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Turning, she found that Alison’s brother was at her elbow. Jimmy had a frosty mug of beer in each hand, holding them close to his chest to keep from spilling the contents.
She eyed the mugs before looking up at him. Even in the dim lighting from the chandeliers, his eyes were intensely blue. She felt a ripple of excitement wash over her. “Two-fisted drinker?”
Hunching in against her, he seemed to move in closer without physically taking a step. “No, actually this one’s for you.”
With a human wall suddenly at her back, there was nowhere for her to go. She stifled her impulse to get away. “Me?”
Jimmy nodded. “I spotted you when you walked in with your family. Me and every other male in the room who’s breathing,” he added with an easy smile that would have broken down a lesser woman’s defenses. He held the mug in his right hand up to her. “Thought you might want something to drink.”
She’d never really cared for beer, but April supposed it would be rude to refuse the drink so she accepted the mug. That he included himself in the group rather than go out of his way to single himself out for her benefit surprised her. But then, she’d learned that men were never easy to read.
“Thank you,” she murmured.
“So—” he clinked the side of his mug against hers lightly “—what are you being so smug about?”
She raised her chin defensively. “I’m not being smug.”
He felt a sudden, uncontrollable desire to nibble on that chin, but held himself in check. This lady required kid glove treatment. “Yes, you are,” Jimmy quietly corrected. “There was a smug look in your eyes just now, when you were looking over the people in here.” He studied her for a moment before taking a sip of his beer. “This your first time back at the Salty?”
It struck her that he sounded as if he were a Hades native. That was a laugh. A man like Dr. James Quintano couldn’t stay in a place like this for more than a couple of weeks, if that long. She had a feeling Alison’s brother would probably cut his vacation short rather than remain here for the duration. He seemed like the type who needed a regular dose of excitement in his life. Someone who needed a party every night. The only kind of excitement Hades had to offer usually involved natural disasters or fires.
“Yes,” she finally answered because he still seemed to be waiting for a response.
Jimmy took another, longer sip of his beer, his eyes never leaving her. He liked watching the way her breasts rose and fell beneath her peasant blouse with each breath she took. “Luc said you’ve been away for seven years.”
“Six years,” she corrected, surprised that Jean-Luc had even noticed her absence. Alison’s husband was so laid-back, she hadn’t expected ordinary events to make any impression on him. Her departure had been without fanfare, as had her return. “But right now it feels more like six days,” she muttered out loud, looking around.
“Homecomings have that effect,” he agreed.
Someone bumped into April from behind and pushed her into him. An amber wave rose from her mug and Jimmy found himself being liberally christened with the beer he’d just handed her.
Amused, slightly embarrassed, she looked at the resulting mess. “Oh, I’m sorry.”
Jimmy brushed a few golden droplets away from his shirt, but the rest were quickly being absorbed by the dark blue material, creating an irregular-shaped stain on his chest.
Grinning, he shrugged it off. “No harm done.” He looked at the throng of people behind her. It appeared as if everyone in Hades and the surrounding area had somehow managed to pack themselves into the saloon. “But I think we might want to step out of range.” With his hand against the small of her back, he steered April toward another section that was only slightly less crowded.
April glanced across her shoulder toward where she’d last seen her family, all the way over on the other side of the saloon. Max had disappeared, as had June. Only Gran was there with Yuri. Looking up, the older woman made eye contact with her and smiled, nodding.
She knew that look. It was approval. Gran had never been stingy with hers, but this time her approval had found the wrong mark. April shook her head vigorously before looking away.
Jimmy noted the exchange. He bent his head toward her to be heard. “Is that your grandmother?”
April wrapped her hands around the mug and, wrinkling her nose, took a sip before answering. Though she wasn’t sure why, she suddenly found herself in need of fortification herself and this would have to do. “Yes, that’s Gran.”
He could just barely pick up the affection in her voice. Seeing as how she was trying hard to appear removed, she had to care a great deal for the older woman. “Luc told me a lot about her. She sounds like a wonderful woman.”
“She is.” April turned her attention back to the man who seemed determined to remain with her. It was a lot less disconcerting to look at him than to feel his breath on her neck. “You seem to have gotten a great deal of information out of Jean-Luc. As I recall, before I left, if he strung three words together in a sentence every few weeks, we called him chatty.”
Jimmy laughed and despite the noise in the saloon, the sound wrapped itself around her like a warm scarf on a cold winter’s day. Maybe she’d absorbed more alcoholic fumes than she’d realized, April thought.
“He’s loosened up some, being married to my sister.” Jimmy was just repeating what Ike had told him. “But he’d have to if only in self-defense. Alison tends to be bossy if she’s given her head.”
Alison didn’t have the market cornered on that, April thought, glancing at Jimmy. She moved so that he was forced to drop his hand from her back. “Another family trait?”
Jimmy nodded, downing a little more beer. He set the empty mug on the closest surface. “My sister Lily’s the same way. Could be why she has trouble maintaining a relationship.”
“Meaning that men prefer women who agree with them and who they can walk on.”
The man tending bar slid another full mug his way. Catching it, Jimmy nodded his thanks and took a mouthful. “Didn’t say that.”
Her eyes narrowed. “But you implied it.”
The look he gave her was innocent. He studied her in silence for a moment. Was she deliberately trying to instigate a fight between them? The thought amused him more than anything else.
“Can’t see how. I was just saying that bossing people around never makes for a good relationship no matter which party’s doing the bossing, male or female.” He took another long sip before continuing. “Never liked walking on people myself. I like a woman who can give as good as she gets.”
Their eyes locked and she had the distinct impression that he was putting her on notice. Though she tried to block it, a small, unidentifiable shiver ran down the length of her spine.
“Then you’ve come to the right place, Dr. Quintano. The women in Hades definitely aren’t pushovers,” April told him with a touch of pride. “They’ve learned to stand up for themselves.”
His eyes were touching her, making her uneasy. She became aware of the severe lack of air within the packed saloon. Jimmy’s smile was easy, slipping over his lips in slow motion and in direct reverse proportion to the rhythm assimilated by her pulse.
“Glad to hear that.”
Yeah, she’d just bet he was. April cleared her throat, then set her mug down on a cluttered table meant for two. “And you’re wrong.”
Jimmy cocked his head, his eyes on her mouth. “About?”
She shouldn’t have had any of the beer. There had to have been something in it. Beer didn’t affect her this way, making her head spin and her pulse race, certainly not a few sips.
“Homecomings,” she told him stiffly. She realized that she wasn’t exactly making sense. She was losing the thread of what she was saying herself. “At least about this being one.”
“But this was your home,” he pointed out, “and you’ve come back.”
“Just to help out.”
He gave another careless shrug. “You’ve come back. The details don’t matter.”
Now there she had him. It was her turn to smile confidentially. “Oh, but they do,” she corrected with a liberal dose of passion. “Details always matter. They’re what makes one thing different from another.”
His grin merely served to irk her. “You like to argue, don’t you?”
Her chin went up defensively again, and again, he found it tempting. Jimmy seriously toyed with the idea of stealing a kiss, but knew it would just get him slapped royally. He could wait.
“No, I don’t like to argue,” she contradicted. “I like things to be perfectly clear and up front. No lies, no deceptions, no illusions.”
Her words struck a chord. He regarded her thoughtfully for a long moment. “Sounds like someone did a number on your optimism.”
She didn’t like being analyzed, especially not by a stranger who had no idea what he was talking about. “My optimism is just fine, thank you.”
“Good.” He placed his mug next to hers on the table. The glass came precariously close to falling before Jimmy steadied it. “Then you won’t mind dancing with me.”
Maybe she hadn’t heard right. “What does one thing have to do with another?”
He wrapped his fingers around her hand. “Your optimism will make you optimistic about my dancing ability.”
The next thing she knew, as the protest formed on her lips, she found herself enfolded in his arms. If she strained her ears, she could just about make out that there was a song playing on the classic jukebox that Ike had painstakingly restored. But what that song was, or even the tempo that was presumably playing, was anyone’s guess.
Alison’s brother, April noticed, took it to be a slow song. With his hand lightly pressed against her spine, he brought her body closer to his. Closer than she felt comfortable about.
“You’re in my space,” she hissed against his ear.
He could feel her stiffening. He did his best to lighten the moment and smiled down into her face. “I’m afraid there is no space here, but as soon as there is, I’ll be sure to let you have it.” The smile widened just a little. “I find this rather cozy myself.”
His smile was infiltrating her space even more acutely than his body. She looked around for someone to cut in, but apparently no one else was paying attention to the music. “I’m sure you do.”
Curving her hand beneath his, he rested it against his chest. “So what do you do when you’re not sorting envelopes?”
She could feel his heart beating beneath her fingertips. Why that made her warm, she couldn’t say. Probably had to do with the growing lack of air. “You mean here?”
His eyes held hers. She had hypnotically beautiful eyes, he thought. “Anywhere.”
It was definitely too warm in here, she thought. “I’m a photojournalist.”
Something independent. He should have realized that. She needed something where she could make her own terms, her own hours. “I’m impressed.”
The sway of his hips against hers was far too distracting for her to concentrate on the conversation. “I didn’t say it to impress you.”
“I know.” He liked the way she felt in his arms when she relaxed. Soft, delicate. In direct contradiction to the look in her eyes. “You don’t like to impress anyone, do you?”
She tried to shrug and wound up brushing her shoulder against someone’s back. “There’s no need, as long as I’m happy.”
Jimmy was careful to not move their dancing out of the realm of tantalizing and into arousing. He had a feeling she would break away if he did. But having her here, swaying against him this way, was certainly doing a number on him. “Are you?”
“Am I what?”
“Happy.”
She could feel her heart constricting slightly and her nerve endings stretching taut. “This conversation’s getting way too personal.”
He felt her try to pull back, but he held her fast. “How else am I going to get to know you?”
April’s eyes narrowed. “Why should you get to know me?”
“Why not?”
Games, he was playing word games. Well, he’d met his match, she thought. She knew how to give as good as she got. “Because in two weeks you’ll be gone and with any luck, so will I.”
That fit right into his plan. He certainly wasn’t looking for anything permanent. If you looked for something permanent, you wound up being disappointed in the end when it broke apart. And in one way or another, it always broke apart. “Yes, but until then, there’s all this time just hanging around. We might as well pass it pleasurably.”
And she knew just what he meant by that. “Maybe we have a different definition of pleasure.”
The dimple in his cheek deepened. “We can explore that, too.”
She didn’t know whether to be amused or annoyed. What she was, was incredibly warm, bordering on hot. If she didn’t get some air soon, she was going to pass out. “You don’t give up, do you?”
“Haven’t the foggiest how to do that,” he admitted readily. “Besides, my brother taught me that anything worth having is worth working for.” And that included time with a beautiful lady, he added silently. “If it comes too easily, you might just let it slip through your fingers without realizing it.”
The scales began to tip toward amusement. “And your brother’s a philosopher.”
Kevin would have gotten a charge out of that, Jimmy thought. “A cabdriver. Actually, he owns a fleet of cabs. A small fleet, but the company’s his nonetheless.” His mouth curved fondly as he managed to turn her around in the tiny space. He liked her surprised expression when she faced him again. “I wouldn’t want him knowing I said it, but Kevin’s the smartest man I know. The kindest, too.” Jimmy glanced over toward where he’d last seen Alison. She was still there, talking to several people from the looks of it. She was standing next to Luc, her arm tucked through his. She looked happy, he thought. It was about time. “He misses Alison.” He looked back at April. “Kevin raised her after our parents died. You might say he raised all of us.”
“All?” How many of them were there? And were they all glib, like him? Alison didn’t seem to be, but it was too soon to tell. She’d only exchanged a few sentences with her.
“My two sisters and me. I never realized how much he gave up to do that.” Jimmy grew serious for a moment, looking back. “Kevin could have had a regular life of his own, dated, gotten married, the usual. Instead he stayed home, put all of us through school, made sure we toed the line and became decent people.”
April caught her bottom lip between her teeth. “So how disappointed in you is he?”
It took him a second before he realized she was joking. There’d been a kernel of truth in that. “Not anymore. My wild days are behind me.”
Wild, that wasn’t quite the word she would have used to refer to him, but it was close enough. “That’s not the way Alison made it sound.”
Enjoying the company of an ever changing parade of women was harmless compared to the rebellious teenager he’d once been. “I meant as in giving Kevin grief.”
Her eyes held his. “So now it’s just women you give grief to?”
She was deliberately trying to bait him. Getting a kick out of it, Jimmy grinned. “I don’t think they’d refer to it as grief. And whatever happens between a lady and me is by mutual consent. I make a point of never staying where I’m not wanted.”
April realized she was flirting, but since it was just for tonight, she could see no harm in it. She supposed her ego could use the temporary high. “And just what kind of signals have to go off before you realize you’re not wanted?”
“That’s easy,” he told her. “The lady says go and means it.”
Right, and if she believed that, there was an ice bridge he wanted to sell her. “So if I said go, you would?”
He grinned. “You’re forgetting the key part—‘and means it,”’ he repeated.
He had a loophole. She figured as much. “And that’s up to you to decide, isn’t it?”
He laughed. “You’re getting the hang of it now.”
The record ceased play, taking the music with it. He was loathe to give her up just yet. He had a feeling that if he continued dancing, she’d follow. For the moment she didn’t look as if she realized that the jukebox had stopped playing. But her cheeks were flushed and while he’d like to think he had something to do with that, it was probably the close quarters they were in. “Would you like to get some air?”
They weren’t that far from the door. Without seeming to move, they’d somehow managed to dance their way to the saloon entrance.
“Actually, that doesn’t sound like a bad idea.” She nodded toward the doorway. “I’ll just step out for a minute.”
When he followed her, she raised a quizzical brow. “Can’t let a lady go out alone at night.”
Part of the reason she wanted to step outside was to get away from him and that rock-hard body of his. “You can if the lady insists.”
With that, she slipped outside and closed the door behind her.
Chapter Four
The temperature change registered immediately as the night air briskly embraced April, cooling her skin. The temporary heat of the afternoon had gone as if it had never existed, a cold snap settling in. She’d forgotten how cold it could be in Hades despite the calendar.
Running her hands up and down her arms, April looked up at the sky. The stars were out in full regalia, framing a moon that was full and bright. Less than a handful of streetlights dotted the area, their illumination paling in comparison to the moon’s.
The last time she’d stood here like this, there hadn’t been anything but darkness. This was progress, she supposed. As everything else in Hades, it came slowly.
When she felt a hand gently settle on her shoulder, April jumped and swung around. Her breathing steadied slightly as her eyes looked up at Jimmy’s face, still flush from the warmth within the saloon.
The man obviously couldn’t take no for an answer.
Her eyes asked him what he was doing out here after she’d said she wanted to be left alone.
“Like she means it,” he repeated, echoing his sentiment from only moments earlier.
It took her a second to remember. And then she frowned. “I meant it. What, I didn’t sound convincing enough to you?”
In deference to the chill, he buttoned the top two buttons of his workshirt. “Not to my ears.” Amusement glinted in his eyes. “Must have been all that noise inside,” he told her innocently. He saw that wasn’t going down so well. “Where I come from, it’s not polite to tell the guest of honor to get lost.”
She laughed to herself, thinking of the crowd inside the Salty. “I hate to break it to you, but you’re more of the excuse of honor than the guest of honor.”
He shrugged, unfazed. “As long as it involves honor, I’m all right with it.”
“Oh, and honor means a lot to you, does it?”
The grin abated just a little, his manner growing ever so slightly serious. “It has its place in my life.”
Suddenly his serious mood was gone. Jimmy hunched his shoulders against the wind, wondering if he’d seem like a hopeless tenderfoot if he opted to go inside for the jacket he’d left slung over the back of his chair. April seemed to be faring well in just a simple blouse. A simple blouse that was hugging curves guaranteed to make a man’s mouth water. The button just at her chest level strained against its hole every time she took a breath. He tried to not stare. His fingers itched to help coax the separation.
Shoving his hands into his pockets only partially for warmth, he looked up at the moon. “So, what does a person do around Hades for excitement?”
“Leave.”
He looked at her. “Seriously.”
April inclined her head. “Seriously.”
Jimmy couldn’t tell if she was deadpanning or not. “My sister seems pretty content.”
April had made her own judgment about nurse Alison LeBlanc and found herself liking the woman, although they had little in common. “Your sister belongs to that amazing fraternal club of people who give of themselves and feel that they actually have a calling in life to tend to the sick and the needy.”
Alison had always been a caretaker, even though she was the youngest. And there was no denying that her heart was in the right place. But Jimmy had a little bit of trouble with April’s assessment of the townspeople. He nodded toward the closed door behind them. “That didn’t strike me as a needy bunch in there.”
April’s mouth twitched. “You should see them around closing time.” And then the would-be smile faded. “Actually, I meant ‘needy’ as in needing. My sister June decided to remain in Hades after she graduated. She could have had her pick of careers, but she opened up a car repair shop of all things. Said the place needed one and since she’d always been so handy when it came to fixing things, it was a good match.” Her frown indicated what she thought of that idea. “When he was growing up, my brother Max dreamed about joining the FBI. Now he’s content to be the only law around here.” She shook her head, his decision mystifying her. “Not that there’s any crime in Hades in the conventional sense of the word.”
Her wording intrigued him. “What’s unconventional crime?”
“When Victor, one of the Inuits, kept springing Simon Gallagher’s traps so he couldn’t catch any beaver.” She couldn’t help feeling that her brother was wasting his life here, but it was his to waste she supposed. “Max certainly can’t keep busy handing out speeding tickets and the last murder here was—” She stopped to think and realized that if there had been a murder in Hades, she certainly had no knowledge of it. “I don’t know when.”
Jimmy smiled at the scenario she was unconsciously painting for him. He and his family hailed from Seattle where crime was an everyday event. He could think of several people who would more than welcome life in Hades.
He looked at her. “Sounds like a nice place, actually.”
“Bland,” April corrected firmly. “It sounds bland.”
There was nothing bland about facing the hardships he was sure this place afforded. That took courage and fortitude. But he saw no point in getting into a discussion over it with her. So he humored her instead. “And you crave excitement.”
She looked out over the terrain, asleep except for the party in the building behind them. There wasn’t much to see and what there was of it was dark. Even the theater was closed. Since everyone in town was at the Salty, there had been no reason to keep the theater open tonight. She could remember all those years, aching to get as far away from Hades as possible.
“What I crave,” she told him, “is something with a pulse.”
The grin on his lips was warm, inviting as he held up his hand for her to examine. “I have a pulse.”
A smile began to bud on her lips. April could only shake her head. He’d gotten her again. “I have to learn to pick my words more carefully around you.”
He moved a little closer to her as the wind rose. “Does that mean you’ll be around me?”
He was too close, but to back away would imply that she was afraid, or wary, and that wasn’t the sort of image she cared to project. So she stood her ground and ignored the feelings taking place inside of her. “There you go again.”
He liked the way her eyes snapped, and the way she smelled when the wind shifted, bringing the scent of her perfume to him. Ever since he could remember, he’d always paid attention to women. All women. The pretty ones he paid a little more attention to.
Inspired by the subtle nuances he was picking up, Jimmy decided to make another pitch. “You can’t be postmistressing all the time. I mean, a place like this can’t get that much mail—seeing as how there aren’t that many people here. You have to have some free hours, what do you do then?”
Stepping to the side, she moved away from him. “Take care of my grandmother.”
A high-pitched laugh reached them from within, escaping through the fraction of an inch where the window sash failed to meet the sill. They turned and April could see her grandmother was standing right next to the window. From all appearances, she was vamping the socks off the gray-bearded man she was with. Jimmy, eyeing Yuri Bostovik, noticed that he looked almost besotted with April’s grandmother.