Raging Fires by Candace Camp

Chapter Thirty-One

Well, that certainly hadn’t gone as planned. Good thing he wasn’t big on planning. Jake went for a run with Toby. It was probably dumb because the streets weren’t that well-lit here and he could twist an ankle, but there was no way he could just go to bed and fall asleep after that. Not, of course, that he fell asleep when he came back, either. 

The next morning Toby’s insistent scratching at the front door woke him up. Jake got up and stumbled to the kitchen to get Toby’s food. Usually he took him on a run after this, but they’d already done that. Jake thought about going back to bed; the silence down the hall told him that that was what Kelli was doing.

But he suspected he’d have just as much trouble going to sleep now as he had last night. He stood for a moment, contemplating the closed door. So Kelli was playing games. He could handle that. A smile curved his lips, and he picked up his shaving kit from atop the dresser. It was time to bring out the big guns.

He showered and shaved here instead of doing it after his workout at the stadium, then patted on the killer cologne. Good thing Kelli had let that slip; he’d never realized its effect on her. Her room was still quiet when he came out of the bathroom, so he went to the kitchen and started the coffee. As it brewed, he scrambled some eggs, popped bread into the toaster, and went in search of a tray. He decided the cutting board would do.

He rooted through the cupboard for the coffee cup that looked like that little cup from Beauty and the Beast that they’d bought when they went to Disneyworld. He knew it was there because he’d unpacked it and put it away himself. It was at the back, which was doubtless a bad sign for him, but he pulled it out anyway and filled it. Okay, he couldn’t talk to her about memories, but this was just a cup from her own cupboard, right? One thing about Kelli and her rules, it was always fun to find a way around them.

He set the utensils, food, and cup on the cutting board. It really needed one of those little vases with a single flower. Seized by inspiration, he went out to the jacaranda tree that shaded Toby’s doghouse and snapped off a twig of the purple flowers. He stuck that in a fruit juice glass with water and added it and a folded paper towel to his makeshift tray.

He knocked at her door, and Kelli mumbled something in reply. “Coming in,” Jake said and opened the door.

“What are you doing?” Kelli rose up on one elbow, pushing back her sleep-tangled hair.

The sight of her in the rumpled sheets, hair tumbling wildly to her shoulders, face soft with sleep, turned him instantly hard, but Jake managed to keep his voice even. “Breakfast in bed, courtesy of Jake Riley.”

Kelli hastily sat up as he set the board on her lap. She looked it over and said dryly, “Yes, I can see the Jake Riley touch.” But her voice was filled with amusement, and she curled her hand around the Chip cup. “This is so sweet. Thank you.”

“Hey, I’m a sweet guy.” Jake sat down on the end of her bed. “I’m wooing you, remember?”

“’Wooing’ me?” She laughed. “Where did you get that?”

“Thesaurus online.” He paused. “So… how am I doing?”

“You’re doing all right. Though I don’t think a guy who’s only at the ‘wooing’ stage would waltz into my bedroom with a breakfast…” She glanced down at the array. “… cutting board.”

“But we’re roomies who are dating,” Jake told her. “That makes all the difference.” He wondered if she knew how sexy she looked in that thin top, her nipples pressing against it.

“Just a sec.” She set the board on the little table beside her and slipped out of bed. “Let me run to the bathroom. I’ll be right back.”

Jake seized the opportunity to settle on her bed cross-legged in a closer position and grab up one of her five hundred decorative pillows—hell, she wouldn’t even have room in her bed for him with all these pillows—and hold it in his lap for cover, pretending to play with the fringe.

Kelli came back a few minutes later, smelling of toothpaste, which Jake took as a good sign. She was thinking about kissing him. She climbed into bed again, her sleep shorts moving up until he could almost see the edge of her ass. The shorts were made of some slick, soft material that his fingers itched to touch. Disappointingly, they didn’t cling to that firm, eminently bitable ass, but, on the other hand, the loose legs would make it easy to slide his hand up her bare leg and slip under the shorts.  He wondered what she would do if he did.

Probably slap his hand. Anyway, she was already in the bed and pulling the comforter up to her waist, placing the tray on her lap once again. It was a good thing he’d thought to grab that concealing pillow… though he noticed that his fingers were pulling the strands of fringe with long, smooth strokes. Jesus, now he was getting turned on by her dumb pillows.

“What are you up to today?” Jake pulled his mind from his dangerous thoughts.

“Relaxing, hopefully. I have to run over and make sure the cleaning service has done their job, but we don’t open until 4:00 on Sundays.” Kelli dug into her food. “Why?”

“I thought we might take Toby to the dog park.”

A smile tugged at her lips. “Is this our second date? Wow, Jake, you really know how to impress a girl.”

He grinned. “Nah, this is a family day—just you and me and the Tobester, bonding.”

“Okay, I’ll make a deal. I’ll go if you agree to never use the word Tobester again.”

“Done.”

She smiled at him. “It sounds nice.”

And it was nice. Not as nice as spending the day in bed with Kelli, but he was taking it slow. Ten yards at a time got you six points just the same as a long bomb. And you got to stay on the field longer.

The only problem was how long he could live on this knife’s-edge of hunger for her without losing his mind. He didn’t mind the chase. In fact, the challenge was fun, the anticipation almost as pleasurable as it was agonizing.

He was the one who’d come up with the dating idea, but, unlike Kelli, he wasn’t trying to make up his mind. Jake knew what he wanted. And since what he wanted was right there next to him all the time, smiling at him, laughing, close enough to touch and tempting as hell, it took major control to not push. But he’d learned a lot more about that the last few years, and he was going to stick to his plan. Because it wasn’t just that he wanted Kelli. He wanted to know Kelli wanted him.