Sam sat down and grabbed another slice. They’d probably missed out on something good, he thought, remembering the picnic basket he’d left somewhere on Jack’s lawn. Becky was quite a cook and always brought the best dishes to family gatherings. But as long as Jenna wasn’t kicking him out, cold pizza would do just fine.
When he’d finished off two more slices and Jenna was working on her second slice, he sat back. He wanted to interrogate her about several things, including the selling of her house and the rumors of her financial problems. But he had to start somewhere.
“
What’s the real story with this Stewart guy?”
She shook her head and kept eating.
“
Hey,” he said. “I told you my story.”
She dropped her crust to the plate. “So, fair is fair?”
“
You got it.”
She stalled, taking a drink of her cola. “He wanted to make a deal and I said no. Now he’s mad.”
Sam waited, but saw that was all she was going to share. “Wow, heck of a story.”
“
It doesn’t matter anymore,” she said. “I said no.”
“
Looks like it matters to him.”
She seemed tired suddenly and he was about to back off when she started talking. “His grandfather, Winston Stewart, will only leave him a fortune if he’s married. He asked me and I said no. Now, if he can’t find someone else before his grandfather dies, he’ll lose millions.”
“
But you said no?” Sam repeated, just to be sure. The very idea another man had proposed to her made him feel slightly murderous.
“
And, apparently, Mr. Stewart’s health is pretty bad. Brandon’s in a rush.”
“
That’s a weird deal,” Sam commented. “Why does he have to be married?”
Jenna shrugged. “He’s old and maybe it’s an old-fashioned thing? Or, it might be because Brandon likes to bring the trashiest girls he can find to family gatherings, to make everyone mad. He said his grandfather wanted to make sure he married someone his family approved of. And he’s been chasing me since we were kids.”
Another reason to hate the guy, not that Sam thought of him as actual competition. But he didn’t like the idea of another man thinking about her – in that way. Probably fantasizing about her. He had to stretch his neck to keep the tension from building.
“
Just so you know,” he told her, not asking, “I’m staying the night.”
As expected, her eyes widened. “Excuse me?”
“
I’ll take the couch downstairs. I’m not leaving you and your sister here alone with that maniac out there.”
She got up to clear the table. “That’s really not necessary. He won’t come back tonight and if he does, I’ll call the police myself. He’s annoying, but he’s not dangerous.”
Probably true, but Sam knew he couldn’t go back to Jack’s and leave them here alone. He’d never be able to rest wondering if they were safe. He spotted a small bowl with individually-wrapped green and white mints in it. He got up to help himself to one. “Then I’ll camp out in my truck in front of your house.”
“
Now you’re being annoying,” she said as she stacked their plates. But she didn’t really seem annoyed and didn’t argue further as she started washing dishes. “You can stay in my dad’s room, if you want.”
The very thought of that made his skin crawl. “The couch is fine.”
“
Then I’ll get you a blanket and pillow.”
He watched her from behind, growing warm again at the sight of her. And a sudden realization came over him. He was falling in love with her all over again. No matter how hard he tried to fight it, he could still see the real Jenna behind the protective shield she’d put up around her. He could see the real Jenna in her eyes, in her smiles, in the gentleness and affection she showed her child, in her sharp mind, and most especially in the luscious soft curves of her magnificent body.
He realized he wasn’t afraid of being with Jenna, just other girls who weren’t right for him. But with Jenna, it had always seemed natural. Practically instinctive.
It was time to stop fantasizing about the woman of his dreams and make it a reality.
When she’d finished, she gave him a brief, cordial smile and left the kitchen. He followed along, leisurely, a stranger in this house.
A stranger who needed to take action and stop being a stranger.
CHAPTER NINE
In the foyer, Brianna was seeing her friends out. Jenna made sure the doors were securely locked, then stopped Bri as she was about to run up the stairs.
“
Clean up your mess. We have to keep the house in viewing condition right now.”
Brianna huffed, bobbing, probably hopped up on sugar, and pulled away. “I will in a second. I have to make one
very quick
phone call.” She ran up the stairs to her room.
Jenna knew that one quick phone call would turn into another phone call and then probably another one. Bri would want to tell everyone about her adventure with Brandon Stewart acting like an idiot. She knew her sister. Brianna would want revenge on Ally Stewart for spreading rumors about them.
So, Jenna went to clean up the mess herself. The couch and floor were littered with popcorn pieces and pizza crumbs, and cola bottles covered the coffee table. No telling how much her sister had spent on this little party.
Realizing she’d need a trash bag from the kitchen, she turned into the foyer, and almost ran headlong into Sam, who was still loitering. She looked into his warm, earnest blue eyes - eyes she had loved for so very long.
She stepped to the side, away from his warmth and penetrating gaze. “Sorry,” she said and maneuvered around him.
He let her pass then fell in step beside her, in the narrow hallway beside the stairs. She stopped to see why he was acting so odd.
He looked down at her with eyes as wild as the Strickland men she’d seen in the post office all those years ago. He propped his hand against the wall by her head, forcing her backward, leaning so close she could smell his mesmerizing scent beneath the faint and appealing scent of cologne. His gaze traveled the length of her body, and he released a soft groan of pleasure, which seemed wholly involuntary. His blue eyes glittered, his left shoulder turned inward - a powerful shoulder stretching against white cotton.
She jumped when she saw that he was leaning forward, moving inside her realm of personal space, seeming to drift over her like a shadow, and his lips brushed lightly across her cheek, angling downward toward her lips.
She gasped when his mint-scented breath drifted in her mouth. “What are you doing?”
“
This is about more than Ethan,” he said in a deep, sensual voice. “I think you know that. This is about you and me and something we had. Something amazing.”
Her breath shuddered in her throat and she could barely find a voice. “A long time ago.”
He leaned back, just a little, to meet her gaze. When he looked up his face was red and she felt equally flushed.
“
God, you still get me excited,” he said, his voice dropping to a velvety growl. His hand slid up her arm shocking her with the intensity of heat and flesh.
When he leaned closer, her first reaction was to pull away, but she couldn’t resist him. She’d never been able to resist him. Involuntarily, she grabbed a handful of his shirt as his warm lips closed over hers, his hand on her neck pulling her closer. He kissed her softly, gently.
The feel of his heat, his breath, the foreign feel of his soft lips on hers, startled her and sent her body buzzing. It had been so long since anyone had touched her – like this.
Memories came crashing back, making her dizzy as she was pulled through time to a dark night on a sparkling pond. She’d wanted this for so long, to feel his heat and touch again. Slowly melting, she gave into temptation and laid her hand on his shoulder, then let it drift up to his soft hair, floating back to that night with the world spinning as he’d smothered her body with heated kisses. His kisses were still familiar, her body had not forgotten – nor had her heart.
His lips were so soft, yet firm and skilled. He pulled her closer, spreading her lips with his tongue, sending a violent tremor straight to her gut, pulling her farther from reality.
As if suddenly jolted by electricity, he seized her roughly, driving his tongue into her mouth, heating the kiss by a hundred degrees, and she grabbed onto him in response, wrapping her arms around his neck as he pressed his hard body against hers.
Vaguely, she remembered her sister upstairs, her son sleeping in his room. They were out in the open, in full view, and yet she couldn’t seem to care. If he decided to take them both to the floor, she knew she wouldn’t stop him.
His hand dropped to cup her bottom and he ground his erection against her. She pulled on him, wanting him closer. Needing more.
“
I have to go,” Brianna said cheerfully upstairs. “My sister’s griping at me.”
Sam didn’t seem to hear and didn’t slow his advance, griping her thigh to lift her leg, to make space for him to press closer, but Jenna was startled back to reality.
She pushed against him, horrified by the thought of Brianna catching them this way.
“
Stop it!” she hissed, pushing his hands off her to maneuver to the side, away from him.
He stopped, and backed up with a wicked smile. Brianna came trotting down the stairs.
“
Don’t give up on me,” he whispered. “This isn’t over.”
Jenna rushed up the stairs, acutely aware of Sam’s gaze on her backside. On the landing, she quickly turned her sister around. “Forget the mess. It’s time for bed. We’ll deal with it tomorrow.”
“
What’s wrong?” Bri asked, falling in step back up the stairs. “Are you mad?”
Jenna knew she must have appeared red all over. Her body was still on fire and she could barely walk in a straight line. “Just tired. It’s late. Sam’s worried about Brandon so he’s staying on the couch in the living room. Stay in your room.”
“
Okay. Whatever.”
At Brianna’s door, she snatched the cell phone from her sister’s hand. “And give me back my phone.”
“
Fine,” Bri said, frowning wildly. “Wow!” She went in her room and slammed the door.
Jenna checked in on Ethan then went to her own room. She closed the door and then stared at the doorknob, wondering if she should lock herself in. Wondering if she really wanted to.
Unable to decide, she backed away from the door and fell back on her bed. She pressed her hand against her stomach and let herself relive every second of the incredible turn of events, the intensely exciting adventure Sam had created.
She hadn’t realized the need had been there, living dormant inside her all these years, until Sam’s touch had brought that need to life with a vengeance. What she would have given to be free to run wild with him, to return his smiles and heated touches, to be reckless again.
She turned onto her side and saw Ethan’s toys piled on the chair.
But did Sam really want to be with her, or did he only want sex? What did men usually want? She sat up, alarmed by her own thoughts, by her own actions. What was she doing?
She had to keep her relationship with Sam separate, professional, centered on Ethan.
Before she could let herself give in to temptation, she jumped up and locked the door.
***
Sam watched Jenna take the stairs with steps as light as a dancer’s and disappear into the depths of the second floor pulling her sister along. Feeling drunk, he couldn’t help but drink in every nuance of her appearance. Her hips were wider now, offering that wonderful feminine swell from her slim waist; her posture more controlled, depicting her maturity into adulthood; her hair was several inches shorter, cut bluntly across the bottom, instead of rounded as she’d once worn it.
Noticing the changes in her drew his thoughts back to the first time he’d really noticed her. The first time he’d noticed her as a potential conquest. He’d never been attracted to the refined, overly manicured type but something about her had caught his eye. Her crystalline surface of perfection had seemed like a mask to him. He’d felt compelled to remove that mask and see what was underneath.
He wandered into the cavernous living room. The house was mostly white with high ceilings and way too much air. It made him feel jittery, almost like a thief creeping about in the night. This was why he’d never shown Jenna the courtesy of picking her up for their dates at her home. Fear and pride. He hadn’t wanted to be left standing awkwardly in the overtly white house while her father circled him with the eyes of a shark.
No wonder she didn’t trust him - he hadn’t stood up for her when it counted. He hadn’t risked his pride to treat her in a decent, respectable manner. He’d been nothing but one disappointment after another for her. In fact, he found it amazing she was letting him come this close to her. Or be around his child.
He had one hell of a mess to clean up where she was concerned.