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“She’s daydreaming about the kiss,” Melanie whispered.
“Oh, I think at this point Jax is the star of her fantasies. Just let her go.”
Olivia growled and left the room, her friends’ laughter following her down the steps. She slid into her flip-flops and headed out the front door. It was a beautiful, breezy spring evening and Olivia seriously just needed some air. She needed to get away from the house, away from the mocking of her friends—no matter how true their assumptions may have been—and she needed to think about her next move with Jackson.
He’d be waiting for her, no doubt. He’d have some new, charming move to catch her off guard. But she’d be ready. Olivia had handled multimillion-dollar business deals and dealt with charming men on a daily basis. Jackson wasn’t going to throw her off or get her to back down.
Maybe this new plan of Jade’s would spark some interest with him and they could both get what they wanted. Then again, this may also keep them on opposing sides.
/> She glanced to the time on her cell. Might as well get this over with.
Chapter Eight
The rain falling on the metal roof was enough to have Jax wishing he’d just headed home. Instead, he sat in his office, looking over finances while Piper slept on the old, worn brown sofa. He kept a sleeping bag here for her because the couch wasn’t the softest fabric and he wasn’t investing money to upgrade it.
His sweet girl lay curled up, her blond hair sliding out of her pigtails. The bibs she wore were too large for her tiny frame, but she always insisted on wearing them.
Those bibs were a constant reminder of who truly had the power here. They’d hung on the back of this office door for years and Piper always loved playing dress-up with them, because dress-up to her wasn’t becoming a princess.
She wanted to be a plane mechanic and pilot like her daddy, and he couldn’t fault her one bit. He loved his job, loved when he’d been in the air force, but enjoyed the place he was at now in his life.
This airport was so much more than a means to pay bills. This place had been here when he’d needed somewhere to go. When he’d had few options and no time to go on the hunt, Paul had taken him back in an instant.
The click of the hangar door caught his attention. It was after eight, closing in on nine, so who would be here? Glancing at Piper, he saw she was still fast asleep. Jax slipped out of his office and gently pulled the door behind him before turning to see who had popped in. Shouldn’t have been another pilot, not with the weather taking on a nasty turn this evening.
Pilots were constantly watching the weather whether they were taking off or not. It was just something ingrained in them and Jax didn’t even think anything of it anymore. Georgia was especially tricky in the spring. The pop-up storms were too common to be careless.
Jax rounded the corner from his office to the main area, which might be considered a lobby, and came to stop when he saw Livie squeezing the water from her hair. Part of him wanted to laugh at her water-logged appearance, but the other part of him, the completely male part, was too busy taking in the way her clothing had molded to her body.
The black legging capris and plain red tank showed off the fact that she didn’t just sit behind a desk and push papers all day. This woman was in shape and had curves in all the right places . . . places his hands itched to touch.
Damn it. He’d wanted that kiss to be some one-time event when it came to his hormones. Unfortunately, one look at her, frazzled as she may have been, and he was confident there were going to be more kisses, more touching. He couldn’t wait.
Livie looked up and jerked back. “Oh, I didn’t see you standing there.”
She flung her damp hair back over her shoulder and attempted to swipe the moisture from her clothes. Jax crossed the space between them, never taking his eyes off her. Somewhere between her demanding he sell and their plane ride, he’d gone from loathing to wanting. It had been a damn long time since he’d felt an attraction this strong, but how could he ever trust that gut instinct again? He’d thought Carly was the one for him and she left him with a two-week-old baby. Clearly, where women were concerned, he wasn’t the best judge of character.
“What are you doing here?” he asked.
She glanced around the open hangar, then back to him. “I was just out for a walk and ended up here.”
Stunned, he took a step closer until there was little space between them. “You walked five miles?”
“I guess so.” She shrugged. “I was cleaning out my house and needed air. I didn’t have intentions when I left.”
“Yet here you are.”
Her eyes held his as she nodded. There was no way she could’ve known he’d be here. He never knew when he’d be late either. He’d actually had a flight for this evening, but had to reschedule it due to the unsteady weather system.
“Did you need to see me or just come here to think things through?” he asked.
A droplet of water slid down her neck, disappearing into that scoop of her tank. His body tightened, stirred, as he brought his gaze back up to hers. The woman was torturing him on every possible level and he was human . . . at some point he was going to crack.
“Both,” she murmured.
“Piper is asleep in the office. We can talk out here or go out to the bench under the awning.”
“Let’s go outside,” she told him. “I’ve always loved a good storm.”
