Trust Me on This - Jennifer Crusie [19]
“What’s in Chicago?”
“Me,” Alec said, and then wondered why he’d said it. It was pretty stupid telling a woman to move to a major city so he could have dinner with her occasionally, especially since he was planning on arresting her. Of course, stupid was the personality he was trying to project, but still. It was humiliating being stupid in front of Dennie Banks.
“You think I should move to Chicago because you’re there? After one dinner?” Dennie shook her head. “There’s a dim bulb in your flashlight.”
Alec opened his mouth to retort and then closed it. He’d asked for that one.
“So when can I meet your aunt?” Dennie asked.
“Have lunch with me tomorrow,” Alec said. “I cannot guarantee my aunt will be there, but I’ll try. How about one? I have a late meeting tonight.”
Dennie beamed at him. “Terrific.” She sipped the last of her wine and said, “What kind of meeting do you have?”
“Hey,” Alec said. “You want the intimate details of my life, you have to get intimate.”
Dennie frowned at him in disbelief. “I have to sleep with you to find out about your meetings?”
He gazed at her hopefully. “Would that do it?”
“No,” Dennie said. “You are achieving a new low in superficial here.”
“My aunt’s going to like you,” Alec said.
“I’m devastated at having to leave you, Victoria,” Donald said as he pressed her hand at her hotel room door. “If only I hadn’t made plans to speak with this Bondman fellow about the investment.”
“Perfectly all right,” Victoria said, trying to disengage her hand.
“It really is a wonderful investment. Florida beach-front property. Perhaps you’d like to join us?”
“Not tonight, Donald.” Victoria smiled up at him as she shoved her card in the door and opened it. “But perhaps tomorrow. For dinner. Do you think you could arrange it?”
“Delighted to!” Donald said. “And who knows? Maybe we could invest in something together. Like our futures?” He raised an arched eyebrow at her.
“Who knows?” Victoria sidled inside her door. “Until then.”
“Until then.” Donald leaned forward to kiss her, and she shut the door in his face. Then she leaned against it, relieved to be alone.
The things she did for her nephew. And now she had to play hostess to Alec’s grumpy old boss.
Still, he had to be better than Donald.
Anybody was better than Donald.
Dennie continued to battle with Alec during the elevator ride to her room, cheerfully insulting him at regular intervals because he seemed to enjoy it. He had either no ego at all or the healthiest ego on the planet. She studied him when they stopped in the dim light of the hallway outside her room. He stood before her, carelessly relaxed and lazily confident.
He definitely had an ego.
He was also definitely a mystery. He was a lot smarter than he looked and a lot more dangerous. She was positive that his aw-shucks innocence was a cover-up for a devious, twisted mind. Too bad her career was on the line. Exploring Alec could have been educational, and since he wasn’t the easy kind of guy she’d dated before, Patience would have been pleased too. “Look what I found in a hotel bar,” she could say, towing Alec behind her like show-and-tell at school. “Ignore the dumb act. This one is complicated.”
“Lunch at one,” Alec said, and she turned her face up to him, startled into remembering him.
“One,” she started to say, but he kissed her while she was puckering her mouth to say the word. He stepped on her toe, and bumped her nose with his, and then missed her mouth at first, but when he found it, clumsily, he tasted so good that she leaned into him slightly, touching his lips with her tongue.
And then suddenly he changed; his kiss stopped bumbling and became solid and deep, and he slid his arms around her and pulled her close. He felt so good against her that she wound her arms around his neck and pressed herself to him. Heat washed over her, and evidently over him, too, because by the time she broke the kiss, he had her plastered up against the wall, his thigh between hers, his tongue licking her mouth while she gasped for breath.
And when he lifted his face