He gazed at her silently for a long time. "I honestly don't know," he said at last.
"When you figure it out, will you tell me?"
His smile was tight. "Oh, you'll be the first to know."
neil’s shopping trip turned out better than he could have expected. Although Joanie spent the whole time complaining about Theo's taking an impromptu vacation and ruining the shooting schedule, Neil was able to pull out a couple of critical pieces of information. Eileen had shown up today, but not Gillian. And the nerd cruise left this afternoon out of Long Beach.
Thanks to that information, Neil could plan his next move. A couple of phone calls put him in touch with Jared Stevenson the Third, who seemed to be the dork in charge of this cruise that was supposedly all booked up. Neil would see about that.
"Jared Stevenson, here."
Neil cringed at the nasal twang. Good thing Nancy was on the job. She could charm even the terminally nerdy. "Jared Stevenson. Am I talking to the Jared Stevenson?"
"That depends. There are three of us."
Neil controlled the impulse to laugh and ask if the guy had multiple personalities. As for Neil, there were technically two of him, so this conversation could get crowded, indeed. "My name is Nancy Roth, and I'm looking for the Jared Stevenson who organized the brilliant cruise that's sailing this afternoon."
"I'm that Jared Stevenson."
"Excellent! What a cutting-edge concept you came up with!"
Jared's voice filled with pride. "I'm gratified that you recognize the value of my work. Some shortsighted individuals scoffed at my plan, but I'm pleased to announce that we'll sail with a full complement of passengers."
"That's wonderful for you!"
"Thank you. I must say that I'm pleased that so many—-"
"And terrible for me! Simply dreadful!"
"Excuse me?" Jared's voice squeaked in surprise.
"I simply must go on that cruise, if for no other reason than to meet you!"
"Oh! Well, uh, all the cabins are reserved as of this morning. I'm sorry. Maybe when we get back, you and I can meet for lunch. You sound like a discriminating woman. And I'm a discriminating man. Are you free on Monday?"
Neil deliberately unclenched his jaw and took a breath. "I'm sure that will be too late, Jared." No shit, Jack. No telling what damage this witness could do in the next four days. "Some other lucky woman will have bewitched you by the time you dock on Sunday."
Jared cleared his throat. "I, uh, doubt that. But I suppose it's always possible. I can call you when we get back and let you know."
"No fair, you naughty man." Neil injected his voice with exactly the right amount of sexy petulance. "Keep-tog me in suspense all that time." He decided to take a gamble. "You know how I handle somebody who teases me like that?"
Another geek squeak.. "How?"
"I give him a good spanking." In the dead silence that followed, Neil was afraid he'd overplayed his hand.
When Jared finally spoke, he sounded out of breath. "Hold on. Let me make a phone call. Don't hang up."
"I wouldn't dream of it." Neil clenched his fist in triumph. As the theme song from The Love Boat played in his ear, he wandered into his bathroom, pulled off his wig, and inspected his buzz cut in the mirror over the sink.
Jared came back on the line, still sounding out of breath. "I've worked it out."
"I just knew you would." Neil smiled at himself in the mirror. Even without the wig, he was a damned good-looking chick.
"You'll be sharing a cabin with a woman named Bernice Thigpen. Her roommate backed out, so this is financially advantageous for her."
"Umm ... great." Sharing could be dicey. Extremely dicey. But he'd take it over missing the cruise completely.
"Don't worry about privacy." There was a funny little tremble in Jared's voice. "I…uh ... have a cabin to myself, if we … uh . . . should hit it off."
"You sly dog, you." Neil wondered if he dared take time out of his scheduled plan to seduce the cruise director. Maybe he could work it in, literally, if all went well. A guy who was excited about spanking had possibilities. Not every man who discovered Neil's true sexual identity was disappointed.
Jared cleared his throat again. "We board at four, sail at six."
"I can hardly wait. Until then, Jared. Bye, now." Neil disconnected the call and hurried to pack. Too bad there was no way to take a gun on board, but with security these days there was no way he'd get it through the scanners. He'd have to be inventive, but fortunately, he was good at that. Or rather, Nancy was good at that. Thank God for Nancy.
the drive to long beach gave lex plenty of time to feel guilty. He didn't have to kiss Gillian to protect her body with his. He could have cupped her face in both hands, moved in close, and simply talked to her, making it look like a tender lovers' conversation. An actual kiss had been totally unnecessary.
On the bright side, he now understood how completely screwed he was, in case he hadn't realized it earlier. He would have to fight his desire for this woman during the entire cruise and all the while he was supposed to be clinically assessing the danger she might be in. If he thought turning her over to Dante would help, he'd do that.
Hell, no, he wouldn't, either. Kissing her had been incredible, and he wanted to do it again. And again. And yet again, until they moved to the next phase. Thoughts of the next phase had the material of his khaki pants rising to accommodate, his reaction.
"It's probably nothing, but there's a Mack sedan that's hanging back about two cars behind us in the lane to the right," Gillian said. "I think it's the same guy."
Lex cursed under his breath and glanced in the rearview mirror. Sure enough, it was the car that had been parked down the street from Cora's house. The scuffed place on the front bumper gave it away. Lex had been so busy thinking about sex with Gillian that he hadn't noticed the car following them. But she had.
"Do you think it's him?" she asked.
"Yes."
"Damn it. I thought we got rid of him with that kissing routine."
"Obviously not." Lex checked the position of the sedan, which hung exactly in the same spot. It had probably been there for miles. "I'm beginning to think you'd be better off without me."
"And I'm beginning to think if I didn't have you, Dante, and Cora on my side, I'd be dead already," she said. "I think we have confused him, but he has no other lead, so he's following us. If he knew who I was for sure, he would have tried to kill me already. I don't think he's sure."
"Maybe." But it grated on Lex's nerves that the guy had managed to follow them all this way, and he, the PI guy who was supposed to be up on these things, had missed it. "I'm going to try and lose him."
"In this kind of traffic? And I don't want to insult you, but your car isn't exactly ..."
"It's nimble." Lex had never told anyone his fantasies about being a professional race car driver. He'd never followed through because he couldn't justify putting that kind of money into something that might never pay off. This PI deal with Dante was about as crazy as he ever planned to get.
But still, his adrenaline spiked as he assessed the situation around him. The semi on his right was slowing a fraction. He came up on the bumper of the van in front of him, hoping they'd be motivated to go faster. When they did, he gauged the space in front of the semi, waited for his opportunity, and cut in front of the big truck,
Gillian yelled and the track sounded his air horn, but Lex didn't care. He spotted another tiny hole to his right and swerved into it. Then the magic began. The Jeep in front of him and romped on the gas, probably to get away from the maniac in the Toyota.
Exactly what Lex wanted. He followed, swerving into a space to the left that had precisely enough room for his car. No more, no less. Now cars started making way for him. He'd established himself as a player. He swerved right, then left, then right again, stitching a rapid path up the freeway.
"You're going to kill us!" Gillian shouted as he almost grazed the bumper of a Hummer and the
driver sounded his horn. :
"Nope."
"And... and ... you're smiling?
He hadn't been aware of that. He tried to wipe the grin off his face, but it kept coming back as he charged through traffic. The black sedan, he noted with satisfaction, was nowhere in sight.
But he was having so much fun he damn near missed the Long Beach exit.
Gillian, who was gripping the dash with both hands, kept him honest. "Lex! You're going past our turn!"
"Right. I knew that." He skipped across three lanes while she wailed in protest.
At the first red light, she slumped back against the seat. "Remind me never to ride with you on the freeway again."
"But we lost him!" Women. Why couldn't she appreciate the skill involved in that fine piece of driving?
She gazed at him. "I almost peed my pants."
"We were never in any danger."
"Says you. We almost clipped about six cars during that little demonstration. What if we'd wrecked? Then what?"
He blew out an impatient breath. "I know the exact dimensions of this car and how to handle it. I don't take unnecessary risks." Even as he said it, he knew it wasn't true. Kissing her had been an unnecessary risk, but he'd done it anyway. He'd always thought of himself as a conservative guy, but what if that wasn't everything there was to know about him?
"My father used to say stuff just like that." She folded her arms protectively over her chest. "And then he'd bungee jump off the Golden Gate Bridge."
Lex noticed that she was trembling, and he was sorry for that, but he'd done what he thought was best to shake the black sedan. He pulled away from the light. "Jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge is hardly in the same category as a little weaving through traffic." Then he processed what she'd just told him. "Your dad jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge? Really?"
"Really. He was a certified daredevil. And in case you couldn't tell, I'm nothing like he was."
"Was that past tense on purpose?"
"Yes. He's dead."
"I'm sorry."
"Me, too, mostly because he died doing something reckless. He was wing-walking at a county fair. It wasn't even a very big county fair."
Lex wanted to take her hand, but touching her always seemed to get him in trouble. "Were ... were you there?"
"Traidso."
His gut clenched. "How old?" "Eight."
He didn't know what to say. In some idiotic quest for glory, her father had traumatized his young daughter. But she might still love the guy, so he had to be careful about trashing the imbecile's memory.
Finally he settled on something safe. "Thanks for telling me." And he was grateful. It helped him understand why she'd freaked out in such a major way. "And despite the freeway episode, I'm not that type of guy."
"I hope not. Cora said she'd trust you with her life."
"That's good to hear."
Gillian sounded shaky. "I'm trying to be cooperative, and I appreciate the effort and money Cora's putting out. But the bottom line is that I don't like the idea of trusting other people with my life. I don't like giving up that kind of control."
"Nobody does." But especially someone who'd watched her father fall off the wing of an airplane to his death. Lex couldn't imagine the scar that would leave.
"I have this urge to get out at the next intersection and just handle this on my own."
That was the scariest thing he'd heard yet, worse than the story about her dad or her urge to call the police. He swerved into the parking lot of a McDonald's and cut the motor. "Please don't do that." He turned to her. "I haven't handled this assignment all that well so far, and I apologize for that. Number one, I shouldn't have kissed you. Number two, I—"
"Kissing me was the best thing you've done so far!"
That stopped him. "It was?"
"Absolutely." She gazed at him with those melt-your-heart brown eyes. "When you were kissing me, I forgot to be scared."
"I can't imagine why."
"Because you kiss like a man who can be trusted."
"That's backward logic if I ever heard it! How can I be paying attention to your safety while I'm busy kissing you? I don't have eyes in the back of my head. Kissing you was reckless, and I pride myself on not being reckless."
She seemed to consider that. "I suppose you have a point."
"Of course I have a point. And there are residual effects." "Like what?"
He hated to admit this, but she needed to understand the dangers of a physical involvement. "I didn't pick up on the guy following us because I was daydreaming about that kiss."
"You were?" She looked pleased.
"Don't look so happy. That's why I ended up dodging through traffic to lose him. You hated that part. So kissing isn't the best approach to this situation."
Her mouth curved in a soft smile. "That's a damned shame."
Lex had to agree with her on that one.
Seven
sitting next to mcdonalds and talking about kissing had calmed Gillian considerably. Thoughts of fast food and good sex could do that for a girl.
"The cruise is your best option," Lex said. "I'm sorry if I shook your confidence in me with, that wild car ride. If I'd been doing my job, it wouldn't have been necessary. But I didn't want that goon following us to the dock."
"No, I didn't, either." And that was a major difference between Lex and her father, she realized. Duke McCormick had taken chances for the hell of it, but Lex had had a reason. Even so, there had been that telltale grin as he bobbed through traffic, and she decided to call him on it. "It's just that you looked like you were having way too much fun."
His expression was classic—little boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "It's only natural to feel a little …exhilaration."
"Admit it. You were loving that whole thing."
"I wouldn't say that."
"I would, but it doesn't really matter. Once we get on the ship you won't be driving anywhere."
"So you're definitely going?" He looked relieved.
"Yes." Now that the terror from Lex's freeway stunt had worn off, she'd lost the urge to head into the unknown by herself. She'd have to do that eventually once she got to Mexico, but for the time being she had three people who were watching her back. That was comforting.
"Thank God." Lex started the engine and pulled into traffic. "If you'd decided to take off on your own, I don't know what I would have done."
She hadn't thought of it from his perspective. "I suppose Cora would have had your head on a platter if you'd showed up without me."
"It wouldn't have come to that."
She glanced at him, intrigued. "What do you mean?"
"I'd have figured out some way to change your mind."
'That might have been impossible. When a person's operating on emotion, all the logic in the world isn't going to help."
"Okay, then I would have tried something else."
"Kidnapping?" She couldn't imagine him in that role.
"Absolutely not. Wouldn't work, anyway. I seriously doubt they'd let me bring a bound and gagged woman on board."
"Then what?"
He didn't respond.
"Come on, Lex. I want to know your devious plan. I'll bet you don't even have one."
"Yeah, I do. But we don't have to worry about it. We're here." He pulled up to a parking gate and took a ticket. Beyond the lot was the dock where the strip, gleaming white in the sunshine, dwarfed the people loading supplies.
Ordinarily Gillian would have been interested in watching the pageantry of a ship being readied for a journey, but right now she was determined to find out how Lex would have solved the problem if she'd refused to go on this cruise. "Satisfy my curiosity," she said. 'Tell me how you would have made me go on the cruise against my will."
"It wouldn't have been against your will." He parked the car, took off his sunglasses, and opened the console. Inside were his nerd glasses and some clip-on shades. He put away his sunglasses and put the nerd glasses and clip-on
s in his lap. Then he reached in the back seat and got a folded sunshade. "Can you tuck this under the visor?"
She helped him position the sunshade, but she wasn't about to be sidetracked. "So how would you have convinced me? Get me drunk? I wouldn't have agreed to that."
"No liquor involved." He folded his visor over the sunshade and picked up his nerd glasses and the clip-ons. "Ready to go?"
"No! Tell me your plan. I'm tempted to refuse to go, just to see how you'd work this."
He turned to her. "You have to promise not to laugh."
"I won't laugh." With the sunshade blocking the windshield and the windows rolled up, she felt a certain amount of intimacy inside the car. In a few minutes the lack of air-conditioning would make it stifling, but for now, she felt cozy. And more than a little bit aroused.
Lex cleared his throat. "I would have talked you into having lunch at a quiet little place I know and then I would have seduced you."
She didn't have the slightest urge to laugh, but she had some other urges. The longer she looked into his blue eyes, the stronger those urges became. "In the restaurant?"
"There's a back booth that's very dim. I could have managed it."
She had no doubt. He was beginning to manage it simply by talking to her about this imaginary seduction. Thinking of making out in a dark restaurant booth reminded her of the thoroughness of his kiss when he'd backed her up against the car.
She wanted more of that. She also had a hunch he'd be good with his hands. Sex hadn't been a part of her life in many long months, not since a half-baked affair with a member of the set crew during her last film.
Lex's eyes began to glow with intent as he leaned closer. Then he abruptly pulled back. "We need to go."
She had to believe he'd just invoked his new no-kiss rule. Damn. "What if I said I didn't want to take the cruise, after all?"
"I'd think you were testing me to see if I'd follow through."
"Would you?"
"Nope." He broke eye contact and opened his door. "Why not?"
"Number one, you said you'd go, and I don't see you as a person who breaks her word." Gillian sighed. "Low blow."
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