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“So, you’re really not a bum? You’re like this huge financial wizard and you have a big career. Nora’s not supporting you?”
“Nope.” he grinned at Jill and wondered why this revelation seemed so significant to her. “I’m really not. I’m a grown up with my own place and everything. Does that bother you?”
She sighed and turned back to the front windshield as Andrew steered them toward home. “It just confirmed that you really, really, really can’t be my rebound guy,” she said with a drunken little wave of her hand.
This brought a huge grin from Andrew. “Oh, yeah? You wanted me to be your rebound guy?”Hell, yes!
He kept one eye on the road and glanced over at Jill.
She must have been very drunk because she didn’t hesitate to spill the beans as he pulled the car down the driveway of her grandparents’ house. Andrew turned off the engine when he reached the house.
“Of course. You’re hot. But you’re also Nora’s grandson so that makes you a bad idea. A verrrry bad idea. When I thought you were kind of a bum, it might have been okay to have a fling, but now you’re not, so it isn’t.” Jill babbled on, making it a little hard for Andrew to follow her logic, but he mostly understood where she was coming from.
Still, he was surprised to hear her frank assessment of their relationship possibilities. Or rather, lack thereof.
He watched in bemused shock as his sexy-as-hell neighbor explained that she couldn’t sleep with him even though she wanted to because he was friends with her friend and he was the son of her grandparents’ friend. Too complicated.
Andrew laughed at Jill as she finished her speech. Since he also knew getting involved was a bad idea, he didn’t argue with her. He wanted to argue, though.
He wanted to find some reason to say she was wrong and it would be perfectly fine for them to sleep together. That’s what his body wanted, but his brain still had some control, thankfully. He leaned across the seat toward her, breathing in the incredible mixture of scents he had come to identify with Jill.
“I know what you mean, sweet Jill,” he whispered, as he undid her seatbelt. “I know just what you mean.”
With a great deal of effort, Andrew pulled back before Jill’s proximity got the better of him. He opened his car door and jogged around and opened her door. With all the control he could muster, he walked a rather dazed looking Jill up to her front door, helped her inside, and went home to the second cold shower that Jill had inspired in just a few days.
Chapter Seven
Jill lay in her bed reliving the conversation from her ride home with Andrew last night. She cringed as the memory of her words came back to her all too clearly. She never thought she’d wish for a nice little blackout.
Oh. My. Peanuts.
I actually told Andrew Weston I wanted to have rebound sex with him. What was I thinking?
She hadn’t been thinking. She had been drunk. Jill rarely drank more than a glass of wine when she went out. She certainly never had to be driven home or spilled her guts to her steamy next-door neighbor because she over indulged. She wasn’t the type.
But, for some reason, last night Jill had just wanted to acknowledge her attraction to the one man who couldn’t be her rebound guy. Now she wanted to erase the images she’d created in her head of sharing a bed with Andrew.
With a groan, Jill rolled over and shut her eyes against the sun and the memories of the most embarrassing encounter she’d ever had. What would she do when she ran into Andrew again? How would she face her neighbor after what she had blurted out the night before?
Jill’s husband had left her feeling humiliated and insecure. Now those feelings were magnified by the added mortification of having thrown herself at her handsome neighbor.
Despite her embarrassment, one other thing stuck in her mind from the night before. She remembered the way she felt when Andrew leaned over to unbuckle her seat belt. His body so close to hers. His breath brushing against her neck as he leaned into her. Jill closed her eyes and tried to will the images out of her head.
Crap.
It wasn’t working. Those images weren’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Andrew slept a little later than usual, but he woke with a smile on his face. Sweet, sexy Jill wanted him to be her rebound guy. His smile grew wider at the thought.
He had a feeling Jill might regret blurting out her fantasy about him and her confession sure as hell didn’t make it any easier for him to stay away from her. In a way, Andrew almost wished she hadn’t told him she was interested in him.
Although they were both in agreement being together couldn’t happen, knowing Jill wanted the same thing he did would make keeping their relationship platonic that much harder.
He showered and dressed in sweats and an old t-shirt then tossed on his gym shoes and a fleece pullover, trying to keep his mind away from thoughts of Jill. He was meeting Chad – Jack’s cousin and the head of Security at Sutton Capital – at the gym to play basketball at noon. Before leaving the house, Andrew went to the window and looked outside to see if Jill was around. He didn’t see her out in the yard but he figured she must be up. It was already eleven o’clock.
Grabbing a few bottles of water and some aspirin, he grinned as he made his way down the stairs and out to his car. He tossed his gym bag in the back seat and pulled the car down Nora’s drive, then back up the driveway next door.
He stood on Jill’s front porch with the water and aspirin in hand, ringing her bell. She probably wouldn’t want to see him first thing, when she was likely waking up with a hangover but he didn’t care. Call him a masochist for wanting to see an attractive woman he couldn’t have as more than a friend, but he wanted to see her again.
