She slapped a cup on the board before turning to face him. “Don’t tell me what to do.”
Jake saw she wasn’t about to be reasonable. In fact, he thought that the cat’s tail was about the last straw when you combined it with her father arriving and her house and garden being trashed.
“We going to have our first fight, sweet cheeks?”
“I don’t need you protecting me or looking out for me. I can do all that by myself, McBride.”
“Fine, you’re a big girl, got it. Now, let’s go.” Jake had a temper too and knew why she was striking at it, but it still pissed him off.
“No.”
He picked her up, threw her over his shoulder, and left the house. She hammered at his back and cursed in a thick Irish accent until he put her down at the end of the drive. She took a swing at him, which connected with his chest, so he grunted to make her feel better.
“Fuck you to hell and back, McBride.” Rage made her eyes bright. Her fists were clenched and her breasts heaved under her singlet, and he wanted to strip her and bury himself inside her, right there on the side of the road.
“Yes, please.”
She raised her eyes to the sky, and when they lowered again, he saw they were calmer.
“Now run, you Irish wench.”
She did, and soon they had a steady rhythm going. No words, just his woman at his side and the countryside he loved around them. Jake let her set the pace as his mind went back to the cat’s tail. It was another tactic to scare Branna, and Jake kept circling back to the reason being that someone wanted her gone from Georgie’s property, but why?
“Someone wants to scare me into leaving the house, Jake.”
“That’s my thinking.”
“But why?”
“That I don’t know.”
“I love that house.”
“I know you do, and we’ll get to the bottom of this. I promise, sweetheart.”
She didn’t say anything else, and both were breathing heavily as they arrived back at the place they’d started.
“Let’s swim.” Jake took off his shirt and bent to remove his running shoes and socks.
“I don’t swim.”
“What, never?”
“It’s not something I’ve ever enjoyed.”
“Can you swim?”
Her hesitation was brief, but it was there. “Badly, so I’ll see you back at the house.”
“I’ll look after you, Rosebud. Now strip down and get in that water.”
She put her hands on her hips and glared at him.
“Will you stop throwing orders about. It’s getting tiresome.”
His answer was to grab her and haul her into his body. Heat radiated off them both, heat and sweat. He kissed her thoroughly while running his hands all over her until she was arching toward him. Releasing her seconds later, he dove into the water.
“Wh-what was that about?” she said when he’d surfaced.
