About That Kiss (6 page)

“How about Friday night?” Eddie was asking Joy as Nick came up behind her. “And we’ll go somewhere after I finish up. I understand you don’t want to stay out late during the week, but you can’t tell me you have to get up early Saturday morning.”

“As a matter of fact, I do have to get up early Saturday morning. I promised Diana that I’d go with her to check on the flowers for the wedding.”

Nick heard enough of the conversation to know Joy was shooting Eddie down. It was a sterling moment for Nick.

“Hey, Nick,” Eddie said, fighting a glower as he acknowledged Nick’s presence.

Joy twisted her head around, startled. She hadn’t realized he was behind her. “Where’s Diana?”

“She went to the ladies’ room. She’s ready to leave. Are you ready?” He put a hand on her arm.

Joy nodded. The hand he’d placed so nonchalantly on her arm made her heart race.

“Hey, it’s not even ten o’clock,” Eddie protested. “Let Diana go with Nick. I’ll take you home. I’m not going to work that late. Gillie will let me go.”

Joy swung off her stool. “I’m already kind of tired.”

“How about Saturday night?” Eddie asked. “I’ll hold a table right up front for you.”

On reflection, Joy didn’t want to be sitting home like a wallflower on Saturday night. Certainly not in front of Nick. By then he’d probably be dating Rachel, though he’d still be in love with Diana.

“All right.” Joy proffered Eddie a very feminine smile, which threw Nick for a loop. Hadn’t she just been shooting Eddie DeMarco down?

“See you at the house tomorrow night,” Eddie said, as he was summoned by an annoyed customer at the bar.

“So you’re coming here to hear Eddie sing Saturday night?” Nick asked stiffly.

“Yes,” Joy responded blithely, walking with him toward the table. “You could get a date and come along if you like. Diana does see Kevin on the weekend, but Rachel isn’t going with anyone right now.”

“I might just do that,” Nick replied dryly, the prospect only of interest because he didn’t see any other choice if he planned on tagging after her.

“Are we leaving?” Diana asked, as she arrived back at the table.

“We’re leaving,” Nick answered tightly.

“I’ll take Eddie over his jacket,’ Joy said, after quickly picking her coat out from the pile and putting it on.

Nick held Diana’s coat for her. He’d intended to do the same for Joy, but she hadn’t given him a chance. Couldn’t she see that Eddie DeMarco was all wrong for her?

Joy was waiting at the door, and Nick escorted both women out. The car he’d rented at the airport was parked six cars down from the door of Gillie’s. It was windy and icy cold outside. Nick noticed Diana crossed her hands over her head to keep her hair in place while Joy’s hair blew every which way as her hands were girded around her chest to keep warm. He thought of putting his arm around her, but didn’t try. How much of a jerk was he looking to make of himself? If she wanted Eddie, she wanted Eddie.

Joy stood aside along with Diana while Nick swung open the passenger door and the back seat door. Automatically Joy got into the back. Just as automatically Diana sat down in front.

Nick closed both doors and went around to the driver’s side. He started the car, put the heater on and adjusted the rearview mirror to cover more of the back seat.

Joy’s eyes met his in the rearview mirror. She could see herself, as well, and just how wild the wind had made her hair. She did what she could to fix it with her fingers.

“I can’t wait for Kevin to see my wedding gown,” Diana said, beginning a conversation while Nick drove. And Joy just sat.

“I’m still worried about tripping over the train,” Diana continued.

“You’re not going to trip over the train,” Joy assured her sister as Diana looked back to her for a guarantee.

“I hope not,” Diana said with a sigh, facing forward again.

Joy imagined herself in Diana’s wedding gown. It was exactly the gown she would have chosen for herself. She had in fact been the one to select it for Diana.

Nick turned the radio on, as Diana grew quiet.

Joy leaned her head on an angle upon the seat of the car. Tired, Joy closed her eyes.

“Nick says he’s willing to carry you upstairs.” Diana leaned toward Joy, shaking her elbow gently. “Do you want to get up? Or do you want Nick to demonstrate his muscles?” There was a giggle in Diana’s voice.

“What!” Joy rose with a start. “Are we home?”

Diana nodded and backed out of the door, making way as Nick reached in to help Joy out of the car.

Joy pushed his hands aside, getting out on her own. She was shaky as she stood.

“It’s freezing,” Diana said over her shoulder, rushing up the driveway to the front door.

A gust of wind nearly knocked Joy over.

Nick caught Joy to him with one arm, bracketing her against his side. “I really wouldn’t mind carrying you.” His voice was soft, low and sexy.

“Find yourself some other way to show off for Diana,” Joy snapped, pulling free to walk on her own. She was as much cranky as she was tired. And she was good and angry. Somehow she’d started dating Eddie DeMarco again. She didn’t want to be dating Eddie DeMarco.

Once in the house she marched past Nick and Diana and went straight up the stairs not bothering to take off her coat.

Diana opened the hall closet and hung up her coat. “I’m going up. Are you?”

Nick was too edgy to even think of going to sleep. “Not yet,”

“Well, good night. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Good night.”

Nick took off his jacket, hung it up, then checked his watch. It was a little after eleven. Taking his wallet from the back pocket of his slacks, Nick pulled out his phone calling card. He went into the kitchen and dialed.

“Hello,” Teddy Falco said, after the fourth ring.

“You can kill me if I woke you,” Nick said contritely. He’d been just about to hang up.

“Nick?”

“Yeah.”

“If you were here I could kill you,” Teddy ribbed. “In what godforsaken place are you?”

“I’m on Long Island. In Greenport. Did I wake up Quinn?” Nick asked, referring to Teddy’s wife.

“You didn’t wake either one of us up.”

“Don’t tell me I broke the mood?”

Teddy laughed. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to kill you. We’re always in the mood.”

Nick grinned. “I’ll call you back in the morning.”

“Quinn just banged me in the head with a pillow.” There was a chortle in Teddy’s voice. “She wants you to know we were not doing anything. I was talking rock and roll to her and she was telling me about a ballet she wants to see. What are you doing with yourself in Greenport?”

“My brother is getting married here, and I bought a newspaper. I’ll tell you all about it some other time.
Right now I need a favor from you. It’s a big one. Feel free to say no.”

“Go ahead. I’ll say no if I feel the need.”

“There’s a rock singer. His name is Eddie DeMarco. He’s opening up at a place called Gillie’s in Westhampton tomorrow night. I’d like him booked on a West Coast tour. Can you arrange it?”

“Is he good?” Teddy asked.

“I have no idea,” Nick admitted.

“Let me guess,” Teddy bantered. “There’s a woman involved and this guy is muscling in.”

Nick groaned. “Exactly.”

“They never have any idea how much we guys suffer over them.”

“Am I stepping on your toes?” Nick asked.

“Yeah,” Teddy laughed. “But I do remember a few times I stepped on yours. What are friends for?”

“Can you do it?”

“Sure. I know plenty of joints on the West Coast. How soon do you want him gone?”

“Yesterday,” Nick answered comically.

“I’ll catch his act tomorrow night.”

“I don’t want him knowing it came from me.”

“Gotcha.”

“Thanks, Teddy,” Nick said, as Diana walked into the kitchen.

“Night, pal.” Teddy rang off.

Nick hung up on his end.

“Was that your friend Teddy?” Diana asked, taking a container from the refrigerator.

“Uh-huh,” Nick said uncomfortably.

Diana poured herself a half a glass of juice. “Do you want some?”

Nick shook his head.

“I remember we went out with your friend Teddy and his wife once. They’re very nice.”

“Yes, they are.” Nick raked his fingers through his thick hair. What were the chances of her remembering that Teddy was a music-business agent and promoter?

Diana downed her juice. “Now I think I can sleep. Good night again.”

“Good night.”

Nick stood there debating whether or not to call Teddy back and cancel out.

“B
etween yesterday and today, I’ve got some really great material,” Joy said animatedly, looking over at Nick from the passenger seat of the sports car he’d leased the day before to replace the car he’d rented at the airport.

Nick smiled. “I didn’t think it was going to do much for the story to include a winery that hasn’t marketed a single bottle yet, but I take it back. It was a stroke of genius on your part. You’re really good at this.” He’d had his first opportunity to watch her do an interview. And she’d bowled him over.

“Thanks. I love when it happens this way, when you get material you haven’t expected.”

He could see that she’d liked his compliment. “Those in-depth questions of yours got right to the heart and soul. The owner here has a really colorful past. It didn’t look like he was going to be forthcoming
at all, but you worked away at him without him even knowing he was being handled, and you got him to open up.”

He hadn’t yet turned the key in the ignition. They were finished for the day. The winery was closing, and it had just started to snow—lightly—the first snow of the season.

“I know the pictures you took for me today are going to make the story much more than it is,” Joy said. It was even tougher than she’d expected, to keep herself in a business frame of mind around him. “I think it’s important that people understand all that a winery owner has riding on his business. A sizable investment can be wiped out by the whim of a bad winter or too much rain.”

“Or too much sun,” Nick said lazily.
Way to go, Tremain. You, rascal, you.

“Or too much sun,” Joy concurred. She knew he wasn’t referring to the trials and tribulations of making a winery pay off. He was referring to the beach in East Hampton.
What did he want from her?

Joy hugged her arms together. “Well…” Her hands got lost in the sleeves of her coat like a muffler, as she clasped them together in front of her waist.

“Are you cold?”

“Not really,” Joy answered, staring straight ahead. The snow was beginning to cover the front window. The muscles in her lower abdomen were shivery, but not because she was cold. “I sampled enough wine in the last two days to keep myself warm for a while.”

“And Diana said you couldn’t handle your wine,” he teased, with one arm draped over the wheel, his back to the driver’s door.

“To be perfectly honest, I am a little tipsy.” Joy wondered if he had any sense of her tension. Sitting alone with him in his car with the sky darkening around them was very intimate..

“How tipsy?” Nick asked, clearly amused, though his eyes had taken on a sultry look.

“You don’t have to worry until my eyes cross,” Joy answered, getting impudent with him. It was as good a way as she could think of to cover her nervousness.

“You’re too far away for me to check that out for myself.” His fingers circled her neck, while his other hand slid around her waist where her hands were girded together. He towed her slowly toward him until the gearshift between their seats held him back.

“Are they crossed?” Joy asked breathlessly. She knew it wasn’t her eyes he was interested in playfully exploring. Oh, she was such a weakling.

Nick slowly shook his head, and then he smiled that damnable sexy smile of his.

The instant his mouth settled onto hers, Joy’s eyes closed and her lips parted for him. She felt his tongue reach toward her own, felt hers respond.

He released her neck, taking her into his arms to pull her closer against his leather jacket. She gave him permission as her hands unwound from the fortress she’d made in front of her waist.

Joy wrapped her hands low around his hips. Her tongue was moving along with his in sensual circles within her mouth. He put a few inches between their bodies to bring one hand to the front of her coat. She sensed that he’d finished opening the buttons even before his hand came over one breast to cup her gently against the fabric of her blouse and bra. Her imagination—and
it had run creatively rampant—had in no way prepared her for what it would actually feel like to have him touch her this way. Joy thought she’d actually stopped breathing. She was completely unaware she was moaning. Or that his other hand had slid inside her coat and was tugging her blouse out of her skirt. Lost in passion and emotion, Joy initiated her own racing need to touch. Tentatively Joy brought a hand up inside his unzipped jacket to his chest, moving his tie aside to slip a trembling finger between the buttons of his blue shirt.

At the realization of what she was attempting to do, he stopped kissing her and leaned back just enough to give her more access.

“Go ahead,” Nick whispered raggedly, his breath whisking across her face as he finished tugging her blouse out of her skirt.

Joy didn’t feel what he was doing with her blouse. The only thing she felt was his shudder as she opened a button of his shirt. Remembering the way he’d looked without a shirt, his chest entirely exposed, Joy opened another button. It was too dark in the car for her to see all she wanted to see, but touching was no problem at all. She pressed her palm to hard muscle. Her fingers fanned out. She found a nipple and timorously touched the tip.

His breath was painfully constricting but neither hell nor high water could have kept Nick from lifting up her blouse now. He bunched the hem in his hand and brought it up.

A guttural groan came from his throat. He sought the clasp of her bra and released it. “I love you, Joy.”

His words broke through the fog that was Joy’s mind.

“Really?” Joy asked sarcastically, knowing the truth. He was trying to do exactly what Eddie had suggested. He wanted to use her to make Diana jealous.

“Yes,” Nick said simply, stock-still now, trying to understand the inflection of her voice.

Joy yanked her blouse out of his hand. She couldn’t even blame him for what had been going on. It was her own fault that she’d allowed him to take advantage of her vulnerability.

“What’s wrong?” Nick asked, bewildered. Wasn’t the declaration he’d given her the declaration every woman wanted to hear? Was she thinking he just bandied the words around?

Giving no response at all, except to glare at him, Joy finished backing herself up against the passenger door.

“Don’t you believe me?” He was able to make out that she was trying futilely to hook her bra. “I really do love you.”

Joy grimaced. She’d have to be even more stupid than she already was to fall for that. God! He even had the right tone of voice!

She was all disheveled. Her coat was in her way. She couldn’t hook her bra. “‘You can fool some of the people…’”

At that, Nick cut her off. “Could we leave famous quotes out of this? What do you want me to do? Write it in blood?”

“That’s a thought,” Joy said furiously, then used an expletive under her breath when she still couldn’t
get her bra clasped. Joy angrily pulled her coat up from under her and tried again to fasten her bra.

Nick pulled in a breath that covered the range from impatience to frustration. “Turn around and I’ll do it for you.” He had a knee rammed hard against the gearshift.
You can fool some of the people,
Nick repeated antagonistically in his head.

“I can do it myself,” Joy retorted.

“Fine.” Nick sucked in another frustrated breath.

Joy finally got the clasp hooked and began vehemently pushing her pink silk blouse into the band of her black wool skirt. “Should I find someplace to call for a taxi? Or are you planning to drive?”

Her voice snapped at him like a rubber band.

Biting down on his lip, Nick started the car and slid the heater level to its highest setting. He was almost tempted to take her up on her dare. She had him that nuts!

Nick opened his door and slammed out of the car. Joy saw his face again a second later as the arm of his leather jacket swept through the snow across the front window. The winery was lit up outdoors.

For the fraction of a moment, blatantly irritated blue eyes met conspicuously angry gray-green eyes.

Joy opened her door and got one foot out. Her high heel sank into the snow.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Nick blocked her way in a flash.

“I’m going to help clear the windows,” Joy answered acerbically.

“No, you’re not!”

“Yes, I am!” Joy got her other foot out of the car nearly kicking Nick in the shin as she did so.

“And you’ve called me obstinate!” He put his hands to her hips to get her seated again.

“Believe me, you are!” Joy fired back. “Will you let go of me?”

“If you don’t sit back down, I’m going to pick you up and sit you down!”

You and who else?
was the retort that came into her head, but Joy had just enough sense left to keep from saying it out loud.

“I’m going to give you to the count of three. One…” Nick began.

Joy sat back down just as he reached three. She stamped her high heels to the carpet under her feet and bent forward to rub circulation back into her ankles and insteps.

“Turn the wipers on,” Nick requested tersely, when she straightened up.

Joy reached out and flippantly turned the wipers on. Nick closed her door, not all that gently.

When Nick got in behind the wheel, his hands were almost frostbitten. He steepled his fingers together in front of his face and blew into his palms, then he held his hands to the blower of the heater.

“I could drive,” Joy volunteered, barely louder than a whisper, feeling very upset at how much his hands must be stinging. It required all her teethgritting strength not to reach for his hands and rub them between hers.

Nick tossed Joy a vexed look. “No, thanks.”

“Okay.” She used the same nasty voice he’d used on her.

Nick put a hand to the wheel and the other to the gearshift. He backed out of the parking slot with the
tires spinning, his fingers still cold, but his disposition steaming.

The half hour trip to the house passed in tight, strained silence.

Nick braked on the driveway and turned the motor off. His car was behind Joy’s car, which was in back of Diana’s car. It was still snowing, and what had already come down had covered the asphalt and the lawn.

“Tell me where your boots are. I’ll go in and get them for you.”

Joy mulled over his thoughtful suggestion for a second. Only she was too angry to give him as much as an inch. Besides, his offer hadn’t been delivered all that politely.

With her head tilted at its most stubborn angle, Joy countered, “I can make it without boots.”

Joy had her car door opened and was gingerly stepping out and into the snow when Nick reached her.

“You’re going to fall if you try to walk on your own in those shoes.” He adamantly fixed his arm around her waist, forcing her to lean into him.

“I don’t need your help!” Joy tried spiritedly to free herself.

“If you don’t quit fighting me, I’m going to lift you up and carry you into the house.” Nick held onto Joy even tighter.

“Pul-eeze…Not the Tarzan bit!” Joy rammed her elbow into his flat abs, trying to get at him through his jacket. It was that expenditure of temper that sent her feet sliding. She went down on her rear end, which was luckily padded by her coat. Nick went down with her.

“Are you hurt anywhere?” Nick questioned anxiously.

“No,” Joy replied limply. She doubted he was inquiring about her heart. “Are you hurt?”

“No,” Nick responded, rising up on one knee. “Move your legs a little. Just a little. Let me know if you feel any pain.”

Joy moved her legs like a pair of scissors, looking them over as she did. “Oh…” she moaned.

“What?” Nick gasped.

“My nylons are all shredded.”

Nick released the breath that had gotten hung up in his throat. She was impossible! She was obstinate to the umpteenth degree. Frustrating beyond belief. And he was wild about her.

Nick squatted on the balls of his feet. “Are you going to stop giving me a hard time and let me help you into the house?”

Joy weakly nodded her head. The fall had knocked the verve out of her.

Without giving her a chance to change her mind, Nick spread his hands and stood, then scooped Joy up in his arms.

“I didn’t mean this way,” Joy said, though she didn’t move to fight him this time.

The lights over the garage and the front door threw quite a bit of light on the driveway. She could see Nick grin and she tried to shoot him a killing look. But she was expending all her effort trying to ignore the flush going through her entire body and the riotous feelings that went along with the compromising position he had her in. It wasn’t fair that he was so sexy. Or
that his gallantry overwhelmed her. It was punishingly unfair of him to say he loved her!

“Put your arms around my neck,” Nick demanded, his smile still in place. He looked into her adorably gorgeous face and waited, without moving, for her to obey.

Joy’s arms went around his neck, but she gave him another shoot-to-kill glare.

“I think the Tarzan bit does work on you.” Nick quirked a grin, sparring expertly against the look he was getting from her.

“I am not at all impressed,” Joy mumbled, avoiding his eyes by turning her face into his jacket. It was easier for her to lie when she wasn’t looking at him.

Treading slowly, Nick carefully carried Joy across the driveway and up the stairs of the front porch, putting her down on her feet at the door.

“Don’t I get a thank you?”

“Thank you,” Joy said through her teeth. She went to turn the knob of the door, but Nick put his hand to hers, stopping her.

“I’m not taking back what I said to you before,” Nick murmured gruffly, gazing into her vibrant gray-green eyes.

Joy flipped her head aside. “You can say it all you want. It’s not going to work for you.”

“What’s not going to work?” His breath mingled with hers in the air.

“I am not going to let you use me to try and make Diana jealous.” Joy spelled it out for him, though she didn’t think it was necessary for her to do so. It did salve her pride some that she could tell him she knew what he was up to.

“You’ve got it all wrong.” He brought his face down to her face and said it close to her mouth.