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“It was the second time you kissed me in response to something nice I did. I’d say those odds are in my favor.”

And not a reason to stop doing nice things for her. If—and it was a big if—he could stop imagining a future that was impossible.

“I don’t—I don’t do that with anyone else.”

“Glad to hear it. But if I thought it might end in a kiss like that, I’d have fixed every damn machine in your shed.”

The gleam and smile turned downright mischievous. But he couldn’t help it. He wanted her something fierce. Screw it; he’d figure out the feelings later.

“That’s—” She swallowed and shivered. Oh, how bad he wanted to heat things back up again. “That’s not going to happen again.”

Except he didn’t believe it. The record showed she was zero for two when it came to not kissing him.

“Too bad. It was nice.” Okay, now he was smirking.

“Well, don’t get used to it.”

He took a step closer. “What if I already have?”

Jill frowned, but desire danced in her eyes. She wanted him, too.

“In fact,” Jax said, closing the gap between their bodies, “what if I wanted to thank you for you thanking me?”

He dipped his chin and brushed his mouth lightly to her lips. The juxtaposition between the tenderness of this kiss and the fiery-hot one just moments before confused him enough that he let it rage out of control again. His tongue explored her with a fever of discovery, and his hands were tangled in her damp curls.

Sanity finally found him again.

Their foreheads still touched, but he could breathe without her kiss disorienting him. Ragged half-breaths, but still.

The grumble at the edge of the water broke the spell captivating them both. They shot apart and Jill’s more audible gasp pointed him to the problem.

The momma bear and her teen were headed upriver closer to him and Jill.

“Time to go,” he whispered. “Just walk slowly and confidently. They’re just fishing, but we’re in their way at the moment.”

Jill obeyed his instructions and didn’t panic. Instead of following her out, he glanced behind him and shot the momma bear a withering look.

“Thanks a lot,” he mumbled. As they walked back toward the Newman ranch house, Jax couldn’t help but think the bear smiled right back at him, perfectly aware of what she’d done.

On the way, the boy who’d been lurking earlier was still sitting on Jax’s back porch, flipping through a smartphone.

Hmm. Better figure out what that was all about before he tackled the even more confusing enigma that was Jill Henley.

*

Jill paced behind the couch, her cosmopolitan spilling over the edge of her glass each time she spun and headed back the other direction.

“Of all the stupid, senseless, idiotic—”

“Hey, that’s my best friend you’re talking about,” Maggie said. She sipped on pink lemonade in a martini glass. The mother-to-be wasn’t allowed cocktails.

“Yeah, well, your best friend is a class A jerk with no self-preservation tactics. If that bear comes back, you won’t have just let her get me. I mean, honestly. Kissing Jax? What was I thinking?”

“You were thinking he’s a hot, sensitive cowboy who’s attracted to you, too, and you deserve to have a little fun.”

“Well, fun is bad for my health, turns out.” To make her point, she tipped her glass and swallowed the contents in one gulp. “Ooof,” she hissed as the alcohol burned down her throat and into her chest. She refilled her glass with the pitcher of cosmos she’d made, full-on forgetting that Maggie couldn’t have any.

Oh well. More for me. I’ll need them to think through this catastrophic lapse in judgment.