Something Wild (9 page)

"All right then," he said, "we've got the payables and receivables programs roughed in, let's move on to payroll. Like yesterday, I'll want to look at your notes, hear your thoughts, and we'll discuss ideas and look at some templates."

Glancing up, he saw her smile. "Dare I suggest a bathroom break?"

Ryan leaned back in his chair with a sigh and slowly let a conceding grin spread across his face. "I guess that's not a
totally
unreasonable request."

"And I, for one, am thirsty. Sure I can't tempt you?" She raised her eyebrows.

Okay, maybe he
had
been a little rigid earlier—it was easier to see in retrospect. But now they'd proven this could still be done, they could still work together like two normal human beings, two mature adults, even after last evening's kisses. "All right. I'll have something cold."

Penny got to her feet and padded from the room, and he had to admit, things truly seemed ordinary here. They were working well together as they had the other day, making good progress, and he was enjoying the interaction the same way he usually enjoyed client interaction. He might catch the occasional whiff of her hair now and then—what was that fragrance?—and he might notice the cute lilt in her voice when she caught on to how something worked, but overall, they'd fallen back into the roles of client and system designer with startling ease.

"I made some lemonade before you got here," her voice echoed from the kitchen.

"Sounds great." Peering at her hard drive resting upright on the floor beneath the desk, Ryan shrugged free of his suit jacket and got down on his knees. He started fiddling with the floppy drive where, sure enough, a diskette was lodged inside. It surprised him Martin couldn't have spent a little time making Penny's computer functional, but tomorrow, he'd bring a tool kit and take a closer look.

"It's from my grandma's secret recipe," she called, still in the other room.

"Your grandma has a secret recipe for lemonade?" he yelled back. "How can there be a secret to that?"

He continued to poke and prod at the diskette as she replied. "If I told you, it wouldn't be a secret, would it?"

Her playful tone made him smile. "Is this the same grandma who lived in Kentucky?"

"Yep, same one."

"So you said the farm isn't a farm anymore. Did
all
the Hallorans get into the food-and-drink business?"

"No, just Patti and me. My father owns a hardware store, one of the last family-run ones in the city. And my grandparents are retired. But they probably
should
all be in the restaurant business. My grandmother and mother are wonderful cooks and they taught me everything I know."

"What about Patti?" he asked over his shoulder. "They didn't teach her?"

Penny's short laugh resonated through the house. "Well, they tried, but it didn't work out. She handles more the management end of the business, the hiring, the firing, the banking. And I handle the menu and payroll … and now, I guess, the computer."

The glasses nearly slipped from Penny's hands when she entered the room to see Ryan down on all fours, his suit-clad butt in the air. She'd never really seen his butt before, but it looked nice. Really nice. Pinpricks of sensation skittered up her inner thighs. Right when things were going so smoothly, too.

After standing frozen in place for a moment, she lowered the two lemonades quietly to the corner of the desk, then headed for the bathroom. That's why she'd originally gotten up, wasn't it? And she certainly didn't want to get caught gaping, or risk messing up what had, so far, been a nice, normal workday between them, despite what she'd felt upon his arrival. Familiar tendrils of desire had curled through her when she'd found him standing on her doorstep looking totally
GQ
, but she'd pushed them down, helped along by his brusque candor and his refusal to look at her. Now, however, the tension had eased—other than these sexy little shivers he never had to know about—and she hoped they could keep things on an even keel.

When she returned, Ryan had, thankfully, risen back to his chair to take a sip of lemonade. "This is good."

But their eyes met, and something warm melted through her. Uh-oh.

"Real lemons, ice not water, and lots of extra sugar," she unthinkingly blurted out, then hurried to take her seat beside him. Somehow it was easier then, when they were looking at the computers and not each other.

"What?" he asked.

She lifted her gaze, then lowered it just as quickly. "That's the recipe. In case you wanted to know."

Maybe he'd been right when he'd arrived, Penny thought. Maybe anything else was inviting trouble. Reaching for her own lemonade, she took a long swallow and tried to let it cool her down inside.

She felt his glance from the corner of her eye. "I thought it was a secret."

Penny sighed. "Well, you seem trustworthy," she said, for lack of any better response.

He reached to type something onto his laptop and accidentally bumped her arm. They both flinched uncomfortably, then exchanged lightning-quick looks.

"So…" he said.

"So…" she replied. Her heart beat too fast. Darn it, why couldn't they act normal around each other for longer periods of time?

"Let's talk payroll," he suggested hurriedly.

"Yes, let's."

* * *

When Ryan looked past her toward the window, Penny raised her gaze, as well.

"It's getting dark," he said.

It startled Penny to see dusk falling outside; the lights she'd turned on this afternoon had kept them from noticing the gradual change. She glanced to the mantel clock. "I can't believe it's so late. Almost nine."

He gave his head a regretful shake. "My fault. I get on a roll, and I totally lose track of time."

"No need to apologize," Penny assured him. "I'm just surprised. I had no idea we'd worked that long." But when she thought about it, they'd covered a lot. They'd gone over her manual payroll procedures and discussed how to best represent them in the system, then they'd moved on to her notes about budget and the monthly balance sheets. Although the comfort level had grown steadily deeper, Penny had remained aware of her attraction to him.

Now Ryan's smile trickled through her like a hot drink. "It's always a good sign when time flies, you know. Every now and then, I get into a situation where it's just the opposite, where one hour with a client feels like five, and that always means we're getting nothing accomplished. But I feel really positive about our work here, and I think we'll create a system you'll like."

So it would seem Ryan really had relaxed now. He could smile at her without panicking. Which meant she was the only one here still feeling … things. Tingly, ripply, urgelike things.

But that's good, she told herself. Heartbreaking in a way, since it was always nice to think a guy wanted you, but hadn't she decided for his sake, and for Martin's sake, that Ryan was right and nothing more could happen between them? She made herself smile back, glad—in theory anyway—that things felt more normal again as it did when they were both buried in work.

Yet did she just sense some slight, barely perceptible change in the air? No, probably not. It was likely just wishful thinking on her body's part. The little thrill that had zipped down through her when they'd shifted their gazes from the computer to one another just now probably meant nothing. The fact that Ryan's eyes, now squarely planted on hers, seemed to be filling with something like heat was probably entirely in her imagination.

"Can I offer you dinner?" She regretted the invitation even as it left her, but it'd just popped out. She rushed ahead, anxious to fill the suddenly awkward moment with more words. "Usually, I would've eaten hours ago. If you don't mind more pot roast, I could make some sandwiches with it. Or if you're ready to take off, that's fine, too. Whatever you want."

She actually thought he looked tempted, until he said, "Thanks, but I should definitely get going."

Penny simply nodded. Definitely, he'd said. The conviction in his voice brought her down to earth, and considering what had happened last night after eating together, she couldn't argue with his unspoken logic.

He drew his eyes away as he shut down his laptop. "Can I ask you something before I go, though?"

"Okay."

"I was wondering … how you're doing over the Martin thing. Your decision not to marry him, I mean."

"Oh." The question startled her, though she hardly knew why since Martin's proposal had been the entire basis of their bizarre relationship so far. "I'm doing fine."

So fine, in fact, that I keep wanting you.
She didn't know if it was the dusky lighting and the falling of night, or if it was simply the culmination of urges she'd been battling all day, but as her desires escalated, this seemed like a good time to put some distance between them. She left the desk and moved casually to her overstuffed couch. That way she couldn't do something crazy like touch him if the unstoppable urge arose. Especially now that he seemed so in control, so totally uninterested in her physically. Nothing would be worse than making a move and getting rejected.

"When are you going to tell him?" Ryan asked, slipping the laptop in its case.

"Whenever he calls from Vegas." And, actually, she was surprised she hadn't heard from Martin yet—it was Tuesday and he'd left on Friday. She'd expected a call over the weekend, but at least the delay had given her time to work on what she was going to say.

"You're going to tell him over the phone?" Ryan asked, turning his chair to face her. It didn't sound like an accusation, just an honest question.

Penny took a deep breath before replying. "This way, he won't have to break down in front of me, you know? And I'd rather get it over with, not put it off."

Ryan's gaze focused directly on her now, unnervingly so. "I'm sorry, Penny, if I ruined something good between the two of you."

Her stomach dropped. It had never even occurred to her that Ryan didn't know the very brief history she shared with Martin, or how unexpected his proposal had been. "You didn't." She shook her head emphatically. "We'd only been dating a few months."

He shrugged. "It doesn't always take months to have a serious relationship. It happens all the time. People meet and fall in love like
that."
He snapped his fingers.

And she wondered, for the first time, about Ryan's love life. "Has that ever happened to you?"

"Me? No." He shook his head almost as if the idea were preposterous, even though he'd brought it up himself. "I
know
people who it's happened to, but I'm not sure I could ever fall in love that quickly myself."

"Why?" His comment perplexed her, and somewhere deep inside, she was a little hurt. Maybe she'd hoped this sensual energy between them was about more than sex, that he was harboring some secret, budding affection for her that he just hadn't had the courage to mention.

He raised his gaze, as if confiding in her. "I guess maybe I'm just cautious."

Did that mean he'd been hurt before? "Bad relationships in the past?" she ventured.

Ryan shook his head. "Nothing like that." He smiled slightly, his expression turning mischievous. "Maybe cautious is the wrong word. Maybe it's more like … reluctant. There's nothing too heavy in my past, and I guess I like it that way. I like keeping things light and being on my own at the end of the day, if you know what I mean."

Yes, she knew exactly what he meant. He wasn't looking for a relationship. He'd told her he'd come here to be a good boy, that he didn't want anything wild in his life, so apparently women were on the back burner for him completely right now. Or he wanted them to be, anyway. Because, there was, of course, her, and what had happened, and what, she supposed uncertainly, could
still
happen…

Oh, darn it, that proved it; she really
did
still want him. Desire hummed through her veins even as she sat talking with him. "Well, despite what you may think, things were very casual between me and Martin. And the truth is, I didn't know him all that well, romantically speaking."

Ryan tilted his head. "But in the limo…"

"Yes?"

"Well, you didn't seem shy."

Penny tried to swallow her embarrassment, but failed. And considering how many personal details Ryan knew about her already, she saw no reason not to explain this, as well. "As I said that night, I wanted to find out if Martin had a wild side, too."

When she least expected it, a slow, almost wicked smile unfurled across Ryan's face.

"What?" she asked in response.

"So you admit it. You
are
wild."

Penny released a long, exasperated sigh. "I admitted I have a wild
side.
That's different than being wild."

"You said you were living out a fantasy," Ryan reminded her.

"So? Everyone has fantasies."

"But—" he raised one finger in the air "—not everyone lives them out."

Penny drew in her breath, wishing she could break her gaze with his, wishing she wanted to. But his unexpected words were settling deep inside her, easing their way into cracks and crevices she'd never peered into before.