Jack made no move to join her. “You are that woman on the Harley.”
She left, not allowing herself to consider whether or not he was right. Luckily, he let the subject drop once she’d gathered the proposals from Nancy and handed him a large portfolio case.
As he pushed open the tinted glass doors of her office building, the sunlight blinded her. Her eyes adjusted as he stepped around her and popped open the trunk of his car.
She couldn’t suppress a grin. The man was inventive.
“A white Mustang convertible?”
He placed the portfolio in the trunk, slammed the lid closed and unlocked and opened the passenger door. “I can see the effect I intended isn’t lost on you.”
He didn’t miss a beat. She’d reminded him about the car only four nights ago.
She slipped past him and ducked into the car. “I get the joke, Jack.”
He leaned in and reached across to insert her seat belt buckle into the lock. “It’s no joke, angel. You said you might want to test out the back seat, remember?”
“Is that what I said?”
His green eyes danced with promised delight.
“Well, not this afternoon,” she insisted. “We have a major client to win over first.”
Jack slammed the door and jogged to the driver’s side, then slid into the seat with virile grace. “Agreed. But once we’ve succeeded, we’ll need to celebrate.”
He started the engine without further comment, but an expectant grin tilted the corners of his mouth.
Angela set her lips in a determined smile. There was no telling what could happen later. Revenge could, she reminded herself, be deliciously sweet.
THE MEETING progressed without a hitch, and by the time they’d finished dessert at the Whispering Palms’ brand-new, and not yet open, restaurant, Angela had a signed contract in her briefcase and an ecstatic client pouring her a glass of brandy. She hadn’t known Davenport owned two of Jack’s prints in his private collection or that he’d followed the work of Jack’s sculptor father, Sully Sullivan, for years. Still, she let Davenport suspect she had nosy little spies crawling through the woodwork. The idea that she went to such lengths to secure his business delighted the man. And who was she to stop any male from catching a good thrill?
With dinner over and plans to meet with Davenport’s design team and take a preliminary round of photos the following day, Jack wordlessly escorted Angela to the car. Yet, by the way he caressed her arm as he helped her inside, she suspected they’d be spending the evening together.
Sunset shadowed the sky with lavender hues as Jack pulled out of the parking lot. The summer evening air remained thick with heat and swollen with possibilities. The trill of her cellular phone saved her from imagining what those possibilities might be.
“Angela Harris.”
“Ange, it’s Kelly.” Her sister’s voice seemed rushed, as if worried.
Turning her shoulders, Angela fruitlessly attempted to gain some privacy. “Kell, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing major. The boys just called from camp. It’s been raining for four days, and they’re begging to come home.”
Angela let out a pent-up breath. Her nephews, as much as she adored them, weren’t the “roughing it” types and hadn’t taken to the idea of summer camp as readily as Dani had. They’d find any excuse to leave the rustic mountain retreat and return to their backyard pool and cable television.
“Did you talk to the counselors? Is the weather dangerous?”
She’d watched the weather channel this morning, and there had been no mention of flooding in the area of the camp.
“A few of the creeks are swollen,” Kelly replied, “but they expect the weather to lighten up tomorrow. Still, Garrett isn’t too keen on paying all this money if the kids are miserable. We’re going to drive up tomorrow and get them. I just wanted to know if you wanted me to get Dani, too.”
The name, spoken in Jack’s presence even if she knew he couldn’t hear, caused an uncomfortable tremor in her stomach. “Did you talk to her?”
“The boys did. They said she wants to stay. I told them to have her call you at eight-thirty. I knew you’d be back from your meeting by then.”
Angela glanced at her watch. It was nearly seven-fifteen. If they hurried, and made no stops, she’d make it home in time to receive the call. Dani could contact her on the cellular phone—she had the number and knew to use it if the line at home went unanswered. However, the last thing she wanted was to talk to her daughter with Jack around. He didn’t know anything about Dani, and she intended to keep it that way.
“We’re on our way to the office now. I’ll come right over, okay?”
“We?” Kelly inquired, her voice lilting with curiosity.
“I’ll be home in an hour, Kell.”
Angela pressed the end button and slipped the phone into her briefcase. She’d hidden her association with Jack from Kelly the same way she’d concealed Dani’s existence from Jack. Her sister would be livid to learn Jack was in her life, even if only for business. And there was no telling how Jack would react to learning he might have fathered a daughter during a drunken one-night stand with her best friend and that Angela had raised her for the past four years. She rubbed her temples in tiny circles, trying to dispel an impending headache.
“Anything wrong?” Jack wondered as he eased the car onto the main road outside the subdivision.
Angela jumped, unaware that Jack had turned his concerned gaze from the road and trained it on her. She sat back in the seat and fiddled with the seat belt. “That was Kelly. Seems my nephews have had enough of summer camp, and she’s leaving first thing in the morning to pick them up. She needs me to come over by eight-thirty to help her get some things together.”
Jack nodded, but the corners of his mouth dipped into a frown.
So much for the back seat.
“You look disappointed,” she purred, feeling safe enough as he accelerated the car onto the interstate to slide her briefcase behind her and lean across the console until her lips were less than an inch from his ear. “Did you have another challenge for me tonight, Jack?”
He threw the car into a higher gear.
Tracing the edge of his ear with featherlight fingertips, she licked his lobe and whispered, “You did, didn’t you?”
“I’m driving,” he pointed out, his voice betraying a hint of discomfort. He shifted in his seat.
She smiled. Paybacks were hell.
“And you do it so very, very well.”
She ran her palm down his arm, then closed her hand around his as he gripped the gearshift. “You hold it so tight.” She licked her lips slowly, making sure he caught her movement in his peripheral vision. “You’re giving me ideas.”
“If you want to arrive at your sister’s in a hurry, you’d better not entertain them,” he warned.
She moved closer, twisted out of the shoulder harness and nipped at his neck with her teeth. “Oh, come on, Jack. You’re a talented guy. You can do two things at once.”
“What two things?”
The question seemed ridiculous, as if she should know better than to tease a man mercilessly while he maneuvered a powerful sports car down a major highway. She did know better, so she’d be careful not to distract him too much—just enough to make him pay for leaving her so unsatisfied the night before.
“I was pretty mad at you last night.” She loosened his tie and slid the silk from around his collar. She undid the top button of his shirt and watched his Adam’s apple bob when he swallowed. “But the way you dazzled Davenport until he was practically eating out of your hand really turned me on.”
“Is that so?”
She fanned herself with her hand. “You made me hot.”
Returning to her seat, she flicked on the radio and tuned it to an oldies rock station. His sigh of relief was short-lived. She shrugged out of her suit jacket and tossed it on the back seat. The gold silk shell she wore beneath her forest green suit was ne
arly transparent, and she wore no bra.
You are that woman on the Harley, she reminded herself.
“Real hot.”
She toggled the air conditioner higher. She kicked off her shoes and eased her seat back. Her short skirt hiked slightly up her thighs.
“Angela, you’re asking for trouble.”
Languidly, she placed her right hand behind her head and relaxed in the seat.
“I’m cooling off, Jack. That’s the only safe alternative, right? I don’t have time for trouble. I have to get home.”
He glanced away from the road for an instant, groaned, then turned his gaze to the gray line of highway ahead of him.
“You’re about to cause an accident.”
Jack’s knuckles cramped as he clutched the steering wheel tighter. Twilight descended like a plum-colored curtain, and the traffic ahead blinked at him with tiny red lights. Red meant stop. Didn’t she see them? Here he was, trying to be considerate, and this is how she repaid him? Despite all they’d been through in the past few days, she didn’t even begin to understand the complexity of his desire for her. Hell, he didn’t, either. But with the pace of his growing need, she’d better back off before he yanked the car off the road and pulled her into his uninitiated back seat.
“You know,” she continued, her voice deliberately raspy and deep, “I wonder what sex in a moving car is like.” She leaned sideways, allowing her draping blouse to reveal the pale curve of her breast. “Think you could keep the car on the road?”
At that, Jack swung the car onto the shoulder, jamming on the brakes and forcing Angela to brace her hands on the dashboard to keep from flying forward. When the car stopped, he threw it into park and pulled up the emergency brake with such force, he thought he’d ripped it off.
She reached behind, grabbed her jacket and draped it over her legs like a lap blanket.
“Modest all of a sudden?” He shook his head at her shyness. Maybe she did understand the danger of the fire she toyed with.
She glanced at him with a sidelong, stabbing glare. “You wouldn’t know much about modesty, would you?”
“Judging from the way you play highway harlot, you aren’t exactly Miss Manners either, sweetheart.”
Ouch. Yet he couldn’t help his scathing response. The holier-than-thou tone in her voice could cause a saint to lose his temper. And Jack was no saint.
“No, Miss Manners I’m not. I guess any high-powered road vehicle brings out the worst in me.”
The admission seemed resigned and nearly as weary as the look in her eyes. Jack grinned inwardly. She still smarted from last night. This had been her attempt at revenge. Clever. And almost successful.
“Not the worst, the best. And I’m sorry about the Miss Manners crack. What happened between us deserves better.”
His apology did nothing to soften the spite in her stare. “Why? Because we’re meant for each other? Because we’re in love?”
The last word came out long, with a melody of sarcasm—sarcasm that usually came from him. The sound, emanating from Angela’s sweet lips, was raucous and raw. He ached to hold her in his arms and kiss her until he took the sound away, but he sensed the futility. A kiss wouldn’t be enough. Sex wouldn’t be enough.
Unfortunately, they were all he had to give. What was missing had to come from her.
“No, we’re not in love. But the possibility exists.”
She scoffed. “You don’t have to sweeten the deal with empty promises, Jack. I don’t expect or want us to fall in love.”
Silence reigned for a moment, and he could feel her stare. He turned off the ignition and adjusted the rearview mirror—anything to keep from hurting. He’d prepared himself for her anger over last night, but what he sensed now was deeper, more embittered.
He kept his gaze glued to the darkening road. “Not even you always get what you want, angel.”
“You don’t really believe you’re going to fall in love with me? I mean, that’s not like you.”
“That’s not like the old me,” he said, unable to remove the frustration from his voice. “I keep trying to show you I’ve changed.” I keep trying to show myself.
“Is that what you’ve been doing? And I thought you were awakening my most secret hidden passions.”
Her mocking tone severed his control like a knife slice to a taut rope. She turned to continue her tirade, but he stopped her with a hand across her mouth.
“Don’t, Angela. Don’t say one more word.”
A series of quick emotions flashed in her eyes—anger, fear, then bitter resignation. He removed his hand and leaned back in his seat, gripping the steering wheel until his knuckles whitened.
“I don’t know how else to show you I’ve changed. I’m not the callous boy I used to be. And if I’ve awakened your most secret hidden passions, it was because you wanted them awakened. By me.”
She turned her face away, and he could only see her silhouetted reflection in the window from the dim dashboard light. She’d picked a fight with him purposefully, as if to destroy the magnetic emotions drawing them closer together. He should have expected this. She was afraid of what they shared.
So was he.
Suddenly, he felt very tired. He glanced at his watch, calculating the short distance they’d traveled in comparison to how far they still had to go. “We don’t have to talk now.”
“We don’t have to talk ever. We just need to finish this deal and say goodbye.”
Taking several lung-filling breaths, Jack eased the car back onto the road and set the cruise control at a safe and even speed. He didn’t answer her. He didn’t know how. He didn’t even know which deal she referred to.
He was suddenly glad he’d made this trip to Tampa so many times before, because for the time being, anyway, he had no idea where he was going.
8
ANGELA TOSSED her unfinished crossword into the garbage and peeked into her coffee mug. Two or three swallows remained, but she blanched at the thought of drinking them. The caffeine she’d already consumed had her nerves rattled enough without another cupful to put her over the edge.
She stacked her late-lunch plates in the dishwasher and wiped the already clean table. She searched the house for something to dust, vacuum or polish. Funny how the house remained pristine when Dani was away.
Funny how much she hated it.
Before Dani came to live with her, Angela had been a certifiable neat-freak. She could still remember with perfect vividness the first time Dani had spilled grape juice on her carpet, only a week after she’d moved in. The stain had meant nothing. All she’d cared about was soothing away the terrified expression on her daughter’s face, returning the twinkle to her pixie green eyes.
Angela slid onto the couch and scooped up a marketing journal she hadn’t had time to read, trying to ease the ache the memory created. Never in her life did she think she could love someone as deeply as she loved Dani. Her parents traveled so much, Angela understood they didn’t love her or her sister with such intensity. Only when she’d seen Kelly with her boys had Angela hoped for the same kind of connection to a child. Then she had Dani. She missed her like crazy.
She appreciated the comfort of her stretchy biker shorts and floppy T-shirt after spending the day before trapped in high heels and a business suit. She’d managed to wine and dine three major clients with lunch, cocktail and dinner appointments, each scheduled around meetings with other local customers of Harris and Associates.
In the end, she’d accomplished two goals. First, she’d reassured most of her temperamental clientele that she and her company were still on top and more than willing to meet their marketing and promotional needs. Second, she’d gone through an entire day without thinking about Jack.
Today, she couldn’t get him off her mind.
She hated to admit she missed him. Since last Friday night, they’d been together nearly every day. Whether for business or pleasure, their encounters always proved exhilarating, fresh and sometimes even
oddly comfortable. Except for the drive back from the meeting with Davenport. What had started out as a teasing act of revenge ended in a bitter battle of emotions.
She didn’t quite know exactly what had caused her feelings to turn so quickly to resentment. His wisecrack about her lack of modesty, an observation richly deserved, wasn’t the culprit. Something deeper was to blame. Something simpler.
Fear. Her fear.
Without uttering a complaint, he’d changed his plans for the night to get her home to her sister. Even when her words had slashed at him, he’d shown unwavering patience. In high school, she was neither the first nor the last girl left in the dust when Jack thought things were getting too intense. Now, the intensity sprang from him.
So far as she knew, his longest relationship, a well-publicized tryst with supermodel Lily Dee, ended almost as swiftly as it began. Though Angela tried not to believe everything she read, the gossip mongers implied Jack dumped Lily in lieu of marriage. After her prom night heartbreak, Angela had no trouble buying this story. How far off the truth could the media be when the stories fit so perfectly into his modus operandi?
But what if his m.o. had changed?
She threw the journal on the table, suddenly dissatisfied with staying inside on such a clear summer day. After her work yesterday, few tasks awaited her attention at the office. Nancy was already pouring through portfolios and had set up a meeting with Jack to interview models for the brochure he’d shoot for investors and potential homeowners. If she stayed home, as planned, she’d conveniently miss running into him until tomorrow’s strategy session.
Ordinarily, she’d spend this free summer afternoon entertaining her daughter or shopping with her sister. But with Dani at camp and Kelly on her way back from retrieving her sons, Angela faced a rare weekday alone.
She decided to enjoy the sunny weather by the pool. She donned her swimsuit and filled a small cooler with ice and sodas. Once they’d chosen the models and layout designs for the Whispering Palms brochure and magazine advertisements, she’d find no time for relaxation until her and Dani’s annual trip to Napa Valley. With two weeks left until their scheduled departure, she had to grab what time for herself she could.
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