by Tawny Weber
Her flesh warmed. Her vision blurred. Her head did a couple spins, like a carnival ride.
“Maybe we should—”
“We should find a way out,” she blurted. She tried to hide the breathlessness of her words by shifting, tugging the soft fabric of the blanket from his hands. She stepped backward so fast her cute red heels slipped on the marble floor. She windmilled, trying to regain balance.
Jason grabbed both of her arms, keeping her from sliding across the floor on her butt.
“Falling at my feet?” he teased.
“Lucky for me, you keep saving me from that humiliation,” she retorted, her cheeks on fire. She made sure she was steady, then quickly, but carefully, stepped away.
“You okay?”
“I’m fine,” she said, tugging her jacket into place. Then with reluctant courtesy, she gave him a look from under her lashes and murmured, “Thank you.”
“Sure. Can’t have you getting hurt. It’s not like we can call for help, and as much as I’d love to play doctor with you, I don’t have a first aid kit handy.”
Larissa’s lips twitched. Then she remembered, she was immune to his charm.
“We’re really stuck?” she asked, hoping he’d tell her he had some clever escape planned.
“Until the power comes back on. Or until tomorrow at the latest,” he said instead.
Locked in, all night, with Jason? Larissa’s heart thudded against her chest. “What about a security guard? Or Peter? Won’t he be looking for you?”
Jason shook his head. “Nah. Remember what Conner said? They don’t have a security team in place yet. Conner figured the locks would be enough for now. And now that Peter’s got Meghan, he doesn’t really care what I’m doing.”
Her heart was thudding in her head now, pounding a sensual beat of warning against her brain.
“There has to be a way out,” she said quickly. She knew she sounded a little desperate but she didn’t care. Desperate times called for freaking out. “Did you try all the keys?”
“The only key that fit is in the lock now,” he replied calmly. “It won’t open the security bolts, though. I’m assuming they are a part of the theft deterrent system. They probably require a code or special passkey or something.”
That made sense. Larissa turned the key anyhow. It twisted. She heard the locks disengage. But the bolts didn’t move.
She grabbed the etched brass handles of the door and shook it as hard as she could, ignoring Jason’s laugh behind her.
Echoing his earlier move, she rested her forehead against the glass and tried to gather her thoughts.
They were too scattered, though. Hearing footsteps, she turned to see that Jason was halfway down the mall.
“Where are you going?” she called to his retreating back.
“While you bruise your fists on the doors, I’m going to scout things out. See if I can find food, water or maybe an alternate exit that those keys might open.” He glanced back and gave her a wink. “Don’t scuff those pretty shoes kicking the door, though.”
Leave it to him to go into super scout mode while she hyperventilated. And yes, she frowned, she had considered kicking the stupid door. This was exactly the reason she’d hated taking trips with him. He’d always babied them down for her, and she’d still come off as a total incompetent.
She hated that feeling.
“Maybe you’d rather I use them to kick your—”
“Temper, temper,” he chided. He stopped at an unmarked, solid door between two glass-fronted stores and gave her a patient look. “You wanna wait here or come with me?”
And there it was, the question that had defined their relationship.
Only this time, Larissa didn’t have to think about the choices. She folded the blanket over her arm, stopping at the still open door to her—because dammit, after all of this, it’d damned well better end up hers—store and tossed it in a box. Then, her still unscuffed heels clattering loudly over the marble floor, she hurried to Jason’s side.
“What if we crawled through the air vents,” she suggested, noticing one high above the doors, halfway toward the vaulted ceiling.
“That’d be a no,” Jason told her as he opened the unmarked door for her to enter first.
“Why?” she asked. “You climb mountains and shimmy up trees for coconuts. But you won’t crawl through a suburban vent?”
“That vent would only take us to some other part of the hotel. Did you want to move to a room with a bed, perhaps?”
Hell, no.
Larissa hurried through the doorway into the dark hall. She didn’t want to be a chicken, but as soon as Jason let go of that door, what little light there was would vanish. Not that she was afraid of the dark, but wandering through a strange place in absolute darkness with Jason felt like a really bad idea to her. Who knew what she might accidentally touch.
“We’re going to have trouble finding anything we need without some sort of light,” Jason said, echoing the saner part of her thoughts. “Maybe if we prop the door open, we’ll be able to see.”
Larissa arched a doubtful brow. She could barely make out anything halfway down the hall now.
“I don’t suppose you keep a little flashlight in your purse,” he mused.
“No.” Then remembering, she turned back to face him. “I do have a book of matches I got as a favor from the wedding I attended last weekend, though.”
His face was in shadows and the wince was infinitesimal, but she still caught it.
“They’re matches, Jason. Not marriage cooties.”
He gave a short, rueful laugh and shrugged. “Nothing personal.”
“Of course not. As far as I know, I was the closest you ever got to a wife. So, there’s no reason for me to take your feelings about it personally.”
Impatient, Larissa brushed past Jason, pretending that the feel of his body against hers didn’t make her want to close that door and let the dark keep their secrets.
“Where are you going?” he asked.
“To get the cootie matches,” she tossed over her shoulder as she stalked away from him.
She was still stomping when she reached her purse, where she’d left it on the counter of her soon-to-be store. She didn’t unzip the leather bag yet, though. Instead she draped her arms across the countertop and laid her forehead against the cool marble, trying to chill out.
“Keep your eyes on the prize,” she lectured herself. She used a couple more deep belly-breaths to get her thoughts in order.
Being trapped was definitely high on her sucky list. And being trapped with Jason was even higher, right under flood, famine and worldwide illiteracy. But that wasn’t the big picture, it was simply a tiny roadblock. She just had to remember that.
The priority here was that she get the store. Which meant that Jason couldn’t get it. So if she was going to be stuck here—with him, anyhow—she might as well find some way of turning it to her advantage.
It was all about having the right attitude. Being bitchy and defensive would get her nowhere. If anything, losing control like that just meant that she was giving Jason that much more power, even if he didn’t realize it. And knowing Jason, he probably did, and would use it to keep the upper hand. She already had enough to deal with fighting off her attraction to him.
So just like she’d done earlier, when she’d put a lid on her snarky attitude with Conner’s partner, she’d paste on a pleasant smile and put her energy into sealing the deal. She’d either convince Jason that she was more deserving of the store or she’d find enough out about why he wanted it and use that to convince him to go in a different direction.
Easy peasy.
And how pathetic was it to lie to oneself? Rolling her eyes, but back in control, she got the matches from her purse and turned toward the doorway. Her gaze landed on the box of merchandise she’d packed away.
A wide smile curved her lips and she knelt down to unwrap one of the scented candles. See. Chill out and get her head on straight and things were alre
ady going her way.
She lit the decadently scented soy wax and headed back to join Jason. She wasn’t surprised to see he hadn’t waited. One hand cupped around the flame to keep it safe, she made her way down the hall, pretending she wasn’t wigged out by the long, spidery shadows her fingers cast on the walls.
There were three doors at the end of the hall. Jason had propped one open with a chair. She could hear the occasional thump and four-letter word, so she knew he was in there. Pausing in the doorway, she squinted through the dark.
“Score,” Jason said, obviously hearing her less than stealthy entrance. “It looks like the construction workers keep some food in here. Roach coach sandwiches, bottled water, a little of this and that.”
Larissa’s eyes adjusted, so she could make out the dim outline of tables, chairs and counters. The candlelight reflected off the door of the stainless steel refrigerator Jason was looking into. He glanced over his shoulder and gave an approving nod toward the candle.
“Clever. Part of your inventory?”
“Yes. It’s the Passionflower by Moonlight scent. Chloe makes them,” she told him as she stepped farther into the room. Holding the candle high, she looked around and tried to tell herself that this was the comfy space where she’d be having lunches soon. And not a creepy potential scene from every horror movie that ever started with a blackout.
“Chloe made that candle?” His arms full of what looked like food, Jason let the refrigerator door swing shut. “I thought all she made was trouble. How’s she doing now?”
“She’s good. Busy with her many businesses, yet still finding time for trouble,” Larissa said with a shrug. Jason and Chloe had gotten along really well, kind of like brother and sister with a mutual passion for smart-ass dialogue, movies that blew things up and their love for Larissa herself. Which probably accounted for why Chloe had taken their breakup so personally.
“I’m glad. Both that she’s doing good and that she hasn’t lost that troublemaker side. Tell her hi for me, okay?”
Tell her that the guy with the magic dick said hi? Chloe would love that. “I’ll tell her. I doubt she’s going to want to hear it, though.”
Jason emptied his armload onto a table next to a pile of stuff Larissa hadn’t noticed before. She joined him to see what he’d collected. Some bottles of water, a brick of unopened cheese, sandwiches in plastic, a couple of apples and a large bag of chips. There was also a roll of paper towels.
“At least we won’t get hungry,” she commented. “Wasn’t there a vending machine, though?”
“Yup. But it’s digital and it went down with the power. I’ll leave some cash and a note to cover this food, though.”
“Well, aren’t you both responsible and resourceful,” she teased.
“Tricks of the trade,” he dismissed with a modest shrug. “So why won’t Chloe want my greeting? I thought she liked me.”
“Sure,” Larissa agreed, leaving her candle on the table as she started rooting through cupboards and drawers to see what she could add to his stash. “She liked you when we were a couple.”
“She doesn’t like me anymore?” He sounded like a pouting little boy who’d just been told Santa wasn’t real.
Larissa added a sleeve of saltine crackers and, oh yeah, a handful of chocolate bars to the stash. “Well, let’s put it this way. She burned your effigy in a bonfire the Halloween after we split up.”
“Ouch.”
“You were naked,” Larissa told him, only gloating a little. “And you were really, really small. If you know what I mean.”
Grimacing, Jason’s hand twitched toward the fly of his jeans. Larissa turned away to hide her smirk. Seeing a box on the floor next to one of the cabinets, she brought it over to carry their booty.
She sighed at the pile of food. They wouldn’t really need to eat that, would they? Someone had to come for them soon. Maybe? Hopefully?
Not likely. Her shoulders sagged as she started packing food into the box.
“Was this at her annual Halloween bash? The one that usually has a guest list of, oh, a hundred people?”
“It was closer to one-fifty that year.”
He sighed.
“Any anonymity?”
“Well, she labeled the effigy with your name and recited a poem before she tossed it into the flames. So, nope.” The box filled, Larissa lifted it, then glanced at the candle on the table. She couldn’t carry both. Before she could figure it out, Jason reached around her to take the box from her arms. His hands left heated little tingles of awareness as they brushed hers, his arms practically embracing her from the side. Larissa swallowed, trying to clear the lump from her throat.
She was glad he had a hold of the box since she’d probably have dropped it at his feet otherwise.
“I’m sorry I missed the event,” he said in a husky tone she knew had nothing to do with Chloe or effigies. But it had everything to do with fire. Her eyes wandered over his face, all intriguing shadows and angles in the candlelight. God, the man was gorgeous. Even clearly irritated, he still looked good enough to lick from head to toe.
“You can probably catch it on YouTube,” she said breathlessly. She watched closely, hoping to see anger on his face. That would go such a long way toward making him less drool-worthy.
Instead he threw back his head and laughed. The sound echoed through the dark room, wrapping around her like a good-natured hug. Damn him. Why couldn’t he be a full-time jerk? It’d be so much easier to dislike him.
“I’LL HAVE TO LOOK IT UP,” Jason said, trying to control his laughter. He probably should be irritated to be publicly mocked, but as long as Larissa wasn’t the one commenting on his…size, he figured it was just good fun. “Leave it to Chloe to find an original and creative insult.”
“She’s a wonder,” Larissa agreed with a smile that said she’d probably bookmarked that YouTube page. She glanced around the break room. “It looked like we’ve gotten everything useful, doesn’t it?”
She lifted the candle and, hand curved to protect the flame, headed toward the door.
“Did you see what the other rooms were already?” she asked.
“Janitor’s closet and storage,” he said, hefting the box a little higher and following her. “I couldn’t see much without light, but from what I could make out, the storage room has a series of lockers, all secured. And unless we want to scrub floors, there wasn’t much in the janitor’s closet, either. I didn’t find any bathrooms, though. That could be an issue.”
This was the problem with being trapped in an urban setting instead of a remote island somewhere. Sure, they had shelter and didn’t have to climb trees for their coconut dinner. But he didn’t think Conner would appreciate it if Jason peed on those pricey plants lining the center of that mall.
“Actually, there’s a public restroom in the hall across the mall, but Conner mentioned that it’s not outfitted with toilets yet. But there are private bathrooms in each of the stores. I checked and the one in my store isn’t locked.”
“My store,” Jason muttered with a frown. Why was she so sure she’d get the space? He had a much stronger track record and already had a successful business. She had a fluffy romantic dream. And, he had to admit, the nicest ass he’d ever seen.
He wanted to ask if she was dating Conner now, but figured she’d blow up like she had the last time he’d asked that question. But that was probably why she was so confident that she’d edge him out. Because she had the inside track.
Jason’s gut burned at the idea of anyone other than him being with Larissa. The idea of her with Conner, a guy who could offer her the world, plus her perfect store space, made the burn flame even higher.
And those guys with Conner had definitely been checking her out. Which meant that even if they tried to spout some crap about professionalism in choosing, they were leaning her way.
Despite their history, Jason didn’t want to hurt her and take away her dream. But he needed that store. The future of Can-Do was
on the line. Despite his friendship with Daniel, Conner was obviously going to be on Larissa’s side. And given that his ass didn’t look nearly as good in a skirt, Jason had absolutely no way of influencing the other guys on the committee.
Which left Larissa. Jason eyed the way her jacket ruffled across those curvy hips. His gaze slid down the narrow black skirt covering way too much of her legs, then dropped to those sexy little shoes in do-me red.
They were stuck together for the next little while, so even though she probably wanted to, she couldn’t run away. And as long as he kept his eye on the prize—which was scoring that store space—he could dial back his predator instincts and try and be a gentleman long enough to find a way to talk her out of taking such a huge business risk. Diplomacy and circumspection. He could handle that.
At least, he thought he could.
“It sounds like all our needs are covered, then,” he said, referring to his concern over a bathroom.
When they reached the store, he dumped the box on the counter. Larissa set the candle down. He watched her cast a look around the store, kind of like those looks moms gave to their funny-looking newborn babies. Love, pride and a blind sort of surety that it was the greatest-looking thing in the world. He squinted a look at the bare walls and modern fixtures and shrugged.
It definitely wasn’t his style, that was for sure. But he wouldn’t have thought it to be Larissa’s, either.
“You really like this space?” he asked. “I mean, I thought you wanted your bookstore to be in one of those fancy old houses. Something with a lot of character and, what was it? Charm?”
“Well, sure, that’s what I wanted.” She looked both surprised and cautious. “But that was before. Now I know that to make my dream a reality, I have to make certain…adjustments.”
“You? Adjust? You’re kidding, right?” Jason winced. That hadn’t been very diplomatic.
“I can adjust,” she protested, crossing her arms across her chest. The lift of her chin and her tone were both defensive. “Unlike some people who refuse to compromise, I’m excellent at adjusting and doing whatever it takes to make something work.”
