Next to You by Julia Gabriel Page B

toward the house behind them. “I was experimenting with a new product in the kitchen. Which was dumb of me, I know. Knew that back then but beautiful, wealthy, intelligent—two out of three ain’t bad. And a pot of wax and oil sort of blew up in my face.”
    Jared was quiet for a minute. “You weren’t here by yourself, were you?”
    “Yeah. I was. I barely managed to get to my phone to call 911. This is the first time I’ve been back here since.”
    “And what happened last week? The day you arrived and fell off the porch.”
    “I tried to turn on one of the burners and I panicked. That’s why I’m here though. I’m supposed to be, as my partner puts it, vanquishing the demons.”
    She heard a low chuckle in the dark. She was still hesitant to turn her head and look at him. This was nice, sitting here talking to him. She didn’t want to spook him again and cause it to end.
    “Hmm. Demons are hard little buggers to vanquish. In my experience.”
    A finger touched her temple, lightly. She held her breath as he traced the scar that ran down her face, a scar she normally hid with makeup. Her eyes closed when his finger rounded the curve of her jaw and he flattened the back of his hand against the soft skin beneath her chin.
    “How many?”
    “How many what?” His hand dropped away from her neck and she missed his touch immediately.
    “How many surgeries?”
    “Thirty-two. Thirty-three if my mother gets her way and browbeats me into implants.”
    She felt his gaze on her chest.
    “I think you look fine,” he said.
    “I used to be, ah, better endowed.”
    He shifted his legs on the tiled edge of the pool. It took all her willpower not to look at his crotch. He had felt pretty well endowed himself when she had pressed herself against him in her kitchen.
    Their conversation fell quiet then. Phlox was dying to kiss him again, wanted him to kiss her back this time. But why? Why him? You just haven’t been in close proximity to a man in awhile, and especially to one wearing nothing but swim trunks. Was that it? Simple chemistry? Phlox believed in chemistry, for certain. She’d been a chem major, after all.
    “It’s not that I didn’t like kissing you.” Jared broke the silence. “But you have a boyfriend.”
    “I do?”
    “That guy who was here over the weekend. With the sweet BMW.”
    Phlox laughed. “Oh that was Rye. My brother. He brought the photo album up. I asked my assistant to just overnight it but Rye wanted to check up on me.” She kicked at the water. “If you had seen me before, you would have figured it out. I don’t look like anyone in my family anymore though.”
    “Yeah, I don’t look my brother anymore either.”
    She took a deep breath. It was the perfect opening, and she wanted to know, but she was afraid he would get up and run off again. She screwed up her courage and took the plunge.
    “How about you? How did it …” She couldn’t finish the sentence.
    “House fire. I got my brother out, but our parents …”
    She nodded.
    “I was ten.”
    A choked sob escaped her throat, and he was touching her face again. This time, his thumb grazed the scar at the corner of her eye.
    “You’re lucky you could afford all this. I was just lucky they saved my life.”
    “Jared,” she said quietly. She reached up to cover his hand and hold it against her cheek. Her heart ached at the thought of him as a little boy in a hospital, with all those injuries. It had been tough for her and she’d been an adult.
    She was surprised when his other hand cupped her head tentatively, his fingers pushing gently into her wet hair. “I’d kiss you but I’m not very good at this,” he said.
    “I don’t care.”
    His lips brushed hers lightly, hesitant.
    “Harder,” she murmured. She wanted him to take the lead so he could be in control. She didn’t want to scare him off this time.
    She felt the firmer pressure of his hand on her scalp as he pulled her closer. His mouth began to explore hers,