Daring Moves

Jordan chuckled. “Do I really scare you so much?” he asked.

Amanda wet her lips with the tip of her tongue in an unconscious display of nervousness. “Yes.”

“Why?”

The question was reasonable, but Amanda didn’t know the answer. “I’m not sure.”

He grinned. “Where would you like to go for lunch?”

She would have been content not to go out at all, preferring just to stand there in his arms all afternoon, breathing in his scent and enjoying the lean, hard feel of his body against hers. She gave herself an inward shake. “You know, I just refused a similar invitation from my mother, and she would have thrown in a movie.”

Jordan laughed and smoothed Amanda’s bangs back from her forehead. “All right, so will I.”

But Amanda shook her head. “Too many munchkins screaming and throwing popcorn.”

His expression changed almost imperceptibly. “Don’t you like kids?”

“I love them,” Amanda answered, “except when they’re traveling in herds.”

Jordan chuckled again and gave her another light kiss. “Okay, we’ll go to something R-rated. Nobody under seventeen admitted without a parent.”

“You’ve got a deal,” Amanda replied.

Just as he was helping her get into her coat, the telephone rang. Praying there wasn’t a disaster at the Evergreen to be taken care of, Amanda answered, “Hello?”

“Hello, Amanda.” She hadn’t heard that voice in six long months, and the sound of it stunned her. It was James.

Grimacing at Jordan, she spoke into the receiver. “I don’t want to talk to you, now or ever.”

“Please don’t hang up,” James said quickly.

Amanda bit down on her lip and lowered her eyes. “What is it?”

“Madge is divorcing me.”

She drew a deep breath and let it out again. “Congratulations, James,” she said, not with cruelty but with resignation. After all, it was no great surprise, and she had no idea why he felt compelled to share the news with her.

“I’d like for you and me to get back together,” he said in that familiar tone that had once rendered her pliant and gullible.

“There’s absolutely no chance of that,” Amanda replied, forcing herself to meet Jordan’s gaze again. He was standing at the door, his hand on the knob, watching her with concern but not condemnation. “Goodbye, James.” With that, she placed the receiver back in its cradle.

Jordan remained where he was for a long moment, then he crossed the room to where Amanda stood, bundled in her coat, and gently lifted her hair out from under her collar. “Still want to go out?” he asked quietly.

Amanda was oddly shaken, but she nodded, and they left the apartment together. The phone began ringing again when they reached the top of the stairs, but this time Amanda made no effort to answer it.

“I guess I can’t blame him for being persistent,” Jordan remarked when they were seated in the Porsche. “You’re a beautiful woman, Amanda.”

She sighed, ignoring the compliment because it didn’t register. “I’ll never forgive James for lying to me the way he did,” she got out. Tears stung her eyes as she remembered the blinding pain of his deceit.

Jordan pulled out into the rainy-day traffic and kept his eyes on the road. “He wants you back,” he guessed.

Amanda noticed that his hands tensed slightly around the steering wheel.

“That’s what he said,” she confessed, staring out at the decorated streets but not really seeing them.

“Do you believe him?”

Amanda shrugged. “It doesn’t matter whether I do or not. I’ve made my decision and I’m not going to change my mind.” She found some tissue in her purse and resolutely dried her eyes, trying in vain to convince herself that Jordan hadn’t noticed she was crying.

He drove to a pizza joint across the street from a mall north of the city. “This okay?” he asked, bringing the sleek car to a stop in one of the few parking spaces available. “We could order takeout if you’d rather not go in.”

Amanda drew a deep breath, composing herself. The time with James was behind her, and she wanted to keep it there, to enjoy the here and now with Jordan. Christmas crowds or none. “Let’s eat here,” she said.

He favored her with a half grin and came around to open her door for her. As she stood, she accidentally brushed against him, and felt that familiar twisting ache deep inside herself. She was going to end up making love with Jordan Richards, she just knew it. It was inevitable.

The realization that he was reading her thoughts once more made Amanda blush, and she drew back when he took her hand. His grip only became firmer, however, and she didn’t try to pull away again. She was in the mood to follow where Jordan might lead—which, to Amanda’s way of thinking, made it a darned good thing they were approaching the door of a pizza parlor instead of a bedroom.

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