“You don’t have to worry about that.”
Amanda opened the trunk, and he leaned toward her to put his bag inside. When she caught the spicy scent of his aftershave, her knees went weak. It took every shred of her willpower not to bury her face in his neck and inhale. She wished she wasn’t so attracted to him. His utter masculinity made it so hard for her to behave herself.
When Jacob didn’t move away immediately, Amanda dragged her gaze up his body. His six feet of hard muscles and his broad shoulders completely overwhelmed her senses. For a minute, she thought he was leaning closer with the intention of kissing her, but as she couldn’t see his eyes through his dark sunglasses, she couldn’t know for sure if he was even looking at her. She plucked his disconcerting eyewear from his nose.
“Not sure why you always wear these damned things,” she said, folding them and tucking them into the neck of his white T-shirt. She forced her hands not to explore the distractingly cut chest muscles defined beneath his shirt. The man was gorgeous. Perfect. And she liked him. Always had. Couldn’t help herself.
“Because.”
She tore her appreciative gaze from Jacob’s body and peered into his eyes. She did know why he always wore sunglasses. He had expressive eyes that quickly made a person realize that he wasn’t the heartless, narcissistic son of a bitch he pretended to be. And that’s why she wanted him. Not because he was the most eyegasmic man ever to walk to earth, but because he felt. Deeply. And those pretty blue eyes of his revealed everything he tried to hide.
“Have you eaten?” she asked. “I’ll take you out. My treat.”
“I was planning on just hanging out at home. Maybe order a pizza. Eat it in front of the TV. Have a beer. Get in a good workout followed by a swim. Then I’m going to sit in the hot tub and vegetate.”
It sounded as if he would be busy being sweaty, wet and potentially naked for most of the evening. Holy hotness. Amanda suddenly needed a panty change. “Oh.”
“I wouldn’t mind some company though.” Before he could turn away, she’d caught his forlorn expression. Ah God, he was lonely. She wasn’t sure how a man who was surrounded by a perpetual crowd could ever be lonely, but even though those kissable lips could lie, those expressive blue eyes didn’t.
Amanda closed the trunk. “Do I count as company?” she asked.
“Can’t take a hint?” he said with a grin. He climbed into the car and shut the door.
A hint? What did he mean? That he wanted to spend more time with her? If only. Amanda was the smart, quirky sister. Tina was the hot sister who all the guys wanted. Jacob included. Amanda had come to terms with Tina’s appeal—and her own lack thereof—after the fourth time Amanda got dumped so her boyfriend could pursue Tina. It didn’t matter to them that Tina wasn’t interested in anyone who didn’t have a fat wallet.
Amanda got behind the wheel of her sensible Toyota, shut the door and fastened her seat belt.
“Did you need to stop anywhere before I drop you off at home?” she asked.
“You really can’t take a hint.”
He chuckled; the rich, deep sound made Amanda’s belly quiver.
“Say, Amanda, do you want to hang out with me and have some pizza and a beer? Watch a movie?”
“What kind of movie?”
“I don’t care.” His eyes widened as if he was struck by a horrendous revelation. “Just no chick flicks.”
Her heart was thudding like a jackhammer, but she somehow managed to play it cool and start the car. “I don’t know, Jacob. I’m pretty picky about the movies I watch. I have a chick-flick only policy.”
“I guess we’ll have to watch golf instead. I don’t do chick flicks.”
Golf? Snore-fest. Though if she was with Jacob, she couldn’t imagine even televised golf would be boring. “Well in that case … I guess I can tolerate a bit of testosterone. I do, however, draw the line at movies with fist-fight sound effects.”
He grinned, and the ambient temperature inside the car increased at least ten degrees. “Slasher horror movie it is.”
She laughed uneasily. She was a certified coward when it came to scary movies. “Sure. As long as you don’t mind me clinging to you in terror and hiding my face in your chest.” She couldn’t stop her gaze from wandering to that big, muscular chest. Yep, it looked perfect for hiding one’s face. Also perfect for fondling. And licking. Kissing. Caressing. Sucking. Massaging. Nib—
“I wouldn’t mind that at all,” he said.
Her eyes lifted to meet his. Wait just a second. “Are you hitting on me, Jacob?”
“I thought that was obvious.”
Oh hell, yes. “I’m not sure if I should be alone with you. You might try to get in my pants.”
He chuckled. “I might.”
She knew he was teasing her, but that didn’t stop parts in her pants from readying themselves for a welcome invasion.
“I guess I’ll have to risk it,” she said, as if her heart wasn’t about to thud itself out of her chest. “You’ve given me a powerful craving for pizza. And a cold beer.”
She started the car and shifted it into drive.
“And burying my face in your chest,” she added.
He laughed. “I can hook you up with all three.”
His knuckles brushed the side of her leg, and she nearly leapt out of her skin. She praised her wise decision to wear shorts that morning.
“Hey, thanks for letting me know about Julie’s party.”
“No problem!” she squeaked.
Jacob’s thumb rubbed a small spot of skin just above her knee. Amanda’s panties were going to need scuba gear if they got any wetter.
“I wish I could have made it earlier,” he said. “Adam seems to think he’s the only one in the band who has a life. I get really sick of trying to get him to see beyond himself.”
Amanda chanced a glance at him. He was staring at where his thumb was igniting the nerve endings in her skin, but he didn’t seem to be seeing what he was doing.
“You didn’t miss much. Ten obnoxious screaming kids, sticky hands covered in pink frosting, a few tantrums, and one stomachache that ended badly in the kiddie pool.”
“Did Julie make a wish and blow out her candles?”
Amanda smiled, fighting the urge to stroke his dark hair. She adored that the man’s biggest weakness was a thirty-pound girl who loved strawberry ice cream. “Yeah. She got them all in one breath. She’s windy like her father.”
He laughed and jerked his hand from her knee as if he’d just noticed he was still touching her. “That probably wasn’t a good trait to inherit.”
“Sure it is. It’s part of what makes you an amazing singer.” She took her eyes off the road and found him staring at the dashboard. The turmoil in his pretty blue eyes broke her heart. “You know, I recorded Julie blowing out her candles on my cellphone.”
He sat up straighter, and a smile softened his hard features. “You did?”
“Get my phone out of my purse and you can watch it.”
He scowled at her purse, which was squashed between the front seats. “There are few things I won’t touch. A woman’s purse is one of them.”
“Why?” she asked. “Afraid you might find a tampon in there or something?”
“Ever since I saw the movie Mary Poppins as a kid, I’ve been leery of women’s purses. I don’t know if you have a coatrack in there or an alligator or a chainsaw.”
“Nope,” she said, “no chainsaws. No tampons either.” Just to make it perfectly clear that it was not her time of the month. In case he wanted to check out all the hot, throbbing wetness going on in her shorts.
He chuckled and stuck a tentative hand in her purse. His startled yell caused Amanda to stomp on the brakes. The horn of the car behind them blared.
“Oh, it’s just your wallet,” he said. “Thought it was an alligator.”
She slapped him in the arm repeatedly. “You scared the crap out of me.”
He poked her in the side, and she squ
irmed, the friction against the seat drawing her attention to how inappropriately turned on she was. Another horn blared as she drifted toward the oncoming lane. She was surprised she hadn’t hit a phone pole yet. It was exceedingly difficult to concentrate on the road with Jacob Silverton sitting next to her, smelling as amazing as he looked. She could only imagine how good he felt. Damn, she was horny. She needed to find the time to date more often.
Jacob located her cellphone and flicked his finger over the screen. “Hmm,” he murmured. “What’s this? A sex tape starring Amanda Lange?”
“What?” She made a grab for her phone—knowing damned well there weren’t any X-rated videos of herself stored on it. “I thought I erased that.”
“Ooo,” he said, holding the phone cradled in both hands. “I want to see this.”
An off-key rendition of “Happy Birthday to Julie” came from the tiny speakers on her phone. Jacob stared down at the screen completely mesmerized and if Amanda wasn’t mistaken, a teensy bit misty-eyed. She smiled. All talk. The man was all talk.
“Make a wish, Julie,” Tina’s voice said from the phone’s speaker.
“Like Aladdin?” Julie asked.
“Hurry, the candles are dripping.”
“I wish I is a princess. A really real princess.” There was a pause and then everyone clapped.
“See, you made her wish come true without even knowing about it,” Amanda said.
“This kid is going to be the death of me,” Jacob said. He replayed the video. Twice.
Her hand hovered above his thigh. She so wanted to touch him but ultimately couldn’t find the courage to do it and so fiddled with the air conditioner instead. She fleetingly wondered if it needed repaired. She was strangely overheated though the vents were directed toward her and blowing air at full blast. “I could send you videos of her, if you’d like.”
She turned onto the road that led to Jacob’s house, thinking that she should have driven like her grandfather—as if trying to throw a race to a snail. The drive had been much too short. She slowed until her foot was off the gas and they literally rolled the length of the final block. “I do babysit her a lot, you know. She thinks her Aunt Mander is pretty cool.” And someone had to look after the kid when Tina went shopping. Tina loved spending Jacob’s money. She tackled the task as if competing in an Olympic event.
“You’d do that for me?” Jacob said, turning in his seat and leaning into her field of view so he could look into her eyes.
“Yeah, of course I would. I should’ve thought of it sooner.”
“Thanks, Amanda. You’re a real sweetheart.”
She stifled a cringe. She didn’t want him to think of her as that one nice, forgettable girl. The one who guys always seemed to think of as their friend. Their buddy. She didn’t want to be called a real sweetheart. Not after Jacob had flirted with her ever so briefly moments before and made her believe her fondest wish could come true.
Amanda turned into Jacob’s drive and coasted to a halt behind his car.
“Um, Jacob?” she said. “Isn’t that your car?”
He didn’t answer her, just tore open the door and leapt out of her car. He was hugging the shiny black hood of the roadster before she could release her seat belt. She climbed out and went to stand beside him.
“I thought you said it was stolen.”
“I thought it had been.”
“Then how did it get here?”
“No idea.”
Amanda noted the piece of pink paper stuck under one wiper. She pulled it free and read the note aloud. “Shade, I know you won’t mind that I borrowed your car to beat you home. I’ll be in the hot tub waiting to rock your world, stud. It’s signed Veronica. And she dotted the i with a heart. How precious.” Amanda pretended not to be affected by the note, but she’d really been looking forward to spending the evening with him. Unfortunately, some other woman had beaten her to it. And unlike Amanda, Veronica probably had the self-confidence, beautiful face and hot body to actually attract someone like Jacob.
“Fuckin’ Veronica,” Jacob bellowed. “I wondered where I’d left my spare set of keys.”
Probably in her skirt the last time she’d been in his hot tub. “I guess I’ll go on home,” Amanda said. “I’m glad you got your car back. It was good to see—”
Jacob moved to stand in Amanda’s path. She wasn’t sure how he managed to so easily trap her between one gorgeous hunk of metal and one gorgeous hunk of metal vocalist, but it got her attention. With her back pressed against the side of the car, she tried to regain her senses. No good. Her heart thundered out of control as she slowly lifted her gaze to look him in the eye.
“You’re staying,” he said. “I invited you. She’s leaving. No one invited her.”
“Maybe I don’t want—”
Jacob touched her cheek, and her breath stalled in her throat. “You’re staying.”
She couldn’t look away from his intense blue eyes. “I’m staying,” she said obediently.
He smiled crookedly, plucked his sunglasses out of the neckband of his T-shirt and put them on. She stared at the cross around his neck.
“Do you want to wait out here while I call her a cab or would you rather wait in the house?” he asked. “She’s sure to cause a scene.”
“Um.”
“You could go to the family room and pick out a movie to watch or scrounge in the kitchen for food. It won’t take me long to get rid of her.”
“Well, okay. Do you have the movie Steel Magnolias?” She kept her poker face firmly in place as she blinked up at him. “It’s been ages since I’ve seen it, y’all.”
He laughed. “I thought we agreed no chick flicks.”
Amanda huffed as if she was very put out by his demands, when in truth she just wanted to put out. She couldn’t blame Veronica for inviting herself to a night in a hot tub with this man, but Amanda was oh so glad that Jacob was making the woman leave.
“I suppose we did.”
He tucked his forefinger under her chin and stroked the skin just beneath her lips with his thumb. “I’d kiss you,” he said, “but I don’t want Veronica to think I’m sporting a hard-on for her.”
What?
Had he actually just said that? He couldn’t possibly have meant it. Too flabbergasted to form a comeback, Amanda gaped at him.
He laughed. “What a priceless expression.”
He squeezed her shoulder, and her legs began to tremble uncontrollably.
“I’ll see you inside.”
“Uh huh,” she might have said around her mouthful of drool.
Jacob turned and hurried to front door, unlocking it and leaving it open so she could go inside. He then strode to the walk along the side of the house that led to the pool and hot tub out back.
It was all Amanda could do to keep from sliding to the ground in a puddle of lust.
Chapter 3Shade covered the distance to his back yard in long, angry strides. He couldn’t believe Veronica had had the audacity to “borrow” his car without asking. And then she thought he’d be happy enough about it to fuck her? Not tonight. Maybe not ever again. Of course, if she hadn’t taken his car, then Amanda wouldn’t have driven him home and he wouldn’t be anticipating an evening with one of the few people who allowed him to let his guard down.
A trail of discarded clothing started at the back corner of the house and continued to the hot tub that was surrounded on three sides by a cedar privacy fence. As he continued around the house, he picked up her clothes one sexy item at a time. Lace-topped stocking here. Black satin thong there. Shade dumped the clothing on the slate patio at the bottom of the hot tub’s wooden steps.
Veronica was right where she’d said she be. She had a glass of wine in one hand, her ebony hair piled on top of her head, her eyes closed and her beautiful naked breasts hovering above the surface of the water. She had a fantastic set of tits. Yeah, he noticed. There wasn’t a heterosexual male alive who wouldn’t have found her sexually inviting. And if Am
anda hadn’t agreed to stay, Shade would have undoubtedly stripped off his clothes to join Veronica. But Amanda was here and strange as it seemed, he’d much rather spend the evening teasing her than fucking the hot-tub sex goddess until he couldn’t move.