Welcome to Temptation/Bet Me

by Jennifer Crusie

  “I’m against you using Sophie for sex,” Wes said. “I like her. Also, I think she’s dangerous as long as Stephen’s got this movie thing going. Besides, she has a boyfriend back in Cincy. Amy says he’s a big-shot therapist.”

  Phin took his eyes off Sophie to frown at Wes. “That was a real hot conversation you had with Amy. Conversations like that will get you in the sack about in time for Y3K.”

  “Amy also said that, based on what Sophie tells her, the guy is extremely boring in bed. So you might be able to talk her into the naked part, but it would be a really stupid thing to do since she’s going to leave tomorrow.”

  “Since when did you become the Chastity Patrol?”

  “I like Sophie,” Wes said. “Do not seduce and abandon her or I’ll arrest you for something.”

  “Police brutality,” Phin said. “Which reminds me, if I get lucky with Sophie, can I borrow some handcuffs?”

  “You’ve still got the last ones you borrowed. Phin, I’m not kidding. Sophie deserves more than your hit-and-run, and Stephen’s too damn pleased that you’ve been out there twice. Just stay away from her.”

  “Hey,” Amy said, as she bounced into the booth beside Wes. “What’s new in crime and government?”

  Phin watched Wes turn toward her, his world a better place. Great, he thought. She’s going to leave and break his fucking heart.

  Across the bar, Rachel was standing, and Sophie looked unhappy.

  “Later for you two,” Phin said to them, and went to see what Sophie needed.

  Half an hour earlier, Frank had sat down across from Sophie, friendly-drunk but not reeling, and said, “So how’s it going?”

  “Just great,” Sophie had said, pretending not to notice Georgia crawling into Zane’s lap beside them. It was difficult because she was also pretending not to notice Phin sitting across the room. She’d planned to play hard-to-get, but if that got her Frank’s conversation and Georgia’s seduction in stereo, she was going to get a lot easier very soon.

  Georgia said loudly, “You really are some man, Zane Black, you really are,” and Frank shrugged at Sophie and gave a little laugh.

  Five minutes, to be polite, and then I’m heading for that booth. “And how’s your life?” Sophie said, trying to make conversation, realizing too late that it was a dumb thing to ask at that particular moment.

  Frank drank some beer. “Oh, pretty good.” He started to peel the label off his bottle. “That’s all I ever wanted anyway. Pretty good.” He let his eyes drift over to Clea at the bar, laughing up at his son.

  “ ‘Pretty good’ ’s not bad,” Sophie agreed, wishing there was someplace she could look that didn’t have evidence that Frank’s life was pretty terrible.

  “You know, growing up, I knew exactly what I wanted,” Frank said, expanding into contemplative used-car salesman mode. “A good job, a nice house, a pretty wife, a son, and two cars, a Jeep and a big luxury car to take the wife places. I had it all planned out by eighteen.”

  “Well, you got that,” Sophie said. “Of course, I’m guessing on the cars.”

  “I got it all,” Frank said. “And it is not a bad life, not at all. Except . . .” He looked over at the bar again and took another swig of beer. Then he leaned forward, and Sophie leaned forward a little, too, to get farther away from Georgia. “Did you ever one day look up and realize you’d been staring at the ground when there was a whole sky on top of you? Just one day, realize that there was more out there than you could have imagined?”

  “No,” Sophie said. She’d always known there was more out there than she could imagine, that was why she was so careful not to look up. Bat country.

  “By the time I was a senior in high school,” Frank said, “I had it all lined up. Even the job with my future father-in-law.” He stopped and stared at the bar. “And then one day there was Clea.” He shook his head. “Sure, she’s beautiful now, but you should have seen her at eighteen, Sophie.” He leaned back. “We were in the school play together, you know.”

  Sophie nodded to be polite, and stole a look at Phin. He was talking to Wes, looking as detached as ever. She wondered if anything ever made him sweat, and then she thought, I could. No matter what Zane thought.

  Frank was still talking. “And after the last performance, she said, ‘Let’s go out to the Tavern, Frank,’ and we sat out in back, with a thousand stars over us, and she said, ‘We could be like that, Frank, we could be stars. We could go to Hollywood.’ ” Frank laughed, a little shamefaced. “Yeah, I know it sounds corny.”

  “Not as much as you’d think,” Sophie said. “Everybody needs dreams.”

  “Yeah, but Hollywood?” Frank leaned forward, serious again. “The thing is, I believed her, Sophie. When I was with her that night, I believed I could make it. I mean, I’m a damn good actor, and I have a really great voice. I might have . . .” He looked back at Clea. “No, I wouldn’t have. She didn’t even make it, really. But, boy, it was a hell of a night. We were going to have it all.”

  “I heard you got it all,” Sophie said.

  Frank looked down at his beer. “She told you that?” He shook his head. “Finest moment of my life when she said, ‘I want it to be you, Frank.’ ”

  Sophie frowned. This story was not the one Clea had told. She let her eyes slide to the booth in the back and saw Phin watching her and her pulse kicked up.

  “You know . . .” Frank looked back at the bar and Clea. “It wouldn’t be so bad if I hadn’t thought, for just that one night, that there was more. You know? If I just hadn’t seen what . . . It’s like losing something you never had. You can’t really be sorry, but you can’t ever really forget it, either. Even when you’ve got everything you ever really knew you could get. Sometimes, it still comes back.”

  “In this case, literally,” Sophie said, looking at Clea, who was flirting with Rob, oblivious to the carnage at the table behind her.

  “Yeah,” Frank said. “I was ready to go to Cincy to make the land deal, but she said she wanted to come here. And I thought . . .” He sighed. “Oh, hell, you know what I thought.” He drained his beer.

  “Yeah,” Sophie said. “I know what you thought.”

  “Dumb,” Frank said. “Jesus, I’m dumb.”

  “Well, human,” Sophie said.

  “No, dumb.” Frank finally looked the other direction, away from Clea and toward Georgia, now hanging all over Zane.

  Sophie opened her mouth to say something comforting, but she couldn’t think of anything. The man’s lost love was at the bar moving on his son, his wife was molesting a TV anchorman, and he was stuck nursing a warm beer in an ugly bar in a creepy little town. About the best thing that could happen to Frank would be a direct hit from an asteroid.

  “We’ll be gone in a week,” she said finally, and Frank said, “That calls for another beer,” and got up.

  Rachel slid into his seat, looking miserable.

  “Are you okay?” Sophie said.

  Rachel rolled her eyes. “Oh, yeah, I’m great. I’m in Temptation, how bad can it be?” She was trying to come on cool, but she sounded a little shaky.

  “Yeah, I heard you want out of town pretty bad, Rachel,” Zane said, as he leaned toward her across the empty chair between them. “I told you, if there’s anything I can do—”

  Rachel leaned back.

  “Want to trade places with me, Rachel?” Sophie said. “I have Mace.”

  “You wouldn’t need it,” Zane said.

  “What are you talking about?” Georgia nudged Zane with her shoulder and batted her eyes at him. “Go on, now. You were telling me about being a news anchor. I just think that’s so sexy.”

  Zane leaned back and began to talk about the joys of being a celebrity, and Rachel looked even more miserable, so Sophie leaned forward and said, “Okay, what’s wrong?”

  “I want out of this town,” she finally said. “I was lousy at college and I’m not good at anything else, and my mom and dad are hipped on me getting married and livi
ng next door to them forever, and if I don’t get out of Temptation I’m going to go crazy, and I’m not kidding.”

  Sophie nodded. Given Rachel’s parents, she wasn’t exaggerating.

  “And I thought, like, maybe the movie thing would get me out, but you’re going back to Cincinnati, and Amy said no, and Clea hates me.” She shot a look of loathing across the table at Zane. “And I talked to him about it for maybe two seconds, and he stood real close and put his hand on my butt and told me we could talk about it in private.”

  “Stay away from him,” Sophie said. “He’s a complete loss as a human being.”

  “I know,” Rachel said. “But he’s telling people how much I want to leave, just like I told him, only he’s making it sound like I offered him something that I didn’t. And he keeps touching me.”

  Sophie picked up her purse and took out her Mace. “Just in case he goes deaf when you say no,” she said, and handed the lipstick-sized can to Rachel.

  Rachel cheered up a little bit as she turned it over in her hand. “I’ve never had Mace.”

  “Well, now you’re armed and dangerous,” Sophie said. “And I’d be so delighted if you used it on Zane. Really. Use all of it.”

  Rachel grinned at her, almost back to normal. Sophie let her eyes drift back to Phin. He was looking at her with a half smile on his face.

  Sophie’s pulse give a little surge of lust and panic.

  Okay, there was no reason to get rattled just because he was looking at her as if he wanted her. She wanted him, too, right now, no waiting. That sounded slutty, so she told herself it was for the movie. It really wasn’t sex—she took her eyes off Phin so she could think better—not sex, that would be depraved, it was work. That was it. She had work to do tonight. Important work to do tonight. Imperative work to do tonight. And it was just sitting over there waiting for her—

  “Sophie?” Rachel said.

  “We’ll think of something for you,” Sophie told her, babbling a little. “We’ve got an extra week, we’ll think of something.”

  “Really?”

  Sophie looked back at Phin. “Absolutely.”

  Frank came back to the table and put another rum and Diet Coke in front of Sophie, and Georgia said loudly to Zane, “Tell me more about being a big TV star.” She pressed her breast against Zane’s arm, and Sophie thought he was going to say something rude. Then he smiled and said, “What do you want to know?” and she realized what he was doing.

  “Georgia, would you show me where the bathroom is?” Sophie said, and Georgia jerked her thumb over her shoulder.

  “Behind the bar, sugar.”

  Zane leaned closer to her. “Sophie wants you to go with her so she can tell you what a bad man I am.”

  Georgia widened her eyes and giggled. “I love bad men.”

  “Georgia,” Frank said quietly. “You’re drunk.”

  Georgia leered at him. “Oh, you’re a real rocket scientist tonight.”

  “I think I’ll go home,” Rachel said, and stood up.

  “Wait.” Sophie nodded to the bar where Rob was leaning close to Clea, clearly not leaving soon. “Rob brought you, didn’t he? How are you getting home?”

  “I can walk,” Rachel said, and Sophie stood up and said, “No, you can’t. I’ll get the keys from Amy.”

  “I’ll drive her,” Phin said from behind them. “You want a ride home, too?”

  Sophie turned and caught her breath. “Oh. Yes. Sure. If it’s on your way.” Of course it’s on his way. Jeez, Sophie.

  “I’ve had about all the Tavern I can stand for one night,” Phin said. “We can take Rachel home and then go back and fix your kitchen.”

  “Sounds good.” Sophie looked across the room at Amy, who waved her on and turned back to smile at Wes. Clea and Rob were practically in each other’s laps. Georgia was whispering something in Zane’s ear. Frank looked confused and sad.

  “Get me out of here,” Sophie said, and Phin said, “Thought so,” and gave her a gentle push toward the door.

  Half an hour later, Sophie leaned on the kitchen sink with a glass of wine and tried to calm her pounding heart while Phin worked on the plumbing. With his head under the sink, she could scope out his body without having to face the distance in his eyes, and, having reacquainted herself with how very nicely he was put together, she felt a lot better about having fallen the night before, not to mention her plans to fall again tonight. Clearly this was quality stuff. If she could just get him to shut up, he’d be perfect.

  “That’s it,” he said, pulling his head out from under the sink. “Turn on the water.”

  She walked over to the sink and turned on the tap. “Very fast,” she said as the water swirled down the drain. “Nice job, Mayor.”

  “Yeah, well, we do it all.” He got to his feet. “Now, I’ll have some of that wine.”

  She poured him a glass while he washed his hands, and then sat at the table with him in uncomfortable silence while he took his first sip. “Interesting,” he said, looking at the glass. “Did you make this in the basement?”

  “We bought it at the grocery,” Sophie said.

  “The grocery here in Temptation?” Phin said, appalled.

  “It’s the only one,” Sophie said. “Of course, the grocery here.”

  He started to laugh. “What, you couldn’t afford the Ripple?”

  “Fine, don’t drink it.” Sophie reached for his glass, but Phin held on to it.

  “I’m sure it’ll be fine once I get used to it.” He took another sip and shuddered. “Never mind,” he said, and passed it over to her. “So tell me about the movie.”

  “No.” Sophie looked at him with naked exasperation. “That’s all you ever ask about, and I’ve already told you everything. What is it with you?”

  Phin shrugged. “Okay, tell me about your life. How did the therapist take the news last night?”

  Sophie raised her eyebrows. “You know he’s a therapist?”

  “This is Temptation,” Phin said. “Stay long enough, I’ll know everything about you. Of course, since you’re leaving tomorrow, you’ll get to keep most of your secrets.”

  “We’re not leaving tomorrow,” Sophie said. “We’re going to shoot some extra footage for the movie, so we’re staying over until next Sunday.”

  “Really.” Phin’s face was as impassive as ever. “And how did the therapist take that?”

  “I didn’t tell him.” Sophie sipped her wine and gathered her courage. “I told him I wanted to fuck you, and he told me I was trying to shock him with language.” There, that was the ticket, just say it really fast, like swallowing medicine or pulling off a Band-Aid.

  Phin frowned his disbelief. “You told him you wanted to fuck him, and he yelled at you for talking dirty?” He shook his head. “This guy is dead below the waist.”

  “No.” Sophie picked up his glass and moved to the sink to dump it. Then she swallowed and said carefully, “I told him I wanted to fuck you, and he said—” She stopped because this time he’d gotten it. “That wasn’t a pass,” she said, backing up a step. “I was merely—”

  “The hell it wasn’t.” Phin stood up, and Sophie thought, Oh, jeez, it’s working, now what do I do?

  “Well, not really.” She backed up again and bumped into the wall. “It was more . . .”

  He followed her to the wall and bent to look her in the eye. “Sophie.”

  “What?”

  “That was a pass.”

  She shrugged. “Maybe, subconsciously, a small one.”

  “Sophie.”

  She shut her eyes. “Okay, it was a pass, but—”

  He kissed her, and she didn’t have to finish the sentence, which was a damn good thing because she had no idea where she’d been going with it. She kissed him back, clutching at his shirt, and he broke the kiss to say, “Don’t wrinkle the cotton,” and pried her fingers off. She thought, Well, the hell with you. Then he pulled her close again, and she pressed herself against all that lovely muscle
and bone and thought, As long as he shuts up, this is going to be good, and then his mouth was on hers again, and she stopped thinking at all.

  Ten minutes later, when her dress was unbuttoned and so was his shirt, and she was dizzy and tight with the heat and even he looked a little mind-whacked, he said, “Where’s your bedroom?”

  “What?” Sophie blinked at him, coming back from all that good lust.

  “Bed. Room,” Phin said distinctly, sliding his hand inside her dress. “Or we can do this on the kitchen table, but I’m pretty sure I just heard somebody pull up outside. I don’t care if Wes and Amy watch, but having Zane in the room would definitely put me off my stroke.”

  “Oh, no.” Sophie stepped back, and he followed her, his hand tightening on her waist. “That would be bad with people . . .” She looked around vaguely. “. . . here.” She caught sight of the phone and said, “Oh, damn, I have to call Brandon.”

  Phin looked at her incredulously and took his hand out of her dress. “Now?”

  “I have to break up with him before I fool around with you,” Sophie said. “That’s only right.”

  “You’re a little late.” He gestured to her open dress. “The fooling-around is pretty much under way. Come here.” He reached for her again, and she ducked away to grab the phone. “I don’t believe this,” he said, and sat down on the edge of the table, disheveled and gorgeous, looking at her as if she were demented, while she dialed and then waited for Brandon to pick up the phone.

  “Brandon?” she said when it finally clicked, but it was his machine again. “Listen, Brandon, I did not want to leave this message on your machine, but since you’re avoiding me—” She looked back over her shoulder at Phin, who was shaking his head at the ceiling. “—I think we should break up. And see other people. So that’s what I’m doing. Seeing other people.”

  Phin put his head in his hands.

  “Of course, they’re not sensitive, understanding people like you,” Sophie said pointedly.

  “You want sensitive and understanding, stick with the therapist,” Phin said. “You want great, headbanging sex, get off the fucking phone and come with me.”