Goody Two Shoes (Invertary 2)

“Enough of that.” She playfully smacked him away. “I need to run.”

She turned to the door. Josh grabbed her arm. “Not without a goodbye kiss you don’t.”

She opened her mouth to protest, a cute little frown on her brow. Josh clasped her cheek in his hand and touched his lips to hers. With a gentle sigh, she leaned in to him. Delicious. When he freed her, her eyes were heavy-lidded with desire. The perfect look on her.

“I really have to go.”

“Yes. Please. Go. You two are making me sick,” came the shout from the living room.

“Are you dealing with that?” Caroline pointed in the direction of his father.

Josh let out an exasperated sigh. “Trying to.”

With a look that said he’d better deal with it, and fast, she ran for the door. Josh went in to see his dad. “This is her house you’re camped in. You could try to be nicer. Otherwise you’ll be sitting in your underpants out on the street.”

As usual, there was no reply.

Ten minutes later, Josh’s day got even worse—Caroline’s bedroom door had

been taken away with the trash.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

After three nights sleeping beside Josh and waking with him touching her, Caroline was pretty sure she was going to lose her mind. She was suffering. Dying from frustration. It was a delicious feeling to be eased awake by the man’s skilful fingers and tongue. That morning his fingers had drifted beneath the waistband of her pyjama trousers. He had her so wound up from his teasing touch and sinful lips that she was desperate for him to ease the ache she constantly felt. But his father woke up and that was the end of that. She shifted on her office chair and wondered if it was possible to die from sexual frustration.

Although it was entertaining watching Josh’s great plan backfire, she really wanted the door back on her bedroom. Thankfully, Josh was at the hardware store as soon as it had opened, ordering a new one. A door was good. A door would help. Having Josh’s dad out of the house would help even more.

Caroline frowned at her computer screen. She should never have let the local paper advertise the vacancy on their website. Now she had to wade her way through 15,427 applications for the position of her assistant.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, lass,” Archie said when he heard about the applications. “But I don’t think these people are interested in working with you so much as getting to Josh.”

“Really? You think?” She was busy deleting emails from anyone who didn’t live within a fifty-mile radius.

“Sarcasm, Caroline?” Archie patted her head, as though she was a dog. “I’m so proud. I didn’t know you had it in you.”

“I keep forgetting he’s famous,” Caroline grumbled.

Archie took his cap off his head and scratched his thinning hair. “I’m not sure how that’s possible, lass. Haven’t you noticed the town is fit to bursting? There are a lot of lookie-loos here to catch a glimpse of him. Not to mention there’s a road barricade at the edge of town, which now has a camp set up beside it full of media folk. Every time you turn on the TV you see something about you and Josh. Which reminds me, you really need to smile more. You look glum in every picture.”

“Thanks. I’ll make that a priority.”

“You do that.” Archie dunked a biscuit in his tea, then cursed when it broke.

“Delivery for you,” Findlay announced as he waltzed into the room.

He plonked a brown paper package on the desk in front of her. James looked through the window from the library, where he was manning the phones. “Is it something good?”

“I haven’t opened it yet.”

“Get on with it, then,” James said.

Caroline slit the paper and pulled out a plain brown box. She took off the lid and her jaw fell open. She jerked to her feet.

“What is it?” James demanded. “I can’t see anything.”

“You don’t want to see,” Findlay said with disgust.

Archie bustled around to peer in the box. “Bloody hell. That’s just sick. Maybe you shouldn’t look at this, lass.”