If She Dares (Contemporary Romance) (9 page)

Given the chance, she might be willing to handcuff him in bed, but a blindfold was out of the question.

Eventually, however, she was forced to concentrate on the dozen tiny hooks that had to be fastened to secure the bustier. When she looked back up, Jack had gone. She wasn’t sure how to feel about his absence. Rejected? Relieved that one of them had come to their senses before she embarrassed herself in a costume store? Regardless, she opened the door with her head held high. Superheroines didn’t shrink back into the shadows because they were afraid they’d come on too strong.

It turned out he hadn’t gone far, merely moved a few feet to the left, out of her line of sight.

The corner of his mouth lifted in an appreciative half grin that hinted at his dimples. “On behalf of every man who will be at the Halloween party, I am begging you—buy that.”

“I do like the costume,” she admitted, catching her reflection in the full-length mirror. “But it might be a little too chilly for up on the roof.”

As if he’d anticipated that exact argument, he presented a cape with a flourish. “What if you have this to wrap around you?”

She slid the fabric between her fingers, judging its thickness and ability to provide a buffer between her and the night air. The forecast was calling for relatively mild temperatures, and she really did look like a badass in this. She grinned. “Sold.”

Riley changed back into her clothes and carried her purchases to the front, happy she’d stepped so far outside her comfort zone. But she would have been even happier if, instead of handing her a wrap for Friday night, Jack had offered to keep her warm himself.

* * *

T
ONY
L
ANG
CAUGHT
the basketball with an
oomph
, staggering back a step. “Man, what is with you this morning?” he asked Jack, who’d fired the ball at him. “You know if you’re on some illegal, performance-enhancing drug, one of us is gonna have to arrest you. Which would suck since it’s our day off.”

Dave Burke tipped his water bottle toward Jack. “Seriously, aren’t you just a few years from thirty? I think it’s too late to decide to go pro.”

“I don’t know what you two are whining about. I’m on your team,” Jack reminded them. He’d scored the last six points in the game they’d just won, making almost as many baskets as Dave, who was over six-four. Both three-man teams had a victory, and they were getting ready to play their tie-breaker.

“Those slackers are just ticked because you’re making them look bad,” Brad Lang heckled as he returned to the blacktop from the nearby restrooms. “We ready to go again?”

Tony snorted. “You sure you don’t want to just call this and save what dignity you have left, little brother? You only won the first game by a basket, and we wiped the court with you last round.”

“No,
he
wiped the court with us.” Brad jerked a thumb in Jack’s direction. “You were more like...the world’s ugliest cheerleader.”

Tony shook his head sadly. “Ma’s gonna be so upset when you can’t make family dinner tonight on account of how I hospitalized you.”

“Enough with the sibling rivalry,” one of Brad’s teammates chided. “I didn’t haul myself out of bed first thing in the morning just to listen to you two bozos trash-talk. Let’s do this.”

Brad’s team was a trio of paramedics. Because all six players worked long hours and erratic shifts, it had been a while since they’d played. Thank goodness weather and scheduling had permitted it today, because after yesterday afternoon with Riley, Jack needed one hell of a physical outlet to work through his sexual frustration.

He’d been rock hard all night. Every time he’d closed his eyes, he saw her. Lifting her sweater over her head. Wearing that strapless top and those killer boots. Leaning forward, about to kiss him. If they hadn’t been disturbed and she’d actually gone through with it, would she be regretting it now?

Maybe they’d just both been caught up in the moment, he thought as he stole the ball from Brad and dribbled down the court. The charged flirting had led to a little temporary insanity.

Why else would he have been considering the destruction of property? He’d had to move away from the fitting room doors because the longer he stood there, the more he’d thought about how insubstantial the silver hook holding them together was...and just how quickly he could be with Riley. He was pretty sure kissing a topless Riley would be worth any vandalism charges.

But would it be worth losing her friendship afterward? Or potentially hurting her when he inevitably walked away?

He launched the ball at the basket with more ire than finesse, and it bounced off the rim. The truth was, he had an indisputable track record of satisfying women in the short run but disappointing them in the long run. Tony, one of his best friends, wouldn’t even let Jack in the same general vicinity as his fragile divorced sister without issuing preemptive warnings.

Riley didn’t have anyone to warn him away on her behalf. She was sexy as hell, but she was sweet, too, with moments of vulnerability that ripped at him. She’d mentioned her family in nearly every conversation they’d ever had. She owned a dog. She seemed made for eventual marriage and home life, like Dave and Tony and their wives.

Awfully presumptuous of you. Why don’t you ask the lady what
she
wants?

After all, if he’d learned anything yesterday, it was that she was full of surprises.

* * *

R
ILEY
FROZE
IN
the act of brushing on a second coat of mascara, meeting her gaze in the bathroom mirror. “Don’t give me that look. This is not vanity primping in case you run into Jack. This is because you’re going to a tenant meeting where you’ll be saying a few words about your candidacy.” She wanted people to think of her as reliable and authoritative; it was difficult to project that image in comfy sweatpants and slippers. Hence, the black jeans, cobalt turtleneck and makeup application.

If Jack happened to be at the meeting and saw her looking good, well, bonus.

Their paths hadn’t crossed a single time since they’d walked to their separate cars on Saturday. Now it was Tuesday evening. After last week, when she’d bumped into him in the parking lot, in the mail room and in the hallway outside their apartments, this felt almost like avoidance.
You’re being paranoid
.

But women’s intuition told her it was more than paranoia. The dynamic between her and Jack had shifted on Saturday. For her, it was progress. It had clarified that, as much as she enjoyed the banter between them and occasionally suggestive glances, she wanted more. Maybe Jack didn’t. His absence might be a diplomatic way of telling her that without having to say it outright.

She’d only known him a couple of weeks. How could that thought bother her so much?

Thankfully, a knock sounded at her door, distracting her from her brooding. Since delivery people had to be buzzed in through the lobby, it probably wasn’t the upgraded computer component she’d ordered.
More likely, Anna Tyler, come to shiv the usurper
. It was good Riley was trained in self-defense.

But a glance through the security peephole erased any fears that the sitting president was lying in wait to eliminate the competition. Her stomach somersaulted at the sight of Jack standing on the other side of the door. So either she had been completely paranoid, or he’d decided to take a more direct approach in rejecting her.

She swung the door wide. “Hey.”

He smiled at the sight of her. “I was hoping I wasn’t too late to catch you. I thought maybe we could walk down together? I spurred you into running for the board, least I can do is offer my moral support.”

“I’m relieved to see you.” Mostly, she was relieved by his familiar grin, the dimples that made her feel silly for worrying that things between the two of them might be strained. “I was half-afraid it might be Mrs. Tyler in a bid to take me out before next month’s election.” Not that Riley automatically assumed she would win, but Anna Tyler liked to control all variables. And all tenants. She probably had hopes for eventual global domination.

“You raise a good point. Forget moral support, you need a bodyguard. Do presidential candidates get a secret-service detail? Maybe I could borrow a bulletproof vest from the department.”

She laughed. “I feel safer already.” That’s what Jack had done for her ever since they’d been trapped in that elevator together—made her feel safe. Maybe not from real-world risks, but from her own troubling ghosts. They had less hold over her now, and part of her adored him for that.

Then there were other parts of her that mostly adored the way he looked from behind in a pair of jeans.

She cleared her throat. “Um, I just need to grab my keys.”

With her hormones back under control, she locked up and headed toward the steps with him. “I have a confession to make.”

He rubbed his hands together. “Is it wrong that I’m hoping for something really sinful?”

Maybe instead of admitting something that painted her as insecure, she should just make a joke about the handcuff-related thoughts she’d had over the weekend.
No, tell him the truth
. Not that the handcuff fantasies would be a lie. “Before you stopped by, I was starting to wonder if you were dodging me.”

“Why would I do that?”

“Because of how I behaved on Saturday.”

“Yeah,” he scoffed, “I hate it when a woman’s fun to be around and mind-blowingly sexy.”

Mind-blowingly, huh? Grinning inwardly, she set that compliment aside for later savoring. “So I was just being neurotic?”

He was quiet as they descended the last set of stairs.

“Jack?”

“I wasn’t going out of my way to avoid you, but I did want some time to think.”

So her women’s intuition wasn’t totally off base. In this case, she almost wished it had been. “About me?”

“Yeah.”

She swallowed. “Good or bad?”

He opened the door for her, and they stepped into the hallway where other tenants were filing into the meeting room. Then he gave her the most heart-stopping masculine smile she’d ever seen in her life. “All bad,” he promised. “Very, very bad.”

* * *

I
T
WAS
J
ACK
’
S
first tenant meeting since moving into the building, so he couldn’t say for sure, but he doubted it was supposed to be a sensual experience.
Then you shouldn’t have sat next to Riley
. She smelled amazing. The faint sweetness of raspberries kept reminding him of her playfully taunting expression when she’d revealed the body wash she’d bought. And her bright blue turtleneck was like a beacon, constantly drawing his gaze. It was long-sleeved and covered her practically to her chin, but the way the material molded to her curves made the top every bit as sexy as a low-cut shirt.

But even more appealing than a piece of clothing or a teasing scent was the woman herself. When she stood up to say a few sentences about running for board president, she was funny and intelligent, despite Anna Tyler trying to interrupt twenty seconds into her statement. Riley smiled graciously and kept going, but Mrs. Tyler tried at least two more times to cut her short.

“That’s all well and good, Miss Kendrick, but I’m sure you understand the board has some important things to discuss tonight, so—”

“I couldn’t agree more.” Riley nodded emphatically. “As you’ve demonstrated in your term, leadership of the board is very important. Really, it was the example you set that inspired me to run.”

Jack bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing while Mrs. Tyler narrowed her eyes, trying to decide if she’d been praised or insulted. Her ill-tempered interjections were beginning to remind him of a toddler tantrum, while Riley handled herself with class and confidence. Depending on how scared Mr. Tyler was of his own wife, the election might be unanimous.

Once Riley sat down, the board moved on to other topics, but Jack was barely listening. He was trying to reconcile the woman next to him with the one who’d told him in a dark elevator that she was “quite the scaredy-cat.” He wished he could show Riley how
he
saw her.

She might not be overcoming the trauma of something that had happened to her as rapidly as she wanted to, but she wasn’t weak in the slightest. He remembered the expression on her face as she’d stripped out of her clothes in that fitting room, a woman who knew her mind and her own appeal. His fingers itched for a charcoal pencil, and he wondered if he could do that look justice on paper.

It wasn’t until she nudged him with her elbow that he realized the meeting was over. “Did you fall asleep there at the end?” she teased.

“Just lost in thought.” He leaned closer, lowering his voice to a whisper. “You’re going to win in a landslide. It’s almost enough to make me feel bad for the opposition.”

Once they were in the empty stairwell and safely out of earshot from Mrs. Tyler, he added, “I’ve never had a friend in a position of political power before. This is exciting.”

“Don’t count the votes before they’ve hatched.”

“Does that mean it’s too soon to ask for preferential treatment? I was thinking my own parking space...”

She reached out to swat his shoulder with her fingers, and he deflected the strike by taking her hand. The amusement in her expression faded, but she didn’t pull away. He was walking through the hall hand in hand with Riley. What was next—asking her to go steady?

She’d been right to call him on avoiding her. It was one thing to decide he should just ask her point-blank what she wanted. But since he hadn’t been sure how she would answer—or whether what
he
wanted was a good idea—he’d conveniently not found an opportunity to ask yet.

No time like the present.
“Do you want to come in for a few minutes?” he invited.

She nodded.

He unlocked his door and led her into the living room, where she perched uneasily on the edge of the couch, as if she wasn’t sure she was staying long enough to warrant getting comfortable.