Desert Heat

by Elizabeth Reyes

  He stared at her seriously, shaking his head, taking in what she’d just told him. “I lost my mom very suddenly, too, so I can relate to it being a huge blow.”

  “Really? How?”

  She noticed a strange shift in his expression. “The small charter plane she’d taken to San Diego went down in the middle of the desert. I was just a kid, too.” Before she could offer any words of sympathy he shrugged. “But we’re on you right now, so tell me more about yourself.”

  Hating to be such a downer and that the mood had taken such a turn when they’d been having such a good time, she decided she’d tell him about her stepdad another time. In an attempt to bring the mood back to where it had been before the talk of their mothers’ deaths, she smiled, lifting her chin. “Another thing you don’t know about me is I teach Zumba classes.”

  He sat back again in his seat, taking with him the warmth of his hand against hers, but Bethany could see the relief in his eyes that the mood had changed. She definitely wasn’t telling him about her stepdad today.

  “So let me get this straight,” he said, lowering his head a bit. “You’re an intern writing for the paper, you teach Zumba, and you have your own one-woman show?”

  “And I do local theater,” she beamed proudly. “I’m playing Iona in the theater version of Pretty in Pink at the Red Sea Theater.” Remembering the speed date, she almost laughed. “That’s why I was dressed so funky that day of the speed date. I’d just come from a performance, and I hadn’t had a chance to change.”

  Both his brows lifted now. “No wonder! I meant to ask you about that. That was some bright-ass eye shadow.” She nodded in agreement until his smile fell suddenly and his face went a bit hard again. “Of course you were passing out from exhaustion. When the hell do you sleep?”

  “At night,” she said reaching for one last hush puppy. She was done. Popping the hush puppy into her mouth she smirked. “And in the library sometimes.”

  That didn’t seem to amuse him as she thought it might. “No wonder Amos was worried,” he said, very seriously now. “As much as I loved your show, I’m glad you won’t be doing it for a while.”

  Frowning, she sat back in her own seat now. “It was only one night of the week.”

  “Sweetheart, you were passing out from exhaustion. Your body can only take so much before it starts shutting down.” Looking behind her, Damian’s serious expression suddenly morphed into a sweet smile, immediately irritating Bethany, because she knew just who he was smiling at. His eyes met with Bethany’s again. “Are we done here so I can ask for the check?”

  She nodded, and he lifted his hand. Within seconds Olivia was there again, with a smile Bethany only remembered seeing this big at the speed date, from the hostess. Even then she had thought a smile that big was ridiculous. Now she found it annoying as hell.

  Just when Bethany was getting over her annoyance about the amount of attention the waitress gave Damian each time she came to their table, she came back with the check and some hard candy. “I remembered which flavor you liked from the last time you were here.” She actually twirled her stupid finger in her hair as he took it and thanked her.

  Once Damian had paid, refusing to take any money from Bethany, they got up and left. Just like everything about being with Damian, his holding out his hand for her and her taking it, as soon as she stood up, seemed like something they’d been doing for years.

  Still a little annoyed about his interaction with the waitress, Bethany snapped out of it when Damian pulled her to him as they reached the car and kissed her deeply. The watermelon flavor of the after-dinner candy that whore had given him immediately seeped into every crevice of Bethany’s mouth. Once again he left her breathless as he pulled away with a smile and opened her door.

  Their conversation on the way to the car had been mostly small talk about the food and how full they both were now. But when they got into the car, Bethany had to ask. She wasn’t being petty, just curious. The fact that Damian had called the stupid waitress “sweetheart” again when he thanked her for her service had nothing to do with it. Well maybe a little. “Do you talk to all girls the way you did to that waitress?”

  He turned to her as the corner of his lip tugged, and he adjusted his seat belt. “How’s that?”

  She shrugged, making light of it. “You called her sweetheart—twice.”

  Turning on the ignition, he seemed to ponder. “I’ve never really noticed. It’s just something I do out of habit, I guess.” Grinning as he pulled out of the parking spot, he turned to her again. “Did that bother you?”

  Never really noticed, her ass. He smiled especially widely every time he said it. Not liking that he was enjoying this, and remembering how abruptly he changed the subject when she mentioned her ex-boyfriend way back in high school feeling her up, she considered doing something a little immature. This day was slowly coming to an end, and something had definitely changed between them from the time he picked her up until now. It wasn’t like her, and considering the circumstances she knew she shouldn’t, but she had a point to make before she even considered moving forward with this. Whatever this was. Because she’d met the type of guys she was beginning to suspect Damian might be, and she was not about to go against that nagging voice in her head and take a risk, giving in to a romance with a cop—something she had believed was out of the question—with someone who wasn’t completely worth it. She’d get it straight now, before she made any rash decisions.

  “No, I was just curious. But I suppose I know what you mean by doing things out of habit, like when I’m singing I get so lost in the songs sometimes I don’t even notice how focused I can get on one particular person in the audience.”

  Smug smile obliterated—one point, Bethany.

  He stopped just before pulling out of the parking lot and turned to her. “You do that with everyone?”

  Making sure she made her point, she looked him straight in the eye. “No, Damian. I don’t. You’re the only one that’s ever happened with. It’s nice feeling special, isn’t it?”

  Chapter 10

  Perfect. She had walked right into his plan. The whole time they’d been eating, he kept trying to think of a way to ask about her relationship with Simon but thought it too soon to be going there. Even when he picked up the instant blaze in her eyes at the mention of Delfi, he still didn’t think it enough. Simon was obviously a friend of hers. One she most likely would argue was perfectly harmless. But there was no denying the guy wanted more.

  Last week Simon had grated on his nerves, and Bethany was nothing more than the beautiful girl in the show who had blown him away. Not only were things different now, but what she did to him was unreal. Damian knew himself. Even with his ex-girlfriend he’d had very little patience for friends like Simon who were just a little too friendly for his liking. He could already sense everything with Bethany would be epically heightened. So when Damian thought he’d picked up on what might be construed as restrained irritation on Bethany’s part at the extra attention Olivia was giving him, he took it up a notch in hopes that she might mention it.

  Olivia’s remembering what his favorite flavor candy was from the last time he’d been there couldn’t have been better timed. That sexy little eyebrow of Bethany’s shooting straight up, even though she’d looked away, had pretty much confirmed that he’d secured what he’d been going for. The only bad thing was, he was pretty sure that if things worked out as he was hoping they would, he and Bethany wouldn’t be coming back here very often, if ever. Painless sacrifice. The food was good, but there were plenty of other all-you-can-eat places that were just as good. This was Vegas, after all.

  Checking his rearview mirror to make sure there was no one waiting behind him, he delayed pulling out into the moving traffic a little longer. “Special doesn’t even begin to describe what I felt during your show. And if you promise to never give anyone else that kind of performance, I promise I’ll never call anyone but you sweetheart.”

  That didn’
t seem to satisfy her, because she still seemed unsure. “It wasn’t just you calling her sweetheart, Damian.” She sighed looking even more uneasy now. “I’m not sure what to make of today, but I think I should make it clear that kissing like we’ve been doing is not a casual thing for me. So seeing the way you behaved with that waitress just made me wonder if this is something you do often—so casually.”

  “No, it isn’t,” he said quickly, then put the car in reverse before someone came along and honked at him, blocking the driveway. Shit! Maybe he’d gone overboard trying to get her in jealous mode so she’d better understand why that picture of her and Simon in her front room—one of the few pictures she’d chosen to display—was beginning to really bug the hell out of him. “Listen,” he said as he pulled into a parking space again. Turning the ignition off, he took her hand in his. “This is something I’ve never experienced, and I’ve had girlfriends, okay? I lived with one for almost a year. I know what it feels like to start falling for someone you think is different. I’m a grown-ass man, Bethany—a homicide detective. My heart is supposed to be hardened and unaffected, impenetrable by anything, because of the things I see day in and day out. I should not be feeling what I feel when I’m around you, especially this soon. But I am. And the craziest thing about it is I think you’re feeling it, too.” She nodded, the uneasiness in her eyes replaced by sudden excitement, and he had to smile and kiss her hand before he went on. “This is no way a casual thing for me,” he assured her, then took it a step further. “I haven’t been in a relationship in over a year, and since then I’ve had no desire to be in one. I was beginning to think I never would. And if I ever did, I thought for sure I’d play it ridiculously slow, maybe even blow it by taking things too slow. But all day today there’ve been these sirens going off in my head telling me I need to lock this down today—make it official. I haven’t even taken you home, and already I know the only thing I’ll be thinking about once I leave your place tonight is the next time I get to see you. It’s insane.”

  She stared at him in silence, teeth buried in her bottom lip. Damian knew this was not the conventional way you went about declaring your feelings for someone. You were supposed to play it cool. Not lay it all out like that. Lock it down today? After just one unofficial date? That was crazy talk! But just as with everything else he’d felt up until now with Bethany, as utterly insane as this was, even this felt right.

  Just like that first night at the speed date when she’d dismissed him so easily and her lip slowly lifted into a lazy smirk, it was happening again, and his heart nearly stopped.

  “It is insane,” she agreed, and he could barely breathe now. “But you’re right, I am feeling the very same insanity.”

  His heart couldn’t take it anymore. Either she was telling him they could somehow figure out how to deal with this beautiful insanity together, or she was saying this was too soon and too crazy to work. “So is that a yes?”

  Her eyes widened a bit, but she still smiled. “What exactly does locking it down mean to you?”

  That was close, but it still wasn’t a yes, so he’d make this as simple as possible. “Means I’m the only guy you spend your free time with, and you’re the only girl I spend mine with.” He lifted an eyebrow, hoping she’d read between the lines here, in case she was still planning on doing things with Simon she might be taking more photos of. “No one else.”

  “You know my free time is very limited,” she reminded him. “It wouldn’t be fair to you that you might have more free time than me but will be restricted to spending it with only me, and I may often not be available.”

  “That’s fine,” he replied immediately. “Work keeps me pretty busy, too, and when I’m not working I have plenty of other stuff that keeps me busy that don’t involve other women. I didn’t say we can’t spend our time with others, just no other men for you and no other women for me.” He paused to make sure that last part had sunk in with no objections, but her expression was neutral, so he continued. “I still get together and jam with the Desert Ratz every now and again, and I’ve been meaning to get back in the shop and spend more time with Mace and Dimitri. I have a few projects I want to start on this year. So you don’t have to worry about fair. Locking it down does mean a few other things to me, but I know you need to get back to your paper right now. This one thing is the one I’d like for us to agree on first. We can get to the rest later.”

  Her sudden smile relieved him. “I can agree to that, especially because I have few friends I spend time with at all and none of them are guys.”

  Smiling, too, Damian leaned in and kissed her softly. He could hardly believe this day had turned out as it had. When he’d left his place today, his expectations had been nothing more than to try to get her number. He certainly hadn’t expected that he’d be in a relationship by the end of the day. He had made Jerry out to be a nut for getting so ahead of himself, and now here he was, ecstatic about the turn of events. He’d never live this one down, but at this point he didn’t care.

  Sucking her bottom lip before pulling away to look at her, he caressed her hair. There was just one more thing he needed to know. He knew he wasn’t being paranoid either. He was trained to pick up on the smallest of clues, but he didn’t even have to be for this one. Simon had made it blatantly obvious. The guy wasn’t even trying to be subtle about the way he looked at Bethany. “What about Simon?”

  Her brows pinched. “What about him?”

  “What is he to you, if not a friend? I saw a photo of the two of you in your front room.”

  That seemed to catch her by surprise. He waited, making note of the fact that she broke eye contact almost immediately. Taking a deep breath, he reminded himself that just this last week he had made the argument at work that eye contact in itself was only one, if not the least reliable, of the signs of deception. While true, it was also a known fact that breaking eye contact was a good sign the subject was one that made the person you were interrogating uncomfortable.

  “That photo is not so much about the people in it, but what it represents.”

  “And what’s that?”

  Again she looked away. This time not just with her eyes; she completely turned away and looked out the window. “That was taken just after I finished my very first gig here. Simon just happened to be in it, too. It was a skit show I got a very small part in, and it’s where I met him.” She turned back to him, lifting and dropping her shoulder. “It’s just sort of a reminder of how far I’ve come since I first got here. And, yeah, I guess Simon is my friend, but I see him as more of a coworker who I’m pretty close to. Outside of the gigs we’ve done together and the times he’s given me rides to and from them, we’ve never done anything social.”

  This was good to know, but it still didn’t mean he’d drop his guard when it came to Simon. He could admit it now, because at the time he’d shrugged it off, not wanting to sound like Jerry, but Bethany had pretty much cast a spell on Damian almost from the moment their eyes first met. There was something a bit mysterious about those deep, soulful eyes. Then in his follow-up meeting with her, he was able to bask in that smile along with that so-easy-to-talk-to personality that had completely nailed him. He was certain he wasn’t the exception either. Here he’d only been around her three times, and already he was putting it all out there. This guy had been around her for months now, and Damian had seen the way he looked at Bethany. There was no way Simon didn’t see in Bethany what Damian did. And that “pretty close to” shit was a bit unsettling. Bethany might see it that way, but Simon, like most guys—and Jerry was a perfect example—might be reading way more into their “closeness.”

  He leaned in once again and kissed her softly, wishing he could hang out with her longer. But from what little he knew about Bethany, he was sure if he got her home late and she still had that article to write, she’d be up until she was done with it. No matter how late that was. “Let’s get you home,” he whispered as he pulled away.

  The rest of the way
to her place was a lot more pleasant than the sudden panic and angst he’d begun to feel in that parking lot. She told him a little more about her gig playing Iona in the Pretty in Pink show. “Maybe I’ll take my sister to see it,” Damian said, squeezing her hand. “She loves that movie.”

  “For a smaller theater group they actually have some really good talent. The guy that plays Ducky is just awesome,” she said, running her hand up and down his thigh, distracting him no end. “It sucks, because this guy, who I think is an incredibly gifted actor—this isn’t the first time I’ve seen him in action—will probably never make it in Hollywood. Sadly, not always, but too often, it’s about who you know, and just like Justin there are a ton of incredible actors out there who won’t make it past community theater before giving up.”

  Suddenly she had his full attention. “Who’s Justin?”

  “The guy that plays Ducky,” she said, tilting her head. “He’s had so many auditions and gotten callbacks, but nothing ever comes of them. And who can afford to continually fly out or even be driving out to California? He has a wife and kid he needs to support, so he can’t just quit his job and move out there, you know?”

  He started to relax again after hearing that last sentence, and then he remembered he’d been forced to watch that movie so damn much with his sister, it suddenly hit him. Ducky kisses Iona, and not just any kiss. He really plants one on her. He turned to Bethany for a moment as the unsettling realization set in.