Rock Me All Night

She tugged but he wouldn’t release her hand. Finally she realized that he wasn’t going to do anything he didn’t want to do, anything that wasn’t in his plans. It had been a long time since she’d met a man who didn’t let her set the pace and make all the decisions.

“It seems silly.”

He said nothing, only waited.

She dropped her head and looked at the chipped Formica table. “I wish I still believed that Prince Charming was out there, because you have the trappings of being one.”

“A fairy-tale prince, eh?”

She glanced up. He was studying her as if he’d never seen her before. “Don’t let the tough-girl act fool you. Deep inside I want the white picket fence, like every other woman. It’s just that I’ve spent the last ten years kissing toads.”

“So experience tells you that even though I look like I could be the prince, I’m the toad?”

“You got it.”

“What would it take to prove you wrong?”

“A lot of trust, a little love and…the man of my dreams.”

“That’s a tall order,” he said. “How about a lot of fun, a little daring and me?”

Three

Jack knew he was no fairy-tale prince. In fact, given his lifestyle, he was probably more like the toads Lauren had kissed. But he didn’t want to let this thing go so easily.

The diner was quiet in this early-morning hour. A few people trickled in and he noted their factory uniforms. They probably worked the early shift. Two guys waved at Lauren and she smiled back at them.

“Longtime listeners. They set me up with their crew chief, Joe Brigg. We’re getting him to participate in the Mile of Men.”

He felt a surge of jealousy that he knew was irrational. “Are you still seeing this Joe?”

“Nah, he wanted a traditional sort of wife. And despite the fact that I’m low-key, I’m not stay-at-home material. I love my show and my listeners. Giving that up would be hard.”

Jack didn’t know what to say to that. His life was all about change. He didn’t know from one day to the next what might strike his fancy. He ran a record label, true, but he had enough leeway in that job to take off at a moment’s notice.

“Boy, do I know how to end a conversation or what?” she asked lightly, but there was more than a little unease in her posture.

He reached for her hand where it lay on the table. He held it loosely in his own grip. Her fingers were cold, and he stroked his thumb over her knuckles, trying to warm her a little. He wanted to pull her out of the bench seat and around to his side of the table.

Wanted to tuck her up against his chest and promise her that the days of kissing toads were gone. But he wasn’t the right kind of guy to make that kind of promise. The one time he’d tried to make something last longer than six months had backfired on him and the woman he’d made promises to.

“I asked for the truth,” he said at last. He prized himself on honesty in all relationships. In fact, he’d ruined two friendships because of his fanatic devotion to the facts.

Lauren was watching him carefully, seeming to measure the man he was. Jack had never been so conscious of the fact that he might not measure up to whatever standards she had that said “man.”

She gave him a sad-looking smile. “You did. Should I have lied?”

It would have been easier on him. He could have blithely continued with his seduction plan. A nice, easy affair that would have been mutually satisfying. At the end of it they could’ve gone their own ways with no hard feelings. Just pleasant memories. “No. I don’t want there to be lies between us.”

“Still want to get naked with me?” she asked in that husky alto voice of hers.

God, he’d give five years off his life to have her naked in bed and just listen to that voice talking dirty to him. “Hell, yes.”

“Wish you’d kept it light?” she asked, tilting her head to the side.

Now it was his turn to be honest, and for the first time in his life he didn’t want to be. Because the truth would put a barrier between them. And he wanted to be breaking down the problems between them instead of reinforcing them. “Yes and no.”

“Why no?”

“Things were uncomplicated before. You were just an attractive woman. Now you’re…”

“What?” she asked. Her eyes met his steadily, and he felt a pressure to not disappoint this woman.

“More.” It was all he could say. He wasn’t going to tell her that she set a fire in him that had nothing to do with lust and everything to do with the longing he carried inside since childhood. A longing for something intangible that he’d always known was missing from his life.

“Well, that’s one thing in our favor.”

“It’s everything.”

She took another sip of her tea and played with the ring on her finger. Her nails were bitten to the quick and not exactly glamorous, but he liked the little flaw. The ring was some sort of Celtic knot made out of sterling. He skimmed his gaze over her, studying her. Noticing the funky earrings buried in her thick hair and the simple gold chain that disappeared under the collar of her maroon sweater.

“I guess we should be going,” she said. A tendril of her hair curled around her cheekbone.

He reached up and brushed it back, tucking the curl behind her ear. Her hair was soft—softer than anything he’d ever touched before. He rubbed a strand of hair between his forefinger and thumb.

Lauren sat still, watching him with those wide brown eyes of hers and making him want…her. Just her. He tugged on the strand of hair and she leaned toward him. He leaned closer. So close, he felt the brush of her breath against his mouth with each exhalation.

He caressed her face. Her skin was soft and he traced a light pattern over her high cheekbones down to those full lips of hers that had been driving him out of his mind. He stroked her lower lip with his thumb. She caught her breath.

He knew then that whatever was between them, it was too late to keep it light. Physically there was more than a spark that bespoke of mutual attraction. His gut said this woman matched him passion for passion. And he freely admitted he wanted to explore that.

But not at a price that Lauren would find too high to pay. And not at a price that he’d regret asking her for. And certainly not at a price that would rock the solid world he’d built for himself.

Lauren studied Jack as he drove back to her car. He was like no other man she’d ever met, and her throat tightened at the thought of never getting to explore the magic that had blossomed between them. Why couldn’t they?

He brought to life more of her senses than any other man she’d ever met. He made her laugh and think. And challenged her with his acerbic wit. He was the kind of man she’d always dreamed of finding, and only now did she understand that she’d been settling for the mirage, the illusion of the real thing, never realizing that it could be solid.

Jack was certainly solid, she thought with a grin. But she needed more than the physical. That article she’d read about him bothered her. However, because her mom had lived in the spotlight most of Lauren’s life, she knew that interviews didn’t always give the reader all the facts.

“I read an article about you in Detroit magazine,” she said once they were headed back to the station. Jack had put on a Paul Simon CD, one from the late eighties that had the mellow influences of Africa in it.

“Did you?” he asked with a wry grin.

She toyed with letting him keep her away from what she wanted to know. But in the end, the heavy beating of her heart and the warnings in her mind convinced her otherwise. “Don’t be coy. I want to know if the article was true.”

He sighed and fiddled with the volume on the stereo but didn’t turn to look at her even when he had to stop for a traffic light. “I don’t think of myself as the most eligible bachelor in the city, if that’s what you’re asking.”

Let it go. But she couldn’t. “I’m not. I want to know about the six-month thing.”