A yearning that, quite frankly, scared the dickens out of her.
The pulse at her throat ticked and her chest tightened.
Tom’s tousled dark hair was so close she had to squeeze her fingers into fists to keep from checking its silky softness. He was the kind of man who could make a woman completely lose her head, and suddenly all she could think about was getting naked with him. Their kiss last night seemed chaste compared to the images dancing through her head.
But he’d taken a celibacy vow, and now she had a challenge of her own going with Dirk. Her game? Teach Tom an important lesson about being overly competitive. A little competition was fine. Too much brought out an unflattering side. The win-at-all-costs attitude was dangerous.
So why did she suddenly want desperately to win her side bet with Dirk?
“There.” He patted her foot and stood up. “All tied up.”
“Thank you,” she rasped. Her voice sounded different even to her own ears. He had to have heard the strange sultry quality too. “For tying my shoes.”
They were eye to eye.
Her head spun, and her body filled with a river of hot, rippling tingles.
“Jude,” he murmured at the same time she whispered, “Tom.”
The bowling alley ceased to exist. The noises faded and the people disappeared, and it was just the two of them in their own private cocoon.
He leaned in.
She went up on the balls of her feet in her freshly tied bowling shoes.
Sweeping her into his arms, his lips came down on hers.
In bowling parlance, his kiss would have been a strike that scattered the pins into the next lane. He kissed her full on the mouth, his tongue parting her lips, the intensity of it vibrating all the way to her toes.
Last night was nothing compared to this kiss and she wanted to melt against him and savor this moment forever. She was breathless, wanting more, and she hadn’t even had a chance to kiss him back.
“Have a good night.” His words caressed her ears; she’d never heard a voice so compellingly sensual.
She reached out, weak with longing and needing something more from him to cushion their separation.
But he’d already pulled back. “See you tomorrow night for our date. I hope you’ve picked something adventuresome.”
Oh, wow, no. Not yet.
“Wait,” she said.
He paused, his eyes shiny. “Yes?”
“How about we turn the tables on Dirk?” she dared, plunging into the plan that Dirk had outlined on the way over to Evergreen Lanes.
It felt like a double cross and the nice woman inside her balked. But the entire point was to shed her Goody Two-Shoes image and fully live for the first time in her life and that’s what she wanted.
To prove Jaxon was wrong about her. That she wasn’t boring.
One of Tom’s eyebrows jumped up higher on his forehead. “What do you have in mind?”
“Let me get this straight. You’re saying that Dirk thinks by dating me, it will make you jealous and your jealousy will make you want to stake your claim on me. Am I understanding this correctly?”
“He’s used the ploy before.”
“And by staking your claim, it will lead to you giving up on the bet so you can get with me.”
“That’s about the size of it.”
“Hmm.”
His eyes flared with dark intensity. “What are you thinking?”
“Here’s an idea.” Jude paused, knowing she was headed down a slippery slope and hoping she was wily enough to pull off this double cross.
Tom stepped closer. There was a sheen of perspiration on his forehead, and it was all she could do not to reach over and dab it off.
“What if,” she proposed, offering the solution Dirk had fed her on the drive over. “I act super interested in Dirk and get him charged up enough to lose the bet? In other words, the puppet master gets played.”
Tom stroked his chin and he looked pensive. “It’s an interesting idea, but I don’t want you to compromise your own values for our stupid rivalry.”
“You let me worry about me.”
“Are you interested in Dirk?”
Jude studied him. She’d never seen a face quite like his. All his features were ordinary enough—maybe “regular” was more descriptive—but combined they added up to much more than an attractive guy. She’d love to be a sculptor and use him as her model. She could almost feel his masculine beauty taking form in wet clay under her fingers.
C’mon. She was kidding herself. What she really wanted was to stroke his cheek, feel the whisper of his breath on her fingertips, press her lips against his lids—
She was incredibly attracted to him. She couldn’t deny the truth any longer, and because of that, she needed to be careful in how she responded. She could blow the whole thing with the wrong words.
“No. I mean he’s great-looking and charming, but you’re right, he’s a player, and while I am looking for fun, I eventually want more.”
That didn’t calm Tom at all. He shook his head and his brown eyes widened in alarm. “Does this mean you’re actually considering going home with Dirk?”
She heard the panic in his voice and suppressed a smile. This was going to work. “Don’t you want to win that bet?”
“No, no!” He shook his head so vigorously she feared it would swivel right off his body. “Not this way. I don’t want you to sleep with him! Please, don’t sleep with him.”
“Tom,” she said in all seriousness, a bit giddy with her own power, “I’m a nice woman.”
“But you’re working hard to change that.” Seriously, Tom looked positively panic-stricken.
“Not all in one night.” She winked. “Your bet does preclude any sexual activity, right? So self-indulgences are grounds for…er…shall we say, discharge from the contest.”
He didn’t comment on her pun, but he shifted his weight from leg to leg, back and forth in an aggressive sway as if torn between wanting to beat Dirk in the competition and keeping Jude as far away as possible from his horndog buddy.
“Are you saying that you plan to get Dirk charged up enough so that he’ll go home and…” Tom’s entire body tensed.
Jude was feeling decidedly naughty and she couldn’t stop a wicked grin from overtaking her face. She’d set the bait and Tom had taken it. He was hooked.
“Lose the bet without me,” she said, finishing the sentence for him.
12
Last night, watching Jude flirt like crazy with Dirk had just about killed him. As part of Jude’s plan to goose Dirk into losing the bet, she’d invited Tom and Buck to bowl with them, and then she’d proceeded to hang all over Dirk, putting her plan into action.
He hated every second of it and only the thought of Dirk losing the bet kept him from begging Jude to go home with him instead. Dirk did need to be taught a lesson, but Tom wasn’t convinced this was the way to do it.
It ended up being the most miserable two hours of his life.
To his surprise, Dirk had been enthusiastic about Tom and Buck joining them, which raised Tom’s suspicions as to what his buddy had up his sleeve. He didn’t trust Dirk any farther than he could pick him up and thrust him face-first down the bowling lane.