Jamie sent him a warm smile of understanding. But Kell avoided her eyes. Jamie took a deep resolute breath and faced her therapist. “I agree with Kell. It sounds like fun. And I think it’s worth a try.”
Dr. Hampton’s eyes lit with pleasure. “Good. This is a perfect opportunity to find out if you would have been compatible if you’d never met until now.”
The psychologist/researcher in Jamie began to get interested. “But we’ll still bring our personalities and our old fears into this new relationship. How do we handle all that?”
Kell sat forward, resting his elbows on his knees and folding his hands together. “I was wondering the same thing.”
Dr. Hampton nodded. “I understand that this will be a bit false, given that you’re both shaped by your past relationships with each other. And it may not work…but maybe try this. Pretend that you had those relationships with other people and not each other.”
Jamie sat up straight. “That’s brilliant, Dr. Hampton. Then we should be able to listen more objectively to each other if we take our hurt feelings out of the picture.” She beamed at Kell. “This could work. We wouldn’t have anything to be defensive about.”
Kell sat back and frowned. “Sort of like listening to each other gripe about someone else, right, Dr. Hampton?”
“Essentially. But I prefer the word evaluate over gripe. So, do you think this is something you can do?”
Dr. Hampton was looking at Kell. Jamie held her breath, waiting for his answer. She figured her mentor assumed she’d go along with the idea because…what choice did she have?
Kell nodded slowly. “I’ll give it a whirl. Still, I’m starting to feel like a guinea pig.”
“You might be. But only with your own feelings. This is a common concern raised by couples who’ve known each other since they were mere children. ‘Would we have fallen in love if we’d met when we were older and therefore were different people?’ they always wonder. I will admit, it’s an intriguing angle.”
Jamie found it hard to contain her growing enthusiasm. “I really like this. It’s exciting.” Then she caught Kell’s smug expression. Her heart leaped. “The psychology aspects of it, Kell, are exciting. Don’t go preening just yet.”
He frowned. “I do not preen.”
“Well then, here we go,” Dr. Hampton said loudly, obviously jumping in before another round of squabbling could fire up. He stood up and indicated for them to do the same. Then he performed an introduction ceremony. “Lieutenant Commander Kellan Chance, it is my pleasure to introduce you to Dr. Jamie Winslow, Ph.D. Jamie, this is Kellan. Kellan…Jamie. Now, shake hands…and don’t come out fighting.”
THE GRAND EXPERIMENT hit a snag within ten minutes. Kell was standing outside the glass-and-steel high-rise building that housed Dr. Hampton’s office, Jamie at his side. Traffic chugged by on Kennedy Boulevard. The day was inexcusably hot and beautiful. To each side of the double-wide glass doors behind them, a tall hedge of blooming gardenias filled the air with their sweet and cloying scent. People, intent on their own business, swarmed around them.
But Kell and Jamie were intent only on each other. They were arguing.
Kell stood like a boulder in the midst of the busy stream of humanity flowing past them. His arms were crossed, and he was frowning. “I still can’t believe you used your cell phone to call a cab. I drove you here, and I’ll give you a ride home.”
“Sorry, Kell, I can’t. I wouldn’t get in the car of a man I’d just met. You should know that.”
“How? I’m the man you just met, remember?” Already hating Dr. Hampton’s stupid idea, Kell let out an exasperated breath. “Come on, Jamie, be reasonable. Let me give you a ride home and then I’ll call you and ask you out. We can set up a date and go from there like we just met.”
Jamie crossed her arms. “Excuse me? What happened to the friendship stage? The just-liking-each-other part?”
“We can’t do that if we’re not together, right? Besides, I already like you. And you like me. So let’s go out to dinner.”
“Listen to you, you smug thing. How do you know I’ll say yes? And…how do you know I won’t call you first and ask you out?”
“Because you’ve never done that before.”
She grinned. “Gotcha. How do you know what I’ve done before? For all you know, I could be a nun or a nudie-bar dancer.”
Kell could only stare at the sweet face of the woman who excited—and frustrated—the hell out of him. Just the sight of her made his pulse pick up its pace. For some reason, she alone fired his jets. “I don’t think you’d be asking me out if you were a nun, Jamie.”
“That’s true. Bad example. But would you go out with me if I danced in nudie bars?”
Kell grinned. “You don’t know much about men, do you, Dr. Winslow? Hell, yes, I would. You’d make a great nude dancer. You certainly have the attributes.”
She pursed her lips. “Just never mind my attributes, mister. Another crack like that and I may not want to call you.”
Kell grinned and leaned in toward her, lowering his voice. “Why? Because I said you have a nice body? You do. I’ve seen it.”
Fighting a grin, she pushed him back. “You have not. We just met.”
“Oh. Right.” Kell realized he was suddenly excited by the prospect of not knowing how Jamie would react, and of learning every new thing about her. He’d been right earlier—this could be fun. Safe and kinky fun. He crossed his arms and looked at her assessingly. “Say you do call me and ask me out. How do you know I’ll accept?”
Awareness flared in Jamie’s blue eyes. “Well, I don’t know, do I? Guess I’ll just have to call to find out.”
Watching her warmed Kell considerably. Could it be that she, too, had suddenly realized the sensual possibilities of this charade, this thrill of the unknown they were engaging in? A flutter in his belly had Kell feeling suddenly edgy. Suddenly, he couldn’t wait to get to know her. Beyond that, he couldn’t wait to pursue her…or to allow her to pursue him, as the case may be. “This is going to be fun, Jamie. Big fun.”
She turned that grin loose and beamed. “I can’t wait to get home to see who calls the other one first.”
“Well, here, let me make it simple for you. You call me. I love being pursued.”
Jamie looked at him questioningly. “You do? I didn’t know that about you.”
Kell shrugged. “There’re a lot of things you don’t know about me, Dr. Winslow.”
Her grin was back. “You can call me Jamie.”
“Thanks.” He stuck his hand out. “Hi, Jamie. You can call me Kell.”
Jamie slipped her hand into his. Kell—overcome with joy at this chance of a new beginning with her—exuberantly tugged her into his embrace and swung her around. Jamie clung tightly to him and laughed her pleasure. Then Kell put her down, and ignoring startled passersby, he held Jamie out from him and looked down into her sweet, sexy face. “This is going to be great, Jamie. I haven’t felt this good in a long time.”
“Me, neither. It seems so positive, Kell. Finally. I’m so glad all our emotional baggage won’t be in the way.” Then, without warning, she did a one-eighty, becoming the seductress. She trailed a finger down his chest, and her voice was a purr that made Kell shiver where he stood. “But there is one thing you should know about me right up front, Mr. Kellan Chance.”
Under her spell, Kell tensed with desire. “Only one? All right, what is it?”
Leaning into him, Jamie looked up at him through her long, dark eyelashes. “I don’t go to bed on a first date.”
Pretending to be crestfallen, Kell let go of her and took a step back. He held his hands up, signaling a halt. “There’s a problem. I do.”
Jamie advanced on him and swatted playfully at his arm. “You little tramp. You do not.”
He chuckled. “I can’t believe you called me a tramp. But how do you—a new acquaintance of mine—know I don’t put out on a first date?”
Jamie silently considered him, sen
ding him a sidelong glance. “You’re right. I don’t. But, there’s only one way for me to find out, isn’t there?”
Kell favored her with his best suggestive grin. “That’s the way I see it.”
Just then, a cab pulled up in front of them. Jamie hailed the driver and then turned to Kell. “Well, my ride’s here. It was nice meeting you.”
Kell chuckled. “The pleasure was all mine.” And it was. He couldn’t believe it. He was giddy with excitement. It was like…bam! Love at first sight. “All right. Here we go.” He opened the back door of the cab and helped her in.
“Thank you. You’re such a gentleman,” she said from the back seat.
Kell shrugged away the compliment. “I try to make my mother proud.”
Jamie shook her head with a smile. Then she gave the driver her address and asked him to wait a moment. She turned to Kell. “So, can I call you sometime?”
Clutching the cab’s open back door with one hand, Kell draped himself in the opening and leaned over to see her. “Sure. I’d like that.”
“Great. What’s your phone number?”
Kell closed the cab door. Jamie rolled her window down and looked expectantly at him. “It’s in the book,” he said, winking at her before he turned to swagger away, triumphant, toward the parking garage.
But a feminine shout of appreciation… “Whoa, honey, I wish I had that swing in my backyard!”…and a whistle halted Kell in his tracks. He whipped around to see the cab departing and Jamie leaning out the window, blowing kisses his way. Even the cabbie waved to him.
Embarrassment lit up Kell’s face as people who were walking by grinned and blatantly assessed his qualifications. Mustering what was left of his dignity, Kell did an about-face and marched toward the parking garage. Paybacks are hell, Dr. Winslow. Just wait until the next time I see you.
He had every reason to believe it would be that same evening.
7
THREE DAYS LATER, they once again found themselves in bed. Dr. Hampton’s grand experiment had failed—miserably.
“I can’t believe you didn’t call me for three days,” Kell said, pouting. “I sat around the house all weekend long waiting for that damn phone to ring.”
He was quite put out. Jamie stroked his arm. “Ah, you poor misused man. Don’t you just hate it when that happens? I know we women do.”
Kell narrowed his eyes. “So is that what the treatment was about? A retaliation against men who don’t call?”
“No, of course not.” Then she appeared to think about it. “Maybe. I don’t know. But that’s not a bad chapter heading. Chapter Two—Men Who Don’t Call.”
He pulled himself up on an elbow and stared at her. “You know, I’m beginning to think you’re toying with my affections. First, we’re friends. Then we date. I make embarrassing revelations about the state of my heart, prove to you how I’ve changed. Have I been set up?”
“Oh, Kell, I’d hoped you’d trust me more than that by now. No, you haven’t been set up. Dr. Hampton’s suggestion had nothing to do with my book. Think about it. My Ph.D. wouldn’t have been conferred on me if I hadn’t completed my thesis and my research. Besides, I couldn’t change my research. That would be unethical. I have to write the book from the data I’ve collected—not from our dates.”
Kell lowered his gaze contritely. “I guess I knew that. I didn’t mean to accuse you of being unethical. I’m just paranoid. A hazard of my profession.” Kell raised his head, staring up at her with dark, expressive eyes that never failed to excite her. Dreamy bedroom eyes, she’d once called them. “So, Jamie, is that what you’ve been doing for three days? Writing?”
“No.” Guilt assailed her. Kell’s expression was so sincere—and she wasn’t. “But I have been pretty busy.”
He let out a short grunt. “Great. You did everything else you had to do and then called me with the crumbs of time you had left over.” He put his hand on his chest. “I feel so used.”
And he should, Jamie thought. She couldn’t look him in the eye right now. She hadn’t called him because she’d thought it would be fun to be unpredictable and hard to get. She’d thought it would up the romance factor, make him think of her differently. Always before, she’d been at his beck and call. She’d allowed him to take her for granted, to become comfortable with her always being there. Well, no more, she’d told herself. She called it practice for when she was on tour once her book came out. For when she was the one who wasn’t there.
That had sounded good in theory. But in actual practice? She’d hated every minute of her little experiment. Not calling him, as he had expected her to do, had been the most excruciating thing she’d ever done. Or, not done, actually. It had taken the concerted efforts of her friends to get her through the past few days, too. She’d let Becca, Carrie and Jan in on what was going on with her and Kell. Agog with curiosity, they’d helped keep her strong. It was like being in training to become a new woman.
Still, only her girlfriends’ combined willpower had stopped her from running like some world-class sprinter right to his door. Thank heaven for shopping sprees and credit cards and chocolate. Yesterday, Jan had to work, but Becca and Carrie had come over and they’d all three gone to a movie. That had been disastrous—a summer romantic comedy that had left Jamie wanting to throw herself in Kell’s arms.
“You’re awfully quiet, Jamie. Is there something you want to tell me? Have you changed your mind about this experiment of Dr. Hampton’s?”
“Kell, we’re in bed together. Naked. How can you think I’ve changed my mind?”
“I don’t know.” He picked at a thread in the sheet. “I thought maybe you were trying to give me a taste of my own medicine.”
Jamie took his handsome face in her hands and kissed his forehead. “You are so cute. No. It wasn’t revenge. I was just trying to be different, you know, not so predictable. But it didn’t work. Obviously. Remember,” she said with forced cheeriness, “all I said was that I’d call you sometime. I didn’t say when. And while I’m flattered, I certainly didn’t expect you to be sitting around pining for me. I figured you had a life.”
“I do. And I don’t pine. Men don’t pine.”
“They certainly do.” Amused at his injured air, Jamie reached over and poked his arm. “You could have called me, you know.”
“No, I couldn’t. I was busy, too.”
Feeling in control, Jamie ran her gaze over his handsome face, noting his hawkish nose, his high cheekbones…his firm and sensual lips. Despite the pricks of desire that assailed her, she managed to keep her voice light. “Busy doing what? I thought you were sitting around waiting on me to call.”
He lowered his eyebrows. “Not every minute. I did go see my friend Jeff Camden yesterday.”
Jamie quit playing with him. Genuine emotion backed her words. “Oh, that is such good news. He’s back home, then?”
“He’s home.”
“Melanie must be so happy. How’s Jeff doing?”
Kell shrugged. “Okay, I guess. He looks like hell.”
He was hiding his feelings, Jamie knew. She allowed a thoughtful moment to pass. “And you think it’s your fault, don’t you?” she asked softly.
Kell gave her a sharp look. “Don’t play psychologist with me, Jamie. I don’t need my head examined.”
Contrite, she looked down. “I’m sorry.” Then she met his gaze, saw the glitter of defensiveness in his eyes. “I guess this whole conversation isn’t one we should be having. It’s not exactly in accordance with what Dr. Hampton wants us to do. I mean, if we’d just met, I wouldn’t know anything about Jeff or the accident. And I wouldn’t know how you’d feel about it, would I?”
“No.” Kell shifted position. “You know what? This is a pain, trying to act like we’ve just met. I thought it would be fun the other day, but now I’m not so sure.”
Jamie couldn’t have agreed more, but she wanted to hear his reasoning. “What do you mean?”
“Well, there wasn’t a thing wr
ong with the old Jamie. I miss her.” His dark eyes met hers again, all traces of exasperation gone.
Touched by his words, Jamie melted. “What a sweet thing to say, Kell. I miss you, too.”
“Yeah?” His voice was gruff now. “What was wrong with the new Kell?”
“Nothing.” She grinned and smoothed her hand over his bare chest, noting the fine firmness of his muscles, the smooth texture of his skin…the way he sucked in his breath as she roved her hand over the sculpted plane of his chest. “I just don’t know the new Kell, that’s all. So I’m not comfortable with him yet.”
Kell chuckled evilly. “You’d have a hard time making a jury believe that. I’m naked and in your bed—and have been for the past two hours.”
Pretending shock, Jamie abruptly sat up. Her tangled hair fell around her face. She shoved it back. “I slept with the new Kell? I thought it was with the old Kell.” She flopped back down on the tangled sheets. “Great. I put out on a first date. There goes my reputation. And our course of action with Dr. Hampton.”
“Oh, the hell with Dr. Hampton. He can get his own girl.” Kell gathered her in his arms and rolled on top of her. Jamie welcomed his weight. The feel of his hard-muscled body atop hers stirred the fires inside her that he’d only minutes ago banked with his lovemaking. Staring down at her, he kissed the tip of her nose. “But don’t worry, my friend. I’m not the kiss-and-tell type.”
“Thank God. You know, I kind of like this new Kell.”
“You do? Let’s see if we can make you love him.” He dipped his head and took her mouth in a kiss that ravaged Jamie’s senses all the way to her curling toes.
His tongue plunged into her mouth, stealing the very breath from her…until she was whimpering. Kell pulled back and gently nipped and tugged at her lips. Then he peppered tiny biting kisses along her chin, her jaw. With a rumbling purr deep in her throat, Jamie dug her hands into his short hair and pulled his head down to hers once again. This time it was her kiss that left him breathless. She just couldn’t get enough of him. She was insatiable where he, and only he, was concerned.
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