Page 12 of Just What She Needed

Rhys reached into his pocket and came out with a slim cell phone. "What's your mobile number?"

As she rattled off the number, she had time to nurse a secret, excited buzz because Rhys James had just, as Lilith would put it, hit her up for her digits. She also had time to wish every person she'd gone to high school with could be there to see it.

"All right." Rhys glanced up as the elevator doors opened and followed Rhett into the car. "Let me set up a reminder so I don't forget." His fingers pressed rapidly over the screen of his phone. "What time?"

"I'm supposed to meet him at seven," Rhett said.

"Taking your own car," Rhys said under his breath, still typing on his phone. "Good girl. There, that's done." He looked up, eyes twinkling. "I'll ring you just before quarter past, and if the date isn't all you'd hoped and dreamed..." He paused with a grin at Rhett's indelicate snort. "If it's shite, then you'll have a way out."

"Thank you so much, Rhys." She smiled at him with gratitude. "I'd hate to be stuck on a crappy date all night."

"Hey, you never know. You might end up enjoying yourself and tell me to bugger off when I ring you."

A soft chime announced the elevator reached the fourteenth floor.

"Yeah, right," Rhett said as the doors opened. "That's gonna happen." She stepped out into the hall and turned back to say goodbye.

Rhys spoke before she could. "At least try to have fun." He stuck a plastic card into a slot on the elevator and pushed a button. "And if you can't have fun tonight, at least try to Wang Chung tonight."

Rhett burst out into surprised laughter as the door slid shut, cutting off the sight of the devilish grin on Rhys's face.

The clock on her car's dash read seven thirty-three when Rhett pulled back into the parking garage at Mel's building. She jumped out of the car and walked as fast as her borrowed silver sandals would allow toward the elevator. If she hurried, she could be in the shower in under five minutes, and though it wouldn't wash the memory of her date's lascivious gaze off her skin, it would be a damn good start toward putting this disastrous evening behind her.

Just as she reached the elevator, the doors slid open and Rhys stepped into the garage. He pulled up short at the sight of her, eyes wide.

"You're already home? I just spoke to you not fifteen minutes ago. What did you do, fly?"

Rhett shrugged one shoulder. "I might have run a few stop signs." She also exceeded every posted speed limit between the restaurant and condos. In her hurry to put maximum distance between herself and one Carl Keener she fled like the hounds of hell were on her tail.

"That bad, huh?" He winced in commiseration.

"Worse," she declared. "Seriously. Look up the term Date From Hell in the dictionary, and you'll see an eight-by-ten glossy of that twit I was with, along with a blur in the corner which is me running out of there." She shuddered. "I'd rather go out with Charles Manson than see Carl again. I'm so glad you called and got me out of there."

"Ah, Rhett, I'm sorry it ended up that way." Rhys stepped back and looked her up and down. "If it's any consolation, you look..."

When he didn't finish his sentence right away her palms began to sweat. Look what, for God's sake? Uncertainty made her nervous, and she tugged at the bodice of her navy blue silk dress. "What's wrong?"

His gaze rose from the rather short hemline of her dress, and Rhett noticed how long and dark his eyelashes were as he looked up through them. "Wrong? Not a thing," he said. "I was going to say that you look smokin' hot, but I thought that might sound too... too..."

"Too wonderful?" she blurted out. Mortified, she barely stopped herself from clapping a hand over her mouth.

His eyes opened a fraction of an inch wider, and Rhett realized his eyes were the same color as her dress. Damn. Navy blue eyes framed with thick, dark lashes. Now that was smokin' hot.

A slow smile spread across his face. "Well, if you don't think it's too forward of me, then, yes. You look incredibly hot. In fact, you look much too good to end your evening this early. I'm just stepping out for a bite, and since it was my call that made you miss your dinner, the least I can do is get you something to eat."

Heat washed into her cheeks, and she hurried to explain lest he think the unintentional way she finished his sentence was her way of fishing for an invitation to join him. "That's okay. You don't have to.”

"I know I don't have to. I want to." Strands of honey-streaked hair tumbled over the shoulders of his olive green T-shirt as he tilted his head toward his car. "I won't take no for an answer. Come on."

Somehow she found her fingers clasped in his warm hand as he towed her toward his SUV, and she went with him, unable—and unwilling—to resist.

A flash of the X5's taillights indicated Rhys unlocked the doors. Before Rhett could reach for the handle on the passenger side, Rhys was there, opening the door for her and, still holding her hand, assisting her into the seat. Her mother used to tell her that there were two things a lady should never touch on a date, her wallet and the door. As she stepped into the car, she went a little weak at the knees. Rhys was treating her like a lady.

The minute she sat down, Rhett noticed her dress had ridden up her thighs almost to the point of indecency. Well, that whole "lady" thing ended quickly, didn't it? She grabbed a hank of silk in each hand and tugged it down to a more respectable level.

"Smokin' hot."

Startled, Rhett looked up to find the devilish grin was back on his face. "Really, Rhett. You are." He closed the door and tapped a knuckle on the window before he disappeared to walk behind the car.