Jaded (6 page)

“Sorry, babe. It must be this towel, it’s driving me crazy.”

She paused and then cracked a smile. “And why’s that?

“Because it is hiding something I would give anything to see.” His lips drifted over her collarbone. She took his chin in her hand and directed his face toward hers. She put her lips over his, kissing him hard.

Luke let down his guard and kissed her the way he’d wanted to kiss her, not the way he did when he was betting or just trying to get to sex. His kisses were slow, thorough.

He gripped her hips and set her on the countertop, pressing himself between her legs. Luke knew in that instant he wanted to have her right there. He tilted her head back and tasted her neck, her collarbone, kisses growing more urgent the lower he went. This woman was making his mind spin.

He felt her relax beneath his grip, felt her give in completely to the feeling. And to his luck, she was responding with equal gusto. His hand searched out the rim of the towel, anxious to see what lay beneath the fabric. He found it and it started to slip around her. She gasped and grabbed the towel.

“Luke!”

He blinked slowly, their broken kiss still weighing heavily on his mind. “What?”

“I said a kiss. Not a free-for-all.”

He looked away but was distracted by the lush slope of her breast. So maybe he’d gone a little far, gotten a little greedy. “I’m sorry... I got out of hand...”

She glared at him, breathing heavily, the haze of arousal leaving her eyes. “Listen, don’t ever do that again. You took advantage of me.”

His eyes almost popped out of his head. “
I
took advantage of
you
?” He expelled a gasp of disbelief. “Babe, you were in this too! You weren’t exactly in handcuffs or anything!”

She crossed her arms across her breasts and darkened her glare. “I said one kiss.”

He was angry, but he knew there was no arguing. “Fine.” She was lying to herself, but he didn’t know
why
. And besides, he had an erection that could drive a nail into a wall. “I’m sorry I did anything to offend you.” He held up his hands. “Like we agreed, this was the only time.”

He turned and stalked out of the bathroom, fuming. Angry because she was lying, and angry because he was leaving a gorgeous, moist woman sitting naked on a bathroom counter. If this was a game she was playing—the whole “I’m sad and hurt and I don’t want a man but I do” game—then he was sick of it. It was working too well. He’d tasted her kiss—and it had definitely said that she wanted him as much as he wanted her.

Just drop it, Luke.
This was just a bet. He was getting way too angry for a stupid bet. He never let himself get
this
involved. He’d approach her again tomorrow, say some stupid line about sensitivity and caring and whatnot...

The only problem was that he wanted her to see that he really was a nice guy, someone who could understand her smart world and make her laugh and be more than just a good-looking night on the town. A scary thought entered his mind—did he need to impress her for the bet, or because he actually wanted her? She’d only let down her guard a few times around him and he liked what he saw—both on the inside
and
the outside. She’d also managed to call out his cockiness, something that he considered bold for so little time.

Luke took a few deep breaths in the upstairs hallway, waiting for the telltale evidence from his encounter with Isabella to disappear before he went downstairs. He couldn’t believe his mind was racing this much from how she’d rejected him; was he actually hurt?
Pull yourself together, Luke.
He didn’t need her in his life—that was for sure—and all this crap was probably just because she’d managed to give him the hardest erection in recent history and then turned him down. Testosterone, he reasoned, and nothing more. He stormed downstairs and into the kitchen. Mark walked by and stopped him. “What’s up, boss?”

“Nothing. Hey, who was spying on Isabella while she was changing?”

His cheeks reddened. “Uh...we were just up there fixing something on the roof...we didn’t realize that window was the window to her room...”

“Right. Well, she was really pissed off. I’m just warning you. If she asks you, blame it on someone else, or else you might get punched.”

“Right-o.”

Luke paced the kitchen for a while, trying to calm his anger and his racing heart. The image of her sitting on the counter, covered only by a towel, was burnt into his vision like he’d just looked into the sun and saw brightness every time he blinked. He tried hard to ignore it, to replace it with anything else. His mind went to the work projects for that day, and then instantly flashed back to the feel of her lips against his. Maybe the image of another woman would alleviate his lust—but that only reminded him of the naked woman upstairs and how badly he wanted to finish what he started.

He was screwed. Not only would this incident haunt him and make it impossible to resist her, now he had to stick to that stupid promise he’d made—he hadn’t counted on things turning out like this. If she were a normal woman, which he was rapidly realizing she wasn’t, she would have succumbed to his wishes, accepted a date when he’d originally asked her, and begun reacting as a regular female would. But no, she had to pull the unpredictable card.

It drove him crazy. He slammed his fist into his palm.

He checked his watch; time to get back to work. No time for any more mind games with Isabella. If she wanted distance, that’s what she’d get. It would only cost him minor grumbling and a bit of a dented ego.

***

Isabella didn’t leave the bathroom countertop for what felt like an hour. She sat there panting, staring into space, trying to imagine him in between her legs again, pressing his lips against hers and sending those hot, shocking waves of lust through her body.

She’d never experienced a kiss so powerful. Where she’d scraped up the willpower to tell him to back off was a mystery to her. With kisses like his, it didn’t seem
right
to make them stop.

It had been a mistake, she realized, even as she wished desperately for him to be near her again. A terrible mistake. But she had to stick to her words—more than anything, she needed to make it clear to Luke that she called the shots.

With legs like jelly, she hopped off the counter and started to dress herself. What boggled her more than anything else was that she’d broken down and demanded that he kiss her.
What a way to show him that you aren’t immune to his man tactics, Isabella.
She felt simultaneously embarrassed at the slip in willpower and titillated by the erotic happenstance. Luke didn’t know it, but he’d come into her bathroom at just the right time—exactly after she’d finished one of the steamiest fantasies in recent history involving her, Luke, and a lot of slippery, soapy body contact. It didn’t help matters that she’d spent the better portion of her morning touching herself. So when she found herself face to face with his scent, his manliness, his intolerably cute face, and those biceps, directly after the shocking breach of privacy, the mixture of arousal and anger was like a match being struck into a room with a gas leak.

She pulled on some sweatpants and a conservative, baggy T-shirt and pulled her hair back in a ponytail. She wanted to look as normal and non-seductive as she was attempting to instill on her insides. From downstairs, she heard what sounded to be the buzz of a sander. She thought about the article she needed to finish writing for the newspaper and her heart sank. There was no way she’d be able to finish it here.

She gathered up her purse and her laptop and went downstairs. On her way out the door, she said to the nearest worker, “Tell Luke I’ll be gone for a little bit.”

She hopped into her car, buckled up, and sped away, eager to drown herself in her article. On the way to her favorite coffee shop, where she knew she’d find peace and the pleasant murmur of rational-minded coffee patrons, she couldn’t help but think of Luke. His soft, sweet kisses, the heat of his touch... She shuddered. He was unlike any other man she’d ever experienced. And she’d known him for three days.

Her cell phone buzzed against her thigh; she scrambled with it, unable to control her shaking hands, and pressed it to her ear.

“Hello?”

“Isabella Moreno, this is your mother.”

“Hi, Mom.” She expelled a deep sigh.

“How is everything coming with the renovation? I’ve been meaning to drop in; I promise it will be this week sometime.”

“Oh, great. They’re nice guys.” She paused, and then added, “Hard workers.” Thinking more about Luke’s resolve to attract her than any work he’d done with hammer and nail.

“Wonderful! Have they gotten a lot done yet?”

“Oh...nothing major yet. They’ve just been prepping things. Tearing down drywall, taking measurements...”
And seducing the woman of the house
, she added to herself.

“Sounds fabulous! I hope it turns out as lovely as I imagined. Now that I think about it, I certainly ordered all the bells and whistles when I was looking through their packages. But, darling, anything for my eldest child. I know you’ve needed a pick-me-up since David. And maybe if we remodel your surroundings, it will help you remodel your love life?” Her laugh tinkled through the phone. “I should write that one down; I might be able to use it for an ad somewhere.”

Isabella sighed. “Well everything is undergoing a remodel, that’s for sure.” She hesitated, wondering if she should bring up Luke’s wanton and nearly inappropriate behavior. Should she get him fired, have him moved to a new project? Her mother would certainly take care of it if Isabella wanted; one angry call from Angela Moreno and the company would offer to pay
her
for the remodel. But the idea sat, awkward and strange, in her head. Luke, however irritating and forward, was a good worker and, despite her best attempts to deny it, she wanted him to be around. The thought of him not showing up each day caused a strange fear to erupt in her stomach. Was it possible she liked the way he was pushing her buttons?

“Any luck finding a date to the wedding, dear?”

“Still nothing, mother,” she said. “I’m on the lookout.”

“You could always take David.”

“It’s not happening.”

“Well, he’d be better than nobody!”

“Mother. I’m not speaking to him ever again; he is cut out of my life, so why on earth would I take him to my sister’s wedding? It’s a time for joy; with him there I’d be liable to cut somebody.”

Her mother’s laugh tinkled through the phone once more. “No need for violence, dear. I’m off. Love!”

After Isabella hung up her phone, she sighed, staring at the front of the coffee shop. Getting anything done today was going to be a fight. It wasn’t just the fact that her passions had been awakened. It was her growing affection for that stupid, cocky construction worker that had her nerves rattled as well.
You do
not
like him,
she told herself. She couldn’t—he was nothing like David.

David had been the wrong guy for the right part. Nearly every bit of him described what she was looking for in her future mate, minus their sorry ending. Their life together had been predictable, stable. He was an accountable man in nearly every aspect but his fidelity. He was headstrong, something she was starting to realize he and Luke shared. But David’s interests lay in things more typical of the upper class, she realized, like sailing and golf—two things that bored her. She’d always figured she could sacrifice shared interests in favor of the perfect partner to tote around for a long, stable marriage. She and David had worked because it was... She sighed, biting her lip as the word she was looking for revealed itself.
It worked because it was boring.

Luke was...well, Luke was unpredictable. He was the exact opposite of David. Luke was rough around the edges, wore his hair long and messy, walked around shirtless, and didn’t have any qualms about shoving his personality on someone the second they met. And someone like David was who she wanted, a quiet, respectable, responsible man, so that automatically ruled Luke out.
Problem solved.

But she was forgetting something more important than all of this—men didn’t even matter to her anymore.

When she returned from the coffee shop later that day—admittedly around the time when the workers were supposed to be leaving, in hopes of avoiding Luke for as long as possible—she felt refreshed and accomplished. The coffee had rejuvenated her spirits and she had turned in her article to her editor early. She pulled up to the house, completely prepared for whatever she might find, and saw that all the construction vehicles were gone and it looked like everything had been cleaned up outside. She practically skipped into her house, dropping her briefcase in the front hallway. With a pleasant sigh, she flitted into the front room to begin checking out the day’s progress. Luke turned around, surprising her, wiping his forehead with his arm.

He nodded at her. “Hey.” She couldn’t ignore the excitement that prickled through her body at the sight of this man. “I was just finishing this up.”

He gestured toward the oak bookcase beside him, almost seven feet tall with a dark, even finish and ornate designs along the outside paneling.

“Wow,” she breathed. “That’s wonderful.” She’d been prepared for everything, it seemed, but this.

“Is it okay in here?”

“Perfect.”

Luke stepped back, admired it, and said, “It’s officially done.”

“Who did the woodworking?”

“I did.”

She looked at him, surprised. “You’re very talented. I had no idea that you could...you know...”

“Have something other than women on my mind?” He looked at her for confirmation. “Yeah, well, let’s just say there’s a lot you don’t know about me.”

There was a thick silence.

“Well I better go,” he said, clearing his throat and picking up some of his tools.

Isabella’s mind flitted back to the morning. Apparently Luke wasn’t all talk—he was actually sticking to his word. A strange fear surged through her and she heard her voice before she realized she was speaking.