He took a sip of his wine. “And what makes you think that?”
She shrugged. “Because you keep glancing over there at her when you think no one is looking.” “That’s not true.”
She smiled. “Yes, it is. You probably don’t realize you’re doing it.”
He frowned. Was that true? Had he been that obvious whenever he’d glanced over at Bella? Of course someone like Bailey—who made it her business to keep up with everything and everyone or tried to—would notice such a thing.
“I thought we were just having dinner,” he decided to say. “I didn’t know it was an all-out dinner party.”
Bailey grinned. “I remember the first time Ramsey brought Chloe to introduce her to the family. He’d thought the same thing.”
Nodding, he remembered that time. “Only difference in that is that Ramsey brought Chloe. I didn’t bring Bella nor did I invite her.”
“Are you saying you wished she wasn’t here?”
He hated when Bailey tried putting words into his mouth. And speaking of mouth … he glanced across the room to Bella and watched hers move and couldn’t help remembering all he’d done to that mouth when he’d kissed her.
“Jason?”
He then recalled what Bailey had asked him and figured until he gave her an answer she wasn’t going anywhere. “No, that’s not what I’m saying and you darn well know it. I don’t have a problem with Bella being here. I think it’s important for her to get to know her neighbors.”
But did his brothers and cousins have to stay in her face, hang on to her every word and check her out so thoroughly? He knew everyone who hadn’t officially met her had been taken with her the moment Dillon had opened the door for her. She had walked in with a gracefulness and pristine elegance that made every male in the house appreciate not only her beauty but her poise, refinement and charming personality.
Her outfit, an electric-blue wrap dress with a flattering scoop neckline and a hem line that hit just above her knees greatly emphasized her small waist, firm breasts and shapely legs, and looked stylishly perfect on her. He would admit that his heart had slammed hard in his chest the moment she’d entered the room.
“Well, dinner is about to be served. You better hope you get a seat close to her. It won’t take much for the others to boot you out the way.” She then walked off.
He glanced back over to where Bella was standing and thought that no one would boot him out the way when it came to Bella. They better not even try.
Bella smiled at something Zane had said while trying not to glance across the room at Jason. He had spoken to her when she’d first arrived but since then had pretty much kept his distance, preferring to let his brothers and cousins keep her company.
You would never know they had been two people who’d almost demolished the mouths right off their faces a few days ago. But then maybe that was the point. Maybe he didn’t want anyone to know. Come to think of it, she’d never asked if he even had a girlfriend. For all she knew he might have one. Just because he’d dropped by for tea didn’t mean anything other than he was neighborly. And she had to remember that he had never gotten out of the way with her.
Until that day in his office.
What had made him want to kiss her? There had been this intense chemistry between them from the first, but neither of them had acted on it until that day. Had stepping over those boundaries taken their relationship to a place where it couldn’t recover? She truly hoped not. He was a nice person, a charmer if ever there was one. And although she’d decided that distance between them was probably for the best right now, she did want him to remain her friend.
“Pam’s getting everyone’s attention for dinner,” Dillon said as he approached the group. “Let me escort you to the dining room,” he offered and tucked Bella’s arm beneath his.
She smiled at him. The one thing she noticed was that all the Westmoreland men resembled in some way. “Thank you.”
She glanced over at Jason. Their gazes met and she felt it, the same sensations she felt whenever he was near her. That deep stirring in the pit of her stomach had her trying to catch her breath.
“You okay?” Dillon asked her.
She glanced up and saw concern in his deep dark eyes. He’d followed her gaze and noted it had lit on his brother. “Yes, I’m fine.”
She just hoped what she’d said was true.
Jason wasn’t surprised to discover he had been placed beside Bella at the dinner table. The women in the family tended to be matchmakers when they set their minds to it, which he could overlook considering three of them were all happily married themselves. The other two, Megan and Bailey, were in it for the ride.
He dipped his head, lower than he’d planned, to ask Bella if she was enjoying herself, and when she turned her head to look at him their lips nearly touched. He came close to ignoring everyone sitting at the table and giving in to the temptation to kiss her.
She must have read his mind and a light blush spread into her cheeks. He swallowed, pulled his lips back. “Are you having a good time? ”
“Yes. And I appreciate your family for inviting me.”
“And I’m sure they enjoy having you here,” he said. Had she expected him to invite her? He shrugged off the thought as wrong. There had been no reason for him to invite her to meet his family. Come to think of it, he had never invited a woman home for dinner. Not even Emma Phillips and they’d dated close to a year before she tried giving him an ultimatum.
The meal went off without a hitch with various conversations swirling around the table. Megan informed everyone that the private investigator she had hired to dig deeper into their great-grandfather Raphel’s past was Rico Claiborne, who just happened to be the brother of Jessica and Savannah who were married to their cousins Chase and Durango. Rico, whom Megan hadn’t yet met, was flying into Denver at some point in time to go over the information he’d collected on what was supposed to be Raphel’s third wife.
By the time dinner was over and conversations wound down it was close to ten o’clock. Someone suggested given the lateness of the hour that Bella be escorted back home. Several of his cousins spoke up to do the honor and Jason figured he needed to end the nonsense once and for all and said in a voice that brooked no argument, “I’ll make sure Bella gets home.”
He noticed that all conversation automatically ceased and no one questioned his announcement. “Ready to go?” he asked Bella softly.
“Yes.”
She thanked everyone and openly gave his cousins and brothers hugs. It wasn’t hard to tell that they all liked her and had enjoyed her visit. After telling everyone good-night he followed her out the door.
Bella glanced out her rearview mirror and saw Jason was following her at a safe distance. She laughed, thinking when it came to Jason there wasn’t a safe zone. Just knowing he was anywhere within her area was enough to rattle her. Even sitting beside him at dinner had been a challenge for her, but thanks to the rest of his family who kept lively conversation going on, she was able to endure his presence and the sexual tension she’d felt. Each time he talked to her and she looked into his face and focused on his mouth, she would remember that same mouth mating with hers.
A sigh of relief escaped her lips when they pulled into her yard. Figuring it would be dark when she returned she had left lights burning outside and her yard was practically glowing. She parked her car and was opening the door to get out when she saw Jason already standing there beside it. Her breathing quickened and panic set in. “You don’t need to walk me to the door, Jason,” she said quickly.
“I want to,” he said simply.
Annoyance