All About Eve

by Liliana Hart

“Let me up. I don’t want your workers to think improper things about me.”

  “They wouldn’t dare. I’d fire every one of them first.”

  “Exactly, and then my house wouldn’t get fixed.”

  “Why is kissing a bad idea? The truth this time.”

  “What if we weren’t very good at it?”

  Jake laughed uproariously, his body shaking so hard he nearly dislodged Eve onto the floor.

  “It wasn’t that funny,” Eve said, slightly miffed.

  “Are you kidding me? There are some things you just know by instinct. You’re right. It wouldn’t be good.”

  Eve felt a sliver of disappointment that he hadn’t pressed the issue a little longer.

  “It would be amazing,” he said softly. He leaned in close so the words whispered directly into her ear, and he nipped the lobe slightly, eliciting a moan from deep inside her. “There wouldn’t be words to describe it. I thought about it last night when I called into your show, and every time your breath hitched over the air, I thought about how out of all the people who were listening, your sighs were only for me. And then I thought about staying here, so I could take advantage of those sighs when you walked in the door, but I made myself go home and spent a sleepless night thinking about you. But you’re right. It’s much too soon for kissing. I can see I’m going to have to re-strategize.”

  “I’m just not very good at this sort of thing,” Eve confessed, lowering her gaze to the buttons on his shirt. His body heat was astounding. She didn’t think she’d ever be cold again.

  “But you’re the Love Doctor.” The way she went rigid in his arms was enough to tell him it had been the wrong thing to say. He could have kicked himself for being so stupid.

  “Exactly. I give people advice on their love lives. That doesn’t mean I want one of my own. Men seem to be either terrified of me or they think I’m some kind of sex goddess. You’re not in love with me, and I don’t want to start something that has the potential to leave me in pieces.”

  “I see,” Jake said. And he did see. “It sounds as if you’re talking from experience. I don’t think I like being compared to another man.”

  “Let me go.”

  The frigid silence he was met with was enough to tell him that he’d struck a chord. Eve needed a full fledged romance, so she wouldn’t even realize until it was too late that he’d wedged himself into her heart. And then he’d get her to tell him what secrets were weighing so heavily in her mind.

  “No, I don’t think I will let you go, but I’ll hold off on the kissing. For now,” he added. “How about I bring you coffee every morning and fresh donuts?”

  “I don’t like donuts.” She tried to relax and take the olive branch he’d extended. “But I adore chocolate Éclairs,” she said with a calculating look and a raised eyebrow that made him laugh.

  “Okay, fresh coffee and chocolate Éclairs. And then I’ll bring you dinner every night until I get your kitchen finished and you can cook for me.”

  “First of all,” she said, holding up a finger, “I work in the evenings. I usually pick something up on the way to the station. Second, I’ve never cooked a day in my life. A woman named Gretchen has fed me since I was just a little girl and she’ll continue to do so when my kitchen’s finished. She refuses to move in to the carriage house until the house is fixed.”

  “Smart woman. Do you think Gretchen would cook for me too?”

  “No. Hire your own cook. Your grandmother tells me you have plenty of money that you just leave lying around so you can pretend to be common like most of the rest of the world.”

  “I’ve decided to put my inheritance in a trust fund for our children. It’s never too early to plan for the future. All right, never mind,” he said before she could utter a protest. “Don’t get overexcited. You’re kind of high strung, but I think I like that in a woman.”

  “How dare you…”

  “Shh,” he said pressing his finger to her lips. “I wouldn’t want you to say something you’ll regret later. Here’s my final offer. We’ll have lunch together here during the weekdays, where I’ll quietly romance you and make you fall madly in love with me. I’ll take you out someplace nice on the weekend then seduce you. Or maybe we could skip some of the middle parts and go right to the seduction. I have an awful need to taste you.”

  “Umm…I think maybe we should keep our mind on food for the time being.”

  “You’ll never look at food the same once you’ve had a meal with me. I wonder what champagne would taste like if I drank it from you skin.” He skimmed his finger from just behind her ear to her full bottom lip.

  “You could make me want you,” Eve said, unsteadily. “And I might give in to the temptation. But I’m not going to change my mind on things getting serious between the two of us. I can’t do it. I won’t do it.”

  “I know exactly what I’m getting into. I love you, Eve, whether you believe me or not. It only took a second, and I’m not afraid to work hard to get you to love me back. Now let’s get you out of here. The kitchen’s one of the first things on the agenda.”

  He stood and slapped her on the butt like he’d just hit a line drive down the middle, before grabbing her hand and pulling her out the door.

  Eve wasn’t sure what had just happened, other than the fact that Jake thought he loved her and was going to wait patiently until she could get her act together. He didn’t seem like the type who was used to rejection.

  “What’s that?” Eve asked, looking at the large trailer that was hooked up to the back of Jake’s pick up.

  “That’s my traveling office, so I can deal with paperwork while I’m on site. It’s fully stocked with a kitchenette, a bathroom and a bed, so you shouldn’t be too uncomfortable while we’re working. I’m going to leave it here so you can get a decent night’s sleep and not worry about things crashing down on your sleeping body.”

  Eve pulled out of his grasp. “But I wanted to help with the house,” she said, her arguments already forming on her lips.

  “You can help when it’s time to make decisions on structural changes or color schemes. But I need your help with something else while I’m working. You see, if Gran isn’t kept occupied, she has a tendency to get into trouble. You’d be doing me a big favor if you spent a little time with her in the day. You can even bring your work in here with you and set up your own office space.”

  Eve already knew she was beaten. If he didn’t want her under foot all he had to do was say so. He didn’t have to stick her with babysitting duty just to keep her distracted. Sneaky man.

  “Fine,” she said primly. “I’d love to spend the days with your grandmother. I’m sure I’ll get quite the education. Maybe she’ll loosen me up a little. You were the one who called me high strung a few minutes ago, weren’t you?” Eve batted her eyelashes at Jack and hid her grin at his scowl.

  “Now wait a minute…”

  “No, no, Jake. You go ahead and do all your manly building things, and your grandmother and I will keep ourselves occupied.”

  ***

  Jake wasn’t sure he liked the look in Eve’s eyes. He got a sudden image of Eve and his grandmother behind bars, cheating the other prisoners out of cigarettes, and a cold sweat broke out on his body. His grandmother could lead a saint down the path to temptation. He was about to call off the whole thing when the bad influence in question came into sight.

  “It’s about time you two got here,” Ruth said. “It’s not safe to leave an old lady alone for very long. What if I had a stroke or slipped in the shower? Didn’t I tell you that you wouldn’t be able to talk her into anything on the spur of the moment? Eve’s not like those other bird-brained floozies you’ve dated in the past. She’s not going to just fall into your arms when you twinkle those baby blues her way.”

  Eve blushed crimson, embarrassed because she’d done just that. And liked it too. But she definitely had questions about the bird-brained floozies. She might be naïve when it came to love, but she knew ve
ry well what jealousy felt like. Her marriage had been full of it, and if Jake Murphy had that in common with her husband, he might as well give up now.

  Jake was going to have to work really hard to prove that what he felt was more than a simple case of infatuation. She knew herself well enough to know that once her heart was given to a man, it would be his forever.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Two days later, Eve pulled her silver Miata in front of her house and blew out a breath.

  “Things have to get worse before they can get better,” she told herself, looking at the debris and materials that sat in semi-organized piles around her lawn.

  She was grateful to Jake for letting her stay in the trailer while the construction was going on. She couldn’t have lived in that rubble, stubborn independence set aside.

  Eve stepped out of the car and tried to subdue her hair. It was just past noon and already it looked as if it had been through World War III. She’d had an early meeting with her editor at the paper, and damned if she wasn’t tired of having people try to manipulate her time for their own selfishness.

  They wanted her to branch out to a daily column instead of her usual once a week editorial that appeared in the big Sunday paper. She’d said no. And it came down to her own selfish reasons. She just didn’t want to do it. Plain and simple. Her schedule was already more than full with the radio show and the occasional guest appearances she made at universities and television networks. She was scheduled to teach a class on love and marriage next semester at the local college, not to mention the new headache of her house.

  And then there was the note. It had been folded neatly under her windshield wiper, and if it hadn’t had had her name printed on the outside she would have thrown it away without reading it. She wished she had. She got the occasional nutcase that followed her show from time to time. She’d get personal calls at home wanting advice or someone who fancied themselves in love with her voice. But the note had taken her off guard.

  The man, at least she assumed it was a man, had only written that he’d been watching her and that she was as beautiful in real life as she was on the radio. There was no signature. So she’d shoved it to the bottom of her purse and watched her rearview mirror all the way home. Her nerves were strung taught between her editor and her admirer and all she wanted was a very large glass of wine for lunch and a double fudge sundae for dessert.

  She was dressed in a black suit, a pencil skirt that came just above the knee and a jacket that covered a cream colored shell, complete with the dreaded pantyhose. That was another reason she hated going into the city to meet with her editor. The man always insisted they meet for breakfast or lunch at some pricey restaurant. Someday, she was going to demand he meet on her ground, and she was going to require him to wear sweatpants and a ratty t-shirt just to be contrary.

  “Stupid man. Pantyhose Nazi. Demanding that I drop everything and dress up so he can look down my blouse and tell me he wants a column seven days a week.” Men weren’t exactly on her list of most favorite things at the moment.

  ***

  Jake noticed the minute Eve pulled up in front of the house. He considered himself a pretty good judge of women and knew enough to recognize when one was working up a serious mad.

  She looked like a wild woman, her hair at crazy angles and muttering to herself under her breath. His workers were giving her a wide berth, and one even went so far as to cross himself when he passed by. But boy did that skirt do something spectacular to her legs. She was curvy and soft in all the right places, and he was finding being patient wasn’t nearly as easy as he thought it would be.

  He’d worked on the kitchen for the last two weeks, tearing out and rebuilding, staying out of the plumber’s way and keeping an extra eye on his grandmother. The sight of Eve was exactly what his tired eyes needed. His grandmother was gone for the afternoon, getting her nails done and her skin buffed, or some such nonsense, but she managed to look twenty years younger so he guessed it was worth it. Eve was all his for the time being.

  The sound of a shrill scream brought him out of his daydream and running out the door. Eve was plastered to the sidewalk with her hands over her head and little whimpers escaping from somewhere under the pile of hair.

  “What happened? What’s wrong? Are you hurt?” Jake ran his hands over her back and legs, looking for an injury since her words weren’t coherent enough for him to understand.

  She pointed up to the sky and it was then he noticed the bats that were swooping from the trees. Their home must have been disturbed by whoever was working on the top floor.

  “Relax, Eve. It’s just a few bats. There are workers on the top floor that must have disturbed their nest. They won’t hurt you.”

  Eve had had enough of dealing with men for the day, and her temper got the better of her. “How do you know they won’t hurt me? You never mentioned that you were a bat expert as well as a womanizer. How ever have you managed to fit everything into such a tight schedule?”“Uhh. . .I think this is one of those moments where a man’s best defense is to say nothing. But you might want to tone the yelling down a bit. Your neighbors are starting to enjoy the show.”

  “Coward,” she said, scrambling up off the ground. “And I never yell, so they can all just find something else to stare at.”

  Eve turned and faced down the first neighbor she saw. “You there,” she said pointing to a man standing on his lawn and watering his flowers. “What’s your name?”

  “Mr. Panamaker,” he stammered.

  “Well, I hope in the future you won’t make a habit of eavesdropping on private conversations. I didn’t say a word when your wife locked you out of the house in your underwear last week.”

  “No, ma’am,” he said, looking like a frightened rabbit that wanted nothing more than to hide under the bushes.

  “Well, then,” Eve said, satisfied. “I’m planning on having a neighborhood barbeque when the house is finished. I hope you and your wife will come.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said, putting down the hose and inching his way towards his front door slowly.

  Jake wasn’t sure if laughing was the right thing to do under the circumstances, so he disguised it with a cough and hid his smile behind his hand.

  “Sometimes, you remind me of my granny,” he said. “Very scary.”

  She looked down at her leg and noticed the blood seeping from her knee. On the bright side, there was a good sized rip in her hated pantyhose. “Same damned knee I hurt when I fell through the back porch.”

  “Uh, huh. I didn’t realize you were the one who’d done all that damage. You were lucky you didn’t break your neck. Let’s go get you cleaned up, crazy lady,” he said, pushing her in the direction of the trailer.

  “I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself.”

  He ignored her protests and picked her up in his arms. “I know you are, but I’d prefer to do it myself. I’d never want you to say that I hadn’t acted like a gentleman.”

  Eve felt lower than dirt. There was no reason for her to take out her bad mood on Jake. He hadn’t done anything wrong. Well, maybe she did have a little bit of resentment over the outcome of their first date. It wasn’t his fault that an old girlfriend had showed up at the restaurant where they were having dinner. And he couldn’t have known that another of his ex’s would show up at the club he’d taken her to for dancing. It was all just a big coincidence. But she had to wonder if he’d told those women how much he loved them before he got them into bed. Was it the thrill of the chase that had him so enamored with her? The similarities to Steve were piling up, and the smart thing to do would be to get as far away from Jake as possible.

  “I’m sorry for being such a bitch.”

  “No, problem,” he said, reaching for the first aid kit as soon as they made it inside of the trailer. “Everyone’s entitled every now and then. You want to tell me about it?”

  “I just had a lousy meeting with the editor of the paper I write for. I don’t know, ma
ybe I’ll stop writing for the paper all together. I’ve been toying with the idea of putting a book together and I’ve had a call from a publisher that’s interested in the finished product. I have hundreds of letters that never get answered in the paper. I could use some of them in the book and give a few extra tips or ideas that don’t ever get printed.”

  “Sounds to me like you’ve given it more than a little thought. Take your pantyhose off so I can doctor that scrape.”

  Eve eyed him wearily, wondering if this was just the excuse he needed to get his hands on her. Her knee was throbbing, though, so she did as he asked.

  “I don’t think this is going to work, Jake.”

  “I haven’t even put the medicine on it yet. I’m a very competent medic.”

  “That’s not what I meant, and you know it. I don’t think you and I are going to work. I’ve had some time to think about this over the last couple of days, and I don’t think I’m ready for a relationship just yet. I’ve got a lot of baggage and resentment that I’m obviously still carrying around.”

  What she really meant was that she couldn’t take it if Jake Murphy broke her heart and went on to another in his long line of conquests. How would she feel if she ran into him in a restaurant with his new girlfriend? The answer to that was simple—she’d have to kill the woman.

  “Are you ever going to tell me about this man who broke your heart and left me with such a difficult job? I bet I could help you get over him.”

  “Doubtful. You seem to share some of his qualities.”

  “Hmm,” was the only response that declaration got out of him. She was almost positive he’d have more to say than a measly hmm.

  “Is that all you’re going to say?” She demanded, knowing she’d just jumped overboard to the role of totally irrational female.

  “No. I’m going to concentrate on your knee and pretend that you just told me how much you love being with me. If you can live in a fantasy world, there’s nothing to say that I can’t join you there. Did I tell you my partner, George, is coming back from vacation tomorrow?” He didn’t wait for her answer. “I’ll be glad to have him back. I’ve put off several meetings because I’ve had to wear my hard hat instead of a suit. Don’t worry though. I’ll still pay special attention to your house. You could say it’s become a pet project of mine.”