Zana Bell - Tempting the Negotiator

“It must be the heat or the adrenaline or something. You don’t have to apologize.”

“Not for kissing you. For startling you in the first place.” He smiled, eyes still closed. “Mind you, if I’d known it would provoke such a response, I’d have done it sooner.”

Her heart tripped but she said, “We ought to be getting back to the game.”

“Yeah.” He rolled over and sat up, shaking his head. “Pity we aren’t allowed to take prisoners.” He rose and put out his hand to pull her up, too.

“Why? Who’d be the prisoner, you or me?” Sass asked as she came to her feet, her head not very much lower than his.

“Good question. I’d be happy either way.”

“This doesn’t change anything,” she said. He looked down at her and she looked steadily back at him. “It shouldn’t have happened. I’d appreciate it if you would forget what just took place.” She’d never had her brain say one thing and her treacherous senses something quite different.

He hesitated, eyes narrowed and searching her face. “Would you? Well, if that’s how you want to play it…”

“I don’t mix business with other stuff.”

He nodded. “Other stuff would certainly complicate matters.” His expression and tone had both hardened.

She stuck out her hand as though to bring some professionalism into this absurd moment. “Then we are agreed. This incident never happened.”

“Agreed,” he said, taking her hand. But instead of shaking it, he turned it over to kiss her pulse, which, unforgivably, skipped. “It’s forgotten already.” Swinging his helmet up in one hand and his gun with the other, Jake disappeared into the bush.

Sass was left staring at the trees that had closed about him. Why did she feel desolate? She held her wrist. Had that been a caress or a challenge? One thing she knew for sure, from now on she’d be keeping a close eye on him—and herself.

JAKE BARELY SAW SASS the following day. He took the boys to a regional competition, and though he made a rather ungracious offer to include her, she declined, saying she’d rather read the books Rob had lent her. They’d returned home late and saw no sign of her other than the kitchen looking unusually clean and tidy. She must have accepted his invitation to help herself to whatever she fancied. Funny how even when not seeing her, he could somehow sense her presence all around him.

On Monday morning, Jake dropped her off in Whangarimu to do some shopping, while he met Rob and Moana for coffee at a waterfront café. He tried to relax, but when a text message from Sass arrived, his temper, uncertain all morning, ignited.

“Of all the ridiculous—where the hell does she think she is?”

“What’s up?” Rob asked.

“It’s from Miss Pain-in-the. She doesn’t want a lift home, says she’ll find her own way back.” His voice was loaded with sarcasm.

“How?”

“She doesn’t say. She probably thinks she can catch the subway or some daft notion. If she takes a taxi, it’ll cost her a fortune.”

“Text her and find out what she’s planning to do,” Moana suggested.

The answer winged back.

“Oh my God, she’s rented a car! Now I’ll find her in a ditch somewhere after driving on the wrong side of the road. What the hell is she trying to prove?”

Moana shrugged. “I don’t see what the big deal is. She only wants a bit of independence.”

“She’s doing it,” said Jake, “to get at me.”

“Oh, come on. Hiring a car is not a personal insult.” Rob stirred sugar into his coffee. “I don’t see why you’re getting so het up about it.”

“It’s a symbol,” said Jake darkly.

Moana laughed at this, tossing her hair back over her shoulders as she rocked the pram where six-month-old Jacob lay sleeping. “Of what? I don’t get what’s going on between you two. I thought the paintball was supposed to improve international relations, but you were both even frostier on the way home than on the way out. What’s Sass done to rile you so much?”

Rob cocked an eyebrow. “Anything happen at paint-ball that we should know about?”

Jake forced a short laugh. “C’mon, you were there. Where was the opportunity for anything?”

Rob’s eyes narrowed. “Is that an evasion?”

He was rescued from interrogation by Jacob, who woke at that moment with a yell. Jake never lied to Rob, but somehow he couldn’t begin to say what had happened out there. He’d lost his mind temporarily—it was the only explanation. As for the American, he must surely have imagined that momentary, unbridled passion. It couldn’t really be lurking under her impenetrable calm. Jake wasn’t used to being given the brush-off, and he was most certainly not used to caring on the rare occasion he was. Furthermore, he was used to sleeping soundly every night, so his resentment had been compounded when, at three in the morning, he’d found himself awake, libido in knots, wondering what the hell he was trying to prove with this stupid celibacy kick, anyway.

Sass, of course, had been as cool and as annoyingly imperturbable as ever during the drive into town earlier. She’d said she wanted to look around, and Jake had been glad to drop her off and leave her to her own devices for a few hours. The fact that the whole of Whangarimu shopping center could be done in under an hour had given him a small flash of malicious satisfaction. He’d thought once she discovered how hicksville they really were, she’d be ready to catch the next flight out. Instead, it seemed she was already finding her feet, taking control.

With Jacob still screaming, Rob and Moana said hasty farewells and, freed from the necessity of picking Sass up, Jake decided to drop into the local polytechnic. He survived financially by taking a series of temporary jobs such as farm work and teaching the conservation course part-time. This last job was proving more challenging than he’d thought. Who’d have ever guessed teachers put so much time and thought into their classes? Still, he loved the subject and his students, but the copious paperwork that went with the territory proved to be his bête noire. He was struggling with mounds of neglected filing when Colin popped his head around the door of Jake’s tiny office.

“Ah, there you are. Heard rustlings and thought it might be rats. Then I heard the swearing.”

Jake looked up at his colleague from the pile he’d just knocked off the desk. “Can’t believe how much junk accumulates in such a short time. Good thing I’m only part-time. If I were full-time, I’d be buried alive under avalanches of this crap.”

Colin stepped over another teetering pile and perched on a chair after removing yet more papers. His habitual good humor was intact. But beneath his thinning, sandy hair, his pale blue eyes were considerably sharper than his mild manner suggested. “Systems, that’s what you need.”

Jake grimaced. “Yeah, I know. I just seem biologically programmed to be incapable of following any.”

Colin looked from Jake’s biceps to his own thin, freckled arms. “I haven’t heard your female students complain about your biological programming.”

“It doesn’t impress management, however.”

Colin shook his head. “That’s not what I’ve heard. Numbers enrolling in conservation have rocketed—and not just girls. Rumor has it you’ve turned down offers for a full-time contract twice. Why’s that? I thought you were skint.”

Jake laughed as he leaned back and swung on his computer chair. “Yeah, well, it’s true I could do with the money but—” he hesitated “—full-time is a real commitment.”

Colin surveyed him. “More fun to be had on the surfing circuit?”

“Nah, I’ve been there, done that. Teaching is fun and I really enjoy it. It’s just—”Again Jake broke off, not sure himself what his objections were. “It just seems so final.” He knew that sounded lame, the minute the words were out. He wasn’t surprised when Colin shook his head.