Vicki Thompson - Truly, Madly, Deeply

“What’s wrong with doing both?”

“Spoken like a true capitalist. I just don’t happen to care about making gobs of money.” She took another sip of her beer. “And I honestly don’t see myself publishing this newsletter for much longer. Some job will open up for me in the next six months, as the economy improves.”

“You’re passing up a golden opportunity.”

She regarded him from across the table, her gray eyes sparkling. “Are we still talking about the franchise?”

He grinned.

“You’re such a flirt. I have to admit you’re arousing my curiosity.”

“And that’s all?”

She didn’t comment, just smiled back at him.

He was sure his sexual longing showed right on his face. Fortunately she couldn’t see under the table, where even more evidence lurked. He took another bite of his barbecue.

“I still wonder exactly how you found me,” she said. “I’ve lost touch with everyone in Midland. If the reunion committee couldn’t locate me, how did you?”

He chewed and swallowed the spicy beef, taking his time while he thought of how to answer. If he told her, she’d know how obsessed he’d been with tracking her down. He’d hoped to keep from mentioning the extent of his search, but now that she’d asked, he had to level with her. “I hired a private investigator.”

“Get outta here! You hired a P.I. to find me? I can’t believe that!”

Sometimes he had a hard time believing it, too. “When I get an idea in my head, I can be…stubborn.”

Her eyebrows lifted. “Apparently.”

“I’d hoped you’d be at the reunion, but when you weren’t, I had to figure out something else.”

“You really and truly had a private eye tailing me?” She looked intrigued.

Maybe telling her wasn’t such a bad thing. “I did.”

“This is beginning to sound like a movie.”

“Well, if you’re thinking of a guy wearing a trench coat and a snap-brim fedora, that wasn’t happening. Jennifer Madison operates out of Midland and she found you using the Internet, with her two-month-old baby asleep in the crib next to her.”

Erica frowned in concentration. “Jennifer Madison. I know that name.” Then she snapped her fingers. “She subscribes to Dateline: Dallas. I wondered why she be interested, living in Midland. So Jennifer Madison is a private eye.”

“Yep. And a good one.”

“A private eye with a baby and a computer. That is sort of anticlimactic. I was picturing reruns of Magnum P.I. It wouldn’t be so bad to be watched by the likes of Tom Selleck in his younger days. Actually, he’s still pretty cute.”

“Sorry.” Actually he wasn’t sorry at all. He wouldn’t have hired someone who looked like Tom Selleck in the first place. “It’s the electronic age.”

“Even so, it’s quite a concept, to think that you actually hired a person to dig around until they located me. I’ve never been tailed before.”

“So…you’re not upset?”

Leaning back in the booth, she gazed at him. “I suppose I could look at it as another example of how people with money operate differently from the rest of us. You wanted to find me so you thought nothing of hiring it done.”

“As a last resort.” And he’d considered the expense more carefully than she’d ever know.

“But the truth is, this is very good for my ego. I thought I was nothing more than a notch in your belt, and here you are hiring a P.I. to track me down ten years later.”

He winced at her interpretation of his behavior ten years ago. “I’m not a belt-notch kind of guy. That’s what I’m trying to—”

“You could be a scorekeeper, though.”

“Excuse me?”

“What exactly was wrong with the sex between us?”

“Well, um—” He took a fortifying swallow of his Bud. “It was over too fast, for one thing.”

Her gray eyes held his relentlessly. “Some people think quickies are great.”

“They are, if both people are satisfied at the end.” He was glad they were seated in a back booth and the place was nearly empty.

Still he didn’t feel totally secure about having this conversation right now. The restaurant owner, a guy named Henry, had popped back several times to make sure the food was good. He could show up again and catch part of what they were saying.

She continued to challenge him with her eyes. “And your point is?”

He leaned forward and lowered his voice. “You didn’t come, Erica. That’s what was wrong with it.”

She mirrored his posture, leaning toward him and resting her arms on either side of her plate. “And I suppose all the rest of your sexual partners have come?”

“Damn right they have.” He was proud of that. In some cases he’d given them the first orgasm of their lives.

She settled back with a victorious smile. “See what I mean?” she said softly. “I’m lousing up your perfect score.”

“That’s not the point, damn it.” Okay, it was a small part of the point. But not the biggest part of the point.

“I say it is. You’re a jock, and jocks can’t help keeping score.”

“That is not true. It’s not about the numbers. Every guy probably has one woman he didn’t have any success with, sexually. I could live with that. I just don’t want that woman to be you.”

“Why not?”

“Out of all the people I’ve had sex with, you’re the one I respected the most.” Until he said it out loud, he hadn’t realized how true it was.

Her gaze flickered. “Sounds like there’s been quite a lineup.”

“I didn’t mean to make it sound like that.” There had been quite a lineup, but none of the experiences had meant as much as that night in the back of his Mustang. And he’d botched that. “I just want to show you that I’m capable of doing it right.”

She leaned toward him again. “You know what? I think you’re turning this into more of a production than you need to. If giving me an orgasm is all you need to feel better about everything, we don’t have to stage an elaborate bedroom scene.”

“We don’t?”

“Nope. I don’t have time for that, anyway. I’m on a tight deadline for the newsletter and I have to work straight through until noon tomorrow if I expect to get it put together.”

“I understand that.” The gleam in her eyes made him nervous. “But I’m here through tomorrow night.”

“Why wait?” she murmured. “If this is so important to you, why don’t we take care of it right now?”

His mouth went dry. “What are you talking about?”

She moved to the far corner of the booth and patted the vinyl seat next to her. “Scoot on over here, cowboy. Let’s even the score.”

ERICA WAS REASONABLY SURE Dustin would back down before her challenge. He had a whole other strategy mapped out that involved both of them getting naked, and this suggestion wouldn’t fit his preconceived idea. So she’d get credit for being a bold, swinging chick without having to follow through.

All her years of debate strategy were paying off, judging by the startled look in his eyes. Do the unexpected and gain the advantage. His phone call had been totally out of the blue, so he’d had the advantage in the beginning. By confessing that he’d been thinking about her for ten years, he’d lost a good part of that advantage, though.

Now his advantage was completely gone. Obviously she’d shocked him down to the toes of his expensive snakeskin boots.

His throat moved in a convulsive swallow. “I…that’s not what I—”

“How are you two coming along?” Henry sauntered back to the booth. “Are you saving room for dessert?”

Erica felt a naughty thrill knowing what she and Dustin had been discussing right before the portly restaurant owner showed up. She’d bet that Dustin was dealing with a major erection right now. The thought made her go all squishy inside, but she didn’t really want to make out in a restaurant booth. Of course not.