Page 67 of Raging Fires

With that, she closed the door between them. She leaned against it, struggling to get control of her own raging hormones, and listened to Jake cursing and stomping off, then stomping back, until he woke up Toby, who came bounding out, barking.

Finally it fell silent on the porch, and a moment later there was a light tapping on the door. “Uh, Kell? The thing is, I live here.”

“Okay.” She opened the door. “But that’s all. Your rules, your game, Jake.”

He glowered at her. “But I didn’t expect to lose.”

“You didn’t lose.” Kelli had to smile at his disgruntled expression. “It’s just, you know, a rain delay.” She turned, waving her hand as she walked away and saying airily, “Good night.”

“That’s baseball, Kell,” he called after her. “Football teams play through it.”

She turned at her door. “Not when there’s lightning, Jake.” And there was plenty of lightning tonight.

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.”