Just the Man She Needs (4 page)

Her left eyebrow rose just enough to indicate her disapproval. “Well, when you left me, I was certain that I would never see you again. If I interested you one bit, you must be a phenomenal actor, because you neither did nor said anything to indicate it.”

He lifted his right shoulder in a slight shrug. “Neither did you.”

They boarded the shuttle and found seats. “Would you like to sit inside or on the aisle?” he asked her.

“You’re taller, Ashton, so you need the aisle seat more than I do.”

If she wanted to defer to him, she should find a more plausible reason. He guessed her height to be around five feet nine, so she would be nearly as cramped as he would.

His smile carried a glow that she could definitely get used to. “What you say may be true, but I’ll be happier knowing that you’re comfortable.” His stares were usually sufficient to command compliance from those who worked for him so, having said that, he slid in and took the seat next to the window.

“How did you decide to become a columnist, Felicia?”

“I’m a journalist. I hated my assignments on Cub Scouts, trends in skirt hems and similar earth-shaking matters, and I wrote a piece questioning why an unmarried congressman who has no children would be eating ice cream with a teenage girl in a shopping mall. To fulfill the space requirements, I added information about people I saw at an Urban League gala. The part about the congressman caused quite a stir, and the editor loved the piece and rewarded me with column space. My dream is to write a widely read political column, and I’m laying the groundwork for that right now.”

“I know. I read your column daily, and I’m aware of the gradual and subtle changes.”

His leg accidentally brushed hers, and she didn’t move away. The contact heightened his need to know how she felt about him, but he decided to let the incident slide. However, he didn’t move his leg, and when she still didn’t move hers, arousal slammed into him. He reached down, grabbed his computer out of his briefcase, put it on his lap and prayed for a blessing. Felicia Parker was either a gambler or very daring, he couldn’t tell which, because her facial expression had not altered one bit.

F
elicia wondered if, by leaving his leg against hers, Ashton was trying to find out what she was made of. She wouldn’t say he deliberately stroked her leg with his, but he knew where his leg was, and he should have moved it by now. If he was testing her mettle, he wouldn’t discover a thing about her except that she’d meet danger head-on if it suited her to do so. She was damned if she’d blink first, but his warmth began to seep into her, and she had to resist squirming as the blood started a mad telltale race to her loins. If the position of his leg bothered him, he didn’t let her know it.

From the changes in the plane’s engine, she realized that they were about to land in Washington. And still he didn’t move his leg. The plane came to a halt, the pilot turned off the seat belt sign, and all around them passengers scrambled for their luggage and crowded the aisle. He didn’t move his leg.

“Aren’t we getting off?” she asked him.

“Of course,” he said as matter-of-factly as if he hadn’t created the tension between them. “I’m waiting on you.”

She looked him in the eye, saw what looked like a smirk, and said, “Have you ever wanted to smack an adult?”

He raised his shoulder in a shrug. “Plenty of times. Right now, in fact. One of these days, I’ll have the pleasure of seeing and hearing you say uncle, and trust me, Felicia, I am going to relish every second of it.”

She had to laugh. She couldn’t help it. Wanting desperately to trail her fingers down the side of his face, she said, “All right. I work with men, and it’s their daily sport to try and make me acknowledge their superiority. They try all kinds of tricks on me. I never let them win. I apologize if I overdid it just now, but you were no better.”

“I know, and I paid for it.”

She let a smile express her feelings about that. “I’m glad to know it.”

They got out of the terminal and his fingers at her elbow steered her to a silver-gray Lincoln Town Car. He opened the door for her, fastened her seat belt, went around to the other side and seated himself behind the wheel.

“Now that we know we can heat each other up,” he said, driving off, “let’s try to be friends.”

Nothing would suit her better. “Works for me,” she said, and settled down into the comfortable leather seat, open for whatever came next.

Ashton parked in front of a four-story, redbrick building, got out of the car and walked around to the front passenger door. “Why didn’t I know you’d be standing here by the time I got around the car?” he asked her. “Would it kill you to let me open the door for you?” He liked independent and successful women. Indeed, his experience with Karla had taught him that any other type of woman was not for him. Nonetheless, his feelings about Felicia Parker made him want to emphasize the gender difference between them. It seemed foolish, but he didn’t want her to forget that he was a man, a man with whom she had to contend.

“I forget,” she said. “I get out of cars all the time without help when I’m by myself or in a taxi, so I hope you’ll forgive me.”

“For not being a clinging vine?” he asked. “There’s no way I could make the mistake of putting you in that category.”

Her hand clasped his wrist, surprising him with her soft touch. “I’m sorry, Ashton. I’m not often around a man like you.”

“What does that mean? I don’t know how to take that.”

“You’re gracious, yet you don’t have an ax to grind, you’re not currying favor, and you’re not hitting on me. You’re just being yourself. That takes some getting used to.”

“Thanks for the compliment. Frankly, I thought you were being cantankerous. This is where Damon lives.” He took her arm, nearly withdrew his hand, then remembered that after what she’d just said about him, she’d probably trust him for at least the next hour.

He rang the bell at the door of apartment 3-A and waited. After a minute, the door swung open and his brother stepped out, opened his arms and clasped him in a warm embrace.

“Damon. You’re looking great. School’s obviously good for you. This is Felicia Parker.”

“You didn’t have to tell me. I’m delighted to meet you, Ms. Parker. You’re even more beautiful in person than on television. Come on in.”

“Thank you. We’re disturbing you, I know, but Ashton wanted this question cleared up today, so here we are.”

Ashton had often seen demonstrations of Damon’s charm, but he hadn’t seen it in so practiced and polished a manner. “I’m sure that after seeing us together, you won’t doubt that we’re brothers,” he said to Felicia, “although he’s a few years older than I. I thought he made the perfect escort. Didn’t you?”

She looked from one man to the other one. “What are you telling me, Damon?”

Damon took her arm and guided her to a seat in his small but attractive living room. “Have a seat, Ms. Parker,” Damon said, “while I get us a little something.” He left them and went toward the kitchen.

“I should have told you that Damon has an odd sense of humor, Felicia, and I suspect he’s about to demonstrate it.”

She didn’t respond to his comment. “If it wasn’t for the age difference between you and Damon—or maybe it’s the difference in experiences—you two could be twins. You look just alike, right down to size and height. Does your other brother resemble you and Damon so strongly?”

He sat across from her where he could see her reactions. “It’s been said that ‘you always know an Underwood when you see one.’ Cade looks pretty much like Damon and me, but his personality sets him apart.”

She crossed her knee, and swung the shapeliest leg he’d seen in years. “From my limited observation, you and Damon have strikingly different personalities, though there’s one trait that I suspect runs in the family.”

“I figured you didn’t get anything on the plane except coffee,” Damon said, returning with a large tray of food and coffee, “so I toasted some bagels, scrambled a few eggs and cooked some bacon. That and coffee will have to do.”

Felicia sniffed in obvious appreciation for the food before her, took a small plate and helped herself. “You’re a thoughtful man, Damon. Mind if I use your first name? Mine’s Felicia.”

“No, I don’t mind. I think I’m thoughtful, too, because after you told me who you were, I wanted to make the sale, but I was afraid that my guys weren’t suitable. Felicia, the qualities you asked for are not found in escorts. I can promise that all of my guys are handsome and charming, but you wanted elegance and intelligence, good conversationalist, plus something else. That kind of man does not work as an escort, unless perhaps, he’s a student. Students lack the sophistication one needs in an escort.

“If you hadn’t been a journalist with access to newspapers, I’d have said I didn’t have anyone available. I phoned Ashton and cried help. I didn’t ask Cade, because he’d make me pay for the remainder of my life, but Ashton always does whatever he can to help Cade and me, so I asked him. Ashton didn’t dance with joy when I told him that I wanted him to escort you, but I have a feeling that he thanks me now.”

“Suppose I have to attend another fashionable party in Washington, what will I do for an escort?” she asked Damon. Ashton didn’t doubt that she was pulling his leg.

Damon lifted his shoulder in a leisurely and deliberate shrug. “Ashton will be delighted to escort you wherever and whenever you wish. No charge.”

“He didn’t charge me last time, either,” she said. “He asked me to make a contribution to his favorite charity. I should have known then that there was something irregular.”

Ashton finished chewing his bacon, sipped his coffee and sat forward in his chair. “Felicia, I can’t imagine that any man, seeing you and the way you looked in that dress, would have let you pay him for his company.” He turned to Damon. “And would you please not talk about me as if I wasn’t present. And another thing. No matter what Damon imagines, I am not applying for the position of Felicia Parker’s escort.”

A frown marred her features. “Have we made you angry, Ashton? I hope not. I’m just beginning to enjoy this. I wouldn’t insult you for anything.”

“Are you satisfied that I’m not an escort?”

“Yes, and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the honor. I put you to a lot of trouble today, and I’m sorry. Personally, I wouldn’t have cared what you did for a living. I knew you were honorable. As a journalist, I’m always on the lookout for a good story, but there’s no story here. Okay?”

“Thanks,” Ashton said. “Now that that’s settled, why don’t we make the most of the rest of the day? Alexandria is one of the most historic cities in the country, and it harbors a gold mine of information about the lives of eighteenth-and nineteenth-century African Americans. Also, if you haven’t been to Arlington Cemetery and Mount Vernon, now’s your chance.”

Felicia leaned against the back of the sofa and scrutinized him. “I would have thought you’d be rushing back to the airport. You’re a very busy person, and I put you to a lot of trouble and caused you to waste a lot of time. Yet you’re willing to blow the rest of the day making the trip down here rewarding for me.”

The more he saw of her, the more he wanted her, and when he added honesty and intelligence to her feminine assets, his reticence weakened the way water dilutes wine. She wasn’t to be toyed with, and he didn’t have time for games anyway.
I’m going for it,
he said to himself as he watched her smile bloom beneath the steadiness of his gaze.

“Don’t I deserve an answer?” she asked him, causing him to wonder whether she was brazen or unusually courageous.

“You do,” he said. “I won’t be wasting my time. I’ve decided that I enjoy your company, and that I’ll have as much of it as you’ll allow me.”

“Wait a minute,” she said, seemingly aghast. “Haven’t you skipped some important considerations?”

“You have much to learn about Ashton, Felicia,” Damon said. “When he sticks his toe in the lake, he already knows the precise temperature of the water. I was planning to go sightseeing with you two, but prudence dictates that I study for my exams.”

He thanked Damon with his eyes. He wanted to get to know Felicia, and the sooner the better, for she was already growing on him like mushrooms on tree trunks after a spring rain.

“I’m sorry you can’t join us, Damon,” Felicia said, but he’d swear he’d never heard a happier-sounding statement of regret.

“No problem here,” Damon said. “Ashton will take good care of you. Say, Ash, why don’t we go home to see Granddad as soon as Cade gets back? He was complaining yesterday that he never sees the three of us together anymore.”

Ashton let his gaze drift to Felicia, saw that she’d been focused on him but looked away as soon as he caught her at it. “Work it out with Cade,” he said, “and let me know when. Granddad wants me to leave Teddy down there with him, but I can’t do that. If I walked in my house and Teddy wasn’t there, I can’t even imagine how I’d feel.”

Felicia’s eyes seemed to narrow, but he hoped it was his imagination. “Who’s Teddy?” she asked him, and he wouldn’t describe her voice as friendly.

“Teddy is my four-year-old son, my pride and joy,” he answered, making certain that she knew his son came first in his life.

“And where is Teddy’s mother?” she asked, obviously ready to push the issue.

He looked her in the eye. “I have no idea, I am not the least interested in locating her, and she is not interested in Teddy.” Felicia’s bottom lip dropped, she moved her head slowly from left to right and didn’t say a word. Speechless.

He walked over to her and extended his hand. “Hadn’t we better get started on our tour? I promised Teddy I’d read to him tonight, and that means I should be home by seven.”

Still, she didn’t speak, but reached for his hand, took it and rose to her feet almost as if she were unaware of her moves. Without examining his reasons or considering his right to do so, he wrapped an arm around her waist and looked down at her. “I rented the car for the day. Let’s go.”

She was about to enter the car when she stopped, turned and said, “I forgot to tell Damon goodbye.”

“I know, but it’s all right. I didn’t tell him goodbye, either.”

“Could we see Mount Vernon first, since it is farthest away?” she asked him after he drove several blocks. “I’ve never been there, and I hear it’s beautiful, so I’d like to be uplifted before I look at depressing slave sites and other gruesome reminders of slavery.”

“We don’t have to go to those places, and they are depressing. But they’re also very enlightening. It’s wonderful to see what slaves achieved while staggering beneath the weight of the white man’s boot.”

“I’m sure of that, but right now, I want to see something that makes me feel good.”

“Why?” he asked her.

“Because knowing that your son won’t have his mother’s love and nurturing is as much as I can handle right now.”

A strange and unfamiliar feeling gripped him in the region of his heart, and he wanted to park the car and hug her. He hadn’t thought about her in the context of motherhood, but now he wondered whether a beautiful, accomplished and sophisticated woman had genuine maternal instincts.

Felicia glanced at Ashton from the corner of her eye. The chemistry between the two of them could lead them into an affair on that basis alone, and she did not want to be a slave to a man’s prowess in bed. Besides, the more she saw of Ashton, the more she wanted him for reasons other than chemistry. Besotted though she was, she meant to retain her wits.