A PERFECT FIT Read online

  The lame excuse didn't fool Karen, who rolled her eyes. "On a Saturday?"

  Audrey shrugged. "I have finals."

  "All right." Karen sighed, with a longing look back toward the room, where whoops and hollers suddenly rose in a cacophony indicating something big had just happened. "I'm out of dollars anyway."

  * * * *

  For once he didn't have to be up early to work at Country Breezes, but though he'd planned to sleep late, Joel was wide awake and staring at his ceiling. He turned his head to look at the pile of money on his nightstand. Seven hundred dollars--a great night's take. It would pay for his books next semester and leave something to jingle in his pockets, too.

  Nope, he couldn't complain about six hundred and ninety-nine of those dollars. Only one of them he wished he hadn't received. The one from Audrey.

  She'd been smiling as she tucked it into his waistband, and smiling when they danced. The next thing he knew, she'd up and vanished. She hadn't even said goodbye.

  Sighing, he slid an arm beneath his head and went back to staring at the ceiling. Maybe Morty was right. Maybe he should just ask her out. She'd seemed to be having a good time while they were dancing. But then she'd left.

  Damn it.

  Joel sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. There was only one thing to do about it. Go see her.

  * * * *

  Books. Notepad. Pens. Pencils. Pot of coffee. Audrey had everything she needed set out on the table in front of her. Classical music warbled softly from the CD player. She picked up her highlighter and opened the book, but set down the pen a moment later. She poured a mug of coffee and blew on it before she sipped.

  "C'mon," she muttered. "Get to work."

  She couldn't concentrate. She'd never really believed the rumors about Joel, had always thought they'd sprung from jealousy and his casual confession to the truth of them his way of dismissing them. A secret agent had seemed as ridiculous an idea as him actually being a male escort--only last night had proven her wrong. Sort of. There wasn't any reason to believe any of the boys in Muy Caliente had done more than dance for dollar bills. No reason to think the whispers about Joel being paid by the orgasm were true.

  "Of course they're not true," she said aloud. "That's ridiculous. Absolutely..."

  But was it? Was it really? Joel was handsome. Charming. Generous. Kind, smart, funny... Audrey groaned. Joel was a damn-near perfect guy, a fact she tried constantly to ignore because they were study partners and friends, nothing more.

  She rubbed her eyes and tried to focus on the text in front of her, but couldn't seem to manage. What Joel did in his spare time wasn't any of her business. Nor was how he paid for school or anything else. She forced herself to uncap her highlighter again and go over the words in the chapter she was unsuccessfully trying to commit to memory.

  The trouble was, all she could seem to think about was the way his fingers had linked with hers, that touch as erotic as if he'd thumbed a nipple or stroked between her legs. The way he'd moved with her, the way he'd stared into her eyes when he told her she looked beautiful.

  Audrey groaned aloud. How on earth was she going to face him again after seeing him that way? How was she going to go back to being his pal, when all she could think about was how his body had felt along hers?

  That's it. She was a pervert, plain and simple. This was Joel, the same man who'd gone mini-golfing with her and Lauren and lost graciously to the eight-year-old on every hole. The man who passed her notes in class that made her laugh. Joel...

  "The perfect guy," she said aloud. "Who happens to be either a secret agent or a gigolo."

  A rap-tap-tap on the kitchen door made her look up, and a moment later the reason for her inability to study appeared when she opened the door.

  "Joel!"

  "Hi ya, Audrey." He waited, expectantly, for her to move aside to let him in, and soon she did.

  "What are you doing here?" She closed the door behind him, glad for the action that gave her an excuse not to look at him right away.

  "Studying for finals, right?" He set down his backpack on one of the chairs, but paused in unzipping it. He turned to look at her, a brow raised. "Isn't that okay?"

  "Oh...oh, sure. I didn't think...sure, it's fine."

  She waved a hand and grabbed another mug for him. She busied herself with pouring coffee, rustling in the cupboard for sugar and creamer and pulling out a package of cookies that she arranged on a plate before setting it on the table.

  Joel watched her do all that, his expression bemused, and finally reached out to grab her wrist as she sidled by the table to fuss with the music.

  "Audrey, sit down. Why are you fussing so much?"

  She looked down to where his hand gripped her. Last night his fingers had linked with hers and their bodies had aligned. He'd told her she looked beautiful. Now, remembering, heat crept up her cheeks and words fled, leaving her with only a shrug to explain herself.

  Joel let go of her wrist. "It's about last night. Isn't it?"

  Audrey sat and gripped her mug. "Don't be silly."

  "Audrey."

  She looked up.

  "Are things going to be weird between us now?"

  "No, of course not." She couldn't lie to him. She sighed. "I feel stupid."

  Joel sat back in his seat. "For last night?"

  She nodded, toying with her highlighter. "That's not really my thing."

  "Didn't you have a good time?"

  She couldn't read his face, usually so open. Now his brow furrowed. The full mouth, so often tipped into a smile, now curved down.

  "Well...yes. I did."

  "Until I showed up?"

  Audrey wasn't sure what to say, so she shrugged. Nodded.

  "Never mind," he said. "Let's just get to studying. Okay?"

  Joel flipped open his book and grabbed a pen. He hunched over the table and scribbled a note or two on his notepad. This wasn't the way they'd studied in the past, silence a barrier between them, but Audrey wasn't quite sure what to do.

  "I was surprised," she said at last, not looking at him.

  He looked up, dark eyes not glinting with his usual glee. "How do you think I felt?"

  They stared at each other for another long moment.

  "You must see women there who you know," she said finally. "Lancaster's not that big a city."

  "Women," Joel said. "But not you."

  The line of ever-present and always ignored tension snapped taut between them. The pen dropped from her fingers and rolled off the table. Neither of them bent to retrieve it.

  "It's your job," she said at last, voice faint and a bit hoarse. "It's how you pay for school..."

  "Is that what you think?" he asked, voice gone as low as hers. "That it was just a job...with you?"

  Audrey got up from the table and took her mug to the breakfast bar to pour more coffee into her still-full mug. "Wasn't it?"

  She heard the scrape of the chair legs on the hardwood floor and in an instant felt him behind her. She put the mug down hard enough to slop hot liquid onto the breakfast bar and over her hand. She hissed at the sting.

  "Did you burn yourself?" Joel's hands turned her to face him, and he lifted her hand in his to inspect it.

  "It's fine," she tried to say, but he'd lifted her hand to his lips and kissed the pink spot, and her voice died.

  Joel looked up and moved closer in the same motion. The hand he'd kissed went to the front of his shirt, over his heart, which thump-thumped beneath her palm. His went to her hip, fingers splayed.

  "I meant what I said last night, Audrey. About you being beautiful. I've always thought so, from the first time I met you."

  She swallowed. The bar behind her back prevented her from moving away. This close, she had to tip her head back to look into his eyes.

  "I don't have any dollars with me," she whispered.

  Joel frowned. The hand on her hip gripped tighter. He moved closer. "I'm not working right now."

  His mou