Page 8 of Tempting as Sin
“Maybe I’m neither,” he said, with some more of those crinkles. “Maybe we’re both deer. I could handle being a deer. A verymanlydeer with extremely large…antlers.” They were both laughing now. “One who wins all the deer fights,” he got out. “And I’m not a porn producer. Come on. You can do better.”
“Uh…” She was having trouble sobering up, in more ways than one. Hehadlet her pour her own champagne, but she’d definitely drunk more than one glass. More than two glasses, probably. “If you sell farm equipment, don’t tell me, OK? Or if this trip is your reward for reaching Diamond Sales level at the insurance company.”
“Nope,” he said. “How about this? I’ve done a few things, but right now, I’m in law enforcement.”
“Nowthat,”she said, “I find hard to believe. Given the singing and dancing skills. Also the hair.”
“Huh?” He looked confused for a moment, off-balance for the first time all evening, and then he smiled and said, “Call it plainclothes. What do you think? Another glass of champagne? Another bottle? The seminar on High-Value Homeowners doesn’t start until ten tomorrow.”
“And the bonus,” she said, “was extra-good this year. No, thanks. I’ve had more than enough to drink. Whew.” She stood up. “Give me five minutes, and I’m good to go.”
Rafe used her absence to make a call. His tow-truck-driving mate, Jim, had given him a business card, and it was still in his wallet where he’d tucked it away for show, intending to chuck it later. If there was ever a time to use it, though…
By the time Lindsay came back, he was able to say, “I got your car taken care of.”
She stilled in the act of buttoning the trench coat he’d just held for her. “In what way?”
He picked up her white shopping bag from the floor, and couldn’t help a glance inside. There was something in a sort of peachy-gold color in there. Or two things. They were both silky, and they were both decorated with some creamy lace. And one of them had satin straps and buckles.
Bloodyhell.She’d been out buying sexy lingerie. He realized she was staring at him, and handed the bag over. “Pardon?” he asked. “What did you say?”
Her pupils dilated. Standing in the noisy, crowded, overheated club, and all she saw was him. She was swaying towards him, her hair in disarray, her cheeks flushed. Unfortunately, she got her poise back and said, “My car. How is it taken care of? I’m really not in any shape to drive.”
“Oh.” He blinked, thought how best to explain it, and said, “A ma— a friend of mine is meeting us back at the hotel garage. His wife will get your keys and drive your car home for you, wherever that is. Ready to go?”
She didn’t move. “I’m not going home with you, you know. Or back to your hotel. I can’t.”
There it was again. That vulnerability. And there he was, too, falling into her sweetness and warmth like a polar explorer coming home. “No,” he said, the laughter gone. “I see that. How about if I promise you this? I’ll get the taxi. You can give him the address.”
The ride back to the Clift didn’t take nearly long enough. Almost midnight on a rainy Monday, and the streets of Japantown and the Tenderloin nearly empty. The taxi stopped in front of the parking garage, behind a certain yellow tow truck, and Rafe pulled out one of the final bills in his wallet and told the driver, “Give us ten minutes to deal with a car, and then I’ll have you take the lady wherever she needs to go.”
Was he disappointed that he’d be going back to the hotel alone? Too right he was. But there was always tomorrow.
Jace? Yeah, he was still here for Jace. But he was here for this, too.
After that, it was introductions all round, and riding up in the slow elevator with Lindsay and Sandy, his new mate Jim’s wife, who was going to drive Lindsay’s car home and get a lift back with Jim. A plan that had seemed to bemuse Lindsay, but all she said, when they’d stepped out of the elevator into the low-ceilinged, dank space of Level 4, was, “You’re something, you know that? Nobody does things like this.”
“Nah,” he said. “I told you. Diamond Sales level pays real good.”
Sandy glanced at him sharply, then looked away. She knew who he was, obviously, but she wasn’t saying anything. Clued in by Jim, then. That was good. He wanted Lindsay to come out with him tomorrow because she wanted to be with Clay Austin, not Rafe Blackstone.
Tomorrow, though, he’d tell her. If he was going to kiss her the way he needed to, if he was going to have his hands all wrapped up in her golden hair and her body under his—and most of all, if he was going to have a hope of seeing her again afterwards—he had to tell her first.
He hung back, though, while she gave Sandy her address and the keys to a decidedly downmarket silver sedan, watched the red taillights disappearing around the first curve of the ramp, thought about feather earrings and cheap silver bangles, and suddenly wondered, the thought like a shower of ice water,Fallen on hard times, despite the clothes and the Clift? Looking for a ticket out? Is that the reason for the two-steps-forward, one-step-back? Is she playing a game?
He was definitely making this date as Clay.
The lights hanging from the concrete ceiling cast a cold glow, and the ventilation system hummed. Cars hunkered, dark and silent, around them, and aclunkand awhooshannounced that the elevator was in use. And he stood, his hands in the pockets of his wool jacket, looked Lindsay over, and tried to separate what was true from what he wanted to be true.
She said, “I’d better be going. And seriously—don’t worry about my taxi. That was nice of you, but it was my drinking and my responsibility. I’ve got it.”
Somehow, she’d picked up on his thoughts, had closed down. And he’d been wrong. Too cynical. Somebody with a face that transparent couldn’t lie.
He said, “But you see—I promised. That was our deal. I’ll be here another night. We could take you on another adventure. Ice skating, maybe. Flying lessons. Uh…” He cast his mind about. “Bioluminescent kayaking.”
She said,“What?”But she was laughing again, and so was he.
“I read about it,” he said. “The organisms in the water are lit up somehow. Phosphorescence. Sounded pretty cool. Could be a new experience.”
