Chapter 13
Jamie caught the way Rebecca”s gaze swept over his zipper. It was the first time he”d felt genuine sexual interest coming from her.
They remained parked in the neutral zone between keeping the other at arm”s length and getting naked together—what he did next held a shit-ton of significance. He could ignore her interest or respond in kind. Both had merit, but only one changed everything.
Years of soul-searching and a boatload of therapy led him to this moment, but neither prepared him for the heaviness of his emotions. Where Rebecca Tate was concerned, he could pretty much scratch emotionless sex off the list. The realization was a game changer.
Rebecca”s inability to hide her interest stirred things inside him. Pretending her innocence wasn”t a turn-on would make him a liar.
Mentored by the best of the best in the gentlemanly art of dominance— Jamie knew a thing or two about how to bend almost any situation through words and deeds. He put the skills to work and let the adventure begin.
Boxing her in by hovering at her shoulder, he leaned closer, causing his groin to loom prominently before her face. With one hand, he gestured to the platter. The other he placed on her back. He could feel her tension from the way her breathing changed.
”For your pleasure, we have an array that Rafe is calling the carnivore carnival of yum. In other words, it”s a protein special—all the meat your mouth can handle.”
What would she do?
First, she quivered.
Then, she snorted.
The snort changed to a giggle, and she turned her head to look up at him. Her cheeks were beautifully flushed.
”Did you plan what you just said or hear the words as they fell from your mouth?” The innocently amusing way she voiced the insolent question rearranged Jamie”s inner deck chairs.
Holy fucking shit. This prickly, bitchy, outspoken, adorable female was like no one else.
”Testing the language boundaries,” he cheekily replied.
The pretty bloom on her cheeks deepened. Satisfied with her response, he moved back a few inches, paused, and then returned to the seat on the other side of the table. When he looked at her, she didn”t hide her eyes.
She was flirting. And it didn”t feel manufactured. The naturalness hit hardest.
He was laying the groundwork—something he never imagined with Rebecca. Could he bend her to his will and, by doing so, give her the world?
”I enjoy good words,” he drawled in a half-amused voice. ”Falling from my mouth or yours,” he added silkily. “Repartee can be titillating.”
Rebecca wet her lips, and a world of possibilities opened up from the tell-tale response.
He wanted to keep going. But he didn”t. Some sixth sense stopped him from continuing. This wasn”t the time or place.
Handing her a napkin wrapped around some silverware, he studied the platter.
”I”m cutting into the T-Bone. The damn thing is the size of a football,” he chuckled. ”So, we”re sharing.”
He made quick work of slicing the perfectly done steak with surgical precision.
”Ladies first,” he told her, gesturing to the platter.
”Mmm, looks yummy,” Rebecca moaned while assessing which piece to start with. ”I like the red stuff.”
He pierced a sliver of rare meat from the middle of the cut slices and offered it to her. She opened wide and pulled the steak off the fork.
After a second of chewing, she groaned appreciatively. ”Oh my. This is good—so juicy and tender.”
He forked two pieces and chewed them up. She was right. The steak was perfect.
”I can”t grill,” she admitted after taking a second piece. ”My steaks get so chewy.”
”Too long in the fire does that. Try getting the grate screaming hot and then sear both sides quickly.”
She smiled. ”After my last grill catastrophe, Kori made me swear to give it a rest.”
Looking over her shoulder, he said, ”Speaking of, here comes Miss Kourtney now.”
Rebecca glanced over her shoulder as her daughter approached.
Kori slammed her dish on the table and sat next to her mom.
”Hey, Jamie,”she said.
”Hey, kid,”he responded.
They fist-bumped as usual.
”Mom, guess what! The Major says it”s cool with him if I bring Pheebs to the stable to ride with me. I asked real nice, like you said.”
Rebecca wiped her mouth on a napkin and turned to Kori. ”You understand why you had to ask permission, right?”
Jamie listened avidly to the mother-daughter conversation.
”Um, sure,”Kori replied after taking a generous bite of a burger. You might run the stable, but decisions about who gets past security and rides the horses are his.”
”Exactly.”
Curious to know more, Jamie interjected, ”Pheebs?”
”Phoebe Marshall,”Kori explained. ”She”s my best friend from school. I call her Pheebs.”
”Oh, I see,”he replied with a nod.
Rebecca suddenly straightened and gave him an odd look. He could almost hear her mind working but had no idea what she was thinking.
Intriguing.
Putting off a matter-of-fact vibe, Rebecca said, ”I was enjoying a girls” night out with Phoebe”s mom when she had to leave due to a parenting situation. Luckily, Phoebe”s dad stepped in as my dinner companion. We had dessert,”she pointedly added. ”And coffee. Then he dropped me off at home.”
The air turned heavy. They were communicating on a different level. She wanted him to know she wasn”t seeing anyone.
Kori made sounds of appreciation while squeezing a gargantuan bun and patty to bite into it. Rafe”s signature move was supersizing everything.
Assured the young girl wasn”t paying close attention, Jamie responded to Rebecca in a confidential murmur.
”Thank you for clarifying what I saw.”
He had no idea why she shielded her eyes from his gaze, but she did.
Reacting swiftly, he stabbed a chunk of grilled chicken slathered in barbecue sauce and reached across the table to drop it on Rebecca”s plate. Before withdrawing his hand, he touched her wrist with his little finger. The contact was brief, but it got the reaction he hoped for.
Her eyes swept up and met his. The second he had her full attention, he said,”Honestly, I”m relieved.”
They might have had a moment if not for Kori”s presence. Between mouthfuls, the kid rattled about an archery class, the price of sunscreen, and some reality TV show that held no interest for him.
Instead of following the bizarre discussion about make-up and shapewear, he studied how the mother-daughter duo interacted with each other. Parenting is no easy job these days, and neither is being a teenager in a world heavily influenced by social media. He liked what he saw, though—the two had a solid relationship. Not that he was an expert on parenting—far from it, in fact.
Sitting there with nothing better to do than be comfortable, Jamie allowed himself to experience the satisfaction of being around good people. He needed more of this feeling—needed more normalcy.
Rebecca”s husky laugh drew him into the moment.
”You want to rock, paper, scissors whether or not you can get a piercing? I don”t think so, young lady. Your ears are pierced. That”s good enough. Talk to me again when you”re sixteen.”
”Sixteen?”Kori squawked. ”That”s positively old, Mom. Way to take the fun out of things. Sheesh.”
Jamie chuckled. When Kori glowered at him, he raised his brows and shrugged. ”Sorry, kid. Your mom”s right. You might feel totally different about it in a few years.”
”Do you have any tattoos? Or piercings,”Kori asked, appearing to burst with curiosity.
”I do not,”he replied. ”I thought about it once or twice—the ink—not the piercings—but nothing ever came of it.”
”Mom has a tattoo,”Kori helpfully informed him.
Reacting unintentionally, he squirmed, recalling his having seen Rebecca”s tattoo when they”d had their naked as a newborn encounter. The ink Kori referenced sat on her mom”s left hip. Jamie hadn”t seen the design up close, so he couldn”t say exactly what it was.
He shared a glance with Rebecca, and unless he was imagining things, they were both blushing.
Kori continued helpfully divulging her mother”s secrets.
”She says she was drunk.”
”You sound skeptical,”he commented with a wry chuckle.
”For good reason,”the grinning kid exclaimed. ”She has some kind of weird metabolism and never gets drunk.”
He looked at Rebecca. She grinned and gave a casual, one-shoulder shrug.
”I have what my mom calls the Aldean constitution. Our family tree includes several tavern owners and saloon keepers dating back to the 1600s—the inference being that getting tanked up is in our DNA.”
”My beverage of choice will always be carbonated,”Kori snickered. ”Bubbles are my thing, so unless there”s fizz, count me out.”
To illustrate her preference, she cracked the pull-top on a soda can and took a hefty swallow.
”Ahh,”she exhaled. ”Now that”s what I”m talking about.”
Rebecca”s eyes swung toJamie”s. She wore an exasperated expression he was going to call ”mom of a young teen.”
With a shake of her head, the amused mom drawled, ”Wait for it.”
Wondering what she meant, Jamie looked back and forth between the two. After a few seconds, Kori opened her mouth and produced an award-winning fizz belch.
The bombastic sound was truly marvelous, prompting him to cut loose with hearty applause.
”Well done, kid. What a triumph!”
Kori cracked up. ”I accept your tribute, Jamie. It”s good to know you can laugh for real.”
”Eh, come on,”he scoffed in a playful tone. ”I”m not that bad, am I?”
Rebecca and Kori looked at each other and chuckled in unison. Realizing they”d discuss his attitude was unnerving.
”Unfair advantage. Two against one.”He wiped his mouth on a napkin and reached for his water bottle.
”Yeah,”Kori laughed. ”But you”re uptight and dorky times two, so it all evens out.”
Rebecca nudged her daughter. ”Dorky?”
”It”s the Tardis,”Kori replied to her mom”s question. ”Next to a Comic Con lifetime membership, a Tardis guarantees dork status.”
”Oof,”he grunted, dramatically clutching a fist over his heart. Jamie groaned. ”Direct hit.”
”Did I hear you mention Jamie”s obsession with the Tardis?”Domineau asked in an amused voice when she once again materialized next to him out of thin air.
Rebecca laughed. ”According to Bendover”s youth reporter,”she joked, pointing at her daughter, ”this weird fascination qualifies Dr. James Hunter for dork status.”
Domineau leaned into him so hard she almost pushed him off the bench.
”You”re adorkable.”
Oh, dear God. He just knew that one was going to stick.
”Thanks. Just what I always wanted to be. Adorkable.”
”Well, look on the bright side, Doc. Adorkable is better than your gladiator name.”
”My what?”
”Gladiator name,”she repeated.
Then, she went for the gold. ”Stickupassicus.”
”Bwah! Stickupassicus,”Kori wheezed between snorting giggles.
Rebecca was slow to join the laughter, but soon enough, she was belly laughing with the others.
Jamie was positive he”d never been the subject of so much rib-tickling female laughter. Considering who was laughing, he felt weirdly honored and puffed with prideful satisfaction.
Knowing the part he had to play, he eyed the giggle-snorting trio, sniffed at their exuberant behavior, and gave them an eye roll.
Domineau whacked him on the arm. She was such a guy at times.
”Lighten up, Doc! Being mocked by the gals is a Justice rite of passage.”She swept her hand in the air, gesturing to the assemblage of people in her backyard. Now you”re part of the club.”
His gaze immediately went to Rebecca. She was looking at him—her eyes twinkling and a slight smile curling her lips.
What was she thinking?