IF ONLY KATIE COULD PULL out her picture phone and snap Jess’s expression, she’d have a prizewinner. She’d gotten the drop on him…again. If he’d imagined that taking her to lunch in his truck to a place he’d chosen would put him back in charge, then he’d just found out how wrong he was.
“Changed your mind about going to lunch?” she asked.
He blinked. “Uh—”
“Because that’s okay if you have. Not every man is game for this kind of adventure.”
A look of resolution replaced the dazed expression. “We’ll go to lunch.” He sounded calm, but he jabbed at the ignition three times before he got the key in. Then he spun the tires on the way out of the parking lot.
She’d been right that he would go along with her move. No doubt he was keeping his eye on the evening ahead, and bailing on the lunch challenge would obviously mean no nooky later on. She still hadn’t decided how to handle their interaction tonight either.
Cheryl had advised structuring more detours so Jess wouldn’t get everything he wanted yet. That probably made sense. Unfortunately that meant that Katie wouldn’t get everything she wanted either.
Her dreams last night had centered on penetration of the Jess variety. She was ready to welcome that fine piece of equipment he carried around and test it for compatibility with her system. She had an inkling the fit would be outstanding.
But in the back of her mind lurked the fear that once she allowed that to take place, she’d lose all the ground she’d gained. She didn’t trust herself to experience full-out sex with Jess and not become totally infatuated with him. Then he’d be holding all the cards…again.
Riding in his macho construction truck with the manly leather seats wasn’t helping. He looked rugged and commanding as he negotiated the lunch-hour traffic. Good thing she’d taken off her panties to freak him out or he’d be totally in charge right now.
“Your protesters seem to have picked up speed,” he said.
“I need to warn you, Jess, that we might win this one. My station manager is behind me, and as you can see, we have more support than before.”
“The building’s in progress. Livingston Development isn’t going to back out now. They’d lose too much money.”
Not if it turns into a PR nightmare and they stand to lose even more by finishing it. “All right. But humor me here. Let’s say the building is no longer a viable investment and the developers call a halt to construction. What would happen to your company?”
“They have a contract with us. They’d have to find a way to honor that. If we’ve acted in good faith, then they’d have to compensate us.”
“So it wouldn’t really hurt you all that much.”
He glanced at her. “I don’t know how you expect me to carry on a discussion when I know you’re sitting there bare-assed under your skirt.”
“So it’s getting to you?” She thought she’d detected some movement under the fly of his jeans.
“What do you think?”
“I’d be worried about you if you weren’t thinking about it.”
He cleared his throat. “I’m thinking that you had the panty move in mind from the time I invited you to lunch.”
“Maybe.”
“You’re killing me, Katie.”
“Am I really?” She doubted it.
“Really.”
“Come on, be honest. This is more sexual fun than you’ve ever had in your whole life.”
The corner of his lips twitched, as if he might be trying not to grin.
“It is. And don’t try to deny it.”
His laugh gave him away. “All right,” he said. “I’ll admit that I’ve never experienced anything quite like the past few days. Sex has never been so complicated.”
“Or so exciting,” Katie added. “Anyway, I’m glad your company wouldn’t suffer if Livingston stops construction. That eases my mind.”
“I didn’t say we wouldn’t suffer. I happen to take pride in what I do. Leaving a project unfinished, especially such a visible one, wouldn’t be a good feeling. The people I hire think the same way. We’re invested in putting up something we’re happy with.”
Katie controlled the urge to comment. Beauty was in the eye of the beholder. “I can understand that, but your building is threatening the adobe house KRZE calls home. Abandoning that house to the wrecking ball wouldn’t be a good feeling for me or the people who work there.”
Jess pulled the truck into the parking lot of a small restaurant with no windows. “KRZE could find another location even more historic, one that wouldn’t be right in the path of progress.”
“I don’t define your high-rise as progress.”
He turned off the motor and glanced at her. “So I noticed.” He rested his arms on the steering wheel and stared out the windshield. “I should be furious with you, considering the problems you’re giving me with that building.”
“I should be furious with you, considering that you’re the one putting up that monster next door.”
He turned to her. “The thing is, I’m not furious with you, Katie. But I intend to erect that building, no matter what you throw at me.”
“I’m not furious with you either, Jess. But I’ll do whatever I can to keep you from erecting that building.”
“Including taking off your panties before we go to lunch?”
That stopped her cold. She would never use sex as leverage against Jess’s project. In all her life she’d never been a dirty player. She believed in a fair fight. “Maybe we need to establish some ground rules.”
“If this is about you being in charge of anything sexual between us, I get that.”
“No, this is about us being on opposite sides of the fence but still attracted to each other.”
Amusement flickered in his eyes. “Is there a knothole in this fence?”
That made her laugh. “There could be.”
“Good, because I’m battling some powerful urges.”
She held his gaze. “So am I.”
Amusement turned to hunger. “We could forget lunch. I can have us in a hotel room in fifteen minutes.”
“No.” A hotel room would make the decision for her as to whether they’d have sex. Faced with a bed, cool sheets and drapes drawn against the world, she’d give it up in no time. “We should have lunch, like you said. And we’ll set some ground rules. Let’s go eat.”
He studied her for a moment longer. “Okay.”
GROUND RULES. JESS THOUGHT about that as he escorted Katie into the dim interior of Casey’s Club. He wasn’t surprised that Katie wanted ground rules. He’d admired her ethics ever since she’d had a chance to win the state debate tournament by cheating and had taken the loss instead.
Maybe that’s why he’d never believed she was jacking him around sexually in order to mess with this construction project. She must have a similar opinion of him, considering that she trusted him enough to have this sexual involvement in the midst of the building battle.
And it was his building, damn it. Maybe he hadn’t designed it and maybe his personal money wasn’t tied up in the construction process, but once he’d taken over from the architect the structure had become his.
When it was finished—and it would be—red-and-gold sunsets would set the western windows on fire. At night the lighted windows would glitter like diamonds in a debutante’s bracelet and the city’s silhouette would be forever changed by something he’d built.
Not many people knew how much he loved his work. He let them think it was a job, a way to earn a buck. But it was much more than that. If he thought Katie would understand, he might tell her. But he wasn’t sure she could get beyond her objection to high-rises, or worse yet, she might start believing that construction really was a sexual thing to him.
Maybe it was. The process was creative and satisfying, and those were the same thrills he expected from good sex. Maybe building high-rises was an expression of sexuality, after all. He’d never agree that it was a substitute, but it might be another outlet.
“Looks like we can sit pretty much where we want.” Katie surveyed the restaurant’s dim interior. One couple occupied a booth near the door and two men were finishing up at a table by the kitchen. Otherwise the place was empty.
“There’s more traffic on weekends, but I like it better on weekdays because it isn’t crowded.”
Katie glanced back at him. “Booth or table?”
“Booth.” He wasn’t sure what to expect from her, and the high-backed wooden booths gave them some degree of privacy. Then again, if they took a table, she wouldn’t be as likely to try something outrageous.
“A booth it is.” She headed toward one in the far corner.
That’s when he admitted to himself that he wanted her to try something outrageous. He might be on a runaway train bound for disaster, but he was loving the ride.
Katie sat down and plucked a menu from a holder mounted on the wall. “Will somebody come?”
The line was too tempting to pass up. “Interesting question. What do you think?”
Her gaze snapped to his. Then a smile spread across those kissable lips. “Jess Harkins, are you turning into a bad boy?”
“In self-defense.”
She laughed. “This could be fun. Maybe we should set those ground rules before something…comes up.”
“All right. You’re the one with the ground-rule concept. Me, I’m just here to…eat.” If she could play these word games, so could he.
She fanned her face with her menu. “I see.”
“I recommend the turkey club.”
“Is that what you’re having?”
“For starters.” He loved watching the heat build in her eyes. Maybe he could trade loaded comments with her, after all. She’d set the stage for it, and he could finally see the advantages to her approach.
A Hispanic waitress whose name tag read Lupita approached the booth. She was new, which was a relief to Jess. No telling what might happen here today, and being anonymous would serve him well. But he’d forgotten to factor in Katie’s celebrity status.
“You’re Crazy Katie, aren’t you?” the waitress asked.
Katie smiled. “Yes.”
“I listen to your program all the time!” She glanced at Jess, turned slightly away from him and lowered her voice. “You know the tip you gave everybody on Friday night?”
“Sure.”
Lupita made a circle with her thumb and forefinger. “Awesome. My boyfriend and I were at his place listening to your show, so I got to test it out, like, right away.”
Jess tried to remember what the Kama Sutra tip had been for Friday night, but he’d been too distracted to file it away for future reference. He should have been filing all those tips away now that he planned to take Katie, the woman who gave out those tips, to bed.
“Glad it worked out for you,” Katie said.
“And are they really going to tear down that house where KRZE is located?” the waitress asked.
Jess was beginning to think the regular server would have been better. She hadn’t been nearly this chatty.
“Not if I can help it,” Katie said.
“My mother used to clean house for the lady who lived there,” the waitress said. “I went with her sometimes and I got to play with her granddaughter. I—”
“Lupita? You’re that Lupita?”
“Omigosh! You’re Katie? The one with the Star Wars action figures we used to play with in the backyard?”
“Yes!” Katie leaped to her feet and the two women hugged. “I can’t believe it,” Katie said. “What a small world.”
“Isn’t it?” Lupita beamed at her. “I always wondered what happened to you, but little kids don’t think about last names, and so it never crossed my mind that Crazy Katie could be you.”
“It’s me.” Katie turned to Jess. “This is Jess, a friend of mine.”
“Nice to meet you, Lupita.” Jess noticed that Katie hadn’t supplied his last name. He wasn’t sure whether she was protecting herself or him, but he was grateful either way.
He listened as Lupita and Katie reminisced about building Star Wars sets in the garden behind the adobe house. Katie’s grandmother’s house. So that was the connection. Things were starting to make more sense to him now.
Somewhere in the exchange of information Lupita managed to get their orders for the turkey clubs and two iced teas.
“Give my best to your mother when you see her,” Katie said when Lupita was about to leave for the kitchen. “She made the best tamales.”
“Still does,” Lupita said. “Say hi to your grandmother, too. What a kind lady.”
“She died fifteen years ago,” Katie said. “That’s why my grandfather sold the house—he couldn’t bear to live there without her.”
“I’m so sorry.” Lupita paused. “But now you work there. That’s cool.”
“Yeah, especially if I can continue working there.” Katie kept her attention on Lupita as she said that. No significant glances in Jess’s direction to lay a guilt trip on him.
Well, that was good, because it wasn’t his fault, damn it. He hadn’t known he was involved in a project that would destroy her dead grandmother’s house. Shit. He should have figured there was something more to it than historical preservation. Katie’s stand on the construction had left no room for compromise, and now he understood why.
Of course, not all grandkids felt that passionately about their grandparents’ house. There could be more to the story. Panties or no panties, Katie was going to level with him.
Finally Lupita returned to the kitchen.
“So that’s it,” Jess said. “KRZE is in your grandmother’s old house.”
“Yes.”
“It’s a sentimental attachment then.”
Her gaze softened. “That house was filled with so much love you could taste it. My parents get along okay, but my grandfather and grandmother had a great love affair, like the kind you read about in books. I used to go there and soak up the good vibrations.”
“All those months we dated and I don’t remember you ever mentioning this.”
She leaned both arms on the table. “Back then I didn’t realize how special their relationship had been. I had to grow up and see more of life before I understood that. I don’t think anyone else in my family was as affected by the beauty of it as I was. I also realize that saving the house shouldn’t be so significant, but…it is.”
“You might have told me.”
“I haven’t told anyone, especially after my parents made it clear they didn’t agree that the house should be saved.” She traced some old water marks on the scarred wooden tabletop. Then she glanced up. “A personal campaign to save my grandmother’s house because she’s dead and can’t do it herself—that sounds kind of silly, doesn’t it?”
“No to me.” An emotion more powerful than lust warmed him. If he’d thought he was in this only for the sex, he’d been wrong. “But you can’t stop the construction of that building and the parking garage next to it, Katie. The land is too valuable to have a single house sitting on it. That’s reality.”
“Then what about renovating some of the old buildings downtown instead? You’d have a similar amount of office space without changing our skyline.”
“It’s less complicated to build something new than bring one of those old relics up to code. What I’m putting up will have all the right wiring, all the right plumbing and all the necessary insulation.” He paused. “Besides, the view from the top floor will be breathtaking. Have you thought about that at all?”
“If I want a view, I can drive to the top of ‘A’ Mountain.”
Just a mention of “A” Mountain spiked his hormone level. They’d had some great make-out sessions up there. The buff-colored peak near the edge of town always reminded him of those nights.
He longed for a solution that would give them both what they wanted, but he couldn’t imagine what that could be. And so he decided to deal with what they could handle in the here and now. “We’re definitely on different sides of the fence.”
“Looks that way.”
“But I still want you.”
She blew out a breath. “Isn’t that something? We should be bitter enemies.”
“Never.”
“No.” The blue of her eyes deepened. “So what now?”
“You mentioned some ground rules.”
“I did, didn’t I? Well, how about—” She paused as Lupita arrived with their iced teas.
“Sandwiches will be up any minute,” Lupita said.
“Great,” Katie said. “Thanks.”
After Lupita walked away, Katie leaned forward. “In case you were wondering, anything that might have happened in this restaurant…won’t.”
“I figured as much.”
“The plan was no longer feasible when I was recognized, but running into someone from my childhood was the clincher.”
“Hey, I didn’t come here to seduce you.”
“Maybe not.” She smiled. “But I came here to seduce you.”
“Cut that out.” Childhood friend present or not, he couldn’t take that kind of comment without getting ideas. “Talk about something else. Like ground rules, for instance.”
She took a sip of her tea and cleared her throat. “I guess there’s only one. We should agree that there’s no connection between our personal relationship and the jobs we’re committed to doing. Specifically we aren’t planning to use sex to influence the outcome of this disagreement between us.”
He wanted to reach for her hand. Instead he picked up the cold glass of iced tea and looked at her over the rim. “I never thought you would.”
“I never thought you would either.”
“Anything else?” He wondered if she intended to set any sexual boundaries.
“That’s basically all I wanted to say. Maybe it wasn’t necessary, after all. We’re both too ethical to use sex to get what we want.”
“So when we’re together, it’s all about sex.”
She smiled. “I guess that’s one way of putting it.”
As he held her gaze across the table, the sexual energy surged between them. He wasn’t going to be able to calmly eat lunch and then take her back to the station while he went on to work. Something more had to happen before they parted ways or he’d go crazy this afternoon.
“What do you have to do after this?” he asked.
Her breathing changed slightly, as if she had a hunch what he was leading up to. “I…uh…need a little more prep time for my show. About an hour or so. A couple of errands. That’s it. Why?”
“I have an idea.” He pulled his cell phone from the clip on his belt. “If you will excuse me a minute, I need to check in with my foreman.”
“Sure.” She picked up her iced tea, although her hand didn’t look completely steady doing it.
He watched her cheeks grow pink as he told Gabe he’d be taking a longer lunch than planned. Then he put away the phone.
She took a gulp of her tea and set it on the table. “So what’s your idea?”
“We get our food to go and drive up to ‘A’ Mountain for old time’s sake.”
Her eyes widened. “But it’s broad daylight!”
“That’s right.” He felt his groin tighten. “And not a soul will be up there. We’ll have the place to ourselves.”
“I thought…” She paused to take a deep breath. “I thought you had a prejudice about vehicular sex.”
He felt like a skydiver about to take a jump. “I used to. But thanks to you, I’ve expanded my horizons.”