Dancing in the Dark by Linda Cajio

it that he found her decor appealing, right down to the pointedly single bed in her bedroom. She waited for him by the front door.
    “Go to bed, Charity. It’s late and you had a great day. And no
Desirée’s Secret Desire
.”
    With that, he walked out the door, whistling.
    “
Desirée’s Secret Desire
, my aunt Fanny,” Charity muttered for the hundredth time as she cut up a whole chicken late Saturday afternoon. The work now would save her plenty over the next few weeks in dollars and time.
    What a great parting shot, she thought, her brain far from her bargain meat. She chopped the thigh from the leg with one clean swing of the cleaver. And she was angry with him for interrupting her family dinner in Boston. What a half-baked story about suddenly wanting to see more prospective clients! She bet he’d wanted to see something else entirely and that Desirée played a central theme.
    “That bum,” she mumbled, clanging the cleaver down with force on the poor chicken leg. To be fair, he hadn’t suggested they stay over a second night. He hadn’t even mentioned it. Considering the way she’d cold-shouldered him after that kiss, the thought probably hadn’t even crossed his mind.
    She whacked the chicken again for good measure, telling herself she absolutely
was not
disappointed. Not the least little bit. She muttered darkly under her breath even as she wondered at his sudden lack of interest. Realizing what she was doing, she tooka deep breath and pushed the thought away. She should have given him a parting shot last night, right in the patootie. His new nickname was Aggravation from Hell.
    So why did she find him so damned attractive? She slapped the mangled pieces of chicken on a plate and centered a new section of fowl on the board. She just didn’t understand herself. His interest in her was flattering. He might be interested only in one thing, but he was interested in that one thing with her. That was more tempting than she cared to admit.
    Okay, he had some appeal.
Chop
went the cleaver, and another leg went flying on the cutting board. He was gentlemanly enough to check her house for safety and leave immediately after. Usually men used that as a ploy to get an invitation to stay for coffee … and more. Jake hadn’t, and the gesture had touched her.
Chop
. She still couldn’t believe how she’d talked to him on the telephone. And how he’d kissed the breath out of her the next morning.
Chop, bam, chop!
    He was easy to talk to, and she liked that even as she wished she didn’t. Another chicken piece was cleanly severed. But he would not be an easy man over the long haul. In fact, she had grave doubts he would even be there for a woman. Just because he was giving her some golden opportunity at work did not mean she had to fall on her knees in gratitude. A perversely honest part of her brain reminded her that he’d never ever done or said anything that even hinted he expected such a thing. She absolutely believed that any refusal from her on the personal side did not affect her job at Wayans. She knewharassment when she heard it. He didn’t make lewd or suggestive remarks. He just told her he wanted to see her, asked her several times to change her stance about dating men from work. She had to admit that what he said was true, about the workplace being the number-one territory for men and women to meet. The thigh meat was reduced another quarter inch by the black-belt-in-karate cleaver.
    Okay, so he wasn’t a macho ogre either. But she was in no mood for logic to interfere with the ripe anger she was whipping up. Jake was not someone she should ever get involved with. If she had known then what she knew now, she would have run for her life the moment she spotted him in the woods that night.
    But none of that negated one fact. She wanted him. When she went to bed at night, he was the last thing she thought of. When she woke up in the morning, he was the first. She could taste his mouth on hers nearly