Tangling With Ty

“Don’t ruin that dress yanking it off,” Taylor told her. “And use a hanger!”

The door slammed, and Taylor snickered.

Suzanne sighed. “You shouldn’t have baited her that way.”

“Are you kidding? If I didn’t, she’d never have put the dress on, much less agreed to wear it. And she really does need to eat more veggies, you said so yourself.”

“She didn’t agree to wear the dress,” Suzanne said.

“Oh, she’ll wear it.” Taylor tossed them both a positive smile. “She’ll wear it with bells on.”

Ty was just thankful he wouldn’t have to see it. In fact, he was still thanking his lucky stars when Suzanne turned to him and said, “You’ll be invited to the engagement party, of course.”

“Me?” Panic was a taste he hadn’t eaten in a good long time.

“Yeah. I think you’re going to be around a while.” Suzanne gave him a little smile.

Oh, boy. There were matchmaking plans in those eyes. Unintentionally, he backed up, making both women laugh.

“Don’t tell me a man who wears clothes as well as you do has an aversion to dressing up like Nicole’s?” Taylor said.

“No, but I do have an aversion to being set up.”

“Set up?” Taylor cocked her head to the side. “Most men would be drooling to go out with a woman who looked the way Nicole just did.”

“Not me. I get my own women, thank you. Didn’t you want to show me your contractor bids? You wanted my opinion, right?” He could hear the desperation in his voice. “Can we get back to that?”

“We’re not talking marriage here, Ty.” When he didn’t relax, Taylor just sighed. “Fine. I’ll let you in on a little secret I think will help the situation here, all right? Nicole and I? We plan on remaining single. Forever. No white dress, no white cake and no diamonds on our ring fingers. If there’s any hooking-up going on, it’s of the one-night variety only. Follow?”

“But telling him that only gives him an unfair advantage over Nicole!” Suzanne protested.

Taylor kept her amused gaze on Ty. “I have a feeling he’s the one who needs the handicap. Hurt her though,” she said casually. “And we’ll hurt you.”

“Oh, definitely,” Suzanne agreed.

They weren’t serious, Ty thought. They couldn’t be serious. He laughed to prove it.

They didn’t laugh back.

“Actually,” Taylor said seriously, “if you hurt her, we’ll hunt you down and cut off your balls. So…” She clapped her hands and smiled. “Ready to get to work?”

American women were insane, he thought. Completely insane.

TWENTY MINUTES later, Nicole ran back out of her loft. She needed to lose herself in something, and the first thing to come to mind had been the hospital. Her mind was now firmly on work.

Okay, not true. Her mind was still wrapped around the way Ty had looked at her in that dress. Oh, man, how he’d looked at her in that dress. Her knees still were a little weak. Who’d have thought a man could have such heat in his eyes? She’d nearly imploded on the spot from the intensity.

But she was absolutely not going to waste time thinking about that, or analyzing her reaction to it. She was going to concentrate on work-

She came to an abrupt halt in front of her car. The streets were filled with shoppers and diners, with people who had nothing to do all day other than wander.

But Nicole had plenty to do. And she’d get to it, if sitting on the hood of her car hadn’t been Taylor and…and the man she’d just promised herself she wouldn’t think about.

Heads together, they were poring over an opened manila file and laughing. Until they saw her.

Well, Taylor kept laughing. But Ty’s smile slowly faded. “You changed,” he said.

“Yeah, it’s hard to operate in a cocktail dress.”

Taylor, who had her feet propped up on the bumper of Ty’s car, which was parked right in front of Nicole’s, waved her closer. “Ty is trying to help me decide on a contractor. These two right here?” She held up two different bids. “They’re young and cute. And expensive. But very good at what they do, apparently.” She looked at Ty for approval, who nodded. “And these two…” She switched papers around and held up two more bids. “They’re a tad bit older, more experienced, slightly cheaper…but I guaran-ass-tee you, they’ll have beer bellies and plumber cracks hanging out the backs of their low-riding jeans, and it won’t be pretty.”

Ty rolled his eyes. “Tell me you’re not hiring a contractor based on his ass.”

“Okay, I won’t tell you.” Grinning, she popped up, hugged Nicole, and started toward the building.

“Well, gee, I guess we’re done,” Ty said to her back, standing up himself.

Turning around, Taylor smiled. “I just figured, since Nicole didn’t really have to be at work, and since I’d bet the bank she hasn’t eaten, that the two of you could go out.”

“No,” Nicole said quickly. Too quickly, but damn it, she couldn’t help it. Eat with Ty? No. No way.

But Taylor danced her bossy butt into the building and vanished.

Ty reached for Nicole’s hand, tugging her close enough that he could look into her face. “Hey,” he said softly.

“Hey.”

“Sorry about upstairs.”

“You mean about staring at me in that dress?”

His mouth quirked. “Not for staring, no. Sorry you were so uncomfortable in it. You looked…amazing.”

“Yeah. Funny what a low-cut, tight number like that does for a man. Did you lose a lot of brain cells?”

He let out one of those slow, dangerous smiles. Dangerous, because she couldn’t take her eyes off it. That, combined with his warm hand in hers, and suddenly she stood there on the sidewalk, completely forgetting she didn’t want to stand there with him. Staring at him.

“Darlin’,” he said, “I lose brain cells every time I look at you.”

His voice melted her all the more. Unfair, very unfair. “Well, if this does it for you…” She gestured down to her military-green cargo pants and plain white T-shirt. “Then you have even bigger problems than I thought.”

His see-all blue eyes never left hers. “It has nothing to do with what you’re wearing. Or how you look.”

Oh, God. Why did he say such things? No one had ever said such things to her, and she had no idea how to handle it. If she’d been hands deep in an emergency surgery, or up to her eyeballs in X rays… those she could handle.

But this wasn’t work, this was far more personal than work had ever been, and she was at an utter loss. She inhaled a breath and held it.

“Yeah,” he said. “Scary shit, huh? Let’s go eat, Nicole.”

“Because Taylor said to?”

“Because I can’t get you out of my head. We might as well spend some time together and see where it goes.”

“It’s going nowhere.”

He smiled again. “Let’s go see.”

“No.” She fumbled for her car door, slid in. “I’ve really got to go.” She turned the key.

And the engine simply coughed.

She turned it again, with more force, but she got that ridiculous wheezing noise that told her the battery was dead. Again. “Damn it.”

“Sounds like battery trouble.” Easy as he pleased, he opened her door, tugged her out. “Lucky for you, my car runs like a sweetie. I’ll drop you off at the hospital, then charge your battery while you’re at work.”

“I don’t want-”

“It’s no trouble.”

Naturally he didn’t take her right to work, but stopped at a cute little sidewalk cafe a few blocks away. “For sustenance,” he explained as he got out and came around for her.

Came around for her. Nicole stared at him as he led them to a table, while she tried to remember the last guy who’d opened a door for her.

Or put his hand lightly on the base of her spine, touching her as they walked.