St. Helena Vineyard Series: Plumb Crazy About You Read online

  His mouth was hot and hard as he deepened the kiss, parting her lips with his tongue. A soft groan came from his throat as his hand reached under her sweater to knead her breast. She was lost in a maelstrom of heat and want, a whirlpool that sent her deeper and deeper into its vortex until she quivered with desire.

  This was madness. They hardly knew each other. Her logical mind was silenced by the banked fire that suddenly blazed into an inferno.

  Her hands reached under his shirt and brushed across hard abs. In two seconds the shirt would be on the floor, along with her sweater.

  Something brushed her knee.

  “Woof.”

  Her eyes flew open and Nick jumped back, like he’d been caught doing something naughty. Jax’s head rested on her knee and his big brown eyes looked at her in reproach.

  Great, a four-legged chaperone.

  She caught her breath and pulled her sweater down, inching her way across the couch, heat staining her cheeks.

  “You fed him, didn’t you?”

  Nick slapped his forehead with his palm. “Oh geez, I forgot.”

  She patted the dog. “Don’t look at me. I’m not your babysitter.”

  He waddled over to Nick and pressed his nose into Nick’s palm. “I’ll get right to it.” Nick glanced her way, a sheepish look on his gorgeous face. “Want to take up where we left off when I get back?”

  “No, everything was great, but I think it’s time to call it a night.”

  He walked her to the door and put both hands on her shoulders, brushing a quick kiss across her lips. “Another time, then. For sure.”

  She waved, got into Bomber, and drove off.

  Shoot, I forgot to thank him.

  Not only for killing the snake, but for inflating her ego. It had been flat for so long, she might burst.

  It was a nice feeling, only now she had a lot more to think about.

  Chapter Five

  Nick fed the dog, finished cleaning the kitchen, and poured the rest of the wine into his glass. Can’t let a prize-winner like this go to waste.

  What the hell had he done? He practically mauled his employee, well, not an employee yet, but soon. His errors and omissions insurance didn’t cover sexual harassment.

  It wasn’t exactly one-sided.

  But he’d started it when she held her glass up to the light, swirled it in a mesmerizing motion, and taken her first sip. He watched her eyes close as she swallowed and imagined her taste buds screaming in joy as the wine slid down her throat. Then she’d thrown her head back and moaned like she was in the throes of an orgasm. Meg Ryan couldn’t have done better.

  His jeans had tented and he’d moved forward without his gaze leaving her face. He needed to be a part of whatever it was she was feeling. He had to taste the wine…not in a glass…but on her lips and her tongue so he could be as moved by the experience as she had been.

  It was incredible.

  He wanted more and apparently so did she. The kiss on the couch was unplanned, unexpected, and holy hell it almost led to a place he never expected to be.

  Until Jax reminded him he had responsibilities.

  The memory shook him. What he needed right now was a shower

  He checked the dog on his way to the bathroom. He was sound asleep on the foot of his bed. At least he wouldn’t have to sleep alone, although a Lab wasn’t exactly what he had in mind. Not after tonight.

  When he’d showered and changed, he checked his emails and then pulled out his cell to finish cooling off. He had a text from his father, four from his office, and a voicemail from Mac.

  Mac’s was a “got here safely” message. His office business could wait until Monday. But Dad’s removed all remnants of his earlier glow.

  “Why are you still at Mac’s? I’ve picked someone to replace you in our San Francisco office. Get your butt back down here to LA. Now.”

  This one required an immediate answer. “I’m taking my two-week vacation.”

  Dad had always been a take-charge kind of guy. Right after the divorce, he and Jonah had found it comforting to have strict boundaries and someone who controlled every aspect of their lives.

  He and Jonah hadn’t missed Mom at first. She was always in her studio, her door firmly closed, or off on a trip painting the landscapes she was known for. Then the fact she was never coming back hit like Hurricane Katrina and if they hadn’t had each other, they would have walked through those first few months like zombies. They’d recovered and as they got older they tried to understand how a woman could leave her two young sons, even if she and her husband had grown apart. Jonah had wisely proclaimed that some women weren’t meant to be mothers.

  He was attracted to Cassie. It would be pointless to deny it. She was a smart, talented, career-driven woman who had her eye on a goal—exactly the kind of woman he liked to date. Unfortunately, her goal was the same as his.

  Buy the business.

  Mac was wrong. She wasn’t fragile. She wasn’t vulnerable. She was strong. And when she found out he had the sale locked up she’d bail. Walk away with reproach in her eyes.

  He snapped the pencil he was holding in half.

  He didn’t want that to happen.

  ***

  Sunday mornings were not days of rest. Her laundry basket overflowed in her closet, two empty boxes of cereal decorated her kitchen counter, reminding her she was out of breakfast food, and she had left the vacuum in front of the couch.

  But all she wanted to do was stay in bed and relive every second of her dinner with Nick.

  She stretched and burrowed deeper under her quilt.

  A couple of very satisfying kisses and an interrupted petting session produced this glow. Boy was she hard up and needy. The whole encounter probably meant nothing to him and here she was mooning over the guy twelve hours later.

  It was a fluke. Hot guys like Nick do not date nerdy girls like me.

  She rolled out of bed and wiggled her toes. Her bright pink polish needed a touch up. Add it to the list.

  After coffee and a stale donut she’d found in back of the cupboard, reality took over. Do not think about Nick today. Concentrate on the job coming up. Tomorrow they’d start the survey. They agreed she’d be in charge of the fieldwork. She’d operate the transit and he’d hold the plumb line. The man had very capable hands.

  Stop it. Get to work.

  She loaded the washing machine, vacuumed the carpets, and stuck her phone into her wireless speaker, turning up the volume to better hear her playlist while cleaning her bathroom. Dancing through the rest of her chores, she made her grocery list and headed for Pickers. It was open on Sundays to accommodate tourists. Church wasn’t out, so she had much of the store to herself.

  When she finished her last chores she decided to get out and walk in the fresh air. The light-headed giddiness she’d awakened with this morning was still with her. She had to shake this off before tomorrow. She’d feel foolish if she were caught drooling all over the equipment or worse, focusing the theodolite on Nick instead of the prism.

  Damn, this is worse than a high school crush.

  Her walk took her past the office so she dug out her key and strolled in. She’d recheck the proposal Mac had done for their big client to make sure she had all the details straight.

  She picked up the magazine and envelopes that had dropped to the floor from the mail slot on Saturday, set them on her desk, and grabbed a soft drink. Leaning back in her chair, she put her feet up and perused Engineering Times. Most trade publications were boring and she rarely had time to read them. She tossed it on the desk and looked through the rest of the mail. Nothing important except a bill she’d take over to the accountant tomorrow.

  Something about the magazine made her pause. She thumbed through it again and stopped at an article about a new hydroelectric plant being developed in Honduras. A group of men stood looking down at plans, their orange hard hats dominating the picture. But it was the two men in the background that drew her eye.

&nbs
p; One looked a lot like Nick.

  She read the article, searching for the name of the company doing the project. It was Odyssey Engineering, an international design/build company in Los Angeles. So why was Nick in the picture?

  Contract engineer, dummy.

  She’d have to ask him about the project. Talk about experience. What was a guy with international experience doing in St. Helena? She cringed when she answered her own question.

  If he was tired of globe-trotting, he might be ready to settle down and open his own firm, especially when he had a friend who already had clientele.

  There you go, imagining things again.

  Was she?

  Problem was she liked him. Be honest. She more than liked him. He was the first guy to treat her like a woman instead of one of the boys in a very long time. But if she didn’t want her dreams to crumble, she needed to tread carefully. No more ass ogling or hero worship. No more face plants or stomach flutters.

  He was the competition and he had friends in high places.

  But she had friends, too. She knew DeLucas and Baudouins. She knew the St. Helena culture. She’d worked for Mac for five years and knew every project he’d done in the valley during that time.

  Mac and Maddie loved her like a daughter.

  They didn’t have kids. They’d married late in life and had devoted themselves to each other. Jax was their child. Maddie had brought him home a couple of years ago from the animal shelter where she volunteered.

  As far as she knew, they didn’t even have nieces or nephews. Maddie had once told her she was a lonely only and that’s what had first attracted her to Mac. So was he.

  The minute she was hired they’d taken to her like she was Bambi. Far from orphaned, she was still pleased with the positive attention. Her sister got all the attention at home. Cassie was the big disappointment, thumbing her nose at family tradition. Her father was the third generation of Larkin veterinarians. The second Cassie showed a predisposition toward math and science, they were sure she’d be the fourth.

  They were wrong.

  Her bank account might not be as big as Nick’s, especially if he worked on mega-projects for Odyssey, but Mac would know she’d be good for the money. Surely he knew she desperately wanted the business. They hadn’t exactly talked about it, but how could he not know, working together so closely.

  I’m being paranoid again.

  She threw the magazine on Nick’s desk and headed for the door. Her phone rang. She didn’t recognize the number, but a prickling on her neck made her pause, then answer.

  “Thank God you picked up.”

  “Victoria?” Her sister never called her. “Are you okay?”

  “I need two thousand dollars.”

  The muscles in her back tensed. Desperation laced the breathy voice in her ear.

  “Where are you?”

  “That’s not important. I need the money right now. I can pay you back. I just signed a contract with a cosmetics company. But the job doesn’t start until next month. Can you do a wire transfer? I’ll give you my account.”

  “Did you ask Dad?”

  “No and you cannot tell anyone about this.” She paused, breathing hard. “I…I’m in a little trouble. Nothing serious. But I need a loan to pay a debt. I can’t tell you any more. Please Cassie. I know we’re not close, but I don’t have anyone else to turn to.”

  Her sister never cried, but she was now. Against her better judgment she took several deep breaths, then spoke quietly. “All right. Give me the information.”

  “Thank you. I promise never to ask you for anything again.”

  She swallowed. “I’m your sister. You can ask for help whenever you need it. When you’re ready, I think I deserve to know what this is all about.”

  “Okay.”

  She pocketed her phone and hurried home. Why did Vickie need that kind of money?

  She must have been truly desperate to call me.

  Was it drugs? A medical problem? And why the hell had she loaned her money when they weren’t on good terms?

  Because she’s your sister.

  It wasn’t a great answer, but it would have to do.

  Her bank account now had a bigger hole than when she’d done all her calculations.

  Time to revise the plan.

  Chapter Six

  Still pondering the reason for Victoria’s call, she jumped when her phone rang again. She’d been home for all of ten minutes. She looked at the screen. It was Mac’s landline. Must be Nick.

  “I need you.”

  Cassie always thought those words would be uttered in person after a smoldering look and a passionate kiss. Nick’s voice sounded like he’d fallen into a pit.

  “What’s up?”

  “Jax disappeared.”

  “I’ll be right there.”

  She slipped her feet into flip flops and ran out the door. It was a little chilly for shorts and her Seattle Seahawks tee shirt, but she didn’t have time to change.

  Bomber bounced down the driveway and stopped at the front door. Nick waited with a leash in his hand and a you-may-as-well-kill-me-now look on his face.

  “What happened?” She followed him into the house and watched him pace back and forth in front of the fireplace grate.

  “I let him out this afternoon like I always do and he didn’t come back.”

  “How long ago?”

  “Around noon.”

  Cassie looked at her phone. It was after three. “It’s only been a couple of hours. He might be hanging around a tree with a feral cat in it, or staking out a rabbit hole. Did you try calling him?”

  “Yes. I’ve been out looking for him, too. There’s a hole under the back fence by the river. I think he got out that way.” He looked lost. “You know I’ll never be able to show my face here again if anything’s happened to that dog.”

  “You might not get to leave. I might find pieces of you buried in the back yard.”

  “That’s not funny.”

  “Sorry.”

  Nick scratched his head. “Maybe you can try calling him. He might respond to your voice. He probably knows you better since I haven’t been here for…let’s just go.”

  Had he been here before? Surely he had or Mac wouldn’t have let him stay in his house with their precious dog. She shrugged. Finding Jax was more important than analyzing Mac’s motives…or Nick’s.

  The ground was rough and dirt found its way inside her sandals. She called Jax a few times, then whistled like Mac. No wiggling body with lolling tongue greeted them.

  She strained to hear barking or scrabbling…anything that told her an animal was nearby. The only sounds in the crisp morning air were cars on the nearby Silverado Trail, the less traveled highway on the east side of the valley.

  A shaft of cold dread hit her between the shoulders. What if he was injured? Coyotes roamed the near-dry riverbeds this time of year and while Jax weighed a good eighty pounds, he might not be able to take on a pack of hungry coyotes.

  They reached the hole and Cassie peered through it. Tight squeeze for a dog as big as Jax but bits of fur adhered to the edges.

  She looked up. “I think you’re right. He got through this way.”

  “Do you think you could boost me up?”

  She shook her head. As much as she’d love to get her hands on that body, he was too big for her to hold his weight. “I have a better idea. You boost me up and I’ll climb over the side and keep looking. You go back and drive Bomber down to the river and meet me. There’s an access road through the vineyard next door. They won’t mind.”

  “Keys?”

  “In the ignition.”

  His eyebrows rose. “Really?”

  “Who’s going to steal Bomber?”

  “Right.”

  She took off her flip flops and put her foot into his hands. He lifted her to the top of the chain link fence where she braced herself on the top, swung her legs over, and dropped to the other side. Thank God there weren’t any spikes.
Mac had put a smooth metal cap along the top, easy to grab. Nick dropped her shoes over and raced back to the house.

  Getting her bearings she ignored a tiny cut in her palm, knowing it would stop bleeding if she held it tight against her shirt. It did and she began her search.

  The Napa River was a tiny ribbon of water this far upstream. Clouds formed in the sky each afternoon, but it hadn’t rained yet. Although it was October, the official start of the rainy season in California, rain often held off until January.

  “Jax…Jax…where are you, you little devil?”

  She walked along the dry edges of the streambed. A bird twittered and the breeze rustled dry leaves. No scuffles or barks. Where could he be?

  The smell of fermenting grapes teased her nose as she approached the neighbor’s barn. Most folks out near the Trail made their own wine with grapes left over from the commercial harvest. She tried opening the door, but it was locked.

  Did she hear a whine?

  Bomber‘s distinctive rumble alerted her that Nick had arrived. She stepped back into view and waved her arms. He turned onto the road and bounced between the rows of vines, coming to a stop in front of her.

  “Did you find him?”

  “No, but I thought I heard something inside the barn. It’s padlocked.”

  He wrinkled his nose. “It smells like wine out here.”

  “Grapes are fermenting inside. I don’t know these neighbors, but they’re probably home winemakers.”

  They walked back to the barn door and Cassie called out to Jax. He answered with a bark and scratched on the other side of the door.

  “He’s in there. I’ll go up to the house and ask if they’ll open the door,” she said.

  “I’ll go. Your footwear is deplorable. ”He strode off and Cassie talked to the dog.

  “You’ve caused a lot of trouble, you know that?”

  A whine responded.

  When Nick came back a large woman walked next to him, a ring of keys dangling from her fingers.

  “Cassie, this is Mrs. Jacobs. She and her husband rent the property. I explained I’m housesitting for Mac and Maddie.”