Chapter Twenty
There were large fires and small fires, but the fire that burned inside him was the most dangerous fire of all.
—The Temptress of Pecan Lane, by Mae Daniels
Anna was busier than ever, but she had her full calendar color-coded and sticky-tabbed, she’d found her studying groove, Jules was mostly pleasant, and she managed to find some quality time for Kaci and her friends.
And Jackson was keeping her girly bits happy too.
The Friday after midterms, she rushed home after work to pack. Jackson arrived before she was done. Not that she minded. If she’d had to wait on him, she would’ve been mad about missing prime marshmallow roasting time.
But something was off. He walked stiffly through her door with a wrinkle in his forehead and no sign of his normal good humor. “Jackson? Are you okay?”
He shut the door with a definitive click.
He cast a quick glance around the room, spun her against the wall next to her overflowing bookshelves, and kissed the bejeebers out of her.
His hands slid up her shirt, his hard body, hard everywhere, trapped her against the wall with her purse hook poking her back.
His leg pushed between hers, and she forgot all about campfires and marshmallows and sleeping naked with him in a sleeping bag.
That was hours away.
He was hot and hungry and ready now, and she was in a mood to oblige.
She pushed his flannel shirt out of the way and reached for the button on his jeans. He let out a primal growl, then cupped her rear end and tugged her closer.
Someone knocked at the door.
He broke the kiss with another growl, this one more frustrated than turned on.
She blinked up at him, her chest rising and falling in time with his, neither of them all that steady. “Who’s that?” she said.
“Hurricane Louisa just blew all my plans to hell.”
His words filtered through the haze of lust obscuring her senses. She wanted to cry.
No naked sleeping bag time. Not with his baby sister within earshot.
But Jackson had said hell.
She bit back a giggle. He shot her an irritated look.
She couldn’t stop her smile. “Does your momma know you cuss like that?”
“Don’t you be getting on my list, Anna Grace.” He flung the door open.
“What are y’all doing in here?” Louisa poked her head in. She gave Anna a once-over. “Ain’t you packed yet?”
“Almost done.”
Anna hadn’t known Jackson even had blood pressure, but a vein in his neck throbbed so hard, he might need medical care before they got out of the apartment. “Is Radish coming?” she asked.
“She’s waiting on your lazy butt out in the car,” Louisa said.
“She eats that food, you’re having sticks ’n’ leaves for dinner,” Jackson said.
“Fine.” Louisa dragged out the word to triple its normal syllables. “But hurry it up. I want to help build the fire.”
She stalked back out. Jackson shut the door, then collapsed against it. “Couldn’t leave her home,” he said on a wince.
“Don’t trust her, or feel guilty?”
“Both.”
“She is legally an adult. What were you like when you were twenty-one?”
He shoved away from the door and into the kitchen to nudge her cooler with his foot. “Anna Grace, that’s a three-point question.”
On a laugh, she scooted around him and headed toward her bedroom. “Let me toss some flannel pajamas in my bag, and I’ll be ready.”
“Flannel pajamas.” The last bits of hope evaporated from his voice. “You gonna go all independent on me if I take this cooler out to the car?”
“I suppose I can give you this one little show of macho.” Her duffel bag lay open on her bed, ready for one last check.
She pulled a pair of pajamas from her cold-weather drawer and turned to deposit them in her bag on top of three new Mae Daniels novels she’d snagged at his house last night.
“Is it that bad? It’s not like we were going to be alone. ”
“How about you let me know how those flannel pajamas are working for you in the morning.”
She heard the distinct sounds of cooler handles groaning as they took on the weight of the ice and food packed inside, then footsteps toward the door. She was about to flip her duffel shut when something green and wiggly stuck its head out of the corner and leaped onto the bed.
She yelped. “Ohmigod!”
The lizard froze on the bed. Its throat pumped, and it trained one beady eye on her. Jackson flung himself into the room. “Anna?” The lizard dashed over the corner of her comforter and disappeared somewhere on the opposite side of the bed.
She sucked air through her nose. “Gecko.”
She couldn’t leave with a lizard on the loose. What if it stayed? What if it left lizard slime in her bed or it crawled in her underwear drawers?
She tried to rub the shiver out of her arms. Jackson took two steps around the bed, but she flung a hand out. “It’s okay. I’ll get it.”
He pinned her with one of those quit being an irritating female looks she was seeing too often from a guy who was a friend with benefits, then continued around the bed and squatted. “Think he went under?”
Her toes squirmed inside her hiking boots. “If you hadn’t come running in here, I could’ve grabbed him off the bed.” She shuddered. Did lizards bite? What about their tails? Could that one drop his tail? She so didn’t want to get stuck holding a lizard tail.
Did the tails still move after they detached?
Would there be blood?
Jackson peered over the side of the bed. “Probably looking for a warm place to hide. He’ll find his way out if he gets hungry.”
Hungry? Her gaze flew out to the gigantic brandy snifter on the counter beyond her bedroom door. “Walker,” she whispered. Did lizards eat fish? Or swim?
“Walker?” he asked.
“My fish.” She dropped to her knees and squinted under the bed, but she couldn’t detect any lizardy movements.
Jackson stared back at her from the other side. “You named your fish Walker?”
Still nothing lizardly. She reached into her nightstand and pulled out a flashlight, then trained it under the bed. “Long story. Not appropriate for a gentleman’s ears.”
He chuckled. “Got me there.”
“Do you see it?”
“You quit shining that thing in my eyes, I might.”
There was a knock on the door. “Hell-lllooo?” Louisa yelled.
“Oh, there he goes!” Anna lunged and banged herself across the temple. The flashlight clattered away. Something heavy bumped the bed, and her mattress slid above her.
“Got it,” Jackson said.
She rolled over. He winked at her on his way out. The lizard dangled from his fingers, and she swore the stupid thing blinked at her. “You stay right there, Anna Grace. Back in a minute to help you up.”
If she could’ve reached a pillow, she would’ve thrown it at him.
Louisa poked her head in the bedroom. “What’s going on?”
“Luggage malfunction.” Anna pulled herself up. She tugged her hair to straighten her ponytail, then zipped her duffel up with the same efficiency she was using to slow her pulse.
“You guys making out?”
Jackson strolled back into the room and grabbed her bag. “We’re just friends. No making out.”
Just friends? Who was he kidding? Louisa knew better.
Of course, they weren’t much more than just friends, but still. She stalked after him. She’d just friends his ass off. “I can get my own bag.”
“Shoot, Anna Grace, I haven’t been this useful since that day we met.”
He shuffled ahead of her, fast enough that she couldn’t catch up. “I don’t have problems like this when you’re not around,” she said.
“You saying you want me to leave you alone?”
The thought sent a pang through her heart, but she stomped it with her hiking boots and an irritated growl. “Why do you like to be so difficult?”
The full-force grin he tossed at her made her stomped heart flutter as if it had grown butterfly wings. “Too easy, Anna Grace.” Her duffel over his shoulder, he snagged the cooler too. “We all ready, or you need to give your fish some counseling on account of his near-traumatic experience?”
The betta fish banged his face into the glass. She gave the bowl a little finger stroke, and Walker’s blue gills flared out.
“That fish has issues,” Louisa said.
“He’s a good fish.” She dropped a couple of fish flakes into the bowl, gave it another little tap, then grabbed her tent and followed Jackson and Louisa. Radish leaned her head out the truck window. She looked happy as a puppy in a field of rawhide bones.
While Jackson had his hands full putting Anna’s stuff in the bed, she took advantage of the opportunity to open her own door. Radish leaned off the seat to nose her cheek. Anna scratched her ears. “Hey, pretty girl.”
Louisa boosted herself into the backseat with the dog. A minute later Jackson climbed in. “Y’all ready?”
“Been ready,” Louisa said. “Let’s go make a campfire.”
“You didn’t tell her?” Anna murmured. Kaci had cancelled her classes for the day, and she and Lance had been out at the campsite since noon. Odds were good the fire had been going since 12:03.
She’d known Jackson had a devious streak, but his evil chuckle and the glint in his eyes sparked some sympathy for Louisa. “Anna Grace, you think you might could talk Louisa through that algebra homework she’s been whining about not understanding?”
Louisa heaved a sigh. “It’s gonna be a long ride, isn’t it?”
“You bet your x-squared.” Anna twisted in her seat to face the younger girl. “Bet you a marshmallow I can explain it better than Jackson.”
Louisa straightened. She met Anna’s gaze for a long minute, then pulled up a backpack. “You’re on.”
Jackson squeezed her knee. She settled her hand over his, and got down to the dirty business of talking math while he pulled on an old Bama cap and pointed the truck toward a little spot of land Kaci had borrowed for them for the weekend.
Camping wasn’t hunting, but Jackson loved sitting in front of a roaring campfire under a full moon next to a pretty lady. Even Louisa wasn’t irritating him so much, though it looked like Radish wanted earplugs. Anna was being a right good sport about it all.