Ready for Her Close-up

“What could be next?” he asked. “Why are you so shy now?”

She wrapped her arms around her waist and looked out at the skyline of Manhattan. He saw the reflection of her face in the window of the chopper as she absently brought her hand up to toy with the charm on the gold necklace she wore.

“I have to be attracted to you. A healthy sex life is on my checklist.”

“When the time is right, Gail, you will have no doubts that I can fulfill your needs on that count.”

She turned back around to face him. Her thick black hair with the headphones on it made her seem smaller somehow. In the intimacy of the chopper, she didn’t seem as tough as she had in the ballroom when first seen her. Her mouth was full, and he couldn’t help but keep his eyes on her lips. He wanted to taste them. He needed to kiss her just to prove to himself that, even though she felt different to him, she wasn’t. He desired her. He knew that, but he wanted it to be just the normal lust he’d feel for any attractive woman.

Somehow though, in these close quarters with just the soft sound of her voice in his ears and her leg brushing his, it felt different. He felt different. He wanted to imagine he could check off all the qualities on her Mr. Right checklist, and he didn’t know why that mattered.

He leaned in close and she just stared at him. The microphone was in front of her face, and he reached to push it up and out of his way. He did the same with his mic, and then touched her face. Her skin was smooth and cool to the touch.

He let his thumb move lower to touch her lips. He traced them: the small indentation at the top and the full, fleshy lower one. Then he closed the small distance between them and kissed her. Just a simple brushing of their mouths at first, and then he slipped his tongue in over her teeth until he tasted her.

He tipped his head to the side; he wanted more of her. The thought that she was just like any other woman disappeared in an instant. This was more than lust. He lifted his hands, tangling them in her thick hair as he tried to get more out of the kiss. Gail’s hands fell to his shoulders, softly at first, and then as she moved closer to him, her grip got tighter.

He pulled back and took a deep breath. She said something, but he couldn’t hear it because her microphone wasn’t in position. He brought it down and she shook her head. “I didn’t expect that.”

“I didn’t either.”

She wrinkled her brow. “You were the one who kissed me.”

“I was trying to prove something to myself.”

“What?”

“That you were like every other woman I’ve ever kissed,” he said.

She narrowed her gaze. “That’s—

“Don’t get your back up. You weren’t. I don’t know why,” he said, genuinely perplexed. One of his good friends had married last year and Russell, while happy for him, hadn’t understood how one woman could be that important. Now he had an inkling of what Cam Stern had been experiencing and Russell didn’t like it for himself.

“Is that supposed to be a compliment?” she asked.

“Hell. No, it wasn’t. I don’t know what it was supposed to be. I only know that I have no idea how to proceed with this.”

“Why not?” she asked.

He shook his head. He wasn’t supposed to be this attracted to his match. But his blood was pounding in his veins and he had to shift his legs to make room for his growing erection. He wanted her. He wanted her right now. But that wasn’t going to happen tonight. He needed to ensure that this matchmaking thing worked first, and sleeping with her tonight would pretty much send her running for the hills.

Three

Gail didn’t know what had happened, but somehow in the last thirty minutes, Russell Holloway had started to become real to her. He was no longer that bad-boy cad whom she could keep her distance from. Instead she’d kissed him.

Oh, yes, she had. That was the most daring thing she’d done since skinny-dipping in high school. She shook her head; she had become a very staid person. In fact, it had been almost seven months since her last kiss.

Now her lips still tingled from the contact with Russell’s. And she wanted more than just a few kisses. She wanted to feel his strong chest against her breasts and his arms wrapped around her.

She had a feeling that Russell knew how to use his body for maximum effect, and she was definitely ready for more. But that wasn’t smart. She prided herself on making the “right” choices, but now she wanted to just forget that and do what felt right.

So what?

She’d been smart her entire life, and look where it had gotten her. She was alone and doing silly things like signing up for matchmaking services and reality-TV shows. She wanted something—someone—different, and Russell certainly was that.

“You’re staring at me again,” he said with that little half smile of his that she was getting very used to seeing. He used it as a shield to seem open and friendly, but she knew it was a mask.

“That is entirely your fault,” she said. “If you’d just act like I expected you to, then I could walk away and pretend I gave this a chance.”

“Where would you walk to?” he asked. “If you are on this show, I’m guessing you are out of options.”

“Very true,” she said. “I guess I’d go back to my safe little world where everything fits neatly in its place.”

“So I no longer fit in my place?” he asked her.

Frankly, she wasn’t too sure what she’d do with Russell in his place. She wasn’t cut out to date a jet-setting playboy, and no matter what the matchmaker thought, Gail knew he wasn’t right for her.

“No, you don’t,” she said.

“What am I doing wrong?” he asked.

She nibbled on her lower lip and tasted him. “Kissing me.”

“You didn’t like it?” he asked. “I can try to improve my technique.”

“I liked it too much,” she said. “Don’t be offended—”

He leaned down and arched one eyebrow at her in a way that made her feel as though she was amusing him. “Saying that pretty much guarantees I will be.”

She smiled at him. “I guess so, but I expected your kiss to be practiced and kind of mechanical.…”

“Glad to disappoint,” he said.

She wrinkled her nose at him and mock-punched him. “I’m not letting my guard down, no matter how charming you act. I’m not sure about you.”

“I wouldn’t expect you to let your guard down. But there is one thing you should know.”

“And that is …?” she asked.

“I don’t lose,” he said with a full-on, smug grin.

She wasn’t too sure she wanted him to look at this as some kind of competition, and it was telling that he had done so. “I don’t want you to lose. In fact, I want us both to get what we want.”

He leaned back against the seat and crossed his arms over his chest, glancing out the window as the chopper pilot made his way back to the helipad on top of the Big Apple Kiwi. “That came out wrong, didn’t it?”

“Only if you think of me as a prize,” she said. “We’re both feeling our way here. I’m not judging you.”

He shook his head and leveled that steady gray gaze of his on her. “I think you are. You’d have to be. Otherwise, how will you be sure I’m not the player you’ve read about.”