DAC_II_GenVers_Sept2013 (6 page)

Sighing, she picked up her fork and began to eat. Her inner bitch was just being more contrary than usual, Jane decided. It was unreasonable to wish that it was Walter sitting across the table from her. Instead of talking about others, Walter would be telling her about his plans for the green renovation of North Winds while his gaze would keep dropping to her cleavage every few seconds. She tried to recall if Kenneth has sent any lusty glances her way that evening, but could recall none.

“More bread, Jane? Did you miss lunch today? Your eyes are kind of glazed over, like you’re starved,” Kenneth said, reaching into the basket and handing her a whole wheat roll.

“I am starved,” Jane said truthfully, taking the bread Kenneth offered even though she rarely ate whole wheat. She broke off a piece and shoved it into her mouth before she said something else stupid. She also picked up the glass of red wine the waiter had poured for her and drank deeply.

“Excellent wine,” she said, pausing when her date held out his glass.

“Excellent company too,” Kenneth said in return, clinking his glass to hers.

Jane smiled at Kenneth, but the motion hurt her face. No wonder she hadn’t moved on from Nathan. If she couldn’t be content with a man that fit her exact requirements so perfectly, she was going to die a frustrated old maid who lusted after men too young for her.

It was a beautiful day and many of the residents at North Winds were out enjoying the cooler morning air. Jane had to stop several times on the way into the office to say hello to those heading to the pool or exercise area. It was nice to know she had been missed so much. She had missed seeing them too.

Inside the lodge, she froze in the office doorway watching Walter laughing softly with the woman sitting in her chair. . .
no, not her chair
. . .
his office chair
.

He straightened with a lingering smile in his eyes from whatever conversation he’d been having with her.

Jane glanced at the woman who smiled genuinely back as she continued to stare. When she looked back at Walter in his dress slacks and polo, a thousand butterflies in her stomach started doing somersaults at her great surprise. She had hoped Walter would move on and get over his silly crush on her, but did he have to look so happy about it?

“Can I help you?” the woman asked, smiling in a friendly way.

In her mid-twenties at best, she was trim, blonde, and dressed in business casual clothes. Too late to fix it, Jane realized she probably didn’t offer much competition for any man’s attention in her faded jeans and well-worn blouse.

Not that she was competing for Walter’s attention.

Jane flinched when Walter laughed and touched his hand to the woman’s shoulder.

“It’s okay. It’s just Jane,” he said.

Jane swallowed hard at Walter’s comment.
Just Jane.
She had become ‘just Jane’.
Well what had she expected?

“Good morning. I thought I would come by and. . .”

Jane looked back and forth between Walter and the woman, swallowing again. Jealously bloomed in her again, and this time the roots took a firmer hold. Two nights ago, his amazing looking date had stalked angrily away as Walter had stopped to talk with her. He hadn’t really seemed to mind, which was the only thing that had allowed her to sleep that night.

But Walter liked this woman. Jane could tell the difference. Plus, how much Walter liked her was on his face. And she had absolutely no right to feel so betrayed.

“Sorry. I see I’m interrupting your work,” Jane said, lifting her chin and meeting Walter’s amused but puzzled gaze. “I couldn’t come by yesterday. Since I wasn’t doing anything this morning, I thought. . .”

“
Right—y
ou thought right. I’m glad you’re here, Jane,” Walter finished firmly, tired of her stilted polite speech. They were beyond that level of politeness, weren’t they?

Jane watched Walter touch the woman’s shoulder again. . .and again something inside her flinched. This time her gaze followed the movement, mesmerized by his fingers on someone other than her. She suddenly felt like retching. It was not a good sign of her being able to deal maturely with the situation, she decided.

“. . .meet my new office manager—Amanda Ravenwood,” Walter said.

Barely functional in her jealous daze, Jane finally caught on that Walter was introducing her to the smiling woman. She walked forward on autopilot and stuck out her hand. The younger woman clasped it firmly. Jane noticed how much older her hand looked next to the woman’s ringless one. Her gaze went back to Walter as Amanda let go.

“Amanda is taking care of the day-to-day needs around here,” Walter said, finishing his introduction, while he tried to figure out the reason for the weird expression on Jane’s face.

Jane nodded and forced a cheerful smile. “That’s great, Walter. Every business needs reliable help.” Her comment had sounded like one of Harrison’s lectures, but nothing more pithy occurred to her.

The woman and Walter were both looking at her strangely now. Yet all Jane could think about was Walter touching other women. He was probably kissing them too. Did he still want to kiss her? Had he totally lost all interest like she had assumed he would?

Had she actually been hoping to be wrong?

“I’m glad to see you’re settling in so well here,” Jane said, adding one more lame comment to her previous lame speech.

Walter walked around the desk, stopping as he faced a strangely glassy-eyed Jane. She wasn’t moving, just staring up at him.

“Did I forget to shave this morning?” he asked, running a hand over his chin, checking to make sure it was smooth.

“What?. . .
no
. Of course not. You look. . .fine. Just fine,” Jane repeated, stepping back, because he looked a little too fine. “I thought I might take you up on that tour you mentioned, but you seem too busy to make time. . .I mean, to take time. . .to show me around this morning.”

“I’ll never be too busy for you,” Walter promised, smiling wide at the relief his answer garnered in Jane’s gaze. Her nervousness made him want to laugh and kiss her senseless, but that couldn’t happen. God, what he wouldn’t give to put his mouth on hers again. He glanced back over his shoulder. “What do you say, Amanda? Do I have time for a tour?”

“Go. I’m good for now. I’ll text you if I need your help,” Amanda said, motioning him out with her hand.

Jane waited until Walter turned toward the side door of the main lodge before falling into step beside him as easily as he used to do with her. “Listen Walter, I can come back some other time. You looked really busy when I came in and. . .”

Walter snorted and grabbed her hand. When Jane sucked in a breath at the contact, the predator beast in him went on full alert. Her frightened gazelle mode did something evil to his libido.

“Haven’t we both waited long enough already?” he demanded softly, stopping and forcing her to stop walking as well.

“What are you talking abo. . .” Her question was cut off when Walter pulled her around until she was practically in his arms. Her whole body bumped up fully against his, reminding her of when he had kissed her at the hospital. She wanted to look around to see if anyone was watching them, but her gaze seemed locked to the man in front of her. They hadn’t even made it to the door yet.

What was Walter trying to do?

Confusion cleared finally with her awareness of his mouth slowly descending toward hers. While it cleared up the mystery of his plans, it also sent the annoying butterflies in her stomach scrambling for cover. They certainly knew what was happening, even if her mind was still in denial.

Why was she having so much trouble thinking clearly today?

When the puzzle pieces started falling into place at last, it was the ridge pressing against her stomach through his slacks that set her heartbeat thundering in her chest. Did Walter’s actions mean he still. . .he still. . .

“
Walter?
” she whispered, realizing that even saying his name brought relief. She was in so much trouble. “Walter, I
. .
.”

“Jane, your doubts about us are absolutely killing me. I’m tired of waiting. Aren’t you?” he whispered back, bending and bending until his mouth hovered just over hers.

“
Hey, Walter
,” Amanda called loudly, skidding to a stop just outside the door of the office. “Oh good, you’re still in the building. Your mother is on the phone. She says it’s important. Do you want to take the call before you give Jane a tour?”

His mother was calling?
Jane blinked in shock. Walter’s new office manager might as well have poured a bucket of guilt over her head. Maybe that had been the younger woman’s intention. Regardless, Jane still pulled her hand from Walter’s.

Then she stepped away from his seductive heat and tried to breathe normally.

“No—
Stay
,” Walter ordered huskily, but had to stop talking before he swore at her for pulling away from him.

As Jane backed up, he stayed frozen where he was, not sure it was wise to walk in his condition. Nothing on him ever twitched around Jane. Everything just went from flaccid to rigid with lightning speed. In fact, all his body parts seemed to function at maximum capacity in Jane Fox’s presence. It was a way worse problem to have than nothing twitching at all, and considerably more uncomfortable.

“Do you have any idea what you do to me? Or are you truly in denial?” Walter asked.

When Jane’s gaze dropped to sweep the front of him, her olive complexion was suddenly infused with various shades of pink. Walter wanted to shout “Hallelujah!” when her alarmed gaze rose back to meet his determined one.

“My mother is a very insistent woman. Whatever you’re thinking right now, hold that thought until I take this phone call,” he ordered.

“What are you talking about? I’m not thinking anything,” Jane denied, the lie clogging her throat so much that she had to clear it.

“Yes you are,
and
I like it,” Walter replied sternly, laughing at both her bold lie and her shock at him calling her on it.

He took a single step toward Jane intending to prove it was the truth if necessary, only to end up laughing again when she backed up a single step in return. He couldn’t help being thrilled or grinning about it. The predator in him was still on full alert, and the urge to pounce on Jane Fox was becoming nearly impossible to ignore.

“Stop looking at me that way, Walter,” Jane demanded, embarrassed by the tremor in her voice. Two seconds more and he would have kissed her again. She wanted it more than she wanted her next breath.

Bad Jane,
she thought,
very bad Jane.

She raised a hand and swept back her hair for something to do. Now he was making her nervous. Walter wasn’t the only one acting crazy.

“You know what, Jane Fox? My grandfather warned me about women like you,” Walter said, grinning at the panic that flared in her gaze at his words.

“
Harrison?
What did that outrageous old man have to say about me? I mean—about women like me,” Jane demanded.

Walter laughed. “Hang around until I finish with my mother and I’ll show you.”

His flirty dare snapped Jane out of the fog of her lust. “No, thanks. I think I’ll come back tomorrow. You seem really busy today. See you later, Walter.”

“Running away again?” Walter demanded, walking beside her as he headed back to take the phone call.

“Of course not. Don’t be childish. I’m leaving you to get back to your business. I’m sure my presence is nothing but a distraction,” Jane said.

“You got that much right, but come back anyway. I want to see you, Jane. I want to. . .
hey, where are going in such a hurry?
There’s no fire here. I’m a trained fireman. I’m sure I would know if there was one,” Walter called, watching Jane waving over her shoulder, as she literally did run toward the front entrance and out the door.

He laughed again, shaking his head this time. What else could he do?

Then he was suddenly wishing like hell that he’d worn jeans that day. He could have used the support of tighter pants.

“Well, damn. Kissing me is not that scary,” he said aloud.

Behind him Amanda giggled and it made him turn.

“Your wicked intentions about that woman are being broadcasted in your face, Walter. I’d pay good money to have Daniel look at me that way. Why don’t you talk to him for me?” she teased.

“Are you saying when you move in with someone, the fun is over?” Walter asked, grinning at her teasing. Amanda and Daniel were the happiest couple he knew.

Amanda giggled. “No. I’m just saying it takes a lot for Daniel to let himself show that he feels that strongly. You’re not like most guys, Walter. You’re not afraid to admit how you feel. But you also don’t play nice with girls who aren’t as smart as you. Macy is still mad at me.”

He ignored the reference to his botched date from hell.

“Tell you what, I’ll talk to Daniel if you’ll talk to Jane for me. Make sure you tell her all the good stuff,” Walter ordered.

“Can’t yet. She thinks you and I have a
thing
,” Amanda said, grinning as she handed him the office phone.

“Why would Jane think that?” Walter asked, confusion wiping his smile away.

“How should I know, Walter? Maybe because she’s a lot older than you, and I’m not,” Amanda suggested, adding a shrug for emphasis.

Then she pointed to the phone now in his hand.

Staring at the door Jane had run out of, Walter sighed and raised the phone to his ear. “Hello, Mom. How are you?”

“
Who’s Jane?
”

Walter winced at the demand, fighting not to sigh or swear. April Graham would only read either as a sign of his guilt.

“Jane? No one. Just a friend. What did you need? You said it was important and I’m really busy this morning.”

Walter quietly cursed the crystal clear phone connection Jane had made sure was in place, despite the age of the facility.

“How much older than you is she, Walter? Don’t lie to me. I heard your conversation and I want to know what’s going on.”

Walter sighed at his mother’s escalating tone. He really didn’t want to have this conversation, at least not yet. “Jane is not interested in me that way, so it doesn’t matter.”