Not that he cared what she thought. But this wasn’t about her-it was about Hunter.
He found Meri in the kitchen, sitting on the counter, eating ice cream out of a pint-size container.
“Lunch?” he asked as he entered the room.
“Sort of. Not exactly high in nutrition, but I’m more interested in sugar and fat right now.”
He stared at her miniature spoon. “That’s an interesting size.”
She waved the tiny utensil. “It’s my ice-cream-eating spoon. I try to avoid using food as an emotional crutch, but sometimes ice cream is the only solution. I use this spoon because it takes longer to eat and I have a better chance of getting disgusted with myself and stopping before finishing the pint. A trick for keeping off the weight. I have a thousand of them.”
“This situation required ice cream?”
She licked the spoon. He did his best to ignore the flick of her tongue and the sigh that followed, along with the rush of unwelcome heat in his body.
“You pissed me off,” she told him.
Translation: he’d hurt her. Hunter was her brother. She wouldn’t want to think his friends had forgotten him.
He leaned against the counter as he considered what to do. His natural inclination was to walk away. Her feelings didn’t matter to him. At least they shouldn’t. But this was Meri, and he was supposed to be looking out for her. Which meant not making a bad situation worse.
Maybe a small concession was in order. “I don’t want to think about Hunter,” he admitted. “I’ve trained myself not to. But he’s there. All the time.”
She eyed him. “Why should I believe you?”
“I don’t care if you do.”
She surprised him by smiling. “Okay. I like that answer. If you’d tried to convince me, I would have known you were just placating me. But your stick-up-the-butt attitude is honest.”
“Excuse me?”
“You’re excused.”
He frowned. Had she always been this irritating?
“You getting much work done?” she asked as she checked her watch. “I’m not. There’s so much going on right now and I really need to focus. But it’s tough. Being here, seducing you-it’s a full time job.”
He folded his arms over his chest. “You need to let that go.”
“The seduction part? I don’t think so. I’m making progress. You’re going on the defensive. What happened in the gym was definitely about taking charge. So that means I’m getting to you.” She held out the ice cream container. “Want some, big guy?”
She was mocking him. She was irreverent and fearless and determined. All good qualities, but not in this situation. She was right. He wanted to get control. And he could think of only one way to do that.
He moved close and took the ice cream from her. After setting it and the spoon on the counter, he cupped her face and kissed her.
He took rather than asked. He claimed her with his lips, branding her skin with his own. He leaned in, crowding her, showing her that she hadn’t thought her plan through.
She stiffened slightly and gasped in surprise. He took advantage of the moment and plunged his tongue into her mouth.
She was cool from the ice cream, cool with a hint of fire. She tasted of chocolate and something that had to be her own erotic essence. He ignored the softness of her skin, the sensual feel of her mouth and the heat that poured through him.
She pulled back slightly and gazed into his eyes. “Is that the best you can do?” she asked before she put her arms around his neck and drew him in.
She kissed him back with a need that surprised him. She opened for him and then met his tongue with darting licks of her own.
She’d parted her legs, so he slipped between her thighs. Although she was much shorter, with her sitting on the counter, he found himself nestled against her crotch.
Blood pumped, making him hard. Desire consumed him. Desire for a woman he couldn’t have. Dammit all to hell.
Then he reminded himself that his reaction was to an attractive woman. It wasn’t specific. It wasn’t about Meri. As his assistant enjoyed pointing out, he’d been solitary for a long time. Even brief sexual encounters no longer intrigued him. He’d been lost in a world of work and nothing else.
He had needs. That was all this was-a scratch for an itch.
He pulled back. “Interesting.”
She raised her eyebrows. “It was a whole lot more than interesting and you know it.”
“If it’s important for you to believe that, go ahead.”
“I don’t mind that you’re not making this easy,” she told him. “The victory will be all the sweeter.” She picked up her ice cream and put the cover back. “I’m done.”
“Sugar and fat needs met?”
“I no longer need the comfort. My bad mood is gone.”
So like a woman, he thought as he leaned against the counter. “Because I kissed you?”
She smiled and jumped to the floor, then walked to the freezer. “Because you liked it.”
He wasn’t going to argue the point.
She closed the freezer door with her hip, then looked at him. “Tell me about the women in your life.”
“Not much to tell.”
“It’s tough, isn’t it?” She leaned against the counter opposite his. For once, her eyes weren’t bright with humor or challenge. “Being who we are and trying to get involved. The money thing, I mean.”
Because they both came from money. Because they’d been raised with the idea that they had to be careful, to make sure they didn’t fall for someone who was in it for the wrong reasons.
Without wanting to, Jack remembered sitting in on a painful conversation between Hunter and Meredith. He’d tried to escape more than once, but his friend had wanted him to stick around to make sure Meri really listened.
“Guys are going to know who you are,” Hunter had told her. “You have to be smart and not just think with your heart.”
Meri had been sixteen. She’d writhed in her seat as Hunter had talked, then she’d stood and glared at him. “Who is going to want me for anything else?” she demanded. “I’m not pretty. I’ll never be pretty. I’m nothing more than a giant brain with braces and a big nose. I’m going to have to buy all my boyfriends.”
Hunter had looked at Jack with an expression that begged for help, but Jack hadn’t known what to say either. They were too young to be guiding Meri through life-what experiences did they have to pass on? Doing twins from the law school hardly counted.
“I have it easier than you do,” he said, forcing himself back to the present, not wanting to think about how he’d failed both Hunter and Meri. “The women I go out with don’t know who I am.”
“Interesting point. I don’t talk about my family, but word gets out. I’ve actually reached the point in my life where I have to have men investigated before I start dating them. It’s not fun.”
“You’re doing the right thing.” Not that she was the only one checking out her dates. He ran a check on all of them, too. For casual dates, he only bothered with a preliminary investigation, but if it looked like things were getting serious, he asked for a more involved report.
She glanced at her watch again.
“You have an appointment?” he asked.
She grinned. “I have a surprise.”
“Another one?”
“Oh, yeah. So there’s no little woman waiting in the wings?”
“I told you-I’m not the little-woman type.”
“Of course. You’re the kind of man who enjoys a challenge. Which is what I am.”
Okay, so kissing her hadn’t gotten her to back off. He needed another direction. He refused to spend the next three and a half weeks dodging Meri. All he needed was a plan. He’d never been defeated before and he wasn’t
