Delicious (Cooking Up A Storm) (2 page)

On the few occasions
Cara had come here, mostly in the company of Miranda, she’d fallen in love with Aiden’s house. It was like a dream come true. The place was nothing but windows that afforded breathtaking views of the city and the surrounding hillside from just about every room.

Aiden
parked the Rover in front and got out. There was no sign of Miranda’s BMW. Not that Cara was expecting there to be. She waited next to him while he unlocked the door. When they stepped inside she felt something that she’d never felt before in Aiden’s presence. A certain uneasiness crept down her spine. Almost as if she were, being warned that this evening was not going to be a pleasant one.

Cara
tried to dismiss those feelings as Aiden disappeared, presumably to check messages. She walked out onto the deck into the perfect June night. The city’s skyline, as always, struck her as home, even though technically she’d only lived in Dallas for three years.

Still, this was one of her favorite times in the city. It was warm enough to be outdoors but not too hot, like the hundred degree scorchers
Dallas was famous for during the summer months. Not even the night brought any relief from that much humidity and heat.

“That’s odd. She hasn’t tried to call back. She knew I needed to talk to her tonight. It’s unlike her to cancel on such short notice.”

Aiden came to stand beside Cara on the deck. He was starting to figure it out. She didn’t want to be around when the truth finally registered.

  “Well, why don’t we go check out some of those clubs,”
Cara said, anxious to get him away from this intimate setting where it was just the two of them together. Alone. And she was too aware of all the little things that Miranda had told her about Aiden as a lover.

Cara
needed to find a distraction for them both and soon. If not, then not only would he figure everything out about Miranda but he’d guess that Cara was involved in her crimes as well.

“Just a second,” he told her, reaching for her hand with narrowed eyes. “Maybe we should stay here for a little while longer. Just in case she comes back?” He waited for her reaction.

“But you said yourself…” In the light of the expression in Aiden’s eyes, Cara didn’t finish. Instead, she turned back to the view below and tried to focus.

“What are you hiding,
Cara?” he asked before turning her to face him. Cara almost didn’t recognize Aiden’s voice. It sounded so distant. So controlled.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,
Aiden,” she told him lamely.

“Yes you do.” His answer came out so softly that
Cara almost didn’t catch the words. “I can tell when you’re lying. You want to know how?” She didn’t. She did. He tugged her closer. She could feel the warmth of his fingers through the gauzy material of her shirt. “You’re eyes turn dark—almost the color of night. That’s how I know a lot of things about you, Cara. Things you’d prefer that I didn’t,” he added with another slow smile. “And that’s how I know you’re lying to me now.” The smile disappeared. “You do know where she is, don’t you Cara?”

* * * *

Aiden watched the eyes that drove him crazy with desire and wondered if Cara had any idea how little he cared about hearing her answer.

For almost a year now, since he’d picked her little business’ name from a phonebook at random,
Aiden had been fascinated by those eyes. They were the color of nutmeg. Only a few shades darker than the soft curls that caressed the nape of her neck. Light brown eyes that changed with her emotions. They were dark now. She was ready to tell him another lie. How many times had he wondered what those eyes would look like when he kissed her? Touched her. Made love to her as he’d been dreaming about doing since she’d walked into his office and he’d all but handed the contract for his company’s Christmas party over to her without ever hearing a single word of her pitch.

Not just once. Because making love once would never be enough for
Aiden. He’d wanted her far too much for once.

That alone should have told him how out of character his reaction to
Cara Bennett really was.

Since meeting her, she’d been nothing but a series of contradictions. And he still didn’t understand what made her tick. But he wanted to. That was, if she would ever give him the chance. So far, he hadn’t gotten past the buddy stage with her. He was just someone to hang out with, talk football with and occasionally go out for a drink with when no one else was available. Always casual, some place that could never be construed as anything close to a date.

His fingers stroked the soft material that covered her upper arms. That shirt was a prime example of the unpredictable woman she was. The shirt represented what he liked to believe was the real Cara beyond all that sometimes tomboy personality she used with him. Soft, frilly material that consisted of several shades of pink blended. The top was tantalizingly see-through. He could just make out the curve of her hips where the hem of her top met faded, low-cut jeans above her flat stomach where he knew from past glimpses of heaven that she had a tiny tattoo of an angel dancing with a devil—proof that she might be both those women rolled into one. He’d met the angel. He wanted to meet the devil.

The top was low cut, also unusual by
Cara Bennett standards, as was that powder pink nail polish he’d noticed peeking out beneath thinly strapped sandals. A quick glance at her fingers didn’t disappoint. Of course, she never wore nail polish on her fingers. She said it interfered with her professional image, whatever that meant.

At five
-foot-two, the three-inch sandals weren’t a surprise. Cara liked to level the playing field in her favor.

She took a deep, somewhat labored breath, causing the material to cling to the swell of her breasts. She strained in his grasp and he made out the color of her lacy bra. Pink. No, pale pink—the very same color as her toes.

Cara said something to him that he didn’t catch, although to his credit, her voice sounded uncharacteristically un-Cara-ish. It was almost a strangled whisper. He realized that his full attention had been focused on her, more importantly on her body, that he had no idea what she’d been saying. He did a quick mental shake, reminded himself that he was for all practical purposes supposed to be worried about Miranda, although to be honest, he could care less about Miranda at the moment. He’d been trying to get her alone to tell her he couldn’t keep up the pretense of being with her any longer. His heart, as well as his body, wasn’t in it any more. For just as long, Miranda had been avoiding him. The move to Little Rock had come at just the right time. It allowed him the perfect opportunity to get out of the relationship, and start planning on how to meet that little devil. He knew it existed. He’d seen tiny, exciting glimpses of it whenever Cara let her guard down with him.

Unfortunately for him, those times were only enough to leave him wanting more.

Aiden became aware of her saying something else. He forced his eyes to hers, saw them darken again. There were more than just untruths there now. There was something else that he’d only caught peeps of in the past; something that made him wonder. Before he could figure it out in the past, she’d hidden it away from him. Just like tonight. But it was enough to momentarily knock the breath out of him.

“What?”
Aiden asked absently, his focus going from those dark sultry eyes to her pink full lips. The woman knew how to do pink justice.

Another shift brought her closer. “I said, no, I’m not. I’m not lying to you,
Aiden. I don’t know anything about where Miranda might be.” She was starting to question what was wrong with him. Cara’s eyes narrowed once they met his.

“I don’t believe you.”
Aiden shook his head. That was at least true. He knew she wasn’t telling him everything. Miranda was famous for telling everyone she knew everything about her life. Miranda was her own favorite subject. And he’d suspected for a long time now that she’d told Cara more than the actual truth about their relationship and where it might be headed.

“
Miranda tells you everything. She’d tell you where she was going.” He brought her closer. Their bodies were actually touching now. Her reaction was instant. Cara was nervous. Aiden decided that was a good thing. “So, let’s try this again. Where is she?”

Aiden
watched her eyes darken more as she struggled to come up with a lie. Not that it mattered. He could care less at this moment where Miranda was or what she was up to. She was only postponing the inevitable and made his regret at going out with the woman that much greater. He’d had it up to his ears with models by the time he’d met Miranda.

The very fact that
Cara had all but pushed them together had stung. He’d gone out with Miranda for all the wrong reasons. He’d even slept with her with the hope that she would talk to Cara about it. Even though he’d never slept with Miranda, he was certain Miranda’s version of the story to Cara would be entirely different. He’d been searching for a reaction, anything from the woman he’d fantasized about. There were moments when he’d wondered if she really didn’t have a clue how he felt about her or if she was simply acting. Now, he wasn’t so sure. Her eyes didn’t look like the eyes of a woman unaware of the man who held her.

He could smell her perfume. It drove him mad. It wasn’t the usually fruity or floral fragrances that most women wore. It was as distinct and as indefinable as the woman who wore it.

“So what’s it gonna be? Are you going to tell me the truth the easy way, or are you going to make it more challenging?”

Chapter Two 

It was the hardest thing in the world for Cara to do—to look into Aiden’s blue eyes and try to defend Miranda. Especially when Aiden was looking at her the way he was right now. In a way that made her want to forget all about Miranda and her lies.

It was impossible to lie to
Aiden under the best of circumstances let alone when he was standing close enough to touch. She could feel his heartbeat against her. She knew that he was reading all of her emotions. Aiden was used to women falling all over him. He’d know how much she wanted to touch him, to feel his skin beneath her fingers. Aiden was a temptation that no friendship could withstand. She took a deep breath, smelled the warm masculine scent of him, and pushed his hands away, turning back to the city lights below.

“I don’t know where she is
Aiden. I don’t know anything.” Of course, Cara didn’t need to look at him to know that he didn’t believe her.

Aiden
started to say something else when the phone interrupted him. When he’d left to answer it, Cara let go of the breath she was holding on to.

She listened to the
one-sided conversation enough to know that he was talking to Miranda.

“Where exactly are you?” There was no mistaking the controlled anger in
Aiden’s voice when Cara stepped back inside the house and walked over to where he stood. Aiden didn’t even look her way.

The conversation didn’t last more than a minute but it seemed like forever.
Cara prayed that Miranda wouldn’t tell him the truth tonight. Not when she was standing so close to him. Not when she didn’t want to see Aiden’s reaction to losing her.

He clicked the phone off and turned to her. The tension between them became unbearable.

Aiden stood watching her expression seeing more than she wanted him to see before dialing the phone. Cara knew without even considering it that he had just *’d the number.

Even from where she stood, a few feet from
Aiden, she could hear the decisively male, accented voice answer the phone right before Aiden clicked end and dropped the phone noisily against the wood floor.

“How long?” he said softly into the growing tension.

Cara stepped back from the anger in his eyes shaking her head. She couldn’t seem to get the words out over the cold fear forming in her throat.

Aiden
started toward her. Cara backed away from what she saw in those eyes. Her back hit the glass door leading out to the deck. Before she could fumble with the knob to open it Aiden reached for her. He pulled her hard against his body. Cara felt her resolve begin to crack.

“How long,
Cara. Tell me how long she’s been seeing him?” Cara didn’t answer. He pulled her closer. Aiden felt every bit as good as Miranda had said.

“Dammit
Cara, answer me! How long has Miranda been cheating on me?”

“No!”
Cara told him and tried to push him away. Aiden didn’t budge. When she looked into his eyes and saw what he intended to do, she became frantic. She had to get away. Not from Aiden, but from herself. Before she revealed too much about her feelings.

“No,
Aiden.” Her words died into a whimper the second his lips touched hers for the first time. In the past, Cara had only imagined the way they would feel against hers. Now, she had living proof that Aiden was a dream come true.

His lips moved against hers, creating a delicious friction.
Cara stopped resisting. His hold loosened at her surrender. Aiden’s hands slipped over her body slowly, touching her, reaching past the walls she’d resurrected to protect her heart against him. Now, she could only shudder in response.

She heard him laugh. It was as seductive as it was satisfied.

“Aiden…” Cara tried to think beyond this moment. Beyond the fact that this was the man of her dreams kissing her, the way that she’d only dreamed of being kissed.