Date Shark (18 page)

“Eli!” She grinned up at him. “What are you doing here?”

“I was on this side of town and thought you might want to have lunch.”

“You’re so sweet,” she said. Then her face scrunched as she peered back at her desk. For a moment Eli worried she would refuse him. Then she shook off her mental to-do list and grabbed her purse. “It can wait,” she said to whatever it was she happened to be abandoning. “Where should we go?”

“Are we still trying new things?” Eli asked, smiling as well.

Leila laughed. “Sure, why not.”

“I have the perfect place, then. There is a charming Japanese tea house not too far from here.”

“That sounds perfect.”

All during the drive to the tea house, throughout lunch, all Eli could think about was what Vance had said. Did Leila really wish their relationship were different? He found himself studying her smiles, memorizing the brief moments they would touch, the tone of her voice when she spoke to him. He wanted to find some undeniable indication that Leila was secretly wishing he would dismiss his own advice and admit his true feelings, but every time he thought he was sure, he just as quickly convinced himself that he was only seeing what he wanted to see.

When he drove Leila back to the boutique, she waited for him to come around and open her door. He offered her his hand to help her out of the low riding Audi. When she didn’t immediately release his hand, Eli grew brave. He pulled her closer to him and pressed her into a hug. His breath held for a moment before Leila responded and return the hug wholeheartedly. When Leila pulled back she was smiling softly and holding his gaze.

“Thank you for lunch, Eli. I loved the tea house.”

“Thank you for coming with me.”

They stood in front of the boutique, closer than they usually stood, saying nothing. Eli kept thinking the moment would become awkward and Leila would pull away. He knew he should be the one to step back before they got to that point, but he couldn’t force himself to break contact. The way one corner of her mouth was pulled up in a content smile had him captivated. He wanted to take her back into his arms. He wanted to kiss her and hold her. His body ached to feel her pressed against him again.

Leila was the first to speak, her reluctance at ending the moment clear in her voice. “I’m expecting a call from the newspaper in five minutes, or …”

“I have a patient at one-thirty as well,” Eli said, finally taking that treacherous step back.

“I hope I haven’t made you late,” Leila said apologetically.

“Not at all.”

Leila smiled and surprised Eli by hugging him again. It was a soul-stealing moment and Eli was too weak to resist. He dropped a brief kiss on her cheek before breaking away and sending her off to talk to the newspaper. He tried not to read too much into the way Leila’s fingers touched her cheek after she turned away. When she looked back at him before going inside, he told himself it didn’t mean anything. He worked to convince himself that taking Vance’s advice would be a bad idea, but the more he thought about Leila, the harder it was to listen to himself.

Chapter 15

Pink Elephants on Parade

Leila stared at the massive climbing wall in front of her and started shaking her head. Luke was talking to one of the friends they were meeting who had just arrived and didn’t notice her trepidation until she started backing away. The sight of her getting ready to bolt for the door was apparently enough to break him away from his conversation. Luke practically dove for her hand.

“Where are you going?” he asked.

His friend was staring at them with a somewhat baffled expression. Leila didn’t care. She was not getting near that thing. Vocalizing just how much she hated the idea of climbing anything higher than a step stool wasn’t easy. All she could do was continue to shake her head as her chest tightened in fear.

“Leila,” Luke repeated, “what’s wrong? You’re starting to freak me out.”

The concern in his voice loosened Leila’s throat enough to say, “I can’t do that.”

“Climb the wall? Sure you can. I’ll help you.”

Her head shook faster. “No. I can’t. No way. I’m not getting on that. No.”

It irritated Leila quite a bit that Luke started chuckling. He thought her abject fear of high things was funny. Well, she didn’t. Spinning around, she tried to get away from the looming wall. But Luke held on too tightly for her to get away.

“Leila, wait. What’s going on?”

She just wanted to get out of there. She had no interest in climbing, or watching someone else climb and plummet to their death. She wanted to leave. Now. Her breathing started escalating. “Luke, let go of me.”

He didn’t. He pulled her against his chest and wrapped his arms around her trembling body. “You’re shaking!” he said, startled. “Are you really that scared?”

“Obviously I’m scared,” she snapped. Instantly, she regretted her harsh words, but she was frustrated he had brought her there, upset he hadn’t warned her, furious at herself for being so weak.

“Are you afraid of heights?” he asked. His voice was concerned despite her wicked tongue, which only made Leila feel worse.

Her hands gripped his shirt as she buried her face against his chest. “Terrified,” she admitted, mortified at her frailty.

“You’ll have a harness and rope around you the entire time,” Luke said trying to persuade her. “You’ll be perfectly safe. I won’t let you fall.”

“I don’t care. I can’t do this.”

Pushing her back just enough that they could walk without tripping over each other, Luke led her over to a bench. Leila collapsed as soon as she was near enough. Her hands were still shaking. She couldn’t seem to get them to stop.

“Take a deep breath. Calm yourself down, okay? Let’s talk about this,” Luke begged.

She tried. She really tried. The fact that a monstrous tower of death was lurking behind her every second made that impossible. “I need to go home,” Leila said as she wrapped her arms around her body.

“I’ve been doing this since I was a teenager. There are certified instructors here to help you, too. You’re going to be perfectly safe. You can go as high as you want to. Nobody will try to make you go any higher than you feel comfortable,” Luke assured her.

Didn’t he understand that two feet off the ground was too high for her? There was no way he was ever getting her to climb that thing. “I don’t want to climb at all,” Leila argued.

Luke frowned. She could tell her was frustrated with her, and she felt badly that she was ruining their date, but there was just no way she would ever be able to do this.

“Okay, what about bouldering?” Luke asked.

She was almost afraid to ask, but she did anyway. “What’s that?”

“It’s where you climb around just on the bottom portion. You hardly even go up at all. You follow the colored paths around the base. You don’t even have to use the rope.” He looked so hopeful as he said this. Leila wanted to throw up.

“No rope?” she squeaked in horror.

Luke stared at her. He didn’t seem to know what to say to her. In Leila’s head she knew she was being ridiculous. That hardly helped her get over her fear, though. “Luke,” she said as calmly as she could manage, “I’m not going anywhere near that wall.”

“But this is the first time we’ve hung out with Rick and Andrew. They want to meet you. I thought you wanted to meet some of my friends, too.” His voice was dangerously close to whining, but Leila could hardly blame him.

“I do want to meet them, Luke, but I am not climbing. No. I won’t.”

Luke ran a hand through his hair. “Come on, Leila. It’s not that bad. Don’t you trust me to keep you safe?”

She shook her head, which obviously hurt his feelings, but it was the truth. “When it comes to heights, I don’t trust anyone. I’m not doing it.”

Feeling a little calmer and more in control now that she had made her objections very, very clear, Leila stood. Luke jumped up as well. “You’re not leaving, are you?”

“Yes.”

“But …” He glanced over at Rick and Andrew who looked confused and irritated that they were still standing there waiting for us. Luke glanced back at Leila. She knew he had been looking forward to seeing his friends. Andrew didn’t live in town, and Rick was a travel writer that spent more time away from Chicago than in it. Leila’s head was beginning to hurt, and she desperately wanted to leave. She decided to make it easy on Luke.

“I’m going, but you should stay. Tell them I’m sick. Or tell them I’m a huge chicken and won’t get within ten feet of a climbing wall. I don’t care. Either way, I’m going home.”

“Leila, I don’t want you to go. Won’t you at least stay and hang out? You don’t have to climb. I promise I won’t try to change your mind.” His puppy dog eyes were not going to budge her an inch this time.

That squirmy icky feeling that was a sure sign of her
last meal coming up started building in the pit of her stomach. Leila shook her head quickly. “Watching you climb would be even worse. I would be sick the entire time thinking you might get hurt.”

“I’m not going to get hurt,” Luke argued.

Leila took a deep breath. “I’m going home, Luke. I’m sorry.”

She turned and began walking away. At the least she knew she should have taken the time to introduce herself to Rick and Andrew, but they were still standing right next to the wall. She made it to the lobby doors before Luke caught back up with her.

“Leila, wait.”

She stopped, but didn’t turn around for fear of seeing the wall again. Luke bounded around in front of her and took her hands in his. “Leila, I’m sorry. I should have asked you before I planned this. I had no idea you were scared of heights.”

Leila sighed. “I know you didn’t. I should have mentioned it, I guess. It just never crossed my mind.”

“Are you angry with me?” Luke asked, his fingers sliding around her waist.

“No, of course not.” Leila felt some of her tension slip away as he pulled her against him.

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

One of Luke’s hands came up to tangle in her chestnut hair. The caress of his fingers did wonders for her anxiety. “But you won’t stay?” he asked again.

“No.”

Disappointment and bit of lingering frustration echoed in his sigh, but Luke didn’t push her. “Can I call you later?”

“Definitely.”

Luke perked up a bit. His mouth split in a slow smile. The space that had remained between their two bodies disappeared completely. The wall was beginning to fade from Leila’s mind. “I’m sorry about tonight,” Luke said.

“Me too.”

“Do you have any other deep seeded fears I should know about?” Luke asked with a smile. “I’d like to avoid situations like this in the future.”

“I don’t do well with elephants,” she said, “and this isn’t a fear, but I should probably tell you I’m allergic to strawberries.”

“Elephants and strawberries. Duly noted.” Luke’s smile turned seductive. His thumb stroked from her ear to her lips in a soft, lazy way that brought heat to her stomach. “That’s really too bad about the strawberries. There are some interesting ways to eat them.”

Not that Leila had any intention of letting Luke eat any type of food off her bare body in the near future, but she could feel her skin flushing to what was probably a very good impression of a strawberry. The effect made Luke laugh.

“You are so beautiful,” he said. “Do you know that?”

Leila was saved from having to answer when Luke leaned toward her. She froze as his lips met hers. It was a momentary failing on her part. A second later, once the surprise wore off and the rush of adrenaline started racing through her veins Leila returned his gentle kiss. She was smiling when he pulled back.

“I’ll call you later, okay?” Luke said.

Leila nodded.

One more light kiss, and Luke released her from his enticing hold. The walk back out to her car was unhurried. She slipped into the driver’s seat and sat staring out the window. It had been a while since she had been kissed like that. Not since college, she was sad to admit. But as Leila sat in her car, she was really quieted when a thought whispered into her mind that Luke’s kiss wasn’t the only one she had received that day. Her fingers rested against her cheek where Eli, and not Luke, had kissed her earlier.

Before Leila realized what she was doing she had pulled into traffic, but not in the direction of her apartment. She was sure Eli would want to know that she had stood up to Luke when confronted with an adventure she wasn’t ready for, and he had said she could come by any time. Sure, she could have called him easily enough, but she rationalized that she was near enough to his apartment that stopping by made just as much sense. She was parking in one of the parking spaces reserved for visitors before she could talk herself out it.

Her plan was almost stymied when she entered the building through the street entrance rather than the resident entrance Eli had taken her through before the symphony. The doorman looked polite enough, but he had surprised her when he asked who she was there to visit. Part of Leila feared, for some reason, that he wouldn’t let her up. Perhaps he would recognize that Leila didn’t belong in this building.

After looking at something on his computer, the doorman smiled at Leila and introduced himself as Howard. “You can go on up, Ms. Sparro.”

“I can?” she asked in surprise. Surely there was more to it than that.

He laughed, but did so politely. “Mr. Walsh left instructions that you were to be admitted any time. The elevators are around the corner to the left.”

“Oh, thank you.” She smiled and followed his directions to the elevator.

A silly sort of satisfaction began to build in Leila’s heart as she rode the ten flights to Eli’s floor. The doorman, Howard, hadn’t batted an eye at the idea that Eli would give her such open ended access. She wasn’t even dressed to look the part of someone who lived in Eli’s building. In running tights and a racer back workout tank top, she was sure she looked rather underdressed. But the doorman seemed to think it was perfectly natural that Leila should be a friend of Eli’s.