by Cox, Carrie;
Jack burst out laughing. His whole face lit up. His eyes twinkled with merriment, and his grin showed off his perfectly white teeth. He really was devastatingly handsome when he smiled.
“He’s winding you up,” Jack said. “I don’t need any help with the shower.”
“Oh, right.” I offered up a weak laugh. “Yeah, I should have known that.”
Could this day get any more embarrassing?
Jack turned to me, cocked his finger and beckoned me towards him. He was still smiling and looking far hotter than he had a right to after his strenuous work out.
I felt dizzy. I swallowed and moved forward. My heart was pounding in my chest.
“That is…” Jack said, in almost a whisper, “…unless you’d like to help me in the shower?”
If I thought I blushed earlier, it was nothing compared to the glow I had going on now. I could feel the heat emanating from my cheeks and chest.
I could hear Brian behind me, packing up his stuff and chuckling to himself.
I’d had enough of them making fun of me. I glared at Jack.
“No, thanks. I’ll wait here until you’re finished. Is there anything you’d like me to do while you’re having a shower?” I asked, my tone very business-like.
Jack looked at me curiously, but he kept the smile on his face. God, he really was unbelievably good-looking.
After Brian left, Jack wheeled himself back through his apartment and gave me a quick tour. There wasn’t much to see. He had a large living room with a small open-plan kitchen at the back of the room. There was one bedroom with an en-suite bathroom, which had been specially adapted to use with his wheelchair.
After Jack wheeled himself off to take a shower I looked around the apartment, not knowing what to do. There were so many things I should be thinking about, but the one thought that filled my mind, the one image I couldn’t shake was picturing Jack taking a shower. I stood there remembering his tight abs, his smooth tanned skin and imagining what it would be like to trace those abs with my fingertips and run my hands through his silky dark hair.
“Are you okay?”
My head snapped around to see Jack in the doorway. His hair was still wet and hung down over his eyes, framing his perfect face and accentuating his high cheekbones.
“You looked a little odd. It made me wonder what you were thinking about.”
For what felt like the hundredth time, as if I hadn’t already blushed enough this morning, blood rushed to my cheeks, and Jack gave me a little knowing smile as if he knew exactly what I had been thinking about.
As a World Champion racing driver, I supposed he was used to having women lusting over him all the time.
I tucked a lock of hair behind my ear. “I was just wondering what I should be doing. I’m not really sure what I’m supposed to do for you.”
“Well, it’s nothing to do with me.” Jack said. “It’s all my brother’s doing. You’re his employee.” He cocked his head and studied me. “I suppose you’re his spy. Are you going to go back to him and tell him all my secrets?”
“Secrets?”
Jack folded his arms and narrowed his eyes. “You might be here to tell tales on me. Perhaps you’re going to report to Alexander every night and tell him if I’m doing my physio and taking my meds. If he could, my brother would like to run my life for me. This is just one more step in him getting total control.”
“I don’t think it’s like that. I think he’s worried about you.”
The gaze Jack fixed me with was terrifying. I took a step back.
His eyes blazed, and his jaw tightened. “Really,” he said in a low voice that told me his temper was just simmering below the surface and might explode at any moment. “You have known me and my brother for less than twenty-four hours and you feel qualified to give an opinion?”
I let out a shaky breath. He was right. I didn’t know either of them at all. But from what Alexander had told me, I really did think he had his brother’s best interests at heart. But I didn’t want to get into that with Jack. I didn’t think provoking an argument on my first day was the best way to start my new job.
“So what would you like me to do?” I said, deliberately changing the subject. “Have you had breakfast?”
Jack perked up a little at that. “Are you a good cook?”
I cringed. “Not exactly. I can do simple stuff though.”
“Can you cook eggs?”
“Uh, yeah, how do you like them?”
“Scrambled,” he said and nodded to the small kitchen behind the breakfast bar.
To my annoyance, he followed me, wheeling the chair around behind me. Seriously? He wasn’t going to watch me make eggs, was he?
“The eggs are in the refrigerator and the bread is in that basket over there. I’ll have two slices and two eggs scrambled,” he said as if he was ordering breakfast in a diner.
“Right,” I said. “I can do that.”
I’ve cooked breakfast thousands of times; it’s not as if it was difficult. But with him watching me so intently, I was all fingers and thumbs.
I caught my hand on the refrigerator door, banged my head and almost dropped the eggs as I took them out of the refrigerator. All the time, Jack just sat there, looking at me with a trace of a smile on his lips, like I amused him.
I took a deep breath to try and steady my nerves and broke the eggs into a small glass bowl. I cursed under my breath as I dropped a small piece of shell in there and spent a few seconds trying to fish it out.
Jack’s eyes never left me.
If this was a sign of things to come, it was going to be a very long day.
When I finally served up the eggs, he only picked at them to start with.
After a couple of bites, he said, “Pretty good.” Then wolfed the rest down. “Not bad. Are you not having anything?”
“I already had breakfast.”
He nodded and then put his knife and fork down.
“So, what did you do before this, Kristina? Have you always been in nursing?”
“No,” I said, slowly. I wondered how much he knew about me. Perhaps he had spoken to Alexander again last night.
Jack grinned wolfishly at me. “I get all my gossip from Maria,” he said. “She tells me everything.”
“I see.”
“So tell me about you,” he said, looking far too curious for my liking.
I squirmed under his gaze. “There’s nothing to tell.”
“Sure, there is. There must be. Everyone’s got a story.”
I shifted a little in my seat, feeling uncomfortable. I didn’t really enjoy telling people about my past, let alone people I’d only just met. If he thought I was going to spill my guts to him, he had another thing coming. He looked like he was only after entertainment anyway. It’s not like he really cared.
I shook my head. “Really, I had a pretty boring life. I grew up in Miami, with my sister and our mom. End of story.”
“You’re right. That does sounds boring,” Jack said.
“So, what about you?” I said, trying to change the subject and bring it around to something that wasn’t focused on me.
Jack gave me a sarcastic look. “Because you haven’t heard? My life story was plastered on all the gossip websites and newspapers around the world. You probably know more about me than my own mother did.”
“I don’t really read that sort of stuff.”
Jack took a breath and exhaled deeply. “Well, I used to race cars, had a crash and I ended up in a wheelchair. That’s pretty much it in a nutshell.” He gave me a tight smile.
I didn’t know how to reply so I stayed silent.
After a beat, Jack said, “I don’t think much of your small talk. I thought you were here to entertain me.”
He was being obnoxious and it was getting to me. Why was he determined to be so difficult?
“What do you usually do?” I asked. “What’s a typical day for you?”
“Oh, so many things. A little snowboarding, mou
ntain climbing followed by an hour or two of surfing.” He smirked.
I put my hands on my hips. “Very funny. What would you like to do today? We could, uh, maybe watch a movie, or go for a walk... Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean…” I broke off, and I looked away and down at the floor.
How could I have said something so stupid? What was wrong with me?
When I dared look back up at Jack, I was relieved to see he didn’t look angry.
But he was looking at me oddly, like he was trying to study me.
“I’m not that sensitive, Kristina. You don’t have to watch what you say around me. Do you understand? I couldn’t stand that. It’s the worst thing about this. Everybody tiptoes around me. You’ve got to promise you won’t do that.”
His dark eyes burned into me, and I felt like I was melting under his gaze. He was so intense.
I nodded. “Yeah, I promise.”
7
The rest of the morning passed agonizingly slowly. I was constantly on edge, trying to anticipate what Jack would like me to do, and I could feel the irritation coming off him in waves.
I didn’t know what was wrong with me. When he wasn’t looking, my eyes fixed hungrily on his body, and I took the chance to study him. If I carried on like this, it wouldn’t be long before he noticed.
I needed to snap out of it. Sure, he was devastatingly good-looking, but so were lots of other guys. This was my job, and I was here to help him, not lust after him. But no matter how hard I tried to stop myself, I couldn’t help picturing him how I’d seen him that morning: bare-chested and damn hot.
After his shower, Jack had changed into jeans and a white t-shirt. The t-shirt fitted him like a second skin. His muscled arms and sculpted shoulders were shown off to their best advantage by the t-shirt, which didn’t exactly help curb my lust. I tried my best to pretend not to notice.
I got through the rest of the day without any more screw-ups and without annoying Jack too much. We sat outside for a while in the sun. He read a book while I hovered around him, anxious to please.
I knew it was irritating him, but I couldn’t seem to stop.
At around noon, Maria brought us lunch and we ate together. I was very glad of that. I didn’t fancy preparing another meal with Jack watching my every move.
Later that afternoon, Jack seemed to relax a little, and I started to think for the first time that this job might not be a complete nightmare after all. But that all changed at four pm.
Maria arrived looking sheepish and told Jack he had a visitor.
Jack’s eyes snapped up from the book he’d been reading and his shoulders tensed. “A visitor? Who?”
I looked at Maria, thinking it was odd that she looked so nervous. Her hands were clasped in front of her and she stared down at her feet rather than looking at Jack.
“It’s Ms. Roberts, Jack.”
The transformation in Jack was amazing. He was so calm a moment ago but now he was tenser than I’d ever seen him. He slapped the palms of his hands onto the arms of his wheelchair.
“I told her not to come back here.”
Maria stood there, wringing her hands, obviously not knowing how to handle the situation.
I sat beside Jack and wondered if I should intervene. I could feel the stress and anger coming off Jack in waves. It couldn’t be good for him. At the same time, I was intrigued. I wanted to know who this Ms. Roberts was and why she had gotten Jack so worked up.
“Send her away,” Jack snapped. “And don’t let her in again.”
“I’m sorry, Jack,” Maria began, but before she had a chance to say anything else, a tall blonde woman, dressed in skin tight jeans and an extremely low cut top, burst into the room.
Her baby blonde hair had been styled to within an inch of its life, and her makeup was immaculate, although a little heavy for this time of day.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Jack,” she drawled. “I want to see you.”
“We don’t always get what we want,” Jack said and moved his wheelchair so that he turned his back to her.
I looked from Jack to Ms. Roberts and then to Maria. What should I do? Should I leave them to it and let them carry on their conversation in private? Or should I stay? I hated to admit it, but curiosity had the better of me. I wanted to know what was going on.
At that moment, the blonde Ms. Roberts seemed to notice my presence. “I’d like to be alone with Jack, thank you.”
She nodded at me and then at Maria, dismissing us.
I hesitated for just a moment and then began to walk towards the door when Jack turned.
“Where do you think you’re going, Kristina?” he said.
“I’m going to give you some privacy,” I said. “I’ll just wait outside until you need me.”
“No, you won’t. You’ll stay here,” Jack said.
He turned to Ms. Roberts and said, “This is Kristina, my nurse. She stays with me. She’s here to keep me company.”
What he did next astounded me.
He held out his hand and beckoned me. I walked to his side, taking tiny steps and feeling ridiculously self-conscious.
When I reached his side, he took my hand in his. I looked at him not understanding what he was doing, but he wasn’t looking at me. He was giving the blonde Ms. Roberts a triumphant smile.
My skin was tingling as the warmth of his touch spread up my fingers and along my arm. I was not sure what Jack’s plan was, but I knew he was making me a part of it.
Was he trying to make her jealous?
“Fine,” Ms. Roberts said.
She threw her handbag down onto the couch, and then parked her skinny backside down next to it. She eased herself back against the cushions and crossed her jean-encased, scrawny legs. She was wearing the highest heels I have ever seen. She leaned forward slightly, flashing her cleavage. I was pretty sure that was deliberate.
I was starting to dislike this woman.
Jack moved his other hand and trailed a finger along my arm. “Anything you want to say to me you can say in front of Kristina.”
I shivered involuntarily. I couldn’t hide my reaction. I didn’t know how he was doing this. It was just the lightest of touches, but I could feel an unwanted heat throbbing between my legs. I was so annoyed with my body’s betrayal. It was hardly a romantic environment and he was just touching my arm for goodness sake, but I could feel the dampness growing between my thighs.
Ms. Roberts narrowed her eyes and glared at me. Yep, I was right the first time. He was trying to make her jealous.
I was pretty mad right now, but I didn’t know what to do to change the situation, so I just stood there quietly fuming, trying to ignore the pleasurable thrills that ran through my body as Jack’s fingers caressed my arm.
The pad of his thumb circled a sensitive spot just below my wrist, and I couldn’t help imagining his thumb doing that on another part of my body. I bit down on my lip.
“You’re new, aren’t you?” Ms. Roberts said to me.
I nodded. “Yes.”
I couldn’t say more than that. I had no idea how he was doing this to me, but the pleasurable tingles shooting through me made it impossible to form a coherent sentence.
“Well, you don’t much look like a nurse.”
Despite Jack’s distractions, I bristled. “And what exactly are nurses supposed to look like?”
Jack laughed and squeezed my hand. I tried to pull away, but he wouldn’t let me. His grip tightened.
“Look, Jack, this is just ridiculous,” Ms. Roberts said. “You won’t see me … You won’t talk to me.”
“Why should I?” Jack’s voice was low, and even though I barely knew him, I recognized that this was dangerous territory. Jack was ready to explode. There was nothing I could do but watch.
“If you remember, Joanna,” he said her name like it was something disgusting, “shortly after I lost the use of my legs in the accident, you dumped me. I think that pretty much ended your right to drop in for a chat whenever you feel like it.�
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Joanna’s lips tightened. “You shouldn’t act like this, Jack. It’s very juvenile.” She tossed her long blonde hair.
Jack leaned back in his chair. “What do you want, Joanna? Spit it out. We do have other things to do today.”
She smiled then, a small cold smile that made me nervous. I didn’t like this woman at all. Before I realized what I was doing my hand had tightened around Jack’s. I felt his eyes on me, but I didn’t turn. I kept my gaze fixed on Joanna, waiting.
“I wanted you to be one of the first to know. I’m engaged,” she said.
If it hadn’t been for the pause before he answered, that fraction of a second he took to compose the next sentence, I wouldn’t have thought he was bothered at all. His tone remained calm and even. “Fantastic, congratulations.”
“Don’t you want to know who the lucky guy is?” Joanna’s mouth stretched into a smirk.
I felt Jack’s hand slip from mine and he looked down. I didn’t know whether it was a subconscious gesture, but he looked down at his legs.
“Not really,” he said.
She got to her feet, grabbing her purse and throwing the strap over her shoulder. “Fine. Look, Jack, I’m trying to be an adult about this. I was going to invite you to the wedding. We’re not children, we should be able to handle this with a little bit of class.”
“Class,” Jack spat the word back at her. “That isn’t something you’d know anything about.”
She reared back as if Jack had hit her. “Honestly, I just can’t talk to you when you’re like this.”
“I wish you wouldn’t talk to me at all,” Jack muttered as Joanna walked past us.
“I heard that,” she said, pressing a hand to her cleavage as if his words wounded her.
She stalked over to the door, put her hand on the door handle and said, “It’s Carlos. We’re getting married next month.” And with that she left the room, slamming the door behind her.
I turned to see Jack’s reaction.
His face was like thunder. I didn’t know who Carlos was, but Jack obviously hadn’t been expecting that revelation.
“Well, that was… um, interesting,” I said, wanting to break the awkward silence.
