“It’s my favorite thing in this museum.”
“It’s not going to get you out of answering my question.” Bear turned away from the giant fish so he could study her. As much as he enjoyed this little game, he wanted answers.
She stared into his eyes for a long time. Hers were dark, the look in them almost challenging and a little smile flickered around her mouth. In the accent lights, her lips shone too temptingly. He tried to consider the consequences for kissing her here, right in front of the fish, but thoughts of what her lips would feel and taste like kept getting in the way. Then there was what her body would feel like when he wrapped his arms around her.
“Lemon Sugar body wash, Godiva chocolates and The X-Files.”
3
“What?” Bear tried to pull himself back into focus. Twice she’d done that in the last five minutes.
“My indulgences. You wanted to know. Fresh Lemon Sugar body wash, Godiva chocolates and The X-Files.” She cocked her head and smiled up at him. “Happy?”
No. He kinda wished he’d skipped the answers and gone for the kiss. Even with the fish watching.
“Miss Donnelly! Miss Donnelly!” A little girl with long blond hair ran over and grabbed Maureen’s hand. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to see the dinosaurs. What are you doing here?”
“I’m with Daddy this weekend.” The girl turned in the direction of a medium sized guy walking toward them. “Daddy, look, it’s Miss Donnelly. I told you she was pretty.”
“Yes, honey, you did.” The guy held out his hand. “Nice to meet you, Miss Donnelly. Lindsey talks about you all the time.”
“She’s an excellent student. I graded the math tests this morning and you did very well.”
“She likes being in your class,” Lindsey’s dad said. While the man kept his gaze on Maureen, his focus on Bear was so tight it felt like a smothering pillow.
“I like having her in my class. Lindsey, are you studying for your Monday spelling quiz? You have an unbroken streak to protect.”
“I know.” Lindsey pulled a scrap of paper out of her pocket and waved it around. “I look at it all the time.”
“Unbroken streak?” Lindsey’s father asked.
“I give the kids their spelling words on Friday and we have a quiz on Monday. If they get them all right Monday, they get free reading time on Friday when the other kids take the spelling test. Lindsey hasn’t had to take the Friday spelling test since Thanksgiving.”
The proud father beamed. “Really? Lindsey, you didn’t tell me that.”
The way this guy was eyeing Maureen, he was going to be taking a much bigger interest in his daughter’s school career.
Lindsey’s father turned to him in obvious appraisal. The expression on his face reminded Bear of beta fish glaring through their little glass windows at any other fish around, except this guy wasn’t flashy enough to be beta fish material. He was more of a plain lake trout. A nice local lake trout who wasn’t going to be going on tour for the next nine or ten months or how ever long this fucking tour was supposed to last.
“You haven’t introduced us to your date,” he said.
“This is my friend Michael. Michael, this is Lindsey Conner and her dad, Mr. Conner.”
“Hi.” Bear held out his hand. Conner had an I-can-take-him gleam in his eye that made him want to turn this handshake into arm wrestling. Right. Conner had no clue what he was dealing with. Not only could he not take Bear, he wouldn’t be able to handle a woman as hot as Maureen. Of course, Conner was also part of her realistic dating pool and it wouldn’t be fair to scare off the competition before she had a chance to size him up.
Conner had no such qualms and gripped him like his hand was a boa constrictor and he was fighting for his life. Bear started to squeeze back, but the other man yanked his hand away before he could get a serious grip going.
“Nice to meet you,” Conner said, backing up a step, proving himself to be more of a guppy than a beta fish. “We should leave you alone.”
“Aw, Daddy,” Lindsey whined.
“Honey, it’s Miss Donnelly’s day off. We should leave her alone with her boyfriend.” Conner put his hand on his daughter’s shoulder and pulled her away. “It was nice meeting you, Miss Donnelly.”
“’Bye, Miss Donnelly,” Lindsey said over her shoulder as her father beat a hasty retreat.
“Well, that was a little weird,” Maureen said, after father and daughter had disappeared around another display. “For a minute there I thought we were going to end up on a double date. I wonder why Lindsey’s father suddenly got the attack of manners.”
Bear shrugged. The whole pissing contest had only taken about two and a half seconds. Not long enough for her to even notice. He hadn’t been the one to start it either. His conscience was clean. Conner wanted the battle. He’d also realized he was in over his head and retreated before it got obvious.
Conner was also going to be here in two weeks and had a good reason to visit Maureen. He’d lost the battle, but he had a better chance of winning the war.
“Cool dinosaurs,” Bear said, pulling Maureen toward the T. Rex skeleton looming over the next room.
* * * *
At her house, Maureen found herself contemplating coffee again. He’d indulged her for hours at the museum, wandering around, looking at everything with more than polite interest. While she wasn’t paying attention, he’d gotten a restaurant recommendation from a staffer. Not the kind of place she frequented. Cloth napkins, crystal stemware, multiple utensils. The last time a date tried to impress her, he’d taken her to Red Lobster—and she’d been impressed.
It made her wonder what he expected.
And, if she wouldn’t give it. The way she’d been tingling in front of the bonefish, he didn’t have to try so hard. If Lindsey and her dad had shown up five minutes later, they might have rushed away a lot faster. Her resistance only lasted so long.
Michael was just so darn delicious to look at. Add that to how polite, nice and patient he was and the way his scent made her blood sing and resistance really was futile. What was the point of resisting anyway?
Oh yeah. Michael’s brother Tony had a first grader and she didn’t need that kind of reputation, considering some of the busy bodies posing as parents. Life was difficult enough without inviting trouble.
Did trouble always have to come in such marvelous packaging?
“So do you want to come in?” She kicked herself the moment the question was out. Of course he did. Based on the gleam in his eyes at the museum, he wanted to come in for coffee and stay for breakfast.
He frowned at her. “Um, okay.” Reaching for the door handle, he hesitated. “Just so we’re clear, you’re inviting me in for a drink or something, right?”
Shoot, the packaging was really good. “I was thinking along the lines of coffee, yes.” Ha! More like coffee, tea or me.
“Perfect.” He jumped out and ran around the car to open the door for her. All day long, she hadn’t been allowed to open a single door for herself. Michael had to be gentlemanly on top of everything else.
Maureen allowed him to usher her into the house. What about asking him in for coffee was perfect? He hadn’t sounded sarcastic and if he was being sarcastic, why had he accepted? What man in his right mind was happy to find out that coffee wasn’t a code word for horizontal mambo? She shrugged out of her coat and threw it over the back of the chair. “I’ll get the coffee going.”
“You need help with anything?”
You could help me by not being so perfectly, weirdly normal. “No, I’ve got it.”
In the kitchen, she started the coffee pot and debated breaking out her cream and sugar set. It distracted her from debating what was going on with Michael. He wasn’t acting like any other guy she’d ever dated and seemed really happy about it. Why was he happy that she’d put the brakes on last night, announced she wasn’t sleeping with him this afternoon and spelled out that coffee was just coffee tonight? Cof
fee. She was supposed to be thinking about that so she didn’t have to think about Michael and his mysteries.
“So what did you think of Lindsey’s father?”
Maureen turned away from the cupboard. Michael stood in the kitchen door with a curious expression on his face. “What?”
“Lindsey’s father. What did you think of him?”
There he was, doing mysterious stuff again. Asking weird questions out of left field. To be honest, she’d done it to him, so this was fair play. “What about him?”
“Would you go out with him?”
“I couldn’t. He’s the father of one of my students.” Maureen took out her cream and sugar set so she would have something to do with her hands. The small pitcher and sugar bowl were shaped like a bucket and a watering can.
“So?”
Maureen poured milk into the watering can. “It’s unethical to date the father of a student.”
“What about this summer when she’s not your student anymore?” Michael leaned on the counter.
“It’s still an ethical gray area and I try to stay out of those.” She put the milk back in the fridge. “Is there a reason you’re trying to fix me up with another man?”
“Just wondering what you’ll do when I leave.”
She faced him. This was weird behavior. Really weird. “I was thinking about throwing myself off a tall building from grief. Would that be too much?”
Michael stared at her.
“It was a joke,” Maureen said. She took two coffee mugs out of the cupboard. The coffee pot gurgled to a finish.
“I figured,” he said after a too long pause.
A terrible joke. “Where is it you live anyway? You never said.”
“California.”
“North, south, someplace in the middle?” She could handle a bit of mystery in her life, but so far all she’d managed to find out about him was his passion for muscle cars and what he liked to watch on TV.
“South. Malibu.”
The name rang a vague bell, but she couldn’t place it. That only meant it wasn’t a state capitol. “Malibu? Isn’t that near Los Angeles?” She poured the coffee and held out a cup. It had bears holding up a sign that said, Teacher, I love you beary much.
“Yeah.” Michael took the cup and looked at it suspiciously.
“I know where I’ve heard of it now. Famous people live there.” Maureen put milk and sugar into her cup. “Have any famous neighbors?”
“Famous neighbors?” He held the cup like he’d forgotten what it was for.
“Yeah, famous neighbors. Do you want cream or sugar?” She shouldn’t have bothered. Now she had to wash them.
“No, thanks. I take it black.” Michael sipped from his cup. “I buy groceries at the same place as Rick Allen.”
“Oh, really? Is he an actor?”
“He’s a drummer.”
“He wasn’t in Toy Story?”
“No, he’s in Def Leppard.”
“Oh.” Maureen nodded. “That must be interesting. Do you want to go sit down in the living room?”
Michael stared at her for another beat. “Sure.”
She sat down sideways on the couch and curled her feet under her so she could face him. “Where are you from originally?”
“Detroit.”
“How did you end up in California?”
He shifted the cup around in his hand. “Work.”
“You didn’t want to go into business with your brother?” Maureen relaxed into the back of the couch, willing him to follow suit. He sat with both hands clutching the cup and both feet on the floor, looking less comfortable than if he were on the wrong side of the principal’s desk.
“No. What about you? Are you from around here?”
She shrugged. “Pretty close. I grew up in a little town about a hundred miles south of here, but they didn’t need any teachers when I needed a job.”
“You like it.”
“I love it. I wouldn’t do it otherwise. It’s too hard.”
Michael shifted toward her. “Really? Why’s it hard?”
“Lots of planning, lots of effort and sometimes that horse just won’t drink.”
“That little girl today seemed pretty excited about you.”
“She’s one of my fans. They aren’t all like that.”
Michael took a drink of his coffee and gestured to the bookshelf in the corner. “You have a lot of dinosaur books.”
“I like dinosaurs and I work with little boys who also like dinosaurs. What about you? Other than cars and The Simpsons, what do you like?”
He took one hand off the coffee cup, reached over and brushed his fingers down hers. “I’m liking you a lot.”
“You know that wasn’t what I meant.” Her whole being centered on his touch, making following the conversation difficult.
“It wasn’t?” He worked his fingers under her palm and started drawing circles on the back of her hand with his thumb.
“I was thinking about hobbies and interests.” She couldn’t manage a decent breath. Only the top third of her lungs were operating and it was making her dizzy. Or maybe it was his touch making her dizzy. Either way, she needed to put down her coffee cup before she dropped it.
“You’re interesting.” He leaned over, set his coffee cup on the table and when he sat back, turned toward her.
“Not that interesting.”
“You’d be surprised.” He brought her hand to his lips.
The fingers around her cup got very jealous and distracted, but just as they mutinied, Michael caught the cup and put it on the table. Maureen shivered as he leaned in closer.
“I think you’re fascinating,” Michael murmured just before pressing his lips to hers. He cupped her cheek, and still held her hand.
Maureen parted her lips under his gentle assault. Her free hand strayed across his chest, exploring the tempting hardness she’d been sneaking peeks at all day. Exactly as hard and molded as she’d thought. He groaned against her mouth. The sound vibrated through her and raised her temperature. The turtleneck was a bad choice. Too hot. She needed to take it off right now. Bunching her fingers in his shirt, she decided his shirt was too hot too, and she needed to know what his bare skin felt like. No other man had ever made her feel this reckless. She couldn’t decide whether she should push him onto his back or lean back, pulling him on top of her.
Michael made the decision for her. He sat back, still holding her hand and blinking. “Well, that’s some coffee.”
“Yeah.” Was he up to innuendos about dessert, and was she really up to offering? This was a second date. She had a reason for resisting. Was she prepared to toss that reason out the window?
“I should probably go.” Michael stood, a little unsteadily. “Are you coming to the garage in the morning?”
“Only if you come get me. My car is still there.” She stood too. There was still time to offer dessert. It would save him a trip.
“Great. I’ll get you for lunch again.”
“I’ll have to bring some work with me.”
“Oh.” He frowned. “I am being a big time suck, huh? Do you—are you sure you can afford to lose the time? I can just bring the car over tomorrow afternoon when I’m done. You don’t have to be there.”
She knotted her hands behind her back. Dang it, he was doing it again. Mixing his signals. Assuming she wanted to be at the garage and then telling her she didn’t need to be. Push, pull. That alone should have been enough to make her remember she was fixed here probably with his nephew in her class next year while he’d be leaving. Imagine the parent teacher conferences with Tony and Pam D’Amato sitting across the desk from her.
Imagine missing out on Michael. “Don’t you want me at the garage?”
“Yeah, but not if you don’t have the time. I mean, I don’t want to get in the way of your job.”
“I can bring what I need.” Except the computer to put the grades into. Lugging her desktop to the garage would be overkill. It was early enou
gh to get some done tonight.
And after he left town, she’d have plenty of time.
“I’ll just bring along what I need. Unless you don’t want me there.”
He gave her a crooked grin. “Baby, I’m starting to want you everywhere.” Dragging her into his arms, he kissed her again, bending her back.
Maureen sunk her fingers into his shoulders as a tide of heat engulfed her. Parent teacher conferences with the D’Amato’s were a long way away and her personal life wasn’t any of their business. She wanted this, now. To hell with the consequences. Maureen wrapped her arms around his shoulders, pulling herself up his body until he groaned. His fingers clutched the back of her shirt.
“You are no average, ordinary girl,” he murmured, brushing his lips along her jaw.
“I never claimed to be anything I wasn’t.”
“No, you didn’t.” He lifted his face from hers. “I better get out of here before this gets out of control. I really am trying to be a good guy here.”
“Is that what you’re doing?” She’d tried to sound playful and did manage a smile to go with it, but the question rang through her mind with anguish.
“Can’t fuck with the locals.” He put his hands on her shoulders and took a step back. She thought she heard the sound of Velco separating, but she might have been imagining it. “Tomorrow. Lunch, and then you can hang out at the garage while I tune up your car.”
Maureen followed him to the door. “I’ll be ready.”
“Good.” After he opened the door, he kissed her forehead. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” He pulled the door closed behind him, leaving her staring at it.
Can’t fuck with the locals? What did that mean?
* * * *
Bear backed the Satellite out of the driveway. Early evening again. Maybe not for her, but nine o’clock was pretty early for him to end a date.
If he hadn’t ended this date when he had, he would have to regretted it. Damn, two days into this charade and it was already rubbing him raw.
He wanted her. In fact, he was starting to think he wanted her every day, morning, noon and night in a permanent, legal kind of way. Lust was part of it. That cute little bob and flowered turtleneck look covered a hot chick. The body, the responses, the innocent delight in her eyes. Such a turn on. Way past the fuck-me heels and nothing left to the imagination cleavage he was usually treated to.
Satellite of Love Page 4
