Middle of Knight (Jack & Jill 2)
The door bell rang. “Just a minute.” She grimaced. He could probably tell from the nearness of her voice that she was two feet from the door. There was never an extra dose of confidence around when she needed it.
“Hi … what are you doing here?” She tried to keep most of her body hidden behind the door.
“I’ve been displaced from my house by twins.”
“Twins?”
“Five-year-old girls.”
“Oh … cute.”
“Not cute.”
“You don’t like kids?”
“Just my own.”
“Oh, wow … you have kids?”
Ryn didn’t realize she was just one of many victims that fell for that line.
“Not yet, but mine will be awesome.”
She nodded slowly. “I see … sort of. Well, I’d invite you in but—”
“Great. I’d love to.” He squeezed through the small opening. “Nice place.”
There was nowhere to hide.
“Thanks. I’m kind of in need of a shower and clean clothes, and I was just getting ready to eat—”
“Great. I’m starving.” He slid his hands in his back pockets and grinned.
Jackson looked much more edible than anything she had in her kitchen.
“O-kay, we’re having dinner together now?”
“Of course. I need to know if my future wife can cook?”
Ryn laughed. It was a nervous laugh, a so-we’re-still-playing-this-game laugh. “It’s egg salad.”
“Minus the egg shells?”
She gave him a crazy look. “Yes.”
“Great.”
“Great,” she replied, amused at how many times he had said ‘great.’ Jackson Knight was easy to please. She hoped that would work in her favor.
The exotic, inked human specimen looked out of place sitting at her kitchen table. It had two chairs on one side and a bench seat on the other. Jackson took the bench, propping his legs on it, crossed at the ankles.
“So I don’t have a lot of money…” she handed him a plate with the sandwich and small wedge of watermelon “…and my first wedding was in my parents’ backyard where I wore a hundred dollar dress from JC Penny. I want the fairytale wedding with a one-of-a-kind Vera Wang dress, six bridesmaids, and Ed Sheeran singing at my reception. Is my future husband willing to give me that?” Ryn sat across from Jackson, taking a bite of her sandwich to mask her grin.
“That depends. At what frequency do you see you and your future husband having sex?”
She covered her mouth with a napkin to keep from spitting her partially-chewed bite across the table. “Um …” she cleared her throat. “Three? Four times? I think that’s pretty average.”
“Clearly my future wife doesn’t understand we will be anything but average, but I will agree with her for now to four times a day as long as it’s open to negotiation for more in the future.”
“Day?” She choked.
“Yes, day,” he confirmed, biting into the wedge of watermelon. “Surely with the one-of-a-kind dress and Ed Sheeran, you weren’t implying per week … were you?”
She gulped down some water, shaking her head. “No … no of course not.”
Jackson took a mammoth bite of his sandwich and smirked. “I didn’t think so,” he mumbled.
The conversation crossed the line from fun to really uncomfortable.
“Who’s twins are at your house?”
“AJ’s ex-wife’s.”
“Oh, isn’t it a little odd that his ex-wife and her family are staying at your house?”
“So you get it too? Good, it’s not just me.” Jackson nodded. “His son has his first game tomorrow so the whole damn family flew to Omaha and my sister, who lives off instinct and usually bad instinct at that, said they could stay with us since AJ doesn’t have room for everyone at his house.”
“Well she’s a better woman than I am. That would be too weird and uncomfortable for me.”
“Jillian makes her own rules as she goes and nobody understands them but her.”
They finished eating, with Ryn giving him a look of incredulity as Jackson returned his usual cocky smirk. She put their plates in the dishwasher, feeling rather awkward about their odd dinner. “Well, I uh … need a shower.”
Jackson stood. “I like showers.”
She coughed out a laugh. The problem was, he wasn’t laughing. Her heart raced, making it impossible to calm her breathing and hide her nerves. “Yeah, sure. We’ve known each other for what? Not even three weeks?”
“Three and a half and so what?”
He possessed an over-the-top confidence. That wasn’t good because her you’re-ten-years-younger-than-me insecurities seemed to match his level of confidence.
“So we’re not taking a shower together.”
“Why?” He took one step toward her.
Her heart felt like a humming bird in her chest. “Because that would mean you’d see me naked.”
“So?”
“So that’s just not going to happen.”
“How are we going to have sex four times a day if I can’t see you naked?”
“In the dark. We would only have it in the dark.” The absurdity of their roleplaying both baffled and thrilled Ryn.
“Why the modesty? You’re ten times sexier than you think you are, and once you realize that, it’s going to double.”
“Agreed. You want to see me feel sexy? Then you have to let me look sexy first. And that will require some preparation.”