in her ear with his customary cheerfulness, when the other man backed off to find another, more willing candidate. “He won’t bother you again.”
“I was handling it, you know,” she remarked, but with little of her normal acerbity.
Even so, his smile faded a little. He shrugged. “I knew you’d annihilate him—but I didn’t want your rep to suffer. At least if he takes you on now, it’s for your skills alone.”
She opened her mouth, but somehow only two words came out. “Thank you.” Her voice sounded odd. Husky. Feminine. Her gaze remained glued to him, and she felt so—breathless. “That was…good of you.” What did you say when someone helped you out? It had happened so rarely for her, she had no idea.
After a moment, his smile returned, and it was warm, intimate again. “You’re welcome, Danni. Just consider it my good deed for the day.”
“The original boy scout.” But again, she didn’t sound sarcastic; she sounded—ack—breathless. Feminine. Where had all her clever lines disappeared to? “I owe you one.”
Why had she said that? It was a blatant invitation for the usual male sleaze to head her way as he came onto her….
Oh, get real, this is Jim Haskell! He wouldn’t know how to be sleazy.
As if on cue, he grinned, those big, chocolate eyes of his filled with the smile no woman could ever think of as insinuating. “Don’t get your knickers in a twist. You’ll find a way to give back one day. You couldn’t stand to be in anyone’s debt for long.”
She gasped in a short breath, and choked on a laugh, but she didn’t know if it was because he hadn’t hit on her, or in amazement that he’d read her like a book. And the honesty she rarely showed with men came out of hiding. “You’re right. How about—” Oh, man, was she really going to say this? Without even knowing she did it, she’d reached for his hand, her fingers twining through his. “How about dinner tonight?”
She held her breath, waiting…her mind spinning. Had she really asked a man out? Asked Jim out?
Please don’t say no. Look at me and see this is a never-before event for me….
The rush of exhilaration filled her, just thinking he might say yes. She didn’t question why it was so important to her, knew only that it was. Staring up at him, she saw the change. The tiny frown gathered on his brow; backing off before she released his hand, he unintentionally jerked her toward him. “Sorry, but my family’s here—” waving at the sea of people off to the left “—and we’re heading out for a family celebration. First alma mater in the family, and all that. I’m sure your family’s here, too. Bad timing. Maybe another time, eh? You have a good one, Danni.”
With a grin and a wave he walked away, leaving Danni staring after him.
CHAPTER ONE
Thommo’s Steak House, Bathurst, two years later
FINALLY, TWO YEARS AFTER the rest of her class, his best friend had graduated—and all her friends and family, including her husband and daughter, were here to celebrate the event.
After years of thinking Laila was the woman for him, Jim had wondered how he’d feel, seeing her as another man’s wife, a mother, and pregnant again.
Now he knew.
The last flare of useless wishes and longings had ended three years ago, when he’d met Jake Sutherland, and known he was the man for her—so he’d helped them come together. His smile tonight was one of genuine joy for her happiness. He wished Laila the best in life, as he did for his sisters—and he knew she had it.
If he wondered when it’d be his turn, when he’d find a woman he truly cared for from the heart, who could love him back…well, that was natural, right? He was from a big, happy family, and he’d always wanted that kind of love and stability for himself.
A shame all he’d got the past few years was the kind of fun-time girls who filled hours, not his life or heart. Why was it that the women who chased him were lightweights, and the women he really wanted, the kind of girls he could take home to meet the family, always saw him as a brother?
“I’m out. I’m getting some real action.”
With a tiny start, he remembered he’d brought Shana tonight. He almost rolled his eyes at her terminology—Shana was twenty-two, but had an addiction to Hollywood teen flicks. He’d only brought her because she’d never been to Bathurst, and she’d begged to come.
Nice kid, but a lightweight, as always.
“Sorry, Shana. I guess it’s rough when you don’t know anyone,” he offered, knowing it sounded lame.
Her pretty, over-made-up face was pouting. “Even rougher when your date can’t take his eyes off another girl,” she muttered, for his ears alone.
Jim frowned. “It’s her night. She’s my best friend, and graduated two years after the rest of us. It’s only right she gets the attention. For Pete’s sake, she’s a married woman!”
Shana’s brows lifted. “Who, the brunette across from you?”
A lightning-fast streak ran through him, a frisson of something—he didn’t know what. Slowly, almost disbelieving, he turned around.
Danni Morrison was sitting across from him.
He’d been looking at Danni? Danni with the smart mouth and the bitter disgust of all men? Why on earth would he be looking at her?
Funny, but now he was looking, it felt natural—as if he’d been watching her so long that she’d slid into his comfort zone.
No. He could never call anything about Danni comfortable. Especially not the reaction his body was having to her soft, haunting face. More than pretty, not quite lovely, but delicate, dark and wistful, he knew if he ever had to describe her to an artist, he could have recalled each feature. He could have done so any time in the past ten years.
Why, he didn’t know; she’d never treated him with anything but disdain and sarcasm. After ten years he knew almost nothing about her—she’d never let any guy close enough to her to know her. What he did know of her made him certain she wasn’t the sort of woman he’d want in his life. He’d always hated the kind of mordant sarcasm she used as a protective shell around her.
Yet, he could drink in her face all night and never tire of it.
Had he been staring at her all night without being aware of it? It seemed ridiculous to him, yet he was doing it now, and it didn’t feel like the first time.
“Yeah, good luck with that,” came the quiet, mocking voice in his ear. “I’d never have thought a human battlefield was your type. I’m off to find a nightclub. I’ll get my own way back home.”
Shana picked up her bag and walked out. Jim knew he should call her back, or at least offer to drive her somewhere, but his manners had deserted him. He was too stunned by the fact that he couldn’t stop staring at the woman across from him.
Danni shifted on her seat and frowned at her plate of baked vegetables as if she sensed his gaze, or his inner disquiet. Or
