Saber heard the bite to his voice, hesitated, and then poured herself a cup of coffee. “So what’s up, caveman?” She brushed fingertips along the corner of his mouth, sending white heat coursing through his blood. “Stop frowning at me, Jesse. Your mouth is bound to freeze that way.”
Strong white teeth snapped at and caught her index finger and drew it into the moist cavern of his mouth. His eyes burned black velvet as he used his tongue to caress her finger. She wasn’t going to embarrass him, and he felt the tension in him drain away.
Faint color tinged her cheeks, blue eyes skittered away from his. She pulled her hand back as if he had burned it. “So what’s this all about?”
He studied her small, slender form, the ribbed cotton scoop-neck T-shirt, the figure-hugging black denim. She looked ready to flee at the slightest provocation. He resisted the urge to capture her wrist. So close, yet so far away. He wanted her to make up her own mind, bind herself to him. At the same time, he wanted to just take possession finally, irrevocably, and never let her go, the hell with her choices.
“Are you going to sit down or are you going to be flittering all over the house like a little butterfly? I can just see us having a decent conversation with me following you all over.”
She perched on the countertop, regarding him warily over the rim of her coffee mug. “Conversation? Uh-oh. What have I done?”
“What makes you think you’ve done anything?”
Her bare foot tapped the cupboard. “I know you so well, dragon king, you only get that particular look on your face when you’re burning to give me one of your lectures.”
“Do I give you lectures?” He frowned.
She grinned. “Oh, I don’t mind. I think you’re kind of cute when you do, and I don’t really listen anyway.”
“That makes me feel good, baby. Honestly, I really feel so much better now that you’ve shared that with me.” The frown had vanished and there was a distinctly wicked gleam in his dark eyes. Jess eased his chair around the table until he was directly under her feet. The counter was low, built for him to use easily. “How well do you know Brian Hutton?”
It was the last thing she expected, and it wiped the sassy grin right off her face. “Brian?” she echoed. “I don’t know. As well as I know anyone at work I guess. He’s great at his job. What do you want to know?”
“What kind of relationship do you have with him?”
Saber looked completely confused. “We’re friends, I like him, why? Has he been dipping into the till or something?”
“What’s he like?”
“You know him better than I do, Jesse, he works for you.” Saber rested her bare feet on his knees. “What’s this all about?”
He shrugged. “Nothing important, I just wondered what you thought of him.”
She studied his handsome face, and then finally shook her head. “Oh, no. This is really getting to be a bad situation here. We can’t have Mr. Straight-as-an-arrow lying. You need to give yourself lecture four. The one on telling the truth.”
His fingers curled around her bare ankle. “You are in a precarious position, Saber,” he pointed out.
“Am I?” She put down her coffee cup, tilting her head to one side. “So let’s hear the truth. Why the interest in Brian?”
Jess sighed heavily. “He followed you home last night.”
“He did what?”
“Followed you home. With this weirdo calling the station asking about you, anything unusual worries me.”
“How do you know he followed me?” she demanded suspiciously. “You were in bed when I got home.”
“You thought I was.”
Saber shrugged. “He objected strenuously to certain portions of my broadcast.” Saber grinned at the memory. “He did a lot of jumping around and yelling.”
“We’ll discuss my opinion of your stupidity later,” he promised. “Maybe Brian was worried about you.”
“More likely he was worried about his job if anything happened to me. I think you intimidate him.”
“I doubt that. We lost three of our crew in that car accident. There’d been a big celebration at the station-Patsy and David had just announced their engagement. David handled the night program. He, his soundman, and the day soundman were driving down the hill when they lost control of their car and went over the cliff.”
“Where Patsy was hit? The same place?”
He nodded. “I hired both Brian and Les about three weeks before you arrived.”
Her heart jumped. A car accident? Three people from the radio station had died and that had created a job opening. She was in so much trouble. She forced a smile. “A good choice too. Brian’s brilliant at his job. I couldn’t have made it without him those first few weeks. He really taught me so much.”
She wasn’t giving her opinion of Les, the day man. She was just glad she didn’t have to work with him very often. “If Brian was worried about me to the point he had to follow me home, I’ll apologize to him.”
“You won’t say a word,” he ordered. “Until I know a little more I don’t want you letting on to Brian that you know.”
“Intrigue! How bizarre.”
“Stop being flippant. Just what did you think you were doing last night?” There was an edge of anger to his voice.
“I wanted to talk to the man. Is that such a wild idea? Honestly, Jesse, you can look so intimidating when you want to.”
“I can be intimidating when I need to be. You were asking for trouble last night and you know it. I can’t blame Brian if he was worried, you scared the hell out of me. Have you ever listened to yourself? You sound sexy, Saber. Very erotic. You can’t tease this guy.”
“I’m not teasing him. I don’t want to be afraid of him either. I figured I might as well find out what he wants. And in any case, if he ever caught up with me, he’d find out I’m not in the least bit sexy.”
His palm slid up her leg from ankle to calf and back. “No? You obviously don’t see yourself the way I do.”
His touch sent little tongues of fire licking along her spine. Muscles bunched in her stomach and along her thigh. Her womb spasmed. Wild color spread, turning her complexion rose. She ducked her head, avoiding his hungry gaze.
“You’re not to do it again, Saber. No more invitations to this man. You don’t know what he’s like. You could be feeding some sick fantasy of his. I mean it, you’re not taking any phone calls. I called Les this morning and Brian will be told this evening.”