Stephanie Evanovich - The Sweet Spot

He held her hand as he drove her home, and she let him, though she wasn’t sure why. It felt wrong to encourage him only to leave him hanging when they said good night. There was no way she was going to invite him in. If he and his magic magnetism got past her threshold, she’d be a goner.

But he didn’t ask to come in. He didn’t even suggest it. When they reached her door, she had already fully prepared her excuses, but none was required.

“I had a great time tonight,” he said politely. “Thanks for a wonderful evening.”

Once again, he had thrown her a curve. “I did, too,” she murmured.

His hand reached out to brush his knuckles across her cheek. When she didn’t protest, he cupped her face in his hand and bent his head down, bringing his lips to hers.

The kiss was warm and gentle. He took his time, savoring it. His mouth opened slightly, but his tongue didn’t probe. Instead, Chase softly drew the breath right out of her. She couldn’t recall anything quite like it. The man knew how to kiss. And then it was over. He pulled away to stand up straight and she swallowed a mouthful of disappointment that it ended.

“I’ll see you when I get back on Friday. Keep my barstool warm?” he said.

She nodded, still trying to catch her breath and wishing that he would kiss her again. And it was a wish that he fulfilled, but this time quickly, mostly because he couldn’t stop himself from stealing one more taste of her delicious lips. And then, as if by magic, he was gone and she was standing alone in her living room. She didn’t remember saying that final good-bye or opening the door. Chase Walker’s kiss had nearly caused her to black out. All her excuses were silenced by the memory of it; her logical reasoning was nothing more than white noise. But of two things she was certain: The time had come for her to begin her quest in earnest to find his fatal flaw. And she couldn’t wait for Friday.

WHILE IN CLEVELAND, Chase called Amanda every day. When she was too busy to talk, he also began to text. He sent a random stream of amusing anecdotes about his travels or questions about how her day was going. His texts were playful but benign, no requests for sexting or even a hint of impropriety. But before her day was over, without fail, the same text arrived, often right before she got into bed: “Sleep well, angel, miss you.”

She spent all her free time researching him. As soon as she entered his name in her browser’s search engine, she had a plethora of ways to peek into his world. Countless glimpses into his history and his lifestyle were made available with a single keystroke. Like her, Chase was an only child, which seemed unusual for a farmer’s son, unlike her upbringing, which Amanda had surmised was a case of two career-driven people who thought procreation was expected of them, at least once. Upon further investigation, she uncovered that while he was growing up, his parents ran free summer camps out of their farm for urban youth designed to introduce them to animals and teach them about agriculture. They took in foster children and sponsored local athletic programs. His mother won national awards for her volunteer work. On his own, he was charitable almost to a fault, his focus mostly on family issues; literacy, terminally ill children, and wounded veterans in particular. There were no stories of mayhem or debauchery, no reports of him partying too hard or getting into bar fights. He was never busted for drunk driving or trashing a hotel room. He had no axes to grind with other baseball players or team management or celebrities. As far as Amanda could tell, Chase Walker appeared to be the offspring of Gandhi and Mother Teresa.

It was maddening. The flaw had to be somewhere. It seemed silly to take comfort in thinking that maybe he was a Satan worshipper or spent his off-season participating in human sacrifices.

He did seem to like his women, though, and there were plenty of pictures to prove it. She scrolled through hundreds of photos posted to the web. There were dozens of him with the actress she already knew about, but there were also ones with pop stars, models, and baseball fans, his arm always curled around their waists and his smile a clear indicator that he didn’t mind the closeness. And at the end of that arm was the same hand that had held hers when they danced and brushed against her cheek.

It was terribly disconcerting that she did mind. As the days wore on and she continued to peruse the women he’d dated, Amanda realized that she minded very much. Maybe that was it? He really was a womanizer who collected orgasms like he did awards. But while he had all the makings of a playboy, it was completely contradictory. He was just too attentive and accessible. That could be his modus operandi; shower with attention until the mission is accomplished, then on to the next conquest. And then she thought that maybe it would be best if she got her fling over with so she could be free of him. Amanda did have several casual hookups on her sexual resume, the result of her being single-minded on the success of the Cold Creek and unwilling to commit to potential long-term boyfriends who were too eager to give her unsolicited business advice. When she was first starting out, it was easy to shake her. She was too strong in her business decisions now to ever consider a man’s opinion a challenge, and had several failed relationships to prove it. But she had made an error. She should’ve had her one-night stand that first night, before he started turning on the charm. When he stopped doing all the little things that had romance written all over them she knew the outcome wouldn’t be the same. And overruling all logical thought was, she wanted to try out his kiss again. She got the distinct impression that letting Chase have her body would result in her wanting him to have her heart and soul, and that was a losing proposition.

As she continued to browse and discover, she began to conjure mental images of Chase seducing and deflowering virgins and swinging from the rafters with prostitutes, all with Earth, Wind & Fire playing in the background. Jealousy mounted and then turned irrational. By the time he surprised her and showed up on his way to the stadium before his Friday-night home game, unwilling to wait until after it to see her, she didn’t know whether to throw herself into his arms or slug him.

Because the restaurant was already open and there were witnesses around, she refrained from doing either.

“If you’re in this to add me to a list of conquests, turn around and leave right now,” she hissed quietly at him from across the podium where she was standing as soon as he walked in.

He looked momentarily shocked, and then the smile appeared.

“Either you’ve been doing some homework while I was gone or your workstation is the portal to hell.” He chuckled, delighted by her outburst. “You get pretty brazen behind that thing.”

He got as close as he could to her, much closer than the last time he did it with the podium still between them. “Over the years, I’ve gotten very good at reading signs. You sound jealous, and I think it’s adorable,” he whispered, then pulled back enough for her to see him raising both his eyebrows, daring her to dispute it.

She didn’t answer him because she didn’t know how, and he had just prevented her from making a scene. She did sound jealous, because she was. It was unsettling, having to acknowledge that whenever she was in his presence, she was so willing to forsake her good manners and instead become bitchy and shrewlike. Since meeting him, she had slowly become a walking contradiction. One she had moved to blaming on that first kiss, which still made her tingle. Why was she so dead-set denying the attraction to him? Maybe it was time to just sit back and enjoy the attention, but be mindful that it was most likely temporary. If promiscuity was his flaw, it was sure to show itself. And if she didn’t just hop into bed with him, it was likely to show itself sooner rather than later. He had already wedged himself into her life.

“I can’t keep fighting you, Chase, but I’m scared to death you’re going to use me,” she said, finally blurting out the confession.

He straightened back up and looked down at her from across the podium, shaking his head. “What’s it going to take for me to prove to you I’m not that guy? I think I’m in this one for the long haul.”

He had already proven it, in every conversation they’d had and every overture he’d made. She glanced past him and saw a party of four waiting patiently to be seated. She could tell they knew exactly who he was, with only having the back of him to go by. She saw the two camera phones ready for when he turned around.

“I need to go slow,” she murmured.

“However long it takes,” he promised.

“Will you be back after your game?”

He merely smiled before turning and getting ready to have his picture taken. “Silly question.”

THEY BEGAN DATING AND THE game changed. She dropped the attitude and focused on enjoying his company. That following Monday and Tuesday, she tagged along with Chase on some of his routine. She went with him to the gym, and won what she secretly named “the eye-candy sweepstakes.” Chase’s friend Logan Montgomery was also his personal trainer. She used a treadmill while the pair worked out in Logan’s private Englewood facility, and she tried to keep from ogling the men as they pumped iron. Not that the beautiful Logan could hold a candle to Chase’s rugged athleticism. But it couldn’t be denied, the view was spectacular. It also confirmed that he really was strong enough to hold her over his head. Chase knew how to beast up a weight bench. The only way it could’ve gotten any better was if the whole workout was done with both of them naked; however, seeing them in shorts and T-shirts gave her imagination a good sweat.