“What the hell kind of game are you playing?” he asked curtly. “What do you want from me? A commitment? I’m sorry. I’m not looking for emotional involvement of any kind. I’ve had all I can take of it and survive. Marriage is not in my vocabulary anymore.” He sighed roughly. “Nikki, I like being with you. I’d like to have an affair with you, even if only for a few days. But that’s all I have to offer, take it or leave it.”
She didn’t look at him. “I suppose all that talk about getting to know each other was part of the approach?” she murmured.
He shifted his gaze uncomfortably. “I didn’t want you to feel pressured. But I’m running out of time. I’ve talked the Jones Restaurant chain’s ownership into a merger with my hotels, and the new hotel’s off the ground at last. I don’t have any reason to stay down here. I’ve got work to do. I need to go back to Chicago.”
“Don’t let me stop you, Cal,” she said quietly. She still couldn’t bring herself to meet his eyes as she refastened the ties he’d loosened on one shoulder.
“Shut up before you push me over the edge,” he added in a tight, angry tone.
“And if I do, what happens?” she breathed, her pale green eyes mirroring the excitement that was whirling like a small tornado inside her.
“You know,” he ground out, bending. “Damn you, you know...!”
Her mouth ached under the rough assault of his, and the hunger of it was a pleasure beyond fathoming. His hands moved, stripping her against every hard, warm curve of his big body from her thighs to her breasts, making her feel every inch of him, the warmth, the power of him.
Her fingers tangled in his dark hair, holding his mouth over hers even though it showed no sign of ever wanting to be free. Her mouth opened, tempted, teased his, deepening the kiss shyly until he caught her head in his hands and she felt the expert penetration of his mouth in ardent response.
His teeth nipped her lower lip as he drew away, breathing roughly, his eyes dark and narrow. “Do you want me?” he asked curtly. “Because I’m not a boy, and I don’t play juvenile games. For me it doesn’t end at foreplay anymore. Another minute of this and you’ll sleep with me, because we’re both human and we want it too much. Now, do I stop while I still can, or do I start stripping you?”
She sobered, like a drunk thrown headfirst into a snowbank. She drew away from him with her eyes lowered, her face paling.
He drew in his breath heavily, like a man who’d been running. Nikki couldn’t meet those accusing dark eyes; she didn’t try. She felt as nervous as a child taking a shot, and her heart hurt her with its desperate beat.
“You can make me want you, that’s very obvious. But so can a dozen other women. I’m not impotent,” he said in a voice that made her feel two inches tall.
She folded her arms across her breasts and stared down at the floor. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “It was a stupid thing to do.”
“At least we agree about that,” he muttered. He lit another cigarette. She hadn’t seen him smoke that much in the time they’d known each other. She had a feeling it was something he did when he was angry or upset. He seemed to be both right now.
“I, uh, I think I’ll go to bed,” she said, feeling acutely embarrassed by her own behavior. She turned to go inside, but he didn’t try to stop her, or say a word. He hadn’t moved when she closed the door.
* * *
SHE SLEPT FITFULLY, awaking the next morning with a headache and a sore heart. She didn’t know how she was going to face Cal after the spectacle she’d made of herself last night. She still couldn’t understand why she’d pushed him that far, unless it had been hurt pride. No, that wasn’t all it was, she admitted quietly to herself. It was his refusal to get involved, to commit himself, that had caused her to react that way. She’d wanted more than he was prepared to give, and something inside her had wanted to prove to him that he wasn’t immune to her as a woman. She laughed under her breath as she put on white slacks and a matching tank top. No,