Take Me. Cherry Adair

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СКАЧАТЬ his imagination she’d appeared larger than life somehow. Vibrant and intoxicatingly alive. She had what the French called je ne sais quoi, an indescribable something.

      Joshua didn’t consider himself a fanciful man, but he needed to see Jessie Adams again. Needed to assure himself that what he remembered from the night before was as simple as her unmistakable sex appeal.

      Joshua enjoyed sex. He considered himself a considerate lover. He wanted Jessie. It seemed simple enough. And yet… He narrowed his eyes trying to put his finger on it. There was more to her. Something complex. Something intriguing. Something, damn it, that called to much more than his libido.

      Which was, of course, a ridiculous assumption based on a few minutes of conversation the night before.

      He wanted to chat with her once more before he left to drive back to San Francisco. Get rid of this stupid fantasy he’d built up during the night. Frankly, he reminded himself grimly, he didn’t have the emotional fortitude to deal with a woman for more than companionship and sex.

      They didn’t call him The Glacier for nothing.

      High above him, a gust took hold of the thin silk, and Jessie’s slender arms madly manipulated the controls against the sudden shift in wind direction. She was losing the battle.

      “Hell.” Joshua started to run as her feet skimmed the treetops. Behind him, the follow vehicle revved, then bit a wheelie into the dirt road running alongside the vines behind Simon’s house. Joshua sprinted to the other side of the trees just in time to see the billowing silks covering Jessie’s prone body.

      Roughly he gathered the fabric, flinging it behind him until he unveiled her. She looked up into his face and grinned.

      “God, that was fabulous!” She sat up, brushing twigs and dirt off her arms. A skintight purple and fuchsia spandex bodysuit clung to every sleek, tight inch of her long body.

      “You little idiot,” Joshua said furiously, his heart still pounding. “You could’ve been killed.”

      Jessie’s hand stilled and her smile slipped a little as she unbuckled her fuchsia helmet and tugged it off. Something he didn’t recognize flared in her eyes.

      “Yeah, my landing left a little to be desired.” She tossed her braid over her shoulder. “I’ll have to work on that.” She stuck out a hand. “Pull me up.”

      He hadn’t imagined it. She seemed to inhale life, to eat it with a spoon, relishing each delicious moment at a time. He knew she’d be like that in bed. Eager. Hot. Passionate and wild. He could drown in those hot, brown eyes. “You like living dangerously, don’t you?”

      “You have no idea,” Jessie managed to say breathlessly as he suddenly tugged on her hand, drawing her to her feet and against his chest in one quick move.

      “I want to taste it on you.” Joshua breathed in her already familiar scent that even dust and eucalyptus couldn’t mask.

      “Taste what?” she asked, a hairsbreadth away from his mouth. She looked up at him, her hand in his against his chest. Her fingers flexed under his but her eyes were steady. “Taste what?” she repeated, her husky voice low.

      “Danger.” He brought his mouth down on hers like a starving man at a banquet. He knew after he’d slept with her a few times the gnawing want would lessen and become manageable enough to ignore.

      Jessie’s lips held the sheen of his kiss as he stepped away from her. Joshua handed her the helmet. “I’ll call you January first,” he told her. Ignoring her bemused look, he turned and walked away. It was one of the hardest things he’d done in years.

      He walked faster.

      2

      AS PROMISED, Joshua called Jessie on New Year’s Day.

      Jessie made sure she wasn’t home.

      He called again on the second, the third and the fifth. She’d let the answering machine pick up while she sat in her kitchen listening, his tone getting progressively cooler and more impatient with each call.

      Joshua had left half a dozen imperious messages in the last two weeks. She had no intention of falling over herself to call him back. Obviously he wasn’t used to being ignored.

      She knew she was playing a dangerous game. There was a fine balance as she waited for the timing to be right without causing Joshua to lose interest.

      Soon. Very soon, Jessie thought as she drove onto the narrow road leading up to the gatehouse. She’d been startled, no, stunned, when Joshua had admitted he was a married man. His honesty, not only in acknowledging his marriage, but the status of that marriage, had confused her.

      If she hadn’t been his wife she would’ve politely walked away. Her mother had had plenty of married lovers. The ending was always sad and messy.

      She sighed. His honesty had disarmed her and made her feel a little guilty about what she was about to do. But he was still The Glacier. Cold. Hard. Ruthless. He was still her absentee husband. He was still the man who was going to give her her heart’s desire. A baby. Born in wedlock.

      It was the second week of the new year and cold for Northern California. The wind cut through her jacket as Jessie got out of the car. It was after three and she’d missed lunch looking for a particular wallpaper sample at the design center in the city. Her stomach growled.

      The little cottage welcomed her with warmth as she quickly closed the front door behind her and headed for the kitchen. She loved the carriage house. It was home. Safe, warm, welcoming, and as permanent a home as she’d ever had. Joshua’s lawyer, Felix Montgomery, had taken her under his wing and introduced her to his son Conrad that dizzying day seven years ago.

      Con had offered her not only the use of the gatehouse, but also a job in his architectural company while she went back to school. Conrad and his partner, Archie, had converted the gatehouse cottage into a charming home for her, then later incorporated the studio when she’d gone to work for Conrad full-time as an interior designer.

      They’d helped her transform her life and, in the process, the two men had become her dearest friends and the brothers she’d never had.

      The phone rang. Jessie turned off the machine. “Hello?”

      “Where in the hell have you been?”

      She dragged in a breath. “I believe you have the wrong number,” and hung up.

      The phone rang again. Jessie tossed a tea bag in a mug of water and stuck it in the microwave. The phone continued ringing. The microwave dinged. She squeezed out the bag and poured in a little milk. “Hello?”

      “This is extremely time-consuming,” Joshua said with a great deal of annoyance.

      “Who is this?”

      There was a pause. “Joshua Falcon.”

      “Oh. Sorry. I’ve been getting a lot of crank calls,” Jessie told him sweetly. She sipped her tea and burned her tongue. She sat down at the small round table in a weak ray of sunshine and unhooked the calendar beside the phone.

      “I’ve been calling you СКАЧАТЬ