BB Dalton (3 page)

Well, he sure couldn’t tell her it wasn’t the photo shoot that was making him nervous. He’d fallen right back into modeling like he’d never left it. It was that he’d had one hell of a dream about her just before waking this morning that had left him alone in bed, red-faced and with a raging hard-on. He’d thrown himself quickly into the shower to deal with the physical aspect, but the mental anguish remained.

Of all mornings to have an underwear shoot.

He backed away another pace and said, “I’m really fine.” He needed to get far away from her. “Do you think I could maybe get a bottle of water?”

“Of course.” She rushed off and he breathed a sigh of relief. The feeling, however, was short lived. No sooner had she returned than the photographer started discussing the shot with her, and what BB heard Katie say next nearly made him run in the other direction.

“You’ve gotten great shots of him alone, Pierre. It’s exactly what I imagined when I planned the campaign. The dog tags on his bare chest, the camouflage pants open to show his abs and just the edge of the briefs. But I just thought of something. What if we got a few with a woman standing behind him, while he’s facing the camera? You don’t see her at all except for her hands wrapping around him and kind of groping.”

Pierre nodded. “Do it. Let me see.”

Suddenly, the discussion became very hands-on and quick as a wink, Katie was pressed up behind him, groping. The photographer grabbed his camera and started shooting. BB set his jaw and tried to think of something else as Katie’s manicured nail traced the line of hair on his abdomen that led down to his…

“Perfect! I love the facial expression, BB. Look mean and tough,” the diminutive Frenchman demanded.

Great. BB was so glad Pierre was happy. Meanwhile, since the studio was so hot because of all the lights, Katie had taken off her winter overcoat and suit jacket and was now down to just a sleeveless top. So her flesh was pretty much adhered to his. In fact, they’d been just like this, only reversed and naked, in his dream.

“Katie. Try slipping one of your hands into the elastic of the briefs,” Pierre instructed.

The minute BB heard that, he knew he was in trouble. His mind went to bad, bad places and his body followed.

He grabbed her hand in his and jumped away from her. “I need a break.”

Katie immediately came around to stand in front of him.

“What’s wrong? Are you OK? Are the lights too hot?” Then her eyes dropped for barely a second and she blushed. “Oh.”

Katie was looking everywhere except at him when he said, “I’m sorry. That was totally unprofessional and shouldn’t have happened.” He was so appalled, the situation had pretty much remedied itself already.

“Don’t be silly. It’s my fault. My hands were all over you.
I’m
sorry.” A little furrow appeared in-between Katie’s brows when she finally made eye contact again.

Even her frown was starting to look cute to him. He was in sorry shape, and over one stupid dream. But actually, he hadn’t dreamed like that in a long time, and it had been one hell of a dream.

Pierre threw his hands in he air. “He’s sorry. She’s sorry. But I’m going to be sorry if I don’t get these shots done. The schedule you’ve set up is nearly impossible. Transit ads up in twenty-four hours. I’ve never heard of such a thing. Come, Katie. Look and see if we’ve got something you can use so soldier boy can change for the next shot.”

With a final glance at him, Katie followed the photographer to his computer while BB

looked longingly at the ice in the bucket across the room and considered a cold shower.

The remainder of the day was filled with activity and people. He changed clothes more times than he could count. He posed for some holiday shots where Pierre had him in nothing but white briefs with Christmas garland wrapped around his neck.

Katie had enjoyed that. She was calling out suggestions of what the ad could read while he posed. She was torn between “What will be in your stockings this holiday?” and “Some packages just can’t wait to be opened.” Humiliating. He remembered very vividly why he’d quit this to crawl around in the mud instead.

And speaking of crawling in the mud, he posed for shots to be used for the recruitment campaign, too. He went from wet suit to camouflage pants and shirtless, smeared with greasepaint. Every shot was taken in front of a blue screen and the various backgrounds would be added later with a computer.

Katie spent the morning choosing the shots to be used, working with the graphic designers, and giving final approval to the proofs before sending them to the printer.

It was hard to believe the Milano holiday ad, the embarrassing garland-wearing one, would be rush printed overnight and hanging in every subway car and even on the sides of a few buses by morning.

Katie sure did move fast. The only problem was, as much as he respected her business capabilities, he couldn’t help thinking he’d like them to be moving fast in another direction.

They ate dinner with some execs from Andre Milano who spent the evening being corporate idiots with who he had nothing in common. But at least it gave him a chance to observe Katie unnoticed as they talked demographics or whatever.

And now, looking exhausted but pretending she wasn’t, Katie was still all business, briefing him for the TV talk show interviews the next morning. The last thing he wanted to do was talk about work, but she looked too tired to do what else he had in mind, anyway. And he definitely wanted her as an active participant if and when that happened.

“Katie. Let’s go to bed.” He let the suggestive sentence hang in the air, just to see how she reacted. It sure shut her up.

She raised a brow and hesitated. Unfortunately, her business-half overtook her feminine-half and she protested. “But you have to be at The Today Show by seven for makeup, then over to Live with Regis and Kelly before nine. And then to The View for an eleven o’clock show.

We won’t have time to go over this in the morning.” She held up a list of questions.

“Katie, I wake up at five every morning because that’s what I’m used to doing. Give me your questions and I’ll go over them then. We can review them together while I’m in the makeup chair tomorrow morning.” He was sure the guys on the team would just love to jab fun at him sitting here talking about being in makeup.

Hopefully, they’d never find out.

“You’re okay with that? You’re not nervous?”

He was, actually. Modeling was one thing, but live television interviews quite another.

Besides that, he was concerned about what he should and shouldn’t say. He’d spent his entire career with the task force avoiding telling people what he did. Now he was supposed to get up and talk about being a special operative without spilling any state secrets. On top of it all, he had to remember to plug their sponsor, Andre Milano. This was probably going to be his most difficult assignment to date.

But Katie looked ready to drop so he shrugged. “Worrying about tomorrow won’t help any. Come on. Go to bed.”

He got up and took her elbow to make her do the same. And the look that blazed in her tired eyes when he touched her made him think she might actually say yes if he did ask her to join him in his bed. Or hers. He wasn’t picky.

BB was amazing. Katie stood off-stage and watched with awe, and something that felt an awfully lot like lust perhaps.

She’d been a little worried. After all, he was a model.

It was the rare specimen of that breed that could string two sentences together coherently, forget about carry on witty banter and field questions thrown at them by morning talk show hosts. But BB had held his own with The Today Show team. Even though she could tell he had been a bit nervous that morning, he’d gotten quickly over it. He was a natural.

And now, on the set of Live with Regis and Kelly, Katie watched as BB stripped off his shirt and dropped down for a push-up contest against Regis Philbin. The crowd cheered wildly while Kelly Ripa counted the repetitions.

The audience loved it. Hell, even the producer Michael Gelman loved it. They’d be replaying clips of this on every ABC affiliate all day long, Katie was sure of it.

She laughed as Kelly sat on BB’s back to even the odds, and he good-naturedly accepted the handicap and still went on to win the contest. He graciously complimented Regis on giving him a run for his money, presented him with a gift package of briefs and the segment was over.

He was back beside her, pulling his knit US Navy shirt back over his head as an associate producer led them to the green room to retrieve her briefcase.

When they were deposited there and alone, Katie was so happy with how things were turning out, she threw her arms around his neck. “You were so great!”

He wrapped his arms around her waist. “Really?”

Shy and modest to the end. “Yeah, really.”

He smiled. “Thanks.”

Then he leaned down slowly. Katie watched his mouth move closer. He hovered near her lips, watching her. His arms around her tightened, just a bit.

She swallowed. She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t close that small gap between them. She didn’t have the guts.

Her insecurities overcame her. She was too old, he was too young. They had a professional relationship that would be jeopardized if they crossed this line.

Every thought must have shown on her face, because he leaned closer, brushed just the corner of her mouth chastely with his and pulled away.

“On to the next show?” he asked as if nothing had happened.

She managed a nod.

A one-hour talk show later and they’d checked out of the hotel and started the two-hour drive north to BB’s hometown. He was behind the wheel of the rental car, half listening to the Christmas carol being played on the radio while Katie read emails on some tiny computer thing the size of a wallet while speaking on her cell phone. BB was once again glad that the equipment for his job usually entailed guns and/or oxygen tanks. This poor woman couldn’t get away from her assistant’s phone calls day or night.

BB glanced at the winter-brown scenery around him. He hadn’t been home for nearly a year. It had been too long and he was looking forward to his holiday leave.

“So here’s the plan…”

Oh, she was off the phone and speaking to him now.

“Shoot.”

“We’ve got an interview with a local radio station broadcasting live from the Poughkeepsie Galleria Mall tomorrow at six for the morning drive-time.”

Great, he thought. Nothing like the mall a week before Christmas. He watched her cringe and guessed why. “Not a morning person?” he smiled.

“Well, there’s morning, and then there’s
morning
. I prefer my mornings to start about eight, seven the earliest.” She continued. “After that, we have a photographer and reporter from the local newspaper meeting us at the recruiting center where they’ll take a few shots of you with the guys there.”

He nodded. “And what about tonight?”

“You actually have a night off. Drop me off at the hotel. You can take the rental car. Just don’t forget to get me tomorrow early enough to get to the mall by six.”

“I’ll get you at five-thirty. Five-forty-five, the latest,” he informed her. But meanwhile, he was planning on how best to use his night off, and it involved Katie.

She groaned. “It’s still going to be dark that early.”

He laughed. “Yup.”

“Great. I think the last time I saw five-thirty, I was getting in from the night before.”

“Now that’s a story I’d like to hear.”

She laughed. “No, you wouldn’t. It was for work and I was getting off the red-eye flight from LA. Believe me, my life’s not that interesting.”

“Yes, it is, and you are,” he told her. She really had no idea how fascinating she was. He’d have to show her.

“I want you to come and meet my family tonight. Come over for dinner.”

She looked at him doubtfully. “I couldn’t do that. I don’t want to intrude on your family time.”

“You’re not intruding. I invited you.”

“Yeah, but your mom isn’t expecting me…”

He laughed. “She had nine kids, plus all of our friends who were always stopping by. She cooks like there’s an army coming for dinner every night.”

She hesitated. “Are you sure?”

He nodded. “I’m sure. We’ll get you checked into the hotel then head over.”

Both the trip to the hotel and the drive to his parents’ house turned out to be quite an unexpected eye opener for BB. He pulled the car into his parents’ driveway, glad to see that at least his old house still looked the same. It was a relief, because it seemed everything else in his hometown had changed.

In the little hick town he’d grown up in, where the coming of Wal-Mart had been a sign of civilization a few years ago, there was now a Starbucks Coffee! That was something he’d never thought he’d see. The people around here were used to buying their coffee from the gas station for a dollar. He was finding it hard to believe they’d be interested in a Mocha-Chocha-Grande whatever for over three bucks!

And then, while he was still recovering from the coffee shock, he’d nearly put them both through the windshield when he saw, just in the nick of time, the red light. There was actually a traffic light installed on his parents’ street!

Down the way a bit, he realized why there was a sudden need for a traffic light on a road that had never needed one. The old farmer who used to supply the local horse owners with hay had finally sold out. There were now about two hundred brand new houses dotting what used to be pastureland.

Needless to say, BB was very happy when his mother, looking exactly the same right down to her favorite housedress, came out to greet him. He got out of the car and hugged her.

He turned to introduce Katie, and realized she was hanging back by the car awkwardly. He grabbed her hand and pulled her over to his mother.