by Tia Souders
“How many times are you going to try that?” Emmett asked, eyeing her from his perch on the rock, where he commenced doing his daily stretches.
“Until it works,” Jinny said between clenched teeth. She told herself to relax, to calm down. She had been stuck with Emmett in the car this entire time. What was the difference now?
Because now she was truly stuck. Because now her feelings had deepened. She had caught a glimpse of what it would be like to be with Emmett, and it made her want things she shouldn’t.
Next to her, Emmett grunted, and she turned in time to see him removing his t-shirt.
Her eyes widened, and she hopped up from her perch on the ground. “Whoa, hold up!”
Her gaze flickered over his washboard abs, toned chest, and sculpted biceps. He was a living, breathing Ken doll. A masterpiece. He may as well have been chiseled out of marble, except he was all tanned skin and firm muscle.
She shielded her eyes with her hands like she was staring into the sun. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“It’s a million degrees out here.”
She huffed. “You don’t see me taking off my shirt.”
“Please, don’t let me stop you,” he said, waving her on, obviously amused.
She shot him a glare and was rewarded with the sight of Emmett leaning back on the rock, muscles glistening in the hot sun.
Holy—
She couldn’t just stand there and stare at him.
She turned and started walking down the side of the road. “What are you doing?” he called after her.
“Walking to town. I’ll get a ride and come back for you,” she said.
A moment later, Emmett’s hand curled around her bicep, searing her skin. His touch was hotter than a blazing inferno. He turned her around, and she had to fight the urge to cover her eyes. He was almost too perfect to look at.
“You are not going alone. Either both of us go or neither,” he said.
“You can’t.”
He shrugged and crossed his arms.
Someone seriously needed to tell him not to do that without a shirt on. Every muscle flickered with the movement, drawing her eye across his chest. Her cheeks flushed, and she forced her gaze back to the road with longing.
“You know, you have no one to blame for this but yourself.”
Jinny whipped around to him. “What?”
He shrugged. “If you would’ve let us take my car like I wanted, we wouldn’t be stuck in the middle of nowhere. We’d be sitting on smooth leather upholstery, being blasted by ice-cold air right about now.”
Jinny narrowed her eyes, her hackles rising. “It’s your fault. You’re the one that insulted Betsy,” she said, waving toward her pathetic-looking car. “You put a dent in her confidence and jinxed us.”
“You do know you’re talking about a car, right?”
“I know what I’m talking about,” she snapped. Well, hello, anger and irritation. Welcome home.
Jinny settled into her frustration, nestling in the warmth of its comforting presence. Being annoyed with Emmett was so much easier than the ambiguity of the feelings she felt for him. Anger she could handle.
Emmett lifted his hands and turned, making his way back to the rock as Jinny glared holes in the broad shoulders that narrowed to a trim waist.
She kicked at a clump of grass and dirt then skulked after him.
CHAPTER eighteen
Emmett
Maybe he was being unfair. He knew what she was feeling because he felt it, too. Yet he persisted. When he should push her the other way, he continued to try and pull her closer. Sometime during the two-thousand miles they’d traveled together, something between them shifted. He had wanted Jinny prior to the road trip, but that was nothing compared to the bring-him-to his-knees, bone-deep yearning he felt for her now.
Truth was, he didn’t mind being stuck in the middle of nowhere with her, even if it was nearly ninety degrees at only ten in the morning. But she was desperate to get away from him.
Why, when they had gotten along so well? There could only be one explanation. Her feelings had changed, had turned into something real.
He was playing with fire. He shouldn’t want to be with her. Everything he’d shared during the drive had been true. Despite his occasional cockiness, he was never self-indulgent. He lived in a posh, but not an overly flashy apartment. He paid his father’s mortgage off and waited a year after he signed with the Pumas to buy a nice car. He didn’t splurge on lavish, frivolous luxuries like some of the athletes he knew. No private jets or diamonds or a Rolex that could feed a small village for a year. But just this once, he wanted to indulge.
So, when he unzipped his duffel bag and began playing cards, ignoring her, he knew what he was doing. He leaned his back against the giant boulder, with Jinny on his other side, her arms crossed as she seethed at nothing—or everything—he wasn’t sure which.
He held the cards in his hands, drawing from the top of the deck and flicking them onto the dirt in front of him in a lazy game of solitaire. After a few minutes of tense silence, she shifted, glaring at him from around the rock. “Do you always carry cards with you?”
Emmett grinned. He knew she would crack and break the silence, irritated he had something to pass the time, while she didn’t. “When I travel for games, I always bring a deck. Keeps me busy when I can’t sleep in the hotel or when I’m bored.”
She grumbled, then turned back to her seething.
Emmett continued his game, not really even looking at the numbers, just flicking the cards to the ground, knowing it was only a matter of time before she spoke up again. Three, two, one…
“Do you have to be so loud over there?” she asked.
Emmett chuckled. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know cards made so much noise.”
“It’s the flicking.”
He said nothing. A moment later, she stood and moved in front of him, glaring down at him. “What are you even playing, anyway?”
“Solitaire.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “I think we should have a session while we wait.”
Emmett raised a brow. He hadn’t expected that. “Now?”
“It’s as good a time as any. We’ve got nothing to do and your knee is probably stiff from the car ride.”
Emmett lifted himself to his feet so he towered over her. “I don’t really feel like it.”
“Well, I’m your therapist,” she said. “And I think we should.”
“I already did some stretches.”
“We can do more.”
Emmett shook his head. “It’s too hot.”
She pointed to his bare chest. “You’re half-naked. How hot can you possibly be?”
“Look, I’m hungry, it’s a million degrees out here, and I’m sweating like I just ran a marathon. I don’t want to work right now. If you insist, we’ll work later tonight, once we’ve cooled off, gotten some rest, and I can focus.”
“You,” she said, stepping forward and poking him in the chest. “Don’t get to call the shots.”
He clasped her wrist, holding her hand against him. She gasped, and her eyes met his before she clamped her mouth shut. The skin-to-skin contact scorched almost as much as her hot gaze. A flash of desire ran through her deep brown eyes before she could squelch it.
His heart pounded against his ribs as he dipped his head and softly pressed his lips to hers. She stiffened, no doubt fighting to hold on to her anger. Then he felt it dissolve, and she reached up, raking her hands through his hair.
He parted her mouth with his and deepened the kiss. Her resounding groan sent him into a tailspin. If kissing were a competition, he was losing, because she was completely demolishing him with her lips, the warmth of her breath, and her hair that smelled of vanilla.
Time faded. The earth stood still.
The first time he kissed Jinny had been amazing. But this kiss—it was the kind of kiss that curled your toes, shot sparks into your stomach, made your insides blaz
e, and scattered any form of coherent thought.
He trailed his hands down her back to where her t-shirt clung to her sweat-dampened skin. He tugged her even closer, kissing her like it might be his last. Like it might be the only thing he’d have to sustain him for the rest of his life. Every single feeling he’d repressed came crashing to the surface.
Her breath hitched as he pulled away and trailed his lips to her jaw. Brushing his mouth over hers once more, he kissed her until she panted for air. Until a roaring sound broke through the steady rhythm of his pulse, and Jinny pushed him away.
The air wheezed from his lungs as she stepped back toward the road, waving her hands in the air. He blinked and shook his head before he was able to clear his sight enough to notice the semi-truck making its way toward them.
She hollered and jumped, then waved again, like she was desperate for it to stop and whisk them away. But he wanted nothing more than to stay in this moment forever. He would’ve let the truck pass. He would’ve spent all day, all night, right there in that moment with her, as long as it meant he got to feel her mouth pressed against his.
The truck’s engine blared as it powered down despite his silent prayer for it to pass them by. She was too persistent. Jinny had flagged the guy down like her life depended on it. Like she hadn’t just had the best kiss of her life. Like she hadn’t just wrung him inside-out.
∞∞∞
The truck dropped them off at the next town over, which consisted of a couple diners and gas stations. They grabbed breakfast in silence, then Emmett went to chat with some patrons he’d noticed upon entering, while Jinny cleaned up in the restroom.
He waited for her by the door. When she came out, she paused in front of him, her gaze wary.
“I got us a ride,” he said.
“With who?”
“Jerry over there is headed to just outside Vegas.” Emmett nodded toward a middle-aged man handing the waitress some cash at the counter. “He said he’d take us the rest of the way in exchange for a couple autographs and t-shirts.”
“Oh.” She met Emmett’s eye like she wanted to say something, but instead, she headed toward the table where they’d had their breakfast and grabbed her suitcase.
They sat wedged together in the front seat of Jerry’s truck. He was a talker. Carrying the conversation for both of them, he droned on about his travels, the world of trucking, and everything under the sun.
The cab smelled of fried onion and bubblegum, a nauseating combination that left Emmett, once again, longing for the beating sun and the boulder by the side of the road. At least there, he had Jinny to himself. At least there he would’ve been able to talk to her, to pick her brain and see what she was thinking, without a third party being a witness.
He watched her from the corner of his eye. She stared out the window, chewing her lip, seemingly deep in thought.
What he wouldn’t give to be inside her head.
CHAPTER nineteen
Jinny
The truck rumbled away from the curb, wafting a puff of gray exhaust in its wake. After several hours of the truck driver’s incessant blabbing, Jinny was once again face-to-face with Emmett. She didn’t trust herself. Now that they were alone again, all she wanted to do was jump him.
She turned to him and noticed some indecipherable emotion brewing in his honey eyes. Part of her wanted to be bold, reckless even. She wanted to reach out, grab his hand, and address what had happened between them over the last three days.
Instead, she offered him a weak smile. “We’re here.”
When he said nothing, she continued, “So, I know we seemed to have a truce going—”
“Go out with me.”
“What?” Her skin pricked as she waited for him to confirm that her ears weren’t playing tricks on her.
“Just because we’re not stuck in a car with each other doesn’t mean that whatever this is needs to end,” he said.
“I don’t know.”
It was one kiss. Okay, two, technically. But what did a couple of kisses mean? So they got along on the car ride, did that really mean there was something between them? Maybe they had both just been acting like adults—something they probably should’ve done a long time ago.
“Come on.” He stared her down. “You can’t stand there and honestly deny that you felt something over the last three days. I know you did.”
Jinny stammered. “It was just a kiss.”
“Uh-uh. I don’t buy it. Just admit that a part of you is curious if you and I could have something real.”
“We’re attracted to each other, but—”
“It’s more than that.”
“What in the world are you doing stepping out of a semi?” Dean’s voice sliced through Jinny’s thoughts.
She jerked her head toward the sound to see him coming toward them. “Er, hi,” she mumbled.
Stellar timing. Emmett leaves her reeling right as Dean shows up.
Emmett didn’t want to just be friends. Maybe it should’ve been obvious before now, but she’d thought he was just playing with her.
“So, anyone want to explain why the trucker dropped you off?” Dean asked again.
“Oh, yeah.” Jinny smacked her head. “My car died.”
“Death is a good term for it,” Emmett agreed.
“Still glad you drove?” Dean asked her.
She stole a glance at Emmett. “Uh, yeah, I am,” she said meaningfully.
At Emmett’s heavy gaze and the furrow in Dean’s brow, she corrected. “Better than plummeting from the sky to my death.”
Emmett flashed her a private smile before he clapped Dean on the back. “Well, I’m going to head up to my room and catch some z’s. You two have fun.”
“Catch you later?” Dean asked.
“Sure.”
With one last lingering look at Jinny, he turned and left.
Jinny faced her brother, pushing her nerves aside and hoping he didn’t read the disappointment in her eyes. “So, how was your flight?”
∞∞∞
She tried not to watch Emmett walk away, she really did, but she couldn’t help herself.
Her gaze followed him through the lobby, where a hoard of staff from the hotel, meant to cater to the Pumas every whim, scurried among the team members as they trickled inside.
“Earth to Jinny.” Dean snapped a finger in front of her face.
She blinked and tried for a smile, but it fell flat.
She did not want to follow Emmett inside. She did not want to know what he planned on doing for the rest of his evening. Definitely not.
“Um, sorry. Did you all just get here?”
“Yeah. About fifteen minutes ago. They’re carting our stuff up to our rooms now.” He nudged her arm. “Hey, you wanna go to dinner or something? I’m starving.”
“You don’t want to eat with the team?”
Dean grimaced. “I just spent four hours with them on a private plane. I’ve had enough fart-filled air for a lifetime. I need to expel the methane from my lungs.”
“Ew. TMI.”
Dean shrugged. “You asked.”
“No, I asked what your teammates were doing and if they’d miss you, not for details on their gas levels.”
“If you would’ve flown with us, you could’ve witnessed it for yourself. Then I wouldn’t have to fill you in.”
“Well, thank heavens for that.”
“I’m not sure where the guys are going, probably someplace wild, but what’s it matter? I’m going to take my wittle sister out,” he said as he stepped forward and vigorously rubbed his hand over Jinny’s head, mussing her hair.
Jinny smacked his arm.
Someplace wild? Her thoughts shifted annoyingly to Emmett. Would he join them?
Even if he did, she totally didn’t care. It didn’t matter to her if he went out with the team and met a woman. They probably flocked to them, but it wasn’t of any concern to her. What Emmett did in his spare time was his business. He could meet a woman,
take her out, take her home. Whatever.
“I don’t know. I’m pretty tired,” Jinny said, lamely.
“You’re in Vegas for the first time, and you just endured more than three days in a car with your mortal enemy. It was probably DEFCON 1 in there. I want the details of your trip down. You can’t just go up to your room and go to bed.”
Who said anything about going to bed? Hanging in the lobby to see if Emmett went out with the guys and find out where they were going sounded like as good a plan as any.
But, of course, she wasn’t going to do that.
She wasn’t some lovesick loser.
“Fine. I’ll go to dinner with you, but don’t expect me to enjoy it.” She pointed at him. “And I’m ordering the most expensive thing on the menu.” She paused. “And a bottle of wine.”
Dean laughed. “Noted.”
∞∞∞
Jinny glanced at her phone one last time. Why did they need to be in Vegas—2,200 miles from her best friend? And why in the world wasn’t Callie answering her phone? What could she possibly be doing? These days, her life consisted of work, Dean, and clipping ideas out of bridal magazines for “the big day,” with the occasional meal in between.
So much for being there when Jinny needed her most.
This was probably the first time since high school that Jinny could recall needing Callie’s advice in regard to a man. The ol’ BFF was really dropping the ball.
She needed to tell her about the kiss on the side of the road. How the car ride there had made her question everything. She needed to hash out the significance of their temporary, or maybe not-so-temporary, truce.
The twisting in her gut told her she desperately needed to expunge the conflict churning inside her. The gnawing ache might kill her if she didn’t confide in someone about how she was feeling, never mind actually coming up with a game plan for how to cope.
