IF YOU WANTED THE MOON (11 page)

had a whole stable of women at his beck and cal, women who made it their business to please him.
Business Weekly
said so itself in an article on Ethan she had read just last month. Not to mention al of those women who were caling for him while he was out. Which, Tori thought devilishly, was as good a place to begin a conversation as any.

“You received a lot of phone cals while you were out,” she said and then looked at him. He was too busy looking over some slip of paper he had puled out of the pocket of his jeans to return her gaze.

“Oh, yeah?” he said.

“Yes. Practicaly a page ful of cals. Nearly al were ladies.”

Ethan glanced at her then immediately looked beyond her to the waitress returning to their table with drinks. When she left, Ethan looked at Tori. “Am I supposed to be embarrassed that females phoned me?”

“Embarrassed? No, of course not. I was just letting you know—”

“That you don’t appreciate it.”

“Why would I care about that? That’s ridiculous!”

Her cavalier attitude hurt Ethan. “I kissed you last night, Tori, come on.”

Tori felt blushed. Why did he have to mention that? He was the one who hated that it had happened, especialy after the way he was behaving today. She was just stating a fact, a lot of women had, in fact, phoned him. She wasn’t trying to get him to confess to her or anything of that sort!

“And about last night, Tori,” he said, looking by now distraught. Tori looked at him. “I went too far. Way too far. I was just overly tired. I know that wasn’t what you wanted, you’ve made that perfectly clear.”

perfectly clear.”

“I was just tired too,” Tori quickly said.

“It could not have been any clearer than you made it. So wil you please accept my apology?”

Tori felt like the folks on
The Price is Right
who had a chance to win a brand-new car but ended up with cleaning products and blenders. She’d won - he was now making it clear that he had no intention of disrupting their business relationship, but it just didn’t feel like a victory.

“There’s nothing to apologize for, Ethan,” she said, trying her best to supplant her true feelings. “I’m a grown-up too. You didn’t do anything I didn’t alow you to do.”

Ethan looked, at her breast first, and then into her face, and then excused himself to make a business cal outside.

Tori had almost finished eating the chicken meal he had ordered for her by the time he returned to their table. At first she hadn’t liked the fact that he had left so abruptly, but by the time her food arrived, and she tasted that southern fried chicken, she didn’t care. Ethan hadn’t ordered anything but a drink for himself, as some woman had undoubtedly fed him earlier, Tori figured, so the fact that she was almost done should have satisfied him. He could finaly leave this place he hadn’t planned on coming to anyway. However, even after Tori completed her meal and told him that she was done, he lingered.

He was leaned back in his chair staring at his glass of coke. He seemed preoccupied, it seemed to Tori, as if he was having a battle with himself. Then abruptly, as was his way, he stood up and tossed a twenty on the table. He didn’t say a word to Tori until she was standing beside him at the passenger side of his car and he was opening the door for her.

“Who was that guy?” he asked her out of the blue and she actualy had to rack her brain.

“What guy?” she, too, wanted to know. Ethan, however, wasn’t about to say another word, forcing her to think harder. There was no guy acquainted with her in the diner. Ethan already knew who the pilot was. “Oh,” she said finaly, standing as close to him as they possibly could without touching. “You mean Neal?”

“Am I supposed to know him?”

“No, but he’s your neighbor. Neal Hurst. He’s a history professor and he also writes.”

Ethan stared deep into Tori’s eyes, as if he was trying to determine the extent of her interest in this Neal based solely on the look in her eyes. Tori felt suddenly uncomfortable with his stare, wondering why in the world was he always staring at her like that. It was such an intense look that it often frightened her.

“What did he want with you?” Ethan asked her.

Tori smiled, although their closeness, and his stare, made her feel anything but jovial. “He didn’t want anything with me. I was on the beach and he was on the beach so we just started talking and joking around. Oh, and he invited me to dinner.”

Ethan’s jaws tightened, as if her words just confirmed something horrible for him, and Tori, seeing this unusual reaction, quickly added: “If that’s al right.”

Ethan frowned. “Why wouldn’t it be al right?”

“No, I was just thinking that. . . . Nothing. Nothing at al.”

Ethan glared at her as he left her side and headed around to the driver’s side door. Tori felt as if she’d just been whipped, absolutely waloped, without him laying a hand on her.

That was why she was determined to have a good time with Neal tonight. She was upstairs, in the bedroom, and Ethan was downstairs working in the study. She wore a red sleeveless dress that hugged

tightly around her hips and behind, and a pair of red and white slip-in shoes. Her hair she smoothed down as best she could and wore loose down her back. She looked good and felt good, believing that Neal’s easygoing company was just what she needed after spending a nerve-racking day with Ethan.

She went downstairs and hesitated at the study door. She was almost tempted to just leave without saying a word, but she couldn’t do it. Neal, though nice, was stil a stranger to her. Somebody had to know where she was.

She knocked twice and then opened the door. Ethan was standing behind his massive desk talking on the telephone. When he saw Tori, he immediately looked down at her dress as if he were appraising it. His eyes didn’t tel her the verdict.

“I’m leaving now, Ethan,” she said, and was about to tel him which house was Neal’s (fourth to the right of his), but Ethan held up a finger urging her to wait. She exhaled, but she waited, as he continued his phone conversation. She noticed that he was changed too, into a pair of green dress pants and a white dress shirt. Ready for another night out on the town, she imagined. But when he finaly got off of the phone and spoke again, she could not have been more wrong.

“Al right, let’s go,” he said as he grabbed a green sports coat that hung over his chair and began walking towards her. Tori just stared at him.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“I mean let’s go. I’m ready.”

“You’re going. . . with me?”

Ethan slipped into his jacket staring into her eyes. He knew it was the craziest move he’d ever made, crashing somebody’s dinner date, but he’d thought about this hard. This Neal Hurst, whom his people already checked out, was young and handsome and had a reputation for having his way with the ladies. There was no way in hel, Ethan had concluded, that he was going to let him have his way with
his
lady. And to make certain of it, he was going too.

“Do you have a problem with my going, Victoria?” he asked her.

“Wel. . . no. But I just. . .”

“Do you and this Neal Hurst need that must privacy?”

“We don’t need any privacy, but you know what? I’m not about to stand up here and argue with you over something as ridiculous as this. Let’s just go if you’re coming,” she said and began walking

furiously out of the study. Ethan, unaccustomed to being handled so directly, nonetheless folowed her lead.

It was a breezy summer night in the Keys and Tori walked slightly ahead of Ethan al the way to Neal’s house. Ethan kept his hands in his pockets, watching her, and she did everything in her power to utterly ignore him. She was beginning to think the man was crazy, just out of his plum mind, folowing her like this. One minute he didn’t want to have contact with her, the next minute he wouldn’t let her out of his sight. It was beyond insane to Tori.

It was to Neal also, as he opened his door smiling lovingly at Tori’s pretty face, only to have that smile turn upside down when he saw Ethan.

“This is Ethan Chandler, Neal,” Tori said as they stood at Neal’s front door, his surprise preventing him from remembering to invite them in.

Ethan extended his hand. Neal shook it, but looked back at Tori. “I don’t understand,” he said.

“He’s my boss.”

“Right,” Neal said, dragging on the word, stil totaly confused. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what’s gotten into me. Come on in. Please.”

They did, Tori folowed by Ethan. They made themselves comfortable on Neal’s futon for a couch and tried their best to enjoy the evening. It wasn’t working. Neal, for one thing, remained in a state of confusion throughout most of it, constantly looking from Tori to Ethan as if this had to be a joke not yet revealed. And they both seemed so uncomfortable with each other, it seemed to him, as they sat practicaly touching but never once said a word to the other. It was al up to Neal to keep the conversation moving, which wasn’t at al the kind of evening he had planned. A little food, yes, and maybe a drink or two thereafter, but romance was going to be the main course. Now he had this Ethan to contend with, who looked about as friendly as a Ku Klux Klansman, and al of his great plans had been

instantaneously shot to hel.

His only hope of salvaging at least some of his evening came late, after dinner, when Tori excused herself to the bathroom. Neal jumped on this opportunity, the first he had alone with Ethan, and quickly moved to the futon near him.

“Can we talk?” he asked him and Ethan looked around at first, as if he’d missed something, and then at Neal.

“I thought we were talking.”

“About Tori, I mean.”

Ethan exhaled. “What about her?”

Neal smiled nervously. “I didn’t expect her to bring a bodyguard,” he said.

“Neither did she.”

“Pardon?”

“What is it that you want, Hurst?”

Neal inhaled. This guy was cuddly as a cactus, he thought. “I had some plans for Tori, as wel as myself, this evening, but I don’t want to be trespassing on another man’s property, if you know what I mean.”

I know exactly what you mean
, Ethan wanted to say. But, to find out just what this professor had in store for Tori, he said instead: “She’s my assistant and nothing more.”

Neal exhaled and smiled greatly. “Great,” he said. “That’s a relief. Because, you know, if truth be told, I had no intentions of she and I stil being upright by now. If you can dig my drift.”

“Yes,” Ethan said. “I can dig it.”

“Perfect. So when she comes back you can just say your goodbyes and we’re be fine. Because I understand the deal. I know you wanted to make sure your little assistant wasn’t going to be in harm’s way with some man she just met. Wel, you can rest assured now, Ethan. She’s in good hands with me.”

Tori returned from the bathroom as Ethan continued to stare at Neal. Then, as if on cue, he stood to his feet.

“Leaving so soon?” Neal asked him, unable to suppress his glee.

“Yes,” Ethan said, and then he looked at Tori. “Tel your friend goodnight, Victoria,” he said.

Both Tori and Neal looked at him. “Excuse me?” Tori said.

“You heard me. We’re leaving now. Tel your friend goodnight.”

“Goodnight?” Tori asked, astounded. This power trip that Ethan was on was beginning to go too far. “I haven’t heard Neal say anything about wanting me to leave right now.”

“Absolutely not,” Neal said, astounded too. “That’s not what I want at al.”

Ethan exhaled. “I’m not going to tel you again, Tori.”

“Then don’t. If you want to leave, leave, but I’m not on your clock now. You can’t tel me what to do on my own time.”

Ethan looked at her with such a pained expression that Tori’s resolve began to weaken. What was his problem, she wondered. But she didn’t have to wonder long. He gave up. “Fine,” he said,

throwing his hands in the air. “You want to stay here with this player, with this man who can’t wait to jump al over you, help yourself.”

“Jump al over me?” Tori asked incredulously. “Where do you get off? Neal wasn’t the one who had me in his bedroom on my first night in town! Neal wasn’t the one ramming his tongue down my

mouth the first chance he got!” Neal wasn’t the one...”

“That’s enough, Tori!” Ethan said angrily as he grabbed his sports coat and hurried for the exit. “You two deserve each other,” he added.

“What
ever
!” Tori said and Ethan turned and glared at her. She’d never spoken to him this way before, not since the first time they met, and he certainly didn’t find it charming now.

“Goodnight, Hurst,” Ethan said. “Goodnight, VD!”

Tori, enraged that he would cal her that, snatched a pilow from the futon and threw it at the closing door, just missing her boss by a hair’s breath.

When he was gone, Tori, defeated, slumped down on the futon.

When he was gone, Tori, defeated, slumped down on the futon.

“How can you work for a jerk like that?” Neal asked. Tori felt almost too drained to speak.

“I don’t work directly under him back in Chicago,” she said. “I rarely even see him. This is the most time we’ve spent together ever.”

“He’s a bastard.”

“That’s the general consensus.”

“You should leave him. Just resign immediately and find you something else to do.”

Tori leaned her head back and sighed. If only it were that easy.

“Think he’l fire you?” Neal asked, sitting next to her and taking her hand in his. Tori was so busy reliving her confrontation with Ethan that she didn’t even notice his gesture. She shook her head.

“I don’t know what he’l do,” she said. “He talked like my job was secure, that my work was excelent. But that was before.”

Neal nodded as if he understood, although he didn’t. They were behaving, it seemed to him, like lovers, not business associates, especialy since Tori admitted to some intimacy they’d already shared.

This was going to be a piece of cake, he thought. He took Tori as a novice, a young woman not al that schooled in love. Now he took it back. If she’d been intimate with a firebal of a man like Chandler, she’d been schooled. But he held her hand and did nothing more for now. He wasn’t going to rush this, just in case.