I Only Have Eyes for You
Page 17Smith’s words resounded with a forceful premonition of doom, of pain, of loss. She was almost frightened by the expression on her brother’s face.
His phone rang just then, an urgent beeping that had him cursing and pulling it from his pocket. “Damn it, it’s my director in Australia.”
Smith was executive producing his new big-budget movie, and she knew it had been nearly impossible for him to carve out these hours for the wedding. And yet, not once all night had he picked up his phone.
He turned his back on her as he told the director, “I can’t talk right now, James. I’m in the middle of something important and I’ll have to call you back. You knew what she was like when you hired her. We all warned you. I’m leaving for the airport at first light. I’ll deal with it as soon as I can.”
But by the time Smith disconnected the call, Sophie was gone.
Chapter Seven
“What the hell are you doing here?”
Sophie was standing on the front step of Jake’s Napa Valley rental house, as if he’d conjured her out of thin air.
“I came to see you, Jake. To talk. To figure things out.” Her gaze dropped to his mouth before she whispered, “And to kiss some more.”
Working to ignore the way his body was responding to her nearness, he stepped out onto the front step and closed the door behind him.
“There’s nothing to talk about. Nothing to figure out. And we’re not going to kiss again. Ever.”
She should have run at his harsh tone. Instead, she moved closer. Close enough to mess with whatever brain cells were still functioning in the bloodless zone of his brain.
“Jake, if you’ll just let me come in—”
“I could have been in bed with someone else.”
She couldn’t hide her flinch at his harsh words, at the reminder that he had specifically not chosen to take her to his bed tonight. But instead of backing off, he watched as she pushed her shoulders back and her chin up.
“But you aren’t...are you?”
“No.” Damn it, he should have been. That would have showed both of them that all he needed was a warm, willing body, instead of wanting Sophie with an urgency that was nearly driving him insane. “But that doesn’t mean I was waiting for you.”She was right—the sparks between them had practically set the vineyard on fire. Convincing her he didn’t want her wasn’t going to work. He’d have to make her run a different way.
He’d kill anyone who harmed even one hair on Sophie’s head. Already, he knew it was going to be a very long time before he forgave himself for that kiss...and for what he was about to do to her now.
Just because pushing her away was a necessary evil, didn’t mean it wasn’t evil, damn it.
He purposely raked his gaze down her body, lingering on her br**sts and hips far longer than he needed to. “You’re too innocent for me, princess. Why don’t you leave before something happens that you’ll regret?”
It was partly that innocence that drew him to her, of course, but she didn’t need to know that. Not when he was on a mission to get her to leave before his control shattered.
But instead of rising to his taunts, she simply smiled at him. “One of the perks of being a librarian is endless access to books.” She licked at her lower lip, slowly, deliberately. “All kinds of books.”
Suddenly, Jake couldn’t get past the image of Sophie poring over the Kama Sutra, memorizing all those variations on lovemaking with her big brain. It was wrong. So damn wrong.
And yet, his body seemed to think it was impossibly right.
“I’ll do anything.”
Oh, hell no. That wasn’t what she was supposed to say.
Jake had never been backed into a darker corner. Not even with his drunk father had he felt so helpless, so out of control. He needed to pick the reins back up, rather than let the beauty standing before him keep taking him for a ride they shouldn’t be on in the first place.
“Anything, huh?” She nodded, but her face was flushing again, a flush that moved down her neck to the soft swell of her br**sts rising up above the top of her dress.
“I already told you,” she reminded him in a soft, but firm, voice, “you’re not going to scare me away, not matter how hard you try. You can’t scare me because I already know the real you.”
The real him? He’d show her the real him, all right.
“How many times have you been blindfolded? And I’m not talking about Pin the Tail on the Donkey.”
“I know you’re not,” she shot back.