Chapter Two

 

“Maddie, Maddie, where’s the damn file?” I asked two days later, handbag swinging from my shoulder and laptop case clutched beneath my arm.

“Here.” She pushed a slim new file forward and I grabbed for it. “You’re not going to bother driving all this way back afterward, are you?”

“No.” I glanced at my watch. “I’ll finish my emails at home.”

“Good, then I’ll lock up in half an hour after I’ve sent these potential venues to the Callahans.”

“Yes, great, I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

“Yep, and good luck.”

I paused in the doorway. “Why would I need luck?”

“Well, from Carly Flannigan’s phone call this morning, she wants her engagement party pulled together in less than two weeks.”

I blew out a breath. “Yes, I know, as if we haven’t got enough going on. But still, we can’t turn away business.”

“Absolutely not,” Maddie agreed with a grin. “Now go, boss, or you’ll be late.”

I strode across the lot, beeping my Mercedes to life. I had seriously considered, for the first time ever, turning down this job. Carly Flannigan and The Brick’s engagement party would inevitably include an invite to a certain hot hockey captain who’d made me fall off the celibacy wagon. Fall off so spectacularly that by the time I’d realized I’d hit dirt it had driven into the damn sunset, leaving nothing more than a trail of dust in its wake.

But I’d decided the answer was to send Maddie to attend this particular party. That wasn’t Best Laid Plans’ normal way of doing things. I liked to be in attendance. It was part of the package to have me there. But that would have to start changing. We were getting so many events it was bordering on ridiculous to have me attend every one. Yes, Maddie could start sharing the load, starting at this particular engagement party. If she managed well I’d be able to give her a pay raise, too.

I piled my stuff onto the passenger seat and climbed in, flicking the air-conditioning to full-blast. My emotions had been in a whirl ever since my crazy, sexy meeting in the office with Rick “Ramrod” Lewis over the weekend.

Well, at least I know one of the reasons for his nickname!

On the outside I’d gone about business as usual. But, on the inside, I’d switched from feeling nauseous, hunting for something to kick, and falling into a deep well of self-loathing, to having butterflies jumping in my stomach and my flesh on fire at the thought of his body over mine—hot and hard, ready and demanding. It had been good, so damn good and I couldn’t recall ever having a lover look at me so hungrily, so appreciatively, or be so pissed that I drew a line under it and made him walk away.

I sighed at what could have been, tapped Carly’s address into the GPS and headed for the freeway, reminding myself to make an appointment with my manicurist. Scarlet polish just wasn’t doing it for me anymore—too many wagon-falling memories.

Before long I pulled up at a large, gated villa with palm trees lining the front of a towering cream wall. I reached out the window and pressed the intercom. After I stated who I was, the wrought iron gates swung open and I crunched up the gravel path and parked between a red Ferrari and a white Lexus. Wow, these hockey players earned some serious money.

I climbed out and, struggling in my new heels, stepped past three more cars and a motorbike, the combined worth of which would probably pay off an entire third world country’s debt.

Smoothing down my blouse and skirt, I tossed my dark curls over my shoulder. Just as I was reaching for the knocker, which was shaped like a hockey stick, the door burst in on itself. A very slim, pretty girl with long, sleek black hair stood before me. I recognized her as Carly Flannigan, Olympic gold medalist and fiancée of Vipers right-winger, The Brick.

“Hi,” she said, beaming. “You must be Dana from Best Laid Plans. Thanks so much for coming at such short notice.”

“My pleasure and, before I say anything else, congratulations on your recent engagement.”

“Thanks, yes, it’s exciting, isn’t it?” She grinned broadly. “Please come in.”

I stepped over the threshold and shut the door behind myself.

“This way,” she said. “I’ve just made coffee if you’d like some.”

“Sure, thanks.” I followed her across the enormous foyer hung with large pieces of abstract art and through a wide archway, all the time aware of my heels clacking noisily on the marble tiles.

“You okay to sit in the kitchen?” she asked, stopping at a huge breakfast bar lined with silver and black leather stools. “I’m half watching the game.”

“No, not at all.” I placed my bag, laptop and file on the sparkling granite surface and turned to the sound of the TV.

Oh, good lord!

It wasn’t the size of the flat screen that had my heart ramming up against my ribs like a puck hitting the back of a net. And it wasn’t the sheer opulence of the room, either. It was the sight of five hulking Viper players lounging on a low L- shaped couch that had taken every nerve in my body, twisted it and set it alight.

I reached out to the granite to steady myself, my knees ridiculously weak. I didn’t need to see his face to know the captain was there. Just his tousled jet-black hair and the sheer width of his shoulders identified him to me.

“Milk or cream?” Carly asked as though everything in the world was perfectly normal.

“Er, milk please,” I said, my voice a whimpering squeak.

“Ah, that ref is blind,” shouted Phoenix, banging a beer onto the wooden table in front of him. He was one of the Vipers’ longest standing players and when I’d seen him and his wife at Mae and Wolf’s wedding, she’d been pregnant.

“Yeah, he’s crap,” said another player I didn’t recognize, who had long, sleek raven-colored hair pulled into a low ponytail.

“Yeah, at this rate the Islanders are gonna win.” The sound of Rick’s deep, rasping voice shot up the hairs on the back of my neck. It was as if they traitorously craved the feel of his breath breezing across them.

“Then I’ll have to whoop that loser’s hairy ass again,” Rick went on.

I watched his head tip back as he chugged on a beer.

“Ah, we’ll soon take him out,” Brick said. “Worth a trip to the sin bin to see him messed up.”

Carly pushed a mug of coffee in front of me. “Sorry,” she said, making a face. “Jets are playing the Islanders today and Brick invited the guys to watch the game.”

“No, no, that’s okay,” I said, my mouth dry and my stomach somersaulting. Shit, I was in the same damn room as him. How the hell had that happened? I’d been so busy planning on how to avoid him at the party and now here he was, at the first damn meeting. Still, at least he hadn’t seen me. He was too involved in the game. Perhaps if I quickly outlined the main aspects of the party I could slip out unnoticed and catch up with Carly over the phone. Better still, let Maddie run the whole damn thing.

“So,” Carly was saying, “we’re holding the party here, so no problem with venues being unavailable.”

I nodded and slid my butt onto a stool, angling my shoulders away from the noisy gaggle of hockey players.

“And I was thinking of a theme, Roman. I imagine everyone in costume, maybe togas, and with lots of fruit and champagne.”

I nodded. That sounded simple enough to organize.

“And maybe we could bring in a fountain. We don’t have one here, not even at the back by the pool.”

I scribbled down, Roman/Togas/Fruit/Champagne/Fountains onto the first page of her file. “I don’t know what you think, Carly, but how about having the bar and wait staff dressed as gladiators?” I suggested in a quiet voice.

“Oh, yes, that would be great.” Her eyes widened. “And I could dress up as an Empress and Brick as the Emperor. We could have crowns and everything.”

“It would work well,” I said, though I did wonder if Brick would actually agree to an Emperor’s costume and a crown. I guessed Carly would have to use her womanly powers of persuasion for that one. “The Romans were great ones for parties,” I went on, “lots of overindulgence and wild entertainment.”

But please don’t ask for lions, I prayed silently. I had enough to cope with being in the same room as my nemesis, and lions would tip my sanity over the edge.

“I don’t think we’ll have lions, though,” Carly said. “I’ve never been a big cat lover. Those teeth and claws just give me the creeps.”

Phew.

“And would you like the invitations done in both English and Latin, with the dates in Roman numerals?” My mind was racing through all the standard questions.

“Oh, yeah, great idea, and what about chariots?”

“That was a lousy result for the first period,” a deep voice boomed.

“Yeah, shit. Get me a beer, Brick,” Rick ordered.

“Get it yourself,” Brick replied.

I tensed. Thoughts of chariots fled and I reached for my coffee in the vain hope I could hide behind it if Rick came to the fridge, which was dead opposite me.

“Grab me one,” Phoenix said.

“Yeah, yeah, what did your last slave die of?” Rick muttered, his voice coming from just over my right shoulder.

“Can’t you do chariots?” Carly asked, her eyes studying mine.

“I’m not sure,” I said, wishing I had an invisibility cloak. This was soul-squirmingly embarrassing.

He was in front of me now, a mere ten feet away, tugging open the fridge door and clinking bottles together. I tried to force my gaze from the curls of hair at the nape of his neck, away from the sheer size of his deliciously broad back, from the memory of those tiny dots of blood seeping through his shirt—wounds that had been caused by my frenzied passion during those three wonderful, heart-stopping orgasms he’d just about blown my mind with.

He turned, placed the beers on the opposite side of the breakfast bar and picked up an opener. His face was relaxed, his eyes soft.

Then he saw me.

His jaw tensed and his swirling brown gaze locked on mine.

As I sucked in a breath, I saw him do the same, his chest swelling with the sharp intake of air.

“If chariots are a problem then that’s okay,” Carly was saying, “as long as we’re both there and our families are with us that’s the main thing, I just need a hand with the details. I haven’t done anything like this before.”

“I’m sure we can figure out chariots,” I said then swallowed down a lump in my throat the size of a damn coliseum.

“Oh, okay, cool.”

Tension fizzed between Rick and me like a live wire, the air above the breakfast bar sizzling with awareness and unspoken words. Finally, I tore my eyes from his.

Damn, the man is even better-looking than I remembered.

I banged down my coffee. Reached for my pen and scribbled chariots, then underlined it twice, with hard, heavy strokes. The tinny sound of the beer lids hitting granite rattled toward me and I resisted looking up at him again.

“What about food?” Carly asked. “Any thoughts?”

“Um, well.”

Come on, brain, work.

“I guess lots of fruit, like you already said, and cheese, olives and bread. And the wine could be served in ceramic pitchers, that’s how the Romans would have served it.”

“Oh, you have so many lovely ideas, Dana, I’m so happy Mae recommended you.”

I smiled a tight, forced smile.

Oh God, this is just the most nerve-jangling thing I’ve ever had to endure.

Without a word, Rick stepped past me. He didn’t pause, he just headed back to the couch, leaving a hint of his incredibly sumptuous aftershave wafting in the air, just enough to send every cell in every erogenous zone I possessed into a skittering frenzy.

“Would you like me to show you around?” Carly asked. “So you can get a feel for the size and see where to add in the chariots and fountain?”

“Yes, that’s helpful.” I grabbed my stuff. I had to get out of there before I either exploded with suppressed desire or became a boneless heap on the floor, unable to function anymore because of sheer embarrassment. But thank goodness he hadn’t said anything about our meeting in my office. That would have been mortifying in front of a client.

Chatting excitedly, Carly showed me around the opulent home she now shared with her fiancé. It had eight bedrooms, a gym, a formal living room and dining room and a pool big enough to moor several yachts in. It was incredibly tidy and ordered, and in the upper hallway I paused to admire Carly’s impressive collection of cycling medals, including the gold medal she’d won at the Beijing Olympics.

“Have you seen enough?” Carly asked as I headed toward the front door rather than going back into the kitchen. Fight-or-flight instinct had kicked in and flight had definitely won.

“Yes, thanks.” I clutched my bag, file and case. “One last thing, how many people are you thinking of inviting?”

“Probably about seventy or eighty,” Brick said, stepping into the hallway.

Carly looked up at him and her eyes softened. When he moved up tight to her side, she visibly melted against him.

“I’d like the whole team here,” he said, wrapping an arm around his fiancée and dropping a kiss to her head.

Carly looked like the cat who’d gotten the cream. “Not many on my side to invite,” she said. “But the team will all bring their wives and girlfriends so it will be a good excuse for us girls to get together.”

“Sounds great.” I forced a smile. My feet were twitching to get out of there, away from the one man who could make me forget my own name. “I’ll be in touch over the next couple of days, once I’ve got the first arrangements in order.”

“Perfect, and again, thank you for taking the job on at short notice,” Carly said. “We want to celebrate with everyone while we’re still so excited about it.”

“I understand.” I stepped out of the air-conditioning into the sunshine. “Goodbye, it was a pleasure to meet you both.”

The door shut behind me and I tottered across the deep gravel as fast as I could. The sun was hot but my body felt hotter. I scrabbled in my handbag, found my car keys, beeped the car to life and swung open the door.

“Why are you running?”

I spun around. Standing right behind me, looking too damn gorgeous for his own good, was Rick. He reached out and curled his fingers over the car door, effectively trapping me between it and the interior.

“I’m not running,” I said stiffly.

“I’ve never seen anyone race that quickly across gravel in heels before.”

“I’m in a rush.” I tugged at the door. It didn’t move. “Please, I have to go.”

“I want to know why you didn’t say hi back there?”

“Why didn’t you?”

“I asked you first.”

“I-I wasn’t sure if you’d want me to, after, you know…”

“After I made you scream my name just like I’d predicted.” His mouth twitched into a cocky grin but his eyes held a hint of irritation.

“Don’t be so vulgar.”

“As vulgar as scarring me for life,” he huffed and his grin dropped. “The guys gave me seven shades of shit for those damn scratch marks when they spotted them in the locker room. They wanted to know what wild thing had attacked me.”

Wild thing?

 Well, I guess that was how I’d behaved, I deserved that one. “I said I was sorry. But you shouldn’t have pushed me.”

“I pushed you? It was the other way around, it was you who kissed me first.”

I studied his mouth, so damn kissable, so sensuous. Bad Dana reared her head and wondered just what else he could do with that clever tongue and those soft lips. Bad Dana reckoned he’d be wickedly ruthless and disgracefully talented at doing sinful things with that mouth.

“So when you gonna call me?” he asked, his other hand resting on the roof of my car and his wide body hedging me in all the more. He appeared to be in no rush to let me go anytime soon.

“Rick, I was honest with you.” My heart was thudding so fast I feared for its ability to sustain the rate. “I said it had been a mistake and that’s still how I view it. Nothing has changed.”

“I think it will.”

“No, it won’t, so go find some other woman to stalk.”

He flinched as if I’d slapped him, hard. His eyes narrowed and he let go of the car, took a step back.

“I’m sorry,” I said, “but please. I have to go.” I dropped into the driver’s seat with my file, laptop and purse balanced on my lap. As I grasped for the door, my purse slipped and the contents slid out across my lap and onto the gravel.

“Shit,” I muttered, reaching desperately for my wallet, a lipstick and my sunglasses.

“Here,” Rick said, passing me a hairbrush and a packet of mints.

My fingertips brushed his palm and the heated texture of his skin infused into mine. I pulled my hand away as if I’d been burned. I didn’t want to remember how good it was to touch him.

I slammed the door and gnawed at the inside of my cheek. Whacked the car into drive and tore down the gravel driveway, relieved to see the gates swinging open when I reached them. Within minutes I was flying down the freeway leaving bad Dana and a far too tempting hockey captain behind.

 

 

I arrived home exhausted and emotionally wrung out. Dropping my stuff on the kitchen table, I stripped and leaped into the shower. The water was soothing on my buzzing body and washed away the sticky heat of the day. But what it didn’t do, couldn’t do, was quell the desire I felt whenever that man was around.

How come I’d resisted so many others over the last two years without batting an eyelid, with barely an ounce of effort, yet he had me stuttering and squirming? Five seconds of his company and I was looking at his mouth and imagining sitting on his face. Whenever he was within five feet of me I was drawn toward his muscular body, wanting it hard and heavy over me all over again.

Damn!

I shampooed and conditioned my hair, then filled my palm with nectarine shower gel. Soaping my flesh, my fingers ran over my thighs and through my fuzz of black pubic hair. Tipping my face to the blasting water, I remembered his thick cock penetrating me—so rigid, so wide, so damn good. I slipped my fingers through my soft folds, searched out my entrance and pushed in.

“Rick,” I mumbled into the water, sampling his name once more on my tongue. “Rick.” But my fingers weren’t enough. They weren’t big enough, they weren’t him. I reached out and flattened my other palm against the tiles of the shower cubicle, then withdrew and circled my clitoris, giving in to the swollen nub, which demanded attention.

I dropped my neck down, let the water run like a veil over my head and shoulders, and brought myself to a swift, sharp climax. It left me panting and my legs like Jell-O, and I stepped from the shower clinging to the side of the cubicle.

Sitting on a chair for a moment, I twisted my hair up into a towel and tightened another around my body, tucking it securely at my cleavage, then left the steam-filled bathroom.

Heading toward the kitchen, I heard the doorbell chime.

I paused. Who could it be? It was still light outside. Perhaps it was kids selling cookies. Ignoring it, I went into the kitchen and flicked on the kettle.

The bell rang again, then a third time. I clicked my tongue in irritation and padded barefoot back into the hallway.

Not bothering to check the peephole, I pulled open the door.

My heart nearly gave out.

Standing on my porch was two hundred pounds of hot, hard hockey player wearing an expression of grim determination.

Oh my God. Seconds ago I’d been masturbating and gasping his name.

“You dropped this,” he said, a muscle jumping in his jaw as he handed me my driver’s license.

Shock clogged my throat. Oh shit, now he knew where I lived and he was standing here, on my doorstep, looking like a perfect slice of heaven all wrapped up in muscle.

He was my worst nightmare from hell!

I took the license in one hand and rested the other on my bare throat, trying to slow the pounding of my heart. “Thanks,” I managed. “But you could have just mailed it.”

“I was coming this way.”

“Oh, well…thanks.” I started to shut the door. This couldn’t be happening. Rick “Ramrod” Lewis could not be just passing my way.

Suddenly he wedged his big black sneaker between the door and frame. It halted my progress of shutting it.

“I’m not stalking you,” he said, peering through the gap.

I pulled the door open a fraction. “I know.”

“But I’m not leaving.” There was a stubborn set to his jaw and fire in his eyes.

“You’re not?” I glanced down at his foot, halfway over the threshold.

“No, not until you agree to go out on a date, damn it. Not sex, not marriage, just one lousy date. Come on, Dana, just say yes already.” His voice dropped, low and persuasive, and his gaze locked on mine. “You know you want to.”

I stared at him, he stared back. For a few moments we were like two combatants preparing for battle.

“Why is it so important?” I asked eventually.

“I dunno, I just…” He shrugged, smiled and produced those damn cute dimples. “I guess I just wanna get to know what makes Dana Wilcox, event organizer, tick. And you gotta eat sometime, even if you are tiny.”

It was the dimples that did it, that and the testosterone, neat, pouring into my house through the crack in the doorway. “Okay,” I said, unable to hold back a frown. “I can do tomorrow night, but no funny business. Dinner and then home, my home, me, alone.”

A tidal wave of satisfaction washed over his face. “You got it, wild thing,” he said with a wink. “I’ll pick you up at eight.”

 

*****

 

Cutting it fine as always, I was ready at one minute to eight, just as my doorbell chimed. Brushing an invisible crumb from my black pants, I slipped into silver heels and reached for my purse, a sequined creation that matched the metallic silver vest top I was wearing.

“Hi, wild thing,” Rick said with a grin when I opened the door.

“Don’t call me that.”

He made a contrite face, though there was no remorse in his eyes. “Okay.”

I locked up and stepped down from the porch, slotting my keys into my purse. He pressed his hand into the small of my back and we walked swiftly to a huge white Lexus with blacked-out rear windows.

“You hungry?” he asked.

“Yes, I skipped lunch.”

“That’s not healthy.” He pulled keys from his jeans pocket.

I shrugged. “I was busy.”

“You should still take care of yourself.” He opened the car door and I climbed in.

“Where are we going?” I asked as he settled his bulk behind the steering wheel then moved into the traffic. The scent of his aftershave filled my lungs. It was divine, addictive, like a drug I was craving after just one hit.

“My place.”

“You own a restaurant?”

He laughed, a deep rumble of a sound. “No, to my house. I’m going to cook for you.”

“But I said dinner and then home, remember? That was the deal.”

“Yeah, I remember how I had to twist your arm to get one measly date and that’s what you’ll get, dinner and home.”

“I kind of meant out, in a public place.”

He glanced across at me, the tendons of his wide neck stretching at the neckline of his pale blue T-shirt. “I’m not having much luck on the, er…privacy front at the moment.”

“You mean photographers and that?”

“Yeah, and that.” He turned back to the road. “It’s not a fun part of the job and I don’t want you to have to worry about it. I did promise not to sully your reputation.”

I tensed my fingers around my purse. My reputation in my own mind had been sullied when I’d grabbed him and ordered him to kiss me. The second I’d wrapped my legs around his hips and told him to fuck me, it had been shot to hell.

“You like sea bass?” he asked suddenly.

“Yeah, sure.”

“Good, I’m using you as a guinea pig. I’ve got a new recipe to try out.”

 

 

Rick’s house was even more lavish than Brick and Carly’s, the outside walls higher and the gates heavier and topped with spikes. He opened them with a remote control then paused and watched in the rearview mirror as they shut behind us.

“You lived here long?” I asked as he started toward a stately house complete with pillars and giant bay windows.

“A couple of years now.”

“It’s nice.”

“Yeah, it is.” He brought the car to a halt. “But it’s big for one. I rattle around.” He got out of the car and within several fast paces was at my door, opening it and holding out a hand for me.

I hesitated, I knew how tempting his flesh was, the calluses on his palms only adding to the masculine appeal of him. High on his scent and my ears flooded with his voice, my senses were rapidly becoming drunk on him, and that was after just a car ride. How the hell was I going to keep bad Dana in check for a whole evening?

“Dana,” he said, cocking his head. “I promise I’ll take you home whenever you ask and I appreciate that you’ve trusted me enough to come to my house on a, you know, first date.”

“I didn’t have much choice.”

“Yeah, you did and you know it.” He took my hand and tugged. “Come on, I’ll show you around before I start cooking.”

I allowed him to lead me up the wide steps. He unlocked the door and immediately an ear-splitting bleeping rang out.

“Hang on,” he said, flipping open an alarm system box just into the hallway. He tapped numbers into it and studied the screen.

I looked around at the sheer opulence of the hallway. A sweeping staircase split in two at the landing, the railings white and the banisters gold. A huge chandelier hung in the center of a glass-domed ceiling. To my left was a stunning picture of Miami, the art- deco buildings bright and citrusy.

“Wow,” I said, taking in a decorative white and turquoise chaise to my right.

The bleeping stopped and he shut the front door behind me, flicking the lock. “This way.” He turned and walked over a cream rug.

I followed, my attention suddenly drawn to his expansive shoulders. The pale blue material of his T-shirt stretched between the points of his scapula. The round balls of his shoulders sloped down into his thick biceps, the insides of which brushed dense strips of tapered lateral muscles thinning toward his lean waist. He was so big and I knew he was all solid and honed to perfection beneath his clothes. Not an ounce of fat on him, just lean, highly trained athlete, designed to go the distance.

“Kitchen,” he said, flicking a hand to his right but walking past the open door. I glanced in. It was all white with black work surfaces. Several blood-red kitchen appliances were dotted around.

“Living room.” He gestured in the opposite direction, not pausing.

I had a sweeping look as I rushed to keep up with his long strides. The living room was enormous and set with formal furniture and a giant fireplace.

“You have great taste in décor,” I said to his back.

“Don’t be fooled,” he said. “I have a designer. I leave him to it.”

“I see.”

“Entertainment room.” He paused and I stopped next to him, blew out a breath. He had his own damn screening room. No not screening room, it was more like a cinema— several rows of plush chairs in front of a massive screen set back on a stage complete with thick scarlet drapes. There was even a popcorn stand in the corner.

“If you’d agreed to a movie, you would have had a private showing of your favorite,” he said, grinning down at me.

I folded my arms across my chest and wondered how that would have gone. My favorite movie was 9 1/2 Weeks.

“Pool,” he said, suddenly turning away. “You like to swim?”

“Er, yes, sure.”

Once again I followed behind him. He unlocked another door and as we wandered down a corridor, the scent of chlorine filled the air.

I stopped in my tracks. A pool so over-the-top, so extravagant was set before me. It was actually two huge pools joined by a waterfall. The sides were irregular and lush vegetation grew amongst smooth brown rocks. To the right of the top pool a spa bubbled away, splashing and boiling onto the slate-gray flooring. The whole place was enclosed with thin wire mesh and the last of the sun filtered through, dappling the water and casting long shadows at my feet.

“Wow,” I said. “Your pool is bigger than the entire floor plan of my place.”

He stooped to pick up a white towel lying on the ground, tossed it toward a wicker basket. “Yeah, it’s big, but not much good for fitness. It’s more for lounging around in, mucking about in. I use the gym in the basement for training when I’m not at the rink.”

Suddenly my stomach let out an ear-splitting growl. I clutched my hand to my abdomen. “Oh boy, I’m sorry.”

“No, I’m sorry. I should feed you. I asked you to dinner and you’re having a house tour when you’re starving.” He slotted his hand into the small of my back once more and urged me back toward the kitchen.

“Sit,” he said, dragging out one of the scarlet breakfast stools. “Wine?”

“Yes, please.”

He reached into a glass-fronted fridge and pulled out a bottle. “Chardonnay okay?”

“Perfect.” I locked my fingers together. The marble surface was cool on my forearms as I leaned forward and watched him uncork and pour.

He set the drink before me, popped a beer for himself and tied a blue-striped apron at his waist.

“You like to cook?” I asked.

“Yeah, when I have someone to cook for.” He frowned. “That came out wrong. I’m not trying to make you feel sorry for me. I have plenty of people to cook for. With three older sisters and two younger brothers, there is always a pile of relatives with hungry mouths. I’ve got three nieces and four nephews all under the age of fourteen. It can get pretty wild in the pool when they all come around.”

“Wow, I can imagine.”

“They haven’t visited for a while, though.” He took two fillets of bass out of the fridge.

“Oh, why is that?” I took a sip of the deliciously oaky Chardonnay.

His lips flattened and his eyebrows dropped low. “I guess I should tell you.”

“Tell me what?”

He spun back to the fridge and deposited dill and cream onto the counter. “The reason I couldn’t take you to a restaurant tonight is more serious than paparazzi.”

“Oh?”

“I’m having some problems with a woman.”

A woman! Why the hell has he invited me here if there is already a woman in his life?

 I swallowed another mouthful of wine, but for some reason it tasted a little bitter now.

“Her name is Laurie Sharp, she’s twenty-eight and I slept with her once, a year ago.” He rubbed at the patch of hair beneath his bottom lip. “There’s nothing between us anymore.”

“So why are you telling me this?”

“Because she has it in her head that I owe her something, like marriage, kids, a picket-fucking-fence.”

“After a one-night stand?”

His face darkened. “Yeah, after a damn one-night stand, only she doesn’t think of it as that, she thinks I’m in love with her but just don’t know it.”

“Are you in love with her?”

“Fuck, no.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Were you mean to her?”

“No.” He paused. “I gave her a damn good night, she was flying high and it was obviously very memorable for her.” He shrugged. “It just wasn’t for me.”

“Did you let her down gently?”

“If you count never calling as being let down gently.”

“Did you say you would call?”

“I asked for her number.”

“So why did you ask for it?”

“It seemed polite.”

I wrinkled my nose. “If she was expecting a call and you didn’t, that’s classed as mean.”

He shrugged and tipped the fish into a sizzling pan. “I know, hindsight and all that.”

I watched the sleeves of his T-shirt tighten on his upper arms as he shook the pan over the heat and reached for a chopping board.

“I thought she was in it for the same thing as me,” he said, “one night of fun, sharing sweat. But we were on different wavelengths, very different wavelengths.”

“So what’s the problem now?”

“The problem now is she’s broken three restraining orders, been caught loitering around my house over two dozen times in the last four months, and sent me a ton of letters ranging from sweet and needy to downright threatening.”

I twirled the stem of my glass and watched the gold-tinted liquid swirl up the sides. “Has she ever gotten inside the grounds of your home?”

His gaze harnessed mine. “No, and if she had I wouldn’t have you here.”

“So why no niece and nephew visits if there isn’t a problem?”

“My sisters are wary. I come from an ordinary family, grew up in a small town in South Carolina. They’re more comfortable with the life they know. Fame and fortune is a novelty they want to dip in and out of when the going is good. When it doesn’t suit them they stay away.”

“You okay with that?”

“More than okay. I would rather they weren’t coming and going if she’s outside.” He began to stir the sauce he was making and put the fish back on the heat. “You like bulgur wheat?”

“Sure.” He paused and glugged on his beer.

“So Laurie Sharp is the reason you didn’t take me to a restaurant?”

He sighed. “You probably think I’m letting her win but it’s not like that.” He reached across and rested his index finger on the back of my hand. “I just wouldn’t want to risk you, or any woman I’d asked to spend time with me, and I don’t see why I should stop doing that just because of her warped ideas.”

I stared at his thick wrist, hard tendons over bone and skin fuzzed with dark hairs. A dart of sensation shot up my arm at his gentle touch. “Do you think she’s a physical threat to you?”

“She might be.”

I tipped my head, my gaze urging him to go on.

He frowned. “When the police picked her up outside the rink last week she had a gun in her purse.”