Rock Solid. Jennifer Greene

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СКАЧАТЬ hurting a child. Just in case that was the message you were trying to get across in that gentle way of yours.”

      She cut her gaze away from his so fast that Cash felt a sharp slash of guilt. “Hell. Did I hurt your feelings? Keegan says I’m as subtle as a sledgehammer on my good days.”

      “I was teasing you, not complaining. And it wouldn’t matter if you hurt my feelings or not. I’d do the same thing in your shoes—say whatever needed saying to protect a vulnerable child in my care. I loved watching the two of you together.” Swiftly she glanced at her wrist. “Good grief, it’s almost midnight. I’m keeping you up, and me, too. I just came up here to find a book.”

      She grabbed the book, then uncoiled and leaped to her feet, then swooped back down—apparently—for her shoes. Cash saw her suddenly flying around, but when he stood up from the chair, she seemed nowhere near him. He wasn’t exactly sure how a shoe suddenly hurtled out of her hand. Or why the book dropped. Or how the crown of her head somehow managed to ram into his chest, throwing both of them off balance.

      Instinctively he grabbed her, his hands closing around her upper arms until she steadied. And she steadied fast enough, but she was still red-faced and laughing when she tilted her face.

      “Cripes, I’m so sorry. I warned you I was clumsy, didn’t I?”

      “Don’t worry about it—um…” She started to bounce down to reach for the fallen shoe again, and almost jabbed a sharp elbow in his crotch. Startled, he grabbed her arms again—as gently as he could—and tried to tactfully lift her a few inches safer distance from him. “How about if you let me get your shoes and the book? And don’t move for a second.”

      “Scared I’ll do you injury, huh?”

      “I think you’ve got incredible potential as a defensive end. Although I’m afraid defensive ends don’t usually come in your size.”

      She chuckled. But then her laughter faded. As if someone flipped a switch, Cash was suddenly conscious of the sudden hush in the room, the dark shadows and intimacy of lamplight, the scent of books…and her perfume. It wasn’t pixieish and gamine like her, but a soft, sexy, exotic scent, spices he didn’t know, flowers he couldn’t name. The perfume made him uneasy, but that wasn’t why he shifted on his feet.

      An embarrassed rose was still brushed across her cheeks from her near tumble. But at that second, her face was still tilted toward his, her lips barely parted, those liquid chocolate eyes fastened on his face.

      He had the craziest sensation that she wanted to kiss him. Or to be kissed. By him.

      That first lunatic sensation was followed by another. He wanted to kiss her. The way he hadn’t wanted to kiss a woman in forever. Not a let’s-get-it-on kiss. Not a hi-there-honey kiss. Not a let’s-test-these-waters kiss.

      But a kiss that communicated Damn, I’ve been waiting for you forever. I didn’t know I’d ever find you. I really didn’t believe you even existed. Not for me.

      His throat was suddenly too dry to swallow, his pulse galloping like a colt’s in spring. He couldn’t remember ever having this stupid a reaction to a woman. Naturally, though, he recovered swiftly, smiled, moved. Especially moved. “Well, you’re not going to have any trouble finding your way back to your room, are you?”

      “I don’t think I’ve memorized the whole layout, yet, but I know I can find my room, no problem.”

      “Well, I’ll see you in the morning then, Lexie.”

      “I’ll turn out the lights—”

      Again she spun around, so fast—again—that her incredibly lethal elbow almost landed a hook in his ribs. “I’ll get the lights, don’t worry.”

      “Did I—?”

      “No, no, you didn’t do a bit of harm. I just don’t want you walking in the dark in an unfamiliar place. I’ll follow you in a minute, and clip the lights off after that.”

      But he lied, Cash mused. She was harm. He couldn’t explain how she’d done that ooga booga thing with him a few moments before, but for damn sure, he didn’t respond to normal women that way. Something about her was different.

      And worrisome.

      Three

      At 6:29 a.m., Lexie’s right hand poked out from the cocoon of blankets, lifted midair and waited. When the alarm clock buzzed 6:30, her palm slammed on the sucker almost before it had a chance to screech.

      Blearily she opened her eyes. She was used to insomnia, used to surviving for days on end with short-sleep. She was also used to getting up at insanely early hours. But she wasn’t used to dreaming about strange men, and it put her off her stride.

      She swung her legs over the side of the unfamiliar bed, switched on the light, winced at the glare and then tested her body for complaints. A lack-of-sleep headache pounded in her temples. Her feet hurt from too many hours of traveling the day before, wearing impractical shoes. The muscles in her neck were painfully tensed from too many hours of tossing and turning. All in all, Lexie figured she should be good and miserable.

      Instead, an image of Cash McKay pounced in her mind like a charge of fresh, delightful, invigorating lightning. Instantly she forgot all the creaking body parts—or else they self-healed with amazing speed. She couldn’t wait to get up and see what the day brought.

      Yikes. The terrifying thought bounced through her head that she was losing what little mind she had left.

      By the time she’d slipped on pale jeans, a pastel shirt and new hiking shoes—the leather soft as butter—she was scowling…and feeling more like herself. How could she possibly be looking forward to this day? If she were at home, by now she’d have made three phone calls, checked her home fax and inhaled early-morning CNN before her teeth were brushed. She didn’t know how the Dow or NASDAQ had closed yesterday. She could hear birds, but not a single sound of anything electronic anywhere. It wasn’t natural.

      She wasn’t going to make it here four weeks. Heck, she wasn’t going to make it four days.

      And downstairs, there he was—and not just Cash, but his sidekick. Actually, through the thick red-stone door of the dining room, a number of male bodies were milling around the laid-out buffet, but it was only the dad and son team who snared her attention. One of them was practicing spelling words for a test that day, and all Lexie could think was how adorable they were, both in worn-in jeans and dark long-sleeved T-shirts and boots, both with a cowlick, both with the same swaggering walk. The pair of them could have a matching sign on their foreheads—Cash and Son, two against the world, no women wanted.

      Since she wasn’t looking to be a woman in anyone’s life, Lexie felt unsure why the two McKays put such a darn lump in her throat. They were just so…darling together. So fierce. So obviously a family, with love they wore like a protective shield. They so obviously belonged together and watched out for each other. But then the one with those sexy, battered eyes spotted her in the doorway.

      “Morning, Lex, come on in and grab a plate. You met Slim Farraday and Stuart Rennbacker last night, didn’t you?”

      She greeted both the guys, and yes, she remembered them from dinner the evening before. Slim was the banking mogul, a little man with kind eyes of around sixty who walked with the СКАЧАТЬ