“How’d she land the job with the mayor?”
Jake held the door for her and they stepped into the other side of the school hangar that was divided up into two small offices. He motioned her toward the first one. “Is that a making-conversation question, or a personal one?”
“Why would there be—” She broke off as she noticed the stack of newspapers, carefully sorted, on the surface of his desk. “Oh.”
“I wasn’t intending to snoop. None of my business. But I knocked the damn bag on the floor and the papers went sliding everywhere. When I was putting them back together…well, let’s just say I noticed a trend in the specific issues you’d pulled.”
“I told you I was here to get some questions answered. Here in Cedar Springs, I mean. I’m here, in your hangar, to pick up the papers, and to thank you, once again for being thoughtful and reading between the lines so I wouldn’t have to answer any awkward questions with my mother. That was very appreciated. You don’t know this, but I’ve already returned the favor by saving you, too.”
He leaned against the back of his chair and folded his arms. “Well, I appreciate that, whatever you did, but I should confess that perhaps, in my case, I had an ulterior motive.”
An immediate wariness entered her eyes, which made him wish he’d phrased that in a different way. Also made him wonder what in the hell she was really trying to find out. Something told him this was about more than merely fact-finding details on the latest branch on her family tree.
“Which would be…?”
“Well, you did look awfully cute in your bike helmet.”
She rolled her eyes, but he saw the tension leave her shoulders. “Be careful what you wish for.”
Now he lifted one eyebrow. “Which wish would that be?”
“Getting my attention, with or without flattering my lovely helmet hair.”
Her hair was pulled back in a sleek ponytail. It was all glossy and silky looking, and he wanted to pull the rubber band out of it and rake his hands all through it. “Your hair is beautiful.”
“Remind me to come to you whenever I feel the need to fish for ego-boosting compliments. Which I wasn’t, by the way.”
“I know. Makes them all the more fun to give. And I’m being perfectly honest when I say that your hair was one of the first things I noticed about you.”
She laughed. “That was because it was a dripping, stringy mess. Nightmares are hard to ignore.”
“No, after you’d combed the stringy and dripping out of it. I thought then that you had pretty hair. And when it was drying, as we drove back, I thought it then, too. Want to know the second thing I noticed?”
Her smile turned dry. “My charming personality and sparkling wit?”
“Your freckles.”
She immediately ducked her chin, more an instinctive move than a deliberate one. Which had him pushing away from his resting spot and standing directly in front of her. “Why do you hide them?”
She looked up at him. “Because I’m not twelve.”
“You are charming, by the way, and they’re adorable.”
“Yes, just the trait you need when trying to be taken seriously on Capitol Hill.”
He rubbed lightly at her cheek with his thumb. “You’re not on Capitol Hill anymore.”
“Force of habit. And maybe…maybe—”
“Maybe a little shield, even if it’s illusory, goes a long way when you’re in otherwise uncharted territory.”
“You’re a very intuitive man.”
“You say that like you’re surprised.”
“It’s not a trait I come across all that often.”
“In men,” he added.
“In anyone, really. Most people are too caught up in their own thoughts, their own business, their own orbit, to pay attention to details.”
“But you do.”
“Are you asking?”
“No. I’m saying. If it’s something you’re even aware of, it’s presence or lack in others, then you aren’t one of the oblivious ones.”
“I can be.”
“We all can be.” He brought his other hand up to her face, pleased when she didn’t pull away, or duck her chin from his touch. “Why are you here, Lauren Matthews?”
“Here, in your airplane hangar?”
“You’re in my airplane hangar because I have something you want.”
“Newspapers.”
His lips curved. “That, too.”
“I’m guessing you don’t feel the need to fish for compliments too often.”
“Are you telling me you’re strictly here for that stack of newsprint?”
“I could have asked you to courier them, but I don’t think that’s a common service here in Cedar Springs.”
“I suppose I could train Hank to wear dog-size saddlebags.”
“Hank?”
Jake motioned to the inert pile of bones presently stretched out full length under the worktable visible through the door that opened back into the hangar. “Part hound, part floor cover.”
“He does seem very…relaxed.”
“Not exactly the watchdog I’d hoped for, but as a companion…well, he makes a great rug.”
Lauren barely muffled a snort, but nudged at Jake’s shoulder. “You’ll hurt his feelings.”
“He relies on me for food. And yet, he’s still not exactly hell bent on changing my opinion. I don’t think my insulting him is affecting him too greatly.”
“How long have you two been a team?”
“Seven years.”
“So, he’s pretty secure he’s not going anywhere.”
Jake chuckled. “This is true.”
“And, just a guess, but probably not exactly courier material.”
“No, you’re probably right about that. Which brings us to your only other option.”
“Which is?”
“Admitting that you came in person because you wanted your newspapers, and you wanted to get another little buzz.”
Her brow furrowed. “Buzz?”
“Of the natural variety.” He shifted a bit closer. “What, am I the only one who feels it when we get within two feet of each other?”
He felt the light trembling beneath his fingertips.
“Possibly not,” she said.
His smile spread. “Possibly?”
“In my former job, you learn to waffle, evade, and remain as vague as possible. But, given, as you mentioned, I’m not on Capitol Hill…maybe I could upgrade that to a probably.”
“I never turn down a free upgrade.”
Her cheeks warmed under his touch. “That’s a good policy.”
“You haven’t answered my other question.”
“I seem to have been sidetracked.” Her eyes crinkled at the corners when she smiled. “What was the question?”
“I’m not sure I remember, either. I have a new one that seems to be taking up most of my allotted brain space at the moment.”
“So…ask me.”
“Lauren Matthews, recently of Capitol Hill, and lately a guest of Cedar Springs. A woman of mystery, purpose, and burgeoning mountain biking skills…”
“You do realize that using big words like illusory and burgeoning is totally turning me on.”
“What, a plane jockey can’t be well read?”
“He can be a lot of things, it seems. So…what was the question?”
“Can I find out if you taste as good as I think you do?”
She couldn’t quite stifle the quick grin, or the light blush that sprang to her cheeks. “How can I turn down such a sincere request?”
“Oh, it’s quite sincere.”
She moved in closer and let her hands come to rest on his shoulders. His entire body went instantly rock hard.
“You had me at ‘illusory.’”
“Well, damn. And here I’ve been wasting time talking when we could have been doing this…” He tipped her mouth up to his and slowly lowered his own, until their lips just barely rubbed against one anot
her. If a body could sigh, his did. He kissed her softly, exploring a little, letting them both get used to the taste and feel of one another. It was both the most simple and most erotic thing he’d experienced in a long while.
Simple, because with Lauren, it was elemental. He wanted her, was attracted, stimulated in every sense, physical and intellectual. It was the easiest thing he’d ever done, wanting her. Erotic because she was unknown to him, as he was to her. So much to learn, so much to explore, the anticipation alone was almost enough to send him over the edge.
And the restraint needed to keep from pushing only enflamed him further. Kissing her so gently, respectfully, when what he wanted to do was back her against the wall and devour every last inch of her. Then take her right on top of his desk.
But this was where it started, that first taste, the first true hello between them. It only happened once, and he was damned if he’d rush through even a second of it.
And then she made this little noise in the back of her throat, and her fingertips bit into his shoulders. And any restraint he had, any sense of the bigger moment they might be engaged in, was lost.
He took the kiss deeper, his hunger for her creeping in, no longer willing to be tamped down to something civilized and gentlemanly. And she took that kiss, the way he opened her mouth, just as hungrily. He’d always suspected—known, somehow, some way—that when he found that person, that click, that fit, that it would be exactly like this, this perfect mating of want and need. The only surprise was that it was even better than he’d ever dreamed it could be.
He finally had to break it off before his head exploded. Both of them. He tugged her ponytail free and pressed his face into the tumbling wave of silk, ending the kiss, but unwilling to end the hello. “You taste incredibly good,” he murmured. “And those little noises you make…make a man—this man—crazy.”
“Good crazy?” she asked, her voice muffled from where her lips were now pressed to the side of his neck, doing completely insane things to his pulse.
“Oh, the best kind of crazy.”
He felt her smile and his body twitched. Hard. “I’m about a second away from forgetting that I’m running a business here, and that I have another student showing up in about ten minutes, who, if she’s early—”
“She?” Lauren lifted her head.
Jake grinned. “You know, it should worry me, that slight edge, but I kind of like it.”
“What edge? I was just asking—”
He wound a silky tendril of hair around his finger. “You were just wondering. And I don’t mind that you wonder. In fact, I want you to wonder, to ask. To know whatever you want to know. She’s a classmate of Ben’s.”
“Do you have a lot of girls taking lessons?” She leaned back so she could look him in the eye, then had to take off her glasses to clear the fog.
He took them from her and slid them back on. “I like that I steam you up.”
She pushed them up the bridge of her nose, and the most delightful blush deepened her already flushed cheeks. “I have contacts, but—”
“It’s kind of like the freckles?”
She smiled that crooked, wry smile of hers that he was coming to like the most. “Kind of. And, to be honest, they’re easier. I’m used to them. So I don’t often—”
“I like them. They’re sexy. And it looks like they make a fairly good meter of how I’m doing.”
“Steamy glasses as a gauge of sexual attraction.”
“Not the most technologically advanced method, perhaps.” He leaned in and kissed her again, lingering longer than he meant to, but she just tasted so damn sweet. He lifted his head and smiled as he looked through the light haze on her lens. “But I’m kind of liking it.”
She sighed, took them off and wiped them clean again, and slid them back on herself, but there was a quirk to the set of her mouth that told him she wasn’t exactly immune, either. “So…about your lessons.”
“Ah yes, back to me and other women.”
“Believe it or not, I’m actually just curious. It’s a traditional guy thing, so I think it’s cool that girls are into it, too.”
“Mostly guys, but there’s a few.” He watched and waited, but she didn’t say anything more.
“What?” she finally asked, when his smile slowly spread to a grin.
“It’s killing you, but I appreciate either the trust, or the respect.”
“It’s none of my business.”
“See? You totally want to know.”
“I’m human. But it really isn’t my place to ask. We’re attracted. We kissed. We didn’t sign a contract.”
“I could draw one up.”
She laughed.
He slipped his hands to her shoulders, then up so his palms cupped her face. “I like that you wonder.”
“Why? You like jealous, possessive types?”
“Are you one?”
“Not ever.” Then her lips quirked into a wry grin. “Normally.”
He wondered when he’d ever grinned this often. “I’m not a fan of jealousy, but I like it that you wonder, because that means it matters.”
“It was a kiss, Jake.”
“It was that.” He sighed with contentment. “It was that, indeed.”
“You know, you aren’t like anyone I’ve ever met. Must be the mountain air.”
“I don’t know. I’m not like myself with you. Or maybe I’m just being completely myself with you. I haven’t figured it out yet.”
“How are you normally?”
“The sort who shies away from the slightest hint of being pressured into anything beyond the casual, no strings exploration of mutual interest. At least initially, anyway.”
“I appreciate the bluntness. That’s refreshing.”
“I am always that. Blunt, I mean. And I’m happy to hear it’s a refreshing quality to you.” He grinned. “I hope you continue to view it in that light.”
“I can’t imagine I wouldn’t. It’s one of the things that I noticed first about you.”
“One of the things?”
“Fishing, fishing…”
He attempted to look contrite. “We all have our fragile sides.”
She spluttered a laugh.
“I think I’m wounded.”
“I think you’re full of it. But I like that about you, too.”
“I think I’ve just been insulted.”
“No, you’re being yourself, and assuming other people will not be easily offended by every little thing you say, or every nuance and possible interpretation, and therefore watching your every word. You have no idea how totally refreshing that is, too.”
“You say what you think, you don’t dodge, and you don’t pull punches. Yes, I know a little something about feeling refreshed.”
She covered his hands with her own. “So…we’re mutually revitalized.”
He slipped his hands over hers and pulled them around his waist. It felt remarkably comforting and…right. She fit against him well, and there was no awkward adjustment; she just slipped right into the circle of his arms, the shelter of his body. “I think we might be mutually a lot of things,” he murmured, pressing a kiss against her temple because it suddenly felt like ages since he’d tasted her.
“So,” she said, closing her eyes and pushing a little against him, like a cat seeking continued stroking. “If, normally, you would run, and you aren’t acting like you normally do, then does that mean this isn’t a casual, no strings exploration of mutual interest?”
“Would it send you running if I told you I feel anything but casual at the moment?”
“It does a lot of things to me.” She shifted, looked up into his eyes. “But making me want to run isn’t one of them.”
He was going to have to get used to grinning. A lot. “That’s the best thing I’ve heard in a very long time.”
“It’s complicated. Or could be.”
“Only if we let it.” When she started to speak, he talked over her. “It’s whatever we make i
t, Lauren. All that matters, right this moment, is that we are both buzzed. And we both want more. And there is not a single reason, for either of us, not to take more. Is there?”
“I’m an available, consenting adult, if that’s what you mean.”
“As am I. So we just figure out what comes next as it comes.”
She smiled. “I can’t decide if you’d make the worst politician ever, or the best.”
“Good thing I never have any intention of finding out.”
“Amen.”
They both laughed and he was thinking that for him, what came next was hopefully a whole lot more of what they’d been doing a few moments ago, but a gentle clearing of the throat had him quickly reconsidering.
“Mr. McKenna? I’m here for my lesson.”
Lauren started to pull away, but Jake merely straightened and turned, sliding his hand to the center of Lauren’s back. He had nothing to be embarrassed or worried about and hoped Lauren felt the same. “Hey, Stephanie. Head on out, I’ll be there in a second.”
She smiled, revealing two rows of braces banded with purple wires. “I think today could be the day.”
“It could be. It’s been a pretty amazing one so far. I’ll meet you out there. Go through your preflight check. Grab the log book.”
She dumped her backpack inside his office door and all but raced back out the door.
“Looks like the other woman in your life needs you.”
“That’s me, always in demand.”
Lauren smiled and eased out of his hold. “Why don’t I find that hard to believe?”
“Because you’re smart, beautiful, and amazingly intuitive.”
“Such a silver tongue,” she teased.
He snaked his arm back around her and tugged her close. “It does all kinds of tricks. Wanna see?”
She laughed when he leaned down and flicked the tip of it over the pulse on the side of her neck. He also felt the little shudder that went down her spine when he followed it up with a light nibble. He wanted to learn all the other things that made her tremble like that.
She ducked away before he could pursue that line of thought. “Me, getting my tote. You, teaching someone how to fly.”
A Great Kisser Page 14
