LITMIR.BIZ

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did the first time, but the sweet little ladies wouldn’t let me leave, and they started to cry when I finally made my way toward the door. It was too horrible. I couldn’t put myself through it again.”

      She shook her head, her eyes filled with sympathy. “Bobo and I really caused a big problem for you, didn’t we?”

      “You have no idea. But the whole thing was beginning to die down. People don’t stay interested forever. Then along comes this bachelor auction. Now I’m afraid it will all start up again.”

      “What can I do to help?”

      He almost believed she wanted to help him. Without realizing it he’d moved closer to her, drawn by her laughter and apparent understanding. “Just tell me what you want,” he said, gazing into her eyes.

      “To get to know you,” she murmured in a husky voice.

      When she talked in that intimate tone of voice, he couldn’t help watching her mouth and wondering what it would be like to touch those pink lips. “You paid all that money just to get to know me?”

      “I had no choice. You were unreachable.”

      “I know.” But she was very reachable right now, and touching her coat was like stroking a kitten. “Lots of women pretended to be you.”

      “They did?”

      He slid his hand back and forth along the collar of her coat. “They tried to copy your special look.”

      Her mouth tipped up to his and her lips parted ever so slightly. “I don’t have a special look.”

      “Yes, you do.”

      “I’m just an ordinary girl.”

      “I don’t think so.” He couldn’t stand it. He had to brush his mouth against hers, just once. Her lips were like velvet. He came back a second time to make sure they were really that soft. They were even softer, coaxing him to stay. He cradled the back of her head and got serious. Perfect.

      Fleetingly he thought that this was probably how Sharon Stone got Michael Douglas to cooperate. Then he stopped thinking as she opened to him and his body tightened a little more with each slow exploration of his tongue. He slid his hand down the nape of her neck beneath her coat collar and stroked her warm skin. Images of running his hands all over her body played in his mind until he was short of breath and straining the fly of his tux pants.

      The cabdriver cleared his throat.

      Jonah released Natalie with a start. The taxi was no longer running, not that he would have noticed. He’d forgotten they were in a cab. He’d forgotten that this was the woman who had bid an enormous amount of money to chain herself to his side for the weekend. He’d forgotten she probably carried an ice pick in her garter.

      Her gaze was unfocused and dreamy. “That was…very nice.”

      “At the going rate, that was probably about a five-hundred-dollar kiss.”

      Her dreaminess evaporated and she frowned. “Could you do me a favor and forget about the money?”

      “Not likely.”

      “Well, I’d appreciate it if you’d try.” She opened the cab door and glanced over at him. “Want to come up and see Bobo? He’s grown quite a bit since that afternoon at the park.”

      Lust warred with reason as he gazed longingly at her tempting mouth. “Better not.”

      “Suit yourself. See you this weekend.” She handed the driver some money and got out of the cab. Then she leaned down and peeked in at Jonah. “Sure you won’t change your mind? I make a mean cup of cappuccino.”

      He wanted in the worst way to go with her, because he thought they stood a good chance of making more than cappuccino if he did. But then who knew what would happen after that? Despite what she said, she was no ordinary girl. And apartments had kitchens, and kitchens had knives. “Thanks, but I have to report in early tomorrow morning,” he said.

      “Okay.” With a last dazzling smile, she closed the door and walked up to the apartment entrance where a uniformed doorman tipped his hat and opened the door for her.

      “Where to?” the cabbie asked.

      Jonah gave him his considerably less impressive address. The cabbie blew out a breath and shook his head, obviously mystified by Jonah’s stupidity. Reflecting on that kiss as the cab pulled away, Jonah felt pretty stupid, himself. Maybe some things were worth taking a chance for.

      NATALIE HAD JUST TAKEN Bobo for his early-morning walk and was putting water in the coffeepot when someone pounded on her door. The dog raced into the foyer, barking with excitement. Natalie hurried after him and looked through the peephole into the hall to make sure it was her mother standing on the other side of the door.

      Sure enough, an elongated version of Alice LeBlanc was tapping a copy of the New York Times against her palm. She must have charged down in the elevator immediately after reading about Natalie’s bid because she still wore her pink chenille bathrobe, and her gray-streaked hair looked as if it had been styled with an electric mixer. Her reading glasses were perched on the end of her nose.

      Natalie unlocked the door and opened it. “Well, good—”

      “What on earth have you done? Are you crazy? Hello, Bobo.” Her mother marched past both daughter and dog and whirled to face them. “Thirty-three thousand dollars? What did you do, clean out your IRA?”

      “Yep.” Natalie made a production out of relocking the door to get her racing heart under control before she met her mother’s gaze. Every time she thought of her empty retirement fund she pictured an old age spent at the Salvation Army.

      “Are you insane?” Her mother peered over the top of her glasses. “Please tell me this doesn’t have anything to do with me.”

      “It doesn’t have anything to do with you,” Natalie lied, knowing the truth would fill her mother with guilt. “I’ve been fantasizing about that guy, just like every other woman in New York, and I couldn’t get through to him, either.”

      “Yes, but isn’t this a bit extreme?”

      “Extreme situations call for extreme measures. I have more reason to be smitten than the women who only saw him on TV. I interacted with him up close and personal, and I…fell a little bit in love during that episode at the lake, if you must know. I realize love at first sight is considered naive, but when I turned and looked into his eyes for the first time, it was…amazing.” Not amazing enough to spend her retirement money on, but he definitely had a way about him. That mesmerizing gaze of his had made her forget herself for a moment in the cab last night.

      “Oh, sweetheart.” Her mother tossed aside the paper and came over to enfold Natalie in her arms while Bobo scampered around them in delight. “Of course I believe in love at first sight, but it usually doesn’t cost thirty-three thousand dollars. What must Jonah think of a woman who would do something like this?”

      Natalie hugged her back, grateful that this auction business seemed to be distracting her mother from her grief. That alone was worth the money. “Jonah thinks I’m crazy,” Natalie said.

      Her mother held her firmly by the shoulders, exactly the way she’d done when Natalie was eight years old and in big trouble. “That’s not a very good beginning.”

      “I know.” As she considered beginnings, Natalie thought about the kiss last night in the cab. Nice as it had been, it probably wasn’t a very good beginning, either. She’d bid on Jonah to get his cooperation to help her mother. Kissing him was liable to distract her from her goal.

      “Does he realize you sacrificed your old-age fund to get a date with him?”

      Natalie wished her mother would stop bringing up a subject that made her queasy. She responded with a confident smile. “I’m a stockbroker, Mom. With a few well-chosen investments, I can start making the money back

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