Love on the Air(32)

"It's windy out here, Rick," he called back over his shoulder. "You should give the lady your jacket."





Christie stood next to him, staring into the shop window until the boss was out of earshot. Rick had to hand it to her for a quick recovery. After that embrace, he'd forgotten the store was there. Even now, he didn't think his heart rate was back to normal. Whether that was from kissing Christie, or from the close call afterward, he wasn't sure.

When Ed was safely out of earshot, Christie said, "I imagine it would look better if we went back in separately." She turned around without so much as looking at him, and headed back toward the banquet room.

"Christie, wait." Rick fell into step beside her. Those high heels were making remarkably good time for someone who was trying to be so casual. Why was she in such a hurry now? They hadn't gotten caught, and it was a little late to cover up. "Christie, it's not like we killed someone."

"Isn't it?" She kept walking, eyes straight ahead.

Whoa. Time for a little perspective here. "Listen to yourself for a second. And slow down." They were covering the cobblestone sidewalk much faster than they had coming the other direction, and they both needed to get a grip before they went back into that room.

"Don't you see, Rick?" She was trying to sound conversational, as if they were talking about the weather. In case someone was eavesdropping behind the shrubbery? "What would have happened if he'd gotten there a little sooner?"

He honestly wasn't sure. "Well, it wouldn't have been good. But I don't think we would have been sent to the gallows. Maybe a written reprimand?"

"The first thing in my personnel file after my W-2 form."

Ten minutes after kissing him until his legs nearly quit, all she could think about was her own neck. The trouble was, he was thinking about her neck, too, and the way her perfume had smelled. If their embrace had just come from the heat of the moment, it was taking a long time to fade.

But he could be as practical and cold-blooded as she was. "Now, hold on," he said. "You're not the only one with something at stake here."

"No. But who's going to come off worse?" Christie stopped and turned so suddenly he almost stepped on her foot. The look on her face was one of desperate, unadulterated panic. "You've been with the company what, five years? And you're a man. I'm a woman who came out of nowhere a couple of months ago. Some professional. They'd never take me seriously again."

The words had a certain logic to them. "You've thought about this." When? he wondered. Ten minutes ago, he'd been doing anything but thinking.

She started walking again. "I can't believe I was so stupid."

Now, that was a little insulting. But she'd made her point. It would look worse for her, and she couldn't afford that. If that wasn't enough to make him stick to company rules and keep his hands to himself, nothing was.

They crossed over the little wooden bridge, where things had begun so innocently half an hour before. Just a little moonlight stroll between friends. Yeah, right. As if he couldn't have seen this coming. She was right. It had been a mistake. A big, fat mistake, and the sooner they put it behind them, the better.

They walked the rest of the way to the banquet room in silence. Before he opened the door, his ego still smarting, Rick couldn't resist one parting shot. "Christie?"

"What?"

"If you're concerned about the way things look, you might want to fix your lipstick."

Momentarily pleased by her horrified look, he went inside ahead of her.

It had been a snappy line, but Rick had plenty of time to regret it in the next two hours. Sometimes a clever quip wasn't worth the trouble it caused.

Both of them sat at the table where the rest of the jocks had already settled in. Anything else would have looked out of place. Rick watched as Christie sandwiched herself next to Yvonne, apparently trying to sit as far away from him as possible. She wound up straight across from him, and he was sure that wasn't what she'd had in mind. Instead of avoiding him, she was in a spot where the opportunities for eye contact were endless.

It was quite a view, actually. Christie's troubled expression wasn't enough to detract from the way she looked in that green dress. It brought out the green in her hazel eyes, which looked achingly soulful whenever they met his by accident. So she did have a heart. His annoyance faded. Before guilt could take over, Rick replaced it with self-justification. All right, so he'd started it. He just hadn't expected her to transform herself into a siren for the night. Maybe that was why he'd lost his head. Easy enough to blame it on the dress.

Except that Yvonne, on Christie's right, was wearing a black dress every bit as stunning. And Rob's date, on her left, was wearing something so silver and sequinny it was practically blinding. The one Rick couldn't stop looking at-try as he might-was the redhead in the middle. She may have recovered more quickly under the eyes of the general manager, but now she looked sicker than she had when she left the room earlier.