Once Upon a Valentine (28 page)

For the next few minutes, he appeared to be waging an inner battle with himself. Finally, his expression began to look less tense.

“I’m better now,” he said with a firm nod. “Totally in control of myself.”

“Good.” She tried not to sound too halfhearted. And she also tried not to touch him. That might make things worse—for both of them.

Unfortunately, right now she really
wanted
to touch him. That look in his eyes, that
heat.
It had slid right into her and it hadn’t gone anywhere yet.

The cookie’s magic, if that is what could be blamed for all of this, didn’t seem to work both ways—at least, not before, anyway. She hadn’t been interested in any of the men she’d come across tonight. But with Stephen, it was different.

The difference was obvious. She
already
wanted Stephen. Seeing that need reflected in his eyes, even if it was only because of the spell, meant she couldn’t repress her own feelings as well as she normally did.

Her body couldn’t resist, anyway. The need she felt for him twisted inside her, making her remember his lips and the taste of his tongue against hers as he possessed her mouth. She ached for the feel of his hand sliding down between her legs. Just the thought made her instantly wet.

Not helpful, Ginger’s libido.

The last thing she needed was to fall completely for Stephen. It was bad enough to be stood up by a blind date, but it would be much worse to lose her heart to someone who only thought of her as a good friend.

Stephen was too important to her. She couldn’t risk losing him over unprofessional behavior. Letting herself fall in love with her boss, even if that boss was her best friend, wasn’t a good idea. Not now, not ever.

The subway came to a stop. She didn’t look at him again as they got off the car, except to send a quick glance over her shoulder to ensure he was following her as the subway pulled away. They’d been the only ones to get off at this stop and were otherwise alone in this part of the station.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” she asked tentatively.

His jaw was tight. “I kissed you.”

“I know. You already apologized.”

“I’m not sorry I did it.”

She stopped walking and turned around, looking up into his troubled blue eyes. She knew he’d regret saying these things to her tomorrow. “Maybe I should go home. You can deal with Jorgensen yourself. Tell him you couldn’t find me.”

He shook his head. “Jorgensen wants what he wants.”

“I know, but…he might be affected by this, too.”

“We’ll make it a short meeting. Besides, if you leave, I’d worry about you facing a gauntlet of marriage proposals on the way home. If I’m feeling like this, then I can’t imagine what’s going through the other men’s minds. Scratch that, I can imagine. All too well. You might not be safe if you’re not with me.”

“The question is, am I safe
with
you?” she asked, holding his gaze.

It took him a moment to answer. “Of course you are.”

She raised an eyebrow. “So you’re my knight in shining armor right now?”

“An extremely horny knight in shining armor who is having a difficult time thinking about anything but ravishing you. But yeah, I guess I am.”

She couldn’t help but grin. “Ravishing me? I thought you published kids books, not romance novels.”

“Maybe I need to think about broadening my publishing schedule.” He swallowed hard. “Can you do me a favor, though?”

“Sure.” She felt breathless suddenly.

“No eye contact.”

“Who, with Jorgensen?”

“No, with me. The longer you look at me, the less able I am to control whatever this is.”

Ginger’s heart pounded hard in her chest at the thought of Stephen unable to control himself around her.

“I’m just having trouble believing this,” she said. “You
want
me.”

He looked at her sternly. “You’re still looking in my eyes, Ginger.”

“You have nice eyes.”

“You’re not making this easy for me.”

She moved closer to him and pressed her hand against his chest to feel how fast his heart was beating. This was how she’d always fantasized he would look at her—this heat, this need. “You said yourself I’m safe with you. I trust you.”

“You should never play with fire, even if it promises not to burn.”

She wanted him. Right here and right now. The thought made her breath catch.

It would be so easy to forget everything, to let this happen. To throw caution and better judgment aside and to pull off his shirt and unzip his pants; to feel him against her. To guide him slowly inside her.

If he’d only stop looking at her as though he wanted to devour her, she might be able to restrain herself.

Nobody had
ever
looked at her with this much raw desire in their eyes. Not ex-boyfriends, not the other bespelled men tonight, not even the men in her most erotic fantasies.

Was she absolutely certain she felt safe with Stephen Fox?

Did she even want to feel safe with him?

“After this meeting is over…” He looked at her hand, which was slowly trailing downward, over his hard, ridged abdomen easily felt through his thin white shirt. His jacket was wide-open despite the chill of the night.

“Yes?”

“I’m going to take you as fast as I can—”

She held her breath, wanting to hear him say it. For him to say something naughty and uncontrollable. She might completely lose any inhibitions she had left then.

“—back to that goddamned café where we’ll get some answers about how to break this spell. It can’t wait till midnight.”

Disappointment flowed through her, but it worked like a cold glass of water tossed in the general direction of her growing lust for him.

She pulled her hand away just as it had reached his leather belt. “Fine. Then let’s get this meeting over with.”

3

STEPHEN DIDN’T THINK it was all that professional to arrive at a business meeting with a raging hard-on, but there wasn’t exactly much he could do about it at this point except try to hide it.

He forced himself to think about baseball, about cold showers, about anything nonsexual he could bring to mind, but nothing worked.

Instead he thought about the taste of Ginger’s mouth, the feel of her warm hands sliding down the front of him and the whisper of desire he’d clearly seen in her green eyes that had made him more aroused than he’d ever been in his entire life.

What he normally felt for her, what he hid from the world and from her, was all on the surface now, as if he’d been turned inside out. It felt vulnerable, it felt uncontrollable, it felt…wild. Especially when he’d seen his own need reflected in her eyes.

He wasn’t sure if it had been his imagination, but she’d kissed him back. He desperately wanted to feel her fingers slide down his stomach again and continue downward to wrap around his hard cock. To feel her lips and tongue take over as she sank to her knees in front of him and took him into her mouth…

A new subject to occupy his brain—not that much blood was flowing there at the moment—would be an excellent idea. He was a professional. So he would act professional, even under duress.

And this was definitely duress. Times a thousand.

Stephen didn’t believe in magic, or at least he hadn’t until tonight. He had believed in it back when he was just a kid. His father was a magician, doing card tricks and pulling flowers out of hats. Dressed up like a clown, he’d often been hired to be the entertainment at kids’ birthday parties. It felt very real at the time, but now Stephen knew it wasn’t. His father’s disappearing act just before Stephen’s tenth birthday had shattered any of Stephen’s remaining belief in magic—or, upon witnessing his mother’s heartbreak, in the possibility of true and everlasting love. His father had reappeared in Reno with another family a couple years later and made a few sheepish phone calls to his confused and hurt son to explain that it was all for the best.

Stephen had worked two part-time jobs while going to school to help his mother with the bills. He’d had absolutely no time to devote to a social life back then. What little time he did have for entertainment during his teens, he’d spent reading books—fantasies that helped him escape his regular life.

He’d written an essay about his love of books that landed him a scholarship, that helped earn him a degree, that helped get him an intern job at a publishing house where he learned the business from the ground up. It eventually gave him the courage to make a go of it on his own.

All from hard work and luck. Magic had nothing to do with it.

But this…what was happening with Ginger…this might make him believe in fairy dust again. Because this sure wasn’t normal.

He’d told her he loved her. It had just spilled from his mouth as if it was something he was actually capable of feeling for anyone.

For Ginger.
Especially
for Ginger.

Just what was that Valentine Café all about, anyway?

Meeting with the author tonight had become an annoying gauntlet he needed to race through quickly before he could focus on what really mattered.

She hadn’t touched him since the subway station, which was a good thing. He didn’t think he could handle the feel of her hands on him at this point. It was normally difficult being around her without fantasizing about tearing her clothes off and taking her on the Red Fox boardroom table, but this went beyond any fantasy.

She’s safe with me,
he reminded himself again and again.

He knocked on the hotel-room door. It took a minute before it swung open and Jorgensen peered out at them.

“Finally,” he said grumpily. “I thought I’d have to wait all damn night.”

Stephen forced a smile to his face and stretched out his hand. “Good to see you, Robert.”

He did get a handshake in return, which was encouraging. “Hphmmph.”

Jorgensen swept a glance over Ginger, and Stephen watched for any sign that he was affected by the—for lack of a better term—cookie magic. While the man’s eyes did glance over Ginger’s short, tight black dress and long, sexy bare legs—why was she bare legged in February?—under her cream-colored winter coat, he didn’t immediately lunge for her.

Encouraging.

Maybe the magic was wearing off. Then again, he felt it as strong as ever, so it probably wasn’t.

Maybe Jorgensen was gay.

Please, God,
Stephen thought,
let him be gay.

It wasn’t a prayer he’d ever made before, but there was a first time for everything.

“Can we come in?” Ginger asked.

“No,” Jorgensen said bluntly. “I want to go downstairs for a drink. The room service here is atrocious. I ordered dinner fifteen minutes ago and it hasn’t arrived yet.”

Since room service rarely arrived in fifteen minutes anywhere, this wasn’t unexpected.

Stephen fought to keep the smile on his face. “Fair enough.”

Moving Ginger to his left in a manner that had her brush torturously up against him—bad idea—Stephen followed Jorgensen back to the elevator and down to the main level lobby bar where they got a booth and ordered drinks from the cocktail waitress.

Stephen was finding it difficult to keep his attention on his troublesome author and not on the beautiful redhead who now sat between him and Jorgensen. Her dress was very low cut and showed off her smooth, creamy skin and a generous amount of cleavage—a sight that made him even harder than he already was. Her tight dress easily revealed the curve of her ass that he always fought to avoid staring at during office hours. Everything about the woman next to him drew his gaze and directed his thoughts in a very unbusinesslike direction. By the high color in her cheeks, he wondered if she might be able to read his mind right now or if it was just that damn obvious what he was thinking.