Old Enough To Know Better

“So they’re giving up on the other stuff?” He sounded disappointed.

“Pretty much. There’s a niche market for the over-the-top lingerie, but apparently they were struggling to capture that.” She decided a happening chick would be bold. “Face it, did you ever go in there?”

A flush stole up from the open collar of his silk shirt. “Maybe I should plead the Fifth on that one.”

Which meant he had bought naughty lingerie at some time, for some woman in his life. Kasey wondered what that would be like, having a man like Sam bring her a present of underwear that he expected her to model for him. The idea gave her goose bumps.

“I have the feeling I’ve just incriminated myself,” he said.

“Not at all.” But he’d made himself seem even sexier, if that was possible. She reminded herself to keep playing the role of sophisticated city girl. “I know men have fantasies.”

His gaze intensified. “I’ve been told women have them, too.”

“Well, of course.” She sounded nervous, damn it. She decided to retreat a little. “That’s what my project’s about, tapping into women’s fantasies instead of catering to a man’s. Women usually want their fantasies packaged more subtly.”

“How about you? How do you like your fantasies packaged?”

I’m looking at it. “Oh, I’m probably like most women.”

“I seriously doubt that. Play fair, now. I’ve pretty much admitted to buying something at Slightly Scandalous. The least you can do is confess that you’ve worn something from there.”

As if. “Uh, well, I—”

“Your pink cheeks are giving you away, Kasey.” He smiled. “I know a bad girl when I see one. But for the record, wearing an outfit from Slightly Scandalous is okay with me.”

She knew she was in over her head. But the thing was, she’d nearly accomplished her mission. Sam looked like a man who could hardly wait to get her alone.

Picking up her goblet, she borrowed his line. “I’ll have to take the Fifth on that.” Then she drained the glass before setting it back on the table.

He let out a breath. “You know how to turn a man inside out, don’t you?” He picked up the wine bottle and refilled her glass.

She made a command decision not to drink another drop. Finishing off her glass had seemed like a big-girl sort of gesture, but now she was feeling light-headed and giggly. Any more of that delicious red stuff and she was liable to tell Sam her entire life story. Nope, she’d stick with water from here on out.

In fact, a drink of water might settle her jumpy nerves. The way Sam was looking at her, she had the feeling she’d started something she might not be ready to finish. She picked up her water glass and took a cooling swallow.

“I’ve been dying to ask you—how did you get that little scar on your lip?”

She choked on the water. As an unplanned distraction, it worked well. Sam was out of his seat in no time, patting her back and murmuring words of concern.

Gradually she could breathe again, and she begged him to go back to his seat. Other diners had begun to stare and even the waiter had come by to make sure she was all right.

Sam eased back into his chair. “Sure you’re okay?”

“Fine. Just embarrassed. You’d think by now I’d have learned how to swallow water.”

“I hope it wasn’t something I said.”

“No, no, nothing like that.”

“If mentioning that little scar upset you, I’m really sorry.”

“Goodness, no. It’s an old childhood injury. Most of the time I forget it’s even there.” She’d always cherished that scar, though, because it reminded her of Sam. He really had been her fantasy guy for years. That was one negative thing about running into him again. Chances were he wouldn’t be able to live up to the image she’d created for him.

“I’ll bet you were goofing around on the playground equipment,” he said.

“Something like that.” And they needed to get off this subject before she let some detail slip.

“I remember wrestling with my buddy’s kid sister years ago in their swimming pool. I got too rough and she ended up needing stitches. I felt like a jerk.”

She had to work very hard not to react. “You shouldn’t have. I’m sure it wasn’t intentional.”

“Yeah, but I should have been more careful. She was just a kid—only about seven or eight. I can’t even remember her name, but I can still see that little face, with an ice pack crammed against her mouth.”

“I’m sure she recovered.” Although she missed you dreadfully and carried you in her heart for years.

“Oh, I’m sure she did, too. I checked with my buddy after a couple of months, to make sure. But then he went into the service and we lost track of each other. I haven’t tried to find him since I got back. I should. Maybe that’s why we’re having this conversation, to remind me to look up my old buddy Jim and see if he’s back in town.”

And Kasey couldn’t stop him from doing that, either. One evening with Jim could be enough to blow her cover. She might as well enjoy this date with Sam, because there was a good chance she’d never have another one.

BY THE END OF THE MEAL, Sam hadn’t made much progress in getting to know Kasey. And he wanted to get to know her, because physically she was driving him crazy. In the old days he would have given in to that physical urge and figured that he’d get around to the friendship part later. Now that seemed backward to him. He wanted to establish a relationship first.

Kasey wasn’t helping. Being a mystery woman seemed to appeal to her, and that attitude had one-night stand written all over it. Maybe that’s what she had in mind. After all, she’d made the first move and she’d insisted on paying for dinner. He’d tried to get the check, but she’d outmaneuvered him.

So maybe he was designated as her boy-toy for the night. He wasn’t about to fall in with that plan. Of course he wasn’t. Not even if he did find himself staring at her mouth and longing to stare at her cleavage.

He wanted to touch her…all over. As they left the restaurant, he settled for holding her hand. Even that simple contact aroused him. He should be offended at the idea that she might want him just for sex and nothing more. Instead he was challenged by it.

Unfortunately, the next part of the evening wouldn’t allow much conversation between them. He had about three blocks before they’d be drawn into the noisy world of the Cactus Club. After that, they’d have to read lips.

“Do your folks live in Phoenix?” he asked, trying yet again.

“Uh, no. Gilbert.”

“That area sure is growing. Is that where you went to school?”

“Not exactly. Whoops, the light’s about to change. We’ll have to hurry to make it.” She tugged at his hand.

He resisted. “Maybe I don’t care.”

“Oh.” She gave him a wary glance. “All right. We can wait until the light changes.”

He decided the time had come for some gentle persuasion. Taking her other hand, he pulled her closer. “Kasey, why are you hiding from me?”

She laughed. “Hiding? Why would you say that?”

“Because every time I try to learn something about you, you find a way to avoid answering.” He released his grip on her hands and cupped her shoulders. What silky skin she had. “I want to get to know you.” He wondered if he was imagining the quick look of panic in her eyes.

Then it was gone, and she smiled. “In what way?”

In every way. “You know—the kinds of things you liked to do as a kid, the type of music you like, whether you have a favorite team or hate sports altogether.”

“I like baseball, and my favorite team is the Diamondbacks.”

“Me, too.” But out of all the things he’d asked, she’d picked the least personal one to answer. Most everyone in Phoenix liked the home team. Nevertheless, although he really knew nothing more than he had before, he found himself caressing her shoulders and wanting to kiss her. Theoretically, he shouldn’t get involved in a kiss with a woman who held her cards so close to her chest.

But what a chest it was, and he longed to know how it felt locked against his. “Okay, that’s a start.” He drew her closer. “How about music?”

“I like everything.”

“Everything?” He couldn’t take his gaze from her mouth. So tempting. “Even rap?”

“Some rap is okay.”

He loved the way her lips rounded as she said the o in okay. “Can you sing?” It was a goofy question, but he was so focused on her mouth it seemed semilogical.

“Not very well.” She looked up at him. “Can you?”

“Not very well.” Then temptation overtook him. Forgetting why he didn’t want to do this yet, he leaned down and kissed her.

And what a mistake that was, because she kissed him back. She might not want to tell him anything about herself, but she was perfectly willing to kiss him as if the end of the world had arrived. Her lips parted, her tongue became involved, and when he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, she settled against him with a soft moan of delight.

As kisses went, this one topped the charts. He tasted hunger as strong as his own, which filled his mind with all sorts of ideas he wasn’t supposed to be having. In fact, much more of this kiss and they were liable to get themselves arrested. He pulled back with difficulty and looked into her eyes to double-check that he hadn’t misread her level of involvement. Yep—eyes glazed, chest heaving, body quivering. Just like his.

“I…had a feeling about this,” he said.

“N-not me.”

“Boy, I did. Sometimes there’s just…something between two people.” Now there was a profound statement. Sheesh. He rubbed his hands up and down her arms, as if trying to restore the circulation, which was ridiculous. Judging from her reaction, her circulation was currently excellent. Speaking for himself, he could feel the blood whipping through his veins and arteries at warp speed.

“Something explosive.” She still sounded out of breath.

“Right. But I believe in getting to know each other first.”

She cleared her throat. “Okay.”

“Unfortunately, going to my little brother’s event won’t give us much chance for that. The noise level will be horrific. And I can’t leave too early or he’ll think I didn’t like it.”

“Then we need to go and stay as long as necessary.”

“I’m afraid so. But after that…” He didn’t dare put what he was thinking into words. He hoped she was thinking exactly the same thing.

“After that, we’ll…we’ll see what happens.”

So she wanted to hedge a little. He didn’t buy her act. He’d been there during the fireworks and he knew she was flammable. “I think we both can guess what will happen, given half a chance.”

“I thought you wanted to get to know me first.”

“I do.” He gave her a quick, hard kiss. “And I will.”

4

SOMEHOW KASEY CROSSED the street without getting run over. That probably had something to do with Sam’s tight grip on her hand and his take-charge attitude. Thank goodness he was watching out for them, because she was too dazed by that kiss to notice traffic signals.

So when had kissing become such a big deal? She’d kissed guys before and been able to analyze the process in clinical detail, even during the act itself. She’d evaluated kissing techniques and rated them for firmness, taste and the all-important slipperiness factor. Then she’d taken into account the groping, or lack of groping, and whether that added to the experience or detracted.

Then along came Sam with a kiss that destroyed every analytical brain cell she possessed. Instead of being a mildly amusing mouth exercise, this kiss had thrown her into the center of a tornado where she’d clung helplessly to Sam as winds of lust tugged at her from every angle. Whatever he was offering, she wanted to be first in line.

All her sexual experiences so far had been motivated by curiosity. This driving urge was nothing like that. There was desperation mixed in with carnal desire, as if she might go crazy if she couldn’t satisfy the need he’d created with one simple kiss. No, not simple. That had been a very complicated kiss. Because of it, she had to reevaluate her entire campaign.

Her original plan had included more control. She’d judged her ability to stay in control based on her experiences with men so far. She hadn’t factored in a kiss that would turn her knees to jelly. She’d always thought that was a silly expression, someone’s wild exaggeration of normal sexual impulses.

Apparently not. Apparently there were men like Sam who could accomplish the knees-to-jelly thing. Who knew? In any case, she had a combustible situation on her hands. He wanted to sleep with her. That was the good part, because she really had made him drool. The bad part was that she wanted to sleep with him, too.

So now what? A big juicy flirtation was what she’d intended. A full-blown affair hadn’t been part of the equation. Obviously that’s what he wanted, though.

And so did she, but it wouldn’t be a wise move. In fact, it would be an extremely foolish move. The deeper her involvement, the more likely he’d find out who she was. She didn’t want that to happen.

Instead, she wanted to be the sexy mystery woman who got away. She might still be able to pull that off, but she’d have to keep her wits about her. No more of those high-octane kisses. And this would be their one and only date.

By the time she’d reached that conclusion, Sam had opened the door to the Cactus Club. A warm-up band had already taken the stage and the air vibrated with the sound of drums and acoustic guitars.

Kasey dug into her small purse and pulled out her fake ID. Showing it always made her nervous, but tonight provided a double dose of angst. Nothing could be more embarrassing than getting busted in front of Sam. Fortunately the interior was dim, the guy checking ID knew Sam, and there was no special scrutiny of her card.

“Colin’s saved you a table up front,” the guy said, leaning close to be heard above the music. “He also said the first round’s on him.”

“We’ll see about that,” Sam said with a smile. Then he guided Kasey to an empty table right next to the crowded dance floor.

Once there, he held her chair and leaned down to speak directly into her ear. “What do you want to drink?”

She turned to answer him and her mouth nearly collided with his. When she pulled back, he caught her chin with his hand.

“Hey, there.” He stayed in close, a gentle smile on his face. “You’re not having a shyness attack, are you?”

Shy was the last word she wanted him to associate with her. “Not in the least.” She smiled back. “But I didn’t want to be the cause of you getting teased, in case your brother’s around.”

“Let me worry about that.” His expression grew warmer and he stroked her chin with his thumb. “I sure wish we didn’t have to be here.”

“But we do.”

“Yeah. So what do you want?”

She’d watched enough movies and read enough books to know that a happening chick would pick up on that opening. “Whatever you’re offering, Sam.”

He groaned. “Later. Later you can have whatever you want. Right now all I can give you is a drink.”

“Mineral water, then.”

His smile widened. “I like that. A woman who wants to stay alert. I think I’ll have the same.”

“Don’t abstain on my account.”

“Oh, it’s completely on your account. Normally I enjoy the band much more when I’m a little sloshed. But for tonight, I’ll forgo that crutch.”

“For heaven’s sake, at least have a beer.”

“Nope.” He shook his head. “Considering what’s at stake later on, this will be no sacrifice.”

Her heart beat like crazy as she absorbed his meaning. If only she could go with the flow, but she didn’t dare, not with this man. “You seem to have forgotten about getting acquainted first.”

“No, I haven’t.” He dropped a slow, lingering kiss on her lips.

She couldn’t stop him without making a scene. And from that first magic taste, she didn’t want to stop him. Once again, she was lost to the world. The music faded and the crowd noise disappeared. There was only the sweet pressure of his mouth on hers, and she wanted more, so much more….

He ended the kiss and took a shaky breath. “There.”

She opened her eyes, feeling like Sleeping Beauty. But this was no fairy tale and she was not going to be swept away by the handsome prince. Not if she could help it.

“I know you better already,” he murmured.

“You can’t find out anything from a kiss.”

“Sure I can. For example—”

“Can I take your order, sir?” called out a waiter who’d appeared behind Sam.

Kasey glanced over Sam’s shoulder and caught the waiter’s eye. He winked at her. Being with Sam had already elevated her status. No waiter had ever winked at her before.

Sam straightened and turned around. As he gave the guy their order, Kasey took a moment to dredge up some of her famous self-discipline. She hadn’t graduated from college at eighteen by allowing distractions to ruin her game plan. This was no different. Well, it was a little bit different. Okay, it was a lot different.

But if she’d been disciplined in her studies, she could be disciplined in limiting the amount of kisses that went on. No, not limiting—eliminating. She couldn’t afford any more moments of oblivion. She quickly reviewed her list of reasons and vowed to keep them firmly in mind.

Sam took his seat across from her and plopped the waiter’s ordering pad on the small table.

She raised her voice to make herself heard. “What are you doing with that?”

“Borrowed it for a while!” He scribbled something on the pad, tore off the top sheet and handed it across the table, along with the pen he’d apparently scrounged from the waiter.

She glanced at the paper, where he’d written, “Are you a morning person or a night person?” She started to laugh. No wonder he’d built a successful business. He was an extremely resourceful guy. She admired that in people, and she was gradually coming to admire Sam, not to mention wanting to jump his bones.

After writing “night person” on the paper, she handed it back. That kind of information shouldn’t get her in trouble. Mainly she had to avoid biographical information like where she went to high school, which was also his high school.

Sam wrote “me, too” under her answer and held it up so she could see it. He seemed pleased to have that in common, but then he probably expected this was the start of something spectacular. She was starting to feel guilty, because it wouldn’t be the start of anything. Unfortunately, she thought of him as sexual training wheels, and that wasn’t fair to him or any guy. Maybe she should give some excuse about hating the music and make her exit.

She didn’t need to hang around any more to see she had temptress potential or even to have stories for the women at the office. Her goal of making him want her had been accomplished and then some. She’d earned her first stripe as a Bad Girl, so she could stop the charade now.

He would be hurt and confused, would probably try to contact her again, but she could handle that. What she couldn’t handle was getting in deeper with him and then forcing herself to back away. Right now she’d inflict only superficial wounds on his ego, but the longer she played this game, the worse it would be on him.

Meanwhile Sam was busy writing another question. He pushed the paper across the table and tossed her the pen.

This was her chance to leave. All she had to do was flip the page over and write “Have to go—music’s giving me a headache.” He wouldn’t be able to leave with her, not when his brother’s band was about to take the stage. He’d probably call her a cab, and that would be that.

If she meant to leave, she shouldn’t read whatever question he’d come up with, because the question wouldn’t matter. But she’d been born with an extremely inquisitive mind. The trait had been a blessing for the most part, but was a curse, now.

Chastising herself for doing it, she read his question. “What was your favorite book when you were seven years old?” Damn it, she knew she shouldn’t have read his question. He wasn’t just playing at this get-acquainted business. He really wanted to know who she was. Okay, she’d answer his question, and maybe that would send him running for the hills.

She picked up the pen and wrote “Megatrends for Women. Yours?” Then she scooted the paper across the table and waited for his reaction, the reaction she usually got from all except the genius-level guys.

Sure enough, his eyes widened and he glanced up. She could almost read his thoughts—system alert: brain-iac in the house. Then he smiled and picked up the pen. He continued to smile as he wrote down his favorite book and added another line, maybe another question.

When he pushed the paper over to her, she hesitated before picking it up. She was supposed to be out of here by now. Instead she was still trading notes with Sam. But she had to find out what he’d written, and what his next question would be. Without realizing it, he’d chosen a method of communication that tapped right into her curious nature. She found the suspense contained in each note irresistible.

Glancing down, she read “Goodnight, Moon was my favorite book. I think you’re probably a lot smarter than I am. Is that a problem for you?” She looked up and saw the uncertainty in his expression. He wasn’t rejecting her because of her brains—he was afraid she’d reject him.

Her heart turned over. She couldn’t leave now. Instead she wrote “No way” across the bottom of the page and gave it back to him.

His face relaxed into another broad smile and he flipped the paper over to write something across the back. This time he didn’t give her the pen, only the small sheet of paper.

When she read what he’d written, her pulse rate jumped. “I promise to compensate in other areas.” Sweet heaven, the man was ready to guarantee that he’d love her so well she wouldn’t care about his IQ.

THE TIN TARANTULAS’ opening number put an end to the note writing for a while, but that was okay with Sam. Thanks to that maneuver, he was getting a handle on Kasey Braddock. What he’d taken as a standoffish attitude might be related to her heavy-duty smarts.

She hadn’t wanted him to know she was a brain. Understandable. He wasn’t oblivious to the problems that could have caused with the opposite sex once she started dating. Some guys reacted poorly if they found out a woman was more intelligent than they were.

Sam happened to think it was cool. He liked hanging out with smart people. He’d discovered that early in his life during interactions with Colin, who had inherited more brains than he had. When discussing things with Colin, he sometimes lost his way in the conversation, but he was never bored. So if Kasey didn’t mind the gap in mental abilities, he sure as hell didn’t.

Good thing he’d thought up the note idea, or he might never have found out her secret. She must have decided to test him when he asked about her favorite book as a kid. Maybe she’d thought that would be the end of the attraction for him.

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