by Debra Holt
“I’ll keep that in mind, but I would hate to take you away from all this.” Her eyes glanced across the other tables in the room.
“I’m sure,” Darcy replied. “The offer stands... just call!”
Amanda was still smiling as she drove away from town. Darcy was sweet. Maybe she might be a candidate for the wife in J.D.’s plan for the perfect home. That thought made the smile leave her face almost as quickly as it had come. At any rate, that was not part of her job. He would have to supply that part of his plan himself.
Amanda parked the car in the drive in front of the house. She had an armful of catalogues and swatches, and a sketchpad and laptop in her shoulder bag. Dressed for comfort in jeans, soft flats, and a blue V-necked sweater, she was determined to get the job done as swiftly as possible and be done with the man and his house.
“Let me help.” J.D.’s voice brought her gaze upward and she watched him hurry down the steps and meet her halfway up the sidewalk. His arms reached out and took the materials, despite her protests that she needed no help.
Amanda tried not to notice how good he looked in his jeans and light chambray shirt, his sleeves rolled up to show tanned skin and muscle. No matter what the man dressed in, he took sexy to a whole new level. He'd always had that ability. He had only improved with age. Unfortunately.
She entered the house a couple of steps behind him, and her nose caught the aroma of freshly brewed coffee coming from the direction of the kitchen. It was toward the kitchen J.D. strode with her things in his arms. He placed them on the table that sat in front of the bay window in the cozy room.
“I thought this would give you plenty of room and good light to work in. I had the techs here yesterday, making sure the Internet and all was working and ready for you. I stocked some food in the refrigerator… hope you still like the cream soda in bottles. There’s a house phone…
“I’m not here to eat. I’m here to work.”
“It takes a while to drive back and forth to town. I thought it might be easier if you were able to take your meals out here. Especially since you want to be done with the project so quickly and all.” He had trumped her excuse by using some of her own words right back on her. “And these are the keys to everything on this ranch.” He handed her a key ring that had quite a few keys. Luckily, she already knew what most of them went to, having shown the ranch a few times in the past. J.D. held out another ring with one key. It was different from the rest. “This key is to the car in the garage. I want you to use it while you’re on this job.”
“I have my own car.”
“I know you do, but you’ll be running errands as time goes on, and I’m supplying you with a car as part of your job. Is there anything else you need to get started?”
It was clear he would brook no disagreement with his plans, so Amanda chose the wiser course of letting the issue drop. She needed him to go away and leave her to the task at hand. However, since she needed his input before she could even get a grasp on how to start, that was a hopeful thought, which would not grow into quick fruition.
“Let me show you the controls for the garage door,” he said, indicating she should follow along behind him.
She did so… slowly.
J.D. paused in the doorway and reached around the corner. Soon lights came on in the large area she assumed was the garage. He stepped through the doorway, and she was forced to follow him into the room.
She stopped still in her tracks as her eyes caught sight of the vehicle parked in the cavernous space. A brand new, shiny, red convertible, with the top already down, sat waiting. A portion of her brain was aware that J.D. was watching and waiting for her reaction.
Another memory came back at the sight of the car. It was the day they had gone on a picnic to a nearby lake. At least, they had started that way until J.D.’s old, battered truck had broken down on the side of the road. He had raised the hood and was trying to work some magic on the engine and get it moving again when a bright red convertible had come along and paused beside them. The driver had offered to give them a lift into town…
After dropping them off, the helpful driver had gone on his way. J.D. looked at her and shook his head. “You liked the car a lot didn’t you?”
"It’s beautiful. I can’t imagine having a car like that."
"‘Well, one of these days, sunshine, I’ll buy you a car just like that, and you can drive down Main Street with the top down and make everyone envious of how you look behind the wheel."
She laughed and put the thought from her head…
Now, he had chosen to bring back another memory of their time together and danger signs flew through her brain.
“I have my own car that will do just fine.” Amanda turned away and left him to follow or not. She returned to the table and began opening some of the catalogues and laying them out. His footsteps alerted her to the fact he had returned to the kitchen. She wasn’t going to give him an opportunity to discuss the car or another walk down memory lane into the past that needed to stay just that… in the past.
“I have no idea what your tastes in decorating are. I feel like I’m flying blind here,” she spoke, her eyes following him as he moved across the kitchen to take a couple of cups from a cabinet near the coffeemaker.
“I’ll pour us some coffee, and you can ask me any questions that might help you.” Evidently, he had taken her hint to move past the subject of the car.
Amanda tried to keep her eyes on other parts of the room, but it was very difficult to do that. J.D. from the backside was almost as potent as J.D. meeting a person head on. It brought all sorts of things to mind that she didn’t need to be thinking about. Such as the way the material stretched across the broadest part of his back as he reached into the cabinet and brought out another mug. The muscles there were rock solid. She remembered how they felt under her touch, minus the hindrance of cloth to impede… that’s enough! Amanda hastily blocked the rest of that memory and turned to the swatches on the table in front of her. In a nervous gesture, she tucked her hair behind her right ear and slid into a nearby chair at the table.
J.D. brought the two mugs of steaming liquid back to the table and placed one in front of her. He pulled out a chair for himself. Next, he placed a spoon and the sugar bowl toward her.
Amanda realized he had also not forgotten how she took her coffee… black with sugar. It was unnerving the way he'd remembered so many things… all except for the really important one. No matter, she was there to do a job.
Amanda took out her tablet and powered it on. Then she pushed some catalogues toward him.
“We’ll begin with the living room. We can paint the walls if you don’t like the present color scheme.”
“What do you think?” J.D. asked her a question in turn, watchful of her response over the rim of his mug as he took a slow sip.
“This isn’t my house. It’s where you have to live. It’s about what will make you feel comfortable about being here.”
“I like lighter walls, and furniture that’s sturdy but not overly heavy. I prefer wood that’s not too dark but not too light. The tile and the wood flooring in some of the rooms is good, but I do want really deep carpeting in the bedrooms, particularly the master. In fact, I would like to have the master bedroom completed first.”
Amanda put her pen down for a moment. She looked at him.
J.D. returned her gaze. “Is that a problem?”
“No, I just thought you would want the living area completed first, but there’s no reason why both can’t be worked on at the same time.”
“Good. However, there is one thing that I am very serious about.” J.D.’s voice matched the steady green glow in his eyes as he leaned toward her, his arms folded on the tabletop. “I hired you for this job because it’s your sense of style and grace that I want to have in this house. I want you to decorate it as if this were your house to do with as you please. Understood?”
Was he playing some sort of game with her? The boy she had known
would never have been cruel, at least not the one she had given her heart to. But she had been proven wrong once before. He was obviously waiting for her response.
“You’re the client. I’ll do my best to provide what you want.” To a point.
“Good.” Her reply seemed to satisfy him.
J.D. stood from the table, taking his cup to the sink and dumping out the remaining liquid. The cup went into the sink. “I have some construction workers down at the arena barn this morning. I’ll be working with them fairly closely on some changes I want made to that structure, and time is a factor there. If you need me for anything, you can reach me on my cell.” Returning to the table, he picked up a pen and jotted down his cell number on a sticky note. “See you later, sunshine.” With a wink and that hint of devil in his smile, he picked up his Stetson from the counter and placed it on his head.
The door shut behind him, and as it did, Amanda let out a shaky sigh. She had been holding her breath, or at least it had felt that way, since her arrival. Amanda worked hard to keep her feelings reined in. It was more difficult each time to be in his presence and remain unaffected. But he was right about one thing… the sooner she began, the sooner it would all be over.
****
Four hours later, and after a few dozen phone calls and even more emails, Amanda sat back in her chair and actually surprised herself at the amount she had accomplished. Painters would arrive on Wednesday. The carpet people would begin to replace the carpeting once the painters were done. She had found three different couches that interested her. Color printouts of them lay on the top of the paint samples and carpet swatches. But she hadn’t done anything about the master suite yet. The faint rumblings of her stomach told her it was time to check out just what food there was in the fridge.
Amanda found that J.D. had indeed stocked the refrigerator well. Her eyes lit on but quickly moved from the bottles of old-fashioned cream soda lined up on the bottom shelf. Once again, she didn’t want to even think as to why he had remembered her favorite drink and gone to the trouble of placing it in the refrigerator for her.
She didn’t feel like cooking anything involved, so Amanda ended up opening a can of tomato soup and grilling a ham and cheese sandwich on wheat bread. She had just flipped the sandwich over on its other side when the patio door opened and J.D. strode into the room.
He swept off the hat and hung it on the peg next to the pantry door. There was a smile on his face, and his green eyes looked at her with an undeniable gleam of pleasure as if she standing in his kitchen and cooking his food was something he liked.
“Now this place is definitely feeling more like home, and whatever you’re cooking smells good.”
He moved to stand close to her side. Too close. Her response was to stiffen her stance. If he'd noticed, he made no comment. “It’s nothing fancy, just soup and a grilled sandwich. Have you eaten?”
“Nope. What you’re having sounds pretty good to me.”
“There’s plenty here.” Why had she said that? She was hired to decorate, not cook. But it was his food after all, and he was sharing it with her. So the least she could do was to offer to cook him a sandwich also. “By the time you get washed up, it should be ready.”
“Yes, ma’am, I’ll be right back.”
By the time J.D. returned to the kitchen, she had set their plates on the table, after clearing a space amongst all her stacks of paperwork.
“This is a nice habit to form.”
His words brought her attention to his face, a question in her eyes.
“Sharing meals together,” he clarified. “But tomorrow, I’ll cook. It’s only fair.”
Amanda wasn’t sure that would be a good habit to get into. In fact, she knew it definitely would not be. “That’s not necessary. I’ll probably just bring a sandwich from home and keep working.”
“Nonsense. Everyone needs a break in their workday. We can’t have your creativity becoming stymied by keeping your nose to the grindstone for eight hours. As I recall, you always did have a problem about being a workaholic.”
That last hit too close to home. Her blue eyes became shadowed.
“I don’t recall having had much choice. It did serve me well later in life though… the work ethic.” Amanda didn’t give him a chance to respond. “I have some items I need you to look at while you’re sitting here.” She moved the stack of materials closer to him. It was easier to share the items standing on his side of the table instead of across from him. Amanda rose and stood a few inches from his side.
“These are the paint chips I thought would look good in the living room and the entry hall. One is lighter than the other,” she said, placing the samples in front of him. At the same time, she made every effort to keep her mind on the business at hand, and not the fact he wore the cologne that had enticed her the day before.
J.D. took his time in his response. After a few long moments, he looked up at her.
“I think the first color is a good choice.”
“And the furniture? Something along the lines of one of these couches... what do you think? Do you like any of them?”
“Which do you like?”
“I think any of them would work well, but the second one with its L-shape would complement the space. The color of the leather would also work well with the medium shade of wood that you spoke of earlier.”
“Then that’s the one. You’ve gotten a good start on things. I knew you were the right person for the job. Now let’s go up to the bedroom.” He stood up then just as her eyes flew to his face.
“Excuse me?” Her voice ended on a catch. The blue eyes were wide in a pale face.
“My bedroom… I told you I wanted it to be one of the first things you did. Remember?” His eyes mirrored the sudden smile that creased his face. “That wouldn’t be a blush on those cheeks of yours, would it?”
“Of course I remember and no, I am not blushing. It’s warm in this kitchen area,” Amanda replied, her senses reining in. If she argued about going upstairs, then he would definitely know she'd been affected by his words. It is a job. Just remember that.
“I like the fireplace,” J.D. said a few minutes later as they stood in the middle of the sitting room of the suite. “I’d like some really deep carpeting in here. A comfy loveseat maybe. On second thought, change that. I need something longer for my height. I’d also like the lighting to be more recessed. Perhaps lots of overstuffed pillows for the floor. Women find that romantic, don’t they?”
J.D. was standing next to the fireplace, looking across at her… watching.
Now he was asking her about romance? She steeled herself to remember she had to find a way to get through this. “I think that is up to the individual person… what constitutes romance for each person is different.” If he thought he would get any more blushes from her, he was wrong.
“Interesting,” he commented, his voice lowered.
Slow steps brought him closer to where she stood… much too close. If she backed up, she would hit the wall behind her. She was determined to stand her ground.
“What would make this room romantic to you?”
“Nothing special.”
That was definitely not anything he'd expected to hear.
“What exactly does that mean?”
“Romance is not about how a room is decorated or what scent candles you use or don’t use,” she answered him, bravely facing his gaze. “It’s about the two people involved and how they feel about each other. Nothing else really matters.”
“How did you get so wise, little Mandy?”
J.D.’s tone was soft and made her insides quiver. “Little Mandy was never wise,” she replied evenly. “However, Amanda is smart enough to not fall for a line and an empty promise.”
He moved forward.
Amanda had no choice but to move backward against the wall. J.D. placed two hands on either side of her head, palms flat against the wall. She could feel the warmth of his breath across her cheek. His eyes sought ou
t hers.
“Is that what this is all about? Your prickly treatment of me ever since my first day here? Did you think I didn’t mean what I said just before I left town all those years ago?”
“What was said or not said then has nothing to do with now. As I said, we were just kids, and kids do and say things they don’t mean.”
“That’s where you’re wrong… Amanda.” For the first time, J.D. used her given name. The way it rolled off his tongue made it sound like something warm, sexy, and slightly sinful. “I meant what I said.”
He had no right to make her feel those things again. Amanda didn’t want to go back to that time. It would hurt too much. She felt the anger rising within her along with the pain and resentment.
“Really? Which part?” She didn’t listen to the tiny voice of caution in her brain.
His eyes narrowed into jade embers of emotions.
“All of it... every word I ever spoke to you, came from my heart straight to yours.”
“You say all of them. Then that would include the part about promising to never leave? Or more precisely, ’I’ll never leave you behind Mandy. Just trust me. I’ll come back for you... just wait.’ Of course, that was said right after I gave you my virginity, so perhaps it was said in the heat of the moment.” Her voice dripped with the sarcasm of the words as she flung them at him.
The embers in J.D.’s eyes flared into pure green fire at that point. “You're making something that was special between us into something that sounds cheap and unimportant.”
“You forgot the part where I said ‘I’ll love you for always... you are the sunshine of my day and the moonlight of my dreams... you are my life.'” The last words were a whisper against her mouth as his lips claimed hers in a heat-searing kiss. His lips met with her surprised, yet determined defenses, but he did not back down. Strong hands moved to cup the soft skin at the side of each jaw line. His fingers found encouragement in the rapid beating of the pulse at the base of her throat.
