“Yes, we probably should.”
She relaxed. “Good. I’m glad that’s settled.” Now she had only to convince herself, she thought.
“So am I.” He moved the six inches that separated them and kissed her deeply.
Her heart playing hopscotch in her throat, Summer stared at him when he pulled back. “Derek, haven’t you been listening to a word I said?” she demanded. “You just agreed
that we would remain friends. Friends don’t sit around kissing each other.”
“They don’t?”
“Not… not the way you kiss.”
“Olympic-class?” He still seemed rather pleased with that description.
“Well, actually, I think I should change that.”
He looked disappointed. “Not Olympic-class?”
“No. I’d forgotten that all the competitors in the Olympics are amateurs. I don’t think you’d qualify.”
He grinned. It was the closest thing to a real grin she’d ever seen him wear. Before she could do any more than go all gooey inside in response, he was kissing her again. “You have the nicest way of asking a man to back off,” he informed her when he released her mouth, keeping his face close to hers.
She cleared her throat with difficulty. “I don’t think you’re paying much attention.”
“I don’t seem to be, do I?”
Setting her half-empty wineglass pointedly on the low coffee table in front of them, Summer rose to her feet. “It’s time for you to take me home now, Derek.”
“All right,” he agreed, standing beside her. “Will you come to my party next weekend? It’s only fair, you know. I went to yours.”
“I’ll think about it.”
“Do that.”
DEREK FOUND HIMSELF actually smiling into the darkness as he climbed into bed that night. He’d stumbled onto an excellent way of dealing with Summer Reed, he decided in satisfaction. He’d wondered the other day what would happen if he silenced her teasing with a kiss. Now he knew. At first he’d merely been punishing her for her pointed little “object lesson.” Then, when he’d discovered that his kisses seemed to shake her up so much that she actually forgot to laugh at him, he’d decided to continue the interesting assault. And face it, he told himself, he’d been wanting to kiss her ever since he’d first seen her sitting on that bar stool in her apartment, her lovely smile seeming to light up the dim corner in which she sat. She’d been so self-assured. So coolly amused.
Remembering her dazed expression when he’d left her at the door tonight with a kiss that could have blown all the fuses in her apartment building, he chuckled softly. He’d wondered if there was a way to penetrate her laughing composure. It seemed he had found it.
There was only one problem with his method of controlling Summer. He liked it too much. Kissing Summer could rapidly become addictive. It compared easily with the adrenaline rush that had come just before he’d gone into situations in his government work that he’d known would be highly dangerous. He could imagine only one thing more exciting than kissing her. Imagining that one thing had sent him straight home to a cold shower.
He thought of those dangerous situations that he’d faced with appalling regularity before he’d retired from the job that he’d always misrepresented as a safe, diplomatic attaché position. He wondered if his analogy of danger had been too close for comfort. Involvement in those situations could have cost him his life. Involvement with Summer could cost him… what? His peace of mind? His very soul?
The hairs on the back of his neck used to stand on end when he’d sensed that an assignment would be particularly explosive. They were standing on end at this moment. But just as he’d been unable to resist the lure of danger for fifteen years, so he seemed unable to resist it now. Derek was taking on one more assignment. He wanted Summer Reed. He intended to have her.
He’d tried to fight his attraction to her. Hadn’t he?
Yes, he had. He’d lost the battle. He wanted her. She wasn’t exactly the type of woman he’d thought he was looking for when he’d decided to settle down into a more normal life, but what the hell. He wasn’t exactly the type of man he’d presented to the world during the past few months, either.
Oh, yes, he wanted her. Defiant, eccentric, impudent, unpredictable and vulnerable Summer. But could he make her want him? Was she so convinced that he was a dull, regimented businessman that she would refuse to acknowledge there was something exciting between them? Would she be more interested in him if he told her about what he had really done for the government?
No, dammit, he was no storybook hero, despite his past. She’d take him as he was now, or not at all.
Derek Anderson was a man of action. Quick to make decisions, quick to act on them. He went to sleep still making his plans for his campaign to win the heart and I trust of Summer Reed.
“LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT. My brother invited you over for a swim and a barbecue and you went? You spent the entire afternoon and evening with him?” Connie stared across the tiny dinette table, her green eyes wide with surprise as they focused on her roommate.
“Yep.” Summer swallowed her first sip of morning coffee, her eyes closing in momentary pleasure. How she loved that first sip of coffee.