Wanted: One Mommy (8 page)

She drew back, feeling vaguely irritated and a lot insulted. “I don’t need to be protected, Jack.” She was used to being on her own, handling whatever came her way, even when she was in unfamiliar territory. “Any more than I need to be seduced!”

He tightened his grip on her waist before she could withdraw from his arms completely, and brought her back, flush against him. The expression in his eyes was tender, respectful. He let his gaze drift over her face, lingering on her just-kissed lips, before returning with due deliberation to her eyes. “How about appreciated, then?” he coaxed softly.

So it all was just an excuse to see her and spend time alone with her, she realized.

Pretending a great deal more detachment than she felt, she resisted the intense aching need welling up within her. Then countered sternly but breathlessly, “I thought we weren’t going to do this.”

J
ACK HAD TOLD HIMSELF
the same thing the first and second times they had kissed.

At the time, his rationale had made sense.

Technically, they were a good match. The two of them had great physical chemistry, and even more important, an ease in communicating with each other that was rare. He enjoyed spending time with her because she had a way of making even the most mundane things interesting and fun. She had quickly bonded with every member of his family and she fit in his life. All those things were in their favor.

Emotionally, however, Caroline was correct. They were
not
well paired. He couldn’t begin to dream about the future. All he wanted to do was live in the present. Whereas Caroline wagered everything on a someday that might never come.

Hence, if they waited for the right time and the right place and the right words to make it all seem destined…well, neither one of them was probably ever going to be happy.

So it made sense, to Jack’s way of thinking, anyway, to quit dancing around the inevitable and cut to the chase.

“I thought so, too.” Jack shrugged, recognizing the fact he was not going to be able to give Caroline what she wanted and needed over the long haul, but knowing he could make her feel very good today, if she let him. He looked at her steadily, then continued meaningfully. “Fortunately, decisions can be rescinded, if they are the wrong ones.
If
you’re game.”

“Once.” Tempestuous need glimmered in her eyes as she threaded her fingers through his hair and pressed her body to his in one long, electrified line. He allowed her to direct his mouth to hers. “We’ll do this once.” She kissed him deeply.

As their lips fused, Jack’s body ignited.

He wanted her to surrender to this, heart and soul, and
he could feel her melting against him. “Once sounds very good.”

Determined to make this lovemaking more memorable than either of them had ever had, Jack guided her into his house and backed her up against the wall so his hips pressed into hers. There was no mistake about what either of them wanted to happen next. She moaned as he rained kisses across her cheek, behind her ear, down the slope of her neck, before zeroing in on her mouth once again.

Caroline surged up against him and her lips parted beneath the pressure of his. Savoring everything about this day, he delighted in the sweet, warm taste of her.

Heart pounding, he took her upstairs to his bed. Watched as she undressed—quietly, deliberately—then did the same. They drank in the sight of each other. Knowing he couldn’t wait any longer, had to make her his, Jack drew her onto the bed.

Caroline wrapped her arms around him and shifted so she was on top. “This feels…”

Jack cupped the weight of her breasts in his hands, brushed his fingers across the nipples, followed that with his lips. Great, he thought.

“…illicit….” Caroline gasped.

“And then some,” Jack moaned as his own body hardened and pulsed, and together, they took on new heat. “If you mean that in a sexy, dangerously exciting way.”

Caroline chuckled her assent and assured him, “Oh, I do.”

“Then we’re definitely heading into forbidden territory,” he said, flashing her an equally wicked grin.
And it felt better than anything he could have imagined
….

Her lips softened beneath his and she clung to him, her fingers digging into his shoulders, his back, his hips as she
passionately returned his fevered kisses. She was trembling with excitement. And so was he.

Wanting her to have everything she deserved, Jack kissed her until his heartbeat hammered in his ears and he was so aroused he could barely think. Until both of them were brimming with an emotion neither made any effort to hide. Able to feel how much she wanted and needed him, he took control and shifted positions so she was beneath him. His gaze locked with hers, he slid between her thighs, pulled her legs to his waist, and set about exploring even more.

Caroline’s head fell back as she gave herself over to his tender ministrations. And only when she was wet and aching for him, did he slide her up to a half-sitting position on the pillows.

She ran her hands over the muscles of his back, his hips. Finding the hardest, hottest part of him, slowly stroking and learning. Excitement built inside him and sensations swirled. He kissed her again as her thighs fell even farther apart, over and over, until they were both lost in a frenzy of wanting. He sheathed himself with her help. Gently, tenderly, he eased the way, engaging her completely, making sure she was as ready as he. She yielded to him as if she had always been meant to be his. Her back arched and she cried out. He smiled in triumph and brought her closer yet, luxuriating in the soft, silky feel of her as their bodies merged.

Aware he’d never gotten so close to anyone so fast, Jack held her tight and urged her on with his body. Their pleasure building, plunging her over the edge, she met him wantonly, stroke for stroke, kiss for kiss. Until there was no more waiting, satisfaction rushed through her yet again, and he followed, claiming her as his.

They lay together afterward. Aware his weight was
likely too much for her, Jack rolled onto his back, taking Caroline with him.

Content to snuggle, Caroline pressed one of her thighs between the two of his, and rested her head on his shoulder.

Eventually, a trembling sigh escaped her lips. She lifted her head.

“I can’t believe I just made love to someone I’m not in love with. And enjoyed it
more
than I ever enjoyed making love to someone I
was
in love with.”

Jack chuckled and narrowed his eyes, for comic effect. “That is one convoluted sentence, lady.”

“Thank you.” Caroline straightened and preened.

He grinned at her clowning around. Figuring total honesty was the only way to deal with a situation like this, he forced himself to be candid, too. “What’s even more amazing is that I know precisely what you mean. Because I feel the same way.”

Their eyes met, held. Electricity, even more potent than their lovemaking, zigzagged between them.

“Like this was fun,” Caroline conceded breathlessly.

As if, Jack noted, she was glad he was on the same page, and wasn’t about to make more of this than there was.

“And will be fun again,” Jack predicted confidently.

J
ACK WAS CERTAINLY
presuming a lot, Caroline thought, given that she had only agreed to a fling, thus far. But why pretend that she didn’t want that, too? At least on the kind of ultracasual basis she had never before indulged in.

“Sounds good to me,” she murmured contentedly.

Why not enjoy herself a little until her very own Mr. Right came along? If he ever came along. As long as nothing else in her very well-ordered life was disturbed.

Hanging on to a thread of common sense, however,
she forced herself to stipulate, “But I’m going to take a raincheck until after the wedding.”

Jack appeared frustrated with her demand, but not all that surprised she had made it. Another plus in his favor, Caroline thought. He could read her like a book.

“Afraid I’m going to be too much of a distraction?” he drawled.

Way too much of one, Caroline mused as she reviewed the number of things left undone.

Reminding herself that this wedding could still make or break her professional reputation, she wrinkled her nose at him, chiding, “You already are. I should have finished the workup on the possible menu selections for pricing with the caterer, nailed down the number of tents we were going to need and viewed the DVDs of the traditional dancers and strolling musicians.” None of which she’d had time to do, she’d been so busy dallying with Jack and remembering what it was like to feel like a woman instead of just a workaholic.

Jack traced the sprinkling of copper freckles across her breasts. “And I should be leaving soon to pick Maddie up from school….”

Caroline knew where this was going!

She removed his hand before it edged beneath the sheet and she got deliciously sidetracked again. “Which is exactly why I have to go as soon as you get back,” she said firmly.

His eyes darkened seductively. “Or not.”

How easy it would be to fall under Jack’s spell, Caroline mused. To let herself live only in the moment she was in, and feel joy without repercussions for the first time in a very long time. Instead of always,
always
ignoring her need for a personal life, too, and pushing on to the next goal. All to keep her heart from being broken again.

Unfortunately, as much as Caroline wished she could open herself up to love, she knew unless she could somehow receive a rock-solid guarantee that she could trust in a man and in love the way she needed to trust, that it was merely wishful thinking. There would always be a guard around her emotions as insurance, so she would never feel the pain of a failed relationship and dashed dreams again.

Aware Jack was still waiting for her to change her mind, Caroline looked him in the eye. She promised herself she was doing the right thing for all of them by putting on the brakes—for now, anyway.

“Seriously, Jack? I’ll stay until Maddie walks in the door and knows that Bounder was cared for all day by me, as promised. But after that,” she insisted, “it’s right back to the office for me.”

Jack had just walked out the door when Caroline’s cell phone rang.

“How are things going?” Patrice asked. “Is Bounder still doing okay?”

Caroline eyed the golden retriever curled on the cushioned dog bed in the corner of the living room. “She’s fine. She’s been sleeping on her dog bed all afternoon.”

“And the wedding plans? Are you making a lot of progress on those?” Patrice asked with more interest than she had shown thus far.

“Not as much as I had hoped today,” Caroline admitted, silently berating herself. She and Jack really should have waited to make love to each other until she was no longer working on Patrice and Dutch’s wedding. But the temptation had been too much to resist for either of them. Which was what came, she figured, when a person went as long as they both had without hooking up. The drought left a person vulnerable in ways she sensed neither she nor Jack had expected. But it had still been fun, and she couldn’t say she regretted the passionate tumble between the sheets with the handsome entrepreneur. She felt more alive…more a woman…more optimistic about everything…than she ever had. Turning her thoughts back to business, Caroline reassured Patrice, “But not to worry—I’m going to be working
on them all weekend, so I’m sure by Monday we’ll have the majority of the contracts for vendors in place.”

“That’s wonderful, dear.” Patrice sighed in relief. “Dutch and I really
need
to be…” She stopped, then tried again, more succinctly. “We really
want
to be married as soon as possible.”

It almost sounded like a shotgun wedding was in the works! Knowing that wasn’t possible, Caroline grinned and drew on her expertise. She had a lot of experience soothing frazzled brides of all ages and personality types. “Not to worry. It’s going to happen.”

Patrice exhaled audibly. “Good.” Her voice resonated with cheer. “Now, for why I called you. I wanted you to give Jack a message for me.”

This was odd, Caroline thought, since she’d never seen Jack without his phone. Curious, she asked, “You can’t reach him on his cell?”

“I hate to bother him during the workday, dear. And really, this will be easier. Just let him know that Dutch and I won’t be home this evening, after all. We’re going to be staying in Houston through Monday or Tuesday. And we’ll be incommunicado during a lot of that time, so if you need us, just text me or leave a message on my voice mail, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.”

This was even stranger! “You didn’t take any luggage.”

Patrice chuckled. “I know, dear. But we’ll be fine. They have stores here, too, you know. Give my love to Maddie and Bounder, and good luck with Jack. I’m sort of leaving him in the lurch this weekend, so he will likely not be too pleased with me.”

Caroline hung up, and a moment later Jack walked in the door, a deliriously worried Maddie at his side. The girl ran straight for her injured dog, plopping down on
the floor next to her. “Bounder, I missed you so much! I thought school would never be over so I could get home and see if you are okay.” Maddie slid her face inside the inverted cone-shaped E-collar and pressed her cheek against Bounder’s. The golden retriever panted happily and made a little murmur of contentment.

“Your mother called,” Caroline said, suddenly not in as much a hurry to leave Jack and his daughter and their beloved pet as she knew she should be. “She said she and Dutch won’t be home tonight.”

Braving Jack’s frown of disappointment, Caroline relayed the rest of the message from Patrice.

Jack was as displeased as Caroline had expected. “Why didn’t she call me?”

Good question, Caroline thought. One Patrice hadn’t answered sufficiently. “Your mother said she didn’t want to bother you at work.”

Jack muttered something beneath his breath that succinctly summed up his skepticism about that. His brows drew together. “Something is going on.”

Caroline kind of thought so, too. Still, she felt compelled for all their sakes to offer the opposing view, in an effort to be fair. “Maybe they want some time alone.”

Jack rubbed at the tense muscles in the back of his neck. “Then they would have said so.”

Caroline shrugged. “Maybe it just occurred to them. People do act impulsively sometimes, you know. In fact—” she paused and gave him a telling look “—I can think of an example right here today….”

“There’s a difference. I don’t have designs on your money.”

“With good reason,” Caroline countered facetiously, in an effort to lighten his cynical mood. “I don’t really have any.” Every cent she made she poured right back into her
business. “And since Dutch is apparently as wealthy as your mother in his own right…”

Jack scowled. “Unless Dutch has leveraged his properties to the hilt, or blew his savings in the recent downturn in the stock market. Then, for all we know, he could be teetering on the edge of bankruptcy—”

“Even if he were,” Caroline interrupted, “which seems doubtful, the prenup…”

Jack paced. “Hasn’t been read yet. We don’t know what it says.”

Caroline folded her arms in front of her and rocked back on her heels. She looked Jack up and down, shaking her head in consternation. “It must be exhausting to be you.”

Jack scrubbed a hand over his face. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I think they even wrote a song about it once,” she murmured so only Jack could hear. “‘Suspicious Minds’…” Caroline made a joking attempt to hum a few bars.

Jack made no effort to draw away, even as he glowered at her. “You’re a laugh riot.”

He was standing so close she could see the beginnings of an evening beard, which was something she’d already felt earlier, when he’d buried his face against the delicate skin of her breasts. She flushed as the erotic memory sent another cascade of pure physical thrills soaring through her.

She stepped forward, lightly tapping the center of his chest with her index finger. “And you’ve got to get a grip on your cynicism if you want your mother to have the happy day she should. Seriously, Jack.” Caroline looked deep into his eyes. “Not everyone who wants to marry someone with money has designs on their bank account.”

“You talk a good game.” Jack studied her face, and his
lips curved into a wicked smile. “Yet I don’t see you putting
yourself
out there.”

Caroline’s brows knit together in confusion. “Wasn’t that what just happened between us today?”

“Actually—” Jack gave Caroline a look that warmed her through and through “—I’m not sure what that was, which is why I am so eager to try it again and find out.”

They weren’t touching but it felt as if they were. “You’re shameless.”

He did not disagree. “So,” Jack said finally, “about tonight…?”

Caroline shrugged. “I’m working,” she said.

Jack grimaced. “Unfortunately, so am I. Or at least I am supposed to, but since my mother bailed on me, I have no sitter for Maddie, and with it being a Friday night…” He paused, waiting.

Caroline did a double take. “Tell me you’re not asking me to babysit!” she exclaimed as Maddie came racing back in again, sliding across the smooth wood floor as if into home base.

“Is Caroline going to watch me tonight? I like that!”

Oh, no, Caroline thought, looking at Maddie’s eager face. Talk about breaking hearts and long-held wishes! If only the little girl didn’t want a mommy. If only she didn’t want a child!

“It would just be from six-thirty to nine at the latest. I’ll feed her dinner, get her ready for bed, everything before I leave.” Jack looked at Caroline, desperate. “Plus I’ll owe you, big-time.” He reached over and squeezed her hand, then waited a prayerful moment. “So what do you say?”

I
COULD GET USED TO THIS
, Caroline thought, several hours later.

She had gone back to the office, returned phone calls
and finished up a few things, then rushed home to change into a pair of denim capris and a boat-necked navy-and-white three-quarter-sleeved T-shirt and flip-flops. Then it was back to Jack’s.

Maddie had been waiting for her, in a pair of apple-green pajamas with an adorable dog-and-cat print. Bounder was following the little girl everywhere she went.

“I think Bounder wants her collar to come off,” Maddie told Caroline the moment she walked in the door.

Caroline didn’t doubt that for a minute. The satellite-dish-shaped “hat” looked like a royal pain.

“Maddie,” Jack warned. “We talked about this. Bounder has to wear it so she won’t chew her bandage off and start bleeding again.”

Maddie’s lower lip shot out. “Bounder wouldn’t do that!”

Caroline knelt down so she was at eye level with the little girl. “Bounder wouldn’t mean to hurt herself, Maddie. But she would. Because that’s how dogs take care of their owies. They lick them. And when you lick a cut like that it usually starts bleeding again. Kind of like if you scrape your knee and it starts to get better and then you fall down again and it starts bleeding all over again. Like that.”

“Oh.” Maddie’s expression turned solemn.

“But I know Bounder appreciates how much you love her. And what good care you are taking of her,” Caroline continued.

Maddie’s face lit up with enough joy to inspire a thousand smiles. “I do love her very much,” she said, reaching forward to envelop Caroline in an exuberant hug.

And it would be so easy, Caroline thought, as she returned the little girl’s heartfelt embrace, to love you as my very own. So easy to let you into my life…

Maddie released her hold on Caroline shyly.

Her heart bursting with unexpected affection, Caroline stood.

And looked at the other person in the room she wouldn’t mind calling family….

She’d had the impression that Jack was looking fine tonight when she came in, but she hadn’t had a chance to
really
look at him. Now she did. He, too, was just out of the shower. He had shaved, brushed his hair. The dark suit contrasted nicely with the marine-blue shirt and striped tie. Most intriguing of all was the cologne he wore. Cedarwood and moss combined with expensive leather and crisp sun-dried linens…The fragrance conjured up an earthy sophistication…success…a briskness that was both pure Jack, and pure spring…. She had never inhaled anything quite like it, and she knew she would never forget it. Or the specific way it fit the man who had just splashed it on his skin.

“Your mother gave that to you, didn’t she?”

“Conjured up for me just this week.” Jack winked. “Said it’s guaranteed to attract the woman of my dreams.”

Patrice was not matchmaking, Caroline reassured herself calmly. And besides, she had fallen into bed with Jack that afternoon without help of such artifice.

“I wouldn’t know about that,” Caroline murmured, aware her attraction to Jack was so much more than his cologne. And yet, that cologne had worked to irrevocably conjure up all sorts of sensual thoughts and images…and desires.

Jack merely smiled and looked at her as if he knew exactly what she was thinking and envisioned the same.

Realizing, however, that time and circumstance were not on their side tonight, he reluctantly unlocked their gazes and knelt down to his daughter. “You be good for Caroline. She’s going to put you and Bounder in bed at eight o’clock.
And no nonsense, okay, Maddie? I want you to go to sleep. So Bounder will go to sleep. She needs lots of shut-eye to get well.”

“Okay, Daddy.” Maddie hugged her daddy fiercely.

Jack kissed and hugged his daughter back, then stood. He paused for a pat on the head to the dog, a long look in Caroline’s eyes that promised a more intimate greeting later in private, and then he was gone.

“O
KAY, WHO IS SHE
?” Grady asked as soon as the dinner meeting had concluded with the group of doctors who had just agreed to lease all the last available commercial space at One Trinity River Place.

“Who’s who?” Jack fit his papers into his briefcase.

“The woman who has you smiling again,” Travis said.

“I know that look, too,” Nate said. “I haven’t seen it on your face in years.”

“Thanks, guys,” Jack said drily, aware he was happy, happier than he had been since he could recall.

Dan fit the architectural drawings of the just-leased offices back in the carrying case. “I’m sure we’ll meet her soon enough. If you’re even half in love as we all suspect, you won’t be able to keep whoever she is under wraps for long.”

“I’m not in love,” Jack said. He wasn’t that naive anymore. And didn’t intend to be again.

He was in lust, however. Head over heels in lust…

“You say that now,” Grady predicted with a grin.

“Yeah, yeah…” Reluctant to discuss something that wasn’t meant to bear greater scrutiny, Jack said goodbye to his friends and headed out.

Traffic was light for nine o’clock Friday evening. Fifteen minutes later, he was walking in the door. Caroline was in
the living room, flip-flops off, sitting cross-legged on the sofa. She was using her leather briefcase as a desk. Several notepads and pens were spread out on top of it.

Jack dropped his suit jacket over the back of a wing chair, loosened his tie and the first two buttons on his shirt. Unable to help but think what a welcoming sight Caroline made after a very long day, Jack sank into the seat kitty-corner from her, and stretched his legs out in front of him. He paused to admire her pretty feet and cranberry-red toenails. Her delicate ankles, the arch of her foot, the slender heel, were all as sexy and feminine as the rest of her.

Reluctantly, Jack forced his gaze upward. If he didn’t want to chase Caroline away, he was going to have to get a handle on his desire. Otherwise, she’d end up thinking he was only interested in one thing, when it was so much more than that….

Jack cleared his throat. “Maddie and Bounder are asleep, I take it?”

With close to maternal contentment, Caroline reported, “We had fun hanging out together, and then they went to bed at eight. Both of them were very tired. Bounder was all too happy to curl up on the cushion next to Maddie’s bed, and she was happy as long as her pet was near.”

It sounded cozy. Jack was sorry he had missed it. “Thanks for helping me out tonight,” he said sincerely.