Free Catch Me a Catch by Sally Clements

silly. There was no way in hell she was going
down this road again. She’d been there, done that. Never again would she fall
for a man who would walk away, leaving her behind.
    “Yes.” Stormy
indigo eyes clashed and blazed. “There’s something between us. I feel it, and
so do you.”
    “An
attraction.” She bit her lip, admitting it. “I know. I shouldn’t have let you
kiss me in the car. I’m not in the market for a relationship, and neither are
you. We barely know each other.”
    “What’s to
stop us getting to know each other better?” His arms fell to his sides.
    “Good sense,
for one thing.” She pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. “We will pretend to
be falling in love, but I’m not fooling myself. Anything between us would be temporary,
and then you’d be headed home again. It will be easier to face the pitying
glances if I’m not really dumped.”
    “So what did
you really come up here for?” His jaw clenched tightly in the light spilling
into the room from the open door.
    “Dad asked me
to get you. To look at the list of dates we’ve chosen for Noel.”
    He strode to
the window and stared out, tension evident in the set of his shoulders. “Tell
him I’ll be down in a moment.”
    “Jack.”
    He turned to
her. “I’m in no fit state to go downstairs, Annie. I need some time alone. I’ll
be down in a minute.”
    He walked to
her and grasped her arm. Words froze in her throat as he propelled her to the
door and nudged her through it.
    ****
    The door
clicked closed behind her and Jack escaped to the window again, staring out
into the darkened garden with sightless eyes.
    Dammit, she
had him tied up in knots. He’d never been so attracted. He was so out of
control around her it was like being a teenager again. When he’d seen her
standing in the doorway he hadn’t been able to stop reaching for her. Kissing
her. He breathed out heavily. He’d behaved like a Neanderthal. He pushed his
fingers through his hair. His rioting body remembering the feel of her, and her
taste. Pretending to be her lover would be hell. A summer fling in Ireland
might be exactly what he needed, but Venus Anne Devine didn’t do casual .
Her response just now had proved that. Casual was all he could offer; he sure
wasn’t in the market for a relationship, no matter how attractive the package.
    He clumped
noisily down the stairs to the kitchen. Pushing open the door, he bit back a
savage grin at the three faces turned his direction. If he hadn’t known better,
he would have sworn they were talking about him.
    “Jack, we’ve a
couple of ideas of a match for Noel. Come and let us know what you think.”
    He pulled up a
chair, and swiveled the book around to face him. “Tell me about them. Noel was
pretty definite about the sort of woman that interested him, let’s see if any
of these meet the bill.”
    It was surprisingly  easy
to decide on a candidate. A pretty girl who had recently moved to the area, and
was beset with acute shyness.
    “I’ll call
them and set it up.” Annie picked the phone off the wall.
    “I’ll talk to
Noel,” Jack suggested. “I told him I’d call.”
    “Right.” She
dialed the number and passed the phone over. Her brow creased in concentration,
and she listened to their easy banter with rapt attention.
    “Right, you
call Annabel now.” He passed Annie the phone. “So she’ll be expecting Noel’s
call.”
    There was a
touch of pink high in her cheeks when she talked to Noel’s intended. Her long
slender fingers fiddled with a pen. Her leg jiggled with unspent energy.
    She’s nervous,
she finds talking to people difficult. He struggled with the idea, but
giving it headspace, realized it was true. All the markers were there in their
earlier encounters, but since they’d spent their time either disagreeing or
kissing, he hadn’t picked up on how uncomfortable she was talking to people.
She had been as caught up as he was upstairs, but for some reason denied