Juicy. Noelle Mack

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СКАЧАТЬ than an hour. I have a house on Pine Island, in Breezy Bay. Great place. No cars allowed in the summer months, just bicycles and little red wagons to drag your groceries home.”

      “Pine Island? My boss has a house there. But I think she said it was near the Summer Club.”

      Jaz pulled back a little to look down at her. “Small world. That’s about half a mile from my house. What’s her name again?”

      “Viola Lentone.”

      “Right. Dora told me. I don’t think I know her.”

      “But her married name was different—actually, she’s had more than one married name. She’s been divorced three or four times. I think she got the beach house from husband number two.”

      “Describe her.”

      Bliss’s reply was somewhat muffled by his chest, because Jaz was holding her close again. He was a very affectionate guy but sometimes he made it difficult to talk. “Tall. Elegant. Shoulder-length silver hair with dramatic black eyebrows. And she always wears huge silver hoop earrings.”

      “Hmm. Sounds familiar,” Jaz said slowly. “Well, maybe I do know her. I’m pretty sure I ran into someone like that at a couple of deck parties last year. There’s only about fifty houses in the Summer Club and Breezy Bay combined. Eventually you meet everybody.”

      Bliss’s heart sank. That was one really good reason to end this fling right now, right here. She wanted to keep her job. Banging a major client wasn’t the way to do it, no matter how much fun sex with him was. She wasn’t going to take a chance on running into Vi if she took Jaz up on his offer.

      “Anyway, you should come out. No law against having fun, is there?”

      Bliss struggled out of his arms and sat up, fluffing her hair. “Maybe.” She turned to look at Jaz in all his brawny glory. His green eyes were sleepy-sexy and he reached out a hand to hold hers. “I guess I would if I was sure Vi wasn’t going to be there.”

      She thought again of her cramped sublet and the long summer ahead, and wondered why she didn’t just say yes. She wasn’t that afraid of Vi’s temper.

      Okay, she was.

      And this guy is too good to be true, she told herself. Once he sees my crummy apartment and how hard I have to scratch just to get by, he’ll bow out.

      “Bliss, she won’t fire you. The HT account is worth millions to your agency.”

      “That’s precisely my point.” Bliss rolled away, dragging the tangled top sheet with her, and draping herself in it as she stood up. “Besides, you haven’t actually said in so many words that Lentone Fitch & Garibaldi actually has the account.”

      “You know I want to go with you guys,” he said indignantly. “Rolling around in bed with you has nothing to do with my decision. I made up my mind long before I got your clothes off. So did Alf. He buttonholed me while you were taking the factory tour. He likes you a lot.”

      Bliss nodded, not sure if she should tell him that maybe the outgoing CEO liked her a little too much.

      “You picked up the details of our operation in record time and I thought your marketing ideas were amazing—” He broke off and scowled at her. “Goddamn it, do we have to talk shop?”

      “Yes.” She found two corners of the sheet and tied it in a knot over her breasts.

      He braced himself on his elbows and stayed on the bed, looking at her longingly. “Do you seriously think we’re going to be satisfied with having sex just once?”

      “I didn’t say that.”

      “Good. Now we’re getting somewhere. Because that was probably the best sex I ever had.”

      Bliss held up a hand. “This is not a negotiation. We will now resume our normal business relationship.”

      He stared at her doubtfully. “You have got to be kidding.”

      “I’m not.”

      Jaz swung his legs over the side of the bed and got up, walking over to her. “Don’t make me spout a lot of bad dialogue, Bliss. I don’t want this to end. I really like you. Come out to my beach house and play. I really, really like you. I could even fall in—”

      “Don’t go there.” Her steely look stopped him in his tracks.

      “Okay, okay. I give up.”

      She watched him warily, hanging on to her security sheet. No way would a man like Jaz Claybourn, hard-driving CEO and bedroom bounty hunter, give up that easily. Bliss took a deep breath, waiting to hear what he would say next. He didn’t say anything. In fact, he looked as confused as she felt.

      He went into the bathroom, washed up, and came out with a low-slung towel tied around his hips. “Seen my pants? I gotta get going.”

      She wasn’t going to ask where.

      Bliss pointed to where he had dropped them on the floor and swept past him into the bathroom, slamming the door on the trailing sheet. She swore and undid the knot, letting the sheet fall off and standing on it. She pulled out the water knob and adjusted the temperature, then yanked up on the knob that switched the flow to the showerhead. She stepped under the pounding spray, but not before she heard him check in with Dora on his cell phone and laugh in an intimate way.

      Mm-hm. Suspicions confirmed. Dora saw him nearly every day and there had to be something going on. But Bliss couldn’t shake the feeling that he wasn’t totally, officially taken.

      She soaped up, rinsed off, and got out, wrapping herself in a big towel. Jaz opened the door without knocking and stuck his head in, grinning like a wolf. “Okay. Dora’s going to chuck Alf under the chin tomorrow morning and make excuses for me. He worships her, says a blonde gives the place class.”

      She waited for him to contradict that. Say something postcoital and flattering. Brunettes are much sexier. He didn’t.

      “He’ll believe whatever she tells him,” Jaz went on, oblivious to Bliss’s irritation. “I’m taking a four-day weekend starting tomorrow, which is Thursday, and you’re coming out to Pine Island as soon as you can.”

      “No.”

      He didn’t even pretend to hear her. “You get to fly back to New York first, of course. Tell Vi you nailed me to the wall.”

      “I would phrase it differently, but go on.”

      “You have the account. She’s sure to give you Friday off. The ferry runs every hour from Havertown on Fridays. Very convenient. Like I said, you can take the train from Manhattan. Transfer at Glenwick for the Havertown train, and take a taxi to the ferry dock. Easy as pie.”

      “I hate you.”

      He rested his head on his muscular arm and looked down at her. “I don’t think so. You’re just nervous.”

      “You make me nervous.” Looking at him naked from the waist up was dissolving her brains again. And her resolve. He seemed to be on the verge of a smile. A very contagious СКАЧАТЬ