of fun.”
“What other unpleasant characteristics don’t I know about you besides your sadistic streak?”
“If you want to be rid of me, all you have to do is suggest to Cassie that I move into her place. This way the girls stay put in familiar surroundings and with their friends. Come to think of it, I might even get a social life with all of those soldiers around.”
“Yes, but you wouldn’t be making the salary that you are.” He was not enjoying this conversation one bit. He should never have confessed his interest in her. He should have thought up some other story; he was in the business of lies, for pity’s sake.
“You’ve got me there.” Sighing, Sabrina picked up her salad fork. “Okay, I’ll quit teasing. I don’t know how you do it, though. Being a flirt is work. Were you like that as a boy?”
He didn’t want to talk about his childhood any more than he wanted her to torment him, but at least the past was the past. “Hardly. My parents didn’t divorce pleasantly, didn’t my sister tell you? Mother kept Cass here and my father took me back to England.”
“That much I picked up from office gossip the first time I was your employee.” Intercepting his dark look, she grinned, but said, “Sorry. Go on.”
“There’s not much to tell. It wasn’t a month before he shipped me off to an academy—a fancy rendition of a boarding school. You see, he didn’t have any use for me, he was merely getting back at my mother.”
“That was small of him. I’m sorry.”
“I’m hungry.” Stabbing an olive in his Mediterranean salad, Collin thought the subject was done. He was wrong.
“So you eventually developed the ‘I’m a catch’ persona due to a need to prove your father wrong for pushing you away? Or your mother not fighting harder to keep you?”
“Neither. I was starving for attention and discovered people gave it to me if I flattered them enough. But it also helped to keep people from asking too many questions.” He pointed his fork at her. “Until you.”
“Hint taken. New subject.” Sabrina nodded out the window at the tree-lit canal where a barge was passing full with tourists listening to a guitarist playing for them. “Can we walk off dinner down there?”
“I suppose. I’m certainly not going to leave you on your own.”
“It’s not like I can lose this hotel.”
“I’ve only been there once before and enough time has lapsed to not bore me to tears.”
“Thank you,” she said demurely. “I promise not to keep you out too late.”
Collin could only shake his head.
“I love doing the typical tourist things,” Sabrina said.
It was now almost nine o’clock and the crowd had thinned out some. At least there were fewer children and older folks than when she’d first watched from the hotel restaurant. The temperatures weren’t exactly chilly, but she was glad she had her jacket to tie around her shoulders. Collin had his hands shoved into his jeans’ pockets and remained on the quiet side.
She worried that she had made a mistake and gone too far with him. She couldn’t blame it on the liquor, either, since she’d said those things before she drank—and never did finish the cosmo and maybe had two sips of the wine. But she hadn’t needed the alcohol; she was high on being with him and knowing he’d wanted her company.
When he didn’t remark on her comment, she stopped and gazed up at a lit storefront on the second floor. She liked this open-air-mall type of shopping.
“Oh, look. Tattoos.”
“No.” Collin took hold of her arm just above the elbow and urged her forward.
“It’s my skin.”
“Then respect it more. I’m going to follow an old military custom. You work for me, therefore your skin is my property until we end this contract. You do not mar my property. Not even if you invite me to watch.”
She knew better than to respond to that line. Instead she gazed up at the twinkling white lights in the trees and outlining the arching bridges over the canals. “This is like Christmas 365 days a year.”
When she spotted a store with postcards, she asked Collin to wait and dashed inside to buy a handful to send to her niece, Trudy.
“Going to rebuild your scrapbook collection?” Collin asked when she emerged with her bag of choices.
“I don’t do that, but my niece, Sayer’s daughter, does. Like most people from out of state, she thinks Texas is still the Wild West.”
“There’s another gift shop. Want to get some T-shirts for the other nieces or nephews? There’s an Alamo piggy bank.”
“Okay, I can take a hint. I’m done.” She glanced down at her feet. “Besides, these heels aren’t the best idea on this sidewalk.”
“What you women do for fashion.”
“Be nice. I could have gone upstairs and changed into my sneakers, and then I’d be ready to walk the whole length of this place.”
“I promise you that I would have slung you over my shoulder and carried you back to the hotel if you’d tried.”
Seeing his crooked smile, she felt better. He was over being annoyed with her.
In the elevator, though, they were joined by a couple who were unabashedly enraptured with each other and had no interest in waiting until they were in their room to begin getting intimate. Cuddling in the opposite corner, the young woman was leaning back against her partner and the hip action while slow was flagrant. He had his arms around her and his fingers were diving inside her sweater to stroke the sides of her breasts. It was a relief to get out at their floor. The couple was heading several levels up.
Sabrina stopped once the elevator doors closed again and pressed her hand to her chest. “Do you think they’ll make it there?”
“What I do know is that there’ll be no need for them to rent an adult film.”
Continuing down the long hallway, it was strange how they avoided looking at each other. Conversation dried up, too. She was relieved to reach her door.
“Well, thank you again. I did enjoy it.” She concentrated very hard on getting her room key out of her purse. “Um…what time do you want to leave in the morning?”
“Is 7:00 too early for you?”
“Not at all. Good night then.” She knew he was going to be a perfect gentleman, waiting until she was inside with the door safely shut and secured behind her, and that made her self-conscious and clumsy. She missed the slot completely the first time she tried. The second time she withdrew it too soon and the green light didn’t come on. “This is humiliating,” she told him. “Could you at least wait by your own door?”
Instead he took the card key from her and calmly unlocked her door for her. Holding it open with his left hand, he handed the card back with his right, then caressed her lower lip with his thumb. “You are an utter delight. Good night.”
Shutting the door and turning the second bolt, she stood there and waited. Then she heard a brushing sound against the wood and footsteps as he walked to his room. She waited for his door to open and close…and waited. Her heart began to pound anew.
Finally he did retreat into his room.
Sabrina touched her fingers where he’d stroked her and wondered if he would ever kiss her—and would that be enough?
Chapter Five
Shortly after the calendar flipped to November, Cassidy delivered Gena and Addison up to Dallas. Sabrina couldn’t imagine what they were feeling and did her best to put