by Sabrina York
Kat pursed her lips. “Um. Pretty sure. Sara, he didn’t take his eyes off you.”
“Are you sure?”
“Oh my God. Please. The guy is besotted. And damn…he’s hot.”
Sara frowned until she remembered Kat was engaged.
“So? What’s happening with you two? He said you put him on a regimen. So you did decide to help him?”
“Yeah. But it’s gone way past that.” She narrowed her eyes. “Kat, you can’t tell Adam.”
Kat smiled. “I don’t tell Adam everything.” At Sara’s dubious glance she laughed. “I don’t. I swear. Come on. You know I can keep a secret.”
It was true. Kat was like a vault. “Jack and I are…kind of having a thing.”
“A thing?”
How else could she describe it? She wasn’t quite sure exactly what this was. “Yes. A thing. I don’t even know where it’s going but—”
“But?”
“Oh Kat. I really like him.”
“Like him, like him?”
Sara nodded. A movement across the hall caught her attention and she frowned. “What the fuck is that?”
Kat peered into Jenny’s office. The company’s graphics artist and Jack had their heads together. Jack was fiddling with the connections on her computer. “He’s helping her—”
“I know. With her Skype. Like Jenny needs help with something like that.”
“Oh.” Kat sobered.
Sara drummed her fingers on the blotter. “He’s always had a crush on her.”
“What?”
“I’ve seen him staring at her.”
“She’s interesting to look at.” She was. Every day she had a new piercing or a fresh tattoo. Her hair changed color on a whim. One day she had come in with it bedecked in feathers. But still…
“I don’t think I can go through that again.”
“That?”
“That Todd thing.”
“You never did tell me what happened with him.”
“Yeah.” Sara grunted. “There’s a reason for that.” But now it hardly mattered. She didn’t even think about Todd anymore. And when she did, it was with a mix of apathy and disgust.
What kind of man walked away from a relationship without a word? Just dropped off the face of the planet? Leaving the woman he’d been intimate with wondering? Agonizing over what she’d done wrong?
Loser.
But if that happened with Jack—she’d kill him. Or die.
And…
Sara’s heart thudded painfully as an agonizing realization crept through her brain.
Holy crap.
When had that happened? When had she started to care so much?
Granted, they’d been friends for a bazillion years, as long as she could remember. He was the one person who had always—always—been there for her. He’d been there for her when her mother married James and moved to Vermont. He was the reason she’d graduated from college. Hell, he was the reason she’d even gotten into college, tutoring her and helping her study for exams. He was the reason she had this job.
He was the reason for a lot of things.
He was the reason for most of the good things in her life.
She glared across the hall. But now—
“Sara?”
Oh. Was Kat still here? “Yeah?”
“Are you okay?”
No. She wasn’t.
“I swear to God if he dumps me for Jenny, I’ll… Aw hell. I don’t know what I’ll do.” She hated the tears pricking at her eyes.
Incomprehensibly Kat chuckled. Sara glowered at her.
“He’s not going to dump you for Jenny, Sara.”
“You don’t know that. Look at them.”
Jack glanced up and saw her mooning over him. He smiled and sketched a wave. But then a funny expression flared in his eyes…and he shot Jenny a smile as well. A flirty smile. Then he laughed. Put his hand on her arm.
Her arm, for God’s sake.
Sara’s belly lurched.
He peeked at Sara but then his gaze skated over to Kat. And he winced. Froze. Then he ducked his head and went back to work on Jenny’s computer, finishing it up in seconds. And then he left.
Kat turned around with a small smile.
Sara knew her well. “What just happened?”
“What do you mean?”
“You know what I mean.”
Kat shrugged. “Nothing, Sara. Nothing happened. And now if you’ll excuse me, I have a conference call.”
But Kat didn’t have a conference call. When Sara passed her office on the way to the computer lab a bit later, Kat wasn’t there.
She was, however, in Jack’s office—Sara could see her through the floor-to-ceiling window—and the door was closed.
With a huff of annoyance, Sara stormed back to her office. She tried to focus on her work but her mind kept slipping back to Jack, to the night before and the misery of this morning. She found herself incessantly glaring at Jenny’s office—even though Jenny wasn’t in there.
She hated the thought that she had given herself to Jack—and she hadn’t been enough for him. That he had only used her for target practice.
Kat was convinced he didn’t have the hots for Jenny but Sara wasn’t so sure. Jenny was beautiful—if you liked a tropical porcupine vibe. Sara was just, well, Sara.
But she’d never been a quitter.
She didn’t completely understand these bizarre new feelings for a guy who’d always been there. Who’d never tripped her trigger before. But she knew she didn’t want this to end. Yet.
Besides, Sara had a weapon in her arsenal Jenny didn’t. She knew Jack. She knew his secret.
Clearly she was going to have to step up her game.
A plan began to coalesce in her mind and before it was fully formed, Sara was out of her chair with her purse in hand.
Trisk would have what she needed to amp up their play.
She could only hope it would be enough to capture his complete attention.
* * * * *
“Hey there, Jack.”
Jack cringed. Crap. Kat.
He fixed his lips into a smile and spun around, trying not to think about the look of death she’d sent him when she was in Sara’s office and he’d been, okay, flirting with Jenny.
He’d always secretly suspected women had some form of superpower they’d all agreed not to tell men about, but with Kat it went way beyond suspicion. He knew.
She could look right through a guy and see his soul. Could tell when he was being naughty, or even thinking about it. He couldn’t imagine how Adam could take it day in and day out—
She closed the door.
Uh oh. Double crap.
“What are you doing, Jack?”
“Um, working on the variances for the—”
“That’s not what I mean and you know it. What are you doing with Sara?”
He firmed his jaw. “That’s private.”
Kat smiled. It was a truly horrifying smile. She sat on the chair next to his desk with her elbows on her knees, her fingers linked in a deceivingly casual pose. Jack had the sense she was holding her hands to keep from throttling him. “No,” she hissed. “It’s not. It’s not private. Because Sara’s my best friend and she’s been hurt before and I’ll be damned if I’ll let you toy with her only to toss her aside when you get bored.”
Holy hell. Her tone, at the end there, reminded him of The Exorcist.
“It’s not like that, Kat.”
“The hell it’s not.” She stood and paced the room. Turned and paced again. “Do you think I don’t see what’s happening here? You’ve gone from being the guy no one noticed to,” she waved her hand at him disdainfully, “this.”
“This?”
“You look hot, Jack. And you damn well know it. I suppose it’s natural—when all of a sudden women see you as a man, when out of the blue they’re coming on to you—to want to flit from flower to flower. But you have no idea how much damage that can cause. Especial
ly for someone as fragile as Sara.”
“Sara’s not fragile.”
Kat whirled on him. “You have no idea.” She poked him in the chest with her finger. One poke per word. He counted. “She was practically in tears watching you flirt with Jenny.”
“I wasn’t flirting.” But yeah. He kind of was. But he’d only been doing it to make Sara realize— “She was in tears?” Shit. He hadn’t meant to do that.
“What were you doing, Jack?”
He blinked. “Isn’t it obvious?”
“No.” Holy crap, Kat could snarl.
“I was playing hard to get.”
“What?” A combination of horror and revulsion flashed across her features. Jack ignored it. Ignored the expression and the way it made him want to cringe.
He knew he was right. Knew this was how it had to go.
He had to be that hero. The cold, standoffish hero. The one all the books Sara loved told him to be.
Otherwise he might lose ground.
Might lose her.
“Women like men who are mysterious and distant and hard to get.”
“Where on earth did you get that idea?”
“From the romance novels.”
“What romance novels?”
“The ones Sara gave me. To study.”
“Oh Jack.” Kat collapsed in her seat.
“I did a systematic analysis. Of all the heroes. I created an algorithm.” It was a damn good algorithm too.
“I’m sure you did.”
“And a spreadsheet outlining all the desirable traits. Women like dominant, alpha heroes with dark hair and lots of money. And the guy has to be hard to get.”
He had dark hair. And lots of money. The other two criteria, however, needed work. Hence his plan.
“Jack. That’s fiction. Women don’t really want some bossy misogynist who thinks he’s too hot for her.”
“Of course they do.” He wished his voice weren’t so small. But he felt kind of small. He’d thought he had it all figured out. He’d thought he’d get all chummy with Jenny or maybe Lynn in accounting and Sara would realize what she could be losing. Then she’d realize what a good thing she had.
Now Kat was making him question all his assumptions.
“Women want a guy who loves them.” Oh. He did. “Someone who will be faithful and caring and kind. Someone who will meet their needs and make sacrifices for them and be a good partner.”
“I can be that.”
“Not if you’re flirting with other women. Jack, I have to ask you this question. I know it sounds weird coming from me but there’s no one else to ask it.”
“Um, okay?”
“What are your intentions?”
“My what?” His heart thudded. Something prickled at his nape.
“What are your intentions with Sara? Because if you’re just fucking around—”
Oh. “I love her.”
That shut Kat right up.
“I’ve always loved her. Always.”
“You… Always?”
“Yep.” Since high school. Since that day she’d stepped in and saved him from Billy Brandt’s wedgie. No one had ever stepped in and saved him before. Sara had been the first. He’d fallen like a ton of bricks and never been able to recover. Didn’t want to. “I never thought I had a shot, but now…”
“Now you do. You do.” Her expression went kind of feral. “Don’t blow it, Jack. Don’t play stupid games. Be honest with her. Be fair with her. Don’t flirt with other women. Especially not when she can see. Every man she’s ever loved has hurt her. Every man she’s ever known has disappointed her terribly. Do you want to be one of those guys, Jack?”
“No.” He didn’t. He wanted Sara to see him as her shining knight. Like the hero in Passion’s Crusade.
He wanted her to love him.
“Then fix it.”
“F-fix it?”
“Apologize.”
Panic trickled through him. Apologize? Shit. That meant admitting what he’d done. Or tried to do.
That in itself wasn’t so bad. But then he might have to explain why. That thought was horrifying.
“Shouldn’t I wait? You know, until she calms down?”
“No. Jack,” Kat growled. “Do it now.” She stood and pranced to the door, threw it open and glanced back at him, huffing “Men” under her breath before she stormed from the room.
Jack stared at nothing for a long time after Kat left, thinking about what she’d said, what she’d suggested, balancing it with the meticulous study he’d done of the female psyche.
And while he could see her point of view, Kat was wrong.
He had to show Sara he was attractive to other women. It was an integral part of his five-step plan.
And apologizing would only make him appear weak. If he knew one thing about Sara, it was that she had nothing but revulsion for a weak man.
Hell, no.
He couldn’t apologize.
And as far as flirting with Jenny—it was time to move into phase two.
Chapter Eleven
Sara chortled as she sat at her desk and tossed her purse into the bottom drawer. She’d found the perfect thing on her field trip. Jack would never know what hit him.
A smile played on her lips as she picked up her phone and checked her messages. The first one out of the gate made her belly lurch.
Because it was Todd.
“Hey. Sara. Um. Sorry I haven’t called. I was…called out of town unexpectedly and, um, I just got back. I thought we could get together.” Well, hell. “Give me a call.”
The next message was more of the same. “Sara. Todd. Yeah. I see you called me a couple times while I was gone. I’m back now. Call me.”
And then, “Sara. Todd again. Call me.”
She glared at her phone.
Why now?
Why fucking now, when things were getting interesting with Jack?
The phone rang again. Sara knew in her heart it was Todd but she picked it up anyway.
Because suddenly she was in a nasty mood and she needed someone to take it out on.
And frankly Todd deserved a little acrimony.
“Sara Grant.”
“Oh! Sara! Finally. Hey, babe. It’s Todd. Did you get my messages?” His disembodied voice floated over the line.
She could sense the annoyance twining through the words and it pissed her off. How dare he be annoyed at her? “Hmm. Did you call?”
“Several times.”
Aw, fuck you, Todd. I called you plenty. “Huh. So, what’s up?”
Silence crackled. Sara nibbled on her lower lip to keep from smiling. Todd hated it when she turned the tables on him.
“We haven’t talked in a while,” he finally said. That he said it in a patronizing voice fed the fire simmering in her gut.
“Yeah.”
“I thought we could go out tonight.”
Seriously? Just like that? From “What kind of freak are you?” to “Let’s go out again”?
“Really?”
“I’ve been thinking about our…fight and I thought we could have a dinner and talk things over.”
It hadn’t been a fight. It had been a repudiation. A complete and utter rejection of who she was at her core.
“I don’t think so. Goodbye, Todd.”
“Wait. Sara. Don’t hang up. Hear me out. I needed some time, baby. Some time to think about it. Okay?”
Sara nearly snorted. As apologies went, that was about as good as it was ever going to get. How sad was that?
“What do you say, baby? Dinner tonight?”
“I’ll think about it. And Todd?”
“Yeah, baby?”
“Don’t call me baby.”
She hung up the phone, reveling in the abrupt end to his sputtering.
She’d felt nothing—but nothing—at the sound of his voice. She wasn’t sure if that was because the emotions had simply run their course, if the last scene between them had killed her tender feelings for
him or if her attraction to Jack had simply eclipsed her idiotic crush on Todd.
But she wouldn’t be going out with him. Not ever again.
He didn’t need to know that.
Not just yet.
Let the fucker stew in his own juice.
Turnabout was fair play.
* * * * *
Adam called an emergency all-hands meeting that afternoon, which annoyed Jack to no end because he’d had plans for the afternoon that involved installing some new software on Jenny’s computer and making sure Sara witnessed every flirty look.
As he rounded the corner into the conference room, he realized all was not lost.
Instead of sitting next to Sara as he always did, he plopped down on the other side of the table—next to Jenny—and draped his arm casually over the back of her chair.
The expression on Sara’s face was priceless. She went pale; her gaze danced from Jenny to Jack and back again.
Jack tried not to smile. He knew what she was thinking.
Oh my goodness. Jack usually sits next to me. But now he’s sitting next to Jenny. He must be very hard to get. Maybe I should try harder to get him.
Excellent.
He let his fingers brush against Jenny’s shoulder. To his delight she turned and flashed him a sexy smile. He smiled back.
And then he jumped as her hand found its way onto his knee.
She squeezed.
Holy shit. Not what he expected.
It drifted higher.
He scrambled for her foraging fingers and held her still, sending Jenny a chastising frown. She responded by licking her lips.
Heat crawled up his neck.
Oh, not because Jenny was turning him on—because he could feel the blast of Sara’s glare.
So… She’d noticed him flirting with Jenny. And it was having the desired effect.
Perfect.
He disliked the prickle of discomfort it caused, displeasing her. He was so used to trying to make her happy. But he thrust it away. This phase was critical to the plan.
And he had to stick to the plan.
It took everything in him to pretend disinterest.
The plan definitely called for disinterest.
It was more challenging than he’d anticipated.
When Jenny’s fingers began to twitch again, when they clearly wanted to travel upward, in all probability onto his crotch, he lifted her hand off his thigh and held it on top of the table. He wanted to flirt with Jenny but only to make Sara notice how desirable he was. He didn’t want a hand job under the table in the middle of a staff meeting, for God’s sake—
