“Of course it’s okay,” Josh said, confused by how delicately she’d said it.
“And I hope it’s okay if Dad goes with me. We’d leave on Monday.”
Ah, that was the issue.
Josh turned to his father. “You want to go to Florida over Thanksgiving, Dad?”
“No, no,” Bruce said quickly. “Not with the race coming up in December.”
“He’d like to go,” Maggie said.
“It’s too last minute this year,” Bruce said. “Maybe next year.”
“Is this why you made the soup? And the pie?” Josh asked incredulously. “To try and soften the blow of your impending absence and to try and get me to say it’s okay if Dad goes, too? Because it is okay. Of course it’s okay. I’ll see if Viktor can take over Dad’s kennel responsibilities, and that’ll be that. Since I work Thanksgiving anyway, we’ll have tons of food at the station, and I don’t want anyone staying here on account of me when I won’t even be home.”
“Perfect,” Maggie said. “It’s settled then.”
“I’m not going, Maggie,” Bruce announced, giving her a stern look to drop it. “We’re sticking to the plan. I’ll go to Florida next year.”
“Josh wants you to go,” Maggie said. Her cheeks had turned red and she’d set her spoon down. She had the same spitfire look about her that their mom used to have when mad.
“I want Dad to do what he wants to do,” Josh said.
“He doesn’t want to camp in below-zero temperatures,” Maggie said. “I’ll tell you that, even if he won’t. And he shouldn’t. Not at his age.”
“Hey, hey,” Bruce said. “I’m sixty-one. Not eighty-one.”
“Do you want to go, Dad?” Josh asked. “Because if you want to go, then go.”
“I’m fine with waiting until next year.”
Josh sighed. “So, Maggie, can you drop it now?”
“Sure, Josh, we’ll just continue to enable you.”
He gave her a sharp look. “What does that mean?”
“No one’s enabling anyone,” Bruce said. “It’s just that we know how much you like tradition.”
Of course Josh liked tradition—who didn’t?—but he was offended they’d felt the need to plot ahead of time so he’d take the news of Maggie’s leaving maturely. He imagined Maggie saying, Ooh, I’ll make this pie that he likes. And then when he’s happy about the food, we’ll ambush him with the idea of you going, too.
Maybe Jack had been right yet again. Maybe Bruce did feel like a hostage to the kennel.
“Dad, the last thing I want to do is keep you here if you’d rather be doing something else.”
“This is where I want to be,” Bruce insisted. “I’ve been invited to Claire Roberts’s house on Thanksgiving Day while you’re at work, and I’m looking forward to attending. Next year I’ll celebrate Thanksgiving in Florida.”
“Maybe you could come next year, too,” Maggie said to Josh.
“What about the dogs?” he said. “It’s peak training for the Iditarod.”
“Or, what about giving up pre-dawn feedings and empty bank accounts and having to use up all your vacation time on dog races and just being able to enjoy life for a change without having the Iditarod hanging over your head?” Maggie said. “Think of it, Joshie—Sunshine. Sand. Boating.”
“It does sound good,” he admitted, something he’d never have been able to admit to Jack. And it wasn’t just the idea of a vacation on a sunny beach. Florida made him think of Hayley, who was from there. He thought about how nice it would be to lay on a sand beach with her beside him. Preferably a private beach where she could reach up and untie her bikini top, just for him, and then … then he realized the whole vision was dependent on him giving up everything that, until now, felt important to him. The dogs. The kennel. The Iditarod. And keeping the home fire burning for the guys who didn’t come home.
Hayley invited Evan to accompany her to her Second Date Sunday event, a couples’ treasure hunt at the Nanook Valley Mall. The event would be followed by drinks at Shackleton’s, the bar where Hayley and Josh started their faux-date.
She resolved to not think about that during her event. It was far too distracting to remember Josh’s searing hot kisses.
A good number of people showed up, including Rebecca Miller with a bearded, flannel-wearing guy who seemed smitten with her.
For the first time, too, Hayley had a date to her own event, and people noticed. It brought a new vibe, and Hayley noticed the way couples followed her lead, getting closer, sticking with their date the way Evan was sticking with her.
That’s why Devotion.com wants me to be the success story.
And she tried hard to follow her own advice. When she wasn’t doing event-organizer duties, she was attentive to Evan. He made a perfect companion for something like this, too: friendly and approachable, introducing himself to people and chatting when Hayley was busy. At no point did she feel like he was a sidekick with nothing to do.
Evan stayed with her until the last of the group left Shackleton’s. Hayley finished her beer and, with a final glance toward the booth where she and Josh had sat, she told Evan she was ready to go.
He walked her to her car. This time, it ended with a kiss on the lips, and the kiss was pleasant. It wasn’t Evan’s fault she’d chosen the exact venue of her hot-and-heavy, impossible-to-forget date with Josh.
And that night in the bath, it wasn’t her kiss with Evan she thought about.
It was her night with Josh, and it was her looming interview with him the next day. Hayley would be going over to his house—his house, which contained his bed, and his bed that sent her mind spinning into very dirty territory. It wasn’t a date, though, not at all. Rather, she was taking photos and doing the interview for the “Bring Your Heart” profile. Dangling Josh as the fine male specimen that he was in front of the waiting women of the Lower Forty-Eight.
He’s off-limits, ladies, she thought as she stepped out of her bathtub and grabbed a towel, enjoying the plush warmth of it wrapped around her. He doesn’t want a relationship, because if he did … if he did, I’d be first in line.
20
On Monday, Josh found himself pacing around his house, looking at it with a critical eye. In the military, he’d had no choice but to be tidy. Same at the fire station. And yet his house, right next door to the childhood house where he’d grown up and where his dad still lived, felt like an afterthought. The previous day, he’d been inspired to do a massive purge of his belongings. He’d made one trip to the dump, two trips to Goodwill, and he’d boxed up half his kitchen tools and bed linens. Then he’d given the house a thorough cleaning and bought new bathroom towels.
All because Hayley was coming over to do her profile of him for her “Bring Your Heart” marketing campaign.
If he had more time, Josh thought as he looked around—more time and money—he’d like to give the house the attention it deserved. It had good bones, but the kitchen cabinets were from the eighties and the bathrooms hadn’t been updated since the seventies. He’d put on a new roof when he bought the place, which was the extent of his repairs, as the dog-racing was a constant money suck. Jack’s property put his own to shame. Jack, like Hayley, had a taste for the refined things.
Anyway, tidying up and buying new bathroom towels was the best he could do on short notice, and it shouldn’t matter. Hayley was going to photograph him going about his daily life, and he knew she’d select only photos that made him—and Golden Falls—seem too charming to pass up. But whether or not it should matter, it did. He wanted Hayley to think well of him. He didn’t want to appear as the careless bachelor he was.
Her Subaru Outback pulled into his driveway at 1 p.m., right on time. He watched her from the window for a moment. She was quick in her movements, light on her feet. Happy? Excited to see him? Or already in love with the new guy? Her auburn hair fell in gleaming ripples over the collar of her camel-colored hip-length coat, and he remembered what it was like to run his finger
s through that hair and to pull those hips to his. It was a damn nice memory to have now.
He met her at the front door.
“Hey, hey!” She gave him her wide, high-wattage smile, and he felt his heart rate spike, drawn as always to her spirit of lightness. “Thanks so much for doing this.”
“No problem.”
He held the door wide, inviting her in. As she moved past him, her ineffable scent remained. In the height of winter, Hayley smelled of summer. Of sunshine and laughter and everything good.
“Did you find the place okay?” he asked as she removed her outer garments in the entryway, hanging them on a waiting hook he’d cleared for her. She slipped off her Uggs and tucked them against the wall beside his Sorels.
“Oh, sure. It was easy.” She hung up the last of her things and turned to him with a smile. He noted she was wearing one of the clingy sweaters she’d bought on their shopping trip and a pair of black skinny jeans that hugged her curves. “It might be a different story if I was coming at night, though.”
He lifted his brows at the thought. What would it be like to have her come home to him? Damn fine, he thought, which seemed to be the phrase he’d settled on for her. Everything about Hayley was damn fine, and if she was coming to him at night, he’d want her to step inside to find a nice bottle of wine waiting, and the smell of a good dinner on the stove. To soft music and candles. And Maggie at work.
He could say none of that, of course. He shouldn’t even be thinking it. But he had to say something, and she just put him in the best mood.
“If you were coming at night, I’d leave a light on for you.”
“Aw!” Her smile broadened, and her hazel eyes twinkled. “You’re so sweet!” She pointed at the suitcase standing by the entry. “Are you going somewhere?”
“Maggie is. She’s going to Florida for Thanksgiving to visit our older sisters. She’s working a day shift, and then I’m taking her to the airport.”
“Good for her!” Hayley said. “I’ll say one thing for Florida, the winters are beautiful.”
“Come on in,” he said. “I remember you said you like to drink tea in the afternoon, so we could start with that.”
She stepped inside and looked around. “Let’s start with a tour! This is a nice place you have here.”
“It’s kind of you to say that, but I’d trade mine for yours in a heartbeat. I was thinking I should ask you for decorating advice, actually. You seem to have an eye for it. Where would you start if you were me?”
“Hmmm.” She put her index finger on her lip playfully. “I’d start with the bedroom. The master bedroom.”
He grinned. “Gosh, Hayley, that sounds like an invitation.”
“Does it?”
“You want to see it?” He took her through the living room down the hall to the largest of the three bedrooms and pushed open the door. He’d cleaned, decluttered and tidied it, but hadn’t had time to make it look good. “It’s all function, I’m afraid.”
She stepped into the room and looked at the dated-but-working fireplace, the oversized computer desk, the wood paneling. The window was a bright square of reflected sunlight off the snow.
Hayley closed her eyes and let some invisible sense of the place wash over her before declaring, “It needs a woman’s touch.”
“No shit.” He moved closer to her. “It needs your touch. Where would you start in here?”
“Well, the bed’s not bad.” She sat on the edge of it, testing its firmness. “It’s the most important thing. You need a fantastic mattress, quality fabrics, awesome pillows. Nice textures.”
“Like your bed.”
“Like my bed,” she agreed.
“I’ve been dreaming of your bed, Hayley.”
She smiled coquettishly. “But not of me?”
“Oh, I’ve been dreaming of you, too.” He kept his tone light, although what he really wanted to do was gently tackle her. Climb on top of her. Move aside her hair and kiss her pale neck and make her laugh. Taste her sweet lips and make her moan. But before he tried anything, there was something he needed to know. “How was your date with the theater guy?”
“It was great,” she said simply. “Evan’s a really nice guy.”
A spike of hope made him smile in spite of himself. “Ah.” He sat next her and fell back onto the bed, leaving his legs hanging off. “So he’s boring?”
“No!” She pretend-punched his stomach. He emitted an Oof! for her benefit. “Nice is the new sexy, didn’t you hear?”
“Oh, is it? I guess I’d better start being nice, then.”
She gave him a playful look. “You’re plenty nice, Josh. Spending a whole day with me shopping.”
“Well, I was handsomely rewarded for my efforts.”
She punched his stomach again, and he grabbed her fist, pried open her fingers, and brought the back of her hand to his lips. She had to lean over to accommodate him, and he breathed in her nearness.
She pulled back. “I’m here to interview you,” she reminded him with a gleam in her eyes. “I’m not here to do anything naughty.”
He pulled her onto his lap so she was sitting astride his torso. “You’re the one who made a beeline for my bed. I was going to make you tea, remember?”
He interlinked both hands with hers and locked eyes with her. Now it was up to her. Would she move? Press into him? The weight of her on top of him, the warmth of her body through their clothes, the curve of her thighs on either side of him … all factors that made him hard in seconds. And he knew she could feel it.
He shifted his hips beneath her so she could better feel his erection, and watched her expression melt into a soft wanting. He knew she was remembering the same thing he was, when they’d been in this same position naked, and how their bodies had worked in perfect rhythm. How fiercely right it had felt, like two forces of nature working in tandem, a raging wildfire spreading, as fires are inclined to do.
What’s it going to be, Hayley? he thought.
Hayley could feel her qualms melting away under the blazing intensity of Josh’s eyes as he watched her. The taut hardness of his body—and his arousal—against her didn’t help, either. She wanted nothing more than to sink down and feel his lips on hers, feel his hands all over.
You want forever, she told herself. It was an inadequate mantra against the pounding lust that made her throbbing and wet. You’re dating someone now. His name’s Evan. He’s cute.
You don’t have a boyfriend yet, came another thought. Two dates do not make a relationship. He hasn’t asked for exclusivity. You’re still single. You would tell your clients to keep playing the field until it’s official.
Not that Hayley could fool herself into believing this was playing the field. This was more like taking a hit of a potent, delicious, can’t-resist drug.
Unable to help herself, she moved her hips just a little bit, grinding against him.
Josh groaned low in his throat. “Hayley …”
“Josh.” She felt like she had to at least put up a little bit of a fight against the desire coursing through her. “Josh, we had an agreement. Just the one night.”
“We did.”
“I’m seeing someone now,” she said, temporarily forgetting the guy’s name in her haze of lust, because Josh’s presence filled her entire universe.
“He’s not your boyfriend yet, is he?” Josh’s question echoed Hayley’s own justification.
“No. But I need … I need …” Her words faltered as Josh’s hands gripped her hips and moved up beneath her sweater, his fingers leaving trails of fire where he touched her skin. “I need to make it work. And it could work. If I’m a single matchmaker by the time Devotion.com does their … oh, Josh, please … I need …” His hands reached around and unclasped her bra beneath her sweater.
It was no use. She could no more resist the force of her need than she could resist an earthquake, or a storm, or a meteorite falling from the sky. She leaned forward into his embrace and their lips met into a h
ard, desperate kiss that took her breath away. She and Josh were alone in the world, cocooned on the island of his queen-sized bed, and kissing him felt like the only possible course of action to keep things right with the universe.
Josh held her tight and rolled her onto her back, never breaking the kiss. There was no space between them, bodies pressed tight in a clinch made unbearable by the presence of clothing.
Hayley pulled off her sweater and bra in one swift move, and Josh took off his shirt in a flash. Hayley ran her hand across the ripple of his six-pack, let it roam down to the button of his jeans, enjoying the dusting of dark hair across his rock-hard abs that led her downward.
“What was it you need?” he whispered in her ear, giving her one last chance to back out.
“I need you inside me,” she said.
He unbuttoned her jeans and slid them off her hips, catching on her underwear at the same time. Hayley felt exposed in the brightness of the full daylight, but as Josh’s gaze roved across her naked body, it was nothing but appreciative.
“I can’t resist you,” he said in a hoarse voice.
“Don’t resist,” she said, as much to herself as to him. And then I’ll really get you out of my system, this one last time.
She pressed her hand against his erection, feeling its thick hardness through his clothes, and she started unbuttoning his jeans, clumsily, urgently.
“Let me,” he said, and in seconds his jeans were off and he was naked, too, glorious muscles and proud cock on full display. Hayley’s throat went dry with desire. Josh’s body was a treasure, a work of art, every line and cut of muscle an illustration of masculine beauty. As long as she lived, she felt sure Josh would be the best-looking guy she ever had. And she intended to enjoy every damn inch of him.
She reached down and touched his hot, hard cock, feeling its weight in her hand.
Josh’s response was a deep almost-growl.
Bring Your Heart (Golden Falls Fire Book 2) Page 16
