“Money means nothing to you.” Well, maybe that wasn’t true. He seemed pretty upset about the embezzling. Yet she wondered if that was another trust issue. It probably hurt to have an employee you thought you trusted stealing from you. “What could we possibly bet?”
“If you kiss me by the end of the week, then I get to kiss you.”
“That’s stupid,” she said. “I’ll have already kissed you.”
“Yes, you will.” His eyes trailed over her lips and his gaze got all smoky. “And I’ll enjoy every second of it, but then I’ll get to show you exactly how it feels to be kissed by me.”
Fire raced through Jade’s body. She could imagine exactly how it would feel to be kissed by him, and she wanted it more than she wanted anything she could even think of.
“What do you want?” he asked softly.
What did she want?Him. Oh, no! Heavens no. She tried to think back to her normal life. What would she want if she wasn’t in this distorted reality with him? Her name cleared, but Joshua already knew that.
“I want to interview you for my celebrity blog.”
He took a step back and his eyes hooded. “You have a celebrity blog?”
She nodded. “Does that bother you?”
“It does. I try to stay out of the public eye.”
“Well then try everything you can to get me to kiss you this week.”
He smiled slightly, but his eyes and mouth were still tight. The celebrity blog obviously bothered him, a lot. Yet she was proving that she trusted him by sharing it.
“We’ll see how it goes,” he said noncommittally.
“Okay.” She didn’t want to push him but she had to say. “I’m very nice to the celebrities I interview. I just tell their story, sometimes show their house, stuff like that.”
He nodded but she could tell he didn’t like it.
* * *
Joshua forced himself to push Jade’s celebrity blog from his mind and simply enjoy being with her. He was glad she’d admitted it to him, but it still terrified him to think of being exposed to the world. He loathed that kind of attention and only wanted to work and enjoy his family. No, that wasn’t all he wanted now. He wanted one Jade Jardine by his side. He wanted to somehow get her to kiss him. He actually loved that she still felt committed to “Jesse.” Now he was worried about that though. She was big on trust, had told him about her blog, and here he was not trusting her about the embezzlement but also basically lying to her about Jesse and her priest. The more he got to know her, the more he prayed she wouldn’t be the thief, but he had to wait and see how it played out. Once he got to know her better, he could hopefully discover the truth and share the truth about who he really was with her. With all the fingers still pointing to her as the embezzler, staying close to her throughout the next week was a good idea, no matter the outcome.
He was afraid this entire situation was not going to end well, but he was on this path now and he couldn’t resist spending time with Jade. To him she was the perfect woman: fun, feisty, smart, determined, and beautiful. The rest of the day on St. Kitts was fun. They went back to town and walked around. Jade talked him into getting pedicures, which he actually enjoyed. It was basically a foot massage, and the ladies in the shop had a great time teasing about the “tough guy” getting a pedicure.
After buying her some chocolate, they wandered back to the ship and spent some time swimming in the chilly adults-only pool then soaking in the hot tub. He loved being with her. He walked her to her room and said, “Can I come pick you up for dinner at six?”
She smiled. “Sure. I’ll be right here.”
“Sounds good.” He lifted his chin up. “I’ll go shower up there, but I’ll be back for you.”
“Oh sure.” She laughed easily. “You’re up on your ivory tower and I’m down here in my lowly suite.”
He leaned closer, placing a hand on the wall next to her head. She smiled up at him so sweet and appealing. How was he going to resist kissing her over the next six days? How was he going to resist spilling the truth? “Sometimes I get lonely in my ivory tower.” He lowered his voice. “Lonely for you.”
Her eyelashes fluttered so appealingly. “That must be hard for you.”
“It is.”
She smiled. “Sadly I don’t know how to climb towers.”
“Would you want to learn?”
“I’m afraid of heights. Fell out of a forty-foot tree when I was ten. I’ve been terrified since.”
He thought she was telling the truth because he’d sensed her unease when they’d jumped off the twenty-foot cliffs in Puerto Rico. Of course he’d been Jesse then so he couldn’t call her out about it. He wished he could get over his trust issues and trust her completely. “Oh. So we won’t be using the rock-climbing wall?”