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Damn. The man’s got military training and I’ve got diddly.
“You realize I’m an adult, right? I don’t actually need to tell you what I was doing. You get that, right?”
Jennie could have sworn she saw the side of his mouth twitch and wondered for a split second if he was tempted to smile.No. Not Chad.
“I can always let you out and just go home, Jennie. I’m an adult. I don’t actually need to drive you home. You get that, right?” he mimicked her words.
She narrowed her eyes at him. “You wouldn’t…”
Chad shrugged as if he really might consider leaving Jennie there. They both knew he wouldn’t.
“I was jogging. All right? I jog out here every morning.” She laid her hands in her lap as if that answered everything and looked back at Chad with what she hoped was her best wide-eyed and innocent gaze. Oh, why did her belly feel like a hundred can-can girls were practicing in there with their puffy can-can skirts whipping around?
One tanned, muscled arm rested on the steering wheel of the truck, the other lay between him and Jennie on the seat. She tried not to notice the muscles rippling under his T-shirt or how good he smelled.
He’d clearly been sleeping when she called him. He probably just rolled out of bed, threw on sweats – and he somehow managed to look like walking sex and smell spicy and woodsy… She licked her lips.
Chad, who’d been studying her face, looked pointedly down at her bare feet, then flicked his eyes back up to hers and waited. That earned him another eye roll and a huff of frustration.
“Fine. I jog out here every morning. There’s a house on Prospect Court that has a pool. The guy is never home. He travels a lot,” Jennie explained in clipped tones.
“You know this, how?” Chad asked, but made no move to start the truck.
She could see the small tick in his jaw that struck when she was really needling him. Sometimes, she could turn the tick into a smile, if she worked hard at it. She wondered if she’d be able to do that now, but wasn’t sure she could risk it. If she pushed too hard at the wrong time, things might go in the other direction and she’d be in for a lecture.
Not that a lecture from him was all that bad. She could zone out and stare at the way his shirt stretched across the hard planes of his chest or the evidence of a six pack she could see just below it. But, she would like to shower sooner rather than later. She was starting to feel really grimy.
“My friend dated him for a while,” Jennie shrugged. “Can we go now?”
Chad raised an eyebrow but remained silent.
A frustrated sigh burst past Jennie’s lips, as she shook her head at him. “Fine, I jog here, let myself in through the back gate, go for a swim, and then jog home. It’s my morning routine. I always peek to see if his car’s in the garage. If it is, I skip my swim. He must have realized someone’s been in his yard. I had just gotten in the pool when I heard barking. The next thing I know, there are two big dogs blasting out of a doggy door and heading my way. They were on the side of the yard with the gate, so I had to go over the back of the fence instead and cut through the neighbor’s yard. I grabbed what I could and ran. My shoes weren’t in the pile of stuff I grabbed.”
Jennie drew her spine up straight and laced her fingers together in her lap. It wasn’t easy to look dignified in the state she was in, but she could damn well try.
Chad stared at Jennie for a few more long seconds. The tick in his jaw continued as his eyes burned into her with an intensity that almost stole her breath. She raised her chin and resisted the very strong urge to squirm.
“Neither was your bra, apparently,” he said dryly as he reached for the keys and started the truck. He shoved the gear into place and pulled away from the curb as Jennie laughed, wrapping her arms firmly in place over her chest.
Chapter 2
Over lunch at their favorite café, Jennie told her best friends, Kelly and Jill, about her narrow escape that morning. She recounted the story of the dogs, the fence, losing her shoes and her long ride home with Chad lecturing her about dog bites and what could have happened if she’d been caught.
Kelly and Jill wiped tears from their eyes. The waitress probably thought they were all crazy. They’d been laughing for five minutes straight, with Jennie barely able to squeak out the details of her morning between impressions of Chad scowling.
Kelly and Jill were Jennie’s two closest friends, aside from a few high school friends back home that she didn’t see very often.
“I’ll bet you had him grinding his teeth the whole ride.” Kelly laughed, but then groaned and held her pregnant belly. “You have to stop making me laugh. The baby kicks more when I laugh and she’s tap dancing on vital organs right now.”
Jennie grinned as she sipped her iced tea. “Sorry, Kels. I’ll try to be more serious until you deliver. What’s that, five more weeks?”
Her friend grimaced. “Don’t remind me.”
“I think Chad thought it was funny, though. He likes to act all tough, but he’s just a big teddy bear.” Jennie nodded, as though trying to convince the others with body language when she knew her argument was falling flat.
Jill shook her head. “Quit poking the damn bear, Jennie. It’s not safe.”
Jennie grinned. “I just hope he doesn’t show up at my house tomorrow morning to escort me on my morning run.”
