Lauren wanted to try to fight the attraction and wanted to convince herself Jack was everything bad she wanted to stay away from, but he knew she was fighting a losing battle. If she thought this wasn’t going anywhere further, she was delusional. She needed to get thisMr. Prettyproblem out of her head, which he was happy to help her do, and explore her options—him. His gut tightened at the thought of her exploring her options with any other man. A reaction he was not familiar with.
Chapter Seventeen
During the next few days Jack’s office was a whirlwind of activity. Lauren was constantly checking on painters, electricians, and furniture deliveries. It pleased her to see the office looking like a place of business.
With all the activity going on, they hadn’t had any time alone. She didn’t know whether to be happy or disappointed. She decided to choose happy, but deep down she didn’t really believe it.
Even though they were never alone, Jack’s hooded, sexy eyes followed her, making no secret about watching her. Excitement flowed in all the right places. She had to work really hard to ignore his sex-me-up eyes or she’d be tempted to take him up on what they offered and never get any work done.
But he wass-o-o-opretty. No, pretty wasn’t a good enough word for him. He went beyond pretty. Masculinity oozed from his every pore. His body, built for power, filled out his dress pants and steel-gray shirt in a way that should be illegal. Twice that morning, she’d been caught staring at him. Although he was kind enough not to say anything in front of the workers, his cocky grin and mischievous eyes twinkled with understanding.
Lauren was getting to the point where if she didn’t get her hands on him, she’d combust like a cheap, bargain-basement heater. And then where would she be? Herno Mr. Prettyrules would be broken and she’d ultimately be left alone and heartbroken once again.Heartbroken? Where did that come from?Alone...maybe. Heartbroken...definitely not. That would mean investing her heart in him, and she knew that would be a big mistake.
When Stacey, the courier, staggered into the office carrying packages of framed football jerseys Jack raced over to take them out of her hands. Stacey, with her short denim shorts, tight pink tank top, and mane of long, black gorgeous hair, smiled her thanks and gave him a comeback-to-my-place-so-I-can-handle-your-package look. Jack smiled back, all sexy and flirty. Lauren’s chest tightened and heat threatened to steam from her ears. God, she could kick her own ass for falling for those bedroom eyes.
Hearing Stacey giggle—giggle!—at something Jack said had her thinking of castration and how messy it would get.
Marching over to them, Lauren snatched the electronic scanner thingy from Stacey’s hand and scribbled her signature on the screen. She thanked Stacey with sugar-sweet politeness and sent her on her merry way.
Jack’s low chuckle behind her had her body responding like it usually did—turned on and slutty. Damn her traitorous body.
“Careful, if I didn’t know better, I’d say you look jealous.”
Lauren knew the truth of what he said would be flashing in her eyes, so she turned her attention to the delivery. Ignoring his comment, she busied herself tearing off the protective packaging from the jerseys Stacey had delivered.
“You threw Stacey out because she was flirting with me.” Obviously, he wasn’t going to
let it go.
She made an unladylike snort. “Why should I care if you two were flirting?” She stepped back to inspect the frames.
“Iwas being friendly.”
“Again, don’t care. Flirt with whoever you want.”
Carrying one of the frames over to the wall she wanted to hang it on, she carefully leaned it against the fresh paint. She turned to get the next one but Jack stood as solid as a brick wall in her way, looking like he was enjoying himself a little too much. When she tried to step around the conceited jerk, two strong hands dropped on her shoulders, stopping her getaway.
She glanced over at Ron, the electrician, who was on his knees screwing in the new power outlets. White earbuds stuck out from his ears and he was singing out of tune to what sounded like an AC/DC song.
“I think you do care.” Jack’s emerald eyes flashed heat.
“Well, I don’t,” she replied, trying hard not to let his gaze turn her into mush. There was a very good reason she wanted to stay away from Jack, and the incident with Stacey had reminded her why.
“Your tone suggests otherwise.” The corners of his lips turned up into a smile, and she wanted to slap it off his face for being an over-confident, cocky jerk.
“You’re reading too much into it. Stacey was acting very unprofessional. This is a place of business, not a pick-up bar. She’s here to do a job, not waste my time.” She resisted the urge to addand she wanted to do you!because that would’ve really made her sound jealous.
Shrugging her shoulders, she tried to shake him off with no luck. “I’m here to do a job, so flirt with whoever you want on your own time.”
“I’m going to tell you again, I wasn’tflirtingwith her.”
Lauren suppressed a sigh of frustration. “Look, Jack. I know you probably can’t help it, it’s in the Mr. Pretty’s nature—”
His firm grip tightened on her shoulders. “We’re not back to thisMr. Prettybullshit again, are we? Because if you tell me I’m aMr. Prettyone more time, I’ll be extremely pissed.”
She averted her eyes. It was exactly what she’d been going to say. Jack probably couldn’t help but flirt with every attractive woman who entered the room. Well, to be fair, apart from Ellen and herself, Stacey had been the only other woman to come into the office. But the number didn’t matter; it was still in a Mr. Pretty’s nature.
He cupped her face with his large, strong hands, traced the pad of his thumb along her bottom lip, and with hooded eyes, he asked, “Do I need to kiss some sense into you?”
