She Who Dares, Wins

by Candace Havens

  She didn’t know what kind of game he was playing, but he was up to something. When he’d said he wanted to sleep with her, her traitorous body had gone hot with need. Obviously she had the same kind of effect on him that he had on her. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, the idea gave her a small amount of satisfaction.

  Katie tried to focus on her breathing. This workout hadn’t been the worst idea in the world. She usually spent an hour and a half a day in the gym or running. When she didn’t work out, her body and mind felt sluggish. The run would help her stay alert on the job. It was also helping to get rid of some of the sexual tension that had crept up her shoulders when the professor was near.

  Why did she have to lust after the one guy she couldn’t have?

  The man orgasmed you to Shangri-la and that’s hard to forget.

  Damn, Katie. Focus.

  She chanced a glance to her left. The professor had hit mile three and had barely broken a sweat. Sensing she was looking at him, he turned his head and she became very interested in whatever was happening on the television.

  One of the attendants walked up to her treadmill. “Excuse me, Ms. McClure. There’s a call for you. Would you like to take it here? Or we have a private room to the left.”

  Katie slowed down. Who would be calling her here? She took the phone from him.

  “Hello?”

  “Mom, I’ve got her.”

  “Daniel?”

  It was her brother. She could hear him talking to their mother before he could answer.

  “Young lady, why aren’t you answering your phone? I’ve been calling you for two days.”

  Katie sighed. Would she ever really get away from these people? “Hi, Mom, so nice of you to call.”

  There was a long silence on the other end of the phone.

  “I’m out of the country on business, and I had a problem with my phone.”

  “And you couldn’t call from another phone to let me know you arrived safely? Dear God, Katie, it was your first trip out of the country. Until you moved down south—goodness, I’ll never know why—you’d never been out of the Bronx. Now you’re Miss High and Mighty traveling the world, can’t be bothered to call her mother.”

  “Ma, it isn’t like that. I was—” She glanced over to find Mac watching her with amusement. Great, and she’d been lecturing him about how professional she was. Katie stopped the treadmill and walked around the corner. She wanted to keep an eye on the professor, since it was her job, but he didn’t need to hear this particular conversation.

  “Mom, you have to understand that when I’m working like this, I won’t always have access to the phone. How did you find me here?”

  “Why are you so out of breath? Were you chasing someone?” Her mother ignored the question. Knowing her family, they’d probably called the office when they couldn’t get in touch with her. They were persistent if nothing else.

  “No, I’m in the gym.” As soon as she said it, she knew she’d made a mistake. She hit herself on the forehead with the phone, still able to hear her mother’s rant.

  “Oh, you have time to work out, but you can’t let me know your plane didn’t crash or that you hadn’t been mugged.”

  “Mom, I’m a big girl and I can take care of myself. And honestly, the day a mugger gets the best of me—well, hell, he deserves my money.”

  Her mother sighed loudly on the other end. “Uncle Walter is sick again. Danny’s taking him down to see that new young Dr. Ross. I want you to meet him when you come visit us.”

  The tongue-lashing was over and they’d moved on. She’d have to hear about everyone in the neighborhood. That part she really didn’t mind so much. She missed her friends, the bar and, yes, even her family. Sometimes. This was not one of those times.

  Every conversation she had with her mother these days began with a complaint about Katie leaving the family, and then it moved on to the young men she needed to meet. And it always finished with a good dose of if-you-never-meet-a-man-I’ll-never-have-grandchildren guilt. Her mother was a good old-fashioned Italian woman and had it in her head that if Katie could meet a nice young man in the Bronx, she’d want to come home. Her dad, who had given her the Irish surname McClure, supported her decision to follow her career.

  There was no way her mother would ever understand. Being the only girl in the McClure family came with the burden of procreation. Her brothers could run around and date as many women as they liked without getting serious and no on ever said a word. Katie didn’t like the double standard.

  Peeking around the corner, she checked on Mac, who was continuing his run. Hell, she had met a man. One who turned her inside out and made her body ache with need for him.

  She’d certainly never met anyone like Mac in the Bronx. Katie loved the place, but she had no desire to return. Her life in Texas was far from perfect, but it was her own. Well, except for these daily phone calls, which even a dead phone couldn’t keep away.

  “If you work all the time, you’re never going to meet a nice boy—Katie, are you listening to me?”

  “Yes, Mom.”

  “Now, like I was telling you…”

  The professor had finished his workout on the treadmill and moved to the weights. She watched as he lifted the weights over his head, the muscles so strong. Tensing, taut and powerful.

  Her mother had paused, and Katie realized she hadn’t been listening. “Uh-huh,” she said, hoping that would suffice.

  Her mother’s prattling went on, but at the mention of the pub she paid attention again. “Your GJ threatened to sell the pub if your dad didn’t start taking care of himself.”

  “Wait, what? What happened to Pops?” She and her father didn’t always see eye to eye on the choices Katie made in her life, but they loved each other. There wasn’t anything she wouldn’t do for the man. She’d been Daddy’s little girl, until she turned sixteen and decided she had a mind of her own.

  “That’s what I was telling you. He had a small episode and the doctors are worried about his heart. That’s how we met that cute young Italian doctor I want you to meet. That man will have beautiful children, I tell you.”

  Katie rolled her eyes. “Mom, focus. What did they say about Pops’s heart? Why didn’t you say that in the beginning?”

  “Angina. Said he has to cut the fat out of his diet. The doctor gave me a list of the foods he can eat, and I’m trying to figure out how to make his favorites healthier. It’s not easy, mind you. Using lean turkey instead of sausage and beef to make lasagna is unnatural, but I’m doing my best.”

  Her dad was sick. Katie’s big fear when she took the job in Texas was that as soon as she moved away something bad would happen to someone in her family. If GJ was upset, that meant Pops hadn’t slowed down his schedule at the pub. He had plenty of help, but he was a man who liked to do things himself. He never leaned on anyone, and he was the strongest man she’d ever met—well, besides GJ. They were cut from the same mold, those two.

  “Is he there?”

  “Your father’s resting. GJ insisted between one and four every day your father take a siesta. Of course it leaves me with three hours of walking around on eggshells while he sleeps. Don’t know how I’m supposed to cook without clanking pans around.”

  Katie took a deep breath. “Maybe you could do some of the cooking down in the pub kitchen,” she offered. “You always liked those ovens better anyway.”

  “Good idea, Katie girl.”

  Finally, some praise.

  The professor had finished his workout and was headed toward her.

  “Mom, I’ve got to go. I have a meeting in a half hour and I need to get a shower.”

  “Fine,” her mother huffed. “But you call me or text Danny when you get your phone fixed so I know you’re okay.”

  “I promise. Give my love to everyone.”

  She hit the off button on the hotel phone.

  “Is everything okay?” The professor’s T-shirt clung to those hard ab muscles she’d explo
red the night before. He had that sexy, earthy smell of a man who had just done something physical. “You looked worried for a moment.”

  “Fine. My mom was concerned because she couldn’t get in touch with me, and my pop had some kind of angina attack.”

  “Is he doing okay?”

  Katie pursed her lips. “The doctors want him to change his diet, which is going to be difficult with the way my mom cooks. She’s hard-core Italian, but it sounds like she’s adjusting. I can’t believe she found me here.”

  “No matter how far we go, we can never get away from our moms. Mine calls every three days like clockwork. She worries I’m not eating right and sends a giant box of food each month, most of which I end up leaving in the faculty lounge at school because I could never eat it all.”

  “So, what’s next on the agenda?” She reached for a towel from the basket and wrapped it around her neck. “Do you need to get back to the lab, since you left early?”

  “Dinner. I don’t know about you, but after that workout I’m starving.”

  Katie could most definitely eat. She’d skipped lunch and had only half a muffin with Mac in the cafeteria earlier in the day.

  “I hope you don’t mind, but I took the liberty of ordering in room service.” He glanced at his watch. “We have about an hour before it arrives, just enough time to get cleaned up.”

  The man was just full of surprises.

  “When did you do that?”

  “While you were changing to come downstairs,” he answered.

  Katie’s eyebrow rose. Still, it would be easier to keep an eye on him in her room, and she did have that huge dining area in the suite. There was no harm in sharing a meal in her room, and it was safer than a restaurant, where she’d constantly have to search for suspicious behavior.

  “Fine.”

  He gave her a wicked smile.

  Yes, the man was most definitely dangerous.

  7

  AT THE DINING TABLE in her suite, Mac watched as Katie eyed the last roll in the breadbasket. Knowing how hard she worked out, he’d bet she was thinking about how many miles it would take to run it off. As far as he was concerned, she didn’t need to worry about it. The woman was perfect, from her perky breasts to her slim legs that made her look much taller than her five-foot-three frame. Several times during their workout he’d had to think about cold showers and complex equations to keep his pants from tenting.

  In the shower afterward, she filled his mind. More than anything he wanted her with him, the warm water sluicing over their bodies as he pounded her against the glass wall.

  Cold showers. Complex equations.

  He forced himself to think about the two things so he could bring himself under control. At least he had the table to hide the tent this time.

  This randy teen behavior wasn’t like him. Boners like this hadn’t happened since his crush on Mrs. Sullivan, his eighth-grade environmental science teacher. Ah, Mrs. Sullivan and her sweater sets. He hadn’t thought of her in years.

  Mac’s plan to throw his bodyguard off-kilter had worked so far. She’d relaxed during their meal. Steering the conversation to music and movies, he’d discovered they liked many of the same things. Though she certainly had a propensity for violent films. Katie’s choices were more along the line of psychotics on killing sprees. Unusual, since she’d been a cop for so many years.

  That was the thing about her. She constantly surprised him. On the outside she was a beautiful pint-size pixie, but there was an innate toughness about her. Growing up with the two brothers she’d talked about probably had something to do with that, but there was more. He’d guess she’d been born with a tough shell, one that would be difficult to crack.

  While he wouldn’t manipulate her, he knew he had to keep her off guard. Otherwise, she would never give him a chance.

  “You should take it.” He motioned to the roll. “That way I can eat the rest of the trifle without feeling guilty.” She smiled up at him as if he’d given her a gift, and took the roll.

  Then she glanced at her watch. “I should get you back to your apartment.”

  He shrugged. “Why don’t I just stay here?”

  She folded her arms across her chest. “I wondered when you would get back to that. I’ve told you more than once, it’s not happening again.”

  “What’s not happening?” He played dumb so she would be forced to say it.

  “Sex.” Her eyebrow rose as she said it.

  He had to bite back a smile. Clearing his throat, he put his napkin back on the table. “I understand the word no, Katie. I wasn’t suggesting sex. There are two bedrooms, and I thought I’d take the one you weren’t using. In case you hadn’t noticed, there’s a blizzard outside.” He pointed at the window and the twirling mass of white beyond. “I doubt taxis are even running tonight.”

  Turning in her chair, she glanced out. “Crap, when did that start?”

  About a minute before he’d suggested they work out. The longer he stalled the worse the weather got. Before he’d left the lab he’d made sure his greenhouses were protected against what the forecasters were calling the worst blizzard in years. That’s when he’d hatched his plan. He had a feeling if she came back to his apartment she’d feel too on guard. In her hotel room, she was on her turf. He’d taken the blizzard as a sign from the universe that he and Katie were meant to be together. Well, he knew that was stretching the truth, but he wanted to be close to her again and the snow was a legitimate reason to stay.

  Katie stood and glared out the window. “I didn’t know you had blizzards here.”

  Mac stood beside her and watched the massive white flakes float to the ground. “Honestly, it doesn’t happen that often, but I’ve seen it shut the city down. Most of the time we just get a lot of cold drizzle, but the weather here is mercurial at best.”

  Her arms were still folded against her chest. “Well, it seems silly to try and go out in this,” she said finally. “We can’t risk getting stuck somewhere. Take the spare room. Do you have everything you need? I can run downstairs to the desk or see of they have a gift shop if you need something.”

  Mac had brought the bag he kept at the office, which was packed with a change of clothes and all his toiletries. The bag was so that he could leave at a moment’s notice if something came up in one of his other labs, which were stationed around the world. He had greenhouses on four continents and he never knew when one of his experiments might need his attention.

  His plants were important for the study of sustainable crops that some day could possibly prevent starvation as a result of droughts.

  “I’m covered, thanks. Though I would like to send my clothes I wore today to the valet to have them washed and pressed. The same with the workout clothes, in case we are stuck here tomorrow.”

  That was a very good possibility. Mac had made sure of it.

  “What?”

  He walked to the television and flipped it on. “We should probably watch the news to see what they say.”

  “A winter storm warning is in effect for the next twenty-four hours…” stated the broadcaster.

  Mac tried to look serious. “Now, that is unusual. They haven’t had a storm like this in years.”

  “Kind of like back home,” Katie murmured as she left his side. “It’s cold and wet in the city during the winter, but we don’t usually get much snow. If we do, it’s usually a light dusting.”

  Mac nodded. “I grew up in SoCal, and we didn’t get much snow, unless we went north into the mountains. I’m still kind of a kid when it comes to the white stuff. And the university will probably call a snow day. They are a cautious bunch. They won’t want to risk faculty and students slipping on ice.”

  “Damn,” Katie said as she sat down on the sofa.

  “Why are you upset? It’s just snow.”

  “I need to meet with the dean, and I wanted to interview some of your colleagues on the list he sent over. This will put us behind another day.”

  Mac
appreciated she had his best interests at heart. “That is tough. I know you’re anxious to get back home.”

  If he hadn’t been watching her closely, he wouldn’t have noticed the change in her eyes. She wasn’t ready to go home yet, but he had no idea why.

  Hmm, yet another piece of the Katie puzzle.

  “Well, since you’ll have plenty of time to work tomorrow, would you like to watch a movie, or check out what’s on TV? They have some great shows here, though much like home, weather like this will probably take precedence.”

  Katie tucked her feet under her. “Do you want to see if they have an action film? Maybe they’ll have one we both haven’t seen.”

  Mac picked up the remote with a big smile on his face. “Let’s find out.”

  KATIE’S EVENING WITH MAC had ended up being relaxing. They’d watched last year’s Dade McClain film and talked through it, just as she did with her family, making comments about the ludicrous stunts that would have killed any real-life cop. At the end, he’d yawned and said he was tired and had gone off to the bathroom. Only stopping to kiss her lightly on the cheek and telling her that he’d had a great evening.

  As if they’d been on a date.

  They’d had dinner and watched a movie.

  It had been a date.

  She laughed. She’d fallen straight into his trap. That man.

  She had every right to call him on his tactics, but that was probably part of his plan.

  When he brought his clothes out for her to give to the valet, all he’d worn was a towel. It was if he wanted her to know that he would be lying naked just a few feet away from her bedroom.

  Katie was quite certain showing off the man’s abs was against some kind of law. No scientist should ever look that hot. They were supposed to be flabby and old.

  Mac was neither.

  Thinking of him made her tight with need.

  This had to stop. She couldn’t focus on protecting him if all she thought about was sex.

  And there you go.