To top it off, I was limping, ‘cause my knee was only seventy-five percent back to normal, and I had a suspicion the low-hanging stormclouds were making it feel worse.
Add them all up and I was feeling inordinately grouchy.
I muttered a prayer of thanks that it wasn’t currently raining on me and my early morning juggling act, then I saw Jensen bouncing up the sidewalk from the curb and I was, for once, happy to see her. Not that I’m ever unhappy to see her (so far as she knows). There are just some times that I appreciate her more than others. And right now, I wanted to appreciate her ability to hold open the door.
“Good morning, Tack!” Now she was just showing off, bounding past me on her perfectly functional little knees. She spun back and I braced myself for whatever chipper cheerleadery suggestion was about to exit her lips.
“Why are you bringing your photos in today?” she asked, pointing at the box. “Everybody here already knows what they look like.”
And yes, that they do. Because Jen also charmed the guy into emailing her my new photo, so it, too, could get posted every-damn-where.
“I’m going to pre-sign them this morning, so I can spend time actually talking to the fans on Friday.” And, naturally, spend time scoping out the babes. Even though our command appearance is at the club my mother manages, as long as I don’t hit on her employees, I’m allowed to take my pick of the ladies. And I intended to pick one. Or two.
“Lemme help with them, then,” she said, holding out one hand.
I’d rather she just opened the door, but since she offered… I stretched out my arm to hand her the box.
And without warning, 500 eight-by-ten black-and-white glossies were soaring up into the fading morning starlight. There went my face, spinning in five-hundricate, their flight slow-mo and surreal. I had time to register that the photo-smile really did look like a grimace. Especially when all half-a-thousand of me started heading face down toward the mud.
It took a moment for me to realize that she had whacked the box out of my hand. Deliberately and with gusto.
“What the fuck, Jen?” I tried to come up with something else to bellow, but my brain was too busy short-circuiting to help me out. I felt my right eye begin to twitch, and had the fleeting thought that it’s never done that before. Her smug smile evaporated and she started backing slowly toward the door. I followed, matching her speed. There was no reason to hurry; it was a security door and it was locked. She wasn’t going anywhere.
The sprinklers were soaking the photos, but I didn’t give a rat’s left testicle. I pitched my car mug into the black-and-white wreckage because I needed both hands free to wrap around her dainty little throat.
Her hands fluttered around like crazed birds and I wondered briefly if Miss Smackety was looking for something else to smack. “God, I’m sorry, Tack! The box my pictures were in was thick and sturdy. I thought it would just tip a little and it would make you laugh because you were looking so serious. Like you are again, right now.” She was almost to the door, and I was only one step behind.
Jen had tucked herself into the corner by the hinges. Idiot.
I stalked closer until there were only inches between us.
She had nowhere to go.
My hands raised themselves; I didn’t know where they were heading.
Trapped now, she tried placating one more time. “I was just playing around, Tack. I didn’t mean it. I’ll even pay for the replacements.”
I squinted down at her and didn’t say a word, although I was aware of an exasperated growl that might or might not have been coming from my chest.
Her eyes loomed huge, and her chin tilted defiantly. The half-smile that her lips seemed to perpetually exist in returned. She might be ready to play at being brave, but I noticed her palms had come up and were poised to shove me away, if necessary. “Just what do you plan to do with your big bad self, now that you’ve menaced me into this corner?”
I felt something snap deep inside my brain.
It was kill her or kiss her.
As I dropped my face closer, I still wasn’t sure which one it would be.
Chapter 7
*My 0wn Worst Enemy*
I felt her breath whisper across my skin as I got closer to the mouth that had been taunting me all week long.
I needed to shut her up.
I needed to do something about the mocking glint in her eyes.
I needed to do something about the instantaneous hard-on when I got close enough to feel the heat from her body.
I’d only intended to shock her, to show her that she was playing with a fire far bigger than the little pixie could handle.
But once my lips made that contact, I was the one overwhelmed.
I had expected this closed-mouth resistance, anticipated her little gasp of shock.