Rocky Mountain Heat Read Online Free PDF Page B

the community.
    Blake helped, although building furniture wasn’t his favourite thing. He preferred outdoor chores or working with the animals. Daniel and the twins were more into the woodworking, but as a part of the family business he did his share to get everything done.
    Besides, tonight it was mindless labour, and after sitting the whole meal across the table from Jaxi, he needed a little mindless.
    Since their disastrous trip home a few years back, he’d tried his best to avoid her. She spent so much time with the Coleman clan, it hadn’t always been possible. She was invited to birthday parties and holiday dinners, like she’d been since she was a little tyke. He worked hard to never be alone with her, always the first to leave the room and get chores started. Although he ached to touch her, all the reasons he had to stay away seemed more valid than ever. She was just a baby, barely twenty-one, while he was over thirty. She still looked up to him like a little sister to a big brother.
    When she and Travis had broken up, Jaxi had gotten real busy with school and work, even though she hadn’t left the community. She’d never mentioned anything about the ride with him, and Travis hadn’t said a word about any strange farewell message from Jaxi, so Blake assumed she either didn’t remember or just thought it was a fever-induced dream.
    A dream. That’s where the memories haunted him the most. He still woke in the middle of the night, picturing those wide grey eyes looking into his as her body pressed intimately close. Woke up armed and dangerous and no amount of cold showers stopped the wanting.
    Now she was in his house, hell in the room next to his. What was his ma thinking to let a girl sleep in the basement with three grown men? Not only was he next door to her, but Matt and Daniel slept downstairs temporarily as well. If they were still living at the Peter’s on the east section of the ranch, this whole situation wouldn’t be nearly as complicated. Blake now wished like hell they’d never agreed to rent the house to that single mom for six months.
    Sleeping would be tough, but supper tonight—watching her lick the stew off her fork—was another kind of torment altogether. He’d only had brief touches of what her mouth and tongue could do, and he wanted another round and more. More of Jaxi touching him, loving him.
    More of what he could never have.
    “What’s the long sigh for, Blake? You feeling sentimental about shipping our trees to somebody else’s house?” Joel asked as they finished packing the furniture into a crate, hammering the lid in place.
    Blake looked up in surprise. “Did I sigh?”
    “Like a dog that’s been run ragged all day and just flopped down in front of the fire.”
    “It’s nothing.”
    “It’s Jaxi, I bet.” Blake jerked. Joel leaned back on the worktable, his arms crossed in front of him and a knowing expression on his face. “Listen, Jesse told me to talk to you, so remember if you have the urge to punch me out you have to save half of the pounding for him. What do you think of Jaxi?”
    Blake hesitated. What could he say in response to that kind of open-ended question?
    “She’s a good friend and it’s going to help Ma a great deal to have her here. I appreciate her kindness.” He looked around the shop for something to do with his hands. There was no way he could stand here and talk about Jaxi without fidgeting, and Joel was no dummy. He’d know Blake was pissing into the wind with his “good friend” comment if he fidgeted.
    “You sure?”
    “Why are you asking?” Blake found a table leg that needed hand sanding, and he sat to smooth the piece as he spoke.
    “He’s asking because he and Jesse are hoping to sweet-talk the girl into kissing them. I’m right, ain’t I?” Daniel asked, joining them in the workshop.
    Joel grinned. “We want more than kisses, but I’d settle for starting there. She’s the sweetest kisser—”
    “How do you know?”