“He was in a meeting, and I thought that I could break into his office and see what I could find, maybe I could grab the information, at the very least, he’d no longer have it, or I could call the police and show that he’d stolen it,” he explained quickly, wincing. “Though that didn’t really make much sense, I guess, as he could have said I planted it. I wasn’t thinking of that at the time.”
Jodie nodded, watching him closely with a curious look in her eyes. “Yeah, but it doesn’t matter.”
“It does. He caught me, and that ratcheted things up. That’s when he made demands for me to approve his research. I don’t know that he was actually thinking of it until then. So once he knew he had me over a barrel, he decided to up his game, see what he could get.”
“Dan, that’s not important.”
“Oh…no?”
“No.” She smiled a little for the first time since he’d walked in the door.
“You risked a lot—doing something like that in your workplace and then getting caught. Your reputation could have been seriously called into question, right?”
“Probably not that serious, but it would have raised some eyebrows.”
She shook her head in wonder and then leaned in to press a soft kiss, salty from tears, to his mouth. “Dan, you thought with your heart, not your head. Logic didn’t matter. You weren’t worried about the consequences—you were just trying to help me. You were thinking of me before everything,” she said, leaning in to kiss him again, and his blood warmed.
“I—I hadn’t thought of it like that,” he said against her mouth. “But I guess that’s true. I love you, Jodie, and I might as well say so. You have to know that’s how I feel, and how I’ve felt for a while,” he said, knowing he was taking a huge risk. “I want so much more than sex from you. I want everything. All of it. With you,” he said, staring into her eyes.
She didn’t pull away.
“I know, Dan. I know that now. I just…I’m afraid. I can see, in my head, how we’re different from my parents, but my emotions, at the gut level they still make me react…stupidly.”
“No, not stupid. You really need to stop using that word. You’re being honest, and you’ve had pain. I know that. I don’t ever want to cause you more.”
“You don’t. I mean, we should have been keeping each other in the loop on this, figuring it out together, but I know I don’t always make things easier. I shouldn’t have let Jason get to me.” She shook her head. “I never want to hurt you.”
“You couldn’t.” He knew that was a lie, but he wasn’t going to have her carrying this worry around.
Her smile slanted slightly. “Not what Donna thinks.”
“Donna?” He frowned. “What does she have to do with anything?”
“I bumped into her. It was fine, a little awkward, but she made it clear she doesn’t think I’m right for you.”
Dan’s mouth flattened. “I’ll talk to her.”
“No. It’s fine, really. She was just concerned for you, and she just doesn’t want you hurt.”
“I’m not a child. Donna was always overprotective, and she needs to know when to butt out.”
“Well, it’s nice that she cares that much for you. You have a great family,” Jodie said a little wistfully.
“I know. I just wish they knew when to back off. Granted, they had a lot of challenges helping me deal socially with being so advanced, but right now what’s between you and me, well, it’s only between you and me.”
Jodie smiled. “Yeah, that’s true.”
She kissed him again, a little more heatedly, and though his desire leaped, he couldn’t deny disappointment that she hadn’t reacted to his declaration the way he’d hoped. But maybe it was baby steps.
She’d admitted they had more than sex going on, and that she’d felt even more than friendship for a long while. Still, as her hands started exploring him, he had to back away.
“While it’s hard to say no,” he admitted with a groan as her teeth nipped his earlobe, “I think we shouldn’t do this right now.”
“Why not? I think we’ve said all we need to say for the moment,” she said with a sexy smile.
“It’s not that I don’t want you, believe me. I want you constantly, but I don’t want us always turning to sex to solve our problems.”
She smiled. “You just have no idea how good makeup sex can be.”
“Can we find out later? We were going to go out on a date, and I think we should.”
She blinked. “You still want to go out?”
“Sure. Why don’t you get dressed and I’ll make some new reservations. We’ll go out, talk, and maybe we can come up with some solutions to this problem together?”
She nodded, then readjusted his tie. “Okay. We’ll go out. As long as you let me take this tie off later, and put it to some very interesting use.”
His cock turned hard and her wiggling against him didn’t help. He swatted her backside playfully. “It’s a deal. Get off me, vixen, and go get dressed.”
She was smiling, too, as she headed off to the shower.
Dan pursed his lips, an idea forming. After he called the restaurant for new reservations, he looked up another number. There was a man he’d worked on a project with a while ago—a hush-hush corporate security kind of thing—who might be able to help them.
“Hi, Kevin, Dan Ellison here.”
“Hey Dan, this is a surprise. Calling to take me up on the job offer?”
“Afraid not, but if I ever get tired of academia, which could happen anytime—” they both laughed at that “—then you’d be first on my list. I was wondering if I could talk to you about a problem I have….”
“Sure, shoot.”
Dan gave him the outline about being blackmailed, and the two men talked about it. Dan heard Jodie’s shower shut off and by that time, he had his solution.
Now he just had to see if she was up for it, too.
JODIE COULDN’T BELIEVE that only a few hours had passed since she was alone in her apartment planning to end things with Dan and feeling like crap. Now, on a warm autumn night, she was in her favorite blue dress and heels, sitting at an outdoor tapas café that provided a great view of the river and city streets. She and Dan fed each other bits of tomato and watermelon salad. Next, they’d be trying succulent meats and cheeses from the plates they had ordered. Jodie loved tapas for the variety. You never had to choose just one thing for dinner, but could make a meal of several different kinds of foods.
She’d felt the same way about her love life, really, until just this minute. Dan filled her up and, as he pushed a piece of tuna tartare through her lips, she sucked the tip of his finger in with it and loved how his eyes darkened in reaction.
He’d said he loved her. She hadn’t said it back.
She wanted to, but she couldn’t bring herself to say it. Not yet. She knew once she said that to Dan, there would be no turning back. Other people seemed to fall in and out of love like they caught colds, but she’d never said that to anyone, not in the serious, romantic sense. She didn’t know how to be sure that this was really love and not something else. Something that might slip away.
Thankfully, Dan seemed willing to wait.
Until then, she could try to show him how she felt for him in every way she could.
“Do you want dessert?” Dan asked as he paid the check. Jodie offered to split, but Dan had simply glared at her. She let him pick up the check, enjoying his traditional bent.
“Maybe after a walk? I know a late-night place that does great espresso and chocolate cake.”
He smiled, taking her hand as they walked out to the sidewalk, heading across the street to walk along the river. “Sounds like that could keep us awake all night? What will we do?”
“Oh, I’m sure we’ll think of something,” she answered in the same teasing tone, tugging at his tie. She squeezed his hand. “Thank you for talking me into going out. This was perfect.”
“You’re more than welcome. We
should make a habit of it. You look beautiful, by the way, if I had failed to mention it earlier. Everything about you is perfect, Jodie,” he said sincerely.
She smiled, overwhelmed with his praise. “Don’t put me on a pedestal, Dan. I’m so far from perfect it isn’t funny, and if anyone knows that, it’s you.”
“Well, maybe I love all of the imperfections, and so that makes you perfect—for me,” he countered with logic that made her chuckle.
It was necessary lightness after the arguments and intense emotions they’d been through earlier. Getting their feet beneath them again, finding their balance.
Still, as they walked, she couldn’t help but start to let some of the problems of the day leak in.
“You’re worrying,” he said, perceptive.
“A bit. Ginger is making a job decision, and I wasn’t a hundred percent honest with her.”
“It will work out. There’s no way we’re letting Jason damage your business.”
“I hope so. I hate to mention it, to spoil the evening, but what are we going to do about him?”
Dan drew in a deep breath.
“I have an idea. I didn’t want to ruin our dinner talking about it, but I think the thing we need is some leverage, to keep him from doing any more damage. I have a thought on how we may get that.”
“You broke into his office and couldn’t find anything. I can’t prove he came to the bakery and threatened me. He’s got us up against a wall, and he knows it.”
“Then we just have to get creative,” Dan said, lifting her hand to his lips to kiss her fingers, sending shivers down to her toes.
“You’re good at being creative, I’ll hand you that,” she said, not thinking about Jason, but about getting home and getting very creative with Dan.
“Hey, don’t distract me—until later,” he admonished, settling his hands on her hips where their abdomens pressed against each other in the most inviting way. Jodie could feel he was at least halfway distracted, and loved how easily she could turn him on.
“Okay, so what’s your evil plan?”
Dan sighed. “Okay, if we must. I talked to a guy earlier, while you were in the shower. He’s meeting us in the morning, or I can meet him, if you’re busy, but his company experiments with specialized listening equipment.”
“Like bugs and that kind of thing?”
“Yeah, but very high-tech kinds of stuff. He might be able to give us a hand with this. Maybe lend us something that could help us trap Jason.”
“You want to bug Jason?”
“Yeah. Maybe we can get him to confess or at least threaten you so we have proof. Then we have some leverage. We don’t even have to take it to the police. All we need is him knowing we have it, so he’ll leave you alone and keep the formula to himself. But we need something that will really keep him in line. I haven’t worked that part out yet.”
Jodie blinked. “Wow. This is kind of sexy, Ellison.”
“Glad you think so. Maybe I should tell you about my government projects sometime if that kind of thing turns you on,” he teased.
“Everything about you turns me on,” she said, feeling vulnerable making the admission. “But I can’t imagine how we’d get Jason to confess to anything. If I’d had a bug in the bakery the other day, maybe that would have helped, but I don’t.”
“We’ll find a way.”
“We only have two more days.”
Jodie nodded. “So it’s like wearing a wire?”
Dan started moving again, walking, his hands moving in gestures as he explained the technology. She couldn’t help but grin at how geeked-out he could get at this stuff, and of course she didn’t understand most of it. She did listen, though, and one thing became very clear to her.
“I know you do a lot of important work, and I don’t ask about it because I figure most of it’s over my head, but also, I know a lot of it is secret, government stuff,” she explained. “But I’d like to hear more about what you can tell me. I want to know more about what you do. I bet your projects save a lot of lives, don’t they?”
“Some of them, yeah. I’d like to think so. Though they aren’t really my projects. I help out, offer what I can to the team,” he said, and she could tell he was uncomfortable with her admiration.
“It’s pretty damned noble, no matter what. I was selfish, thinking only about how much I missed you when you weren’t here, but you go lock yourself up for months at a time, and help people you’ll never even meet. That’s awesome, Dan,” she said, meaning it.
“Well, thanks. I would love to tell you more sometime,” he said huskily. “Knowing you admire my work means a lot,” he said, turning her to him. “It means everything from you.”
He walked her slowly backward under a tree where colorful leaves scattered around them in the wind, and their kisses turned hot. The cold, rough surface of the tree’s bark was a stark contrast to the hot form of his body against hers, and she enjoyed being in between.
Jodie found she was even more aroused by thinking about Dan and his work, and how incredible this man was who could also make her knees turn to water with one touch.
They pulled apart as a family of tourists out for a late-night stroll walked closer.
“Makes me feel like my life’s pursuit of baking cookies is so silly,” she said gustily, with a sideways smile as they began walking again. “And being so worried about it. It’s pretty lame, I guess.”
“No way. Your work makes people happy on a daily basis. I’m not sure there is anything more important than that. People can be having a miserable day, come by your bakery and feel better. You can see that in your customers and how much they appreciate what you do. Don’t play that down. We’re all good at different things. You’re creative, and you’re a nurturer.”
Jodie stopped in her tracks. “A nurturer? Are you out of your mind?” She laughed. No description was ever further from her idea of herself.
But Dan, apparently, was serious. He continued. “You take care of people. You feed them, watch after them, care about their problems. It doesn’t mean you’re a doormat—you’re anything but that—but I would probably have wasted away in school without you. They would have found me one day a dry pile of dust at my desk,” he joked, but she could tell he meant it.
“The people at the bakery know you care, too, and that’s what keeps them coming back. It’s why you became friends with Ginger and worried over her problems. It’s why you were so upset with her, and feel so bad now. You connect with people, Jodie, and you have a brilliant way of sensing what they need and how to deliver it. Which makes you crazy good in bed, by the way,” he said with another grin.
She wanted to rail against his comments, but his perspective gave her an entirely new view of herself.
She’d always seen herself as, well, a sexy bitch. Determined businesswoman, seducer of men. But a nurturer? It would take her some thinking to get her mind around that.
“Well,” she said with a soft smile. “I do like that last part. Maybe we should head back to your place, and I could nurture you a little?”
“Just a minute. I want to pick up something to bring back with us,” he said mysteriously, pulling her with him into a small dessert and coffee shop.
Jodie saw him go directly to the counter, where he ordered two raspberry croissants and a jar of the shop’s signature chocolate sauce.
“Mmm. That will be wonderful, the sauce on that pastry,” she said in approval as they took their purchases and left.
Dan smiled slightly, his look warm and promising. “Who said it’s for the pastry?”
Jodie’s heart just about stopped in place, and Dan smiled wickedly as he hailed a cab to take them back to his apartment.
“Mind spending the night at my place?” he asked.
Jodie eyed the chocolate sauce. “I’d love to.”
They couldn’t keep their hands off each other in the cab, but when they got to Dan’s place, Jodie was surprised when he stopped her as she tried to tug away
his jacket, wanting to get him naked as quickly as possible.
“I’m not complaining, believe me, but it’s usually been fast with us,” he said, framing her face with his hands. “I guess we’ve been making up for lost time, or wondering how much more time we’d have,” he said, looking at her so intently that she shivered from the intimacy of it.
“Sometimes fast is good,” she said, pressing a kiss into his palm.
“It’s all been good. Every second of it. But tonight, we’re going slow. We had our date, and took our time over dinner,” he said huskily. “Now I plan to take my time over dessert.”
Jodie’s heart actually slammed in her chest. She was worldly, sexually experienced, but the way Dan was looking at her—like she was the dessert—made her feel vulnerable and unsure what to expect.
“I love you, Jodie,” Dan said against her lips, “and I hope you don’t mind me saying it. Or showing it, because that’s what I intend to do tonight.”
“No, I don’t mind at all,” she said on a whisper, wishing she could say the words back, but knowing that accepting his love seemed to be enough for Dan at the moment.
He led her into the bedroom, and she gasped at the sight she found there.
Champagne chilled in a bucket, and there were rose petals on the bed. Dan smiled, lit several candles and then turned off the lights. He picked up a remote, and soft music played in the background.
He took the chocolate sauce out of the bag and set it on the side of the bed.
Jodie caught her breath long enough to say, “You did all of this?”
“Do you mind?”
“Absolutely not. It’s beautiful.”
She was used to one-night stands and the quick, frantic sex that happened when things were just about sex. No one had ever done anything like this for her before, and she registered an emotional tightness in her throat that she had to fight back.
“It’s so…romantic,” she said, still taking it all in.
This wasn’t just about sex and, surprisingly, that was okay with her.
“Come here.” Dan stood by the huge bed looking so handsome she felt like she had been lifted out of real life and into a fairy tale.
Make Your Move Page 13
