Taking the Boss to Bed

Ryan sat on the bench next to her, and his cough sounded suspiciously like “lightweight.” Jaci narrowed her eyes at him. “I would never have taken you for a shopaholic, Jackson.”

“For the record, normally you couldn’t get me to do this without a gun to my head.”

Because there was a hundred million on the line...

“You’re the one who is drawing this out,” Jaci pointed out. “The second shop we visited had that black sheath that was imminently suitable. You wouldn’t let me buy it.”

“You hated it.” Ryan wore an expression that Jaci was coming to realize was his stubborn face. “As I said, tonight I’d like you to wear something you feel sexy in.”

I’d feel sexy wearing you... Moving the hell on.

“Denim shorts, a Ramones tee and cowboy boots?” Jaci joked, but she couldn’t disguise the hopeful note in her voice.

His mouth quirked up in a sexy smile that set her hormones to their buzz setting. “Not tonight but I’d like to see that combination sometime.”

Jaci crossed one leg over the other and twisted her body so that she was half facing him. Sick of discussing clothes, she changed the subject to something she’d been wondering about. “When did you open Starfish and why?”

Ryan took a long time to answer and when he started to speak, Jaci thought that he would tell her to mind her own business. “Neil was right, I couldn’t stay away from the industry. I landed a job as business manager at a studio and I loathed it. I kept poking my nose into places it didn’t belong, production, scripts, art, even direction. After I’d driven everybody mad, the owner took me aside and suggested I open up my own company. So I did.” Ryan tipped his face up to the sun. “That was about six months before Ben died.”

His dark designer shades covered his eyes, but she didn’t need to see them to know that, on some level, he still mourned his brother. That he always would. “I’m so sorry about Ben, Ryan.”

“Yeah. Thanks.”

Jaci sucked in some air and asked the questions she, and a good portion of the world, still wondered about. “Why did they crash, Ryan? What really happened?”

Ryan shrugged. “According to the toxicology screen, he wasn’t stoned or drunk—not that night, anyway. He wasn’t suicidal, as far as we knew. Witnesses said that he wasn’t driving fast. There was no reason why his Porsche left the road and plunged down that cliff. It was ruled a freak accident.”

“I’m sorry.” The words sounded so small, so weak. She bit her bottom lip. “And the woman who died along with him? Had you met her? Did you know her?”

“Kelly? Yeah, I knew her,” Ryan replied, his voice harsh as he glanced at his watch. Subject closed, his face and body language stated. “It’s nearly lunchtime. Want to hit a few more shops? If we don’t find anything, we’ll go back for that black sheath.”

“Let’s go back for that black sheath now,” Jaci said as she stood up, pulling her bag over her shoulder. As they stepped away from the bench, she saw a young woman holding four or five dresses on a hanger, her arm stretched above her head to keep the fabrics from skimming the ground. The top dress, under its plastic cover, made her heart stumble. It was a striking, A-line floor-length dress in watermelon pink with a deep, plunging, halfway-to-her-navel neckline.

Without hesitation she crossed the pavement and tapped the young woman on her shoulder. “Hi, sorry to startle you.” She gestured to the garments. “I love these. Are they your designs?”

The woman nodded. “They are part of a consignment for The Gypsy’s Caravan.”

Jaci reached out and touched the plastic covering the top dress. It was simple but devastatingly so, edgy but feminine. It was a rock-chick dress trying to behave, and she was in love. The corners of Ryan’s mouth kicked up when she looked at him.

“What do you think?” she asked, not quite able to release the plastic covering of the dress, her dress.

“I think that you love it.” Ryan flashed his sexy smile at the woman carrying the dresses and Jaci was sure that she saw her knees wobble. This didn’t surprise her in the least. Her knees were always jelly-like around Ryan.

“It looks like we’re going where you are,” Ryan said as he reached for the dresses and took them from her grasp, then held them with one hand so that they flowed down his back. With his height they didn’t even come close to the dirty sidewalk. He placed his other hand on Jaci’s back.