Jesse ended the kiss, but kept her captive in his embrace as he stared into her eyes. She ran her fingers into the silk of his hair and then surprised herself by kissing him again. His heat chased away the chill Roger had left inside her and she couldn’t seem to get enough of it. He groaned then and deepened the kiss. Her hands clung to his broad shoulders, feeling the heat of his bare skin and the strength of his muscled torso. The cameras continued to flash and the world swirled crazily around her as her heart pounded hard at the line she crossed by embracing a half-naked Jesse so intimately in public.
He smelled faintly of aftershave and some indefinable, but intriguing scent. His body, strong and sure, eased around hers, a balm to her chaffed emotions. Yet before she could lose herself in him completely, he eased back and stared hard at her. Emotion and desire collided in her heart, springing tears to her eyes. "Get me out of here, please," she whispered.
Cool cynicism descended into the heat of his gaze. "So that's your angle. You need a hero, even if it's a Weldon." Glancing up at the reporters around them, he cursed. "Well, your highness, these days I charge for services rendered, and I expect to get paid." He scooped her into his arms and rammed through the reporters. “I’ll be your hero for a price.”
"What do you mean by that?" she asked, struggling in his arms as he headed to the parking lot. Reporters followed.
Jesse stopped a moment to meet her gaze. A sensual promise curved his lips. “We’ll take care of the details later. The choice is yours, Lexi. Me or the sharks following us?"
"You," she said, wondering if she'd just made a deal with the devil in Georgia.
CHAPTER THREE
I made the wrong choice, Alexi thought, surprised she was still alive to regret her decision as Jesse whipped around two curves and flew down a dirt road, losing sight of the last reporter on their tail. If she could get her eyes back into their sockets, she'd probably be more relieved than she thought possible, considering the morning's events and her current circumstances. Thirty hair-raising minutes had just passed during which Jesse had pulled every evasive maneuver known to man as he lost the reporters in a maze of country roads so remote, it’d take the gossip hounds a week to get back.
And it would take a week for her to regain her senses.
“Do you do this often?” Her voice barely squeaked past her heart lodged in her throat.
"Steal almost virgins from weddings?" He lifted a suggestive brow. “As often as I can.”
Heat flushed her cheeks. “I’m talking about the James Bond routine.”
“Which one? Bond was noted for his smooth moves.”
“What?”
“Which of Bond’s routines are you referring to? He was quite the lady’s man.”
She found the wits to shake her head. “His evasive abilities. Not his copulative.”
“Then that’s what I was talking about, too," he said.
The look in his eyes said otherwise, but she let the subject of James Bond's sex life drop and opened her door, hoping for a breath of cooler air. It was humiliating how she suddenly felt seventeen again and nervous.
“Already bailing out on our deal?”
She looked up, surprised to hear a thread of disdain in his voice. “What do you mean?”
Jesse opened his door and a breeze swept though the car, carrying the scents of warm, wet grass and sweet wildflowers from the field beside them. It was then that she realized it had stopped raining at some point during their escape.
She thought he wasn’t going to answer her, but then he turned her way, and cupped her chin. “Afraid the price tag for your rescue might be too high?” He brushed his thumb along her bottom lip, making her insides clench and her breath catch. Her lips parted for the kiss that felt but a whisper away as he leaned towards her.
What in the hell are you doing? Jesse asked himself. Playing the fool. Again. He stared into her eyes and slid his finger to the pearls at her throat. “I see your father got these fixed."
She stiffened. The desire darkening her green eyes dimmed, but she didn’t pull away from him, which forced him to wrestle harder with his need. "Aren't you afraid I'm going to try to rip them off again?"
Jesse thought he saw a flash of pain in her eyes before she looked away. She visibly swallowed, making him feel guilty. Hell, you’d have thought she was the one who had suffered.
"You made a mistake. I won’t hold it against you."
He’d made the mistake? Jesse sat back in his seat. "That’s mighty fine of you not to hold a grudge. What part did you play in framing me?"
She jerked her gaze his way, her shock evident. "What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about getting invited by you to your bedroom. I'm talking about getting knocked out when I left your bedroom. I'm talking about waking up with those pearls scattered under me and the police standing over me. I’m talking about you not coming out of your room to explain why I was in your house. I'm talking about jail for grand larceny or ship out to the marines by daybreak. That's what I'm talking about."
Her jaw dropped. “You’re serious aren’t you? My God. I had no idea.” She reached to touch him, but he leaned back, distancing himself from her innocent eyes and temptress mouth. Innocent? Then why didn’t she come forward and confess to inviting him to her bedroom? “Jesse?” she said softly.
Could she be telling the truth? Did he really want to know? If she were guiltless then he’d have more to deal with. Resisting her now was hard enough. Hell. “Nothing, I’m sorry I brought it up.” He turned to slide out of the car, but she grabbed his arm, forcing him to look at her. That was when he saw the diamond ring on her finger. The damn rock seemed to be as big as brick and crashed right between them, its size and significance widening the gap between them.
She sat there in all her expensive, creamy finery like a Cinderella knocked out of Disneyland, her green eyes wide and tragic, her brow creased, and her mouth parted in surprise. “You’re saying my family committed a crime to run you off?”
He shrugged off her hand. “Maybe. Hell, I don’t know what I’m saying. It’s twelve years too late for anything to be done. And as you claim, you don’t know anything.”
She glared at him, eyes sparking. “I know that one minute I thought you were sleeping beside me and the next minute, my grandmother and the police were standing by my bed. Since my clothes were scattered on the floor and I was naked under the covers, I didn’t jump out of bed. I was told to stay put until my father arrived. I know how humiliating it was to lay there and wait. I know now humiliating it was for my father to come into the room and tell me that you had used me. I know the shame and the pain of that.”
He didn’t want to hear this, to know she’d been as much a victim as he. “You believed me to be guilty readily enough.”
“What was I supposed to do? I was seventeen years old. You never tried to contact me and let me know differently.”
Hell, he didn’t want to think that maybe he’d had more responsibility in the situation than he thought. “As you said, it’s water under the bridge. Let’s walk.” He got out and shut his door, feeling the need to move from the close confines of the car and put distance between him and her seductive mouth.
Alexi swung her legs out of the car, trying to gather up the hindering layers of silk and lace. “You can’t do that,” she yelled at Jesse, balancing on her heels. He ignored her; his long stride eating up the distance to the creek.
“You can’t drop a bomb and march away.” She hurried after him over the uneven, rocky ground, wishing she had something to throw at him. Stumbling, she managed to get a rock inside her shoe and tried to fish it out. “Ouch, Darn it, Jesse. This strong silent stuff is—” She swallowed her words as he swept her off her feet and she found herself staring into his eyes.
“Is what?” He carried her as if she were a feather.
She forgot what she had been about to say as the sensual pull of his nearness sucked her mind blank. “Is not acceptable,” she managed
to say primly when she’d gathered her wits.
“Have you ever cursed?” he asked dryly.
“Well, yes.”
“What’s the worst you’ve ever said?”
For the life of her she couldn’t think of a thing.
“Try bullshit for starters. Listen, Lexi, what in the hell can either of us do about what happened? I’m not about to file criminal charges against your father, Savannah’s most prosperous shipping tycoon. I’m back in Savannah to make the Weldon name a name to be respected not laughed at. And as for what you went though, all I can say is that what you thought happened didn’t. I was with you that night because, like a fool, I couldn’t stay away from you and your sinner’s mouth and for no other reason.”
Alexi blinked as her blood rushed, her breath caught, and her erogenous zones went into meltdown. “Sinner’s mouth?”
Jesse focused on her mouth. “Let me reword that. A mouth made for sin.”
A wave of his spicy aftershave washed over her like a heady aphrodisiac. He set her on a large boulder by the creek and she teetered, feeling like a paper towel adrift in the ocean, unable to absorb all of the emotions tossing around inside.
He grabbed her arm to steady her. “Are you all right?”
Somehow she straightened her shoulders and put her mouth into motion, her mouth that was made for sin…she didn’t need to go there. Not now. “Yes, I’m, uh, fine.” She focused on the rock digging into her foot, anything to bring her back to reality. “Except for my foot. What are we doing here?”
“Creek sitting. Sit down and I’ll fish the rock out.”
Sit by a creek? She'd never done it. She’d sat by fountains at garden parties, but a creek? Given the way she was dressed, creek sitting seemed beyond the scope of her ability. She frowned at the boulder beneath her. “How?”
“Bend your knees, plant your butt, and give me your foot.”
“It’s dirty.”
“So?”
“So Einstein, my dress will get dirty.”
“Far be it for me to point out that it’s already ripped and stained. You plan on using it again? Or perhaps, going back and marrying the right-side-of-the-tracks golden boy?”
“No. Never.” Alexi kneeled and tried to sit as lady-like as she could. Jesse motioned for her foot, forcing her to wrestle with yards of material to put her foot in his hand. The warmth of his palm upon her heel sent a pulsing tingle up her leg. He didn’t seem to be in any hurry to fish the rock from her shoe. But stood there, holding her leg, making her want things she didn’t dare explore, like his hand moving higher…
“So who called off the wedding? You or him?”
“Me. Roger’s family jewels liked the attention of several women at the same time.”
“He’s a fool.”
“Really? Isn’t multiple women every man’s fantasy?”
“Not this man, I’m a one woman on one man kind of guy. Literally,” he added grinning.
She rolled her eyes. “Like I believe that.”
“Honestly. There’s plenty of excitement to be found in one woman’s arms at a time. A real man knows how to generate it. Roger’s deeds don’t seem to have you broken hearted.”
Alexi blinked and frowned. Where was all her angst and tears that had her running through the park? She couldn’t quite seem to grasp them at the moment and wondered if it weren’t the “Jesse Effect” that hindered her. “I’m shell shocked.”
“More like shoe shocked—Damn, lady, don’t you have sense?”
Alexi frowned at her foot. “What’s wrong with my shoes?”
“Wrong? They’re like skyscrapers. Hell, it's a wonder you didn't break your neck marching through the park.” Shaking his head, he unbuckled the ankle strap and slid her shoe off. A good size rock plopped to the ground and she sighed.
“You’re making three inches sound like Mt. Everest.”
Jesse kept her foot captive and kneaded her bruised sole with his knuckles. “They’re completely impractical.”
Heavens, his touch did blissful things to her body. “But—”
“Don’t get me wrong they’re great looking come-ons, I’ll take them in the bedroom anytime.” He slid a finger up her silk-stocking covered calf to the back of her knee, making a hot nerve in her stomach jump and tighten.
“Come-ons,” she gasped and his gaze lifted from her leg to hers. Something elemental and sexual connected.
“Come-ons. My bedroom anytime, Lexi. That’s a promise,” he said, scrambling her thoughts. She barely knew that he captured her other foot and stripped off that shoe, too.
His bedroom anytime. That’s a promise. Her mind smoldered.
“These doodads come off?”
“What?”
“The stockings. They’ll ruin if you don’t take them off.”
Take them off? She fanned her face. The sun was much hotter all of a sudden. “Uh, yes. Would you turn around?”
“Nope. As your rescuer, I get to watch.” He set her foot down and lightly traced her bottom lip with his finger. “Is that open mouth an invitation?”
Alexi snapped her mouth close. “My open mouth is shock. Any gentleman would turn around.” Watch? Her breath caught and she tingled from both the sexual and the challenging lights in his devilish blue eyes.
“Don’t make that mistake, Lexi. I’m no gentleman." His voice dropped low and soft and steamy, surrounding her like a bone-melting sauna. “Now are you going to sit there and burn up in the hot sun or shuck your silks?”
It wasn’t the sun that had her sizzling. He made her burn. “You’re a devil determined to get your due?”
“You bet,” he said with an unrepentant gleam in his eyes.
“I’m starting to feel like the gingerbread getting a ride from the fox.”
“I’m looking forward to the meal,” Jesse quipped then laughed at the expression on her face. “Relax, I like to take my time. You aren’t in any immediate danger. Maybe.”
Her mouth went dry. Perspiration trickled between her breasts and an increasing dampness seeped to unmentionable places. Then, in a moment of pique at how easily he got to her, she decided two could play this game. Pursing her lips provocatively, she oh-so-slowly inched her dress high enough to unsnap the garters. Then with a little roll at a time, she eased off one stocking and started on the other.
Jesse’s loud groan was her only warning before he took hold of her stocking and snatched it down. “Stand up and let me fix your dress so you won’t break your neck.”
The curt tension in his voice made her smile as she stood on the cool, damp ground. Grass tickled her toes and the pungent scents of mud and blooming cattails teased her nose, making her laugh at the strange sensations.
Jesse knelt on one knee at her feet. Sunshine streamed over them and bathed his head with light, making his dark hair glisten and his tanned face darken with intriguing shadows. He could have been a dark, warrior knight pledging his loyalty at that moment. She realized why he had such an impact on her senses; he moved with an unconscious sensual nobility--if there was such a thing. Jesse the man was a whole cut above the motorcycling bad boy she’d known.
Well maybe, she thought as her heart thumped an extra beat when he lifted the hem of her dress. Maybe he’d just become a more devastating bad boy. Rolling her dress up to her knees, he gathered the excess material to the side and tied it in a knot, which he handed to her as he stood.
"That takes care of the dress. Maybe.” His voice was gruff and deep. “Ditching it completely would be better.”
When she glanced at him, the look he had centered on her mouth nearly made her swoon. His expression said she was more appetizing than gingerbread and he was more ravenous than a fox.
He leaned her way and she turned from the heat. Things were moving too fast. Heavens, she felt as if they were seconds from making love. “So what do people who creek sit do?”
“You mean besides sex?” he asked grinning. Before she could answer, he picked up a rock and tos
sed it. Amazingly, the rock skimmed across the surface of the creek and didn’t sink until it hit the opposite bank.
“How did you do that?”
“What?”
“The rock trick.”
“You’ve never skimmed rocks across the water?” he asked, his expression incredulous.
She frowned. “Did you say skinned or skimmed rocks?”
He laughed. “Don’t guess you have. You’re about to learn from a pro. First you need the right shaped rock, flat and light.”
He moved along the bank, picking up several rocks then returned, moving up behind her. “There’s an art to rock skimming. You have to hold it like this, letting the bottom of it rest on your middle finger.”
His arms settled around her so she could see. He held the rock between his index finger and thumb. Heat skittered along her nerves at his nearness.
“Now you try it.”
His voice, low and deep, slid inside her and pooled. Determined to shut out her clamoring senses, she focused on the rock, mirroring his hold. “Like this?”
“Good. Now you bring your arm back.” Taking her wrist in his hand, he positioned her arm and placed the flat of his other hand on her stomach. Uh, oh. She almost dropped the rock.
“Now lean to your side, closer to the surface of the water. Cock your wrist and throw hard.” He helped, giving her an idea of the muscle needed behind the throw. The rock hit the surface of the creek, bounced twice then sank beneath a wave.
“It worked,” she said, feeling pleased. “That’s easy.”
“Right.” He handed her a few rocks, some heavier and some lighter than the one they’d thrown together. Now watch me once and you do it by yourself.” Jesse’s rock made five skips before it plunked out of sight.
Wild Irish (Book 1 of the Weldon Series) Page 3
