Drake Sisters 07 - Hidden Currents

doing fine, but she was working most of the hours. She couldn’t figure out how to pay someone to work the gal ery to keep it going, as wel as the grocery store and stil have enough for her home. Frank’s apartment is over the gal ery, so as long as she made the payments on that property, his home was safe.â€
    â€œAnd you lent her the money?†El e prompted.
    He squirmed. “She wouldn’t let me loan it to her.†He looked around as if someone might overhear. “She insisted I buy into the grocery store. I didn’t want to, but she wouldn’t take the money any other way and I couldn’t figure out how to save her home.â€
    â€œYou own part of the grocery store?â€
    He shrugged. “Eat your sandwich.â€
    â€œHow big a part?†El e persisted.
    â€œOkay, maybe half. I don’t know. I just signed whatever the hel Inez drew up. It didn’t matter to me and it did to her so I just did it.†He confessed it like a sin, in a smal rush.
    A slow smile lit her eyes. “Jackson Deveau, you have a soft streak in you, don’t you?â€
    â€œHel no. Inez’s just different. She doesn’t have any family and she needs someone looking out for her is al .â€
    â€œLike Donny Ruttermyer,†El e pointed out with a raised eyebrow.
    â€œEat your sandwich and stop bugging me.†He handed her a glass of milk.
    El e smiled at him over the glass. “You real y hate being the good guy.â€
    He scowled at her. “I just don’t want you getting the wrong impression about me, that’s al . I like my privacy and I think most people are just plain ridiculous.â€
    â€œReal y?â€
    The little teasing edge to her voice did something to the pit of his bel y. In spite of himself, his body stirred, an aching, relentless need that wasn’t going away anytime soon. “Real y,†he confirmed.
    He needed a little respite from being in such close proximity to her. El e wrapped in his mind was intimate, and listening to her voice, soft and melodious, was stroking nerve endings he didn’t need stroked. And then there was the brush of her body, her soft curves and glorious skin. He had to stop thinking about her. Right now, and maybe for a long time, she was going to need healing and care, not someone trying to touch her. But it didn’t stop him from aching to slide his palm over her skin.
    El e moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue. Jackson was trying so hard to keep from having any sexual thoughts toward her, but the images crept into his mind and washed over her, until a part of her was almost feeding his deepening hunger. She heard the come-on note in her voice, knew she was flirting with him, but the drive in her was becoming stronger.
    There was a part of her that knew some of her desire was for the wrong reasons. She loved Jackson and she wanted to know that she could please him, that in spite of everything that happened, he found her attractive. There was a doubt in her mind. It shouldn’t have been there when he’d been so supportive and she could read his growing hunger for her, but stil , she worried that he would think about the way Stavros had touched her, had forced another man to touch her and might not want to be with her.
    â€œDon’t do that, El e,†Jackson’s voice was low. Husky. Sexy. “Never doubt that I want you and wil always want you.â€
    â€œThis is crazy. You can’t have private thoughts and neither can I because the moment you pul away from me, he attacks.†She tried not to be upset that he knew, but it was humiliating, just as his knowing everything that happened to her in vivid, brutal detail was humiliating. Just as he knew that Stavros had succeeded in forcing her body to respond to him.
    â€œEl e. Why are you thinking about him?â€
    â€œI can’t help it. I hate this. I hate wondering if I’m ever going to have a life with you, whether I’m capable of it.â€
    â€œWe’l have a life together, El e.†He flashed a smal cocky grin at her, one that turned her heart over and made her stomach do a funny little flip. “Don’t count out my skil s of persuasion.â€
    â€œYou have skil s?â€
    â€œA lot of skil s.â€
    El e took a breath. She had skil s now, too. She hadn’t thought about that aspect, only that she might be afraid to be touched. If