The Trouble With J.J. by Tami Hoag Read Free Book Online Page B

his lips stole across hers in a teasing caress that had her arching up tohim, silently begging for more. His hand cupped the back of her head, the silk of her hair threading through his fingers. His mouth slanted across hers, tasting, savoring her sweetness.
    Genna moaned deep in her throat. His kiss was overwhelming. Not demanding, but a wonderful experience that sent her senses racing. She felt tiny and soft and feminine against Jared’s rock-solid body. The heat his mouth generated against hers poured over her until she felt like a caramel that had been left out in the sun to melt.
    Her hands set off on a journey that began at his lean, hard waist and wandered up the steep outward slope of his rib cage, then around and over the ridges and planes of muscle on his broad back. His body was a work of art. She felt as if she were caressing Michelangelo’s David .
    Reluctantly Jared lifted his head and let an inch or two of cool night air separate their bodies. Genna wasn’t indifferent to him at all, he rejoiced inwardly. He had wanted the kiss to go on forever, but he’d felt his body responding to the sensual stimulus and had had enough sense to back off. Genna might not have fought off his kiss, but she was trying to fight the attraction that sparked between them. He wasn’t going to push her. He hadhis fish on the hook now and he knew better than to lose her by reeling her in too fast. They’d be working together. She’d get to know him—and like him, he hoped. Gazing down into the surprise and confusion in her eyes, he realized how important that was to him.
    “See you tomorrow, Teach.” He smiled and backed toward the screen door.
    Genna’s tingling mouth formed the words “good night,” but no sound issued forth. She offered him a weak smile and a nod.
    “’Night, Genna,” he said huskily, slipping into his house.
    Genna wasn’t so sure she had enough control of her motor skills to get across their respective lawns. She wasn’t altogether certain she wasn’t going to keel over right there and then. Picking up her pink pumps, she limped toward her house feeling as if she’d just jumped into the rapids above Niagara Falls.
    Turn Jared Hennessy into a normal person? Jared, with the diamond earring and striped lawn and kisses that sapped the strength from the knees of a perfectly controlled woman?
    What on earth had she gotten herself into?

FOUR
    “F IRST OF ALL , what do you know about being normal?” Genna asked, her pencil poised. She sat at Jared’s kitchen table with a yellow legal pad in front of her, the top page covered with notes.
    Jared stared into space with a look of intense concentration. He bit his lip and shifted on his chair like a teenager who’d gone to the ball game instead of reading his social studies assignment. Finally his gaze returned to Genna. “Nothing.”
    “Nothing at all?” she questioned, a tad dismayed. It would take more than giving Jared a haircut and getting the mannequin off his porch to impress a judge. She had hoped he would atleast have a passing knowledge of basic normal behavior.
    Maybe he did and just didn’t realize it. She decided to throw out some questions that the average small-town person would know. “Just jump in when you have an answer. What’s the best day to hit a garage sale? When do you fertilize the lawn? What do you wear to a PTA meeting? What’s the best way to get rid of door-to-door salesmen? How many Brownies make a troop?”
    He shook his head and shrugged.
    Genna sighed. She didn’t know anything about custody cases—they would know more when Jared’s lawyer called back—but if it was anything like adoption, the court would send someone to report on Jared. They definitely had their work cut out for them if he was going to pass inspection.
    “Well,” she said, “the first order of business is to get you a housekeeper. Someone to cook and clean and keep an eye on Alyssa when you leave the house.”
    “I’d never leave Alyssa