Page 11 of Hearts at Seaside
“You’re such romantics. It should leave you wanting to rip his clothes off and take him right there and then.” Bella raised her brows in quick succession. “Listen, Jenna. Your first kiss should leave you hot and flustered. Anything short of that? Ornice?” She wrinkled her brow. “No one wants to takeniceto bed.”
Jenna rested her forehead in her hands.Maybe Pete thinks of me as nice.
“I would takeniceto bed,” Amy said.
Jenna turned her head, looking up at Amy from her bent-over position. “That doesn’t make me feel any better.”
“Well, I would. I like nice. I like hot and sexy, but nice is…nice.” Amy glanced at Tony’s cottage.
“Geez, Ames.” Bella rolled her eyes. “There’s no way Tony isnicein bed. With a body like that, my money’s on animalistic. Pure passion. Take-me-to-the-moon-and-back passion.”
Jenna shot to her feet. “Okay, well. I think I need to give Charlie a second chance. I’ll bring him with me tonight. Is that all right, Amy?”
“Sure. Blow me off for anicekisser.” Amy shrugged one shoulder.
“You could set him up with Amy, and then you could ask Pete out,” Leanna suggested.
“No sloppy seconds for me.” Amy pushed to her feet. “I need to go take a shower.”
“And I need to bonk my head against the wall about a hundred times before going to the library. Anyone want to join me?” Jenna arched a brow in Amy’s direction. Amy never turned down a trip to the library.
“I’m in for the library, but you can head bonk by yourself.”
The roar of a motorcycle drew their attention back to the road.
“Holy cow. Who is that?” Amy’s eyes widened as a muscular, tanned man parked by the laundry room and stepped from the motorcycle.
He pulled off his helmet and Jenna gasped. “Charlie? Still think he’snicein bed?”
Bella grabbed Jenna’s hand. “Nice just got a whole lot hotter.”
FRUSTRATED, EDGY, AND still confused over the way his body and mind were reacting to Jenna, Pete put the cleaning supplies in the pool house and forced a smile for Vera. She often sat down at the pool in the morning, before the sun got too hot. She’d tried to spark up a conversation with Pete when he came down, but he was in no mood to chat, and he was in no better frame of mind now.
Today marked one of the very few times that Jenna had been home when he was cleaning out the pool, and she didn’t peek at him from her deck orhappen towalk by with Amy, Leanna, or Bella. Not only did she completely ignore the fact that he was there, but she’d fricking turned away from him when he stopped by in his truck. She might be shy around him, but she’d never before intentionally turned away.She did at the Bookstore Restaurant.
He’d taken it as a good sign that she’d come home last night. At least that indicated that she probably hadn’t slept with Doophus.
Who was he kidding? It indicated exactly nothing.
Stop thinking about her.
Yeah, that’s not happening anytime soon.
He waved to Vera. “Have a nice morning, Vera.”
She smiled and nodded as he climbed into his truck. A motorcycle roared into the complex as Pete started up his engine. Seeing Jenna with that guy last night should have been enough to quell his attraction to her. Instead it fueled his passion for her and made him realize how close to losing her he really was. Caden had invited Pete to a documentary at Town Hall tonight, and he thought he might use that as a chance to get closer to Jenna. Until now Jenna had been insanely sexy, confusing as rain on a sunny day, and safely nestled in the friend zone. Pete was about to kick the stupid friend zone into oblivion.
He was going to drive by Jenna’s cottage one last time. If she ignored him again, he’d forget her altogether. He wasn’t a glutton for punishment after all. That’s exactly what he’d do. Forget that she was ever interested in him. He’d drive out of Seaside, and the next time he returned, his mind would be solely focused on his duties as related to the cottages and pool maintenance.
Jenna crossed the road in front of his truck wearing her red bikini top and a pair of too-short cutoff shorts. Pete’s eyes lingered on her butt.
Her eyes were locked on the guy climbing off the motorcycle.
The construction guy drives a Harley?Pete white-knuckled the steering wheel. He shifted his attention back to the road as he rolled past, just as Doophus bent down and took Jenna in a hot and heavy kiss.
Look at the road. Look at the stinkin’ road.
His eyes did not get the message. They shifted right and caught on Jenna, her arms wrapped around Doophus’s neck, her sweet hips pressed against his, and that was no little kiss. He was devouring her.
Pete hit the gas.
There was no way he was going to let that jerk take Jenna from him. So what if she confused him, or lost that blazing confidence around him? So what if his nights were interrupted by phone calls from his drunken father? One way or another, he’d make darn sure that he was on the other end of Jenna’s next kiss, and he’d make her forget the Harley-driving construction worker ever existed.
