Instant Temptation (20 page)

He was fucked up.

She was looking at him, her eyes suddenly sharp. “Look at you, all worried that I’m going to set my sights on you now. Don’t worry, TJ. I know better.”

He opened his mouth, but when she arched a brow, he shut his mouth again. When it came to women and permanence, he’d never had what it took, and they both knew it.

Hell. He should have left well enough alone, let her have her “thing” with Nolan. She deserved it, and Nolan was a good guy. He’d have taken good care of her.

“Christ, TJ,” she said. “Get over yourself.”

Good plan. They stared at each other for a moment. “I’m sorry about Nolan,” he finally said. “Was it because of what happened between us?”

“No.” But she didn’t meet his gaze. “Because there was no us at Desolation.”

Yeah, that was his story, too. He wondered how long they could go on keeping that delusion. He pulled off his helmet and handed it to her.

“I’m not taking your helmet.”

“Yes, you are.”

“Look, I realize your head is impossibly hard and probably indestructible, but you still need the protection.”

“Okay, I didn’t want to go there,” he said evenly, doing his best not to smile. It was hard. Even when he was completely baffled by his emotions for her, she made him want to smile. A lot. Something to think about later. “You owe me.”

“I owe you?” she asked incredulously.

“Yes. And this is how you can repay me.”

“Let me get this straight,” she said. “You gave me an orgasm and I give you…wearing your helmet?”

“You don’t owe me for the orgasm. You owe me for something else.” He just smiled and held out the helmet.

Harley blinked at him, feeling off her axis. She told herself it was from what had happened earlier with Nolan, but she knew the truth. It was TJ, straddling his big, bad bike, looking like sin on a stick. He wore another pair of Levi’s, soft and faded, torn in one knee and the other thigh, along with a pair of battered boots, a long-sleeved pullover Henley, and mirrored sunglasses. She had to suck in all the air in the entire county to even look at him, and when she did, she ached with that nameless need again.

Oh, who was she kidding. It wasn’t nameless. It was lust, pure and simple. “What do I owe you for exactly?”

“Well, you were mad at me for a very long time.” He pushed his sunglasses to the top of his head.

“Years.”

His eyes were the color of moss on a rainy spring day, and she lost herself in the warm heat of them for a minute.

“But as it turns out,” he said softly, “you didn’t really have a right to be mad. You withheld your friendship. I forgive you,” he said magnanimously, his eyes lit with good humor. He was teasing her!

“But the least you can do is this one little favor.”

“I didn’t have a right to be mad?” she asked.

“You climbed into my truck. You seduced me. If anything, I should be mad at you.”

She choked out a laugh and slipped on the helmet. “You really are a nut.”

He grinned. “Just being your friend.”

There was that F-word again. “So which kind of friend today? My funny friend?”

“Again, I’d prefer to be—”

“Naked friend. Yeah, yeah.” She laughed instead of admitting that that was sounding pretty damn good. She put a hand on his broad shoulder, feeling the muscles beneath as she used him for balance to swung a leg over the bike. Behind him, she stared at the expanse of his back stretching his shirt and her mouth watered as she tried to hold herself away from him.

“You’re going to need to hold on,” he said.

“I’m all sweaty.”

“As we’ve already established, I like you that way.”

She sighed and pulled herself closer, her chest, belly, and hips tight against him, not to mention her thighs straddling his so that it affected her breathing in a way she couldn’t blame on the running. Her arms encircled his lean waist, her fingers brushing up against his ridged, perfect abs.

“You know, Mariposa Canyon is a virtual biological wonder this time of year,” he said casually.

Mariposa Canyon was a hidden meadow about two miles from there, hidden because the only way to get there was by four-wheeling in, over natural hills and through crevices, making it a perfect balls-tothe-walls quad course. The canyon wasn’t a “biological wonder,” it was a four-wheeling gift from heaven.

He flashed her one of his wicked grins over his shoulder. “As a biologist,” he said solemnly, “you’d probably want to take the long way to your place, maybe take just a quick drive-by through the canyon to make sure you aren’t missing anything good.”

She couldn’t think of a single thing that could improve a shitty day more than being beneath the wide, expansive sky, surrounded by the majestic, glorious peaks, with 686 cc’s between her legs and the hottest guy in the universe to hold on to…“Well, if it’s not too much trouble,” she said demurely, making him burst into laughter.

God, she loved his laugh. It made her laugh, too, and she felt it bubble out of her with sheer joy, which backed deliciously up in her throat when he hit the gas. In three minutes they were off road and heading toward Mariposa Canyon, and then they were at the top of the basin, looking down at it.

“Hold on,” he said, and they leapt forward, for a minute completely airborne as they flew down the hill.

Her heart landed in her throat, in a very good way, in the best roller-coaster kind of way. Manzanita bush and wild growth whipped past in a blur as TJ followed the line of the trees straight down. She found herself screaming in delight, probably making him deaf, and she didn’t care. She leaned with him into the turns, her hands gripping him for all she was worth. Beneath her palms she felt the tight, hard muscles in his abs work as he maneuvered them up and across the steep, spine-tingling moguls.

“Crash, and I’ll kill you,” she yelled in his ear.

“You’re safe with me.”

“You’re the one without a helmet. It’s your thick skull that I’m worried about—”

She broke off with another little scream as he took them off a sharp cliff, then up and over the dirt moguls, through the brush and mud. She was still grinning an hour later when he pulled up to her place.

She slid off, pulled off the helmet, and eyed the bike. “Your bike’s all muddy now.”

“It’ll wash.”

“I guess since I enjoyed the ride so much, and we’re making such a concerted effort to be friends and all, I could offer to help.”

His eyes went all smoky. “What would you be wearing for this bike-washing event?”

“Oh my God. Are you going to turn everything back to Naked Friend?”

“Yes. But I’ll settle for a bikini top and short shorts friend.”

She couldn’t help it; she laughed again and turned to head inside, then found herself being slowly pulled back into him. “I don’t have any short shorts at the moment.”

He turned her around to face him. “You can owe me. Listen, I was actually hoping we could talk.”

Uh oh. His solemn expression sank in and her smile faded. “Just what I need. More talk, more trouble.”

“I’m sorry about causing you trouble,” he said quietly, all humor gone. “But I’m not sorry I went with you to Desolation, or that I learned what the problem was between us.”

She closed her eyes. “TJ.”

“In fact, we should work on that problem. I could fix it, if you’d let me.”

“Really?” she asked curiously. “How?”

He was quiet a moment. Lifting his head, he ran a finger over her shoulder. “By making a better memory.”

“Is this because I told you it was fine?”

He grimaced. “I’d like to think I’m not quite that Neanderthal.” He paused, then gave her a small smile.

“But fine sucks, Harley.”

“We were teenagers.”

“Sort of my point. I do better now.”

She laughed softly and shook her head. “The Wilder ego,” she murmured. “Needing to be the biggest, the baddest, and the best in everything, especially bed. Nothing personal, TJ, but I’d rather have sweet, steady, and stable.”

“Like Nolan.”

“Like Nolan.”

“Then why did you cut him loose?”

“I told you, he—”

He just looked at her, and she let out a breath. Right. She could have turned that around—if she’d tried hard enough.

“But that’s not what I wanted to talk about,” TJ said quietly. “Can I come in?”

Had she ever been able to refuse him anything? “Yeah.”

CHAPTER 18

Harley unlocked her door, went directly to the kitchen, opened her refrigerator, and frowned in disappointment.

TJ stopped at her table and looked at the maps she had spread out there. “So you’re going to fill this out?”

She went utterly still for a beat, suddenly realizing what was with the maps—the employment application. And her pro/con list of his and Nolan’s qualifications. Embarrassment and horror filled her as she whipped around and leapt toward him. “Give me that.”

Not yet having caught sight of the list, he smiled. “It’s okay. The form’s just a formality for our pesky attorney.” He stopped short and blinked as he got a good look at what he was holding. “What’s this?”

She launched herself at him. “TJ, dammit, that’s personal—”

“Qualifications. Nolan.” He paused. “Gave you a job, nice body, nice smile.”

She was practically crawling up his body, trying to grab the paper. “Give it back.”

“You’re right,” he said, nodding his head. “Nolan does have a very nice smile.” He perused some more.

“‘Haven’t wanted to kiss him since I kissed TJ.’” He cut his eyes to hers. “We’ll definitely be circling back to that.”

With a miserable groan, she gave up trying to reach the list and plopped her head to his chest. Beneath the hard muscle she could feel his heartbeat, steady and sure.

Hers, on the other hand, was racing.

He stroked a hand down her hair. “My pros. Best body in Wishful, maybe the planet. Nice to know.” He shot her a look so hot it singed her every nerve ending. “Right back at you, Harley.”

She smacked him in the chest. She didn’t put a lot of heat into it because she real y wanted him to lower his arm so she could grab the paper before he got any further.

“Gave you your first man-made orgasm all year,” he read. He went silent at that. She could feel him watching her but she didn’t lift her head. Instead she smacked him again.

He cuffed both her wrists in one hand and backed her into the counter, effortlessly holding her there with his body. “So what exactly is it you don’t want me to see, Harley? That I know you? More than you’d like?” She could hear the smile in his voice. And that wasn’t all. She was plastered to him and he was hard.

She thunked her head against the rock-solid muscles of his chest. “You are such an ass.”

He laughed softly as he nuzzled her neck. “What if I told you same goes, that I can’t stop thinking about you either? And that if anyone’s heart is in danger here, it’s mine.” He said this in a low, rough whisper.

“As for intentions…” He tossed the list aside and pressed into her, allowing her to feel exactly what his intentions were.

Suddenly it felt as if there was a whole heck of a lot less oxygen in the room than there’d been only a moment before, which had to explain why she’d melted into him when she hadn’t meant to. She tossed back her head to say something defensive, but the look on his face stopped her.

His smile was warm, affectionate even. His eyes…smoking hot. Bending his head, he pressed his jaw to hers, then kissed her temple, her jaw, that spot beneath her ear. “You have no idea what you do to me,” he murmured, running his hands over her. “Because if you did, you’d shove me out and bolt the door.” Then he kissed her mouth, long and hard and deep, and just when she was panting for air, desperate for more, he let her go.

Legs weak, she walked into the living room and plopped onto the couch.

Silently, TJ joined her. He looked at the spot where her TV had been before she’d sold it to cover her mom’s mortgage.

“Don’t,” she said softly.

“Work for us this weekend, Harley.”

“What’s the catch?”

“No catch. We get the help we need. You get a sizeable chunk of cash.”

Ah, there it was. “So it’s a pity job.”

“Harley, there are pity dates and pity fucks, but there are no pity jobs. You’re going to work your ass off, trust me. Not to mention get some of that great escape we both find out there on the mountain that we can’t seem to find anywhere else.”

She turned her head toward him and had to admit he was right on that score. “Okay.”

“Okay,” he repeated, relieved.

She leaned back and rested her head. “So what did you want to talk to me about?”

“How’s your research going?” he asked instead of answering.

“Good. Except the second battery pack on that third camera failed, too. I knew I should have replaced it while I was out there. Also, two of the coyotes are no longer transmitting. I need to get back out there.”

“Yeah.” He scrubbed a hand down his face. “That’s why I came looking for you. We got a call from the forest station out there.” Regret and unease flashed across his face and she braced herself. “They found two coyotes, shot and deserted.”

She stood back up and walked to her table. She shoved aside the bills and the stupid list and spread out the map of the entire Desolation Wilderness. Staring down at it, vision burring, legs quaking, heart aching, she drew a breath. “Where exactly?”

“Harley—”

“Show me.”

He looked at her for a long beat, then moved close, leaning across her, his long finger going to a spot on the map where two of her red data group had stopped transmitting.

Nodding, she put her finger on the spot where she and TJ had camped, then looked at the proximity of their fingers.

“Waaaay too close,” he murmured softly, and set a warm hand low on her spine. “They were yours?”

She swallowed convulsively. “I think so, yes.” She felt the intensity of his eyes on her, but she didn’t look at him. She was too busy locking her knees at the wave of pain.

“They’re not issuing any more permits for Desolation until they catch whoever’s out there with a shotgun,” he said.

There was that, at least.

“Harley? You okay?”