Something Wild(12)

She hadn't known what to do about Martin until the words had left her  yesterday. She wouldn't marry him. Couldn't marry him. Never even should  have considered marrying him. She guessed being proposed to by a  successful businessman, who was truly a nice person on top of it, had  been flattering, and it had at least seemed worthy of some thought. But  now any delusions of compatibility she'd been suffering had come to an  end and she knew-

The rattle of a cup cut into her thoughts. "Miss?"

She looked up to find their last remaining lunch customer, a middle-aged  businessman with messy hair and a wrinkled suit, waving his coffee cup  at her from the end of the bar.

"Yes?"

"I said, can I get a refill down here?" His dark eyebrows knit and his expression reminded Penny of an angry bear.

She was stunned she'd let his cup go empty and had apparently been  ignoring him, too. She always put customers first. Well, except for now,  darn it. "Of course. I'm sorry." As she grabbed the coffeepot and  scurried toward him, she could feel Patti's scowl from where she sat at a  nearby table rolling silverware into napkins.

Great, now the whole Ryan/Martin fiasco was distracting Penny from her  job, too. Still, thank God she'd figured out the right answer to  Martin's proposal before it was too late.

So it was actually good this whole thing happened, she tried to convince  herself, returning the coffeepot to its place. Wanting another guy so  much had made the decision about marrying Martin clearer than anything  else could have. But now her entanglement with Ryan was over because of  his job. Which was also good, because even after she officially broke  things off with Martin, it would look awfully suspicious if she and Ryan  were suddenly together, wouldn't it? And besides, he had the ridiculous  idea that she was too wild for him anyway. "Ha!"

"What?" Patti looked up, clearly perplexed. Penny felt the rumpled businessman's questioning gaze, as well.

"Nothing." She shook her head lightly. She'd not meant to say that  aloud, but when she thought about Ryan's accusation, it made her a  little crazy inside.

After all, she'd been accused of a lot of things in her day. In  elementary school, she'd been called Goody Two-Shoes; in junior high,  she'd been the Teacher's Pet; and in high school, she'd not dated a lot  due to her reputation as a Nice Girl. Her family and friends had always  labeled her with words like dependable and hardworking, and Patti always  distinguished between the two of them by calling her The Sweet One. But  no one had ever, by any stretch of the imagination, called Penny  Halloran wild.                       
       
           



       

On the other hand, she chided herself, you did seduce the man in a  limousine. The same man with whom she had to design a computer system  now. The same man she couldn't kiss anymore, or have sex with anymore,  either. She shook her head in disbelief, then tossed down her rag. The  whole thing still didn't quite seem real, and her confusion over it had  escalated with Ryan's kisses last night.

Finishing up a few last tasks behind the bar, Penny took a look around.  After asking one of the waitresses, Lisa, to refill ketchup bottles when  she got a chance, she said to Patti, "I've gotta run. Ryan will be over  soon."

"Oh yeah. Time for your big computer date."

Penny blinked and hoped she looked normal. "What are you talking about?"  It didn't help that Lisa and Bearface down at the end of the bar were  both listening, too.

"I'm not sure," Patti said, sounding irritatingly sleuthlike, "but I'm  telling you, you get wide-eyed and sort of  …  aloof whenever you mention  him."

Great, so she didn't look normal. "Do not," she protested. And she was arguing like a seven-year-old on top of it.

"Whatever you say," Patti replied in a singsong voice that told Penny  her sister wasn't buying it. She got the idea Patti thought Ryan was a  better choice for her than Martin even without knowing him.

If only she could keep Martin on her mind for half as long as she  thought about Ryan, maybe she wouldn't feel like such a rotten person.  She dreaded turning down Martin's proposal, but once she did-and once  she got through this system design with Ryan-this would all be over.

And as for the little stab of pain in her chest when she thought of  things with Ryan being over  …  well, Penny never had been particularly  skilled at the art of casual dating. So it probably stood to reason that  having sex with someone would cause some odd, jarring feelings of  infatuation. She guessed that was what you'd call it, and she was a tad  disconcerted that it seemed to be getting steadily worse.

But a little-or even a lot-of infatuation didn't matter. It couldn't  matter. Ryan had made it clear that whatever attraction he felt for her  wasn't enough to make him throw away his new job, and she couldn't blame  him. After all, they barely knew each other.

Penny glanced toward the bear-faced man to find him looking amused by  her discussion with Patti. "She's completely mistaken," she said. Then,  mumbling a quick goodbye to Patti, she snatched up her purse and exited  the restaurant before her sister could get any wiser that there was more  to this story than met the eye.

* * *

Ryan took a deep breath as he approached Penny's front door. It felt  dangerous, as if he were returning to the scene of a crime. He still  couldn't believe he'd made such a lunkhead move yesterday. No wonder he  kept losing jobs-he kept letting his wants get in the way of his  responsibilities. What would it take before he learned his lesson?  Another job loss? Another relocation? Maybe he'd never get it figured  out and go broke in the process. As for whatever insane sense of relief  he'd felt driving away from her house last night, he'd decided it only  had to do with her decision about Martin easing his guilt a little,  making him feel a bit less like a trespasser. Because he'd meant what  he'd said, she was too intense for him. And he couldn't keep screwing up  every job he got, every chance someone gave him to build a career. So  that meant …

You cannot think about her black bra. You cannot think about her slender  curves. You can't even think about how soft her lips were yesterday or  the pretty scent of her hair.

"Hi," Penny said, opening the door just as he was about to knock. "How  are you?" Her eyes sparkled with a surprisingly friendly welcome and her  lips looked horribly silken and inviting, which made it difficult not  to think about them. And, damn it, her hair still smelled that way. What  was it, some kind of flower or fruit? He almost asked on impulse, when  he jolted himself to a halt.

"I think it would be smart," he said on an exhale, "for us to skip the small talk and get right to work."

She looked surprised, perhaps irritated, even as her warm blue eyes took  on that ridiculously innocent quality he'd noticed before. Yet she  caught her breath and said, "Whatever you think is best."

Heading for her desk, he took a seat and set up his laptop, staying focused on the hardware in front of him.

"Something to drink?" she asked. "Not that I mean to make small talk. But it's hot outside and I thought you might be parched."

He resisted the urge to glance up at her, instead watching his computer  screen blink to life. Still, from his peripheral vision, he saw she wore  her usual khaki shorts and a white sleeveless blouse, and her hair was  knotted up on top of her head in some sort of clip. A glimpse down  revealed that her feet were bare, which struck him as adorably sexy,  although he had no idea why and absolutely refused to think about it.  "No thanks," he said.                       
       
           



       

Did she just roll her eyes at him? He couldn't tell for sure, since he  wasn't looking directly at her, but he could've sworn …  "Did you just  roll your eyes at me?" he asked, swinging his gaze onto hers.

Big mistake. When their eyes met, he felt it in his gut. "As a matter of fact-" she planted her fists on her hips "-I did."

His heartbeat rose to his throat, but he merely lifted his eyebrows in question.

"Look, I understand the need to keep this all about business, but don't you think you're being a little extreme?"

"Nope, just ready to get to work," he claimed, forcing a smile, one of  those professional ones that had come a little easier yesterday. He  motioned to the laptop. "I want to show you the screens I put together  last night."

When she slid into the chair next to his, finally allowing them to get  Day Two of the project under way, Ryan exhaled a sigh of relief, then  pointed to the laptop with a pen. "Okay, you recall the start-up screen.  Now, when you click on the Accounting box-" he demonstrated "-you'll be  asked for a password."