“If you’re serious,” she said, sliding the strap of her purse up onto her shoulder, “then we can talk about it.After I meet with Mac Spencer.”
“You’re. Not. Going.”
She laughed shortly. “Yes. I. Am. And you can’t stop me. You don’t have the right. So,” she added as she marched quickly across his office to the closed door, “you and Mia have a good time and I’ll see you back at the house later.”
Fifteen minutes into her “meeting” and Casey knew Jackson had been right about Mac Spencer. The man was sleaze. Oh, he was good-looking enough in a sharp, on-edge kind of way. His hair was perfectly styled, swept back from a high forehead. His eyes were blue and his jaws carried just the right amount of stubble to make him look rugged.
But their coffee hadn’t even been served before he’d reached across the table to take her hand in his. Casey had pulled away and opened her portfolio, determined to make the kind of business contacts she would need. If she could convince this man that she could do the job, then she was willing to put up with his not-so-subtle flirtations. After all, it wasn’t the first time she’d had to peel an overeager would-be client off of her.
But he was getting irritated at the way she kept sloughing him off. He waved one manicured hand at her still open portfolio, dismissing it. “This is all fine, but I think you’d get a better idea of what I’m looking for if we went back to my office. I could show you last year’s plan and you could convince me how to improve on it.”
No way was Casey going to go to his office with him. She already knew it was a one-man operation, which meant that she would be alone with him. Not something she had any interest in. Much better to stay in the safety of Drake’s diner.
“If you’ll look at this brochure I did for the Rotary Club of Darby last year, you can see that through the judicious use of color…”
He plucked the brochure from her hand and tossed it aside. Leaning across the table, he ran the tips of his fingers down the back of her hand in a slow stroke no doubt meant to be incredibly sexy. What it was, was irritating.
“Why don’t you let me buy you dinner then? Some place nice. Some place quieter. Where we could get to know each other a little better?”
“I really don’t—”
“Evening, Mac.”
Jackson’s deep voice thundered out around them and had Casey jolting in her seat. She lifted her head to see him standing beside their table, his black, furious gaze shifting from Mac’s hand on hers to the man himself.
“King,” Mac said, straightening up a little, giving Jackson an uneasy smile. “What’re you doing here?”
“Came to pick up Casey,” he said tightly, leaning on the table and pinning Mac with a black stare that had the man clearing his throat and looking for an escape route. “You about done?”
“Sure. Yes. I’m sure I’ve got all I need,” Mac said, looking from Jackson to Casey and back again like a man looking for an escape and not finding one. Finally, he slid from the booth and quickly scuttled backward, out of Jackson’s arm reach.
“You’ve got all you’re going to get, that’s for sure,” Jackson told him.
Nodding, Mac stiffened his shoulders, lifted his chin and sent Casey one withering look. “Thanks for the information, Ms. Davis. I’ll be in touch.”
As Mac left, Casey heard Jackson mutter, “Like hell you will.” Then he sat down in Mac’s empty seat across from her and smiled thinly.
“What was that about?”
“I was saving your ass.”
“Did it look like I needed saving?”
“Actually, yeah.”
Maybe it had, she thought now, wondering if the distaste she’d been feeling for Mac Spencer had shown on her features. But whether or not that was the case, she could have handled the situation on her own. “Well, I didn’t.”
“You don’t have to thank me, but you could at least admit you needed me.”
“Thank you?” She shook her head as she gathered up her portfolio, shuffled all of her extra papers and designs inside and then snapped it shut. “You probably just cost me what could have been a great job. This is my work, Jackson. Do I come onto the airfield and tell you which plane to fly? Or which pilot to hire?”
“No, but that’s hardly the same thing.”
“Of course it is.” She slid out of the booth, grabbed up her portfolio and purse and looked down at him through narrowed eyes. “I could have handled that guy, Jackson. Do you think he’s the first one to think he could lay hands on me? Do you think that’s the first time I’ve had to take care of myself in a dicey situation? Well, it’s not. I’ve done pretty well for myself my whole life and I can continue to do it. Without your help.”
The fact that she was right had little to do with anything. She had been on her own for most of her life. He’d learned that early on. She had no family. No close friends but Dani Sullivan.
But now she had him.
For however long this lasted, she damn well hadhim.
When she stalked down the crowded busy aisle, Jackson bolted from the booth to follow. He dodged around a waitress balancing a tray of soft drinks and kept his eye on Casey as he walked.
His gaze locked on the sway of her h*ps in that short yellow skirt and then followed the line of her trim, tanned legs down to the three-inch heels she wore to give her more height.
He’d been furious when he walked up to the table to see Mac touching her. There’d been nothing he wanted more than to plow his fist into the man’s face. And damned if he’d apologize for it.
He was right behind her when she left Drake’s. An ocean wind raced at him as if it was trying to push him back inside. He squinted into the wind and the dying sunlight, held the door open for an elderly woman, then trotted after Casey before she could get into the SUV and take off. “Where’s Mia?” she demanded.
“With Anna,” he snapped. “She’s perfectly safe.”
“You were supposed to be the one watching her.”
“I was too busy watchingyou. ”
“Which isn’t your job,” she reminded him.
“Like hell it’s not,” he growled, low in his throat as he grabbed her upper arms and yanked her in close.
The sun was setting and the weird half-light made her eyes gleam and her blond hair shine like spun gold. Her breath was coming fast and furious and his own heart was pounding erratically in his chest. “You think I couldn’t see what Mac was thinking, planning? You think I’m just going to stand by and watch as some guy puts his hands on you? Ain’t gonna happen, Casey.Nobody touches you but me.”