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  “If you eat the whole thing, I won’t ever complain again about the strange dishes you make me try,” she promised.

  With raised eyebrows and eyes that lit up, Rafe looked from his hot dog to her face, as if he were really trying to find out if the dare was worth it.

  “Why don’t we up the stakes?”

  “What do you have in mind?” she asked nervously.

  “I get a future request.”

  “What kind of request?” She wasn’t going to grant him just anything.

  “That’s part of the mystery. I eat your horribly fatty and probably diseased hot dog, and I get a teensy little request later on.”

  “Fine. I really want to see you eat the whole thing.”

  With a smile on his face, Rafe took his next bite, and another, and another. As he finished the hot dog, Ari realized she’d been hustled, because he walked up to the vendor and ordered a second one. She’d just traded him a to-be-determined favor for something he obviously enjoyed.

  Oh, he was so much better at acting than she was.

  Chapter Seven

  The day’s light had faded as Rafe and Ari arrived at the Sea Grill Restaurant. Their table overlooked the many hopeless amateurs skating on the ice rink at Rockefeller Center. She badly wanted to be out there with them, but waited patiently; the meal couldn’t last forever, could it?

  “Have you gone ice-skating before?” Rafe asked as he held out her chair.

  “No, but I’ve always wanted to, and to do so at Rockefeller Center for the first time would be beyond exciting, even though I’m sure I will make a fool of myself,” she replied breathlessly.

  “We’re lucky it’s still open. This is the last day until next winter.”

  “I’m not very hungry. I can always grab a bite later,” she said as she looked longingly out at the white frozen surface. She was afraid that if they waited too long, the rink would close up and she’d miss her chance forever.

  “I assure you it will still be open after we’ve had dinner, Ari,” he responded with a laugh.

  With reluctance, Ari picked up her menu and looked for something to eat that would take the least amount of time to prepare. The restaurant was crowded, though, so she knew she wouldn’t get on the ice for at least another hour.

  “Would you like me to order?”

  Ari’s first instinct was to say no, that she was perfectly capable of ordering herself, but he hadn’t steered her wrong so far in his choices of food. She would most likely get something much better if she just let him choose.

  “That will be fine,” she said, and she went back to watching the many skaters glide across the surface of the well-lit ice.

  Just as the waiter was pouring them a glass of wine, the ice was cleared of people except for a man and a woman. Ari watched as the man dropped to one knee and held out something in his hand. He was proposing!

  She couldn’t hear the two people speak, but obviously she’d said yes, because the crowd around the rink clapped and cheered before they all resumed their adventures on the ice.

  “How romantic,” Ari sighed without realizing she’d spoken out loud.

  “I can think of many more-romantic ways to propose,” Rafe scoffed.

  Ari whipped her head around to look at him. He didn’t seem to be the type of guy to think about such things as marriage proposals. As if he could read her thoughts, he continued.

  “I mean that if a man wants to propose — which is foolish, as more than fifty percent of marriages end in divorce — then he could do it a lot less publicly and pleasantly than in the middle of a freezing-cold ice rink.”

  “The point is that he loves her so much, he wants the rest of the world to know about it,” she argued as their appetizers were set on the table. She picked up a jumbo shrimp and dipped it in a delicate horseradish sauce before taking a bite, anticipating his next verbal challenge.

  “I suppose you think marriage proposals at ball games are romantic, too? You would want your hoped-for fiancé to splash his intentions on the giant billboard for all to see?”

  “It would make me feel special that he wasn’t ashamed to have the entire stadium and TV audience see him proclaim his love.”

  “Women,” he grumbled as he picked up a piece of lobster and sank his teeth into it as a distraction.

  “There’s nothing wrong with being a romantic, Rafe. The fact that you treat relationships like a business transaction doesn’t mean the rest of the world should. Most people are looking for love and romance, and they want to be swept off their feet. Someday, love will hit you again and then, you watch! You’ll be doing a cheesy proposal of your own,” she said smugly as she grabbed another shrimp.

  “I can guarantee you, that won’t happen.”

  “The most confident of men are the ones who fall the hardest,” she warned.

  “We’ll just agree to disagree on this point.” With that, he closed the discussion.

  Ari was grateful, after a moment’s thought, because talking about commitment of any kind with Rafe was uncomfortable at best. She knew her place in their relationship.

  She directed her eyes back to the skating rink and watched a man and woman start spinning around like professionals. The man lifted his partner up high as he spun around, and then he released her. She twirled in the air and landed gracefully. Their fellow skaters, who had slowed down to watch the show, clapped their approval.

  Talk about risk, Ari thought. How frightening it would be to be lifted up high and then released to fall toward the hard ice. And the blades of those skates were thin, and sharp. She just knew she’d trip and end up slicing off a body part. She’d much rather stay safely on her feet.

  After she and Rafe got through a meal characterized by incredible food and awkward silence, she prepared to face the rink. Once she’d rented a pair of skates and moved along the wall to enter the arena, excitement took over, making her irritation with Rafe vanish. Her heart thundered as she took her first step onto the glistening ice.

  As Ari skated out further on the rink, now moving faster, she felt her arms flail as she began to slip. She was going down and it was going to hurt. Just as her foot began sliding out in an upward arc, strong arms wrapped around her waist from behind and she felt the solid wall of Rafe’s chest pressing against her back.

  “It’s not as easy as it looks, huh?” he said, his laughter pealing softly next to her ear.

  “No. It’s definitely not,” she agreed as she soaked up the warmth of his body. He pushed forward and the two of them slowly began to glide, one of his legs between hers.

  The heat of his breath took the chill from her neck as she looked around her, thinking the moment was too romantic. How could he be so hot one moment, and then so cold the next? How was she expected to guard her heart when he literally swept her off her feet?

  The two of them laughed as they circled the rink and watched people from beginners like her to experts glide across the ice. When it was time to leave, she did so with an almost childlike reluctance. The night was too perfect and she didn’t want it to end.

  Rafe helped her off the ice, and then, when they sat down, surprised her by lifting her feet onto his lap and untying her skates. Their eyes connected as he removed her skates and took a moment to rub the sore soles of her feet.

  “Your feet will most likely be a little tender after skating for the first time. If you truly enjoy it, we’ll have to get you a pair of your own skates so you can break them in. Once you’re used to them, it’s like wearing a comfortable pair of sneakers.”

  “How do you know so much about ice-skating?”

  “Rachel loved to skate when she was little. I would take her to a rink close to our home, and that little girl could stay on the ice all day and night. She could have pursued the sport seriously, even professionally, had she really wanted to, but it requires a lot of hours and dedication. She never took it beyond a hobby, but I found myself enjoying it with her.”

  “You really are a good big brother,
aren’t you?”

  Rafe handed over her shoes, then removed his own skates and put his leather dress shoes back on. Ari had never yet heard him acknowledge a compliment.

  “We should make our way to the hotel now. It’s been a long day,” he said as he held out his hand for her.

  Ari reached for him without hesitation. Forced, as she was, into a relationship with him, she’d thought she’d be miserable all the time, but being with him wasn’t turning out to be a hardship. Yes, misery surely awaited her — she’d grow too attached and Rafe would grow bored — but she hoped she was strong enough when that moment came.

  *****

  Rafe watched as executives took off in helicopters to get to work. He’d done that himself. He truly loved New York; the bustle of the city seemed never to slow down, not once throughout the day. Even on the weekends, businesses ran, and people worked — as he should be doing.

  Instead, he was sitting on the esplanade overlooking Manhattan’s Financial District while men and women in business attire rushed to and fro on their way to earn another dollar, give or take a few.

  Ari sat next to him as she munched on a pastry and sipped coffee. It was early in the morning and he’d promised her a tour of the city. His business plans had stalled as he took time to entertain his wide-eyed mistress. Normally, he wouldn’t have cared what the woman in his life wanted — after all, he was the employer, she the employee. But with Ari, he couldn’t seem to say no.

  She wanted to see the city, so that’s what they were out doing, no matter how hard he tried to talk himself out of wasting his day. Was it really a waste of time? It was certainly enjoyable, and he had devoted himself to the pursuit of pleasure.

  When they started a leisurely stroll, a homeless man sitting there against a building caught Ari’s eye. Rafe grabbed her hand and tried to usher her away.

  “One minute,” she said as she pulled away from him. Walking over to the man, she removed a few dollars from her purse and placed it in his cup.

  “Bless you,” he said with a toothless smile filled with sadness and the look of a hard life.

  “You, too,” Ari replied in a choked voice. When she turned away, Rafe pulled out a hundred-dollar bill and slid it into the cup. When a tear fell down the man’s face and he opened his mouth to thank Rafe, he held his finger to his mouth. He didn’t want a big deal to be made out of his gesture, and he didn’t want Ari to see.

  Though Rafe had grown up more privileged than the average person, he’d never forget how much his best friend, Shane, had gone through. It had changed the way Rafe viewed the world. Rafe felt people should work hard for what they got, but he also understood that sometimes life threw unexpected turns that were hard to recover from.

  The man might use the money to buy his next bottle of booze, or he might just use it to go and buy a new pair of clothes and get a shower so he could apply for a job. Rafe chose to believe that his gut always steered him in the right direction. He had to hope that this was a person needing that one small break to pick up the pieces of his life.

  Their morning passed quickly as they strolled through the city and entered Times Square. Rafe couldn't take his eyes from Ari’s face as she looked all around her at the thousands upon thousands of people pushing past them on the wide sidewalks.

  “I’ve seen this place in movies, but I can’t believe how many people are out here. It feels like if I blink, I’ll be lost forever. How does anyone ever find their way around this city?”

  “Very carefully. You can usually tell the difference between the tourists and the locals by the way they move. Tourists are slower and look in every direction at once, while the locals keep their eyes on target and move swiftly in between people on the street. There’s a lot of business in this town and if a person doesn’t want to get left behind, he or she had better learn how to adapt.”

  “I wouldn’t want to live here. It’s just too fast for me. I do, however, want to try some of the local pizza. I’ve heard it doesn’t get better than here.”

  Pizza was hardly Rafe’s first choice for lunch, but once again he found himself unable to say no, so he found himself at John’s Pizzeria. Seeing Ari’s eyes light up at her first gooey bite made the extra grease he was ingesting well worth it.

  “I don’t know how you are so slim with the amount of terrible food you eat,” he laughed as he grabbed another napkin to absorb the oil coating his fingers.

  “Probably because I don’t usually get to eat this well. I survive on a lot of ramen noodles and canned soup. My mom is an excellent cook, but before her accident I was living in a dorm and religiously ate meals that were cooked in a microwave.” Ari winked. “Though my mother has always taken great care of me, money was still a concern, and on campus I needed to be careful. It’s a real treat having these fancy meals,” she said and took a bite, then swirled a long piece of cheese around her finger.

  “I wouldn’t call pizza fancy,” he said, unable to take his eyes from her mouth as she sucked the gooey cheese from her finger.

  “That’s because you’re a snob.” The twinkle in her eye let him know she was teasing him, but still, he couldn’t let her get away with a comment like that without at least a little retaliation.

  “No more pizza for you. It’s caviar for dinner.” She glared at him as she took another bite and chomped extra hard on her thin-crusted treat.

  “I don’t know why the egg of a fish is so special. Seriously! That’s so disgusting.”

  “It’s an acquired taste,” he said with a laugh.

  “Yeah, well, I prefer cheese to salty fish eggs. I promise never to call you a snob again if you won’t take me to another snooty restaurant that has foods I can’t even pronounce,” she pleaded.

  The utter look of horror on her face had Rafe laughing. The comment was even funnier because of her utter seriousness. Not one of his other mistresses had preferred pizza or hot dogs to Beluga caviar and oysters. Who really had the right idea? Rafe found himself asking.

  As they finished their lunch, and once again stepped onto the busy sidewalks of New York, Rafe took Ari’s hand and led her on a tour of some of the city’s amazing architecture.

  “New York is known for its old architecture mixed among the sleek new skyscrapers. There are many hidden treasures in the city and numerous landmarks on almost any block you turn onto. When you add the creativity of the many people looking to break into show business or the art world, this is almost like one giant playground. I can’t possibly show you everything in only a couple of days, or even a couple of months, but I can at least give you a small taste of why the locals are so loyal to their home.”

  How do you know so much about the area if you grew up in Italy and California?”

  “My dad traveled a lot for business and we spent at least a couple of weeks each year in New York. I’ve spent a lot of time in Chicago, Seattle and Philadelphia, too. By the time I was eighteen, I was a frequent flier,” he answered.

  “I can’t imagine how wonderful that would be. I’d never even left California until this trip. I think you’ve created a monster, though, because I am enjoying myself tremendously, even if my feet are killing me.”

  “Do you want to go back to our room?”

  “Not a chance. We haven’t even visited the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State building,” she replied with horror.

  Rafe laughed as he hailed a cab and took her on a concentrated tour of the city. He wanted their night to end on top of the Empire State Building, though he called himself a fool for his romantic gesture. Nah; get real — he was doing it only because looking out at the lights of the city at night was an experience everyone should have, not because he wanted to pull her into his arms and kiss her above all the twinkling lights. It wasn’t as if he’d become some slobbering love-struck fool who spouted off poetry in one of the many cafés catering to such a crowd.

  For all his happily cynical thoughts, Rafe still took her into his arms as they stood at the top of the Empire Sta
te Building. His head moved downward involuntarily and he captured her mouth with his. His lips were tender as he caressed hers, coaxing her mouth to open to him so he could taste her on his tongue. His arms wrapped tightly around her waist, and he got lost in her sweetness.

  No, this wasn’t good. It could be difficult for him to reinsert the distance he had always kept between him and his mistresses, but as he hailed a cab at the end of their night, he determined to do just that. If it required a valiant effort, so be it.

  Chapter Eight

  Shane

  Shane pulled to a screeching halt at the emergency room entrance of the nearest hospital. He had barely turned off the engine before he was jumping from the car and rushing to the passenger door. Two paramedics hurried out as he was lifting Lia into his arms.

  “She was at a party. I think they may have drugged her!”

  “Lay her down on this gurney. We’ll get her in immediately.”

  “Sir, come with me and fill out some paperwork, please.”

  “Like hell! I’m going with her,” Shane told the nurse trying to stop him. It would take a lot more than a hundred-pound woman to keep him from staying as near to Lia as possible.

  “Are you a relative, sir?”

  It took Shane a few moments to figure out what the woman was asking him. Meanwhile, Lia was being led further away from him into a private room, where a doctor went in after her and began his examine.

  “I’m a friend of the family,” he finally answered as he again tried to get past the growing number of medical members blocking his path.

  “We can’t allow non-family members into the room,” the woman insisted while a guard appeared at her right-hand side.

  “I’m the one who brought her here!”

  “We still can’t break hospital policies, Sir. I’m sorry. If you can just fill out this paperwork and let us know what is wrong with her, we can get her treated.” The woman remained calm, which escalated Shane’s anger even further. She was keeping him from Lia.