Back to Square One (Brandon Bay Babes) (22 page)

“Tomorrow afternoon.
 
Hey, how about breakfast in about, oh …” he squinted at his watch in the dim light, “eight hours?”

“Sounds great.
 
Fred’s diner?”

“Nah, too much window tapping goes on there” he joked.

“How about the coffee shop on Miller Road; that oughta be pretty deserted” Kit said with a conspiratorial wink.

“Are you trying to get me
alone
Miss Davidson?”

Kit leaned over towards him and smiled sexily, “Maybe I am?”

J.J. looked at her with disbelief.
 
“Don’t do that Kit” he warned humorlessly.
 
“I’ll walk you to the door” he added, agilely getting out of the car in a flash.

Kit sat stunned for a moment, feeling thoroughly chastised.
 
Obviously, flirting was not her strong-suit.
 
How come it was okay for him to say things like that, but she couldn’t.
 
He’d put her, well and truly, in her place.
 
She wouldn’t be fool enough to try that again.

As they stopped at the door, Jeff fiddled with the collar of her jacket.
 
“I’m sorry if I was a bit harsh” he uttered, turning her collar up properly against the cool night air.

“That’s okay” she replied softly, biting her lip.

“Kit …” he started.

“Don’t say anything more J.J.
 
I was stupid to say …, I mean, things like that just don’t come out right when I say them, even if I’m joking.
 
When I try for sexy, I end up looking ridiculous, as usual.”

J.J. placed a finger under her chin and tipped her face up towards his.
 
“Yeah, you’re ridiculous” he said in all seriousness.
 
Kit tried to pull away, but he held her face firmly in his hands.
  
“Ridiculously sexy”

“Huh?” was all she could manage to get out.

His brown eyes held hers.
 
“You want
sparks
Kit Kat, get ready for the fourth of July”

With that he lowered his mouth to hers and it was indeed a pyrotechnic display of epic proportions.

*****

 
Kit couldn’t stop smiling.

It was ridiculous.
 
Ridiculously sexy; in fact.
 
This feeling was like nothing she’d ever felt before.
 
As her mother would say, her “head was in the clouds”, and for once Kit couldn’t disagree; that was the perfect way of verbalizing it.

After kissing her senseless at the door, she and J.J. had returned to his car to talk further, intermingling their chit-chat with copious amounts of lip-locking and groping.
 
They’d reluctantly dragged themselves away from each other by two a.m., promising to meet up the next morning for breakfast.

Kit had immediately called Jasmine, who gave her an earful about the time and for leaving the party before she’d arrived, but perked up when she told her what had happened that evening with J.J.
 

Finally getting off the phone at two-thirty, she invited Jasmine to come for breakfast as well, so she could finally meet the infamous J.J. in person.
  
Kit was determined not to be one of those women who dropped everything and everyone when a man entered their life.
 
Jasmine was a big part of her new found happiness and she would never exclude her; even for a guy with beautiful chocolaty brown eyes.

*****

“You`re early”` Kit said as she sat down across from Jasmine in a window booth.

“How
else
can I get any leftover dirt you didn’t tell me last night before he arrives” she replied innocently.

“You behave” Kit warned with a wagging finger.

Jasmine looked at her wide-eyed, “Who me?
 
I’m an angel”

Kit looked across the parking lot and saw J.J. jump out of his late model Lexus.
 
Her heart did a little flip-flop at the sight of him, and she couldn’t help but fear its excited response.
 
She’d never had much luck in the romance department and the thought of getting seriously involved with such a well-known player as Jeffrey Jones was completely out of character.
 
This was definitely an unexpected development, and Kit wasn’t quite sure if it was a welcome one, yet.

He was out of her league, or so she had convinced herself; but maybe her mother’s saying of “happiness goes where happiness is” was more apt than she realised.
 
Perhaps, all this time, she’d been putting out a vibe that only attracted the big-eared Bobs of the world.
 
Now that she was finally finding her own brand of inner happiness, the Jeremy Atwell’s and Jeffrey Jones’ were not quite so unattainable.

Jeff saluted her through the window before noticing Jasmine sitting beside her.
 
His face fell a little when he realised they weren’t to be alone for breakfast, but when he joined them at the table, he showed no sign of disappointment at the intrusion.
 
“Hi Kit Kat” he said with his eyes firmly on her face.

“Hi” Kit replied with a blush, her gaze running over his lips; remembering the feel of them on hers.
 
“J.J. this is Jasmine” she added, tilting her head at her friend and trying to concentrate on the task at hand.
 
“The wisest, funniest and pinkest friend I’ll ever have”

Tearing his eyes from Kit’s and taking a seat next to her, he said, “Good to meet you Jasmine”

Jasmine held out her hand, “Nice to meet you too, …
Fido
”

J.J. groaned and shook her hand, “I suppose you’re
“the”
girlfriend who knows everything, about everything?”

“Yep” Jasmine replied with a grin.
 
“I know all about you Jeffrey Jones.
 
The good, the bad
and
the ugly”

“Hopefully I’m more good than the other two options” he looked at Kit and added, “Although being bad can sometimes be a good thing, don’t you agree?”

Kit blushed once again.
 

“You didn’t tell me he was so cute Kit” Jasmine smiled at her friend. “Makes me want to go get stuck in an elevator myself”

J.J. flashed Kit a meaningful look, “I, for one, can highly recommend it.
 
It can work out pretty great when you get stuck with the right person”

Jasmine sent him a thoughtful look.
 
“
Hmm.
 
There’s one thing I was wondering about though, J.J.” she cut in.

“Oh, what’s that?”

“Just wondering why you let someone like Kit get out of that elevator and just walk away.
 
If you weren’t Charles’ nephew, you wouldn’t have seen her again”

“Well, that’s not entirely true” Jeff bashfully admitted.

“How so?” Jasmine asked before Kit had the chance to voice the same question.

J.J. turned to Kit.
 
“I got your phone number and address from the personnel department and I called you; twice in fact” Kit opened her mouth in astonishment and he continued, “You’d already left for Brandon Bay, I guess, because there was no answer.
 
You really need to get voicemail, by the way.”

Kit finally found her voice, “You called me?”

“Yeah, I tried” he said somewhat reluctantly, “And then, lo and behold, there you were at Uncle Charles’ Gallery.
 
Guess luck was on my side” He turned to Jasmine, “Does that answer your question?”

“Yep” Jas grinned.
 
“I’m satisfied.
 
Now if there’s anything you want to know about our girl here, just ask”

“Jas!” Kit said worriedly, glancing back and forth between their two faces like a tennis match.
 
Maybe having the two of them meet wasn’t such a good idea; they could easily have her tied in knots in no time at all.

“You’d tell me?” J.J. asked Jasmine, ignoring Kit’s apprehensive looks.

“Sure” Jasmine replied seriously.
 
“But then I’d have to kill you”

J.J. laughed and grabbed Kit’s hand, “I think I like your friend Kit Kat.”

After ordering and devouring a breakfast of coffee, bacon, eggs and English muffins and having a great time of it, Jasmine announced she was sick of being the third wheel and that she would take her leave.
 
She had to go open up the shop soon, anyway.
 
J.J. quickly slid into the seat Jasmine had just vacated and ordered two more coffees.
 
Alone at last.

As Jasmine smiled and gave Kit the thumbs up through the window on her way to the parking lot, Kit let out a relieved breath.
 
It seemed that J.J. had passed muster.

Kit turned and looked back at J.J. to find him contemplating her with an odd expression.
 
“What?” she asked sharply.

“You’re an unlikely pair” he said with a smile.

“Some might say the same of us” she retorted, itching for any sort of revelation on his part.
 
Of course she didn’t expect a declaration of undying love or any such nonsense, but it would be nice to know that last night had had the same effect on him, as on her.
 

Although J.J. admitted he’d tried to track her down after the elevator, his reputation was such that it could have just been the thrill of the chase on his part.
 
The thought of possibly being the newest topic of conversation at the office water cooler Monday morning was too horrible to contemplate.

Jeff leaned forward and spoke softly, “Yeah.
 
We are a pretty odd match”
 

Fighting hard to keep the swirling emotions from showing on her face, Kit was sure her inner doubts were about to be realised.

“Opposites attract and all that sort of thing” she said hopefully.

“Yeah” he said simply, looking away from her, out the window.
 

Following his eyes out the window, she wondered just what the hell was so fascinating out there.

“I have to leave after lunch” he announced with his eyes still not meeting hers.

“Oh?” Kit said with a sigh of dread.
 
She didn’t like the sound of this at all.
 
Had he been waiting for Jasmine to leave to let her down gently?
 

He looked back at her with concern.
 
“Kit?” J.J. said, taking her hand.
 

“Yeah?” she said absently, not wanting to hear it, if it was indeed bad news.