His One Desire (2 page)

A rush of relief made her feel lightheaded. Then she saw the
quirk at the corner of his mobile, sensual mouth, and her heart sank. This was
only a short reprieve. Whatever Luke had in store for her, it wasn’t anything
good.

She wondered what he was planning.

And then, suddenly, she felt a stirring of anger. “Why are
you wearing those glasses?” she heard herself ask. “In case you hadn’t noticed,
we’re indoors. I think your retinas are safe from UV rays in here.”

In the moment of astonished silence that followed her words,
Kali was just as surprised as anyone else.

Tom was the first to speak. “I think Kali wants a look at
those famous baby blues of yours, Luke. What did
People
say when you
were in their list of sexiest men?”

“They said he redefined the term ‘bedroom eyes’,” Stella
chimed in eagerly.

“Well,” Luke said after a moment, “if Ms. Jones wants to see
my eyes, I’d hate to disappoint her.”

She looked up just as Luke swept off his shades, revealing
the cobalt blue eyes that so many women swooned over.

Her stomach muscles tightened.

It wasn’t just the eyes that made women swoon, she admitted
reluctantly. It was the whole package. His hard-as-a-rock body, encased in worn
jeans, a white tee shirt, and his signature black leather jacket. His chiseled
features and dark blond hair. And most of all that cocky half grin, that grin
that said he was up for anything and looking for trouble.

As she stared at him that grin get even wider, and she felt
her own mouth tightening in response. Every other woman in America might dream
about his smile, but she didn’t.

“Well, Luke,” Tom said after a short pause. “Why don’t we go
into Kali’s office?”

“Sounds good.”

It was a relief to turn away from him, a relief to go into
her office and sit behind her cluttered desk again. This was her place of
power. This was where she wrote and edited scripts, where she talked to actors
and production staff. She let the worn leather chair cradle her body in
comforting familiarity and willed herself to calm down.

“Can I bring you anything to drink, Mr. Tanner?” Stella
asked breathlessly, hovering in the doorway.

He grinned that grin at her. “No thanks, Stella. And please
call me Luke.”

“All right…Luke.” She said the name like a benediction, and
Kali rolled her eyes.

Tom shot her a glare that would have leveled a grizzly at
twenty paces.
Cut it out
, he mouthed at her.

Luke turned back to face them. He took off his jacket and
slung it over the back of his chair, revealing the powerful arms and shoulders
that made him such a draw in those big budget action films. Then he stretched
his legs out in front of him, crossing one booted foot over the other and sliding
his hands into the pockets of his jeans. The movement made his biceps bunch and
his tee shirt strain across his chest.

In spite of herself, Kali felt a tingling rush as she
watched him.

That’s just biology, she told herself, ashamed of the way
her body responded to the blatant masculinity on display.

Women were hard-wired to look for a strong alpha male to
mate with, as the best way to ensure the survival of the species. It was only
that atavistic strain in her DNA that caused her nerves to flutter when she
looked at Luke. He practically radiated strength and power—tall and broad and
muscular, with an unmistakable aura of money and success. It was only natural
for her body to want to mate with him. Her cavewoman ancestors would
undoubtedly have done so.

But she wasn’t a cavewoman. She was a woman in the
twenty-first century, strong and competent in her own right. And she would
not
fall under the spell of Luke Tanner’s sexual magnetism.

“Tom and I were under the impression that you were coming
into town next week,” she said evenly.

“That was the plan,” he said, smiling at her and then at
Tom, who sat in the other visitor’s chair. “But when Julian—my agent—said that
you’d responded favorably to my interest in
Ghosts
, I just couldn’t
wait. I got on a plane this morning, and here I am.”

“I can’t tell you how flattered we are,” Tom said, very
close to gushing.

Kali’s hands, in her lap and out of sight, clenched into
fists. “Flattered and surprised,” she said, trying to keep her voice neutral.
“I must admit, Mr. Tanner, I can’t imagine why a star of your caliber would be
interested in a TV show—especially a TV show that films in New York. It doesn’t
seem like a good career move for you.”

“A career isn’t just an upward trajectory,” Luke said. “It’s
also working on projects you’re excited about—with people you’re excited to
work with.”

Tom seemed ready to genuflect. “The feeling is totally
mutual, Luke. We couldn’t be more pleased by your interest, and we’re willing
to do whatever it takes to make you a part of this show.”

“Is that true, Ms. Jones?” Luke asked softly, a wicked gleam
in his blue eyes as he leaned towards her. “Are you willing to do whatever it
takes?”

And so the humiliation begins, she thought, her skin
prickling with trepidation. She stared back at him with what she hoped was a
cool smile.

“I always do whatever it takes to make my shows the best
they can be, Mr. Tanner.”

“Call me Luke.”

“Luke.” She said the name reluctantly, and he smiled a
little as he leaned back in his chair.

“What I really want is to hear more about your vision for
the show, Kali. Maybe over dinner tonight?”

“I can’t. I have plans.” God, how glad she was to be able to
say that.

Luke’s eyes narrowed a little. “Tomorrow, then.”

She shook her head, trying to keep herself from smiling in
satisfaction. “I’m leaving tomorrow for the network’s annual retreat. Tom’s
going, too. We’ll both be gone this weekend, and we won’t be back until
Tuesday.” She paused. “I’m sure you don’t want to wait around in the city for
us, Luke. You’ll probably want to head back to L.A. Why don’t we give you a
call sometime next week? We could set up a video conference so you don’t have
to fly all the way out here again.”

“That’s very thoughtful of you,” he said. “Have you always
been this considerate of other peoples’ time?”

She flushed. Suddenly unable to meet his eyes, she turned to
Tom, who was frowning at her.

“I’m sure for something as important as this, the network
would understand if you want to skip the—”

She shook her head again. “No, I can’t possibly get out of
it. I’m giving two presentations, remember? And we’re doing the story
conference for
Roommates
on Monday
.
We’re going to map out the arc for next season. I can’t miss that.”

Tom looked ready to argue with her, but Luke spoke up first.
“Next week will be fine for me. I have a lot of friends and colleagues in New
York I’d like to connect with while I’m here. I won’t have any trouble keeping
busy while you two are away, and we can pick up our discussion when you get
back.”

Tom’s face lit up with relief. “That’s incredibly
accommodating of you, Luke.”

“Hey, no problem. I’m the one who showed up out of nowhere,
right? I had no reason to expect that you’d be available on such short notice.”
He rose to his feet, causing Tom to leap to his.

“It was great to meet you,” Luke said, shaking the other
man’s hand before turning to her. “Would you be willing to walk me out, Kali?
I’m afraid I might get lost in this rabbit warren of a building.” He smiled
amiably.

Crap. There was no way she could get out of it without open
rudeness, and she’d already crossed that line once. If she did it again Tom
would probably have a heart attack.

She took a deep breath. Maybe she could use this to her
advantage. If they had a minute alone in the elevator, she could tell him in no
uncertain terms that if he’d come here to mess with her she’d make him regret
it. She’d built a life here in New York, and she wasn’t about to let him
destroy it.

“I’d be delighted,” she said, smiling back at him sweetly.

It was a damn good thing he was a trained actor. He was
acting his ass off right now, playing the role of a man who didn’t give a fuck
that he was within touching distance of the only woman who’d ever broken his
heart—and who could still make him feel the hollow ache of helpless need.

Helpless was not the way he wanted to feel. He’d felt that
enough as a kid, and once he was on his own he’d sworn he’d never feel helpless
again. He’d make so much money that it would no longer be a possibility. Money
was power, and he would never be without power again.

His plan had been a success. The world was his oyster now,
his childhood of struggle and poverty so far behind him it wasn’t even a blip
in his rear view mirror.

His past was past—with one exception. The woman who was
walking beside him right now, scowling when other women popped up from their
desks to gawk at him.

“You’ve got to lay this shit to rest,” his oldest friend had
told him. They’d been playing one-on-one basketball in the gym, and Luke had paused
to sink a three-pointer before asking him what he meant.

Joe went to the bleachers to sit, wiping the sweat off his
face with a hand towel. “Caroline Jones. You’ve got to lay her to rest.”

Luke stiffened, staring at him. “What are you talking about?”

“She’s still fucking you up, man.”

“Like hell she is. I haven’t thought about her in a decade.”

“Yeah, you have,” Joe said. “She’s the reason you broke up
with Maria. She’s the reason you break up with all your girlfriends.”

A strange sliver of panic pierced him. “That’s crazy.
Caroline Jones is just some girl I knew in high school. She doesn’t have any
power over me now.”

“Yeah, she does. But it doesn’t have to be that way. You
should go see her, man. Conquer the past. Capture her spirit.”

Joe had a Hopi grandfather, and occasionally he came out
with pseudo-spiritual pronouncements that drove Luke nuts. “Capture her spirit?
What the hell does that mean?”

“It means you need to take your power back. Personally, I
think you should do it by fucking her. I think your whole problem is that you
never did fuck her, so there’s this whole mystery aspect going on, you know?
This whole lack of closure thing. But if you fuck her, you’ll see that she’s
not some elusive goddess or whatever but just an ordinary woman.”

Luke sat down on the bleacher seat and wiped his face with
the hem of his tee shirt. “You’re out of your mind. Even granting your premise,
which I don’t, how in the hell am I going to fuck Caroline Jones? She’s living
in New York City, and—”

Too late, he realized his mistake.

Joe grinned. “How do you know where she’s living?”

Because he’d kept track of her, that’s how. He knew when she
graduated from college. He knew when she started going by Kali instead of
Caroline. He knew when she produced her first play, and when she got her first
TV job. He’d seen
Negative Space
, the little independent film she’d
written and directed. He’d watched
Roommates
on TV, and tried to
identify which scenes and lines were hers.

He avoided Joe’s question. “Even if she lived right next
door, how would I convince her to sleep with me? We didn’t exactly part on good
terms, in case you’ve forgotten. Unless I tie her down and force her, I don’t
think she’d ever—”

He stopped suddenly, his brain temporarily shut down by a
vision of Caroline…Kali…naked and tied to his bed, her slim legs spread wide
and her long dark hair fanned out on his pillow.

The image made him a little light-headed.

Joe shook his head impatiently. “You’re Luke fucking Tanner,
for Christ’s sake. You’re not some kid from the wrong side of the tracks
anymore. When’s the last time you had trouble talking a woman into your bed?”

Senior year of high school.

Shit. What if Joe was right?

He still felt guilty for breaking up with Maria. When she’d
asked him what had gone wrong, he hadn’t had an answer for her.

Because nothing had gone wrong. Maria was perfect, and any
guy would be lucky to have her. The tabloids had all declared that she was The
One, and there’d been wide-spread speculation that he’d be popping the question
any day.

Instead, he’d broken up with her.

All he’d ever wanted was to be free of his past. If there
was any chance that Joe was right, that Caroline Jones was still in his head
somehow, didn’t he owe it to himself to exorcise this one last ghost?

He probably wouldn’t be able to fuck her, but he could see
her. Maybe that would be enough to get closure, or whatever the hell he needed.
To break whatever spell she might still be casting over him.

And so a plan was born. He did a little research, and found
out that Kali was working on a brand new show. It was her baby—she was the
creator, writer, and director.

In an interview she’d done for one of the trade magazines,
she’d talked about her plan to cast unknown actors—fresh faces that the
audience could connect with on their own terms, without any associations from
past roles.

A big smile crossed his face when he read that particular
tidbit. The last thing Kali would want was a big name actor interested in her
little drama—especially him.

On the other hand, he’d worked with enough movie and network
executives to know that they wouldn’t feel the same way. If Luke Tanner
expressed interest in
Ghosts
—including the willingness to work for
what they could pay him—there was no way they’d ever turn him down.

And that would make Kali absolutely insane.

It would take a saint to resist the opportunity to get
revenge for past humiliation, and Luke was no saint. He picked up the phone to
call his agent and get the ball rolling.