Pure Temptation & Old Enough to Know Better: Pure Temptation / Old Enough To Know Better
it at the same time. I’ve heard Ellis Island is very moving. And the Metropolitan Museum of Art will be beautiful, and we could save our money and eat at one of those pricey restaurants, at least once, and—”
“I’m not taking you to a pricey restaurant unless you can do better on the food than you’re doing here.”
She glanced at her plate and picked up her fork. “I guess I’m distracted. I can’t seem to think of anything except this move, and getting ready for it.” She pushed her food around and glanced up at him. “Mac, I know you think I’m crazy for wanting this one thing before I go.”
“Not crazy.” He laid down his fork and gave up all pretense of eating. God, she was beautiful. Not cute, not attractive, not passable. Beautiful. He’d never admitted that to himself before, but he’d probably always known it on some unconscious level. He’d been entranced watching her talk about their future adventures in New York.
“Then you understand?”
“Yes.”
She sagged against the table, and her sigh was heavy with relief. “Thank goodness. I wondered if I’d ever convince you.”
“I’m convinced.”
“Then you’ll help me? You’ll find someone and introduce us?”
Maybe he’d known all along what he had to do. Maybe he’d just needed time for the inescapable truth to settle upon him. But now he could see no other way. It was dangerous, extremely dangerous. A great deal was at stake. Still, it was the only answer, and he was man enough to accept that, along with the consequences.
He took a deep breath. “I don’t have to look for someone. I already know who will do it.”
“You do?” Her eyes grew bright, her cheeks pink. “Who?”
“Me.”
CHAPTER FOUR
TESS GASPED AND put her hand over her mouth. She felt as if someone had dumped a bucket of warm water over her. Oh, God. Mac. Could she do it? Her imagination quivered and danced around the idea, unable to focus on the possibility. Her heart beat so loudly she thought he might be able to hear it. Mac. Oh, dear. How delicious. How impossible. How frightening. How lovely.
“Unless you don’t want me to.”
She was having trouble breathing, let alone talking. “I—I—”
“It’s okay if you don’t. I might not be…what you want.”
“I…have to think.”
“Sure.”
Although she was caught up in her own turmoil, she sensed his vulnerability. “I’m honored,” she choked out.
“Honored?”
“That you’d even consider…that you’d even be willing…”
“Better me than anybody else I can think of.”
“Is it…” She paused and squeezed her eyes shut. “Such a sacrifice, then?” At his astonished laughter, she opened her eyes.
“Are you kidding?” He stared at her in wonder. “If word got out that you were in the market, the line outside your door would stretch all the way to the Nugget.”
“You think?” He’d never, ever given her such an extravagant compliment about her sex appeal. His compliments on that score had been nonexistent, come to think of it.
“You could have your pick,” he said. “You don’t have to settle for me. I just thought—”
“That I’d feel more comfortable with you. Thank you, Mac. And I probably would. Once I get over the shock.”
“Take your time.”
“You won’t change your mind?”
He shook his head.
“But what about my brothers?”
He let out his breath in a great gust. “I won’t pretend that won’t be tough. But I’ve kept our secrets from them before.” He gazed at her. “I guess I can do it again.”
She’d never been so impressed with another human being in her life. “I don’t deserve such a good friend.”
He gave her a crooked smile. “Don’t go giving me too much credit. This wouldn’t be the worst assignment I’d ever drawn in my life.”
“So you think you could have…fun?”
“I think I could manage that.”
Tess leaned back in the booth and fanned herself with her hand. “Wow. This blows me away.” She glanced at him with his fresh shower, shave and clothes. “Did you decide this before you showed up tonight?”
“No. I honestly didn’t know what I was going to say to you when I got here. Then, while we were talking, I finally decided this was the only solution I could live with.”
She hesitated, feeling unbelievably shy. “The reason I asked is that I wondered, considering that you’re all cleaned up, if you thought that we’d just…take care of it.”
He coughed and cleared his throat. “Is that what you want?”
She couldn’t seem to control her racing pulse, and every breath was a struggle. “I don’t know. I realize this is my project, but I’m not feeling very much in charge right now.”
He gazed at her. “I have a suggestion.”
She swallowed. He was the sexiest man she’d ever seen in her life. How had she missed that in all these years? “Okay.”
He leaned forward and beckoned her to do the same. He lowered his voice and his eyes grew smoky blue. “Maybe we need to work up to this. We could take a drive, park somewhere, do some old-fashioned making out and see how it goes. And to take the pressure off, we’d agree not to go all the way this first time.”
He was so close that his breath caressed her face. His hands—hands that had positioned her grip on a baseball bat, picked her up when she fell off her bike and pinched her when she’d dropped the frog down his back—had taken on a whole new significance. And they lay less than an inch from hers on the Formica tabletop. As she looked into his eyes, her heart beat so fast she thought she might have a heart attack. This was a Mac she’d never met before. “I g-guess we could do that, but…”
“But? And how were you envisioning the process?”
Her cheeks grew hot. “Honestly?”
“Honestly.”
She kept her voice to a low murmur, which increased the sense of intimacy in the booth. “If you’d set me up with someone, I envisioned a one-night stand, to get it over with.”
He winced. “That’s a terrible idea.”
“It is?”
He held her gaze with those electric eyes. “I thought you wanted to have a nice time.”
“I do.” She drew a shaky breath. “But couldn’t I have a nice one-night stand?”
“Not you. Some women, maybe. Not you. You need to ease into it.”
“That’s why I’ve been reading all those books. And I’m a quick study.”
His eyes twinkled and his mouth twitched as if he wanted to smile, but he didn’t.
“What?”
“It’s just so you, to thoroughly study a subject before you get into it.”
He had her totally off balance, and she wasn’t used to feeling that way with Mac. She tried to equalize the situation. “I could probably teach you a few things, Mr.