“I’m saying it’s seductive while yours is a great place to…well, work or simply pass the time. They each inspire different wants.”
She couldn’t argue with that. “Is that why you’re here? To tell me again that you’re no threat to me…uh, to my business.”
“I’m not. Not to the café.” He put on a slow grin. “Now you’re a different matter.”
Pulse accelerating, she asked, “What do you want, Luke?”
“You. On a date. On a first date,” he emphasized.
“Why?”
“Last night.”
“What about it?”
“I couldn’t get you out of my mind.”
“Back at you.” One way or another, he’d dominated her whole evening. “Though I would say our thoughts were quite different.”
Not exactly a lie. Once she’d seen the newscast, she’d imagined different ways of torturing him, none of which involved sex. If only she had remembered her original resolve—to get him to spill, as Nick would put it—she would feel a whole lot better.
Wouldn’t she?
Purposely filing the sexual satisfaction he’d given her to the back of her mind, she decided she deserved another try at finding out what his real intentions were—as a businessman.
“So this will be an official date.”
Helen was thankful she hadn’t explained her date rule in detail. Let him think what he wanted. Let him think he’d get her into bed. But if she so much as thought about letting him get to the first stage with her, she should have her head examined.
“Unless we end up talking business,” Luke amended. “Then we have to start the count over.”
Hmm, now how was she going to manage to get information out of him without actually talking business? And why should she care about her date rule, anyway, why should she care that after three dates she’d have to cut him off?
“Fair enough.” Whatever he wanted to hear. If she concentrated on her purpose, all she needed was this one shot anyway. “And you’ll forget about last night?”
His lips stretched into a grin. “I will if you will.”
Great. Her body was already responding.
But she kept a bland expression plastered to her face when she said, “And we’re not going to have sex.”
“No sex?” came a quavering voice. “Helen, honey, what are you thinking?” The old homeless woman had wandered up to them and was standing there, shaking her head.
“Tilda!”
“You pass up sex with this good-looking fella, you’re the one who’s crazy,” Tilda muttered as she continued on her way to the rest room.
Luke laughed outright, making Helen flush.
Helen looked at Luke to see his reaction. He was enjoying this. She narrowed her gaze at him.
“What? I didn’t say anything.”
“No, you’re just smirking.”
“Define smirk.”
“It’s that know-it-all expression you’re wearing.”
“And that would be wrong because…?”
Because she didn’t want him to have the advantage.
Luckily, a customer came in just then, giving her a reprieve.
“I need to get this.”
Helen whipped out of her seat and rushed to the counter, giving the customer her undivided attention. And when she looked back a few minutes later, all that was left at the table was Luke’s discarded cup.
“Morning,” Kate called as she sailed through the door.
“You’re early.”
“Ten minutes. No biggie.”
Surprised, Helen checked her watch. Sure enough, it was later than she’d thought. Time flew when you were being aggravated.
As Kate rounded the counter, Luke came out of the rest room.
“There you are,” she muttered.
“Afraid I’d left without saying goodbye?”
“Does your sense of importance know any bounds?”
“When warranted, of course.”
Meaning he figured he had her and didn’t have to work at it, a sentiment that raised her ire. If Helen hated anything, it was being taken for granted.
A dark-haired young woman entered, her gaze immediately fixing on Luke. “Hey, boss, there you are.”
“Alexis. Problem?”
“Flash wants you. Photo op.”
“Where?”
“Hot Zone.”
Helen listened to their shorthand-style conversation in amazement, suspecting that it came with their knowing one another very well.
Luke looked to Helen. “This is my assistant, Alexis Stark. She set up last night for us.”
“Great dinner,” Helen jumped in lest Luke hint at anything more. “Thanks.”
“Uh-huh. Whatever the boss wants, he gets.”
A statement that Helen feared was too true.
“Duty calls,” he said, heading for the door.
“Don’t let me get in the way of a promo opportunity.”
“I know you don’t mean that. We’ll talk later,” he promised.
“Hey, how’s the coffee here?” Alexis asked him.
“First rate.” He gave Helen a thumbs-up as he opened the door.
And Helen noted the way the young woman looked longingly after her boss—she was clearly smitten with him.
“I’ll catch up, Luke,” Alexis said. “I need a caffeine fix.”
“What can I get you?” Kate asked, setting herself up at the register.
Alexis said, “A Breve.”
The same thing Luke had ordered, Helen noted. Choosing to bury herself in work until the lunch hour traffic started, she sat at a computer and brought up the Web page she’d been working on earlier.
“Hmm, out of cream up here,” she heard Kate say. “Hang on. I’ll get another carton from the back.”
Having trouble concentrating, Helen imagined Luke’s assistant was wandering around, checking over the café, sneaking looks at her. So, had Luke’s employee set up other such dinner dates for him? she wondered. That must make her feel terrible, considering how she obviously felt.
But “whatever the boss wants,” she’d said.
Helen forced her mind to focus on the work, looking up only for a moment when the outer door opened and a couple of teenage girls entered. Then she began playing with fonts for the Muscle Beach Juice Bar menu.
“I’ll be right with you,” she heard Kate say.
Helen glanced back and saw a redhead at the counter with Alexis and realized she’d been so engrossed for a while that she hadn’t heard the second woman come in. But this was hardly a woman who could be missed with her flaming-red hair, sleek dress and stiletto heels.
Towering over Alexis, she was saying something to Luke’s assistant in low tones. Something that was making Alexis decidedly unhappy. A co-worker? From the looks of her, this woman could be in promotions, and Helen wondered if this was the infamous Flash Gordon, who she had to thank for her embarrassment the night before.
But before she could get up to find out for certain, Alexis grabbed her coffee and stormed past the redhead and out the door, brushing past a couple of regulars—Laura and her little girl, Jenny—who were in the process of entering. Seeming irritated also, the redhead swept out of the place as if she couldn’t leave fast enough.
Hmm, so what had that intense conversation been about? Helen wondered.
Though she tried to get back to work on the Muscle Beach Web site, it was no use. Every time she looked at a male body beautiful, she thought of Luke. Besides, business was picking up.
Twenty minutes later she and Kate and one of the part-timers were inundated with customers.
Suddenly, the sound of a slammed door cut over customer chatter as did Laura’s raised voice. “Come on, honey, we’re getting out of here now!” She was dragging her daughter from the rest room toward the front door.
“Is something wrong?” Helen asked.
“Yes, something is definitely wrong and I won’t be coming back! I won’t subject my child to druggies.”
“I don’t understand. What happened?”
“Look in your rest room!” she said, dragging her daughter Jenny out the door.
Helen rushed back to the women’s rest room but saw nothing. No needles. No bags. No pills. She sniffed the air, but all she smelled was the deodorizer tablet discreetly attached to the wall.
Then she spotted them—three white lines of powder laid out on the small table between the sink and toilet. A sick feeling knotting her stomach, Helen thought to flush what must be cocaine. But that would be getting rid of evidence. Not knowing what to do, she fetched a resealable bag from the kitchen and scooped the powder into it. Then after stuffing the bag into her pocket, she went back into the café.
“So what’s going on?” Kate asked.
Helen shrugged, said, “Later,” and got back to the customers.
Was it her imagination, or were there fewer than there ought to be for this time of the afternoon? Had Laura’s announcement driven some away?
Sam was working at his homework and Tilda was working on a fresh cup. The teenage girls were playing Internet games and a businessman was reading the stock reports online. But usually all the computers were in use this time of day.
Praying this was a fluke, she concentrated on the orders until the lunch rush was past.
“So are you going to give or what?” Kate asked then, forcing Helen to face the problem whether or not she wanted to.
“There’s nothing to give.” Not until she had a plan, anyway. “Hold down the fort, will you?”
“Yeah, sure.”
Helen left and rounded the corner. She looked into Annie’s Attic, but her friend was busy with a customer. So she went on to the next doorway and took the stairs up to Nick’s Knack. She knew he would be there, busy editing footage for Club Undercover down the street.
“What’s up?” he asked, the moment she opened the door and poked her head in.
“I have a problem and need your opinion.”
She entered Nick’s combination studio and editing area with its racks of equipment. The trundle bed still sat in one corner, but she knew he rarely spent the night here anymore. Why should he when he could spend it with Isabel at her place? And when Isabel’s sister Louise went off to college in a few weeks, he would officially move in with his ladylove.
Helen set the plastic bag on his console and waited for him to finish an edit.
“What is it?” Nick asked as he picked up the bag.
“One of my customers said something about druggies using the rest room. I found this laid out in lines and now I don’t know what to do with it.”
He already had the bag open and his nose was half inside. Pulling back, he sneezed.
“Someone left talcum powder laid out in lines?”
“Powder?”
“Smell it.”
Helen lifted the bag to her nose. The scent was distinctive. “You’re right. I don’t get it.”
Nick shrugged. “Either someone was fooled into buying talcum powder rather than cocaine…or someone has a sick sense of humor.”
“That’s sick, all right!” she said, chucking the bag into a trash container.
Rather than being angry, she was simply relieved. “I’ll have to tell Laura she was mistaken…if she ever comes back, that is.”
“Any idea of who might think this was funny? It seems like something a kid would do.”
Helen shrugged. “It’s kind of a blur. We were really busy at the time. It could have been anyone. Hmm, not too long before it happened, a couple of teenaged girls came in.”
Relieved or not, Helen wanted to pin back their ears and scare them within an inch of their lives for being so thoughtless. But at least she could breathe again.
“That could explain it,” Nick agreed.
“You have another theory.”
“Nah.”
But she knew he did. “What?”
“It’s kind of odd how nothing like this ever happened before…”
“Before what?”
“Never mind.”
Before Hot Zone was set to open?
Luke had been in the men’s rest room, right next to the women’s, she remembered.
“Luke wouldn’t do something like this,” she said, wondering why she was so quick to defend him.
“No, of course not.”
“Anyway, thanks,” she said, leaning over and kissing his cheek.
Nick couldn’t hide his surprise. Helen knew it was because, while they would do anything for each other, they rarely let their affection show. Normally, Nick tried to verbally torture her and she enjoyed giving as good as she got.
“Getting soft?” he asked.
“Ooh, I lost my head. It won’t happen again, I promise. Um, I’d better get back to the coffee brigade.”
“Later,” Nick said, turning back to his equipment.
About to leave, Helen caught a glimpse of the piece he was working on. He’d gotten footage of Isabel and her sister. They looked so happy. And when a closeup of Isabel appeared on the screen, she was absolutely radiant as she smiled into the camera. Rather, smiled at Nick.
Helen recognized the look—Annie wore it, as well, whenever she was around Nate.
As she closed the door behind her, Helen wondered if she would ever have that in common with her best friends—knowing what it felt like to be unashamedly in love.
“HAVE YOU GOTTEN much resistance from the communities where you’ve opened venues in the past?” Sam Bobek asked.
The baby-faced reporter from the local newspaper was grilling Luke as Flash sailed in the door and spotted them. He waved his public relations director over to the hot-tub area where the tour Luke had been giving the reporter had stalled. He’d been prepared for a photo opportunity, not the third degree. But even before the photographer had finished documenting the layout, the reporter had started in on him.
“It’s understandable that an innovative business would raise a few eyebrows,” Luke admitted.
He didn’t want to get into a mud-throwing contest, not when Helen was the one who’d organized the protestors. He wanted to keep his relationship with her smooth.
But Bobek seemed determined to spice up his story with conflict when he said, “Hot Zone has done more than raise eyebrows—”
“For a handful of people who will be happy that we’re here once we’re in operation,” Flash said, smoothing things over in her inimitable fashion. “I have statistics on the upsurge in traffic for many local businesses in neighborhoods where we’ve opened in the past. A healthy economic growth is inevitable, considering we’ll be bringing new people into the area. If you would care to take a look…”
“Bring it on.”
“Wonderful, the office is upstairs. Can you wait for me in the foyer? I’ll be with you in a minute.”
The reporter signaled his photographer and they both headed for the entrance.
“You saved the day,” Luke said.
“Just making myself indispensable,” she said, spinning on her heel and following the two men.
And she’d been doing a good job of it, Luke thought. Hot Zone might be his vision, but he hadn’t gotten this far on his own.
Myriad people had made significant contributions to the legend of his foresight, including several talented architects and designers. But he had to give equal credit to the woman who’d not only started the buzz about Hot Zone, but had kept it going and growing.
And Flash’s reputation as a primo publicist had grown with the business, so much so that he wondered what kept her working for him. Not that he didn’t reward her well for her services. But why pick up and move around so much when she could have her choice of jobs—and stability, as well? He’d asked her once and she’d claimed that he was the reason. That his vision challenged her.
He had real loyalty in Flash Gordan.
And in Alexis Stark, Luke thought, adding his assistant to the successful mix when he spotted her heading toward him. He tended to overlo
ok the dependable young woman’s contribution at times, maybe because she didn’t have a specific skill. But she’d also been with him from the beginning and took care of all the odd jobs, from seeing that he got to his business appointments on time to making his personal arrangements—whatever needed to be done—usually with good cheer.
Only she wasn’t looking so cheerful this afternoon, he noted. “What’s up?”
“I was going to ask you the same. Is there anything I need to do for you this afternoon? Set up another tête-à-tête with Ms. Rhodes?”
“I think I can take care of things on that end myself.”
Silent for a moment, Alexis asked, “So you are seeing her again?”
“Tonight.”
“Oh…well…if you don’t need me, mind if I cut out early?”
“No. Go.” Noticing she appeared a bit pale, he asked, “Is everything all right?”
Alexis shrugged and backed off.
“Want to talk about it?”
“I don’t think it would do any good,” she said. “See you in the morning, okay?”
“Fine.”
She was probably just tired, Luke thought, wondering if he was working her too hard.
But before he could think it through, the massage chairs caught his eye and his mind went on a different trajectory altogether.
Helen Rhodes. He hadn’t been prepared for her. Hadn’t been prepared for the depth of his attraction. He’d always enjoyed women, but this one topped them all.
She invaded his sleep. Invaded his thoughts when he should have been concentrating on all the last-minute details that awaited his attention.
Even now, he could see her golden blond curls in artful disarray. He could stare out into space and suddenly space turned into the emerald depths of eyes punctuated by a tiny mole at one corner. And if he let himself go, he could feel her body pressed tightly against his own.
He found it difficult to concentrate with a near-continual hard-on for the woman.
A problem he hoped would be resolved that very evening.
5
“REMEMBER, ANY REFERENCE to business makes this a nondate, which would mean the count starts over,” Luke reminded Helen as a second round of margaritas arrived.
They were having drinks at the restaurant atop the North Avenue Beach facility, a building that resembled an ocean liner, except with changing rooms and bike rentals and a newspaper stand on the ground floor. The place itself wasn’t fancy, but, ah, the surroundings. Out on the beach below, a few volleyball games were still in progress despite the fading light. Breakers rolled in over the sand and the city skyline twinkled as the sun set, leaving the darkening sky streaked with pink and orange.
Hot Zone Page 5
