See Jane Love - By Debby Conrad Page 0,37
name and begged him to take her over the edge.
He felt a trickle of sweat run down his back, and the front of his jeans tightened. And, if he didn’t stop thinking about her like that, he was going to have an accident before he reached her townhouse.
Swearing, Gabe hopped into the Camaro and fired it up. On the passenger seat were the flowers he’d bought for Janie earlier that day, wilting away. He’d forgotten all about them until now. Nerves, he thought. Well, this was certainly going to be a night to remember.
* * * * * * * * * *
Janie scanned her closet and drawers, trying to decide on the perfect outfit for her “date” with Gabe. She’d already tried on her best jeans, a pair of linen shorts, three different skirts and a sundress. But none of them suited her mood. Standing in front of the mirror, wearing only a pair of pink bikini panties and a matching tank, she let out a tiny scream of frustration.
It was five minutes till seven, and not only hadn’t she dressed yet, but she’d wasted so much time trying on clothes, she hadn’t had a chance to do her make-up or her hair. Grabbing the gel from her dressing table, she squeezed a glob of it into her palm and rubbed her hands together before finger combing it through her damp curls. “There,” she said, although it wasn’t much of an improvement.
And then the doorbell rang. “Oh, no!” She picked up the discarded jeans from the floor and pushed one leg into them, only to yank them off again. Then she plucked a short red skirt from the pile of clothing on her bed and stepped into it. “Oh, God, I look like a hooker in this thing,” she said, letting it fall to the floor and kicking it aside. She chose the floral sundress next, but only managed to get the zipper stuck in her haste.
The doorbell rang a second time, and instead of fighting with herself any longer about what to wear, she shoved her arms into her white terrycloth robe and trotted down the stairs.
She looked through the peephole and sighed. Sure enough it was Gabe. Opening the door, she forced a smile. “Oh, is it that time already?” she asked, trying to pretend it was no big deal that he looked good enough to eat, while she hadn’t even bothered to finish getting ready. He’d used some sort of cologne, and it was doing a number on her senses. It was light, with just a hint of citrus.
His gaze ran up and down the length of her. “Am I too early? Do you want me to leave and come back later?”
Janie waved a hand. “No, that would be silly. Now that you’re here, you may as well stay.” A bouquet of wilting flowers dangled from one of his hands, a plastic bag from the other. “Are either of those for me?”
“What?” He glanced down at his side. “Oh, yeah,” he said, producing the mixed bouquet of lilies, roses, tulips and snapdragons.
“How sweet. You didn’t have to do that.” She took the flowers from him, brought them to her nose and breathed in their sweet aroma. “I’d better get them in some water,” she said, heading for the kitchen.
Gabe followed her and waited in the doorway while she grabbed a vase from beneath the sink and rearranged the blooms in it. Then she turned on the faucet and used her kitchen hose to fill the vase. She carried the arrangement to the dining table and set it in the center. “There.”
The whole while, his gaze had been on her, making her tense. She tightened the belt on her robe and asked, “What’s in the bag?”
He set the bag on the table beside the vase. “Condoms.”
“Oh,” she said. Well, that’s what she got for being so nosy. “If you’ll excuse me a minute, I need to finish getting ready.”
“You look fine to me,” he said, as if he didn’t seem to mind the fact that she was wearing her robe and no make-up.
Janie moved past him, feeling the electrical charges pass through every inch of her body, then stopped and turned to face him. She ran a hand through her damp ringlets and said, “The truth is, I had no idea what to wear tonight. I mean, what do you wear when you’re about to be seduced?”
Gabe grinned at her and raised his brows. “Nothing?”
“You would say