Single, Sexy...And Sold!

Jonah turned to her. “Where to?”

“Your place is fine.”

“Whoa. My place is not fine. You get me for the weekend of your choice, but between now and then we won’t be seeing each other socially.”

She bristled. “That isn’t what I meant. I only meant we can take the cab to your place, talk on the way, and then I’ll take the same cab to my place after I drop you off.”

“And what if I don’t want you to know where I live?”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake! What do you think I’m going to do, stalk you?”

He turned to face her. “I haven’t the foggiest idea what you’re going to do. I can’t even comprehend a woman plunking down thirty-three thousand dollars to spend the weekend with Mel Gibson, let alone yours truly. Therefore I have to figure that you’re a few bricks short of a load. No telling what’s up with you.”

“I wasn’t the only one! Someone bid thirty-two thousand, and before that someone bid thirty-one, and before that…well, that was me at thirty thousand, but what about the others? Are they all crazy, too?”

“Totally. And it seems to be going around. I saved a puppy, for God’s sake! You’d think I’d just deflected a comet that would have wiped out all of civilization. It’s insane the way women have reacted.”

She gazed at him in astonishment. He truly didn’t know how appealing he’d looked staggering out of the lake with Bobo in his arms. He didn’t understand that a single act had branded him as selfless, brave, sensitive and strong, besides being easy on the eyes. Maybe he didn’t realize how women everywhere longed for that combination in a man and went a little berserk when they found it.

From his perspective, she was a weirdo with far too much money for her own good. If she put herself in his place, she might have had the same thoughts. If a guy had this much attention lavished on him and hadn’t started believing his own press, he had to be something special. He might be exactly what she needed for her mother. But first she had to get him to trust her.

“Okay,” she said. “I was only trying to save you cab fare by paying for the entire ride myself. If you would rather, we can go to my place first and then you can take the cab to wherever you live. I’ll pay for my leg, but you’ll have to pay for yours.”

“You’ve already paid thousands of dollars to be with me. You don’t have to pick up my cab fare.” He gave her a wry grin. “At least let a guy hang on to his pride.”

Oh, you’ve hung on to more than your pride, Jonah, she thought. But she didn’t speak the compliment aloud. Thinking that she was a predatory female, he would only misinterpret it. Instead she gave the driver her address and the cab pulled into traffic.

2

JONAH THOUGHT the guys at the station would get a laugh out of this one. A beautiful, rich woman had just paid thirty-three thousand dollars for the pleasure of his company and had even hinted that she’d be willing to go up to his apartment tonight. And he, being such a genius, had rejected her subtle suggestion.

The guys already thought he was nuts for turning aside all the offers that had come his way since the puppy episode, but they might look at things differently if they were walking in his size twelves. Having one or two women flirt with you was one thing. Being mobbed was something else completely.

In the past few weeks he’d become gun-shy. He expected every woman he met to make a move on him. Yet Natalie sat on her side of the cab and there was nothing predatory in her expression at all. She looked just the way he remembered her from the park, except fancier with her white fur coat, which made her look like a princess in a winter carnival.

He supposed the coat was real fur and the sparkling gems in the necklace around her slender throat were real diamonds. He’d never dated anyone who lived on Central Park West. For some reason, he hadn’t thought she lived there, even if it was perfectly logical that she would since he saw her walking her dog in Central Park every afternoon. He’d wanted to believe she came from another part of town just as he did, because the area was so beautiful.

Her scent tantalized him, and for a moment he imagined what this cab ride would be like if they’d become friends in the park and decided to go out together. He’d be sitting a hell of a lot closer than he was now, that’s for sure. Despite everything, he still got a charge looking into those wide gray eyes of hers. Her mouth intrigued him, too. He liked the fact that she used a pale lipstick that barely looked as if she had on any at all.

Considering all the money she’d paid, she probably wouldn’t object if he slid over and tasted those pale pink lips. The idea appealed to him more than a little. But he didn’t really want to go down that road, not anymore. Any woman desperate enough to spend thirty-three thousand dollars for a date had something very wrong with her. He might not see it at first, because he’d be blinded by sex, but then one night an ice pick would appear in her hand, just like with Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct. And Sharon was also a beautiful blonde, he reminded himself.

“Are you free this coming weekend?” she asked.

He jumped. “This weekend?”

“We have to pick a time to use the package, and unless you have a problem with this weekend, we may as well do it then.”

Damn, she was eager. She might look poised and serene sitting over there in her icy white fur, but she wasn’t wasting any time getting with the program. But he’d have chaperons around the whole time, so he should be relatively safe. Someone else was going to sail the expensive yacht down the Hudson, thank God, and someone else would fly the helicopter. After that they’d be at the Plaza with lots of other people. He just had to be sure she didn’t somehow get his room key.

“I guess this coming weekend would be okay.” Actually, the chief’s words had been “Take whatever time off you need.” It was a bone he was throwing Jonah’s way in exchange for making his existence a living hell.

“You think I’m absolutely insane, don’t you?” she asked.

He wondered if telling a crazy person that they were crazy was a bad idea. “It’s crossed my mind.”

“I don’t blame you.” She smiled. “I would think the same thing in your position.”

He was fascinated by her mouth. What a terrific smile she had. What a kissable mouth. He’d never made love to someone who’d gone around the bend. Maybe it would be fantastic…until they killed you or cut off something important.

“You probably won’t believe this,” she continued, “but I’m a perfectly normal woman. I’ve been wanting to tell you how grateful I am that you saved Bobo, but I couldn’t reach you. When I read about this auction, it seemed like the perfect gesture.”

“You could have sent flowers to the station, like six hundred or so other women did.”

She started to laugh. “You got six hundred bouquets?”

“About. Maybe more like six-fifty. After all the guys took them home to their wives, mothers and sweethearts, we still had some left, so we made deliveries to the nursing homes. Except I couldn’t go.”

“Why not?”

“I did the first time, but the sweet little ladies wouldn’t let me leave, and they started to cry when I finally made my way toward the door. It was too horrible. I couldn’t put myself through it again.”

She shook her head, her eyes filled with sympathy. “Bobo and I really caused a big problem for you, didn’t we?”

“You have no idea. But the whole thing was beginning to die down. People don’t stay interested forever. Then along comes this bachelor auction. Now I’m afraid it will all start up again.”

“What can I do to help?”

He almost believed she wanted to help him. Without realizing it he’d moved closer to her, drawn by her laughter and apparent understanding. “Just tell me what you want,” he said, gazing into her eyes.

“To get to know you,” she murmured in a husky voice.

When she talked in that intimate tone of voice, he couldn’t help watching her mouth and wondering what it would be like to touch those pink lips. “You paid all that money just to get to know me?”

“I had no choice. You were unreachable.”

“I know.” But she was very reachable right now, and touching her coat was like stroking a kitten. “Lots of women pretended to be you.”

“They did?”

He slid his hand back and forth along the collar of her coat. “They tried to copy your special look.”

Her mouth tipped up to his and her lips parted ever so slightly. “I don’t have a special look.”

“Yes, you do.”

“I’m just an ordinary girl.”

“I don’t think so.” He couldn’t stand it. He had to brush his mouth against hers, just once. Her lips were like velvet. He came back a second time to make sure they were really that soft. They were even softer, coaxing him to stay. He cradled the back of her head and got serious. Perfect.

Fleetingly he thought that this was probably how Sharon Stone got Michael Douglas to cooperate. Then he stopped thinking as she opened to him and his body tightened a little more with each slow exploration of his tongue. He slid his hand down the nape of her neck beneath her coat collar and stroked her warm skin. Images of running his hands all over her body played in his mind until he was short of breath and straining the fly of his tux pants.

The cabdriver cleared his throat.

Jonah released Natalie with a start. The taxi was no longer running, not that he would have noticed. He’d forgotten they were in a cab. He’d forgotten that this was the woman who had bid an enormous amount of money to chain herself to his side for the weekend. He’d forgotten she probably carried an ice pick in her garter.

Her gaze was unfocused and dreamy. “That was…very nice.”

“At the going rate, that was probably about a five-hundred-dollar kiss.”

Her dreaminess evaporated and she frowned. “Could you do me a favor and forget about the money?”

“Not likely.”

“Well, I’d appreciate it if you’d try.” She opened the cab door and glanced over at him. “Want to come up and see Bobo? He’s grown quite a bit since that afternoon at the park.”

Lust warred with reason as he gazed longingly at her tempting mouth. “Better not.”

“Suit yourself. See you this weekend.” She handed the driver some money and got out of the cab. Then she leaned down and peeked in at Jonah. “Sure you won’t change your mind? I make a mean cup of cappuccino.”

He wanted in the worst way to go with her, because he thought they stood a good chance of making more than cappuccino if he did. But then who knew what would happen after that? Despite what she said, she was no ordinary girl. And apartments had kitchens, and kitchens had knives. “Thanks, but I have to report in early tomorrow morning,” he said.

“Okay.” With a last dazzling smile, she closed the door and walked up to the apartment entrance where a uniformed doorman tipped his hat and opened the door for her.

“Where to?” the cabbie asked.

Jonah gave him his considerably less impressive address. The cabbie blew out a breath and shook his head, obviously mystified by Jonah’s stupidity. Reflecting on that kiss as the cab pulled away, Jonah felt pretty stupid, himself. Maybe some things were worth taking a chance for.

NATALIE HAD JUST TAKEN Bobo for his early-morning walk and was putting water in the coffeepot when someone pounded on her door. The dog raced into the foyer, barking with excitement. Natalie hurried after him and looked through the peephole into the hall to make sure it was her mother standing on the other side of the door.

Sure enough, an elongated version of Alice LeBlanc was tapping a copy of the New York Times against her palm. She must have charged down in the elevator immediately after reading about Natalie’s bid because she still wore her pink chenille bathrobe, and her gray-streaked hair looked as if it had been styled with an electric mixer. Her reading glasses were perched on the end of her nose.

Natalie unlocked the door and opened it. “Well, good—”

“What on earth have you done? Are you crazy? Hello, Bobo.” Her mother marched past both daughter and dog and whirled to face them. “Thirty-three thousand dollars? What did you do, clean out your IRA?”

“Yep.” Natalie made a production out of relocking the door to get her racing heart under control before she met her mother’s gaze. Every time she thought of her empty retirement fund she pictured an old age spent at the Salvation Army.

“Are you insane?” Her mother peered over the top of her glasses. “Please tell me this doesn’t have anything to do with me.”

“It doesn’t have anything to do with you,” Natalie lied, knowing the truth would fill her mother with guilt. “I’ve been fantasizing about that guy, just like every other woman in New York, and I couldn’t get through to him, either.”

“Yes, but isn’t this a bit extreme?”

“Extreme situations call for extreme measures. I have more reason to be smitten than the women who only saw him on TV. I interacted with him up close and personal, and I…fell a little bit in love during that episode at the lake, if you must know. I realize love at first sight is considered naive, but when I turned and looked into his eyes for the first time, it was…amazing.” Not amazing enough to spend her retirement money on, but he definitely had a way about him. That mesmerizing gaze of his had made her forget herself for a moment in the cab last night.

“Oh, sweetheart.” Her mother tossed aside the paper and came over to enfold Natalie in her arms while Bobo scampered around them in delight. “Of course I believe in love at first sight, but it usually doesn’t cost thirty-three thousand dollars. What must Jonah think of a woman who would do something like this?”

Natalie hugged her back, grateful that this auction business seemed to be distracting her mother from her grief. That alone was worth the money. “Jonah thinks I’m crazy,” Natalie said.

Her mother held her firmly by the shoulders, exactly the way she’d done when Natalie was eight years old and in big trouble. “That’s not a very good beginning.”

“I know.” As she considered beginnings, Natalie thought about the kiss last night in the cab. Nice as it had been, it probably wasn’t a very good beginning, either. She’d bid on Jonah to get his cooperation to help her mother. Kissing him was liable to distract her from her goal.

“Does he realize you sacrificed your old-age fund to get a date with him?”

Natalie wished her mother would stop bringing up a subject that made her queasy. She responded with a confident smile. “I’m a stockbroker, Mom. With a few well-chosen investments, I can start making the money back in no time. I’ll just use a more aggressive approach for a while.” If only she felt as sure of that as she sounded. She headed for the kitchen. “I need to feed Bobo. Want some coffee?”

Alice followed her. “So if Jonah doesn’t know you threw away your retirement account—”

“I didn’t throw it away.” Natalie poured dog food into Bobo’s bowl and scooped some coffee beans into the hand grinder. “Heart Books staged the auction to benefit literacy, and that’s a very good cause.”

Alice waited for the noise of the grinding to stop. “You don’t have to tell me that, after being married to a literary critic for thirty years.”

“I guess not.” Natalie held her breath, wondering if the reference to her late husband would send Alice into a bout of weeping. It had happened plenty of times before.

“Still, I doubt Heart Books or the literacy movement expected anyone to surrender their nest egg in the name of a good cause,” her mother finished calmly.

Natalie relaxed. Apparently this fascinating new subject of the bachelor auction had claimed her mother’s full attention. “I’d hoped the bidding for Jonah wouldn’t go that high, but Mom, you should have seen those women. They went bonkers for him.”

Alice perched on a stool at the breakfast bar. “And so you went super-bonkers. Does he think you have this kind of money to throw around?”

“Probably.” She started the coffee brewing. “He also knows I live here, and I didn’t bother to explain about Great-Uncle Jerome and all that rent-control stuff.”

“Oh, boy. So he thinks the way everyone else does—that we’re rolling in it.”

“Actually he thinks I’m rolling in it. He doesn’t know you live in this building. And I’d rather have him think I’m rich than to have him know I spent my savings on him. Then he’d really question my sanity. Toast?”

Alice nodded. “Thanks.” She tapped her finger against her mouth and frowned. “So,” she said at last, “you need to get him to fall in love with you, even though he thinks you’re some spoiled rich woman who buys a boy toy when she gets bored.”

“I guess that’s about the size of it.” Or at least the version she wanted her mother to believe.

Her mother smiled. “That should be easy. Just be yourself. You’re not a spoiled rich girl, and that will become obvious the longer he’s with you. And once he’s truly in love with you, you can tell him the truth.”

“The truth?” Natalie was losing sight of what that was, exactly.

“That you have no retirement fund and are, in fact, a financial liability. That should arouse his protective instincts considering he put you in this sorry mess because he’s such an Adonis. So that should be that. Happily ever after.”

“That was more or less my plan.” Except that Jonah didn’t have to fall madly in love with her. He only had to like her enough to go along with her mother’s project.

“You know, this would make a neat plot twist in my novel,” her mother said. “A bachelor auction. I hadn’t even thought of it, but I could probably work it in.”

Natalie concentrated on buttering the toast so her mother wouldn’t notice her smile of triumph. “Maybe so.”

“And if you win him over, which I have no doubt you can do because your motives are pure, I might even be able to interview him and clear up a few details in my book.”

Natalie kept buttering. She wasn’t so sure about pure motives, but she believed they were noble ones, at any rate. “We’ll see, Mom. I can’t promise anything, but we’ll see.”

“I’m still shocked about the money, though. You’ve been contributing to your retirement account since you graduated from college, and I was always impressed with your foresight.”

Natalie looked at her, glad she could finally say something honest for a change. “What’s more important, financial security or connecting with those you love?”

“You know my answer. But it’s a good thing your father isn’t around to hear about this. He’d hit the ceiling. I’m sure he would never have understood such youthful impetuosity.”

“But you do?”

Her mother studied her with fondness in her blue eyes. “Of course I do. Why do you suppose I’ve decided to write a romance?”

A TOTAL OF FOUR GUYS from the station contributed to Jonah’s wardrobe for the weekend. The sailing date wouldn’t be a problem, clotheswise, but Jonah wasn’t accustomed to being limoed to the Plaza and treated as an honored guest there. Stewart came up with a dinner jacket, Herm produced a silk tie, Billy happened to have a good leather belt in Jonah’s size and Cal loaned Jonah his topcoat, the same one Jonah had worn over the rented tux for the bachelor auction.

There was much debate among the firefighters as to whether Jonah should buy new underwear for the occasion. No matter how many times Jonah declared that he wasn’t going to engage in any activities in which underwear would be a factor, the men still insisted he should be prepared. Red was the favored color, and there were also some helpful suggestions about birth control and bedroom technique.

Jonah hadn’t felt so fussed over since his senior prom, and he remembered not liking that much, either. Even his parents had called from Buffalo to see if he needed anything for his big date. He almost told them that a well-trained bodyguard would be a good idea.

It amazed him that everyone seemed to think it was perfectly understandable that a lady had spent thirty-three thousand for a date with him. His mother said that amount was about what a date with him was worth, because he was a real prize. Apparently she never considered that the lady in question might be totally wacko.

As Jonah packed his small suitcase on Saturday morning, he deliberately left out the red underwear Herm had presented him with. The glow-in-the-dark condoms definitely weren’t going. As long as he didn’t pack birth control, he wouldn’t be tempted to get carried away, and after that kiss he’d shared with Natalie, he knew that getting carried away was a possibility.

On the cab ride to the pier, he thought some more about that kiss. To be honest with himself, he’d thought about being with Natalie more than he should have. He’d been eager for Saturday to arrive so that he could see her again. Not that he would kiss her again. You didn’t kiss a woman like Natalie when you were going to spend the weekend with her unless you were willing to go where that kiss would inevitably lead.

He became aroused just thinking of where it could lead. Okay, so he was willing. More than willing. But he didn’t believe in making love to a woman for a temporary thrill, he told himself sternly. That’s all it could be with someone like Natalie, whose life and priorities were so different from his. And he had to keep in mind that she was nuts.

That would be difficult, he thought as he climbed from the cab and saw her leaning against the railing of the sleek yacht. She lifted her face to the warmth of the sun, and it shone on her wind-tossed blond hair. Someone had ordered up a perfect spring day for this sail and Natalie had responded by wearing all white. Her slacks, blouse and the sweatshirt she’d knotted by the sleeves around her shoulders gave her an almost virginal look. She seemed to glow as she stood on the polished wooden deck.

He remembered how irresistible she’d been when he was with her in the cab and that kissing her had seemed like the only option. Damned if he didn’t want to kiss her again, and the day was just beginning.

“Sir?”

“Hmm?” Jonah snapped out of his daze and glanced at a guy in khakis and a shirt with Satin Doll embroidered on the breast pocket.

“My name is Eric. Welcome aboard the Satin Doll. Would you like me to take your luggage?”

“Sure. Thanks.” Jonah handed him the small suitcase and crossed the gangplank.

Natalie turned to him and waved. “Isn’t this glorious?”

“Beautiful day.” He swallowed. Even her voice tempted him. He had no idea how he’d manage to keep his hands off her for the next twenty-four hours. Taking a deep breath and adjusting his sunglasses, he walked toward the bow of the boat.

Just as he reached Natalie, a woman also wearing the yacht’s name on her shirt approached them. “Welcome to the Satin Doll. My name’s Suzanne. What can I get each of you to drink?”

“Champagne!” announced Natalie with a big grin.

Jonah shrugged. Her enthusiasm was contagious. “Why not?”

“I’ll be right back,” Suzanne said, and left.

Natalie looked like a kid at a carnival. “This is so exciting. Do you suppose they’ll let us take the wheel?”

He leaned his forearms against the mahogany railing. He did his best to appear relaxed, although his heart was hammering from being this close to her. “I don’t know. This is a pretty fancy boat.”

“Yeah, but your hobby is sailing. You could convince them to let you, don’t you think?”

He turned more fully toward her. Time for her to start realizing he wasn’t the superhero she thought he was. That might keep both of them from making fools of themselves this weekend. “My chief made me put that down on the form, but I really don’t know much about sailing. A guy from the station has a little boat and he’s taken me out a few times, but I’m not qualified to sail a beauty like this.”

She gazed up at him, her smile serene, her eyes hidden behind sunglasses. “If they gave an award for the most modest man in America, I’ll bet you’d win, hands down.”