The Winner Takes It All (A Something New Novel) (40 page)

“Are you going to do something about that?” His brother’s voice interrupted his thoughts.

James jerked his attention away from the staircase Gracie disappeared up and rested his palms against the marble countertops. “I don’t know what you mean.”

Shane’s green eyes narrowed. In that moment, with that particular expression on his face, he looked the spitting image of their father, and James experienced the dull ache of loss that never really went away, no matter how much time passed. “The tension between the two of you is becoming annoying.”

“It’s not tension,” James said in a cool, well-modulated tone. “It’s dislike. There’s a difference.”

“Bullshit. Stop beating around the bush and take care of it before you get a permanent case of blue balls.”

“Charming as always.” James kept his face relaxed and impassive. He’d made damn sure no one knew the extent of his lust for Gracie, but of course, he didn’t fool his oldest brother. “In case you haven’t noticed, she’s not a fan.”

“For a smart guy, you sure are stupid.”

James raised a brow. “At bare minimum I require my partners to respect me.”

Shane grinned. “Respect is overrated. Take her to bed and get it out of your system.”

An image of tangled sheets and a naked Gracie filled his mind, but James shook it off. “Mind your own business.”

“I don’t understand you at all.”

That was pretty much par for the course. James had never been like the rest of them and never would be. Their baby sister, Maddie, might be the tiny one in the family, but she was all fierce and spirited like his brothers. James accepted a long time ago he was the odd man out, and he’d given up wishing he could be like them the night his father died and his sister had lain in a coma.

His siblings were impulsive. They saw what they wanted and went after it. James was reasonable; methodical. They didn’t get it and he didn’t blame them. It was hard to explain to a bunch of people who thrived on risk that he liked his life orderly. Neat. Discipline and structure had helped him survive and become the man he was today. It had saved him and he had no desire to go back. He liked his life boring and predictable, even if nobody understood it.

Yes, he’d like to go to bed with Gracie and lose himself in her body and all that heat. But he’d examined the situation from all angles and saw no practical reason to satiate his desire. If, on the off chance she agreed—a highly unlikely scenario as she’d made her disdain crystal clear—it would be a disaster. Their personalities were at complete odds.

She was all wild chaos and he was a man who appreciated control.

There was nowhere for them to go but down a rabbit’s hole. And it would end with her hating him more than she already did.

Sex was the only upside.

While it was a considerable upside, in the end it would do more harm than good. Instinct told him that not knowing how she’d feel under his hands and mouth was a good thing. The last thing he needed was the memory of what it felt like to slide inside her. Or how it would feel when she came.

He shook his head to clear the illicit thoughts. In the end, they were oil and water. Incompatible in every way that mattered to him.

“Stop thinking and just do it already.” Shane’s exasperated tone matched the expression on his face.

James didn’t bother to explain what his brother would never understand. “Don’t we have boxes to move?”

“Chicken shit,” Shane said.

“Smart,” James corrected.

“Well, if you won’t do anything about the situation, at least stop rising to the bait. She wants a reaction.”

“I’m fairly certain she doesn’t want anything from me.” James turned around and picked up a box, thinking through Shane’s statement.

Why did he fight with her? He didn’t fight with anyone else. Was arguing a way to engage her? To hold her attention since he couldn’t sleep with her?

He couldn’t dismiss the idea entirely. Not when he thought about how her sharp tongue made him hard. She might lay down the kindling, but he added the flame.

He must have some motive. A motive he’d have to analyze at a later date when she wasn’t around to distract him.

But to Shane’s point, not rising to her bait was a concrete action he could take. He’d be around her the whole weekend. More than enough time to see the cause and effect of being cordial. He could try being nice for forty-eight hours. He turned the idea over in his mind and couldn’t see the harm.

He’d ignore Gracie’s barbs and be pleasant to her. He managed civility with colleagues and students at the university every day; surely he could apply the same strategies here.

It was only a weekend. How hard could it be?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jennifer Dawson
grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and graduated from DePaul University with a degree in psychology. She met her husband at the public library while they were studying. To this day she still maintains she was NOT checking him out. Now, over twenty years later, they’re married and living in a suburb right outside of Chicago with two awesome kids and a crazy dog.

Despite going through a light FM, poem-writing phase in high school, Jennifer never grew up wanting to be a writer (she had more practical aspirations of being an international super spy). Then one day, suffering from boredom and disgruntled with a book she’d been reading, she decided to put pen to paper. The rest, as they say, is history.

These days Jennifer can be found sitting behind her computer, writing her next novel, chasing after her kids, keeping an ever watchful eye on her ever growing to-do list, and NOT checking out her husband.

Now available!

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Copyright © 2014 by Jennifer Dawson

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the Publisher and neither the Author nor the Publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”

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ISBN: 978-1-4201-3427-8

First Electronic Edition: December 2014
eISBN-13: 978-1-4201-3428-5
eISBN-10: 1-4201-3428-0