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him, he saw a vulnerability he hadn’t noticed before. Jackson was suddenly reminded of her age. She was twenty-two. He shouldn’t even be in her apartment, much less planning a decadent three days in Vegas with her. While his mind knew the right thing to do, his body didn’t really care.
    “So it affected me,” she finally admitted. “That doesn’t mean you get to act the jealous lover around my friends.”
    “I’m in unfamiliar territory here, baby. I’m not your lover, not your friend. What the hell am I?”
    “My boss.”
    He dragged his fingers through his hair and counted to ten. “I’m more than your boss, admit that much at least.”
    Grace bit her lip and stared at the floor. “You’re more than my boss.” Jackson felt like shouting. It was a very tiny step, but at least he was getting somewhere. “Do you want me?”
    She made an irritated sound. ”You just don’t give up, do you?” He moved closer until their bodies were separated by only a few feet of linoleum. “Hell, I probably have no business being here. I’m way too damned old for you. And your entire family would skin me alive if they knew what I was thinking right now. But I’m not giving up. Not until you tell me straight out that you aren’t attracted to me. If you can say that with total honesty, then I’ll leave you alone. I won’t bother you again. You have my word.” I only pray I can keep it.
    “I don’t want you to leave me alone,” she whispered. It was so faint he barely heard her. He started forward, but she shook her head. “But I need time. I’m not ready.” Anne Rainey
    Jackson forced himself to stay still, to keep from spooking her. For whatever reason, Grace was afraid of being intimate with him. A crazy thought struck. “Are you a virgin?” Her cheeks turned pink. “No! Geez, Jackson!”
    He grinned. “A guy likes to know these things ahead of time.”
    “Can we please change the subject now?”
    He thought of the reason he’d shown up at her apartment to begin with and said, “Actually I came here to ask you something.”
    “What?”
    “I wanted to know about your accident.”
    Grace stood straighter and placed one hand on her hip. “Merrick told you, didn’t he?” He let his silence speak for him. “I’m going to kill him.”
    “Kill him later. Right now I want to know what happened. Will you tell me?”
    “I suppose if I don’t you’ll just ask Merrick.”
    He shrugged, neither confirming nor denying.
    She sighed. “Fine. Let’s go back out to the living room.” Grace sat in the chair again, which irritated the shit out of him. He wanted her closer. “Afraid I have cooties or something?”
    “More like I’m afraid you’ll try to molest me.”
    Jackson made a cross over his heart. “I promise to be a good boy. Come on, Gracie, sit next to me.” No one was more surprised than he when she stood and sat on the couch. Their bodies weren’t touching, but it was progress. If he moved an inch he’d be able to feel her curves.
    He really wanted to move an inch.
    “Touch me and you’ll be icing your crotch for a week.” The woman was psychic. And scary. “You warned me,” he pointed out. “I must be growing on you.” She laughed, and Jackson felt triumphant. She rarely laughed. Snarled, cursed under her breath, but rarely laughed around him. A man could grow to enjoy Gracie’s laughter. “So, tell me about the wreck.
    Merrick said it was pretty bad.”
    “It was the day before Christmas Eve. I was driving home from my sister’s house. She’d been having a dinner party for some friends. It had snowed a lot that day. The roads were a mess. I should have stayed at my sister’s place, but I’d promised to work the next day.” Since the day they’d met, he knew one truth, Grace was nothing if not loyal to her word. “Where’d you work?”
    “At a grocery store. I needed the money for textbooks. I was a freshman in college at the time.” She paused. “I thought the truck