She walked back into the living room and found him crouched next to Bobo, who had rolled to his back to have his tummy scratched. Seeing them together like that reminded her that without Jonah’s instinctive heroism, she might not have Bobo anymore. “Thank you,” she said.
He glanced up. “For what?”
“Saving him. With all the confusion surrounding the bachelor auction and…our weekend together, I’m not sure I’ve really told you how much that means to me. I’m crazy about that dog, and if anything had happened to him, I hate to think the state I’d be in.”
Jonah held her gaze. “I’m glad I happened to be there.”
“Are you really? You’ve been hounded unmercifully ever since. I wondered if you ever regretted going in after him.”
“No.” He stood. “If any of my complaints made you think I’d trade the life of your dog for getting my privacy back, I apologize. It was good for me to come down here tonight, if only to remind myself that your dog is alive and well. That’s more important than dodging a few reporters.”
“And your rescue gave my mother a topic for a book that seems to have cured her depression and maybe given her a career. The fact is that I have a lot to be grateful to you for.”
He frowned. “Please tell me that’s not why you went to bed with me.”
She looked at him standing there in all his broad-shouldered glory, his shirt and jeans no barrier to her memory of what he’d looked like in his unclothed, aroused state. She almost laughed at his concern.
“No.” She smiled at him. “And that’s another thing I have to be grateful for.”
14
JONAH ALMOST LOST the control he’d worked so hard to keep when Natalie smiled and told him she was grateful for the way he’d loved her. Somehow he stopped himself from crossing the room and hauling her into his arms. This little interview he was having with her really tested him. If he said he trusted her not to tell her mother everything, they’d be in her bedroom inside of five seconds. He could see it in her eyes.
In fact, he did trust her not to tell her mother everything. But he didn’t trust her not to break his heart. So he’d decided on a course of action that would kill two birds with one stone. He’d set up some dates with Natalie and her mother. That would keep Alice from getting suspicious about their supposed love affair, and he would find out if he and Natalie had anything going for them besides sex.
Or gratitude. He didn’t want a woman simply because she was grateful.
“Here’s an extra key to my apartment.” She walked over and held it out. “Maybe you’d like to move a few of your things over.”
He stared at her. Talk about offering him a bite of the apple. “I thought we’d just agreed we weren’t strong enough for that kind of game.”
“I didn’t mean that you’d actually stay here. But if a few of your things just happen to be around—some clothes, a toothbrush, a razor, then my mother will notice. If you can spare a bottle of your aftershave, I could spray it in the air every once in a while.”
“Very creative.” He took the key, the metal still warm from where she’d clutched it in her palm. Despite the way she’d described the arrangement, he couldn’t help the leap of excitement in his veins just knowing he had access to her apartment anytime he wanted it. She was far more available to him than she’d been a minute ago.
She looked uneasy as he took out his keys and slid hers onto the ring. Maybe she regretted giving it to him, but it was done, and he pocketed the keys with a sense of potential.
“And for your information,” she added, “I don’t like pulling the wool over my mother’s eyes any more than you do, but I don’t see much choice.”
“Neither do I.”
“I thought if you had a key you could bring stuff over whenever you want. Some of your favorite beer in the refrigerator would be a nice touch.”
“How about peanuts?” he asked quietly, just to get a reaction out of her. He would never be able to eat the damn things again without remembering that moment when he’d kissed her so thoroughly that she’d let the peanuts she’d been holding dribble onto the floor.
To his immense satisfaction, her cheeks bloomed pink. “Peanuts aren’t necessary,” she said.
He gazed at her a moment longer. If only he could be sure that her reaction to him was about more than sex. “So we have a game plan. Now we need to set up a date with you, me and your mother. When was the last time you spent Sunday afternoon at the art museum?”
“You mean the Met?”
“Okay, maybe that’s too boring. I just realized it’s so close that you probably go there all the time. I don’t, and I thought—”
“No, no, I’d love to. I haven’t been there in years. It would be fun.”
“You’d really like to go?” He shouldn’t put too much stock in her enthusiasm, he thought. Maybe she was only being nice. After all, what did they know about each other’s interests?
“I would. And I’m sure my mother would. But aren’t you worried about people recognizing us and causing a problem?”
“It’s happening less and less every day. If something else newsworthy breaks soon, people will probably forget all about us.”
“That would be a relief.”
“It would be over by now if the bachelor auction hadn’t reminded everybody who I was. Anyway, I think we can chance an afternoon at the Met. If your mom wants to go, I’ll be here around one. Maybe we could grab some lunch at the—”
“Jonah, I don’t want you spending a lot of money on this. We can eat before we go.”
His jaw clenched. There she was, throwing the money issue in his face. Maybe she really did want to keep it as a barrier between them by continuing to remind him that he wasn’t as financially well off as she was, even if it wasn’t true. “I can afford to buy us lunch,” he said. “And pay for the admission.” He glanced at her. “Unless you want to set up an expense account I can draw from?”
“Now you’re angry. I didn’t mean to insult you. It’s just that you’ve done so much already.”
“You seem to forget that I had intended to ask you out a long time ago. What did you suppose I’d have suggested for our first date, window-shopping and maybe a soft pretzel if I was feeling really flush? I’m not a pauper, Natalie.” He gestured toward the windows fronting the street. “I don’t happen to have that view, but I can afford a few lunches and museum tickets.”
“Of course you can. I only—”
“Do you realize how patronizing you sound?”
“I don’t mean to be! Jonah, you were sucked into this against your will, and you’ve behaved admirably under the circumstances. Now that I’m asking you to put up this front for my mother, is it so wrong for me to think about the money you’ll have to spend?”
“It is when you know that I would enjoy doing it, that I—” He came to a screeching halt before he admitted things he had no intention of admitting at this stage in the game. God, his confidence was shot. At first he’d thought she was crazy about him, and now he was afraid he was only a necessary convenience who, luckily for her, happened to be a fair lover.
He could make her moan with delight in bed, but out of it she might just be tolerating his presence. He’d heard about women who kept men around because they were a sexual turn-on, but they never expected to have a real relationship with these boy toys. And Natalie certainly was keeping a lock on her secrets.
“I’m sorry.” Her gray eyes were soft with regret. “You’re trying to be a friend and I’m treating you like some sort of employee.”
He’d love to ask her exactly what she thought of him, but he probably wouldn’t get the truth, not when her mother still needed his help. No, she’d treat him the best she possibly could until Alice had what she needed. Until then, there was no point in having a showdown with her.
He sighed. “Apology accepted. I’ll bring over the things you suggested sometime tomorrow while you’re at work. That way we won’t have to run into each other any
more than necessary.”
“Jonah, for what it’s worth, I wish you had asked me out before that incident at the lake. I wish we had gotten to know each other under different circumstances.”
“But once you start changing things, you have to realize everything would have changed, and your mother might not have thought to write a romance.”
“I guess you’re right.”
“This is what we have, Natalie. We have to play it out and see where it takes us.” He wished his heart didn’t ache every time he looked into her eyes. He knew the look he wanted to see there, and it wasn’t the one he was seeing. Right now she just looked harassed and confused. He walked over and picked up his coat from the couch before heading toward her front door. “Let me know about Sunday.”
“I will.”
With his hand on the doorknob, he glanced back at her. She looked forlorn and vulnerable as she stood alone, watching him leave. His natural instinct was to go back and take her in his arms. To hell with the consequences. He overrode that instinct.
“Good night,” he said, and walked out the door.
JONAH SUFFERED the torture of the damned as he escorted Natalie and her mother all over town in the next few weeks. With every day he fell deeper in love, and he couldn’t do a blessed thing about it until Alice’s book was finished.
He made visits to Natalie’s apartment every few days when she was at work and dropped off a different set of clothes and other pieces of evidence for her mother’s benefit. The afternoon he brought over some beer he decided to drink one and leave it on the counter. Nice touch.
Nice touch, baloney. He was stalling, knowing that Natalie could walk in the door any minute and he could accidentally run into her. He was desperate to be alone with her for just a minute. Despite all the time they spent together, he missed her like the devil.
As he drank the beer, he wandered through the apartment, Bobo trailing along, while he soaked up the colors and textures of her world. Of course he ended up in her bedroom, running a hand over her pillow, picturing her lying there asleep. If only she dreamed of him. He even snooped in her closet and touched her clothes. He was fingering the material of the white blouse she’d worn on the yacht when Bobo raced for the front door.
As he emerged from the bedroom, she came through the door and closed it carefully behind her. “Dropping off a few things?” she said. Her voice sounded tight.
“Yeah.” He hoisted the empty beer bottle. “I decided to leave an empty on the kitchen counter, for effect.”
“But the kitchen’s over there.” She motioned toward the door across the room from where he stood.
“Just where I was headed.” He walked toward the kitchen. God, but she affected him. And it wasn’t all about sex, either. Not anymore. He would love to spend the evening just being here, watching her go about her chores. But he knew that eventually, if he hung around long enough, they’d end up in bed. As much as he wanted that, too, he didn’t want to make love until they’d cleared the air, until he knew where he stood with her. Until Alice’s book was finished.
“Would you…like to stay for dinner?” she called softly after him.
He almost groaned aloud. Of course he would. But he didn’t dare. “Thanks, but I really have to be going,” he said over his shoulder. He set the beer bottle down and came back into the living room. “So how’s the book coming along?”
“I don’t know.” Her gaze was hungry as she looked at him.
“Do you think we’re distracting her too much by taking her places? I could pretend to have some double shifts at work.” He hated to cut down on their three-some dates, because then he’d hardly see Natalie at all, but if it meant the book would be done sooner, he’d force himself.
“No. She loves going out with us. I haven’t seen her looking so happy in ages.”
“Do you have any idea how far she is from the end?” He sounded desperate. Well, he was desperate.
“I’ve tried to find out. Once she said she was about three-quarters through, but the next time I asked, she’d gone back to rework all those chapters, so it’s hard to say. Jonah, I—”
“What?” In that charged moment as he stared at her, he made a decision. If she asked him to love her, he’d do it. To hell with the plan.
“Never mind. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow night for the play, huh?”
“Right.” He grabbed his coat and started for the door. “See you then.”
NATALIE FOUGHT THE URGE to run after him. If she begged him to make love to her and he refused because he didn’t trust her, she wouldn’t be able to stand it. She’d thought maybe they could at least sit and have dinner together, which would be better than nothing, but he’d rejected that proposal, so he probably would have rejected a more intimate one, too.
Bobo pranced around her, eager for his walk. “Okay, boy. In a minute.” Slowly she walked into the kitchen and picked up the beer bottle he’d left on the counter. She cradled it in both hands, as if she could somehow absorb the warmth of his touch from the unyielding glass. Then she raised the bottle to her mouth and slowly ran the rim around her lips.
Closing her eyes, she concentrated on the memory of his kiss. Strangely enough, it wasn’t the passion that she missed the most. She ached for the sense of connection, of not being alone in the world. Until Jonah, she hadn’t known that feeling. Now she couldn’t seem to live without it.
THROUGH THE TENSION-FILLED DAYS of missing Jonah, Natalie kept thinking of how she could thank him for helping her mother. She came up with the answer as she passed a sports memorabilia store when she was out for a walk on her lunch break. The perfect gift sat perched in the display window.
She was so excited about her purchase that she took it straight up to her mother’s apartment when she got home that night.
Alice answered the door with a portion of her manuscript in one hand and her glasses perched on her nose.
“I’m not interrupting your writing, am I?” Natalie didn’t want to slow the process one iota.
“No, I’m just going over the chapter I finished today. But I’m getting close to the end.”
Natalie’s pulse leaped. Soon. “That’s great, Mom.”
“What do you have there?”
Natalie shucked her coat and proudly took the gift out of the box. “Doesn’t this just shout out Jonah?”
Alice put down her manuscript and stuck her pen behind her ear before she took the autographed basketball. “It shouts out expensive, that’s for sure.” She turned the ball around to examine all the signatures.
“They’re all there.” Natalie hugged herself with pleasure. “You know how he feels about the Knicks. I can hardly wait to see his face when I give him this.”
“It’s very nice, and I’m sure he’ll love it. When is his birthday, anyway?”
“Uh…I didn’t exactly buy it for his birthday.” And she didn’t even know when his birthday was, but she couldn’t very well admit that to her mother. Any woman in love knew when her beloved was born.
“Surely you’re not starting on Christmas already?”
“No, I just wanted to give him something because…” She couldn’t tell Alice it was in gratitude for all Jonah had done, either. She probably shouldn’t have brought the basketball up to show her mother in the first place, but she’d wanted to share her find with someone. “I wanted to give it to him because he’s such a great guy, and I love him so much,” she said.
Alice gave her daughter a sympathetic look. “I can understand that, sweetheart, but I’m not sure Jonah will.”
“What do you mean?”
“Let’s go sit down.” Alice led the way into the living room and motioned Natalie to the couch. She positioned herself next to her daughter, the basketball cradled in her lap. “This cost a bundle, didn’t it?”
“Well, sort of.” Natalie had weathered sticker shock when she’d discovered what the shop was charging for the basketball, but it had been such a perfect gift that she’d bought it anyw
ay.
“You used plastic, didn’t you?”
Natalie could feel a lecture coming. “Okay, I know I’ve been throwing money around lately, but it’s all in a good cause. Besides, things are looking up in the market these days, and I just landed a new client. I’ll probably make some decent money this month.”
Alice patted her daughter’s folded hands. “I hope you do. And I’m sure you’ll put the money back in your IRA eventually. You’re very clever.”
Natalie glanced down and noticed that she’d been twisting her hands in her lap. Not exactly a show of strength. Her mother knew she was whistling in the dark and that she’d have to work long and hard to replace that retirement money, but still Alice was giving her a vote of confidence.
“But that’s not the point,” Alice said. “The point is that Jonah knows you spent all that money to get him at the auction, and now on top of that, you’re buying him this expensive gift, something more extravagant than he’d buy himself. I know you’re doing all this because you have a very generous heart, sometimes too generous. But Jonah doesn’t know you as well as I do, and I’m worried that he’ll get the wrong idea.”
Natalie’s mouth felt dry. “You mean that I’m trying to buy his love?”
“Something like that. Or that you flaunt the fact that you have money. Have you told him yet that you sacrificed your retirement fund for the auction?”
“Not yet.” And she wasn’t looking forward to telling him, either. So far, she’d had no luck dealing with sensitive topics where Jonah was concerned. She always managed to present things in the wrong light.
“So he still thinks you’re a wealthy young woman.”
“I guess so.”
“If I were you, I’d confess this whole business soon. Secrets like that put distance between two people, even when they’re very much in love. I realize now I should have told your father about my writing.”
Natalie glanced at her, startled. “But what if he’d been critical?”
Single, Sexy...And Sold! Page 16
