Hide & Seek - Nicole Edwards Page 0,46
was on her feet, he tugged her arm, pulling her closer. JJ stared up at him, fearful about the direction this was going to go. No doubt about it, he was going to invite her to his place, or come to hers, this time she would relent, as would he, and they’d end up in bed together. One or both of them would realize the sex was phenomenal, but relationships couldn’t be based on sex, then they’d decide to be friends with benefits. That would run its course until one day they ended up hating each other.
“Baz—”
He cupped her face in his big palm, the warmth of it sending a chill down her spine.
“I’ll be the perfect gentleman, JJ. We’re takin’ this at your pace.”
“That’s what I’m worried about.”
His smile was slow and wicked. “I’ve got enough restraint for both of us.”
It sounded like a promise, and JJ really wanted to believe him. She wanted to see where this went, to let herself get lost in the moment, enjoy her time with him. It terrified her that she might actually like him for more than just his body, though.
“Slow down,” he whispered. “We’ve got all the time in the world. Let’s just enjoy dinner together. We’ll figure out the rest later.”
Because she couldn’t come up with a decent argument, JJ found herself nodding.
Chapter Eleven
Thursday found them doing pretty much the same thing they’d been doing all week. Not looking into cases the way Brantley had hoped. No, they were knee deep in remodeling. An attempt to get organized so they could take on the world. Or so JJ said.
“Only a crazy person would take on a task of this magnitude a week before Thanksgiving,” Reese grumbled as he hoisted up the header board so Brantley could fix it in place.
“What better time than the present? At least it’s not a week before Christmas.”
“By the time you’re done adjustin’ this, it might be.”
Feeling ornery, Brantley stepped back, stared at the sexy man who was currently in a fine predicament, his hands raised above his head, his T-shirt rising high enough to reveal a sliver of smooth, bronzed skin.
“Don’t even think about it,” Reese warned. “Get this thing nailed in, would ya?”
Brantley smiled. “Fine.”
A few well-placed nails got the board in place, the newly relocated door for Brantley’s new office creating an opening in the wall the room shared with the game room. Thanks to Travis’s interference with the design—the man couldn’t simply do, he had to take over—their upstairs project had turned into a complete overhaul. They’d already completed the French doors in Reese’s future office, and he was hoping to get these finished up by the end of the day so they could move on to getting the conference room in the barn underway.
Although Travis’s crew was tackling the majority of the work, Brantley wasn’t one to sit idly by when he could help. Having two more sets of hands only meant they’d be done that much faster.
“Why did you decide to tackle this now?” Reese asked, shaking out his arms and taking a step back.
“When Travis Walker offers to foot the bill, you don’t delay.” Brantley set the nail gun down after flipping on the safety. “Speakin’ of… Any news from JJ on Juliet?”
Reese grabbed his bottle of water from the sawhorse. “No, but if I know JJ, she’ll have it figured out before everyone sits down to turkey in a week.”
Brantley honestly hoped so, but he had serious doubts. Wherever Juliet Prince was, she did not want to be found. Since she hadn’t surfaced in the past two months, forgoing even her supervised visitations with her daughter, he knew she was intent on not getting caught. He remembered the look on JJ’s face when he told her they were going to continue chasing down that woman until they found her and got her into police custody. It had been as though she’d been waiting for that moment, to get the go-ahead. He wasn’t sure she’d worked on anything else since.
“I doubt it’ll be that easy,” he told Reese. “Unfortunately, it looks like she’s gone to ground. Maybe even left the country. Otherwise, Travis would’ve found somethin’ by now.”
“Travis doesn’t have the skills JJ does.”
True. He didn’t. And since Travis hadn’t been cluing Gage in, there’d only been one set of eyes focused on the investigation. Now there were several.
“Why don’t we take a break,” Brantley suggested. “Go check on them, see if they need anything.”
“Pizza,” Reese said, turning