Keeping Company (25 page)

“I enjoy my career, Dylan, but it’s not my whole life,” she said. “Maybe it was once, but I left that attitude when I left Chicago. I want other things besides professional success. I want a husband and a family. I want it all.” Her lush lower lip pouted out just a tad as she frowned prettily. “Maybe that’s being greedy, but there it is. What do you expect? I am from the me generation. And so are you, Captain Consumer, with your fishing boat and your closet investment counseling.”

“I’m a jerk,” Dylan murmured in the low, resonant voice that brushed against Alaina’s nerve endings like velvet. “I’m a grade-A jerk.”

“Didn’t I mention that?”

“So you did, Counselor,” he said with a soft smile. “The question is, what are you going to do about it? Beat me with your Gucci handbag? Stick slivers of gold charge cards under my fingernails?”

“Actually, I thought about having a truckload of fertilizer dumped in your living room, and I thought about sneaking into your bedroom and
shaving all your body hair off as you slept. I contemplated turning live pigs loose on your ship, and I briefly considered sending your address to the mailing list of a male escort service.”

Dylan winced even as he stepped closer and slid his arms around her. The lady had a creatively vindictive mind. He would have to remember to stay on her good side from now on. “Couldn’t we work something out contractually? I’d be more than willing to meet your terms.”

“You don’t know what my terms are.”

“Name them.”

She looked at him for a long moment, clutching her legal briefs to her chest. Her heart was going a hundred miles an hour. She wondered briefly if Deputy Screwup knew CPR. Oh, what the hell, she thought, go for broke. No guts, no glory.

“Love me,” she whispered, her gaze locked on Dylan’s as if she could will him to feel that emotion that had taken her over. “I love you. I want you to love me back.”

“I love you already,” he admitted with a gentle smile. “Couldn’t you tell?”

“You have a funny way of showing it. You told me to move to San Francisco.”

His broad shoulders lifted and fell in resignation. “So I’m a lunatic.”

Alaina rolled her eyes. “I’ve known that from the beginning. I probably should have maced you when I had the chance.”

“Probably,” he agreed with a grin, “but you’re stuck with me now. It’s a deal—on one condition.”

Alaina eyed him warily. He suddenly looked very grave.

“You have to tell me what the
N
stands for.”

A gasp accompanied her horrified grimace. “Brother, you play hardball.”

He nodded, looking very much like a pirate with his gold earring and wolfish grin and the wind riffling his unruly dark hair. All he needed was an eye patch and a parrot. “Come on, Princess. A deal’s a deal. Spill it.”

Alaina made a face that looked as if she’d just been forced to swallow something vile, then she heaved a sigh and stood up on her tiptoes to whisper in his ear. “Nanette. And if you
ever
utter that in public, I’ll pull all your toenails out with pliers.”

Dylan laughed and hugged her. “Don’t worry. I plan to use it only in an intimate setting. I won’t hold it against you. I’d rather hold me against you.”

She slanted him a look. “You’re completely irreverent.”

“But is he under arrest?” Deputy Skreawupp demanded to know.

A wry smile slanted Alaina’s lush mouth as she looked up at the culprit who’d stolen her heart. “Not this time, Deputy. I’m dropping the charges.”

Disgruntled over losing the bust, Deputy Skreawupp assumed the job of crowd control, herding the curious Harrisons away. “Break it up, folks. The show’s over. Go back to your activities. Don’t give me any guff, or I’ll snap you like dry twigs.”

“You could put me under house arrest,” Dylan murmured, nuzzling his lips against the satin softness of Alaina’s.

“Now there’s an idea,” she whispered, dropping her documents to the sand so she could get closer to Dylan. He was warm and solid and curved in all the right places.

“Confine me to quarters,” he said dramatically. “Chain me to my bed. I can handle it.” His eyes took on a dangerous gleam, and he leered at her. “Better yet, you can handle it for me.”

Alaina swatted his arm. “Will you get serious?”

Dylan sobered in an instant as he lifted a big hand to brush her hair back from her face. She was so lovely, and he loved her so much. “I am serious—about you. I love you. That scares me, which is why I made such a mess of things. I know we have a way to go, Princess, but I’d really like to make this deal a permanent one. What do you say? Think you could get into domestic bliss?”

She looked down at the Crystal pinned to the lapel of her jacket and smiled softly at the colors that glowed inside it. “I’d say maybe this silly thing works after all.”

She turned her smile to Dylan, and he answered it with one of his own. And in the absence of a notary, they sealed the deal with a kiss.