Page 32 of The Playboy Meets His Match
“I think so, yes,” she said, knowing she was mush whenever he turned on his sexy charm.
“Good.” He sipped his drink and looked at her partially eaten hamburger. “You’re not eating.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“Neither am I. Not hungry for hamburgers,” he said, his searing gaze telling her exactly what he wanted.
“Jason, we’re in town in public.”
“I don’t care, and besides, we’re just holding hands. It’s not like I have you in my lap or any of a dozen things I wish I could do to you right now.”
“Let’s get that computer,” she said, trying to get back to being impersonal, casual and merely friendly, yet finding it difficult to catch her breath.
He slid out of the booth, leaned down beside her. “If that’s what you want, Merry,” he said in a husky drawl that was like a stroke of his hand over her.
She waited while he paid for their lunches and then they left to shop.
She tried for the rest of the day and later, as they worked on the new computer, to keep distance between them and to keep things on an impersonal basis.
Around ten that night, Jason got a phone call; when he replaced the receiver, he looked at her grimly. “That was Rob. He’s looked at the disk and he thinks the same thing we do—that more suspicion is pointed at Dorian. He said that Dorian knows someone was trying to look at his files. And Dorian suspects you, which makes him now suspect me. Rob said to be careful. Dorian probably feels safe at this point because there’s nothing in his files incriminating enough to cause his arrest.”
“Would he inherit Wescott Oil if something happened to Sebastian?”
“No. Rob has already checked into that, so I don’t see what he has to gain. That’s another big question—if Dorian is the murderer, what is his motive?”
Pondering the question, they sat in silence until they went back to the computer. At midnight, they closed it down and walked to the kitchen for a cool drink of lemonade.
Their good-night kisses escalated again until she stopped him and closed the door to her room at two in the morning.
She undressed swiftly, pulling on a frilly short red nightie and skimpy matching panties. In minutes she slid beneath the sheet.
Merry lay awake, knowing that she was falling in love with Jason. She just hoped she wouldn’t leave Royal hurting the way Holly hurt, with a broken heart that threatened never to mend. And she knew she must move out tomorrow. She had already told Jason, and they had argued about it, but she had held firm and told him she was going to return to Dallas tomorrow.
Even though she desperately longed to stay, and she was curious to see what happened to Dorian, she knew it was time to go home unless she wanted a deluxe broken heart.
She was going to get out of the agreement to rent the apartment because now there was no reason to stay in Royal. She didn’t want to harass Dorian further. It was time to stop seeing Jason, and she didn’t want to risk her heart more than she already had.
She tossed and turned restlessly, knowing another reason to leave with the dawn—she couldn’t say no to him much longer. More and more, she wanted to know him intimately, wanted his lovemaking. She didn’t know what time she dozed into a light and fitful sleep.
An ear-shattering blast shook the house and her bed, tossing her to the floor.
Instantly awake and terrified, Merry jumped up and dashed across the room, yanking open the door. When she stepped into the hall, orange flames filled the east end of the house as an inferno roared and crackled.
“Jason!” she screamed.
Seven
The entire east part of Jason’s house was in flames. She could feel the heat.
“Merry!”
Wearing only briefs, Jason grabbed her and pulled her to his room with him. He yanked on jeans and jammed his feet into his boots. Merry saw his T-shirt on the floor and grabbed it, realizing how she was dressed. Swiftly she tugged the T-shirt on over her nightie.
“C’mon, Merry!” he shouted, taking her hand again.
Bolting for the patio door, he paused at his desk to open a drawer and get a cellular phone and his pistol.
As he punched 911 and relayed a call for help, he thrust Merry to one side of the door. They both were flattened against the wall. The moment he broke the connection on his phone, he held her behind him with one arm and kicked open the door with his foot. He held his pistol at the ready.
