A Little Harmless Addiction(33)
He grabbed her arm and she froze. He silently cursed himself, but he wasn’t going to back down. He eased her around to face him.
“I didn’t say I didn’t want to spend time with you.”
“Then what? What the fuck is up your ass?”
“If I spend any time with you, I want my hands on you. Hell, I was close to touching you under the table at dinner. It’s embarrassing.”
He let go of her and paced back and forth, frustration riding his back. He had made sure to leave her alone, let her have her time. And what did he get? Nastiness. Women never change. They say they want a good man, a nice man, and you give them that and get shit.
“So you’ve been avoiding me because you’re afraid I’m not ready?”
He stopped and looked at her. “You just got here, and let’s be honest, I’ve heard some of the stuff that has been talked about. Hard to avoid. So yeah, I was trying to be good and not bother you.”
She let out a frustrated sound that sounded more like a growl than a sigh. “I am sick to death of people deciding what is best for me.”
“I—”
“No. You can hide behind that, you can say that you were trying to give me time, but you weren’t. Let’s be honest. You can’t keep your hands to yourself? Like I’m so pathetic I can’t say no?”
He opened his mouth but she rolled right over him. She grabbed his shirt and yanked him to her. Before he could react, she was kissing him. Her tongue slipped past his lips, slid over his and then she pulled back. She was breathing heavily, her breasts rising above the neckline of her shirt.
“Ask me now. See if I want you in my bed tonight.”
“Jocelyn.”
“Yeah. Never mind. At least I don’t have to hear excuses from my batteries.”
With that, she marched to her car, slid in and started it. He was still trying to get his brain to function again and she was pulling out of the parking lot, almost running over his toes in the process. By the time he could, he cursed.
“Having trouble with the ladies?” Evan asked.
Fuck. “No.”
Evan chuckled as he walked toward him. “I came out here to keep an eye on you, but apparently I need to keep an eye on Jocelyn.”
Kai closed his eyes and willed embarrassment away. Damn, nothing like having another man witness Jocelyn bitching him out.
“Have you really been avoiding her?”
Kai opened his eyes. “Yeah. She’s…well, she’s a little too much to resist.”
“I wouldn’t know.”
He gave his brother-in-law a strange look. Evan shrugged.
“She was like a little sister to me. I never had one, so I sort of adopted both her and Shannon.”
“Is Shannon any sweeter?”
“A bit, if you don’t mind her mouth. Woman is always telling people what to do with their lives. But you have to give Jocelyn some credit.”
“What do you mean?”
“Before she came here, she was barely surviving from what Chris told me. She wasn’t acting like her old self.”
“And now?”
“Well, you are starting to see why she was good at her career. She did have the nickname of Queen Jocelyn when she was in the kitchen. She knows how to handle herself.”
Kai blew out a breath.
“You are going after her, aren’t you?”
Kai looked at the exit to the street, “No. Not tonight. She needs some time to cool off.”
Evan slipped an arm over his shoulder. “I’m not going to push, but I will say you have a lot to learn about women.”
Chapter Eight
Jocelyn came awake on a gasp. She gulped in deep breaths of air as she tried to calm her heart. Sweat dripped down her spine as she shivered. It had been bad, so vivid. It had been weeks since she’d dreamed of the attack. She rubbed her arms, trying to push away the memory of what it had felt like when Greg had griped them, leaving marks.
“Just a dream, Jocelyn.” The words came out as if a prayer. She closed her eyes, pulled in a deep breath, then released it as she opened her eyes again.
She swung her legs over to the side of the bed. With more strength than she thought she had, she pushed out of bed and padded barefoot to the bathroom. She turned on the light and winced as the bright light pierced her eyes. Damn. She couldn’t go without light. It was a moonless night, and she didn’t know the house well enough yet. She rubbed her temples as her head started to pound. Of course, a headache. Just what she needed. Not that she’d had a wonderful evening to begin with. First her embarrassment with Kai, then her dream.
She opened the medicine cabinet and grabbed some aspirin. She dropped two into her hand, then placed the bottle back on the shelf. It sat next to the prescribed meds. One was to make her happy, to forget everything and just float through life without any worries. She had been on them until recently, until she’d convinced her doctor she hadn’t needed them anymore.