“No, but I see a couple of likely suspects. I’ll have to take a section of the engine apart to see for sure.”
“I’ll contact the garage.”
“No, I can fix it.” He looked around the side of the hood, a curl tumbling over his forehead and his eyes bright. “I haven’t had a chance to work on an engine like this for a while.”
Juliet could eat him up, stuffed-shirt ways and all.
Dear Lord, whatever I’ve done, I ask for mercy. Please end this torture.
God didn’t listen to her fervent prayer. Probably because, prior to the wedding, she hadn’t entered a church for five years.
It was an endless ten minutes later that Jake unhooked the hood and put it back down. “I’ll bring the correct tools the next time.”
Next time.
Juliet decided her car would stage a miraculous return to perfect function in the next few days. “Thanks.”
Holding up his grease-stained hands, he said, “Mind if I use your laundry sink to wash up?”
As with most houses of this vintage and design, her laundry was an alcove cut into the garage. There was only one problem: “Laundry tap’s not working at the moment. Plumber’s coming back tomorrow with the right part to fix it.” She waved him into the house with a sense of inevitability.
Air freshener or not, his scent would torment her all night.
After Jake ducked inside the bathroom and water flowed in the sink, she went to open the sliding doors that led from her lounge to her deck. The crisp night air was a welcome slap against her cheeks, the skies dark and dotted with stars. She had no view as such, but the land fell gently away on the other side of her low wooden fence to reveal a small stream. Lush ferns and other native plants grew in abundance around it.
“This is nice.”
Juliet didn’t jump though he’d entered behind her—her Jacob Esera antenna was working just fine. “Got the grease off okay?” she asked, and when he nodded, said, “I’ll show you to the front door. You must be wanting to get home.”
He met her gaze full-on, and the impact of those brown eyes was a punch that made her throat tighten, her stomach flutter. “Kicking me out, Jules?”
“That’s Juliet to you,” she responded automatically, wondering why he was still hanging around, why he was looking at her that way. As if she was the only woman in the entire world.
Her mouth dried up, her pulse thunder in her ears.
“You’re right, you know,” he said. “I’ve always had people around me who’d catch me if I fell.”
Oh. That’s what he’d stayed behind to clear up. “I shouldn’t have made it sound like an accusation.” Flushing, she broke the eye contact. “It’s a good thing you have. I envy you.”
“I know my family is my greatest advantage in life.”
She found herself looking at him again, caught by how solemnly he said that.
Their eyes collided again, and this time the jolt was so visceral that a shiver rippled over her. Wetting her lips, she went to say she’d walk him to his car when Jake lifted his hand and cupped her cheek. Hot, a little rough, the gentle hold locked her in place, her chest rising and falling in a sharp rhythm.
“Jake, you have to go home.” It came out a rasp.
“Yes.” The slightest tremor in the hand that continued to cradle her face. “We’re not right for each other.”
“Nope,” she agreed, the word hard to get out through the tension in her throat. “We’ll drive each other to homicide.”
“Double, you think?”
“Hundred percent certainty.”
Neither one of them moved.
“I don’t do one-night stands.”
“Neither do I.” She sucked in a desperate gulp of air. “It’s just some weird chemistry thing.” At least now she knew it wasn’t embarrassingly one-sided… though that made the attraction far more perilous.
It also touched an old grief stored deep inside her heart. “Is this wrong?” she blurted out. “Because of Callie?”
“I never looked at you this way before.” No confusion in Jake’s face, nothing but blunt openness based on a bedrock of confidence. “You were just Calypso’s annoying friend.”
“And you were her irritating boyfriend.” She and Jake, they’d never betrayed Callie, not even in thought.
An exhale inside her, a worry she hadn’t realized she’d been carrying around, poofing out of existence. “You’re still irritating.”
“But I’m hot too.” Jake’s words were so deadpan that it took her a moment to realize he was teasing her.
“A little, maybe.” Not her best effort since she was all but hyperventilating, but a woman had to try.
“I need a good night’s sleep.” Jake ran the pad of his thumb over her cheekbone, the heat in his eyes threatening to burn. “I have training on Monday.”
Juliet’s toes curled at the implied admission that she’d been keeping him up nights. Good. It was only fair. She, too, would be a wreck by Monday if they didn’t deal with this. Deal with it out of existence. “We’re not friends, so we can’t be friends with benefits.”
“Just once.” Hand tightening on her cheek, Jake stepped closer, the furnace of his muscular body pure erotic temptation. “Get it out of our systems, move on.”
A small voice piped up in the back of Juliet’s head, reminding her of how much fun she’d had with him this afternoon. Fun that had nothing to do with sexual heat. Don’t risk it, Jules. What if one night of sex only addicts you deeper?
Intense brown eyes locked with her own. “Yes?”
“Yes,” she said, shushing that worried voice on a wave of naked want.
Then Jake’s lips were warm and firm on hers, his hand sliding to grip the back of her neck, his chest crushing her breasts as he slid his free arm around her waist. Everything about him was hot and hard, including the erection pushing against her abdomen. Juliet felt shockingly soft, delicately female—and wanted in a way that made her head spin, the last threads of caution slipping from her grasp.
Wrapping her arms around his neck and anchoring the fingers of one hand in the thick black of his hair, she parted her lips. Jake kissed like he did everything else: with purpose and concentration. First he learned her mouth, learned exactly how she liked things, then he used that knowledge to make her weak at the knees.
Juliet was a confident woman, had made herself that way through sheer strength of will, but the majority of her sexual experience had been with Reid. That didn’t exactly leave her in any kind of shape to deal with a man who took his time making love to her mouth until her lips tingled and her toes curled.
Painfully tight nipples pushing against the white lace of her bra, she pressed into his body, her nails digging into his neck. He bit lightly at her lower lip before taking another kiss. In revenge, she deliberately pricked him with her nails again—and got a deep, wet kiss that was all tongue and sex for her trouble.
Juliet melted.
She’d never been kissed this long and with such open satisfaction, never had her panties go damp before a man so much as touched her breasts.
Lifting his head at last, both of them panting, Jake glanced toward the stream, then to the right and left. She had higher fences on either side, and the way the houses were positioned meant none of her neighbors could look in on them, but when he tugged her inside, she went without hesitation. The last thing she wanted was to give a lurking photographer with a telephoto lens a big payday.