What a Girl Wants (17 page)

“Wrong? No, everything’s cool. So, the phone call? Anything important?” He was an investigative reporter, a damned good one at that, yet, here he stood thinking and talking like an inexperienced intern. The hard-hitting newshound had lost his capacity for rational thought.

This assignment was turning into a goatfuck.

That’d teach him to fiddle with someone’s tape recorder.

“Alex, you sure nothing is wrong? You have that wigged-out look again.”

He took a deep breath, and tried to forget that he’d intruded on a private conversation she’d had with herself. “Never mind me. What was that call about?” he asked. “You’re staring at your phone like you want to toss it into the ocean.”

“Felicia. She’s mad at Uncle George. She found out he put a wager on how long this marriage was going to last.” She sighed. “And she’s in a state about this wedding. Flowers, menu, should she have a receiving line? Eddy’s kids are giving her a hard time.”

“Hasn’t she done this before?” Christ, the woman was a professional bride.

A flash of vulnerability crossed her features. “I hear you. But she gets overwhelmed every time, though this time seems particularly bad. I’ll help her out by phone. I’ve done it many times before.” She looked away for a fraction of a second and laughed softly, but when it came to her family, the smiles and laughter never reached her eyes. “The last time she gave me attention like this was during my birth.”

He clasped his hands around her waist, and kissed the tip of her freckled nose. “You want to talk about it? I know it couldn’t have been easy growing up with her.”

“Felicia is like having an older sister,” she said. “A troubled, pain-in-the-ass older sister. Know what I mean?”

“Not really.” He drew his brows together and bit back a harsher opinion of Felicia Saunders. “She’s supposed to be your mother, not your sister.”

She shrugged. “It could’ve been worse.” She smoothed her hands over his shoulders. “Apparently, ball and chain number seven wants to move to Vancouver to take over a family business.
I’d
never do that.”

“What? Move to Canada?”

“Follow a man to another country or city. She’s moved from city to city for every marriage. Hell, every new relationship. Changed her whole life each time. I swore by the time I could understand what was happening, I’d never do that.”

Her words hit him like a sucker punch in his gut.

And they shouldn’t have. He’d heard her clearly on her recorder. This thing between them was about sex. He had no right to be insulted at her comments about moving. But he could still ask if maybe she’d like to have an adventure in England for a few months, couldn’t he?

“You’re nothing like Felicia.”

“I know it sounds awful, because most daughters want to be like their mothers. But not me.” Shaking her head. “When other little girls were prancing around the yard, wearing white towels on their heads, pretending to be Princess Di on her big day, I had a different fantasy.”

“What was that?”

“To live in a place long enough so that the corner store owner knew when I walked in she’d have to bag some red licorice, grab a package of Milk Duds and pour me a super-sized grape slushie.” She stated this without any self-pity in her voice. “I wanted the neighbors to stick their heads out the window, asking me to run errands for them. And yeah, it would even have been okay if they’d scolded me for dropping the “F” bomb when I lost at hopscotch. Actually, I fantasized about living in a place long enough where I could join the hopscotch clique or run across the neighbor’s lawns through a sprinkler, getting chased.” She let out a giggle. “I wanted to earn the title Maddie the Menace.”

All things he had taken for granted growing up. He kissed her forehead. “You didn’t want to be the new kid on the block.” She nodded. He held her tighter. “But you do love to travel, experience new places?”

“Absolutely, and I love writing about them. But there’s nothing like coming back to a place that I call home. Fantasies do come true.” Winking, she smiled. “And not only last night. Mr. Antonucci knows exactly what I want when I pop into his store and Mrs. Dunn in 3B knows my name, my schedule and asks me to walk Casanova and Molly when I’m available.”

She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulled his head down and kissed him. “Speaking of which, the property manager told me I can renew the lease for another year. Thanks again for hooking me up with that leasing company. The deal I got is fabulous. Love it.”

He shivered inwardly as he recalled her mugging. The son-of-a-bitch not only stole her purse, but knocked her down, bruising her. “I’m glad you found a safer neighborhood.”

“Yeah, I know,” she said quietly, probably remembering her terror. “The most that asshole got away with was forty bucks. I hope I damaged his jewels when I kicked him. I never would have been able to afford a place like that without you letting me know about this deal.”

“You’re welcome.”
And if you ever find out I’m your landlord, I’m going to have to start wearing steel boxers to bed or my family jewels will be in danger.

He knew her stubborn and independent pride—especially when it came to money—wouldn’t have allowed her to accept his help. She was determined to do it on her own. Keeping his identity confidential had been easy. For over four years, she hadn’t suspected a thing. Besides, she was helping him out by renting the place and taking care of it. What was one secret between friends?

“What did you want to talk about before?” She unwrapped her arms from around him and picked up the dishes from the table. “You look uptight again. I tell you, you should have my kind of breakfast. It would loosen you up.”

“Nothing important. We can talk about it later. And, I’m not uptight.”
Nothing important
? Oh man, he kept digging himself deeper.

He had plenty of faults, but not being straight with people, especially good friends he cared about, wasn’t one of them. As soon as he could, he would discuss his move to England with her. When she was in a more receptive mood, of course.

Make that two secrets between friends.

Her cell phone sang. Again.

She glanced at the number flashing on the phone. “I have to take this call.” She handed him the dishes and stepped back inside the suite.

Hmmm. Maybe she had some secrets of her own. Maddie did not have a poker face, and the way she’d stared at the number on her phone had told him this was a call she hadn’t wanted him to hear. He hadn’t intended on eavesdropping as he gathered the cutlery, but the table was near the patio door that was left ajar and the worried tone in her voice made his ears perk up.

“…I don’t have extra money for that…can’t afford to worry about who is sticking their nose in all this…yes…yes…keep going with the initial…”

He backed away from the patio door. If she wanted him to know, she’d tell him. Still, something in her voice concerned him.

“So,” she said, stepping back on to the patio. “What are you up to today?”

He piled the cutlery he’d been gathering on the tray. “Everything okay?” He nodded toward the cell phone she clutched in her hand so tightly her knuckles were white.

“It’s fine.” She blew away a stray strand of hair. “More family crap. I didn’t think I’d have to deal with it here, but it came up.” She held her hand up. “No. I don’t want to get into it yet.”

“You know where to find me if you do want to talk about it.”

She nodded. “Thanks. I’ll tell you about it when we have more time to talk.” Smiling, she turned the cell phone off and threw it on the table. “Are you going to bury yourself in that paperwork Duncan called about?”

“We need to discuss our…situation first,” he managed.

“You sound serious, again.”

“You realize that our friendship has changed.”

She sighed. “Why?”

“Unless you have a number of guy friends you sleep with, then I think our relationship is different.”

“True, although I do have a lot of guy friends, and knowing them, I don’t think they would consider our relationship different if we added some benefits.”

“What do you mean, you have a lot of guy friends? You do not.”

“Yes I do.” She rolled her eyes. Again. “Okay, more like acquaintances. You know, by the way
you’re
acting I’m surprised that you ever had a morning after to deal with.”

“Just trying to keep it real.” He picked up the salt and pepper shakers and placed them on a tray. “And we can do without the insults. All I’m saying is that men usually can’t be friends with a woman he wants to keep sleeping with. We need to discuss this like adults.”

The glasses clanged against the dishes as she placed them on the tray. “Okay, I can see
you
need to talk about this real bad. Shoot.”

Boy, she sure was in a mood this morning.

He put the tray on the table, placed his hands on her shoulders and stared into her eyes—eyes that clearly said,
Get this over with.

“Maddie, obviously we’re not just friends now, and I don’t want this to ruin our
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”

“I don’t want to hear about sex ruining our friendship. It won’t. I can handle it.”

“It’s called making love,” he managed through clenched teeth. The word sex coming from her mouth made his teeth ache for some reason. He’d never uttered the words
making love
before, but at the moment, he wasn’t in the mood to stop and analyze what that meant.

“Cripes, I thought
I
had baggage. Mine’s a carry-on piece compared to yours,” she said. “Why do we even have to put a title to us? To anything, actually? I’m here. You’re here. We’re both consenting adults. At least I am.” She tugged at his ear. “If I have to say don’t worry, there are no strings attached again, I’m going to shake you so hard your clothes will be out of style.”

She was right, of course. He should shut up. This was exactly what he’d wanted to hear from a woman
.
“Listen to you. You’re a writer. You make your living putting titles on your work.”

“Fine.” She loaded the juice jug on another tray. “I can settle this real quick, because I have an appointment in a few hours. Let’s call ourselves sexually energized friends. Happy now?”

“I can see you’re not in the right mood for this conversation.” He busied himself sweeping crumbs from the table. “By the way, what appointment?”

She toed open the patio door.

He followed her inside. “Where are you going this afternoon?”

“I’m going to Maxwell Hollister’s for lunch.”

He slid the patio door shut with a loud thud. “You mean
we
are going to Hollister’s.”

She placed the tray on the trolley and planted her hands on her hips. “You’re not invited.”

“Hollister is my assignment.”

He could tell by the dark shade of green her eyes took on that she was three seconds away from yelling at him.

“Holy jumpin’, Alex. When you admitted to losing some common sense, you weren’t joking.”

“I have to schedule an interview with him. That’s the whole point of my being here.” And dammit, if the old man was going to drop a bomb on her, he wanted to be there for her.

“It’s an invitation for me only, but I’ll do you a favor and get some info for you.”

“I fly solo.”

She lowered her gaze to his zipper. “Not last night, you didn’t.”

“I’m serious. I don’t want you going there alone, and that’s an order.”

“An order?” Uh oh, he’d seen that look on her face before.

“I meant, as the senior guy on this assignment, I’m scheduling the interviews and
¾
”

“Snap the hell out of this!” There it was, an even darker shade of green in her eyes and the flush of anger in her cheeks. “Dipping into the company ink doesn’t give you the right to manage all of my time.”

“Company ink?” He jammed his fingers through his hair. “I knew this was a damned mistake.”

“You have all the charms of a meter maid with a quota this morning.”

Now he knew why he’d made the pledge not to get involved in any relationship he couldn’t walk away from in thirty seconds.

This morning was a disaster. Their conversation was a disaster. He always believed most people spoke fifteen minutes longer than they should. Thanks to this bizarre turn of events in their friendship, it now applied to him.

She blew out a loud breath. “I have instincts too. Maxwell Hollister is not dangerous. Okay, I admit, having a man of his stature and position interested in my work is unusual.” She held her hand up to halt his next words. “But I’ve been thinking about it, and I’ve figured it out.”

She crossed her leg and casually extended her arm over the doorway, lifting up the T-shirt above her delicious center.

Focus above her neck, Donovan.

“This is how I see it.” She planted her other arm on her hip. “I think we got this plum assignment because Maxwell Hollister is probably part of Uncle G’s group of rich cronies. I’m sure they go way back or something and that’s why
Eye on the World
got this scoop. Okay, now that I’ve solved your mystery, I’m going to get some work done before going to lunch.”

It wouldn’t take him long to verify a few things. He could probably get the information he needed before they got to the first course. He had a feeling Hollister wouldn’t spill his news to her until after they had lunch. “Okay, you’re right. I’m overreacting.”

She walked up to him, stood on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek. “You don’t fool me, giving in so easy.”

He pulled her close and kissed her hard, nuzzling her neck, helping her out of the T-shirt.

She stepped back and curved her lips into a devilish smile. “You’re still not invited.”

With that, she slung the T-shirt over her shoulder, spun around and strolled away. “Are you checking me out?” He was sure she added an extra roll to her curvaceous hips.

“Absolutely.”

The woman drove him crazy—she was so damn hot and now his shorts felt three sizes too small. He couldn’t move, not even if someone tossed a grenade at his feet. He should get his mind on his work, print that contract, sign it and send it off. He’d already received five reminder e-mails from Duncan. He’d tell Maddie about England later.