Hold Me Tight: Heartbreakers by Cait London

wasted a lot of time and energy checking him out. He is the best man for the job, but if he wants a difficult game, I know how to play. Now, let’s just see what he’s got.”
    She stepped out onto the porch and shaded her eyes against the brilliant daylight ricocheting off the snow. Fresh lumber had been stacked against the house and three tall men, with evident family resemblances, stood waiting.
    Jarek and Mikhail nodded and walked toward the huge flatbed lumber truck.
    Alexi put his hands on his hips and stared coldly at her. When she came to stand in front of him, he looked down at the sweatshirt she had placed over her light jacket. That flare of his nostrils told her that she’d scored another hit to his temper by wearing his clothes. He glared at her, then down to her shoes. “I must carry you,” he stated resentfully.
    “Hey, I’ve got two feet,” she answered cheerfully. “I can walk. I take care of myself.”
    “I never believed in that Hawaiian’s curse, and now I do,” Alexi stated darkly. Then, carefully and with a hint of hope, he offered, “I could carry you to the resort. Or while you wait here, I could get different shoes for you and you could walk back. This has gone far enough.”
    She smiled brilliantly, thoroughly enjoying his discomfort. “I’ve opened the gate. Let the hordes of man-hungry women begin chasing you. I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”
    Alexi shook his head and closed his eyes as if wishing her far, far away. Then he bent and placed her over his shoulder, carrying her toward the truck. “You will keep that jacket zipped,” he ordered again.
    Jessica braced her hands on his taut backside to keep from flopping and to retain some small part of her dignity. Buddy, you asked for it, she thought, and tried for an innocent tone as she asked, “But what if I get hot? I’ll have to take it off then, won’t I?”
    She wouldn’t, of course, because without her minimizer bra, she was full-figured, and that didn’t suit the sleek business image she wanted to project. But Alexi didn’t know to what lengths she would go to embarrass him. At the moment, even being carried over his shoulder, Jessica knew she had the advantage.
    His body tensed, but he didn’t speak.
    Alexi briskly lifted her up to Mikhail who was seated in the middle of the truck; Jarek sat behind the steering wheel. Before Jessica could sit, Alexi had slid up to the seat and had tugged her onto his lap.
     

    “I’ve just met Alexi and he’s helping me with a problem,” Jessica said when the Stepanovs were all seated around Mary Jo and Fadey’s long, sturdy kitchen table.
    Alexi concentrated on the blueberry pancakes in front of him and tried to ignore Jessica’s scent. He tried to forget the way she had sat very stiffly on his lap, the blush rising up her cheeks.
    His hard arousal had been painful, the warm softness of her hips riding him over the bumpy road to the Stepanovs’. Her sharp look down at him said Jessica was feeling that sturdy sexual pressure, with only layers of cloth between the warm entrance of her body—
    The sight of his oversize sweatshirt on Jessica’s body had shaken him.
    He wanted that emerald wedding ring off her finger, and her wearing the mark of his possession.
    Alexi had partially rolled down the window despite the chill, needing fresh air to cool him. She had placed her hand on the top of the window’s glass, as if she, too, needed cooling. The huge set of emerald wedding rings had caught the light, shooting sparks and questions at him:
    Why should he care about a rich widow wearing another man’s rings?
    Why should he care that she asked nothing for herself, but for a friend?
    Why did he want more than anything to take her to his bed and make love to her and forget about everything else?
    Without ceremony, Alexi had carried her in his arms to the Stepanov house, a huge, jutting wooden-and-stone affair overlooking the Pacific Ocean. He had nodded to Fadey, his uncle,