Just That Easy (2 page)

Totally contradictory thoughts crashed through her head.
First off, was he reading her mind or what? The rush of interest clashed with
anxiety and insecurity, heavy attraction battled common sense telling her he
was a player and not shy about making moves. Mostly though, his deep blue eyes
smiling at her and that calm feeling of approval emanating from him, instantly
bashed down any reasons why this was a completely bad idea.

Not to mention the obvious fact they were attracted to each
other in that rare, instant raw kind of way, and it made her entire body
tingle.

“Right around the corner. Kind of a hole in the wall.”

“Perfect, my kind of place. That mean you’re in?”

“Um, yeah. I guess so.”

He leaned forward a little, smiling as if he had a secret to
share. “For a trashy, anything-goes sex-book writer, you’re a little skittish,
you know that?”

Teryn shrugged a nervous little twitch, but couldn’t help
smiling back at him. “Yeah, well, I told you I had a pen name, she’s kind of my
alter ego.”

“Should I ask
her
out?” He laughed.

“Funny. I think you just did.”

He cocked his head and curled his lips in that lopsided grin
again. “Cool. Can’t wait to meet her.”

A long, low whoosh of air escaped her lungs as he winked at
her, then turned and walked around to the passenger side. There was no getting
around checking out his ass when he turned away from her. Hard and as well
formed as the rest of him, the way it tapered down from that wide expanse of
muscled back she could just picture feeling all that hard flesh beneath her
fingers. Damn, this man’s testosterone must be like some kind of aerosol drug.

Getting in, she tried to steady her hands to even start the
engine. She considered trying to drag Alexis Wilde out of the closet, but in
the pit of her belly she wanted it to just be plain old Teryn Michaels who he
found interesting, not her sexy alter ego who pretty much lived only in her
head. Smoothing her hair back a little, she tossed off the brief twinge of
vanity that gripped her as she realized she wore no makeup and had on an old
pair of low-rider jeans with a thin cotton T-shirt. Watching him fold his big
physique into the front of her Jeep and set her books in the back, she started
the engine, thinking it was a little late to be worrying about if he thought
she looked plain without her makeup.

“Stick shift. Don’t see that much anymore. Hope you don’t
mind I just climbed right in, I don’t know where the hell I’m at around here
yet.”

“No it’s fine. As for the stick shift, well, it doesn’t make
sense to me to drive a Jeep with automatic. I hate it that they mostly make
them that way now, pandering bastards.” She laughed.

That perfect mouth split into another grin. “Right, because
they should only sell to purists like you. Who wants a profit, right?”

Challenging, and not brainless. Christ when did his assets
stop?

“Yeah, yeah. It just sucks when you like something, and all
of a sudden it’s like the big thing, and next thing you know every moron on the
block is doing it.”

“Ahh, you don’t like to follow the crowd.”

“No. I don’t. You? You don’t seem like, well, a librarian.”
Again with the laugh. It reached through her, slipping down her spine like a
warm trickle.

“Well I’m not, really. This is just for the summer. I ended
up between jobs and I have a big competition coming up soon so I needed
something quiet that I could work around my training schedule. I’ve done it
part-time at college way back when, and you don’t exactly forget how to
alphabetize books, you know? My uncle knows Al, so he hooked me up.”

“Okay, that leads to about ten questions. What kind of
competition? Where’d you go to college? What the hell did you major in that you
could be a librarian? And how does your uncle know Al? Wait, don’t answer that.
“

“Yep, you really are a writer.” He sighed, grinned and shook
his head.

“Sorry, you don’t have to answer all that, my curiosity gets
the best of me, and my mouth pretty much does its own thing most of the time.”

“Hmmm. Kind of hoping so.”

His fingers reached out and gently brushed her cheek just
along the corner of her mouth. True to her self-description, her lips parted
slightly and she sucked in a small, stuttering breath. His boldness unnerved
her. It also sent about a thousand volts of static through her entire body. She
shivered, even though it was probably still well over seventy degrees on this
warm spring night.

Dropping his fingers, he leaned back farther into the seat,
watching her. “So, adventure racing. U.S.C., Oceanography and Environmental
Science with Literature as a minor. That’s where the librarian comes in. My
uncle dated Al. They’re still friends. I like that you’re kind of bold, and
scared, all at the same time.”

“I don’t, particularly. You aren’t scared of anything much,
are you?”

“Not really, no. Kind of have to be a little insane to do
what I do.”

“Here we are. What, insane to be a librarian?” She laughed
as she jumped out of the Jeep. His laugh followed her, feeling as warm on her
skin as the early summer evening.

Two steps through the tiny alley parking lot, which happened
to be the only alley in town, and they were through the back door. The place
looked as if it had the usual small-town Friday evening crowd. A few construction
workers who had been there since they got out of work, laughing a little too
loud. A few couples eating bar food and having a beer, the expected group of
regulars perched on familiar bar stools. Everyone in the place looked Teryn and
Grant’s way when they walked in.

His arm curled protectively around the small of her back
again, inspiring the powerful feeling of belonging right where she was. He
leaned closer and whispered near her ear. “We make an entrance, huh?”

She glanced up at him. “Guess so. I’ve only been in here a
couple of times. I think you make people look, anyway.”

Not giving him a chance to counter that one, she pushed into
a booth in the back corner closest to them. The waitress appeared out of
nowhere to take their order, and obviously to get a better look at him. Thin,
fifty-ish, and looking as if she’d been in this bar half her life, she smiled
ear to ear.

“Hey there, what can I get you all?”

Grant raised an eyebrow Teryn’s way, grinning, the perpetual
look on his face since she’d laid eyes on him. “I’ll have a Guinness.” He
turned his disarming grin at the waitress and she giggled.

“Sure, honey. What’ll you have?” The words were aimed at
Teryn but the waitress’s eyes never moved from Grant.

“Tequila. Whatever good one you have.”

“With?”

“Nothing. Just the tequila.”

“Shot with lemon and salt?”

“Just the tequila, double, neat. Can you ask them to rim the
glass with salt?”

“Sure, honey.” The waitress shook her head as she walked
away.

“Gotta love livin’ in a small town. Right?”

“People are like that everywhere. It’s quiet here though.
One of those places it would be good to raise kids I guess. I always seem to be
the odd one who doesn’t fit in, small town but I’m single, everything I do gets
me that sideways look, can’t even drink beer like everyone else.”

“Uh oh, your insecurity is showing, doll.”

He reached out, lightly stroking the back of her hand. His
fingers were long, large, but not bulky. They looked very capable. Of just
about anything. It felt not just sexy, it felt good. Gentle. Fast.

“I thought it was since the minute I looked up at you.”

Teryn watched him absorb that admission, and his canny
choice not to confirm it. “No, not really. You were just, hmm. Cute, I guess.”

“Cute. That’s what I want to be, cute.” She leaned back into
the cheap vinyl seat, eyeing him. She didn’t move her hand though.

“Be whatever you want to be if you don’t like what you are.
You don’t answer to anyone, right? You don’t like to follow the crowd, but then
worry that I think you’re cute like there’s something wrong with that. Yet here
we are. I followed you here like a lost puppy, so what does that tell you?”

“That I need to shut up, I’m overthinking again.” Which was
exactly right, because he’d just nailed her most hidden desire. To do whatever
the hell she wanted without the nagging feeling that it was the wrong thing.

The waitress returned with the order, looking at Teryn as if
expecting her to say the drink was wrong when she sat down a short tumbler half
filled with clear liquid.

“Just like that?”

“Just like that.” As appeasement, she pulled out an extra
five-dollar bill to tip her, surprised when she looked back up that Grant had
put more than enough for the drinks and a double tip on the tray. She threw her
money and the extra tip on top anyway. The waitress gushed a quick thank-you,
hightailing it back to the bar before they changed their minds. “And she
doesn’t like to be taken care of.”

“You didn’t mention psychiatry in your studies.”

“Secondary minor.”

Her face blanched and she almost shot tequila from her nose.

“That was way, way too easy.”

“Fuck you,” she blurted, laughing. A typical retort for her
on any other day, it was also totally inappropriate at the moment.

True to everything he’d done so far, he turned it around and
made it the perfect thing to say. “If I’m really, really lucky.” His voice was
low, slow and husky. He meant every word and didn’t hide it.

“Okay, seriously. That’s the worst line ever. The only guys
who have ever talked to me like that were total sleaze balls, the kind of guy
you see cruising the meat-market bar like vultures, or the kind who stalks you.
Not a librarian with half a brain. What’s up with that?”

He reached toward her, motioning with his finger for her to
lean closer. Thinking he wanted to tell her something quietly, she leaned
forward expectantly. Instead, his hand slid around to the back of her head,
tugging sharply on the elastic band holding her hair in the tight ponytail. The
unruly tangle of her hair spilled out. She raked her fingers through it,
shoving it back over her shoulder, sure it was a complete mess.

“Much, much better. Hair is a metaphor, you know, for who we
are. Yours is all bound up into a tight whip, snapping you to attention. All
those dark waves tamed and pushed into submission. That’s not the way it should
be.” His fingers slid down one long section that had escaped her attempts to
push it back over her shoulder. His eyes met hers again. The same warm feeling
rushed through her, as if there was nothing she needed to hide from him. The
only thing that picked at her nerves was why the hell he managed to make her
feel that way with little to no effort at all.

“All right, so, look, let’s just take turns and lay out on
the table what we’re about, why we are here, whatever comes to your head. Then
I won’t have to use any more bad lines on you. Sound good?”

Hair as a metaphor didn’t seem like a bad line at the moment
looking at his. A thick black Irish mass, just long enough to fall over his
forehead a little on the top, curling in an unruly way behind his ears. Talk
about your metaphor, his hair also looked as if it said exactly who he was, deceivingly
approachable but impossible to tame.

“Sure. You first.”

He took a deep breath and eyed her for a moment before
starting in. “You already know how I got the job. My best friend from college,
he has this adventure race team. It’s a huge deal to him to win a really big
race for once. Takes a lot of training, lots of traveling to little races on
weekends, and the library is a good down time. I’m between real jobs at the
moment, so it seemed like a good thing to do while I think out what I want to
do next. I needed a break, if you want the truth. I haven’t been in exactly the
best of places in my life for a while, and I needed to do something different.”

He stopped, eyeing her, and took a long pull on his
Guinness. She gave him the I’m-not-bored-yet-keep-going obligatory look. He
hadn’t gotten to the good part. Yet.

“Been here about a week, been pretty quiet. Then you walked
in. Miss lashes, stuttering over your Dominatrix book, throwing out comments
with no inhibition and freaking yourself out the whole time you’re doing it. It
was cute. Live with it. I’m attracted to you, Teryn. Like I haven’t been to
anyone in a long time. I watched those green eyes, checked out your curves when
you walked out of the library in front of me and decided there was no way I was
letting you out of my sight until you either lied and said you weren’t
attracted to me, or until I wake up next to you in the morning. Simple as
that.”

That was the good part, all right. Teryn sat back, cocked an
eyebrow at him, and sorted the dozens of questions in her head. It was good
cover for the liquid rush in her belly, the warm, sliding feeling that was
taking her shaking thighs into overdrive.

He told her everything and nothing, all at once. He was like
one of the goddamn characters in her books. Maybe she was having some sort of
schizophrenic meltdown and she was really in a mental hospital, thinking all of
this was real. Maybe all these people at the other tables were just other
patients, eating paste or muttering to themselves.

“Well?” He looked amused, watching her stumble over her
thoughts and absorb his admission.

“Just wondering if you are interested because you know I
write about sex, so you assume I’m some kind of kink master in bed.” He was
bold, so why not go with it?

He rubbed his chin absentmindedly. Her gaze stuck on that
dark shadow of evening scruff. It made her want to feel it against her cheek,
of course. Odd how the cliché things she wrote in her books were true, sitting
here across from Mr. I Just Said I Want To Fuck You.

“Actually, I kind of have you pegged for the exact opposite.
You’re too skittish to be a bad girl but I can’t exactly call you sweet or
innocent. You don’t fit in with the tight-assed crowd, and I think you secretly
do want to be bad. Maybe you just haven’t had the chance to do it yet. Except
on paper. Can’t blame a guy for hoping he has the key to Pandora’s box, right?”