Missed.
Laura faked a pouty face. “Too bad you couldn’t close the deal,” she whispered in her own sense of victory.
She stepped back and out of eye contact with Jake, because her skin was buzzing already. She watched Gabe and Vicky take their turns from the other end of the field, and Laura couldn’t help but wonder how much competition she could take before she’d need an outlet for the rising tension.
Laura was not pacing in her camper, stopping only to peek through the window to see if Jake was home yet. Nope. She was definitely not doing that.
Gabe had dropped her off twenty minutes ago, and after the debacle of a not-date double date of sorts with Jake and Vicky, Gabe hadn’t even walked her to her door. Which had been fine. Safe to say that the boundaries were set and hopefully she and the deputy could really be just friends.
Speaking of just friends, Laura just wanted to forget Jake’s touch and his voice, and how he looked so damn hot in a simple T-shirt. She also didn’t want to think about how he was still probably at the bar with Vicky.
She peeked out her window again.
She shouldn’t care. Jake could do whatever he wanted. He was a single man and could date. Especially since Laura had told him she’d never date him. A fact she was kind of regretting. Granted, she hadn’t thought he’d go out with a she-demon like Vicky frickin’ McPhee, but whatever. Still, Laura knew it was smart to keep her focus on the shop and her own growth.
The sound of big truck tires coming up the driveway made her perk up.
Jake.
In his truck.
Alone.
And she wasn’t feeling very smart at the moment.
He parked and climbed out of his Chevy just as Laura threw open the camper door to stomp toward him.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she yelled, closing in on him.
He walked around his truck and faced her. “I’m coming home.”
“I mean tonight. You touch me, tease me, then watch me leave with Gabe and you go to Vicky’s or something as if I won’t care? What do you think is happening here?”
He closed that last few steps between them and threaded his hand in her hair at her nape.
“I think I’m getting you to reconsider your no-dating policy with me.”
He didn’t let her respond or even fight that comment. He just kissed her. Hard. And Laura was so mad, so hot, that she shoved her tongue between his lips and took a deep draw of him.
He growled.
She bit his lip.
He growled louder.
“Vicky McPhee?” she said with disgust between angry kisses. “How cliché to take the head cheerleader out to make me jealous.”
“Says the prom queen who showed up with the quarterback,” he countered.
He tugged her hair and dived in for another punishing kiss.
“And I knew you were jealous,” he said between nibbles on her lower lip.
“So were you.”
“Damn straight I was,” he gruffed. “I want you, Laura. I’ve never denied that.”
He kissed down her neck. That amazing mouth sent tingles through her body and lit up her skin like the Fourth of July. She didn’t know if it was the pent-up aggression or the way Jake bit her earlobe, but she breathed the one thing that was the honest truth.