All Wrapped Up. Jennifer Drew

things, his timing was bad. She wasn’t taking her parents’ divorce at all well.

      “Are your parents really happy now?” she asked after they’d pretty much covered their careers for the last five years including her worries about losing her job.

      “I think so,” he said, glad he could give her some reassurance. “Mom seems to like her new husband. Dad’s wife is forty trying to look twenty, but they enjoy going to flea markets and auctions together.”

      Tony brought their meals in record time. Nick loaded up on prawns and pasta because the waiter, who was also part owner, took it personally if customers didn’t stuff themselves. Liv inhaled the spaghetti and drank more wine with uncharacteristic gusto.

      “I’m really good at what I do,” she said. “I should be vice president instead of that prick Boz.”

      Nick suspected she was drunk. The prim-and-proper Liv that he knew thought a prick was something you got from a thorn.

      Would he be evil if he took advantage of her unhappiness at work to get what he wanted? His editor would say, “Get the story regardless of what you have to do.” But this was Liv, and he wasn’t sure how far he should go.

      “I’m supposed to loosen up, be more spontaneous…. Kind of like you,” she said after a moment’s hesitation.

      “Is that why you were doing a striptease in your office?”

      “He wanted me to ask my intern for hints on how to dress!” She put down her fork and bristled with indignation. “That blond babe is after my job!”

      Nick laughed. He couldn’t help it.

      “It’s not funny, Nick! I love my job. I don’t want to look for a new one.”

      “I can’t imagine anyone being dumb enough to fire you,” he said, meaning it. “You’re smart, clever and—”

      “Dull, conservative—”

      “Never dull,” he interrupted. “I was never bored with you.”

      “I wish I knew how to be like you…reckless, daring, spontaneous. Remember when you talked me into driving to Milwaukee in the middle of the night? We both had tons of work for school, but we drove halfway there for no reason at all and ended up in a bar in some little town in Wisconsin.”

      He remembered all right. When they got back, they’d had fantastic sex in his apartment. He’d never forget the rocking chair or the way she’d thrown aside all her inhibitions for a change.

      “It was fun. You were fun.”

      “You made me have fun. You always had all the good ideas.”

      He didn’t want to play the remember-when game with a woman he’d once been crazy about. But whatever else Liv was, she wasn’t spontaneous. She couldn’t stand to be out of control in any situation. He’d literally bolted for his life when she started mentioning marriage. In her mind it had been the next logical step in their relationship, but it wasn’t for him. He didn’t understand why they couldn’t just enjoy things the way they were.

      “I wish you could tell me how to be spontaneous,” she said.

      She sounded deeply unhappy, and he was sure the wine had nothing to do with it.

      “I don’t think it’s something you can learn.”

      “You could show me how to loosen up.” She sounded surprised by her own idea. “We can make a deal. Just a little help with a work problem.”

      He shrugged dismissively, not at all liking the way this reunion with Liv was going. Did she mean what she was saying?

      He could think of lots of ways she could loosen up—all of them fun for him. He’d start by burning all her cotton panties. Come to think of it, she’d look spectacular in a black thong. And she’d have to get rid of her sex-only-in-bed mentality. He wondered if Tony had a storeroom they could use. Or he could ride home on the train with her.

      But he was pretty damn sure his fantasies had nothing to do with the loosening up she had in mind.

      “I’m good at work problems. That’s what I do, crisis management at William Lawrence Associates. But I’m afraid I won’t be able to change the way they want me to, and Brandi Jo will get my job.”

      “Brandi Jo?”

      “My intern,” she said, sounding more like the cranky woman he’d brought to the restaurant. “You met her in my office. If you can show me how to loosen up and be spontaneous, I’ll do whatever I can for you.”

      “I’ll walk you to Union Station, and we’ll talk about it,” Nick said, signaling Tony for the bill.

      “We’ll help each other,” she said emphatically.

      “You may want to think about it a little more first,” he warned.

      “No, I make good snap decisions.”

      He fervently hoped Liv would be stone cold sober by the time they got to the station so they could talk rationally. As for wanting to sleep with her, what man wouldn’t?

      His memory was too vivid for comfort. He remembered all the things about her that turned him on, especially the way she liked to tease his ear with her tongue and run her nails over his skin. Maybe because she’d been so cool and restrained at first, it had been doubly exciting when she lost her initial inhibitions. He could remember the first time she’d tasted him with her tongue as clearly as if it had been yesterday. He’d given up a lot when he left Liv. Part of him still regretted it.

      He took a deep breath and stood up. He had a story to get, but no way would he get involved with Liv again. She was beautiful, clever and amusing, but she was a woman who wanted commitment.

      To do his job, he had to be available whenever there was a sporting event to cover. That meant lots of night work and few free weekends. He hadn’t met any woman who would put up with his hours, and he didn’t want a life punctuated by arguments and guilt trips. More importantly, he didn’t want to be responsible for another person’s happiness. A good relationship demanded a whole lot of compromise. His father had never been able to do it, much to his mother’s sorrow. He didn’t have any reason to believe he’d be better at it.