She shook her head and turned back to the monitor, hoping to hide the warm flush that had crept up her cheeks. âBut Iâll let you know as soon as I do,â she murmured, closing the document that held the two ads.
Lizbeth started toward the door. âGood luck,â she said, the usual light and teasing tone now gone from her voice. âAll of us are counting on you.â
She closed the door behind her, leaving Nina to her own thoughts. Though the business with Cameron Ryder was urgent, she allowed herself just a few more moments to think about her fantasy man. Maybe if she finished up her research for Charlotte early, sheâd go back to the coffee shop after work. Perhaps, heâd be there, hoping that she might return as well.
And this time, she wouldnât be such a dope. Sheâd catch his eye from across the room. And then sheâd smile, a hesitant, but coy smile, with maybe a hint of surprise. Then a little wave, playful but not too aggressive. After all, she didnât want him to think sheâd come looking for him on purpose. No, it was best to play hard to getâbut not too hard to get.
âSo how do I do that?â
She glanced down at what sheâd pulled from her closet that morning. It wasnât exactly conservative, but she thought it was pretty. âMaybe Mr. Right goes for the kind of woman who wears conservative clothes and spends more than a few minutes making herself look pretty in the morning,â she murmured, worrying over a loose thread on her jacket. She tugged on it and a button went flying across the room.
Yeah, she was smooth all right. For all she knew, Mr. Right might have a Ms. Right waiting at home, someone beautiful and sophisticated. He might even be married! Not every man wore a wedding band. Since last night, sheâd spun a whole fantasy around this guy, giving him qualities she wasnât even sure heâd possessed.
âThis is ridiculous,â Nina said. âYour social life is so bad that youâve been reduced to dreaming up a relationship with a complete stranger, turning a few minutes at Jitterbugâs into two kids, a dog and a three-bedroom house in Jersey.â
With a soft oath, she brought up the computer screen that held her two ads. Pounding furiously on the Delete key, she erased her âCoffee Collisionâ ad. It was time to stop dreaming and take control of her life. Mr. Right was a silly fantasy. And Mr. Right Now would have to wait until after this crisis with NightRyder was solved. For the next few days, sheâd have to focus all her time and energy on just one manâthe mysterious and very dangerous Cameron Ryder.
THE MARCH WEATHER had turned brisk again, a cold, damp wind swirling around the city and smelling of a late season snow. Cameron pulled his leather jacket closed as he stepped out of the cab in front of the coffee shop. He stood for a long moment on the sidewalk, trying to decide whether to venture inside. The windows were fogged and the sound of music drifted out every time the door was opened, but he waited.
He wasnât really sure why heâd come. Heâd already decided not to use Nina Forrester for information about Attitudes magazine. Too many complications. Yet, he had still made a simple phone call to the magazine and learned she was a fact checker, a job that probably didnât put her in daily contact with the editor and publisher, Charlotte Danforth, anyway. The information she might be able to provide would be marginally valuable at bestâor thatâs what he chose to tell himself.
âSo why the hell am I here?â Cameron muttered.
Was it curiosity? He couldnât deny that heâd found their little encounter over a cup of coffee surprisingly intriguing. Maybe it was the contradiction, the wide-eyed naif hiding a provocative siren. He reached into his jacket pocket and withdrew the ad sheâd written. If he hadnât taken it from her hand, he never would have put the two together. But then, heâd never been a very astute judge of the female mind. For a guy who didnât have a real date until he was a junior in college, Cameron Ryder had been forced to learn fast, leaving several very pronounced gaps in his studies.
There had been women, a fair number of them since heâd started NightRyder, but never anything serious. He thought back to his days in college, to the fantasies of beautiful, sexy women, blond and leggy, with tanned and trainer-toned bodies. They were every misfitâs dream and over the past five years heâd datedâand beddedâa string of them.
But somehow, the reality had never lived up to the fantasy. Though many of the women were nice enough, there was nothing beyond the gorgeous bodies except the desire to capture a wealthy and powerful man. More and more, heâd found himself playing the role theyâd wanted to him play, pretending to be someone he could never be, smooth and sophisticated, yet caught in a series of empty relationships.
So heâd stopped dating months ago, instead putting his energy back into the business. Nina Forrester was the first woman heâd found even remotely interesting in all that time. He exhaled, his breath clouding in front of his face, then pulled the door open. He hadnât been inside more than a few moments before he saw her. She was sitting at a table over in the corner. She turned to look at some papers sheâd spread in front of her and he silently studied her profileâthe pretty nose, the lush lips, the golden hair that framed her face in soft tendrils.
Without thinking, he crossed the room and came to a stop beside her table. Suddenly, he wasnât quite sure what to say. He felt as if heâd been transported back to that awful moment in high school when heâd worked up the nerve to ask the prettiest cheerleader out on a date, only to have her laugh in his face.
Cameron swallowed hard. âI owe you a cup of coffee.â
She looked up and for an instant, he thought he saw delight in her pretty blue eyes and a tiny trace of a smile curling her lips. âHi,â she said, her voice breathless with surprise. She stood up quickly, knocking her hip against the table and nearly spilling her cup of coffee in the process. âWhat are you doing here?â
Cameron knew enough about women to play it cool. âI was just passing by and thought Iâd give the coffee another try.â
âOh, right,â she said, a nervous twitch of her lips passing for a smile. âI guess you didnât get much of a taste of it last night.â She paused. âI should buy you a cup.â She motioned to the second chair at her table. âWhy donât you sit down.â Without another word, she hurried off. But a few seconds later, she returned, her face colored with a pretty blush. âHow do take your coffee?â she asked.
âWith just a little cream,â Cameron replied, slipping out of his jacket. He watched her return to the counter, then sat down and waited. When she came back with his coffee, he stood and pulled out her chair. But as she sat down, she caught her elbow on his arm and half the coffee spilled all over her papers.
âOh, no!â she cried.
Cameron grabbed the cup from her hand just as it was about to dump all over his sleeve, then set it down. He handed her a stack of napkins. âYou are a menace with a cup of coffee,â he teased. âMaybe we should stick to tea.â
Nina mopped up the coffee on her side of the table, then glanced up at him, gracing him with one of the most beautiful smiles heâd ever seen. âMaybe we should. Maybe itâs like that movie. Iâm doomed to repeat the same clumsy mistakes over and over, every time we meet.â
âWell, I made sure to dress in brown,â he said, indicating
