He smiled in obvious relief. “I’m glad you’re not planning to do anything rash. It’s a dangerous world out there, and you have to be careful.”
“Exactly.” She wondered if Benjamin had a clue what it was like “out there,” but he was trying to protect her, which was sweet. Considering that she wasn’t a big-deal client, only the ghostwriter for a big-deal client, she should probably be flattered that he cared about her well-being.
“Well, then.” Benjamin clasped his hands together. “Would you like me to have that August deadline changed so you can have a breather?”
“No, that’s okay.” Molly didn’t want Dana to get an inkling that her ghostwriter was dissatisfied with the status quo. When Molly was a teenager and had wanted to ditch the acting gig in order to write, Dana had taken her side against her mom and dad. Molly intended to treat Dana right.
“So you’re okay, then?” He looked as if he needed reassurance.
“I’m fine.” She managed a smile. “Thank you for reading the manuscript.”
“Parts of it were excellent.”
“Thank you.” She resisted the urge to ask him which parts. Whether or not she could write wasn’t the issue. The question was whether or not she could write about raw, uninhibited sex.
They shook hands and said their goodbyes. As Molly made her way out of his office, she dug through her purse for the business card with Alec’s cell phone number on it. Thanks to a buddy with a wild imagination, Alec thought she might be a woman who acted out sex scenes in front of a camera. That obviously turned him on. She was about to trade shamelessly on that piece of misinformation.
ALEC WAS AMAZED when Molly called him before twelve-thirty. If he’d had an hour-long appointment with her, he’d have used the entire sixty minutes. For some reason her agent had let her get away early. Must be a woman.
Traffic was dense, but traffic was always dense in New York. Other than wanting to pick up Molly ASAP, Alec didn’t mind fighting traffic. Actually, he enjoyed the challenge. In the city he pictured himself as Luke Skywalker shooting through the Death Star maze. On the turnpike he pretended to drive the Indy 500, but he had to watch out for that fantasy. Too many speeding tickets and he’d be out of a job.
Molly was standing on the sidewalk where he’d left her, and she didn’t look very happy. She’d promised to tell him about this meeting, though, so he’d find out what or who had put that expression on her face. He didn’t like seeing Molly unhappy and took an instant dislike to her agent, who probably was responsible for making her sad.
He doubled-parked and got out to open the door for her, but she was inside before he made it all the way around the car. Molly was like that, not the least interested in being treated like a diva. She didn’t know that he loved opening doors for her.
“Let’s have lunch at a hotel,” she said the minute he got behind the wheel.
“Which one?”
“Any one. The closest one. My treat. Use valet parking. I’m really hungry.”
“Okay.” He doubted this was a celebration, but he wasn’t going to argue with her. If she wanted a nice meal in a hotel restaurant, he’d make sure she got it. He wished he could offer to buy her lunch, but at New York prices, lunch could suck up a good portion of his rent money. He’d never minded being poor until this moment.
He drove around the block and pulled into the valet parking area of the first high-rise hotel he came to, not even bothering to notice if it was a Hilton, Sheraton or something else entirely.
“Perfect.” She was helped out of the car by the doorman while Alec gave the keys to the parking attendant.
As Alec walked over to join her, he remembered he was dressed in his car service logo shirt, which was smudged. “Maybe you should go in without me,” he said. “I’m not wearing the right clothes.”
She glanced at him. “You’re fine, but if you’re worried about it, we can go to the hotel coffee shop instead of the dining room.”
He followed her through the revolving doors. “It depends on what you want to eat.”
“I’d rather be in the coffee shop with you than by myself in the dining room. Let’s get a sandwich.”
He was a little confused by her strange mood, but he decided to play along. “Okay.” As they walked through the lobby on their way to the coffee shop, he caught a glimpse of the two of them in a large wall mirror. With her dressed in elegant city clothes and him in his chauffeur’s outfit, he sure did look like her boy toy.
He wondered if she had boy toys. In the six months he’d known her, he hadn’t seen evidence that she dated anyone. That didn’t mean much, though. Logically she wouldn’t need a chauffeur when a guy was around, so he wouldn’t have reason to cross paths with her dates.
The hostess showed them to a table, and Alec held Molly’s chair for her.
She smiled up at him. “Thanks.”
“I should be thanking you, for offering to buy my lunch.” He sat down, picked up the menu and glanced at the prices. The place was fancy for a coffee shop, but there were a few meals in his price range. “You know, I could pay for my own. That makes more sense.”
“Let’s not worry about it now.” She made quick work of studying the menu and was ready for the waiter when he came to fill their water glasses.
While she ordered a grilled-chicken salad, Alec quickly decided on a Reuben. Once the waiter left, Alec leaned forward. “You said you’d tell me about your meeting with your agent.”
“I will, but not right this minute.” Her green eyes were bright, her cheeks flushed. The sad expression had disappeared.
“I take it she didn’t give you good news.”
“It’s he, and no, he didn’t. But I don’t intend to let that spoil our meal. So you like Reuben sandwiches?”
“Sure do.”
“So do I, but I felt like having something a little lighter. Maybe you’ll let me have a bite of yours.”
This was feeling more and more like a date. “Uh, sure.”
“There’s something about that tangy combo of sauerkraut and corned beef, isn’t there?”
“I’ve always liked it.”
“And if they bring it immediately after they fix it, and it’s still warm, with the cheese melted…mmm, yummy.”
“Uh-huh.” He had the definite impression this discussion was about something besides food. His groin was registering sexual overtones. Major sexual overtones. Molly had flirted with him before, but it had been more on the order of Sex Lite, not really intended to go anywhere. This time she seemed to have a definite destination in mind, and he was getting hotter by the second.
“Alec?”
He cleared his throat. “What?”
“I’ll bet Red Carpet has a policy against dating clients.”
His heart started beating faster. “It does. But if you’re worried about this lunch, I don’t think that counts. I mean, you have to eat.” He’d pretend to misunderstand where the conversation was leading, to see if she was serious or messing with his head.
“I wasn’t really worried about this lunch. We’re in New York, not Old Saybrook. No one will see us having lunch, whether your company would frown on it or not.”
“I guess that’s true.”
“So, let’s say you decided to take a chance, decided for a little while to ignore your company’s policy. Let’s say your client promised never to say anything to anyone.” She paused to gaze at him.
If he hadn’t noticed the slight tremor of her hand as she reached for her water glass, he would have thought she was cool as can be. He wasn’t, though. He was breaking out in a sweat. “Okay, let’s say that.”
She sloshed a little water over the rim of the glass as she set it unsteadily back on the tablecloth. Her eyelashes fluttered, and then she looked straight at him. “I don’t want you to lose your job on account of me.”
“You let me worry about that.” He no longer gave a damn about the job. Five minutes ago he’d thought it was very important, but five minutes
ago Molly hadn’t been across the table, color high, hinting that she wanted something more from him than chauffeur service.
“It’s just that I find you very attractive,” she said.
“Ditto.” That was suave. He tried again. “I find you very attractive, too.”
“But there are so many problems.”
“I know.” He couldn’t think of a single one, but he knew they were out there, temporarily obliterated by a firestorm of lust.
“I don’t really have time for dating.” She gripped the slick water glass in both hands and brought it to her mouth for a single swallow.
So she hadn’t been going out, after all. Nice to know. “Why not?”
“I’m trying to move ahead in my career.”
Making X-rated movies? But he didn’t ask. “I don’t really have time to date, either.” He said it automatically, but now he realized that he’d make the time—for her.
“That’s what I thought. And then there’s the situation with me being a client for the car service.”
“True.” And maybe he’d been crazy to let that stand in his way for six months. Was he a man or a wuss?
She turned the water glass around and around in her hands while she stared at the ice bobbing inside. “But that doesn’t mean I haven’t thought about it.”
“So have I.” Which answered the question of whether he was a man or a wuss. He’d thought about her during the day, dreamed about her at night, and hadn’t made a single move. Pathetic.
But most of their time together had been side by side, riding in the Town Car. This was the longest he’d ever sat across from her, able to really look at her. She was a treat, all red-gold curls and creamy skin.
He’d never noticed her hands before, but he noticed them now as she continued to fondle her water glass. She kept her nails short and free of polish. Movie stars, any kind of movie star, had long nails. But she could put on the fake ones during shooting. He was fascinated by the way she was stroking that dripping glass. Then she clutched it in two hands again and took another sip. God, he was getting hard.
She took a long, shaky breath. “Okay, so we’re both interested.”
“Definitely.”
“And fate has caused us to end up in the city together today.”
“Yes.” Fate in the form of George and Alma Federman, whose flat tire had made him late. They’d insisted on inviting him over for dinner some night this week, but he should be the one taking them out, from the look of things.
“So, um, I was thinking…”
His heart thudded like a pile driver. “Yes?”
“Well, considering everything—” She stopped and glanced up as the waiter appeared with their food.
Alec wasn’t hungry anymore. He wanted her to keep talking. The waiter seemed to take forever setting down the plates, asking if they needed anything, getting ketchup for the fries that had come with his Reuben.
Finally they were alone again. “You were saying?” Alec prompted.
“I think we should eat.” She picked up her fork, but her hand was still trembling.
“Is this the date? Lunch?”
“Eat your Reuben.”
“I mean, we could take a walk through Central Park, or something like that.” Then he worried that he sounded cheap. Unfortunately he didn’t have much cash on him, and his credit card didn’t have a whole lot of room on it, either.
“Before we decide what we’re going to do, we should eat our food.” She speared some chicken and lettuce with her fork.
“Okay.” He dutifully took a bite of his Reuben. He’d never realized before how juicy a Reuben was. It dripped on his fingers and he ended up licking them. Then he glanced up and found her watching him, her lips parted, her breathing uneven.
“Is it good?” she asked.
“Yes.” Oh, man, she was delectable. “Want some?”
She nodded.
He held out the sandwich, putting his other hand underneath to catch the drips. When she leaned over to take a bite, her lips brushed his fingers. Just in time he stifled a groan.
She chewed and swallowed. “It is good.”
“You can have the rest.” You can have anything you want. He picked up his plate to give it to her.
“No. No, thank you. I have my salad.” She started eating it again as if someone had told her she couldn’t have dessert unless she cleaned her plate.
Alec decided he might as well follow her lead, so he polished off half the sandwich. But as he was tackling the other half, he decided to get this money situation out in the open. “I like your idea of spending time together here in New York today, and I wish I could afford to take you somewhere nice, maybe even to a matinee on Broadway, but I don’t have much—”
“Alec, I’ll cover the cost of whatever we do.”
“That doesn’t feel right. I know it’s a new century, but I want to at least pay my own way.”
“When do you have to have the car back?”
“Sometime tonight. Edgars doesn’t need it until tomorrow, and I have access to the parking lot, so there’s no deadline or anything. We can hang around the city as long as you want.”
She hadn’t finished her salad, but she pushed her plate away. “I don’t want to hang around the city.”
“But you said—”
“I want…” She paused and lowered her voice. “I want to get a room.”
Alec almost came in his pants.
3
MOLLY’S FACE FELT HOT, but she’d said the words. Not elegantly, not seductively, but clearly.
Alec’s brown eyes turned almost black. “You’re propositioning me,” he said, his voice hoarse.
“Yes.” She gripped the edge of the table as she waited for his answer.
“I’d be a fool to turn down an offer like that. But if you’re thinking of this hotel, then I’m afraid the cost is beyond my—”
“I’ll pay for the room.”
“No.”
“Listen to me.” She reached over and grabbed his hand. Now that she’d started down this road, she wasn’t turning back. She’d never grabbed a man’s hand before in her life, but from the way Alec gripped her fingers, it was the right move. “Taking a room here is the perfect solution. No one ever has to know about it.”
He captured her hand between both of his. “I’ll feel like a gigolo, Molly. Believe me, I love that you asked, but it’s like you’d be paying me for sex.”
“I would not!” She was thrilled with the masterful way he’d taken over the hand-holding business, but she didn’t want his ego to get in the way of what she had in mind. “I’m only paying for the room so we can be alone together.”
“Same thing.”
She had to admit that if she paid, the balance of power was in her favor. For a—what had Benjamin called her? A cautious introvert?—assuming that power was a huge step. She needed to do it in order to lay claim to the sexual adventurer buried deep in her soul.
But first she had to convince Alec to stop being so macho. She thought of how she’d handle him if he were a character in one of her books. In order to get him to change his mind, she’d have to introduce new information. It worked in fiction.
“I need to let you know something,” she said.
“Shoot.” His tone was casual, but a pulse was beating rapidly in his throat.
“Josh is wrong. I’m not an X-rated video star. I’m not in the movies at all.”
He gripped her hand tighter. “You sure look like you could be.”
“Thank you. But looks can be deceiving. I’m almost the opposite of that.”
He drew in a quick breath. “A virgin?”
“No.” Was that a gasp of excitement or anxiety? “Would that matter to you?”
“Molly, that kind of thing always matters. But to be honest, if you’d gone all this time without having sex, I’d be a little worried about you.”
“Well, I’m not going to pretend I’ve had tons of experience, either.”
&n
bsp; The lines of determination softened, and he smiled. “That’s okay.”
“I’m not normally this bold.”
His grip on her hand loosened enough for him to stroke her palm with his thumb. “That’s what I thought, but Josh gets an idea in his head and he can be very convincing.”
His touch was subtle, but erotic all the same. She’d chosen quickly, but she’d chosen well. Alec would definitely expand her sexual horizons. Her heart thumped crazily as she imagined what the afternoon might bring. “The thing is, I don’t think I’ve ever reached my…my full potential, sexually speaking. But I’m hoping that if the setting is right, and the man is right, I can learn to let go.”
He swallowed, his gaze welded to hers.
She forged on. “The setting I’ve always imagined is a luxurious hotel room, an escape from the world where it won’t matter who we are.”
“Like this place.” His voice rasped with tension.
“Exactly like this. Alec, I’ve been dreaming about you for months. Spending a few stolen hours in a room in this hotel with a man like you would be a fantasy come true.”
He took a shaky breath. “That’s a lot of pressure. What if I disappoint you?”
“I’m more worried that I’ll disappoint you.”
“Not possible.”
“Sure it is.” She faced her worst fear. “Maybe I’m wrong about myself. Maybe I won’t be able to let go and be wild and crazy.”
“Have you ever…um…had an—”
“Yes. Everything works.” And each time, she’d been left with the feeling that it should be easier, better, more world-shattering. “But I’ve never been…well, turned inside out.”
He blew out a puff of air. “Now I’m intimidated. No way am I going to sit here and promise you that I’ll be able to do that.”
“I’m not asking you to.” She quivered with anticipation. “I’m only asking you to try.”
AS ALEC LOOKED into Molly’s eyes, he reminded himself to breathe. What a rush, knowing she wanted him so much, but the prospect was scary as hell, the possibility of failure huge.
Drive Me Wild Page 3