Tall, Dark & Reckless

A woman? It kept getting worse. “I work alone.” Th is time the emphasis wasn’t subtle.

No one paid any attention to Mark. He wasn’t accustomed to being ignored—at least not as an adult.

But the twins were now arguing with their father. Travis was going to bat for him, and he appreciated it, but no way was he going to be handicapped by a handler. A woman? He lived pretty rough when he was in the field. And taking a woman to the Middle East would be just insane.

BT was right about one thing, though. The reason Mark wasn’t involved in a relationship was precisely because he put himself in situations no family man should.

The Pollards grew louder as the discussion became more heated. Unless BT could be talked out of his producer edict, this was a massive waste of Mark’s time and he had a one o’clock class he needed to prep for.

He looked across the table. Piper also sat silently while the Pollards hashed things out. She was mad, though, and rightly so.

Her profile was to him, so Mark took the opportunity to check her out. She wore square glasses with dark frames the way pretty women sometimes did when they wanted to be taken seriously. And she was pretty, in a church picnic kind of way, the sort of girl his grandmother would like. Sweetly pastel and prim. Too girlie for his mom, though. And to be honest, for him, as well. A life with her would mean drinking tea from china cups and taking off his shoes before he walked on the carpet. At least that’s the impression he got. Mark had no personal experience with her type. He smiled to himself. Her type avoided his type.

She must have sensed him looking at her, because she slowly turned her head and met his stare with one of her own.

Big brown eyes gazed directly at him from behind the glasses. That was no Sunday-school stare. And now that he thought about it, there hadn’t been any coyness about her the other times they’d studied each other. Mark felt a stirring of interest. There was something more here. Hidden depths. And nobody loved hidden depths more than Mark.

“Coffee?” she mouthed slowly. Her upper teeth dragged over her bottom lip drawing his attention to its plump pinkness.

Something else stirred as his interest shifted from intellectual to physical. Had she done that on purpose? If so, then she was Sunday school on the outside and Saturday-night party on the inside. Every man’s fantasy woman.

He nodded in answer to her coffee question and nudged his mug across the table. Rather than take it to the credenza, Piper reached behind her for the thermal pot. Doing so stretched her top across her chest. Nice.

Yeah, nice. Remember that. Nice girl. Okay, nice girl with some moves.

Piper leaned forward to pour the coffee and the V-neck of her top gaped enough for Mark to take in nicely rounded flesh and some lace. The coffee filled his mug in a slow stream that gave him plenty of time to stare down her top and plenty of time for her to be aware of it.

He might be in a little trouble here. He hadn’t been with a woman in way too long. Between his injury and the offlimits students, he’d had to freeze those urges. Piper Scott was definitely thawing them and at a most inconvenient time.

He forced his eyes downward a few more inches so they were focused on the coffee mug and not on Piper Scott’s surprisingly deep, lace-outlined cleavage.

The instant he saw the spout of the coffeepot tilt back, Mark grasped his mug and risked a glance upward, aiming for Piper’s eyes without traveling over her breasts. “Thanks.”

She smiled in response, and he smiled back because it would be impolite not to.

But then her smile grew and he knew she’d caught him looking down her top. She’d flashed him deliberately as repayment for their little thing earlier, before the meeting started, when they’d been sizing each other up.

Nicely played. Grinning, he dipped his head and raised his mug a fraction of an inch in acknowledgement. And then their gazes connected in one of those “hey, there could be something here” moments. Finding out could be fun. But Mark’s style was intense and temporary, no muss, and no fuss when his work ended the relationship.

Too bad Piper Scott wasn’t the type. Too bad one of the more attractive things about her was that she knew it.

The connection lasted long enough for both of them to realize nothing was going to happen between them and feel a twinge of regret—well, Mark sure did.

BT interrupted the moment by roaring, “Enough!”

Piper flinched and set the coffeepot down.

“You—” BT pointed at Mark. “I don’t care what you call her, but you’re taking somebody on assignment with you from now on. And you will consult with that somebody and if you don’t, I’ll pull your press credentials. And you—” he pointed to Piper. “If you and Dancie want OMG’s backing for your project, then show me this compatibility theory of yours works. Find Mark somebody he can get along with and who can stand up to him. That last part is very important.”

“Dad, get serious!” Travis nearly came out of his chair. “She’s a dating columnist! We’re talking about hiring somebody who’s going to be working with a world-class journalist, not finding Mark a date to the prom!” He didn’t bother to hide his scorn, which Mark could have told him was a mistake.

Sure enough, the women were eyeing Travis with narrow-eyed gazes. “The way it works is that you only send me qualified candidates,” Piper said in clipped tones. “I’ll select the most compatible ones from among those.”

Not going to happen. Mark shook his head, but Piper didn’t notice. Or if she did, she ignored him.

“And when am I supposed to find the time to do that?” Travis asked. “Since we’re not going to the Super Bowl—” he sent a resentful glance toward his father “—I have to redo everything. And that includes contacting the advertisers—”

“I can help you out, Travis,” Dancie offered sweetly.

Mark had heard enough. “Don’t bother,” he said. “For the last time, I. Work. Alone.”

“Not if you’re working at OMG,” BT told him.

Which is pretty much how Mark had expected this to play out. BT should be the one interviewing employees for the news division. He hadn’t said anything about doing so because he knew it wasn’t going to happen.

“Fair enough.” Mark pushed back from the table. “I’ll always be grateful for the opportunities OMG gave me.”

“Hang on a minute, Mark.” Panic sounded in Travis’s voice.

Mark stood, his leg screaming in protest. “Travis, it’s time for me to move on.” Past time for a pain pill, too. “Bye, all.”

Travis swiveled his chair away from the table. “Mark, wait.”

Mark pushed open the door. “I’ll call you later.” He had to get off his leg. Limping badly, he started across the foyer, knowing there was a real possibility he might not make it to his car.

“I’ve got a client meeting,” he heard behind him. “So I’m going to leave now, too.”

In an instant, Piper was beside him. “Lean on me,” she murmured beneath her breath. She held out her arm in a way that hid it from those in the conference room behind them.

He wasn’t about to argue. Bracing himself against her took some of the weight off his leg and relieved the pain.

“It stiffened up in the meeting, didn’t it?” she asked.

“Yeah,” he grunted. “Thanks.”

“Can you walk to the front door?”

Mark gave a tight nod.

“Whenever you’re ready.”

He started walking and she matched her steps to his, bless her, and as soon as they were out of sight, she insisted he lean on her fully.

Mark was relieved that she didn’t try to make conversation. If it hadn’t been for his damned leg, he would have appreciated her closeness more.

As they negotiated a couple of steps, he inhaled sharply and smelled her perfume. It was a flowery, sweet, girlie scent he wouldn’t have associated with her, especially in a business situation. But now that she was pressed up against him, he noticed the jewelry and the hair and the skirt and especially the sandals with the high heels. She looked as though she was going out on a date. Or entering a beauty pageant.

Or dressing to appeal to BT, clever girl.