Or maybe he was making too big a deal out of all this. Maybe Meri didn’t give a damn about what had happened…or not happened…between them.
“Let’s go inside,” she said and led the way.
They walked into a large entryway with a staircase and a stone floor. The place was welcoming and masculine. It might not be the house he would have built, but it wasn’t going to drive him crazy with lots of frills and smelly bowls of dried flowers.
“You’ll get your exercise climbing the stairs. Your room is on the next floor.”
He glanced around. “You’re down here?”
She smiled. “No, Jack. I’m on the second floor, next to the master. We’re only a wall apart.”
Meri deliberately widened her eyes and leaned toward him as she spoke. She wanted the invitation to be clear. After what Jack had put her through eleven years ago, he deserved to squirm.
She started down the hall before he had a chance to respond. “There’s an office loft area,” she continued. “You can use that. It’s set up with Internet access, a fax. I’ll be in the dining room. I like to spread out when I work. I tend to get really…involved.”
She emphasized the last word, then had to consciously keep herself from laughing. Okay, this was way more fun than she’d thought it would be. She should have punished Jack a long time ago.
She made sure she swayed her hips as she climbed and bent forward slightly so he would be sure to notice her very short shorts. She’d worn them deliberately, along with the halter top that left very little to the imagination. It had taken her nearly two days to come up with the perfect outfit, but it had been worth the time.
The shorts clung to her and were cut high enough to show the bottom of her butt. Tacky but effective. Her sandals had a spiked heel that was practically a weapon, but they made her legs look long-a serious trick for someone as short as her.
The halter was so low-cut that she’d had to hold it in place with double-sided tape. She had fresh highlights, sultry makeup and long, dangling earrings that almost touched her nearly bare shoulders.
If the guys back at her science lab could see her now, they would probably implode from shock. Around them she only wore tailored suits and lab jackets. But for the next month she was dressing as a sex kitten and she planned to enjoy every minute of it.
She deliberately sped up at the end of the hall, then stopped suddenly. Jack ran into her. He reached out to steady himself or maybe her. She’d planned that he would, so she turned and held in a grin as the palm of his hand landed exactly on her left breast.
He stiffened and pulled back so fast he almost fell. Meri tried to decide if she minded seeing him in a crumpled heap on the polished hardwood floor.
“Sorry,” he muttered.
“Jack,” she purred. “Are you coming on to me? I have to say, that’s not very subtle. I would have expected better.”
“I’m not coming on to you.”
“Really?” She put her hands on her hips as she faced him. “Why not? Aren’t I your type?”
He frowned. “What the hell is this all about?”
“So many things. I’m not sure where to start.”
“Try at the beginning. It usually works for me.”
The beginning? Where was that? At conception, where some quirk of the Palmer gene pool had decided to produce a child with an exceptional IQ? Or later, when Meri had first realized she was never going to fit in anywhere? Or perhaps that long-ago-but-never-forgotten-afternoon when the man she loved had so cruelly rejected her?
“We’re spending the month together,” she told him. “I thought we could have more fun if we played. I know you like to play, Jack.”
He swore under his breath. “This isn’t like you, Meri.”
“How can you be sure? It’s been a long time. I’ve grown up.” She turned slowly. “Don’t you like the changes?”
“You look great. You know that. So what’s the point?”
The point was she wanted him desperate. She wanted him panting, begging, pleading. Then she would give in and walk away. It was her plan-it had always been her plan.
“I’m not going to sleep with you,” he said flatly. “You’re Hunter’s sister. I gave him my word I’d look after you. That means taking care of you, not sleeping with you.”
She’d meant to keep her temper. Honestly she’d even written it on her to-do list. But it was simply impossible.
“Take care of me? Is that what you call disappearing two seconds after Hunter’s funeral? All of you left-all of his friends. I expected it of them but not of you. Hunter told me you would always be there for me no matter what. But you weren’t. You were gone. I was seventeen, Jack. My father was a basket case, I was a total social outcast with no friends and you disappeared. Because that was easier than facing your responsibility.”
He put down his luggage. “Is that why you’re here? To tell me off?”
He had no idea, she thought, still furious and wishing she could breathe fire and burn him into a little stick figure, like in the cartoons.
“That’s only part of the fun.”
“Would it help if I said I was sorry?”
“No, it wouldn’t.” Nothing would change the fact that he’d abandoned her, just like everyone else she’d ever loved.
“Meri, I know we have some history. But if we’re stuck here for a month, we need to find a way to get along.”
“Be friends, you mean?” she said, remembering how he’d said he would always be her friend, right after rejecting her.
“If you’d like.”
She took a deep breath, then released it. “No, Jack. We’ll never be friends. We’ll be lovers and nothing else.”
Two
The next morning Meri woke up feeling much better about everything. After leaving out food for Jack, she’d escaped to her room, where she’d had a bath and a good cry. Some of her tears had been about her brother, but a lot of them had been for herself. For the geek she’d been and the losses she’d suffered.
After Hunter had died, their father had totally lost it. He’d been less than useless to her. Within a year he’d started dating nineteen-year-olds, and in the nine years since, his girlfriends had stayed depressingly young.
She’d been on her own and she’d survived. Wasn’t that what mattered? That she’d managed to get the help she’d needed to move forward and thrive?
She turned on her clock’s radio and rocked her hips to the disco music that blasted into the room. She was sorry she’d missed the disco years-the music had such a driving beat. Of course, she was a total spaz on the dance floor, but what she lacked in style and grace she made up for in enthusiasm.
After brushing out her hair, she braided it, then dressed in a sports bra, tank top and another pair of skimpy shorts. Ankle socks and athletic shoes completed her outfit.
Humming “We Are Family” under her breath, she left her room and prepared to implement the next part of her plan for revenge.
Jack was in the kitchen. She walked up to him and smiled.
“Morning,” she said, reaching past him for the pot of coffee. She made sure she leaned against him rather than going around. “How did you sleep?”
His dark eyes flickered slightly, but his expression never changed. “Fine.”
“Good. Me, too.”
She poured the coffee, then took a sip, looking at him over the mug.
“So,” she said. “A whole month. That’s a long time. Whatever will we do with it?”
“Not what you have planned.”
She allowed herself a slight smile. “I remember you saying that before. Did you always repeat yourself? I remember you being a whole lot more articulate. Of course, I was younger then, and one looks at one’s elders with the idealism of youth.”
He nearly choked on his coffee. “Elders?”