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He was laying it on thick to embarrass her. The rat.
‘Monroe, I’m so glad you came.’ Ali greeted him with a warm smile.
‘You’re welcome, ma’am.’
‘Take a seat and Jess’ll get you a drink. I’ll just go and get Linc. He’s reading Emmy a bedtime story.’
As Ali bustled out of the room Jessie busied herself putting the last of the food on the table. She pretended not to notice as Monroe folded his long frame into the chair opposite.
‘A beer would be great, Red.’ He said the nickname in a murmur that was deliberately familiar. Jessie looked up. He was watching her, confident and amused. ‘Cute dress.’He tilted his head to one side, took a good long look. ‘Fits you just right.’
Jessie felt her pulse skid into overdrive. She wasn’t sure why she’d decided to change into the figure-hugging silk dress for dinner, but it certainly hadn’t been to see that flare of heat in his eyes.
‘I’ll get your beer.’ She walked stiffly to the fridge. The low, masculine chuckle from behind her made her jaws tighten. Where were Linc and Ali? If she had to spend much longer alone with him, she’d dump the beer on his head.
Jessie didn’t miss the teasing heat in Monroe’s gaze when she plunked the glass of beer in front of him. Lounging in the chair, his lean, muscular physique looked magnificent. Her pulse thudded against her neck. Why did all the best-looking men have the most aggravating personalities?
‘Thanks, Red.’ He picked up the glass; one brow lifted as he eyed the huge foam head. ‘Looks like you need a little practice with your bar-tending skills, though.’
She smiled sweetly at him. ‘I’m sorry to say I don’t have the time. I’m too busy making obsequious apologies to people who don’t deserve them.’
He barked out a laugh just as Linc and Ali walked into the room.
‘Monroe, good to see you.’ Linc held out a hand. ‘I hope Jessie’s making you feel at home.’
‘She certainly is,’ Monroe said smoothly as he stood up and shook his brother’s hand.
As they all settled down to eat, Jessie couldn’t resist sticking her tongue out at him from behind her sister’s back. He winked back, making her regret the childish gesture. She’d ignore him, she thought, as she picked up her knife and fork. Now, if only she could swallow, too.
Monroe thought the dinner would be stiff and formal, but he found it surprisingly easy to talk to his brother and sister-in-law. He hadn’t eaten since a stale bagel that morning in an interstate truck stop, so the mouth-watering selection of salads and cold cuts also went down well.
He’d expected lots of probing questions about what the hell he’d been doing all this time while his brother had made a staggering success of his life. Instead Linc and Ali kept their inquiries discreet and when he didn’t elaborate they seemed more than happy to take up the slack, telling him funny stories about their family and how they’d first met.
Monroe hadn’t missed the intimate looks that passed from husband to wife during the telling. He also noticed the way his brother never seemed to miss an opportunity to touch his wife.
The gentle, possessive hand resting on the small of her back when she sat down to eat. The way his fingers stroked her arm when she passed him the salad bowl. The love between them was so tangible, Monroe was touched despite his determination to remain aloof.
Monroe liked watching people. It helped him create the pictures he painted. But while he could see the love between Linc and his wife, he was more interested in the reaction of Ali’s sister. He had seen the shadow of longing in Jessie’s eyes.
When Linc and Ali left the table to get the dessert, Monroe kept his eyes on Jessie. She watched the couple walk over to the large open kitchen together, the yearning in her eyes obvious when Linc pulled his wife into a fleeting embrace behind the breakfast bar. What was Jessie thinking, he wondered, with that romantic look in her eyes?
She turned suddenly, and caught him studying her.
‘Will you stop staring at me? It happens to be flipping rude.’
It was the first time she’d spoken to him directly since handing him his beer. The exasperation in her voice made him smile.
‘So’s swearing at the table, Red, but you don’t hear me complaining.’
Would she never be able to get the last word with this man? Jessie thought as her teeth ground together.
To her surprise, the dinner hadn’t been as excruciating as she thought it would be. For an ex-con and obvious reprobate he could be charming when he wanted to be. Although she noticed he’d been cleverly evasive whenever Ali or Linc had asked him about his life. He just said he’d been ‘on the move.’ Well, okay, she didn’t exactly have a spectacular career at the moment, but she did have goals, objectives. At the very least, she did a bit more than just travel around on a motorbike.
She’d also caught him staring at her several times during the meal. That last probing look, when she’d been daydreaming about having a marriage like Linc and Ali’s, had really unsettled her. The strange sense of envy she felt was one of her most shameful secrets.
‘Flipping is hardly a swear word,’ she whispered, so Linc and Ali wouldn’t overhear them. ‘It’s just an expression.’
‘Red, anything’s a swear word when you say it with that look in your eye.’
She choked down her pithy response when Ali appeared with a huge lemon pie.
‘I hope you’ve still got some room left, Monroe,’ Ai said, placing the pie on the table.
Monroe leaned back and patted his flat belly. ‘I might just have a little.’
The pie was served as soon as Linc arrived with a gallon of ice cream. Avoiding Monroe’s gaze, which seemed to be fixed on her yet again, Jessie gave Linc her sweetest smile. ‘I thought I’d go into town tomorrow and beg the people at the Cranford Art Gallery for the Saturday job they’ve been advertising. Could I borrow the BMW?’
‘Sorry, Jess.’ Linc scooped some more ice cream onto his plate. ‘It’s making a weird noise. I’m planning to get the guy at the shop to take a look at it.’
‘I’ll give it a look.’
Linc stopped eating at Monroe’s casual comment. ‘There’s no need.’
Monroe forked up another generous piece of pie, sent his brother a level look. ‘Sure there is.’
Jessie could see Linc was on the verge of refusing again, when Ali touched his arm, silencing him. Ali beamed a smile at Monroe. ‘That’s great, Monroe. It’ll save us the trouble of having to call the mechanic.’
Jessie wondered at the sudden tension in the room between the two men. It was also odd that Monroe had made the offer. After all, wasn’t he supposed to be a deadbeat? She shrugged the thought aside; it made no difference to her what he was. She turned to Ali. ‘Are you using the people carrier tomorrow?’
Ali nodded. ‘Linc and I promised Emmy we’d go to the funfair at Pleasance Beach. Maybe we could drop you off in town and then pick you up later. Did you have a particular time in mind?’
‘It’s okay. That’ll take you miles out of your way.’ Jessie couldn’t help feeling a little crestfallen. She’d wanted to get to the gallery tomorrow. She needed to find a job.
‘You can catch a ride with me on the Harley,’ Monroe said. ‘I’ve got to go into town and pick up some groceries. I’ve got a spare helmet.’
Jessie stared at him. Surely he couldn’t be serious. ‘No, really, it’s no problem. I’ll go in another day.’
‘Don’t be silly, Jessie,’Ali piped up. ‘If Monroe’s offering you should—’
‘I couldn’t possibly trouble him like that,’ Jessie interrupted her sister and aimed a telling look at Monroe. His lips curved slowly. Why did she suddenly feel like a mouse being stalked by a tomcat?
‘No trouble. No trouble at all.’ He stood up, smiled at Ali. ‘Thanks again for the dinner. It was delicious.’
‘You’re welcome.’ Ali beamed at him as Linc rose and offered to see him out.
Just as he got to the door, Monroe turned and gave Jessie another of those winks that made her pulse scramble.
‘See you in the morning, Red. Better put on some pants, though.’His gaze crept down and then back up, making her face heat. ‘That little bit of a dress won’t wear too well on the Harley.’
Jessie scowled as his tall frame strolled out the door ahead of Linc. How annoying that he’d gone and got the last word in again.
CHAPTER FOUR
THE next day dawned bright and clear, the sluggish heat kept at bay by a cool breeze off the Atlantic.
Jessie got up with Emmy, made a quick breakfast of cereal and toast for them both, and then handed her over to Linc and Ali. From the flushed look on her sister’s face after the lie-in Jessie had promised the couple, it looked as if they hadn’t been doing much sleeping.
Jessie ignored the stab of envy as she went upstairs to have her shower. Her sister had a fabulous marriage to a fabulous man. When Jessie had been a bridesmaid at their wedding, she’d known that theirs was the ideal marriage—full of passion but grounded in a deep, abiding love. It was the sort of marriage Jessie wanted for herself.
So far, though, things hadn’t quite worked out that way.
It had taken her two long years and one broken engagement to realise Toby was about as far from her ideal mate as it was possible to get. She had thought he loved her, when the only person he really loved was himself.
She’d tried so hard to persuade herself that Toby was ‘the one.’When he’d asked her to marry him, she’d been swept up in the romance of the moment. But the minute she’d said yes, a little voice in her head had started telling her to run like mad in the opposite direction. She’d been naïve and immature; she could see that now. The huge sense of relief when they had finally gone their separate ways had made Jessie determined never to make that mistake again. However glad she’d been to see the back of Toby, the relationship had left her with the depressing thought that she might never find what Ali had.
Heck, at twenty-six she’d never had halfway decent sex, let alone great sex. When Toby had accused her of being frigid, she’d had to accept that he might well be right. He’d never once stirred the passion in her that Linc so obviously stirred in Ali. She hadn’t so much as kissed a guy since she’d hurled Toby’s engagement ring at him six long months ago. Worse than that, she hadn’t even wanted to.
Determined not to let the creeping sense of despair take hold, Jessie wrapped the towel around her and walked to the closet. After careful consideration, she picked out a chic but simple shift dress with large sunflowers on it. She needed to look hip and stylish if she was going to persuade the art gallery to take her on as a Saturday assistant. Cranford might be a small seaside town, but it was no backwater. A tourist Mecca for the Hamptons’ super-rich and aspirational summer residents, the gallery and its clientele would be as sophisticated as any you’d find in Uptown Manhattan.
Jessie had promised Ali that she’d help out with Emmy until the family went back to London in September. But she hoped to get a Saturday job to earn some much-needed money in the meantime. Linc had insisted on paying all her expenses to get her over here, but Jessie didn’t want him giving her spending money as well. He’d already tried to give her a credit card, which she’d flatly refused, but in the end she’d persuaded him to help her get a temporary working visa. Also, a job in an art gallery was just up her street. She loved art, and, while she’d accepted she didn’t have the talent to be an artist herself, she had always hoped to whittle out a career in the art world. She’d spent six long months drifting since the breakup with Toby. It was time to get her life back on track. Ali handled her life calmly and competently, Jessie thought. If she wanted what Ali had, she needed to start doing the same.
At that thought, the memory of Monroe Latimer watching her in the dining room the night before, his pure blue eyes alight with amusement, blasted into her brain and wouldn’t get out again. Jessie frowned. He might have the goods in the looks department, but luckily for her she was not a shallow person. It hadn’t taken her long to see he was a long way short of her ideal mate in every other department. Flirtatious, arrogant and dangerously attractive, he could make any woman lose sight of what was really important. And for Jessie that was the long haul, not the quick flash-fire of sexual attraction.
Remembering Monroe’s parting comment about the proper bike attire with not a little irritation, Jessie slipped into the dress and then pulled on a pair of jeans. She’d just have to take them off when she got to town. After dabbing on some lipstick, Jessie slipped a pair of yellow slingback sandals into her bag and tugged on her sneakers. She tied her hair into a ruthless ponytail and checked herself in the room’s full-length cheval mirror.
Yep, she looked preposterous.
At least her daft get-up should stop Monroe staring at her in that disconcerting way. She wasn’t looking forward to riding on his bike. Despite all his shortcomings, she had the uncomfortable feeling that being pressed up against that muscular back for the ten-mile ride into town might stir feelings she didn’t want stirred. Quite why she was more sexually aware of him than she had ever been of any other man didn’t bear thinking about.
‘Damn it!’ Monroe pulled his hand out from under the car’s hood and watched the blood seep out of the shallow scrape.
‘Did you hurt yourself?’
Turning at the voice, Monroe watched Jessie walk across the garage towards him. She should have looked ridiculous with denim on under the floating, flowery dress, but she didn’t. She looked chic and summery. His eyes dipped to her cleavage, demurely displayed above the dress’s scoop neck. Sucking the blood from his knuckle, he took in every detail.
‘I certainly hope it’s not fatal?’ The sharp note in her voice suggested she hoped exactly the opposite. He grinned as his gaze lifted back up to her face.
Pulling a bandanna out of his back pocket, he leaned against the car’s hood. ‘You know, Red,’ he said as he wrapped the cloth round his hand, ‘that figure of yours would look great in just about anything.’And even better out of anything, Monroe thought, enjoying the way her eyes narrowed in irritation.
Trying to ignore the way her pulse was racing, Jessie fingered her bag strap and glared at him. ‘While your fashion advice is certainly invaluable, I can see you’re busy. Maybe I should come back later.’ Or not at all, she added silently, already feeling unpleasantly flustered.
‘No need.’ He pushed up from the car’s hood. ‘I’ll go clean up and then we can head out.’ He walked towards her, forcing her to tilt her head back. ‘It’d be a shame not to, Red. Now that you’re all dolled up.’
She watched him mount the steps to his apartment. He made it sound as if she’d dressed up especially for him. The conceited jerk.
Monroe took less than ten minutes, but Jessie was just about to walk off, her heart rate still hitching uncomfortably, when he reappeared. He had a fresh white T-shirt on, the same worn jeans, a small plaster on his hand and a motorbike helmet slung over his arm.
‘This is for you.’ He handed her the helmet. ‘The bike’s out front.’ As she turned to walk ahead of him she felt his palm on the small of her back. The minimal contact made her jump.
‘Easy, Red.’ He lifted his hand. ‘Just being polite.’
Jessie didn’t think so, from the mischievous twinkle in his eyes, but didn’t trust herself to speak. When they reached the bike, she fumbled for a moment trying to put her helmet on, before he lifted it out of her hands.
He did a circular motion with his finger. ‘Turn around.’
She did as he asked, grabbing her hair when he deftly removed the band holding it in a ponytail. ‘What are you doing?’ she demanded as his fingers combed through her hair.
He put his hands on her shoulders and turned her to face him. ‘It’ll be more comfortable like that, with the helmet on.’
He rewarded her scowl with another heart-thumping smile as he placed the helmet on her head and fastened the strap. The light brush of his fingers seemed to burn the soft skin under her chin. This was going to be a nightmare. She hadn’t even got on the bike yet and already she felt as if she were about to explode.
Unhooking his own helmet from the handlebar, he put it on and then climbed onto the enormous machine. ‘Hop on, Red.’
It took several attempts before she managed to clamber up behind him. She had to push her feet hard on the footrests and grasp the back of the seat to stop from sliding against him. She was grateful for the jeans now, because her dress had ridden right up to her waist.
‘I’m ready,’ she said, feeling like an idiot.
Instead of starting the machine, he took his hands off the handlebars, pulled off his helmet and turned round. ‘You ever ride a motorcycle before, Red?’
‘Well, no, not exactly.’ She didn’t like that smug look in his eyes.
‘First rule, hold on tight.’
‘I am holding on tight.’ Her knuckles ached, she was gripping the seat so hard.
He shook his head. ‘Not onto the bike, sweetheart—onto me.’
‘Why can’t I just hold onto the bike?’ She could hear the whine in her voice, but couldn’t help it. She didn’t want to hold onto him.
‘Because when we hit a curve, you’re going to have to lean with me.’ His lips quirked. What was so amusing? ‘Wouldn’t want you falling off.’
He was talking to her as if she were an imbecile. ‘Fine. I’ll hold onto you.’
He grinned, the dimples winking in his cheeks, before he turned and put his helmet back on. To her utter shock, he reached behind, put two large hands on her thighs and dragged her towards him. Before she could blink, she was snuggled against him, her legs spread wide to accommodate his denim-clad butt.
‘Now, put your arms round my waist.’
She didn’t want to, but what choice did she have? She wrapped her arms round him, tried to ignore the feel of his hard, flat stomach beneath her palms. His back felt firm and warm against the thin silk of her dress. He pushed back to kick the bike into life. The powerful vibrations of the machine rumbled up through her thighs, making Jessie painfully aware of all the places where their bodies touched. The very core of her started to throb. How humiliating. His shoulder shifted as he gripped the clutch and her nipples hardened. Worried that he might be able to feel them, she wriggled back, but his hand simply came round again and pulled her back.
‘Stay put, Red, and hold on.’
As soon as he shouted the words at her, the big black machine started to roar up the small hill. Although it was probably only going ten miles per hour up the drive, Jessie tightened her grip on him, grateful for the solid, sure feel of him in front of her. As the breeze caught the ends of her hair beneath the helmet she pressed into his back.
By the time they hit the main coastal road, Jessie couldn’t have cared less if she were naked behind him. The exhilarating feeling of speed and freedom as the scenery whizzed by around them and the wind whipping at her arms and face was fantastic. She loved roller-coaster rides but this was better. Every time they leaned into a bend, her stomach leapt up into her throat and she gripped onto his waist even tighter. He felt wonderful, warm and strong and unyielding. She could smell the clean scent of his cotton T-shirt and the subtle hint of soap and motor oil. The hard, sculpted muscles of his butt rubbed against her centre every time he moved his foot on the gears and her nipples were so hard now she was sure they were boring a hole in his back.
Despite the intimacy, the devastating effect he was having on her physically, she sighed when they drove into the main thoroughfare of town, disappointed that the ride was over so quickly. He slowed the bike down to a gentle purr as he drove through the wide, tree-lined main street of the picturesque seaside town, finally pulling to a stop in front of the grocery store.
Jessie took a moment before peeling herself off him and leaning back. He tugged off his helmet, and a huge grin split his face as he turned round. ‘What did you think?’
