She remained calm. “Then he’s unpredictable.”
“Unpredictable, yes, but I suspect he’s just playing James Bond. I told him to stay away from you. Now. Tell me about Leonardo. What are you going to do when your year at his place is up?”
“What does that have to do-”
“Indulge me, Mollie.”
“I don’t know what I’ll do. I hope I’ll have enough saved for a condo, maybe a little house. I don’t think I want to stay in Palm Beach. I’d like to move a bit farther south, to Boca or even Fort Lauderdale.”
“As far south as Miami?”
“There’d have to be a good reason.”
Jeremiah glanced at his bare-bones furnishings, his reptile cages in the next room. Dangerous thinking. Very dangerous. He shifted back to the subject at hand. Work. It had always pushed back the dangerous thoughts. “You won’t miss Leonardo’s place? All that space, the pool, the hired help.”
She sat back, relaxing slightly. “I’ve been living in the lap of luxury. It’s been fun. But I can always pop in for a visit. Leonardo’s one of the most generous people I’ve ever known. My parents have a standing invitation to come down, but they’re always so busy and involved with their work-and they’d probably barely notice their surroundings if they did come. That kind of stuff’s wasted on them.”
“They don’t swim?”
“Mother does laps for exercise. Swimming’s purely utilitarian for her. She’d love to see Leonardo, of course.” Mollie paused, narrowed her eyes on Jeremiah, suddenly suspicious. “You don’t think I’d start stealing because I’m worried about having to give up my Leonardo Pascarelli lifestyle, do you? You know, I’m not so different from my parents that I even want that much opulence. It wouldn’t occur-”
“Mollie, I don’t suspect you.”
She inhaled, the blue of her clear eyes deepening with irritation. “But you’re neutral,” she said stiffly. “You won’t say categorically that I couldn’t possibly be the thief. You won’t take my side. You’re incapable of taking anyone’s side. That’s why you’re a reporter. You can remain apart, aloof, uninvolved.”
“I strive for balance and objectivity, yes.” His tone was steady, but he was already on his feet, already moving toward her. “It’s a goal, not necessarily something that comes easily or is even always possible. In this case, it’s not.”
And he removed her lemonade glass from her stiff fingers, set it on the floor, and drew her up to her feet. A flush of color, of anticipation, had risen in her pale cheeks. He touched her mouth. “Mollie, Mollie.” He tasted her lips. “Do you think I can be neutral where you’re concerned?” He tasted them again, felt the spark of her response. “Objective? Balanced?”
“I don’t know.”
“Really?”
And he kissed her, long and hard and deep. If she’d drawn back, if she’d even hesitated, he would have come to his senses. But she didn’t, and he let his hands drift down her back, the curve of her hips. He let himself experience the full impact of their kiss on him, on her. She tucked her arms tentatively around him, and he could see she’d shut her eyes, probably trying to convince herself this was a memory of a past encounter, not a real moment in the present.
“Open your eyes, Mollie,” he whispered, “don’t try to pretend this is a memory.”
She looked at him, her mouth close to his, her eyes half-opened. She raised one hand and brushed it along his jaw. “It’ll be a memory soon enough, won’t it?”
“It’s not one now.”
“I have to be realistic. As much as I want this…” She kissed him lightly, her hand drifting down his shoulder, and it was all he could do to stand there and listen to her. She drew back slightly. “I know it won’t last.”
“Because it didn’t last time?”
“You went into it last time wanting a weeklong diversion. I went into it…” She breathed, maintaining her calm. “I went into it not knowing what I wanted. Now, I’m not so inexperienced. I know myself better. And I know you.”
He eased his fingers into her hair, caressed the back of her neck, where she was warm and not so tense. “Maybe we’re here now because what we had ten years ago did last.”
His mouth found hers again, and their bodies melded, nothing held back as they tasted, touched, rekindled a desire like no other he’d ever known. It boiled through him like a hot river, and he knew at some point, soon, it would rage out of control, break down all his dams of resistance. Then where would they be? In the past again. Succumbing to instinct and desire instead of using their heads. Even as his palms skimmed over her soft breasts, as he explored her mouth, he knew he would have to exercise self-discipline now if he didn’t want to lose her forever. Physically, she was ready. Emotionally, she didn’t trust him. More important, she didn’t trust herself to trust him.
Slowly, with a control he’d lacked ten years ago, he slid her back down onto her chair and stood back from her. Boiling still. Not simmering. Not even close to simmering. “I know a nice, quiet Cuban restaurant a few blocks from here. Inexpensive. Good food. It’s not much on atmosphere, but if we stay here…” He smiled, shrugged. “I’m afraid my picture’ll go back up on your dartboard.”
She licked her lips, adjusted her shirt, cleared her throat. It was no use, and he suspected she knew it. Nothing she did could make him forget her response to their kiss, her body pressing wildly against his. “That sounds fine. And I don’t suppose you need Bennie and Albert and Sal to start thinking we’re going out together, which we’re not.”
“No. Absolutely not. I only kiss women I have no interest in going out with.”
“That was-” She searched for the right word. “-inevitable.”
“Inevitable?”
“We’ve had to get it out of our systems once and for all.” Her eyes fastened on him, as if she needed to make herself take a good, hard look at him. “So we’d know there are no sparks left.”
“No sparks.”
“Jeremiah, if you keep repeating everything I say like I’m not making any sense…”
“Sorry, sweet pea, but you’re not. You know as well as I do that if we don’t get the hell out of here within the next ten minutes, we’re going to end up in the sack together. Then we’ll see about sparks and what’s really inevitable.”
His frankness had her swallowing, and, he could tell, swallowing hard. Which only meant he was dead on.
“I love being right.” He scooped up the lemonade glasses, set them on the tray, and started for the kitchen. “However, I shouldn’t have said that. I lured you into something you didn’t want ten years ago-”
“No, you didn’t. It’s what I wanted to believe, but you didn’t. I knew what I was getting into when I went to dinner with you that first time. Jeremiah, I’m just as responsible for what happened between us then as you are. Yes, I was confused and twenty, but I wasn’t stupid. I understood very clearly what kind of man you are.”
He grinned. He couldn’t help himself. “What kind of man I am? Mollie, Mollie. I’m a nice Florida boy out of the Everglades who investigates crime and corruption for a living.”
“It’s more than a living for you.” She rose, her legs looking remarkably steady under her. Jeremiah’s own felt like Gumby’s on a bad day. The run, the self-restraint. Mollie tilted her chin up at him, dignified, pushing back any urge to delve into personal matters. “I didn’t come here to discuss our relationship. I want you to warn this Croc character that if I catch him tailing me again, I’ll phone the police.”
Jeremiah set the tray on the kitchen table. “The message has already been delivered.”
“Why don’t you suspect him of being the jewel thief?”
“Who says I don’t?”
She inhaled sharply, rigid, not moving, an unsteady mix of outrage and heat in her eyes, her mouth. Sparks. Definite sparks. It was like holding a magnifying glass over a dried leaf and waiting for it to burst into flames. He figured he had less than five minutes to get her out the door. She fisted one hand and pushed it into his chest, not hitting him so much as holding him in place.