convince me that taking a few weeks off would not bring the world to a grinding halt.”
“So, is it Franklin’s choice of Mexico? Or Paradise Cove? Or do you just miss working and want to get back?”
Jack stopped restlessly tapping his feet together and looked directly at her. Judging from her earnest expression, she wasn’t just making idle chitchat, she really seemed to want to know. “It’s partly being stuck so far away from anything without there being a real purpose for it,” he said quietly. “It’s partly the feeling that I should be working on another assignment.”
“So you don’t miss it as much as you thought you would?”
Jack stilled completely, his gaze pinned on hers. Her ability to cut to the core of things still startled him. She heard things he hadn’t been aware of saying. Until she’d asked, even he hadn’t acknowledged that a large part of the unsettling disquiet plaguing him since he’d arrived here was due to exactly that possibility.
He ignored for now the myriad of questions her comment provoked him to consider. Instead he finished answering her earlier question. “But the main reason I was swearing at Franklin when you walked in was because if it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have met you.”
April’s eyes widened and she stiffened in the chair. “I wasn’t aware I’d made such a nuisance out of myself.”
Jack leaned forward, swung his feet to the floor, and stood, his motions controlled and fluid. He stepped around the low table separating them. April immediately got up and moved several feet away. Jack halted, his light eyes glittering as they narrowed. “I’d think by now you’d know I’m not going to do anything that isn’t a mutual decision.”
The hurt he’d felt at her retreat lessened considerably when she squared her shoulders and held her ground as he moved to stand in front of her. It took guts, he knew, to try to stare down a man a good foot taller than herself. “I’ve been very careful to go slowly with you.” He felt his lips twitch at the disbelief that crossed her face. “I haven’t done anything without your consent, have I?”
“If you’re not counting the pictures you took of me at the reception, no.”
“The pictures aren’t the issue here.” He stepped closer and felt his body warm as he confirmed that the look in her eyes was one of irritation, not fear. He’d never been more turned on, or more confused, in his whole life. “I want to get to know you. Spend time with you. After what happened under that tree you can hardly deny it’s only one-sided.”
“I wanted you to kiss me back, if that’s what you mean. But I don’t like being made to feel guilty that you’re attracted to me. I didn’t like being attracted to you either; it’s confusing and I wasn’t planning on it. But, at least once I admitted it to myself,I was honest with you about it. I don’t know if anything will ever happen between us, but I won’t sneak around to find out.”
She was so damn direct it unnerved him. Jack felt as if he were teetering on the edge of a giant, gaping crevasse, tiptoeing along the rim. One wrong move and he’d be swept away forever. “I wasn’t trying to hide anything by bringing you here. I was under the misguided impression you would prefer to continue what we started out there in private. And for the record, you can’t plan everything in life.”
He placed his hands on her hips; the gentle thrust of her hipbones pressing against his big hands made him aware of just how much bigger he was than her. She didn’t try to move or shift away and he gave in to the need to feel her against him. He pulled her closer and slowly shifted her back and forth, his arousal unmistakable against her flat belly.
“You want honesty? This is what you do to me every time you look at me, talk to me. Even when you’re mad at me. I don’t like feeling this way either, April. I don’t like not being in control. But I’m not hiding from