Working on a Full House (23 page)

"Everybody likes dogs." With her hand in his, he plowed past the chain link gate and into the wood chip area filled with romping, smelly dogs. A gigantic chocolate lab immediately charged toward them. It was as if the animal magically sensed Cherise's fear.

Her hand tightened in Kenny's. He seemed to understand, putting his arm around to draw her close while slanting his body forward to intercept the lab.

"Good boy! Good. Oh, you're a beauty, aren't you?" With ebullient praise, Kenny rubbed the dog until it stopped threatening to leap on top of them. The dog melted into a delighted puddle at Kenny's feet. "Go on," he told Cherise. "Pet him."

Cherise eyed the brute, who weighed ninety pounds if he weighed an ounce. "You must be kidding."

"Bring your hand down." Kenny pulled her down until her palm connected with the dog's heaving side. "Pet." With his hand over hers, guiding, she stroked the animal's soft, close-growing hair. The dog lifted its head to look at her, teeth exposed, tongue lolling.

Normally, Cherise would have assumed that many teeth meant it was about to bite her. But somehow just then, with Kenny's arm around her waist and his hand holding hers over the dog's silky fur, she saw the scene differently. "Why, he's
smiling
at me!" she realized.

Kenny chuckled. "He's
in love
with you."

"Oh, come on." But just then the dog curled its neck so his tongue could lap the back of her hand. "Well, maybe he
likes
me," Cherise allowed, and laughed when the dog licked her again. The lab's big eyes adored her.

"See?" Kenny said. "I told you everybody likes dogs."

Cherise whipped her head around. But Kenny didn't look smug, just...everlastingly cheerful. He looked like a transmitter for every happy thought there was in the world.

Crazy. The man was absolutely nuts.

When the owner of the dog, an octogenarian with a hunchback and a wispy beard, struck up a conversation with Kenny, Cherise could tell they might have talked all night. She had a feeling Kenny could make a slug feel loved.

But Kenny didn't spend all night with the lab's owner. He pulled Cherise out of the dog park, and back to Brand Avenue. They went through the indoor mall, where, with a wink, Kenny led her to the top floor of the fancy department store. "Here," he said, bringing her over to the minks. "Try these on."

"I thought you wanted me to love animals. Now you're telling me to wear them?" But Cherise was already stroking the extraordinary fur. Sable, fox, mink.

"Just for a few minutes," Kenny said, low, and giving a wary glance around, apparently watching out for an actual salesman. He nudged her toward the coats. "It's like trying on another lifestyle. Fun," he said.

He was right. It was fun. Standing before the three-part mirror, the collar of a mink coat tickling her cheeks, Cherise felt like she was stepping into another lifestyle: fairy princess, New York fashion mogul, Cruella DeVil.

She laughed.

"I'm starving," Kenny announced. "Where should we eat?"

"You mean within walking distance?" Cherise laid the mink coat down with a sigh. "That'd be the food court."

She looked up to see Kenny's grin. "I appreciate the good sportsmanship," he said, "but I can do better than that. Just tell me where's the food you like best to eat in Palmwood." He leaned toward her. "For what do your taste buds yearn?"

Cherise got a hit of him, his vibrant energy, his masculine drive. She felt her nerve ends quiver.
You
, she thought.
My taste buds yearn for you
. "Ahem. La Cucina," she said aloud. "Italian, but surprising." She tilted her head. "And also three miles away from here." Yes, he didn't have a car. She had to remember just who she was dealing with here.

"You've never heard of a cab?" Kenny asked.

Not in Palmwood Cherise hadn't. Having a car was like having a brain. Absolutely necessary. "You aren't going to find a cab on Brand Avenue," she warned.

Kenny's teeth flashed. "Just watch me."

They didn't find a cab. Kenny conjured the station wagon of the octogenarian with the chocolate lab. The old man, whose phone number Kenny had popped into his cell phone at the park, was delighted to ferry them downtown. Candy, the lab, panted happily in the rear compartment, somehow managing to stick his tongue between the metal grid separating them to lick Cherise's ear. Kenny grabbed her, laughing, when she jumped.

"No, it was just...a surprise," Cherise told the old man, Joe, when he expressed remorse. "He's such a...sweet dog."

Kenny used the opportunity to put his arm around Cherise's waist and murmur warmly in her ear. "
You're
sweet." He bussed her neck. "Now sweetness from you I hadn't guessed."

Cherise didn't jump then. She nearly purred.

How? How did this man have such an...irrational effect on her? She shouldn't have waited outside Norman's Art Supply to meet him. She shouldn't have walked down the street with him when she'd discovered he didn't even have a car. And here she was...wondering what it would be like to go to bed with him.

Crazy. She was absolutely insane.

At La Cucina, Kenny murmured something to the starchy maitre d', who immediately smiled and led them past the waiting crowd to a cozy booth in the corner.

"I'm not going to ask how you did that," Cherise announced, as they seated themselves at the linen-covered table.

"Good, 'cause you don't wanta know." He scooted into the banquette right beside her, instead of around the corner where he belonged. Cherise felt his muscled thigh press against her own. Smiling, he tapped his toe on top of hers. "Hungry?" he asked.

Her blood rushing, Cherise cleared her throat and picked up one of the menus. "Starved," she replied. "I'd like the veal parmigiana."

"Oh, good, a meat eater. I was worried." Kenny opened his own menu calmly, as if he hadn't a moment before made a sexual overture.

It was time to get back to reality, Cherise decided. She had to remember who this fellow was and why she needed to apply some serious brakes here. She was about to act as stupid as Valerie.

She waited until they'd given their orders and had an artichoke dip placed before them. Then, choosing a bread stick, Cherise asked, "You said you aren't
currently
married — "

"Three times," Kenny interrupted.

Cherise cut her eyes to him.

Kenny shrugged. "Now that I've met you, it's obvious they were all terrible mistakes."

Cherise thought it had probably been obvious long before now. "Impulsive, aren't you?"

"Yup." He raised his eyebrows high, the implicit suggestion obvious.

Feeling her toes curl at the idea, Cherise skated over to the thick ice. "And the poker. From what you've described, it sounds like a very up-and-down kind of a thing."

"Oh, yeah." He grinned. "That's what makes it interesting. Never know if I'm going to wind up the night rich or poor."

"You like uncertainty."

"I adore it." He placed his hand over hers while his eyes gleamed. As if there were some
uncertainty
about whether or not they'd wind up in bed together that night.

Which there wasn't. At all.

"I don't." Cherise said, and calmly moved her hand from under his. "I like things spelled out in black and white. Knowledge beforehand. Responsibility."

"I know."

"You think you're going to change me. You think it's a...grand crusade."

"Nah. I don't want to change you." Kenny tapped his fingertips on the tabletop. "I just want to take you on a tour of the other side."

Butterflies stormed through Cherise's belly. But she waved her bread stick in the air, determined not to think about the spots on the tour at which they had not yet arrived. "How about if I give you a little tour of my side?" she asked.

"Okay." Outrageously good-natured, he smiled.

Cherise snapped off a bite of her bread stick. "From my side of things, a person gets himself some visible means of support."

"A job," Kenny translated, and wrinkled his nose.

"Yes, a job. Which often leads to the ownership of a car — "

"I have a car," Kenny interrupted, "most of the time."

"And a person has some money in the bank. Investments." Cherise was confident Kenny had nothing of the sort.

"Interesting," Kenny mused. "And your point?"

"My point?" Cherise blinked. "My point is — Good God, Kenny, you're how old? Have you ever given one thought to your future?"

"My future?" He looked lost. "What about it?"

Bread stick aloft, Cherise stared at him. He seriously didn't know. The man lived from one day to the next, taking his bad fortune as cheerfully as his good. Simply enjoying himself.

For an instant, one brief flicker of time, Cherise felt something that astonished her.

Envy.

He was happy. Simply happy.

Of course, he had no savings, no safety net, no plans. He spent his time playing a
card
game, which would hardly leave behind a lasting legacy. And yet she couldn't get around the notion that this disaster of an individual was about ten times happier than she was.

Kenny leaned over the table, his expression of bafflement gone. Radiating warmth and confidence, he closed his hand over the one she'd earlier moved away from him. "I do know one thing about my future." The devastating smile curved his lips. "It's going to have you in it."

Cherise felt her stomach take a dive toward her toes. "Oh, no," she murmured.

She was
not
getting involved with this disaster. She did not give in to her impulses, or entangle herself with messy individuals.

Meanwhile Kenny's fingers tightened over hers. In the dim light shed by the single candle on their table, his eyes looked very dark.

Cherise's stomach plunged yet further. What would it be like, she suddenly wondered, to make love with him, to have those eyes staring into hers just like this while he was buried deep inside her?

"Oh,
yes
," Kenny said.

No
, Cherise thought. But as their eyes met over the table, she didn't manage to say it.

Kenny then released her hand. That was the worst part, Cherise decided later, that he let her go. As if he wasn't going to have to force her to do anything.

~~~

Kenny had a real cab drive them back to Valley Pediatric and Cherise's car. He congratulated himself on this heroic display of restraint. He could have had the cab take them directly to Cherise's house. He was confident he could have extracted the address from her. He was equally confident that once in front of her door, he could have coaxed his way into her bed.

They could have lighted the fire that had been smoldering between them all evening.

But it would have been a mistake.

With Cherise sitting straight and graceful beside him, Kenny was silent in the cab that sailed down Brand Avenue. Chewing the inside of his cheek, he pondered why he was so certain of the mistake bit. Maybe because Cherise had struck him with a two-by-four there in the corner booth of La Cucina.
Do you ever think about your future
? Well, no, he didn't ordinarily, but tonight he was thinking ahead enough to know he wanted Cherise for more than one night.

So he couldn't push too fast or take too much. He didn't want her to regret things later.

Kenny shifted on the plastic upholstery of the cab's back seat. His body felt infused with every smile, every laugh, every pleasure he'd surprised out of her tonight. It had all bounced back into him, charging him, revving him, making him feel...important.

Kenny shifted again and suppressed a wince. Important? He was the clown king. Never important. In fact, it was a relief to see the cab pull before the brick front of Valley Pediatric. He actually felt like he needed some time alone, to think.

The night air was brisk. In the lot to the side of the building there was only one car left, a very nice set of wheels, a late model Corvette. A fresh dose of optimism hit Kenny at this evidence that Cherise could, upon occasion, indulge her whimsy.

"I can't believe how late it is," she murmured, setting out with long strides across the asphalt.

Behind her, Kenny rolled his eyes. As if he didn't already know she didn't want to get seduced tonight. Well...she probably
wanted
to, but she didn't
want
to. Female logic, but Kenny understood. Tonight, he even agreed. So he clasped his hands hard behind his back as he strolled across the asphalt after her, determined to keep those hands to himself.

His mouth, however, he couldn't restrain. Out of sheer contrariness — and the part of him that wanted to sleep with her willy-nilly — he argued. "Sure it's late, but you can sleep in tomorrow. It's Saturday."

"I have a million things to do tomorrow." Cherise had her purse open and was rifling through it. Actually, she didn't rifle long. No, she probably had her key chain hooked onto one of those loops inside, so she'd always know where it was. Cherise Winter would never lose her keys.

Why that thought should strike Kenny with a fresh wave of lust, he didn't know. He only knew he had to stand very still, tensing every muscle, until it passed.

Cherise stuck her key into the lock of the door.

"Just a minute," Kenny said.

She jumped, must have been at least six inches. Yep, she was on edge, too. Very carefully, she turned.

Her eyes were wide, her lips soft. Her body was tensed like a deer ready to flee.

Her vulnerability squeezed Kenny's chest. So he was very gentle when he touched her, one hand on her shoulder. He kept his voice low as he spoke. "One kiss goodnight."

"No, Kenny. I don't think — "

He wasn't foolish enough to let her finish. Just held her while he touched his lips to hers. As she went very still, Kenny felt as if he were holding some extremely precious gift.

Carefully, ever so carefully, he deepened the embrace. His lips parted, parting hers. His hand slid from her shoulder around her back so that her breasts touched his chest.

Sweet. Oh, the sweetest sensation wound through him. Pleasure and anticipation and the helpless sensation of falling down, down, down.