All Shook Up by Susan Andersen

him blind. And I bet he’s pretty damn quick to use those big fists of his to settle an argument.”
    “Which wouldn’t be surprising, given the way he was brought up. But I bet he’s not as quick to use them as he is to use the threat of them. Being a construction foreman means overseeing a lot of men, many ofwhom, I imagine, only respect someone who can physically intimidate them. I certainly can’t picture him getting violent with a woman, though. I also have a hard time envisioning him just going off half cocked for no good reason. He might be a little rough around the edges, but he strikes me as steady. And God knows he’s honest.”
    “How the hell do you know that?”
    “Have you heard him hesitate to speak his mind, whether it’s something we want to hear or not?” She took his shrug as agreement and added, “And he seems to have a good mind. Besides, I like the way he looks at Dru.”
    “I know I’m going to regret asking this, but what way is that?”
    “Oh, my.” She came over to slide into his arms and hug him around the waist. “Like he’d like to eat her up with a spoon the way he did my crème brûlée.”
    He moaned, and Sophie laughed. “It’s not that bad, darling. I know you still think of Drucilla as your little girl, but watch her. She’s come alive the past couple of days, and that’s such a pleasure to see.” She kissed his throat, humming deep in her own. “I do believe I’m beginning to recapture that sexy feeling again.”
    “You’re just trying to distract me.”
    She wiggled against him. “Is it working?”
    “Oh, yeah.” He walked her backward toward the hall that led to their bedroom. “Like a charm.”
     
    J.D. closed the current year’s financial ledger and set it atop the journals from the previous two years on thekitchen table. Tipping his chair back on two legs, he crossed his arms over his chest while he stared up at the ceiling.
    Okay, so the Lawrences hadn’t cooked the books. But no one was as friendly as they’d been without a reason. In his experience, everyone wanted something—and he’d sure as hell like to know what it was that Ben and Sophie wanted from him.
    Not to mention Drucilla. And the pitiful truth was that she could probably get whatever she desired, if she ever kissed him again the way she had yesterday.
    The chair legs thumped down on the wooden floor as he sat up straight. He’d told himself he wasn’t going to think about that. It had been a fluke—the moon aligned with Jupiter or some such shit—that had put him and Dru in the same spot at the same time when emotions were running high on both sides. He was glad Tate had shown up when he had. It had saved them from making a mistake they’d both regret.
    Yeah, right . He shoved to his feet.
    Okay, he wanted in her pants. Badly . But a fuck was all it would be, and she was definitely one of those “make love” kind of women—which was to say, not his kind at all.
    Sex for him was purely recreational. It could be fun; it could be slow and lazy or down-and-dirty fast and furious. But in the end it boiled down to one thing only: your basic, no-frills fornication.
    Once upon a time, he’d looked for love. But not in recent years. A guy only had to have his teeth kicked down his throat a couple of times before he wised up.
    So he’d gotten lucky for about five minutes yesterday, but the odds against that happening again were pretty steep. There was no sense wasting time thinking about it. He gathered up the books and let himself out of the cabin.
    He didn’t know what the Lawrences’ game was, but he knew the only way to beat them at it was to learn everything he could about the lodge—its ins and outs and how it was run. Knowledge was power, and he planned to do what he always did in a new situation: suck up every bit of information he could unearth.
    Several moments later he knocked on Dru’s office door. He could hear her laughing and, filled with a sudden inexplicable