Patrick rubbed his temples. When exactly had he been appointed resident cupid? Hell if he knew, but it was the least he could do when the evidence presented itself so clearly that the two of them belonged together.
One attempt. That’s all they got. Make them work together, make them spend time together before Amanda left for what she considered her shiny new life for good, and see what happened.
Maybe they’d kill each other. That was possible. It might be better than the grudging acceptance both of them seemed to have of their current lackluster lives.
If they were forced to spend a few hours in each other’s company, Patrick was fairly certain something would happen between them. The only question was…what?
JACOB’S KNUCKLES had already turned white. He gripped the steering wheel of his ’68 black Mustang convertible parked at the curb in front of the PARA office and tried to breathe normally.
Even if he had to be stuck with her on this assignment, why exactly had Patrick insisted that they drive to the location together? It was ridiculous. Not to mention stupid. Dumb. Pointless. Annoying. All of the above.
His boss obviously had it in for him to pair him up with Amanda the Strange tonight. Did he want Jacob to quit?
Honestly. If he didn’t love his job—the only damn thing in his life that gave him any sense of purpose anymore—then he’d quit in a heartbeat. He didn’t need this kind of trouble.
And here she comes now, he thought with a sinking feeling. Miss Trouble, herself.
The tall glass doors of the office building opened and Amanda slowly made her way toward his car. He could already feel the ice-blue gaze that seemed to penetrate right down to his very core. Her dark hair was pulled back from her gorgeous face in a sleek ponytail. Long bangs swept over her forehead. Today she wore a thin teal V-neck sweater over blue jeans. Casual for her, he thought absently. The sweater was tight enough for him to see clearly the generous swell of her breasts. His own jeans became tighter at the sight of her—but only in the front.
His knuckles whitened even more on the steering wheel.
He hated that she affected him like this. Other than lusting after her body for two years now, he honestly couldn’t stand the woman.
Why should he? She obviously despised him.
With one contemptuous look at the party where they first met, Amanda had stared a hole right through him to the other side as if her beautiful baby blues had laser beams hooked up to them. He’d felt naked and exposed, and not in a fun handcuffs-and-bedpost sort of way.
What the hell happened? he wondered, and not for the first time since that night.
He still didn’t know. One moment they were introducing themselves to each other and he was falling very quickly into those gorgeous eyes of hers, and the next moment she was giving him the freezing-cold shoulder. He just wished he’d been able to get an empathic read on her. It would have helped to pinpoint exactly what had turned her off about him. She’d said she didn’t have psychic walls up to block him, but he was less convinced.
It would make things much easier if he’d been able to forget about her and not want her nearly every day since. What did they say about the unattainable? Made it that much more exciting?
It wasn’t exciting. Torturous and uncomfortable, yes. Exciting, no.
She was definitely his weakness. And he had to overcome his pointless attraction to her. Tonight would be a great chance—especially since he’d heard she was quitting PARA soon—to finally get the beautiful clairvoyant out of his system.
Hell, two years ago he hadn’t believed in any of this psychic stuff. He’d been a regular guy with a regular job and a fiancée he planned to marry—that is, until he caught her in bed with his best friend. Sounded like the ultimate cliché, but it still stung like hell.
At the time, PARA had been secretly checking out his background. They’d found out he had certain abilities, abilities that he’d always written off to intuition and luck, and they offered him a job at exactly the right time. He enthusiastically took the chance of leaving his old life to come to the small town of Mystic Ridge in upper New York state, where the PARA headquarters were located. But the scars had already formed over his heart. He’d trusted not one but two people, and they’d both screwed him over. Or, he supposed, they’d screwed each other and he’d simply been left out in the cold.
Then they’d gotten married four months later claiming that they were madly in love. Insult to injury. Definitely.
His plan for revenge? To drink a great deal of alcohol. Also to have sex with as many women as would let him. To his surprise, there were a whole lot of women who would, which was great for a while, fantastic even, at least until he realized that maybe he wanted a bit more than a series of empty one-night stands.
Then he’d met her—Amanda LaGrange—and for the briefest of moments when their eyes met across the room that night he felt his scarred heart start to pound a little faster. At least, until she dug her designer stiletto heel into it.
He took the hint.
Whatever. He was happy working for PARA and having an exciting and varied sex life. It worked for him and he hadn’t received any complaints yet.
He tensed as Amanda opened up the passenger-side door of the Mustang and got in. She had a fake, frozen smile plastered on her face. He recognized it. It was the same fake, frozen smile she always wore in his presence.
The smile that made him focus on her full red lips and wonder what they’d taste like.
No, he thought immediately. She has no effect on you anymore, remember? Be strong.
“Jacob,” she said simply.
“That’s my name,” he replied. “How’ve you been, Amanda?”
“Wonderful,” she said.
“Good to hear.” He shifted into first gear and pulled away from the curb. “I don’t think you’ve ever been in my car before.”
“No, I haven’t.”
And that was about the end of his reserve of small talk. With a two-hour drive ahead of them, that might pose a bit of a problem.
“Patrick briefed me on the assignment earlier and wanted me to fill you in.” She reached into the bag she’d brought with her to pull out a notebook filled with page after page of her neat, precise handwriting. “A woman named Sheila Davis recently inherited the property from a distant uncle. While doing a walk-through she heard strange noises and had a sense of being pushed out of the house. That’s when she contacted us for an immediate assessment.”
“She’s scared to live there?”
“No. Actually, she thinks a haunted house will reduce the property value. She wants to sell and turn a quick profit and is planning an open house next week. So we go in, determine if there needs to be an exorcism performed, and then we leave. I figure it won’t take more than twenty minutes.”
She was wearing that perfume he liked.
Dammit to hell, he thought angrily.
He shifted position in his seat trying to ignore her very warm, feminine presence so close to him. Was it the fact that he knew he couldn’t have her that made him feel this way?
But, no. He didn’t want her. He could have any woman he wanted, and Amanda the Strange was not even on the list anymore.
Vanilla, he thought then. Her perfume smelled like vanilla. Edible. Delicious.
His grip on the steering wheel was so tight by now he thought he might be able to yank it right out of the dashboard if he tried. He realized that taking on this assignment tonight had been a huge, regrettable mistake. But Patrick had practically begged him, and he didn’t want to let his boss down.
“Are you listening to me?” she asked after a moment.
“Yeah, sure. Haunted house. We’re checking it out. Routine stuff. In and out in twenty minutes. No problem.”
She eyed him skeptically. “Is everything all right? You seem a bit distracted.”
He pushed a reasonable facsimile of a smile onto his face. “I appreciate your concern.” He concentrated on the road ahead. “So is i
t true?”
“What?”
“You’re quitting PARA? Heading to the Big Apple?”
She closed her notebook and slid it back into her bag. “It’s true.”
“When are you through?”
“This is my last field assignment.” She gazed out of the passenger-side window. “Patrick says they’re throwing me a going-away party Tuesday, so I get to say goodbye to everyone. I’m going to miss them all so much. But other than that and packing, I should be out of here the day after.”
Less than a week. The thought that she was leaving soon should have given him a sense of relief, but it didn’t. Not even close. In fact, it made his stomach twist unpleasantly at the thought that he’d probably never see her again.
It made no sense to him at all. Why did he give a damn either way? The woman could barely stand to be in the same car as him.
Holding on to that thought should have made things much simpler.
No such luck.
2
“GREAT WEATHER we’re having, isn’t it?” Jacob said tightly an hour and a half into the drive. It was the first thing he’d said for over forty-five minutes.
Amanda smiled and nodded. “June is my favorite month.”
She stared out of the window but there was nothing to see in the darkness except the side of the highway racing past. A quick check of her watch told her it was nearly ten-thirty. She’d attempted to make notes in her notebook, but it was too dark, and having Jacob so close to her made it hard for her to concentrate.
He wore black jeans and a gray T-shirt that bared his strong forearms and muscled biceps, the thin material molding to his body so she could practically count his six-pack abs underneath.
Not that she was looking, of course.
She bit her bottom lip and studied the boring view out the window and thought about her boyfriend David. A wonderfully normal, respectable man with whom she’d never had one single argument.
It was his suggestion that she leave her job at PARA to work for him in the New York City office. He’d given her a choice, one that she’d never had before. She could continue living the life of Amanda the Strange—her words, not his—or she could have a chance to be Amanda the Normal.
Starting over in a fresh city with David never knowing about her psychic abilities meant she’d be consciously turning her back on her old life.
Which also, unfortunately but necessarily, included her friends, like Vicky, who didn’t understand why Amanda was so adamant about making this major change in her life.
When she moved to the city she would turn off the part of her brain that allowed her to communicate with ghosts and sense other supernatural presences. She wouldn’t use her abilities at all. She hoped that, over time, they’d fade away to nothing.
Her mother would be thrilled. Amanda had yet to share this news with Madeleine Harper—the last name taken from her new husband—who lived three hours south and rarely saw her daughter. She still blamed Amanda, even after all these years, for her first husband’s decision to abandon their family.
Which was understandable. Even after nearly twenty years, Amanda still blamed herself.
Moving is the right thing to do, she reminded herself for the millionth time. Even so, there was the smallest piece of herself, buried down very, very deep that wasn’t so sure this was the ultimate key to happiness. That piece was small enough to repress, so that’s what she did. In five little days she’d be leaving Mystic Ridge for good, and she wouldn’t look back.
“You can always change your mind,” Jacob said.
She blinked and turned to face him. “Pardon me?”
“If you change your mind about quitting, I’m sure Patrick would be okay with that.”
His comment had thrown her a bit. He couldn’t know what she was thinking, could he? No, of course not. Obviously he was just trying to make conversation and the subject of her resigning from PARA was the obvious choice.
“I won’t change my mind,” she said firmly.
“So when you make a decision you stick to it, no matter what?”
“That’s right.”
“Yeah, well, I’m sure there are dozens of people who’d love to have your job, so Patrick won’t have a problem finding a suitable replacement for you.”
The thought that she might be so easily substituted hurt a little. “I’m sure he won’t.”
Jacob focused on the road ahead, but his brow lowered into a frown. “I’m just saying that if you’re doing this so your new boyfriend will accept you, then that’s a pretty lousy reason to turn your life upside down.”
He’d been talking to somebody who had extremely loose lips. But who?
Of course, she thought with annoyance. Vicky.
Vicky had wanted to get Jacob alone and naked since he’d started at PARA and she’d managed to land an official date with him last month. She’d had a smile on her face for days and it was all Amanda could do to avoid hearing the sordid details of Jacob’s sexual prowess.
The stab she’d felt in her gut when her best friend had informed her about the date had not meant she was jealous. The thought of Vicky running her hands all over Jacob’s admittedly perfect body didn’t bother her at all. Because that would be ridiculous. They were both consenting, condom-carrying adults, after all, and it was a free country.
She did know Jacob hadn’t called Vicky back for a second date. And that news hadn’t been met with any relief or happiness on Amanda’s part. How petty would that be?
Frankly, she didn’t want to know the details of anyone’s sex life—especially Jacob Caine’s. The point was, Vicky had obviously gossiped to Jacob—before, after or during their tryst—about Amanda’s situation.
“I’m not turning my life upside down,” she said as firmly as she could. “This has nothing to do with David. It’s my decision.”
He gave her a sideways glance. “Sure it is.”
“You don’t think I can make my own decisions in life?”
“All I know is that a woman who is obviously gifted in ways that can help other people is giving up her God-given talents to go hock advertising at her boyfriend’s agency and leaving behind her friends and everything she’s ever known.”
Hock advertising? He made it sound so unpleasant.
Jacob was trying to unnerve her and she’d be damned if she let him know he could succeed so easily.
“I’m happy with my decision,” she said with resolve. “Thrilled, in fact. It’s what I want.”
“I don’t think it is.”
“You,” she forced herself to smile at him, “are entitled to your opinion.”
He eyed her. “Do you do that with everyone?”
The smile remained. “Do what?”
“Put on that false exterior? Do you even realize you’re doing it? Maybe you don’t. Maybe this is just how you always are. I wouldn’t know since you’ve avoided me from the moment we met, so we’ve never really gotten a chance to get to know each other.”
“I don’t avoid you,” she said.
He laughed. “Are you serious?”
“Our paths rarely cross at the office, sure, but it doesn’t mean that I’m avoiding you. That doesn’t make any sense. I barely even know you.”
“If that’s true, then I’m not exactly sure why you hate my guts.”
Why were they having this discussion? She felt trapped, which, since they were speeding along the highway at seventy miles an hour, was quite accurate. “I don’t hate you.”
“Sure you do.”
She shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “Why can’t this drive be nice and relaxing without any conflict?”
“Good question. I guess now that I know you’re definitely leaving, I’m kind of curious about everything.” He took his attention off the road again long enough to look at her long and hard. “Even though you have those walls up and I can’t get an empathic read on you, I can still see the truth. You might be able to pull the wool over everyone else’s eyes, but you c
an’t lie to me.”
Her face felt warm. She hated how he seemed to know her so well. But he didn’t. He didn’t know her at all. “Is that so?”
“Yeah, that’s so.”
“Then I guess we’re even, because I can read you like a book. I know exactly what you’re thinking, Jacob, and your opinion means nothing to me.”
The words hung heavily in the air between them as they studied each other for a long moment.
Then he snorted. “You’re still lying. You can’t read my mind. If you could, I don’t think you’d like what I’m thinking.”
His gaze flicked to the road for a second and then moved down the front of her, lingering at her breasts, then moving to her legs and back up again. While making her extremely self-conscious, his rude and blatant appraisal also made her nipples harden and heat spread across her skin. She felt a strange ache inside her and suddenly realized it was difficult for her to breathe normally.
She focused on his hands holding tightly to the steering wheel and in her imagination they were holding on to her, skimming her bare skin, pulling away her lacy bra to squeeze her taut nipples while his mouth took hers.
She rolled down the window a crack to get some fresh air and then cleared her throat. “I’m not lying.”
“You are. It’s obvious. Do you lie to David, too?”
“I’m not having this conversation with you.”
His lips quirked. “Why? Does it make you uncomfortable?”
“Yes, actually it does.”
“I met David once in passing when he came by the office looking for you. Seemed like a real stand-up kind of guy.”
“If you mean that he’s honest and reliable, then yes, he is.”
“Sounds exciting.”
She bit her bottom lip. “I guess compared to having fifty one-night stands already this year, my life doesn’t sound that great, but I don’t really care what you think.”