Free Dance with the Devil by Cherry Adair

her wedding timetable. Get married in spring instead of midsummer. Date more often. Two blind dates a day—maybe three.
    She’d find someone— anyone —who could light up her insides and make her laugh. Someone like Jack.
    There was no one like Jack.
    There never would be.
    Glancing around the bathroom hoping to find another exit, Mia spotted the window. It was a nice big picture window covered in swaths of silky voile—Oh, she was tempted. Climb out of the window, just as she and her sister had done as teenagers when Sallye had grounded them. Nothing to it.
    She gave it a moment’s consideration. Clambering up onto the side of the tub, she looked outside. Sure they were two stories up, but there was a balcony, sort of. She could probably make the jump down without breaking anything vital.
    Nah, it was snowing out there.
    Breaking a leg was one thing. Lying in the snow in agony until someone found her frozen corpse was something else altogether.
    She pushed open the bathroom door to find Jack standing in the middle of the room, holding a small, handheld computer. He didn’t look anything like a mess. He looked as suave, sophisticated and handsome as he had half an hour ago when they’d slipped into the closet.
    Another annoying thing about him, Mia thought sourly. Perhaps she should move to Alaska. Or Siberia. She’d miss her mom and Domino, but on the plus side there’d be no Jack—
    â€œPlease tell me that’s the disk we were supposed to find,” she said as she walked into the room, her brain still playing with possible escape routes. Maybe Tahiti? Bora Bora? Somewhere hot. Yes, somewhere hot and sultry.
    Jack was hot and sultry.
    Damn.
    It all came back to Jack.
    â€œYeah, this is it.” He held up the innocent looking, but highly sophisticated, custom-built PDA to show her the list of names and numbers on the display, then closed it and tucked it into his breast pocket. “In fact, I do believe we have something even more compelling here than we first suspected.”
    â€œGood,” Mia said briskly. She didn’t work for Uncle Sam anymore, but she was happy they had what Jack had come for. Now she was ready, more than ready, to split. “Let’s get the hell out of Dodge.”
    â€œMind if I use the bathroom first?” Jack asked laconically.
    â€œBe my guest. I’ll go downstairs and say my goodb—”
    â€œRunning, Mia?”
    That stopped her. “I don’t run.”
    â€œYou always run. You ran the first time we had a minor disagreement. You ran like hell when you realized what we had.”
    â€œAnd what was that?” she asked tightly, forgetting the trivial and zooming in on the crux of the matter. “Interesting sex? A job we could do together?”
    â€œThat and a whole hell of a lot more. Let me go in here, and then we can trot downstairs for a little champagne, a waltz or two—”
    She folded her arms. “You got what you came for. Leave it at that.”
    â€œNo, Mia. I didn’t get what I came for. Not yet. Stay put. I’ll be right back.” And he shut the door.
    Mia pulled a face at the closed bathroom door. “I do not always run,” she told the clothes in the closet as she searched the floor for her thong. “Like any rational woman, I walk away quietly and with dignity when I know things have gone to hell in a handbasket—Where the hell is my underwear?”
    Maybe Jack had picked it up when she’d gone into the bathroom. She heard the toilet flush and water running. Good. About time. She went over and removed the chair from under the bedroom door handle, then went and stood in the middle of the room to wait for him. Just to show him that she didn’t run. “Come on, Jackson! Get the lead out.”
    â€œThat’s my girl, always anxious for me,” he said as he stepped out.
    Yes, indeedy she was. “Dream on, Romeo. Come on.