Say Yes & The Cinderella Solution

by Lori Foster

  She took a long, slow sip of her water, letting the icy liquid calm her down a little.

  You’re a woman. Be a woman.

  It was now or never. Charlotte hadn’t studied that little paperback for nothing.

  She let the straw trail on her lower lip suggestively before putting her drink down. “I love this restaurant,” she said, her voice deliberately husky.

  Jack’s eyes widened, and the forkful of rice he’d begun to eat remained suspended in midair. “Really?”

  “Mmm-hmm.” She smiled, consciously taking a deep breath high up in her chest. “It’s one of my favorite places in Manhattan Beach. It’s quiet, it has this great romantic atmosphere, and the food…” She smiled, picking up a forkful of her own risotto and tasting it. The delicate blend of Parmesan and the earthy taste of mushroom blended perfectly with the light, crisp asparagus. She didn’t have to play up the moan of satisfaction. “Well, obviously the food is heavenly.”

  He was staring at her as if he’d never seen her before. She beat down the instinct to creep back into her shell. He would react in one of two ways: either he’d think she was absolutely insane, or he’d find it attractive and sensual, just as the book claimed.

  His eyes suddenly glowed, a deep, mesmerizing emerald. She’d only seen that sort of look directed at other people, like Dana or Bella, but she knew what it meant. Full steam ahead. Now that it was directed at her, she wasn’t entirely sure what to do with it. She tried for a sexy smile, and his answering grin was uncomfortably intense.

  Gabe’s dinner companion broke into the moment with a high-pitched giggle. Charlotte, struggling to keep a grip on whatever she was doing right, reluctantly looked over.

  The waiter had delivered a huge salad to Gabe’s table. The woman was now feeding forkfuls to Gabe, and he was literally eating it up. The woman’s blatant display made Charlotte’s subtle little sensual cues look like flirting, Amish-style. She could only imagine what the woman was doing underneath the tablecloth….

  Charlotte winced. Okay. I’m not going to think about that again.

  Charlotte forced her focus back to her own table. She glanced down at Jack’s plate: poached salmon in a wine sauce. “Could I have a taste of that?” she murmured, looking at him hesitantly. “I’ve never tried that dish before.” She knew she ought to be keeping up the sexy act, but in the face of Gabe’s competition, she felt herself losing the battle.

  Jack smiled, and he picked up a morsel on his fork, holding it out to her.

  Her eyes widened. She’d meant could he put it on her plate. She’d never really eaten off another man’s fork before, unless you counted Gabe’s, which obviously she didn’t. The act seemed too intimate, and she started to protest. One glance at Gabe stopped the protest in her throat.

  Gabe was staring at Charlotte again, ignoring the lettuce his date was offering. Amazingly enough, he actually had the nerve to look disapproving!

  With a slow smile, she leaned forward, taking the salmon neatly off the fork in one small bite. The salmon was incredible, she noted, and she obligingly let out a long sigh.

  “God, if I could find that chef, I’d marry him,” Charlotte said happily, her eyes half-lidded. There. Let Gabe disapprove of that!

  Jack leaned over and took her hand, surprising her out of her feelings of triumph. “How about if I just promised to take you here every night?”

  She laughed nervously, wondering if she could tug her hand away without seeming too rude. Jack waited a minute, then stroked the back of her hand gently before bringing his own hand back to his side of the table. She suppressed a sigh of relief and made a more concentrated effort to focus on him, rather than the table across the room. She held up her end pretty well, she thought, as they discussed recent movies and books. She concluded that Jack was a nice man, as well as good-looking.

  She kept The Guide stuff to a minimum, though. Nice or not, Jack definitely made her nervous. When dessert was finally offered, she was more than ready for the date to be over.

  “Everything looks so good,” Jack said, glancing over at her. “What would you recommend?”

  She gave the dessert cart a cursory glance. “The chocolate raspberry decadence sundae,” she said immediately. “That’s what I’d get, but I’m not really that hungry. I always share it…” She stopped, before she could say with Gabe.

  He smiled at her, that sexy smile that was beginning to irritate her. “Then we’ll share it. Okay?”

  She nodded. At this point, she’d agree if he asked to split a hemlock float. She’d had enough dating for one evening.

  “Oh Gabe, I shouldn’t! Really. Can’t you see this dress? I’m supposed to stick to salads!”

  Charlotte glanced over at Gabe’s table, the dessert cart’s next stop. His date was making a lot of noise, attracting most of the patrons’ glances and showing off that bionic-woman body of hers. Charlotte rolled her eyes. Jack alone she could have handled, possibly even enjoyed. But Jack and the poster-girl for The Guide, both on her first dinner date in years, was more than she could handle.

  “Don’t worry,” Charlotte heard Gabe say over the woman’s squealing. “We can split it.”

  Charlotte saw red.

  “Um, Charlotte?” Jack asked tentatively. “Are you okay?”

  Charlotte brought her attention back to Jack, immediately feeling guilty. It wasn’t his fault that she hadn’t dated in so long, or that Gabe was trying to make a point. “I’m sorry, Jack. I’ve had a lot on my mind lately.”

  He nodded, and it seemed as if he really understood. “Want to talk about it?”

  “Not really.”

  “You sure?” He smiled and took her hand again, without any sexy stares or smiles, just friendly. This time, she let him. His hand was warm and comforting. “I’m a good listener.”

  “You know, I think you would be,” she replied, giving his hand a quick squeeze. “But I’m not a great talker, which I guess you probably figured out.”

  “You were doing fine,” he countered. “But I did notice you were kind of distracted. Could you tell me one thing, though?”

  She smiled wearily. “Sure. What?”

  He glanced over his shoulder, leaned forward and asked quietly, “Why are you so obsessed with that big-chested woman?”

  Charlotte’s eyes popped wide-open. “Oh, my God.”

  “Not that she isn’t eye-catching, but you’ve been sending looks over to that table that could skewer things.”

  Charlotte put her head down on their joined hands, feeling blood rush to her face. “Oh, no…”

  He nudged her head up with the back of his hand, forcing her eyes to meet his. “Come on. It’s that guy, isn’t it? Your friend Gabe.”

  “No, it’s not like that,” she muttered, looking desperately in his eyes for understanding. “You see…well, I’ve known Gabe since I was eight. He’s my best friend. But he, along with about all of the male population of Los Angeles, thinks I’m about as sexy as a nature documentary. And being my best friend, he had no real compunction about letting me know that. After all, what are friends for, right?” Her voice broke and she shut up quickly, before she did something even more humiliating. Like crying.

  “I’ve seen some pretty racy nature documentaries,” Jack said, causing her to smile and fend off the tears she felt hovering. “And if this guy, or any of the other guys in this city, thinks that you’re not absolutely gorgeous, then they’re all crazy. You, lady, are one of the prettiest women I’ve ever seen.”

  She snorted. “Pull the other one. I like my legs even.”

  “I like your legs, too,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows and causing her to laugh. “So. What are our friends doing now?” he whispered, leaning over the table, his face set in a melodramatic look of spylike secretiveness.

  She sent over a similarly dramatic glance. “She’s eating ice cream off of a spoon. He’s feeding her,” she reported.

  “Aw, we can do better than that.”

  She smiled, perfect
ly at ease with Jack for the first time all night. His answering smile was mischievous, and she chuckled.

  Suddenly, she and Jack were putting on a display that would have put 9 1/2 Weeks to shame. He fed her ice cream, and she devoured it outrageously, darting her tongue out, licking her lips. She fed him spoonfuls, cooing ridiculous names like “Honey-bunny” and “Pumpkin Blossom” between bites. It was hysterically funny, especially since no one would expect this kind of behavior from her. Heck, she was surprising herself! It was apparently doing the trick, too… She not only had Gabe’s attention, she had drawn the attention of several other tables. It was all she could do not to burst out laughing.

  She glanced over to study Gabe’s response and was shocked out of her merry state. His date had put aside the spoon and had now scooted her chair closer to Gabe, latching on to his neck like a vampire with her fat pink lips. His eyes were half-closed, like a bored cat’s. He barely gave Charlotte a cursory glance as he continued to calmly eat ice cream.

  She felt angry, and challenged at the gauntlet Gabe had thrown down. She took one last look at the dish she and Jack had just demolished. The only thing left was the long-stemmed cherry they’d put aside.

  “Do you want that cherry?” she asked, glancing at Jack.

  “If you want it, it’s yours,” Jack said, rubbing his stomach and laughing. “I’m going to have a huge stomachache tonight, but it was worth it. I haven’t had this much fun in ages!”

  “You think that’s something,” she muttered, picking up the cherry and licking it. “Watch this.”

  She bit down on the cherry, fiercely ripping it off the stem and devouring it.

  “Bravo,” Jack said, clapping lightly, but she stopped him with a curt hand motion.

  “Not yet,” she said, holding the stem. “This is the good part. Watch carefully.”

  With a quick motion, she sucked the cherry stem in. Her face remained stock-still for a moment, as she moved her tongue in a flurry of hidden activity. Slowly, she smiled, then put her fingers to her lips. With a graceful pull, she produced the cherry stem…only now it was tied in a square knot!

  She was gratified by his look of shock. “Party trick,” she murmured, shrugging.

  Jack’s jaw dropped. “I feel like I need a cigarette, and I don’t even smoke!”

  Applause exploded around her, and Charlotte glanced up.

  Two tables of men in business suits were clapping wildly, one man even standing up. “You go, girl!” Wolf whistles emerged from different areas. She even caught several pops of a flashbulb.

  Torn between running out of the building and hiding under the table, a gesture that surely would have been misinterpreted, she stood up and curtsied, her face aflame. The Guide didn’t have a chapter on this one, she reflected. How precisely did one look sexy while making a fool of oneself?

  Then she looked over at Gabe’s table.

  Gabe was choking on his ice cream. The busty blonde was hitting him on the back, hard. He only stared at Charlotte, his eyes bulging in shock.

  She burst into a radiant smile. Mess with the bull, and you get the horns, buddy!

  With a flirty little flounce, she turned to Jack. “Well, I guess my work here is done,” she murmured, in her best superhero voice. “You ready to go?”

  “THAT WAS TOO FUNNY!” Charlotte crowed, feeling drunk as Jack walked her home.

  “I think you’ve pretty much proved your sexiness to the businessmen of South Bay,” Jack agreed, ambling next to her. “You sure convinced me.”

  She sighed. “I can’t thank you enough, Jack.”

  “Anytime.” He tugged a lock of her hair gently. “It was my pleasure.”

  She stopped. “No, really. It…I didn’t realize how much it hurt when Gabe said what he did. I know he wasn’t trying to be hurtful, but sometimes honesty is worse, you know?”

  “He wasn’t being honest,” Jack said, “he was being mistaken. Why did he say it, anyway?”

  She blushed, thinking of the bet. “It’s a long story, and it’s not really important. I guess he was just trying to make me feel better about being one of the guys. It’s not like he really thinks of me as a woman, anyway, so it didn’t matter.”

  “If you’re not a woman, what are you?”

  What else would you be, a hamster? She smirked as she remembered Gabe’s hooting remark over The Guide. “He thinks I’m just like his guy friends. We watch football together, we watch movies together. He’s attempted to teach me to surf, but I’m hopeless,” she explained, starting to walk again. “He was with me when my father died. I was with him when he got his MBA. He’s my best friend, Jack. He wouldn’t lie to me.”

  “Maybe he just can’t handle the truth,” Jack mused.

  “What truth can’t he handle?” she muttered, frowning and pulling a flower off of a nearby jasmine bush.

  Jack smiled. “Why don’t you keep thinking about it, and let me know what you come up with.”

  Within minutes, they were at their street. Stopping in front of the trellis over the gate to her walkway, she paused, wondering what to do next. She liked Jack, but she didn’t want to invite him in. Well, she did sort of want to invite him in, but only to talk, and from the way their conversation was running, they’d only talk about Gabe. Even for a casual date, that seemed tacky.

  “Well, I guess this is my stop,” she said, shifting her weight nervously from foot to foot. “Thanks for taking me out tonight, Jack.”

  “We’ll have to do it again sometime,” he said, his grin like summer lightning. “Um…this is usually the ‘good-night kiss’ part.”

  She smiled weakly, taking a half step back. “Would you believe I don’t kiss on the first date?”

  “Would you believe that’s the first time outside of a movie I’ve heard that?” He laughed. He didn’t come any closer, though. “I like you, Charlotte Taylor.”

  She grinned back, relieved. “I like you, too, Jack Landor.”

  “Say, I have an idea. What are you doing Saturday?”

  She rolled her eyes. “A whole lot of nothing. Why?”

  “There’s this big party, formal dress thing over in Century City. It’ll probably be a crashing bore, but I think I’d have a lot more fun if you were there. Will you come with me?”

  Charlotte felt her stomach constrict. “Formal dress? As in, really fancy?”

  He nodded, and his eyes were pleading. “I don’t know a lot of girls out here…I’m out from New York for only a couple of months. It would be a huge favor to me if you’d come. Please?”

  She sighed. He’d been such a great sport about the dinner. It seemed to be the least she could do. “All right, Jack. You’re on.”

  “Super.” He gave her a broad grin. “I’ll pick you up Saturday at seven. See you then.” He kissed her cheek quickly, then whistled his way down to his front gate.

  She turned to her own walkway, stepping up to her front door and unlocking it. She walked into her empty house, shutting the door behind her.

  Jack was warm, funny, gentle and nice. He was, just as most magazines claimed, everything a woman would want in a man. So why didn’t her heart race when he talked to her? Why wasn’t she getting all gooey and weak in the knees when he flashed that gorgeous smile? Most of all, why hadn’t she invited that sun-god bod of his up to her place, so she could break her several-year streak of celibacy?

  Maybe there was something wrong with her.

  She was tired, and confused, the little rush of triumph she’d had at the restaurant dissipating. She needed to talk this out, make sense of it somehow.

  Not really thinking, she walked over to her room. Flopping on her bed, she picked up the phone and dialed it blindly, completely by reflex.

  “Hello?” she heard Gabe’s voice say darkly over the crackle of a cellular phone.

  She froze. She’d called Gabe, of course, ready to ask him to come over because she needed to talk.

  But what was she going to say? That it hurt to hear the truth from
him? That she’d made a fool of herself tonight all because of him? That she couldn’t ask Jack in, and she didn’t know why? What would Gabe think? What would he say?

  After a few seconds, he gave an irritated huff and hung up. Listening to the dial tone, she buried her face in her pillow. To her surprise, she felt a tear trickle hotly down her cheek.

  Okay, maybe this bet had gone too far. She would talk to him tomorrow, and somehow clear this all up. Having all the men in the world strewn at her feet was pointless if she lost her best friend over it.

  5

  GABE SAT AT HIS DESK the following morning, staring at his computer. He’d been to two meetings, dictated several memos and reports, and plowed through half a dozen licensing proposals for Lone Shark Licensing dealers. Unfortunately, he hadn’t really been paying attention to any of them.

  He had been up way too late the night before, but at least he had finally gotten a grip on the situation—and gotten even with Charlotte in the process. It was her fault he was sandy-eyed and unable to focus this morning, he thought. A little revenge was not just appropriate, it was mandatory.

  When he’d left the restaurant, his date in tow, he was mad enough to spit nails. The plan had been to show Charlotte just how badly these Guide women could behave, how patently obvious their tactics could be, and Terri had filled that teaching position perfectly. What he had not expected was that Charlotte would not only miss the point, but eclipse even Terri’s blatant performance. He was so incensed, he’d planned on dropping Terri off, heading to Charlotte’s house and having it out with her then and there. When it suddenly occurred to him that Charlotte might not be alone, he all but stuffed Terri in a cab.

  Before he could tear off to Charlotte’s house, the businessmen who had been having their dinner meeting at the restaurant burst out raucously. With a stroke of luck, he managed to buy a roll of film from one of the men who had taken her picture.