Smooth Irish (Book 2 of the Weldon Series) (5 page)

Nan tried to stop the quakes of desire
from spreading by clenching her stomach muscles. It didn’t help.
Jackson let his shoulders rest on the door behind him and drew her
between his jeans-clad, booted legs. She didn’t have to look to
know how his jeans fit or how his leather boots gleamed. Not a
thing about his dark Irish looks and southern bad boy manners had
changed.

“
Yes, a long while,” she
whispered past the lump in her throat. A droplet of water ran down
her cheek, dripped onto her breastbone, and slithered between her
breasts. Jackson’s gaze followed its path, heated, then lingered.
Nan looked down. Her halter-top gown lay plastered to her body like
skin, the wet silk clearly defining the rise of her breasts and
nipples. Something about her dress, besides the wet, was off, but
the hot missiles firing at her erogenous zones scrambled her brain
cells and she couldn't figure it out.

She slammed her eyes shut. Surely,
this had to be another one of her fantasies. Any minute she would
wake up and find herself alone, writing in her secret black
book.

“
Way too long,” he
growled, sliding his hands from her hips to cup the fullness of her
bottom. Nan opened her eyes to the pure sexual intensity in his.
Nope, not a fantasy. He was as potent, and as real as it got. He
wanted her and she wanted him. Not a problem.

The problem was what came after the
bedroom. She wasn’t about to get involved with a man going nowhere.
He lived his life by whim; she lived hers by a plan. She had goals;
she was going somewhere in life and he wasn’t budging from the
comfortable hole he’d dug.

Any second he would kiss her. Desire
sizzled up her spine and overrode rational thought. One more kiss
wouldn’t hurt, would it?

“
Or not long enough?” he
said, setting her back on her feet. “I forgot you’re baiting your
hook for a bigger fish. Brad Swanson. Alexi mentioned you’re seeing
him.” Tension tightened his lips, coolness edged into his eyes, and
his husky voice had turned harsh.

Jackson made it sound as if she and
Brad had a thing going and Nan wondered what Alexi had told him.
Even if she did have a thing going with Brad, Jackson’s tone was
out of line. Her back stiffened as she went to set him straight.
“Just because I have goals and direction doesn’t mean I’m a…a hook
baiter, and it doesn’t give you the right to use that tone of
voice, either. We aren’t an item.”

Now that Nan had a moment to think
about it, Alexi had a hell of a lot of explaining to do. Nan didn’t
think it coincidence that Alexi had asked to go shopping the same
day the orchestral band cancelled. Alexi had probably planned the
Sinfully Silky shopping knowing that Jackson’s band was going to be
the substitute. And the dress Alexi had talked her
into...

Jackson snatched his coat off the
ground and shoved it her way. “Those black lace panties looked like
bait to me, and unless you’re wanting to turn my whole band on, you
better keep that a while yet, because your nipples are begging to
be nibbled.” He stared at her breasts again.

Nan finally realized the loose silk
cape to her dress was missing. She must have lost it in the storm.
Instead of subtle, elegant sensuality, her wet dressed screamed I’m
hot baby. Oh no! Could things get any worse?

“
There’s a dressing room
you can use to fix yourself up, but if I were you, I’d go home and
get warm. Seeing Brad can’t be worth catching a cold.”

“
Direct me to the ladies’
room, please.”

“
Fine.” His voice vibrated
with anything but fine tones.

Fine, she told herself. If Jackson
wanted to think she was a bait hooker, or a hook baiter, however it
was said, then it was fine with her. Just fine. She wasn’t going to
set him straight that this was her first date with Brad. And she
wasn’t going to give Jackson the satisfaction of seeing her leave
the party. She’d go repair what damage she could in the bathroom
and then keep her date with Brad.

After the party, she’d kill
Alexi.

Jackson turned on his heel and left.
Nan had to hurry to keep up with his six-four stride. So what if he
was a walking wish list—dark hair, sexy eyes, and lean,
have-to-touch muscles? So what if he wanted to share all of that
with her? So what if he looked even more sexy than usual in jeans
and a white dress shirt instead of his usual t-shirt grunge. So
what if he made her insides melt. She wanted more in a man. She
wanted a man going somewhere.

Jackson stopped in the narrow hallway
and turned her way. She hated the thrill pumping through her blood.
His glare mirrored her mixed emotions. Even though he was angry, he
still wanted her.

“
Listen,
Jackson—”

“
The ladies room is behind
you. I’d better find Alexi and tell her you’re safe and sound.” He
whipped around and walked away without looking back.

* * *

Fool.
Cursing
himself, Jackson strode away from Nan. The woman was trouble. He
should be two-stepping in the opposite direction anytime she came
near with her livewire sensuality. Five minutes in her company and
he became so hot he could give new meaning to the concept of
“southern fried.”

But damn, seeing her bottoms up over
the hood of his pick-up, all black lace and creamy skin got to him.
Everything about her did. The fire of her hair, the way her blue
eyes grew dark with passion and excitement, or cool with
disapproval. Her honeysuckle scent with a touch of the exotic
spicing it up incited him to drink from her sweet mouth.
Unfortunately, she came with strings attached. Strings like
commitment and a future—strings he didn’t deserve to stroke, pluck,
or strum.

Like the songs he played on the
guitar, something about Nan reached inside him beyond the numbness
and made him feel. Jackson missed a step.
No, not feel. It was just a sexual
thing
.

She’d gotten stuck in his head
somewhere between the “I do’s” and the final toast at Jesse and
Alexi’s wedding. It might have had something to do with the fact
that she’d caught the bridal bouquet and he’d made damned sure that
his younger twin brothers, James and Jared, didn’t catch the
garter. They had no business running their hands up
her
long legs. He’d gotten the
pleasure of touching her silky skin, of being up close and personal
with her honeysuckle scent.

Grim, he pushed his hands into the
pockets of his jeans to ease the pressure off his fly and moved
back into the fray of the cocktail party. People dressed in
tuxedos, glittery gowns, and exchanging superficial chatter filled
the room. They were as effervescent as the champagne bubbling in
the flutes they held.

Alexi spotted him immediately. He
quickened his step to save her from walking through the crowded
room. If it weren’t for Alexi, and her zeal to improve children’s
medical care at the hospital, he would have avoided this social
function like the plague.

“
Did you find Nan?” she
asked, frowning then the blood drained from her face. “Why the
serious look on your face? Something’s happened to Nan, hasn’t
it?”

“
No. She’s fine. A little
wet, but fine. Now relax.”

“
Really, you wouldn’t lie
to me?”

“
I promise. Nan is fine.
The only thing I lied about was the wet part.” He smiled until he
remembered just how well he could see the full contours of Nan’s
breasts beneath the silk of her dress. Then his smile dropped as
his pulse rate rose. “She’s more than just a little wet, she’s
drenched. I sent her to the ladies dressing room back stage to dry
off, though in my opinion she should go home and have a hot
bath.”

“
Thank you for going after
her. Doctor on call or not, I can’t believe Brad didn’t go pick her
up, not with this storm. I wanted to smack him when he showed up
without Nan.”

“
Swanson has always been a
self-absorbed, stuffed shirt.”

“
I didn’t realize you knew
him.”

“
In Chicago.” Realizing
he’d said too much, he turned to go. “Time I went backstage to
finish setting up our equipment for the dance.”

“
Sure you and your band
don’t want to eat in the main room?”

“
Positive. No offense, but
we’d be more comfortable in the backstage lounge. Where’s Jesse? I
haven’t seen him around.”

“
He’s not here. The storms
delayed his flight from DC.”

Jackson froze, and unease crept up his
spine. “You didn’t drive yourself here, did you?”

“
Of course. I had to be
here hours ago. I missed the rain completely.”

“
You’re eight months
pregnant, Alexi, you shouldn’t be driving.”

“
Jesse usually runs me
about when he’s in town, but when he’s gone and I’m feeling fine, I
drive myself.”

Jackson shrugged. It wasn’t any skin
off of his back what his brother and sister-in-law did. He turned
to go again, but couldn’t make his feet move. “Look. Next time
Jesse’s not around and you need to go somewhere, call me. Hell,
call James, or Jared, or anybody. Okay?”

“
Well, that seems like a
lot of trouble to impose—”

Jackson could already see she wasn’t
going to pick up the phone. He grabbed her hand. “Just promise me
you won’t get behind the steering wheel again until after the
baby’s been born. I’ll drive you home tonight and you call me even
if it's to fetch ice cream in the middle of the night.
Okay?”

Suddenly realizing people about them
were beginning to stare, Jackson eased his grip on Alexi’s hand and
lowered his voice. “Please.”

Alexi blinked her obvious surprise,
but relented. “Okay, Jack. But you’re worrying over nothing. It
won’t be much longer before I won’t even fit behind the wheel and
still reach the pedals.” Her smile came at odds to the questions he
saw in her eyes.

He didn’t want questions. This is why
he avoided family. This is why he avoided people. Proximity led to
involvement, something he didn’t want.

“
I’ll check on Nan,” Alexi
said and left.

Jackson drew a deep breath and headed
backstage. As he strode across the crowded room, the sugarcoated
atmosphere swirling about him clashed with the feelings crowding in
on him. He’d have to talk to Jesse. The fool didn’t realize he
could lose everything he held dear.

Rolling his shoulders to dispel some
of the tension knotting his muscles, he focused on the mess of cold
metal equipment. He preferred handling the mechanics of music to
dealing with the dynamics of relationships on any level. Nan left
him feeling like a rolled up hot-to-go pretzel. As many times as he
told himself to forget her, she boomeranged right back into his
mind.

* * *

Nan, bent doubled under the hand
dryer, fluffed the curtain of her damp hair. Her dress hung under
the other hand-dryer receiving intermittent blasts of hot air. All
she had on was her black lace lingerie topped by Jackson’s jacket,
which barely covered her garters. Her lack of dress in comparison
to the marble, gold-leafed plushness of the dressing room made her
feel decadent. Beneath the heat of the dryer, another fantasy had
taken root. This time she sat on Jackson’s Harley, and they were
taking a wild ride, but he wasn’t driving down a road. He was
driving deep inside. . .

“
What did you do to
Jackson?” Alexi demanded. She waddled into the room like she
couldn’t make the last step of a long journey.

“
Jackson!” Nan yelped
guiltily then bit her lip, ashamed over her disappointment at
seeing her friend enter. Giving her hair a last scrunch, Nan stood
upright. The cool, sophisticated style she started the night with
was now a jumble of bedroom-mussed hair. Nan frowned at Alexi. “I
didn’t do anything to him. Why?”

“
The expression on his
face is rivaling the storm outside. He was fine before he went to
look for you.” Alexi rubbed the small of her back and stretched her
shoulders.

“
He went out looking for
me?”

“
Yeah, I was worried and
when I got no answer at your apartment, he volunteered to make sure
you were all right.”

Nan let the subject of Jackson drop,
but finding out he’d ventured into the storm for her stuck in her
head. Had Brad been concerned? He obviously hadn't been watching
the front for her or he would have seen her drive up.

Alexi sank into the jade leather
loveseat just inside the dressing room door. She slipped her feet
from her pumps and tried to massage them. The girth of the child
growing within made the task nearly impossible. She gave up and
rolled back against the cushions, then commented on Nan’s attire.
“Black garters and leather. I wore mine for Jesse the other
night.”

“
And?”

“
He laughed.”

“
I’ll kill
him.”

“
No you won’t, because I
love him. Besides, he laughed because he didn’t think there was
anything on this God’s earth I couldn’t make sexy.”

“
He can live. That’s so
romantic.”