Page 50 of Tuxedos and Tinsel

Kisses didn’t usually linger with him. In his mind, women were more or less interchangeable. Warm bodies that kept him from noticing he was alone. He wondered if the fact that this was his first sober kiss in a long time was the reason he found it so memorable. He’d been tempted to test the theory by kissing her again at the end of the night. But then, when they reached her doorstep and Susan looked up at him with those marvelous green-and-brown eyes…he’d backed away. Susan wasn’t interchangeable. She deserved more respect than to be kissed simply for the sake of kissing.

But damn, he’d wanted to kiss her again. Wanted to so badly.

On the kitchen counter, his phone began buzzing an SOS signal, the vibration pattern he’d assigned Susan. He answered and hit Speaker while at the same time opening his refrigerator. “What can I do for you, Miss Collier?” he asked as he scanned the contents.

“Did your teammates really dislike you?”

“That’s an odd way of starting a conversation,” he replied. It appeared his housekeeper had done some grocery shopping for him. There was a fresh gallon of orange juice next to the milk.

“Did they?”

“I never spent enough time with them to know one way or another. Hung to myself mostly. Unless there was a party.” He paused to take a swig of juice. “What’s this about?”

“I’m sorry. Something my brother mentioned. He said you bounced from team to team because no one liked you.”

“More like management disliked paying my heavy contract fees.” Although he wasn’t surprised to hear his bad-boy reputation had fueled different stories. Once again, his partying ways left their mark. “I take it your brother saw the paper.”

“He did. He called you a degenerate.”

“I’ve heard worse.”

The pause on the other end of the line made him uneasy. “He’s worried about scandal,” Susan said. “I hadn’t considered how this might affect the company. Collier’s has only recently gotten back on solid footing. If people discover…”

“They won’t. I promise. I’m going to be on my best behavior.” He had too much to lose.

“I know you will,” she replied.

Her faith surprised him. She was the first person he’d met who really believed he’d changed. “I don’t want to put you in a bad spot. If you want to back out, I’ll understand.”

“I don’t want to back out—I gave my word and I intend to keep it. Besides… I had a good time last night.”

Lewis smiled at the shyness in her voice. “We’re famous you know,” he said.

“Everyone in my office is whispering and giving me looks. They probably don’t think I’ve been kissed before.”

“You have been, right?”

“Yes. Although never quite so publicly.”

“You’re not still sore about my keeping the Mistletoe Camera thing a secret, are you?”

The soft sigh on the other end of the line sounded playfully exasperated. “I’ve recovered. But I want a promise that next time I’ll get a little advance warning.”

The memory of her glazed eyes popped into his head. “No worries there. I doubt there’ll be a Mistletoe Cam at our next outing.” Meaning he wouldn’t have an excuse—that is, a reason—to kiss her.

“I suppose there wouldn’t be, unless we were attending another basketball game. That’s…good.”

Was the clipped tone in her voice disappointment or relief? “I think so,” he said. “I mean, it being a good thing. Can’t go heavy on the PDA if I’m supposed to be changing my ways, right?”

“Right. Absolutely.” He still couldn’t tell. There was noise in the background. Maybe she was guarding her end of the conversation.

His ego took a little kick. Alittledisappointment would have been nice. It’d been a pretty decent kiss in his book. Heck, women were known to pull off their tops just to get hisattention.

Those were women who wanted him though. Susan was with him as quid pro quo. She didn’t really want him…

“Lewis?”

He shook his head. How long had he been staring into the neck of the orange juice bottle? “Did you say something?”