“Jenna!”
She stalked off on her heels, Napoleon scuttling after her.
“Jenna! Get back here! Where in hell is all this coming from all of a sudden?” He muttered a curse as she slammed the patio door shut behind her.
Jenna cinched her pool robe tightly across her waist as she stalked across the hall tiles and swung open the front door. She ran over the shimmering-hot driveway, reaching Lex’s black SUV just as he was about to pull off. Banging on his driver’s side window, she made a motion for him to open the window. A blast of cool air-conditioned air hit her face as he did. Jenna leaned forward into his window, the respite from heat welcome.
She’d set out to tempt and fluster him at the pool in retaliation for last night. And it had been working. But after listening to her dad, Jenna was feeling oddly vulnerable. Lex was right. While her auction stunt had started out as a stupid lark in her mind, it was no longer a game. And her dad wasn’t being totally honest with her. Jenna was worried that even she was starting to look like a suspect to Lex. And if Lex ever found out that she had been at Candace’s apartment—
Lex regarded her warily through the window, his green eyes crackling with suppressed fire, and suddenly Jenna was thrown right back to thoughts of the ring, the mysterious tones of burning green trapped inside the stone, and she clean lost her train of thought.
“What is it, Jenna?”
God, for the life of her she couldn’t recall what she was going to say. Her head started to pound crazily, some magic in his eyes possessing her. And all she could think of was making a connection with him, seeking some reassurance from him that she’d see him again. “I…I know you don’t approve of me, or my family, Lex. But…will you give me a second chance?”
His brow cocked up, confusion marring his rugged features. “That’s why you came out here?”
She inhaled. “Let’s just say I’d like to start over.”
“There’s nothing to start over, Jenna.” He paused. “Is there?”
She swallowed, feeling compelled along this course now like a speeding car just waiting to hit the wrong hairpin bend. “Look, last night was not your thing, and neither was I. You made that pretty clear. But what is your thing, Lex. What makes you tick?”
A ghost of a smile toyed with the corners of his mouth. “You really don’t like to lose, do you, Ms. Rothchild?”
She smiled. “Not if I can help it.”
He studied her for several beats. “I tell you what. I’ll show you my thing.”
She flushed.
His hint of a smile cut suddenly into a wicked grin that made her heart do a slow tumble through her chest. It was the first time he’d actually smiled at her, and the effect was devastating. It totally blanked Jenna’s mind of anything other than thoughts of being with him. Up close. Very close.
“I’ll pick you up here tomorrow at noon.”
“Where are we going?”
“That’s when I’ll show you what ‘my thing’ is.” He put his vehicle in gear.
“But I’m working tomorrow.”
He shrugged. “Too bad.” He put his vehicle into drive. “It might’ve been fun.”
“Wait!” She clasped her hands over the window edge of his door. “Okay…okay, I’ll be here. Noon.”
“Don’t be late. I won’t wait. Oh, and do me a favor, leave little old Groucho Marx behind, will you.” He shot a look at Napoleon. “I have a reputation to uphold.”
Lex wheeled out of the estate gate wondering what he’d just let himself in for. He’d come up this driveway intent on keeping away from Jenna Jayne Rothchild. Now he was leaving, having made a date with her.
She’s a tool. She handed herself to us on a silver platter with bonus cash to spare. You use that tool…
Yeah—but right now Lex felt that “tool” was somehow using him.
But in spite of that thought, as he neared the outskirts of town and drove down Lake Mead Boulevard toward the FBI building, he found himself grinning again.
Then he chuckled out loud at the thought of what he was going to show Jenna tomorrow. He was going to take princess out of her comfort zone, and he sure was going to enjoy seeing her as a fish out of water for a change. He’d purposefully not told her to dress real casual, either. That in itself was going to be entertaining—seeing her on his turf in those crazy whatever-inch heels.
A man needed every edge he could get.
Lex slowed his vehicle as he approached the guard hut at the FBI parking compound, realizing with mild surprise that Jenna’s sense of fun, her sense of game, had actually infected him.