After their hour-long race—it hadn’t been a jog—Audra had offered to cook their breakfast. She didn’t speculate on her reason for wanting to spend her morning with the sexy rental owner or her reaction to his criminally beautiful smile. Instead, she’d crawled back to her cabin to clean up and cook.
Minutes later, Audra stepped from the shower and dried off. As she dressed in lemon yellow shorts and a lime green tank top, she realized she was humming a melody she’d never heard before. She hurried from her bedroom and found her spiral notebook where she’d left it on the coffee table. Her cellular phone chirped at her. Audra ignored it, focusing on the song in her head. She roughed the music on a fresh sheet of paper.
The chirping stopped only to begin again as she turned toward her bedroom. The caller identification read Restricted.
She answered it anyway. What the heck? I’m in a good mood. “Hello?”
“I was beginning to think you weren’t going to pick up.” Wendell’s voice teased her.
Audra’s mood took a nosedive. The troll had blocked his phone number. “I told you not to call me. Ever. Again.”
His low chuckle used to be appealing. Now it set her teeth on edge. “You didn’t mean it.”
“Actually, I did.” Audra started back to her bedroom. Her bare feet were soundless against the honey-wood flooring.
“Come on, Audra.” Wendell lowered his voice to a wheedling huskiness. “You were angry then.”
“I still am.” She pulled a comb through her hair with short, jerky motions of her right hand. Her dark brown curls were still damp from her shower.
“I handled things badly. I was wrong.”
“So was I. I thought we were in a relationship.”
“Give me a chance to make it up to you, honey.”
“Don’t call me that.” Audra tensed with remembered heartache, shame, and anger. She marched from her bedroom. “Your baby’s mother is the one you should be pleading with. She’s the one wearing your ring. Call her and stop pestering me.”
Wendell sighed. “Come home, honey. Let’s talk about this.”
A knock on the front door interrupted Audra’s tirade.
Jack!
“I told you not to call me that.” Audra pulled open the door. She offered Jack a forced smile.
Jack’s expression dimmed to concern when he saw her. His gaze swung from her cell phone back to her eyes. “Everything OK?”
Audra nodded before returning to Wendell’s call. “Good-bye.”
“Audra, wait! We need to talk. Honey, I miss you.”
Audra barely heard Wendell. She watched Jack wander farther into her cabin. Her gaze drank him in. He looked good in his navy T-shirt and gunmetal gray shorts. He looked even better naked. Audra’s body warmed at the memory.
“Stop calling me. I mean it.” Audra hung up, ignoring Wendell’s entreaties.
Jack turned to her. “Problem?”
“The ex.” She forced her mind away from the call and toward the gorgeous man in front of her. Could she kiss him? She wanted to, but they hadn’t discussed the rules of their relationship.
“Is your ex a problem?”
“No, we broke up more than a month ago.” Audra set her cell phone on the coffee table. “But I have a more important question. Are we allowed to touch each other outside of the bedroom?”
A slow smile stretched Jack’s lips and weakened Audra’s knees. “Yes.”
“I love a man of few words.” She closed the distance between them and twined her arms around his neck.
Jack settled his large hands on her waist and drew her into his body. Audra’s senses came alive. Her temperature rose; her nipples tightened; her pulse raced. All that before he even lowered his head to hers.