“And with the women,” Beth said.
“Beth,” Susan Mallory scolded.
Laura had already figured out that Susan Mallory tried, with little success and much humor, to rein in her partner.
“Well, I’m only saying it because it’s true. I’m glad I’m not thirty years younger, or I don’t think I could stand it.” As Susan looked on disapprovingly, Beth added, “That man could charm a nun out of her habit.”
And a defenseless spinster out of her habits, Laura thought, flicking up the volume on Josie. Suddenly she heard a loud knock over the screeching music. Had to be her sister, who hadn’t checked in with Laura at all today. She got up and gave a cursory glance through the peephole, only to see one very gorgeous man staring back.
One very familiar gorgeous man.
Hands shaking, she opened the door for the full view. What a view it was. His blue eyes were warm and alert on her, immediately bringing to mind the last time he had looked at her that intensely. The sleeves of his dress shirt were rolled up, and she wanted his strong arms wrapped around her. She held on to the door for support and looked up at him. That curl of hair was hanging on his forehead, and she resisted the urge to push it away.
He had the Bellamy Hotel gift bag in one hand and a pan of something in another. “Couldn’t get your jeans over my legs,” he said.
She had an involuntary vision of Kyle’s tanned and muscular legs. She turned away, stepping back into the apartment.
He followed her, then strode past her to the kitchen, his shoulder brushing against her as he did. This time it didn’t feel like the kind of clumsiness he used to display around her, but a quite deliberate nudge. She shut the door after him and saw that he was already rummaging through the cabinets that hung over the snack bar. Was the man ever not at ease?
“Hey, Kyle, would you like to come in?”
“Thanks, Laura, I think I will.” He grinned at her, and she felt herself soften in response. He found a plate in her cabinet and started loading lasagna on it.
Why was he bringing her food? To make up for not sleeping with her? Was he here to mend fences? So they could go on with their lives and forget about each other or so they could go on with their lives and not forget about each other?
Well, gee, Laura, he’s the one who came to see you. Let him talk. But she jumped right in anyway.
“Look, I feel really bad for the last couple of things I said to you at the police station,” she began.
“Wait—” He came back into the living room, abandoning the lasagna to stand beside her. He didn’t say anything for a second, and she could feel her heart beating all the way up to her ears, ears growing more tingly by the second. The catchy Josie theme was rebounding through the room while she waited for Kyle to speak.
“I’ve been thinking…”
Her experience with men was less than some other women in their twenties, sure, but she knew that when a man said he was thinking, it was almost never about anything good. But surely he wouldn’t come over here to tell her something bad, when he was doing it so well by not calling her at all?
She had total cotton mouth. “I’m going to get a Diet Coke. Do you want one? I’ll get the lasagna out of the microwave, too. Smells great.”
He stopped her with a hand on her shoulder, a touch that made her want him to hold her tight.
“I was thinking we shouldn’t talk about work. Add that to our list of things we don’t talk about.”
She blushed, remembering the first topic on that list.
She stumbled to the coffee table and took a handful of popcorn, as though somehow the little kernels would protect her from the force of Kyle’s charms.
When she didn’t say anything, he almost seemed to falter, but then his intensity came back. “So no work talk. Nothing about mergers or consultants or any kind of business.”
“’Til when?”
He looked like he was calculating in his head. “A few days.”
“What happens then?” You have to ask? Cinderella turns back into the little ragamuffin, the coach turns back into a pumpkin.
He looked like he had swallowed a big secret. “Let me worry about that.”
Oh, that was reassuring. He was waiting for her answer. Finally she said, “Gee, Professor, that’s so crazy it just might work.” She popped a kernel into her mouth.
“This Gilligan’s Island obsession,” Kyle said. He went back into the kitchen and came back with her plate of lasagna, plus two cans of Diet Coke.
“You don’t think kids should be allowed to watch TV indiscriminately, do you? I mean, before they do their homework?”
“Of course not,” she said. “I don’t watch TV indiscriminately.” Together, they looked at the TV, where Josie and Melanie and the bunch were shaking tambourines. She jumped up to turn it off.
After all that obsessing about Kyle, he was here, sitting down with her while she ate the best lasagna she had ever put in her mouth. Kyle regaled her with college stories about him and Stan and with tales of Jessica.
“Have you seen her a lot this week?”
“No,” Kyle said, getting up to get more cola. “I’ve been working.”
“Oh, really? What have you been—”
“No work talk.” He moved back to sit beside her at the table. “Remember?” he asked, smiling at her. She would have missed those blue eyes if she had never gotten the chance to look into them like this again. His hand covered hers on the table, and she moved instinctively toward him, her lips parting. His arm encircled her as she felt his mouth claim hers. The kiss was even better than she’d remembered. He moved his hand to her face, caressing her cheek.
The phone rang. “The machine,” she whispered. She had the machine set to pick up after just a couple of rings, in the pathetic hope that Kyle Sanders would call.
They were still in a kiss when she heard her sister’s voice on the machine.
“Baby sister, are you there? I hope you’re out somewhere trying to get over the Office Romeo. Has he called you yet? How did your meeting—”
She jumped up to turn it down, hitting Kyle’s ankle.
Finally, she reached the volume button.
“Well.” She turned around. “The Office Romeo, that’s, uh, that’s—”
His own face was turning a light shade of red but it wasn’t a wild embarrassed red like hers. More, she would have to say, like an I’m-pleased-with-myself kind of red. Charmer. Flirt. Seducer of Women. And she was awfully crazy about him.
He grinned. “I think I know who it is.”
IF THE FLOOR could have opened, he suspected she would have dropped right through it. He’d let her out of the moment gracefully, he decided. What a guy. Right. He had come over here with the idea of getting Laura to take him seriously, and the first thing he’d done when she got within six inches of him was try to make out with her. Office Romeo. He deserved that one.
“So, she called you baby sister,” Kyle said, limping a little back to the table.
“Are you sure your ankle’s all right?”
“Yeah, it’s fine. You don’t seem like a younger child.”
“Don’t tell me, I act like a firstborn, right?” Laura picked up her plate and stood. “We’re only eleven months apart.”
“Eleven months?”
Her ears turned red again. Damn, but he could know her for a lifetime and never get tired of how cute she looked when that happened. She moved to the kitchen. “I know, I know, my parents couldn’t keep their hands off each other. It’s not something you want to think about, though.”
“Or talk about, right? So you were in different grades?”
“No, we were in the same grade. In elementary school there was only one classroom for some of the grades, so they wanted to hold me back, but my parents wouldn’t let them. When we went to high school, Kate convinced everyone we were fraternal twins.”
“And you went along with it?”
She grinned a short, quick grin that set his pulse racin
g. “I’m awful at lying, but I’m great at sins of omission.” She bit her lip. “Since Kate had Haley, though, she pulls a little older sister rank.”
“That ‘I brought a human being into the world and you’re still carefree and single’ stuff?”
She nodded. “You know that line, too?”
“I know it pretty well,” he said. The thought came, surprising him with its intensity: But maybe not for long.
SHE FELT AWFUL about the office Romeo thing, especially since she wasn’t the kind of woman who kissed and told. Not that she ever had much to tell. And it was just her sister, and she hadn’t told her everything. She found it impossible to explain: How Kyle made her feel. After the comment, Kyle had stayed at her apartment a while longer but hadn’t made another move to kiss her. That was that, then.
But the next night he was back, right after work, taking her out for hot dogs at the famous Varsity. The next night they went to an outdoor concert. True to their agreement, they didn’t discuss about business, although she was dying to tell him that she had gotten the job at Mallory Management. But he was a lot more inflexible about his no-shop-talk rule than she had been about her no talking about kisses rule.
Now not only were they not talking about kissing, they weren’t kissing, which was a real shame, since they did it very well. When they went to the movies she unbuttoned an extra button on her blouse and snuggled against him. He never made a move, which only made her want him more. When he sneaked an arm around her at a revival showing of The Terminator, it was one of the most romantic moments of her life.
“Are you satisfied that Stan’s not imaginary?” Kyle said, following her into her apartment. It was Saturday night, and they’d had a blast at a bar in Little Five Points where they’d gone to see his friend Stan play. Even Laura, who didn’t know a thing about guitar, could admit that if there were guitar geniuses, he was one. She’d met his wife, too.
“I’m satisfied,” she said.
Kyle sounded casual as he said, “It takes a certain kind of guy, you know, to keep a close friendship up since high school. Not a fly-by-night guy.”
“Are you talking about you or Stan?”
He’d been doing this for the past few days, bringing up what a sterling character he was. She’d heard how he’d helped his grandfather build a boat, helped his sister train for a track team, and made the dean’s list in college. He sounded like the original Boy Scout, until she looked into his eyes and saw the smooth, carefree guy who’d seduced her so easily.
“Hey, Laura,” he said, his face was so serious that she thought he must have something awful to tell her. “Listen, I want to break our rule for a second.”
The no talking about kisses rule? Or the no kisses rule that seemed to have gone into effect?
“I wanted to make sure you were coming down to the office Monday. Brandi said you were.”
That rule. “Yeah, I am.” She put her hands on her hips. “She’s not throwing me a goodbye party, is she? I told her I didn’t want one.”
He looked confused. “Party? No, I don’t think she’s throwing you a party.”
“Good,” she said, kicking off her shoes and resisting the urge to carry them to her closet. “I hate surprises.”
Disappointment and—what was it, worry?—flitted across his face. “You really hate surprises?”
“A dozen red roses, I could handle. But mostly, I hate them.”
“Even if it was a surprise that…” He cleared his throat. “That someone thought you might like.”
Good lord, he’d probably gotten her a cat. She looked up at him, and he looked so sincere and troubled that without even thinking, she slipped her arms around his waist.
“Kyle, you worry too much.” Who’d have believed she would have ever said that about Kyle Sanders?
His own arms reached around her, and she tipped up her chin for a kiss, a kiss full of sweet longing, the kiss of two people who were meant to be kissing each other. How had they kept from doing this all week? Why had they kept from doing this? If she had been as newly empowered as she thought she was, she would have taken a chance, dared a kiss, seen what she could do to him. It was never too late to take a chance, she thought, deepening the pressure of her mouth on his as he groaned.
He crossed her small living room in just a few steps, pulling her along with him, his hands pushing her dress to her hips as they sank down together on the couch. She fiddled with the buttons on his shirt as his tongue played along her lips.
“Laura,” he said, breaking off the kiss. “I want you to know… I want…”
Whatever he wanted to say, he was too aroused to say it. She kissed his lips gently, still playing with the buttons on his shirt.
“All I want is for you to want me,” she said.
He broke off the kiss and pulled away from her, a troubled expression on his face. “But I want you to want more than that.”
“Okay.” She pulled him back down, knowing that she would say anything to get his body next to hers again. “Okay,” she said, feeling the brush of his hands on her body as he eased her dress off. “Mmmhmmm,” she murmured, as she felt the sweet weight of him on top of her. It was only much later, when they were spooned together in her bed, that she wondered what he really meant and why she was too scared to ask.
9
REALISTICALLY, this was not the most important day of his life. That would be the day he married, and then the day his children were born. This was just the day on which all those other days might hinge, the day he finally had proof to show Laura that he wasn’t a total goof-off, a pretty boy. That he was more than a bedmate. He was permanent relationship material.
He took the now familiar steps to her apartment door and knocked. He expected her to answer in one of her linen suits. Instead, she stood in front of him, her gorgeous brown hair down around her shoulders, wearing the famous green sundress. She looked beautiful.
“You’re wearing that to work?”
A puzzled look passed through her hazel eyes. “I don’t work there anymore, remember?” She held the door open for him and he entered. “I’m going shopping afterward, and this dress comes off more easily than anything else I own.”
“Laura, you don’t have to tell me how easily that dress comes off. I know.” Did he ever know. It was all he could do to keep from kicking the door shut and spending half the day in bed.
“Oh, yeah,” she said, red ears peeking out from beneath her hair. “Do you want a jelly doughnut?”
The thought of a jelly doughnut twisted his stomach beyond belief. “No, I don’t want a jelly doughnut.” He watched her as she put on a pair of sandals. “Hey, if you had kids, you wouldn’t let them eat jelly doughnuts every day for breakfast, would you?”
He tried to slip these parenting questions into the conversation casually, but it never worked.
She grinned at him. “Who are you, the emissary for the stork?”
The man who wants to bear your children, he thought. No, that wasn’t right. The man who wants to father your children. The man who will fix the kids bacon and bring you all the jelly doughnuts and anything else you want, if I have to go to the moon to get it.
Shoes on, she walked over to him and touched his shoulder. “Are you okay? You seem a little…odd.”
Nothing that having you take me seriously won’t cure. He looked at his watch. Bill and Walt were going to meet them there in an hour. “No,” he said as casually as he could. “My ankle hurts a little.” It didn’t, but that was an easy and sympathetic lie.
She crossed her arms. “Kyle, you’re not a hypochondriac, are you? I mean, I know your ankle was really sprained—”
How had he forgotten that Laura wasn’t one who fell for any kind of poor-me tricks? “No, I’m not a hypochondriac,” he snapped. “Are you ready?”
“Absolutely,” she said, grabbing her purse.
He put his hand on her back and escorted her to his car. “You aren’t the kind of person who never believes anyone
is sick, are you? If you were married and your husband had the flu, you wouldn’t begrudge him a cup of tea, would you?”
She smiled an odd smile. “If he wouldn’t let the cat sleep on the bed if it turned out I was allergic to it.”
She had him there.
Once they were in the car, she said, “So, why is it so important that I be at Harris Associates today? And you swear it isn’t a surprise going-away party.”
“I swear.”
She snapped her fingers. “I’ve got it.”
“Got what?”
“I know what’s going to happen. I’m going to arrive and everyone will pretend their work has been in total disarray since I left, and I’ll feel so needed that I won’t be able to resist joining in.”
“No, actually, things are going fine since you left.”
“Oh.” He looked at her, now staring out the window.
“I didn’t mean it like that. I meant that I’ve been working extra hard to pick up the slack. Besides, that sounds like a Brady Bunch episode. It is a Brady Bunch episode,” he said, recognition dawning. “The one where they all faked crises so Alice the housekeeper would stay.”
“I didn’t know you were such a fan,” she said pointedly.
They pulled into his parking spot at Harris Associates. As he led her through the front entrance, and he saw her looking around suspiciously, waiting for the surprise party that wasn’t going to happen.
They got to the doorway of the inner office, and he took a moment to gather his thoughts. Laura, though, had already pushed open the door, with a quiet “Knock, knock.”
He saw Walt and Bill sitting with Harris in the office. “Well, hi guys, long time, no see.” She turned to Kyle with a puzzled look.
“Laura,” Kyle said, nodding at his boss and the other men. “Thanks to your report and my follow-up work on it, we’re acquiring New Horizon.”
She looked confused. Well, of course. She had doubted him and now he had proven that her doubts were wrong. “That’s great, guys. So, uh, is one of you coming onboard, then?”
“Well, no,” Walt said, pulling on his red tie. “Kyle told us you were going to be the vice president of our division.”
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