T is for Temptation (23 page)

She shook her head.

“I thought so. Alex doesn’t know that, so he’ll believe you can.”

“Break it up, you two.” Alex waved his hand between them. “I’m hungry, and I could use a shower. I’ve been in these clothes for too long.” He sniffed the vicinity of his armpit. “I’m sure I smell.”

Tee’s lips curved. “There are three bedrooms upstairs, one with a bath and a shower attachment, another with a mini North American shower, the other bedroom has neither,” she volunteered. “There’s soap and shampoo and all the necessities.
Douglas
had the house prepared for me.”

She glanced at Jake and cocked her head to one side, the question,
Did I do right
, inherent in the motion. And it charmed him almost as much as when she crinkled her nose.

“I can hardly wait. I hope the hot water works.” Alex’s eyes narrowed at Jake’s barked laugh. He arched a brown eyebrow. “How long before we eat?”

“Half an hour,” she replied. “Jake, why don’t you have a shower as well? I’ll have mine when you two are finished.”

“Sounds like a plan to me. Come on,” Alex urged. “The sooner we’re clean, the sooner we eat.”

The men took the stairs two at a time. Jake found the shower first, stripped, and stepped into the coffin-like stall. It was so narrow his elbows hit the clear plastic when he lathered his hair. Two fluffy towels lay on the washstand. He dried his skin and stalked to the bedroom.

“I hate it when you do that.” Alex lounged on the bed, feet and chest bared, hands clasped under his head. “Ever since I can remember, you always found everything first. I’m not complaining, mind you. That uncanny instinct of yours always hones in on the most liable outcome.”

“It got me into trouble with the
SEC
when I first started out,” he drawled.

“But, they couldn’t prove insider trading. You knew no one at either company.”

“Thank God.” He whipped the towel off his hips and pulled a fresh pair of black jeans out of his carry-on. “By the way, clear out of this room after you’re done. Tee and I are staying in here.”

“I saw that crap bathtub in the other room with that little hose attachment. Women love to take baths, and I couldn’t fit into that thing if I tried.”

“Cut it. This is ours.”

“I hope you left some hot water,” Alex grumbled as he marched to the bathroom.

Surprised by his good spirits and optimism, Jake slipped silently down the stairs. With all that had happened, he should be miserable and irritated, but Tee awaited, and nothing else mattered.

At the bottom of the staircase, he halted, and stood, arms akimbo, surveying the cozy dining area. An open a bottle of Edmeades Zinfandel sat to one side of a square table. Onyx-colored bowls filled with creamy pink soup rested on blue-green plates. A wicker-weaved basket holding slices of French bread filled the center of the table.

Humming a little off-key, Tee closed her eyes and stuck her hands out about chest high, holding them as if there was something between them. As he watched, a tulip-shaped vase filled with cheerful white daisies with large yellow centers materialized in her grip. She inspected the floral arrangement for a second, cocked her head to the side, and wispy fern fronds sputtered up between the flowers. For a second, it seemed like they were filming an episode of
Charmed
or
Bewitched
. Arms dropping, hands balling, Jake gulped, and took a deep inhale.

Squeezing his eyes shut didn’t make any difference. When he opened them again, Tee’d finished the table, adding parsley curls to the soup bowls, wine glasses in front of each place setting. Un-curling his clenched fists, Jake tamped down the waterfall of uncertainty threatening the dam he’d built so carefully, by reminding himself, he only intended a brief affair with the woman, nothing permanent.

For the first time, he let the thought form. Did like attract like?

Alex thought he had a knack for finding things. He wondered what his buddy would think if he told him the truth. When he started up the stairs earlier, the whole layout of the second floor flashed through his mind. He knew the location of every room, every object. It had always been like that. When Jake realized the phenomenon didn’t happen for everyone else, he immediately secreted it. Being an orphan was difference enough to deal with; he didn’t need to advertise his weirdness to anyone, even Alex.

Tee turned around and squealed when she saw him standing at the foot of the stairs. A delectable blush stained the ridges of her high cheekbones, and he had a desperate need to taste her, hold her.

“Are you annoyed with me? It’s just a few flowers to cheer up the place.” She set the vase in the middle of the table and wiped her hands on the gypsy skirt.

Jake shook his head and ate up the distance between them. He pulled her into his arms, and she quickly relaxed against his chest.

“No, witchy woman, I’m not angry. But, don’t conjure up anything too terrific, or Alex will become suspicious.” He slanted his lips over hers.

Tee rose on tiptoes to return his kiss, and she wound her hands around his neck. His tongue swirled in her mouth, savoring the velvet of their caressing tongues, her panted response. “You and I are sleeping in the same bed tonight, babe. Don’t think otherwise.”

Her pupils dilated, shadowing the amber of her eyes. “On the way here, I decided if I’m going to be arrested, I may as well take advantage of every freedom while I have the chance. You tasted me two nights ago. Tonight, I want to taste you.”

Savage barbarity had him lifting her thighs, cupping her delicious ass, and grinding his raging erection against her mound. He breathed into her mouth. “Damn, Tee, I don’t know if I can make it to the bedroom.”

“Ahem, children, Uncle Alex is back in the room. I’d give you a few minutes, but I’m starving, and that food on the table will be cold by the time you’re finished.”

Stifling a vulgar expletive of where Alex should stick his head and his presence, Jake slid Tee down the length of his body. She clung to him, hands killer-tight on his biceps, and raised passion-glazed, unfocused eyes to meet his.

“Is that chocolate I smell?”

He groaned aloud, and she stiffened in his arms, pushing against his chest.

“Isn’t Tee great? She whipped up a batch of little cakes for dessert.” A stretch, but plausible, Jake took a swift survey of the room and almost collapsed with relief. Regular room, no rose petals, and one better, no little chocolate cupcakes, he cricked his neck right and left.

“Where on earth did you find fresh flowers, sweetheart?” Alex walked around the two of them and pulled out a chair from the dining table.

“You made everything,” Jake whispered in her ear. “Got that?”

She nodded against his chest and shrugged out of his arms.

Striding to the stairs, she answered, “I found them in a little garden in the back.”

“Where’d you put the roses?”

Jake spun around. Sure enough, a carpet of dusky pink rose petals circled the spot where they’d stood.

Coloring to match the hue of the petals, she muttered, “In my bedroom.”

“Hah, her room’s the last one,” Alex said, quick on the uptake. “Then I claim the room with the shower.

“I wish you joy of it,” Jake snapped.

“I won’t be too long. There are plate warmers, and the food’s covered, so it should be okay.” She jogged up the steps, fists pumping.

“Do you think she’d mind if we had the soup? It’s bound to be cold by the time she comes back.”

“Yes, and trust me, it won’t. It’ll be the perfect temperature.”

“Well, she won’t miss any of these cupcakes. There’s dozens of them.”

“And more coming,” Jake grumped.

Alex popped one of the round two-inch morsels into his mouth, blue eyes widening as he chewed, and he snagged another. His tongue, darkened by the chocolate, licked a flick of icing off his top lip. His hands circled around enough of the cakes to sum to a thick cake slice.

“Christ, a chocoholic’s heaven. How does she make ’em firm on the outside and liquid in the middle? We could make a fortune from these.”

Contemplating the results of anyone unearthing the secret manufacturing process, cynicism curved Jake’s mouth. “Believe me, you don’t want to go there.”

“What’s eating you? The woman’s a gem. Crap, if you don’t want her, set her free. I’ll be there in a second. It’s not as if we haven’t traded before.”

Jealous fury flattened his mouth and had black spots dancing before his eyes. Hands clamped over hips, he squinted at his best friend. “Read my lips, Alex Mayfield. You touch her, you’re dead.”

The barked threat halted Alex’s actions and his brown eyebrows flew to the ceiling.

“You have it bad, don’t you?” A broad smile broke out. “I’ve never seen you jealous before, and I’m going to wring every ounce of pleasure out of it. Maybe I’ll turn on the charm. It’d be worth it if that caveman reaction is the result.”

“If you value our friendship, don’t test it with Tee.”

“Christ, you’re in love with her.”

His lungs began functioning again, and the oxygen rush to his brain sent a lance of pain across his forehead. Jake shut out Alex’s words, and the effort to do so caused a thundering at his temples. He pinched the bridge of his nose and studied the frothy peach liquid in the soup bowl, fighting to regain control of simple body functions, like blood warming extremities.

“See, I told you I wouldn’t be long,” Tee announced as she hopped down the last step and approached the table. “I see someone made a dent in the dessert.”

The woman’s mere presence jumbled his senses, his vision only able to focus on the long slim line of her body, the way the flouncy skirt she wore flirted with her calves. Somewhere in the back of his mind, an alarm flashed warning, danger, danger.

“I confess to the crime.” Alex’s cobalt eyes twinkled, and he seemed unable to focus on anything but Tee as she glided across the room, her movements lithe, supple. “Sweetheart, these are incredible chocoholic morsels. Promise you’ll make more.”

“I can guarantee she will,” Jake muttered, scowling when Tee colored at the compliment. He cut Alex a heated glare. If he tried, even once, to flirt with her, a knockout punch would be the least of the consequences.

“I think I can speak for myself.”

Jake had experienced her temper enough to recognize that tone, and when their gazes collided, mutiny ruled Tee’s eyes. “Of course you can, babe. Buddy, don’t be surprised when cakes pop up in unexpected places. Tee loves to bake, and she can whip these up in seconds.”

Blast, his reconciliatory words somehow aggravated the woman. Didn’t she realize he was protecting her?

“Are you two having a spat?”

“No.”

“Maybe.”

Alex glanced from one to the other. “Should we begin? Soup’s losing heat.”

“Hah. Lay you a million to one, it’s a perfect temperature.”

Jaw working, Jake allowed Alex to seat Tee, and slammed into the chair next to hers. Snatching the white linen napkin from the plate, he opened it, and threw it across his thighs. A muttered aside made his head whip up and his gaze locked with hers.

“Stop it, Jake,” Tee snapped, she shook her head and asked, “Who’ll say grace?”

“I will. Thank you Lord for the food before us. Amen.”

She blinked, lashes fluttering in Alex’s direction. “Wow, that must be the shortest grace on record.”

“Orphanage training, sweetheart. The grace-sayer has to stay seated until it’s finished. Everyone else starts leaving the table midway through. If you don’t make it to the serving area, all that’s left of the food are a few spoonfuls.”