“Gardenias again.” He was behaving so courtly all of a sudden.
“It’s very nice, but I still like the apple pie one best. When you wear it, all I can think about is tasting you.”
Well then. Certain her leg bones had melted, she put her hand on his waist to steady herself. If he kept doing things like this, she just might decide to keep him.
Clasping her hand, he laced their fingers and led her to the entrance of K2. At the door, he stopped, and with his free hand he took his cell from his pocket and glanced at the caller ID. “Mrs. Jankowski,” he said. He answered and listened, then looked at Dani. “She wants to know if you would mind if she takes Regan with her to the grocery store.”
“That’s fine.”
After hanging up, he grinned. “Mrs. Jankowski doesn’t need a damn thing from the store. She just wants to show Regan off to her friend who works there.”
“Regan will love the attention.”
They entered the building, and it struck her that no one driving by would ever guess at the interior. Groupings of black leather couches and chairs and glass-and-chrome coffee tables sat on white, thick shag area rugs in the lobby. A receptionist sat behind a tall, red-tiled counter. The artwork on the walls was ultra modern, slashes of black, red, and yellow paint. Yellow and white orchids in chrome pots were scattered about the room.
“Wow, you have a great decorator.” The pleasure in his eyes at her comment caught her attention. “You?”
He nodded.
Another thought occurred to her. “And your house was also you?”
His cheeks turned beautifully pink. “Yes, but if you tell a soul, I’ll have to kill you.”
Oh, how marvelous, he was embarrassed. She let go of his hand and turned to face him. “My God, Logan, why not take the credit? Do you have any idea what it would have cost to pay a decorator to do this and your house?” Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the receptionist watching them with rapt fascination.
“Because . . .” He glanced at the woman before pulling Dani to a far corner. “Because the guys would never let me live it down. And I didn’t just come up with the ideas on my own. I pored over every decorating magazine in the fucking world and tore out the pages of the rooms I liked. Everything you see is an idea stolen from someone else. What the hell would I know of good taste considering where I came from?”
Dani’s heart turned to liquid, and though she longed to cup his face with her palm, she was aware of their audience. This dangerous, intelligent, self-taught man still carried deep inside him the little boy unsure of his place in the world.
She leaned forward and whispered, “Even under threat of having my fingernails pulled off by a pair of pliers, your secret’s safe with me.”
The tightness at the corners of his eyes eased and his gaze lowered to her toes, which today were a bright red. “Toenails, too?”
She gave a slow, sad shake of her head. “Sorry, but those get threatened and I’m a blabbermouth.”
When he laughed, the receptionist stared at him as if she’d never seen him before. Good Lord, had the woman never seen the boss laugh? Come to think of it, Dani hadn’t seen him laugh much—even before Evan died. Sometimes he broke her heart. She could easily sink to the floor and cry a thousand tears for him and that little boy.
He took her hand. “Come on.”
At the counter, he took the pink message slips the receptionist handed him and put them in his pocket. “Barbie, this is Dani Prescott. If she ever stops by asking for me, notify me immediately.”
“Absolutely, boss,” the girl replied.
He leaned close to Dani, and in a stage whisper said, “You want to be nice to Barbie. She’s always got a gun on her and can shoot an acorn out of an oak tree from a hundred paces.”
Seriously, a gun-packing, blond bombshell named Barbie? There was definitely no gun hidden inside the silk blouse, and Dani didn’t see any bulge in the pencil skirt. Barbie must have seen her doubtful look because she grinned and lifted the skirt to show a gun strapped to the inside of her thigh.
Dani leaned over the counter to get a better look. “Wow, I want to be you.”
“Honey, there can only be one me in this world.”
Dani could believe that. She considered whether she should be jealous. The woman was drop-dead gorgeous with curves that would drive a man wild, but she sensed no sexual chemistry between Barbie and Logan. She was also pleased to see a wedding ring on the woman’s finger.
Logan’s cell phone vibrated and he pulled it out of his pocket. “Kincaid.”
While he talked, Barbie scrutinized Dani. “You’re the first woman he’s brought here, and from the way he looks at you, you must be special. You even got him to laugh, and for that, I like you. But if you hurt him, honey, I’m gonna kill you.”