Free The Weakness in Me by Josie Leigh Page A

time trusting anyone. He’d seen her lose that careful control several times since they were kids, always in a good way, always when they were together. Had she been this cautious with Caleb? Did she ever shown him all that she was capable of because of what she thought he’d done to her? He hated the thought that Caleb might have never seen the real Sammy.
    Turning back to the flat-top, stainless steel stove, he stirred the canned pasta he’d started for Corigan and hoped that he could get her out of her shell so he could give her daughter an accurate picture of her mother, and the way she could be so mischievous and fun-loving. Resolved to his mission, he glanced at her, still working, oblivious to their presence, at her laptop. Her brow furrowed slightly as if she was trying to solve a complex problem that he knew she paid other people to worry about.
    “You employ brilliant people, Sammy. You need to trust that they aren’t going to run your business into the ground over the next month,” Jason smiled. The only sign that she’d heard him was the slight falter in her fingers flying across her keyboard.
    “I do trust them,” she said, flatly, not looking up from the screen, “but they still need guidance and supervision.”
    “They’ve successfully manned the day to day for nearly five months now, you haven’t lost a single client. In fact, haven’t you signed two more?” Jason pointed out.
    “And? You don’t think I had a hand in that, too?” he watched her quirk her eyebrow in challenge, but still not even glimpsing in his direction.
    “Of course you did, because you are a workaholic, but you’ve trained your staff well and need to concentrate on healing as opposed to stressing yourself out daily,” Jason said, pouring Corigan’s lukewarm lunch into a bowl and moving to the island to grab a tiny spoon, frustrated that she wasn’t playing along with the conversation.
    “If I didn’t, you know I’d be stressing out hourly,” Sammy said, still not lifting her eyes from that damn screen. This was going to prove more difficult than he thought! In the past, challenging Sammy like he was would have had her in his face already, fussing and fuming. Not that he wanted her to be angry with him, but he wanted her to outwardly show some emotion!
    “What do I have to do to get you off of that computer for the afternoon?” he finally asked point blank, sick of beating around the bush about what he was trying to do.
    “I’ll be off as soon as I’m finished sorting through this contract.”
    “What if I said I was naked?” he lifted an eyebrow in suggestion, changing the direction of the game he was trying to play with her.
    “You aren’t,” she said, flatly.
    “How do you know, you haven’t looked up?” he put Corigan’s lunch in front of her just in time for her to dig her spoon into the small bowl.
    “You just brought my daughter up from her nap for lunch; I’d hope you weren’t naked. I don’t need to look up to verify that I know you aren’t stupid,” she muttered.
    “Fine, I’m not naked…yet!” he screamed and ran for her bedroom door, toward her en suite , stripping off his button down shirt on the way and leaving it on the floor.
    “What are you doing?!” she screeched and he knew her control was teetering on the edge. Hearing her chair scrape along the kitchen tile, he knew he’d finally incited her to take some action. Her anger from the phone call should have pushed her to the brink, and he hoped this interaction would get her to snap so she could let go of all the emotion she was trying to hold on to and finally let go!
    “I’ve decided I need some quality time with your spa tub,” he yelled, before walking to the faucet and turning on the hot water. “Five…four…three...two-,” Jason whispered to the empty bathroom.
    “You wouldn’t!” she said, coming to a stop in the doorway, seeing him sitting, still in his undershirt and jeans, on the edge of the tub,