Dirty Sexy Sinner by Carly Phillips & Erika Wilde Page B

endlessly hound him, Jackson told Wes what he wanted to hear. “Her name is Tara.”
    Wes tapped his fingers on the table. “And how is it that you know Tara well enough that she invited you to this party, hmmm?”
    “I met her the night I went to the bar. We’ve talked a few times since then.” Jackson shrugged. “She’s close to the Kincaid brothers and wants to help initiate some kind of reunion between the four of us.”
    Wes nodded, but once again Jackson noticed that he was distracted by the women at the other table, or rather, one of the ladies. His gaze was riveted to the brunette who was facing him, but she wouldn’t so much as glance his way.
    “What is up with you and that woman at the other table?” Jackson finally asked. He was surprised that someone so prim-and-proper-looking had captured Wes’s attention, when he was a guy who’d always gone for the fast-and-easy type. “You keep staring at her like you’re a stalker.”
    “You know my business partner, Connor Prescott?” Wes asked.
    Jackson nodded. “Yes.” The guy flipped a lot of the luxury homes that Wes bought that were in dire need of updates and renovations.
    “Well, that’s his little sister, Natalie. I’ve known her since I was ten, and we’ve always had a love hate relationship.”
    Another glance at the brunette told Jackson that she was totally blowing Wes off. “Looks more like hate to me at the moment.”
    “She’s just acting a bit haughty because she sold a house right out from under me.” Wes shrugged. “Doesn’t happen often, so she’s a little pleased with herself right now.”
    “So why do you keep looking at her like you want to hook up with her?”
    “Well, she is kind of hot . . . in an uptight kind of way.”
    Jackson laughed. “And off-limits?”
    “Yeah.” He exhaled a sigh as Natalie continued to ignore him, even though the friends she was with clearly saw Wes looking her way. “Connor would castrate me if I so much as touched her that way. But damn, between you and me, when she plays hard to get, she’s so fucking tempting I want to toss her over my shoulder and take her somewhere and do dirty things to her.”
    Jackson bit back an amused grin. “She doesn’t look that in to you.”
    “Oh, trust me, beneath that indifference is an attraction she’s been fighting just as much as I have,” Wes said. “I love a good challenge, so I’m pretty damn sure her days of ignoring me are limited.”
    “You’re such an arrogant asshole, Sinclair.”
    “It’s called confidence , Stone,” his friend retorted. “Or maybe it’s been too damn long since you’ve been in the game and you’ve forgotten how it’s played?”
    The thing was, Jackson had never played those games, ever. He’d always been an all-in kind of guy when it came to women and relationships. Or he had been in the past, before his ex-wife had burned and scarred him. Since then, he hadn’t allowed himself to form any emotional attachments to the women he’d gone out with. It had been all about sex, and they’d all known his intentions up front.
    It had taken him three years to find a woman he wanted for more than just a bed partner and a physical release. He was attracted to Tara, and there was no denying he wanted to fuck her a dozen different ways. But he instinctively knew that she’d already gotten under his skin just based on how he felt when he was around her. Lighter. Understood. Like a man who might be given a second chance at something real and, dare he say, lasting?
    Was that thought process crazy after only knowing Tara a short time? Absolutely. Was he setting himself up for a hard fall considering her connection and loyalty to Clay, Mason and Levi?
    Possibly.
    He realized it was a risk he was willing to take.
    *     *     *
    Tara knew she’d made the right decision asking Jackson to accompany her to her graduation celebration party, but that knowledge didn’t stop the flutters of anticipation from