“I like your family,” Susan said as they pulled onto the main road. “They remind me of us, when we’d all get together.”
“Us?”
“My family.” She relaxed in her seat and watched the scenery pass by. Though it was barely five, the sun was vanishing. He made a choking noise, and she glanced at him. “What?” she asked.
He made an exaggerated show of clearing his throat. “Nothing. I don’t know them, so I can’t say.”
“Well you can’t go based on anything Mercy told you. She left us behind.”
“Right. That’s how it went down.” He pointed the car toward downtown Salt Lake. “I was going to take you to dinner, but I think we’ve got that covered. You up for a stroll around The Gateway?”
She wanted to go back to the conversation about what Mercy had said about their family, but she didn’t want to spoil the mood. “I’m in.” The Gateway was an outdoor mall. All the shops besides the theater and the restaurants would be closed, and it would be chilly, but it was a pretty view regardless. This time of year, it was even better. Besides, she was supposed to do what she was told, and was curious to see what kind of training he had in mind.
Silence settled between them, and she frowned. She saw him at the wedding. At the reception desk in R&T. With his sister. He didn’t have any problem sliding through quips. She had to get him to drop his guard, to get the same. Did she have Mercy to thank, for him withdrawing? The sarcastic thought burrowed deep, and Susan couldn’t ignore it. Didn’t matter. Small talk was a must in her world.
“Are you a fan of classic movies?” she asked.
“As in, Star Wars? Pretty in Pink? Define classic.”
“You quoted Casablanca then night we met.”
“You remember that?” He sounded surprised.
“Should I not?” Far more memories had come back than she cared for. The feeling of helplessness when she realized she lost control of the situation. Her gratitude that he was there to step in. Thinking that she shouldn’t like the idea of needing to be saved, but enjoying the rescue anyway.
He paid the parking lot attendant and navigated them toward an empty spot. “Doesn’t usually happen with GHB or any of those drugs.”
They climbed from the car and made their way toward the shops.
“How do you know so much about it?” she asked.
“Personal experience.” Quickly, he added, “Taking, not giving. It’s a shame I don’t do my own camera work anymore. I’d put you in one of my movies.”
The sudden change in subject jarred her, but she switched gears. “I don’t remember asking.” She wanted to leave it at that, but fantasy surged into her thoughts. Baring it all for an audience. Stripping down, a piece of clothing at a time. Getting off to someone getting off on her. She shoved the images aside. If she kept hanging out with him, she wasn’t going to need a coat, regardless of how cold it got outside.
“You didn’t. But for as many people as seem to expect that’s how we know each other, the idea’s got potential.”
It had far more than she cared to admit. “I’d be terrified. I don’t have a public presence with my clothes on. That’s why we’re here. Remember?”
“Once I’m done with you, that all vanishes. You’ll blossom into a star.” Confidence leaked from his assurance.
“Really?” She couldn’t keep the disbelief from her voice. “You’ll not only cure me of my lacking presence, but also have me begging to take my clothes off for an audience?”
“Begging is exactly the word I would have used, but how’d you know?”
She rolled her eyes, but she was laughing. “I notice you didn’t answer my question.”
His step faltered for half a second. His smug expression never slipped. “What question?”
“Are you a fan of classic movies?”
“Behind the Green Door, The Devil in Miss Jones… Sure. Love all that stuff.”
She dragged the titles through her memory, to find any connection at all. “Is that the one where the billionaire poses as a clerk in his own shoe store? Romantic comedy 1940’s style?”
“In Miss Jones, not and Miss Jones. Classic tale about a woman who spends her entire life obeying the rules, and then kills herself in a fit of frustration.”
“That sounds horrible.”
“Not done yet.” He held up a finger. “Despite all her good deeds, that one final act damns her to hell, where she’s subjected to all manner of debauchery and pleasure. Or—if you’d prefer—a movie about sex stuff.”
She was never going to live that down, but she wasn’t going to give him another opportunity to poke fun at her innocence. “Don’t know if I’d prefer it or not, though I’d rather not wait until I was dead to find out.”
“Probably smart. By the end of the movie, she’s addicted to the pleasure, and her eternal punishment after that is to never get off again. If you play your cards right, you get the bad-sex and not-getting-off parts out of the way early in adulthood, and figure out how to enjoy everything that comes after. Which includes you, over and over, if you’re doing it right.”
Her face heated to red-hot. Keeping him from uncovering her lack of experience was easier said than done. Especially if he was the one doing the saying.