Make Me Over_ Getting Real - Leslie Kelly [43]
He nodded, fully expecting her to stay—to pick up her camera, turn it on and go right into spy mode. Instead, the woman rose, grabbed her gear and headed toward the door. She swayed just a tiny bit. “It’s late,” she mumbled. “And I’m beat. Don’t do anything major without me, okay?”
“As if we’d forget the cameras hidden in this room?” Drew said, his voice holding an edge.
“I obviously did,” Tori said with a groan. She dropped her face into her hands, her shoulders slumped.
“Don’t worry,” Jacey said, “those tapes are going to get lost bright and early tomorrow morning. Monahan’s not going to want to show footage of a contestant mingling with the help, anyway.” She gave Drew a steady stare. “I know you don’t trust me. But I give you my word. Tonight’s off the record. I figure I owe you that much since your first night here was supposed to be.” Then she was gone, leaving him alone with Tori in the silent library.
“So I guess your secret’s safe from the TV audience,” Drew murmured as he walked into the room, closing the door behind him. Leaving the two of them completely alone.
She looked up. “My secret?”
“You know. Your criteria for the perfect man.” Smiling evilly, he moved to the bar and poured himself a drink. “I believe it had something to do with his, hmm, shall we say, tongue mobility?”
“Jiminy crickets,” she wailed, throwing her hands over her face again. This time she also threw herself back on the couch, until she was completely flat. “You did hear everything.”
He poured the drink. “Uh-huh. Let me ask you something. When did you develop this, uh, standard?”
She didn’t even move. “As if you don’t know.”
“Just checking,” he said with a shrug. “I mean, I wasn’t sure if I set the standard or merely measured up to it.”
Slowly sitting up, Tori said, “Well, since you’re the one and only man who’s ever done that to me, I’d say you set it pretty gosh-darn high.” Then her mouth fell open. “Oh, my Lord, do you suppose Jacey’s going to lose the tapes for the entire night, or only the parts before she left?”
Drew nodded. “I have a feeling she meant the whole night. In fact, I’m pretty sure she did.”
“So no evidence to be used against us. Does that mean I can leap on you and kiss your lips off, if only to make you forget what you heard when you came in?”
“I’m afraid not. I might need them.” He gave her a suggestive look. “It’s not all in the tongue, you know.”
His wicked words surprised a burst of laughter out of her. “You’re bad as can be, Drew Bennett. You just hide it better than most.” Her eyes sparkled with good humor.
Drew sat down on the sofa, watching her, trying to figure out why he hadn’t fled from this risky situation and gone up to his room. Then he figured it out. He needed to spend some time with her, to rid himself of the memories of his horrendous evening. Even if it did put him right back on that sexual precipice he’d been trying to avoid all week.
“So how was the ballet?”
“Dull.”
She nodded. “How were the girls?”
“Raucous,” he admitted with a heavy sigh. “Tiffany wolf-whistled at all the men in tights and Sukie wanted to know why they don’t serve popcorn at the ballet.”
Her lips curled up into a tiny smile. “They don’t?”
She was in an odd mood. Teasing. Glowing, almost. Then he saw the empty shot glass. Tipsy. “Did you have a good time with Jacey?”
She nodded, curling up on the end of the sofa. “I did. She’s a lot like me, believe it or not.”
He raised a brow. “Do you have vampire tendencies I should know about?”
When Tori’s jaw dropped open, Drew pointed to a corner of the ceiling, where a tiny camera was recording every word they exchanged. “Gotcha,” he said, knowing full well Jacey would be going over every second of this tape tomorrow morning, before she destroyed it.
“This is kinda hard, isn’t it?” Tori asked from a few feet away. Her eyes said so much, told him that she felt the few feet separating them as much as he did. They might as well have been a mile, for all the emotional—or physical—closeness they could risk. Still, this was