Free Tarzan & Janine by Delilah Devlin, Elle James Page B

need you. This is all a fantasy. I have plans and they don’t include you.”
    Tanner shook his head and started over. “What I meant to say is that the dealership needs you.”
    “Oh.” Her gaze dropped to his chest.
    Had that been disappointment in her eyes? Tanner must have imagined it.
    The next moment, Janine looked up, fire lighting her blue eyes. “So you came to ask me to come back to work for you?”
    He didn’t like the tone of her voice. A little too tight and mean. “Yes.” He wanted to say so much more, but he was too afraid he’d louse things up even worse. And he wanted her to come back to work with him. Even more so after what had just happened.
    “And what if I say no?”
    His stomach churned. Failure wasn’t an option. If Janine didn’t come back to work for him, his father would fire him. On the other hand, if she did come back to work for him, he might lose more than his job. Somewhere between the mechanical bull and the sweet, hot sex he’d just enjoyed, his heart had veered onto a perilous path.
    Tanner settled his hands on her shoulders and stared into her eyes, pouring every bit of his charm into his next words, fully aware of how much rode on her response. “Would you please come back to me, Janine?”
    Heart be damned, he wanted this woman in his life. Not just for the dealership and his job, he wanted to spend more time in her company and this was the one way he could get it.
    Janine hesitated, her gaze seeming to search his for something, then she shrugged. “I guess I’ll have to, since I don’t have a part in Miller’s play . I need money to pay the rent.”
    “What about BS-squared?” As soon as the words left his mouth, Tanner could have kicked himself for reminding her of the other job offer.
    Her chin lifted high. “Oh, I plan to take that one too. You’re not getting an exclusive, you know. I’ll do the next commercial, but I’m not guaranteeing anything after that. And this…” she waved a hand between their bodies, “won’t happen again.”
    Tanner frowned. “How can you be so sure?”
    “It won’t happen,” she said through tight lips. Her hand drifted halfway to his cheek before she jerked it back and tucked it beneath the sheet. She frowned mightily then captured his gaze with her own. “One more thing…”
    “Anything.” He held up his hand as if making a vow.
    “I get a speaking part.”
    Tanner gave her a frown, thinking hard. He’d already seen how much she loved garbling up his last name. Not that it wasn’t damn cute. He eased away the frown, eager to take whatever he could get from Janine. Somehow, he’d convince her to do more than the one additional commercial she’d promised. Tanner wanted her around a lot longer than one more show.
    He’d just have to turn up the Tanner Peschke charm a notch. He shoved out his hand and grabbed hers. “It’s a deal.”
    They shook, but Janine’s brows drew together and her eyes narrowed in a thoughtful squint. “Oh, and Tanner...?”
    “Yes, Janine?”
    “No more monkeys.”
    * * *
    Janine stood behind the bathroom door at Peschke Motors, breathing into a paper bag, attempting to avoid hyperventilating. Her crash-and-burn audition must have affected her more than she’d originally thought. She was completely petrified about speaking on live television after butchering her lines in front of Hal Miller.
    Perhaps she should relent and let Tanner do all the talking. He was much more comfortable in front of the camera and managed to speak without shuffling words into incomprehensible gibberish.
    Janine almost jumped out of her skin when a voice announced, “Five minutes, Miss Davis,” from the other side of the door.
    Another joined it. “Janine, it’s me, Tanner. Can I come in?”
    “No, go away,” she answered.
    “If you don’t let me in, I’ll go get the key and let myself in.” A pause. “What’s it going to be?”
    Taking a deep breath with her face buried in the paper bag, Janine