What a Bachelor Needs (Bachelor Auction Book 4)(26)

“He’s still there,” Jett offered helpfully.

Mardie whimpered and her gaze cut to Seth.

“That’s Seth. One of my older brothers.” he murmured obligingly.

She smiled weakly, and then her gaze shifted to him, and Claire, and her eyes widened, and suddenly Claire was all about getting into her mother’s arms. Jett handed her over without comment.

“She wanted to see you this morning,” Ray said dryly.

Up close, Jett could see Mardie’s panic and embarrassment. He wanted to unsee her silent apology. So maybe she wasn’t ready for their relationship to become common knowledge. Maybe he too would have liked a little more time to come to terms with last night’s surrender.

Wasn’t going to happen.

He kissed her softly on the cheek – giving comfort and laying claim, and Claire said, ‘Kiss’ so he put his lips to her hair before straightening and turning back towards his silent audience.

“Coffee’s made,” he said.

“I’m thinking shower first. Clothes.” Mardie pointed to the door. “I should. Definitely. Go.”

And then she and Claire were out of there and silence ruled the honesty kitchen.

“Are we going to have a problem with this?” Jett challenged.

“Depends what your intentions are,” replied her father.

“I don’t know yet, it’s only day four. But I won’t hurt her.”

“She’s heard that before.”

“Not from me.”

Impasse.

And then Mardie reappeared, with Claire on hip. “Excuse us,” she said and took him by the hand and dragged him from the room.

Which left Seth and Ray and a room full of loaded silence.

“Want to help me take out a wall?” Seth offered finally.

Mardie’s father crossed to the sledgehammer that Jett had abandoned and picked it up with a tight smile.

It turned out that Mardie’s father wasn’t against expending a little effort in that direction at all.

*

“What are you doing?” Mardie waited until they reached the bedroom before speaking again, shutting the door firmly behind them.

“Tearing down the wall?”

“You laid claim to me. In front of my father.”

Jett nodded. Claire nodded right along with him. “Yes.”

“Why would you do that? You’ll be gone after Friday.”

His temper flared swiftly, chasing away any remnants of humor. “Is that what you think?”

Claire squirmed her way out of Mardie’s arms and onto the mess they’d made of the bed. Mardie swiftly transferred her to the ground before standing back up and looking at Jett with a wry smile and the ghost of a shrug. “I’m a small-town waitress with a one-year-old and a mortgage. You’re a globe-trotting athlete with the world at your feet. I’m certainly not expecting you to stick around.”

“Well, maybe we should talk about that!”

“Maybe we should!”

He stared at her in silence, trying to find the right words, any words, to describe the way he felt. “Ah, screw it,” he muttered and then reached out, pulled her into his arms and poured everything he didn’t have words for into a kiss. Hunger and need, temper and tenderness. Fascination. Infatuation. All of it his. He broke the kiss and breathed her in. “This doesn’t have to be a one-night stand, or a two-night stand, or whatever it is that you’re thinking this is. There’s more if you want it.”

He kissed her again, just in case she needed reminding of their incendiary chemistry. “I’m open to suggestion. Tell me what you want.”

“I don’t know what I want.” She looked torn. “I need a shower before conversation. And more clothes. And coffee.” She was all but whimpering. “I’m not a morning person. And I don’t move this fast when it comes to relationships.”

“You moved fast enough last night.”

“That was sex.”

He refused to feel punctured by her words. “Great sex. Amazing sex.”

“Yes! But that doesn’t mean I’m convinced that we need to be in a relationship. Emotional intimacy takes longer. A lot longer if you’re me.”

“You want more time to decide? No problem. How much time do you need?”

“I don’t know how much time I’m going to need. More than this.”

She put her brow to his chest and he thought that maybe there were tears. “Jett, you weren’t even in my life five days ago and since then it’s been crazy wonderful, best ride in the park, and the sex…that was a revelation and don’t you dare puff out your chest and grin.” She thumped him with her fist as if he needed deflating.

Maybe he did.

Crazy wonderful, best ride in the park.

He agreed. Completely.

And he was still listening, doing his level best to figure out what she needed from him this morning. “I can go slower than this. Whatever you need, just tell me.”

“I need this thing between you and me to move more slowly.”

“Okay.” He pulled away, stepped back, and then he looked down and scooped Claire up off the ground, her back to his chest and his arm banding around her waist so that her arms and legs could kick free. He hoped that was an acceptable kid-hold. He was going on instinct rather than knowledge. “Go have your shower and get dressed. Take your time.”