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A muscle in his jaw twitched, the only outward sign of his rising anger. “Bullshit. I see the way you look at her.”
He shoved his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “Sure, at one time I had a real thing for her. A man would have to be blind not to find that sweet charmer attractive. I even gave it a try once.”
River’s anger grew as Mike’s words sank in. “She’s not for you.”
He chuckled. “Yeah, well, she turned me down flat. We’ve been good friends ever since.”
“She’s never mentioned you to me,” River mused, a little hurt that Jeanette had kept the other man a secret. “Care to explain that?”
“There’s plenty she doesn’t tell you, Jennings,” he said. “And just so we’re clear, if you hurt my dear friend, you will pay.”
Who the hell is this guy? River hadn’t told him a damn thing about himself, and yet Mike seemed to know plenty. It put him at a disadvantage. “Thanks for the warning, Mikey.”
“River,” Jeanette groaned as she came back into the room.
Her irritation was plain as the nose on her face. “For you, I’m playing nice, sunshine,” he told her. They both knew how ugly things could get otherwise. “Let’s not push it.”
Was that possessiveness Jeanette detected in River’s tone? Since when? She could handle his anger, she could even handle his bad moods, but she wasn’t sure she could handle him if he chose to get possessive with her. He was a throwback to medieval days. Back when men found a woman they wanted and simply dragged her off to their castle. What the woman wanted was irrelevant.
She counted to ten and kept her calm, barely. She would not allow her anger to drag her along in its wake. Truth was, she couldn’t excuse his domineering behavior, but she did understand it to some degree. She had her own streak of possessiveness, after all.
She moved closer to him and watched as he kept his icy-green stare trained on Mike. She touched his cheek with her fingertips, enjoying the
feel of the rough stubble there, and instantly gained his full attention. “Mike is my friend, very possibly my best friend. It’s not fair for you to treat him as if he were some creep off the street.”
River’s face closed down in an instant. “I thought you and I were best friends. Yet not once in all the time we’ve spent together have you told me about him. Why?”
Jeanette had no idea she had the ability to hurt someone as strong as River Jennings, but she could tell by the look in his eyes that she had done exactly that. She would rather walk on hot coals than cause him pain. “I never meant to keep it a secret,” she murmured. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen him that it just didn’t occur to me.”
River stared so attentively that his lashes didn’t even flicker. It moved her to act impulsively. Rising up on her tiptoes, she touched the thin line of his mouth with her lips. It was meant to be a friendly peck, nothing more. At first he remained perfectly still, as if unsure what to make of her. Jeanette began to grow nervous, but as she tilted her head to the side to better fit their mouths together, she felt him softening. His sinewy arms came around her first, pulling her into the cradle of his body. He took over the kiss then, forcing her mouth open, demanding entrance. His kiss wasn’t gentle and coaxing. And it sure as hell wasn’t a friend kiss either. This time, he was claiming her.
Oh God, she’d dreamed of such a kiss from him. Ached for it. Now that it was finally happening, she was too stunned to properly react. To take full advantage of it. His lethal strength wrapped her in a cocoon of passion and lust within seconds. River went to her head so quickly, it wasn’t at all fair. But to hell with it. She wanted his swift, lustful kisses as well as his soft, gentle touches. She wanted the whole of him, not just the easy friendship anymore. Not just the tame part that he let her see. She wanted the wild part of him he kept so well hidden.
She realized no matter what her future held, this dark and mysterious man would always have her heart. She’d handed it to him the day she’d tripped and landed at his feet in the ninth grade. He’d picked up her books and helped her up. The smile he’d graced her with had sent her careening headfirst into love.
She’d known, even then, that the instant their gazes had locked she’d met her other half. She’d tried to deny it, to run from the pull of desire that was constantly between them, but it was like running from her own heart. Futile. In the end, she would happily surrender to River, and he would happily claim her like a pirate claimed the booty of a ship. But where would that leave her when he tired of her? Where would her heart be then?
Just when River thought nothing could breach the wall of anger he’d erected, he watched Jeanette go on tiptoes to kiss him. And she did it right in front of Mike. She was proving that River was the one who held her desire in the palm of his hand. That she would surrender to him if only he’d let her. Lust surged hot and heavy through River’s blood, and suddenly he forgot what a bad idea it was to mix friendship with passion.
Sometime between Reilly showing up that morning and Jeanette’s friend dropping in unannounced—and unwanted—River had decided he was no longer interested in keeping his distance. He burned to make love to her. To see her coming undone in his arms. But he wouldn’t let things get carried away. Jeanette was too sweet, too good. She would wither and die if she was tied to a man who couldn’t even sleep a single night without demons haunting his dreams. She would eventually lose that bright smile he’d grown so addicted to. It would kill him if he screwed that up.
Still, he had only so much self-control. And when he heard Mike clear his throat in an effort to remind them they were not alone, it was the perfect opportunity to push her from him. He had to get himself under control, or he’d forget all of his well-thought-out plans.
He broke the kiss, both of them breathing heavily, and tried to calm his thundering pulse. She frowned up at him, clearly both confused and turned on. Did she have any idea how badly he wanted her? Needed her? She mistook him ending the kiss as a rejection. He couldn’t let her go on thinking such silly notions.
River cupped her chin in his palm and caressed the cute little cleft with his thumb. “I very much want to continue. You have no idea how much I want to continue, sunshine,” he murmured. “But now isn’t the time.”
“I don’t understand you sometimes,” she replied.
“What if…what if I hurt you?” he asked. “What if I screw everything up between us?”
“I’m not afraid of that happening,” she told him. “I’m not made of glass.” She slapped him playfully on the chest. “Although I am frustrated with you. Like twenty-four-hours-a-day frustrated.”
He groaned as he smoothed his fingers down her chin to her neck. He touched her erratic pulse, and Jeanette watched while one corner of his mouth tipped upward in that sexy, ornery grin of his. He winked, as if he knew exactly how easily he got under her skin. Geez, she was so freaking transparent around River. A drooling, pathetic mess.
Jeanette allowed her gaze to travel the length of River’s big, hard body, and she noticed that certain parts of him were most definitely alert. Hmm, apparently she wasn’t the only one overheating here. The thought made her feel loads better.
If I have to suffer, then at least I’m not alone.
