Touch Me (5 page)

Yeah, he wasn’t about to wait weeks. He was going to go all in, as soon as he could corner the woman.

Monday had been crazy just as Hannah had predicted. It was two in the afternoon and she still hadn’t eaten lunch. Now that she thought about it, she was missing too many lunches. Time to start planning to bring meals with her.

She walked out into the waiting room happy to see that it was empty.

“Hey, Hannah,” Mary said. “I think you have a friend about to stop by.”

She frowned when the bell over the door rang. Jack stepped through, dressed in his camo uniform. He pulled off his hat, slipped it under his arm, and smiled at her. And in a blink, she lost track of what she had been thinking.

“What are you doing here?”

He looked at her. “I was just passing by and thought I would stop in.”

“To a veterinary clinic? When you don’t have a pet?” Then, she noticed the bag in his hand. “What’s that?”

Apparently, all of the good manners she had been taught over the years had disappeared, or did so in front of Jack.

She sighed. “I was being rude again.”

“No problem. Mary said you hadn’t eaten. So, I asked what you liked and went and got it.”

She looked at Mary who was beaming at her.

“Come on,” she said with a sigh. As they passed Mary, he winked at the young woman. She giggled and blushed. Apparently no intelligent woman could think straight with a Marine around.

She opened the door to her office and let him walk through before she stepped in and shut the door.

“So what is it you want?”

“I brought you lunch.”

He said it with so much innocence she wanted to scream. Dammit, he didn’t even know when he was being patronizing.

“You didn’t know that I hadn’t eaten when you started this way. So, that’s a big freaking lie.”

He set the bag on the desk in front of her. Oh, God, he had gone to her favorite burger joint. “Thank you for lunch.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Are you going to keep standing there?”

“I’m waiting for you to sit.”

Of course he was. “Do you want anything to drink?” she asked as she opened her office fridge. He shook his head. She pulled out a water then sat down, and he followed suit.

“Now, tell me why you are trying to ply me with burgers and fries.”

He smiled. “What I want is for you to quit ignoring me.”

“I’m not ignoring you. I’ve been busy.”

He gave her a look that told her he didn’t believe her. Well, it was her story and she was sticking to it. She couldn’t be nice. She hadn’t had a good night’s rest since she’d had dinner with him. It was worse now that she kept seeing him every day. He found some way to show up so often in front of her house that she’d maneuvered her schedule to avoid him.

Dammit, she just realized she had admitted to herself that she
had
been avoiding him.

“Nice office,” he said, looking around.

“Thank you.”

Then, they lapsed into silence. She couldn’t force herself to look away or to eat in front of him. Not right at the moment.  He was staring at her with those sexy blue eyes of his, and she couldn’t think straight, let alone eat a burger.

She was trying to resist him the best she could, but the man was making it very, very hard.

“Is Dante still staying over?”

He shook his head. “He’s moving out tonight. He just needed a place to bunk for awhile.”

“That’s nice. It’s hard for someone like me to think of having a regular size family. A military family would probably just overwhelm me.”

“You don’t have anyone left?”

Dammit. She said too much.

“No. Just a distant aunt, but she is a great aunt.”

“What happened to your folks?”

“They died in a wreck when I was twenty. I was an only child.” She shrugged. That much was true.

“I can’t even imagine. It was hard enough losing one parent, but both and at the same time?”

She nodded.

“So, if you aren’t avoiding me, how about a date?”

She shook her head. “Jack, we both agreed that it wouldn’t be a good idea.”

“You agreed with yourself. I think it might be good to at least explore it.”

“What is going to happen if we get in a fight?”

“Then we could go back to being strangers.”

And that would kill her. She didn’t know him all that well, but now that she had seen a few of them, she had grown addicted to his smiles. They made her warm from some place within.

“Listen, we could go out, try it out. If it doesn’t really work well, then we move on, just be friends.”

He made it sound so easy. Like nothing bad would happen.

“Okay.”

He smiled when she agreed and she felt like she’d won the lottery.

“I have to get back to the base, but how about Friday night?”

She nodded, unable to come to terms with the fact she had just agreed to go out on a date. She didn’t do this with normal guys.

She stood as he did, and walked him to the door, opening it but he stopped her.

“It’s been too long.”

It was all he said before he cupped her face and brushed his mouth over hers. It was a little kiss, just a butterfly wing against her lips. Then, he deepened it, slipping his hands down her body to pull her closer.  She went easily, happy to accommodate. Her blood was humming a chorus of need she had never experienced before. He pressed closer, pushing her back against the door. Her nipples tightened and there was no doubt in her mind about his arousal.

He pulled back and she followed him with a growl she didn’t recognize.

“We better eat out on Friday or do stuff away from a flat surface because there is a good chance I won’t be able to control myself.”

The need she heard shimmering in his voice sent heat blazing through her. He gave her another hard, quick kiss.

“Okay, I am going or I won’t for a long time and we’ll embarrass Mary.”

“Bye.”

“Seven on Friday?”

She nodded. When she was alone, she stumbled back to the desk and collapsed in her chair. Mary knocked then entered.

“You look stunned.”

“I am.”

“And you look like you’ve been bad.”

She sighed. “Not as much as I would have liked.”

“Oh, well, I really like him now. Really, really like him.”

Hannah narrowed her eyes at Mary. “No. I can’t afford to make a mistake.”

“So you aren’t going out with him on Friday night?”

“Yes.” Then she realized what Mary had said, “How did you know?”

“He asked if I could make sure you didn’t get booked up late on Friday.”

“I hope you told him to mind his own business.”

Mary blinked and tried to look innocent. “Of course.”

“Are you telling me you assured him you would keep me free to make it to our date?”

“Sorry, but you have to agree that the man can talk you into almost anything.”

“You weren’t out there that long, so I doubt he had to do much talking.”

“Stop complaining and eat.  You have a patient coming in twenty minutes.”

With that, Mary left her alone with her burger and fries. The problem was she knew just how persuasive the man was. She would have to keep her wits about her to make sure she remembered that relationships were off limits. For her and for the Marine. She would go out with him and keep her hands to herself.

Hannah groaned. If she couldn’t even convince herself, how was she ever going to be able to convince Jack?

Jack rolled his shoulders before he rang Hannah’s doorbell. Again, he was nervous. The woman had him acting like he was in school still. He dreamed of her at night and obsessed about her during the day. He truly couldn’t wait for the new class to start next week because it would keep his mind off his very sexy neighbor.

The door opened and he felt all the air leave his lungs. There was a bit of sun still filtering in her windows behind her. It added a pretty glow all around Hannah, accentuating the golden hues in her hair.

His gaze dipped down. She was dressed in a flimsy little sundress, red to be exact. It didn’t show a lot, but it clung to her as she moved.

“Hey, there,” she said, her voice bright. He looked up and then, the breath clogged his lungs. She was smiling at him and he couldn’t think. Every bit of his ability to speak had escaped him.

“Jack?”

He shook his head, trying to clear it of the images of him stripping that dress from her body. It did no good. "Is it the dress? I can go change if it's too fancy for what we're doing tonight."

"No," he said, practically shouting it. "Sorry, no I like the dress."

He let his gaze slip down again. Her toes were peeking out from beneath the hem, red to match the dress.

"Is there something wrong with my feet?" she asked, her voice filled with amusement.

His gaze shot to hers. "No, I like your painted toes." As he focused more on her face, he realized she had on a little more makeup than usual. She was also wearing a set of dangling earrings, which swayed back and forth whenever she moved her head. "Let's go before Hercules gets upset."

It was then he realized the monster dog was nowhere to be found.

"Where is he?"

"Eating a bone. He does better when I do that."

She tried to walk past him, but he hadn't moved. Like an idiot, he had just stood there as she stepped down onto the porch. This close, he could catch her scent. It was something sexy and mysterious, but he wasn't sure how much of it was perfume and how much of it was Hannah. She frowned at him, and he stepped back. After locking the door, she waited for him to move. He gave her room, then followed her to the car. The fabric of the dress clung to that full, heart-shaped ass of hers. It wasn't tight, but it still gave him the most amazing view.

"I wasn't sure where we were going, so I figured this would be good. "I like the fact that it's cool."

"I guess you do have some sweaty work sometimes."

She beamed at him as he opened the car door for her. "Yeah. So every now and then dressing up for fun is well...fun."

She laughed at her play on words and he couldn't resist. He leaned forward and gave her a small kiss on her smiling mouth. It was quick and not nearly as satisfying as he would have liked to have, but it sent his hormones racing.

"What was that for?"

He shrugged. "I wanted a little taste of you before dinner."

She shook her head and sat down in the car. She apparently was as confused as he was about things so at least they were in this together.

He rounded the hood of his car. It was time to get this show on the road.

*  *  *  *

Hannah tried to control the nervous giggle that threatened her constantly. It grew worse the longer she was in Jack's presence. They had just ordered their meals, giving him a chance to look at her. She hated that. Well, not hated the looking. She hated the way it made her react. She should know by now how to react when an interesting man looked at her.

But she didn't. This one would glance at her and she would lose all thought.

"So, you didn't have a busy day at the office?"

"I did. And please, don't tell Mary things like you did the other day. My work is off limits."

He said nothing for a moment, just kept staring at her.

"What?"

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why is that off limits?"

"Boundaries, Jack. If we were going to be in a real relationship--"

"We might."

She ignored that comment and plowed ahead.

"If we were, I wouldn't tolerate it. I have my work and it means the world to me. You trying to rearrange my schedule is like me showing up and telling the Marines not to deploy you."

He waited a couple of seconds, then he nodded. "Agreed."

She let loose a breath she didn't know she had been holding. “It’s a hot button issue for me.”

“No problem.”

“So, I take it you have been deployed?”

He nodded. “Right now it is damned hard to deploy me, but yeah, I have been.”

The time lengthened and she realized he wasn’t going to elaborate on that. In fact, he seemed to be rather stingy with comments about his work. She could understand that. A lot of men weren’t. More than one of them had tried to lure her to bed with tales of their valor. Not Jack Johnson.

“Jack? Is that short for something?”

He nodded. “Jackson, but I rarely use it. Only my Nonna and MJ get away with it.”

She smiled. “And I am pretty sure it’s because you’ve done something bad.”

“They say. Well, Nonna is always right. My sister though…last time she used it with me was when she was dating Leo.”

“Leo?”

“Her now husband. I found them necking in the car.”

“Oh, my.” She giggled. “I bet she wasn’t happy with you.”

“For some reason, she took exception to me knocking on the car door window to get them to stop.

“You are a nightmare to have as a brother.”

He jerked a shoulder. It was a gesture that she found endearing. “It turned out good in the end. They got married and now I have two nieces.”

“And your brothers, both married?”

“Yep. I’m the last Johnson standing, for now.”

She didn’t like the tone of that, so she chose to ignore it.

“You really have no relatives?” he asked when she said nothing else.

“Yeah, it’s weird to people, but I’m used to it.”

“Listen, I know you’re nervous around me, but the truth is, I might look like I am ready to pounce on you at times, but I won’t. I am serious about getting to know you.”

And that was the problem. He didn’t understand what kind of danger they would both be in if he found everything out. That danger would extend to his family and Hannah couldn’t have that.

She would never forgive herself if it happened again.

Her nerves were still sparking when they reached her house. Or their houses, or whatever. Lord, she even sounded like an idiot in her brain. When a person started to sound insane to themselves, there was something really, really wrong.

“I had a nice time.”