After Hours Bundle (21 page)

“I said to Maria, ‘She's really cute. Call that one.'”

Marly lifted an eyebrow.
Great way to pick a stylist, Governor. What if I'm a really cute butcher?
But she didn't say it out loud. “What happened to your regular hairdresser?”

“She just had a baby,” he explained. “And she's retiring for a while to be a mom. I didn't have time to look for someone else in Tallahassee before this meeting, so we called you.”

She was back to looking at his chest again, and all that male skin and muscle was having a bad effect on her. Her breathing had gone shallow and heat had bloomed at the back of her neck, under her arms and in other places she didn't want to think about.

“Are you Irish?” he asked.

She blinked, then shook her head. “Dutch by heritage.”

“All that dark hair and the big blue eyes and the flawless skin—I thought maybe Black Irish. Though you're not pale—your skin's sort of olive.”

“There's some Greek back there somewhere,” Marly said. “And you? You have the same coloring.”

“English, though my great-great-grandfather married an Italian. They say I get my looks from her.”

Marly found herself wanting to touch his skin, just run a hand over those shoulders and those biceps. She hadn't had this kind of visceral reaction to a man since college. He put every nerve and ion in her body on full alert.
Get a grip, stupid. Why do you think they call the guy The Hammer? Apart from his surname, he nails a lot of women.

John Hammersmith was a world-class flirt, and he'd been seen and photographed with all kinds of jet-set beauties. There'd been the Colombian emerald heiress, the Yugoslavian model, the English industrialist's daughter, the Parisian countess, the New York fashion editor and the famous, double-jointed fitness instructor. The list went on and on. The Hammer's personal little black book was reputed to contain ten volumes, or something like that.

It was a wonder there weren't dozens of little illegitimate Jacks running around, but rumor had it that The Hammer owned stock in Trojan. Recently, however, she'd heard rumblings that his handlers wanted to marry him off. It was hard for a playboy to be taken seriously in politics, especially when his platform preached morality and conscience.

Hypocrite.
Marly scowled and dug for her scissors.

“What's that look for?” the governor asked. “You have something against Italians?”

“Huh? Oh…no, not at all. I was thinking about something else.” Too late, she realized how rude that sounded.

He grinned that thousand-watt grin at her, and parts of her body she was unaware she had melted. Oh, yuck. Was she really that susceptible—and to a Republican?

“Do I bore you, Miss Fine?”

“No…I'm sorry, I've just been distracted lately.” She scrambled and came up with a bit of truth to try to salvage things. “Until yesterday, I was afraid we were going to lose our retail space at After Hours and have to default on our business loans. It was scary. But everything's okay now.”

It helped when the landlord was crazy in love with your business partner. She wouldn't be surprised if Troy and Peggy ran off to Vegas and got married, in fact.

“I'm glad to hear it. I couldn't have my favorite hairstylist going out of business—even temporarily.”

Marly's eyebrows pulled together and she forced herself, once again, to look away from the man's chest. “How can I possibly be your favorite hairstylist when I haven't even cut your hair yet, Governor?”

“It's a mystery, isn't it?” He looked intently into her eyes again and she felt more exposed than if she were naked. Marly shifted her weight from foot to foot.

“Do you believe in love at first sight, Miss Fine?”

She gripped her scissors tightly and backed away from him. No matter how good-looking and charismatic and half-naked, the guy was starting to exasperate her. And what a cheesy line! “No, I do not.”

He sighed. “I was afraid of that. And I have a feeling it's going to take a lot of effort to change your mind.”

L
OVE AT FIRST SIGHT
?
Marly couldn't help herself. She rolled her eyes. “Come on, Governor. You can do better than
that.
”

He crossed his arms over his delectable chest and actually had the gall to look offended. “You think that's just a bad come on.”

“I certainly don't think it's a good one!”
Great, Marly. You couldn't have played along, dodged the pinch to your ass, and added John Hammersmith's name to the After Hours' client roster? What's wrong with you?

“So you wouldn't believe me if I told you that the moment I saw your picture in the magazine, I knew you were The One?”

Marly gaped at him and was saved from having to answer by the arrival of room service and Ms. Turlington again. Marly poured herself some green tea and watched The Hammer drown his strawberry waffles in syrup and smother them with whipped cream, for all the world like a little kid. A demented little kid…a Republican one. Ugh.

Really, she should leave now, while there was someone else in the room to act as a buffer.

“Did you know that my great-great-grandmother was essentially a mail-order bride?” Hammersmith said around a mouthful of waffles. “The Italian one.”

“No.” Marly took a sip of her tea and tugged on her braid, which had grown tight. Her scalp prickled with discomfort and something like alarm.

“Great-great-gramps saw a cameo portrait of her, and that was it for him. He went to find her and bring her back to the States.”

The tiny hairs on the back of her neck jumped to attention. Then they parted to make way for a deep shiver. But she didn't react visibly, just eyed him with a tolerance reserved for the insane.

“Isn't that romantic?” the governor said, swallowing. He ate standing up, his plate in his left hand, sawing through the waffles with the edge of his fork.

She nodded for Ms. Turlington's benefit. Marly might not have finished college, but how stupid did the man think she was? He figured he could feed her this pack of BS and she'd tumble into bed with him?

It was a lowering thought that she might have done so based on the recommendation of his bare chest alone. She could have just had a fling—to support morality and conscience and Republican values, of course. But there was no way she'd do it now, with this lame talk of love at first sight. How many women had he snowed with this stuff?

Ms. Turlington changed the subject, bless her bossy, crabby, proper little heart. “
Mister
Governor,” she announced, eyeing his plate with something like despair, “you'll note that there is an egg-white omelet under that steel dome. Those waffles you're consuming—with the entire udder of butter and bathtub of syrup—contain a minimum of 3,600 calories and—”

“Turls, you know I detest egg-white omelets, and you probably had them fill it with broccoli and onion, too.”

“—six hundred grams of carbohydrates, not to mention enough saturated fat to deep-fry a herd of buffalo.”

“But I do thank you for your continued concern about my health. It's very sweet of you.”

Miss Turlington sniffed. Then she produced a bona fide white, lacy handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes.

“Turls…” the governor groaned. He cast her a look of long-suffering, set down his waffles on a stack of scary-looking legal documents sporting lots of little yellow flags and plucked the steel dome off the omelet plate.

Ms. Turlington stopped dabbing immediately and looked hopeful.

Marly thought the omelet looked and smelled fabulous, but the Hammer wrinkled his statesman-like nose. He poked at the mass of eggs with a knife and looked unimpressed. He set the dome back over the plate, and just then Marly's stomach had the poor timing to growl. She hadn't eaten anything before leaving her apartment.

He brightened. “You're hungry!”

“No, no,” Marly stammered, under Ms. Turlington's ominous gaze.

“Yes, you are. Isn't it fortunate that we ordered some extra breakfast!” The gov grabbed a fork, cut a bite of omelet and made choo-choo noises, driving it toward her mouth.

Marly was so appalled that she opened it and he deposited the bite of eggs onto her tongue, emitting a long engineer's whistle as he did so. Then the lunatic said, “Yum, yum!” and sent her a big ole shit-eating grin.

She almost spat the eggs onto the carpet at Ms. Turlington's expression, but she managed not to. Instead she swallowed them.

“Now,” said the Hammer, advancing on her with a napkin, “you just be a good kid and eat the omelet. I'll return to my breakfast of champions. Turls, where's your oatmeal and prune juice?”

“I have already consumed my morning meal,” growled Ms. Turlington, and swept from the room, closing the French doors with a snap.

Marly blinked. “Governor, really, I'm only here to cut your hair.” She looked at her watch. “And I've got to get back. I have a client coming at ten….”

“It'll take you all of five minutes to eat that omelet, sweetheart. C'mon, can't you do it for the Ham?” He advanced toward her and put his hand at the small of her back.

His touch was casually intimate, for someone who'd just met her. Though she thought he was nuts, her body didn't agree. Marly leaped forward as if burned and grabbed the plate of eggs. She held it in front of her like a shield and dodged around the serving cart. “Thanks.”

“Can't have you all shaky when you're snipping the gubernatorial locks, eh?” He grinned. “Gubernatorial—isn't that the weirdest word? Sounds like all things relating to a goober.”

Marly laughed in spite of herself.

“Now, my family and friends know the truth—I am one, but do we need to advertise the fact?”

He didn't look at all like a goober. He looked like blue-blooded sin in half of a thousand-dollar suit. And he was crazy. Obviously. Because he insisted on returning to their earlier topic of conversation.

“Now that I've found you, Marly Fine, I'm going to have to insist that we get to know each other. Are you free for dinner?”

Marly set down the omelet once again. “No, Governor, I'm not. We run a salon, which is open until midnight.”

“You work a sixteen-hour day?”

“Sometimes. Usually I work a twelve-hour one. I go in at noon. Miami is half-Latin, and Latins like to keep late hours.”

“Hmm. I'm asleep by eleven. This could be tough to work out….” He stuck another bite of waffle into his mouth.

Her sense of outrage rose. “Governor Hammersmith, while I am certainly, um, flattered by your interest, there is nothing to work out. I have a very full life and—”

“You married?”

“What? No.”

“Engaged?”

“No, but—”

“Boyfriend?”

She hesitated a split second too long.

“Then we can work something out.”

“Governor, maybe I don't want to
work something out!
”

“I've been told I'm passably handsome. I floss regularly and use mouthwash. I can even be charming, when I want to be.” He cocked his head to one side and licked a bit of whipped cream out of the corner of his mouth. “What's not to like?”

Marly closed her eyes. Then she opened them and took a deep breath. “Women don't say no to you very often, do they?”

He looked a little sheepish. Then he shook his head.

“In fact, I'll offer a guess that not many
people
say no to you.”

Hammersmith stuck the last bite of waffle into his mouth and chewed pensively. Then he shook his head again.

“Well,” Marly said brightly. “We all encounter new experiences, don't we? Now give me that—” she took the plate from his hand and set it on the cart “—and come sit down in that rolling chair again so I can do my job.”

He blinked at her, then went and sat down. She unfolded the salon drape and threw it around him, covering him from the neck down.
Thank God I don't have to look at that chest any longer.

Then she handed him a mirror. “Now, you like a side part on the left, correct?”

He nodded.

“And it looks like…are you having these strands near your temples
colored
gray?”

“Yes. They decided I looked more statesman-like with a little silver around the edges.”

Marly pursed her lips. “I don't have anything with me to do color. All I can do today is a cut.”

“Isn't that a shame. Guess you'll have to see me again, won't you?” His lips twitched.

“You know,” said Marly severely, “if you were anyone but the governor, and if you were even a smidgen uglier, I wouldn't put up with you.”

“Even though you're curious?”

“Who said I was curious?”

“Your eyes, your voice, your body language. The fact that you're still here and haven't run screaming out the door—even though you think I'm crazy.”

She glared at him. “I don't
think
you're nuts. I
know
you're nuts.”

“We'll see about that. History often repeats itself.”

Again, a shiver spiraled around her spine before dispersing into hundreds of tiny ions of unease. Marly dug her spray bottle of water out of her nylon bag and depressed the nozzle several times, soaking the man's head.

“I guess that's one way of telling me I'm all wet,” said The Hammer. “But by the way, if we're going to ride into the sunset together one day, you should call me Jack.”