She drew herself up. “It’s not just the URST. I have things to prove to myself, too.”
“The URST?”
“Unresolved sexual tension. What you call ‘this thing.’”
He blinked, and then a rueful smile spread across his face. “It’s true I’ve been URSTing after you something bad.”
“Well? What are you going to do about it?”
Silence hung over the deserted lobby. He cupped her cheek in one hand, concentrating on her mouth for so long she felt breathless. “There are so many things I want to do…”
He brushed his thumb across her lower lip, and she was held captive like a bee in nectar. “You like to keep a girl in suspense, don’t you?” Her words came out unsteady, needy.
“No. You’re a special case, Nina. I’ve never met anyone like you.”
Her heart flipped a somersault, painfully, and suddenly all her sass dried up, and she could only stare mutely at him, waiting for him to make the next move, to kiss her. Because surely he wanted to kiss her? Surely he wanted to finish what he’d started before that ill-timed call from her dad?
But instead of kissing her, he lowered his hand from her, and she was left wondering, aching.
“I have to get back to my bookkeeping,” he said.
“What?”
“I still have a lot of receipts to get through.”
Bookkeeping? Receipts? He’d rather do bookkeeping and receipts than kiss her?
“Oh…” What little confidence she had left whooshed out of her like a leaking balloon.
“We’ll talk later.”
What did that mean? Was “talk” code for “make out”? She wished she knew; she wished she had the guts to ask him.
“O-okay.”
She pressed her lips together as she watched Joe cross the lobby and head back to his office. If she were Nina Summers without a dime to her name, she would’ve run after him, crash-tackled him to the floor, if necessary. But underneath it all she was still Annette Beaumont, and there seemed to be no getting away from that.
Chapter Five
The wicker chair on the balcony looked so inviting. And Nina’s muscles were crying for a break after her lengthy stint of cleaning made even harder by the fitful sleep she’d endured last night, tortured by dreams of Joe naked except for those black boxer briefs.
Nina pressed a hand into the aching small of her back and uttered a groan. Just five minutes, she told herself as she eased down on the cushions of the wicker chair. Mmm, it was so comfy here with the gentle midmorning sun bathing her and a view of Hartley and the ocean spread out in front of her. Just five minutes rest and she’d feel like new again. Her limbs relaxed, and her eyelids drooped…
Someone tapped her on the shoulder, and she jackknifed up, surprised and disoriented.
“What’s going on?”
She squinted up to see Joe towering over her, looking displeased. Her heart dropped as she scrambled to her feet.
“Um, I was just, uh, taking care of a few cobwebs.” She grabbed the broom that had fallen to the floor.
“Oh, yeah? Looked more like taking a few z’s.”
A guilty blush heated her cheeks. Shoot, just yesterday she’d insisted she was staying put, and now he’d caught her napping on the job.
“I-I’m sorry.” She edged back from him and leaned against the balcony railing. “It won’t happen again. It’s just that I didn’t get much sleep last night.”
“Still worrying about your dad?”
The unexpected concern in his voice made her pause. “Not really. I mean, we have issues, but it’s nothing new.”
“So if it’s not that, then what’s been keeping you up at night?”
Memories of yesterday danced through her mind—Joe’s suntanned body brushing against hers on that stone ledge, the thrill of jumping with him, his fingers interlaced with hers. And earlier, that kiss that had almost happened, that she still wanted so badly. That was what had kept her up last night.
“You,” she blurted. “I can’t stop thinking about you.”
Oh my God, what is wrong with my mouth? It seemed it had a will of its own.
Joe’s eyes widened. “Me?”
“You and the URST. It’s driving me crazy.” Huh. Yes, she had officially lost control of her mouth.
“Ah, the URST. Yeah, there’s a lot of that going around at the moment.”
She could have sworn there was a glint in his eyes. Her pulse was racing, her fingers twitching. Nervous, she licked her lips, and Joe seemed to be riveted by her action. She stepped closer to him, and there was no mistaking the increase in his breathing rate.
“You too?” she asked, emboldened by his reaction to her.
She was close enough to feel his body heat and inhale his clean, masculine scent. Even in the pitch dark she’d be able to pick him out. She closed her eyes, imagining herself blindfolded in a bedroom with Joe, and the potency of her fantasy made her sway.
“Nina.” Joe’s gruff voice made her open her eyes. The pent-up hunger in his expression made her lungs constrict. A look like that could melt a girl’s panties off.
“Yeah?”
She swayed closer, the need to touch him overwhelming. She rested a hand against his chest and it was like touching a live generator. He pressed his palm over hers, his grip hard and urgent. Sunshine glinted off his dark, wavy hair, picked out the faint lines at the corners of his fierce eyes. Her heart leaped in her throat. My God, he’s so gorgeous…
“Yoo-hoo!” A voice from below trilled, bursting the bubble that had enclosed them. “Good morning, Joe. Good morning, Nina. Isn’t it a lovely day?”
Mrs. Stewart. Standing on the sidewalk and gazing up at them. And calling out for everyone in the street to know that Joe and Nina were together.
Joe pulled away from Nina as he returned Mrs. Stewart’s greeting. Nina wasn’t capable of speech, so she waved instead. Mrs. Stewart nodded and smiled before trotting on down the street.
“We need to talk.” His clipped tone felt like a jab to the stomach.
…
Joe shut the balcony doors firmly behind Nina, cursing his weakness. Christ, what had Mrs. Stewart seen from the street below? Had she noticed the dangerous hunger in him as he held Nina’s hand and imagined all the ways he wanted to rip her clothes off?
He should’ve been mad at her for sleeping on the job, but all he’d wanted to do was to kiss those soft strawberry lips. And that was another reason why he had to resist temptation—it wasn’t professional or fair to his other employees if he gave her preferential treatment just because he was desperate to sleep with her. He had to be firm before she made him look like a complete sap. And that might have happened already since Mrs. Stewart had caught them holding hands, him probably looking moonstruck and idiotic. She was a sweet lady but the biggest gossip in town, and God knew whom she’d already told.
Nina was studying him with a slightly apprehensive expression. He was uneasy, too. Nina was about as predictable as a tornado.
“I’ve been thinking. About us.” The words jerked out of him.
“Okay…” she said, caution clouding the fire in her eyes.
“We shouldn’t fool around or flirt with each other anymore. We should go back to being just friends.” Clearly there was no way they’d ever go back to being boss and employee, if they ever had been in the first place.
She stared at him, clearly perplexed. “I have to point out that we aren’t actually friends.”
“I took you for a drive yesterday. I jumped into the sea with you.” And he’d never felt more alive and carefree as when they’d hurtled through the air, hand in hand, Nina’s shrieks of joy echoing his exhilaration. “Doesn’t that count?”
“Maybe…” She tilted her head. “And when you say friends, you don’t mean friends with benefits?”
“No,” he retorted. “I mean platonic friends.” But there’d been nothing platonic in his reaction to seeing her step out of the sea with her semitransparent bra clinging to her breasts, her perky nipples provocatively outlined. If it hadn’t been for those gawking teenage boys, he wasn’t sure he could have resisted temptation. No, they definitely weren’t platonic friends yet, but he could work at it.
“Why?” Nina asked.
“Why?” He widened his eyes at her. “Because it’s better this way. All this flirting going on between us can’t stay secret forever. I don’t want it upsetting the rest of the staff and, to be frank, it’s messing with my concentration, too. I’ve got a lot to deal with at the moment—the inn, my new business, my grandmother, the Food and Wine Festival.”
Plus, he didn’t have time to find a replacement for Nina. Yesterday he’d contacted the employment agency and discovered the person they were supposed to have sent him had changed her mind at the last minute, but the agency hadn’t bothered to notify him, which meant he wasn’t using that agency again.
“Right.” Nina pressed her hands to her hips and glowered at him. “So I’m just an inconvenient little itch that’s screwing up your wonderful, busy world.”
Little itch? That was hardly the right description for the raging lust she induced in him, but that wasn’t the point.