Naturally Naughty (15 page)

“I have to taste you,” he muttered.

Before Kate responded, Jack heard the front door of the theater open. Footsteps echoed on the tile floor. Acting instinctively, he yanked Kate’s shirt down, and turned to shield her behind him while she put herself back together.

“Get a lot of work done?” someone called. Wincing,
Jack watched as Miss Rose and her grinning brother entered the lobby. The older woman gave Jack and Kate a pointed glance. “If Jack wants to be covered with paint, he’s welcome to get on the scaffold and make a mess of himself, just like you have,” Rose said with a chuckle. “There was no need to share yours, Kate.”

Kate scrunched her eyes closed, obviously embarrassed as hell. Jack chuckled and reached for a paint tray. “Okay, Kate, you were good enough to teach me one or two things this afternoon.” He winked. “How about I teach you how to paint?”

T
HROUGHOUT THE NEXT DAY
, as Kate worked in the store with Cassie and some high school boys who followed her cousin around like puppy dogs, she kept wondering if she should move and stay with Cassie up on Lilac Hill. Even after everyone else left, leaving her alone in the shop to finish up some paperwork and cleaning, she thought about it. Cassie’s house would be safer. Having Jack next door was impossible, especially now, after what had happened yesterday. Their kiss in the theater had been intoxicating. If Miss Rose hadn’t come back when she did, they might have ended up rolling around on the floor, covering their naked bodies with the specks of paint littering the drop cloth.

She should move. Jack was simply too tempting. Too disturbing. Sooner or later they were going to end up back in bed together, and she didn’t know if either of them was prepared for the consequences of that.

One other thing disturbed her about being back in town.

“Hiya, Kate! How’s the store coming along?”

Friendliness. Damn, she really couldn’t get used to that.

Pausing with her hand filled with the paper towels she’d been using to clean the front window of the store early Thursday evening, she turned around. Diane. New owner of the Downtown Deli, whom Kate had met during her one-
day trip to town, then again when she’d gone in for lunch Monday. “Good, thanks.”

“I remember when we were gearing up to open,” the sweet-faced strawberry-blonde continued, as if not noticing Kate’s less-than-welcoming reply. “We got a chilly reception from some of the other merchants, let me tell you.” She cast a critical glance toward the Tea Room. “You’d have thought we murdered Mr. Simmons, instead of just buying the deli from him.”

“I can’t believe he finally decided to retire. He was as crusty as his sub rolls.” Kate chuckled. “I bet he wanted you to promise never to put mayonnaise on an Italian sub, didn’t he?”

Diane’s eyes widened. “Yes, he did!”

“He called it a sacrilege whenever I ordered one for Mom.”

“Well, I waited on your mother more times than I can count, and I never once deprived her of her mayonnaise,” the other woman replied. “How’s she doing down there in sunny Florida, anyway? We sure do miss her at the Bunko Club.”

Kate’s eyes widened. They missed her? At the Bunko Club? And what the hell was a Bunko Club? “I didn’t realize you knew her.”

Diane snorted. “Darlin’, you’ve been gone a long time if you’ve forgotten that everyone knows everyone here. Edie was the first one at my door with a home-made apple pie when me and Will moved into the apartment above the deli. She’s a real doll.”

From behind Diane, Kate heard another voice. “Edie? You bet your life she is. Although, it sure was a nightmare getting her raggedy nails fixed all up. The woman worked too hard!”

Kate looked past Diane to see the young woman she’d met her first day in town. The friendly one from the nail
salon. She looked different—her hair now being purple instead of a reddish orange. And the number of earrings had increased. But the welcoming grin was the same.

“Hi, again,” Kate offered, unable to resist the smile.

“I sure never expected to see you here washing windows. Get in there and get some gloves on before you ruin that manicure.”

Kate glanced down at her hands.

“On second thought, don’t. Come by my shop after you’re done and we’ll fix you right up. And we’ll have a long gab. Okay?”

“This is Josie,” Diane interjected. “Don’t make any pussycat jokes or she’ll use too much glue on your acrylics then refuse to fill ’em. You’ll have to pry them off with a crowbar.”

Josie stuck her tongue out at the other woman, then turned her attention to Kate. “And you’re Kate Jones. Edie’s long-lost, super-successful daughter, cousin of the supermodel who has Sheriff Taggart going around in circles.”

She talked so fast Kate had a hard time keeping up.

“Oh, really?”

Diane nodded. “His ex-girlfriend, Annie—she’s the dispatcher—says Tag starts acting like a grizzly bear with a burr in his butt whenever he has a run-in with your cousin.”

He hadn’t looked like a grizzly Saturday night when he’d come to the shop at 1:00 a.m. No, he’d looked more like a panther. Dark and dangerous. She hoped Cassie knew what she was doing.

“Uh, can I ask a stupid question?”

“Anything,” Diane replied.

“What’s Bunko?”

The other woman linked her arm in Kate’s. “You’ve never played Bunko? It’s the woman’s version of poker night. The Lilac Hill types have their bridge club. We prefer Bunko. A dice game, rotated among the homes of the club
members. Twice a month we meet to talk, laugh and play. The hostess provides the prizes.”

“The members provide the bourbon,” Josie added helpfully.

Kate laughed out loud. “Sounds like fun.” Surprisingly, she meant it. She could see how her mother would have enjoyed something so simple yet charming.

“Then it’s settled, you come to our next game, which happens to be tomorrow night at Eileen Saginaw’s house.”

Kate’s smile widened in genuine pleasure. “Eileen is my mom’s best friend. I’d love to see her again.”

And as easy as that, Kate found herself committed to a social event with some of the women of Pleasantville.

What is wrong with this picture?

“Now, tell us what you’re going to sell in your store,” Diane said. “Pretty please? Nobody knows anything more than it’s a ladies’ shop, and everybody’s going crazy trying to find out.”

Kate bit her lip. These two were the nicest people she’d met so far in Pleasantville, but that didn’t mean they were going to welcome sex toys on the main drag of town.

“It’s gotta be something good,” Josie said. “Tell me it’s real shoes. Real, decent shoes that don’t have rubber soles and plastic uppers. If you say you’re gonna carry Dr. Martens I’ll get down on the ground and kiss your toes. And I’ll give you a free pedicure while I’m down there.”

Kate shook her head. “Sorry. Not shoes.”

“Clothes. Oh, please let it be clothes,” Diane said. “The closest store to buy a decent dress is twenty miles away. And that’s not even one of those new super Wal-Marts, it’s just a plain old regular one.”

Kate bit her lip and shook her head at Diane’s genuine consternation. “Sorry. Not clothes.”
Not unless you counted crotchless panties and leather bustiers!

Josie bounced on the toes of her chunky black boots like a kid waiting in line for Santa. “Then what?”

“You’ll have to wait until our grand opening to find out.”

“Grand opening?”

She recognized that voice. Wincing, Kate turned around to see Jack standing right behind her. The man was quiet as a cat—she’d never even heard him approaching.

Obviously neither had the other two women. Because she felt sure she’d have noticed those matching holy-cannoli-take-me-big- looks on their faces.

“Hi, Jack,” she murmured. Her voice didn’t even shake. Amazing, since her heart had started racing like an out of control freight train speeding toward heartbreak junction.

The man was too handsome. His smile too adorably sexy to be real, the twinkle in his brilliant green eyes too charming. He made women want to hug him. Then
do
him. Including Kate. Especially Kate.

Diane and Josie spoke in unison. “Introduce us.”

After she’d made introductions all the way around, and listened to Josie and Diane pump Jack for information about why on earth he’d waited so long to come back for a visit to Pleasantville, she tried to slide away. Evening was approaching, though it was still light out. She wanted to get inside and lock up. Mainly she wanted to get away before Jack started asking any more questions about her store.

Just when she thought she might make a clean getaway, however, an old, beige Cadillac pulled up on the street and parked one building down, in front of the Tea Room.

“Great,” Jack muttered. “It’s my ex-brother-in-law.”

“Which one?” Josie said under her breath, her voice holding a definite note of sarcasm. Obviously she knew Angela.

As Kate watched the man emerge from the Cadillac, she answered softly, “Darren.”

D
ARREN HADN’T CHANGED
a great deal, though his face was rounder and his hair thinner than it had been in high school. His belly was rounder, too. He wasn’t fat, just soft and mellow-looking. Like a salesman.

He nodded to Diane and Josie, barely glanced at Kate, then noticed Jack. His face paled and for a second Kate thought he was going to get back in his car and drive away. Then his shoulders straightened as he locked the car and walked around it to the sidewalk.

Okay, so the jerk wasn’t a complete wimp. He wasn’t going to try to avoid his ex’s brother.

“Hello, Jack, Josie. Diane.” Then he glanced toward Kate, as if waiting for an introduction. His eyes narrowed as he tilted his head. “You…my God, it’s Kate Jones.”

“Hello, Darren.”

“I had no idea you were back in town.”

“Well, you know what they say about bad pennies.”

“You look…wow, you look
great
,” he said, his eyes wide as he stared her up and down.

Next door, the door to the Tea Room opened. Darren glanced past Kate, his face growing red. She knew darn well who stood there. “It was
so
nice seeing you, Darren. Be sure to say hi to your mom for me, okay?”

She turned around. Mrs. McIntyre stood on the porch next door, all stiff-necked, righteous indignation. Another woman, one Kate didn’t recognize, stood with her. The two
of them immediately started speaking in low voices. She couldn’t hear their words, but she got the message loud and clear.

Kate gave them a forced but saccharine-sweet smile as she strode inside her store, as if she hadn’t a care in the world.

Jack watched Kate leave, and made no attempt to stop her. He’d seen the silent exchange between Kate and Darren’s mother. The glassiness in her eyes and the quiver of her lush, beautiful bottom lip, said she was holding on by a thin thread.

He’d also read the tension between his ex brother-in-law and the woman he now considered his. He didn’t stop to evaluate that, knowing Kate would resent the hell out of him thinking that way. Particularly since he’d wondered if it was best to stay away from her, for his own sanity and reproductive health. He’d come to the conclusion that walking around with a hard-on eighteen hours a day could really be bad for his future children.

Josie and Diane seemed to notice the tension in the air, as well. Telling Jack how nice it was to meet him, they both walked down the street, their heads close together as they talked.

Once they were gone, Jack eyed his sister’s former husband. “How’s it going, Darren?”

Darren was still looking at the door to the building that had once belonged to his father. “I can’t believe Kate came back. I haven’t seen her since graduation.”

“You knew her in high school?”

Darren nodded. “We dated for a while, during senior year. She was my prom date.”

Prom night. The night, if he wasn’t mistaken, when his kid sister had gotten pregnant by this little prick, who’d walked out on her as soon as she’d miscarried their baby.
Jack’s teeth clenched. “I thought Angela was your prom date.”

“Oh, no, we just left together afterward…” Darren seemed to realize who he was speaking to, because his face went redder. “I mean, well, Angela and I had dated the year before. And we kind of got back together that night at prom.”

“What about Kate? You know, your
date?
”

Darren stood there looking hopeless, helpless and regretful. He finally shrugged. “High school, man. I was a kid.”

Jack shook his head. “Some people don’t have to wait till they grow up to become dickless assholes.” He prepared to walk away, but paused. “Darren?”

Darren finally looked him full in the face.

“If you like breathing, you’ll stay away from Kate.” Not waiting for an answer, he turned to follow Kate into her shop.

The doorknob didn’t jiggle in his hand, she’d obviously flicked the lock when she went inside. He knocked, figuring she wouldn’t answer. To his surprise, the door moved. Pushing at it, he watched as it swung open. The lock was apparently broken, lucky for him.

After he got inside, and closed the door firmly behind him, Jack noticed the smell of paint and new carpet. The overhead lights in the shop were off, but recessed ones above the shelves cast illumination throughout the shadowy store. A bit of late-afternoon sunlight peeked in through the sheers on the windows.

He didn’t see Kate. He did hear a voice, however. Following the sound of a radio, he walked through the sales area and back to the offices and storage rooms. He found Kate sitting in the center of a cement-floored room, surrounded by boxes, staring mindlessly into the air.

“Kate,” he said softly. “Are you okay?”

She slowly nodded. “How’d you get in? I locked the door.”

“Something’s obviously wrong with the lock. You should have someone look at that. Are you all right?”

A small smile widened her lips, and surprisingly, no tears marred her cheeks. “I’m fine, Jack. Just wondering…”

“Wondering what?”

She hesitated, and he thought for a moment she wouldn’t answer. Finally she admitted, “Wondering whether it’s right to go on resenting someone for doing only what you yourself have done for much of your life.”

He waited but she didn’t explain. He somehow suspected she had no intention of talking about whatever it was she was thinking. “So you’re really okay?”

She nodded. Rising, she brushed some dust from the floor off her butt, calling his attention to the miniscule white shorts she wore. He closed his eyes briefly. No wonder Darren had been unable to stop staring. Kate looked amazing. “I see you got all the paint washed off.”

She nodded. “For now. Though I promised to go back and help some more tomorrow at the Rialto.”

“Me, too,” he admitted. “Now, you want to tell me what grand opening you were talking about.” He glanced around the storage room at all the boxes. “Are you going into business here?”

“Yep,” she replied as she grabbed a box and moved past him, exiting the storage room.

He followed her through a short hallway, into the store area. She continued, through an arched doorway toward the dressing rooms and a mirrored alcove. She dropped the box near several others already lined up beneath rows of shelves.

“Your kind of business?” he asked, repeating his question from Saturday.

She tilted her head and gave him an arched glance out of the corner of her eye. “What do you think?”

When she bent and retrieved a filmy white bra from one box, then what appeared to be a black leather bustier from another, his eyes narrowed. “I think you’ve decided to play Clint Eastwood.”

He’d nailed it. He saw by the shock in her eyes, and the way she gasped as she dropped the two pieces of sexy lingerie, that he’d hit the truth dead-on.

“You’re out for a little revenge.”

“How could you possibly…”

“Come on, Kate, opening a new Bare Essentials right here in Pleasantville? Next door to the Tea Room?” He paused, letting the concept sink in, then reluctantly began to chuckle. “Damn, you really are something.”

“You…you’re not shocked?” she whispered.

Shocked? No. He’d already learned that Kate Jones was like no woman he’d ever known. He shook his head. “Not shocked. I think you’re crazy, and you’re going to lose your shirt.” He cast a heated glance at her body. “I mean figuratively speaking. Literally, I wouldn’t mind in the least.”

She rolled her eyes.

“If you ever open your doors, that is. I’m sure there’ll be a protest from certain quarters. You could lose everything you’ve already put into this place.”

“Which wasn’t much. It cost only some sweat equity—mostly Cassie’s—and shipping charges to ship stuff here.” She shrugged. “Besides, it’s not about money.”

“Of course not.”

She stepped closer and her smile faded. “It’s not some silly revenge plot, Jack. I had to be here…I needed to come back to town this summer.”

He couldn’t imagine what could possibly be important
enough to bring Kate back to a place she quite obviously hated, and told her so.

“I can’t really talk about it,” she said. “A lot of things happened all at once.” She crossed her arms in front of her chest and rubbed her hands up and down, as if chilly.

“Kate, whatever is going on, whatever this is about…”

“Yes?”

“Just be careful. Sometimes things don’t work out the way you think they will.”

“I somehow think this will,” she said, “because I don’t have unrealistic expectations. I fully expect to fail here.”

He raised a brow.

“We’ll open, we’ll cause a lot of chest-clutching, a lot of scandalous whispering, and then, when Cassie’s safe…” She cleared her throat. “I mean, when Cassie’s ready to leave…we’ll close and go away. Cassie will sell this building and everything else she owns here and we’ll never come back. No ties, no bad memories, just a laugh when we think back on our one last hurrah.”

“Cassie’s in trouble?”

“No. Forget it, okay? Cassie’s fine.” She looked at her nails, obviously feigning nonchalance. “Did you like her?”

“Like her? I barely spoke to her.”

“Most men don’t have to
speak
to her to form an impression.”

Jack shrugged. “She’s beautiful, of course. Flamboyant and probably too sexy for her own good. She’ll drive any man who loves her to the verge of insanity.”

She waited. When he didn’t continue, she prompted, “That’s all? You weren’t…interested?”

He shook his head. “Do you think I’m a total scumbag? What kind of guy would lust after the cousin of the woman he’s involved with?”

“We are not involved.”

“Bullshit. We are very much involved,” he admitted, confirming that not only to her, but to himself.

He waited for her to deny it. She couldn’t. Who could deny the inevitable? They might not have done much about their relationship since they’d been back in town, except for a few hot kisses and that one close encounter yesterday. But there’s no question they would. Sooner or later.

Judging by the look in her eye, and the expectancy in the air, he suspected it was going to be sooner.

He waited for a mental voice to tell him no, waited for his feet to instinctively turn toward the door. Waited to hear from the nice-guy voice of reason who’d been whispering in his ear for weeks.

That voice had been growing weaker as each day passed. He’d been listening to her from the other side of the duplex, seeing her shining, dark hair as she left in the morning, hearing her off-key singing as she showered. Every day another chunk had disappeared out of the wall of willpower he’d tried to erect between them. And after yesterday, it had come down like the last remnants of the Berlin Wall.

Sure he’d had good intentions, but all the good intentions in the world couldn’t stop what was happening between them. No more than a surfer could stop a wave on which he was riding.

Sometimes he had to ride it out to see where it took him.

“So are you going to tell me what’s wrong? Is your cousin in some kind of trouble or not?”

“Jack, let it go, okay?”

He didn’t press her on the Cassie issue, sensing she wouldn’t tell him what was going on, anyway. “So, back to your shop and your revenge plan. Anything else on the agenda?”

“No, I think I’ve summed it up.”

“Not much revenge there. I mean, you’re not having the population paint every building red?”

She chuckled. “You rented
High Plains Drifter
.”

He nodded.

“Okay, so it’s not the greatest revenge.” Her smile was mischievous and it made her brown eyes sparkle. “Must be that rotten sweetness everybody says is somewhere inside me. I’m great at fantasizing, just not so great at execution.”

Hearing her laugh at herself, Jack found her as captivating as she’d been the day they’d met. As if here, in a shop like the one she owned in Chicago, she was free to be herself. She’d let the negative elements of Pleasantville—her hurts, her misgivings, her sarcasm—disappear.

He found himself doing the same. As if nothing outside the building mattered. They could have been meeting for the first time in Chicago, as far as he was concerned.

She sighed. “Our plan seemed a lot more dramatic and outrageous when we fantasized about it as teenagers.”

“You fantasized about opening a sex shop in Pleasantville?”

“Yep, we even wrote it down in our diaries on prom night.”

His smile faded. “I heard about your prom night.”

“It’s fine. Water under the bridge,” she insisted. But she wouldn’t meet his eye.

“Should I even ask who else was on that revenge list you made that night?”

She pursed her lips. “No, you probably shouldn’t.”

As he’d thought—his own sister had probably been a pretty large target. Not to mention Darren.

“So, can I assume this shop will satisfy your need for revenge? I mean, I don’t have to worry bodies are going to start flying out the upstairs windows over the Tea Room, right?”

She sidestepped the question. “Oh, look, the store’s not even revenge at all. It’s more…I don’t know…like the old song. They talked about us throughout our childhoods, well, now we’ll
really
give them something to talk about! And they’ll never forget the Tremaines.”

“What if you fail to fail?”

“Excuse me?”

“You know, what if the store’s a big fat success? What then?”

Her laughter echoed in the small alcove. “Not a chance. That’ll never happen.”

“You never know. Your store is a big hit in Chicago.”

“This is
so
not Chicago.” She bent, opening a box at her feet. “Can you see Mrs. McIntyre buying one of these?”

She pulled out what looked like a foot-long hot dog. Then he realized it was a dildo. “Now, there’s something you don’t see every day in Pleasantville,” he mused out loud, not at all shocked, as she’d obviously intended.

“Gee, ya think?” She giggled like a kid as she grabbed something else out of the box. “I’m thinking of these in the display case right by the cash register.”