By the time Natalie heard about the bachelor auction and saw Jonah’s name on the list, she was desperate. But she had to tread carefully. Her mother’s budding idea was in a very tender stage, and if Jonah wasn’t the sort of man to treat it with respect, then Natalie had just wasted thirty-three thousand dollars. But she mustn’t think about that, or she’d run screaming from the ballroom. She’d take their weekend together to become acquainted with Jonah and find out if he was indeed the man her mother needed to bring this project to completion and end her long period of depression.
As Jonah was introduced to Natalie, he looked as if he’d seen a ghost, and not a very appealing one, either. That warmth she remembered in his brown eyes was gone. Well, he’d just been through a bit of an ordeal. A Lone Ranger type who’d run away after performing his heroic deed probably wasn’t crazy about standing on a stage and being auctioned off like hamburger on the hoof.
She’d do her best to put him at ease, which would take her mind off the enormous amount of money she’d just pledged to this charity event. In the past she’d been conservative with her own investments, but that strategy might have to change if she wanted to recoup some of what she’d spent tonight.
She smiled brightly at him. “It’s good to see you again, Jonah.”
“Are you crazy?” The words tumbled out as if he couldn’t stop them. “I’m not worth thirty-three grand!”
The other women at the table giggled and Natalie felt the heat climb to her cheeks. She glanced significantly toward the television camera trained on both of them. “Why don’t we discuss that later? After the commotion dies down.”
He followed the direction of her glance. “Good idea.” He pulled out his chair and sat down.
A female reporter shoved a microphone toward them. “Would you comment on how it feels being reunited after that dramatic rescue in January?”
“I’m pleased to be able to thank Jonah in person for saving my dog,” Natalie said.
“Thirty-three thousand is a heck of a lot of gratitude,” the reporter said. “Do I sense a budding romance between you two?”
“Absolutely not,” Jonah said. “We both believe in the cause of literacy, and this is a good way to support it. Now, I don’t want to tell you how to do your job, but I heard backstage that the guy who’s up next is the love child of Elvis and Marilyn.”
“You know, I heard that rumor, too.” Natalie kept her expression serious.
The reporter snatched up a program from the table and consulted it. “The guy’s only listed as a member of the Heart Books’ sales force.”
Jonah shrugged. “You should hear his version of Love Me Tender. But it’s up to you. I could be wrong.”
The reporter sighed. “And you could be right. I’ve been in this business long enough to know truth is stranger than fiction. Thanks for your time.” She signaled to her cameraman and started toward the front of the ballroom.
Jonah glanced at Natalie. “Thanks for the help.”
“You’re welcome.” Natalie could tell he’d relaxed some, because as tightly as he was wedged in next to her, she could feel his tense muscles loosen as he leaned back in the chair. He had the most muscled body she’d been wedged against in some time, and to her surprise she liked it. She hadn’t thought muscles mattered to her, but Jonah’s physique was a definite turn-on.
Her mother should make sure to describe his muscles in the book, Natalie thought. In fact, she wondered if her mother had enough experience to imagine a love scene with a guy like this. Natalie’s father had looked more like Woody Allen than Arnold Schwarzenegger. Natalie had been reading a few of the romances Heart Books published, and the men weren’t built like Woody Allen. They were built like…Jonah.
“Is that guy really Elvis and Marilyn’s kid?” asked one of the women at the table.
Jonah’s expression remained serious. “You never know.”
“You were just trying to get rid of the reporter, weren’t you?” asked another. “I’ve been watching you. You don’t like the spotlight, do you?”
“Not much.”
“That’s why you’d be so perfect for my Janice.” A third woman whipped a picture out of her wallet and shoved it across the table. “Her phone number’s on the back. She’s a wonderful—”
“You know,” Barb said, “I’ll bet Natalie and Jonah need to get a few things settled. Why don’t we excuse them a moment so they can do that?”
“Well, of course.” The woman edged the picture closer to Jonah. “But if you’d just take that with you.”
“I’ll be glad to. You must be very proud of her.” Jonah took the picture and put it in his pocket.
“Oh, I am.”
“We’ll just slip out to the lobby for a minute.” Jonah extricated himself from the close quarters and helped Natalie with her chair.
“You won’t be back,” said the woman who’d given him the picture. “I saw the way you skedaddled out of the park when they tried to interview you after the puppy rescue. I admire modesty in a man. Just don’t lose that picture.”
“I won’t.”
Natalie was beginning to understand what a huge problem she’d created for this guy when she lost her grip on Bobo’s leash. He might not be inclined to do her or her mother any favors, and she wouldn’t blame him. But she had to give it the old college try. She leaned down as she passed Barb’s chair. “Thanks for being my buddy tonight.”
Barb glanced up at her. “Got cab fare, toots?”
Natalie grinned. “Yeah, but I might have to start taking the bus. See you tomorrow at the office.”
Once out of the ballroom, Jonah made a beeline for the coat check. “We can talk this out in a cab, and if you want to come back, I’ll have the cab drop you. But I’m outta here.”
“I understand.” She hurried to keep up with his long strides.
“Oh, I doubt it, Natalie.”
Maybe she didn’t, Natalie thought as even the coat-check attendant fussed over Jonah. Finally they made it to the street and into a cab.
Jonah turned to her. “Where to?”
“Your place is fine.”
“Whoa. My place is not fine. You get me for the weekend of your choice, but between now and then we won’t be seeing each other socially.”
She bristled. “That isn’t what I meant. I only meant we can take the cab to your place, talk on the way, and then I’ll take the same cab to my place after I drop you off.”
“And what if I don’t want you to know where I live?”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake! What do you think I’m going to do, stalk you?”
He turned to face her. “I haven’t the foggiest idea what you’re going to do. I can’t even comprehend a woman plunking down thirty-three thousand dollars to spend the weekend with Mel Gibson, let alone yours truly. Therefore I have to figure that you’re a few bricks short of a load. No telling what’s up with you.”
“I wasn’t the only one! Someone bid thirty-two thousand, and before that someone bid thirty-one, and before that…well, that was me at thirty thousand, but what about the others? Are they all crazy, too?”
“Totally. And it seems to be going around. I saved a puppy, for God’s sake! You’d think I’d just deflected a comet that would have wiped out all of civilization. It’s insane the way women have reacted.”
She gazed at him in astonishment. He truly didn’t know how appealing he’d looked staggering out of the lake with Bobo in his arms. He didn’t understand that a single act had branded him as selfless, brave, sensitive and strong, besides being easy on the eyes. Maybe he didn’t realize how women everywhere longed for that combination in a man and went a little berserk when they found it.
From his perspective, she was a weirdo with far too much money for her own good. If she put herself in his place, she might have had the same thoughts. If a guy had this much attention lavished on him and hadn’t started believing his own press, he had to be something special. He might be exactly what she needed for her
mother. But first she had to get him to trust her.
“Okay,” she said. “I was only trying to save you cab fare by paying for the entire ride myself. If you would rather, we can go to my place first and then you can take the cab to wherever you live. I’ll pay for my leg, but you’ll have to pay for yours.”
“You’ve already paid thousands of dollars to be with me. You don’t have to pick up my cab fare.” He gave her a wry grin. “At least let a guy hang on to his pride.”
Oh, you’ve hung on to more than your pride, Jonah, she thought. But she didn’t speak the compliment aloud. Thinking that she was a predatory female, he would only misinterpret it. Instead she gave the driver her address and the cab pulled into traffic.
2
JONAH THOUGHT the guys at the station would get a laugh out of this one. A beautiful, rich woman had just paid thirty-three thousand dollars for the pleasure of his company and had even hinted that she’d be willing to go up to his apartment tonight. And he, being such a genius, had rejected her subtle suggestion.
The guys already thought he was nuts for turning aside all the offers that had come his way since the puppy episode, but they might look at things differently if they were walking in his size twelves. Having one or two women flirt with you was one thing. Being mobbed was something else completely.
In the past few weeks he’d become gun-shy. He expected every woman he met to make a move on him. Yet Natalie sat on her side of the cab and there was nothing predatory in her expression at all. She looked just the way he remembered her from the park, except fancier with her white fur coat, which made her look like a princess in a winter carnival.
He supposed the coat was real fur and the sparkling gems in the necklace around her slender throat were real diamonds. He’d never dated anyone who lived on Central Park West. For some reason, he hadn’t thought she lived there, even if it was perfectly logical that she would since he saw her walking her dog in Central Park every afternoon. He’d wanted to believe she came from another part of town just as he did, because the area was so beautiful.
Her scent tantalized him, and for a moment he imagined what this cab ride would be like if they’d become friends in the park and decided to go out together. He’d be sitting a hell of a lot closer than he was now, that’s for sure. Despite everything, he still got a charge looking into those wide gray eyes of hers. Her mouth intrigued him, too. He liked the fact that she used a pale lipstick that barely looked as if she had on any at all.
Considering all the money she’d paid, she probably wouldn’t object if he slid over and tasted those pale pink lips. The idea appealed to him more than a little. But he didn’t really want to go down that road, not anymore. Any woman desperate enough to spend thirty-three thousand dollars for a date had something very wrong with her. He might not see it at first, because he’d be blinded by sex, but then one night an ice pick would appear in her hand, just like with Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct. And Sharon was also a beautiful blonde, he reminded himself.
“Are you free this coming weekend?” she asked.
He jumped. “This weekend?”
“We have to pick a time to use the package, and unless you have a problem with this weekend, we may as well do it then.”
Damn, she was eager. She might look poised and serene sitting over there in her icy white fur, but she wasn’t wasting any time getting with the program. But he’d have chaperons around the whole time, so he should be relatively safe. Someone else was going to sail the expensive yacht down the Hudson, thank God, and someone else would fly the helicopter. After that they’d be at the Plaza with lots of other people. He just had to be sure she didn’t somehow get his room key.
“I guess this coming weekend would be okay.” Actually, the chief’s words had been “Take whatever time off you need.” It was a bone he was throwing Jonah’s way in exchange for making his existence a living hell.
“You think I’m absolutely insane, don’t you?” she asked.
He wondered if telling a crazy person that they were crazy was a bad idea. “It’s crossed my mind.”
“I don’t blame you.” She smiled. “I would think the same thing in your position.”
He was fascinated by her mouth. What a terrific smile she had. What a kissable mouth. He’d never made love to someone who’d gone around the bend. Maybe it would be fantastic…until they killed you or cut off something important.
“You probably won’t believe this,” she continued, “but I’m a perfectly normal woman. I’ve been wanting to tell you how grateful I am that you saved Bobo, but I couldn’t reach you. When I read about this auction, it seemed like the perfect gesture.”
“You could have sent flowers to the station, like six hundred or so other women did.”
She started to laugh. “You got six hundred bouquets?”
“About. Maybe more like six-fifty. After all the guys took them home to their wives, mothers and sweethearts, we still had some left, so we made deliveries to the nursing homes. Except I couldn’t go.”
“Why not?”
“I did the first time, but the sweet little ladies wouldn’t let me leave, and they started to cry when I finally made my way toward the door. It was too horrible. I couldn’t put myself through it again.”
She shook her head, her eyes filled with sympathy. “Bobo and I really caused a big problem for you, didn’t we?”
“You have no idea. But the whole thing was beginning to die down. People don’t stay interested forever. Then along comes this bachelor auction. Now I’m afraid it will all start up again.”
“What can I do to help?”
He almost believed she wanted to help him. Without realizing it he’d moved closer to her, drawn by her laughter and apparent understanding. “Just tell me what you want,” he said, gazing into her eyes.
“To get to know you,” she murmured in a husky voice.
When she talked in that intimate tone of voice, he couldn’t help watching her mouth and wondering what it would be like to touch those pink lips. “You paid all that money just to get to know me?”
“I had no choice. You were unreachable.”
“I know.” But she was very reachable right now, and touching her coat was like stroking a kitten. “Lots of women pretended to be you.”
“They did?”
He slid his hand back and forth along the collar of her coat. “They tried to copy your special look.”
Her mouth tipped up to his and her lips parted ever so slightly. “I don’t have a special look.”
“Yes, you do.”
“I’m just an ordinary girl.”
“I don’t think so.” He couldn’t stand it. He had to brush his mouth against hers, just once. Her lips were like velvet. He came back a second time to make sure they were really that soft. They were even softer, coaxing him to stay. He cradled the back of her head and got serious. Perfect.
Fleetingly he thought that this was probably how Sharon Stone got Michael Douglas to cooperate. Then he stopped thinking as she opened to him and his body tightened a little more with each slow exploration of his tongue. He slid his hand down the nape of her neck beneath her coat collar and stroked her warm skin. Images of running his hands all over her body played in his mind until he was short of breath and straining the fly of his tux pants.
The cabdriver cleared his throat.
Jonah released Natalie with a start. The taxi was no longer running, not that he would have noticed. He’d forgotten they were in a cab. He’d forgotten that this was the woman who had bid an enormous amount of money to chain herself to his side for the weekend. He’d forgotten she probably carried an ice pick in her garter.
Her gaze was unfocused and dreamy. “That was…very nice.”
“At the going rate, that was probably about a five-hundred-dollar kiss.”
Her dreaminess evaporated and she frowned. “Could you do me a favor and forget about the money?”
“Not likely.”
“Well, I’d
appreciate it if you’d try.” She opened the cab door and glanced over at him. “Want to come up and see Bobo? He’s grown quite a bit since that afternoon at the park.”
Lust warred with reason as he gazed longingly at her tempting mouth. “Better not.”
“Suit yourself. See you this weekend.” She handed the driver some money and got out of the cab. Then she leaned down and peeked in at Jonah. “Sure you won’t change your mind? I make a mean cup of cappuccino.”
He wanted in the worst way to go with her, because he thought they stood a good chance of making more than cappuccino if he did. But then who knew what would happen after that? Despite what she said, she was no ordinary girl. And apartments had kitchens, and kitchens had knives. “Thanks, but I have to report in early tomorrow morning,” he said.
“Okay.” With a last dazzling smile, she closed the door and walked up to the apartment entrance where a uniformed doorman tipped his hat and opened the door for her.
“Where to?” the cabbie asked.
Jonah gave him his considerably less impressive address. The cabbie blew out a breath and shook his head, obviously mystified by Jonah’s stupidity. Reflecting on that kiss as the cab pulled away, Jonah felt pretty stupid, himself. Maybe some things were worth taking a chance for.
NATALIE HAD JUST TAKEN Bobo for his early-morning walk and was putting water in the coffeepot when someone pounded on her door. The dog raced into the foyer, barking with excitement. Natalie hurried after him and looked through the peephole into the hall to make sure it was her mother standing on the other side of the door.
Sure enough, an elongated version of Alice LeBlanc was tapping a copy of the New York Times against her palm. She must have charged down in the elevator immediately after reading about Natalie’s bid because she still wore her pink chenille bathrobe, and her gray-streaked hair looked as if it had been styled with an electric mixer. Her reading glasses were perched on the end of her nose.
Single, Sexy...And Sold! Page 2