salary anywhere else. Why in the world would you come here and work for the proverbial peanuts?”
“Would you like some more coffee, Dylan?”
Jessica glanced up at the waitress, Susan Davis, and frowned again. Dylan? Wasn’t it strange, she thought irritably, that she’d been sitting in this restaurant for over an hour and she’d had her cup refilled only once? She was sure Dylan’s cup had never dropped more than a quarter inch. So what if he filled out a T-shirt and jeans well? So what if that long dark hair and rough slow-talking voice made a woman’s knees turn to water? She was a customer here, too, and the waitress’s selective efficiency was quickly grating on Jessica’s nerves. And so was the smile Dylan was so warmly displaying.
“Thanks, Susan.” Dylan pushed his cup closer. “And bring the lady here a hamburger and fries, please. I think she worked up an appetite interviewing all those men.”
Susan? It certainly hadn’t taken him long to get chummy, Jessica thought. “Never mind. I’m not staying that long.”
“I’ll have seconds, then,” Dylan said with a shrug. “Extra cheese.”
Susan bounced off, happy to oblige.
Exasperated, Jessica leaned back against the vinyl cushions and kicked off her heels. She closed her eyes and breathed her contentment.
Dylan glanced under the table, then raised one brow. “Is taking off our clothes part of the interview?”
She frowned at him. “My shoes are too tight.”
He grinned back. “Your skirt is tight, also,” he said with a note of hope in his voice.
“My skirt stays on,” she said coolly. “And I’m not interviewing you anymore.”
“Does that mean I’m hired?”
She shook her head.
“So who are you going to hire?” he asked. “The fat guy who ‘accidentally’ bumped your knee six times and dropped his pencil under the table four times?”
Jessica felt a fresh wave of anger just thinking about that lecher. She’d had to refrain from kicking him the last time he’d dropped the damn pencil. “Of course not. But since you were paying such close attention, you must have noticed that Mr. Thompson, my second applicant, was highly qualified. He was a carpenter for a housing developer in San Antonio and an electrician for a small construction company in Austin.”
“Oh, yes.” Dylan took a swig of coffee. “Mr. Thompson. The guy whose hands were shaking.”
“He was a little nervous, that’s all.”
“I’m sure that’s why he left here and went straight to that bar across the street.”
Jessica sighed with resignation and tucked her legs beneath her chair. “A pretty sorry lot.”
“And at the salary you’re offering, you won’t get better,” Dylan said pointedly.
“Except for you.”
He grinned at her. “Of course.”
And just who was he? she wondered. Other than the fact he was thirty-four and born in Maine, his application had been sketchy regarding his personal life. There’d been no mention of a wife—or wives, as the case might be—or children.
Damn that smile of his. She hated the way it made her control slip. He sipped his coffee, watching her with dark intense eyes that never seemed to miss a thing. She shifted slightly under his perusal.
“Which brings me back to my question,” she said with a calm she didn’t feel. “With your qualifications, why would you accept what I’m offering?”
Susan set the hamburger and fries in front of Dylan, fussed over him for a minute, then when Jessica scowled at her, reluctantly moved to take another order at the counter.
Dylan slid the plate closer to Jessica. The smell of the fries was sheer heaven. Just one, she told herself, reaching for the plate.
“The first reason is that it’s temporary work, nothing long-term,” he said. “I don’t like to be tied down.”
No big surprise there, Jessica thought. A man who traveled on a motorcycle with little more than a duffel bag was hardly the type to build picket fences. “And your second reason?” she asked.
“This youth center you want to build,” Dylan said, “are you doing it for money?”
“Of course not,” she answered impatiently.
“And the land, Stone Creek, you could sell it and make a few bucks?”
Even the thought of selling one acre of Stone Creek sent a wave of indignation through Jessica. “I told you I would never sell.”
“So everything doesn’t have to be about money, does it?” Dylan asked. “There are other reasons that motivate people, aren’t there?”
Dylan saw the suspicion in Jessica’s blue eyes. Not that he blamed her. He’d certainly be suspicious if he were in her place. He hadn’t even listed all his past experience, but since he wasn’t sure of the competition, he’d given her enough to assure him the job. He just had to convince her he was the right man.
The problem was he wasn’t so sure anymore that he was the right man. He hadn’t been prepared for his reaction to Jessica. Even as he watched her now, with her hair loose and the top of her blouse undone, he felt a wave of overwhelming lust for her. That was all it was, of course. Lust. But it was certainly stronger than anything he’d experienced before. And it certainly would complicate matters. As she nibbled delicately on a french fry, he couldn’t stop the sweat breaking out on his skin.
He’d have to control his more basic instincts, that was all. Jessica was off-limits. Way off-limits.
“Okay, Mr. Grant,” she said, finally breaking the long silence.
“Dylan.”
She nodded. “Okay, Dylan. So maybe there are other reasons that motivate people. Tell me what yours are. I think you owe me at least that much.”
He thought about that for a moment. “Let’s just say I’ve never done anything like this before.”
“Another notch in the experience belt, huh?”
“Something like that.”
Jessica couldn’t stop the corners of her mouth from curving upward. It was hard to believe, incredible even, that a man with Dylan’s qualifications would work for the pay she offered. “Christmas is just a few weeks away. Are you going to need time off to be with your family?”
He shook his head. “There’s no notch in my belt for family, Miss Stone. Christmas is just another day to me.”
She couldn’t imagine anyone feeling that way about Christmas. It was her favorite holiday. The most special day of the year, as far as she was concerned. She was torn between being happy he didn’t need time
