17
Josh had just showered and changed for his date with Maggie when someone tapped on the door of his hotel room. He opened it to find Susie, Larry and Jimmy staring up at him, which meant Amanda couldn’t be far away. He found that more worrisome than the unexpected appearance of the kids. If she figured out where he was going tonight, she’d be gloating from now till doomsday. He’d never hear the end of it.
“What are you guys doing here?” Josh asked, hunkering down to put himself on eye level with them. “And where’s your mom?”
“She’s next door with Nadine and I came to ’pologize,” Larry said.
Josh didn’t think the boy looked very contrite. “Oh?”
“Climbing onto the roof was a dumb thing to do,” Larry recited just as he’d most likely been coached to say.
“Yes, it was,” Josh agreed. “I think maybe we should talk about the consequences of that.”
For the first time Larry looked scared, probably more so than he had when he’d been scampering around on that roof and lost his footing.
“Consequences?” he said to Josh, his eyes wide. “You mean like getting punished?”
“That’s exactly what I mean,” Josh confirmed, determined to be stern enough to make his point even though a part of him admired the kid’s daring nature. “What do you think would be an appropriate punishment to make sure you never do anything like that again?”
Larry lifted his chin defiantly. “Mr. Winslow said I probably will do it again ’cause I’m…I can’t remember the word.”
“Intrepid,” Jimmy piped up. “I don’t know what it means, though.” He looked at Josh. “Is it a good thing? Mr. Winslow made it sound like it was.”
Josh fought a grin. “It’s sort of like bravery and it can be a very good thing, but not when it puts you in unnecessary danger.” He paused solemnly to let that sink in, then added, “So, here’s what I think. Next week, when your mom comes to help out at the site, I think you need to stay home and think about why being on that roof was a really, really bad idea.”
“Me and Susie, too?” Jimmy asked.
Josh shook his head. “Just Larry.”
Larry looked crestfallen. “But coming there is the best thing we get to do all week. And don’t the rules say we gotta come?”
“I’m in charge of enforcing the rules. Just this once, I think this is more important,” Josh told him. “And I’m hoping that since it is the best thing you get to do, you’ll think twice next time before risking the chance to be there.”
“But who’d stay with me?” Larry asked. “I can’t stay by myself.”
“Your mom and I will figure that out.”
Larry’s chin wobbled and tears filled his eyes. “Are you mad at me?”
Emotionally, Josh was usually out of his depth with these three, but he instinctively pulled the boy into his arms and gave him a hug. “Not mad, but you did scare an awful lot of people, Larry, me included. Worst of all, you scared your mom.”
Amanda and Nadine exited the room next door in time to hear his last remark.
“You most certainly did,” Amanda confirmed.
Nadine gave Josh a wry look. “And exactly how many times did I have to send somebody up onto a roof or into a tree to retrieve you when you were Larry’s age?”
Josh frowned. Her sudden trip down memory lane was not helping. “Beside the point.”
“Just a reminder not to be too hard on the boy,” she scolded lightly.
“As I recall, you walloped my backside, so I think staying away from the site for one week is reasonable,” Josh said, satisfied when he saw Larry’s eyes widen at the punishment Josh had endured for a similar infraction. “Just enough to get the message across.” He turned to Amanda. “We’ll figure out the babysitting thing later.”
She nodded. “I think that’s definitely a fair punishment, don’t you, Larry?”
Larry hung his head. “I guess,” he said, scuffing the toe of his sneaker on the sidewalk. “How come it’s not enough that I ’pologized?”
“Because Josh and I want to make very sure you remember this incident and don’t repeat it,” Amanda told him, then turned her attention back to Josh. “You look all scrubbed and gussied up just to go get burgers,” she observed with amusement dancing in her eyes.
“Actually I have other plans,” he admitted reluctantly. “They don’t include burgers.”
“Really? Care to tell us about them?” she inquired, her expression already too damn smug.
“No, I do not.”
Nadine regarded the two of them with interest. “What’s going on?”
“Unless I’m mistaken, Josh finally asked Maggie out on a real date and she agreed,” Amanda said, not even trying to hide her personal sense of triumph over a successful matchmaking mission.
Josh grinned. “You only have that half right. I asked. She refused. I told her I’d be there at six, anyway.” He glanced at his watch. “I’d better hit the road. I wouldn’t want her to think she won, after all.”
“It’s a date, not a competition,” Amanda reminded him.
“Not with Maggie, it isn’t,” he said. “See you.”
“In the morning?” Nadine inquired innocently.
“Whenever I get back. Knowing Maggie, it could be thirty minutes from now.”
But he was counting on his powers of persuasion to buy him a little more time than that.
“Do you know what that man had the audacity to do?” Maggie demanded indignantly when Dinah called her around five o’clock to see if Maggie was free to have dinner with her and Cord.
“That man? Can I assume we’re talking about Josh?” Dinah asked, her voice threaded with amusement.
“Of course we’re talking about Josh. Do you know any other man who’s half as infuriating as he is?”
“Cord has his moments,” Dinah replied. “They’ve made life interesting. I highly recommend a man with audacity.”
“You are absolutely no help at all,” Maggie accused in frustration. “Do you want to know what Josh did or not?”
“Please tell me,” Dinah said.
“He asked me on a date,” Maggie began.
“That is awful,” Dinah commiserated, obviously choking back a laugh.
Maggie lost patience. “Will you just shut up and let me finish?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Dinah replied dutifully.
“He asked me on a date. Being sensible for once, I said no. He accused me of being a coward. I denied it and then he kissed me in front of God and everyone right there on the construction site,” she said, her voice filled with indignation.
“I’m shocked,” Dinah said, though the opposite was plainly the case. She sounded even more entertained.
“Oh, for pity’s sake, I’m not through yet,” Maggie said. “That’s not the worst of it. Then he said he was picking me up at six whether I was ready or not. Can you imagine? He actually thinks he can order me around. What’s next? Tossing me over his shoulder and hauling me into his cave?”
Dinah chuckled openly. “I have to admire any man who thinks he can pull that off. In fact, I want to be the one who gets to sell tickets when he tries.”
“You really aren’t going to be any help at all, are you?” Maggie said in disgust. “I told you this so you could tell me what to do to show him that he is not in charge here.”
“So this is a control issue with you?” Dinah asked. “It has nothing to do with you not really wanting to go out with him?”
“Yes,” Maggie said at once, then backed off. “No. Hell, Dinah, I honestly don’t know anymore. It started out as me trying to be smart for once in my life, but then things got a little murky.”
“How does your mother feel about him? They met the other day, right?”
The out-of-the-blue question threw Maggie, even though she suspected exactly where Dinah was headed with it. “What does my mother have to do with anything?” she asked testily.
“Come on, Magnolia, don’t play dens
e. If your mother adored Josh at first glimpse, then you’re holding out just to be stubborn. Personally, I think that must be it, because if she expressed even a hint of distaste for Josh, you’d be all over the man.”
“I’m way past choosing men just as a rebellion against my mother,” Maggie claimed defensively, despite the fact that she’d made the very same assessment herself.
“Since when?”
“Remember Warren? He was the turning point.”
“I think Warren was an experiment that didn’t pan out,” Dinah said. “I think you dipped your toe into safe, lukewarm waters to see how it felt and concluded that you preferred the excitement of a stormy sea, despite all the risks. I think you should be grateful.”
“To Warren?” Maggie asked incredulously. “Why on earth would I be grateful to him?”
“Because he proved once and for all that you will only be happy with a certain type of man, and his type, sweet as he is, is definitely not it.”
Unfortunately, Maggie couldn’t entirely disagree. “Then why haven’t I jumped into bed with Josh already? Goodness knows, he fits my old pattern perfectly.”
“Because you see something in him you never saw in any of the others who came before Warren,” Dinah suggested.
“Such as?”
“Staying power.”
That was the most ridiculous thing Dinah had said yet. “You think Josh has staying power?” Maggie scoffed. “Who are you kidding? The man lives in a motel, probably with his bags packed.”
“Only because that’s all he’s known. I don’t think life with Nadine was all that stable. If someone gave him a reason to stay put, I think he’d settle down in a heartbeat.”
Maggie paused and considered that possibility. “I know you’re right about his childhood with Nadine,” she said finally, “but what on earth makes you think he’s ready to change his pattern? Look at his job history. He’s always on the move.”
“Until Cord hired him and gave him both the work he loved and the respect he deserved,” Dinah reminded her. “He’s not walking away from that. I don’t think he’d walk away from a woman who gave him love and a sense of security, either. I just think he’s afraid to want it too much.”
“And based on my past history, you think I can be that woman?” Maggie asked skeptically. “I bolt at the first sign of commitment.”
“No, you do not,” Dinah contradicted. “You set it up so the man takes off and you can play the injured victim. I don’t think Josh will be put off so easily, if you give him half a chance. And I think that’s what terrifies you. Just look how he’s shaken you up tonight.”
“I am not shaken up. I’m annoyed. Besides, you hardly know the man,” Maggie said, desperate to prove that Dinah’s probably sage advice wasn’t worth a nickel.
“Neither do you,” Dinah reminded her. “If the attraction’s there, and we both know it is, change that, Maggie. Get to know him. Let him into your life. Let him into your heart, not just into your bed.”
Maggie sighed. Dinah knew her better than anyone on earth. Maybe, for once, she should listen to her, instead of dismissing what she had to say because she didn’t want to hear it. “Okay, I’ll think about it.”
“Well, think fast, because according to my watch, he’s due there in fifteen minutes.”
Maggie glanced at her own watch and confirmed the time. “Oh, my God, I’ve got to go.”
“Call me tomorrow,” Dinah said. She paused, then added slyly, “Or the next day, if tomorrow’s inconvenient.”
“I thought you told me to keep him out of my bed.”
“But I know you won’t,” Dinah said with conviction. “And what I actually said was to let him into your life and your heart, not just into your bed. Bye, sweetie. Have fun tonight.”
Maggie slowly put the portable phone back into its charger and considered Dinah’s advice. Her friend was right about her tendency to do most relationships totally backward. At thirty-two, it was probably time to consider changing that pattern.
Then, again, there was the whole upper-hand thing. If Josh arrived tonight and she was dutifully waiting by the door to spend a nice sedate evening having a few drinks with him, just as he expected, he would win. It might be only a tiny victory, but it was unacceptable.
Which meant she had to come up with a fitting twist that would knock the man’s socks off. If there was one thing at which she excelled, it was keeping wicked, dangerous men off kilter.
Maggie opened her front door wearing two skimpy scraps of silk and lace that left absolutely nothing to the imagination. Josh almost swallowed his tongue. He still hadn’t recovered from the unexpected sight when she reached out, bunched a fistful of his shirt in her hand and dragged him across the threshold.
Okay, then, they apparently weren’t going out for drinks, he concluded as she pretty much plastered herself to him and turned their earlier kiss into child’s play by comparison.
He barely had time to glance around the living room, which had the same cozy ambience as Images, before she was shoving aside his shirt and reaching for his belt.
Josh put his hand over hers in an attempt to still her busy fingers. “Um, Maggie, not that I’m complaining, but what’s going on here?”
“Isn’t it obvious?”
“You’re seducing me,” he said, hoping he’d gotten it right and this wasn’t some game she intended to halt any second now.
There was laughter in her eyes when she met his gaze. “Very astute. Any objections?”
He scrambled, trying to come up with one that made a lick of sense under the circumstances, but the benefits far outweighed any objection he could think of with her hands all over him.
He grinned at last. “I guess not.”
“Good answer. The bedroom’s this way.”
Rather than following, though, he backed her against a wall and pinned her hands over her head. “We don’t have to get there in the next five minutes, do we?” he asked, kissing his way along the side of her neck till he reached the spot where her pulse was jumping. He ran his tongue lightly over her burning skin.
“Two minutes,” she said in a choked voice.
He glanced into her eyes. “What?”
“We have to be there in two minutes,” she said.
“Oh? Why is that, sugar? You have a camera on a timer?”
For an instant there was dead silence, but as his words apparently sank in, she put a hand in the center of his chest and shoved him back a step. “Are you crazy?”
He laughed at her indignation. “Just checking, since you seem to be on an urgent timetable. If you want some kinky pictures to remember me by, it’s okay with me.”
“You are so delusional,” she snapped. “What made me think for one single second that I wanted to sleep with you?”
“Maybe this,” Josh said, covering her mouth with his and sliding his hand up her bare midriff till be could run a finger over the hard bead of her nipple. Her hips instinctively swayed into his.
He pressed her back against the wall and continued his assault on her mouth until she was whimpering with pleasure. The movements of her hips became more and more restless. Josh was pretty sure they’d never make it to the bedroom if they kept up like this. Reluctantly, he backed up a step.
“No,” she protested, trying to pull him back.
“Just taking a little break, sugar.” To prove it, he scooped her into his arms and cradled her against his chest, then looked into her eyes. “You think you’re gonna change your mind before we get to the good stuff?”
Her gaze remained perfectly level, as if she was responding to a dare. “Not a chance.”
Josh grinned. “It’s not supposed to be about pride, Maggie. You can back out if this is more than you wanted. Just because you started the game doesn’t mean you have to finish it.”
“It’s not a game. This is exactly what I wanted,” she said. “Didn’t I make myself clear enough when I answered the door wearing this?”
Josh eyed th
e skimpy amount of lace still covering her. “It was an unexpectedly fascinating invitation, all right.”
“Then you’re accepting?”
“I may be a lot of things, but I’m no fool. When a woman like you says she wants me in no uncertain terms, I’m not likely to walk away. Only one thing I need to know.”
“What?”
“Where’s the bedroom?”
“Last door on the right,” she said.
Josh carried her into the room, which was lit with candles. A bouquet of fresh roses scented the air. The luxurious flowered comforter on the bed was turned back, revealing sheets that looked smooth and soft and welcoming. A pile of pillows promised comfort.
The atmosphere was purely romantic, but it was the suggested permanence of it, the hundred and one little personal touches that screamed Maggie, that got to him. This was the bedroom of someone who understood what it took to make a home. Josh couldn’t help wondering if he’d ever fit here, or anyplace like it.
Maggie touched his cheek. “What’s wrong?”
“Just thinking how different your life is from mine,” he admitted, settling her on the bed, then sitting on the edge beside her, not quite ready to join her.
“In what way?”
“I’ll bet this big old bed has been in your family for generations,” he said.
“It was my great-grandmother’s,” she confirmed.
He met her gaze. “Do you know I don’t have one single thing from any ancestor of mine? Not even a snapshot.”
“That’s sad.”
He shrugged. “It’s just the way it is. Nadine never was one for sentiment. We didn’t have room for it on the road.”
“Sometimes family’s not all it’s cracked up to be,” Maggie said as if that might console him.
“Your folks seem like good people. And you obviously like the links to the past. They’re all around you, here and at Images.”
“These are things, Josh. I appreciate them for their beauty and, yes, to a certain extent for the memories they carry with them. But sometimes the weight of responsibility that goes along with them can be a heavy burden.”
“Which explains all those rebellions of yours,” he guessed.
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