Spark Of Desire (12 page)

She looked down his driveway. “All right. What about victim drag?”

Kevin flushed. “Victim drag?”

“The book said part of the test would involve dragging a hundred and sixty-five pound dummy a hundred feet through an obstacle course.” She watched him with a serious set to her mouth.

“Maybe you better do that with Bobbie.” A squeak leaked into his voice this time. He couldn’t imagine Jessica having her arms around his chest and dragging him anywhere. Actually, he could imagine it all too well. Just now he could imagine her arms wrapped around his chest quite clearly. Of course in his imagination he was facing her.

She scowled. “Why?”

“I’m too heavy,” he said. “I weigh one ninety.”

“So? Isn’t it better to over-train?”

He could see a furrow developing between her eyes. Once he’d heard that furrow described as the “I want” line. What did she want and how could he give it to her without having to touch her and risk embarrassing himself? “I guess. But we could just use the duffel. We can load it with however much weight you want.”

“But that won’t simulate a dummy or a human. I’ve only got a five percent chance of success. I’m going to need all the help I can get.” She reached her arms over her head to stretch out.

Kevin turned around because the sight was too much for him. He looked at the notes he’d made on her abilities. “I need to look at this book you’re using.”

“Which one? I’ve got three.”

He turned back around. Her hands were on her hips now. The pose was alluring, but not as much as watching her stretch. “Three?”

“I believe in over-training when the odds are stacked against me.” She pursed her lips.

The challenge in her eyes bumped his libido up a notch. He wasn’t going to live through eight and a half more weeks of this without serious embarrassment. At some point he was going to make some advance that she would be horrified by. Even if she wasn’t a lesbian, her dating pool had to include better specimens than him. Younger, smarter, wealthier, better looking, something. If he did make an unwanted advance, the moment she joined the department, everyone would know. He’d be a laughing stock. “Fine. Just don’t hurt yourself over-training. I still would like to take a look at the books.”

“Come over to my apartment a week from Tuesday.”

“Why?” Kevin stepped backward, bumping into the table. Her apartment? He couldn’t imagine a worse place to be alone with her.

“It’s a mess. I need time to clean up,” she said.

“Why can’t you just bring the books with you next time we meet?” Kevin tried to keep his rising panic out of his voice. He could do substantially more damage alone with her in her apartment than he could alone with her in his basement.

“I can’t,” she stammered. “I…borrowed them from work, and I can’t risk having anything happen to them.” She wiped her hands on her hips and slid them behind her back.

“Can’t I just look at them at your store?”

“No. They were the only ones in stock. I can’t take them back until I’m finished with them.” She bit her lip.

Kevin found himself staring at the point where her teeth sunk into her lush lower lip. “I guess I can come by your place.”

“Good.” She smiled, pleased. “Now what?”

“Legs. Then we’ll start at the top again.” He clenched his teeth, wondering how he was going to get out of this. Her apartment was the very last place he wanted to be. Behind that closed door he could really do something foolish. Or he’d find out something that would turn him off to her. Maybe he would meet her girlfriend. Maybe he would find out she was a slob. Maybe he’d discover she liked modern Swedish design, and she had an apartment full of uncomfortable white furniture.

Of course, the fact that she was a tall, weight-lifting, too-young girl should have turned him off already.

Kevin watched her go through a complete repetition, struggling to keep his hands to himself. He wanted to sweep the loose strands of hair off her face and run his fingers down the curve of her back. It helped that she seemed a little defensive. If she thought he was getting too close, she would draw away. That only made him want to follow though.

“So did you find a date to your friend’s wedding yet?” she asked, doing the biceps curls.

“Wedding?” His mouth went dry. She remembered. Why did she remember?

“You were worried about finding a date to your friend’s wedding in a couple of months.” She kept her eyes on her hand, watching herself lift with more concentration than she needed.

“No, I haven’t.” Kevin frowned. Jack’s wedding now loomed seven weeks away and the only available females he knew were Jessica and Bobbie. He couldn’t show up dateless. Even Lew would manage to scrape up a date. The only person likely to turn out alone was Jack’s sister, and Kevin didn’t want to be equated with her or, worse, stuck with her all day because he’d be alone too, which is what Jack’s mother would say given half a chance. No, he’d been tricked into one evening with Jack’s viper of a sister two years ago, and if he had to spend more than half an hour with her, there might be fatalities. He had to find a date some place.

Bobbie, he ruled out as a matter of course. He needed a girl, and Bobbie didn’t count. The thought of asking Jessica to a wedding made him break out into a cold sweat. He could barely contain himself around her now. Seeing her dressed like a bodybuilder was driving him crazy, seeing her dressed like a girl might push him over the edge. Plus, if he was getting all misty because Jack was settling down, being with her at the wedding might be more than he could stand. In an emotional moment, he might pop the question and spend the rest of his life regretting it.

Or would he?

Under cover of making more notes, he watched her put away the equipment. She had a certain grace to her. A purpose and calm he admired. In her own way, she was attractive. Maybe not what he would have chosen out of all the women in the world, but not undesirable. Besides, all the women in the world didn’t seem to beating a path to his door. In fact, Jessica was very desirable and intelligent, and she was interested in some of the same things he was. Would it be so bad to spend the rest of his life with that?

Kevin shook himself. What was he thinking? Here he was just
thinking
about the wedding and getting all mushy over Jessica. There had to be another female in Arden who wasn’t Jack’s sister and who didn’t expect one date to end with her own wedding.

“Are we finished for the day, or do you want to start something else?” she asked.

“Finished?” He checked his watch. It was poker night and the guys should start showing up any time. The more time between her leaving and Dan arriving, the better. “We’re done for today.”

“And you’re coming by my place a week from Tuesday.”

She wasn’t going to forget this. He was going to have to spend some time with her in her apartment, alone. “Yes.”

“All right. I’m going to the gym tomorrow after work.”

What was she going to wear to the gym? That outfit? One just like it? Something skimpier? Kevin bit back that question. If he was there, he could keep the young bucks from getting in the way of her training. “Okay. Do you want me to meet you there?”

She lifted her chin. “Don’t feel obligated.”

“I’m not obligated. I thought you might like the company.” He’d been so busy thinking about not touching her and how much he wanted to that he hadn’t considered why she had been acting so defensive.

She hesitated. “You can meet me if you like. I get off about three and walk up there.”

“How far is that?”

“Two miles.”

“Then when you’re finished, you walk back to your car?”

“Yes.” She set her jaw, turning defensive again.

Kevin raised one eye brow. “I’m on your side, remember? I think you should stop doing that because you’re going to exhaust yourself. You need to build up slowly.”

“I don’t have time to build up slowly.”

With her eyes flashing, she looked more beautiful. He made a mental note to not make her angry. It made her too appealing. “You have plenty of time. Relax and take it easy. If you don’t pass the first time, you have three more chances. You’ll pass, and you’ll rank high enough to get in. You have nine weeks to train and that’s plenty of time unless you hurt yourself overdoing it. That’s going to knock you out more certainly than not being trained enough.”

“What about the dummy drag?”

Kevin looked down the driveway because he heard a car. Lew was parking across the street. At least he hadn’t brought Dan with him. If Dan saw Jessica in that outfit, he’d scoop her out from under him in less than five minutes. “We’ll work something out for the dummy drag. We won’t practice that until August anyway. Anything could happen by then.” Like he could convince somebody to loan him a dummy.

“Hi, guys,” Lew called walking toward the garage. “You must be Jessica.”

“Nice to meet you…” She trailed off waiting for Lew to supply his name. He didn’t because he was too busy peering into the garage.

“Lew Draper,” Kevin said.

“Hey, how come you moved all your stuff out to the garage?” Lew asked.

“Because I did,” Kevin growled through clenched teeth. Dan or Jack would have picked up the hint and let it drop, but not Lew. No, Jack would have picked up the hint, Dan would have been too busy picking up Jessica to notice the weights or the hint.

“You had it set up real nice in the basement. I thought you said you were going to keep it there.”

Kevin glanced at Jessica. She had one eyebrow raised. “I decided since it had been so warm, I would work out here.”

“But you said it was cooler in the basement last year. It’s too hot to work out outside.”

Kevin glared at Lew, wondering how anyone could be so slow on the uptake. “I changed my mind.”

Jessica stepped back a pace with a tight, closed look on her face. “I guess I’ll go. See you tomorrow at the gym, Kevin. Nice meeting you, Lew.” She started down the driveway.

Kevin watched her until she’d turned on the sidewalk. He rubbed his hands over his face. Now he had to get a membership to her gym so he could fend off muscle men despite the fact that he was determined not to date her himself.

“What’s the matter?” Lew asked. “She not doing okay?”

“
She’s
doing fine.” Kevin headed into the house before he ended up explaining that he wasn’t doing as well.

* * * *

Jessica walked home, grumbling under her breath. He had to hate her. Had to. He didn’t even want her in his house. He’d carried all his equipment outside to keep her out, he’d done his best to avoid looking at her, and he’d evaded the whole dummy drag issue. And when his buddy showed up, he’d hustled her away.

In fact, he’d tried to avoid her meeting his buddies all along. First, he’d objected to taking her to the station to go over the tools, now he was trying to get her away from his house. They obviously knew who she was. Lew had known her name without being told.

He was in for a real surprise in about a week and a half. He wasn’t going to be able to keep her away from his buddies when they were all gathered in her backyard.

* * * *

Kevin walked up the stairs to Jessica’s apartment feeling like he was walking into a trap. Something about this seemed very odd.

Or it might be him.

Yesterday at the station, the captain had called him into his office to quiz Kevin about Jessica. How was she doing so far? How likely was it that she would be able to pass the test? What about her personality? Would she make a good addition to a crew? Could she think for herself and follow orders? The department anticipated a shortage of paramedics in about a year, and when Jessica’s application had turned up in human resources, their ears had perked up.

After her first two weeks of training she was doing very well. She could produce the answers to complicated math problems instantaneously. All three practice tests she’d taken, she’d aced. The crisis at the bookstore had been handled with a great deal of natural skill. The only problem he could see was that she attacked her training more aggressively than he liked. He worried she might hurt herself.

He hadn’t been able to convince himself he wasn’t trying to protect her by telling her to slow down. If he slowed her down too much, she wouldn’t rank high enough on the test. How long would it take her to figure out it was his fault she hadn’t passed?