After she grabbed the newspaper from the driveway, Kelly went inside and climbed the stairs to her room. She was relieved she and Jack coexisted as housemates more than as husband and wife since she wasn’t looking for anything further. She only wished she would stop fantasizing about the man every time she saw him—and, for that matter, when he wasn’t around.
She tried to ignore her physical reaction to him and figured it would go away eventually, but for now, the attraction was powerful and it wasn’t easy to put aside.
When she found Jack in his running clothes in the kitchen, hair damp and sweaty from his morning run and those curls of hair edging their way to his collar, it was a lot more than she could handle.
His T-shirt looked soft and comfortable as if it had been washed hundreds of times, and had well-worn, threadbare, see-through spots that gave more than a hint of the muscles underneath it. It had still been slightly damp from his workout so it clung to his abs, showing off the cut of each muscle on his stomach.
She felt like an idiot the second she pulled down the waistband of her sweats to show him her tattoo. He probably thought she was trying to throw herself at him in some lame attempt to flirt.
Kelly wasn’t an idiot. She knew Jack dated supermodels and had even dated a famous actress a few years earlier. Although she was confident about her looks and knew she was attractive, she wasn’t that attractive.
She saw herself as girl-next-door kind of cute—appealing in a sweet way, not in a hot, sexy, leggy-blonde-model sort of way, so Jack wouldn’t be interested in her. Besides, she reminded herself again, she didn’t want a relationship. The whole point of this marriage was for her to be able to go to school and get her degree, not to hop into bed with the man.
So, yeah, she needed to try to hide her reaction to him. The last thing she wanted to do was let him see that she was panting for him whenever she was near him. Or that he’d begun to star in some pretty x-rated dreams at night. Thank God they weren’t sharing a bed.
How mortifying would it be to wake up and find herself dry humping her husband in her sleep.
She groaned. This was bad.
Kelly opened the newspaper and spread it across her bed. Maybe she should get a job she could work at night so she was out of the house when he was home.
She could waitress. That could get her out of the house right at dinnertime.
Too bad she didn’t want to give up her time with him at night.
She scanned through the paper and spotted an ad for a legal clinic.
That might not get her out of the house at night, but it would be a great place to volunteer if she wanted to get some experience in working with legal issues.
And if Jack was really serious and he didn’t mind paying for her expenses, maybe she should take him up on it and volunteer at the clinic instead of getting a job.
She stood and left her room, planning to make another cup of tea when she heard the front door shut. She went to the hallway window just in time to see Jack getting into his car. He looked up and caught her watching him.
Because, of course he did.
She felt the heat rush to her cheeks but she didn’t duck out of sight. She raised a hand and waved goodbye.
He winked at her and grinned.
Of course.