arrived at her door, she got out of the car in a fog, allowing herself to be escorted up the steps and into the house.
“Don’t they ever lock this door?” Cal asked when he discovered that he didn’t need the key Nikki had handed him.
She laughed softly. “Uncle Mike forgets. Someone constantly nags him about it, but I think it’s gotten to the revenge stage now.”
“I like this architecture,” he murmured, studying the entrance hall and the staircase. “Neoclassical, isn’t it?”
“Yes, and there’s quite a story behind it. Remind me to tell you someday.” She took off her light jacket and tossed it on the back of the sofa in the living room. Mike and Jenny were nowhere in sight.
Cal took off his suit coat and loosened his tie. “God, it’s hot here,” he murmured.
“We used to have air-conditioning,” she said apologetically, rising to turn on the big window fan, “but Mike got a horrible allergy to it and we had to take it out. Fortunately it doesn’t stay this hot year-round, and he isn’t allergic to heat. Don’t you want to change into something...”
“More comfortable?” he suggested with a grin.
She flushed, glancing away from his wicked gaze. “I thought that suit might be hot.”
“It is. Care to help me take it off?”
She opened her mouth to speak, but he was having such fun at her expense, it seemed a shame to spoil it.
She walked over to him and began to unfasten, slowly, the buttons on his silky vest. Her eyebrows levered up at the expression on his broad, dark face. “You asked for help. I’m only trying to be hospitable.”
His big chest rose and fell roughly under a skirl of deep, pleased laughter. “Imp,” he murmured, reaching down to jerk her body against him. “Delightful, little pixie.” The smile vanished, and his eyes were lonely, still. “My God, I’ve been lonely, Nicole!”
It was like coming back to life after being buried. All the weight of depression lifted, floated up, soared away, and her eyes burned on his face like pencils making sketches. He was so good to look at, to touch, to be held by. And she’d missed him unbearably. She recognized that loneliness in his eyes, because it was a mirror of her own.
“Cal, I’ve missed you, too,” she whispered fervently. She bit her bottom lip, searching his face, his eyes, hungrily. All at once her arms went up to him and he lifted her, crushed her against his big, warm body. “Kiss me...” she pleaded, her voice breaking, splintering as his dark head bent and his mouth took hers.
He was rough this time, as if the waiting had worn him, tried his patience, as if he’d never expected to see her again in this life.
“I missed you,” he repeated against her eager, soft mouth, his voice deep, husky, his arms hurting as they crushed her into his huge frame. “You took the sunlight with you, the music... God, Nicole, I’ve been lonely before, but never like this.”
She went up on tiptoe to give him back the kiss, all sensation, all woman. She felt him tremble in her arms with a sense of wonder at her own power.
“Come home with me,” he groaned. “It’s a huge town house. There’s more than enough room...”
“And be what, Cal?” she asked quietly, searching his eyes.
“My woman,” he said.
She shook her head with a sad, hurting smile. “There’s another name for a woman who lets herself be kept by a man. I don’t want it.” She drew away from him. “Besides,” she said, staring out the dark window, “I have my own life here, a job I enjoy, roots... We did agree not to make any commitments, didn’t we?”
He was silent for a long moment before he spoke. “I guess we did,” he said curtly. His eyes were accusing as they met hers. “I knew you were going to be trouble the minute I laid eyes on you,” he added.
She smiled despite the heartache that was eating at her. The temptation to give in was great. But not as great as her own self-respect, and she couldn’t sacrifice that to become an expensive plaything. She went back to him, reaching up to kiss him again. “Let’s live one day at a time, okay?” she asked softly.
He grimaced. “I suppose we’ll have to. Flying visits, like this, phone calls...” His mouth crushed down against hers. “Never mind, just kiss me and ease the ache a little.”