Under Fire

“Oh, forget the crowd at the pool tables,” Lauren Hudson, a voice-over actress, chided with a dismissive wave of her perfectly manicured hand. “I want to know how you’ve managed never to experience an orgasm?”

Not for lack of trying.

“I just had one.” Jana giggled at her own joke. “A screaming one, too.”

Lauren rolled her eyes. “Eighty-proof,” she said, tapping a hot-pink, dragon-lady fingernail on the rim of Jana’s glass, “does not count.”

“You’re not a…” A pained expression entered Chloe’s lavender eyes. Today at least her eyes were lavender. Tomorrow they might be green or even a dark chocolate-brown, depending on Chloe’s mood and which shade of colored contacts the corporate attorney chose to wear. “Good Lord, Jana. Please tell me you’re not a virgin.”

Jana sighed dramatically, then took a very long sip of her drink. She might as well have been, considering her inexperience in the sexual revolution. “I’ve had sex,” she said defensively.

“Obviously not good sex.” Lauren’s bluntness usually amused Jana. Tonight that honesty irritated her. Especially since her two dearest friends were closing in on a very personal, and way too sensitive subject.

She and Lauren had been best friends since elementary school, but they hadn’t met Chloe until their first year at Beverly Hills High. Since then, the three of them had formed a tight-knit circle that spanned braces, boys and good ideas gone bad which had often landed them in minor scrapes.

The sound of male laughter drew Jana’s gaze back to the group of incredibly handsome hunks at the round table near the rear of the bar. One of them stood, the one with raven-black hair, broad shoulders and lean hips. Even from a distance she could see he had the kind of body advertisers clamored for in those abs-of-granite-type commercials.

Ooh, flex for me, baby!

He glanced her way, his ice-blue gaze meeting hers for the space of a heartbeat before he said something to his buddies. Her stomach dipped and swirled, and she was pretty sure it had nothing to do with the type of alcohol she’d consumed during her Friday-night happy hour ritual with Chloe and Lauren. Unfortunately, the spell was nowhere near broken when he walked away from the table and headed in her direction.

Somewhere in the distance, she heard the rattle of Lauren’s bangle bracelets followed by her perfectly pitched voice, but Mr. Tall, Dark and Wonderful had Jana’s full attention as he wound his way around the crowded tables, drawing closer. He wore a dark hunter-green banded-collar shirt which clung to his wide chest, and tapered down to a flat stomach she had no trouble imagining was washboard lean. The rolled-up sleeves emphasized luscious, muscular forearms, causing her to wonder what it’d be like to have him hold her close.

He strolled past, awarding her with a view of his backside, hugged quite nicely by a pair of tan khakis. She sucked hard on her straw. The man’s rear end was sheer perfection.

It was the alcohol, she reminded herself. She’d obviously had far too much to drink if she were ogling a man. Except she couldn’t pass off the sudden increase in her pulse rate on a single Screaming Orgasm. She stifled a giggle. At least not from the kind served in a glass by a harried cocktail waitress.

She made a sound deceptively reminiscent of an unladylike snort. As if I’d know the difference.

“Earth to Jana.”

Once Mr. Wonderful disappeared from her view, she turned to face Lauren. “What did you say?”

“I asked how is it you’ve never had an orgasm?”

“Is it really so hard to believe?” Jana set her empty glass on the damp napkin. “One—maybe even both—of you must have had sex without achieving an orgasm at least once.”

Chloe laughed in that cynical way of hers, a cynicism born of being drawn to the wrong men and having her heart trampled one time too many. “If the guy’s a selfish jerk or just plain lousy in bed, sure. But come on, Jana. Never?”

“What about when you’re alone?” Lauren asked her.

“Alone!” She hadn’t meant to sound so shocked. Really, she hadn’t.

Chloe’s mouth fell open and she exchanged a look with Lauren before turning her attention back to Jana. “You mean you don’t even…?” Her voice faded, as if she couldn’t bear to say the word.

Jana’s gaze bounced between her two friends, not knowing what to say. Obviously her silence was enough of an answer for Chloe.

“I guess if you don’t know what you’re missing,” Chloe added with a shrug, “then what’s the point?”

Lauren thought about that for a minute before nodding in agreement. “You might have something there.”

Jana considered signaling the waitress for another drink, but decided against it. Who knew what would come out of her mouth if she downed a second Screaming Orgasm?

“What you need is a man,” Chloe proclaimed suddenly.

“She needs a good man.” Lauren punctuated the clarification with soft laughter. “A really good man.”

Jana straightened and pushed a loose strand of hair from her cheek. “A man is the last thing I need,” she said, giving them both a stern look and hoping they’d take the hint.

She hadn’t exactly sworn off men, but after the somewhat unpleasant end to her last relationship, she was in no great hurry to leap back inside the dating circle. Not that free-spirited Lauren or use-’em-and-abuse-’em Chloe would understand, but Jana had decided to take advantage of the emotional downtime to focus solely on her career in public administration.

Her decision had paid off, too, since she’d finally landed a promotion to supervising investigator for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Fire Investigation Division. Unfortunately, that meant her next assignment, scheduled to begin Monday morning, would be under close scrutiny. And just her rotten luck, she’d drawn the absolute worst possible case.

The reminder of the upcoming assignment had her signaling the waitress for another round. She usually enjoyed her job investigating industrial accidents and recommending changes that would keep employees safe from harm. Occasionally, she was called as a trial expert, and while she loved a challenge, she much preferred her work in the field. Still, she’d rather testify as an expert witness in a thousand court trials than be the unlucky OSHA investigator to draw a case involving a fatality, such as the one she’d been handed that afternoon by her supervisor. Not only did she have to face the sadness and heartbreak of a fallen firefighter, but every single OSHA investigator understood that that special brotherhood had a unique bond that was as unbendable as iron. She’d bet the crew of Station 43 would be no different, either. Gathering information surrounding the incident would be difficult under the best of circumstances. With a fatality involved, she’d have an easier time trying to walk uphill in a mud slide.

“Not a man in the relationship sense,” Lauren said, drawing Jana’s attention. “In the you-need-to-experience-sexual-satisfaction sense.”

“Forget it.” When Jana was ready, she’d find her own dates. She’d been subjected to Lauren’s blind dates since high school, and she’d had enough to last her a lifetime and beyond. When it came to men, she and Lauren operated on vastly differently levels. “I think I’d rather be celibate.”

“Since she doesn’t have a man in her life, how do you propose she accomplish this feat?” Chloe asked.

As if on cue, Mr. Wonderful sauntered into Jana’s line of vision. He stopped at the jukebox, braced his hands on the glass and bent his head to read the selections.

Like a magnet, he drew her attention and held her prisoner.

Hello, gorgeous. Care to help me solve a little problem?

“We’ll find her one,” Lauren announced.

That got her attention. “Are you out of your mind?”

“Wait a minute, sweetie. We’re not proposing you go on the hunt for a relationship, just find a guy that knows how to…make a woman happy.”

“Not we,” Chloe corrected Lauren. “You.”

Jana didn’t care who came up with the idea, it was still nuts. “A one-night stand?”

“Sure.” Lauren shrugged carelessly. “Why not?”

Jana could think of a few reasons. First, it wasn’t her style. Second, it could be dangerous. Third…Her gaze slipped back to the gorgeous specimen still at the jukebox. “I don’t know.”

She wasn’t really considering Lauren’s crackpot plan, was she?

Of course not. Despite the stubborn streak that sometimes got them into trouble, Linney women simply did not entertain one-night stands. They were trained in the values of appropriate ladylike behavior practically from the cradle. No wonder she’d never had an orgasm. She and her sisters had probably been sent subliminal messages while in the womb.

She allowed her gaze to slip over to him again. He remained in front of the jukebox, reading the music choices. Something must have stirred his interest because he slipped a bill into the slot then made a selection. She smiled when the first strains from one of her favorite Alan Jackson songs filtered through the speaker system. What would it be like to make love to a man who appreciated the same soulful music she did? Would he be gentle? Caring? Would he put her needs before his own?

Jana snagged the Screaming Orgasm before the waitress set it in front of her, then took a long drink. What was she thinking? Not only was the thought of a one-night stand completely foreign to her, she couldn’t remember ever fantasizing about a total stranger…until him. In fact, now that she thought about it, she’d never fantasized about any man.