Into the Fire - Leslie Kelly [66]
Still, she wouldn't back down. They hadn't so much as kissed since that Saturday morning in his apartment. Flirted, yes. Made some seriously steamy eye contact and exchanged lots of verbal innuendo, oh, yeah. Nothing else, though.
The only good thing he could say about the past two weeks of his life was that he hadn't blown up into a million bits of sexually frustrated flesh. Of course a man couldn't explode from sexual tension—though Nate thought he'd come pretty damn close.
He supposed a woman couldn't, either. But it wasn't pleasant to think of Lacey, his recently awakened, sensual Lacey, sitting in a bar with a bunch of randy businessmen—especially with Venus the love goddess sitting beside her.
"There it is." Raul pointed. He sounded relieved.
There had been one other benefit to their enforced celibacy. Nate knew he'd fallen crazy in love with Lacey Clark. While he'd never before been able to verbalize the exact definition of love, there was no doubt in his mind that's what he felt now. He'd suspected it the night they met, been more sure of it when they'd made love. After two weeks in her company, watching her come out of her shell, seeing the saucy, sassy, confident Lacey emerge from her self-imposed boundaries, he knew he'd found the woman of his dreams.
He merely had to wait her out. And write this bloody article.
When they entered the bar, it didn't take long to spot the two women. "They're surrounded," Nate said with a grimace.
"No caveman stuff. Do what she asked. We'll sit right over here," Raul said as he steered Nate away from the table where Lacey and Venus talked with three suit-wearing jerks.
"If that guy with the glasses leans over to look down her shirt again, he's gonna be swallowing some of his teeth," Nate muttered as he allowed Raul to push him into a chair.
"I never knew Mr. So Many Bimbos So Little Time Logan was capable of a mortal emotion like jealousy," Raul said, grinning.
"I'm not jealous. I trust Lacey."
Raul looked skeptical.
"I do. I just don't trust any of the guys around her." Raul's smile remained firmly in place as they each ordered a beer. Nate waited until Lacey's eyes finally found his across the crowded room. She gave him a tiny, flirtatious wink, then turned her attention to the men standing beside her table.
"She's working on the story," Raul said, probably noticing Nate staring as Lacey earnestly questioned a dark-haired man in a tailored suit. "Remember a little thing called your job?"
"How could I forget." Nate sipped his beer. "Who'da thought an assignment about sex would be so sexually frustrating?"
"I think Lacey had the right idea. You've obviously got a lot of potential information right in this room—a prime opportunity to find out what women are really looking for." He grinned confidently. "Other than a night with me, of course."
Nate shook his head. "You're a piece of work."
Raul didn't reply. His eyes widened, and he looked past Nate to the front door. Nate didn't even have to look to know some hot-looking lady had just entered. Raul had that come-to-Papa look on his face.
Sighing, he noted Raul was right. He had a job to do. He turned, glanced over his shoulder and saw four giggly females walking in. They sat down at the next table, casting quick glances around the bar before throwing wide, welcoming smiles toward Nate and Raul. Four average, probably single, twenty-something women living and loving in the city of Baltimore . Okay, Logan , time to get to work.
* * *
Lacey nearly came out of her seat when a big-chested brunette and her three twitty cohorts pulled their chairs up to Nate's table and made themselves comfortable.
"Cool it, sweetie," Venus advised, placing a restraining hand on Lacey's arm. "You started this, remember?"
Yes, she had. Though, suddenly, seeing Nate laugh at something Miss Silicone Implants said, she couldn't remember why.
"Like I said, you are absolutely right," a dark-haired man in a charcoal-gray suit said. He'd been the first to approach them when they'd arrived at the bar an hour before. Lacey