Idiot that she was around him, she just smiled, happy to see him. He had a rugged outdoorsy look, like a buff surfer with that white-blond hair falling to his collar. But she'd grown up around a pack of alpha males and knew when she entered the heat zone of one.
When Jeremy wasn't joking around, he had a powerful aura about him that warned others not to step into his arena unless they were up to the task. Some women might miss what hid behind the charming window dressing.
The wind stirred his hair in a loose and free way that made her wonder how he'd look in the morning after a night of hot sex.
With a body like that she'd bet on an endless night.
"You'll be famous," he added.
Reminding her about the photo brought her back from mental wandering. "I don't think so. How famous can someone made up to look like a statue be?"
"I'd know it was you even under all that makeup."
A tingle of regret over the picture and article inched up her spine. She didn't want fame and her family might not be happy that she'd talked to a reporter. Stop obsessing and don't overreact. Besides, it would probably just be a dinky article buried under weekend events. Her identity had been hidden under layers of caked-on makeup. And layers of Vinny's expert paperwork.
CeCe picked up the baby doll. When she turned back to her fiberglass base, Jeremy was studying it.
"You've got a crack in this thing," he muttered.
"Someone backed into my stand at my last event."
He lifted the sculpted base, not seeming to mind the white powder he'd gotten on his hands from her body makeup. "Where's your truck?"
"I have a hand cart to move that with," she protested, then took in his arched eyebrow and unrelenting expression to mean he only wanted directions to her truck. She finally pointed. "Over there near the theater. Last spot before the railroad tracks."
This was the first time he'd spoken to her since she'd given him a lame brush-off for his dinner invitation. The look of disappointment in his face had eaten a hole in her stomach.
Was a normal life too much to ask for?
One not built around lies.
CeCe walked companionably beside Jeremy, sneaking peeks at his confident stride and casual manner.
He almost seemed... shy? No way. Just laid back today.
Why couldn't she have a man like him in her life?
Because her family wouldn't accept a clean-cut upstanding citizen like Jeremy and she wouldn't accept a man they approved of, so she couldn't win either way.
Didn't mean she had to live like a monk, did it?
Jeremy placed her fiberglass base in the truck bed then dusted the powder from his hands. When he turned to her this time his smile made her swallow hard.
She craved this man.
A long horn blast from the railroad tracks entering Marietta warned everyone a freight train was approaching and would pass through downtown not fifty feet behind them.
"Look, CeCe, maybe we could..." Jeremy hesitated as if the words in his head were waiting for a sign of encouragement.
Long white guardrails lowered into place with warning bells clanging at a deafening level. Automobiles stopped on each side of the crossing. The ground vibrated as the lead engine raced by dragging a string of loaded railcars. Loud rumbling prevented any conversation for a few minutes.
Her heart jumped at the desire pulsing through Jeremy's eyes, the male interest he didn't try to hide. But if she let him finish that sentence they'd both be disappointed with her answer.
After a minute of metal-on-metal pounding the caboose blew past, sucking the noise down the tracks with it.
Jeremy opened his mouth to finish his sentence.
"Ah, gee!" CeCe snapped her fingers.
"What?" Jeremy looked as alarmed as she sounded.
"I just realized I'm going to be late."
"For what?"
Answering that question was going to give her nightmares, but she had no choice. "Drinks at a friend's house. She wants me to meet--" Just say it! Use the one line that would put Jeremy off for a couple weeks, because she couldn't keep doing this over and over. Say I have a girlfriend who wants me to meet a guy she thinks would be a good match for me. CeCe had been raised around lies. Why were these so difficult to tell?
Jeremy waited, expectantly. "She wants you to meet... who?"
CeCe opened her mouth to give the right answer, but instead said, "Her friends... she, uh, wants me to meet her girlfriends."
His face relaxed.
She accepted the stab of guilt that cut her in half over leading him on but couldn't bring herself to completely destroy the light of interest in his gaze. Not after three weeks of getting to know Jeremy. Three weeks of heaven.
She'd never laughed so much. Once she got him to open up, he'd shared stories of setting up the gym and the people who worked for him. It was as if he'd never shared those stories with anyone else. She'd never spent so much time alone with a man who wasn't family and realized she felt safe with Jeremy.
If not for her overzealous stepfamily of men who had sworn to her dying mother they'd protect CeCe, she'd enjoy getting to know Jeremy much better.
Jeremy opened the driver's door on her dual-cab truck where the interior was covered in plastic. When she gained her place behind the wheel amid much crackling noise, he leaned in the opening and said, "See you... tonight."
As if he meant to do exactly that.
Be still my heart.
Hormones were going to get her in big trouble if she stayed in that rental house so close to him. Vinny would never have approved the lease if he'd realized just what kind of man lived next door to her. The little old lady who owned both houses had assured Vinny her other renter--Jeremy--was a quiet man who traveled often and kept to himself.
A sweet guy who never brought women to his house.
God forgive her, CeCe had jumped on the speculative look in Vinny's face the first time he glanced over at Jeremy limping around his yard. She realized Vinny had made the mental leap that Jeremy was gay. CeCe did everything she could to keep her brother convinced her neighbor was no threat to her.
Vinny might not be so at ease if he ever met Jeremy in person. He'd recognize another alpha and figure out quickly that her attractive next-door neighbor was not gay.
Not by a long shot.
Oh boy, had she screwed up or what?
If her defenses didn't hold up Jeremy would be in trouble. Her brothers took overprotective to a whole new level and enforced a no-engagement rule with a .357 Magnum.
But she hadn't moved here to live in hiding the way she had at home. The minute she convinced Vinny to return home to D.C. permanently she would rush next door to invite Jeremy on a date that would end up at her house... in her bed... with her.
Until then she had to keep away from him.
Two
Jeremy wheeled his Tahoe sport utility through the side roads heading home from Marietta Square and trying to beat CeCe back by taking the quickest route he knew. He felt like a teenager with his pulse racing, but he intended to arrive home in time to unload her fiberglass base and find out if he'd imagined that bedroom gaze she'd just given him.
Maybe he wasn't the only one experiencing the attraction between them.
Maybe she wanted to give him a shot.
Or maybe he was just hoping that look she'd given him meant she wanted to lick him from head to toe.
All Shelilah had wanted was a set of skilled hands to stroke an itch.
When Jeremy politely backed out, Blade had shaken his head at him and led the two women to his car with the intent of appeasing both females tonight.
Jeremy didn't care. Blade could have all the women in the world... except CeCe.
Whoa, hold it. That smacked of sounding... possessive.
A date. That was all he was trying to accomplish with Cece, to start.
Swinging into the driveway of his ranch-style brick home, he parked, not wasting time to stuff his truck in the garage.
>
CeCe pulled into her driveway a few seconds later.
Jeremy jumped out and reached the driver's side of her truck bed in several quick strides. He lifted the base from the back.
"I can unload that," she complained, climbing out of the truck and leaving a dusty white trail. Her garage door finished opening with a groan exposing the single-car storage space cluttered with packing boxes that prevented parking inside.
Jeremy ignored her. "Where do you want it?"
CeCe sighed then pointed at a spot in her garage with a chalky outline left from where she'd obviously stored the fiberglass unit before. He carried it over and dropped the base into place. The overhead fluorescent lights flickered on.
When he turned around CeCe was standing next to the switch by the door to her mudroom. White-dusted hair fell loose from the twisted-up 'do she'd worn earlier. Sweat drizzled along her face and streaked the coating over her shoulders.
She'd wiped most of the makeup off her face, revealing her eyes and lips. "I look like a bad Halloween costume."
"No, you look... sweet." He stepped closer and used a finger to lift a lock of powdered hair that had broken free and pushed it behind her ear. "And sexy." She didn't move. He trailed the same finger down her neck and across her shoulder.
She shivered.
Damn it, he wanted this woman. She wasn't the kind of woman to date casually. For once, he considered that a good thing if she said yes, which was why he had to get it over with and ask her out. The sooner he got an answer, the sooner he'd either be in heaven or licking his wounds and leaving a day early for the BAD headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee.
The overhead fixture in the center of her garage flashed on and off, then made a sizzling sound.
"I'll have to get a bulb out of the attic," she mumbled, still not moving. Her eyes were locked on him, but he couldn't tell if she was daring him to take the next move or preparing to back away if he did.
"It's probably not a bulb." He lowered his hand. She might be more receptive if he gave her time to shower first.
She blinked, coming out of her daze to look at the light. "No?"
He angled his head around to look at the fixture. "Acting like a transformer."
"Figures," she grumbled. "Because replacing a bulb would be something I could do instead of bothering Miss Betty."
Jeremy smiled in agreement. He never bothered their landlord with repairs either, just took care of everything himself.
"I've got some spare parts from fixing one of mine," he offered, then added casually, "Why don't you get a shower and I'll swap out the transformer?"
The indecision in her face was beating the hell out of his ego. One minute she had eyes that called to him like a sultry siren and the next she was clearly backing up.
Then, bright as a ray of sunshine, CeCe broke out a smile that drew him in faster than a suicidal moth to a flame.
"That's a great idea. I'll get cleaned up quick." She'd clearly made some decision. The siren was back when she gave him a smoldering look that ran all the blood in his body south.
His cock twitched in response.
But did her response mean she'd go to dinner with him tonight? He had two days. Tick, tick, tick...
When she spun away and opened the door to her mudroom, he stopped her with, "CeCe?"
She paused and looked over her shoulder. "What?"
He didn't know why he had to constantly push limits, but that had been his nature since speaking his first words and Jeremy wanted a straight answer now. He couldn't take guessing any more. He had to know he wasn't misreading those heated looks.
If all she wanted was friendship, he'd fix her light and leave her alone. Forever.
"After I get this done," he said, pointing up at the lights, "you can see your girlfriend... or have dinner with me."
She chewed on the corner of her lip, another moment of indecision that rankled him so he decided to push all the limits at once. "Dinner... at my house."
Her lips parted in surprise then a clash of thoughts conflicted in her face before she finally settled on a decision that cranked up the wattage on her smile. "I'll bring the wine." She disappeared inside.
Jeremy stood there a moment, not believing she was really going to have dinner at his house.
Tonight. Alone with CeCe.
When the fog cleared from his mind, Jeremy jogged back over to his vehicle and pressed his garage opener.
He heard opportunity calling with her enthusiastic rush to shower. Jeremy was not one to pass up any opportunity that looked like CeCe Caprice.
DINNER... AT MY house.
Jeremy's words played over and over in CeCe's mind like a favorite tune.
She could have said no, should have said no. But all she could think was Why not if I'm careful?
When she finished toweling her hair she lifted a hair dryer then changed her mind. Drying the wavy mass never helped so why waste that time?
Cece brushed her teeth, smiling over her luck. He'd solved her dilemma. She hadn't wanted to risk inviting him to dinner in her house for fear of an unexpected guest--Vinny--showing up and couldn't very well have suggested to Jeremy she'd love to have a date on the condition of it being after dark and inside his house with the doors locked.
Jeremy would have thought she was psycho or way too forward.
She'd heard enough around the gym to know Jeremy didn't accept dates from female members who asked him and none of the girls she'd spoken with mentioned him having been in a serious relationship. Sounded as though he didn't monopolize a woman's time, which would normally be a positive trait for her situation.
What would it be like to have a man like Jeremy wanting to monopolize her time? Heaven.
Stop dreaming about the impossible and just live in the moment for once.
She leaned close to the mirror, inspecting her face where scrubbing the makeup off had left her skin red-blotched in places. She could take the time to put on new makeup once she told him she'd come over after dark. But if she didn't get back to the garage soon, Jeremy might finish fixing the light and go home. She didn't have his phone number and didn't want Vinny to show up with her standing at Jeremy's door.
Vinny would come over to meet Jeremy. Bad move.
She wasn't expecting her brother, but he hadn't been around the festival or at least she hadn't seen him. Her sixth sense warned her he was due to drop by unexpectedly.
Vinny was one of those insane people who got up before daylight so he normally stopped by early. If she orchestrated it right, she'd run out and get Jeremy to agree on the time then scoot him home before anyone saw him inside her garage.
She brushed her damp hair back and grinned at the mirror.
Tonight with Jeremy. She couldn't believe it. Chills skittered over her skin at the possibility of kissing him... just as an appetizer.
She pulled on a knit-and-lace top that stopped short of where her white running pants hit her hips. The lace was too much, too girly. Yanking that off, she dug out a powder blue sleeveless top, eyed it once in the mirror, and hurried to the garage.
When she opened the mudroom door to the garage, the last splash of sunlight had disappeared. She could just see Jeremy's hands moving. He stood two rungs up on a stepladder and was snapping the plastic cover back over her light fixture when her feet touched the cool concrete floor.
She saw him much better as he climbed down.
He'd taken off his shirt. Oh, mama.
"You're back in business." Folding the stepladder, Jeremy stood it against the side wall. He walked over to where she was glued to one spot and reached past her shoulder toward the light switch.
When his chest moved close to her face, she inhaled his scent and wanted to lean forward another inch to touch her lips to his skin. To taste him.
But she didn't move at all.
The light blinked on and glowed almost as bright as the smile he beamed at her.
What should she say? She sucked at casual conversation and had l
ittle experience intimately with men.
"I owe you one for that," she joked, then cringed at how stupid that sounded. "Thanks."
"Anytime." Green eyes narrowed in pure devilment studied her. "You look... refreshed."
She lowered her chin, glancing at herself like a dimwit who had forgotten what she'd put on.
The overhead light flicked off, leaving them in a dark garage except for the haze of twilight filtering from the dusty evening glow. Her eyes adjusted just as he touched a finger under her chin and lifted, drawing her gaze to his.
She ran her tongue along her lips and Jeremy's eyes sparked with heat.
One kiss. Just something to give her a little confidence for tonight.
Jeremy eased closer, soaking up her personal space without taking a step, and cupped her face. "About that IOU. Mind if I collect now?"
"I'm all for paying my debts promptly," she whispered, short of breath at the prospect of...
He lowered his head, gently touching his lips to hers. Slowly sweeping across in sweet nips then firmer. The tempo built, his tongue teasing, tasting her, asking for more one tiny move at a time.
She leaned into him. His long fingers spread across her face then moved to the back of her head. He wrapped an arm around her and she moaned at the feel of his muscled body when they touched. She wanted to climb inside that incredible body, feel him everywhere.
She opened her lips, raking his tongue with hers, playing. He tasted sensual, hot, and all male. She pushed her hands up the warm skin on his naked chest then reached around his neck, fingers driving up to fist his hair.
He held her at the small of her back, firm yet gently.
She ached to be with this man.
No way would one kiss be enough.
If the thick evidence of his reaction rubbing against her middle was any indication, she'd bet one kiss wasn't enough for Jeremy either. Talk about a confidence boost.
His lips pulled away from her mouth to torture the skin along her neck.
Even though the garage was dark, she didn't want to risk Vinny showing up and catching them together.
If she stopped Jeremy long enough to get inside the house would the moment be ruined? She'd been intimate with one man, well, actually a boy in high school. And he'd moved away five days later. She had no doubt her brothers had found out and spared his life but they made sure he left town.
Jeremy's hand stroked up her back and she sighed. He kissed her again, taking her breath.