ThreeReasonsWhy
Authors: Mari Carr
Three Reasons Why
Three Reasons Why is a sequel to Kiss Me, Kate.
Wes wants Jill Harper in every possible way a man can want a
woman. But she’s resisting. Hard. When he learns she needs a handyman for her
diner, he decides fate is smiling upon him—until Jill offers three reasons why
they can’t be together. Always up for a challenge, Wes decides to prove her
ridiculous reasons unsound, one by one.
Jill knows her reasons are total bull, but she’s sticking by
them, come hell or high water. Unfortunately, Wes Robson is extremely
persuasive. Especially in bed. If the sex gets any hotter they’ll likely burn
down the town. Before long, Jill’s reasons begin falling away as fast as her clothing
whenever Wes is around.
But Jill knows exactly what Wes wants for his future, and
she’s just prolonging the inevitable heartbreak. The
real
reason she
can’t give herself to Wes, can’t allow herself to love him, can only lead to
pain—the kind from which neither may ever recover.
Ellora’s Cave Publishing
Three Reasons Why
ISBN 9781419933752
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Three Reasons Why Copyright © 2011 Mari Carr
Edited by Kelli Collins
Cover art by Syneca
Electronic book publication June 2011
The terms Romantica® and Quickies® are registered trademarks of
Ellora’s Cave Publishing.
With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not
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This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons,
living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The
characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.
Three Reasons Why
Mari Carr
Dedication
This story is dedicated to Susan, Valerie and Maria, who
never stopped believing I could get this story right!
Trademarks Acknowledgements
The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark
owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:
Band-Aid: Johnson & Johnson Corporation
Harley-Davidson: H-D, Michigan, LLC
Neosporin: Johnson & Johnson Corporation
Sherlock Holmes: Conan Doyle Estate Limited Corporation
The Brady Bunch
: Paramount Television
The View
: American Broadcasting Company
Prologue
Christmas
“Are you all right?” Jill Harper asked when Wes began
fidgeting in his chair. No doubt he was uncomfortable due to the injuries he’d
sustained in his last DEA mission. Simply thinking of how badly Wes had been
hurt sent a cold chill through her. She could have lost him. Then she pushed
the thought away. Hell, he wasn’t hers to lose.
“Yeah,” Wes answered. “Just bored.”
They were celebrating the holidays with Jill’s sister Kate
and Wes’ best friend Rick. Unfortunately, the revelry had been curtailed for a
little while—two hours’ worth of a little while—when Kate and Rick escaped
upstairs to open their last gifts in private. Jill was finding it increasingly
difficult to ignore the sexual sounds emanating from the upstairs bedroom.
She’d like to say she was annoyed, but actually she was uncomfortably hot.
Fuck. She was horny as hell.
Wes’ fingers thumped against his cast absentmindedly. “How
about you and me go rustle up some breakfast? I’m starving.”
Jill jumped out of her chair, grateful for Wes’ suggestion.
She’d cook. That might help beat down her building arousal, even though, God
knew, she should be used to the sizzling physical reaction she suffered
whenever she was with Wes.
“Sounds good.” She crossed the room and offered Wes a hand
to help him up. With his broken leg and ribs, rising was still difficult. He
grimaced as she approached and she knew he was tired of being helpless. Wes was
an active, strong man. Relying on her help—as well as Kate’s and Rick’s—was
rubbing against the grain. Hopefully, the healing would happen fast and life
could go back to normal.
They’d been together way more than usual lately and it was
throwing Jill for a loop. She’d always recognized the slight tug of attraction
when it came to Wes Robson, but lately it didn’t feel like a tug as much as a
hurricane-force wind blowing at her back, shoving her none too gently toward
the man.
Wes reached for her outstretched hand. However, rather than
allowing her to pull him up, he used their clasped palms against her. Pulling
hard, Wes yanked her down and across his lap, quick as a flash.
“Wes!” she said, startled by his impulsive move.
“I want to give you your other gift,” he said gruffly.
He’d already been far too generous, giving her a beautiful
broach that had belonged to his mother before she passed away. She’d been equal
parts touched and alarmed by the thoughtful gesture. He’d said it was to thank
her for taking care of him while he was in the hospital, but a tiny part of her
thought it was something more. That
something more
left her uneasy.
Before she could respond, Wes pulled her closer and kissed
her. His lips grazed hers for just a moment. There was nothing tentative or
apologetic in the touch. Wes wanted to kiss her and while he wouldn’t ask or
force, he was gonna get his wish. She liked that. She had a strong personality
that tended to intimidate men. Sometimes she got tired of being the aggressor,
the decision-maker.
Wes deepened the kiss and she let him lead the way. His lips
were a mixture of strength and softness, a perfect reflection of the man. She’d
learned so much about him in the hospital, watching him work through his
physical therapy sessions with sheer determination and drive. Then he’d
surprise her by stopping at the children’s ward on the way back to his room to
perform magic tricks for the kids.
She reached up to run her hands through his thick brown
hair. She didn’t want this moment to end. Not yet. It might not be the wisest
decision of her life, but she liked the way Wes kissed. He held her like she
was precious, important…special.
“Wes,” she said after several minutes of the best kissing of
her life.
“Shhh. Not yet. Let’s disappear for a little while, Jill. We
can think about what this means tomorrow. Today, it’s Christmas and I want to
kiss you.”
She smiled and pressed her cheek against his. “It’s
Christmas.”
Wes cupped her face, pulling her lips back to his. She let
herself get lost in the sensations, the beauty of the moment. He was right.
They could pay the piper tomorrow.
For today, it was
ho ho ho
.
Chapter One
March
Wes stood outside the diner and watched his little pixie
flit from customer to customer as if she didn’t have a care in the world. Damn
woman had been leading him on a merry chase these last few months and he’d had
enough. It was high time he called a halt to her cat-and-mouse game once and
for all. Since his last DEA mission in December, he’d been laid up with a bunch
of injuries that left it too hard for him to pursue his quarry effectively.
He grinned as he glanced down at his cast-free left leg. The
ungainly thing had been removed two weeks ago and his physical therapy was
going great. For the first time in months, he felt like a whole man—a one
hundred percent red-blooded man—and Jill Harper wasn’t going to know what hit
her. He spied the sign his best friend and former partner Rick had mentioned
this morning at breakfast.
Part-Time Handyman Needed. Inquire Within.
He pulled the posting off the window, tucking it in his back
pocket as he passed under the jangling bell hanging above the door and into the
busy diner Jill owned and operated.
“Hey, Wes,” Cheryl called out from behind the counter.
Cheryl Pantino, a fifty-seven-year-old divorcee, was Jill’s right hand at the
diner. Between the two of them, they kept the fine folks of Madison well fed
and happy at breakfast, lunch and dinner.
“Hi, Cheryl. How’re you doin’ today?”
“Busy, but the lunch rush is just about over. Going to
finish cleaning things in here, then head up to my apartment to catch my soaps
on TV before the dinner crowd rolls in.”
Like Jill, Cheryl lived in one of the two apartments above
the diner. They claimed living so close saved them the trouble of having to
drive back and forth to work. Because of their long hours, they preferred to
have as much time in the comfort of their homes as they could manage.
“Where’s the boss?” he asked casually.
Cheryl pointed behind her. “She just headed back to the
storage room. We got a shipment today from the food distributor and she’s doing
inventory.”
He grinned and nodded, then strolled toward the back room.
This day was getting better and better. With Jill trapped in a confined space,
there was no way she would escape until he laid down the law once and for all.
After returning from his ill-fated mission, he had been
stuck in the hospital for a couple of weeks. Jill, always a good friend, had
shown up and planted herself on the couch beside his hospital bed, nagging him
to listen to the nurses and take his meds. While he’d grumbled about her
meddling, he secretly loved having her all to himself. She was a spirited,
vivacious woman. She was fun to be with, constantly keeping him on his toes.
As he reached the doorway to the storage room, he spied her
unloading cans of vegetables from boxes and placing them on the shelves. Her
back was to him and he took a moment to appreciate the view. She was no more
than five foot four, with shoulder-length, wavy blonde hair. His fingers itched
to touch the thick, silky mass. At the moment, she wore her lovely hair in what
she referred to as one of her work ’dos. It was pulled up on the back of her
head, twisted into a loose bun and held in place by what looked like a pair of
chopsticks.
Despite the fact that she was constantly surrounded by
mouthwatering food, she was slim. He could see the muscles in her calves, left
bare by her miniskirt. She was an avid runner and it showed in her fit body.
He could have continued to stare in silence at her pert
little rear end all day, but she must have sensed his presence, and she turned
toward the door.
For a split second, he recognized genuine happiness in her
gaze when she spied him, only to see it quickly replaced by the damn
indifference he’d come to hate these past couple of months.
“Wes,” she said quietly. “You scared me. How long have you
been standing there?”
“Just a few minutes.” He grinned. “Enjoying the view.”
In the past, his teasing would have provoked an equally
witty rejoinder and the two of them would spar with words until one cried
“uncle”. This time, she merely shook her head in annoyance and turned back to
her work. He swallowed his anger at her dismissal. If Jill Harper thought she
could be rid of him that easily, then she didn’t know him at all.