“I’m not sure.” ísa thrust the cold container of ice cream into Nayna’s lap.
Not the least distracted by the cold of the ice cream, Nayna waggled her eyebrows. “Anyone to whom you’d be happy to offer a lusty sexual favor?”
When ísa’s breath turned shallow, her face even hotter, Nayna’s smile cracked her face. “It was him, wasn’t it? The hot gardener? The one you went skinny-dipping with at the party? I knew he couldn’t be an asshole, not with the way he looks at you! And oh my God! He avenged your honor!”
“I’ll tell you when I know.” ísa pointed her spoon at her grinning best friend. “And I thought you were depressed.”
“Hearing about Slimeball Schumer’s comeuppance has had a reviving effect.” Having opened the container, she put it between them and dug in.
One spoonful later, she said, “ísa, seriously—if Mr. Sexy Blue Eyes punched out Cody for you, he might be a keeper.”
ísa stabbed her own spoon into the ice cream. “He’s twenty-three.” And definitely, absolutely not anything like the kind of man for whom ísa was searching. Even if he haunted her in her dreams. Even if she kept seeing that image of him on the stairs, a maturity to him that belied his age. Even if she kept hearing him whisper “spitfire” in her ear while promising to lock her up using handcuffs.
* * *
AFTER FINALLY GETTING HOME AT eight that evening, Sailor dug out a frozen meal. He showered while it was cooking in the microwave, then pulled on a pair of low-hanging shorts and, taking the meal to the kitchen table where he did most of his theoretical work, sat down to fine-tune the plans for Fast Organic.
Jacqueline’s assistant had sent him a message to say that a representative from the company would be meeting him tomorrow at three at the first Fast Organic site to go over the details. She hadn’t sent him a name, noting that she’d send through final details tomorrow, once this new project was integrated into everyone’s schedules. Given Jacqueline’s driven nature, the rep had to be someone equally intelligent and competent; they’d no doubt have countless questions.
Sailor wanted to have all the answers ready.
After he finished this, he’d have to get to work on his taxes. The problem with being a one-man shop was that he had to do everything. Which didn’t leave a lot of time for extracurricular activities. He played rugby during the season, ran for exercise during the off-season, but that was about it. Today, however, he decided that he needed to add “flirting with a cute redhead” to his schedule.
When he was around her, he felt young in a way he hadn’t felt since he was fifteen and had set himself the goal that drove him every single day. She made him realize that he’d put part of himself into deep freeze a long time ago—but there was no ice around her and never had been. His redhead had hit him straight in the gut from the first night he’d laid eyes on her.
A man would have to be very stupid to walk away from that.
Sailor wasn’t stupid.
He was also very, very determined.
The cactus was just stage one of his plan to lure his redhead into his lair.
* * *
íSA RAN INTO HER LEAST favorite person in the entire world the next morning after she parked her car in the Crafty Corners parking lot. She hadn’t slept well, tormented by dreams of a man with devil-blue eyes who teased her body without ever offering relief. What she needed was a tall black coffee. What she got was a tall, blackhearted swamp creature.
“Hello, Trevor,” she said with a tight smile and tried to walk past him.
“Hey.” He put his hands on her upper arms. “Is that any way to talk to your stepbrother?”
Not about to put up with unwanted contact, ísa deliberately stepped back. If he touched her again, she’d break out the painful little-finger twist she’d learned in a self-defense class. “I don’t think it works that way when parents marry after their children are adults.” It wasn’t the first time she’d made the point.
Trevor laughed, his perfect white teeth gleaming in his perfect square-jawed face with its perfect salon-tousled blond hair. He was like a living, talking, walking magazine model. It was creepy. “Are you going in to see Jacqueline?” he asked. “I was hoping to have a word with her.”
“I don’t know if she’s in yet,” was all ísa said. She had no desire to know what Trevor wanted to discuss with Jacqueline, though she could guess. Trevor had been angling for a senior position at Crafty Corners ever since his father Oliver had the good fortune to marry Jacqueline.
While Oliver Jones was a somewhat vague professor who, oddly enough, seemed to “get” Jacqueline in a way none of her previous husbands had, Trevor Jones was very much a smooth operator out to line his pockets. He’d quickly figured out that getting into Jacqueline’s good books was in his best interest.
Unfortunately, good-looking, charming men were Jacqueline’s weak point.
Except in business, of course. Nothing distracted Jacqueline in business. Not even “a nice piece of ass.”
Trevor had, so far, managed to walk the fine line between being a charming man whose company Jacqueline enjoyed and a calculating operator who wanted to wheedle his way into her business empire. ísa wondered how long that would last. Jacqueline might have a weak spot for charming men, but she also had a razor-sharp intellect—sooner, rather than later, she’d figure out that Trevor was muscling in for a piece of the family pie.
That might’ve intrigued Jacqueline had Trevor been up to her standards, but Trevor wasn’t even on Jacqueline’s radar as someone she’d employ. While he was apparently a competent lawyer, he wasn’t a shark who could rip the competition to shreds without ever losing his smile. Jacqueline’s entire legal team was made up of sharks—which occasionally made for interesting office politics, but when it counted, the sharks worked together as a team.
They’d chew Trevor up and spit him out without so much as pausing in their work.
“I hear Jacqueline’s made you acting vice president.” Trevor’s smile was so dazzling that she half expected to see a glint off one pearly white. “Congratulations.”
ísa settled the strap of her satchel and gave him the same tight smile as earlier, hoping he’d get the message. “It’s only for the summer,” she said. “I’m sure she’ll find someone permanent during that time.”
“Oh, don’t be modest, ísalind.” Trevor’s smile rang hollow. “We all know you’re a genius. You’ve got your mother’s instincts.”
Now what the hell was he up to? “Um, thanks,” she muttered. “I’d better go in. There’s a lot to do.” She had an evening class to teach tonight, the reason why she’d arrived at Crafty Corners so early. She wasn’t about to do extra hours for Jacqueline, but neither did she plan to shirk on her part of the blackmail bargain.
Trevor fell into step beside her. “I don’t want to keep you. I know how important this is to Jacqueline. She looks to you as her successor you know.”