Sheesh, of course, he did. I eyed him contemplatively as he rose and went back to his seat again. No, Jack Griffin didn’t leave anything to chance.
But who was I fooling? I knew I’d say yes. The guy was in my blood.
Retracting my gaze from Jack was damn hard. So I pulled my to-do list out of my backpack. I’d managed to get a few girls I knew Ila liked for the bachelorette party. My attention lowered to the first item on the paper.
Strip show.
Yup, Denise’s wonderful idea. Look at where her wiggling-eyebrow suggestion of getting my O-card fulfilled had landed me. Not that I was complaining. Jack made my pulse race with just a look, and when he touched me, made love to me… He took me to heights I’d never dreamed possible. Every. Single. Time.
More, he made me happy.
I circledstrip showagain.
Ila would die if she knew what I’d planned, and the venue I’d chosen. My mouth tipped up in a smile. Gleefully, I circledLas Vegasa couple of times, too.
“What’s so funny?”
I looked up and wiped off my smile. Something warned me that Jack would be less than thrilled if I mentioned a strip club. “Ila’s bachelorette party. I’m throwing her one, though she refuses it.”
“When?”
“Next weekend. We’ll leave early on Saturday and will be back on Sunday evening.
He frowned. “Where?”
Man. “Vegas.”
He stilled. “I see.”
Naturally, he did. I bit my inner lip to stop my smile, then said casually, looking at my notes again. “I thought”—strip-club hopping—“a spa, pampering for the bride-to-be. Maybe some shopping, just R&R. Now, to convince my sister of that.”
A tick worked his jaw.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing.”
Mm-hmm. Okay, then. I bit the end of my pencil and frowned at the list of activities I was planning, I struck off male strippers, then wrote male strippers over it again. If only I could get Ila’s agreement.
After a minute, he said, “San Francisco is fun, too.”
“Maybe…” I circledlap dancing. “But we grew up here. I want something different, exciting for her.” I mulled over the idea of hog-tying my reclusive sister.
“I don’t think that’s legal.”
“What?” I glanced up, and at Jack’s smirking expression—jeez! “I blame Wilbur for this, talking out loud. But the idea has merit, don’t you think?”
He shook his head and returned his attention to his work again.
But my heart eased a damn lot to see him back to his normal self—well, almost.
* * *
“We’re in New York? New-freaking-York!” I gulped as the SUV that waited for us at Newark airport swept us over the bridge toward the city glittering against the night skies, a city I’d been dying to see for so long. Despite the tinted windows, I could still make out the glimmering lights of the skyscrapers.
“I take it you like my surprise?”
“It’s freakin’ awesome!” I laughed, still peering through the window as if hypnotized, but I heard the smile in his voice. “I plan to work here one day.”
