“Are you going to be okay, Jessica?”
“Oh, yeah, I’ll be fine. I just want to go home now. You know, before I get in a fistfight with your assistant or take on a school bus full of nuns.”
“My assistant is a cheetah. You’ll never be able to catch her.”
“Gee. Thanks, Mace. That helps.”
Jess turned and reached for the door, but it opened and Smitty walked in.
“Well, little Jessie Ann Ward, that’s quite a right hook you’ve got on you, darlin’.”
She wanted to get good and mad. She wanted to tell him to shut the hell up. But she couldn’t do it. Not after decking his baby sister. To be honest, she was lucky he hadn’t kicked her ass himself. She’d seen him do all sorts of terrible things to other wolves who’d hurt his sister.
“Oh, God!” she finally burst out. “Smitty, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what came over me. You hate me, right? I can totally understand if you hate me.”
“Darlin’, I don’t hate you.” Smitty shrugged. “Even my momma says that every once in a while Sissy Mae needs to be punched in the head.”
Jess frowned, seriously confused. “Um... ”
“And don’t worry,” Mace added, “she has a really hard head.”
“Uhhh... ”
Mitch Shaw walked by the door, stopping and staring at the three of them. “Bruh, who decked Sissy Mae?”
“Little Jessie Ann here,” Smitty said, motioning to her.
The lion grinned at her. “Nice work, Mighty Mite.”
“Hey,” Smitty demanded, “did you leave her alone?”
“You did.”
“I have a guest.”
Mitch shrugged. “Eh. Ronnie Lee’s with her.” Apparently already bored, Mitch wandered away.
Jess shook her head. “I better go.” They were freaking her out. How was this sort of behavior okay? It wasn’t. Then again... maybe it wasn’t okay among the wild dogs but it was everyday livin’ for the rest of them.
Thank you, but she’d stick with the dogs.
Jess stepped around Smitty, but his hand lightly gripped her forearm, halting her.
“I thought you came here to see me.”
“Changed my mind. Running away now.”
“You can’t avoid me, darlin’.”
And she knew he was not talking about the situation with his sister. The look in his eyes made it clear he really wasn’t that worried about Sissy Mae.
“Yeah, Smitty, I can avoid you. Watch.” Then she pretty much ran.
Smitty pushed out the front door and past the people coming out of the surrounding businesses on their way home. He caught sight of Jessie making a beeline for the subway. Typical. She couldn’t be a little princess and wait for a freakin’ cab. She had to be “everyday girl” and go for the public transportation. He took off after her, but by the time he made it to the stairs leading to the subway, she’d already gone inside.
At least that’s what he thought until he was halfway down the stairs and Jessie’s scent faded. He stopped and sniffed the air. She’d looped back around.
Tricky little She-dog.
Turning right around, Smitty headed back up the stairs and down another street. Midway along the second block he stopped—and let out a sigh.
“Tell me you’re not hiding from me.”
“I wouldn’t call it hiding per se. More of a ‘casually standing behind a pillar hoping you’d pass right on by’ sort of thing.”
Smitty grinned. She was just so dang cute. He waited and she reluctantly stepped out from behind that pillar.
“Jessie Ann, you know I’ve got the best nose in ten counties.”
“I thought the lovely funk of the city would distract you.”
“Nah, just makes you easier to find ’cause you smell so sweet.”
Jessie, rarely fooled by his charm, sneered in disgust. “Oh, please.”
“Fine. Don’t believe me.” He grabbed her hand. “Let’s just go then.”
Taking a step back, Jessie stared at him. “Let’s just go then where?”
“You wanted to talk. We’re gonna go talk.”
“No, I said I changed my mind.”
“Too bad.”
Smitty took firm hold of her wrist and proceeded to drag her the ten blocks to his apartment. She didn’t struggle and she kept quiet until they walked into the building and headed to the elevator.
“You know, we can talk another time.”
“Nah, we’ll talk now.” He dragged her into the elevator and pushed the button for his floor. When the doors opened, he dragged her down the hall and to his apartment. He practically tossed her inside, slamming the door behind them and locking it.
Smitty leaned against the door and grinned. “Now, Jessica Ann... we can talk about that kiss that just melted your sweet heart.”
CHAPTER 11
She’d love to slap that grin off his face. Melted her heart? Egotistical bastard. Instead of slapping him, though, she rubbed her suddenly itchy nose and growled, “There’s nothing to talk about.”
“Fine. We won’t talk.” When he started toward her, Jess jumped back, her hand held up in front of her to ward him off.
“Okay, okay! We’ll talk.”
“You don’t wanna kiss me again?”
“No.”
“Liar.”
“Aaargh! You are so annoying!” Yet, he had gotten her mind off his sister.
Jess paced away from him, too angry to even appreciate his loft apartment with the big, comfortable furniture. A place like this, with its exposed brick and tons of space and light, didn’t come cheap. Apparently business was damn good for Llewellyn and Smith Security.“I’m only annoying you ’cause you like me.”
“I do not—”
“Now, don’t lie, Jessie Ann.”
“I don’t lie.” Unless absolutely necessary.
“We both know you want me.”
“We both... what?”
“You want me. It’s okay. I totally understand the need.”
“There is no need. There’s only my hate for you.”
“Again with the lyin’. Look,” he said slowly, carefully, “if it makes you feel any better, I guess I’m of the same mind.”
She stared at him. “You... You guess you’re of the same mind?”
“You know me. I don’t rush into these kinds of decisions—hey! Let’s be calm here.”
She wasn’t. Not anymore. He’d snapped her leash again. How did he manage to do that? How could one man piss her off that much?
“Don’t even think about it, Jessie Ann,” he warned.
Jess held up a half-filled bottle of warm beer she’d grabbed off a side table. “The name is Jess-i-ca!” And that’s when she let that beer bottle fly at Smitty’s head. He ducked, the bottle barely missing him.
“Jessie Ann,” he said smugly, taunting her, “you’re simply proving what I already know. Can’t stop thinking about me, can ya?”
Her anger good and frothy now, she grabbed a glass off a side table and flung it at the giant target he had the nerve to call a head.
“Jessie Ann! Stop it right—hey!” He barely avoided a plaque with the Navy emblem on it. “Dammit, woman! I nearly died to earn that plaque.”
“If only!” She grabbed blindly.
“Whoa!” A coffee-table book on the history of the Navy nearly took his ear off.
“You said you wanted to talk, you asshole! So let’s talk!” she yelled, grabbing a vase of dying flowers. “What are you going to... to... ”
“Oh, Lord.”
And that’s when the sneezing started.
It came on so fast, all Smitty could do was grab the vase of flowers from her and quickly open his window and put them out on the fire escape. By the time he shut the window and turned back around, Jess was on her knees, the sneezes coming one after the other except when broken up by vicious coughing. Seemed nothing had changed. The girl had had bad allergies since he’d known her, and it seemed only worse now.
Crouching beside her, Smitty pulled the backpack off her shoulders and opened it. If she still operated the way she used to, he’d find her “works” buried somewhere in this unbelievably overpacked bag. Sure enough, he found her pills, nasal spray, and inhaler in one handy pouch. With that in hand, he quickly got her out of her cumbersome—and damn ugly—parka and scooped Jessie into his arms, taking her into the bathroom. Placing her on the counter, he opened the pouch and first took out her pills.
“Here.” He put two pills in her hand and filled a cup with water. She popped the pills and he handed her the cup. She took a deep drink and then sneezed into the glass, water spraying back into her face.
“Dammit!”
“It’s okay,” he said, ordering himself not to laugh. He gave her the nasal spray after using a hand towel to quickly wipe off her face. “Use this.”
She did, and when done he handed her several tissues.
“Do you need your inhaler?”
“No, no,” she said around coughs. “That’s for when I actually fall into the flowers. Which I’ve done on occasion.”
Smitty grinned. “I know. I remember.”
She let out a rough laugh. “I thought Miss Hazel was going to kill me.”
“I think she wanted to. You know how she used to love her flowers.”
Jess blew her nose and nodded.
“You all right now?”
“Oh, yeah.” But she wouldn’t look at him, and her cheeks were a bright red.