California Girl by Patricia Rice Page A

relaxed, Elliot’s whole face transformed. The frown
beneath his dark curls disappeared, and his little boy smile twisted at her
heart. The crescent scar beside his lips turned upward in a smiley face to
match. When all that masculine attention was focused on her, she felt as if she
were the only woman in the room.
    She felt like a woman.
    It had been a very long time since she’d remembered she was
one. Not a busy wife. Not a caretaker. Not a zombie. But a woman in the eyes of
a good-looking man. Her nipples sprang to attention beneath his appreciative
gaze. He looked away before she could melt into a puddle.
    She studied her companion speculatively over the top of her
menu. Elliot pulled his reading glasses from his pocket and seemed engrossed in
deciding what healthy item he should nibble on next. She couldn’t really be
interested in a man who ate like a rabbit, could she?
    She’d been without sex for so long, she could be interested
in a rabbit with the appropriate equipment. Elliot Roth definitely had what it
took. The question was, did she ?
    She’d never really been shy. Reserved, maybe, but she’d
outgrown that with her sales courses. She just didn’t have a lot of experience
with men.
    Elliot Roth was a wealthy, famous man in his prime. He would
have women hanging all over him. He had responsibility written all over him as
well, so indiscriminate sex was out. He probably had a steady girlfriend. She
would have done better with the boys who’d changed the tire if casual sex was
all she wanted.
    Casual was definitely all she could handle at this stage,
just to see if the juices still functioned.
    She would never see him again after they found Mame. Casual.
    Elliot slipped his glasses back into his shirt pocket and
glanced up at her from the depths of his intelligent eyes, and all her decision
making flew out the window.
    He was the one. If she intended to rediscover herself, and
end years of abstinence, Elliot Roth was the man she wanted to do it with.
    Mame , she prayed
silently, don’t have a heart attack. Let
your positive energy heal so I can borrow your nephew for lascivious purposes .
She had a strong hunch Mame would approve.
    “The Caesar salad,” Elliot told the waitress. “And could you
grill the shrimp instead of frying them?”
    The devil prompted Alys as she ordered, “French fries and
chocolate cheesecake with whipped cream on top, please.”
    The waitress grinned and scribbled the order.
    “Bring her some of those grilled shrimp, too,” Elliot added.
“And sliced tomatoes if you have them.”
    “Bring him some of the cheesecake,” Alys countered, handing
the menu to the waitress and meeting his gaze head-on. “And a big old glass of
Coke.”
    “That stuff will kill you,” he protested.
    “Yeah, but I’ll die happy. How about you?” she teased.
    The waitress escaped before the war could escalate.

Chapter Six
    “You can’t really mean to eat that stuff.” In appalled
fascination, Elliot watched Alys dip her spoon into a decadent bowl of
whipped-cream-laden chocolate cheesecake. The only healthy thing on it was a
strawberry.
    He couldn’t remember anyone over the age of ten eating like
that.
    “One bowl of dessert will not kill you.” She dipped her
spoon into the chocolate, and sampling the flavor, hummed in appreciation. “For
all I know, the human body develops an immunity to cheesecake just as it does
arsenic. Gad, this is incredible.”
    Her pink tongue flicked across the spoon to clean it. Elliot
had to drop his gaze to his cheesecake. He squirmed in the chair, refusing to
let libido overrule good sense. “A diet of arsenic has long-term debilitating
effects.”
    Out of curiosity, he sampled the whipped cream on the
dessert the waitress had set in front of him. Plastic. Blech . He could resist. She must have been deprived for a long time
to consider this good eating.
    “I’m not recommending a diet of cheesecake,” she admonished,
happily digging into both cream and