An Irresistible Bachelor(64)

Then he tilted back his head and took a healthy swig.

Her voice was soft. "Give me the glass, Jack."

When she continued to stare at him with level eyes, he did what she asked. She was right. Getting liquored up wasn't going to solve anything. Hell, it only reminded him of his father and increased the chances he would do something stupid.

Like fall to his knees and beg her to pick him over his friend.

She walked past him into the kitchen. As he followed, he tracked every move she made, her hips shifting gracefully, her legs so long in the black skirt she was wearing. As his blood began to heat up, he had a very clear thought that he should get away from her. Just go up to his bedroom and pass out.

Because in the quiet darkness, all he could think about was making love to her. And if he wanted to make her see he was in some small way worthy of her, he needed to behave like a gentleman, not a caveman.

She was rinsing his glass out in the sink when she said in a low voice, "Are you okay?"

He barely heard the words over the running water.

"I could be considerably more inebriated," he said matter of factly. "I'm shooting for rip-roaring, welcome to oblivion, blackout-city drunk. At this point, I'm not even seeing double yet. And I'm still upright."

Callie pulled a dishtowel out of a drawer and looked at him from under her lashes as she dried off the glass. "I know this must be a hard night for you."

He frowned, replaying the image of his friend kissing her. Jealousy spiked and made him answer more harshly than he would have otherwise.

"How magnanimous of you. Most women wouldn't take pity an a man who traveled four hundred miles to do a hatchet job on her competition."

Callie frowned, as if she hadn't heard him right, and then her eyes became direct, her voice even more so. "I'm going to let that go because you've had too much to drink. And I'm talking about the anniversary of your father's death; not whatever happened between you and Blair today."

Jack leaned against the doorjamb, feeling like a jerk.

The regret brought some sobriety back to him and he recognized how close he was to the edge of his self-control. She was sexy and beautiful and no more than a few feet away from him. All of which left him fighting a terrible urge to pull her into his arms and put his mouth against hers until she didn't remember what Gray's kiss had felt like.

Hell, just the thought of touching her was enough to make him hard.

"You know, I think you'd better leave," he said.

"Why?"

"You've just got to trust me on this one."

Callie shrugged and put the glass on the counter.


"You know, I lost my father recently," she said. "And my relationship wasn't all hearts and flowers by a long shot. But even if it was a while ago, and even if they played a complicated role in your life, it is still hard to get over the loss of a parent."

Jack almost laughed. True, he was living with the aftermath of some seriously bad blood between him and his old man. But a far more immediate problem was standing in front of him, looking at him with concern and compassion.

She cleared her throat. "There are a lot of things I wished I'd said to my father and a lot of answers I'll never have. That creates some serious anger and frustration. I know you feel something of the same because you're obviously upset and I've never seen you drink like this. It might help to talk about it."

Jack moved before he was fully aware of what he was doing, crossing the kitchen in two strides. He took her by the back of the neck and the small of her back and brought her hard against his body. Making sure she felt every inch of his arousal, he looked her straight in the eye and did nothing to keep the lust out of his face or his voice.

"I'm not in the mood to talk and this has nothing to do with my dead father." He deliberately looked down at her breasts. He pictured his mouth finding one of the tips which had started to strain against the thin fabric of her sweater. And then he imagined what it would be like to lick her skin until she moaned his name over and over again.

Callie swallowed and her mouth parted. He could practically taste her.

Jack pulled back, cursing. What he needed to do was talk to her, not come on to her. How was she going to see him as anything other than a playboy if he couldn't keep his hands off of her?

"Goddamn it. I'm trying to do the right thing here. I really am."

Her face fell. "Because of Blair."