“So, ant problems, huh?” Jane winced at her own lousy opener. She’d have to do better than that.
“Yeah.” Bradley yawned and picked up the remote control, then stared at it, obviously searching for a Power button. “Ants everywhere.”
“I’d like to talk to you about something, if you don’t mind.” Jane’s mouth went dry, but she would not back off this time.
“Okay, sure,” he said, setting aside the remote. “What’s up?”
“I was wondering if, sometime, maybe, um…”
Heather came down the hallway, dressed now, her bed-hair tamed and her face washed clean of makeup. “Would you both like coffee?” she asked.
“Yes,” she and Bradley answered in unison.
Suddenly Jane got a weird vibe about Heather and Bradley. Heather’s unwashed face when she’d answered the door, the slinky robe she’d been wearing, the absence of her fiancé in the house… Could it be that her sister and Bradley were…
No, it couldn’t. No way. Heather was about to get married, and she wasn’t Bradley’s type at all. In college, he’d dated cool Bohemian chicks who wore black, read Sartre and smoked a lot. But still, she couldn’t shake the feeling that something fishy was afoot.
When Heather was gone again, Jane turned her attention back to Bradley, back to her big opportunity to ask him out. But an image of Luke appeared in her head. Dark, dangerous, outrageously handsome Luke, making love to her against her front door, then again in her bed. Luke, the man she’d just slept with last night.
She felt like a major sleaze. How could she sleep with a man one night and wake up the next morning to ask another one out? Of course, she believed that with Bradley, there would be no premature sexual activity, no frantic lovemaking in the foyer. There would be a long courting process first, then love, then sex. Just as it was supposed to be.
But still. There was Luke. Looming in her mind. Confusing her emotions.
“Were you saying something?” Bradley asked.
“Oh, right. I was just wondering if you could maybe, sometime…give me the name of your exterminator. I’ve got an ant problem, too.”
10
When in doubt, don’t!
—Jane Langston, from Chapter Fourteen of The Sex Factor
JANE HAD PROMISED HERSELF she wouldn’t do it again. She’d made a solemn vow not to obsessively check her bestseller list status this week as each of the lists came out. Doing so only made her crazy, and a dip on any one list was enough to send her into a chocolate-eating binge.
She logged on to the Internet and checked her e-mail, all the while her Web browser beckoned. The temptation to hop on the Internet and see how her book was faring—especially on the New York Times list, where it had managed to hover at number nine for the past four weeks—was huge.
Instead, she opened a message from her sister wanting to know if she was okay. Ever since her early-morning visit a week ago, when she’d explained to Heather why she had stopped by, her sister had been completely freaked out. She called at least twice a day now to check on Jane, and she sent her an e-mail every night that Jane was expected to dutifully answer, reporting her well-being. It should have been annoying, but she actually found it endearing to have Heather fussing over her.
The other two triplets had joined in to a lesser extent, and yesterday Jane’s mother had even called to check up on her and ask if she’d considered getting a full-time bodyguard.
A full-time bodyguard. Just the thought of having Luke around twenty-four-seven gave Jane the willies.
But, Luke himself had suggested it when she’d told him about the call and the fact that her stalker had been watching and knew when Luke left her house. Jane had refused to have him move in and completely disrupt her life. Yet, late at night, she couldn’t help but second-guess her decision. When the house was dark and Jane had nothing but her new security system to keep her feeling safe, a familiar man in the house started sounding like a pretty damn good idea.
Since she’d refused that option, Luke had insisted on increasing surveillance outside her house and checking possible connections between the stalker and her sisters. She never knew when he’d be lurking about and when he wouldn’t, and at times the thought that Luke was so near drove her crazy.
Ever since the night they’d spent together a week ago, she’d made it clear to Luke that they needed to cool it, that she couldn’t go on having meaningless sex with him, because it was only distracting her and creating havoc in her life. He’d been surprisingly laid back about the whole thing too, not even flirting when he stopped by to touch base with her, and keeping their self-defense lessons strictly business. She couldn’t help thinking he was only continuing to prove her relationship theories correct—he’d gotten the free milk, and now he was ready to move on to the next cow.