Simply Irresistible (10 page)

Jax looked out into the bright, sunny, icy-cold morning, and then back into her eyes. “And about the kiss. Are you sorry about
that, too?”

She’d thought that she would be. After all, she’d been so easily drawn into Alex’s ready charm, and look at what a nightmare
that had turned out to be.

They both knew the truth. If she’d felt any more “interested,” she would have spontaneously combusted.

At her silence, he stepped in a little closer. Close enough that her body tensed with the need to step back, but then his
scent came to her, his soap or deodorant or whatever that delicious male scent was, and her nostrils twitched for more. “I
don’t want to talk about it,” she whispered.

“You have a lot of things you don’t want to talk about.”

Last night, he’d been kind enough not to ask questions. She hoped that was still the case. “I know.” She braced for the inquisition,
but he didn’t go there. He kept it light.

And sexy. God, so sexy.

“I understand,” he said, nodding. “All that kissing was… awkward. Messy. Completely off.”

It’d been deep and erotic and sensual, and even now, just thinking about how his mouth had felt on hers sent butterflies spiraling
low in her belly.

No.

No, she wasn’t sorry about the kiss.

Clearly reading her mind, his mouth slowly curved. “So no interest, and certainly no chemistry,” he murmured, dipping his
head to take in the fact that her misbehaving nipples were pressing up against the words
BITE ME
on her T-shirt.

“R-right,” she managed. “No chemistry whatsoever.” But then she took a step into him instead of away, and look at that, suddenly
his mouth was right there, and her hands were fisting in his fleece hoodie.

How had that happened?

His eyes were heavy lidded now and locked on her mouth. Beneath her hands, he was warm and hard with strength, and she tightened
her grip. To keep him at arm’s length, she told herself. “You don’t want chemistry with me,” she said. “I have… faults.”

“Like you can’t hold your liquor?”

“Ha. And no. I mean…” She searched for something suitably off-putting. “I’m twenty-nine, and I keep a
flashlight on me, just in case I need to hold the closet monsters at bay. I can’t let foods touch on my plate, everything
has to be in its own quadrant. And my go-to movie is
The Sound of Music.
I can sing every song.” There. Didn’t get more embarrassing than that. But just in case, she added one more. “I can also
burp the alphabet. I won an award for it in college, and sometimes when I’m alone, I practice in the mirror.”

“The whole alphabet?”

“Yeah, so it’s for the best that we don’t… you know.”

“You’re right. That
Sound of Music
thing is totally a dealbreaker. Thankfully, we have no chemistry at all.” He was teasing her, but when she met his gaze,
he wasn’t smiling. Nope. His eyes were lit with something else entirely, and it wasn’t humor.

And she knew something else, too. She hadn’t scared him off. Not even a little.

M
addie rushed through a shower with water that wouldn’t go past lukewarm, and worse, it looked suspiciously rusty. She’d be
worried except she’d gotten a tetanus shot just last year when she’d stepped on a nail at a movie set in Burbank. And anyway,
it was hard to find room for worry when her body was humming and pulsing.

And he hadn’t even kissed her again.

Dammit, how dare he bring her body parts back to life with nothing more than his presence after she’d decided to go off men
entirely?

It was rude, it was thoughtless, it was…

Not his fault.

Getting out of the shower, she stood in the bathroom and rummaged through her duffel bag. She’d packed only the essentials,
leaving the rest in storage with her dad in Los Angeles.

She pulled on a pair of Levi’s and struggled with the top button. Damn chips. She pulled on a tank top, then added a big bulky
sweater, not letting herself hear a certain ex’s voice whispering in her ear that she should hit the gym. Instead, she didn’t
look at herself too closely in the mirror. Ignorance was bliss, right? Maybe she ought to put
that
on a 3x5 card and add it to the box.

As always, her hair had a mind of its own. Battling with the blow-dryer helped only marginally. She took a couple of swipes
with the mascara wand and declared herself good to go.

Jax had offered to wait for her to take a quick shower and dress so that she could walk him around the property. She found
him in the small kitchen, which was made even smaller by his sheer size. He was drinking something out of a mug and talking
to Tara, but when she walked into the room they both fell into a silence of the shhh-here-she-comes variety. “What?” she said,
looking down at herself. Nope, she hadn’t forgotten her clothes.

“It’s nothing, sugar.” Tara handed her a steaming mug. “It’s only instant from the store, and trust me, it’s no Starbucks.”
She shot Jax a look like this was his fault. “I picked it up last night when I bought the cleaning supplies.”

“It’s good enough for me,” Jax said. “Thanks.”

Maddie told herself not to stare at him, that it was like staring directly into the sun, but she’d never been good at following
advice. Plus she found she couldn’t stop looking at his mouth. It was a good mouth and made her think about things she had
no business thinking about. “So about why we called you.”

A faint smile hinted around the corners of his mouth. “You needed a master.”

“Well, your ad did say you are an expert.” Look at that, she sounded cool, even smartass-like. She’d always wanted to be a
smartass.
Nicely done, keep it up. Do not let him see you sweat.

And whatever you do, don’t look at his mouth.

Or at the way his jeans fit, all faded and lovingly cupping his… cuppable parts. “Does your expertise include dusty hundred-year-old
inns decorated in early rooster and duck?”

“Ducks and roosters are no problem. The cows are new to me. And I specialize in fixing things up and restoring them to their
former glory.”

She wondered if that talent extended to humans, maybe even humans who never really had a former glory. “So how much can we
get done between now and Christmas?”

“And think cheap,” Tara cut in to say. “Aesthetic value only, for resale purposes.”

“The inn didn’t come with an operating account, unfortunately,” Maddie explained. “Just a big fat mortgage payment, so money’s
a problem.”

Jax’s eyes flicked to Tara, then back to Maddie, and once again she wondered what she was missing.

“So you’re going to sell?” he asked.

“Hopefully,” Tara said.

“Hopefully not,” Maddie said.

Jax nodded as if this made perfect sense. “I’ll walk the property and work up a bid.”

“And I’m off to shower.” Tara turned back at the door. “Sugar, tell me you left me some hot water so I’m not forced to head
to Alpine and bathe outside like a cretin.”

“Alpine?” Maddie asked. “What’s that?”

“There’s a natural hot springs about three miles up the road,” Jax said. “The locals think of it as their own personal hot
tub.”

Maddie looked at Tara. “How do you know about the hot springs?”

“Doesn’t everyone?”

“No,” she said, but Tara was gone. Alone with Jax, she pointed to his clipboard. “Better put a new water heater in that bid.”

“All right.”

The kitchen seemed even smaller now that it was just the two of them. She moved to the slightly larger living room and was
extremely aware that he followed. “I don’t think we’ll waste any money in here,” she said. “Just the inn.” She reached up
to shove her too-long bangs out of her face and realized what she’d done when she caught him staring at her right eye, at
the scar on the outside of it that she knew was still looking fresh. Before she could turn away, he was there, right there,
and gently—God, so gently it nearly broke something inside of her—brushed the hair from her face and stared at the mark.

For the longest heartbeat in history, he didn’t say anything, but the muscles in his jaw bunched. From his fingers, so carefully
light on her, she felt the tension grip his entire body. “What happened?”

“Nothing. I don’t want to talk about it.”

Another agonizing beat pulsed around them before he let go of her, allowing her bangs to fall over her forehead again.

He let out a long breath and eyed their Charlie Brown Christmas tree. When he spoke, his voice was low but normal. “You have
an eyelash curler on your tree.”

Grateful, so damn grateful that he wasn’t going to push, she let out a breath, too. “We improvised.”

He took in the pictures of their teen crushes and shook his head, not smiling but letting go of some of the tension racking
him.

“You don’t like?”

“Actually, I do like,” he said, and when she glanced over at him, she found him looking directly at her.

“I meant the tree.”

He just picked up his leather jacket from its perch by the front door, the one he’d given her to wear last night. Once again
he held it open for her, then nudged her outside ahead of him.

The morning was clear and crisp, and the trees and ground glittered with frost. The sun was so bright it hurt her eyes and
head, and also her teeth, which made no sense.

“Hangovers are a bitch,” Jax said and dropped his sunglasses onto her nose.

He walked away before she could thank him, so she closed her mouth and pushed up the glasses a little, grateful for the dark
lenses. She tried to remember the last time anyone had done such a thing for her without anything expected in return—and couldn’t.

“Also going on the list,” he said when she’d run to catch up with his long-legged stride. “Making sure no more trees are in
danger of killing you in the next wind storm. We’ll chop that up for firewood.”

She stared at the massive tree bisecting the yard. “Where I come from, firewood comes in a small bundle at the grocery store,
and you set it in your fireplace to give off ambience.”

“Trust me, ambience is the last thing you’ll want this tree to give you. It’s going to keep your fingers and feet warm.”

She hugged his jacket to her and not because it smelled heavenly. Okay, because it smelled heavenly. And did he never get
cold? She looked at him in that slightly oversized hoodie and sexy jeans and boots, carrying that clipboard. She wished she
had a clipboard. Instead, she pulled out her Blackberry to make notes, too. “Do I need to call a tree guy?”

“I can do it. Those two trees there…” He pointed across the yard to the left of the marina building. “They’re going to need
to be seriously cut back. I’m sure there’s others.”

They walked the rest of the property and outlined all the obvious problems. There were many. After discussing them in detail
over the next half hour, they were back in the center of the yard, next to the fallen tree.

“So,” he said. “Your sisters want out.”

“Yesterday,” she agreed.

“I think your mom hoped you three would stick around and take care of this place the way she always intended to. You know
how she was.”

“Actually, I don’t,” she said. “I didn’t know her very well. I was raised by my father in Los Angeles. She sent postcards
from wherever the Grateful Dead were playing, and we had the occasional whirlwind visit. But she never mentioned this place,
not once.” She realized how detached that sounded and just how much she’d revealed about their lack of a relationship, and
it both embarrassed and saddened her. Having bared herself enough for one day, she turned away.

“Some kids might resent their parent in this situation,” he said quietly.

“There’s some of that.”

She felt a big, warm hand settle at her back, and he led her to his Jeep. The huge brown dog in the passenger seat sat up
and gave a single, joyous
woof!

Jax opened the door and the lab mix leapt out, all long, gawky limbs and happy tongue. Two huge front paws hit Maddie in the
chest, making her stagger back.

Jax’s hands settled on her arms from behind, steadying her. Leaning over her shoulder, he gave the dog a friendly push. “Down,
you big lug. You okay?” He turned Maddie around to face him, eyeing the two dusty paw prints on her chest.

She backed away and brushed herself off before he got any notions about helping. “She’s very pretty.”

“Pretty
something,
anyway.” He sent the dog a look of affection. “I just haven’t decided on what. Izzy, sit,” he directed, and the dog promptly
sat on his foot, looking up at him in clear hero worship.

Maddie bent for a stick and threw it. Izzy craned her neck, took in the stick’s flight through the air, and yawned.

“She’s not much for chasing sticks,” Jax said dryly. “She’ll chase her tail, though, all day long. She’s a rescue. She didn’t
get the Labrador handbook.”

Izzy nudged her head to Jax’s thigh, and Jax crouched to give her a hug and a full-body rub, and Maddie felt a moment of jealousy
as Izzy slid bonelessly to the ground in clear ecstasy, groaning loudly.