Sherryl Woods - Temptation

“Not lately, as a matter of fact. Recently you’ve become my number-one priority.”

“Why doesn’t that reassure me?” she muttered under her breath. She glanced up to find amusement dancing in his gray eyes. He was clearly enjoying this cat-and-mouse game they were playing. She found that extremely irritating.

“Don’t you have a home to get to?” she inquired testily, though she’d already gathered from Terry that Jason did not. Of course, that didn’t mean that he hadn’t once had a marriage that had fallen victim to the obsessive work habits she was beginning to suspect he had.

“Maybe some little kids who miss their daddy and are waiting to be tucked in?” she added hopefully.

He shook his head. “Nope. I’m free as a bird. I thought maybe we could take a little stroll over by Central Park. You look as if you could use a little fresh air, maybe some exercise.”

“Do you moonlight as a personal trainer?”

“Only when I anticipate great rewards for my efforts.”

“I don’t do aerobics.”

“You should. It relieves stress.” He shrugged. “Of course, so does sex.” He eyed her hopefully. “Would you prefer that?”

Callie met his gaze evenly. “I doubt you could keep up with me.”

He chuckled. “Now, that, Miss Calliope Jane Smith, is a very dangerous dare.”

He wasn’t telling her anything she hadn’t guessed the minute the words were out of her mouth. She couldn’t imagine what had come over her. She did not engage in provocative repartee with men who were virtual strangers. She didn’t engage in such banter with anyone, except perhaps for Terry, but he hardly counted. He was her buddy. They’d been taunting each other from the day he’d moved in downstairs. It had driven her homophobic husband batty. She couldn’t classify Jason Kane in the same category as either Terry or the departed Chadwick Smith III. He clearly might take her up on her challenge. It was too late, though, to back down.

“I suppose that depends on which of us has the most at risk,” she countered.

“An interesting way of looking at it,” he said. “So, what about that walk? Maybe dinner. A little pleasant conversation.”

“About?”

“You are a suspicious little thing, aren’t you? Do you think I have an ulterior motive for showing up here?”

“Of course. You probably have those contracts you want me to sign tucked in your back pocket. You’ll wait till I’ve had a few glasses of wine, then pluck them out, hand me a pen and, bam, I’ll be yours.”

He held his arms up in the air. “Care to frisk me?”

She chuckled to spite herself. “You’d love that, wouldn’t you?”

“You bet.” He grinned. “So would you.”

Callie shook her head, feigning awe. “I didn’t know it was possible for an ego to get so huge without exploding from all the hot air.”

“Perhaps you should make it your mission to cut me down to size,” he said, reaching down to grab her hand and help her up from the sofa. “Come on, it’ll be more fun than sitting here wallowing in self-pity all night.”

“I do not wallow in self-pity,” she grumbled, but she didn’t resist nearly as hard as she should have. She was still muttering about his arrogance as they passed by Terry’s open door two flights down.

“Behave outrageously, darlings,” he called out. “I’ll be waiting up to hear all about it when you come in.”

Jason tucked her arm through his. “I guess we’ll have to work really hard to make his wait worthwhile.”

“You wish,” Callie muttered.

She waited all evening for Jason to bring up the job on Within Our Reach, but he never once mentioned the show. Instead, he deliberately baited her about everything. There wasn’t an opinion she held about which he didn’t claim to believe the opposite. She was so riled up by the time they’d finished dinner, it was a wonder she didn’t have serious heartburn.

“Do you really believe all that hogwash?” she demanded when they finally got back to her building.

“Which hogwash is that?”

“All of it, every word that has come out of your mouth since we walked out of here four hours ago.”

Cool gray eyes attempted to feign innocence. “I can’t imagine why you would think I’d lie.”

“To make me mad,” she guessed.

“Never.” He grinned. “Perhaps to make you start living again.” He dropped a kiss on her forehead. “Worked, too, didn’t it?”

Before she could argue that point as well, he turned on his heel and walked away, whistling lightly. She stared after him in confusion.

“What was that all about?” she murmured, touching her forehead where the skin still burned from the all-too-brief brush of his lips. What kind of sneaky, low-down tactics was Jason Kane using on her now? If he thought he could seduce her into agreeing to join the soap opera cast, he was very much mistaken. If he thought he could seduce her at all, for that matter, he was out of his mind.

Brave words, she thought as she sank onto the top step and wrapped her arms around her knees. She was trembling from head to toe, which pretty much told the story. Jason Kane could have her any time he put his mind to it.

Her only hope was that he had a short attention span. Perhaps if she failed to give in on any front, he’d tire of the chase.

Then she recalled that dangerous gleam in his eyes earlier, when she’d dared him about his sexual prowess. The memory made her groan. There wasn’t a male on the face of the earth who would ever walk away from a comment like that. She’d given him something to prove, something far more intriguing than the simple challenge of getting her to accept a job offer. No wonder he hadn’t mentioned the show all evening. She’d changed not only the rules of their game but the prize.

And judging from his smug expression as he’d walked away, he was ninety-eight percent certain that victory was within his grasp.

It was amazing how quickly life could take a totally unexpected twist and wind up with more complications than any soap opera script ever devised. Add in that earlier call from Eunice and her life was just about out of control.

5

Jason stared at the latest dismal ratings for Within Our Reach and muttered a string of expletives that had his junior executives turning pale. He scowled at Freddie.

“Is that new story line sketched out yet? The one for Ms. Smith?”

“Actually...”

He sensed he was about to hear a litany of excuses. “Is it or isn’t it?” he demanded.

Freddie drew in a deep breath. “The writers are a little concerned that they might be wasting time since Ms. Smith hasn’t even agreed to take the part yet.” His brow knit worriedly. “She hasn’t, has she?”

“Not yet,” Jason conceded irritably. “But she will. It’s only a matter of time.”

He thought of the evening he had spent with her just the night before. She was definitely weakening. Her startled expression when he’d kissed her, then the fleeting glimpse of wistfulness he’d caught in her eyes, had told him quite a bit about her current state of mind.

Of course, her resistance to him wasn’t exactly the issue. If he were being entirely truthful, he would have to admit that she was still pretty adamant about not taking the job. It occurred to him that she might be viewing it as some sort of windfall, perhaps even charity. Maybe he hadn’t explained the stakes for the network clearly enough.

The sponsors were already getting restless. He doubted if he could hold them off with promises for much longer. Another week or two of ratings like the ones he had before him and they’d be yanking their ads in droves or demanding price cuts that wouldn’t sustain the show’s costs.

Maybe he hadn’t fully expressed the bind he was in, the favor she would be doing him and her friend Terry, who stood to lose a job along with a lot of other people if Jason had to cancel the long-running series.