Chapter 1 #2
“Can’t you?” he asked, giving her a look that sent heat missiles racing to her center.
Bullseye. Jack had always been an excellent shot when it came to finding her weak spot.
The damp salty sea air had curled his dark hair at the nape of his neck beneath his Stetson.
She thought about the last time she’d buried her fingers in that mop and unconsciously unfisted her hands at her side.
“You look great, Josie,” he said so softly it felt like a caress. His gaze ran roughshod over her, as his hands and lips and body had last done.
“If you’re waiting for me to say the same about you…” The rest of her words caught in her throat. He knew he was the hottest thing since air fryers. She unfocused on his assets and searched her brain for what his real intentions might be. Nothing good, she would bet on that.
* * * * * * * * * *
CHAPTER 2
Jack dragged his gaze from her, and she watched him look around the shop that sat steps from the Pacific Ocean on the main drag of Wild Rose Point, Oregon.
Right now, it was off-season. The sky when she’d driven in had been gray and stormy, the streets short on tourists.
But she could see how this picturesque coastal town would swarm with visitors during the peak season.
She wouldn’t be staying to see that. The best thing she could do was get out of town quickly before anyone she knew heard what she’d won in the Great Aunt Clara Poker Sweepstakes.
She especially didn’t want two brothers from Idaho knowing about her “inheritance” or where they could find her.
The Armstrong twins had turned out to be poor losers—especially when bested by a woman.
Jack showing up did not bode well either.
Her secret must already be out. “Looking for a wedding dress?” she asked as he took in the place before all that blue heat shifted back to her.
Sparks flew again, some of them catching fire on her skin and others igniting memories of being naked in this man’s arms. She swore the cowboy could see right down to her soul—not that it was the spot he liked the best.
Jack shook his head. “There’s only one woman I want, and we both know I can’t have her. At least not the way I want her.” His gaze, along with his words, almost had her shimmying out of her jeans right here on this hardwood floor.
Almost. “You’ve always wanted what you can’t have.
” She folded her arms across her chest, only seeming to draw his attention to her breasts.
She unfolded her arms, hating the heat that rushed to her cheeks as his grin told her he hadn’t forgotten her breasts in his hands, her hard nipples in his mouth.
“Seriously,” she snapped irritably. If he thought for a second that he could waltz back into her life and she’d fall for his line again, he was sadly mistaken. “What are you doing here?”
“I heard about your good fortune.” He chuckled. “I’d never heard of anyone winning a bridal boutique in a high-stakes poker game.” His grin broadened. “But then again, not everyone is Josephine Bodine. Looking for someone to take the place off your hands?”
“There’s that cowboy I know.” Josephine shook her head, hating that it was disappointment she felt. Her good fortune was his real intention for being here—not her. “Come to help me out—out of my money, that is.”
He shook his head, dropping his gaze to his hand-stitched Montana cowhide boots. He only wore them when he thought he was going to get lucky. “You’ve got me all wrong. Always have.” Raising his head, he locked eyes with her. “I missed you.”
“Thought you’d take better aim this time? Sorry, but your shooting hasn’t improved,” she joked, although her heart wasn’t in it.
“Actually, it has. I’ve settled down. I’m a private investigator, licensed and even have an office back in Bozeman,” he said.
She tried hard not to show her surprise. Jack settling down? He’d quit the poker circuit? The last time she’d seen him, she’d awakened in a hotel suite queen-sized bed alone, the cowboy long gone after taking his and her shares of poker winnings they’d agreed to split the night before.
Her look must have told him that she hadn’t forgotten their last time together. An image of the two of them tangled in the sheets, Jack’s body warm and strong, his hands…
“I know I shouldn’t have left like that,” he said as she shook off the image with a shiver and watched him reach into his pocket to pull out a roll of hundreds. “I doubled those winnings, wanting to surprise you, but when I got back to the hotel, you were gone.” He held the bankroll out to her.
She didn’t move to take it.
“I also owe you an apology. I should have left a note.” He glanced at his boots again before looking up at her again.
“The truth? I panicked and rather than admit how I felt about you, I burned the bridge after me,” he said, holding her gaze.
“That night…” He shook his head. “You have to admit it was…incredible. So much so, I never wanted it to end and that scared the hell out of me.”
“So, you fled like the coward and thief you are, taking my share of our winnings.”
“I had to put some space between us and that night,” Jack said. “You’re a hard woman to find, even for a private detective. It’s just luck that I’m here.”
“Just luck,” she repeated, warning herself not to believe a word of it. “Apparently not my good luck.”
He stepped closer. “Actually, it felt like fate to me. I’ve always wanted to see you in a wedding dress.” His smile was all glistening white teeth. Nothing to fear here. But she was no longer Little Red Riding Hood coming across her first charming wolf.
“Who knows,” Jack continued. “Maybe someday I’ll get to see you in one of those fancy dresses back there. I would really love that.”
She groaned inwardly. If he was staying in Wild Rose Point, then he had ulterior motives that had nothing to do with her. But looking into his handsome face, those blue eyes intent on her, she had a bad feeling that Jack might be telling the truth.
He was here because of her.
All she had to do was figure out his angle. “You should probably go,” she said, dragging her gaze from his.
“If that’s what you want.” He sounded disappointed. That was fine with her.
“I’m not leaving town though. I’ll be sticking around.” His look made it clear what he hoped would happen again.
“Suit yourself,” she said and narrowed her eyes. If he thought she would be falling back into bed with him, he was going to be disappointed.
With a knowing grin and a shrug, he dropped the roll of money on the end table piled with wedding magazines, then headed for the door. She watched him go, hating the way her chest ached, and her blood ran hot. No man had ever gotten to her like Jack Rawlins, and damned if he didn’t know it.
Josephine reminded herself that she wasn’t some babe in the woods. Her Aunt Clara had taught her poker, but also how to cut her losses and walk away from a game table—and a bad hand.
When it came to love, her father had taught her that it couldn’t be trusted. As hot as it could blaze, so hot it burned you, it often cooled and died. Harry Bodine had been the poster boy on how to move on and not look back, leaving whatever it had been in ashes.
And Jack? He’d taught her not to trust a man like him any farther than she could pick him up and throw him.
At the door, he stopped to look back at her. She took him in, standing there. No wonder she’d fallen for the cowboy. He looked…good enough to eat. She felt the pull of him, that need for the kind of physical pleasure the man could give her.
He must have seen it in her eyes because he hesitated at the door as if he thought she might call him back. She ground her teeth, narrowing her eyes and fighting that wild desire for this sexy man. With pleasure came pain with a man like Jack.
After a long moment, he touched the brim of his Stetson, his blue eyes luminous. “It’s good to see you, Josephine.”
She turned her back on him, anxious to hear the door close behind him.
As it did, she let out the breath she’d been holding and felt a foolish weakness in her knees before picking up the money he’d left and angrily stuffing it into her pocket.
Spotting the envelope she’d dropped before Jack Rawlins had shown up, she distractedly opened it and pulled out the single sheet of folded notebook paper inside.
She was thinking of Jack and selling this place as quickly as possible as she unfolded the note. In that same handwriting as the envelope were the words, Do you feel lucky, Josephine?
The words, while not exactly threatening, brought a fissure of alarm. She stared at the handprinted note and envelope. Who had slid this under her door? Someone in Wild Rose Point? Someone who knew about her being left the shop? Someone she knew?
She hated that a simple note could disarm her the way this one had.
It confirmed what she already knew, she thought as she wadded up both the note and envelope and threw it across the room in frustration.
It landed in the corner behind one of the chairs for potential clients.
She had no business out here on the West Coast. Worse, there was something very wrong about this inheritance.
She’d been right. She’d had every reason to worry about this particular gift horse. Something had been suspicious about it from the beginning. Hadn’t her aunt taught her that when she’d been dealt a bad hand, to get out fast? “Don’t try to ride a dead horse,” Clara had said. “Bury it and move on.”
Pulling out her phone, she called the first Realtor that came up on her phone search. She would sell this place and leave here as quickly as possible. She thought about the note—and Jack Rawlins. Wild Rose Point had gotten too crowded.
-#-
Jack didn’t go far after he left Seaside Vows. Up the block, he stopped to search the street behind him. Dark clouds hung over the Pacific. Wind rippled over the surface of the sea. The promise of rain hung in the freshening air.