He was just a step behind her and when they moved into the hall, he caught her arm. Heat shot from his touch to rocket through her body like an explosion battering off a series of walls. She was forced to lock her knees to keep from swaying into him. His eyes were dark, fathomless and when he spoke, she had to fight for focus.
“And just what have you read?”
“I think you know the answer to that,” she said, trying to tug her arm free of his grasp. “You’re practically the poster boy for fast jets and faster women. So you can understand how seeing you, being so gentle, so tender, with Mia like that, could throw me a little.”
He snorted. “You’ve got a narrow view on the world, don’t you?”
“No, I don’t.” She tried again to get free, but Jackson wasn’t ready to let her go just yet. He parted her robe and ran one hand up her arm. Even though the terry robe she wore wasn’t exactly sexy, seeing the curve of her br**sts beneath the soft fabric was enough to make him hard and ready and way too eager. Despite the fact that she had the ability to seriously annoy him.
“Sure you do,” he said with a sneer. “You read some one-sided articles about me and decide that I’m what? Some rampaging guy, only interested in what he can take out of life?”
She stilled and chewed on her bottom lip. He’d like to help with that, but he resisted.
“Do you think the tabloids would be interested in doing a story on me babysitting my nieces? No,” he answered for her. “They want sensationalism because that’s what people like you want to read.”
Her eyes, a dark, passion-filled blue, widened. “People like me?”
“Not fun being judged, is it?” he countered. “Yes, people like you. People who see a headline about me on a grocery store paper and assume you know me.” He bent down, until their gazes were on the same level and his mouth was just a breath away from hers. “I’m not that guy, Casey. There’s more to me than that, just as I assume there’s more to you than the woman who seduced me just to get a DNA sample.”
She tried to pull away again, but wasn’t successful. Jackson stared down into her eyes and felt the tug of the attraction between them arc like a downed power line, sparks flying, hissing, through the air.
He’d leapt out of bed when he’d heard Mia crying. Hadn’t stopped to consider that he’d no doubt run into Casey along the way.
It had been instinct drawing him to his crying child. Instinct to lift her from the crib and a revelation when those tiny arms had come around his neck. Love like he’d never known had dropped down on him like a thunderbolt from the sky.
Feeling the solid weight of his daughter in his arms, the slide of her tears over his skin and her tiny fingers pulling at his hair, Jackson had taken the fall. Her helplessness, her vulnerability had come together to catch him in a silken trap and hold him fast.
There was no escape for him, ever. Not even if he’d wanted one, which he didn’t. He was his daughter’s father and he would fight anyone who tried to keep them apart. Even if it meant going to war with her mother.
But looking down at Casey now, he knew damn well he didn’t want to fight her. What he wanted was to pick her up, carry her into his room and bury himself inside her. He hungered for her touch. For the feel of her skin beneath his hands. He wanted her so badly, the need clawed at his throat, nearly choking him.
A small voice inside reminded him that he was soon supposed to be an engaged man. But he wasn’t there yet. No promises had been made, so none could be broken.
And that’s when a new plan hit him. He’d told Casey that he wasn’t interested in her. A lie, of course, but one that had suited him at the time. But she and Mia were here in his house, now. And that changed things. Rather than a war, Jackson decided he’d wage a different kind of battle. A battle of seduction.
The amazing chemistry between them was too hot for either of them to pretend it didn’t exist. So maybe, if they surrendered to it, they could burn out the flame faster than they could by ignoring it.
He backed her against the wall and watched her eyes widen even further. The pulse point at the base of her throat pounded and her breath quickened until her br**sts lifted and fell in rapid succession. She felt everything he did. He saw it in her eyes.
“Jackson, don’t,” she whispered, looking up into his eyes. “Like you said, we don’t even know each other.”
“That didn’t stop us the night we met.”
“That was different,” she murmured even as he covered one of her br**sts with his palm. His thumb slowly stroked across the tip of her hardened nipple.
She gasped and he knew it was from both desire and shock. She hadn’t expected him to make a move on her and damned if he didn’t like having the element of surprise on his side. And the feel of her. Even through the soft cloth of her robe, the heat of her swept into his palm, feeding the fires within until he felt as if he might spontaneously combust on the spot.
“Not really,” he whispered, and kissed her briefly, gently, a featherlight touch of his lips to hers. “Besides, what better way to get to know each other?”
“It would be a mistake,” she said, even as she arched into his hand.
“Are you so sure,” he murmured, dropping his other hand to the hem of her robe, lifting it, sliding it up her thigh, letting his fingertips trail across her silky skin.
“Um…” She closed her eyes, moaned a little and then sighed as his fingers toyed with her nipple. “Yes?”
He smiled and shifted his hand higher on her leg, sliding inexorably toward the heart of her. The heated, silken core of her body. He needed to touch. To stroke. “You don’t sound very sure to me, but then maybe I don’t know you well enough to be certain.”
“Exactly,” she whispered, her eyes flying open again to meet his.
“Help me then,” he said as he discovered she wasn’t wearing panties. He stroked her heat and watched her eyes darken even further until that midnight blue looked nearly black. “What’s your favorite color?”
“What?” Startled, she shook her head, whimpered and parted her legs a bit to give him easier access. “Color?”
“Your favorite,” he prodded.
“Blue. Yours?”
“Black. Mountains or beach?”
“Beach. You?”
“Mountains,” he whispered and slid one finger into her heat. She sighed and he asked, “Picnic or restaurant?”