THE CRITIC (9 page)

Jared saw the small smile that played around Toreas’s mouth and knew she was probably at least halfway kidding but he wasn’t quite sure. He decided to switch again. “Does this apply to married couples or couples with commitments?”

“Most definitely to both. Married women are the ones who have to know where their husband’s shoes are and give him the confidence to do his job and then listen to him gripe about it on a bad day and praise him on a good day. If the couple’s in a committed relationship it’s still the woman who’s doing all the planning for their future. She’s the one who knows where they’re headed and she has to also make sure her man’s confidence is built up.”

“Isn’t that what a relationship is all about?”

“Ha.”  Toreas pulled away from Jared’s eyes. “Do you really think there is one man in the world who gives to a woman what she gives to him?”

“You sound as if you hate men, Toreas.”

“I don’t hate men,” she answered when she could find her voice. She took another sip of the tea without thinking. “I’m realistic.”

“Do you have a man?”

He was eyeing her, knowing his question was going to make her blush. 
Good,
he thought as he watched her cheeks turn from a faint red to a deep rose.  “Well, To..re..as, do you have a man?”

Toreas groaned. There he went again, making her name sound as if he were whispering it while making love to her. She backed even farther away, her mouth dry in spite of the pungent tea she had neglected to sweeten.

“Mr. Stone, what does any of this have to do with the reason we’re here?”

Jared hesitated, then signaled for the waitress. “Would you like some pie or anything else to eat, drink or taste?” He smiled at her then, having intentionally made the offer sound suggestive.

“No, thank you,” Toreas murmured, not even knowing if he heard.  He was busy turning his charm on the waitress, or so she thought.

Jared still very much had his mind on Toreas Rose. It seemed her hatred of him went beyond the fact that he criticized romance writers.

His whole gender was under attack.  Now for the sake of the male gender he might have to have her twice. No more. There would be danger in more.

He waited until the waitress delivered his pie, aware that his companion was growing more uncomfortable and that he had better find a way to ease the tension.

“You come back on the show, we spar a little, I let up a little. Just a little back and forth good-natured ribbing.  It will help both of our careers.”

Toreas was watching Jared, his lips, his hands, his eyes, and wishing she weren’t attracted to him. Oh, she almost forgot. She wasn’t attracted to him, she just needed him for research.

“Do you call what you’ve been doing good-natured ribbing?  I don’t.” At last some words had managed to come out of her mouth. It almost made Toreas proud.

“Ouch, that hurts.”  Jared tried grinning at her, but could tell that was having no effect. “I thought this meeting was to bury the past.  That will take a little help here. I’m trying, you’re resisting.”

Toreas stared hard at Jared. This time she was the one in control.  She sensed it and liked it. The tables were turned. She was not on his television show.

“If I help you with your show, will you do me a favor?”

I knew it.
E
nough charm and they all come
around eventually
.  “Sure, Toreas. You help me get as much mileage out of this as we can and I’m at your disposal. What do you need?”

I need you to help me with research for my book.”

Jared was smiling. “I’ll be glad to. I’ve worked in several different fields so any questions you want to ask me I feel confident I can answer.”

She imitated Jared’s position by placing her own elbow on the table and leaning her chin into the palm of her hand.  “It’s not a question that I need answered, Mr. Stone.”

Oh, oh.  She was back to Mr. Stone. This didn’t bode well. “Exactly what is it you do need, Toreas?”  This time Jared knew precisely what to do. He leaned in to meet her. She was his.  All he had to do was reel her in.

Look at her
, he thought. S
he’s like a fish on a hook and
I
control her.
He was enjoying this.  So he had something the woman wanted. Now they could deal.

“I want you to make love to me, Mr. Stone.”

Jared was glad he had swallowed his last bite of pie or he surely would have sprayed it across the table. As it was, Toreas had backed away and was calmly wiping her face with her paper napkin. His saliva, no doubt. 

“You want what?”

“I want you to make love to me. Once, Mr. Stone, and only for research.

C
hapter Eight

Jared sat still, sure that he was in shock.  He had to be or else he was losing his hearing.  He mentally calculated his age.  Thirty-four.  Usually too young to lose one’s hearing, but then again, maybe not.

He was now hearing a strange clackety-clack sound coming from under the table.  He narrowed his eyes at Toreas who was sitting across from him.  The most amazing thing of all, she wasn’t blushing.

That proved it.  His hearing was going.  The woman blushed at the mention of an inconsequential kiss.  If he’d heard what he thought he’d heard, she would be beet red.

He stared at her, still hearing the sounds coming from beneath the table.  He looked at her lips and remembered the kiss. Inconsequential his behind.

It was the taste of her lips that had him sitting across from her now wanting her so badly that he’d imagined she’d just given him the keys to the kingdom.

Jared could stand the sound no longer without investigating. “Excuse me,” he said to Toreas and bent his head under the table to see what the racket was.

Her left leg was shaking at least forty miles an hour, he estimated, banging the table. Jared’s mouth fell open as he watched her leg in wonder.  She wasn’t blushing but her leg was about to become unhinged.  He wasn’t losing his hearing. He’d heard her correctly.

He banged his head as he came up from under the table, scowling at his companion.  In the short time he’d known her, the woman had caused several types of pain to different parts of his anatomy.

He drummed his fingers against the table faster and faster.  He was hoping to unnerve her.  It always worked on Derrick.  Nothing.  She sat across from him sipping her tea.  If it wasn’t for that infernal racket she was making with her leg, he would think she was kidding.

It was obvious she wasn’t going to talk, so it was up to him.  “You want me to do what?”

“I want you to make love to me, Mr. Stone. In return, I will go along with your milking this feud. I will return on your program.”

“Lady, are you crazy?  Or are you on something?”

She smiled at him then.
A sweet angelic smile from those lips that had just issued a hellish proposal. He felt a pulling at his groin.  Now he was the one who was crazy.

Okay, time for a little reality check.  He decided to revert to their original formality, which in light of what they were discussing seemed stupid to him.  But he couldn’t call her Toreas without wanting her.

“Ms. Rose, are you asking me to be a male whore?” There now.  Maybe that would shock some sense into her. He pulled his lips into what he hoped was a leer.  He needed to scare some sense into her.

“Male whore?  I never thought of that.” Toreas almost grinned before stopping herself. “But I think I like the sound of it.”

Jared was getting angry.  Toreas was toying with him. “I thought you were serious.  I thought we came here to discuss putting an end to this nonsense.”

“We did. I listened to your proposal and you’ve listened to mine. That’s the deal, Mr. Stone.  Take it or leave it.”

Okay, so she wants to play with me, does she
?  Jared allowed his eyes to travel over her body, undressing her as he went. The task was hard even for his vivid imagination.  It was difficult for him to imagine what lay beneath the bulky sweater and baggy pants.

He was rewarded when he noticed the tinge of color finally coming to her cheeks.  He smiled inwardly and continued his perusal, only more slowly.  He noticed she was staring into her cup.

Just what I thought, a prude
.  “Okay, Ms. Rose, excuse me, Toreas.  I think since I will be helping you-”  He stopped and smiled.  “I should at least continue calling you by your first name.”

Good. Now the ball was back in his possession. This was his game.  So she wanted to mess with his head, did she? 
Well now, we’ll just see who has the last laugh
.

“There’s a motel a couple of doors down the street. We could go there if you like. That is, if you’re finished with your tea.”

He watched as she lifted her eyes to his and replaced her cup on the saucer.

“No, Mr. Stone.  Not today.”

He was enjoying this now.  There was a slight tinge of fear in her voice. 
So she wants to play chicken. Let’s see who backs down first
. “Hey, my schedule is free,” Jared declared. “Right now is as good a time as any.”

He leaned back, grinning broadly at her. “That is, unless you’re afraid, or just messing with my head. If you’re serious, let’s do this thing now.”

“You must be crazy if you think I’d sleep with you without checking out your medical background.”

Toreas’s hand disappeared into her briefcase in the chair beside her.  Jared glanced at it, then her, wondering why he’d not noticed it before.

He frowned as she pulled up at least a twenty page questionnaire and plopped it down in front of him.

“You need to fill this out. Also, I’ll want to make an appointment with my own doctor for you to be tested.”

“You’re asking me to take an AIDS test?”

“Of course, but I also want you tested for venereal disease.” 

Jared glared at the woman.  Now he truly was angry. She had proposed the most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard and now, this. “What about you, Toreas?”  This time he did not caress her name.

“Well, I don’t sleep around. But of course I’ll make an appointment for both of us.”

She was now glaring at him. 
She’s insulted
, he thought. 
Well, I’ll be.  She asks me something like this but she’s insulted that I ask her.
  His anger before had been only on simmer.  Now it was at the boiling point.

Who did she think she was with her holier than thou attitude?  And to just assume he slept around. He was the one who should be insulted.

“I don’t really know you and you’re asking me for what exactly, Toreas, stud services?  Well, who knows how many other men you’ve been with?”

The fingers of her right hand curled into a ball and Jared braced himself, waiting, not believing she had the nerve to be angry.

“I’ve never done this before,” Toreas said softly. “I’ve never propositioned a man before.

“So am I to be your personal guinea pig?  Every time you want to try something new, you’ll call me?  You want to try out a new punch you learn from Kelle and you’ll call me to beat the hell out of me?  Is that the way you see this thing going?”

Jared was furious.  But there was something else. He’d never been this excited about a woman in his entire life. He continued glaring at her but he would give anything right now if she would take him up on his offer to find the nearest motel.

Stop that, Jared.
What was he thinking?  Of course he wasn’t going to sleep with this woman, be her lab rat.  He had some pride.

Yet he couldn’t deny the tightening of his loins, the irresistible urge to take her in his arms and kiss her, really kiss her just to see if she did taste like strawberries.

“Why me, Toreas? Have you been secretly lusting after me?  Is that the real reason you called the station, so it could finally come down to this?”

He was hoping she’d get up and run.  Her face couldn’t be any redder if he’d colored it.  He was amazed. He’d never seen any woman of any race as red as Toreas was at the moment.  He had been right in his assessment before: Romance writers were pure evil, through and through.

Yet here she sat bundled up like Frosty the Snowman. In the midst of people eating around them, just as calmly as you please, she was asking him something no woman ever had. And part of him felt dirty.

Her opinion of him shouldn’t matter, but for some nutty reason it did.  Maybe she wanted revenge after the article in the morning paper. Possibly she only wanted to make him think he would get to sample her, then pull away. Perhaps they’d actually get to a motel one day and she’d cry rape and have him arrested.

She hadn’t answered, so he asked again.  “Why me?”  She didn’t look at him but at least this time she answered.

“I thought about what you said, about my research, and I decided it’s conceivable that you’re right. Perhaps I should do some field research.  Like I said, I don’t sleep around.”

She was insulted and hurt.  Why should she be hurt?  Did she think because he was a man he wouldn’t have any feelings?

Jared glared at her again, knowing her low opinion of men, of him.  It was possible she really did think that this would all be okay with him, like ‘It’s party time, let’s go.’

“That still doesn’t tell me why you chose me to be your field assignment.”  He wasn’t going to let her off the hook on this one.

Toreas brought her eyes up to look directly into his.  This time she didn’t turn away. “That’s easy. I can’t stand you, I think you’re despicable.”

“So why would you want to sleep with me?”  Jared was forcing himself to continue looking at her.  That remark hurt.

“I’m in the middle of my book and my heroine is involved with a jerk.  A jerk that, by the way, she sleeps with, one who makes her eyes roll to the back of her head.  So I need to know what it’s like to go to bed with a jerk. I need to know for myself the feelings my heroine has. I need to know if it’s possible to have one’s eyes roll to the back of their head.”

“So your character’s a slut?”  Why should he be nice and polite when she wasn’t?  He was waiting for her to glare at him or to redden even more.  She did neither.

“No, she’s not a slut, just a woman looking for Mr. Right. On her journey she meets Mr. Wrong.”

“The jerk?”

“Yes, the jerk.”

Jared leaned back in his chair waiting for the desire he felt to wane.  He was not going to be the pig she evidently thought he was.  He watched her fiddle with the napkin, tearing it into piles and then sweeping the piles into her bag.

“I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings,”  Toreas almost whispered.

He continued glaring at her.  So she thought he had feelings after all?  How nice.

“Well, exactly how did you mean it?” Jared asked. “Was I to feel honored by your request?”  He noticed that at least now Toreas did have the good taste to appear contrite.

“I thought it would be easier to do this with you.  You see, I’m not attracted to you and there would be no emotional attachment.  I’m sorry about the way I blurted this out, but I just need to use you for research.  Just once, Mr. Stone.”

Jared bristled.  “You’ve already said just once.  I understand that.”  He lifted the lengthy questionnaire.  “You want me to go through all of this and go to the doctor for just once?”

“I couldn’t do it any other way.”

“What if once is not enough?”

“It will have to be.  I’m not looking to have an affair with you.  I just want research--”

“Please don’t use that word again.  Tell me something.  Are you a virgin?”

“Of course I’m not a virgin.”

“Then why don’t you just use your memory?”

“Because frankly, Jared, at the risk of hurting your feelings again, I’ve only slept with nice guys.  My heroine is with a jerk and I find I’m stuck on exactly what he does differently.”

She attempted to turn away but Jared caught her chin in his hand and held it, making her look at him. “Exactly what is it you think a jerk does differently from nice guys?  Do you think I tie my women up, or maybe beat them?”

  “I don’t know.  That’s why I’m asking you to do this.  Listen, you’re going to get something out of this deal also.  I’ll even sign a contract with you saying I’ll come on what, four, maybe five shows?  That should make us even, don’t you think?”

“I’m not sure. I don’t know what the going rate for prostitution is nowadays.”

“This isn’t prostitution, Mr. Stone.”

“What would you call it?”

“A business agreement between adults.  No money will exchange hands.”

He watched her as a horrified look crossed her face.  Surely she wasn’t thinking of saying what her eyes clearly told him she thought.

“Is that the problem?  You want money?”

Before he could think about it Jared grabbed both of her hands and yanked her toward him, Kelle’s teachings be damned.  Her legs were pinned under the table and he had her hands, so he should be relatively safe.

He watched as her lips thinned again in disapproval.  She had a way of looking at him like a schoolmarm, making him feel guilty.  And this time he was the one in the right. Jared had honestly come wanting to make peace with her.  Well, that and he had wanted to go to bed with her. Once.

So what’s the problem, Jared?  She’s offering you exactly what you want.  You can have her and never see her again.

He knew what the problem was.  She was beginning to worm her way under his skin.  He didn’t think having her only once would be enough.

“You are the most annoying woman I have ever met. You’ve punched me, and now you’ve insulted my very ethics. How dare you assume that I would just grab an opportunity to jump your bones?”

Jared was talking to Toreas through clenched teeth. “For your information, I’m not the least bit attracted to you either.  I prefer women. You look more like a scared child.”