‘No point in dragging anything out and struggling over decisions for ages. You’ve just got to go for it, don’t you think?’ He tossed something into a pan and it sizzled. ‘If you can get the work bit done as soon as possible, then you have more time for the fun.’
Clearly cooking was in the work camp—he was obviously trying to get it done a.s.a.p. ‘Fun is everything to you, isn’t it?’
‘Isn’t it for everyone? Isn’t that how we should arrange our lives? So we can maximise time for the best bits?’ He glanced over to her—his gaze so filled with fire it stole her breath. ‘Life is for enjoying, isn’t it?’
She didn’t disagree completely. ‘But isn’t there more than just “fun” thrills to enjoy?’
His brows lifted.
‘I mean, once you’ve achieved one thrill, you have to reach higher, harder for another to beat it,’ she argued. ‘So where does it end? When are you satisfied?’
She understood the drive to create—she had it herself in her own work. But what about creating intimacy, like relationships, or like a home—like life itself? Wasn’t that an even deeper way of leaving a mark on the world?
He stopped cooking and stared at her. ‘I’m never satisfied.’ He turned back to the pan and stirred it viciously. ‘Not for long.’
She thought back to that day on the beach—how intense it had been. But how soon they’d both ached for more. No, that satisfaction didn’t last.
‘There’s always another challenge,’ he said curtly.
Oh, she bet.
He turned and read her expression. ‘Judging me again?’
‘Admit it, women are a challenge to you.’
He piled steaming vegetables into a bowl. ‘Yeah, I like women,’ he said boldly. ‘But I like getting to know a lover. I don’t just sleep with a woman and then sprint off.’
‘Don’t you?’ Anger swamped her. ‘Isn’t that exactly what you did that day on the beach? You slept with me and then said goodbye as fast as you could.’
‘That was different—’
‘It’s only different because I’m carrying your baby.’
‘Hell, Kelsi.’ He tossed down the pan and turned to face her. ‘Yes, you’re having my baby. I want this to work out—’
‘OK, but we don’t need to be in each other’s pockets to do that. You don’t need to be here like this.’ She couldn’t cope with the way she wanted him—and wanted more from him. ‘We don’t have to be friends.’
He seized her upper arms, jerking her to the edge of the stool, his face right in hers—too close. His eyes narrowed, focused for a second too long on her mouth, on her body—making her burn all the more. Ten, twenty, too many long seconds passed as he used his sensual power to make her suffer in a way she hoped he wasn’t actually aware of.
But maybe he was, because his gaze was lingering on her lips again. And she couldn’t move for fear of breaking the moment, just wanting him to move those few inches closer. To kiss her. To kiss her with the same blazing passion she had for him.
‘You’re right.’ He released her with a sudden vicious flick of his fingers that somehow bruised her more than a hard shove ever could. ‘We don’t.’
Shaken, she didn’t turn to watch as he walked away. Said nothing to answer his sarcastic parting comment.
‘Enjoy your dinner, Kelsi.’
CHAPTER EIGHT
THE TRIBES of builders returned unreasonably early and started ripping down the walls in the ground floor. Kelsi didn’t see Jack all day but when she got home that night she found he’d set up some kind of makeshift skateboard park in the mess that was the front yard, with wooden boards making up an assortment of ramps. He didn’t appear at her front door to cook dinner for her and it took every ounce of will power not to look out of the window when she heard the scrape of the skateboard on the concrete.
They weren’t going to be friends. They weren’t going to be anything.
That didn’t stop her wanting so very much more in the wee small hours—no, in the smallest hours of the night she lay awake, listening for sounds through the wall. In the smallest hours of the night, when her will was at its weakest, she imagined going to him, touching him.
Only now she never could. Now she knew he didn’t want her.
Once more, morning came too soon. As she walked out of the house to head to work he was in the yard already, had clearly just come back from a run.
She glanced at the skateboard under his foot and simply had to try to break the ice. ‘Does it help with your snowboarding?’
‘Actually, no,’ he answered with unnerving gentleness. ‘It’s completely different. Snowboarding, your feet are fixed to the board. I just skate to relax.’
Oh. Lucky him. She’d give anything to relax right now.
He studied her. ‘You’re walking to work?’
She nodded. ‘I thought it would be a good idea to get a little bit fitter.’
As far as Jack was concerned she was fit already. But he nodded for form’s sake. Torn inside about how erotically her dress clung, despite the way its length swamped her and made her seem even smaller. On the one hand he wanted to kiss her desperately, on the other hand he wanted to put her in a cocoon and make sure she was going to be all right. ‘You’re not walking in those heels?’
She rolled her eyes but then lifted her skirt a couple inches and he saw the Converse All Stars on her feet. Amusement surged in him at the sight of the ultimate skateboarder shoes. So incongruous under her silky old-style skirt. So new they positively winked at him.
‘Oh, they’re cute,’ he said, unable to stop walking right up close to her. ‘But they need breaking in.’ He slid the skateboard with him lazily, challenging her.
She looked down at it and got what he meant. ‘I don’t like skateboards.’
But that little smile was there again. He liked that smile. He wanted more of it. It made all the anger of the night before disappear. ‘Like you don’t like the beach?’
Her teeth crushed her lip.
‘Dare you, Kelsi,’ he whispered.
The hesitation didn’t even last that long. ‘Just really carefully.’
Naturally.
‘Hitch up your skirt or you’ll trip on it.’ He’d love it more if she took it off. He knew this was playing with fire, but how could he resist? That was the whole thing about Kelsi: he couldn’t resist her at all.
She hitched her skirt giving him a glimpse of her neat ankles and the slim pale shins. Hell, he was that sex-starved he thought an inch of skin was something to celebrate.
He got her to stand on the board, holding it carefully so it wouldn’t slide out from under her. Then, when she had her balance, he carefully towed her. Just a little. Slowly. Watching her feet to make sure she was OK. Then he looked up—and saw the laugh in her eyes that made him want to pull her right on home to him. He couldn’t hold back his hunger to look over her body or drink in her fine features.
‘I must look ridiculous,’ she said, her gaze breaking from his.
He shook his head and tugged her along that bit faster so she had to concentrate. ‘You look like you’re having fun.’
Her grin blossomed—cheeky, devilishly tempting—spurring him to go faster still. It was stupid—going round and round the concrete pad, but he didn’t want to ever stop. But then she wanted a go on her own.
She hitched her skirt even higher, an endearingly serious expression on her face now. She pushed along, steadily building her pace, keeping it straight. He watched her, pleased with how quick she’d figured her footing. He stood in the centre of the yard and watched her slowly circle round him. She was good—maybe her height was a benefit, giving her an easy balance. But he didn’t expect her to speed up this much—not so soon. Nor did he expect her to change the angle of her board and take on one of the ramps he’d set up.
‘Kelsi!’ he shouted, spurting forward to catch up with her.
Oh, God, she was airborne. Years of speed and fast reflexes and sheer grit pushed
him forward. His hands reached out to grab and catch her, hauling her to safety. Snug right against his chest.
‘Watch your knee!’ She shrieked as he swirled around with her in his arms, the skateboard careering off course and smashing into the ragged brush at the side of the path.
He didn’t give a damn about his knee. The blood roared in his ears.
‘No jumps while pregnant,’ he said hoarsely, holding her closer, his heart thudding as if he’d come close to death. The visions in his head shaking him up even more. But as he turned a few more steps the horror faded and he looked down at the woman he was clutching so tight to him.
She was laughing, her head thrown back over his arm, her limbs trembling as she giggled. Her whole body reaction reminded him of how absolute her response had been that day on the beach.
His whole body reacted in kind. His whole body was killing him. He froze. Desperate to control it.