Playing With Fire

Lara played along as Bianca danced, laughing and clapping to encourage the frivolity that was so dear to her heart.

Fourteen years ago, she’d wandered into Bianca’s little shop as an aimless teenager, having been harshly disabused of a childish notion that she could become as great a painter as her father. The flamboyant older woman had welcomed Lara with open arms, soothed her wounded pride and started her on a beginner’s pattern of stained glass that very day. The resulting piece was uneven and bumpy and amateurish, yet it still hung in Bianca’s kitchen window. Whereas the crayon drawings Lara had executed at her father’s feet were dissected for line, perspective and color sense, then discarded.

Staggering, Bianca set the high chair beside Lara’s stool. “You see? I’m out of breath.” She put her hands on her hips and bent slightly, panting. “I’ve become an old woman.”

“You need a lover, is all. A new romance would perk you right up again. And soon restore your stamina.”

“A man is easy enough to find.” Bianca waved a hand in casual dismissal. “It’s the reliable baby-sitter that’s a tough get.”

“Ooh-lo-lo,” Rosa burbled. She waved a chubby hand, looking so like her mother despite the Titian hair, that Lara had to plant a kiss on the child’s forehead.

“Ah, the mother’s eternal lament,” she said. “Listen, Bianca, why don’t I stay home tonight with Rosa?” She snapped her fingers for the little girl’s amusement. “You go out and have a good time. The bambina’s stuffy nose seems to have cleared.” Rosa had been congested the evening before, putting the kibosh on their plans to attend the restaurant opening together. For all her casual ways, Bianca was a devoted mother.

“Oh. I don’t know.” Peripherally, Lara glimpsed her friend’s covert calculations. “What about your hunter?” Bianca asked ultracasually.

“He probably won’t show. You may have the entire evening to go out and find yourself a dashing young lover. I doubt it’ll take even that long.” Men of all ages were attracted to Bianca. She oozed a warm sensuality that was like honey to bees.

For a woman who’d just complained about slowing down, Bianca was strangely hesitant to take Lara up on the offer. Lara, guessing why, aimed her knowing smile at the toddler. There had been a time when her mentor was indeed the Queen of the Discotheque. In fact, they’d both taken Manhattan nightlife by storm. Bianca’s single motherhood and Lara’s rededication to her art and the resulting move out of the city had altered them both.

“Unless you’ve already made plans?” Lara cooed at Rosa, abandoning finger snaps for patty-cake.

“No plans.” Bianca spun away. “You know how I feel about being pinned down by schedules. I go where the wind takes me. Rosa was born with a kite string instead of an umbilical cord.”

Lara didn’t let herself be distracted. “What about all that talk of settling and stability?”

“Achh. Did I say that?”

“You did.”

“Then I didn’t mean it.”

“We are both getting older.”

“Mature,” said Bianca, reaching for a bottle of red wine.

“Perhaps you should…” Lara hesitated. How could she convince Bianca it was okay to fall in love and marry when she herself had no intention of doing either? The assurances would be hypocritical, and Bianca would know it. She’d seen Lara through too many gripe sessions about the constriction of women’s role in marriage and the perfidy of husbands to be fooled now.

Bianca pulled a corkscrew out of an earthenware pot. Her glance was sharp. “Perhaps, what?”

Lara swallowed. “You could admit you’re already in—”

The shop doorbell chimed. “Buon giorno!” a male voice with a bad Italian accent called from the storefront, and Bianca’s face lit up like the Rockefeller Plaza Christmas tree. Total admission, Lara thought, if only Bianca had been looking in a mirror to see it.

Eddie Frutt came through the swinging doors, holding a bunch of sunflowers in one hand and a square envelope in the other. A large, shambling, redheaded man, he possessed a rapidly enlarging bald spot that he’d been passing off as a receding hairline for one too many years. Bianca called him Old Baldy, but kissed the top of his head every time she passed his chair on her way to the kitchen.

Eddie, who owned a shoe store across the street, greeted Bianca with a smooch. He did a sloppy Fred Astaire twirl and handed the flowers to Rosa, then waved the envelope at Lara. “I ran into a courier out front. This is for you. I want a hug in return.”

“Of course.” Lara went to him and was enveloped by his big, cushy body and strong arms. He smelled of leather and the peppermints he kept in a brandy snifter by his register. “It’s been too long.”

“Enough, Eduardo,” Bianca complained. “You’re smothering the girl.”

Eddie whispered, “She’s jealous,” to Lara, then stretched out an arm and snared Bianca into the embrace, snuggling them to his chest until Rosa yelled, “Frower!” and smacked her tray with the bouquet. Exclaiming in spicy Italian, Bianca ran to rescue the flowers while Eddie turned aside, muttering over the corkscrew. Amidst the chaos, Lara ended up with the envelope. It was inscribed across the front with her name.

Unsuspecting, she tore it across the flap and took out a plain card with an embossed border. It read, “Tonight.”

And that was all.

Daniel’s face flashed before her. He was smiling in invitation, and his eyes were the color of pussywillows, velvety with seduction. The man was pure temptation. Sex incarnate.

All the blood drained from Lara’s face.

Tonight, she thought, strung taut with anticipation.

One word was enough.

“THERE’S A LIMO,” Eddie Frutt bellowed from the storefront. “A limo for Lara!”

“A limo, a limo for Lara,” echoed the group gathered around the long farmhouse table. The elegant white-haired woman stationed by the bedroom door passed on the word. “Your limo has arrived, Miss Gladstone.” Genevieve peered through her half-moon glasses and gave a small shake of her head, looking appalled. “No. Not the red leather. Try the plain black shoes with the chains. You’ll look like an S and M Holly Golightly.”

“Did Daniel come to the door?” Lara said, hopping on one foot as she changed shoes. Bianca’s bed was occupied with onlookers. Getting Lara ready for her big date had turned into a neighborhood event.

The question was relayed to Eddie, who guarded the front door like a concerned father. The answer made its way back via Genevieve, who had once been an editor at Vogue and now ran a vintage clothing store in Little Italy. With an unerring fashion instinct, she’d supplied Lara’s dress.

“No Daniel. Just the chauffeur.”

“Ooh, a chauffeur,” said one of the gang on the bed. “How bourgeois,” chimed another voice. “But fun,” said a third.

Bianca handed over a silver beaded purse, another loaner since Lara hadn’t come to New York expecting to be swept off her feet. They embraced. Lara said, “You’re sure it’s okay for me to leave after I offered to baby-sit—”

Bianca grabbed her face and smacked a kiss upon both cheeks. “Go. Have a good time.” She pushed Lara toward the door, clearing discarded shoes and trampled scarves with a sweep of her foot. “Gah, I feel just like a mother sending her daughter to the prom!”

A smattering of applause broke out when Lara was paraded through the living space. Eddie enveloped her in another of his big hugs when she reached the studio. “But something’s missing,” he said worriedly, holding her out to look her over. “Little black dress. Gloves. Pearls. Bow in the hair. I know. The sunglasses. I might be balding and middle aged, but I saw Breakfast at Tiffany’s too, ya know.”

“Sunglasses at night? That’s overkill,” Bianca said. “You have no subtlety, Eddie.”

He made a comical face. “Isn’t that the point?”

“I knew it.” Lara tore the silly black silk bow out of her hair, leaving in the rhinestone pins. “We’ve gone over the top.”

“No, no, leave the gloves,” Bianca urged as Lara went out the door, tugging at them.

The chauffeur waited at the curb, holding the door open on a long black limo. Lara stopped. Her stomach did a flip. She turned back to Bianca and Eddie, who were watching arm in arm from the lighted doorway, along with the crowd pressing behind them and up against the studio windows.

I can’t back out with everyone watching, Lara thought, bolstering herself. The front of the glass studio was painted with bright, boisterous graffiti that distracted from the chipped cement and gritty windows. The place was on the shabby side of humble, but it was her safe home in the city, far more comforting than her parent’s expensive town house in Gramercy Park.

“I don’t know this guy from Adam,” she blurted. “I don’t even know his last name. What am I doing, getting into his limo? This is crazy.” She offered up a smile, recognizing the drama. “Crazy, I tell you!”

Eddie’s brows knitted. “Maybe she’s right….”

“Savage, ma’am,” said the driver. “Daniel Savage. I have his address for you. He said you might be concerned.”

“Oh. That was thoughtful of him.” She took the card and stepped over to press it into Bianca’s hand with a hollow laugh. “In case I disappear, you’ll know where to start looking.”

“This is romantic,” Bianca reassured her. “Don’t look so worried.” She pinched one of Eddie’s love handles so he’d stop frowning. “You’re going off with a chauffeur, not a white slaver.”

Lara muttered, “Uh, yeah, thanks for bringing that up,” but she allowed the driver to escort her into the car. It was luxurious, with a tastefully done interior of soft gray leather and burled walnut. As the limo slipped away into traffic, she turned and waved to Bianca and Eddie and all the rest, who were cheering—or jeering, given their individual levels of cynicism—as they watched her go. She stripped off the gloves as soon as she was beyond Bianca’s scope.

All well-equipped limos had ice buckets. In this one, a freshly opened bottle of champagne nestled into a bed of crushed ice. A thin trail of vapor curled from the bottle’s neck, inviting her to partake. Lara reached for the crystal flute, then decided that she was tipsy enough without aid. Tonight she’d need her wits about her.

A florist’s paper cone rested on the seat beside her. She picked it up and peeled back foil and tissue. Calla lilies. Beautiful. They were strong flowers, sleek and smooth and assured.

“Me, too,” she said, stroking a lily, glossy on one side, soft on the other. “For tonight, me too.”

A minute later, she realized that the limo wasn’t leaving the East Village. She’d expected to rendezvous with Daniel at an expensive restaurant, but instead they were pulling up to an area of typical side-by-side row houses, the fronts flushed a rosy gray in the dimming light. The process of gentrification had recently struck. Or possibly stalled out. Most of the houses were nothing special—grimy two-and three-flats, showing their age. Several had been renovated and upgraded with freshly painted trim and handsome matching urns at the stoop.

The limo circled twice, looking for a parking spot. A flotsam of vehicles clogged the streets. Even the illegal spots were taken, though the fire hydrant would soon be clear because one unlucky soul’s car was being towed.

“Ma’am, I’m sorry,” the driver said at last, giving up on his only possibility—six empty feet between an oxidized red Trans Am and a rusty Buick. “I’m going to have to let you out on the street.”

“That’ll do,” Lara said, smiling at her pretentions. So much for Cinderella’s stylish arrival at the ball. “Just point me in the right direction.”

“I’ll do better than that.” Disregarding traffic, he put the limo in park and stepped outside. Lara hurriedly scooted across the seat as horns blared.

“Move the effing car,” yelled a burly, tattooed guy, obviously practiced at leaning on his horn and flipping the bird simultaneously. Not a talent singular to New Yorkers, but one they’d clearly perfected.

Despite the increasing chorus of complaint, the chauffeur insisted on escorting Lara past the trash at the curb and up the steps of her destination. He rang the doorbell, muttered an apology, then raced back to the limo just in time to shoo away a wino with his eye on the silver ice bucket.

Which was why Lara was laughing when the door opened.

Daniel—Daniel Savage, she thought with pleasure—smiled at her, his eyes burnished like pewter in the soft glow of the entry light.

“You came,” he said. “I’m so pleased.”

She sobered, puckering her lips into a flirtatious moue even though she was kinda sorta awestruck inside. “What girl refuses a limo?”

“And you’re so very beautiful,” he continued as if mesmerized, “I think I’m forced to kiss you.”

Her eyes widened, but in the next instant she was in his embrace and his lips were on hers, kissing the pucker right out of them. It happened too fast for her to react. No time to savor the flavor of his warm mouth. No time to absorb the woodsy, masculine scent of him. No time to appreciate the sensation of being pressed against his wide, hard chest.

He kissed her quickly but fully, and then he was drawing her inside the close, dim entry of the brick row house and she was looking around, gaze darting like a chickadee, landing everywhere but on his face. The dark woodwork needed refinishing. A jagged crack ran though the only window—a small, square, stained-glass panel near the door. The limited space was crammed with mailboxes, crumpled takeout flyers, inline skates, hats, jackets and a bike frame that had been stripped of its wheels.

“You live here?” she said, incredulous, his kiss burning on her lips.

“A humble abode, but mine own.” To one side was a long narrow staircase that turned back on itself when it reached the second floor. On the right a door opened off the foyer, emanating light and warmth and cooking smells. Daniel shut the front door and herded her toward the open one. “Let’s take our kisses privately for a change, shall we?”

She arched her brows. “I’m making no promises.” But her body said otherwise. It had reacted instinctively to his.

He put his hand on her shoulder, pausing her at the threshold. “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.”

That’s just it, she thought. I want to do it. I want to do…

She looked into Daniel’s molten eyes. Everything.

“Then no dishes for me,” she joshed, her throat too dry to laugh.

His hand skimmed to her waist. “I never make my guests do dishes.”

“Even if they stay all night?”

“Hmm…” He smiled slightly. “If you’re planning to stay all night, then I guess you can help me.” His mouth lowered to her ear and with a flick of his tongue against her lobe he set her teardrop earrings swinging. “To make the bed.”

She shivered, sliding him a provocative glance beneath lowered lids. “If that’s to be the case, Daniel, I’d much rather help you unmake it.”

4

LARA’S CAPTOR SLIPPED a blindfold over her eyes, instantly turning her titillation to raw vulnerability.

She shifted toward the warmth of the fire, curling tighter, her arms twined over her naked breasts. The sensory deprivation was startling—electrifying. Her pulse drummed in a frantic rhythm. She mustn’t allow this. The man was a stranger. All she knew was his name, and the ease with which he’d seduced her with a long look, a single, coaxing caress.

But she didn’t know if she could trust him.

Was that why she was so excited?

“LARA?” Daniel said, not for the first time. “Your drink?”

She looked at him quickly, dragging her unfocused gaze away from the tame flickering of flames in the gas fireplace. “Yes, thanks,” she said, taking the glass of sherry. His eyes lingered on her face—curious, contemplative, but knowing.

Then he was way ahead of her. She truly had no idea what to expect next. I don’t know him, she thought, finding the lack of familiarity deeply intriguing. He could be anyone. He could do anything.

Exactly.

She smiled to herself as she turned away to survey the modest apartment. It was small, made even smaller by the bookshelves that lined opposite walls of the…library? Living room? She wasn’t sure. There was no window or sofa, only two big, deep armchairs, upholstered in an amber leather so old it was finely crackled and worn at the seams. A pair of starkly modern copper floor lamps, tilted at cranelike angles, were positioned beside the chairs. A nubby rug and a low round table of dark mahogany filmed with dust and stacked with multiple editions of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Garden Design completed the seating arrangement.

She did a double take. Garden Design? Other than a potted orchid constructed with a bamboo trellis and a crinkled tie of raffia, there were no plants in sight. But there was a lot of stuff—running shoes, balled-up socks, an open briefcase, a small terra-cotta urn filled with rocks, a spilled pile of spare change. Camera lenses were scattered over the bookshelves like objets d’art.

Daniel saw her looking. “Maid’s day off,” he said, plucking a pair of fingerless gloves and a roll of masking tape off one of the chairs. “Make yourself at home. Hope you don’t mind clutter.”

She’d pegged him as a neat freak. Wrong again. “Unless you go for minimalist design, it’s hard to keep a small place uncluttered. I know—I lived in a Chelsea broom closet for nearly two years.”

“A broom closet?”

“Seemed like.” The chair creaked beneath her. “How much space do you have?”

Daniel cocked his head to indicate a closed door behind them. “There’s the bedroom and connecting bath. Heading toward the back, we have the dining room slash foyer and kitchen. None of them larger than twelve by fourteen.”

“Then you’re not claustrophobic….”

“One day I might knock down a few walls and convert the building to a single-family living space, but for now I rent out the two upper-floor apartments. I’m a bachelor with modest needs. This suits.”

“You own the building?” And you foresee yourself with a family? she silently added, sipping the smooth sherry to distract herself from a distinct sinking feeling. If Daniel was looking for Miss Right, he’d soon find out she was only Miss Right Now. “Yes.”

Her gaze caught on his hands. She imagined them on her body, on her thighs, opening her with a sure touch. Miss Take Me Right Now.

“I have a country house,” she said. Awkwardly.

“I know.”

“How…”

“Did I track you down?” He leaned back in the chair, his legs, clad in black trousers, outstretched and crossed at the ankles. He looked completely relaxed yet ready to spring into action at her slightest movement.

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