He’d shaken Ted’s hand.

  He’d smiled until his jaw ached, and now Leo came up.

  Mitch thrust out his hand, but Leo threw his arms around Mitch’s neck. “It was a wild ride,” Leo said tearfully. “We’ll never forget you.”

  Mitch wondered if he was going to have to stand there all night patting Leo’s back but Suzie tugged him free. Then she gave him her most direct stare. “You’re really going,” she said, shaking her head, hugging him tight. “Thanks for saving my job. Thanks for saving the show. Thanks for everything. Especially for putting all the life and spunk into Dimi’s eyes.”

  He closed his for a moment. “I didn’t do that. She did.”

  Suzie’s smile went sad as she pulled back. “Denial is a sad thing in a man, Mitch.” Squeezing his hand, she went to the food table and grabbed another slice of pizza.

  Which pretty much left Dimi. No one had gone home, which meant they had quite the audience, as per the norm. No one felt the need to give them any privacy at all. In fact, as Dimi finally acknowledged him and drifted toward him, everyone seemed to shift closer in anticipation.

  She smiled at him, a very nice smile, really, but he could see right through it to all the stuff beneath, and suddenly he didn’t care who was watching. Reaching out, he took her two hands in his. “Hey,” he said softly.

  “So this is it,” she murmured. “Goodbye.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Goodbye, Mitch.”

  “I’ll miss you, Dimi.”

  She nodded. “You’ll be missed here, too.”

  “By you?”

  Their audience seemed to hold their collective breath, but Dimi didn’t waver. She looked him right in the eyes and nodded. “Yes.” Then she leaned close, kissed him softly, right on the lips. But before he could so much as taste her, she was gone.

  Like a fool, he raced to the door, but she’d vanished. Tempting as it was to chase after her, he didn’t. Mostly because he didn’t know what to say or how to say it.

  “Fool.”

  Startled, he looked around and found Suzie at his side, but she snorted in disgust and left, too.

  Unsettled, and feeling as if he’d forgotten to do something really important, he went to the cabin the show had rented for him during his stay and packed up his stuff. It wasn’t difficult, and it all fit into one duffel bag.

  A sad commentary on his life.

  A knock on his door surprised him. It was late, and he’d already said goodbye to everyone. He wasn’t feeling friendly.

  But when he opened the door he got an even bigger surprise.

  “Just me,” Dimi said with a shaky smile.

  She stood beneath the faint glow of the porch light, wearing jeans and a sweater, looking lovely and vulnerable and sexy all at the same time. So much that he just stared at her stupidly. “Hi.”

  “Did you teach my hamster to beg for food?”

  So much for her being here to claim her undying devotion. “Yes.”

  “I’ve had her for two years, and she’s never done anything but stare at me.”

  “I guess it takes the right touch to coax someone out of her seriousness.”

  “Yeah.” She looked at her shoes, then into his face. “Can I come in?”

  He stepped aside, and when she brushed past him, her hair catching on him, her scent filling his senses, he nearly forgot to shut the door behind her.

  “I just wanted to clear some stuff up,” she said, walking into his living room, turning to face him. “You know, before you leave. First of all, I’m sorry.”

  “For what?”

  “For seeking revenge on you for making me, um—” She blushed. “Hot for you. I know you were just doing your job, bringing out the sexiness of the show and teaching me how to do it, and I’m sorry I turned on you like that. I wanted to make you hot back and…well, it was juvenile. I can see that now.”

  Suddenly he felt very friendly. And very happy she’d come to see him. “I don’t want your apology.” He stepped toward her, so relieved at having this last chance at seeing her again he felt weak.

  “You…don’t?” When he took another step toward her, her eyes darkened. “What do you want?”

  “Isn’t that just the million-dollar question?” He tipped his head back and pretended to ponder. “What do I want? Hmm… How about I want to know if you’re as scared as me that this is over?”

  “I—”

  He put his hands on her hips and tugged her close. “How about I want to know if you really came here to apologize or to satisfy this unquenchable need we have for each other?”

  “Um…”

  “And how about I want to know if you meant it the other day when you told me you weren’t wearing any damn panties, and are you wearing any now?”

  Her eyes flashed, and she slid her arms around his neck, putting her mouth on his before he could ask her the rest, before he could tell her he’d discovered the L word for the first time in far too many years and that he wanted to know if she could possibly feel the same.

  He wanted to tell her he didn’t want to leave—what a joke that was—but he really didn’t want to go, he wanted to stay forever and become a small-town man who put his nose in everyone else’s business.

  But he couldn’t say a word because she’d opened her mouth on his, deepening the kiss, and every single thought flew right out the window.

  Then she wriggled and wriggled until she had enough room to yank his shirt out of his pants and over his head. Before he could so much as blink, she’d sunk to her knees before him and was working on his belt, which she promptly tossed over her shoulder.

  Her fingers danced over his raging erection as she looked at him coyly. “I’d better be careful with the zipper.”

  “Yeah, you’d—” His words were choked off because she tugged down the rest of his clothing, leaving him with no blood left in his brain with which to formulate a sentence, much less a thought.

  “There,” she said cheerfully, sitting back on her heels and looking at him with sleepy, sexy eyes. “You’re the first one naked this time. I think I like that. A lot.”

  With a growl, he lunged at her, sprawling them across the carpet. It didn’t take him long to unbutton her sweater and tackle her jeans off, where he learned she had indeed gone commando. Rolling, wrestling, laughing, he finally caught her beneath him, grinning at her like the love-struck fool he was.

  “You got anything more for me than that smile, Mitch?”

  “Are you kidding?” In case she hadn’t noticed his erection to beat all erections, he nudged her with it.

  She sucked in a sharp breath. “What do you plan to do with that?”

  “You’ll see.”

  “Might I suggest you hurry?”

  “Suggestion considered.” And finally, finally, he sunk into her glorious body.

  Her smile faded, and so did his. Her quiet moan echoed his. And they clutched at each other, his favorite part, feeling her nails bite into him, seeing her dazed, just-as-gone gaze meet his.

  Mitch was damn glad it wasn’t just him feeling this way. He was so glad it was almost enough to make him weep, but then she arched up and took him even deeper within her and he was lost.

  Completely lost.

  “Hurry,” she whispered again, and he was all too happy to oblige.

  HE LAY on his back, staring at the ceiling, a contented, warm, sated Dimi curled at his side. “Okay,” he said. “We’re definitely even.”

  With a groan, she came up on an elbow to look at him. Her hair fell into his face, and though he blew it out, it hit him again.

  He thought that just maybe he’d be content to have her hair in his face for the rest of his life. He should tell her that. Wanted to tell her that.

  But she was looking at him with a good amount of wariness, and he sighed.

  “What do you mean,” she said, “we’re even?”

  “I played low and dirty to get you to change your persona for the show. Remember?”

  “Definitely. You teased and tormented me and basically made my life a living hell.”

  “Uh-huh. Your show became wildly popular, you got a new contract and a great raise and you found you loved this wilder side of yourself, you poor, poor abused baby. Having me…what was it you said? Tease and torment you. Kiss and touch you. And you hated every minute of it, I know.”

  She glared at him, making him laugh. “Don’t give me that look,” he said. “Because in return you played low and dirty to drive me crazy with lust, and you know it. So we’re even. And now…” He stroked a hand down her slim back, loving the feel of her against him. “And now it’s time for a compromise so we don’t kill each other.”

  “Why?” Her eyes went a little flat. “You’re leaving, remember?”

  “Yeah, about that.” He sat, slid his hands up her arms and tried not to get distracted by the sight she made sitting there tousled and naked and annoyed. “That’s the compromise part.”

  13

  DIMI LEAPT UP. She knew what was coming. A man’s idea of compromise meant he got to go back to Los Angeles and send for her whenever he needed his itch scratched.

  Or maybe he’d show up here every once in awhile, all dark and beautiful and ready to melt her with just one wicked smile.

  And she would melt, she had no doubt. All he had to do was crook one little finger and she’d drop to the floor in a boneless puddle of Jell-O.

  Pathetic, that was her. Feeling very naked, she searched for her clothes and came up with Mitch’s shirt. Good enough.

  Mitch stood, too, and reached out to touch her cheek. “It’s on inside out.”

  So was her heart. Darn it, how had this happened? How had she fallen for a guy who could never take her seriously?

  “Dimi…” He took her hands in his and stilled her movements. “Did I scare you when I said it was time for a compromise?”

  “Of course not.” Scoffing, she broke away and went searching for her panties.

  “You didn’t wear any, remember?” Mitch sighed when she hauled on her jeans. He reached for his pants. “You going to answer me, Dimi?”

  “You don’t scare me.”

  “The word compromise sure did.” He put his hands on her shoulders and made her look at him. “What did you think I meant, I wonder?” He searched her gaze and shook his head. “It was a doozy, whatever you came up with.”

  “I need to get going.”

  “Uh-huh.” He nodded companionably. “I understand. I know the feeling all too well. Things take a wrong turn or something tugs on your heart, just run like hell. It’s been my escape choice for two years, as well.”

  “I’m not running away.”

  “Liar,” he chided softly, holding her still when she would have torn away. “Why don’t you just listen then, since you won’t talk to me? Can you do that, I wonder?”

  No. God, no. “You’re the one who’s leaving,” she said desperately.

  A sad smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “Yeah. Which brings me back to the whole compromise thing.” He brought her to his couch and sank down on it, tugging her down, as well, so they faced each other.

  Only he wasn’t wearing a shirt, and his hair looked as if someone had run their fingers through it—which of course she had—and her poor overwhelmed senses could only imagine how it would be to still be on the floor all tangled up with him.

  Bottom line, she wanted him, darn it, and her heart felt as if it was going to burst, and she couldn’t believe she’d shown up at his house like this. She should have left it alone after their pizza goodbye, but no, she’d had to see him one more time.

  “I don’t know what’s going on inside that head of yours,” he said, gently tapping her temple. “But you look as if your puppy just got run over by a Mack truck.”

  The lump in her throat grew to enormous proportions. How was she supposed to do this, say goodbye and not let him know how much it hurt?

  She couldn’t, she just couldn’t, so she simply sat there, tears welling in her eyes, unable to speak a word without falling apart.

  “Oh, Dimi.” He closed his eyes tight and then opened them. They were suspiciously bright. “I’m not good at this serious stuff. But I don’t want to leave. Crazy as it sounds, I like this too-damn-small town, and I like the show, and all the people involved in it, but most of all, Dimi, this is about you.”

  She blinked in surprise, and a tear fell. Scrubbing at it impatiently, she gaped at him. “Me?”

  “Yeah. I was hoping you’d agree to meet me halfway on this thing.”

  “Thing?”

  “You know, what we have between us. Look, I thought maybe you could teach me how to get a little serious once in awhile. And maybe I could teach you to let your hair down, so to speak, and not just for work. We could meet halfway.”

  Her heart leapt straight into her throat, but she was afraid to put seed to the wild hope. “Halfway,” she whispered. “As in once in awhile you come up from southern California, or I come down from northern California?”

  “As in I never leave.”

  “That’s not much of a compromise,” she told him, nearly giddy. Was it possible? Could this work?

  “No, I realize that.” He reached for her hand. “But that’s me being selfish because I can’t see us in Los Angeles. I can’t see us anywhere but here.”

  Us, she thought. My God, he’s using the us word.

  “The compromise part comes next,” he said, looking directly into her eyes with a touching, endearing uncertainty. “It’s where I tell you I am wildly, madly, helplessly in love with you, and you agree to try to feel that way back for me.”

  “You mean…”

  “I love you, Dimi. I want to be with you forever, through white serviceable underwear and oysters and tampons and everything. I want it all.” He let out a slow, purposeful breath. “Now say something back. Please. You’re killing me, just looking at me all wild-eyed and repeating everything I say but saying nothing I want to hear.”

  “Well, I have to repeat one more thing.”

  He looked destroyed. “Okay.”

  “I love you.” She smiled through her tears. “I want to be with you forever, through white serviceable underwear and oysters and tampons and everything.”

  The brilliance in his smile dazzled her. So did the bone-crushing hug he gave her.

  “And for the record,” she said, still holding him tight, “you’ve already taught me to loosen up quite a bit, if you’ll recall. So that means really it’s just teaching you to be a tad more serious. We can start with lovemaking.”

  Pulling back, he looked at her in surprise. “There’s something wrong with my lovemaking?”

  “Only that we haven’t made it to a bed yet.”

  “Easily remedied,” he said, standing and scooping her into his arms. “In fact, let’s work on that immediately.” He gave her a particularly naughty smile. “It might take awhile, though.”

  “I hope so.” She loved being against him like this and snuggled closer, her imagination already off and running. “Maybe all night long?” she asked hopefully.

  He laughed, then bent and kissed her. “Try for the rest of our lives, Dimi.”

  Her heart tipped. “Yes,” she sighed, setting her head on his shoulder. “For the rest of our lives.”

  HARLEQUIN DUETS

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-7136-8

  BLIND DATE DISASTERS

  Copyright © 2001 by Jill Shalvis

  EAT YOUR HEART OUT

  Copyright © 2001 by Jill Shalvis

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  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

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  Jill Shalvis, Blind Date Disasters & Eat Your Heart Out

 

 

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