Persuasion Skills (8 page)

She threw him a suspicious look. At this
point, she wasn’t putting anything past him. His mind truly did work in
mysterious ways.

She’d told him on more than one occasion
how much she loved to explore different terrains. As a
Miami
girl born and bred, she loved seeing
how Mother Nature could completely alter a landscape.
South
Florida
was almost unwaveringly flat, and in her city, the only
major weather changes she witnessed went from hot and humid to hot and barely
livable heat in the long summer months. Her only qualm with the scene around
her was the damn cold. It was freezing. She didn’t know how northerners
survived the cold.

“It’s beautiful here, isn’t it?”

His softly-spoken question pulled her
away from her thoughts.

“Yeah, I can kind of see the appeal,” she
said blandly. “I only wish it weren’t so cold.”

He tugged on her hand, pulling her to a
stop.

“You’re such a city girl,” he said.

She loved how his lips were always so
quick to twitch up into a teasing smile.

“Oh, please. Like you’re Mr. Wilderness,”
she said, smirking up at him.

“I used to come up to
Colorado
a lot with my family when I was a
kid. We would rent a one-room cabin with no electricity and spend our days
sledding, walking the trails, or just reading by the fire, Ms. Know-It-All,” he
said tweaking her nose.

She looked around her and shook her head.
Jax loved his creature comforts, so the image of him as a carefree child
romping around the woods with no electronics to tinker with was difficult to
process.

“Somehow, I just don’t see you as the type
of kid who liked to commune with nature. I’m pretty sure it doesn’t come with a
twelve volt outlet.”

The corners of his eyes crinkled in
mirth. “True, but my dad always thought there was just something unnatural
about palm trees and bougainvilleas in winter. So he used to drag us up here
every year for Christmas.” He scanned the woods around them. “The quiet kind of
grows on you. It taught me focus. Besides, this is where I fell in love with
all things electronic.”

“Was it withdrawal?”

“Oh, ye of little faith, Poindexter. I
found an old broken battery-operated radio at the bottom of a storage trunk one
day and started tinkering with it. I spent the majority of that trip just
trying to figure out how to make it work.” He shook his head at her, chuckling softly.

“I think my interest was ninety percent
desperation and ten percent genuine interest, but by the time we made it back
home, I couldn’t wait to hit the library and solve the puzzle. I’ve been
addicted ever since.”

“Unfortunately for me.” She didn’t bother
to hide the sarcasm in her voice. His addiction to and knowledge of all things
electronic were what kept her trapped on a mountain top.

A pinpoint of ice hit her nose, and she
looked up to see snowflakes falling down towards them in an intricate pattern
of lace across the sky.

As if waiting for the celestial cue, a
slow shiver worked its way up her spine.

“I think it might be time to head back.”

He chuckled and began to back her slowly
across the path. She stumbled back warily, warning bells going off at the
devilish look in his eyes as he crowded her against the cold trunk of a tree.

“What are you doing?”

At the press of his hips against hers, a
flush of heat began to work its way through her body. He ignored her as he
removed her gloves and tucked them into his back pocket. She watched in
confusion as he unzipped his coat.

“You know, all this man-handling is so
not attractive.”

“I’m just trying to do what any good
husband would do,” he said, grinning at her as he began chaffing her hands
between his own. “I’m warming up my wife.”

“Oh.”

She couldn’t think of much more to say as
she stared down at his big hands enveloping hers and bit back a sigh. His
strong hands were fast becoming an obsession for her. She was definitely
heating, and it had very little to do with his rubbing motions.

“Um, I think I’m warm enough,” she
finally said, trying to pull her hands away from his grasp.

“Hmm, I don’t think so.” His smile deepened
as he dragged her hands down the front of his sweater. “I mean, it’s really
cold out here.”

Oh no, I know
that smile.

Wicked. Just plain wicked.

She wasn’t sure how it had happened, but
somehow he’d worked her hands under his sweater and she was touching the warm
flesh of his hard abdomen.

His really firm, hot, and fantastically
hard abdomen.

She didn’t have the will to fight back
her groan as he leaned down and gave her a scorching kiss.

Absently, she was glad that she hadn’t
known how great a kisser he was all the years of their friendship. She would
have never been able to concentrate through all of their barbeques and business
meetings if she had known how sexily his tongue could curl into her mouth, how
he kissed with his whole body, making her want to beg him to kiss her all over.

She would have spent even more time
fantasizing about crawling into his lap, which was saying a lot since that
fantasy played through her mind at least once during every encounter with him,
and that had been
before
she’d slept
with him.

He began to withdraw from the kiss, but
she quickly wrapped her arms around to his back and pulled him closer.

When he lifted his head slightly away
from her lips, she stood on tiptoe reaching for him.

“Still cold,” she murmured huskily before
pressing her mouth hungrily against his.

Make-believe has
its merits
,
she thought fleetingly before she was engulfed in the heat that was all Jaxon
Grey and his fairy-tale marriage.

Chapter Eight

Jax tugged at Pepper’s hand, pulling her
up the cabin porch steps and hoping she wouldn’t notice the satisfied
expression he was struggling hard to contain. She had a bemused look on her
face. Her eyes seemed unfocused, and her lips were swollen from the kisses
they’d shared on their walk. It was a good look for her.

He helped her out of her heavy coat
before shrugging off his own and hanging them both on hooks beside the door.

The cabin was filled with the burning
swirl of purple and orange haze of colors as the sun set beyond the massive
windows. He hoped the whole scene helped set a romantic mood.

He guided her to the large comfortable couch
in front of the fireplace.

“I’ll start the fire to warm up the room,
and then we can get started on dinner,” he said, maneuvering her to sit on the
couch before turning to the fireplace.

“How much food do you actually have up
here?” She settled down into the plush cushions of the couch.

“I hired a catering company. They stocked
the fridge and pantry as well with containers of full meals.”

Her soft snicker filled the room.
Glancing over his shoulder, he saw her face and eyes lit with laughter.

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing,” she said before dissolving
into giggles.

Finishing with the fire, he turned and
stood over her shaking body, frowning. “Are you going to share the joke?”

She looked at him and just shook her head
before standing. She wrapped her arms around his middle and gave him a quick
hug before releasing him and walking to the kitchen.

“It’s just good to know that even when
you go off the deep end, it’s a well-planned jump,” she said as she flipped on
the light, opened the fridge, and began rummaging around.

The sight of her bent over with her ass
displayed in perfect offering distracted him momentarily from her words.

“I already told you I’m being perfectly
sane and logical,” he said when she finally straightened with a stack of
containers in her arms.

“Yeah, whatever. You in the mood for some
pork chops and veggies?”

He shook his head. It was obviously going
to take more time for her to realize that he wasn’t going through some mental
breakdown.

Her stubbornness only confirmed that his
plan really was the best strategy. They’d known each other long enough for him
to know that for Pepper, actions always spoke so much louder than words. It was
one of the reasons their company had done so well in such a short amount of
time. She was a tenacious business-woman who believed in concrete results more
than abstract proposals and promises. It would take his best effort to convince
her that he planned on keeping her in his life, his bed, and his heart for the
rest of their lives.

He just wished he hadn’t wasted years
oblivious that he had the perfect woman. And of course, when he finally managed
to pull his head out of his ass, the timing was less than ideal. He shrugged
his shoulders in resignation. In all honesty, kidnapping her really was the
best option.

It’ll be a funny
story for the grandkids.

“There should be a cheesecake in the
freezer. We can have that for dessert.” He walked to a cabinet and pulled down
dishes.

She tossed him a quick smile. “Perfect.”

He went about arranging the place
settings on the island while she heated the food. Stepping back, he cast the
surface a critical eye before turning to rummage around in a drawer and pulling
out some thick candles and matches.

According to his research, candle-lit
dinners were supposed to be romantic. He’d never really bothered with them
before. All of the women he dated in the past had been casual relationships.
They knew he wasn’t interested in anything permanent, so romantic dinners had
never really figured into any of their dates.

He wanted things to be different with
Pepper. He wanted her to know that she was different from all the other women
he’d been with.

He did a mental review of the magazine
articles and blog posts he’d read regarding the constructing of a perfect table
for romance.

Candles, check.

Turning to another cabinet, he pulled out
a bottle of wine and glasses. Uncorking the bottle, he filled the two glasses
and added them to the setting.

Wine, check.

“There should also be a few premixed
salads in the fridge. Would you mind pulling one out?” he asked her, hoping
that his expression was as innocent as he was trying to project.

She turned from the counter to look at
him. Her gaze fell on the table before connecting back to him. He could see a
spark of suspicion as he began to back out of the kitchen.

“Where are you going?”

“I just need to use the restroom. I’ll be
right back.”

Her expression relaxed. “Sure, no
problem. Ranch or vinaigrette dressing?”

“Ranch,” he said as he hurried away.

Reaching the bathroom, he closed the door
and grabbed a bottle of cologne. He rarely wore the stuff, but the year before,
Pepper had commented on how much she liked that particular scent. Pinecones
dipped in vanilla, she had said with a sexy smile. He sprayed a bit of the
cologne on his neck and chest.

Sexy cologne,
check.

He left the room and paused to turn on
some music before proceeding to the kitchen. Her back was to him as she
finished filling a large bowl with salad.

The crooning voice of Robin Thicke filled
the air as he reached her. Her back stiffened before she whipped around and
looked at him.

Music, check.

Her eyes narrowed at him, and he just
smiled at her in return.

“Everything looks good. You ready to
eat?”

“Yes. I didn’t realize how long we were
out.”

“Great, I’m starving.” He reached around
her and grabbed the salad bowl. “You go ahead and sit down, and I’ll set out
all of the food.”

She tossed him another wary glance before
sitting down. He placed all of the food on the island, and before he sat down,
made sure to dim the lights.

All systems go.

He pulled his chair close to hers and
began adding salad to her plate. It still surprised him how doing the simplest
of things with Pepper made him feel good. He’d never realized just how
impersonal his dating life was until he found himself eager to perform the
simplest task for her.

Looking back over the years, he realized
that she had always been the exception. Besides his family members, she was the
only other person he ever brought gifts for, or made the effort to spend time
with. All of his other friends and acquaintances knew that the only way they’d
see him was if they scheduled an appointment through his assistant.

Regardless of his schedule or stress
level, he and Pepper had dinner at least once a week. They celebrated every
major personal and professional milestone together. They both had spare
clothing at each other’s homes. Hell, he even tracked her menstrual cycle to
know when to have his stash of seventy percent dark Belgian chocolate at the
ready.