Jacqueline Diamond - Paris or Bust!

“Love you? Why not?”

“Because I can’t…do it back. My life…” She lifted her hands, and had to let out a laugh. “My life is crazy enough, I can’t take on one more per son-”

“I already told you, no one takes care of me but me.” Calmly, he retrieved her shirt, her overalls, then stepped out of the pool, too, standing there in all his leanly muscled-and nude!-glory, water pooling at his feet.

“Fine.” She snatched her clothes from him. “You take care of yourself, and I’ll take care of myself, and we’ll just forget this happened and-”

“And what?” All that glorious male specimen moved closer. Very close. Very unconcerned about the nudity. “We’ll go on our merry way and forget that we just rocked each other’s world?”

She shoved her legs into her wet overalls, which meant her foot got stuck halfway in and she had to hobble around or fall on her ass. Her bra was still floating in the pool so she skipped that, too, and shoved her arms into her still inside-out shirt.

“Kylie-”

“I am leaving now.”

“But-”

“Bye.”

She got all the way home before she realized she’d forgotten her boots, too.

KYLIE WALKED into her office the next morning and found her bra and panties, dry and neatly folded, on her desk. No note.

None required, she thought grimly, staring at the plain white, serviceable bra and panties as she sank to her chair. The sexiest, most intelligent and startlingly intuitive man on earth fancied himself in love with her.

Her own little miracle, that.

And her own nightmare.

“Good morning, honey.” Daisy, dressed in a pink suit with matching fingernails and toenails, and a little matching purse, smiled sweetly as she entered. As usual, every hair was in place, and she looked incredible.

A feat her daughter had never managed.

“Do you have a minute?” Daisy asked.

“No, actually, I-”

“Don’t ask her if she has a minute,” Lou scolded, coming in behind Daisy, looking just as spectacularly put together as her daughter, though her finger and toenails were cherry red. “She never has a minute.”

“Grandma-”

“Be quiet, and welcome to This Is Your Sucky Life.”

Kylie blinked. “What?”

Lou shut the door. “What happened last night?”

Kylie’s stomach dropped. “Nothing.” Besides hot and wild sex in Wade’s pool. “Why?”

“Because your bra and panties got here before you did.”

Kylie grabbed the underwear in question and shoved it in her drawer. “I…lost them.”

“At Wade’s house?” Daisy smiled kindly when Kylie frowned. “Should we have the birds and the bees talk again, honey? Because-”

“Mom!” Kylie scrubbed her hands over her face. “I remember the talk. Jeez!”

“So do you love him?”

“Love him? What are you talking about?” But she knew, God help her, she knew.

She had no idea what Wade saw in her, she was a tomboy who forgot to comb her hair half the time, she was grumpy and ornery, and she didn’t have a soft spot to her.

And yet he loved her.

A serious problem, because she didn’t know how she felt in return. And yet if this stomach-in-her-toes, heart-on-its-side, can’t-eat-can’t-sleep feeling meant she loved him back, she didn’t know how she could live through it.

“Sit down, dear, you’re looking pale.” Lou pushed her into a chair. “Here’s what’s wrong. One, you work too hard. Two, you don’t smile enough. Three, you have people who love you, and you snarl at them instead of loving them back. Four, you have the most gorgeous hunk on the entire planet mooning after you and it takes you six months to notice-”

“Grandma. What is this?”

“I told you, I’m giving you the quickie version of This Is Your Sucky Life.” She turned to Daisy. “Tell me the truth, she’s the mailman’s child, right? You adopted her. You didn’t really have this alien.”

Kylie groaned and covered her face.

“What your grandma is trying to say, is that it’s okay you made love with Wade,” Daisy said. “We know you love us, and we think maybe you love him, too. It’s okay to love people, Kylie. It’s okay to lean on someone once in a while-”

“Lean on someone?” Kylie started to laugh, then realized she was close to tears and bit her lip. “Mom, it’s just that I can’t handle someone else leaning on me.”

“Why I ought to take you over my knee!” Lou said. “Sure, you run the business. And sure you’re more mature than we are. And okay, yes, maybe you’re even smarter, but Kylie Ann Birmingham, this taking care of people crap goes both ways. Who makes sure you actually eat once in a while? Your mother. Who makes sure you actually laugh once in a while? Who makes sure you stop and smell the flowers? Me, thank you very much.”

Kylie opened her eyes and looked into the two pairs of baby blues watching her so anxiously despite the levity in her grandma’s voice. They cared. They cared deeply. Why had she ever doubted that? “Look, I-”

“Just say you’re sorry and that you’ve been an idiot,” Lou said. “Go on, say it.”

“Okay, maybe I’ve been a bit of an-”

“Idiot,” Grandma filled in helpfully.

“Idiot,” Kylie agreed, rolling her eyes.

“No doubt there,” her grandmother agreed. “A complete idiot. Now. Forget about us and go get your man.”

Go get her man. Yeah. Shocking, but she liked the sound of that. But first she turned to Daisy. “Mom. I love you. I know I don’t say it enough, but I really do.”

Daisy’s eyes filled.

“Yeah, yeah. Love, love, love.” Lou pushed Kylie toward the door. “You have a man to catch.”

“I love you, too, Grandma.”

Lou’s eyes filled, as well. “If you’re going to go soft now, you’re wasting it on the wrong person,” she said, her voice suspiciously wobbly, and shoved Kylie out of her own office.

Kylie smiled, her heart feeling…light. Then her own office door shut in her face, and just as it did, she heard her grandma say, “I love you, too, even if you are an alien.”

WADE WOKE UP ALONE. He’d woken up alone a thousand mornings before, but this morning, for the first time ever, it didn’t feel right.

Kylie should have stayed. Should have been in his arms all night, blinking sleepy, sexy eyes at him. Then he’d have shown her what mornings were good for.

If he knew her, and he was quite certain he did, she’d ignore him today. She’d bury herself in work and pretend nothing was different.

When everything was different.

He walked from his office, braced, knowing he’d be facing a ten-foot brick wall when it came to Kylie, and dreading it. Damn it, if he could face his feelings for her, then she should have to do the same.

And she did have feelings. He didn’t care what she admitted out loud, he’d made love to her now, he’d seen how she looked at him, how she’d lost herself in his touch.

If nothing else, she wanted his body. Good news, but it wasn’t enough.

Walking through the maintenance hangar, he sighed heavily, disgusted with himself, because since when hadn’t lust been enough for him?

Since now, apparently. Since Kylie.

And then he noticed, someone had opened up one of his planes. With a frown, he headed toward it and stepped onboard.

And nearly swallowed his tongue.

Kylie stood there…in a dress. And not any regular dress, either, but the knock-’em-dead, formfitting, flowery number from the photo shoot. Her hair had been styled, her lips glossed, and when she saw him, she…smiled.

She didn’t ignore him, didn’t snarl at him, she simply kept smiling.

“I’m…sorry,” he said, his voice a little hoarse. “I think I’ve entered the wrong plane.” He turned away, and she let out a little laugh.

“Wade…”

He turned back to her. “My God, Kylie, you look beautiful.”

“It’s the same dress because…” She laughed again. “Well, it’s the only one I have.” She held a file, and suddenly she shoved it at him. “Here.”

He realized she had music on, not her usual hard rock, but something soft and romantic. She had a cooler opened with sodas in it. And she had a look to her face… If he didn’t know better he’d think she was trying to seduce him. “What’s this?” he said, opening the file.

Inhaling deeply, she clasped her fingers in front of her. “It’s a proposal.” She took a step closer, nearly tripped on her heels, swore roughly, then forced a smile. “For you.”

Watching this rough and tumble woman trying so hard to be soft and sexy made him want to both laugh and grab her. Grabbing her won out, and he reached for her, but she stepped back. “It’s a proposal,” she repeated. “For the very thing you’ve wanted.”

Blankly he stared down at the file, remembering only that he wanted her. But Kylie wouldn’t fit into this file.

“I’ve learned something about myself these past weeks,” she said quietly, her fingers turning white as she twisted them together. “I need people in my life. I need you in my life. And I’m ready to admit it out loud.”

Shocked, he stared at her. Was she saying what he hoped she was saying? “You…need me?”

“I need your expertise, I need your business savvy. I need you, the airport needs you. I’m just sorry it took me so long. So…” She drew another deep breath. “Will you buy into the airport as you’ve wanted? Will you become my business partner?”

When he didn’t answer, Kylie let out a slow breath. “Did you change your mind?”

“On what, Kylie?”

Why was he looking at her like that, she wondered, his eyes all dark and inscrutable? His mouth grim? His body language looking as if maybe he wanted to strangle her? “On…being my business partner.”

“Yes. Yes, actually, I did change my mind. I don’t want to be your business partner.”

What? What? How could he do this to her? Taking the last step between them, she stabbed his chest with her finger, hard. The sinewy strength of him didn’t give an inch, so she stabbed harder. “You’ve been after me all year for a piece of this place, and now, suddenly, when I’m the one asking, you don’t want a part of it?”