Thorn's Challenge - Brenda Jackson [39]
He raked a hand down his face then wished he hadn’t done that. She had been primed, ready and wet; her scent was on his hand and made his nostrils flare with wanting and desire. Her scent was woman. Hot, enticing woman.
He closed his eyes for a moment then reopened them as he slowly began backing toward the door. He picked his toolbox off the table. “Your faucet should be working just fine now,” he said, huskily. “I’ll call you.”
And as quick as she could bat an eye, he was gone.
During the following weeks, Tara threw her heart and soul into her work.
After that first attempt, she had discovered that getting Thorn to break his vow of celibacy—finding an opportunity to put her plan into action and getting him to cooperate was not easy.
He had taken her out to dinner several times and they had even gone to the movies together twice, but whenever he returned her home, he deposited her on her doorstep, kissed her goodnight and quickly got on his bike or into his car and took off. Getting under Thorn’s skin was turning out to be a monumental task.
A stomach virus that was going around kept her busy as frantic mothers lined the emergency room seeking medical care for their little ones. Twice during the past week she had worked longer hours than she normally did, but Tara was grateful to stay busy.
Nighttime for her was torture at its best. She was restless, her mind returned to the kiss she’d shared with Thorn again and again. In an effort to help her sleep or just to occupy her mind, Delaney had given her plenty of reading materials in the way of romance novels.
That only made matters worse.
She enjoyed reading about how the hero and heroine found their way to everlasting love, but the searing passion and profound intimacy the fictional characters shared always left Tara breathless, wondering if things like that could really happen between two people.
Pushing the covers aside, Tara got out of bed. Tonight was one of those nights she felt restless. She had gone to bed early, before eight o’clock, with a book to read, and had tried falling asleep. Instead, it was almost midnight and she was still wide awake.
It was a good thing that she was off work tomorrow. She knew Thorn was spending a lot of time at his shop working on his nephew’s motorbike. Tara couldn’t wait to see the expression on AJ’s face when he received the sporty dirt bike Thorn was building especially for him. She hadn’t seen it yet, but according to the brothers it was a sweet piece of machinery. All the Westmoreland men owned motorcycles. At eleven it was time AJ got his.
More than once Tara had thought of using the pretense of wanting to see the dirt bike as an excuse to drop by Thorn’s shop unexpectedly again, but each time she got in her car and headed in that direction, she would change her mind and turn around. She’d had lunch with the brothers at Chase’s restaurant earlier in the week and they had joked among themselves about how Thorn’s mood had gone from bad to worse.
She had sat quietly, eating her meal while listening to their chatter. It seemed they knew the reason for Thorn’s mean disposition these days and openly said they wished like hell that Bike Week would hurry up and come before he drove them, as well as himself, crazy.
From the conversation around her it appeared Thorn hadn’t mentioned to his brothers that she would be going with him to Bike Week, because no one, including Delaney, had mentioned it.
Tara headed for the kitchen, deciding to get a glass of the iced tea she had made earlier that day. Maybe the drink would cool her off because tonight her body definitely felt hot.
Thorn brought his motorcycle to complete stop and shut off the engine. The lights were still on in Tara’s home, which meant she hadn’t gone to bed yet. He had worked at the shop until he couldn’t get his mind to concentrate on what he was doing. He kept thinking of Tara and what he wanted to do to her.
He’d never gone into a race this tense