Homecoming by Elizabeth Jennings Page A

surprised.
    “More?” he asked.
    A massive appetite had roared out of nowhere. She’d had two chicken breasts with mushrooms, heaps of steamed broccoli with sesame seeds and several slices of wholemeal bread.
    “I shouldn’t…” she hesitated.
    “Of course you should.” Jack ladled more broccoli onto her plate. “You need to keep your strength up.”
    “Actually, all I seem to be doing is sleeping lately.”
    His eyes met hers. “If you need it, do it.”
    If you need it, do it. The words hung there in the air, heavy with meaning. What she wanted to do, needed to do, was exactly what she shouldn’t do.
    “Is that a Carson’s Bluff motto?”
    “No, it’s mine.”
    “Oh.”
    She sucked in a breath and made a conscious effort to shift the conversation into a more…comfortable mode. Not that she wasn’t comfortable. Actually, she was spectacularly comfortable. And spectacularly aroused. It was the weirdest feeling in the world to have all her muscles lax with contentment while anticipation and excitement tingled through her nervous system.
    Jack stretched out his legs under the table, coming into contact with Federica’s legs. She glanced up, startled, then blushed at the expression in his eyes.
    “Jack,” she whispered.
     
    Jack’s whole body tightened. He wanted to trap Federica’s legs between his and drag her under the table with him. He was barely able to restrain himself. From the red blush tingeing her cheeks, she was as affected by the contact as he was.
    Casual affairs weren’t his style. They never had been. That was Wyatt’s scene, stuck in perpetual adolescence.
    What could there possibly be between him and Federica but a casual affair, an affair that would haunt them and taunt them later?
    He’d bought her—and them—a few days by pulling the plug on Carson’s Bluff. That wasn’t hard. Carson’s Bluff citizens didn’t like the outside world that much, anyway. But if not today, then tomorrow or the next day, sooner rather than later, the proverbial fecal matter would hit the proverbial fan.
    Federica was a wealthy woman, an executive for one of the most powerful hotel chains in the world. A hotel chain that bore her name.
    It was clear that she’d arrived in a state of exhaustion, on the edge of collapse, like a soldier who’d been in the line of fire for too long. And it was also clear that these few days were merely a little R&R for a busy executive. When she recovered, who knew what she’d morph into?
    Well, he knew. Ms. Yup, that’s who. Ms. International Yup, with one of those fancy watches with two dial faces so you could always know the time in Singapore, and wallets with separate zippers for different currencies.
    Jack had had enough of grasping women. Women who calculated the odds before making any kind of a move. Right now, though, Federica didn’t look calculating at all. She looked soft and unbearably inviting. He had to clamp down on the hard edge of desire that had him looking at her hungrily. Wanting her with a fierceness that surprised him.
    He sighed. This was going to end badly, he could feel it. Getting involved with Federica Mansion was a big, big mistake. He knew that.
    He was going to make that mistake anyway.
    He got up from the picnic table and crossed around to her side.
    “Come with me,” he said, holding out his hand.
     
    Federica looked up at Jack, at his outstretched hand. She placed her hand in his and he tugged her to her feet. He led her to the deck chairs, which he’d placed side by side, facing the river and the setting sun. “Come sit down and watch the sunset with me.”
    “Okay.” Federica would have cheerfully followed him if he’d said, “Come with me and watch the hogs being slaughtered.”
    She walked on weakened knees and sank heavily into the canvas deck chair. Jack only touched her lightly, guiding her by the elbow, and she felt as if she were on fire.
    “You want a chaser for that meal?”
    “What?” His voice came to her