deserve it..."
"No shit, but I'm being serious here...my mother has a temper and is pretty damned good with a shotgun. She was raised on a ranch."
"Really? She didn't strike me as a...rugged...sort of woman."
"Don't let the big hair and manicure fool you, sugar. That woman is lethal when she's pissed off. She can go from Lady of the Manor to Texas Farm Girl in three seconds flat."
"So Joel had no idea his wife was cheating on him? How long had it been going on?" Jenny asked curiously.
"He didn't have a clue...that woman had us all fooled. I think Karen and Larry were together since right after she and Joel got married five years ago. He finally dragged that out of Larry after he punched him in the face a few times."
"Oh, Lord..." Jenny gasped.
"Yeah, he didn't take it too well when he walked in on them."
"Wow, what a cold-hearted bitch..." Jenny was amazed at the woman's audacity. If Joel was anything like Chase, and she'd bet her last dollar he was, he was a kindhearted soul that thought the best of people. It had to be devastating to him to find his wife with his partner.
"And Larry is a bastard...he has been Joel's best friend for fifteen years."
Terri was riding with Joel, and she hoped that her friend didn't make things worse for Chase's brother with her mouth. Her best friend loved to talk and was very blunt.
"We probably should switch and have Terri ride with me when we stop for gas...she's not the most diplomatic person in the world, and she will talk his ears off," Jenny told him with a chuckle.
"Nah, he'll be fine. If she talks enough, maybe he'll have something else to think about other than killing his partner and wife."
"What? Killing Terri instead?" Jenny laughed.
"He's really a pretty laid back guy and he's usually funny as crap, but right now he doesn't have much to smile about. Maybe when his divorce is final in a couple of months, he'll feel better. I don't know what he's going to do about his business though."
"That has to be rough," Jenny said sympathetically.
"Yeah, divorcing your wife and business partner at the same time can't be a cake walk. I'm worried about him...maybe I can talk him into moving back to Amarillo."
"I thought he doesn't get along with your dad?"
"He doesn't, but he sure doesn't have a lot of options. Staying in Dallas alone and starting over alone, or joining another firm doesn't sound like some
thing he should attempt in the throes of heartbreak."
"Yeah, you're right...it's just so damned sad," Jenny said.
"He'll be fine, Joel is pretty strong even though he doesn't look it right now."
Chase's phone rang and he dug in his pocket and pulled it out then glanced at the screen and pressed talk. "Yeah?"
He hesitated a minute listening and she saw his jaw tighten. "We're on our way back, about four hours out," he told whoever was on the phone, then added. "Call Logan and let him know. I met with him this morning and filled him in...no, Dad, look I've got to go." Chase pushed the end button and threw his phone down in the cup holder on the dash.
Chase was damned tired of these senseless fires. There had been four over the last two weeks, six total now, and until now they'd been lucky and nobody had been hurt. Their luck had just run out.
"Everything okay?" Jenny asked him.
He glanced over at her and ground his teeth. This was not the way he wanted Jenny to start her new job, a christening by fire...literally.
"No, someone set another well fire and this time somebody got killed."
"How many have there been?" she asked him. "How do you know they were intentional?"
"The private investigator we hired told us that charges, explosives, were being used. So far, there have been six fires in a month. That's as many as we've had in two years before now."
"Wow, are they investigating?"
"Yeah, but they're not likely to find anything...none of our workers saw anything supposedly. Dave Logan, the investigator is trying to figure things out. He has some of his men working on our rigs, just not the right ones so far."
"Who could want to do that to the company?"
Who? Any number of drilling and exploration companies who were going to have to spend a fortune retrofitting their derricks or paying fines, if the legislation they were pushing for was passed. "We're pushing for higher fines against companies that aren't complying with new safety regulations, and we haven't made a lot of friends in the process. Dave thinks they might be trying to take our safety record down to make theirs look better."
Chasing Trouble (Texas Trouble) Page 9