“Yes. I’ve worked a couple of your events when you’ve been short-staffed.”
“You helped us manage the mountain biking event we did a couple of weeks ago,” Kenna said. “And did a hell of a job too. She saved the day,” she told Jacob. “The promo was all screwed up, and she managed the social media and crazy phones, doing the work of, like, ten people. It was awesome.” She smiled at Sophie. “Hope you’ll join us for some of our upcoming events, specifically the Wounded Warriors. We need all hands on deck.” She hugged her brother and then looked in his cart. “Seriously? What are you, twelve?”
“Hey, I’ve missed having some things from home,” he said.
“Like what, clogged arteries?” She pointed at Sophie. “Talk some sense into him.”
Sophie was fascinated by the relationship between brother and sister. Obviously, there was love and affection. And irritation. It was…normal, so much so that it made Jacob seem all the more human to her. “Have you ever had any luck telling him what to do?” Sophie asked Kenna.
His sister laughed. “Good point.”
Jacob watched as Sophie moved on, heading down the aisle a bit, referencing her list, her mouth moving as she read it to herself. There were shadows beneath her eyes. She was tired and probably working too hard.
Just watching the way all those sweet, warm curves moved, the way her hair seemed to shift in counterpart—she was absolutely unaware of her beauty—made him want to haul her in close until she let out one of those sexy, helpless little murmurs and pressed herself up against him.
“I’ve never seen you look at anyone like that before,” Kenna said. “You look at her like she’s…”
He slid her a look. “What?”
“Like she’s a double-fudge brownie, warm from the oven.”
“You’re wrong.” He wasn’t looking at her like she was a double-fudge brownie. She was more important than dessert. She was a main course, the base of the food chain.
And hell.
He hadn’t seen her coming.
Kenna set a hand on his arm, bringing his gaze back to her. Her expression was much more serious now, her voice quiet. “You going to fall for her, Jacob?”
“Do I look insane?”
“Yes,” she said immediately. “Sometimes.”
He gave her hair a soft tug.
She let him lighten the mood, doing her part by sending him into the freezer doors with a well-placed shove. Apparently they’d made up and were back to normal.
Normal.
There was a word Jacob hadn’t thought about for a long time and hadn’t realized he even missed feeling.
Sophie was in the bread aisle, trying to find the duchess’s gluten-free, salt-free, taste-free brand, when Jacob caught up with her.
Sans Kenna, he leaned in and sniffed her. “God,” he said on a clearly heartfelt sigh. “You smell better than a double-fudge brownie.”
She’d started to melt until he said “brownie” and instead gave him an elbow to the gut.
His hands went to her hips while he laughed and smelled her again, his face plastered into the crook of her neck. “Seriously, yum. You smell amazing. I want to eat you up, Soph. Come on, let me eat you up.”
Well, hell if that didn’t have her good parts standing up and waving their hands in the air like they just didn’t care. “Stop it.” Don’t stop… “I’m working.”
“You smell amazing and you are amazing.” He was pressing hot, openmouthed kisses to her throat, accelerating her heart rate. “I couldn’t do what you do,” he said conversationally while his mouth wreaked havoc with her self-control. Her nipples were trying to break free of their confines.
And he just kept talking in that easy way of his while simultaneously arousing her with little to no effort at all.
“I’d have a hard time doing what you do,” he said, and kissed the spot where her shoulder and neck met. “You work too hard.”
It took her a moment to locate her tongue. And he’d noticed that she worked hard. That shouldn’t have made her feel good, but it did. “Stop that. I can’t think when you do that.”
He nipped her and then soothed it with a hot kiss, taking his time before finally letting her go.
She let out a shaky breath and tried to remember what she was saying, when what she really wanted was to yank him down and have her merry way with him. “And then I need to check and rearrange the royals’ schedules so that certain things don’t…overlap.”