Chapter Nine
H e was in so much trouble.
As flames of desire licked through him, Wes tried his best to hold on to whatever semblance of control he could manage to dredge up out of the depths of his subconscious.
Jenna tasted so damn good. Like chocolate and cherries and this perfect summer night.
She made a soft, breathy sound deep in her throat and her arms seemed to tighten around him.
He could feel his control slip away, inch by painful inch. All he wanted to do was kiss her, taste her, make love to her.
He traced a hand beneath her sweater, to the warm, luscious skin there. She shivered and arched against his hand, pressing her curves into his chest.
He was aching with need, his brain empty of everything but how much he wanted this woman in his arms, in his bed.
His hand slid from her back to one hip. He wanted to touch those curves she pressed against him.
He was inches from his goal when she made that soft, sexy sound again.
The sound seemed to yank him back to his senses. What the hell was he doing? He had told himself he couldn’t do this again. He wanted her too much, though his kissing her again only showed him how very much he was beginning to care for her.
Beyond that, she had just shared with him her harrowing ordeal. She had been tormented, stalked, terrified by a man who couldn’t take no for an answer.
Even though she had made it clear she wasn’t interested in anything with him, here he was mauling her in the garden of Brambleberry House, like he was some sort of high school kid making out with a girl behind the bleachers of the football stadium.
He jerked away, disgusted with himself.
She looked small and delicate, lovely as tiny violets springing across the grass in May.
He had spent three years feeling dehumanized, marginalized, discarded.
But he never felt as barbaric as he did right now, taking in the sight of Jenna Haynes staring up at him with huge eyes.
“I’m so sorry. I don’t know what came over me.”
She blinked a few times and drew in a deep breath. “Why are you apologizing?”
“Because I had no right to kiss you like a starving man who had just been snatched off the streets and plunked down at a table in the middle of a feast.”
She made a small, strangled kind of sound. “It was only a kiss, Wes. You didn’t attack me or anything. In fact, as I recall, I started things.”
He closed his eyes, remembering that heart-stopping moment when she had spanned the distance between them and pressed her mouth to his.
Something told him he would be reliving that moment for a long, long time.
“Maybe,” he finally said. “But I took things too far. I shouldn’t have, especially after everything you told me about what you’ve been through. I promise, it won’t happen again.”
She gazed at him, and he watched as she seemed to regain her composure with every passing second.
She nodded and pressed her lips together, those delicious lips he could have explored all night long.
“Okay,” she said. She rose and let out a long breath. “Good night, then. Thanks again for...for listening to me.”
She grabbed Theo’s leash and the two of them walked into the house, leaving him alone to curse and ache and want.
Jenna walked back up the stairs to her apartment on knees that felt weak, somehow.
She still couldn’t quite wrap her head around the realization that she had instigated another kiss with Wes Calhoun.
Hadn’t she learned her lesson the first time?
She wanted to blame it on the moonlight or the peaceful garden or the simple release of sharing her story with him finally.
She suspected the real reason for her behavior had nothing to do with that. It had more to do with the man himself.
When Wes first moved into Brambleberry House, she had considered him the very last man in Cannon Beach she might come to trust, someone with whom she had nothing in common.
What an illuminating example of how very wrong first impressions could be. These past few weeks of coming to know him better—of seeing his gentleness with Theo, with his own daughter and with hers—had given her a picture of a kind man beneath the gruff, intimidating exterior.
She respected and admired him more than any other man she had met in a very long time.
What was she going to do about it?
As she reached her apartment, she let herself and Theo inside, where she took off the puppy’s leash and harness. The dog rushed to his water bowl, and Jenna closed the door behind her, listening to the small, comforting noises of the apartment settling around her.
Nothing.
That was exactly what she planned to do about this attraction to Wes. They had kissed again and it had been amazing, but now she had to go back to her regular life and try to forget those few stirring moments in the garden had ever happened.
The idea depressed her, even though she knew she had no other option.
They were attracted to each other. She couldn’t deny that. The heat they generated could have ignited a dozen beach fires.
Why not give in to it? They were both unattached adults. What would be the harm in finding a secluded spot in the garden, maybe the pergola or one of the padded benches in a dark corner, and surrendering to the attraction between them?
Because she would end up with a broken heart.
She was not a woman who could handle a casual fling. She had seen her mother’s heart broken too many times by men who would move in and out of their lives.
She was a forever kind of woman. She knew that about herself and suspected it wouldn’t take much for her to fall in love with Wes.
Then what?
Try as she might, she couldn’t picture a future with Wes. She again couldn’t imagine she could provide anything that a man like him might be looking for in a woman.
Someone adventurous. Audacious. Brave.
She wasn’t any of those things. Eventually Wes would figure that out and grow tired of her.
She couldn’t go through the pain of loving someone again and inevitably losing him.
Better to stop things now, before either of their hearts were involved. Before she could make a fool of herself over him and destroy a friendship she was coming to cherish.
Theo went to stand by the door of his crate, ready for bed. She opened it for him and watched him curl up on the soft blankets, then headed for her solitary bed.