One Last Kiss

by Jessica Lemmon

  “I’ll clear my desk and make myself available,” Gia said. “You could use the extra brainpower.” She smirked at her brother and Jayson and then left the conference room.

  “You two seem to be getting along well,” Brannon said, his tone droll.

  “Yeah.” Jayson wasn’t giving him any more than that, just in case.

  “Guess her and Pip didn’t work out.”

  “Guess not.” Jayson smiled.

  “How’s it going with Natasha?”

  “That didn’t work out, either. Which I’m assuming you already know.”

  “It wasn’t like you two pulled off a supersecret heist.” Bran appeared more amused than angry. “What the hell were you thinking? Your dates were outside having coffee and you and Gia were—” He shook his head.

  “My brain wasn’t doing any of the thinking.”

  “I do not want to hear details. What Ad told me she heard outside that bathroom door was already too much information.” Brannon pushed his hand through his hair.

  “Is there an ‘if you hurt my baby sister’ speech forthcoming?”

  “If anyone hurts you,” he told Jayson, “it’ll be Gia. She’s been taking kickboxing, you know.”

  Jayson frowned. He hadn’t known that, actually. He didn’t know a lot about what she did outside of work these days.

  “Probably to protect herself from the morons she’s contented to date.”

  “Pip.” Bran shook his head. “Why did she bring that halfwit to Royce’s wedding, anyway?”

  “Got me,” Jayson said, though he suspected he knew.

  “Clock’s ticking. Find the mysterious bug that’s killing our tablet before Royce returns from his honeymoon,” Bran said, obviously glad to change the subject.

  “We’ll run at it with everything we have. I’ll pair everyone up to run code.”

  “Let me know if you need any monetary support for the venture.” Bran slapped Jayson’s back as he exited the conference room.

  Downstairs, Jayson entered his department and clapped his hands together to get his team’s attention. Gia, standing in her office doorway, paused to listen.

  “I have a project for you that’s going to take precedence over whatever you’re currently working on,” he announced. The room fell silent as all eyes turned to him. “The good news is I’m paying for overtime and carryout.”

  “And the bad news?” Gia asked.

  “There’ll be a lot of both,” Jayson answered with a smile.

  * * *

  Jayson stepped into Gia’s office and shut the door. He was suited, his jacket in place and his tie knotted.

  Each time she’d seen him since last weekend she was reminded of their midnight snack outside, the sexual tension that had been strung so tight she could have played it like a harp. Of course, they both knew where that’d led.

  Even though she’d been trying for the last few days to pretend the morning in the bathroom hadn’t happened. That she hadn’t had sex with the last man on the planet she should’ve had sex with.

  She wrinkled her nose and considered Denver Pippen.

  Fine. Jayson was the second to last man on the planet she should have sex with.

  She’d done a damn good job of keeping her attraction to him in the “There but Unacknowledged” category since they nearly tore each other’s clothes off last year. Now she wasn’t sure she was hiding it as well.

  Shutting her office door behind him, he stalked toward her desk. “I need you.”

  Because she had sex on the brain, she imagined him throwing her onto her desk and searing her lips with his specific brand of kiss. Instead, he sank into the guest chair.

  He crossed his legs ankle-to-knee style and rested one broad palm on his knee. His posture was strong and sure. Nothing new there, but now it served as a reminder that he’d made love to her while standing and supporting her weight using nothing but his arm strength.

  “More accurately,” he continued. “I need your hardware.”

  I need your hardware.

  “Oh?” she said instead of what she was thinking, which was admittedly half as interesting.

  “Big Ben,” he answered.

  Big Ben was her computer system at home—formerly hers and Jay’s home. It had multiple screens, the newest, latest bells and whistles, plus an encrypted cloud back-up system and crazy-fast internet connection set up in the family room. Ben was the Ferrari of home computers. Of course Jay wanted to use it.

  “And your software.” He tapped his temple with one finger. “I paired everyone off to investigate the bug wreaking havoc on the update. Hell, there could be several bugs for all I know.” His eyebrows jumped. “Winner gets a pizza party.”

  She chuckled. The winner would get more than that—whoever solved this conundrum would attain superhero status.

  “If we can fix that bug, it will increase speed and update security on every ThomKnox tablet out there. Our reputation is at stake,” he said, serious now.

  She felt the same way he did. Despite the casual way he’d asked to borrow her hard-and software, they both knew that ThomKnox’s future was nothing to laugh about. Could their company hang with the behemoths, or would ThomKnox forever be second in the technology world?

  “Whatever you need,” she answered.

  “You’re the most technically savvy human being in this company.” He stood. “Apart from your father.”

  “And Jack’s retired.” She used to be shy about flaunting her brains or know-how until she went to college. Leaving for school had given her a freedom she hadn’t been able to attain when she’d lived at home. College was the first time she could date without worrying about her father and brothers stating their opinions for the record. As she’d grown up, her family had loosened up, but at times she still felt like a little girl around them.

  She’d say this for Jayson: For all his flaws and their incompatibility, he never let her play down her accomplishments. He’d always told her she was smart and to use that to her advantage. Hell, G, abuse it, he used to say.

  What’d torn them apart ultimately, and a little at a time, was his overprotective nature and need to control every aspect of their shared lives. Now, though, while he was acutely focused on fixing the tablet issue, he didn’t seem overbearing at all.

  Was she seeing him through sex-colored glasses since their last encounter, or had he really changed?

  She shook her head to jar loose that dangerous thought. Jayson had said it himself—they weren’t getting back together. And if they weren’t getting back together, then there was no reason to wonder if he had changed.

  If she kept that front of mind, it would make being alone in the same house alone with him a lot easier. Anything could happen, true, but if they were on the same page, they could solve this issue swiftly and then be done with it. And with each other.

  But when he stood and gripped the doorknob to leave, her gaze lingered on his capable hands and strong body.

  “I’ll bring Thai,” he said.

  “Okay,” she said, even though she wasn’t sure it was going to be.

  Ten

  It’d been a long day.

  Gia left her hunchback of Notre Dame posture at the desk in her home office and walked to the sofa to collapse on it.

  The square plastic black containers holding the remnants of their Thai dinner were strewn about the coffee table. They’d eaten before and during reviewing the complicated update code but somehow she was hungry again.

  She reached for one of the containers and her plastic spoon, slumping back on the couch again. She scooped the tofu green curry on rice and vegetables into her mouth and chewed forlornly.

  Jayson joined her, forking a bite of his leftover dinner, Thai Basil Beef, into his mouth. “I don’t feel any closer to figuring it out,” he said between mouthfuls.

&n
bsp; “Me neither. I love lemongrass,” she said before her next bite. No sense in talking about their abject failure.

  “Someone at work could’ve had some luck.” But they knew better. If any of their team at ThomKnox had found the solution they’d have called Jay immediately. “We’ll figure it out.”

  “Hell yes we will.” She set aside her food and straightened her spine. She refused to be felled by one little error. The T13 had been wildly successful and the update would only improve its usage. She wouldn’t—couldn’t—let her team fail. Er, Jay’s team. Their team.

  The tech department was as close to having kids as they’d come.

  “Don’t despair.” Food container empty, he rested his palm on her knee. Her bare knee thanks to her changing into shorts and a T-shirt. He still wore his pants from work, his sleeves shoved up, his top two buttons open and revealing the bit of dark chest hair she’d always liked. That masculine thatch reminded her that he was capable. And even an independent girl like herself could appreciate his trustworthy side.

  Speaking of...

  “I owe you for the food. We’ll split it.” She stood from the couch and walked to her purse, resting on a chair in the corner of the room.

  “I got it.”

  “Jayson. I ate my weight in Thai food tonight.”

  “So?”

  “So, I can pay for my own dinner.” She dug some cash from her purse.

  “ThomKnox is paying for dinner.”

  “Well...you picked it up.” She waved the bills.

  “No.” He enunciated the word slowly.

  “It’s important to have boundaries. And this is a good way to establish them.”

  “Boundaries? The sex on Saturday established our boundaries.”

  “I thought we weren’t going to bring that up.”

  “I thought you would have by now.” He walked to where she stood and bracketed her hips with his hands. Before she could lecture herself about kissing him, he’d leaned temptingly close. “Why don’t you want to have sex with me?”

  She did, but damned if she would admit that. She choked on a laugh and said, “I can think of approximately a million reasons.”

  But really, there was just one.

  Sex with Jayson made her remember being married to him and remembering being married to him made her remember divorcing him and that hurt.

  When he lowered his lips to hers each of those million reasons disintegrated into a million pieces. He erased the inch and a half between them and kissed her gently.

  She drank in his spicy kiss before she could argue with herself about it. He banded his arms around her waist like he did the last time they were together. When he’d lifted her into his strong arms and held her like she was the only woman on the planet who mattered.

  A long time ago, she was the only woman who mattered to him. He had taken his duties as husband seriously. Some days too seriously. He’d ruled this house, or had tried anyway. So many of their arguments came from his inability to be flexible on a decision, or his tendency not to include her in the decision at all, and her own insistence that she could take care of herself without him.

  Her urge to be independent was a constant refrain she’d grown tired of thinking about. Her whole life she’d been fighting for every inch of independence gained. By the time she was married to Jayson, a man who’d championed her more than any before him, she’d expected to have plenty of that much-needed space.

  She pulled her lips from his. How could she expect space from a man who was constantly, and welcomingly, invading hers?

  He was breathing heavy, his pupils wide and black. His eyes were her favorite shade of smoky blue. Judging by the state of his pants, he was as turned on as she was.

  “We can’t,” she managed, half expecting him to lean in and prove her wrong.

  He didn’t.

  “You always do this,” he said instead. His nostrils flared.

  “Do what?” Her blood pressure spiked at his tone, and at losing out on what they both wanted, and she didn’t know what he was talking about yet.

  “Retreat,” he answered. “I don’t remember you giving up this easily when we were married.”

  The reminder that they used to stand in this very room and argue about who knew what was a shadow she couldn’t escape.

  “Lucky for us we don’t have to dig in our heels any longer, Cooper.” She stuffed two twenty-dollar bills, now sweaty in her palm, into his shirt. “Thank you for dinner.”

  “What the hell did you call me?”

  Since he’d just challenged her on retreating, she decided to stay for this battle.

  “Everyone calls you Coop or Cooper,” she said with a shrug.

  His hulking dark presence was less intimidating than it was downright hot. “You’re not everyone.”

  Like a stripper in reverse, he pulled the money from his shirt and dropped it onto the coffee table. “I don’t need more reminders that you don’t need me, Gia. You’ve made that perfectly clear.”

  She was frozen in shock until he turned to leave.

  “You are so arrogant!” she called after him. “You only care about getting your way, don’t you?”

  “Getting my way? You think I’d rather leave than give you an orgasm with this mouth?”

  He gestured to his mouth, tempting her since she still felt the imprint of his kiss on her lips. Her knees literally went gooey. Jayson was good with his hands but he was very, very good with his mouth.

  “I can take care of myself.” But her response was automated. She’d been trying to convince everyone in her life of that for so long, the words came out robotic.

  “No, you don’t need anyone, do you? Least of all me.” His tone was angry, but there was a dose of pain in those words—one she didn’t like hearing. Part of her wanted to correct him. To tell him that she’d missed him when they’d split. That his presence in and around the house was what had made this pile of bricks and siding feel like home.

  She’d missed him, but she hadn’t known how to find her way back to him, either. Not when she’d said so many hurtful things she couldn’t take back. She hadn’t wanted Jayson’s protection and service. She’d wanted to stand as his equal. To experience life with him, not apart from him.

  But it was too late for those sorts of observations.

  Their standoff lasted several seconds. He stood, silently daring her to give in to her wants—her need. But they’d already given in to the temptation and sex hadn’t solved anything. Worse, their at-work conversations had been laced with hidden innuendo. Her mind wasn’t on her work, it was in his pants. And as long as that was the case, they’d never fix this damned update.

  “We have an important job to do,” she said, leaning on her old friend, Pragmatism. “We shouldn’t let ourselves be distracted.”

  “Yeah,” was all he said before he gathered his bag and walked out of the room. She stood and listened to him go, closing her eyes against the finality of the front door quietly shutting.

  Eleven

  “I should let you two rest.”

  Jayson meant to hand back Addison and Brannon’s daughter right away, but he delayed. Quinn Marie Knox was nestled in his arms and cooing up at him. A series of gurgles and grunts came from the precious bundle, her big eyes taking in as much of the world around her as they could. Tiny fingers clutched and released the air and he was fairly certain he’d lost his heart to her.

  Finally, he was able to release baby Quinn in her mother’s arms. “Sorry it took me so long to stop by.”

  Addison had gone into labor the night he and Gia had eaten Thai food and argued. The same night he’d kissed her and had hoped to end up in her bed, or hell, at least on the couch.

  But, no.

  In spite of the desire surging within and between them, Gia had retreated. Once again he’d found himself
surrounding her with the protection and love he thought she needed, only to watch her retreat.

  He stepped in, she stepped back. The dance continued. He wondered if he’d ever learn.

  Addison adjusted her baby girl against her chest, who was nuzzling to be breastfed. “That’s okay, Coop. I know you’re busy.”

  “Say bye to Uncle Jayson.” She waved her daughter’s closed fist.

  He smiled and waved back. Uncle Jayson. He liked that.

  Family had always been important to him. Losing his marriage with Gia had been the ultimate failure. He didn’t know what he would’ve done if he lost his work and his in-laws, too. The Knoxes stitched everyone into their family quilt—and once you were there, you didn’t want to leave.

  Jayson exited the sitting room and wandered through the kitchen. Bran was at the back door, pulling on a pair of boxing gloves. Once they were on, he punched them together. “Ready?”

  “As I’ll ever be.” Jayson hadn’t been through training Bran had, but he knew how to scrap. Without gloves. He’d gone a round or two with his own father and had lost. Badly. At age twelve he’d stepped between his abusive father and his mother, and had taken hits for her. He’d never been prouder of a black eye in his life.

  Since then he’d developed a penchant for protecting those he loved, made easier when his mother remarried a good man and in turn gave Jayson a brother. He smiled as he considered Bran’s and Addi’s daughter. That little girl would never have to wonder if she was loved or safe a day in her life.

  “She’s great, your daughter,” he told Bran.

  “Those Knox genes.” Bran grinned. “Although she inherited all the beauty from my wife.”

  Not all of it. Jayson found himself thinking of Gia. Again.

  After stepping into the ring and receiving some basic instruction, Jayson was throwing punches comfortably at his ex-brother-in-law. Bran’s backyard was lush with green grass and flowers and trees. It was a strange setup for trying to kick the other man’s ass.