Dancing in the Dark Read Online Free PDF Page B

faded yellow T-shirt, and red socks with white toes. If he didn’t already know she had a shapethat fired a man’s libido, he wouldn’t have guessed it from that getup. Her hair was piled haphazardly on top of her head, strands falling from the lopsided ponytail. It looked as if she had absently pulled the hair free. Absolutely no makeup left her skin paler and made her eyes look even bigger. Clearly, Saturday morning wasn’t her best time. Something told him he’d committed a major faux pas.
    “Oh, Lord,” she murmured, staring at him.
    “Yes, it’s not the Avon lady.” He hefted the heavy picnic basket in one hand and opened the outer screen door with the other, letting himself into the apartment. It was a brazen maneuver, but he knew he wouldn’t get anywhere if he weren’t a little bold. With Charity, that was probably the only way to get things started, since she blocked him effectively at each meeting. Still, whenever he was with her he found himself talking to her, really talking, letting her inside himself, and he wanted to explore that further. He couldn’t not try, and so he’d thought he’d chance the Saturday tour of the town again. Besides, he’d be a fool not to take advantage of her shock and get inside while he could.
    She stepped back into the foyer, putting distance between them. “Jake, you can’t be here. These aren’t business hours—”
    “This isn’t business.” He patted the picnic basket. “I’m offering lunch and a tour of the town.”
    “Didn’t I say no to this?”
    “Did you? I didn’t realize.” He glanced around her into the living room, approving of the fun art deco furnishings in black, white, and red. The papers spread across the lacquer coffee table caught his attention.
    “You’re working on the specs, aren’t you?”
    “This is the only time I have for it. Remember?”
    “Well, then, this is business,” he said happily. “And I brought lunch.” He paused. “Is that okay?”
    She looked ready to kill him, but he smiled innocently, pleased to have found the perfect excuse.
    She crossed her arms. “Is my job going to depend on whether or not I date you?”
    His smile faded. “Your job depends on your performance of it. That’s all. This is personal, between us. It’s got nothing to do with your job or mine. Whatever you say here doesn’t touch that. I’m an adult about relationships in the workplace. It tees me off to hear you suggest otherwise.”
    She merely raised her eyebrows, but he felt that he’d cleared the air.
    “I ought to make you leave,” she said finally.
    “Yes, I expect so.”
    “People will talk about you being here.”
    “They may.”
    “You’re rude.”
    “I’m lonely.”
    She blinked at that answer, but it was how he felt. He
was
lonely. Milton was a brand-new place for him, and he was in a position that didn’t allow for many friends, especially when half of the town worked for him. It seemed to be the way with promotions, he’d discovered. He wanted to be himself, not some upper-management yuppie with the perform button never off. Oddly, the men’s movement hadn’t given him very many men friends.
    She sighed. “I’m a mess.”
    He cleared his throat. “Actually, it’s a turnoff … if that’s helpful.”
    She covered her face with both hands. “Even my doctor doesn’t see me like this.”
    “I could say that he’s fortunate, but you’d probably hit me.”
    She lifted her head and scowled. “It’s a woman.”
    “I could say that
she’s
fortunate, but you’d probably hit me.” He studied her, finding it endearing to see her without any pretense, just how she was when no one was around. He felt as if he’d been let into something intimate. “I’m kind of getting to like it.”
    She groaned.
    “Look, I’m sorry that I took you by surprise,” he said. “I have a problem with no for an answer. I’ll work on it, I promise. However, as the systems integrator here, I have come up with a unique