A Kiss to Dream On

by Neesa Hart

  “Oh, I can imagine.”

  “Can you really?”

  She fought a blush. “Um-hmm.”

  “I had no idea.”

  “I have an excellent imagination.”

  “I used to think I did, too,” he assured her.

  “What changed your mind?”

  “I saw you in this dress and found out I hadn’t even come close.”

  Absurdly pleased, she drummed her fingers on his shoulder. “Confession time?”

  “If you want.”

  “I wasn’t exactly prepared for the way you’d look in this suit, either.”

  “And here I thought you were only interested in my, uh, rear attributes.”

  Cammy remembered their conversation from the coffee shop with a slight laugh. “I didn’t say that was the only thing that I found interesting.”

  “You know, this conversation gets better and better.”

  “Actually, I’m much more interested in your mind than your visual layout.”

  “Like gentlemen who read men’s magazines for the content?”

  “Uh-huh. Like that.”

  “Is this a good time to tell you that I’ve never met a man who has actually even looked at one of the articles?”

  She schooled her expression into shocked inquiry. “No?”

  “Not a single one.”

  “So you’re not buying it?”

  “Not for a second. Guys make that up to snow women.”

  “It doesn’t work.”

  “Really?”

  “Nope. I’ve never actually met a woman who believed it.” She met his gaze then, and allowed herself to drown for a moment in the sea of sensual promise she saw in his eyes. “Want to know another secret?”

  “I’m on pins and needles.”

  “Your visual layout just about knocks my socks off.”

  He blinked, then lifted her hand to his mouth to press a soft kiss to her palm. “Ditto, kiddo.”

  Cammy exhaled a slow breath. “So, now that we have that settled, are you still willing to be seen in public with me?” She glanced over her shoulder at the mirror. “I hadn’t realized this dress was quite so—”

  “Devastating?”

  “Revealing,” she corrected. She touched the soft cowl of the bodice. “I bought it because of the neckline.”

  “Nice choice.” His gaze rested there.

  She thumped his shoulder with her forefinger. “Lech. I meant I liked the fact that I could hide my transmitter in there.”

  “It doesn’t hide much else.”

  “I know. Maybe I should change.”

  “Don’t even think about it.”

  “I have a reputation to protect.”

  He laughed. “Trust me, honey. This dress, the whole package, as a matter of fact, is a complete knockout, but it’s not going to get you arrested.”

  “I feel like it is.”

  “I like it.”

  “You’re kidding.” Her voice oozed sarcasm.

  He pressed his hips closer, just enough to let her feel how much he liked it. “It’s perfect.”

  She raised a hand to straighten the knot of his tie. “Macon picked it out.”

  “Then we’re even. My mother picked my suit.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “No kidding. My mother dressed me.”

  “She has very good taste.”

  “I wore this to my sister’s wedding. Mom was afraid I’d show up in jeans, so she bought the suit for me.”

  “Does she know it makes you look lethal?”

  “I don’t think so. I guess she figured I wouldn’t get a lot of wear out of it, so black was a safe bet. My mother’s very frugal. She probably plans to bury me in this.”

  Cammy slipped her hand into his breast pocket, where she felt the steady thrum of his heartbeat. “Nope.” His eyebrows lifted. “It’s not a funeral suit,” she explained. “It has pockets. Funeral suits don’t have pockets.”

  “That’s a charming thought.”

  “I have a fifth cousin who’s a mortician.”

  “So you don’t think she picked black to make it all-occasion?’’

  “I think she picked black because she knew you’d look delectable in it.”

  “Delectable?” An amused glint filled his gaze. “You know, I think I might reconsider my sense of fashion. I’m not normally the suit type.”

  “I hadn’t noticed.”

  He ignored her quip. “I haven’t worn it since the wedding.”

  “And you put it on for me? I’m impressed.”

  “You haven’t begun to be impressed tonight.”

  “Has anyone ever told you that you have something of a humility problem?’’

  “Do you think so?”

  “I told you before, I don’t think there’s a thing in the world wrong with your ego.”

  “I should probably warn you. It’s going to get hugely inflated after I introduce you as my date.”

  She was starting to feel warm, inside and out. “It is?”

  “Sure. First thing people will want to know is how a guy like me snagged a hot-looking dame like you.”

  She almost laughed out loud. Jackson Puller’s face had been making female hearts quicken for years. “Must have been the suit.”

  “That’s what I’m thinking. I’ll have to remember to tell my mother.”

  “Do me one favor?”

  “Anything.”

  “Don’t tell her it made my knees weak.”

  “Gentlemen never kiss and tell.”

  “I wasn’t aware you put yourself in that category.”

  His laugh rumbled along her nerve endings. “Rarely.”

  “What’s different about tonight?”

  So quickly it stole her breath, his expression turned serious. “A lot, Cammy. There’s a lot different.”

  “I didn’t mean—”

  He pressed a long finger to her lips. “Shh. I know. I just wanted to say that I understand this week has been rough on you. Just for tonight, I wanted you to have permission to run away for a little while.”

  “Run away?”

  “Retreat. I want us to go somewhere quiet and safe and peaceful where you can just relax.”

  “You should have told me to wear sweats.”

  Instead of taking the bait, he shook his head. “I wanted magic, Cam. For both of us. I wanted this to be like magic.”

  Fear goaded her to make another quip, but the intent look in his eyes stopped her. “It’s always magic with you,” she blurted.

  His eyes widened for a moment, then turned indescribably tender. “You say the most amazing things.”

  “You make me feel them.”

  He kissed her again, a soft kiss, rife with promise and latent hunger. When he finally raised his head, her breathing had turned feathery. “If you’re ready,” he said, his voice a rough whisper, “we should go.”

  “Are we on a timetable?” Her voice sounded as gravelly as his own.

  Briefly, he cupped her face in his hand. “No, honey. We’ve got all night.”

  With the promise hanging in the air, he tucked her hand in his and led her to the door.

  Jackson leaned back against the wall of the U.S. Naval Observatory and breathed a deep sigh of contentment. Until that instant, he wasn’t sure he’d made the right choice about the evening. Her week, he knew, had been hell. Her mother had made little progress. His second column had set off a firestorm of phone calls and information requests that had had her doing paperwork into the small hours of the morning. He knew her well enough to know that she’d used the deluge of mundane details to divert her attention from the more pressing problem of her mother’s health, and, unless he missed his guess, from him. She’d made herself vulnerable to him. It scared her. He fully understood that, and also understood that she needed some leverage back to feel secure again.

  So he’d picked tonight, and this place, to tell her the whole story about Leo.

  As if she sensed his contemplative t
houghts, she flashed him a gentle smile. “How did you do this?” she asked as she gazed in wonder at the large telescope. They were alone, with a broad canopy of stars overhead, a picnic dinner spread on a blanket, and the quiet thrum of the telescope for companionship. In one corner, a portable CD player pumped seductive music into the still atmosphere. The evening’s arrangements, he’d found, had been as complicated as planning an inaugural gala. He’d pulled so many strings that week that his fingers should have blisters. And it had all been worth it for the look of tender wonder in her eyes.

  He eased away from the wall. “I know a guy. He owed me a favor. I cashed it in.”

  Her eyes widened. “You pulled strings?”

  “You’d be amazed at what I’d go through for you.”

  “I am,” she assured him.

  He studied her for long seconds, wondering why he always felt this nagging fear that somehow, she’d slip away from him. “You are?”

  “You doubted it?” Her gaze narrowed.

  “I’m never quite sure with you.”

  She blinked. “You’re kidding.”

  “No. You’re complicated. You know that.”

  “I never really thought so. I always seemed pretty simple to me.”

  He shook his head. “No way. There are more layers to you than baklava.”

  “Thanks. I think.”

  He managed a slight smile. “I meant it as a compliment.”

  “Then I’ll take it as one.” She narrowed her gaze. “Is something wrong, Jackson? You seem . . . distracted.”

  Ruthlessly, he pushed aside the lingering sense of fear that she was dancing just beyond his reach. “I’m fine. Just a little dazed from your compliment.”

  Her quiet laugh chased away his lingering doubts. “Very smooth.” She turned back to the telescope. “Can we use this?”

  “Yes. Burt focused it for us. Just look through here.” He came up behind her, then indicated the view glass with a tap of his fingers. “The heavens are yours.”

  Her hands cradled either side of the view glass. “No one ever offered me the heavens before.”

  “I’m glad I could be the first.” He wondered if she could hear his voice catch.

  She gazed through the glass with an exclamation of wonder. “You should look at this. It’s beautiful.”

  “It pales next to you,” he said quietly.

  She shot him a teasing look over her shoulder. “Exactly what are you trying to accomplish tonight, Mr. Puller?”

  His hands settled at her waist. “The impossible,” he muttered.

  “What?”

  With a slight shake of his head, he guided her away from the telescope. “Never mind. Are you enjoying yourself?’’

  “It’s magic,” she assured him. “I never met a man who could work magic before.” She returned her attention to the telescope while he fought for emotional balance.

  Being told in the span of ten minutes that he was the first guy to give her the heavens and that she found him magical was enough to make his head spin. Cammy was not a woman who used words lightly. She meant what she said. Always. It was one of the many things he found so disarmingly attractive about her.

  As he studied the tilt of her head, the slight wonder in her expression, he decided in that instant that, no matter what it took, he’d make everything all right. Together, they’d be incredible. He was sure of it. He needed her in so many ways.

  The hunger to assuage those needs had begun spreading like an ache through him for weeks. It had come as something of a shock when he’d realized that the insatiable longing he felt involved her needs as well as his own. He needed to ease the worry from her eyes. He needed to hear her laugh without reservation, knowing he’d played a role in helping her get there. And he needed her to see herself as he saw her. She did something for him no other woman, no other person, ever had. He felt stronger with her than he did by himself. She reminded him, somehow, of the life-giving roots of a tree.

  The thought made his lips twitch. He’d used a lot of lines on women. Some had been glamorous, others poetic, some even hokey. But even he had never stooped to telling a woman she reminded him of a root. She’d probably deck him.

  With a soft laugh, he pressed his lips to her shoulder. Cammy gasped and turned from the telescope. “You’re distracting me.”

  “That’s the general idea.”

  “You went to all the trouble to arrange this, and now you don’t want me to look?”

  “Would it help if I told you that I’m famished, and I’m hoping we can get to that meal over there before I get weak in the knees?”

  With visible reluctance, she dropped her hands from the view glass. “I suppose after you did all this”—she indicated the room with a sweep of her hand—“the least I can do is let you eat.”

  He didn’t give her a chance to change her mind. With a hand at the small of her back, he guided her to the blanket. “Thanks. I’m getting light-headed.”

  “I’d like to see that.”

  “It’s ugly. Trust me.” He helped her settle amid the overstuffed pillows before he levered himself down near the basket. “I hope this is good.”

  “What is it?”

  “I haven’t got a clue. I have a friend who’s a caterer. I pulled in a favor with him, too, and he sent the meal and decor over this afternoon.”

  “Another favor? I had no idea.”

  She really didn’t, he thought wryly as he considered the numerous phone calls he’d made to secure access to a government facility after hours—a government facility that normally gave public tours at this time of night. It had taken a laundry list of promises and some pretty serious maneuvering, but the look on her face had been worth it. He plucked the top off the picnic basket then reached inside with a slight smile. Pulling out an elaborate-looking confection made with slices of star fruit, he showed it to her. “Look. Theme food.”

  “Very impressive. Are there Milky Ways in there?”

  “You’d eat cheap chocolate?” he quipped. “I’m shocked.”

  “I’ll take it almost any way I can get it. Now you know. I’m easily seduced.”

  A jolt of electricity shot through him. He was fairly certain his hand shook. He didn’t trust himself to respond to that. Instead, he finished emptying the basket. He left only the last dish in the bottom. “Well, we won’t go hungry anyway.”

  She looked dazed. “A small army wouldn’t go hungry.”

  “I told my friend you were a big eater.”

  She hurled a strawberry at him. “Who are you kidding? I watched you down three pounds of bacon and a half-dozen biscuits at your mother’s house.”

  “I was trying to be polite.”

  Her eyes twinkled, and he found it absolutely enchanting. “You’re a glutton.”

  “Maybe.” He removed the last dish. It held something dark and rich and undeniably chocolate. Tilting it so she could see it, he added, “But if you’re not nice to me, I won’t let you have any of this.”

  “You would, too.”

  “In a heartbeat, babe.”

  Cammy laughed, a fresh laugh that held none of the stress of the previous week. At the sound, warmth flooded him. “You’re impossible.”

  “And you’re adorable.” He leaned closer to her so he could catch the scent of her perfume. It was subdued, but a little spicy. Like her. His head started to swim. “Do you know that?”

  She tilted her head to one side. “You’re on especially good behavior tonight.”

  “I talked to my niece this week. She gave me a few pointers.”

  “They’re working.”

  “Are they really?”

  Cammy reached for a plate. “Absolutely. You may tell her that I’m very impressed.”

  “I hope so,” he said as he spooned various dishes onto her plate. “I’ve got big plans for the evening.”

  twelve

  Cammy allowed her eyes to drift shut as she listened to the steady rhythm of his heartbeat. They’d talked of nothi
ng, and of everything, while they’d explored the various offerings in the picnic basket. Jackson had a way of listening to her that quickened her heartbeat and, she was sure, made at least some of those stars above their head lodge right in her eyes. Half-reclined as she was, with her head pillowed on his chest and his arms wrapped comfortably around her, she tried to remember a time in her life when she’d felt more at peace—more right.

  And she came up short.

  The idea made her smile. Here she’d gone and fallen—hard, fast, and irrevocably—for a reporter. Her father was spinning in his grave. And in the back of her mind lurked the terrible knowledge that her happiness couldn’t last. Jackson needed more than she could ever give. But for tonight, in this place, with the stars as a ceiling and the gentle caress of his hands on hers, she shoved aside the doubts and the fears that had driven her for so long. If she lost him—when she lost him—she’d have memories like this to hold on to.

  “What are you thinking?” His voice was a low rumble.

  She drew a deep breath. If she told him she was thinking about the inadequacies of every idea she’d ever had of love, it would probably scare him to death. “I’m thinking,” she shifted in his arms, “about what in the world I could have done to deserve this.” She indicated the room with a sweep of her hand. “I’m smart enough to know you had to pull a lot more than a couple of strings to make this happen.”

  “It wasn’t that bad.” She looked at him with raised eyebrows. “It wasn’t.”

  “How much positive press coverage did you promise away this week?”

  The laughter in his eyes made her heart race. “Some.”

  “How much?”

  “Fishing for compliments?’’

  “Trying to assuage my guilt.”

  “A lot.”

  “In laymen’s terms.”

  His arms tightened. “Enough ink to fill a vat.”

  “I thought so.”

  He ran a hand up her arm. “I know what kind of week you’ve had. I’m pretty well known in this town, and you are too. I was afraid if I took you somewhere public, we’d have to answer questions. I wanted you all to myself.” His eyebrows lifted in amusement. “Of course, if you’d warned me ahead of time about this dress, I might have made other plans. A guy’s ego could really benefit from being seen with a woman like you.”