“You drive me crazy.”
He grinned. “I know. Isn’t it great?”
When they’d finished lunch and she’d badgered him into paying, he stood and she pushed back from the table. Zane paused to watch the men in the restaurant.
None of them had noticed the sleek wheelchair. Nicki had hers specially made by a guy in California. It was lightweight, made to fit her slender body and more low-profile than most.
The college guys exchanged a look of surprise, shrugged and continued to stare. One of the businessmen turned away, but the other looked as if his eyes were about to fall out. Just as he’d thought. Most of them didn’t care.
He followed her into the parking lot. She hit the remote on her key chain, which activated the special motor installed in back. The rear doors of the van opened and a ramp lowered. Nicki rolled onto it and rose to level with the back of the vehicle. While he slid into the passenger side, she secured the back doors and moved in behind the steering wheel. Special grooves locked her chair into place and a custom-built harness acted as a seat belt. She started the engine.
“They were still looking,” he said conversationally.
“I’m not,” she told him.
“Brad isn’t all that.”
She sighed. “Boyd, Zane. His name is Boyd. You’ll be meeting him in a couple of nights at the Morgans’ party. Please try to remember his name by then.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“Who are you bringing? Miss Apple Festival?”
He shrugged. Currently he was between women. Oddly enough, he was in no hurry to find a new one, either. He glanced at Nicki. The two of them had never been uninvolved at the same time. Not that he would ask her out if they were. Nicki was…
He glanced out the window. Nicki was special. She mattered to him and he made it a rule to never get involved with anyone fitting that description. Not again.
Chapter Two
“So the guy says, ‘It’s only a parrot.’” Rob, one of the burly bodyguards employed by the company laughed as he finished telling his joke.
Nicki rolled her eyes and smiled. Rob loved telling jokes nearly as much as he loved puns. At times conversations with him were physically painful as he went from pun to pun.
“You’re not sweating, Nicki,” Ted called. “I want to see you sweat.”
“Bite me,” Nicki yelled back as she picked up the pace on the recumbent bike. Her thigh muscles ached, but in a good way. As for sweat, there was a river of it pouring down her back.
She hated aerobics. Oh sure, they were good for her heart and probably added years to her life, but she loathed them with a cheerful intensity that never faded. Unlike Zane, who thought all forms of physical activity were pure play.
Speaking of which, he chose that moment to stroll into the company gym. The bodyguards called out a greeting. Nicki ignored him because looking at him would spike her blood pressure and set off alarms.
But as he approached, she couldn’t resist a quick peek at his long bare legs, the loose gym shorts and cutoff T-shirt that exposed way too much flat, sculpted tummy. The man had a serious body.
She would have accepted that with good grace if she’d been able to study it impersonally. As if he were nothing more than fine art. Very fine art. But what she resented most was her visceral reaction to that A+ set of abs. She wanted. Yup, physical cravings set in that made the PMS need for chocolate seem wimpy by comparison.
“Hey,” he said as he slumped down into her wheelchair. “You’re not sweating.”
“That’s what I said,” Ted told him as he straightened and grabbed a towel. “The girl’s loafing.”
“The woman is busting her butt,” Nicki complained.
Zane ignored her. “I called you last night and you were out. How’s Brad?”
His hips were narrow enough to allow him to easily fit on her custom seat, but his legs were miles too long. He stretched them out in front of him and rested his heels on the hardwood floor.
“Boyd is doing great,” she said. “Thanks for asking. But I didn’t see him last night.”
“So where were you?”
“So why do you get to know?”
He grinned. “Because I’m fifteen kinds of charming and you adore me.”
He had that one nailed.
“I was at the bookstore.”
“Why not with your computer geek?”
“He’s in the middle of a big project right now.”
Zane looked anything but convinced. “Sure he is. You’re bored. Admit. You think he’s tedious.”
“I think you’re overcompensating because of personal inadequacy.”
Rob and Ted finished their workouts and left. Zane glanced at the timer on her bike’s program. “Your mom sent me cookies.”
“She mentioned she was going to.”
Nicki found a certain amount of irony in the fact that her parents were nearly as taken with Zane as she was. Maybe it was something genetic. A weakness in the Beauman family tree.
“So when are they coming up for a visit?” he asked.
“Probably not until the holidays. They’re taking off for a cruise in Australia and New Zealand at the end of the month. It’s fall here, but spring down under.”
“You need to have me over for dinner while they’re here. I like your folks.”
“Me, too.”
He grinned.
What the man could do to her with just a smile.
“Is their remodeling finished?” he asked.
“Just about. Mom promised the guest room would be done in time for my next visit.”
Nicki had been a change-of-life baby and a surprise for a couple who had given up hope of ever having a child. As such, she’d been doted on from birth. Despite their devotion, they’d been ready to retire as she finished college. They’d left Seattle for the sunny warmth of Tucson, which gave her a good excuse to flee the incessant rain every winter.
“Maybe I’ll swing down and visit them sometime,” he said.
“They’d like that.”
Her mother especially. While Muriel Beauman would have adored Zane for his own sake, she had a special place in her heart for him because
