The vengeful visual kept her company as she closed the door to her classroom. Her phone rang again right then, the sound echoing through the empty hallway. Wanting to bang her head against the wall as she recognized that ominous ringtone, ísa briefly considered just getting on a plane and flying back to Iceland. She’d been happy there, spoke the language, and neither one of her parents currently used it as their home base.
Perfect. Except that she’d be abandoning Catie and Harlow to the Dragon. And that was the one thing ísa would never do. Whatever road she took in life, she was bringing her siblings along with her.
The phone kept ringing.
Jacqueline Rain, CEO of Crafty Corners and various other enterprises, didn’t know the meaning of giving up.
“Hello, Mother.”
“ísa, I wanted to make sure you remembered the board meeting today.”
ísa did bang her forehead against the wall at that. “I have no reason to attend the board meeting.”
“You’re a thirty percent shareholder.”
Only because you forced the shares on me on my twenty-first birthday. “I’m sure you can represent my interests.”
“I have no time for this, ísa. Make sure you’re present.” Jacqueline hung up.
Gritting her teeth, ísa thought fiercely of the meditation technique she’ d learned at the Buddhist retreat Nayna had booked them into last year. ísa’s best friend hadn’t realized the retreat was being held at a silent monastery until they’d arrived and been shown the rules.
They’d lasted four hours. Enough to learn the basics.
But it turned out you couldn’t mutter angrily under your breath about dragons and swords and still find your Zen.
The worst of it was that Jacqueline wasn’t simply being abrasive and aggravating. No, ísa’s mother knew exactly what she was doing, knew she had ísa over a barrel because of Harlow and Catie.
As if the thought had conjured her sister out of thin air, her phone beeped with an incoming message: Aren’t you seeing the Dragon today? Wear your fireproof armor.
Smiling despite herself, she messaged Catie. She didn’t know how her sister did it; despite not living in the same city as ísa or Jacqueline, she was always up to date with the news and gossip. Part of it was Catie’s close bond with Harlow, but equally important was Catie’s ability to make friends wherever she went—including at Jacqueline’s company.
Message sent, she shoved her phone into her satchel and strode down the hallway; her footfalls echoed in the eerily empty space… and the niggling seed of righteous fury bloomed into full flower once more. Not just because of Jacqueline’s blatant manipulation but at the memory of Cody and Suzanne’s happiness.
As a bullied teen, ísa had comforted herself with the thought of Suzanne becoming a sad, lonely woman with no friends—and no hair. Teenage ísa had thought the latter the worst possible punishment for a girl who had the habit of flinging her waist-length blond locks around like she was in a shampoo commercial.
Fuming for her poor teenage self, she made sure to set the alarm system and lock up. Principal Cafferty had made it clear ísa would be the last person in this building after the principal herself left just after five. Everyone else was already well into their summer vacation—even the other night-class teachers would only come in for their hours of teaching; the sole reason ísa was here was because she hadn’t been able to work on her lesson plans at home.
Her upstairs neighbor was having repairs done to her bathroom that required banging and hammering.
Not all of it involved nails and wood.
Hopefully the repairs would be finished by now. There was only so much ecstatic orgasmic screaming that a single woman in online-dating purgatory could stand without being driven to violence.
She spotted the tan-colored gardening truck the instant she came down the front steps of the school’s imposing redbrick main building and turned left to head toward her car. The hot gardener had parked it right next to her zippy blue compact. The front of the truck had four doors with tinted windows while the large bed was piled with shovels and other manly tools as well as a huge sack of clippings.
His light brown T-shirt was hanging over the top of the tailgate.
Which meant he was still walking around topless somewhere around here.
“Get in your car, ísa,” she muttered to herself, well aware what would happen if she came face-to-face with that delicious hunk of manhood. Because while she might’ve conquered her shyness, she knew her limits.
Confronted by a bare-chested man who made her ovaries explode, she’d turn bright pink, lose her ability to form speech, and end of story. “Oh—”
She would’ve bounced off that sculpted chest if he hadn’t grabbed her by the hips.
“Hey, sorry,” he said with a startled smile that lit up the dazzling blue of his eyes. “I didn’t see you.”
“No, um, my fault.” It looked as if he’d crouched down to check one of his tires or something else but had risen to his feet right when she swung around to get into her car. And God, his skin was hot and smooth and he was so tall and his shoulders were so broad and her mouth was drying up. The stuttering would begin at any moment.
The same stuttering Suzanne had mocked relentlessly when they were fourteen. Until ísa had gone silent around everyone except the few friends she trusted. And now that horrible, ugly-hearted girl was getting married, having a baby, getting a happily-ever-after. Added to which, ísa’s mother was jerking her on a string like she was a marionette, and her last “date” had asked her to call him Woofy and reward him with doggy biscuits.
The blue of the gardener’s eyes flickered with a hot flame.
And she thought… I know him. But before she could follow that faint thread, all the fury and hurt and frustration and sheer aggravation in ísa ignited into an incandescent inferno.
She went mad.
Grabbing the hot gardener’s beautiful face in her hands, she said, “I want to kiss you.”
A wicked grin. “Go on ahead.”
And ísa pressed her lips to his.
3
Always Keep a Clean Back Seat
WHOA
The seriously cute redhead with skin like moonlight and curves that wouldn’t quit who reminded Sailor of… someone hadn’t been joking with that breathless statement. She was kissing him. She wasn’t very good at it. But who the fuck cared when she tasted so damn good? And felt so good? And smelled so good?
And also didn’t seem to care that he had to smell of grass and dirt and sweat.
Moving his hand from the lush curve of her hip and up her spine to grip the back of her head, he angled her just right, and then he feasted. She moaned in her throat, a husky purr of a thing that had his cock coming to hard attention. Sailor immediately decided he wanted to hear that sound again, would learn what made her utter it.
Shifting on his heel, he pressed her up against the door of his truck. Her body was sweet and lush, her breasts soft mounds he wanted to bite and caress and see naked. First things first however: he licked his tongue over hers.
She turned her head.