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It was clear by her expression Natalie hadn’t been thinking along those lines. She didn’t respond but did look around the room. I pointed to a door off the kitchen. “Bathroom.” And then, because I could be an asshole sometimes, “Unless you’d feel more comfortable changing in the bedroom?”
Her head cocked to the side. “Bathroom is fine, thank you.”
Natalie took her clipped tone and sweet body with her to the bathroom while I refilled my coffee and tried not to think about her changing in there. By now, she was likely completely naked. Unfortunately, that thought alone was enough to make me hard as a rock. Before I could walk, I needed to get my mind as far away from that bathroom as possible. Instead, I thought back to the moment she fell in the water.
“What’s so funny?”
Snagged. “I was just thinking about when you fell into the lake.”
“And that’s funny?” she asked with an armful of wet clothes. If I thought naked Natalie was sexy before, seeing her in my clothes was even more so. Her hair was still wet but on top of her head in a messy bun. She looked as if she’d just come from a bout of sex and a shower, both of which I’d gladly participate in with her.
Which got me thinking.
Even if Natalie didn’t hate me, she’d be firmly hands off. For some reason it had never occurred to me until now that tangling with her could be bad for the deal. She did work for Finger Lakes Land Trust, after all.
Heading to the kitchen, I opened and closed cabinets until I found what I was looking for. Handing her a plastic bag, I said, “I’ll meet you on the deck after you top off.”
With that, I headed back out, fully expecting Natalie to march out the door, down the steps and out onto the dock. Instead, she gently pushed open the door with a coffee in hand, no bag of wet clothes in sight.
“One coffee,” she said, sipping it with the reverence it deserved.
“Suit yourself,” I said. “But you’re welcome to stay for two.”
“Jaxon,” she said, with a “you’re a bad boy but not in a sexual way” tone.
“Jax. If you’re sharing a coffee with me, it’s Jax.”
Natalie took the seat next to mine. “Just one.”
Feet tucked under her, cross-legged, a coffee mug lifting to her mouth, Natalie could easily belong here, next to me like that.
What a ridiculous thought.
“Just one,” I repeated. “And a temporary truce.”
She frowned, not responding. But Natalie did seem to have softened her expression toward me, even if just slightly.
“So tell me,” she said finally. “What are your plans for my land?”
SEVEN
natalie
Jaxon nearly spit out his coffee.
Good.
About time I took him off guard for a change. It was only fair since he seemed to be doing it to me since the second we met. Wednesday night had been a disaster, me being unable to keep my mouth closed, and now today.
I’d been so shocked by the sound of his voice, one I somehow recognized instantly, I did the unthinkable. If any of my college rowing teammates learned I fell out of a damn kayak, I’d never live it down. I lived and breathed on the water for years, and had been collecting a water sample when he called out to me.
Some freakin’ luck. And somehow here I was sitting on a deck with the guy. I’d nearly turned down his offer of dry clothes, for obvious reasons, but something occurred to me that really hadn’t before, I’d been so angry with his presence.
You catch more bees with honey than vinegar.
And so I agreed and pretended to grudgingly accept his offer of sitting on the deck for a coffee. But in reality, I needed to play the cards that were dealt to me. And falling into the lake in front of his house—a rental, I assumed—were my cards.
Time to play them.
