Something About Joe (9 page)

Why had she said that? She wished she could
drag the words back into her mouth. They made her sound like some
kind of social reject. That wasn’t the image she wanted to project
to Joe Martin. She might be date-less but she was far from
desperate.

She forced a laugh. “All this healthy stuff
you’re cooking me is good for my figure.”

His already husky voice deepened to almost a
growl. “You’ve got an amazing figure.”

Allison was
about to say
she could lose a pound or
two, but was halted by the sensual gleam in Joe’s eyes as he
appraised her body. His gaze roamed over her breasts, her waist,
her hips, lingered on her legs and returned to her face.

Her nipples hardened in response and she
could feel a flush climbing up her neck like a rising tide. She
prayed he wouldn’t notice. Her knees started trembling with a
sudden weakness. If just by looking at her he could arouse such
feelings, what would it feel like if he were to touch her? To
stroke and caress her and make her body sing?

This time
there was no mistaking the passion that gleamed hot in his eyes. “I
like a woman to look like a woman,” he said, his voice husky with
sensuous undertones.

Allison’s heart missed a beat. Had she heard
him right? Was Mitchell’s nanny coming onto her?

She smiled,
but was so shocked she could only stammer out, “Th...thank
you.”

She was so
overwhelmed by her attraction to him she could hardly speak—and she
didn’t know how to handle the situation. She, who had never trusted
physical attraction, was unprepared for the force of the pull she
felt to him. She couldn’t keep her eyes from his face, from his
mouth and the sensual admiration in his eyes. It made her feel sexy
and desirable and womanly. And she hadn’t thought about herself in
that way for a long time.

Joe abruptly
turned to the stove. But seconds later he turned back to her. His
expression, his stance—he looked as though he’d fought a battle
with himself and lost. It was the first time she’d seen him lose
his unbeatable aura of self-confidence.

She stood as
still as he did for a long second—his gaze reflecting her own
uncertainty—before he reached out and gripped her shoulders. She
could feel the warmth and strength of his hands through the silky
knit of her top. Her heart started a violent, excited hammering.
His face was close, his eyes so intense they seemed no longer blue
but black. He slid his hands down her back and she wound her arms
around his neck, linking her hands behind his head.

Then his
mouth, fierce and demanding, found hers. She kissed him back with
equal fervor; her pent-up longing fuelled her passionate response.
She tightened her arms around his neck and pressed her breasts to
his chest.

Her mouth
opened under his and she shuddered with delight as his tongue
traced the soft fullness of her lips and then sought entrance to
her mouth. She welcomed him, the tip of her tongue inviting him to
explore further. He pulled her tighter. His hand slid up the back
of her top and caressed her back. She quivered with the pleasure of
it.

His hands
were warm and firm on her skin. Her senses were filled with his
scent. She could hardly believe this was happening. She was kissing
Joe in her kitchen, her body aflame for him, the blood pounding
through her head—and it was heaven.

Time seemed to stand still as she gave
herself over to sensation. Her and Joe. It was all she was aware
of.

The baby
monitor on the countertop crackled. Once. Twice. She froze, her
mouth still pressed to Joe’s. Mitchell moaned in his sleep.
Reluctantly, Allison broke away from Joe’s kiss to listen more
intently.

“
Momma,”
Mitchell murmured sleepily through the monitor. What bad, bad
timing from her baby. Please don’t let him call out again, she
prayed, not wanting this moment with Joe to end. But “Momma” came
the little voice again.

Joe released
her
. “You’d better go to him.”

Allison felt
dizzy, her breath coming in soft, panting gasps and it took a
second for her to orientate herself. She nodded and raced upstairs
to Mitchell. As she’d suspected, her little boy was fast asleep and
didn’t stir at her arrival. His forehead felt cool to her touch, he
was probably just dreaming. Gently she stroked his
cheek.

Her heart was still pounding at a million
miles an hour. She welcomed a few minutes to think in the quiet of
Mitchell’s room.

What was she
doing, lusting after Mitchell’s nanny like some hormone-crazed
adolescent? Thank heaven Mitchell’s monitor had brought her to her
senses, before she’d done something she would regret.

Kissing Joe
was insane. Much as she wanted him, she had to end it. She didn’t
believe in going to bed with someone she didn’t know well, didn’t
love. They’d only kissed but she knew where kisses like that would
lead. Her body might be ready for bed with Joe but her heart
wasn’t.

How would
she explain that to Joe without sounding like a prissy
schoolgirl?

He was waiting for her at the bottom of the
stairs. “Mitchell okay?”

“
Fine,” she
said. “He was just—”

Joe didn’t
give her time for explanations. He pulled her back into his arms to
take up where he’d left off.

Her
instinctive reaction was to sink back into his
embrace, to enjoy his closeness, the feel of his mouth on hers. But
she fought the urgent demands of her body and tried to pull away
from his kiss. He tightened his hold on her, nuzzling her,
caressing her, his hands roaming over her back.

“Stop!” She could scarcely get the word out.
“This isn’t a good idea.”

“
It feels
like a good idea to me.” His hand slid further up her back and
under the back of her bra.

He
wasn’t...he couldn’t be...
but how she
wanted him to... This was almost more than she could
bear.

“
No!” she
said again, and wrenched herself right away from him. Her breath
was coming in soft panting gasps and it was difficult to force the
words out. “You’re Mitchell’s nanny.”

Her lips
were still moist and burning from his kiss, the strength and
hardness of his body still imprinted on the soft, female curves of
her body.

Joe
laughed—
a strained kind of laugh as his
breathing was harsh and ragged. “No kissing in the kitchen. That’s
the rule is it, boss lady?”

“
Th…that’s
right,” she managed to get out, refusing to give in to the thought
that the bedroom would be better. She was still on fire for him,
her pulse racing and her face flushed.

But he
hadn’t finished. Joe pulled her to him again with one hand, then
tilted her chin up with the other, so she was forced to face
him.

“
I don’t
care
I’m Mitchell’s nanny and you’re the
boss lady,” he said in a voice that wasn’t quite steady. “I want to
kiss you and you want to kiss me. But you’re right. It isn’t a good
idea. This…this has broken my rules, too.”

“
What
rules?”

“
Never to
get involved with my employer. But you’re making it damn hard for
me to remember why I made those rules.”

Her
heart thudded at still being so close to him.
One part of her—the untamed, impulsive part she’d never given in
to—wanted him to kiss away her protests, to reassure her that
kissing him was a fantastic idea.

His eyes
were deep and shadowed and he kissed her again, a swift hard
pressure on her mouth, before he drew away from her.

“
But I’m not
going to hang around to prove how noble I can be,” he said, tearing
the dishtowel from his waist. “I’m out of here.”

With a swift
turn, he headed for the living room. She noted how gracefully he
moved for one so big, his powerful muscles flexing under the
cotton-knit fabric of his T-shirt and the worn denim of his
jeans.

This pair
was torn just below his tight, rounded butt. Just a slight tear, he
mightn’t even have noticed it. But it gave her a tantalizing
glimpse of bare, tanned flesh.

Allison had
to take a deep breath as her heart thudded out of control. She
would only have to follow him, put her arms around him, press her
body to his and they would make love.

More than
she had thought possible, she wanted that. But she was too scared
to take the risk of casual sex with Joe. She’d hate herself in the
morning when she’d denied her principles for a sexual thrill with
someone she couldn’t imagine ever being a permanent part of her
life.

She followed him to where he was picking up
his jacket. She felt awkward, unsure of what to say, wanting him to
go and at the same time wanting him to stay.

J
oe berated himself for having
made a move on Allison. He grabbed his leather jacket. Hadn’t he
told himself he didn’t want to hurt her by starting something that
couldn’t lead anywhere? Then he’d leaped on her in the kitchen—in
the kitchen of all places—and would have had her over the
countertop if she’d let him.

When that
intercom had sounded he’d thought he’d explode with frustration.
Fond as he was of Mitchell, he cursed the little guy’s timing.
Allison had wanted him as much as he’d wanted her and knowing that
had made him burn for her. She was magic. The hottest, sexiest
woman he’d ever known.

H
e couldn’t hang around here
looking at her, not able to have her, and getting angrier with
himself for having broken his self-imposed rules.

He
shrugged on his leather jacket and then turned,
to see Allison watching him. Her hair tumbled around her face, her
mouth swollen from his kisses, her eyes vulnerable and confused. It
took every ounce of will power he had not to pull her to him and
kiss her into bed; get her so excited she’d forget her misgivings.
But that wouldn’t make it any more right than it was. It was better
this way; he could face her next day knowing he wasn’t guilty of
hurting her.

He
picked up his helmet. “I’m off,” he
said.

Was that
disappointment that flashed across her face? Did she think he was
superhuman? He’d said he’d stay until seven o’clock, but he
couldn’t endure hanging around chatting and unable to touch
her.

“Thanks,” she said in a shaky voice, “thanks
for everything, Joe.”

Hey! This
sounded like the big kiss-off. Tonight was only Wednesday. He still
had two days to go of his contract. And he was counting on seeing
her again. His thoughts ran wildly on another tangent. After Friday
she wouldn’t be his boss anymore. The rules wouldn’t
apply.

But that
didn’t stop her being a single mom looking for something steady,
while relationships without strings were still very much on his
agenda.

“What do you mean, ‘thanks for everything’?
I’ll be back in the morning,” he said, more abruptly than he’d
intended.

He couldn’t stop looking at her breasts, so
firm and rounded under her tight top.

At his
words, hurt flashed across Allison’s face. He wasn’t handling this
so well.

“
I meant for
all your help today,” she said. “I didn’t tell you—we got the
deal.”

Joe was genuinely pleased for her. “Hey,
that’s great!” He would have given her a hug but he didn’t trust
himself. Hug her here and the sofa was only a couple of steps
away...

“It’s signed, sealed and delivered,” she
said with pride.

“So why aren’t you out celebrating?” he
asked.

“No babysitter,” she said simply.

Instead she
was staying at home with his spaghetti sauce. Too bad. It wasn’t
his place to take her out to dinner, then dancing—slow, sensuous
dancing—then...
Damn.
Every thought about Allison Bradley led to the
bedroom. This was torture standing here talking to her, looking but
not touching. He had to leave.

“
I couldn’t
have stayed to look after Mitchell. I’ve got band practice,” he
said bluntly. He started to move toward the door.

“What about babysitting Friday night? That’s
when I’m celebrating.”

Jealousy surged through him. “Who with?” he
blurted out.

“
My boss,
Clive.”

Her
boss.
Joe wound the strap of his helmet
around his fingers so tightly it hurt. He untwisted it, but still
felt twisted with jealousy inside. Feeling like this was crazy. He
couldn’t offer her anything; she could go out with any man she
wanted.

He had to look like he didn’t care. “My
sister Wendy could probably babysit for you.”

“
Your
sister? So your family is kind of ‘Babysitters Inc’ is it?” she
said with a smile.

“
Wendy’s a
student.
But she’s used to looking after
our baby sister—Lissa’s three now.”

“
You’re
twenty-seven and you’ve got a baby sister?”

Joe was
anxious to go so he made his explanation brief. “My cousin got
pregnant when she was fifteen. Mom and Dad took the baby
in.”

Allison
looked astounded at his tale—he took his parents’ generosity for
granted.

“
Did
they—
?”