Authors: Anne Rainey
Tempting Grace (2 page)
“Sorry about that,” Jackson said. “I wasn’t paying attention.” She made a point of brushing off her jean shorts. “No big. I’ve taken worse playing football with this slug.” She pointed to Blade.
When she finally allowed herself to glance over at Jackson, she knew two things. One, he was way more of a hunk close up. Two, he was going to be really hard to ignore now that she’d gotten a good healthy look at him.
Jackson held out his hand. “Jackson Hill. I work for Merrick.” Grace took it and smiled. “I know who you are. I’m Grace Vaughn, the annoying younger cousin.”
“And I’m out of here,” Blade grumbled. “I need to find some air conditioning.”
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Anne Rainey
“You’re getting old and soft. Better watch it, I think I see a pot belly in your future,” she teased Blade, though it was the furthest thing from the truth. Blade was all muscle. She secretly thought fat cells were merely too afraid to venture anywhere near him.
“You like to play with fire, don’t you, Gracie?”
Oh, hell, he had a really nice voice. Deep, mysterious, full of wicked promise. “It’s Grace, and Blade’s a big boy, he can handle some razzing.”
“I agree,” he murmured. He fell silent, staring at her as if imagining things. Naughty things. Grace had the urge to yank at the hem of her black tank top to cover her exposed abdomen. The tank and shorts had seemed like a good idea for a hot July family get together. The way Jackson licked his lips and kept glancing at her belly and legs made her wish she’d worn a sweatshirt and jeans.
“I’ve never seen you at one of the Vaughn picnics,” she said in an attempt at normalcy. “Why is that?”
He sat on the edge of the porch and crossed his arms over his chest. “I wasn’t invited until now.
Merrick and I have gotten to be pretty good friends, though.”
“Golf?”
He chuckled, which was oh-so-yummy. “Yeah. Merrick and I both love it.”
“Male bonding, how cute,” she said, hoping to shake his calm demeanor.
He looked over at the basketball sitting on the porch floor, bent and picked it up. “Do you like to play, Gracie?”
She refused to enjoy the way he said her name. No one called her Gracie. She’d always hated it.
Jackson made it sound sinful. “I play some, yeah.”
“Feel up to playing a game with me?”
The double-entendre wasn’t lost on her or her libido. “Your timing is off. I was about to leave when you smacked me in the face with that thing.”
He suddenly stood and cupped her chin. When he turned her head to the left and right, Grace was too stunned to move. Apparently satisfied, he smiled. “You’re too pretty to be bruised.”
“Thanks,” she said. Escape. She had to escape. The man was lethal and way out of her league. She liked simple guys. Guys she could easily handle. Jackson was neither. She started around him. “It was nice meeting you,” she tossed over her shoulder.
“Maybe one of these days you’ll play with me, Gracie.” His words caught her, and she froze. It took all her strength to get her feet moving again. She didn’t think she breathed until she sat behind the wheel. Grace looked down at her hands and they actually shook.
“He’s just a guy, quit acting like such a girl,” she chastised herself.
It was a good five minutes before she could pull the keys out of her pocket and start the car. His words played over and over in her head.
10
Chapter One
Present day
“He’s driving me insane. I can’t work with him, Merrick. You have to do something.”
“Calm down, Grace, and tell me what the problem is…this time.” Grace counted to ten and tried to concentrate on not losing her cool. It wasn’t easy. “He’s a Neanderthal,” she stated. “I want to work for you. Not him.”
“Tattle-telling again, Gracie?”
Every muscle in her body went rigid at that deep baritone. She turned around and had to brace herself when she saw Jackson lounging against the doorjamb to Merrick’s office. “Don’t you ever knock?” He winked, which only infuriated her more. “The door wasn’t closed, and your voice tends to carry. I was curious what had you all in a tizzy.”
She stepped toward him and gritted out, “Call me Gracie one more time and I’ll—”
“Enough!” Merrick shouted. “Both of you, get in here and close the damn door.” Grace recognized the tone. Merrick rarely got angry, but when he did it was wise not to push him. She stepped closer to his desk and sat in a chair facing him. She refused to look at Jackson, though she could hear the door close behind her.
“Sit down, Jackson,” Merrick said, his voice brooking no argument. Out of the corner of her eye, Grace saw Jackson taking the chair next to her. “Grace, I asked you to work with Jackson because that’s where you’re needed right now. I need a marketing rep, and that’s what you’re good at. With Chloe five months into her pregnancy, I need Jackson to pick up some of my slack. That means you need to pick up some of his slack. You knew this when you took the job.” Grace drooped. It was all true. She had known what she was getting into. She’d wanted to work at her cousin’s company so badly she’d purposely squashed her concerns about working alongside the much too attractive Jackson Hill. The man put her on edge, and she’d never understood why. He simply rubbed her the wrong way. Or maybe the real problem was that he rubbed her just exactly right, which scared her. She didn’t like being scared. It pissed her off.
“I need to know if this is going to work,” Merrick said, his gaze bouncing from her to Jackson then back again. “You two have been going at it for the full two months you’ve been here. It’s driving me crazy, and I can’t afford to be any crazier than I already am right now. The baby will be here soon and I need to focus.”
Anne Rainey
“I don’t see the problem,” Jackson said, his voice full of confidence. “Grace is a good worker. I have no beef with her whatsoever.”
She clasped her hands in her lap and just barely kept herself from saying something she’d regret. “The only problem I have is that you can’t take no for an answer.” He chuckled. “Really? Because I don’t recall asking a question.” Technically, it was true. He hadn’t asked her on a date. But he’d hinted. At times it even seemed he took great pleasure in pushing her, making her imagine things she had no business imagining. Having sexual fantasies about her boss was surely a no-no. She peeked over at him and caught him staring at her.
The heat in his gaze couldn’t be missed. He wanted her. He might not have spelled it out, but the signals were there. She’d effectively evaded them too. Working every day with him was stealing her control, though. She’d snap soon, and then where would she be? Just another of Jackson Hill’s conquests, she was sure of it. He hadn’t tried to hide the fact that he wasn’t into long term relationships. And she wasn’t interested in being a notch on his belt. That left her with one solution. Quit working at Vaughn’s Business Solutions. The thought made her gut clench.
“I want to talk to Jackson alone for a minute. Take a break, okay?” She saw something in Merrick’s expression that worried her. He’d had the same look the day Ronny Walsh had put a tack on her chair in her seventh grade science class. She’d made the mistake of crying about it in front of Merrick. She didn’t know what Merrick did, but the next day Ronny had come to her with an apology. It hadn’t been her intention to get Jackson in trouble, only convince Merrick to transfer her so she wasn’t in such close proximity to the infernal man. She suddenly felt very guilty.
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” she said, unable to hide the worry in her voice.
Merrick looked down at his watch, then back at her. “It’s noon, time for lunch anyway.” Merrick wasn’t letting up. She would get nowhere with him now. Grace sighed and stood, but as she glanced over at Jackson, she was surprised to notice he didn’t seem at all concerned. Did the man have no sense of self-preservation? When he winked, she wanted to throttle him. She threw her hands in the air. “I give up. I’m going job hunting. I’ll be back in an hour.” As she yanked the door open, she wondered for the hundredth time why she’d thought she could handle working with Jackson Hill. Surely she’d been under some sort of spell when she’d accepted Merrick’s job offer. There simply wasn’t any other explanation.
***
It was all Jackson could do not to laugh as he watched Grace stalk out of Merrick’s office. He’d gotten to her, and she was running scared. It was only a matter of time now. He’d been lusting after the little blonde imp from the moment he’d spotted her at one of Merrick’s family’s cookouts. He’d tried the subtle approach, but that had gotten him exactly nowhere. She’d shot him down like a clay pigeon. The 12
Tempting Grace
more he’d gotten to know her, the more he’d come to realize that Grace used sarcasm to keep people at arm’s length. Especially him. She was damned good at holding him off. Jackson was getting desperate. If he didn’t get her to submit soon, he’d explode.
“Quit thinking about her.”
Merrick’s voice dragged him back to reality. “I wasn’t,” Jackson lied.
Merrick rolled his eyes and sat back in his chair. “What the hell is it with you two? I can’t figure it.
It’s as if you like fighting with her.”
“The truth?”
“No, I’d rather you lied to me,” Merrick ground out. “Yes, I want the truth.”
“Just remember, you asked,” he warned. “Fighting with Grace is like foreplay. It turns us both on. She wants me as much as I want her. She just can’t seem to let her guard down long enough to let me in. I’ve yet to figure out why.” He leaned forward in the chair and said, “Maybe you can help me with that one.” Merrick shook his head. “You are aware that I’m not only her cousin, but your boss, right?” Jackson recognized Merrick in overprotective mode. But Jackson had no intention of staying away from Grace, now or ever. “Is this the part where you warn me away?”
“Grace is my employee, and I protect my employees. You’re in dangerous territory, flirting with her.
Sexual harassment isn’t something I take lightly, Jackson.” Jackson went rigid. “Did she say I sexually harassed her?”
“That’s not the point. The point is I protect what’s mine.”
“I would never hurt Grace.”
“But you
are
making her uncomfortable, and I can’t have that. Either back off or I’ll move her to a different position.”
Merrick had just tossed down the gauntlet. If Jackson pushed the issue he could lose Grace and probably his job, not to mention his friendship with Merrick. Still, he wasn’t about to make a promise he knew damn well he couldn’t keep. Jackson rubbed his jaw and decided to lay it all on the line.
“This isn’t a game to me. I care about your cousin. You can fire me, pull Grace under your wing or whatever, but I won’t stop pursuing her until
she
tells me to stop.” Merrick slammed his fist on the desk. “What the hell is up with you? I’ve never seen you act like this.
You’ve never dated an employee. Why Grace?”
Jackson had wondered that himself. “She’s the most annoying woman I’ve ever met. She tells me to go to hell and I get a fucking hard-on. She threatens to maim me and I start drooling. Damned if I can figure it out. But until I do, I won’t let up. She wants me, she’s just fighting it. I scare her.” Jackson rubbed his jaw and thought for a second. “No, that’s not right. I think the idea of being with me scares her.”
“Grace doesn’t scare easily,” Merrick mused. “But you’re right. She’s been watching you like a caged lioness. If you aren’t careful, she’ll have you for lunch. Grace can be damned mean when cornered.”
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It was now or never. Time to make a deal with the devil. “I have a solution. One that will please everyone.”
Merrick drummed his fingers on the desk for several seconds before saying, “I’m listening.”
“The Interop Convention in Vegas is coming up,” Jackson stated, referring to the nation’s biggest information technology convention. Businesses from all over the world attended to view new cutting-edge technologies. It was May, and the convention was a week away. “I want to take Grace with me when I go.
If she’s still resisting my irresistible charms after that, I’ll back off.”
“You and Grace in Las Vegas for a week? You think I’ll agree to this?”
“I think you want Grace to be happy. I think you want harmony back in your office. Let me take Grace to Vegas. Not the whole week. Three days, that’s all I’m asking, and I promise you’ll have both.” Merrick got out of the chair and paced. Jackson was almost afraid he was going to fire his ass right then. He had every right too. Jackson was surprised when Merrick said, “If Grace wants to go, I won’t stop her. But it’s her choice, not yours. You won’t force her because you’re her boss. Understood?” Jackson said a silent prayer that Grace wouldn’t fight him on this one. “Understood.” Merrick came around the desk and leaned against the edge. “One more thing.” Jackson stood, sensing a battle coming. “Yeah?”
“Grace is like a sister to me, to Blade and Lacey too. I’d be very careful with her if I were you.” He nodded. “I know how close you all are, but this is between Grace and me.” Merrick crossed his arms over his chest. “Grace is all grown up now. Chloe says she can take care of herself, but that doesn’t mean I won’t kick your ass if you make her cry. Remember that while you’re trying to sweet talk her into going to Sin City with you.” Jackson laughed. “Hold off on buying the tar and feathers until after I get back, will ya? I wouldn’t want you to waste your money.”
Merrick shook his head. “You have to get her to agree to the trip first. I’m not so convinced you’ve got what it takes.”
“We’ll see.”
“Yeah, we will.”
Merrick called his name as Jackson started to leave. He stopped as he reached the door and turned.
“Yeah?”
“Has Grace told you about her car accident?”
Jackson’s stomach bottomed out. “What car accident?”
“When she was nineteen, she was in a real bad wreck. We weren’t sure she was going to make it those first twenty-four hours. It was hard on all of us. The thing is, Grace is the youngest of the Vaughns. I guess you could say she’s sort of the baby we’d all like to wrap in cotton if she’d only let us.” Merrick paused 14
