“Don’t you have work to do?” Jacob asked Rick and he immediately left, doing his best to look busy.
“Thanks for the tour, Jacob,” Mike was saying. “We’ll meet up here again tomorrow.”
“I’ll be here,” the older man said, with a nod acknowledging Jenny. “You make a note on the paint colors you want where, miss, and I’ll make sure the painters get the message.”
“Thank you. I’ll have them for you tomorrow, then.”
“That’s good.” Jacob looked back at Mike. “The crew starts on the main floor in the morning. You and I can look at the upper floors and talk about what you want.”
“See you then.” Mike took Jenny’s elbow and began steering her toward the front door.
She pulled free though, because A, she wasn’t going to be dragged around like a dog on a leash. And B, she needed her purse.
“Just wait a minute,” she snapped and marched across the front room like a soldier striding across a battlefield. Snatching up her black leather bag, she slung it over her shoulder and stomped right back to Mike. “Now I’m ready.”
He gritted his teeth. She could see the muscle in his jaw twitching and she almost enjoyed knowing she had the ability to irritate him so easily. Of course, she’d enjoy it even more if she knew what exactly she’d done to make him walk as if there were a steel spike between his shoulder blades.
Without waiting for him, Jenny walked out the front door, down the overgrown walk and stopped at the passenger door of the shiny red rental car to wait.
He looked at her over the roof of the car and demanded, “What the hell were you doing?”
“My job,” she shot back, then threw the door open and slid inside.
He did the same, slammed the key home and fired the engine. Neither of them spoke again on the short drive to the hotel where they’d be spending the night.
When they got there, Mike turned the car over to the valet and Jenny was inside the hotel before he caught up to her. Again, he took hold of her elbow and pulled her to a stop.
“Will you quit doing that?” Her gaze shot from his hand on her arm up to his eyes.
“Quit walking away from me.”
“Quit being a jerk and I’ll quit walking away.”
“You make me nuts,” he grumbled.
“I think you were born that way,” she said, “but Sean seems perfectly reasonable, so it’s probably not hereditary.”
All around them, tourists swarmed through the lobby and into the casino. Bells, whistles and loud bursts of laughter played backdrop to their hurried, angry whispers.
“I’m not having this conversation here.”
Jenny flinched at the cold, sharp edge of his voice. “I’m not having it at all.”
“Yeah you are. We’ll talk about it upstairs. Your room or mine?”
“Ha!” She laughed shortly. “Despite that charming invitation, I think I’ll pass.”
“We talk privately,” he said, lowering his voice until it was a hush, “or we do it right here in the middle of the damn hotel.”
“Fine. Upstairs. My room because I want to be able to tell you to leave.”
He snorted, took her elbow in a grip firm enough she couldn’t shake him off and steered her to the bank of elevators. One of them opened instantly as soon as Mike stabbed the call button. The two of them stepped into the open car as soon as it emptied and were joined by a half-dozen other people.
The elevator was crowded and the piped-in music was straight out of the 1980s. Mirrors on the walls made it seem as if there were fifty people crammed together, but the only person Jenny really looked at was Mike. He was at least a head taller than anyone else and in the mirror, his gaze shifted to hers and held. The car stopped, people got off, got on, and then they were moving again. Conversations rippled around them, but Jenny hardly heard them. All she could focus on was the glint in Mike’s eyes and the grim slash of his mouth. Finally, though, they hit the eleventh floor. Jenny stepped off and Mike followed after.
The hallway was dimly lit and narrow, and with Mike right behind her, felt even tighter. She reached her door, slid the card key through the slot and opened it. Jenny’d left her drapes open, so afternoon sunlight swamped the room as she walked to the bed and tossed her purse down on it.
Mike closed the door and was walking toward her when she turned to face him.
“What the hell was that all about?”
“What was what about?” Jenny threw both hands high and then let them fall.
“You and the carpenter.” Mike bit the words off. “When I walked into the lobby, you were flirting and he was drooling, so I ask again, what the hell was that about?”