by Julie Kenner
“I—” She stopped, turning to glance at the entrance, her brow knitted in confusion. “Did you come in through the front door?”
“That’s the traditional form of entrance, yes.”
The flush on her cheeks deepened, and she shook her head, as if annoyed with herself. Her blond curls bounced, and Bryce found himself smiling.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “Stupid question. It’s just that the store doesn’t actually open until ten. I stepped out earlier for a bagel. I must not have latched it behind me.”
He turned and glanced again toward the door, for the first time noticing the Open/Closed sign that hung on a side window. Considering he could see Open, the sign facing the street must say Closed. “My mistake,” he said. “I just barged in. I didn’t even see your sign. You’re right. You’re not open yet.”
She laughed, the delightful sound chipping away at the last vestiges of his bad mood. He wondered if he could think of something else to say that would amuse her, and then immediately wondered what the hell had gotten into him. Lack of sleep, most likely.
“I was beginning to think I’d lost track of time,” she said. “I was…well, I was working in the break room.” She glanced at her watch. “Wow. Already after nine o’clock. I didn’t realize it was so late.”
“That’s early for most people.”
She shrugged. “I have a lot to get done,” she said, almost to herself.
Bryce could take a hint, though the thought of leaving didn’t sit well. “I didn’t mean to interrupt. I’ll come back when you’re open.”
“Oh, no,” she said, her voice breathy. “It’s okay.” She took a step toward him, her hand outstretched. She didn’t touch him, but her proximity alone was enough to set the air between them humming. “You don’t have to go.” Her mouth drew into a frustrated line, and she pulled her hand back with a little shake of her head. “What I mean is, I’ve always got time for a customer.” She stood up straighter and smoothed her skirt. “How can I help you, Mr….?”
“Worthington,” he said. “Bryce Worthington.”
She didn’t react at all to his name, and Bryce said a silent thank-you. He wouldn’t have been surprised to discover that Joan recognized either his face or his name. But she didn’t and Bryce was happy to remain quietly anonymous. “And you are?”
“Joan Benetti.”
“Benetti?”
She frowned. “Yeah. Why?”
“I was just expecting you to say your name was Archer.” He nodded toward the sign. “This seems like a family-owned shop.”
“Oh! Right, yes. Actually, it is a family name. My, uh, partner’s father founded the store.” Her brow furrowed. “Did you just come in to browse?”
He cleared his throat, wishing he were a customer. He had a feeling customer service would interest Joan Benetti a hell of a lot more than real estate sales. “Actually,” he confessed, “I’m not here to buy a book.”
“Oh, really?” Her eyebrows lifted above the purple frames of her glasses, and a hint of a smile touched her lips. “Well, you don’t look like you’re selling anything…”
Bryce laughed. “No, I have a few questions about the building. Maybe I could ask them over breakfast?” He wasn’t sure what prompted him to ask. All he knew was that the idea of spending more time with this woman appealed. “The coffee shop at the corner’s open right now. And you have almost an hour before the store officially opens.”
Her eyes danced behind her glasses, and she dragged her teeth over her lower lip, clearly hesitating. He leaned against one of the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. “Well?” he pressed, hoping she’d say yes. The woman intrigued him and amused him. “What do you say? A breakfast date? If you’re really in a crunch, you need to eat well. Vitamins, minerals.” He let his gaze roam over the view she offered, taking in the bright red pumps—designer knockoffs, he was sure—and the shapely, stocking-clad legs. And considering how short she wore her skirt, there wasn’t a lot left to the imagination. “Definitely a healthy breakfast,” he said, forcing his eyes away before his gaze climbed any higher. “You need to be good to your body.”
“Believe me,” she said with a sultry grin. “I only put the best in this body.”
“Exactly,” Bryce said. He met her eyes, felt the tug of attraction zing all the way down to his groin. “You should come with me.”
She glanced at his toes, then worked her gaze all the way up his body, her slow inspection almost as intimate as a caress. Clearly, she was sizing him up, and for the first time in years, Bryce actually wondered if he was up to her standards.
“No,” she said quickly. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have…I mean…” Another shake. “I’m sorry.”
She might as well have kicked him in the gut. True, Bryce wasn’t used to being turned down by women, but the hole left by her rejection was more than just a bruise to his ego. “Are you sure?” he asked. “Just breakfast. Innocent.”
Once again, she tilted her head to the side. “No. I don’t think so,” she said, and Bryce wasn’t sure if she was declining the date, or commenting that breakfast with him would be anything but innocent.
If she meant the latter, he had to applaud the woman’s intuition. Because right then, Bryce’s thoughts were a long way from innocent.
A long, long way.
STUPID, STUPID, STUPID!
Joan couldn’t believe she’d almost blown her resolution so quickly and so thoroughly. She’d flirted with the gorgeous customer—sorry, noncustomer—as if there was no tomorrow. And she couldn’t even console herself by saying that he had Mr. Right potential because she didn’t know the first thing about him—other than that he made her palms damp and her stomach flutter more than any man she’d met before. But for all she knew, that reaction stemmed from the fact that, when he’d come in, she’d been up to her ears in erotic pictures and books.
Of course, even without that diversion, this was a man who made an impact. Bryce Worthington was positively yummy. Midnight-black hair and incredible violet eyes that seemed to see right through her. And he didn’t just wear that suit. Instead, he seemed to have been born to it, filling it out in a way that made her mouth water. She’d always been a sucker for a man with a nice ass, and Bryce’s rear end was pretty near perfect.
Joan’s only saving grace was that she’d caught herself and had shut down her potential flirting frenzy before she’d really gotten going. Now she was all business, utterly professional. Just the way she intended to stay from now into the foreseeable future. Dull, maybe. But infinitely more practical.
She wiped her damp palms on her skirt. “How can I help you, Mr. Worthington?”
“Well, if breakfast is out of the question, I suppose I’ll have to jump straight to the point. I came in because I saw the For Sale sign. Can you tell me about the apartment?”
“Not really, I’m afraid. The building belongs to my partner. She’s selling the two apartments and keeping the store.” Mentally, she rolled her eyes. Partner! She wished. But that was neither here nor there where Bryce was concerned. It hardly mattered to this man if she was a partner or a clerk. The job was mostly attitude, anyway. And Joan had the attitude of an owner—and had been working her tail off like an owner, too. Now if she could just focus on books like The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People instead of tomes like Casanova’s The History of My Life, maybe she’d actually manage to make the lie a reality.
Bryce’s gaze was examining the store’s interior, his inspection of the building as intense as his earlier visual caress of her body—a caress she still remembered with a little tingle.
“Do you think the owner would entertain an offer for the entire brownstone?”
She shook her head. “Sorry.”
He nodded, but she could tell he was disappointed. “I don’t suppose you’d mind showing me around the flats anyway?”
She licked her lips, the idea of being alone with him in the apartment a little more than she could bear. Still, he did seem genu
inely interested, and Ronnie would never forgive her if Joan shunned a potential buyer. “I need to finish up a project before the store opens. But you’re welcome to go on up by yourself. The top apartment’s unlocked and empty. I’m living in the fourth-floor flat, but feel free to wander through it.” She handed him her key.
“You’re sure?”
She shrugged. “Absolutely. No problem.”
He caught her in that intense gaze once more, and she wondered if that was how deer felt, frozen in time but still caught up in something fast and furious. Because this was fast, and the beat of her heart was furious. She wanted him to go. To leave the room. He’d already almost made her break her resolution once. She didn’t intend to let him succeed the next time.
After a second, he nodded, and she pointed him toward the interior stairs that led up to the flats. As soon as he disappeared from sight, she exhaled, releasing a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. His departure seemed to lift a weight, but, at the same time, it left her feeling oddly hollow.
No flirting, she reminded herself as she headed back to the break room. Focus.
And she did. She focused on her work for at least five solid minutes. Productive minutes, too.
But then she noticed the print again. The man watching the woman. The woman, looking so very enraptured. The man, whose face resembled Bryce’s just a little.
Her body warmed, and Joan groaned, then shifted slightly on the chair to try to ease the pressure building between her thighs. She had one hell of a vivid imagination, but there were times when it seemed more like a curse, because right now she could imagine Bryce creeping down the stairs and moving quietly to the break room door.
He’d stand there, barely breathing, just watching. And as he watched, Joan would arch her back in her chair, her breasts thrusting forward as she grazed her fingertips lightly over her throat. The touch was a tease. Innocent, really, but promising so much more. Promising, that is, if he was good.
He was, of course. Very good. He watched. Just watched. And the watching turned her on. Made her wet. Made her sex throb in a way that demanded attention, demanded release.
Slowly, so slowly, she let her fingers wander down her body, caressing her breasts, following the smooth planes of her stomach down to her waist. The shirt was tucked in, and so she tugged it free, all the while wondering what he was thinking. Did he want to touch her? Or did he simply want the satisfaction of seeing her lose herself to pleasure?
With a little moan of anticipation, she slipped her fingers under the waistband of her skirt, then found the thin elastic band of her panties. She raised her hips, her body craving the touch. And as she licked her lips, her fingers pressed onward, over the coarse curls, finally finding her hot, wet core and—
Enough already! Her eyes flew open. He was in the building. Right above her. He could come back at any time. So what the devil was she doing?
Losing it. That’s what she was doing. She was positively losing it.
Off to her left, she heard the scuffle of shoes, and then the distinct sound of a man clearing his throat.
Shit. In a microsecond, she was sitting upright, fear and embarrassment pounding in her chest. She turned to face the doorway. Sure enough, Bryce stood there, his eyes dark, an unreadable expression on his face.
Joan drew a shaky breath, wondering what she’d done. What he’d seen.
She glanced down, then exhaled in relief when she saw that her silk T was still tucked in. Thank goodness. It had all been in her head.
Please, oh please, let it have all been in her head!
“That was fast,” she said, hoping her voice sounded normal. “What did you think?”
His mouth curled into an enigmatic smile. “It looked good.”
Joan felt her cheeks warm, but she couldn’t ask. Did he really mean the apartments? Or had he been watching her? The possibility was positively mortifying.
“This building’s got great potential,” he continued, and she relaxed a little. “I’m sorry the whole thing’s not on the market.”
“So you’re not interested in just the apartments?”
“Probably not,” Bryce admitted. “But I’ll keep them in mind. Like I said, I liked what I saw.”
He moved toward her then, and Joan swallowed, her entire body tightening as his proximity increased. After a second she saw his brow furrow and then his eyes widen with interest. He nodded toward the table. “Should I even ask?”
Joan glanced down. In her embarrassment, she’d forgotten about the erotica that littered the tabletop in addition to the one pen-and-ink print that she’d been holding. Now, she tried to imagine the scene through his eyes. The store had recently acquired a first edition of Casanova’s Memoirs, which was a magnificent feat in and of itself. But on top of that, Ronnie had managed to locate eight of the original charcoal drawings used to illustrate an early edition of the famous book. Provocative images of men and women in the throes of passion. Copies of the drawings were scattered over the tabletop, along with lighter fare—naughty French postcards and colorful turn-of-the-century engravings showing women reclining in their wide skirts, with just a hint of what was going on underneath.
“A catalog,” she said. “Our summer catalog always features erotica.”
“Really?”
He was intrigued. She could see it in his eyes, and she couldn’t help but shift into her sales mode. He was a customer now, some guy who’d come in to buy a first-edition Tony Hillerman and ended up buying Henry Miller and Fanny Hill, as well.
After a second, his gaze dipped to the table again, and he picked up one of the Casanova sketches, this one showing two women, both focusing every bit of their erotic attention on the man who lay between them on the bed.
“Interesting,” he said, a wry grin playing at his lips.
Joan rolled her eyes. “Men. Funny how that card always seems to draw a man’s attention.”
“I’m not looking for two women,” he said, meeting her eyes. “But I wouldn’t mind spending some time with one good one.”
It was a blatant come-on, and she pointedly ignored it, determined to stay all business. “Do you know much about erotica?” she asked.
“Well, I suppose that depends.” The corner of his mouth twitched. “I have what I like to call hands-on knowledge of the subject. But formal book learning? Afraid not.” His eyes met hers. “Maybe I’m due for an education,” he said, his words flowing over her like warm honey.
She cleared her throat to keep the suggestive response that tripped to her tongue at bay. The plan, remember? No flirting. “I’m sorry the apartments aren’t what you’re looking for.”
Disappointment flashed across his face. “Yeah,” he said. “Too bad.” After a moment, his expression shifted and he smiled, the simple gesture lighting his face. “Although I can’t say it matters much. I might have stepped in to ask about the property, but once I was inside I found something much more interesting.”
Joan’s gaze immediately dipped to the tabletop. “It is fascinating, isn’t it?”
He laughed, and she snapped her head back up, looking him in the eyes. “Not the drawings,” he said, waving the sketch he still held. “You. You’re my perk for the morning.”
Her cheeks warmed. “A perk? I don’t think I’ve ever been anyone’s perk before.”
“No? I’m surprised.” He laid the sketch back on the table, then tapped it in the center with his index finger. “I’m serious, though,” he said. “I bet there are a lot of things you could teach me.” A sexy grin crossed his face. “For that matter, there are probably a few things I could teach you.”
Joan didn’t doubt that for a minute. This man made her tingle, and only a few weeks before she would have been a very eager student. Now, though, that kind of education wasn’t on her agenda. Before she had the chance to tell him, though, the electronic tones of his cell phone trilled through the air. Bryce grimaced and pulled a tiny phone from his pocket. He checked the display, mouth
ed an apology, then answered the call. “Worthington.”
Joan watched with interest. The man she’d been flirting with was confident, friendly and charming. The man on the phone was all those things and more. He had a presence about him, as if some invisible aura of command had dropped from the sky and surrounded him as soon as he’d answered the phone. Joan had no idea what he did for a living, but it involved a lot of money. Of that, she was certain.
“Dammit, Leo, I thought you had things under control,” Bryce said. A pause, then, “No, I’m not thrilled. But if you really think this is the best route…” Another pause. “Well, I pay you to make these decisions, so just tell me what your recommendation is and stop beating around the bush…. Fine. I’m on my way.”
He flipped the phone shut, shaking his head.
“Bad news?”
“I think so,” Bryce said. “Because it means I have to go.”
“Oh.” She didn’t know what else to say.
“Maybe I could buy you dinner?”
“Dinner?” she repeated stupidly.
He grinned. “You’ve heard of dinner, I assume? It’s a ritual whereby people eat for nourishment, often finding entertainment in the company of others.”
She made a face. “Yes, thank you. I’ve heard of dinner.”
“Tonight?”
Her resolution flashed neon orange inside her head. She should say no, she knew that. But there wasn’t anything resolution-breaking about dinner. Dinner could lead to Mr. Right.
Right?
Inwardly, she groaned. That was a justification if she’d ever heard one. And she fisted her hands against her own weakness, trying to bolster her resolve. This man was too sexy by half, and if she went with him to dinner, had a little wine, her resolutions would go up in a puff of white smoke. She’d be willing to bet on it.
“I’m sorry,” she began, “but I’ve—”
“It’s just that I find this so intriguing,” he continued, nodding at the table. “And I’m a collector.”
