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I stood in the circular drive right outside
the hotel waiting for the Jeep guy to arrive. Mel told me his name was Cody. What
kind of name was that, anyway? I imagined some kind of cowboy. Not something I
ever found remotely attractive.
I was starting to get a little nervous. I
had never actually ridden in a Jeep before. My ex thought vehicles like that
were dangerous. He was probably right. What was I doing here? The things I let
Mel talk me into.
A few minutes later, a black Jeep pulled up
next to me. On the side of it in gold lettering were the words Jim Miller Jeep
Tours. A young man hopped out of the driver’s side and walked up to me.
He was tall, about six feet, and had
wonderful wavy brown hair bleached slightly by the sun. Dark sunglasses covered
his eyes.
When he came to a stop in front of me, he
crossed his muscular arms over his chest. When I glanced up, I thought I saw
the sides of his mouth curl into a slight grin.
“Waiting for a tour?” he asked, still
looking down at me.
With his arms crossed, the black tee shirt
he was wearing drew tightly across his broad shoulders. As I glanced down, I
noticed he was wearing slightly faded but nicely fitting black jeans. Very
nicely fitting. Wow, I thought. How was I going to spend an entire day with
this guy? He exuded pure masculinity and sexuality. I could barely take
standing next to him. He made me extremely nervous. Or maybe I was getting
turned on? It had been so long since my “on” button was flipped, I had
forgotten what it felt like.
“Are you Mel?” he asked trying to draw my
attention away from his—jeans.
I looked up, now a bit embarrassed. “No,
Mel can’t make it. It’s just me today.”
“Okay,” he said. “She prepaid for two.”
“Don’t worry. She knows she’ll lose the
extra fee she paid.”
He was still looking down at me. “Do I look
worried?” I wished he wasn’t wearing those damn sunglasses because I couldn’t
read his eyes.
I tried to speak, but no words came out.
What was wrong with me? This man, this very young, absolutely gorgeous and
incredibly sexy man, left me, an English teacher, without words.
I shook my head.
He held out a hand. “I’m Cody Miller,” he
said.
I took his hand and there was a palpable
energy exchange between us. A shiver ran down my spine. We held each other’s
grip a bit too long.
“Jennifer Ellis,” I said, then quickly removed
my hand from his.
His expression changed very slightly and I
swore he glanced down at my left hand. Was he trying to figure out if I was
wearing a wedding ring? That’s ridiculous, I thought. Why would this gorgeous
and very young man care if I was married? I was…forty.
He had a strange look on his face. It was
as if he was trying to figure something out. I pointed to the name on the side
of the Jeep. “Any relation to Jim Miller?” I asked.
“You could say that,” he replied.
As he turned, I couldn’t help but look at
his assets in those tight-fitting jeans. It was not like me at all to ogle any
man’s backside, but what an incredible backside it was. He walked back over to
the driver’s side of the Jeep and hopped in.
I stood on the curb, immobilized. I
couldn’t believe how ridiculous I was being. I felt like a fourteen-year-old
girl with a crush. A crush? How was that even possible? The guy was definitely
too young for me. He looked younger than thirty. He was probably ten years
younger than me…at least. I couldn’t have feelings for a man that young. I
wasn’t a cougar. Was I?
He glanced my way. “Are you coming?” he
asked.
I willed my feet to move and made it to the
passenger side of the Jeep.
“Be careful climbing in,” he said.
I cautiously stepped up and into the
passenger seat. That’s not too bad, I thought.
When I looked over at Cody, I noticed he
was looking in my direction. Was he staring at me? It was hard to tell with
those damn sunglasses.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“It’s hard to see you with those sunglasses
on,” I admitted and was immediately embarrassed.
He flipped the sunglasses up so they rested
on the top of his head. He had the most incredible brown eyes I had ever seen.
They were deep and dark, almost like espresso. When our eyes met, it sent
shivers down my entire body. Like tiny earthquakes. I had never felt anything
like it before. Not even with Rob.
“You’ll need to buckle up. There’s some
pretty rough terrain out there. I don’t want you to fall out of the Jeep.”
I stared at the seatbelt nearly
immobilized. I couldn’t take my eyes off of Cody. There was something so completely
magnetic about him. But it was more than that. I felt overwhelmingly drawn to
him and I couldn’t figure out why.
“Want some help?” he asked.
I nodded, because I was still having
trouble getting any words out. Not. Me. At. All.
“Before I buckle you in, do you have a
scrunchie?”
I frowned.
“The thing girls pull their hair back
with?”
I hadn’t even thought about bringing a hair
tie or even a hat. So much for being prepared. I shook my head.
“I’ve gotcha covered,” he said. “Just open
the glove box.”
I did as he said. The right side of his
glove box was filled with a rainbow of different colored scrunchies.
“Grab whatever color you’d like,” he
offered.
I hesitated. “Are they used?” I asked and
wrinkled my nose up a bit.
He laughed. “Of course not. Girls use them
and take them home with them. I restock every few weeks.”
I reached over and grabbed a light blue
scrunchie and tied my hair back with it.
I could feel Cody’s gaze on me. I glanced
over and his was staring at me intently. “I would have pegged you for a pink
scrunchie kind of girl.”
“No, I’m definitely blue,” I said, then
realized the double meaning in my words.
He nodded as if he understood my underlying
meaning.
Then he reached right over me and grabbed
the seat belt. Our bodies were so close, I could smell him. He smelled fresh
and clean with a hint of cinnamon. I was entranced. As he placed the seatbelt
over my chest, another bolt of electricity moved through my entire body. When I
looked up, his eyes were glued on me. There was so much sexual tension in the
air between us it was almost unbearable. I didn’t realize I had so much want,
so much need, so much lust, inside me. This guy had reignited a passion in me
that I thought might have been lost for good.
The undercurrent between us finally subsided
a bit after he buckled my seatbelt. I wasn’t going anywhere.
“So, does everyone call you Jennifer?” he
asked. I was surprised by the question.
“Almost everyone. My friend, Mel, the one
who made the reservations for this tour, calls me Jen.”
“No one calls you Jenny?”
I scoffed. “Never.”
“Why not?”
“Do I look like a Jenny to you?”
When I looked over at Cody, he had a
childlike glint in his eye.
“Jenny’s are playful and fun-loving. And
sexy.”
I laughed. “Then I’m definitely not a
Jenny.”
“I think you are. You just don’t know it
yet.”
I couldn’t remember the last time I was
playful, or fun-loving. Maybe third grade? But wait, did he really call me
sexy?
“Okay, Jenny, are you ready for an
adventure?”
“You’ve got me strapped into this thing. I
guess I’d better be,” I responded.
Cody put his sunglasses back down over his
eyes and we were off.
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