Under The Covers. Crystal Jordan

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СКАЧАТЬ He grinned, rolling his shoulders as he turned down Main Street. Every storefront in the downtown area was decked out in twinkling white Christmas lights, including the shop he’d opened four years ago—Taylor Ink. He drove past, glancing in at the darkened interior. It was closed right now. He would open again for shortened hours a few days after Christmas but wouldn’t go back to regular hours until New Year’s Day.

      So, until Dayna left, he had nothing better to do than her. Plenty of time to focus on loosening her up. It would be good for her to let go a little, and amazing for him to slide his hands over that smooth, creamy skin. And as a tattooist, he knew world-class skin when he saw it.

      He also had a few very intriguing ideas on how to strip her of a little bit more of that control of hers. He stroked his fingers down the steering wheel, imagining her curves under his palms. Hell, he could do whatever he wanted with Dayna, and there was no danger of things getting deeper. He wasn’t her type, and she sure as hell wasn’t his. There was plenty of chemistry, but she wanted a nice guy. Hopefully not a dickhead like Nathan, but a nice, established guy. If possessive jealousy fisted in his gut, he ignored it. That just wasn’t how things could go with Dayna. No, it was just some carefree fun. She needed some of that, and he was more than willing to help her out.

      This was the safest risk he’d ever taken.

      It had to be because he knew exactly what loving a woman could do to a man. It could eat him alive. Jake’s shoulders stiffened, the muscles tightening as ugly memories he didn’t want came rushing in. He shook his head. No woman was worth what his mother had done to his father. She’d left his dad, left them both, when Jake was six—Toby’s age. When she’d skipped town with another man, Jake’s father had crawled into a bottle and never managed to drag himself out again. Jake had watched his old man get drunk and stay drunk every single day until the day he’d wrapped his truck around a telephone pole. Jake had been eighteen and two weeks out of high school.

      Yeah, his dear old dad had been a great example of what not to be. Jake never wanted to let a woman close enough to hurt him like that, but he also didn’t wanted to be like his mother—a cheater. When he was with a woman, he was with her. After seeing what his father had gone through, he didn’t believe in infidelity. He might not want forever with one woman, but while his affairs lasted, he didn’t stray. He had fun, they had fun, but Jake was always the one to walk away. Always.

      It wasn’t that he didn’t let anyone in. He had the Sharps. They’d been his family since he was twelve years old. He’d do damn near anything for them, but he could love them without risking his soul. That suited him just fine. He had the best of all worlds.

      Sucking in a breath, he shoved the old ghosts aside and focused on how amazing his life was now and how mind-blowing the next week was going to be. A smile formed on his lips as the image of Dayna’s slim body arching in pleasure came to his mind. He was one lucky bastard, and he knew it. Whistling tunelessly, he made the turn that would take him out to the lake…and his house.

      4

      “I like this one! No, this one!” Toby ran in a frantic zigzag pattern through the Christmas tree farm. Tugging her notebook out of her bag, Dayna checked the tree farm off her to-do list for the day. Toby had insisted they couldn’t get a tree until Dayna was there to help pick it out. She grinned, footsteps crunching through the snow as Jake, Sam, and she followed the boy. She filed away little bits and pieces of the day to go in her next book. Maybe she’d talk to her editor about a holiday story.

      She drew in a deep lungful of cold, crisp air, looking out over the little town spread across the mountainside below her. Snow blanketed the ground, fat flakes drifted in lazy swirls from the sky, and icicles decorated the edge of every roof. It was picturesque. She’d forgotten how pretty this area could be—she’d always focused on how much she wanted to get away and start her own life. She rolled her eyes at herself. She’d done such a stellar job with her life lately.

      All her efforts had been focused on not thinking about breaking up with Nathan yesterday and not thinking about what she’d done with Jake last night, but it was all crashing in on her now. The pain of losing something she’d wanted so much. The self-loathing for losing control. The guilt. Her stomach heaved, and she swallowed hard to keep down the lunch she’d had at Rainbow’s. God, she really was worse than her mother. At least her mother was thoughtless; Dayna knew what she was doing and did it anyway. Self-disgust crawled through her.

      “Dad, look at this one!” Toby poked his little head out from behind a Douglas fir and then disappeared again.

      Sam laughed. “Hey, rugrat. Wait up!”

      Dayna tucked her scarf tighter around her neck as she watched her brother slog through the ankle-deep slush after her nephew. Toby looked just like Sam had at that age. Same eyes, same smile, same endless energy. She chuckled. Her brother deserved to have to deal with it from someone else.

      Their footsteps had faded before she realized they’d left her alone with Jake. Rainbow had eschewed the delights of wading through the snow looking for a tree to stay home and cook dinner. Dayna tensed when she felt the heat of Jake’s muscular body envelop her from behind. “Just the two of us.”

      She swallowed, but her mouth had dried, and she couldn’t make a sound emerge from her tight throat. Goose bumps rippled down her limbs, heat flooding her body. The sensation was a sharp contrast to the chill of snowflakes catching on her eyelashes and kissing her bare cheeks and lips. She shivered.

      A loud crack followed by a dismayed shout sounded to their left as a tree trunk snapped and an evergreen went down. A red-faced man emerged from the branches shaking his fist at a woman standing beside the tree. His voice slurred the way only copious amounts of alcohol could manage. “You stupid cunt!”

      Jake growled and shifted in their direction when the woman planted her palms on her ample hips and snapped back. “Well, if you’d let me call for some help, it would have been fine. You can just do it all by yourself if you’re going to talk to me like that.”

      She turned and flounced away while Jake pulled Dayna into the trees away from the still cursing drunk. Dayna tensed, worried for a moment that the drunken display might remind Jake of his father—one of the few things that could put Jake in a really dark mood. He was willing to drink in bars and at his house, but she’d never seen him drunk in the middle of the day. The few occasions she’d met his father, he’d been soused, regardless of the time of day. Jake was usually careful, except for last night. Looked like they were a bad influence on each other.

      Clearing her throat, she tried to lighten the moment. “Well, Merry Christmas to him, too.”

      Jake coughed, shrugging his tense shoulders in an obvious attempt to shake off the moment. He offered her a tight smile. “You know, I’ve never understood using cunt as an insult.”

      “Why not? It’s certainly derogatory.” She winced.

      His dark blond brows rose, and his grin widened to a more genuine one. “Yes, but why would I use a word that describes the happiest place on Earth as an insult? He might as well have said, ‘You stupid Disneyland.’”

      A laugh exploded out of Dayna at the incredulous look on his face. No matter how long she’d known him, it constantly amazed her what came out of Jake’s mouth. Tears welled in her eyes as her fit of giggles wouldn’t stop. She wrapped her arms around her belly, trying to contain the chuckles, but she ended up slipping in the snow. It just made her laugh harder as Jake caught her from behind to keep her on her feet. “Oh, my God. I can’t believe you said that.”

      His hands cupped СКАЧАТЬ