“What about you?” he asked. “You stay in town this whole time?”
She nodded.
“I thought -” He hesitated. “Thought you might have left, gone away to college.”
“I considered it.” She shrugged. “But this is my home. Plus, Dolly and Bill needed help with the diner. Things got tight a while back, even before the hurricane. Didn’t feel right to leave them when they were laying people off and working longer hours themselves.”
He nodded. “Still, that’s a lot to take on when you’re nineteen, twenty.”
She waved to a family that was leaving the restaurant. Jace didn’t recognize them. “How long have you been in real estate?” she asked.
Turned that conversation right away from herself, he noted. “A little over a year.”
“And you’re already working with this guy in Tampa? Wow. You must be good at what you do.”
“My boss tells me I’ve got charisma. I think I’m just a hell of a hard worker. I don’t like taking no for an answer.”
She gave him a sly grin. “I can imagine.”
He pointed his fork at her. “You didn’t say no that night.”
Her grin widened. “I’m not sure you asked.”
She had him there. But she didn’t look mad; in fact, she looked as though she wouldn’t mind picking up where they’d left off five years ago. But maybe that was the wine talking.
“How are the other guys?” Pearl asked after a moment, breaking the sizzle zinging back and forth between them. “Bryce and Toby?”
Jace shifted in his chair, trying to ease the ache between his legs. “Bryce is in business school, believe it or not. He’s brilliant, not like any of us would’ve guessed that back in high school.”
“I might’ve.”
“Really?”
She cut a piece of bread and dipped it into olive oil after adding some red pepper flakes.
She definitely likes it hot. So much for easing that ache. As she sank her teeth into the bread, a little oil beaded on her bottom lip, and Jace had the sudden urge to reach over and wipe it away, just so he could feel her skin.
“Bryce juggled a whole lot of girls,” she went on. “I never heard anyone complain about it, either, which was bizarre. It was like he knew how to keep everyone happy without ever committing to just one person.”
Jace grinned. “Things haven’t changed much.”
“So he wants to be a politician or something?”
“Actually, he wants to work for the family business.”
Pearl finished her bread and wiped her mouth, leaving a sexy pink smear of lipstick on the white linen napkin. “What’s the family business?”
He was surprised she’d never heard. He thought everyone knew the Andersons ran an exclusive cruise line. “Cocktail Cruise Lines. They operate out of Tampa.”
“Really?” She sipped her wine. “I’ve never been on a cruise.”
“No? We should go sometime.” He wanted to kick himself as soon as the words came out. Where had that invitation come from?
She must have thought the same thing, because she laughed. “Sure. Okay. Before or after you give Dolly your song and dance about selling the diner?”
Fortunately, Ricardo arrived at that moment to clear the table and deliver their pizza. It wafted up delicious aromas of garlic and tomato, and Jace’s mouth watered.
“This is amazing,” he mumbled as he sank his teeth into a slice.
“I know.” Pearl smiled, and for the first time since they’d sat down, her face lost its guarded expression.
She doesn’t trust me, he thought, and though he couldn’t blame her, he hated the way it made him feel inside.
They ate in silence for a while. The crowd around them thinned, and the sky went dark as the blue-black of night settled in. Streetlights scattered ribbons of yellow in every direction, and he couldn’t help but wish Pearl had parked farther away, so he could take her hand as they walked to her car and maybe steal a kiss or two on the way.
Stolen kisses. Immediately his mind returned to the diner, to the night after the informal graduation party on the beach. Pearl pressed against him. His cock hard, wanting her, needing release. The moment when she tucked her hands around his neck and they breathed in unison. For some crazy reason, he remembered every detail of that night - more than some details of women he’d slept with or dated for months. How was that possible?
“…you listening to me?” she finished.
Jace’s attention snapped back to Café Angelo and the half-finished pizza sitting on the table between them. “Sorry?”
“Wow, you went all introspective on me for a minute.” She rested her chin on her folded fingers, elbows on the table. “You okay?”
“Fine.” Except for the fact he might have a difficult time walking if they got up right then. Damn. He hadn’t gotten hard that fast in years. “What were you saying?”
“I just wondered how Toby was. You lived with him in Tampa? I thought I used to see him every once in a while down here, but it’s been a couple of years.”
“He was going back and forth for a while, because Brittany still lived in Venice, but he finally convinced her to move up there with him.”
“Brittany Piper?” Her eyes widened. “Didn’t they date in high school?”
“Yeah, been together ever since. I didn’t believe it either. None of us thought it would last.” Jace still didn’t, but he’d never say anything to his buddy. None of them really knew what a healthy relationship looked like, so if Bryce wanted to emulate Hugh Hefner and date a different woman each month, and Toby wanted to play house with a woman who didn’t do anything except shop and go out with her girlfriends, then so be it. Jace himself wasn’t the king of keeping women around, not with a past he refused to talk about. Inevitably, the women he met wanted to peel him open. Fix him. Change him.
“And you?” Pearl asked. “You have anyone steady in your life? Girlfriend? Fiancée?”
He shook his head and flagged down Ricardo for the check. Thank God he didn’t have anyone steady in his life, because all he could think about was kissing Pearl’s pouty pink mouth, getting her alone and letting his hands wander through her loose hair, feeling her against him as he tasted the wine on her lips and tongue.
“You want to get out of here?” he said.
“I thought you’d never ask.”
Chapter Three
“Perfect night,” Jace said as they left the restaurant.
Pearl glanced up. The earlier clouds had blown away, and now stars sprinkled the sky. A half-moon hung over the palm trees lining Venice Avenue. “I don’t know about perfect, but it’s pretty close.” She wondered if he’d try to steer her toward the beach or one of the stone benches along the pedestrian walkway. She wouldn’t mind if he did. The idea of going back to her single room at Dolly’s held little appeal right now.
Thoughts filled her head: their long-ago kiss, the many times she’d thought of Jace since, the reason he’d returned to Venice. The warmth slipping down her spine and pooling in her lower belly. The way their arms brushed every so often as they walked. The holy-hell-I-want-this-guy sensation she fought with every step.
I shouldn’t have had that wine.
It always went straight to her head, and now her inhibitions were all screwy and her pulse was racing a mile a minute and she had no idea what was coming out of her mouth as they talked.
“…work there fulltime?” Jace asked.
She grasped the question like a drowning woman. Stop remembering the way he kisses. Stop wondering how he is in bed. “At the diner? Part-time. Some lunches, and weekends too. I’m taking classes, and it’s hard to fit in shifts, but Dolly needs me.”
“I’m sure she does.” They crossed the street, but Jace didn’t turn toward the parking lot. Instead he ran a finger down her bare arm and tilted his head in the opposite direction. “Want to take a walk?”
She shouldn’t. This was bad news all the way around.
&nbs
p; “C’mon,” he urged. “I won’t bite.”
Ooh, but I might like that. She curled her fingers into her palm, searching for control over the desire that was spiraling to epic proportions. “Promise me you won’t try and schmooze me into convincing Dolly to sell the diner,” she said instead.
He stopped in the middle of the crosswalk and held up one hand. “I promise. Scout’s honor.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Were you a Boy Scout?’
An odd expression crossed his face before he shook his head. “Nope. You gotta have parents who care enough to sign you up for stuff like that.”
Pearl didn’t have much to say. I know about parents who aren’t there. Yeah, she sure did. She barely remembered her mother, and she’d never known her father. Thank goodness Dolly and Bill had made up for that in spades.
A few cars crawled down Venice Avenue, but most of the shops were closed. Jace reached out his hand, palm up, and she took it. Her fingers locked with his, and the effect nearly knocked her off her feet. A lovely sunburst of pleasure radiated all the way up to her shoulder and down her chest, gaining speed as it moved south.
“So I never asked you,” he said as they walked. Smooth as honey, his voice didn’t tremble or skip or belie any emotion at all. Maybe he did this on a regular basis. Maybe he wasn’t feeling the same kind of insane attraction she was right now.
“Asked me what?”
“If you were involved with anyone.” They crossed at the light. As they walked south, away from the lights and the traffic and toward the beach, the shadows lengthened.
Her fingers tightened in his. “I’m not.”
They passed the community tennis courts; often people played long after dark, but tonight they lay empty. A streetlight had burned out above them, and Jace stopped in the dark.
Her breath stopped. Time stopped. Her heart skipped double-time.
“No?” he murmured. With his free hand, he stroked the skin just below her chin.
She shook her head as her knees went wobbly. “I mean, I dated this one guy for a while, but we broke up months ago.” Royal Holden, right for her in so many ways but lukewarm in the areas that really mattered, still called or texted sometimes. He still stopped by the diner occasionally to see if she’d take him back. But she didn’t need to tell Jace any of that. She was single with a capital S, and thank goodness for that right now.
“I’m glad,” Jace said. Without another word, he bent and kissed her.
Oh. God. It was a thousand times hotter than she remembered - though how that was possible, she wasn’t even sure. She’d relived those five minutes from high school a hundred times, and each time the experience was richer, headier, closer to perfect in every way. Yet it still couldn’t compare to this moment right now, this man taking her face in his hands and slipping his tongue along her bottom lip and leaning into her as if they were the only two people on the planet.
Pearl’s hands went to Jace’s hips, pulling him close, as if somehow his jeans and her dress would drop away and she’d feel him against her bare skin once and for all. Her lips opened, deepening the kiss, and he moaned softly into her mouth, sending her mind spinning into the stratosphere.
“Pearl,” he breathed as he pulled away slightly. His lips brushed her nose, her temple, and got lost in her hair.
Her head fell back as she looked up at his strong chin, regal nose, intense eyes holding her own without a word. She tugged him close again, but he didn’t kiss her. His arms didn’t wrap around her, didn’t lift her as if she weighed nothing. Instead, they fell loosely around her waist for a second before slipping away to take her hands in both of his.
“I don’t want you to think I’m taking advantage,” he said.
The world came back into focus. The diner. Dolly. Here Pearl stood, tipsy in the moonlight with a man she barely knew, halfway to taking off her clothes, and for all she knew, his purpose was business only. She took a furtive glance left and right. Oh, people would talk if they saw her now. Venice wasn’t big enough that the locals had forgotten Jace, and they certainly knew who she was.
Saw the two of them snuggled up by the courts last night…
Doesn’t he work for Reagan Realty now?
They’re the ones helping Evans buy up the rest of The Esplanade, right? Wonder if Dolly’s finally selling…
Pearl shook her head to rid herself of the thoughts. Silly. The block was almost deserted. No cars had passed for the last few minutes, and they hadn’t seen any other pedestrians since leaving the restaurant. Besides, she didn’t care what other people thought.
Reluctantly, she dropped Jace’s hands. What she did care about was her aunt and the diner, which had been a fixture on that stretch of road by the beach since long before Pearl was born. They hadn’t sold yet, and she had no intention of letting Jace or anyone else try and sway that decision.
“Pearl?” He brushed her hair from her forehead, and she almost swooned all over again.
That’s it. I cannot let this man touch me. Her brain, her instincts, all rational thought, took a vacation every time he did.
“Thanks for dinner,” she said. She took a step back. “It was good to see you again.”
“I hope this isn’t the last time.”
Me, too, she almost blurted. “We’re not selling the diner,” she said instead. Her cheeks went hot, and she hated the abrupt way the words had tumbled out. What a shitty way to end the night. “I just wanted to make sure that was clear. And if you want to see me again -” Oh, God. More heat on her face. What if he didn’t want to see her again? What kind of assumption had she just made?
“…it can’t relate to business,” she finished. She pressed her lips together and stared over his shoulder. I should leave now, walk away before he looks at me like I have three heads and have never gone out on a date in my life.
But Jace just chuckled. “I hear you,” he said. He kept his hands in his pockets, but his next words left nothing to the imagination. “No business. Then it’ll be strictly pleasure?” His tongue snaked out to wet his bottom lip. “I can deal with that.”
Chapter Four
“Well, good morning, merry sunshine.” Dolly DeVane poured a tall mug of coffee and handed it to Pearl. Unlike her niece, the sixty-two year old was fully dressed at eight a.m. Makeup flawless. Salt-and-pepper hair pulled into a neat twist at the back of her head.
Pearl yawned and sank into one of four mismatched kitchen chairs. She’d pulled on her favorite comfy robe with the unraveled stitching at both wrists. “Good morning.”
“You got in late.” Dolly buttered a muffin and slid it onto a plate next to a mound of fresh strawberries. She set the plate in front of Pearl and sat in a chair on the opposite side of the round wooden table.
“Not that late.” But Pearl supposed in their world, ten-thirty was rather late. The two of them were usually snuggled into the couch watching TV after dinner, and Pearl said her good nights a little after ten.
Not the most glamorous life for a twenty-one year old, but then again, glamour hadn’t ever been on Pearl’s radar. She worked at the diner, took community college classes at a slow but steady pace, and since she’d broken things off with Royal, spent most of her free time either walking on the beach or having drinks with a handful of high school girlfriends who still lived in the area.
“Have a good time?” Dolly asked over the rim of her own mug.
The coffee burned in the back of Pearl’s throat. She’d told her aunt about dinner last night - the where and the when, anyway. Just not the who. “It was nice. Always good pizza there.”
Dolly nodded.
She knows, Pearl thought suddenly. Somehow, Dolly had heard Jace McClintock was back in town. She opened and closed her mouth, wondering how much she should tell her aunt. The date didn’t mean anything, did it? She’d certainly made it clear to him where she and Dolly stood on selling the diner.
But before she could say a word, Dolly finished her coffee and pushed back her chair. “Mi
nnie is opening today,” she said. “But I want to get down there before nine. The Gondolier is finally doing their story. They’re sending a reporter and a photographer around eleven.” She rinsed the dishes and set them in the rack. “I want to be ready. Some of those old pictures in the back hallway need dusting.”
The back hallway.
Three little words and Pearl was sixteen again, pressed up against the wall just below those pictures and having her brains kissed out by a high school senior who, up until that night, she’d hardly guessed would have given her the time of day. Under the table, she crossed her legs to ease the steady heat growing between them. She’d woken more than once the night before from dreams of him.
“Are you coming in later?” Dolly asked. She pulled on a light-gray sweater, long and loose around her hips. She no longer wore a waitress’s uniform, but she always looked neat and fashionable. Today she had on light-blue capris and a white oxford shirt with the sleeves rolled up.
“Yes. I have to stop by campus and register for fall semester, but I’ll be in after that.” Pearl yawned again and brushed her hair from her face. “Do you want me there earlier? For when the reporter’s there?”
“Only if you want to be. You don’t have to.” Dolly dropped a kiss onto the top of Pearl’s head. “Looks like you could use a few more cups of coffee. No rush.”
Pearl rested her chin on one hand. Dolly had made Pearl breakfast and kept her safe and kissed her hello and good night for the past seventeen years. Even after Bill’s death, Dolly had soldiered on, doing her best to keep up the routine around the house. But in the last few months, as business continued to decline, Pearl had noticed a change. Nothing serious, just a dimming of the light in Dolly’s eyes sometimes. She went to bed earlier. She’d stopped having her nightly glass of wine. And sometimes, when Pearl came home unexpectedly, she caught her aunt sitting in her uncle’s recliner in the family room and looking through old photo albums.
At some point, Pearl thought, the child is supposed to take care of the parent figure, right? Yet sometimes she felt so completely incapable of doing that. She reached for the muffin and took a huge bite. Dolly waved goodbye as she slipped out the back door. A moment later, her ten-year-old Honda sputtered to life and pulled down the driveway.
Passionate Kisses 2 Boxed Set: Love in Bloom Page 49
