She ignored the last comment as she sniggered. “I wouldn’t exactly call it wonderful,” she lied. It could have been cardboard and she’d still have enjoyed it.
He made a face. “You didn’t give me much time to prepare.”
“But I thought a man always came prepared?”
He gave a short laugh. “Ask me about condoms in my wallet and I’ll tell you I’ve got two. Ask me about clean underwear in case I get hit by a car, and I’m there, baby. But ask me to pull off a miracle with these hands?” He winked at her. “Okay, so I guess they’ve been known to pull off a miracle or two.”
She laughed and blushed at the same time, remembering that first time they’d made love in Adam’s kitchen. “A deal’s a deal, Zac. You promised me four courses and you reneged on that promise last night.”
“I don’t see how you figure that,” he said, intentionally sounding shocked.
“Shall we tell the folks what those courses were, Zac?”
“Please do.”
“Hmm. Let’s see…” She paused for effect. “There was pizza.”
He grinned. “It was terrific, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah, but that’s all there was, folks. One pizza. Gourmet-style.”
“I gave you what you asked for. Four courses in one. Bread, cheese, meat and vegetables. Heck, I even threw in the rum balls for dessert. So you had five courses in all, Cassie.” He made a tsking sound. “You shouldn’t be greedy and want even more.”
She ruefully shook her head. “I don’t know what you call four-courses Down Under, but something’s definitely been lost in the translation.”“Perhaps I’ll throw another shrimp on the barbie then. Or perhaps I’ll just throw another shrimp… and I don’t mean something small…” He wiggled his eyebrows. “…on the Barbie doll.”
“Sex. Sex. Sex. That’s all you think about.”
“I believe that’s three courses, Cassie.”
She had to chuckle. “You know, that gets me to thinking about the best food for sex. What sort of meal would you cook for a woman if you wanted to wine and dine her, Zac?”
“Pizza.”
She gave a dismissive laugh. “No, I mean if you really wanted to wine and dine her.”
He mulled over her question. “Hmm. If I were back home I’d start off with grilled barramundi fish with herbs and a splash of lemon. It’s delish.”
“Delish?” she teased.
“Yes.” He kissed his fingers. “Then we’d have Pavlova – that’s a meringue-based dessert with a crispy crust and soft inside, topped with whipped cream and strawberries. Oh, and a good bottle of wine.”
“Don’t forget the candles.”
“I hate to think what for,” he said, lowering his voice meaningfully.
She clicked her tongue. “For the candlelit dinner. Nothing more.”
He grinned. “Oh r.i.g.h.t…” Then he cocked his head to one side. “Your turn, Cassie. What would you cook a man?”
“Spaghetti,” she said without hesitation.
He laughed. “Spaghetti? That’s all?”
She gave a sexy smile. “I’m sure he doesn’t want me for my cooking skills.”
“Ah, but isn’t the way to a man’s heart through his stomach?”
“Zac, we were talking about food for sex, not food for love.”
His forehead creased as he considered that. “I guess sometimes the lines do get a bit blurred.”
“Only after too many wines.”
He laughed, then continued, “So you’re saying that people sometimes show their true feelings after a few drinks?”
“No, I’m saying that perhaps those few drinks only make them think they’re in love, when in fact it’s only about the sex. In the light of day, I’m sure there’s been a few horrified people waking up in bed next to someone they don’t really care for.”
“A shuddering feeling.” He shuddered.
Her brow rose. “You’ve had it happen to you?”
“In my youth. These days I’m more circumspect.”
“Circum-- Oh, you mean careful. I thought you meant circumcised.”
“Only around my circumference.”
They both chuckled.
“Okay, Zac,” she said a few seconds later. “Here’s something for you to think about. There’s food for sex but what about sex as a food?”
“Man cannot live off love alone,” he quipped.
She let out an exaggerated sigh. “Another one of your little gems?”
“Yep.”
She began to smile. “I hate to tell you this…”
“But you’ll tell me anyway.”
Her smile widened. “You’ve got it wrong again. Love isn’t necessarily sex.”
“You may have something there.”
“Of course I do.”
He thought for a moment. “Hmm. Sex as a food, eh? I suppose you could say that’s some people’s idea of manna from heaven.”
She made a choking sound. “You’re too too funny, you know that?”
“I’m a comedian, I know.”
“Yeah, a laugh a minute.” She decided it was time to move on with the subject. “But Zac, when you think about it, sex can be addictive too. Just like food is addictive. Agree?”
“Agree. And when you think even more about it, there’s a lot of variety out there. Just like with food.”
“Variety?” She pondered the notion. “Hmm yes. Man with woman. Man with man. Woman with woman. There’s something for everyone. Some people want comfort food and some people want gourmet.”
He put his hand to his chest. “Are you trying to tell me something, Cassie?”
“Nooooo.”
“Phew! That’s good. I’d hate to be trying for something that’s not even on the menu.”
“I don’t know why you’d bother trying at all,” she asserted, taking out any hint of a romance between her and Zac. Their audience would just have to be happy with their on-air rapport.And naturally he wouldn’t let her get away with that, she mused, when he said, “You don’t?”
She pasted on a smile. “No use trying for something you can never have.”
“Never say never.”
“Some things we just know will never happen.” She smiled with false sweetness. “Like… I know I’ll never be a man.”
He chuckled. “Baby, that’s one thing I’m glad won’t ever happen.”
His calling her baby, and with that accent too, sent a thrill down her spine, but she managed to ignore it as they carried on with the show in the same vein until the time was up. “Well,” she eventually said. “I guess it’s time to wrap things up.”
“Like a sandwich?”
She ruefully shook her head. “You have food on the brain, Zac.”
“That’s not all I have on my mind,” he said suggestively.
“I’ll ignore that.” So she did. “Zac, do you want to tell our listeners about our special show tomorrow?”
“Sure. And can I say it’s going to be a real treat?” he said with a grin.
“No more food jokes,” she begged.
“Okay, I’m about done anyway.”
“Zac!”
“Okay, okay. I’ll stop milking it.” He laughed at the look on her face, but didn’t give her time to rebuke him. “Folks, we’re doing a live show tomorrow at noon from the new mall on Michigan Avenue. It’s for a good cause too – the children’s hospital. So come on down and meet both of us in person. We’d love to see you there.”
“Or if you can’t make it, you can phone in and give a donation,” Cassie added.
“Don’t miss it, folks. And that’s all I’m saying for now.”
“That’s unusual,” Cassie said wryly and was awarded with a devastating smile.
“Careful or I’ll retaliate with some food jokes.”
“Too late. Time’s up.”
The off-air light came on.
She pulled off her ear phones and grinned at him. “Wanna come to my place for some spaghetti?” she joked,
expecting him to jump at the chance. He’d spent the last two nights in her bed, so she had no reason to think he wouldn’t want to spend it with her again tonight.
Only, he hesitated. “I’d love to but…”
Her smiled faded. “But what?”
He grimaced. “I really should go back to Adam’s. I’ve got a gut feeling I’m leaving them alone together too much. It’s not good.”
“For whom?”
For a moment he looked startled. Then, “For Erin, of course. You know how Adam works on a woman.” He paused. “You understand, don’t you, Cassie?”
“Sure I do.”
She understood only too well.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Once they were in the motel room and Adam was in the bathroom washing the grime off his hands, Erin admitted to herself that she was attracted to him. But that didn’t mean she didn’t love Zac, she reminded herself. It only meant she was a normal woman. No woman could look at Adam and not feel normal and not have normal urges. He was undeniably male. When he entered a room you knew he was there.
Like now.
“You know,” he said, coming out of the bathroom with a sexy glint in his eyes. “I’ve never shared a motel room with a woman before and not made love to her.”
She moved away from the window where she’d finished closing the drapes. “This’ll be a novelty to you then,” she said, surprised by the comment. It was as if he was testing her. Or hinting.
He dropped down on one of the twin beds. “Being with you is a novelty to me.”
“Just because I’m Australian --” she began, deliberately misunderstanding him.
“I’m not talking about your nationality.”
The breath hitched in her throat, but she told herself he couldn’t help it. She was a woman and he had to make a play for her. It was probably a matter of pride to him. “Hey, we should turn the radio on and listen to Zac and Cassie.”
For a split second he didn’t look pleased. “I’d rather watch some television.”
“Oh.” Perhaps he was tired? “Well, we should at least phone Zac later and tell him what’s happened, in case he starts worrying.”
“I doubt he’ll give us a thought tonight.”
She could feel her hackles rise. “I still think we should leave a message on his cell phone. He can get it after the show.”
Adam sighed. “Hand me my jacket, will you? I’ll call on my cell phone and leave a message.”
He’d thrown his jacket on one of the chairs close to the windows, so she scooped it up and came around the middle of the beds to hand it to him. Their hands accidentally touched and all at once she was aware of how small that gap between the beds actually was.
Without giving him a look, she spun away and headed for the bathroom, leaving him to make the call. As she went about her business, she could hear him talking, then by the time she came back into the room he was sitting up against the pillows flicking the remote control. She went over to her bed and made herself comfortable against the pillows too.
A few more channel changes and he said, “Here’s a science fiction movie that’s just starting. Want to watch it?”
“Sure.”
“How about I order in a bottle of wine and some snacks?”
“That would be nice.”
After that, Erin tried to enjoy the movie, but she couldn’t summon any interest in the happenings in another world. Not when she was having enough trouble dealing with the happenings in her own!
It must be the wine, she decided, half an hour later. It had gone straight to her head and was making her intensely aware of Adam in the room with her. Right now all she could think about was making love with him, her palms itching to run over the muscles beneath his shirt, his body against her own.
“Erin?”
“Hmm?” she murmured, feigning interest in the television screen.
“This movie is as boring as hell,” he grumbled.
She looked across at him. “You think so? I think it’s terrific. The plot is awesome and the acting is --”
“Crap.”
She laughed. “Okay, yeah, it’s crap.”
He lowered the sound on the television. “It’s been a long day. I think it’s time for bed, don’t you?”
Her heart jumped erratically in her chest. “To sleep?” she said stupidly.
“Not much else we can do,” he said in a slow drawl. Then he seemed to hesitate like he was waiting for her to say something.
Or suggest something…
She swallowed. Did he think she would jump his bones at the first sign of interest? She wouldn’t - of course she wouldn’t - but he may not be far wrong either!
She pushed off the bed and got to her feet. “I think I’ll have a shower,” she said, and hurried inside the bathroom where she collapsed against the back of the door. For God’s sake what was wrong with her? She should be feeling rotten right now because she wasn’t with Zac, yet she didn’t. Adam seemed to be filling every bit of her mind.
It was at that moment she began to suspect something. Could her inner pain be not for losing Zac, but for actually losing herself since the accident? And was she somehow finding her sense of self here – now - with Adam? She took a moment to let that sink in, then pushed herself away from the door to go turn on the shower. It made sense anyway, and it was the only explanation she could come up with.
She took her time under the hot spray, not really wanting to think too much while she concentrated on washing her bikini-sized undies and drying them with the hairdryer. They were cotton, so they dried quite quickly. She slipped them back on, finished brushing her teeth with the toothbrush supplied by the motel, and cautiously stuck her head out of the bathroom half-hoping he would be asleep.
He wasn’t.
He was lying on the bed facing the bathroom and he gave her a small grin. “Come on out, Erin. I’m not about to eat you.” A seductive light entered his eyes. “Not that I don’t want to.”
“You’ve had your dinner,” she said at an attempt at a joke, and stepped into the room, then padded across the room like she had all the time in the world, her top half covered in the t-shirt she’d worn beneath her thin-knit sweater, her bottom half covered wrapped in a thick, dry towel, hiding her panties.
Feeling his eyes on her but determined not to show any fear, she placed her black slacks over the back of a chair, her knit top next to them. Then she went over to the other bed and slid beneath the sheets, towel and all.
“You’re wearing a towel to bed?”
She adjusted the blankets around her. “I’ll take it off once you go in the bathroom.”
There was a moment’s silence. “I was only teasing you before. You have nothing to fear from me.”
She leaned back against the pillows. “So you’d look away if I asked you?”
“No.”
She blinked in surprise, then gave a grudging laugh. “At least you’re honest.”
“Sometimes it pays to be,” he said, an oddly determined light in his eyes and she realized he could no more stop himself from being attracted to her as a woman, than stop breathing.
“Not this time, mate,” she joked.
Those eyes held hers a second, then slowly lit with amusement and he pushed himself to his feet. “Then I suppose I’d better give you some privacy,” he said and went toward the bathroom. “Don’t say I’m not a gentleman.” He gave her a wry look before the door shut behind him.
Erin didn’t fully trust him not to come back out just to see if he could catch her with her towel off, and her heart thumped accordingly. Then she heard him turn the shower on, and pushing aside a small sense of disappointment, she hurriedly wiggled the towel free under the sheet. By the time he’d finished his ablutions, she’d flicked her lamp off, leaving only his side of the room lit, her back to him.
There was a moment’s pause when she heard the bathroom door open, but she lay there until she heard him get into bed and turn off the lamp. “Goodnight, Adam,” s
he murmured after some quiet time.
“What? I don’t even get a kiss goodnight?”
“Adam…” she warned, rolling onto her back, the darkness giving her a sense of protection. Probably. Not that she needed any real protection from Adam. He wasn’t the type to do anything more than tease her if she didn’t want.
She wanted.
Oh God.
“Just testing,” he murmured. “Goodnight, princess.”
She smiled in the dark and couldn’t help saying, “Goodnight, sweet prince.” He gave a soft chuckle, and she shut her eyes and mentally began talking herself into relaxing.
“I can smell you in the dark,” he murmured.
Warmth flooded her body. “I had a shower.”
“Not that kind of scent. I’m talking your smell. The one that’s just you.”
She took a ragged breath. “Shut-up, Adam.”
Another pause, then, “Oh, it’s Adam now, is it? What happened to ‘sweet prince’?”
“He fell off his throne.”
He gave a husky laugh.
All was quiet.
A moment ticked by.
“Shut-up, Adam,” she said, preempting him.
“Shutting up.” His tone said that he meant it this time.
Then somehow, despite sleeping in the same room as the sexiest man alive, she fell completely and utterly asleep.
* * *
Zac went back to Adam’s after the show, only to find the apartment in darkness. There was no message on the answering machine and it was only then he thought to check his cell phone. There was one message.
“Hey, buddy,” Adam’s voice said. “You’ll never believe it but my car broke down on the way back from the parents’ place. It’s late so we’re staying in a motel for the night. Don’t wait up for us, if you’re at home, that is.”
Zac’s mouth tightened. Had Adam used the old standby and run out of petrol too? He looked at his watch. It had just gone ten and for a moment he was tempted to call his friend on his cell phone and ask him what the hell he was doing, but sanity got the better of him. There was nothing further he could do tonight.
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