Arm Candy
Page 17
Dan swung the door shut behind them, then turned to her, his face creased in worry. “Are you all right?”
She nodded, although her whole body shivered uncontrollably. It felt as if she was in a tub of ice.
Dan got a towel and held it out for her. Jessica stood shakily and let him wrap her up. He held her close and tight, warming her as much from his concern as his body heat.
“I heard everything. I was downstairs in the café,” he said.
“Thank God. For all I knew, you were in Hoboken.”
“That bastard’s gonna fry for this.”
“I don’t care about frying, but I’ll make damn sure the president of the company hears about it. I just feel sorry for his wife and kids.”
Dan pulled back for a second to look at her. “He didn’t touch you, did he?”
She shook her head.
He smiled, kissed her, then pulled her back into his embrace. “I’m glad you trusted me to help.”
She didn’t answer, but the violent tremors had eased, and that was enough. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s get you in bed. You need to warm up.”
“I can’t. I have to go to Central Park.”
“Marla can’t handle that herself?”
“Not with Owen out of the picture.”
After transferring the towel to her hands, he reluctantly let go. She shouldn’t have to work now, not after that. Dan figured he’d call the police while Jessica got dressed and find out what they needed to do to press charges. Son of a bitch. He was almost sorry he’d brought the security men with him. He’d give anything to have five minutes alone with lover boy.
JESSICA WENT to her bedroom, a little surprised at how she was still shaking. Nothing had happened, except that Owen was no longer a problem. She hadn’t been hurt, he hadn’t even seen her naked. She’d have preferred not to have seen him in his underwear, but she doubted that would cause permanent trauma.
She was also surprised at how grateful she’d been to see Dan, and she wondered if she would have been just as happy to see anyone come to her rescue or if it was specifically Dan.
As she dressed, she ran her plan over one more time. The more often she heard it, the more logical it seemed. And now she knew that if all went according to plan, Dan was someone she could count on even if it wasn’t one of their designated weeks. Good to know.
She’d had to count on herself alone for such a long time, she had mixed feelings about having someone else to turn to. Her father had died years ago, and her mother had never been someone to rely on, so it had all fallen on her shoulders. Getting into college, finding her first apartment, investing…she’d researched everything on her own. In that way, she supposed, she and Dan were alike. Although from what he’d said, he had his mother. She envied him what sounded like a great relationship. Although her lack of closeness with her family had given her free rein to pursue her own path with no interference whatsoever.
That was one of her fears about getting too involved with Dan. With anyone, for that matter. She didn’t play well with others, never had. Her goals were always to be the leader, the field marshal, the captain. Never a follower. That’s what made this job so important. After this, the real perk she’d receive in her new position, whatever it may be, would be freedom. She would be able to negotiate herself into a position of real power. No more Owens to contend with.
It was a solid plan, and given her success so far, it was going to turn out beautifully. It would be fascinating to see what came down about Owen. Geller and Patrick might just ask her to take his place. If they paid enough, she’d jump at the chance. There were so many things she wanted to implement in the company.
Dressed, she checked her look, ran a brush through her hair, and went back to the living room. Dan was just hanging up the phone.
“I’m going to the police station when you leave for Central Park. How long do you think you’ll be?”
“God, hours. We have to wait until the last person checks in. It could be really late.”
“What about dinner?”
“I’ll send someone to pick up a pizza or something.”
“Okay, I’ll call before I join you, and see if you need food.”
“Great. Thanks.” She looked at her watch and saw she was late. Marla was probably pacing downstairs. She caught Dan around the waist, gave him a quick kiss, then said, “That thanks was for more than the offer of dinner.”
“I know.” He kissed her back, and then she was out the door, heading toward the elevator. It wasn’t until the red light dinged that she realized she no longer needed Dan’s services. Without Owen, she didn’t need an escort at all.
IT WAS JUST AFTER nine-thirty when Dan left the police station. He made sure Owen wasn’t going to walk away from this unscathed. In fact, he wanted him scathed to the max.
He held his arm out for a taxi as he dialed Jessica’s cell phone. She answered after the fifth ring. Her hello was brief and harried, setting the tone.
“You want pizza?” he asked.
She paused.
He waited.
“Yes, please. Four or five big ones. A couple of just cheese, two pepperoni and one vegetarian.”
“Got it. What about drinks.”
“Don’t worry about it. There’s a vendor here.”
“I’ll be there in about forty-five minutes.”
“Great. Oh, and Dan?”
A cab pulled over and he opened the door. “Yeah?”
“You don’t have to do this, you know.”
“I know. Now get back to work. I’ll call if I’m going to be late.”
“Okay,” she said, then she was gone.
He gave the driver directions to his favorite pizza joint, which was pretty close to Central Park. He had the number in his phone book, so it was an easy matter to call. By the time he arrived, he could tell the cabbie to wait. If traffic were better, he could have had the whole thing taken care of in a half hour.
Leaning back, he took a long, deep breath. Ever since he’d gotten that weird call from Jessica, his heart had been pumping and he’d been wired. Totally ready for a fight, which wasn’t real smart, because he’d gotten mighty testy with a cop at the precinct, and it was a very near thing that he wasn’t keeping Owen the Rat Bastard company for the night.
He watched the passing people as they maneuvered through traffic, thinking how lucky he was to be heading toward Jessica. Someone had already won the cruise, he was sure. Maybe she would like to do that with him. Take a cruise. He hadn’t been to Alaska in a long time. Or maybe she’d like to do a barge trip on the Seine.
He didn’t give a damn, as long as it was with Jessica.
Tonight had made him more sure than ever that they needed to be together. She might be a tough cookie when it came to business, but she was still a woman, and he was still a man, and despite the incredible lack of political correctness, every instinct he had was to protect her, to care for her, to make sure no one would ever hurt her. He wanted to go to sleep with her right next to him. In fact, having her there felt like the only way he’d sleep well.
If Owen had hurt her…
Dan sighed. All was well, and Owen was safely out of the picture.
He swallowed hard as he sat up straight. “Shit,” he whispered. He finally understood what Jessica meant when she said he “didn’t have to.”
He was officially out of a job.
Female Intuition
One day, three men were trekking through a jungle, when they came across a violent, raging river. They had no idea how to cross. So the first man decided to pray:
“Please, God, give me the strength to cross this river.” Immediately he grew enormous muscles in his arms and legs, and he managed to swim across the river in a couple of hours, nearly drowning twice.
The second man saw this and he prayed, “Please, God, give me the strength AND the tools to cross this river.” A boat appeared from nowhere, and he battled across the river in an hour, nearly capsizing twice.
The third man saw this and prayed, “Please, God, give me the strength, the tools AND the intelligence to cross this river.”
Immediately he turned into a woman. She looked at the map, walked upstream a hundred yards and crossed over the bridge to the other side.
Source: Thompson, Dave “Female Intuition”
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18
THE LAST OF the contestants found the Central Park Pond at 11:53 p.m. Jessica had let Marla and Shawn go home hours ago, the same for the rest of the support team. She gave the final couple their New Dawn gift basket and assured them that they could, indeed, keep the GPS.
Five minutes later, Jessica and Dan headed slowly toward East Fifty-ninth Street. She hadn’t said anything to Marla about what happened with Owen. Her assistant would find out soon enough. In the meantime, she kept wondering what she should do about Dan. Ask him to leave?
The thought was far more upsetting than she ever would have imagined. She’d grown used to him being there for her.
All she wanted was to go back to the suite and crawl into bed with him. She could so readily imagine the comfort of his arms, and while she’d kept it together in front of the crowd, she felt very much in need of Dan’s strength.
There wasn’t much traffic at that time of night, including cabs. But Dan found them a ride, nonetheless. A hansom cab, complete with top-hatted driver and dappled-gray horse, and because of the hour, he arranged for the carriage to take them to the hotel.
Dan got in first, then held out his hand, which she took before she climbed up to the leather seat. He put his arm around her just as the horse lurched forward. It was late enough for the clip-clop of the horse’s hooves to echo down the long street, broken from time to time by the roar of a speeding car, but those moments in between made Jessica feel as if she was somewhere else, someplace magical.
What in the world had happened to her in these few short days? Something magical? When was the last time she’d thought of anything so fanciful? Not since she’d been a girl, that’s for sure. Her mother used to claim she was the dullest girl in all of Tulsa. The appellation made her cry the first time she’d heard it. But by the time she’d gotten her full scholarship to Harvard, she’d worn it as a badge of pride.
“Do you find me dull?” she asked.
His sharp bark of a laugh made her feel instantly better. “God, no. Why?”
“I was accused of dullness as a child. No one’s ever made me feel it wasn’t true, except you.”
“I’d never call you dull. Driven, yes. Focused, absolutely. Obsessive—”
She put her fingers to his lips. “I got it. Thanks.”
He captured her hand, kissed the back gently. “Are you all right?”
She nodded. “I wasn’t, though. I was really shaken by Owen’s intrusion.”
“No wonder. It was a violation of your privacy, your trust.”
“I think I would have handled it a lot better if I hadn’t been naked.”
“And I wouldn’t have wanted to kill him in quite as many ways if you hadn’t been naked.”
She giggled. Something else she hadn’t done since forever.
“I like that,” he said, then he rested his head on hers.
“Like what?”
“The sound of you happy.”
“I seem to make that sound a lot when I’m with you. Which is odd, since I’ve spent the last five years trying very hard to be the toughest chick in the whole city. I’m with you four days, and I’m a giggling, sentimental fool.”
“Excellent.”
She turned to look at him, dislodging him from his odd little perch. “Why is that excellent?”
“Because you befuddle me, too. It’s nuts. But for the first time in years, something has become more important than my research projects. I didn’t think it could happen.”
“Is that why you haven’t asked me any more questions?”
The carriage turned left and they both leaned into the side door. When they straightened, Dan cleared his throat. “Actually, there is one question I’d like to ask you.”
Jessica sat a little straighter. “Only if you let me ask you something.”
“You first,” he said.
“Really?”
He nodded.
She took a deep breath, not sure at all her timing didn’t suck. But he didn’t have to stay, and she didn’t want him to leave, so…
“I was thinking,” she said, “about the end of all this. I mean, now that Owen’s no longer a problem, the deal is pretty much null and void.”
“Uh-huh.”
She felt his hand on the back of her neck, just resting there. Long fingers, gentle pressure. It was a possessive move without being pushy or domineering. Perfect.
“I was thinking that we might like to, well, continue to see each other.”
“Ah,” he said.
“But not in the traditional sense. What I want to propose is something a little more unique.”
His hand came off her neck, and she missed it. Looking up at his face, she knew she had to explain fast because his eyebrows had furrowed something fierce.
“Hear me out before you decide.” She shifted so she could see him more clearly. “It’s been, I think you’ll agree, a most remarkable week. It’s obvious that the two of us have a special connection, that we mesh, sexually. We both have busy lives, we’re both independent and not at all needy.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying I think we should get together a few times a year. I was actually thinking four times a year. For a week each time. We’d go somewhere no one knows us. Make love until we drop. No muss, no fuss. Just fun and sex and the delicious anticipation of doing it again in another three months.”
“I see.”
“You’re not looking like this is a wonderful idea.”
“No, no. I can certainly see where it would be quite advantageous.”
“You hate it.”
“Not at all. It makes sense. For you.”
“But not for you.”
He smiled, but the expression was more sad than anything else. “You know what my question was going to be?”
She shook her head, even though she was pretty sure she did.
“I want you to marry me, Jess. Not immediately, but not years away, either. I love you.”
“You do?”
He nodded.
“But it’s only been four days.”
“I know. Doesn’t matter.”
“How can it not matter?”
“I’ve never experienced anything like what happens when the two of us are together. The reason, aside from my complete distraction, that I haven’t asked you more questions, is that for the first time in my life, I prefer the mystery. I like not being able to second-guess you. It’s not frustrating at all, which I never would have believed. On the contrary, not knowing every little thing about you makes the days fascinating. I can’t think of a better tomorrow and tomorrow than to unravel the mystery of you.”
Hot tears sprang to her eyes, and she blinked them back, turning her head away so he couldn’t see. His words confused her more than any flat refusal. He wanted to marry her? It was everything she was afraid of, yet she was touched in a way that stunned her.
The idea was crazy, of course, but also kind of wonderful. “Dan, that’s crazy.”
“I know.”
“The whole reason I hired you was because I didn’t want any kind of commitment. Now that Owen’s sure to be fired, it’s all the more important that I stay clearheaded and focused. When I’m with you, I can’t be all work. It’s almost impossible to be any work at all.”
“But that would change once we knew it was forever.”
“Oh, really? Is that a promise?”
He looked at her for a long moment. “No. The truth is, I imagine you’ll distract me forever. Not that I won’t get anything done. It’s just that you’ll be there, too. You’ll be there first.”
She touched his hand as the carriage pulled to a stop in front of their hotel. “Please, Dan?”
He took her by the shoulders and kissed her once, briefly. “I’ll think about it.”
“You’re coming up tonight, right?”
“Yes, of course.”
She exhaled with relief. She really didn’t want to spend the night alone. “Thank you.”
“You don’t have to ask. You need me, I’m there.”
She smiled, afraid to ask if he meant just for tonight, or for always. Surely he could see that it was not only premature to talk of marriage, but that marriage itself implied that the relationship was the most important thing in the world, which she couldn’t, just couldn’t agree to. Not when she was this close.
The doorman helped her down from the carriage. She hurried to the hansom driver to pay him before Dan climbed down. The tip was excessively large, but she didn’t care. The deed was done by the time Dan joined her.
He smiled again, that strange edgy smile that made her nervous, but she didn’t press him. If she just gave him time…
They walked hand in hand to the elevator, and she tried to read his expression in his reflection on the elevator door, but she couldn’t.
Once in the room, he walked right over to the couch, pulling it out to make the bed.
Her heart sank. If he wasn’t going to make love to her, then he certainly wasn’t going to agree to her plan. She’d been crazy to hope.
“You don’t really have to stay tonight,” she said, passing him on her way to the bedroom. “If you’d rather be in your own bed, I understand.”
“No, I’d like to stay. You had a rough day.”
“Thank you,” she said.
“What’s on the agenda for tomorrow?”