The House on Blackberry Hill (Jewell Cove 1)

“Oh, Tom,” she whispered, tilting her head back in surrender as he kissed her neck. “Please don’t stop.”

He hesitated, his hand stilling on the side of her breast, and the thread of passion cooled, shifting into awkwardness.

She should have kept her mouth shut. Heat rushed to her cheeks. She should never have let herself get carried away. Never said his name. His fingers pushed the straps of her blouse back up over her shoulders and she no longer felt his lips on her skin. She closed her eyes, embarrassed by how quickly she’d lost control. She must have sounded so needy, sighing his name like that. Probably because she was.

“I should go,” he said, taking a step back, his voice definitively cooler. “I should never have done that. I work for you.”

It was a dumb excuse without an ounce of truth in it. She wasn’t really his boss, after all. Her common sense hadn’t intruded, but his clearly had.

The alcohol-fueled fuzziness in her brain was long gone. She couldn’t blame this on the wine or anything else. What she could do, though, was try to salvage a little of her pride.

“I shouldn’t have, either,” she murmured, straightening her blouse and trying desperately to school her features. She’d never had much of a poker face. “I guess the pinot was better than I thought.”

“You’re a really attractive woman, Abby, but starting anything would be a mistake. It wouldn’t be fair to you.”

That was almost as good of a line as It’s not you, it’s me. For some reason it made her angry. Maybe because the dismissal came so easily to his lips. “Why? Because you’re on the rebound?” She asked the question before she could help herself.

The change in his face was so instant that it made her step backward. Surprise, pain, anger. “Who told you that?” he asked sharply, his black eyes glinting at her in the bright light of the hall.

She hadn’t realized one simple question could cause such an instant reaction. “Jess might have said something…”

“Jess should mind her own business,” he growled, running a hand through his hair.

If she’d had any doubts about Jess’s claim that he was suffering a broken heart, his reaction erased them completely. Whoever had hurt him had done a good job. “I think we’ve established that,” she said quietly.

Despite the kiss and the fact that he’d started it, it was abundantly clear that he wasn’t really interested in her. She certainly didn’t want to be some charity case at a family function, a pity-the-new-girl sort of hanger-on. “Listen, about Saturday…” She swallowed past the lump of awkwardness in her throat. “You can just drop me off here after we finish with the samples.”

The fire in his eyes mellowed and he blew out a breath. “Don’t be silly.”

“I’m not being silly. You’re not interested in this—whatever this is—and Jess is interfering, though why, I have no idea. Rather than be uncomfortable … I don’t want to be a pity date or make things more uncomfortable between us than they already are.”

“I didn’t say I wasn’t interested.” His dark eyes burned into hers. “I said it wasn’t wise.”

She didn’t know what to do with that. On one hand it made the butterflies in her stomach start winging around again. On another she’d agreed it was a mistake. She began to chew on her lip again and consciously made herself stop. The truth was, even if she were interested in Tom Arseneault, he was still hung up on someone else. That would only be asking for trouble.

“You’re right. It’s not the smart thing.”

“Now that we’ve established that, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t come. It doesn’t have to be a date.”

“I’m not sure Jess got that memo.”

“I’ll make sure she understands. I’ll remind her that she’s the one who invited you.” His agitation mellowed as he looked down at her. “If you’d go as my friend, that’d be great. I hate walking into these things alone. Really, Abby, it’s me, not you.”

She raised an eyebrow. There it was. Double whammy of letdowns tonight, then.

“I know, I know.” He had the grace to look sheepish. “Worst cliché in history but it’s true. Just because Jess doesn’t know how to mind her own business, doesn’t mean she wasn’t right. I’m not—”

“Interested,” Abby finished for him, her voice flat.

He shifted his feet. “Well, clearly I am on some level. I did kiss you.”

“Why did you?” She tilted her head and watched his face. He had such an interesting face, a little dark and mysterious but with a glint of good humor and the strong set of stubbornness. How could she not be drawn to him?

The question seemed to send the tension humming between them again. And it wasn’t relieved by his answer.

“I don’t know. I just looked at you and … and I wanted to.”

This time she did bite her lip. He’d wanted to kiss her, but was incapable of anything deeper. That spelled trouble in her books. She had to start looking at him as her contractor and not like …