“Find what you’re looking for?” he called out.
Her eyes widened in surprise. “How did you…?”
“I can feel you,” he said and tossed the tool he’d been using to scrape the paint off of the cottage into a bucket and descended the ladder. Walking over to her, he wiped his hands on a relatively clean rag. “So?”
She sighed and shifted uncomfortably. “Why do I get the feeling that you’re laughing at me?”
He couldn’t stop the chuckle at her adorable irritation. “Perhaps because I think you’re cute. And you’re priorities are wrong.”
She certainly didn’t like the sound of that. She squinted up at him, trying to see his eyes. “Why are my priorities wrong? What’s wrong with wanting to learn new things?”
“Nothing is wrong with that. But correct me if I misunderstood, but you’re looking for Watson so that you can learn the secrets to his investing philosophy, no matter how cutthroat it might be. Am I right?”
She shrugged. “There isn’t anything wrong with trying to get ahead.”
There was a long pause while he looked at her pretty green eyes. “Ahead of what?” he asked softly.
That seemed like such a ridiculous question with an annoyingly obvious answer. “Ahead of the crowd!” she came right back. “I don’t want to be part of the pack.” He smiled and Rachel couldn’t stop those crazy flutterings at the impact of that smile. She wanted to punch him or maybe even run away, but her feet were planted right here, trying to figure him out.
“You want to lead the herd, eh?”
“No! I want…” she stopped and thought for a moment, which was difficult with his muscular chest right in front of her. “Would you please put on a shirt?”
“Why? It’s hot and messy work.”
“Because I can’t think with you like that!” she snapped, her hand gesturing to his bare chest. Horrified at what she’d just admitted, she then pulled her hand back behind her so she wouldn’t completely insult him by reaching out and touching those muscles. She’d never seen a man that looked like this before. Well, there were the men in the gym. She supposed they were just as muscular, but there was something different about Jack.
He chuckled, but she breathed a sigh of relief when he walked over to his truck and grabbed the tee-shirt she’d handed him before. Obviously, he’d just tossed it into the truck after she’d left.
When he was fully covered, she sighed. “Thank you.”
“Better?”
She bit her lip, not sure that it was any better. She couldn’t see those muscles, but she knew they were there, just under the thin cotton. “It’s fine,” she said anyway. “What were we talking about?”
“You were telling me you’d love to have dinner with me tonight,” he came right back.
Her eyes widened and she suddenly laughed. “I don’t think that was the topic of conversation.”
His smile widened, causing her tummy to flip flop once again. “So, let’s change the subject. Investing is pretty tedious stuff anyway.”
She rolled her eyes, but she was still smiling. This man was gorgeous, buff and charming? Not fair! “It isn’t tedious. It’s actually quite fascinating.”
“In what way?” he asked, leaning against the truck. He reached in and pulled out a gallon sized jug, poured some yellow liquid out into a paper cup and handed it to her.
She reached out, sniffing warily. “What’s this?”
“This,” he said as he lifted his own cup up in salute, “is the quintessential summer drink.” And he took a long sip. Once again, Rachel couldn’t tear her eyes away from his neck, fascinated by everything about him.
“Trust me,” he encouraged softly when he lowered his cup and noticed her staring at him.
Rachel had the oddest sensation that he was referring to more than the liquid in her cup. She jerked back to reality and stared down at the liquid. “Lemonade?” she asked. She took a sip of the tart, sweet drink, closing her eyes as it moved down her throat. “Goodness, this is delicious!” she sighed.
“Told ya,” he replied with a wink. “Where are you off to now that you haven’t found your man?”
Rachel bit her lip, twirling the cup in her hand. “I’m not really sure. I hadn’t really thought about the possibility of him not being here.” Which was a silly reaction, she knew.
“Didn’t you have a pitch for him? Something to sell you’re laudable qualities to the great and pretentious Emerson Watson?”
His comment startled her and she looked up at him curiously, desperately wanting some insight into the man she was trying to learn from. “Why do you think he’s pretentious?”
“You’re avoiding my question, but in answer to your own question, anyone who has a house that big has to be pretty pretentious.”
She laughed, giving him that much. “Okay, the house is a bit much. Why does one man need so much space?” she asked.
Jack shrugged his shoulders. He knew the answer since he’d built the house himself. “Who says he does? Maybe he just bought the house because it has so much land around it. Deters strangers coming up to his front door.” None of that was true, but it sounded plausible. He’d actually built the house because he’d grown up in dumps, sometimes literally, with his Uncle Mario, helping out at a local restaurant just to get free food. Well, and he’d liked the owners who were kind and generous.
When he’d learned to invest, he’d been crowded into the damn New York City streets and offices with millions of other souls, all of whom constantly tried to cut their competition down to size. He’d built the house because of the fresh air, the freedom of the land and the incredible view of the ocean. He loved watching the storms blow in, accepting that he wasn’t powerful or omniscient. He was just human and the ocean reminded him of his humanity every time he woke up and looked out his bedroom window.
She laughed, understanding that he was referring to her very recent attempt to do just that. “Is he really such an ogre? Do you know him well?”
“I guess I know him as well as just about anyone knows another person.” That was an evasion and he felt only slightly uncomfortable with the omission of his true identity. But he had to admit, he was fascinated by this woman. He wanted to get to know her, to understand her without his reputation hindering their conversation.