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This was how she felt now. Crazy electrical.
Eva moved forward slowly, placing her hand on the door handle, her eyes on Jake as she inched very, very slowly past him. He didn't move, but his gaze held hers, mischievousness fading as something hot took over.
Something Eva had wanted for a long time... ever since Jake had come out of the shower at the station, towel looped around his lean hips, droplets of water dotting his chest, the first week she'd worked for the Magnolia Bend FD.
Carefully, she started inching the door open. She'd put about five inches between the metal door and frame when Jake leaned back, slamming it shut.
"Don't," she said, narrowing her eyes as he turned his right shoulder in, blocking her escape, lifting the hosiery.
He grinned and then tossed the stocking over his shoulder.
She gave a nervous laugh.
And then he moved, slamming into her. Not hard.
But emphatic.
Her brain received the signals, processing the sexual energy slaking off Jake. He reached up, his hand brushing her ear. He was going to kiss her.
Finally.
So Eva made it easy for him. She raised onto her toes, closed her eyes, and met him halfway.
Her first thought was he tasted like spearmint gum. Her second thought was to wonder why he tugged at her hair. Her third thought wasoh, shit.
Because Jake hadn't been about to kiss her... he'd been about to give her a trademark noogie.
But being Jake, he didn't gasp in outrage, ripping her from him.
No.
Jake Beauchamp would never embarrass a lady like that. Instead he dropped his hand and made his lips soft. Eva pulled away, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, half of her reveling in the small taste of the man she loved. The other half of her praying the earth would open beneath her feet and swallow her whole.
Surely that could happen, right?
Surely God would have pity on a fool who'd mistakenly kissed the devil out of a man against the wall of the First Presbyterian Church of Magnolia Bend …when he'd only been about to give her a noogie.
4
JAKE ENTERED THE Tenth Annual Rummage Sale to benefit the Magnolia Bend Women's Home like a man hunted. Not because he didn't want to be there supporting his mama and her pet project early on a Saturday morning, but because after yesterday afternoon's incident with Eva, he didn't want to face the discomfort he knew would be between them.
Eva had kissed him.
And though at first he'd been shocked to the toes of his Brooks running shoes, he'd settled into it and enjoyed all one point seven seconds of the kiss.
But then Eva had stopped kissing him and looked horrified.
As though she'd walked into junior high naked.
He'd stepped back and arched an eyebrow and simply said, "Wow."
She'd looked as if she might choke, her face flooding with color, her eyes bulging, hands fluttering at her side. She'd managed an"excuse me" before bolting through the door he'd shut, leaving him behind not knowing how to handle what had just happened.
"Hey, Jake," his brother Matt called, waving from behind the tables set up with cash registers donated by Maggio's Office Supply store, according to the sign that said as much. "I need more of this paper tape. Can you grab Ma and see where she put the supplies?"
Jake waved a hand in affirmation, scanning the crowded hall filled with racks of coats, tables of folded jeans, and shelves holding knickknacks. He saw his sister and her fiancé, Leif, his niece Birdie, who was walking around selling raffle tickets for a quilt stitched by his aunt Opal, and his brother John's wife, Shelby, who was hand-selling some strappy shoes to Merlene Dibbles, who had no business wearing anything strappy. His father swilled coffee at the refreshment table with several other men, shooting the breeze, no doubt discussing the likelihood of St. George's football team making the play offs again. But he didn't see his mother.
And he didn't see Eva.
