Completely Smitten

by Susan Mallery

  Daphne gave a discreet cough that no doubt covered up a laugh. “Actually, you can’t buy it in Rebecca. But there’s always the web. We’re not so small-town that we don’t have internet access.”

  “Right,” Josh mumbled, his eyes fixed on the table. “Good to know.”

  Josh Weber, king of the suggestive insinuation, was actually embarrassed. Charmed by his unexpected and endearing reaction, Piper impulsively slid her hand on top of his before recalling his aversion to displays of affection. He surprised her by flipping his hand over and interlocking his fingers with hers.

  Mandy once again reached into the wicked gift bag, then held up a complicated red-and-black lace contraption that perplexed Piper. How did someone who wasn’t a contortionist put it on? Where did all the straps go? However one wore it, it couldn’t possibly be comfortable.

  But then she made the mistake of looking at Josh’s face, and decided that any discomfort the garment caused would be worth it in exchange for the passion it aroused. His eyes locked with hers as he slowly traced her wrist with his thumb. He moved his fingers, sliding them up and down between hers.

  Her breathing grew shallow, and she knew he could feel her pulse jumping under his thumb. He gifted her with a warm, lazy smile so intimate it made her feel as though they were the only two people in the room. When he lifted her hand and kissed it, self-preservation kicked in. She tried to pull her hand back without being too obvious.

  Equally subtle and stubborn, he refused to let go.

  She tugged again, and his grin widened.

  “I have to go to the bathroom!” she announced loudly, yanking her hand away and springing to her feet.

  Daphne stood. “I’ll go with you.”

  Together they left the room, with Piper desperately hoping her sister wouldn’t—

  “So, he likes flavored body lotion?”

  Oh, well. It had been an unlikely hope.

  “I’m not answering that,” Piper protested.

  “Fine.” Daphne grinned as she pushed open the door to the ladies’ lounge. “I’ll just have to speculate. I bet he’s an incredible lover. And he’s so tall, with those really big hands, that I bet—”

  “Daphne!”

  “Oh, come on. My hormones are in overdrive and being this pregnant is not conducive to a love life. Let me live vicariously through you.”

  “To tell you the truth, Josh and I haven’t…explored that area of our relationship.”

  “Ooh. I thought you only said you’d booked two hotel rooms to keep Dad off the warpath.” She sighed deeply. “This is even better.”

  “Better? I thought you wanted to hear lurid descriptions of his sexual performance.”

  “Better for you, I mean. Don’t you love this part? The long kisses that make you wonder how good his mouth will feel in other places. Staring at his hands, wondering how they’ll feel against you. The anticipation that’s both wonderful and maddening.”

  Maddening. The perfect word to describe this trip so far.

  When Piper had left home on Thursday, she’d had a job she liked and a best friend who conveniently lived in her building. She hadn’t been confused. No lying awake at night thinking about the way Josh kissed; no staring at sonogram pictures and trying to imagine what it would be like to have her own child growing inside her; no bridal showers where she wondered if it would really be so bad to be married.

  This is why I left town in the first place, she thought as she washed her hands. The brainwashing.

  Daphne finger-combed her dark hair and studied her reflection in the mirror, then applied a coat of lipstick. “What are you guys doing tonight? A few of us are going to that bar outside town. I may not be as light on my feet as I once was, but I can at least sit out on the deck and enjoy the music. A band from Austin’s playing.”

  Piper hadn’t thought that far ahead, but it was a sure bet she didn’t want to hang out at the hotel with Josh in the adjoining room. “A night out sounds good to me if it’s okay with Josh. I don’t see why he’d turn down cold beer and a few hours dancing when he was willing to attend the shower.”

  “He was a good sport this afternoon,” Daphne said approvingly. “Blaine grumbled about having to be here, and half the gifts were for us! The way Josh looks at you, he’d follow you to the end of the world.”

  Piper lowered her eyes, not meeting her sister’s gaze in the mirror. She hated deceiving Daphne.

  Oblivious to Piper’s guilt, Daphne continued, “I know you said the two of you haven’t discussed marriage or anything, but I doubt it will be very long before—”

  “We aren’t even dating,” Piper confessed, desperate to shut Daphne up before her sister asked to be maid-of-honor at a nonexistent wedding. “Josh isn’t my boyfriend.”

  Her sister turned, leaning against the marbled vanity. “That’s ridiculous.”

  “I told Mom I had a date just to get her off my back, and she assumed I was seeing someone. So Josh, who is a good friend but nothing more, agreed to come with me this weekend and be that ‘someone.’”

  “You’re kidding.”

  “I’m really not.”

  “You lied to me?” Daphne’s eyes clouded with hurt. “I know Mom can get carried away and drive you nuts, but we used to be really close. Why didn’t you just tell me the truth?”

  “I’m sorry.”

  Her sister sighed. “It’s okay. It might’ve started as a fib, but from what I’ve seen between you this weekend, I guess you’re a couple now. Ironic, huh?”

  “No.” Her family gave new definition to the word stubborn. “Hear what I’m telling you, Daph. We’re not a couple, so there’s no irony.” And Dad says I’m mulish?

  “This is your sister you’re talking to. I see how you look at him.”

  Not this again—Josh had been remarking on the same thing in the kitchen. “All right, you caught me. He’s easy on the eyes. Can’t a girl do some harmless ogling?”

  Daphne stared at her, a faintly pitying you-really-don’t-know-do-you expression settling over her features. Then she laughed. “Not that part, the other kind of looking. Piper, you’re in love.”

  Chapter Nine

  Hours later, Piper still couldn’t get the ridiculous claim out of her head. Darn Daphne’s overactive imagination. You’re in love.

  “I am not,” she assured her reflection.

  The woman staring back from the hotel room mirror didn’t look convinced.

  Forget about that and just finish getting ready. Easier said than done. Everyone had been too full from the food at the shower to handle a sit-down dinner, so she and Josh had had more than enough time to return to the hotel and get ready to go out tonight. At least, it would have been enough for a woman who hadn’t applied, washed off and reapplied her makeup, not to mention changed clothes a ridiculous number of times.

  She could blame Daphne for that, too. When they’d stopped at Daph’s place earlier, her sister had given her several like-new outfits. Piper had laughingly argued that Daphne would probably fit into these again someday, even if it didn’t seem like it now, but her sister had said the clothes would be out of style by then and besides, this gave her an excuse for future shopping. Now, Piper had entirely too many wardrobe choices.

  Recalling Josh’s blatant admiration this afternoon, she had first toyed with the idea of wearing a skirt tonight. Then annoyance had seeped through her system like a noxious liquid. That kind of change, though admittedly small, had been how things started to go wrong with Charlie. And at least he’d been willing to spend his life with her. She rarely knew ahead of time if Josh would be spending his lunch hour with her.

  Discarding the skirt, she’d tried to split the difference by putting on comfortably worn jeans but wearing sexy makeup and her hair loose. Then she’d realized that was stupid. Even though the covered patio-style bar would be nice and cool tonight, dancing would warm her up considerably and possibly have her makeup smudged and her hair limp. Besides, did she really think it was a good
idea to do anything that could be construed as sexy? No.

  What a sorry state she was in—she didn’t want to attract Josh, but apparently wanted to look noticeably great around him, all the same. Weird twisted female logic.

  Not as twisted as the idea that you might be in love with him.

  Well, she wasn’t, she told herself as she yanked her hair up into a bouncy ponytail. Luckily, the cheerful, curly end result didn’t reflect the mood she’d been in while styling. She limited her makeup to some color around her eyes and shiny gloss that promised “kissable lips.” Just a figure of speech, written by some schmo in a marketing department somewhere. It had nothing to do with the course of her evening. For clothes, she went back to the jeans she’d started with this morning, accompanied by a snazzy little red sweater with cap sleeves and a scooped neckline that had more of a dip than her usual tops. She had the benefit of feeling sexy, but could still tell herself she hadn’t gone to any extra trouble. The sweater was simply a smart choice for not getting overheated in the crowded bar.

  Just as she was telling herself she’d finally achieved the right look—casual hotness—a knock sounded at the door, the safe one that led to the hallway.

  “Be there in a sec.” She crossed the room and opened the door.

  Josh was a study in contrasting denim. His long-sleeved shirt looked soft to the touch and was much lighter than the dark blue jeans cut from a heavier material. A look well-suited to the bar they were headed for, but did he have to wear a button-down shirt? All she could think about was the night before, watching him unbutton those last few buttons and wishing she’d been the one to do it for him.

  “Hey.” His smile and tone were the same ultracasual he’d adopted on the drive to the hotel. “Ready to go?”

  After they’d left the shower, conversation between them had been constant and trivial—a lot of talk with absolutely nothing said. But they’d avoided enigmatic silences, difficult topics and flirting of any kind. He was standing by his earlier retreat in the community center kitchen. A wise course of action.

  And she was a fan of wisdom, Piper reminded herself as she followed him down the hotel staircase, observing that men like Josh were the reason jeans had been invented. She was wise enough to know that she wasn’t in love, anyway. What had happened this weekend was an anomaly, easily explained. She and Josh had been spending too much time together lately. He was a sexy man, and her repressed hormones were rebelling. Seeing him here, at her home, around her family, lent an intimacy to their relationship that hadn’t been there at ball games or the local pizza joint. All of that was circumstantial; it wasn’t love. Except…

  She bit her lip as he unlocked the car doors. Hadn’t she been the one to think that he should find a nice girl, that he had more to offer than a few nights of fun? Yet the thought of him settling on one woman made her skin crawl. Josh and Gina were two of her very favorite people, but earlier this week, the idea of the two of them together had hurt.

  You’re just afraid of being displaced if he ever found a lasting relationship.

  Maybe that really was what bothered her, she told herself moments later, as they drove down the dark rural stretch of highway. She was jealous, but not in a sexual or romantic sense, simply a possessive he’s-my-best-friend-and-I-don’t-want-to-lose-him way. Funny, but she didn’t think she and Charlie had ever had that.

  There’d been the thrill of falling in love and the thrill of her first sexual exploration, but there’d never been deep friendship. In retrospect, the best part of their physical relationship, for her anyway, had been the sense of discovery, the short-lived novelty of feeling that she was somehow more fully a woman. Sex had been okay, but she hadn’t experienced a burning desire for her fiancé. Not like the desire she’d been feeling for Josh the last few days.

  She might try to tell herself Josh was just a friend, but she’d never wanted anyone the way she wanted him.

  Gina’s words from earlier in the week taunted her. Her friend seemed to think Josh just hadn’t found the right woman. Was that true? And if so, did Piper want to be that woman?

  Glad for the nighttime that hid her pensive expression, she said, “While we’re alone, I just wanted to say thank you again for coming with me this weekend. I hope it’s no trouble.”

  “Nope. And you’re welcome.” The glowing dashboard panel illuminated his quick smile, his teeth flashing white.

  “I can’t believe you were even free…what with working your sideline projects. And all your dating.”

  He didn’t say anything, and Piper experienced a moment of self-loathing. What was she doing here? Shamelessly fishing?

  She knew there had been dozens of women in his life; she just didn’t know what part they’d played. Had he slept with all of them, or did some of his dates end platonically? Hard to believe, when the man oozed the promise of sexual fulfillment. Had he loved any of the women he’d known? Had he ever been hurt by a woman?

  The truth was, all Piper had were unsubstantiated guesses based on his teasing remarks and the roster of female Houstonites who accosted him while he was out in public. But the fact that she saw Josh almost every single day, considered him her best friend and didn’t know much beyond Michelle had a cat and Nancy wanted to see him again reminded Piper of how private he was.

  Suddenly, she needed more information. “I was just wondering…you do date an awful lot.”

  “That isn’t a question.”

  He didn’t sound angry, so she pushed bravely—or stupidly—forward. “Well, you do, don’t you?”

  Another grin flashed, this one quicker than the last before it dissolved into the darkness. “I figure I have to date enough for the both of us in order to maintain cosmic balance.”

  Classic Josh Weber answer—entertaining and evasive. This was what he did, kept people at bay without their even realizing it, smiling and cracking jokes the entire time.

  Piper didn’t want to be kept at bay anymore. She wanted to know what the risks were, wanted to see his life with open eyes so that she could determine if there was room in it for another person. And so she could force herself to accept the situation once and for all if there wasn’t.

  “I know you’re going to say this is none of my business, but I…I care about you, as your friend. If you want to be left alone, why do you date all the time? And if you do want to be with someone, then…”

  “Then what?” he countered, his tone a defensive challenge.

  “You’re going to have to change.”

  He swiveled his head to look at her, and she couldn’t see the anger in his expression so much as feel it. “Funny. Most women like me the way I am, Piper.”

  Ain’t that the truth. “I’m surprised you can conclude how they feel about you, given your tendency not to stick around.”

  “Where do you get off implying that I can’t be there for someone? I’m here now, aren’t I? And I believe I’ve commented before on the irony of you giving me dating advice. At least I’m not hiding in my work.”

  Ouch. Of all the people in her life, she’d thought Josh had some idea of how important her job was to her. “I’m not hiding! If anything, you’re the one who’s hiding—in plain sight, as the saying goes. You give the illusion of going from one relationship to the next, but you don’t let people get close to you, so you’re actually more alone than I am.”

  Josh couldn’t help flinching, but he doubted she’d noticed. She seemed to be on quite the roll. He didn’t know what the hell had brought this on, but whether she’d meant to hit such a raw nerve or not, he wanted her to stop. Immediately.

  “Are you finished, or are you auditioning for your own talk show? ‘Do as I Say, Not as I Do’ with our host, Dr. Piper.”

  “That’s not fair.”

  “Neither is ambushing someone you call a friend. What do you know about being alone, Piper?”

  She had friends in Houston who met every need, from workout buddy to this lunatic weekend of fooling her family. And then there w
as her family itself. Sure, her relatives could be overbearing at times, but they adored her. They all seemed so happy that she’d finally come home that he half expected a parade in her honor. The first person Josh had ever truly considered spending his life with, Dana, was now a bittersweet memory; the first person Piper had ever considered spending her life with was still hanging around hoping she’d change her mind.

  “I—”

  He couldn’t take any more of this. “It was a rhetorical question.” To make sure he got his point across, he flipped on the car stereo, letting the angry cadence of a hard rock song stoke his indignation.

  This was what he got for kissing her—being talked to death. Didn’t they have a good time as friends? Didn’t she enjoy his company and know she could count on him? Why wasn’t that enough? Women. What was with the quest for details, the need to have a man spill his emotions? Thank God he hadn’t slept with her.

  Yet even as he had the thought, he was forcibly reminded of the arousal he’d been fighting. As ticked off as he was at the moment, the unique scent of her teased him—as did the thought that sex after an argument could be the best sex of all. Sure, making love to Piper would be a huge mistake, one he’d managed to so far avoid, but if the opportunity really presented itself, he didn’t think he could pass it up. Mistake or not.

  True to form, Piper ignored his attempted retreat. She reached out and switched off the radio. When he glared in her direction, he saw the stubborn set of her jaw and the way her arms were crossed over her chest. It was a crime to flatten breasts like hers.

  Despite himself, he almost smiled at her feisty demeanor. At the moment she was being a real pain in the ass, but the way Piper refused to back down was something he lov— He admired that in her. “You had something you wanted to add, no doubt?”

  “Yeah. An apology. I keep telling my mom to butt out of my love life—”

  “You don’t have a love life.” He hadn’t yet forgiven her enough to pass up the small jab.