Chapter 10 #2
So he was a last resort, was he? No surprise there.
She’d certainly made sure he had a good grasp of where he stood with her.
It had been less than twenty-four hours since she’d run from him at the wedding reception.
He cast her a side-eye, but she was rubbing her small hands across the goat’s head.
She was a massage therapist. He could see that even in her absent-minded handling of the animal’s knobby skull. He should try again to get a massage. Nathan shoved the thought aside, but it didn’t want to go. He’d bet she was real good at whatever she did, no matter what it was.
“Yeah, I don’t mind doing it for you.”
She jerked her hands and tucked them in her armpits. “Okay, thanks. Let me know when you can come back.”
“I’ll pick you up on the way, if you like. You’re in Bridgeview Manor, right? It’s on my way.”
She shook her head. “A ride won’t be necessary. I think I’m going to go home long enough to grab my overnight bag, and I’ll sleep here tonight. Eden told me I could, but I hadn’t planned on taking her up on it.”
That made sense. He watched as she reached for the bucket and the basket hanging on hooks on the tall fence. Jasmine held out the wire mesh basket toward him. “I know veterinarians charge quite a lot for house calls,” she said. “But I can offer you half a dozen fresh eggs, if you like.”
He couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face. She wanted to repay him, did she? Not that he’d really done anything yet. “I’ve got a better idea.”
Jasmine swung her head and looked at him sharply. “What’s that?”
“When I come back, I’d like to collect on something that was denied me yesterday.”
She backed up a step, the containers hanging by her sides. She narrowed her gaze at him. “Oh?”
He hesitated for a moment, unsure of her response.
But he’d spent way too many recent nighttime hours remembering how she used to feel in his arms long ago to give up quite this easily.
He licked his lips. “I have some great tunes on my phone. How about a dance right here in the moonlight? It’s not a full moon, but there should be plenty to see by. ”
She stalked over to the back steps of the house and thumped up them. She juggled the basket of eggs into the same hand as the one carrying the milk pail, opened the back door, and stepped inside. The door thunked closed.
Nathan scratched his head. She hadn’t exactly said no , had she? He glanced over to make sure the gate to the street had snapped shut when he entered a while back then followed Jasmine into Eden’s house without knocking.
She stood at the counter, arranging cheesecloth in a sieve over a glass gallon jar. She lifted the bucket, but the whole set-up was high for a woman of short stature.
Two long strides brought him to her side. “Here, let me.” Without waiting for a response, Nathan lifted the bucket and poured the creamy milk slowly through the sieve. “I can’t say I’ve ever had goat’s milk.”
“Well, you can have some of this if you like.” Jasmine lifted out the sieve and set it in a bowl before screwing a lid onto the jar.
Nathan stepped closer and placed one hand on the counter on either side of her. Her floral scent teased his nostrils, and her long dark hair brushed against his forearms as he leaned just a little closer. He probably shouldn’t be doing this but, at the moment, he didn’t really care.
“That’s not at all the payment I asked for,” he murmured into her ear.
He wouldn’t have thought it possible for her body to stiffen further, but it did. “I’m not sure how many ways I have to tell you no before you’ll believe me.”
Nathan was pushing it. He knew it, but he didn’t want to stop. He drew his hands a little closer together on the countertop until his arms touched hers. “When you can convince me that you really mean it.”
“I mean it.” Her voice was breathless.
“Try saying that again with more feeling.”
Her elbows jammed into his ribs, and he took an inadvertent step backward as she whirled around. Not so far back that he couldn’t close the slight gap before she escaped.
“Jasmine.”
Her hands hitched up onto the counter behind her, but she did not meet his gaze. “Please move out of my personal space?”
If only she sounded like she meant it, but her voice had caught just slightly on the words.
Nathan cupped her cheek with one hand, feeling her jaw tremble under his touch. “I’ll take that dance in an hour or two, if I may.” He said the words so quietly he wasn’t sure she’d hear.
Her eyes jerked up to meet his, wider now than they been before.
“We were good together back then, Jasmine. I think we could be again.” He leaned down and brushed his lips over hers.
Fireworks exploded from his mouth to the extremities of his body, rocking him to the soles of his feet.
Oh, yes, they could be good together again.
He leaned in to give her a real kiss, but both her hands came up and shoved him hard in the chest. He stumbled backward, barely regaining his balance before he hit the fridge.
“If I’d wanted to dance with you, Nathan Hamelin, I would have done so last night. I didn’t want to then, and I don’t want to now. Please believe my words and leave me alone.”
Nathan took in her stance. She didn’t seem to be kidding around.
But hadn’t she felt that jolt of lightning the same as he had when he kissed her?
He examined her face, but there was no evidence she felt a thing other than disgust and anger.
He held up both hands. “Okay, sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.
I’ll leave now and return in a couple of hours, if that’s okay. ”
Her eyebrows lifted. “You’re still coming back?”
Nathan swallowed hard. “I said I would, and I’m a man of my word. Unless you tell me you’re comfortable with Pansy without a second opinion.”
She stared at him as she sucked in her lower lip. “Thank you for coming, but Pansy and I will be just fine. I don’t need any more of your drama in my life, Nathan Hamelin. You need to understand that.”
Oh, he understood, all right. She still hadn’t quite convinced him that she meant what she said, but he needed to respect her words.