AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Stop right there, you rat bastard,” Jack snarled as he tackled the person and took him to the floor.
“Ow, get off me!”
A female voice had spoken. Definitely a soft, curvy female body cushioned his against the hard floor. A mass of thick, dark hair spilled across his hands and brushed against his bare chest. Catching the achingly familiar sweet scent of lemon, he knew even before he saw her who it was. “Kate?”
The flashlight thunked as it rolled out of her hands, swinging around to shine on her face.
She stopped struggling beneath him and stared up, finally recognizing him in the shadowy darkness. “Jack?”
“I’m sorry.” He rolled off her. “Did I hurt you?”
She sat up, sucking in deep breaths, but didn’t answer. When Jack reached toward her, to make sure she was real and all right, she flinched away as if she couldn’t bear his touch.
He probably deserved it. He couldn’t imagine what she’d made of his silence since their meeting. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” she finally answered, her voice shaky and her breathing still shallow. “What are you doing here?”
“I could ask the same of you.”
“This is my aunt’s house. She knows I’m here, she told me I could stay for a while.”
Kate staying right next door? Sleeping in this room, directly next to the one where he’d be sleeping? Moving around in this house behind one all-too-thin wall so he’d be able to hear her sigh in her sleep or step into the shower?
God help him.
“Now, answer my question, Jack. Why are you here in the middle of the night?” She glanced down, as if just noticing his bare chest and loose sweats. Her eyes immediately shifted away, but not before he saw her lips part so she could suck in a deep, shaky breath.
“I’m staying here.”
She jerked her attention back to his face. “Staying? Here?”
“I mean, next door. I’m renting the duplex next door.” He paused. “Your mother’s place.”
“My mother’s…wait, you know my mother?” She paused. “You know who I am?”
“Yes. To both questions.”
“How? And what do you mean, you’re renting Mom’s duplex? That’s not possible. You can’t be living in her house.”
“You didn’t know she’d rented it out?”
“Well, of course, but to J. J. Winfield…” Her voice softened. Even in the low lighting provided by the flashlight and the moon shining in through the bare front window, he saw her cheeks go pale and her mouth drop open. “Oh, no. Tell me your name is not J. J. Winfield.”
He shook his head, sending a bolt of relief shooting through her body. “No, it’s not.” Her relief quickly disintegrated when he continued. “No one except my parents and your mother have called me J.J. since I was a teenager. I go by Jack now.”
Kate couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. Certainly she couldn’t speak. The man she’d had fabulous sex with in the theater several weeks ago was J. J. Winfield—the son of Mayor John Winfield? The man she’d come back to town to seduce and to destroy was the one who’d already hurt her so badly by breaking his promise to call after their amazing encounter? She covered her eyes. “This is a nightmare.”
“Kate, I’m sorry, I had no idea you were coming back to Ohio. Your mother never mentioned it.”
She didn’t know which was worse. That he was here and she had to face her inattentive lover, or that he was John Winfield Junior. Somehow, the memory of all those long, silent, lonely weeks since she’d seen him last seemed the more devastating now.
“No, of course you didn’t know I was coming.”
Her mother couldn’t have told him, because even she hadn’t known. Kate and Cassie hadn’t told Edie because Kate knew her mother too well. She’d be on the first plane back here if she thought Kate was coming to stay in town.
Cassie was one thing—everyone in the family knew Cassie could take care of herself. With her looks, brains and her self-confidence, Cassie had never really had to rely on anyone for anything. Except love and loyalty, which the Tremaine women were always quick to provide to one another.
