Naturally Naughty by Leslie Kelly

even attempt to make up a lame excuse? He wasn’t going to be courteous enough to give her the chance to tell him what she thought of him? Wasn’t going to try to sweet talk her so she could tell him he could touch her again when hogs started flying over Pleasantville, leaving the appropriate droppings right down the middle of Magnolia Avenue?
    That wasn’t how the game worked. Uh-uh. No way was he getting off so easily. “Oh, sure, I know you must be a busy man. Too busy to even, oh, I dunno, pick up a phone once in a while?”
    “Kate…”
    “What, Jack? You expect me to be like your Lilac Hill girlfriends? Like your sister, Angela? ” She spat out the name, not caring if he heard her dislike. “I’m supposed to be brushed off quietly, like a lady, not bring up the fact that I’m unhappy you lied?”
    “I didn’t lie…”
    “You shouldn’t have promised, Jack. You shouldn’t have made a big deal out of swearing you’d see me in two days. I was willing to let it end right then and there outside the Rialto. But you had to be Mr. Noble, Mr. Good Guy. You made me think of what happened as something more than it was. You hurt me and, damn it, you have no business hurting me!” To her horror, she heard her voice break. If one tear fell down her cheek, she mentally swore she’d poke her own eye out.
    “Kate, honey, I’m sorry. Listen…”
    “Forget it,” she snapped. “Forget I said anything.”
    “I thought about you all the time,” Jack said, his voice low and throaty in the near darkness. “But things got…complicated.”
    She snorted. “Complicated. Uh-huh.” She started to rise. “Look, I don’t really care. You shouldn’t have said you wanted to see me again if you didn’t plan to, that’s all.” Swallowing hard, she continued. “We’re both adults. We both knew it didn’t mean anything.”
    Her words seemed to anger him. He grabbed her wrist and held her, not letting her get up beyond her knees. “Like hell. It meant a lot, Kate, and you know it.”
    His green eyes sparkled with intensity in the near darkness, and she could almost believe him. Then she remembered his name. His lineage. And knew she could never trust a word that came out of his heartbreaking mouth.
    “No, Mr. Winfield. It didn’t mean anything more thanany other sexual encounter between two strangers.” She jerked her arm away, stood and brushed off her jeans, wincing as she realized he’d knocked her hipbone right into the floor with his tackle. It already ached.
    “We’re not strangers.” He stood, as well, standing so near she could feel his warm breath against her hair. She bit her lip, trying not to look at him, trying not to remember the feel of his hot, hard chest pressing against hers. Trying to erase the mental picture of him standing above her, his face filled with need and passion, as he thrust into her while she lay on the table at the Rialto.
    “We recognized something in each other from the minute our eyes met,” he continued. “That’s never happened to me before.”
    From out of the near darkness, she felt his hand move to her cheek. She pushed it away. “Back off, J.J. Don’t touch me.”
    “Ouch. I don’t know which is worse, hearing you tell me not to touch you, or hearing you call me J.J. Please call me Jack.” His voice moved lower. She realized he’d bent to pick up the flashlight only when he brought it up and shone it on them both.
    The light looked pretty damn good on him. His chest. His tousled, right-out-of-bed hair. His thick, muscular arms and broad shoulders. His green eyes, not twinkling with humor now, but dark and confused. His mouth…
    She gulped, then crossed her arms in front of her chest, looking for a defense mechanism when there was really none to be found that could halt her physical attraction to him. Finally she said, “What kind of stupid nickname is Jack, anyway?”
    “What?”
    She knew she sounded like a belligerent kid, but couldn’t help herself.