Tempting Nora (7 page)

"—lovely," Gideon finished.

Robert looked like he was fighting back a laugh.

"You two are driving me nuts," she said. "If you're going to talk about me like this, do it elsewhere."

She hadn't meant that literally. In fact, she
hadn't meant it at all. She just wanted one of them—or preferably
both
of them—to leave. Instead Robert's eyes lit up.

"You know what, that's a marvelous idea." Robert grinned. "Do you want to have lunch
, Gideon?"

"You know what, I really do." Gideon removed Nora's hand from his arm.

"Wonderful." Robert's eyes twinkled. "I know a great place down the street."

All of the sudden, Nora remembered that Robert was the keeper of her secrets. And right now, he wasn't acting like an ally.

"No, don't go out to lunch," she said.

"Why not?" Gideon raised an eyebrow
, not even bothering to conceal his smirk. "I thought you wanted us to talk elsewhere? We're just doing what you asked."

"Stop
smirking at me." She pointed a threatening finger at him. "And Robert, I forbid you from going."

"You
forbid
me from going?" Robert shook his head.

"What
, is Robert your slave?" Gideon asked.

"Well, no.
" She hated the way Gideon made her sound. "I didn't mean to boss him around."

"Yes, you did." Robert shot Gideon a pained look. "Nora always bosses me around."

"Well, today you aren't going to listen to her." Gideon wrapped an arm around Robert's shoulders. "Let's go grab something to eat, my
friend
."

"No!" she yelled.

The two of them headed for the door.

"Sorry, Nora." Robert waved at her
.

As she watched the two of them walk out the door—laughing at her expense, she might add—her eyebrow twitched. Sh
e clapped her hand to her brow and muttered, "Sorry my foot…" As of right now, Robert was the enemy. She cursed for the first time in two years and took a bite of her chocolate cake.

****

Two hours before the Trevor Malone concert, Nora stood in front of the mirror in a red dress. Her makeup was tasteful, but she had to admit that she may have gone a little overboard with the crimson lipstick. As she struck a pose, she thought,
Not half bad.
Sure, she didn't look like a model, but that didn't bother her. After all, she bet models never got to eat chocolate cake.

As she grabbed her purse from
the dresser, she looked down at Mr. Fleas. The dog was panting as he stared at her.

"I really should have told Robert
I couldn't go to the concert after the stunt he pulled this afternoon, huh?" She wished she hadn't said yes to him.

Mr. Fleas stared at her, his dark brown eyes wide. That was when a high-pitched squeak
burst from his little body. At first she thought,
What on earth was that?
Unfortunately, that was when she smelled a noxious odor. No, she more than smelled it—she tasted it. The dog had farted. The scent of rotting eggs was so pungent it enveloped her, making her feel as though she was drowning in stank. How on earth had a dog that small made a smell so disgusting?

"What have you b
een eating?" Her eyes watered.

The dog hopped to his feet and wagged his tail. Heaven help her, the stink
y canine was coming straight for her. She had to escape this apartment before she suffocated.

She staggered out of the bedroom as Mr. Fleas yapped at her heels. She
headed out the door and shut it halfway. Mr. Fleas stared up at her through the crack in the door, still wagging his tail. Unfortunately, the lethal odor clung to him like the world's worst perfume. She'd never smelled a corpse, but she had a feeling it would stink less than Mr. Fleas.

"Geez, dog," she said. "
Release all of that gas before I come home, okay?"

Another
high-pitched squeak came from the dog's tiny body. Good grief, Mr. Fleas had just farted again. She gasped and shut the door the rest of the way, feeling bad for Chubby who was now locked inside with the world's most odorous canine.

"
I have to switch dog foods or something," she said, scratching the back of her neck.

She'd smelled many putrid
scents in her lifetime, but never anything that bad.

With a sigh, she headed down the stairs. When she made it outside, she breathed in the fresh air and tilted her head back.
This was exactly what she needed after what she'd just experienced due to her dog's overactive rear-end.

After she inhaled a few more times, she climbed into her car and started
it. The vehicle backfired and then stalled.
Oh goody. This again
. She whacked the dashboard and the car sputtered back to life. After she was certain the vehicle was going to remain running, she pulled onto the road and drove to the restaurant where she had a reservation with Robert. Unfortunately, after she pulled into the parking lot and parked, she spotted a black truck that looked just like Gideon's. Her hair stood on end. He couldn't be here, could he?

She realized she was paranoid. No, worse than paranoid. She was
obsessed
. Gideon was not at the restaurant. There were zillions of people who drove black trucks. Just because she happened to see one didn't mean that Gideon was around. Laughing at herself, she finally jumped out of the car and then went inside the restaurant.

As her mouth watered
due to the smell of roasting steak, she walked over to the hostess who stood behind a service desk.

"
I have a reservation," she said. "It should be under the name Robert Campbell."

"Yes, your friend is
already here." The hostess let out a dreamy sigh.

What was that sigh about? Normally people didn't sigh when talking about Robert—unless it was a sigh of exasperation.

"Oh." Nora nodded. "Okay."

"I'll show you to your table." The
hostess flashed a grin, then sized her up. Judging by the way her smile lessened several molars, the woman was not impressed.

Perplexed,
Nora trailed behind the hostess. She was led over to a table in the backroom. But Robert was not waiting for her. Unfortunately, Gideon was.

"Here you are, m
a'am," the hostess said, even as she simpered at Gideon.

The woman went ignored
by both of them. Looking putout, the hostess left.

"No, no, no." Nora glared at Gideon. "What the heck are you doing here?"

Gideon cocked his head and gave a dazzling grin.

"You may want to sit down." He motioned for her to take
a seat. "People are staring."

Sure enough, every head was turned
in her direction. For a moment Nora considered making a fool of herself and running away, but then—much to her shame—curiosity got the better of her. She sunk down into her chair and glared at Gideon.

"Where's Robert?" she asked.
"I was supposed to meet him here, not
you
."

She said
"you" as if she was talking about something unpleasant like a creepy spider.

"Something came up." Gideon shrugged.

"Something?" She glared at him suspiciously. There was no doubt in her mind that Gideon was responsible for this something.

"Yes." Gideon
shrugged and opened a menu.

"And what would th
is something be?" She wasn't going to let this go without a fight.

"I happen to have a lot of beautiful friends that would love to go to a Trevor Malone concert." Gideon shr
ugged. "One of them happens to be a model for an up-and-coming magazine. Naturally, Robert was more than a little ecstatic to have such a gorgeous date, so he was willing to let me have you for the evening if I set him up with her."

My best friend
left me with Gideon because of a model?
The betrayal stung. Sure, she hadn't wanted to go to the concert anyway, but what Robert did was low.

"I can't believe him," she
said.

"You aren't mad, are you?" Gideon asked. "I talked him into it. And it took a lot of persuasion. A lot."

"How much persuasion is a lot?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Well, I had to show him
the woman's picture." He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

She winced.
That wasn't much persuasion at all.

"Oh, come on." Gideon
frowned, noting her pained expression. "When else would Robert have an opportunity to go on a date with a model? He saw a chance and he took it."

"
He practically sold me to you." She wrinkled her nose.

"Sold you?" Gideon snorted. "Stop being so dramatic. He thought he was doing you a favor. He told me so."

"What?" How could Robert think such a thing?

"It seems he worries about your
lack of love life." A wicked grin crossed Gideon's face.

"That's it." She flew to her feet. "I'm killing him and then you."

Heads turned in her direction again. Even though Gideon was smiling, he pulled her into her chair.

"Don't leave,"
Gideon said. "You want cake, don't you?" 

"Hmph.
" Of course she did, but she was still mad.

"Order anything you want." Gideon pulled out the dessert menu and handed it to her. "Heck, eat an entire cake if you want to."

As she stared down at the menu, her mouth watered. She studied the picture of her favorite dessert. Layers of thick chocolate cheesecake were drenched in gooey fudge. A whipped cream swirl covered the top of the cake. The piece was garnished with shreds of dark chocolate and decadent syrup.

She looked up from the menu.

"What's the catch?" she asked.

"Catch?" Gideon cocked his head.
"There isn't a catch."

"
There's always a catch." She glowered.

"Nora, the only thing I want
to do is eat dinner." Gideon eyes blazed as he looked at her.

Good
grief, the guy was smoldering at her again. His powers of seduction were so strong that several women at surrounding tables were caught in his trap and stared.

"I thought you weren't interested in dating women." She wrinkled
her nose. "This seems like a date to me. Why would you even bother to bribe my friend to spend an evening with me?"

Gideon didn't say anything.

"Answer me or I'll leave." Nora narrowed her eyes.

"I think you know why I'm doing this." Gideon leaned closer. "The more time you spend with me, the
more you'll like me. You'll give in eventually."

"Yeah, right." She laughed. "The more
time I spend with you, the more I think you're annoying."

Her outburst didn't appear to upset Gideon. Instead he gave her a knowing grin and
grabbed her arm. She tried to pull away, but his grip was so strong she couldn't. He flipped her hand over so it was palm side up and ran his fingertips over her skin. Tingles spread from where he touched to the tips of her fingers. Startled by her feelings, she looked straight into her eyes—which turned out to be her gravest error. Her brain was instantly electrified.

"I can tell I'm growing on you, despite what you sa
y," he whispered seductively. "Do you want me to list all of the things I think you like about me?"

"Um…" She blinked.

She'd forgotten how overpowering his intense caramel eyes could be. One look and she turned into a gibbering moron.

"You like the fact
you can argue with me," he said.

"What?"
she sputtered.

"
Arguing turns you on." Gideon's voice was husky.

"Uh-uh." Uh-uh? The best
she could come up with was uh-uh?

His grin widening, Gideon ran his fingertips up the inside of her wrist and traced the blue veins. The skin was sensitive and she shivered from
his touch. Nobody had ever caressed her there before. She gulped, completely under his power, as he drew her arm up to his lips.

"Don't," she
said.

He laid a peck on her
wrist, making her gasp.

"You like the way I helped you
the day it rained," Gideon said. "I can be good and I can be very,
very
bad. You find that fact intriguing."

She had no idea what he was talking about. All she was paying attention to was the gentle journey his thumb was making down the inside of her arm. When he reached
her elbow, he ran his fingers into the crook, a roguish smile on his face.