Desperately Seeking Epic(46)

For the next twenty minutes I stood to the side while Paul drank beer with his new posse and at the end of it, he handed all of them a brochure and told them to watch for him because he’d be skydiving into the race. I tried not to be annoyed when one of the women wrote her number on the palm of his hand. As we walked away, my aggravation was rolling off of me in waves. Paul sensed this because he said, “What?”

“You shouldn’t drink before a jump,” I griped. It was the only thing I could come up with. Marcus hadn’t quite finished with the last group and remained behind as we moved on.

“It was two beers and I’ve been chugging water all day,” he argued as he shook his water bottle in my face. I knew he had been, but he still shouldn’t have drunk anything alcoholic. Period. “What’s really the problem here?”

“Nothing.” I shrugged. “I just think you’re trying to say flirting is promoting and it’s not.”

“I flirt to promote,” he argued.

“Or to get laid,” I quipped.

He laughed and wrapped an arm around my shoulders, squeezing me to him. My body tensed so I immediately pulled away. He held his hands up as if surrendering. “Sorry.”

I clenched my jaw and looked away. I didn’t like him touching me because, actually, I really liked him touching me. It had been happening more and more; his arm resting against my arm as we looked at something on the office computer together; his hand brushing mine as he handed me something. Small touches, yet never really simple. I refused to fall victim to his charm because the truth was it was all bullshit. It had to be. He was handsome and charming and his smile captivated everyone, and all of those things coupled together were lethal. Somehow those things directed at me made me feel . . . special. Which was why it was all bullshit. No one was special to Paul James. He’d share that lethal combo with anyone.

“You have got to loosen up, Clara,” he chuckled as he adjusted his straw hat.

“Do I now?” His statement agitated me. I didn’t consider myself an uptight person. Not at that time anyway. Okay, maybe I was guarded. But I had just been through hell in the last few months and guarded was the only way I knew to survive. But I wasn’t stuck-up.

“I just mean you need to have some fun.”

“Is your definition of fun walking around a racetrack half naked? You want me to act like all of these women out here; desperate for attention?”

He let out a long sigh. I guess I was exhausting him as well. “No, not half naked. I just mean, it’s okay to flirt with a guy even if you have no interest in him.”

“Some men would call that a tease,” I pointed out.

“Only stupid ones.”

I shook my head in disbelief. “You mean flirt to sell?”

“And so what if you did? You’re the one always preaching about presentation. It’s not just the jump,” he imitated me, his tone high-pitched, mocking me. Do I really sound like that? “You can flirt without acting like a . . . ya know.”

I raised my eyebrows. “No. I don’t know.”

“Like you’re easy or something.”

“Jesus, Paul. You’re unbelievable.”

He laughed. “I know,” he said sarcastically.

“Should I go and flirt with those guys over there?” I pointed to a group near a jacked up Chevy truck.

“Well, we’ve made changes and tried new things that you’ve wanted to implement. Maybe you should try something of ours?”

“You want me to try acting like a ho?”

He took a long swig from his water bottle. “Jeez, Clara,” he groaned. “You’re being extreme. Obviously I don’t think you should go over there and rub your tits in their faces.”

“Then what do you want me to do?” I snapped.

“Can’t you just go over there and act like you like them and then slip in the fact that you own a skydiving business and how thrilling it is? Fuck.” Then he took a stab at me. “Not that you would know.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “I don’t have to jump to know it’s thrilling.”

“Do you know how weird it is that you own a skydiving business but refuse to jump?” The answer to that question was yes. I did know. And even if I didn’t know, or I’d somehow magically made myself forget that fun little fact, Marcus went out of his way to remind me every chance he got how asinine it was.

“I will jump,” I argued. “One day.”

“It’s okay, Clara. If you can’t do it, you can’t do it.” He shrugged as if it was no big deal.

“What? Jump?”

He cut me a look that said, you’re an idiot. “No, babe. Flirt. It’s okay if you can’t flirt.”

I stopped on the dusty gravel path we’d been following and stared at him dumbly. Was he serious? It took him passing me a few steps before he realized I was no longer beside him. When he turned around and saw my expression, a wide smile spread across his face. “What’d I say?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” I said dramatically, throwing my hands up. “Apparently I’m a mutant incapable of seducing a man.”

He threw his head back and snorted out a loud laugh. “Wow. Got all that out of what I just said, did ya?”