Eliza ran her fingers through her hair and reentered her room. Breakfast had not been anything like what she’d imagined. She’d gone down in her sleep shorts and top, with only a spring robe tossed over her, and had imagined she’d grab toast, coffee, and juice in the peace and quiet of a dark kitchen. She hadn’t expected to see anyone up and about yet; it was barely six.
Damn phone alarm. She had the chance to sleep in an extra hour and had forgotten to change her alarm.
But she’d been up and was hungry. Or at least in need of coffee. When she’d sleepily made her way to the kitchen, Eliza had been greeted with lights, the scent of freshly ground coffee, and the most delicious breakfast her still-tired body had ever smelled.
Craig was up, and poor Donna Lauter, the cook, had to have been here at the crack of dawn.
“Are you actually awake?” Eliza asked, stunned to see him there. “Or is this a mirage? No, wait, I know. You went out partying last night and this is you stumbling in now.”
He didn’t look like he stumbled. In fact, he looked freshly showered and as bright-eyed as one could get at six in the morning.
“I went to sleep shortly after you retired to your room,” Craig informed her with a goofy grin that belied his formal words. “I wanted to get up early to see you off to work.”
He stood and that grin widened and turned wolfish; the look in his eyes darkened, and Eliza forgot that she needed to breathe. “And maybe, a little selfishly, see what you’re going to look like when you wake up in my arms in the morning.”
Eliza ignored the way her blood heated — he really had the sexy I’m-going-to-seduce-you look down pat — and rolled her eyes. “Confident bastard, aren’t you?”
Craig’s smile made her stomach clench and her heart pound a little faster. Oh wow, she’d never been on the receiving end of so much seduction. Not from Craig at least.
“Determined,” he corrected.
Eliza shook her head but remained silent. Even her trademark snark seemed to have deserted her in the face of Craig’s seeming determination. Damn. She turned and only then noticed Donna still standing by the stove, her back to them, no doubt trying to ignore them. Eliza’s face heated in embarrassment and faint uncomfortableness, and she awkwardly tugged her robe tighter around her.
Licking her lips, she turned away and poured herself a cup of coffee to cover her embarrassment. “Thanks for the breakfast!” she said and grabbed a couple biscuits. “But I didn’t get up this early to see your face.”
Ohh, the biscuits were still warm. Taking another moment, Eliza slathered the biscuits with butter and jam, and maybe added a spoonful of eggs onto her plate. And a couple pieces of bacon.
Wasn’t breakfast the most important meal of the day? Better not skimp.
“What time are you going to be home?” Craig asked.
“Not sure. But don’t wait up!” She winked at him then grabbed her plate, silverware, and coffee. Was that freshly squeezed juice? Oh, she loved fresh orange juice.
But she was out of hands and was not about to sit at the table with Craig. He was making her nervous. She wasn’t used to being nervous around men, let alone Craig, but there it was. The blatant way he looked at her, uncaring that Donna stood not twenty feet away, scraped along her nerves like…like…like Eliza didn’t know what.
But it made her want to get as far away from him as she could. Huh. She wasn’t used to running. But better to run now than realize she’d made a mistake later.
“Thanks, Donna!” Eliza called as she walked quickly, but not too quickly, out of the kitchen.
She carried her food upstairs and ate at her desk. Now, pleasantly full from breakfast, Eliza tried — and failed — to analyze her conversation with Craig. He’d never been one to limit his comments in front of others.
Eliza rolled her shoulders and walked to the windows overlooking the water. She’d always loved this room, with its view. But now she realized the little touches she hadn’t last night.
Like the honeysuckle candle that filled the room with its light scent. Her favorite. Had Craig known that? She couldn’t remember — why would they have discussed her favorite candle scent? Eliza couldn’t imagine, but she supposed anything was possible. What was pretty improbable was that Craig remembered.
The wallpaper was a pastel blue with oriental flowers, which was another bit of décor she didn’t associate with Craig. But the white linens and the white balcony furniture were all Hamptons. Clearly he hadn’t decorated himself. It didn’t matter. She didn’t care about that; the room was very comfortable, and he’d definitely made her feel at home.
Breakfast included.
She might need to return the favor, though not with food. With a bit more tease.
Grabbing her things, she headed for the shower. She’d spent entirely too much time thinking about Craig. Then again, what was she supposed to do? He’d made his intentions clear to her yesterday. Of course she’d do nothing but think about that.
Then again, she admitted if only to herself, it didn’t lack in fun.
Try as she might, Eliza couldn’t figure out what made him — what? Change his mind? Decide to pursue her? What was the proper term for this? Was there one?
Or was this a Dangerous Liaison-type bet? Oh, she could totally see Craig as Valmont. Eliza paused and compared Craig to Valmont. No, she decided, not Valmont, or not all of Valmont’s characteristics. Just the provocative and seductive parts.
Because if nothing else, this whole declaration of Craig’s was provocative.
With her long hair wrapped in a towel, she exited the shower just in time to hear her phone ring. Racing to the nightstand, she grabbed it. “Hello?”
Ah, the office. Or in this case, the trailer office. And now she had another hour to kill before making her way to the set, thanks to emergency dental surgery for one of the stars.
That was fine. It gave her time to relax, have another cup of coffee, and think about what she was going to do to Craig — about Craig!
Not to him. Definitely not to him. She wasn’t going to do anything to him. Or with him, for that matter. Nope.
Her challenge had been a smokescreen, and she knew that. But it didn’t mean she didn’t want to play. Craig had always been a fun playmate.
She had no intention of going through with this seduction, because she did know him better. If she went through with this challenge, it’d be satisfying his itch, and Eliza didn’t want to give in or accept the gauntlet he’d thrown into her court — or whatever metaphor worked in this situations like.
Eliza much preferred her gauntlet.
Dressing quickly in her normal black business slacks today with a cream-colored blouse, she dug out a light jacket and her messenger bag.
Eliza sighed and finished slathering lotion on her arms. Wallet, phone, headache pills, small bottle of water just in case, chocolate bar with almonds for emergencies, her green information folder. And pens, because people always stole those. She wished she still had her cattle prod to control the actors, but they took it away from her. Something about unethical or immoral.
People took it entirely too seriously. She’d never actually used it on anyone. Just threatened the unruly, diva-like, and disgruntled.
With a sigh, Eliza wandered back to the window seat and curled up there, looking out over her favorite view on the entirety of the coast. Letting her eyes slip closed, she pushed Craig from her mind and let the sunlight warm her.
He probably wasn’t even going to do it. Say something to throw her off balance — that was definitely Craig. But to go through with some crazy seduction plan? A crazy plan to seduce her? No. Eliza refused to believe that.
He probably wasn’t even serious. Probably just said that to throw her off balance after the whole Married Jerk Guy thing.
Just because he looked a little too handsome this morning at breakfast. And he had managed to…well, no. That had been his cook that had gotten up before five to make her breakfast. Still, he’d been there and until this morning, Eliza would’ve said he didn’t leave his bed before ten. If he even bothered to sleep in his own bed.
And he did look deliciously handsome this morning as he sat at the table.
Eliza opened her eyes and looked out over the water. She really did love this view, had always loved water. Technically this was the Long Island Sound, not the ocean, but it didn’t matter. She even tolerated sand in inappropriate places simply because she loved the beach so much. And it would be kind of fun to have a day on the beach with Craig.
He’d actually picked her up several times when they played water volleyball, and she’d let him, with those ridiculously muscled arms of his. They’d enjoyed themselves, they always did. And those days had been less snarky and more…fun. Relaxed, even.
There was a certain charm to that particular Craig. The one who wasn’t playing so many games. How would he react if she turned the tables? If she made it more than simply his seduction of her? What if she went after him as well? Could he handle that?
Drumming her fingers on her thigh, she narrowed her eyes at the view. Apparently Craig was not going to be shoved to the back of her mind. Figures. And would she want to sleep with him if he really was so easily forgotten?
There wasn’t much to forget about Craig Grant. Including his wickedness.
Why not? Why should she stop herself from enjoying his attributes?
Audrey and Sabrina would no doubt point out that this was not her most brilliant idea. And really, did she really want to ruin her friendship, such as it was, with Craig? But why would sex ruin a friendship? It was just sex.
Besides, her two friends were off living their happily ever after. Why couldn’t she just have a happy-for-the-moment orgasm? Eliza nodded and smiled at her reflection. She could definitely live with that.
“Let’s see how far we can take this game,” she told her reflection.
She might become a notch in his bed, but he’d become a notch in hers, too.
Standing from the window seat, she stretched, hit the bathroom once more, and grabbed her things. She needed to get to the set and make sure everything was in motion. Well, smooth motion, not some jumbled, chaotic mess that usually occurred whenever she wasn’t around to organize and keep track of things.
It was a long day, even with the extra hour that morning. With the emergency dental surgery, they were also a week behind, but who was going to complain about an extra week in the Hamptons?
Certainly not her; the weather was gorgeous for late spring, not yet so hot it was hard to breathe. And she intended to enjoy every second of her bonus time. The question was simply how to enjoy it with Craig.
By the time Eliza began to send people home and wish for her own bed, the sun was just setting and a cool breeze blew over the area. But that was spring in the Hamptons.
Stretching her arms over her head, she rolled her shoulders and shoved her things into her messenger bag, now twice as full as it’d been that morning. She was starving and would kill for a chair to actually sit in for longer than five minutes. Grabbing her things, Eliza turned around and nearly tripped over her own feet.
Craig leaned against a wall, his arms folded over his chest and ankles crossed, his eyes focused on her. Eliza immediately straightened and forced her feet to stay the course. No way was she showing Craig how his sudden appearance affected her.
He was all casually muscled playboy, leaning against the wall as if they already had something going on between them. But when he saw her looking, his smile a slow grin that lightened his entire face, Eliza was forced to ignore the way her heart beat a little harder and how it may have flipped, just a little, in her chest.
Retuning his smile, she added a little extra sway to her hips and crossed the distance between them. Eliza did not miss the way his eyes drifted to those hips, and she hid a smile.
“Ready to get out of here?” he asked, surprising her with the line. She’d expected something witty and flirty. “Hungry? I know the perfect place.”
“I bet you know the perfect place for a lot of things,” Eliza returned with a smile.
His smiled changed to a smirk, but he didn’t comment. In her experience with him, that was unusual. But she was exhausted and closed her eyes as he drove. The car pulled to a stop and she looked around. It looked like they’d driven past Montauk, and to a shack. Eliza blinked and looked from the shack to Craig.
Maybe he’d driven her out here to kill her, though that really did go against his whole seduction thing. Threat. Promise.
Definitely a promise.
Eliza cleared her throat. “Where are we?” She turned in her seat to look at him. “Because if you intend to off me, you’re not in my will.”
It really did look like a shack, and certainly not the kind of place Craig frequented. Or knew about. But there were other cars about — did that make this a parking lot?
“This isn’t exactly what I pictured when you said you were taking me to the perfect place,” she admitted.
He offered her a grin, climbed out of his late model blue Mustang, and rounded the car to her door. “Wait until you try their lobster bisque,” he said as he took her hand.
Once inside the shack, she revised her opinion. It wasn’t crumbling or falling down around their ears, but it was close. It had weathered wood walls, well-used tables and chairs, and dim lights she was afraid hid mysterious stains or bugs. But the owners greeted Craig like an old friend, and when he smiled and introduced her, she felt a warm burst of affection she couldn’t quite explain.
They were shown to a table outside, along the water, with hurricane lamps lighting the table and a bottle of wine.
“I’m sure many of your other women” — she really wanted to say victims, but held back the snarky comment — “have loved this place. It’s quaint and charming and so unlike you.”
He shot her another enigmatic smile. “We may have been friends for a long time, Eliza, but you don’t know everything about me.”
She raised an eyebrow and nodded. True enough, but she still didn’t buy this whole seduction. “Yes, Craig, you have surprising depth and moments of pure selflessness.”
Craig frowned at her sarcasm and she wondered, for possibly the first time ever, if she’d crossed a line with him. Eliza sipped her wine, which was incredibly good, and opened her menu to distract her from the unsettling thought that maybe she had hurt Craig.
“And you,” he shot back, “like to deflect. You’ve done it since I’ve known you.”
Eliza narrowed her eyes at him, but before she could make a witty reply, he continued.
“Why don’t you just enjoy the moment,” he said in a clear voice that rang with honesty and friendship. She’d heard a great many tones from Craig, but this was the first where she knew every word was the truth. “You don’t have to protect yourself so valiantly. Take off a little of that armor, okay, Eliza?”
“I thought this was what you liked, our sparring matches,” she said, but softened the edge of her sarcasm. “When did you become — ”
“I don’t want a sparring match,” he interrupted. He hadn’t looked at his menu, only at her. It did things to her insides she wasn’t quite ready to accept. Or acknowledge. Or admit affected her in any way, shape, or form. “I want to enjoy dinner with my friend. I want to see if we can make our relationship more than just friends.”
Surprised at his words, she set her menu aside and leaned across the small, round table. Eliza studied him for several moments, wondering if this was an angle. But she did know Craig and angles weren’t his thing, not with her at least; he was generally straightforward with her. But he did like his games.
Maybe now was her turn.
“You’re the one who started with this whole game of seduction,” she told him, her hand waving between the two of them. “I thought we were still playing the game.”
“Everything about love is a game, isn’t it?” Craig asked.
Love? When had that come into play?
“A puzzle,” Craig continued and she scrambled to keep up, “where you try to figure out where the two ends match.”
Oh, now she understood. He did still play the game but had taken another turn — not the full frontal seduction. The friendship, the let’s-get-to-really-know-one-another. Gotcha. Eliza nodded and leaned back with a smile.
“Then do you have ground rules for this game of yours?” she asked, playing with her wine glass. “Or does anything go?”
His look was pensive and dark, and she wondered what he was thinking. “I could never put rules on you, Eliza. You’d break them anyway.”
She laughed, surprised and oddly pleased he knew her that well. But his look, so penetrating, so focused, rocked her, and she scrambled to find her stability.
What was Craig up to? She’d thought she’d figured that out this morning. But now, sitting across from him at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant, she didn’t know. Wasn’t sure. And didn’t know how to respond.