The man before her wasn’t her overbearing, under-brained, fast-talking nemesis. It was the bespectacled, polite head accountant.
“Hello, Eldon.”
“Hello, Miss Fire—I mean, uh,” Eldon stammered and ground to a halt.
“It’s all right, Eldon. I knew about the nickname. Jane told me,” she assured the nervous man.
“Oh. That’s good.” He paused and blushed. “Uh, I just wanted to tell you…” he sucked in a deep breath, focused his eyes somewhere to her left and spat out in a rush, “nobody thought there was anything— That you were—were—”
“Eldon,” she broke in kindly as he floundered again, “it’s all right. I’m not upset with you.”
He seemed to sag with relief.
Anna went on, “I think Mr. Whitman is a little bit of a clown and just got carried away. I’m certain that he wouldn’t deliberately undermine a colleague’s credibility or reputation.”
There, she thought in satisfaction. Killing with kindness. If she refused to acknowledge any insult, the insulter was frustrated in the attempt.
She rather enjoyed the idea of frustrating her nemesis further. Still, it was terribly sweet of Eldon to be so concerned about her that he followed her to apologize for something he hadn’t even done.
Who knew how many friends she’d missed out on all this time she’d been hiding herself away, buried in work? To her surprise, she’d really enjoyed the party tonight. Most of her coworkers had been glad to speak with her. In the three years she’d been with Frontier, she’d proven her ability and her value. Yes, some archaic attitudes still lingered but that was her own fault for not making it a point to bang heads together sooner.
A soft chime indicated the arrival of an elevator car and the doors slid open a moment later.
“Well, that’s mine. I want to get an early start in the morning.” Anna smiled warmly at the serious man and stepped into the elevator. “Good night, Eldon.”
“Good night,” he answered faintly. For a moment, he looked as if he wanted to say something more. Then he waved and returned to the party as the doors slid shut.
It was a short ride down.
Not nearly long enough to sort out the incredible events of the day and evening.
Anna smiled, remembering the sheer fun of getting one up on Lyle and rendering him speechless. She’d led him around by his bowtie and threatened to garrote him with it.
She’d come right back at a certain black-haired bad boy and given as good as she got.
Her smile widened at the thought of how she’d left him. Maybe she’d given better. Certainly his left shoe would never be the same. And where had she gotten the nerve to talk dirty to him until he was stunned into silence? Let alone thought on her feet fast enough to come up with the punch line?
She thought Jane would be proud.
She certainly was. It felt really good to stand up for herself, to ask for what she wanted, to throw a verbal gauntlet back with a twist instead of quietly taking it.
Anna stepped out of the elevator and headed to the front of the building where her rented limo waited. As she walked, she hummed an old protest tune about hearing women roar.
The driver saw her coming and moved the car closer to the sidewalk so she wouldn’t get her shoes muddy. He got out to open her door and help her in and Anna reveled in the service.
That he was young, muscular and handsome in a square-jawed sort of way didn’t hurt, either.
“Thank you,” she said warmly, meeting his blue eyes directly and the man smiled back.
“You’re welcome,” he assured her, before returning to his seat and taking the wheel.
Anna left the window separating the front from the back open and the friendly chauffeur, whose name was Tom, started up a cheerful conversation on the way to her home.
“How was your party?”
Anna smiled again as she answered, “Wonderful.”
It was true. She’d had fun, even while tangling with a certain adversary on the dance floor. Maybe even especially then.
They talked about the mud, the long winter and spring fever. Anna marveled that she was actually exchanging small talk painlessly. Before, if she’d ever thought to rent a limousine, she certainly wouldn’t have chatted with the driver. And she would have missed out on an enjoyable conversation with a charming and interesting man.
The talk turned to movies and Anna mentioned that an old friend had done the detonations for a current action hit.
“No kidding!” Tom met her eyes in the rearview mirror, his face alight with admiration. “I’ve wanted to see that. I heard they blow up a bridge, an oil tanker and three cars. Is that what you do?”
“Oh, no, if I make a bomb, it’s an accident,” she answered. “I only do fireworks.”
He was visibly disappointed and Anna hid a smile at his reaction. The Golden Galaxy just wasn’t a sufficiently testosterone-laden explosion, she guessed.
Then to her surprise he asked her if she wanted to go see it with him. A date? How did she handle this, she wondered.
While she was deciding, he spoke again.
“Hey, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked.”
“No, it’s all right,” Anna assured him. “I just haven’t been out much for a while. I’m only starting to get back into circulation.”
He gave an understanding nod. “Bad breakup, huh? Those really hurt.”
A breakup? No, it was a lot worse than that. She wasn’t just getting back into circulation, she’d never been in circulation. She hadn’t had any relationships, good or bad. She was a twenty-eight-year-old virgin, which probably made her some kind of endangered species.
The limo arrived at her townhouse. Tom quickly helped Anna out again and ushered her to her front door.
“Don’t worry, you’ll be ready for somebody else before you know it. Take your time easing into things and spend time with your friends. That’s what always gets me through.”
Anna thanked him for the advice and gave him a farewell wave, then went in and shut the door before she started to laugh.
What next? The new, improved Anna was finding life was full of surprises. Relationship advice from her chauffeur. An offer for a date.
Now that was something she really should think about, she decided. The new Anna was evidently more approachable and would get asked out again.
She hadn’t set out to practice celibacy deliberately. It had just sort of happened that way. As a teenager, she’d been too tall and awkward to appeal to the opposite sex. Combined with a reputation as a brain and an innate reserve, it hadn’t exactly set her up for an active social life.
Then the ugly duckling had abruptly transformed into a swan and she hadn’t trusted the sudden surge of interest in her from boys who’d always been indifferent.
She’d been caught off guard and unprepared, so she’d just said no to everybody.
She guessed her family had sort of prepared the way, too. The opposite of the Jane’s close-knit, loving family, hers was distant and cool. She’d always felt vaguely out of place at home and by the time she’d left, she’d established the loner habit.
Between schoolwork, which she’d buried herself in, and work, moving away from old friends and starting over with no ties, it had been easy to keep on hiding away from life.
Still, maybe there was hope for her. Jay Whitman had really thought she was an experienced woman of the world. Or of the night. Whatever. And thanks to a movie Jane had rented and made her watch, she knew how to fake a good, passionate moan.
It was a start.
Certainly it had been enough to floor one loud-mouthed man.
Anna removed her shoes and padded over the soft beige carpet to the stairs that led to her bedroom. The multilevel design had a garage with a laundry and storage area on the ground floor, the main living area on the second and two bedrooms and a bath on the top floor.
As she walked through, Anna took a good, close look at her living space and decided that she w
as living like a nun in more ways than one.
That was something else that was going to change.
No pictures hung on the bare walls. Only the African violets on a couple of windowsills and the odd hanging fern softened the Early Hotel look. Even her refrigerator was bare, except for a snapshot of her from Christmas with Jane and the rest of the Millers and a grocery list.
No clutter on the smoothly polished tabletops or empty, gleaming counters.
Looking around her, Anna had a sudden wild urge to throw something, anything, even her clothing, all over the place just to prove that somebody lived here.
It wasn’t an unattractive place, exactly, she decided. Just…lifeless. It needed some color. Some personality. The neutral color scheme was nice enough and some colorful throw pillows and maybe curtains would do a lot to brighten things up. She made a mental note to talk to Jane about it and ask for ideas.
She needed some pictures, too. A Van Gogh print, maybe. One of the sunflower series or “Starry Night”. She’d always liked that skyscape.
Redecorating would be easy. Figuring out how to navigate the perilous dating waters, however, might take a little more thought and effort. She was a total beginner. Going places with John as her escort didn’t count. He would no more come on to her than he would if she were really his sister.
What she needed, Anna mused, was some experience.
She hadn’t exactly been living in a complete vacuum. She knew about the basic facts of life. About biology and birth control and disease prevention. She knew that it was okay to ask a man out and even to request a sexual history and blood test, although it sounded terribly unappealing.
She just didn’t know about the feelings.
When it came to the world of emotions, her ignorance and inexperience were truly vast.
What would it feel like, Anna wondered, to fall in love? To passionately and intensely desire a man? Seeing movies, reading about it and talking to Jane about her love life only went so far. Anna was too good a researcher not to know that sometimes a huge distance existed between theory and practical application.
What did she want? That was really the question.
She pondered it as she removed her makeup and brushed out hair that fell in loose waves to her waist.
What she wanted was to grow as a person. To find out what her needs and desires were. To explore her sexuality.
She wanted to stop hiding away in the world of carefully controlled, methodically researched science. She wanted to find outlets for her long-buried emotions before they shriveled up and died.
Anna reflected for the first time that she might have been drawn to focusing on fireworks because they represented a form of artistic expression and so provided an emotional release of sorts.
As far as today went, she’d gotten off to a good start, she decided.
Today, she’d been daring and feminine and to her surprise, the change was a welcome one, and not just to herself.
A whole world full of possibilities and people, potential friends and potential dates included, waited for her. It had been there all along. She just hadn’t seen it or known how to reach out.
Well, it was midnight and the ball was over but Cinderella wasn’t going to go back to the kitchen to take a load of crap from her ungrateful family while she waited for some prince to get a clue.
No, Anna decided firmly, she was going to get some sleep so she’d be ready to roar again tomorrow.
And at work, she’d tackle the search for the salt or powdered metal that, when combined with fuel and an oxidizer, would give off a brilliant blue that would work for her planned red, white and blue finale.
Also, Jane would be dying to hear all about the party. She’d probably already heard about Mr. Tall, Dark and Too-Mouthy-To-Be-So-Handsome Whitman, if she hadn’t actually met him yet. Anna wondered why she didn’t remember Jane mentioning anybody new.
Well, whatever else the next day might have in store, she had the distinct feeling that she hadn’t heard the last of Jay.
A man with a mouth like that would be used to getting the last word.
Jay wasn’t getting the last word the following morning.
In fact, the way things were going he didn’t think he’d ever get even one word in edgewise.
Lyle Grant certainly knew how to give a lecture.
Jay wondered if he’d ever been a drill sergeant.
The minute he’d arrived in his office, he’d been summoned by Grant’s secretary. Now he found himself standing uncomfortably in front of a very long, very heavy mahogany desk, getting raked over the coals almost as well as Miss Firecracker could do it.
But she did it so much more enjoyably, he thought wistfully.
The red-hot redhead was also infinitely easier on the eyes.
It seemed ludicrous that Grant was chewing him up and spitting him out on her behalf when she’d done such an admirable job all by herself already. She’d done it with style, too.
She’d smiled innocently at him while grinding her heel through his foot. She’d talked dirty to him with an enthusiasm worthy of a 900 telephone number operator. And she’d blown in his ear.
She was the most amazing woman he’d ever met and that was saying something.
He’d met an awful lot of women.
Just thinking about her made his heart sing and made his body start a long, slow burn. It was heavenly torment. He couldn’t wait to see her again. The very thought made him smile.
“What do you have to smile about, that’s what I’d like to know,” Lyle barked. “I’m not smiling. Do you see me smiling?”
“No, I—”
“You’re damned right I’m not and I’ll tell you why. You upset Anna.” Lyle cut him off to cut him down some more. He glowered fiercely at Jay and puffed on his cigar.
Jay had a sudden mind picture of cartoon puffs of smoke rolling out the man’s ears instead of his mouth.
Then his attention turned to what he’d said. Anna. Jay tasted the name mentally. Yes, it fit her, he decided. A strong name for a strong woman. Much better than the bland and asexual A. Leslie. Anna was far from bland or asexual. She was all woman and she deserved a fitting name.
“Now I’m going to explain how things work around here,” Lyle glowered and puffed some more. “Here at Frontier, we all have our place. We all have our job to do. We all have our own function. I’m the heart of the company.”
He paused to let that sink in.
“She’s the brains.”
Another pause.
“And you are what I’d call the helping hands. Do I make myself clear?” A penetrating stare accompanied the question.
Jay figured now he’d get to respond. “Yes, I see—”
“No, I don’t think you do see,” Grant cut in again, proving Jay wrong. “I think you need to understand what Anna means to Frontier.”
Jay needed to understand what Anna meant to him.
He wanted to make her laugh.
He wanted to dance with her again. She danced like a dream and he was glad he’d lost a bet that landed him in ballroom dancing lessons. He wanted to be Fred to her Ginger.
In fact, he just plain wanted her in a peculiar way that involved his mind and heart as well as his body.
Did she feel the same emotional pull toward him? The physical attraction was undeniable, at least. She couldn’t possibly be indifferent to him. She had to feel something. True, he’d made a mess of things, gotten them off on the wrong foot by planting it firmly in his mouth when she introduced herself, but then again, he supposed she was used to turning men into blithering idiots on the first meeting. Probably well into the second and third meetings, too.
The only way to find out, Jay decided happily, was to see her again. As soon as possible. Again and again, in fact.
With some difficulty, he picked up the thread of the lecture he was supposed to be listening to.
“She’s a genius, son. A pyrotechnic wizard. Her inventions are what made this company wh
at it is. We were a dime-store operation before she came in,” Lyle continued to verbally barrel along, blowing smoke in amazing quantities.
A dime-store operation? Actually, that was an exaggeration but Jay let it slide in the spirit of charity. He appreciated the sentiment. In fact, however, Frontier had been in a position to expand and Anna had been recruited in a carefully planned move. But if she hadn’t gone for it, Grant would have found somebody else. Jay could agree, though, that nobody else would add quite what she did.
Any woman who could wear a dress like the one she’d worn last night deserved all the praise Grant wanted to heap on her.
Jay felt like singing her praises, himself.
He concentrated as Lyle went on, “She could have gone anywhere. She could have gone to NASA.”
So she hadn’t been kidding about that.
“She came here. And she’ll stay here as long as she’s happy.” Grant fixed him with another cold, hard stare. “I intend to keep her happy. Understand me?”
“Yes, I—”
Jay found himself cut off once again as the man continued, “Let me explain something to you.”
Pause. Puff.
Jay didn’t even try to speak. He was getting wise to the man’s tricks. Instead, he patiently waited for the other shoe to drop.
Grant drew deeply on his cigar and stated, “Nearly everything she does could have some military application. The Apollo spacecraft alone used over two hundred pyrotechnic devices, all designed by artists like her.”
He stabbed his cigar at Jay for emphasis and went on, “Luckily for us, she wanted to make pretty fireworks more than she wanted to work on rocket ships.”
Good God, she really was a rocket scientist, Jay thought in shock. Not that he hadn’t believed her. He just hadn’t seen any obvious connection between the waves of color that lit up the Fourth of July and the impressive launching of an Apollo rocket.
“Maybe now you’re beginning to get the picture.” Lyle sat back and eyed his silenced audience. He had the boy’s complete attention now, he thought with satisfaction. Now it was time to build him up a little after yanking the rug out from underneath him.
When Sparks Fly: Love and Rockets Page 4