No More Mr. Nice - By Renee Roszel Page 0,52

and muttered huskily, “Come on girl. Let’s us cripples go back home.”

JESS LAY IN HER BED, staring up at the ceiling. She’d spent a long, hard evening, watching Lucas from under lowered lashes as he went about his Mr. Niceguy duties, making hamburger patties, helping set the table and, after dinner, mopping up the kitchen. It was fascinating seeing him do his part. She supposed he’d simply decided to get it done as quickly as possible. Then he could get up to his darned computer room to spend half the night working on his business problem.

Rolling over on her side, she wondered how he continued to function, being with the kids all day and working at his computer all night. She recalled his face this evening after dinner when he’d chanced to glance her way. His eyes had been shadowed with fatigue, but the look he’d aimed at her had been anything but weary. His scorching gaze had traveled up and down her, then clashed with hers for a long moment, flashing a sexual communiqué that made her melt with yearning. She’d been immobilized by the message there. It frustrated her almost to the point of screaming to know with such certainty that she and Lucas would be explosive in each other’s arms, but that they dared not risk the complication. Then, unexpectedly, he’d simply turned away, leaving her feeling utterly desolate.

Recalling his look now, she shivered. That look had been erotic, full of sexual promise, disturbing—even across the distance of the room. Their extreme physical awareness of each other had only intensified since this afternoon, and even now, in her lonely bed, she could feel it thrumming relentlessly through her veins and plaguing her mind, destroying her rest.

She checked the bedside clock. Three twenty-three. She’d been dwelling on this subject so long she was at her wit’s end. She had to get Lucas Brand out of her mind. He was definitely not a man she wanted. Too much like her father and her husband. Self-assured and aggressive, with little time or patience for a family. And Jess desperately wanted kids, and a man who would sit by a cozy fire, reading to his children, laughing with them, wanting to share their lives. She didn’t see Lucas Brand in that picture. But that didn’t keep her heart from craving him in her bed.

Almost mad with exhaustion and need, she bolted up, and with a defeated groan, slid her legs over the side. This was the most lunatic thing she’d ever done—or would ever do—but tonight, she planned to get this obsession with Lucas Brand finished, once and for all.

LUCAS RUBBED HIS EYES as the computer screen blurred before him. He checked his watch. Three-thirty. With an weary grimace, he kneaded his temples, then went back to work. Tried, anyway. His thoughts had been haunted by Jess all night. Her fragrance lingered in his nostrils, harassing him. Good God, he’d never wanted a woman as badly as he wanted her. He fisted his hands, wanting to rip out trees by the roots, or toss cars off cliffs. He needed to dispel this raging sexual energy she’d provoked in him, and then left so frustratingly unfulfilled.

He couldn’t blame her, but that didn’t keep him from wanting to yank houses from their foundations. He and Jess were obviously extremely compatible sexually. It was just too bad that their wants and needs—other than sex—were so incompatible.

“Welcome to horny-bastard hell, Brand,” he muttered bitterly to himself.

“Lucas?” came a distant, but familiar voice. He twisted around to see Jess standing inside his closed office door. He was surprised that she’d come in without his noticing.

She was wearing a knee-length terry robe and her feet were bare. He frowned in confusion.

“Lucas?” she repeated, moving closer. He detected the light scent of her perfume as she asked, “May I talk to you for a minute?”

He nodded, still perplexed. Maybe working day and night for weeks brought on hallucinations. He hoped he wasn’t that far gone, and tried to shake off the absurd idea.

Her expression was somber, and her eyes held that familiar, lurking nervousness. But there was more lurking there, an odd determination. He wondered what bee she might have in her bonnet now.

As she stood before him, she began to loosen the tie of her robe, keeping her eyes pinned on his. With a small shrug, she let the garment fall to the floor. Lucas’s heart stopped, but other parts of his body came to full, bursting