Naturally Naughty - Leslie Kelly [45]
“I suppose it’s better than being buried up to my neck in a red ant nest,” she muttered.
He chuckled. “So why’re you here?”
“Business.”
Interesting, given her line of work. “Your kind of business?”
“The private kind.”
“Okay,” he said with a shrug. “Is this business going to keep you in town long?”
“A few weeks at least.”
Weeks. Damn. He’d really hoped she was making a quick trip. If she stayed, he’d be in for lots of long, sleepless nights. Even worse, it would be nearly impossible for her to avoid hearing the gossip about Edie and his father.
Jack suddenly found himself willing to do just about anything to prevent that. As sorry as he felt for Edie, he knew she’d made her choices. She’d dealt with them in her own way.
Kate hadn’t chosen to be the target of gossip, scorn and spite from this town. Yet that was about all she’d gotten here as a kid. And, he feared, about all she’d find here now.
If his sister Angela’s comments were anything to go on, Kate and her cousin hadn’t had the best time in high school. Kate hadn’t let that stop her in the least. She’d gotten out, made a life for herself, created a new world where she had the power, the money and the upper hand.
Much as he had done.
No wonder he liked her so much. After all, in spite of their dissimilar childhoods, they had a lot in common. Hadn’t they each been put into a mold by this town, and done whatever they could to break out of it? They’d both left after high school—her opening a sex shop and him focusing on career and casual relationships with a lot of different women. And they’d both come back, still wanting to rebel and shock, until they’d found each other and fallen headfirst into a hot kiss on a public street. Not to mention what had happened in the theater.
“Do you want something to eat?” he finally asked, figuring she couldn’t possibly have any groceries in the house.
“I already had a donut and a warm diet Coke, thanks.”
“How nutritious.”
“It’s not exactly the breakfast of champions, but it will do.”
Glancing toward the floor, she bent to get something out of her purse. Jack tried not to notice the way her shorts hugged her ass, the way they rode up on her thighs until he could see the hem of her panties.
Well, no, he didn’t really try not to look. He just tried not to let it affect him. Which was impossible.
After grabbing a brush, she straightened and gathered her hair into a ponytail at the back of her neck. Her shirt pulled tighter against her curves as she lifted her arms. Jack again wished he’d stayed in bed, avoiding her for the day.
“Did you sleep okay? I noticed you stayed downstairs on the couch. You could have used your mom’s room.”
She looked away, busying her hands putting the brush back into her purse. “The couch was fine.”
“Sure there was enough room for all three of you?”
“Three of us?”
“You know. You, Hugh and your little friend?” he asked, wondering what demon made him bring the subject back to what had happened last night when they’d parted.
She laughed softly.
“So what is it with Hugh Jackman? A mouth, like Connery? Dangerous glint in his eye, like Eastwood? Or that schmaltzy chick-flick-time-travel with him and Meg Ryan?”
She shook her head, licking her lips. “Wolverine in X-Men. I just love a lean-looking man who can kick ass.” She shrugged, obviously being honest and not trying to torment him sexually as she had the night before. “What can I say? I like men who can move their bodies gracefully while being seriously dangerous.”
If he were going to pursue a sexual relationship with her—which he absolutely was not, not yet anyway—he’d have contemplated inviting her to one of his Tae Kwon Do classes, which he taught three nights a week. Instead he changed the subject. “So, are you planning to sleep on the floor for weeks?”
She glanced around the empty room. “Some of my aunt’s old furniture is stored in the garage of her new place. My cousin, Cassie, is going to help me load some up and bring it here.”
“Cousin? Your cousin’s back in town, too?”
She shot him a look from