“Why else? To get you to take the job,” he said airily. His expression sobered. “Of course, just in case I’m wrong, you really would be doing me a huge favor if you came to work on the show and helped me figure out who’s behind this.”
It seemed everyone had new career plans for her. “I’m a stockbroker, not a private eye,” she reminded him.
“But you’d be playing a cop,” he said, as if that automatically would give her the requisite investigative skills. Terry had long since blurred the distinction between reality and fiction.
Callie groaned. She could tell he was dead serious about this. She wanted to help him, she really did.
“Terry, I’m having enough trouble with my own life without worrying about the little blips shaking up your serenity. If you think this is serious, you have to tell a real cop, not some pseudo-cop being played by a pseudo-actress.”
“Sweetie, I know your problems are real, but at least you have a solution right in front of you.” He plucked a business card out of his pocket and held it out. “The answer to your prayers is only a phone call away.”
Callie eyed the card warily. “Unless that card belongs to a good psychiatrist, I don’t want any part of it.”
“Next best thing,” he assured her. “A network president with the power to whisk away all your problems, answer all your prayers. Sort of a combination shrink and priest.”
“How much did he pay you to do the commercial for him?” she inquired irritably just as the doorbell rang.
Terry jumped up before she could budge. “Not nearly as much as he paid me to see that he got in here to talk to you tonight,” he admitted, flinging open the door to reveal a casually attired, devastatingly handsome Jason Kane on the doorstep. “Bye-bye, sweetie.” He turned and winked at her. “You, too, Callie.”
“Quite an exit,” Jason said, standing just inside the open doorway as if he actually meant to give her a choice about whether he stayed or went.
“Quite an entrance,” she retorted. “I’m not sure which of you has better timing.”
Hands shoved in his pockets, Jason rocked back on his heels and surveyed the room. “I see you got the flowers.”
“Yes, thank you,” she said politely. “I’ve been meaning to call.”
“But you were afraid to risk another round with my powers of persuasion,” he suggested.
“I was busy,” she corrected defensively, knowing that he was exactly right. She hadn’t wanted another encounter with the kind of temptation Jason Kane represented. It would be too easy to get swept up in the glamorous world he was offering her. Her inbred puritanical ethic required that success come through hard work, not some ridiculous fluke. She wasn’t too crazy about testing his impact on her senses, either. She hadn’t needed Terry’s warning to know that Jason Kane was a dangerous man.
“New job keeping you busy?” he inquired.
“No.” She had to fight to keep a defensive note from her voice.
“Volunteer work, perhaps?”
“No.”
“A new relationship?”
There was a dark glint in his eyes with that last one. Callie shuddered and reminded herself never to cross Jason Kane.
“I’m sure you have more important things to worry about than how I spend my days,” she said.
“Not lately, as a matter of fact. Recently you’ve become my number-one priority.”
“Why doesn’t that reassure me?” she muttered under her breath. She glanced up to find amusement dancing in his gray eyes. He was clearly enjoying this cat-and-mouse game they were playing. She found that extremely irritating.
“Don’t you have a home to get to?” she inquired testily, though she’d already gathered from Terry that Jason did not. Of course, that didn’t mean that he hadn’t once had a marriage that had fallen victim to the obsessive work habits she was beginning to suspect he had.
“Maybe some little kids who miss their daddy and are waiting to be tucked in?” she added hopefully.
He shook his head. “Nope. I’m free as a bird. I thought maybe we could take a little stroll over by Central Park. You look as if you could use a little fresh air, maybe some exercise.”
“Do you moonlight as a personal trainer?”
“Only when I anticipate great rewards for my efforts.”
“I don’t do aerobics.”
“You should. It relieves stress.” He shrugged. “Of course, so does sex.” He eyed her hopefully. “Would you prefer that?”
Callie met his gaze evenly. “I doubt you could keep up with me.”
He chuckled. “Now, that, Miss Calliope Jane Smith, is a very dangerous dare.”
He wasn’t telling her anything she hadn’t guessed the minute the words were out of her mouth. She couldn’t imagine what had come over her. She did not engage in provocative repartee with men who were virtual strangers. She didn’t engage in such banter with anyone, except perhaps for Terry, but he hardly counted. He was her buddy. They’d been taunting each other from the day he’d moved in downstairs. It had driven her homophobic husband batty. She couldn’t classify Jason Kane in the same category as either Terry or the departed Chadwick Smith III. He clearly might take her up on her challenge. It was too late, though, to back down.
“I suppose that depends on which of us has the most at risk,” she countered.
“An interesting way of looking at it,” he said. “So, what about that walk? Maybe dinner. A little pleasant conversation.”
“About?”
“You are a suspicious little thing, aren’t you? Do you think I have an ulterior motive for showing up here?”
“Of course. You probably have those contracts you want me to sign tucked in your back pocket. You’ll wait till I’ve had a few glasses of wine, then pluck them out, hand me a pen and, bam, I’ll be yours.”
He held his arms up in the air. “Care to frisk me?”
She chuckled to spite herself. “You’d love that, wouldn’t you?”
“You bet.” He grinned. “So would you.”
Callie shook her head, feigning awe. “I didn’t know it was possible for an ego to get so huge without exploding from all the hot air.”
“Perhaps you should make it your mission to cut me down to size,” he said, reaching down to grab her hand and help her up from the sofa. “Come on, it’ll be more fun than sitting here wallowing in self-pity all night.”
“I do not wallow in self-pity,” she grumbled, but she didn’t resist nearly as hard as she should have. She was still muttering about his arrogance as they passed by Terry’s open door two flights down.
“Behave outrageously, darlings,” he called out. “I’ll be waiting up to hear all about it when you come in.”
Jason tucked her arm through his. “I guess we’ll have to work really hard to make his wait worthwhile.”
“You wish,” Callie muttered.
She waited all evening for Jason to bring up the job on Within Our Reach, but he never once mentioned the show. Instead, he deliberately baited her about everything. There wasn’t an opinion she held about which he didn’t claim to believe the opposite. She was so riled up by the time they’d finished dinner, it was a wonder she didn’t have serious heartburn.
“Do you