Naturally Naughty - Leslie Kelly [52]
“Just to remind you.”
“Remind me of what?”
He walked toward the door, but glanced over his shoulder.
“That I’m the only man you want.”
8
KATE DECIDED to spend her first few days in Pleasantville devoting all her thoughts to the new store. And none to her love life, such as it was. That didn’t count her dreams, of course, over which she had no control.
Jack starred in them every night, damn it.
On Saturday night, after Jack had helped her unload some furniture at the duplex and given her the playful kiss that had left her reeling, she went downtown to see the shop for the first time. Cassie and her high school helpers had done a great job. Sure, there were some lighting problems, but the old dressing room area was perfect, with lots of mirrors so customers could get addicted to Armand’s luxurious lingerie. And the store had adequate air-conditioning and plenty of display shelves, with discreet alcoves for some of their more risqué items. If this store were in some other town, she could envision it thriving.
Kate and Cassie enjoyed eating pizza, listening to loud music, drinking wine and examining sex toys until late Saturday night. At least until the sheriff, Sean Taggart, showed up.
As soon as Kate saw him, she understood why Cassie got such a strange look on her face whenever his name came up. The man was pure, rugged manna from tough-guy heaven. Maybe not movie-star gorgeous, like Jack, but with his lean body, thick brown hair and dangerous smile, she could see why Cassie might find him distracting. So distracting that Kate immediately decided to leave the two of them alone. After all, it wasn’t often she saw her cousin nearly blushing around a man.
It also wasn’t every day she came across a man who did not turn into a tongue-tied, drooling idiot around her cousin. Jack hadn’t. On Saturday, when Cassie had been at her Cassie-est, all blond, leggy and saucy, he’d barely glanced in her direction.
She hadn’t known whether to kiss him or to take his pulse to see if he was still alive and breathing. In any case, she could almost love him for it. “Love him?” Insane. She barely liked him.
Well, she conceded, that was a big lie. She did like him, she’d liked him from the minute they met, in spite of who his father had been. He was charming and sexy, playful and self-confident. She liked that he didn’t swagger, and he felt no need to play tough guy. He was a flirt, a man who liked women. Right now he liked her, she knew it, in spite of his failure to call. She could see the heat in his eyes when he looked at her. He wanted her every bit as much as he had their first day. But something was holding him back.
If his last name were different, and if he’d come up with a reasonable excuse for not calling her, she might have tried to find out what was stopping him. And maybe she would have tried to change his mind.
The realization floored her. How strange that for the first time in nearly forever, she’d found someone who tempted her to let him get closer. She could conceive of lowering some of her guard, taking a chance on what could be a fabulously erotic, exciting relationship. But he’d erected barriers even taller than her own.
She supposed it was just as well there were insurmountable walls between them right up front. Jack obviously liked to play. A lot. He wasn’t the stick-around type and she knew it. While Kate believed if there ever did come a time when she found that one right guy—her true love—she’d be a goner for life.
Much like her mother had been, unfortunately.
Over the next couple of days Kate refrained from pumping Cassie about her problems—either her old ones, or her new one, in the form of the hunky sheriff. Somehow, while they priced, ordered and set up displays, she found herself getting excited as she had before the opening of her shop in Chicago.
Knock it off, this isn’t the same thing at all!
Nope, it definitely wasn’t. In Chicago, she’d wanted her shop to be a wild success. Here, she fully expected it to be a grand failure. But at least they’d have fun