Merry and Bright(7)

But she smiled into his solemn eyes as her heart kicked hard. “The human heart can create enough pressure to squirt blood thirty feet, so this is nothing, relatively speaking.” Even if her knees were on fire . . . “I’m fine,” she said, and stood up.

He straightened, too, and she suddenly became aware of exactly how close they were. Inches apart, which was waaaay closer than they’d ever been. Someone, presumably Tommy, tossed him a rag, which he caught over her head and handed to her.

“Thanks.” She hadn’t skinned her knees in years and she didn’t remember it hurting this bad. She dabbed at her knees and hissed out a breath. “You don’t by any chance have a Band-Aid? Or two?”

“Sure do.” He led her down the hall, past the elevators. The building was in a U-shape, curved around a courtyard six stories below. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched him walk, his broad shoulders stretching the seams of his shirt, his Levi’s lovingly cupping a most drool-worthy butt.

Odd to be so attracted to a Mr. Wrong, but her body was humming again in spite of her knees. He hadn’t gotten himself a haircut, and the dark strands of his hair looked soft and silky. He hadn’t shaved that morning, and maybe not yesterday morning either, and that growth didn’t look soft and silky at all. It would be rough against her skin, which for some reason, gave her a little shiver. “I was wondering . . .” If I could ask you to do me.

Still walking, he glanced over at her. His jaw was square, his mouth generous, but it was his eyes that held her. They were fathomless, and in those swirling depths was a mix of emotions with a barely restrained impatience leading the pack. He was busy, needing to get back to work, and at the knowledge, her nerve packed up and went on vacation. “Never mind.”

Two years without sex, her good parts whined....

They turned a corner, tight with stacks of boxes. “Watch where you’re going,” Jacob reminded her.

Right. Watch where she was going instead of watching him and daydreaming. Time to stop daydreaming! “Yes, well, in my defense, I rarely do watch where I’m going.”

“And we’ve got a mess all around you, I know. But your boss promised he’d give you all this week off so we’d have the empty building to ourselves. Then he didn’t.”

“Tim’s a good guy, but he’s tight with his money, so tight he squeaks when he walks.” She smiled when he laughed. He had a good laugh. “He’s never given us a week off.”

“We’re attempting to not miss our deadline. Some of us have flights to catch out of here tomorrow, if we finish.”

“You’ll finish.”

He looked a little surprised, and a little amused. “How do you know?”

She was doing her best not to limp. No limping in front of the cute guy from high school—but she wanted to. “In high school, you finished everything you started, even when it was hard. Basketball, chemistry . . .” The 36-D blonde in that empty classroom . . . God, she’d been so jealous of that girl. “You just seem like a guy who still finishes what he starts.”

His eyes heated, and oh, Lord, so did her body, but had she really just said he looked like a guy who finished what he started? Why didn’t she just strip down right here and ask him to finish her? “Where are you flying out to?” she asked instead, desperate for a subject change. “New Orleans?”

“You remember.”

She remembered everything about him, but gave a slight shrug. Playing it cool.

“My mom lost her house in Katrina,” he said. “She’s in a new place now and we’re all meeting there for Christmas.”

“Sounds lovely.” She was happy for him, but wistful for herself. Yes, she had Janie, but she missed having her mom, too.

Jacob stopped at an empty lab on the far side of the building, which he and his crew used as an office and for tool storage. Knees on fire, Maggie sat on a chair while he dug into a large toolbox and came up with a first-aid kit.

“Here’s some antiseptic spray,” he said. “It’ll take out the sting. Pull up your skirt.”

No can do. Not when she’d just remembered she hadn’t shaved her legs. “I’ll do it.” She held out her hand for the spray, which she shoved beneath her skirt, gave a cursory spritz and gritted her teeth. “All better.”

“Maggie, I can see the blood dripping down your calves. This is my fault, so let me see.”

“I’m good.”

With a sigh, he reached for the hem of her skirt himself.





3


Jacob’s fingers brushed Maggie’s skirt, and suddenly he wasn’t thinking about her knees but other things altogether, until Maggie put her hands over his, flashing a quick and definitely fake smile. “I just remembered. I have my own Band-Aids.”

He pushed a smile of his own, one that usually got him a lot more than a peek at an injured knee. “Maggie, it’s just your knees.”

“It’s not my knees I’m worried about.”

She was blushing. Was she for real? He had a million other things to do, and yet he was crouched before her watching her most mesmerizing face. She was the ultimate science geek fantasy, if one was into that sort of thing. And apparently, given his pheromone level whenever she got within sight, he was. Her hair was still piled on top of her head, her lips fully glossed, and that smoking body covered up with her coat. Her killer eyes were magnified behind her lab glasses, which she’d clearly forgotten to take off. She’d put the pen behind her ear again.