Read Online Going the Distance by Julianna Keyes - Free Book Online

sense. He wasn’t looking for a challenge. He couldn’t even remember the last time he’d seen a woman again after sleeping with her. But they hadn’t slept together, had they? They’d gotten each other off like teenagers, and he’d only done a halfway decent job, from the sound of it. And instead of wisely packing up his things and moving on, he couldn’t stop wondering how great her fiancé must have been in bed, and what he could do to be even better.
    “Dude!” Dale pounded the table in front of Jarek, making the bottles jump. “What the fuck have you been obsessing over all day?”
    He looked up sharply. “Nothing.”
    “Bullshit,” Brant piped up, sounding a little wasted. “It’s something.”
    “You got in late last night,” Dale said.
    Brant looked intrigued. “How late?”
    “Midnight.”
    “What are you, my mother?”
    “It’s Olivia, right? The kindergarten teacher?”
    Brant pulled a face. “The teacher, Jarek? Really? Isn’t she kind of…sweet?”
    Uh, no. She absolutely wasn’t. “I didn’t see her. I was just out walking.”
    “Until midnight? In the pouring rain?”
    “Listen, Frank and Joe—”
    Brant and Dale exchanged puzzled stares. “Who?”
    “The Hardy Boys. Stop monitoring—”
    “You were with the Hardy Boys? Who are these guys?”
    “What? The Hardy…they’re teen detectives, like Nancy Drew. Friends with Nancy—” Good God, why the hell was he talking about this? “The point is, what I do is none of your business, so stop asking.”
    “He was with Olivia.”
    “Absolutely.”
    “How was she?”
    Jarek wasn’t one to kiss and tell under the best—or most inebriated—circumstances, and the only thing Olivia had really asked of him was that he not talk about her behind her back, so he wouldn’t. But these two were drunk and gossip hungry, and he really wasn’t in the mood, so he polished off his beer and stood. “I’m going to my room.” He checked his watch. “It’s one twenty-three, if you want to make a note of it in your journal.”
    “Aw, sit down, Jare,” Brant said, waving him back. “We’re just messing with you. If you want to date the kindergartener—oops, the kindergarten teacher—”
    “There is a huge difference,” he interjected.
    “Then we won’t stop you.”
    “Just tell us one thing about her,” Dale said.
    “I don’t know anything.” He fished money out of his wallet and dropped it on the table.
    “Does she make you recite the alphabet before she goes down on you?”
    “Stop.”
    “Does she give you a gold star for—”
    “See you tomorrow. Or not. I don’t care.” Jarek strode off through the crowded bar, their laughter ringing in his ears. In the past, their comments wouldn’t have bothered him. He’d never cared about anything enough that he could be bothered. But even now, irritated though he was, their words weren’t the ones getting his back up. Olivia’s special little F-word, four letters and one syllable, was digging into his gut, making him feel all sorts of things he didn’t want to feel.
    Two days later, the cause of his recent frustrations strolled past the open door to the carpentry trailer at three thirty in the afternoon. Jarek was bent over a table saw, cutting a piece of wood for one of a zillion door frames, when her hair caught the sunlight and sparkled brightly enough to catch his eye. He finished the cut and placed the wood carefully on the table, watching as Ritchie walked beside her, scribbling in his notepad as Olivia chatted and gestured with her hands.
    Jarek took off the safety glasses and gloves, wiping dust off his nose before striding to the door to look out. They were about twenty feet away, moving slowly, lost in their conversation. Olivia wore faded blue jeans that clung to her ass, and had traded her winter coat for something black in a lighter fabric that showed her shape. Her long hair fell halfway down her back, pin straight and gleaming, and Jarek wanted nothing more