Catch Me a Catch (6 page)

The lunchtime
crowd teemed around the pub like wasps around an apple tree. Jack eased his way
through them into the dark interior. It took a moment to adjust after the sun’s
brightness. Annie held court at the matchmaker’s table.

If the pub was
an apple tree, Annie was a pot full of jam, totally surrounded by buzzing men.
Or a lighthouse, standing steady in a testosterone sea, which ebbed and flowed
around her. She wasn’t flirting. The short denim skirt and long black leather
boots encasing her long, shapely legs were doing that for her. Her tee-shirt
couldn’t be any closer to her chest if it were sprayed on.

She flicked
her mane of chestnut hair over her shoulder. It tumbled down her back like a
sinuous ribbon.

A soft
silky …

He clenched
his fists tightly.
Get a grip.

A figure
stepped out of the swarm, moving close enough to touch. Blood rushed to his
head and his feet ate up the distance between them, but not quickly enough. The
young buck reached out and stroked a lazy finger down her arm.

“Will you come
for lunch with me, Annie?” the teenager asked.

She turned to
the boy and gently removed his hand with a soft smile.

“Sorry,
Michael…”

Jack clenched his
fists at his sides, and plastered on a smile.

“Hi, Darling.
Sorry I’m late.”

Her mouth
opened and closed like a stunned goldfish. Her long eyelashes blinked, and her
chestnut eyes gazed into his. A lone eyelash escaped in the movement and he
stroked it away. His breath caught in his throat when the color of her eyes
intensified to chocolate at his touch.

“Jack.” He
captured the small hand Annie pushed against his chest. Like the opening step
of a dance, Jack’s hand curled around her ribcage and propelled her closer.
Blood pounded in his ears as his lips met hers. She sighed, and her hand slid
up around his neck.

The buzz of conversation
faded and time stopped. Her tongue touched his and he deepened the kiss. Her
fingers stroked his neck, slid into his scalp. Someone coughed, breaking the
spell and thrusting the reality of the situation front and centre. Dazed, he
opened his eyes. This wasn’t the time. It certainly wasn’t the place.

He drew back,
holding on to her elbow.

“I’ve booked
us a table in Mario’s.” He made a pretense of studying his Rolex.

“We better
go.”

She stretched
across the table for her handbag and the matchmaking book. A pack of male eyes
tracked her movement.

Jack smiled at
the unfamiliar faces. “I’m Jack Miller.” He stuck his hand out to Annie’s
disappointed suitor who could barely make eye contact as he shook it.

Before she
could protest, Jack grabbed Annie’s hand, and wove through the crowd to the
door. He strode up the hill towards the restaurant while she trotted beside him
trying to keep up.

****

She should
have worn socks. The back of her heels burned against the black leather. She
puffed out a breath and clenched her teeth. There would be a showdown, but they
could do without an audience. An opportunity arose as they drew parallel to a
small laneway and she shoved him sideways into it. He stumbled. Stopped.

“Annie! What
the hell?” She grabbed him by his upper arms and slammed him back against the
worn brickwork of the building.

“What did you
think you were doing?” The potent buzz of anger infused every pore. “What sort
of idiot caveman are you?”

He’d kissed
her. In front of everyone. She scrunched her eyes tight shut to blot out the
memory. And, stupidly, she’d let him. With a snort of disgust, she dropped her
hands to her sides and moved away. He’d better have a good excuse for kissing
her, because she didn’t have a clue why she’d kissed him back.

“You needed my
help.” Jack clenched his jaw and crossed his arms over his chest. “They were
all over you in there.”

A tension
headache stabbed between her eyes.
Oh great. Hero complex.

“I did
not
need your help. I can take care of myself; I’ve been doing it for years. The
last thing I needed was you pawing me in front of the whole town. You’ve made a
show of me.” She bit her lip, the repercussions of her very public response to
him fully sinking in. Her privacy was the most important thing to her. And
she’d just tossed it away by kissing him.

“They all
already think I’m desperate. Now every guy in the village will think I’m easy
too. I’ll be fighting them off with a stick,” she muttered wryly. This was
morphing into the weekend from hell. Before she melted back to Dublin, the
grapevine would be buzzing with more news on her love life. Just what she
didn’t
need.

He shoved away
from the wall towards her. She glared, effectively halting his approach. “I
kissed you for a reason, and it wasn’t the obvious one.”

“So you didn’t
want to, then?” The words escaped before she could restrain them. Why should
she care whether he wanted to kiss her or not? She didn’t want him to. That was
all there was to it.

“Yes, I bloody
wanted to.” His brows furrowed, and his mouth flattened into a thin line. “But
that’s not why I did it. You had Michael feeling you up…”

“He touched my
arm!” she shouted. “In what, twisted parallel universe are you living, when a
guy I’ve known all my life touching my arm qualifies as feeling me up?”

She stalked
away, resisting the urge to kick over a pile of old cardboard boxes stacked
against the wall. A scrawny cat glanced their direction, and then sniffed
hungrily at a half eaten hamburger lying in a discarded fast food container.

God, he was a
complete Neanderthal. Not in any way worthy of the hours spent fantasizing
about him last night. He was
way
out of order.

She sucked in
a lungful of sea damp air. Their kiss was going to be the talk of the village
by the time they’d finished lunch. They needed damage limitation, and fast.

“Right, Jack.”
Like a dog worrying a bone, she couldn’t let it be. “Enlighten me. Why the
kiss?”

“You liked it
then?” His grin transformed his thundercloud expression as if the sun had
suddenly come out. He gazed into her eyes. Her lips tingled as anger
evaporated, replaced by a heavy tension. It charged the air between them like
the split second before a lightning strike.

“Whether I
liked it or not is totally beside the point.” She spelled it out. Slowly, so
there could be no mistake. “I have a reputation here. Everyone knows me. I
can’t let people think I’m the town tramp.”

“You should
have thought of it before you chose your outfit this morning.” His gaze started
the toes of her boots and glided up her body. “Dominatrix boots and a micro
mini. Surely not the average West of Ireland get-up?”

“Look around,
Sailor; you’ve spent too long at sea. What were you expecting,
The Quiet
Man?
Things have moved on. Modern women wear
what
they want,” she
attacked, poking him in the chest with a glossy red fingernail, “
when
they want, and
where
they want. How dare you dictate to me what I should
or should not wear?”

“You’re having
problems being taken seriously. Half of your clients don’t trust you and the
rest are wasting their energies trying to get a date.”

She opened her
mouth to protest, and then snapped it shut. He held up a hand in front of her
face—like a grouchy teenager.

“Let me
finish. You’ve had your say.”

Her eyes
blazed, but she remained silent.

“You can’t
blame them, not when you’re dressed like that.” He waved a hand at her outfit
dismissively. “And while you’re
single
, and so obviously
available
,
you’re a distraction. The guys who are interested in meeting someone and having
a relationship are going to be distracted trying to impress you.”

“I…”

“You should be
thanking me,” he growled brutally. “I’ve taken you off the market, sweetheart.
At least for the duration of the festival you’re with me, and once everyone in
this village understands that, you’ll be able to do your job properly.”

“What if I
don’t want to be with you?”

“Then pretend.
You want to do the best job for your father. Surely a few days faking a
relationship with me is worth that?”

He was right,
damn him. If she went back into the pub and told everyone it was all a mistake
no one would believe her. Not with the way she’d burst into flames at his kiss.
Then walked out the door like a lamb beside him. Her nose wrinkled. If she
followed his lead and let this charade continue it would not only put paid to
the unwanted male attention she was getting, but also lessen the buzz of female
interest he was attracting. Already she’d had to disappoint three women asking
if he had signed up for the matchmaking service. If the story got out they were
a couple, it would forewarn any lonely hearts looking for love with Sailor
Jack. And the story was out, or would be.

“All right,
you win.” He gaped at her sudden capitulation. He wasn’t to know when she was
beat Annie replanned and regrouped. “Take me to lunch. I’m going to need
something to fortify me. You will too, the minute my mother hears this news.”

****

Conversation
stalled when they walked into the pub an hour later. Jack’s arm was casually
slung around Annie’s shoulders, and the back of his neck prickled at the
curious glances aimed their direction. As the very public head of Miller
Advertising, he was always starring in the New York tabloids. But this perusal
was a lot more personal. He was the man who’d managed to snare the elusive
Annie Devine. That earned him grudging respect, apparently.

In New York,
people avoided eye contact. In Ireland, eye contact was a national sport. Now
he’d caught her it looked like the whole town were going to be a hell of a lot
more interested in what happened next.

“Just open up
the book, would you Jack? I’m just going to the bathroom.”

He set the
heavy book down on the table, and flicked it open to a new page. Within
minutes, a young man with longish brown hair and an earnest expression sank
down onto the chair opposite.

“I’m Noel,
Noel McDonagh,” he said.

“Annie’ll be
here to take your details in a minute.”

“Ah, she has
them already.” Noel fidgeted, holding something back.

Jack flicked
back through the book until he found Noel’s picture.

“Ah yeah, so
she does.” He scanned the information written in Annie’s clear, confident
handwriting. The skimpy information revealed the bare bones about her subject,
with very little meat.

“So, what’s
going on?”

Noel’s
shoulders relaxed from their defensive hunch; a tentative smile played over his
lips. “Annie set me up for a date last night, but it was a complete disaster!”
His hair stood up at the front as he ran a hand through it. “You know how it
is. My date was into cars, fashion, and film stars. I couldn’t talk to her at
all. I just froze up. I’m speechless around women.”

Annie came
back into the room. He caught her eye, and shook his head imperceptibly. She raised
her eyebrows then joined a couple of girls she obviously knew at a nearby
table.

“I know how
that can be, Mate. So, what sort of woman do you think you’d like?”

Jack noted
Noel’s answer, appreciating the other man’s gentleness and sense of humor.

“What are your
favorite things to do?” Jack asked. “What’s your favorite film?” Long years of
working in advertising had prepared him perfectly for this. In his business, he
had to know a product’s strengths and weaknesses so he could properly sell it
in the marketplace.

In many ways,
matchmaking was a lot like advertising.

Half an hour
later, they were finished.

“We’ll have a
look in the book for a suitable girl. I’ll give you a call later on to set up a
date for tonight.”

“I look
forward to hearing from you, Jack.” Noel grinned and strolled away; a newly
acquired confident swagger attracting a few female glances on the way out.

Annie was
there before Noel’s chair had gone cold.

“That was
amazing,” she breathed, admiration shining in her brown eyes. “I couldn’t get a
word out of him when he was here yesterday.”

“He’s shy
around women. He came to report on last night’s date.” Her eyebrows rose in
hopeful anticipation. “Total disaster. Sorry.”

“Win some,
lose some.” Her mouth drooped at the corners. She played with the hem of her
tee- shirt, disappointment evident in every miniscule movement.

“Let’s go for
win some. We’ve lost enough.” He pointed at the tightly written page of
information next to Noel’s picture. A line of people was forming. It was time
to leave her to do her stuff.

“You’re busy,
and I have some calls to make. I’m going back to the house. We’ll work on Noel
later.”

Annie reached
into her voluminous handbag and dug around for something. “You can take the car
if you pick me up later.”

“Great.” Jack
snagged the keys from her upheld fingers. “Knock ‘em dead, sweetheart.” He
leaned close to whisper against her mouth, “Remember, we’re supposed to be in
love,” before he kissed her softly. “I’ll see you later.”

Swallows
swooped low between the trees, performing complex avian choreography in their hunt
for insects. Stares on his back prickled like tiny darts thrown at a dartboard
as he strode out of the bar. It was going to be an interesting festival all
right.

Maeve was on
her hands and knees pulling weeds out of the flowerbed as he strode towards the
house. “Hello, Jack.” She wiped the back of her gloved hand over her damp
forehead and leant back on her heels. “Would you like a cup of tea? I’m just
about to have one.”

“No thanks,
Maeve. I’ve got to do some work.” Although how he could concentrate when all
the way back to the house he’d replayed the moments alone with Annie in his
head, was beyond him. The feel of her body on his when she’d pushed him against
the wall, her breasts so soft against the hardness of his chest had aroused him
to fever pitch. He’d barely managed to stop himself plundering her lips. Only
her anger held him in check. They had to talk before taking things further.
He’d said he was kissing her to help her, but it was a lot more personal. It
had become so the moment her arms wove around his neck in the pub. Maeve missed
nothing. In his current state, God knows what she might winkle out of him.