Her Unexpected Hero Page 9

  Her answers hadn’t satisfied him, and when she’d returned from the back room earlier that evening, after an absence so long he’d been ready to charge back there and find her, she’d looked pale. He hadn’t intended to upset her—he just wanted to talk. Hell if he knew why.

  But this woman was the first person to spark his interest in a long time, and he hoped to see where it led. No, it wasn’t going to result in a happily ever after, but if the two of them could burn some sheets for a week or maybe even a month, how would that hurt anyone?

  There was no ring on her finger, and no boyfriend had shown up at the bar—not that a boyfriend would stop him. Jackson couldn’t see what the negative was if they saw each other just a few more times.

  He obviously needed at least one more night in her arms; that had to be why he couldn’t seem to forget about her. It had nothing to do with her personality—he didn’t know her. Sure, they had talked most of the night and shared a few laughs, and they’d made some pretty spectacular love. But that hardly made her special. It had to be all in his head. If he could just bed her again, prove to himself that it wasn’t as great as he remembered, then he’d get over this ridiculous obsession.

  When the door opened again, he nearly hollered in frustration.

  “Oh, hi, Jackson,” Samantha said as she sauntered over to him. “What are you doing out here? Having car trouble?”

  The sultry look in her doe eyes screamed Bed me. He was tempted to kiss her, to see whether he could feel even a tenth of the spark that he’d felt from just holding Alyssa’s hand.

  But as soon as the thought breezed across his mind, it dissipated into the wind. He’d known Samantha all his life, and he knew he didn’t desire her. The only woman in that category was a sassy blond-haired, blue-eyed waitress who didn’t want to give him even the wrong time of day.

  “I’m waiting to talk to Alyssa,” he said, letting Samantha know he wasn’t on the market.

  Samantha made a moue of disappointment before she gained control over her features. “She should be out soon,” she replied, then ran a finger down his arm. “If you get lonely, call me,” she said, and with one last heated look over her shoulder, walked away.

  He didn’t bother turning to watch the sway of her hips, although he was sure she was putting on quite a show. That, to be sure, Jackson was used to. It all boiled down to the same thing—he had something they wanted, whether it was his body or his wallet. He kept both in damn fine shape. But Jackson just wasn’t for sale right now. Alyssa, and only Alyssa, was his current target. She’d certainly brought him plenty of pleasure, and not only in bed. He found it oddly exhilarating to be waiting for her, chasing after her.

  He’d never had to do anything like that in his lifetime. When he wanted a woman, she said yes; that’s just how it had always been. Then he’d gotten involved with Katy while he was a sophomore in college. They’d wed right after graduation, and hell began as soon as the honeymoon ended.

  What a fool he’d been. He wouldn’t be manipulated by a woman again, at least not as far as to put a wedding ring on her finger. As for heating the sheets, however . . . that was a completely different matter. He’d have to be made of stone to give that up, which he certainly wasn’t. Okay, a few parts of him—one in particular—were pretty darn hard.

  The lights over the entrance went dark and the large wooden doors opened a final time. Alyssa walked outside with Cody, the cook, at her side.

  “Night, Alyssa. Drive safe,” Cody said before jogging over to his truck and jumping inside. Not waiting for Alyssa to get into her car, the man drove off without glancing around the semidark parking lot. Irritation boiled up inside Jackson’s stomach.

  What kind of man took off like that and left a woman alone in an empty lot? Jackson would be having a chat with Cody first thing tomorrow.

  Dammit! He hadn’t wanted to get involved with this place, but now that he knew Alyssa worked there, he had no choice. Well, okay, he did have a choice, but he needed to follow this through, figure out what it was about her that had thrown him so off balance.

  Her smile haunted him, the touch of vulnerability she’d tried so valiantly to hide. Those were the images that popped into his mind when he thought of her and their night. And then, of course, the vision of her lying beneath him as he sank inside her—how she’d writhed beneath him and moaned.

  Jackson preferred the greedy, self-absorbed women who buzzed around him like flies around a jam jar. They were easy, and they were easy to forget. But the woman walking toward him was the exact opposite.

  She was the girl next door. The one he would have built a tree house with as a child, the one who would have been right there playing cops and robbers with him. This girl, standing before him in all her womanhood, so feminine, so real, had a hold on him that he couldn’t shake.

  “Hard night?” he asked, and she screamed and dropped her purse.

  “What are you doing? Trying to give me a heart attack?” She squatted down and began picking up the scattered contents of her purse.

  “You shouldn’t have been left here alone, Alyssa. Your coworker should have waited to make sure your car would start,” Jackson replied as he bent down and began helping her. When he picked up a prescription bottle, she snatched it from his hand and tucked it safely back inside her large tote with a look of panic in her eyes.

  What the hell was in that bottle?

  “Are you hungry?” he asked. When she looked at him as if he’d lost his mind, he figured she was probably right. Wasn’t he essentially stalking her?

  “No,” she said, but her stomach rumbled loud and clear in the early morning quiet.

  “Sounds to me like you are,” he countered with an obvious grin.

  Alyssa glared at him. “I’ll have something when I get home.”

  “Why don’t we drive out to the truck stop? It’s not too far away.”

  “Look, I don’t like being a mean person, Jackson, I really don’t, but I’m just not interested in starting something up with you. Believe it or not, having one-night stands isn’t something I typically do, and I would rather forget all about our night together. I don’t have a whole heck of a lot of pleasant memories from that time,” she told him with a tired sigh.

  “What happened to make it so bad?”

  “You’re not listening,” she said, her eyes narrowing as she stood up.

  “Fine. You don’t want to see me. Is it because there’s nothing between us?”

  “Yes. I feel nothing.” Now he had her.

  “Liar.”

  His softly spoken word infuriated her. “Look, Jackson, contrary to popular belief, you aren’t all that. Take a hint and save some pride.” She turned away, done with the conversation.

  “One kiss. If there’s nothing, I leave you alone.”

  He waited to see if she’d take the bait.

  She turned around and stared at him contemptuously. “I’m not going to play such a childish game.”

  He could barely see her, let alone the way she looked at him, in the shadows cast over the parking lot by its lone light. He would have to fix that.

  “Fine. Then I’ll come back tomorrow . . . and the next day . . . and the next . . .” He leaned against his truck with his arms crossed, looking as if time were nothing of consequence to him.

  “You’re being ridiculous,” she said, but he could see that he was breaking her down.

  He knew he should just leave, let this go. But he couldn’t seem to force himself to do that. Sad. “It’s up to you, Alyssa. One kiss and I go away . . . If there’s no spark, that is.”

  That was the catch. They both knew there were going to be sparks. He could almost see her doing calculations in her head. He waited. He’d issued the challenge, and it was now up to her whether she’d accept it or not. His hardening body prayed that she would. He’d sleep much better if he could have just one taste.

  Who in the hell was he kidding? One taste was never going to do it. Maybe he should take back t
he challenge, because it would clearly leave him even harder than he already was. Even though the kiss was sure to start a five-alarm fire, she wasn’t about to climb into his bed. Not tonight, at least. No, he couldn’t back down, because he knew he’d get her there soon.

  “One kiss?” she asked, taking a tentative step toward him.

  Jackson would never admit how much his heart was thundering from that small step, her tiny concession. “Yep. One kiss.”

  “And then you’ll go away?”

  She was now only a couple of feet away, and her chest was already heaving. Good sign—she was having a hard time controlling her breathing. He was having just as difficult a time controlling his, and he hoped to hell that she didn’t notice.

  “Yes. I go away . . . if there aren’t any sparks.”

  She paused, only a foot away now. He could feel her hot breath on his face as she gazed up at him. One kiss. He had to keep his word. If he tried to push it beyond that, there’d be no chance she would trust him later. He’d have to sing some old church hymns to keep his word, but even if he died just a little, he would keep it.

  “Fine,” she said, and she tipped back her head and closed her eyes tight while her fists were clenched at her sides.

  Jackson found himself almost laughing. The image immediately brought to mind Missy Elwood from the second grade. They’d decided to kiss and she’d looked just like that, horrified that her lips were about to touch a boy’s.

  He leaned forward and whispered in her ear: “Breathe.”

  The shudder that passed through her body brought him immense satisfaction. He let his lips trail across her cheek in a soft caress before he reached her mouth. Taking his time, he ran his tongue along her cold lips, the taste of her going straight to his groin, lighting a fire unlike anything he’d ever felt. Oh, this was good.

  Keep it light, he reminded himself, though his body screamed at him to pull her roughly into his arms. Cupping her neck and stroking her smooth skin with his thumbs, he tilted her head and nibbled gently on her bottom lip.

  With a sigh, she opened her lips, and when he immediately deepened the kiss, invading the soft recesses of her mouth, heat shot through his body. But finding himself nearly at the point of no return, he pulled his head back, kissed her one more time on the corner of her mouth, and ran his thumbs across her cheeks. He waited for her eyes to open.

  Her lashes fluttered, and then he was looking into the shadowed gaze of her soft blue eyes, smoky with the same passion he was feeling.

  “I’d say that’s a hell of a lot of spark,” he murmured, pulling her against him for just a second so she could feel what that kiss had done to him.

  Her eyes widened as she tried to catch her breath, but she didn’t say a word. After they shared a few moments of heavy breathing, she turned and walked to her car, unlocked it, and sat down.

  “Drive carefully, Alyssa. I’ll see you tomorrow,” he called out as he leaned against his bumper and watched her start the car.

  She wouldn’t even look at him. They both knew that he could easily prove how much power he wielded over her. She seemed defeated for a moment, which, to his surprise, caused him pain. When he was about to apologize, she turned her head and rolled down her window.

  “I’ve had better, Jackson Whitman,” she told him coolly, and he couldn’t help the grin that flashed across his face.

  There was the fighter he liked. “I’ll just have to keep on practicing,” he said before she drove off. Jackson liked having the last word.

  “You can try,” she said, then peeled out of the parking lot.

  Hot damn! She’d gotten the last word after all. Jackson was whistling when he jumped into his truck and drove away from the bar’s parking lot. Life had just gotten a heck of a lot more interesting.

  “. . . and then he just grabs me in front of my customers and hauls me outside like he owns me!”

  Alyssa was wearing tracks in her parents’ living room carpet as she paced back and forth. After getting home the night before, she hadn’t slept for more than a few hours, and of course those hours she had slept, she’d been tossing and turning because her dreams had been filled with Jackson.

  Yes, she’d thought about him endlessly over the last four months. How could she not when he’d left her with a permanent reminder of their night together?

  “What’s his name?” her mother asked calmly.

  “That doesn’t matter. I met him once, a long time ago. We flew together,” she said, leaving out the night of hot sex after that flight. “We weren’t supposed to ever see each other again, and then, of all the places in the world, he comes strolling into the place I work. But that’s not bad enough—oh, no. He then has to manhandle me and try to force me to talk to him. Well, I didn’t want to talk to him.”

  Teresa couldn’t hide her smile. “It sounds like you’re pretty riled up over this.”

  “Wouldn’t you be riled up?” Alyssa asked, stopping with her hands on her hips.

  “It doesn’t sound like you’re upset, darling. It sounds as if you might be mad because you like this man.”

  “Mom! That is a horrible thing to say. I don’t like him. I don’t even know him. He’s . . . he’s . . . he’s just a pig,” she spit out.

  “Okay, then don’t talk to him again.”

  “Ugh, I hate when you try to make it sound so black-and-white. It’s not like I didn’t think of that. I told him I didn’t want to talk to him, and then . . . and then . . . well, what happened then doesn’t matter,” she said¸ barely stopping herself from telling her mom about the bone-melting kiss he’d tricked her into.

  There was no way she was telling her mother she’d been foolish enough to fall for his kissing taunt. She’d wanted that kiss—badly—which meant she should have run as fast as she could have the other way.

  It was just that she knew he wouldn’t go away if she didn’t kiss him. Well, to be fair, she knew he wouldn’t go away either way. So why had she kissed him? Had she really thought there would be no sparks? Of course not. The sparks from New Year’s were still rushing through her and it had been four months.

  That kiss had awakened her in ways she had not wanted to be awakened. This man was danger, and she couldn’t have anything to do with him. She wanted desperately to place her hand on her stomach and barely managed to stop herself. It wasn’t time to tell her parents. She knew she didn’t have much longer, but she just didn’t have the courage to tell them yet.

  Alyssa knew it was really wrong not to tell Jackson about the baby now that he was here, and her only excuse was fear. Yes, he wanted her. He’d made that more than clear, but she knew he’d been married and knew he didn’t want to go through that again.

  He’d also lost a child. Alyssa couldn’t allow him to try to replace his lost child with her baby. And Jackson was wealthy, more than wealthy. He could buy anything and everything he’d ever wanted. Wouldn’t that mean if he took her to court, they would see it in the child’s best interest to be raised by him? That would just destroy her, and it would be completely wrong to treat her child that way.

  Oh, this was so complicated. If she could just go to bed, pull the covers up over her head, and hide away for the next five months, she would do exactly that. But that’s what a coward would do, and Alyssa was anything but a coward.

  There was a knock on the door and Alyssa turned to stare at it, but could make no further move. Even her basic motor functions seemed to be compromised at the moment.

  “Don’t worry, I’ve got it,” Teresa said, chuckling again and setting Alyssa’s teeth on edge.

  Bethel Banks walked in. “Sorry we’re late, Teresa. I had to wait for my special Chex mix to finish crisping up,” Bethel said.

  “It’s well worth the wait. I’ve tried to get Bethel to give me the recipe, but she won’t budge,” Eileen said with a stern look at her friend.

  Maggie came in last. “Oh, these two have been bickering the entire ride.”

  “You’re not late at all
. I was just talking with my daughter. I’ve got the game table all set up,” Teresa told the newcomers.

  “Oh, wonderful,” Bethel said, then went up to Alyssa and enveloped her in a warm embrace. “Alyssa, you look more and more beautiful each time I see you.”

  Alyssa smiled as the women fluttered in—until she arrived in Sterling, she had never met three little old ladies quite like these. The first time Alyssa had met the “troublesome threesome,” as they were known around town, she’d been overwhelmed. Small-town people seemed a lot more friendly—and nosy—than their big-city peers.

  It hadn’t taken her long to fall in love with the women, though. They were just so kind, and they remembered everything. Alyssa had once been eating a cookies-and-cream candy bar and mentioned how much she loved white chocolate, and the next time the three had come over, they brought her a gift basket filled with various chocolates. It was something so simple but so sweet.

  Since her hormones were all out of whack, the gesture had made her cry, instantly concerning the three women. She’d assured them she was fine, just very tired from her late shift at the bar.

  “Are you going to play with us today, Alyssa?” Eileen asked.

  Once in a while, Alyssa would join them in their weekly card game—she actually enjoyed herself. Although they all looked like sweet women, they were definitely sharks when it came to card games.

  “I wish I could, but I have a double shift today,” she said, her feet already aching at the prospect.

  “You work too much, darling,” Maggie remarked. “How are you supposed to find a good man and settle down if you’re always hanging out in a bar with a bunch of drunks?”

  “I’m not looking for a man. I like my life just the way it is,” Alyssa told the women for what felt like the hundredth time. Was their mission to ensure that Sterling contained no single adults over the age of eighteen?

  “Oh, pish posh, we all need someone,” Bethel said.

  Alyssa had heard this same response just as many times. “You ladies have a wonderful time. I need to shower and get ready for work.”