Catch 'n' Kiss (Are You Game?)

by Cahill, Rhian

  Could it really be that long? The more she mulled it over the more she had the sinking feeling that six years was an understatement. She hung her head and let out a deep sigh. She’d buried her needs along with her marriage. Neither had ever been that satisfying, but at least she’d had them. Sort of. Okay, who was she kidding? Both her marriage and sex life had sucked. And not in a good way. Jody smiled. At least she’d kept her sense of humour. Then again, she’d probably curl up in a little ball crying her eyes out if she hadn’t.

  She grabbed a towel and used it to pat her face dry before checking herself in the mirror. She needed to get back out there, but she’d needed a few minutes to regain her composure. Never let it be said that Jody Walsh couldn’t hold it together no matter what life threw at her. Spine straight, shoulders back, she flung the door open and got on with it. The crew had everything packed up and all that was left was one final walk through. She pulled her phone from her pocket and opened her picture gallery to compare each room to the photos she’d taken before they’d set up for the party. It was cheating, but she had no intention of screwing this job—any job—up.

  Each room appeared as it had hours earlier. Looking at the house now, you wouldn’t know it had been crowded with people partaking in a risqué adults-only party for the last couple of hours. She glanced at her watch. Three fifteen. It had run longer than expected, but instead of being dead on her feet, she was strangely wired. Her system buzzed, every nerve alive and ready for action. Hopefully, she’d be able to sleep. The girls were due home at seven in the morning and she still had to head to the warehouse and unload the night’s equipment.

  Rounding the corner, Jody ran into a solid wall of warm muscle. Dan. Why was he still here? “Sorry.”

  “No worries.” He steadied her with his hands on her waist. “All done?”

  “Yes. I just need to lock up on the way out.”

  “Let’s go then.” He cupped her elbow and steered her to the front door.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Leaving?”

  “So go already.” She really didn’t want to spend any more time with him tonight.

  “I came with you in the van, remember?”

  Oh shit. He had. Jody closed her eyes and prayed for strength. They’d spend at least another thirty minutes together. “Right. Sorry.” She fished the keys from her pocket and picked up her pace. The faster she got him back to his car, the quicker she could take a breath and clear her head.

  “Where’s the fire?”

  “Huh?” She opened the door and climbed in the driver’s side.

  “Never mind.” Dan buckled his belt and stared straight ahead.

  She couldn’t be sure, but she thought he was looking at her from the corner of his eye. A shiver skipped down her spine and goose bumps broke out on her skin. Her mind replayed their kiss and she licked her lips as the memory of his taste flooded her senses. No doubt about it, the man was lethal to her equilibrium. She stuck the key in the ignition, turned it and fired up the engine. Hot, stale air blasted through the vents and she quickly wound the window down to let in some of the fresh autumn breeze.

  The drive back was quiet. Only the soft sounds of the radio and the early morning filtered through the cabin. She couldn’t think of anything to say and had no intention of discussing their encounter, so Jody concentrated on getting them to the warehouse safely. A tall order when her mind wanted to circle back to those few minutes with his mouth on hers.

  Jody pulled into the driveway and hit the remote for the loading door. The double-wide metal panel slid up in a smooth, noiseless motion before grinding to a halt. She glanced up as she drove under.

  “That reminds me. I need to get the installer back out to check the roller door,” Dan said.

  “But it’s brand new.”

  “Oh, I don’t think it’s broken. But the guy did say sometimes they need an adjustment after the first so many uses. Better to be safe than sorry.” He opened his door when she brought the van to a stop. “I’ll start unloading. You go file the paperwork.”

  “You’re hanging around?” Too late. The door closed behind him before she even got one word out. By the time Jody swung out of her seat, Dan had the cargo doors open and was carrying the first of the equipment boxes to the racks. She might not be rid of him as quickly as she liked, but at least she’d get distance—and possibly some sense—when she went upstairs. Perhaps then she’d manage to catch her breath.

  She picked up her backpack and headed to her office. A thrill of delight ran through her. Her office. After years of working any part-time job she could get, not only did she have a fulltime job she loved, but she had an office. There was no stopping the grin. Even sharing the workspace with Dan couldn’t dampen her excitement. The room appeared a little cramped with two desks, but at least they could share the filing cabinets. In the beginning, she’d worried about the combined work zone, but so far it had worked seamlessly. Not that they’d found themselves in the room at the same time very often since she started working at Are You Game?

  Jody thought he’d been avoiding her in the beginning, and with her own turbulent emotions about the man, she hadn’t worried about it. But now… Now she figured that her initial assumption the tension between them would cause problems had been correct, and couldn’t imagine how they’d work in such close proximity after their latest encounter. Not that the conflict between them had headed in the direction she originally expected it to. She swallowed through a constricted throat when she thought about just how close they’d been a little while ago.

  Her body still hummed with arousal. She’d done well to mask her reactions to his kiss up until now, but there was a very real possibility she wouldn’t be able to hide them any longer. Definitely time to get out of here. Unzipping her bag, Jody pulled out her clipboard and began flicking through the pages. She grabbed a pen and flopped into her chair. Marking off each task, jotting notes about the evening and signing off on staff timecards took her about fifteen minutes, and it wasn’t until Dan cleared his throat that she looked up.

  “Done?” he asked as he pushed off the doorjamb.

  “Almost. You?”

  “Yep.” He perched his hip on the corner of her desk and her eyes were drawn to the way his pants pulled tight across his muscular thighs.

  Jody coughed and jerked her gaze back to the paperwork in her hand. “I’ll see you next week then.”

  Dan laughed.

  “What?” She risked a glance up and regretted it the second his gaze snagged and held hers.

  “Trying to get rid of me?” One corner of his mouth tipped up.

  “Ah, no, but there’s no need for you to hang around waiting for me.”

  “Good manners dictate that I do.” He picked up the picture frame she kept on her desk. The one with her and the girls at SeaWorld last year. “They look just like you.”

  “Really?” She’d never seen the resemblance, but he wasn’t the first to make the observation.

  “Yeah. How old are they?”

  Crap. She didn’t want to have this conversation with him. It brought them closer, this whole sharing of personal lives. But she couldn’t ignore him. “Fifteen and thirteen.”

  “Shit. What were you when you had them? Twelve?”

  She smiled. The compliment was nice, but she knew she looked every one of her thirty-four years. “You should know better than to ask a woman how old she is.”

  “I peg you at thirty.” He arched one eyebrow.

  “Ah, you sweet talker you.”

  “Hey, if all it takes is sweet talk I’ll lay on the sugar until the cows come home.”

  She’d have to be stupid to miss the undertone of his remark.

  “Seriously, how old are you?”

  Jody had the sudden thought that her age would be a good deterrent to his obvious pursuit. “Thirty-five in two months.”

  “June? What date?”

  She nodded. “Fourteenth. Why?”

  “Well, how
about that. We share a birthday. I’ll be twenty-eight. We’ll have to celebrate together.”

  “Ah…” What the hell was she supposed to say to that? “The girls and I usually do something fun—go bowling, see a movie.”

  “Great. Count me in.” Dan leaned over and flicked the pages on her calendar. “Okay, the fourteenth is a Saturday so we can do both. Oh, unless they’ll be with their father on the weekend?”

  He was fishing for information, and Jody couldn’t decide if it was a good or bad thing that he didn’t balk at their seven-year-age gap or spending time with her daughters. “No, they’re with me most weekends, but the last thing you want to do is hang out with a couple of teenagers on your birthday—”

  “Stop.” He held up his hand. “Here’s the thing, Jody. They’re part of you. I want to spend time with you so that means I want to spend time with them.”

  Her stomach clenched. Their father didn’t want to see them half the time, so she couldn’t imagine Dan really wanted to spend the day in their company. “Look. I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but pretending to like my kids won’t get you in my bed.” Jody’s face flushed. Where the hell had that come from? She hadn’t even been thinking of sex with him. Liar.

  Dan laughed. A rich deep rumble that shook his shoulders. He leaned over her desk and got right in her face. “Make no mistake here, Jody. Wanting in your bed has nothing to do with wanting to spend the day with you and your kids. I want both. I’ll get both.”

  Dan watched Jody closely. No doubt about it, he’d put it out there. He hadn’t even thought before the words were flying across his tongue. Her assumption about his motives pissed him off. She was the only woman he’d ever met who made him want to shake her and kiss her at the same time. It wasn’t the first time she’d questioned his intentions, and he wasn’t going to let her get away with it from now on. She’d know where he stood every step of the way.

  He wasn’t sure when he’d made the decision to pursue her. Probably in that first nano-second his lips had touched hers. Her silent, wide-eyed stare almost made him laugh, but he didn’t think she’d find his humour acceptable at the moment. Then again, she hadn’t exactly found his statement to her liking either. With a sigh, he pulled out of her personal space and grabbed a pen out of the ceramic mug that reminded him of something he’d made back in high school. One of her daughters must have given it to her.

  Marking the fourteenth of June with a big star, he scribbled birthday celebration with girls and Dan in red. He underscored the whole thing with two lines. “There. It’s on your calendar.” Dan pulled his phone from his pocket and he added it to his own planner where he discovered the reminder for dinner with his family. “Oh, and keep the night free too. We’ll have dinner as well.”

  She hadn’t said a word, and he glanced at her to check she was still there. Her eyes were comically wide and her mouth hung open, so he reached over and nudged her jaw up.

  Jerking back, she pulled away from his touch. “What are you doing?”

  He smiled at her. “I think I’ve made it pretty clear.”

  “Well, yes, but…”

  Finding her inability to voice her thoughts shouldn’t be gratifying, but Dan loved that he could knock her off her feet this way. “Here, let’s make it simple. I like you. You like me. Uh, uh, don’t argue, you can’t deny we have chemistry. Not after that kiss.” He waited to see if she’d remain quiet and let him finish. “Good. So I like you and you like me.”

  Her mouth moved, and for a second he thought she’d offer an argument, but in the end she rolled her lips inwards and stayed silent.

  “As I was saying, we like each other and I think it’s worth seeing where that goes. Actually, I know it’s worth it.”

  “How can you know that after just a kiss?”

  “Just a kiss? Jody, that wasn’t just a kiss. That was a life-altering moment that neither of us saw coming or should walk away from.” He had to get her to agree with him. The more he thought about it the more he wanted to know every little thing about her. Wanted to spend hours and hours getting to know her.

  “But we work together. When this goes pear-shaped we’ll be stuck here, in this tiny room, when we won’t want to lay eyes on each other.”

  Dan could see her point, but he didn’t think they’d have that problem. “We’ll cross that bridge if we come to it.”

  “No!” She pushed her chair back and stood. “I won’t risk my job. Not for you. Not for anyone.”

  “It won’t come to that.”

  “You can’t guarantee that.” She opened the drawer in her desk and pulled out a handbag.

  “What? You’re running?” He stood up and faced her across her desk.

  “No. I’m going home,” she said as she slipped the strap of her bag over her shoulder. “I’ll finish the paperwork there.”

  “You are running.” He wanted to grab her. Shake her. Stop her.

  “There’s nothing to run from.” Jody rounded the desk and headed for the door. “Lock up on your way out.”

  She was gone before he could get his legs to move, but once his brain got the signals right, he chased after her. “Jody!”

  “No!” She spun around and threw her arm up, palm out, to stop him. “We’re not talking about this anymore. There’s nothing to talk about.”

  “Bullshit!”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Bullshit? Bullshit? Bullshit is the fact you think you can kiss me and then proceed to tell me what we’re going to do about it. We might have chemistry. It might be off the charts, but I’m not a slave to my hormones, and I’m certainly not some meek little woman you can order around to your liking.”

  With that, she turned and continued down the stairs. Her ponytail swung from side to side and he had the urge to grab it and pull her back. Fuck. He was turning into a caveman. He’d never felt this razor-sharp need for a woman. Never wanted on a bone-deep-can’t-breathe-without-her level. And why the hell was he suddenly so desperate for her? She was the same woman she’d been this morning. The same snapping didn’t-want-to-look-at-him Jody he’d been butting heads with for months. Only she wasn’t the same. He wasn’t the same. Not after that kiss.

  “We’re not done,” he yelled at her retreating back.

  “Yes, we are,” she screamed back, followed by the slamming of the warehouse’s outer door.

  “Fuck.” He speared his fingers through his hair, dug his nails into his scalp and growled. She’d as good as told him to fuck off. If she’d been anyone else he would have taken her at her word. But he wasn’t backing down. Wasn’t walking away from something he knew could be special—unique—life altering. “Fuck!”

  Dan dropped his chin to his chest and drew in a deep breath. The light scent of vanilla teased his nose. Dammit, he could smell her. He pulled the front of his shirt up and sniffed. It smelled exactly like Jody. Some of her perfume must have rubbed off when they’d been locked together. Like an addict, he sucked in another big breath and let her fill him. His body tightened, his cock going from semi-hard to rock hard in a heartbeat.

  It didn’t matter what had happened before their kiss or after. He wasn’t about to let either of them pass up the possibilities their chemistry offered. Jody might be right. Hormones may be the driving force behind their sparks, but Dan knew lust. He’d spent his whole adult life letting it lead him from one woman to the next, and what he felt when he held Jody—kissed her—was a billion times more potent. She could run as far and fast as her sexy long legs would take her. It wouldn’t matter, because he’d catch her in the end. And when he did, he’d kiss her and prove their first lip lock wasn’t a fluke.

  Chapter Three

  Jody jumped as the door of her office burst open.

  “Oh, good, you’re still here.” Cassie marched over to Jody’s desk and slapped down a folder. “I need you to handle this for me.”

  “Sure.” She leaned forward to pull the file closer.

  “Wait. Before you agree you should know what it
entails.”

  Jody eyed her boss, the woman who’d become her friend, the woman who was dating her brother. And if she was reading the signs correctly, Cassie would eventually be her sister-in-law. “What could possibly stop me from saying yes to a job?”

  “It’s a full weekend.” Cassie chewed her lip. “Away.”

  “What?” Jody grabbed the folder and flipped it around.

  “Not yet.” Cassie slammed her palm on the cover. “I wouldn’t ask if I wasn’t desperate. I know I promised you the weekend off, but I need to replace Jeremy. He just rang and said his mother has been rushed to hospital with a suspected heart attack, and you’re the only one without an event this weekend so you can fill the two-day gap. I’d have to cover a shift for anyone else.”

  “I already said I’d do it.” She tugged the file from Cassie’s hold and opened it. Air zapped from her lungs and her stomach cramped so tight she swore her belly button hit her backbone.

  “What? What’s wrong?” Cassie leaned over to see the page Jody was looking at.

  “Nothing.” Oh God. There was no way she could say no now. “Just a cramp from too much lunch.” They’d visited a new sushi place down the road together and she’d definitely eaten too much, but that wasn’t what had her insides contracting. Jody took a deep breath and smiled up at Cassie. “Leave it with me. Don’t worry. I’ll get everything sorted out.”

  “Luc said we can have the girls. He’ll watch them while I work Friday night and Saturday afternoon.”

  “You sure?” Jody’s brother had been having the girls more since he’d begun dating Cassie, but having them for the whole weekend might be a stretch, especially when her big brother had always been uncomfortable around their little girly ways. Although now they were both older, he was finding it easier to deal with them.

  “Yes. We love having them. Plus, I want to go see that new Pixar movie and it’ll look a lot better if I actually take some kids with me.” Cassie grinned. “Not to mention we can hit the arcade afterwards.”