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She almost said something about Jesse and being reluctant to leave him, but at the last minute decided not to. She was undoubtedly being overly paranoid, but there was no harm in keeping her private life private. No harm and maybe a great deal of good.
“No, nothing else.”
Score one for the home team. “Well then it looks like it’s settled. How about Wellington’s?” Ben asked.
She was familiar with the restaurant. It was a place she’d treated herself to once a month while she’d been attending college. The food was wonderful and the ambience even better. It was a place she could easily see him in, but not for the type of thing she’d thought he had in mind. Suspicions whispered in her ear again.
“Isn’t that a little fancy? I thought you just wanted to grab a bite to eat and talk about research.”
His smile disarmed her before he said a word.
“Who says the bite has to be in a fast-food place? Or that we have to chew fast?”
He saw the protest forming on her lips, saw the indecision in her eyes. He was winning her over, but he had to talk quickly to sustain his advantage. Getting her to a friendly, neutral place that might seduce her defenses was all part and parcel of his plan to get her comfortable enough to talk to him. The more she talked, the more likely she’d be to let something slip.
“Think of it as partial payment for your time,” he told her.
She couldn’t help smiling. “Script points and dinner?”
“Right. And anything else you can think of, too.”
Her eyes narrowed. Was this just an elaborate come-on after all? She didn’t want to believe it, yet… “Such as?”
“I’m very handy with my hands.”
Her heart sank. It was a come-on. “I’m afraid I really don’t—”
He stopped her before she said something he was going to regret. “That didn’t come out right. What I mean is that I can fix things around the house. Cracking plaster, doors that stick, things like that.”
The small condo she had sublet from Jon’s friend could more than use a face-lift, but not from someone she didn’t know. She knew the danger of opening her door and her life to someone.
“I don’t need anything fixed,” she assured him.
“All right,” he replied philosophically, “then it’ll just be dinner and research.”
“Dinner and research,” she echoed.
A line was beginning to form at the register again. Joe was looking toward them with a less than friendly expression on his face. Ben began to talk quickly before Gina saw the clerk and retreated to help him. “What time would you like me to pick you up?”
It would keep things simpler if he didn’t know where she lived. “Since this is dinner and research, why don’t I just meet you at the restaurant?”
He picked up on her reluctance to share her address. The scale tipped against her again. “You really are an independent woman, aren’t you?”
The grin that curved her mouth nearly unraveled him. It was completely guileless and captivating. “Whenever possible.” Hearing Joe clear his throat, she realized that she’d somehow managed to drift away from the register. She began moving back toward the registers. “Now then, I’m afraid I’ve got to get back to work.”
He wasn’t finished yet. There was one more thing he needed from her. Her prints. Ben glanced toward the section she had directed him toward yesterday. “Um, I was wondering if you could recommend any other books for me from the store?”
She thought a moment, shaking her head. “I think we covered that last time.” Surprise flittered over her features. “You didn’t finish the one you bought yesterday already, did you?”
He nodded. “Stayed up all night. I thought if there was something else—”
“All right, let’s see.” Because he seemed so eager, she went to check the books listed by subject on the computer. Going over the inventory, she stopped at a particular title. “Well, there is one more that might help—”
All he needed was one. Because the books were accessible to the public, the idea of getting her prints from the one he’d already bought hadn’t occurred to him until after he’d handled it extensively. He wasn’t about to make the same mistake again. “Take me to it.”
She couldn’t help smiling. “You really are eager about this, aren’t you?”
He said what he knew she needed to hear, even though there was a part of him that was starting to feel uncomfortable with the duplicity. “So eager I can taste it.”
Telling Joe she would be right back, she brought Ben over to the American history section and, after a moment, found the book she was looking for. It was out of place. “This one doesn’t go into depth on the battle, but it does give you a pretty good background on the tribal life and the people.” Turning from the shelf, she started to hand the book to him.
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