“Are you sure you don’t want us to come with you?” Lacey had said.
Had it just been his imagination, or had her eyes looked a little glazed from those three seconds of contact? He’d hoped so. Brushing up against her had made him positively horny as hell. He’d needed the few seconds it had taken to run around back to catch his breath and adjust his jeans.
Now he had to attempt to explain what was happening to his nosy cousin, when even he wasn’t sure what was going on. He knew Serena was just concerned, and he appreciated it on some level. But mostly he resented being put on the spot like this. He didn't need to share everything, did he?
People had been trying to get him to open up for the last 17 months, but he just wasn’t the sharing type. He dealt with things internally and didn’t see what yammering on about his feelings really accomplished. Unfortunately, she would not let up until she dragged something out of him. So, he resigned himself to revealing as little as possible, and hoped she’d be content with that. If she knew he was still sporting a major boner even thinking about the locked door incident with Lacey, she’d be on the phone with his mother in a heartbeat, planning a June wedding.
“Don’t you dare play innocent with me!” Serena poked him in the chest to emphasize her point. “You were into her.”
“Give me a break. I was nice to both of them. Maybe I was into the mom. Come to think of it, she was pretty cute.” He rubbed his chin as if considering his options. ’What do you think? Am I Cougar Bait?”
“I think that particular cougar would eat you alive,” Serena said dryly.
“You’re probably right about that, but what a way to go,” He waggled his eyebrows at her suggestively.
“Gross!” She punched him in the arm this time. “Quit trying to distract me. You liked her, didn’t you? That Lacey girl.”
“Ouch. You’re so violent. No wonder you’re single.” He rubbed his arm where she’d punched him and pretended to cringe away from her. Man, what did he have to do to change the subject? Usually bringing up Serena’s single status was a surefire way to get her to focus on herself, but he could see from the enraged expression on her face that she would not be deterred from the subject at hand. He had to admire her tenacity. No wonder she was such an excellent real estate agent.
“Oh, I’m going to go ballistic all over your head in a minute if you don’t explain yourself,” she said, raising her briefcase over her head and preparing to brain him with it.
All her efforts to seem cool and elegant were gone and she was just his bratty little cousin again. He much preferred her in real estate professional mode. Much less painful. “Okay, okay. I thought she was cute,” he admitted. There, hopefully that would satisfy her and she’d let it alone. “What was your first clue? The way I followed her around like a puppy for an hour and a half? Or the way I bulleted down the street after her when I thought she was going to leave without saying good-bye.” He rubbed one hand over his face in embarrassment.
“I don’t get it. I know you want to win this really stupid pissing contest with your equally stupid brothers, but why lie to her about why you want her to call?”
“I don’t know. I just panicked. I’m out of practice with this shit. I just realized how completely idiotic I must have looked chasing her down the street, and I didn’t want her to think I was pathetic.” Had he really been out of line? What if Serena was right and he’d hurt Lacey’s feelings? That had never been his intention. He wouldn’t purposely hurt a girl if he could avoid it, especially one who made his jeans tent like this. He’d just wanted to save some face and maybe give her a reason to call him that hadn?t required putting his feelings on the line. Was that really so wrong?
“But now she thinks you’re an asshole. Is that really an improvement?”
“An asshole with some dignity left though, right?”
“Great. So you’ll be a lonely, horny, dignified asshole. Sounds like a plan, Mr. Smooth.”
He sighed. “You didn’t happen to get her number, did you?”
“Nope. But I wouldn’t give it to you anyway,” she said, popping the trunk to her car with the key fob, she placed her briefcase inside and slammed the lid closed with unnecessary force.
Jack put his hands on his slim hips and stared at her for a moment. “What the hell? Why the fuck not?” He asked angrily. Used to dealing with men, he wasn’t above using his size to intimidate people to get what he wanted. But his cousin wasn’t a contractor or a plumber and he needed to calm down and try not to be so domineering. He sometimes forgot how to act around polite society. So much of his life was spent barking orders and demanding action. He was sadly out of the habit of being patient and courteous.
Granted, Serena was tall, and feisty as hell, but he knew he could look downright intimidating when thwarted. So he made a conscious effort to relax his angry pose and talk in a moderate tone of voice. “I won’t stalk her or anything. I’ll just call her up, casually, and ask her what she thought about the houses. And then if she seems into it, maybe I’ll ask her to meet for a drink or something. I won’t be creepy, I promise. Scout’s honor.” He held up the wrong hand to do the Cub Scout’s Pledge, but didn’t think Serena would notice.
The truth was that he did, in fact, plan to stalk Lacey a little bit. Not in a twisted or scary 'I’ll be hiding in the bushes when you come home’ sort of way. But hopefully, in a charming, 'What a coincidence. We both drink coffee,’ sort of way.
If he could call Lacey up and make some idle conversation, and in the process maybe find out where she hung out or even worked, then maybe he could arrange a casual meeting without appearing too desperate. A casual meeting where he would be direct and tell her exactly what he wanted. By comparison, calling her up on the phone and asking her out for dinner seemed so tame when he really just wanted to get her naked. Naked and sweaty, and hopefully very, very wet.
Besides, a traditional courtship was frankly beyond him right now. He wanted to spend time with her, yes, and get to know her too. He wasn’t a complete animal. But mostly he just wanted to bury himself in her body and forget about the past. If that was slightly creepy behavior then he was okay with that. Sometimes there’s a fine line between creepy and romantic. And if walking that line gave him another chance at spending some time with her then he swore to himself he would not pussy out this time. Serena was right. That had been a big mistake.
“Don’t get me wrong, Jay. I would love it if you got together with her, or her mother, or the crazy cat lady on Third Avenue, for that matter. You’ve been a bear for months now, and personally, I think that semen retention headache of yours would go away if you got a little action.”
He cringed. “Please don’t ever say the word ’semen’ in my presence again.”
“Semen, Semen. Semen. Semen. Grow up, Jay.”
He rubbed his temples as if he actually did have a headache. “When did you become the sexpert anyway? Geez. You haven’t exactly been dating up a storm lately yourself. Besides, if you want me to get together with her then why wouldn’t you give me her number?”
“Frankly, because you don’t deserve it.”
He felt his temper flaring up again, but kept it firmly under control. If he started yelling at Serena on the street, she would just get in her car and flip him the bird as she drove off. He’d never find out what she was getting at. “Quit playing games, Ess, and tell me what you mean,” he said through gritted teeth.
“Well, Mr. Socially-challenged, tell me something. When you meet new people. Especially attractive people of the opposite gender. What are you supposed to do? I’m positive your mom tried to teach you basic manners so this should come easy to you.”
He looked at her blankly. He really didn’t know.
“You introduce yourself, dummy. Even if she wanted to get hold of you she couldn’t. You are so screwed. And not in the fun way.”
Jackson cursed, loudly and creatively. How could he not have introduced himself? Where was his brain? In his shorts, evidently. The truth was that he hadn’t planned on talking to Lacey and her mother at all. He’d been grilling Serena about prospective buyers for his row-house unit when the pair had walked in. He was about to slip out the patio door before he could get entangled in a time-wasting conversation, but then Lacey had reached out and ran both her hands over that granite countertop in a gesture so sensual he’d felt his mouth go dry and a chuckle escape him before he was even aware of it. That was it. All thoughts of escape had left him. He was intrigued.
But Serena didn’t have that excuse. “Why the hell didn’t you introduce me?” He demanded, running both hands through his longish hair.
“I thought you were planning on fleeing the scene if anyone came in. Why would I introduce you when you’re usually so rude to possible buyers?”
