Anything You Can Do (8 page)

"Want to go get something to eat?" she called to her demented friends.

"How about we send out for a pizza?" Paula asked.

"Sounds good to me," Gordon seconded.

Resignedly Bailey reached for the phone, wondering if they planned to come out of the bedroom to eat. Just as her hand touched the instrument, however, it rang.

Her lack of surprise at hearing Austin's voice gave her a moment's pause, but she assured herself it was only because they'd ta
lked at least once a day concerning the Miller case during the past week. Expecting his voice was a normal response, not a psychic link or anything weird.

"Yes, Gordon's here," she replied in response to his query. "At least, his body is. He's totally lost his mind." She explained what Gordon and
Paula were doing, expecting a sympathetic ear.

"They're
both
writing a letter to Prince Charming?" Austin asked, the emphasis indicating it would be okay if only one of them was doing the writing.

"Hang on. I'll get your friend for you," Bailey offered. Apparently Au
stin wasn't going to be an ally—was, in fact, involved in the nuttiness.

Gordon's first response to Austin was laughter, then a cryptic "Guidance could be critical."

The entire conversation sounded suspicious to Bailey—Gordon's tone as well as his avoidance of coherent statements.

"See if he wants to come over for pizz
a," she invited. Best to find out what the two of them were up to, she told herself, justifying the action.

"He says he'll e
ven bring the pizza," Gordon informed her.

An hour later Austin arrived with cold beer and hot pizza. Bailey directed him to t
he refrigerator while she set the cardboard box in the middle of her dining room table.

"I'm surprised you have a table," Austin said, coming up behind her, leaning over her shoulder to peer at the polished wood with glass inserts. "I mean, since you don't have anything in the refrigerator except dog food and mayonnaise."

"I keep sodas in the vegetable bins," she snapped, suddenly acutely aware of his closeness, afraid to move for fear she'd touch him, uncertain and fearful of where that touch might take her.

For a moment they stood, a tense tableau, then
Gordon and Paula burst into the room. Austin stepped backward, and Bailey darted into the kitchen for plates.

"Austin, you wouldn't believe how many replies I've already got to my ad,"
Paula announced. "Here, listen to this one."

Paula
read her letter from Prince Charming while the others consumed pizza. Taking a huge bite of her piece, she chewed a couple of times then declared, "And now you have to hear this really incredible letter Gordon and I have composed in answer."

"No!" both men objected at once.

"Why not?"

"That's very personal,
Paula," Austin replied. "I think you should keep the contents strictly between you and this—this PC."

Bailey studied Austin's face as he spoke. Something about this deal wasn't on the up and up.

When the last piece of pizza had been consumed, Austin and Gordon settled comfortably in the living room chairs facing Bailey and Paula on the sofa. Bailey felt satiated, relaxed, and surprisingly comfortable in spite of Austin's presence.

"So how do you l
ike working for the old bear?" Austin asked Paula.

Paula
looked at him then turned away as Samantha bounced into her lap. "It's a job," she answered, shrugging, stroking the dog as she again raised her eyes to Austin. "The only one I'm qualified for at this stage of my life."

With a start Bailey realized that
Paula really did hate being a legal secretary as much as she said she did. Since she tended to be sarcastic about most things, Bailey had mostly dismissed her comments. But Paula's lilting voice had suddenly gone dull and lifeless.

"So why don't you do something else?" Bailey asked.

"Like what? I'm too short to be a model and too clumsy to be a waitress. And speaking of, what's happening with our friend Candy?"

"Don't get them started," Gordon warned. "We'll have World War Three right here in Bailey's living room. Come on, let's go deliver your letter."

"Right now? In the middle of the night?"

"Sure." He stood, pulling
Paula to her feet. "Why not? I'll protect you."

"It's not that," she answered. "It just doesn't feel right to send off a letter without making file and reading copies." 

"You've definitely been a secretary too long. Come on."

Paula
retrieved the envelope from the kitchen bar, sealed it, and grinned. "This is fun," she said.

"We'll be back shortly," Gordon assured Bailey and Austin as he opened the door for
Paula.

"You know, we can't stretch you or improve your coordination, but have you ever considered night
school now that you live close to several colleges?" Gordon asked her.

Bailey watched the pair leave, the door close behind them. Even if they were nuts, she was glad her two best friends got along so well. She didn't even resent their going off together
and leaving her alone with Austin.

But suddenly she didn't feel so comfortable anymore.

Ridiculous! She'd overcome this irrational fear of the male of the species long ago. She was a professional, a skilled attorney up for a partnership. So why did Austin make her feel like she was sixteen again?

For what seemed an eternity but was probably only a few seconds, she kept her head turned toward the door, avoiding him, searching her usually fertile mind for something to say. They'd argued interminably all week, creating an odd sort of intimacy by virtue of the continued encounters. There was really no reason to feel awkward now.

With incredible force for a six-pound creature, Samantha leaped into Bailey's lap, eliciting a startled "Oomph!"

"Cute dog," Austin said, and she finally turned to look at him, directly into those electric eyes.

"Thanks," she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

A mantel clock that had
theretofore been relatively silent suddenly ticked loudly, annoyingly.

"Nice chess set," Austin said. The carved ivory figures on a marble board occupied their own table in the co
rner of the room.

"A gift from my father. Do you play?"

"A little." But his eyes lit up, and Bailey knew. Wordlessly she moved the set to the dining room table, and Austin followed, eyes glowing. As they began to play, she rapidly concluded that he was no novice. Not that she'd ever thought he might be.

Bailey's blood was leaping again. She made her moves unhesitatingly, no longer uncomfortable, again in control.

Sometime during the game she saw Paula and Gordon from the corner of her eye as they came in, but they went straight to Paula's room.

Finally—
"Check," Austin announced.

"And mate." Bailey unhesitatingly moved a knight into position, trying to refrain from smirking.

"Very good," Austin said.
Damn
! he thought. That gave her two in a row, for she'd definitely trounced him at the deposition. "Another game?" He had her strategies figured out now. He'd beat her this time.

Sometime later he slapped his palm on the tabletop and exclaimed, "Impossible!" when it became appar
ent the game was a stalemate.

"My sentiments exactly."

For a moment they glared at each other, then both shoved back their chairs and stood. Austin moved in long strides toward the refrigerator, intent on getting a cold beer. From the corner of his eye, he saw Bailey doing the same thing. Well, he could certainly walk faster than she could!

They collided in
the kitchen doorway. He automatically put up his hands to brace against the collision and she must have done the same because somehow their bodies slammed together while their arms tangled around each other. The adrenaline of anger, the excitement of the game, somehow all got mixed up and misdirected. He could have sworn it all came from holding Bailey's sleek body against his.

Her face, inches from his own, was glowing, her green eyes blazing. She exuded life and vitality and challenge.

One of his hands, seemingly of its own volition, stroked her smooth neck while the other moved down to her slim waist.

This is crazy
, he thought. Holding an untamed tiger in one's arms was definitely crazy but it didn't feel crazy. It felt wonderful.

He really had to stop.

Her full lips parted slightly, as if to take in extra breaths, her gaze never leaving his. Her hands caressed his back, deftly, gently, as he'd never realized yet always known she could.

Austin ordered his hands to move away from her body, but they were no longer connected to his brain. The
right slid down to the firm roundness of her buttocks, pushed her pelvis against his arousal, while the left held her neck firmly as his lips touched hers. She returned the kiss hungrily, matching his own frenzy. He felt the strength and the softness, tasted pizza and beer and an elusive spiciness he immediately identified as Bailey. His tongue darted out, met hers, thrust, parried, retreated, and returned.

He couldn't think, didn't dare think, could only revel in the feel of her beneath his hands, against his body, moving with him in a frenetic rhythm. As she clung to him, his hand moved from her neck over her collarbone, down to her small, round breast, molding it through the soft fabric of her cotton blouse. His fingers searched for the nipple, his breath coming faster as he found it erect, felt her surge against him as he stroked.

Something gentle but insistent touched his leg repeatedly, but he had no attention left for outside distractions. This contest was consuming him. He couldn't get enough of Bailey. He had to have her, had to love her, doubted even that would be enough.

A sharp bark intruded.

Dazed, Austin jerked apart from Bailey, followed her gaze to the floor at their feet where Samantha looked up with indignation in her brown eyes.

Bailey sank to the floor, took the dog into her arms.

"Were you being ignored, sweetheart?" Her words were gasps, the same as his would be if he tried to talk.

Talk?
How could he talk when he couldn't even think? Austin yanked open the refrigerator door and pulled out a can of beer. He popped the top, held on to the kitchen counter, and downed half the contents of the can then paused to breathe.

"Are you two finally taking a break?"
Paula's voice came across the room.

"Yes," he gulped.

"We're finished," Bailey added.

She sounded so definite, but when he looked at her, in the split second before she looked away he saw in her eyes what he already knew. They weren't
finished. They'd barely begun, and whatever it was they'd begun, it was like nothing he'd ever known or heard of before.

"Got to run, kids," Gordon said, giving
Paula and Bailey a quick kiss. "Let's do my place tomorrow night. Austin and I will cook so we can eat something besides pizza."

Austin smiled as he felt control returning. He was a gourmet cook. No woman who kept dog food and mayonnaise in her refrigerator could possibly equal his culinary skills. "Great idea, Gordon."

"I'll bring dessert," Bailey said.

All eyes turned to her.

"Price Chopper's got a sale on frozen cheesecake," Gordon said.

Bailey set her grocery sacks on the kitchen counter then went back downstairs for her large shopping bag from The Complete Kitchen. Who'd have thought a little cheesecake would require so many different items? But it would be worth all the hassle to see the look on Austin's face when she brought a white chocolate cheesecake with raspberry sauce for dessert.

With the various bags settled on the counter, she reached down to scoop up Samantha.

"Your uncle Gordon's going to get his, too," she told the little dog. "
Price Chopper's got a sale on frozen cheesecake
."

"Bailey, you're home early,"
Paula exclaimed. Bailey started at the sound of her friend's voice. Paula entered the living room with a fist full of letters.

"Why aren't you out at the pool trying to catch skin cancer?" she asked, hoping
Paula wouldn't look in the kitchen.

"You're just jealous because you look like a speckled pup after a few minutes in the sun. What have you got in the sacks?"

Bailey tilted her chin upward. "I'm taking dessert to Gordon's tonight, remember?"

"That's a lot of dessert. What did you do? Buy
up all the frozen cheesecakes?" Paula came over to peek into the bags.

There was nothing to do but tell the truth.
"I'm making dessert. That's the ingredients and a pan and measuring stuff and a cookbook. Now go lie in the sun or stuff your letters in a tree or something."