Misadventures With The Mistaken Twin (Big Sky Boyfriends #2)

Chapter 10

10

Light streamed through the gauzy curtains, waking me from a delicious sleep. I was warm and cozy, under a thick down comforter. My head rested on a hard chest, soft hairs tickling my chin. One of my arms was thrown over a flat, rigid stomach, my leg wedged between two of?—

I launched myself bolt upright when the intimacy of my situation dawned on me. Holding myself up on one hand, I looked down at the sleeping Jack. His chest was tan with dark, springy hair sprinkled across the middle leading down to his belly button, and from there in a happy trail that led to the edge of his boxers. Somehow, he wasn't covered with the comforter, nor the sheet, and I was able to look my fill.

“So much for the pillow wall,” I mumbled.

“If you'd wanted to lie on top of me all night, why did we build one in the first place?” he asked, his voice rough. So much for a sleeping Jack.

My mouth fell open, and then I closed it with a click of my teeth. How dare he? As if I'd wanted to sleep on top of him! The annoying jerk. There was no answer to that question that would be in my favor. So, I took another tack.

“Why do you have ducks on your boxers?” I rolled my eyes, wishing myself anywhere but in bed with Jack. Had I just asked him about his underwear?

Jack lazily opened his eyes, took in my most-likely crazy bed head, my pink tank top I’d had on beneath my hoodie and flannel pajama bottoms. One finger snaked out and tugged gently at the elastic waistband of my pants.

I swatted his hand away before he saw anything important.

“Why don't you wear any underwear to bed?” he asked, his eyes on my breasts. I looked down. My nipples were hard and obscenely visible through the stretchy cotton. I crossed my arms over my chest.

“Oooh,” I squealed and climbed out of bed, grabbing clothes willy-nilly from the folded pile in the laundry basket, and stalked into the bathroom. I heard Jack chuckle before I slammed the door.

An hour later, we were bundled up against the weather, Jack headed to his rental, me to the van. I turned over the engine and cranked the heat. Jack appeared beside my driver’s side window and I rolled it down.

“Car won't start,” he said. He yanked on the collar of his jacket and pulled it up higher about his neck.

“So?” I grumbled. I was so frustrated with him. He brought out the absolute worst in me, pushing every button I had to make me angry, annoyed, and horny. Damn the man for making me hot for him!

Jack rolled his eyes. “So, give me a ride to my uncle's until it warms up enough for the rental to start.” Ten below was not good for cars left outside. More often than not, when it was this cold, they didn't start. Without a garage to keep a car warm, most Montanans had a block heater retrofitted onto their engines so they could be plugged in at night. It kept the engine warm enough to start, in any arctic climate, like my van. Jack's rental didn't have this kind of set-up.

I sighed, and then nodded. “Fine, get in.”

I rolled the window back up while Jack dashed around the hood, climbed in the passenger side. He picked up the gnome and placed it on his lap.

“What's this?” he asked. Our breaths came out in fluffy white air about us. Jack smelled clean like Violet's soap, but also something spicy and manly.

“That's George the Gnome. Jane West's son, Zach, wants him to go to work with me.”

Jack eyed the ceramic gnome, contemplated it. “Huh.”

I put the van in gear and drove off. Little did Jack know we were both headed to the same place.

“We're going to have to work on the sleeping arrangements,” Jack said, filling the silence between us. “I'm surprised you're throwing yourself at me like you are. You weren't interested in high school.”

I swiveled my head to look at him. “What?” Had he slipped and hit his head again? “Throwing myself at you? What woman in their right mind wants to sleep with a complete jerk?”

Jack crossed his arms over his chest with a rustle of nylon coat. “You were the one lying on top of me, sweetheart. If you want to sleep with me, just say so.”

“That's it!” I shouted, looking in my rearview mirror before pulling off to the side of the road with a slam of the brakes. Tools in the back rattled around. I put the van in park and turned to look at him. “Let's get the air cleared now, shall we? Why should I”—I pointed myself—“want to sleep with someone who's already been with my sister? My identical twin sister. I'd think it would be a case of been-there-done-that. Or do you just want to compare?”

Jack's head jerked back as if I'd punched him in the face. “What the hell are you talking about?”

I waved at the air between us. “You know, Reid, that time in high school when you slept with Violet?”

“I never slept with Violet.” Jack's voice was flat and cold. “You sent Violet on your date with me.” It was Jack's turn to point. “You sent your sister as a trick,” he spat out the words. “Your identical twin sister because you didn't want to go out with me.”

My mouth fell open. Nothing came out for a few seconds. “I never did that!”

“Then who the hell did?” Jack's voice was as loud as mine in the confined space.

The answer hit me like a ton of bricks, or a Triple Smacker paddle. “Violet. That little?—”

“Bitch,” Jack answered. The look on his face changed from anger to something else entirely. I wasn't sure what it was, but I knew he wasn't upset with me anymore. “Let's take a stroll down memory lane. I asked you out about a month before graduation. That was you, right?”

I nodded at the memory. I'd been so happy, over the moon thrilled that a guy like Jack would be interested in me. “Yes. But the night before the date, Violet told me you asked me out by mistake, that it was her you wanted to date. Not me.”

“Violet?” He shook his head and looked as if he thought the very idea insane. “Hell, no. I wanted to go out with you. The girl in my science class, the one who always twisted her hair up in a pencil.”

I smiled at that memory. “My hair always got in the way in Biology and Mr. Blonsky made me put it up so it wouldn't catch fire from the Bunsen burner. I'd forgotten about that.”

Jack's eyes moved to my hair, most of it tucked up underneath my winter cap except for a long braid down my neck. “I haven't. You wanted to go out with me. I wanted to go out with you. Violet got in the way.” His voice was much calmer now.

“I thought you wanted Violet instead of me. My feelings were crushed when she told me,” I said, my voice soft. I remembered the horrible feeling, the rejection. A young girl truly devastated by her first crush.

“The date was really weird.” He looked out the front windshield through the frozen ice and foggy glass. “You weren't acting anything like yourself. I didn't even want to kiss you. I'd dreamed of it all year long and when the time came, I didn't want to do it.”

“You didn't sleep with her?” I crossed my mental fingers. I didn't sleep with anyone who'd been with Violet.

“I didn't even kiss her.”

I beamed, inside and out. The weight from the past ten years had been lifted. He hadn't wanted my sister instead of me. He'd wanted me.

“You didn't change your mind and send your sister to mess with me.” It wasn't a question, but a statement. Jack's gaze moved to my mouth.

I shook my head. “Never,” I whispered.

He leaned toward me. I leaned toward him, closing the cold space between us. Our lips met, gently, tentatively as if not believing the moment was real. My eyelids drifted shut at the pleasure. Jack's mouth was incredibly soft against mine, his breath minty from toothpaste. He brushed his lips back and forth, ever so sweetly as if learning me. It was like we were both savoring the moment. I'd longed for his kiss since I was sixteen. It was a surprise it was actually happening.

“Miller,” Jack whispered. Now, the nickname sounded endearing.

“What?” I whispered back.

“This gnome is jabbing into my ribs,” he said, our breaths mingling.

He pulled back from the kiss, lifted George out of his lap. The beady gaze, the snarky leer of the bearded little man was all but telling me to go for it before being placed on the floor out of sight. Turning back to me, Jack smiled, looked in my eyes. I hadn't seen that look—longing, lust, need—since Biology class. He wanted me. Me! He lifted a hand to circle around behind my neck, his fingers warm against my nape. Pulling me to him, our lips met once again. This time it wasn't gentle, but we weren’t kids anymore. Jack's tongue thrust into my mouth and I let him. This was a grown-up kiss. Not a kiss of love-struck teenagers.

“Miller,” Jack murmured.

“What?” I asked again, my voice—and body—filled with frustration. My nipples were hard and lower down, I ached with anticipation.

“What about your date?”

“What date?” I had no idea what he was talking about. I hadn't been on a date in too many months. My brain had steamed over so I didn't know much of anything at the moment.

Jack's breath was hot on my neck. “The guy you went out with yesterday.”

I froze for a moment, recalling my little white lie. Oh yeah, George. “Jealous?”

“Hell, yeah.” His voice was rough, possessive.

I smiled, then let Jack off the hook. I now had him, literally, within my grasp and I wanted nothing to get in the way. Especially an imaginary date with a garden gnome. “Didn't work out,” I replied and pulled his mouth back to mine.

The heater finally kicked in and hot air blasted us from the vents. Jack's dark scent filled the van and my senses. We kissed for an indeterminate amount of time in our steamy cocoon, making out like teenagers. If it weren’t for the layers of winter clothing, I had no doubt Jack would have made it to second base…and I’d have let him.

Jack rested his forehead against mine. “I could kiss you all day. Hell, I want to take you back into Violet's house and have my way with you. Do everything I dreamed about when I was eighteen. And a few things I’ve learned since then. But I've got to meet the plumber at my uncle's house and I don't want to be late.”

“I'm sure the plumber won't mind,” I replied, a little breathless. I wasn't sure how to tell him I was the plumber. He'd find out soon enough. Besides, I was savoring the lingering effects of the kiss. “I want to hear those things you dreamed about...and the stuff you learned.”

Jack smiled and waggled his eyebrows at me. Knowing he was right, I put the van back in gear and drove off.

“I'm going to kill Violet when she gets home,” I said a few minutes later, meaning it.

“I'll help.”