Page 4 of Don't Game Me
“No. You said you had to because you’re scared of Mom.” She adjusted her glasses again.
He rolled his eyes and stalked toward the exit without replying, suitcase in tow. Given the set of Jake’s mouth, she wasn’t going to win the argument.
She jogged to keep up with him. “Fine. Thanks. I’d like a ride.”
He shot her an agitated glare as he jammed the elevator’s button.
Once in the hourly parking lot, her eyes snagged on a silver supercar.Oh, my.That was a spectacular feat of design. It promised something too fast for this world. What a tragedy to leash the engineering masterpiece in city traffic. Who in the world would park it here and not valet it?
Jake leaned over the supercar’s hood. He popped the trunk and shoved her suitcase inside.
“That’s not your car.” His Mustang suited him, not this ultra-expensive supercar.
“I borrowed her from a friend to test drive. It’s convinced me the city isn’t the right place for something like her.”
She compressed her lips against the “Well, duh”that itched to break free.I must be nice to him.
The date who didn’t show must’ve been something special if he borrowed this car to show off to her. She’d do anything for ten minutes on the interstate behind the wheel. “I’ll bet she’s fun to drive.”
He flashed her a grin. “Can’t let you, not with your driving record.”
“Two fender benders in POS cars and now I’m a criminal? Come on. I’m a great driver.” She leaned down to look in the window. Tooled red leather interior…gorgeous. “She sure is pretty.”
“You should be illegal.” Something in his tone suggested he didn’t mean her behind the wheel.
This was her imagination in overdrive. She didn’t want to hook up with Jake. Okay, that was a total lie. Any straight woman wanted at least a taste of what this man could offer. She wouldn’t hook up with him under orders from her boss though. Eww.
“Oh, wait,” she said before he closed the hood. “I need something out of the bag.”
She darted in front of him, her thighs tingling where they pressed tight to his legs. She unzipped the outer pouch to excavate her phone. A lacy thong fluttered out as she yanked out the phone. She’d forgotten she’d shoved it in there as an afterthought.
“Oh, no.” She dove for the fugitive underwear, but it flew out of her grasp toward him, caught on a gust of wind from a passing car.
Jake caught the runaway and dangled the black lacy fragment from a forefinger. His mouth twitched upward, but he compressed his lips against a full smile. “Quick underwear change on the plane?”
Could this afternoon get any worse?
“I forgot I’d put that in there.” His suppressed smile spurred her onto the defensive. “What?”
Jake’s mouth trembled against his effort not to smile. “So, what exactly happened on your flight?”
“Maybe I got it on in the bathroom with the hot guy seated next to me. I’ve always been curious about the Mile High Club.” As usual, Jake spurred her to needle him with dirty imagery. That kind of statement wasn’t her normal. Only with him.
His eyes widened, eyebrows popping upward. Then his gaze dropped down her body again with heated interest he’d never openly cast her way in the past. “Got any details you want to share?”
“Give me that.” She lunged forward to snatch the thong, but her boot heel caught the uneven pavement. He caught her arm, stabilizing her.
Even Jake’s long fingers were sexy, the ones wrapped supportively around her arm. He might be a computer programming god, but he probably knew how to work a woman into the height of sexual frenzy and then some with those fingers. Her mind strayed way beyond the do-not-cross tape her brother had strung around Jake long ago like it did every time she got close to him. Well, like it did before he spoke and broke the spell. Every time they tried to be civil, they ended up arguing.
Whatever vibe pinged between them right now had to be a figment of her overactive sexually deprived imagination.
“Stop being a jerk.” She snatched the underwear and shoved it back in the pouch.
He held open the door for her. The way he gently closed it suggested he didn’t want to hurt the car.
His saunter around to the driver’s side was more of a swagger. Him a computer geek, like her, and a big-time video game CEO didn’t mesh with the package.
A glance at her phone showed her last few calls. Her stomach cramped. How could she ask Jake to be her date? Ugh. The big question was how to avoid arguing with him long enough to convince him they could survive attending the wedding together without killing each other.
