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She had to get control. She was in charge now. Taking back her life. Her future. Jacob was separate. And she had to woman up and deal with him or stay away from him. Either way, she definitely wasn’t dating him. His presence was too much. Too engulfing.
I’m in trouble . . .
Because he was right. She did want him so bad, to a point of need. Her body was betraying her with every brush of his skin or flash of his grin. She had a feeling Jacob Lock could live up to his promises . . . or threats. His hands and mouth alone could do amazi
ng things in record time. That much she was fairly certain of.
So she’d have to fight harder. Because the moment she was still, she just might start thinking about how much her father loved him, had built with him, shared with him. While she was in California. She’d missed out. And she’d lost big.
She kicked the gravel and cursed.
The sneaky topic of hate screwing crept into her brain again, and she shook it away. She would love to physically take out her feelings on Jacob. And they wouldn’t be the warm and fuzzy kind.
He’d made her gasp, just from the nearness of him earlier. But he had said he could make her moan. Part of her wanted him to try. And that part of her needed to shut up, because she was trying to run a business, which was shaping up to be a lot more difficult that she’d anticipated. Reputation mattered. And she didn’t have much of one, which could be bad for Baughman. And she’d be damned if that company did anything less than thrive under her watch.
But taking Jake up on his offer of help?
“Not smart,” she said out loud. Because she needed to hear it—to accept it.
Lights came up behind her, paired with big tires rolling on the dirt road. She didn’t need to look back to know it was Jake in his truck, coming her way.
He rolled down the passenger window and slowed his Chevy to keep pace with her strides.
“What the hell are you doing? You could get lost or—”
“I’m fine,” she said, attempting to maintain the hustle. He pulled ahead, put his truck in park, rounded the front, and headed her off by the tailgate.
“You can’t just leave like that,” he said. With the tailgate at his back, Jacob Lock and a two-ton diesel were blocking her path.
“What do you care?” she said. “Isn’t this part of your grand plan?”
She stepped toward him. The truck was off, but the lights remained on. Between that and the moonlight, she could see his blue eyes blazing on the otherwise desolate road.
“My plan is to alleviate whatever the hell is between us and make sure the business doesn’t go under in the meantime.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “I am educated in marketing. It’s my plan to make sure the business has its best year yet. I just need—”
“Oh, I know what you need,” he said. “You’re just too stubborn to admit it.”
Her gaze snapped to his. The dam had broken. She had been struggling with herself for a long time, but more recently, struggling with Jacob Lock. Fine. She could play. She could show him exactly the kind of woman she was capable of being. The kind of woman she wanted to be. She was done being overlooked or underestimated.
“You want to push me?” Using her pointer finger, she tapped his hard chest, emphasizing her words. “You want to make me go crazy? Make me need you?” She tapped his chest again, and his back thumped against the tailgate.
A low growl broke in his throat, but his eyes stayed on her face. He was letting her touch him, glare at him, push his buttons. He was much stronger and more solid than she was—but he was letting her come at him.
It was then she realized how badly she wanted to get lost. In him. With him. The one man who understood more about her father she did. The one man deemed better than her, yet how he’d pushed her. Was pushing her. As if the challenge was what she needed.
All of the grief, confusion, anger, and lust boiled over. She was tired of pushing him—tonight she would pull.
The last rational thought left her mind. She fisted his shirt and yanked him toward her until his mouth crashed down on hers. She kissed him hard, with all the anger she felt. She should hate him—kind of did hate him, actually. But she would show him how wrong he was. She didn’t need him. Not for anything personally or professionally.
Keeping her mouth on his, she pushed him back farther against the tailgate and drove her tongue into his mouth. He tasted like beer and lime and so good. It was everything she could do to stop from drinking him down whole.
His big hands landed heavy on her ass and hoisted her up. She instantly wrapped her legs around his hips.
“You’re a wild little thing, aren’t you?” he rasped against her mouth. With her in his arms, he turned so that her back was now against the truck.
“There’s nothing nice about this, you understand?” she said, driving her fingers into his hair and kissing down his neck, throwing in a few bites along the way.
