Feeling the Heat (13 page)

They had dined at a restaurant in the shopping district, and the food had been delicious. Now they were at the nightclub the restaurant manager had recommended.

She was in Micah’s arms on the dance floor. The music was slow, and he was holding her while their bodies moved together in perfect rhythm. She was vaguely aware of their surroundings. The inside of the club was dark and crowded. Evidently this was a popular hangout. The servers were moving at a hurried pace to fill mixed-drink orders. And the live band rotated periodically with a deejay.

“I like this place, Micah. Thanks for bringing me here.”

“You’re welcome.”

“And this is our first dance,” she added.

He glanced down at her, tightened his arms around her and smiled. “I hope it’s not our last.”

She hoped that, as well. She liked the feel of being held by him in a place other than the bedroom. It felt good. But she could tell he wanted her from the hard bulge pressing against her whenever their bodies moved together. She liked the feel of it. She liked knowing she was desired. She especially appreciated knowing she could do that to him—even here in a crowded nightclub in the middle of a dance floor.

“Excalibur.”

She glanced up at him. “Excuse me.”

“My middle name is Excalibur.”

She blinked, wondering why he was telling her that. “Oh, okay.”

He chuckled. “You didn’t know that, did you?”

She shrugged. “Was I supposed to?”

“I wish you had. I should have told you. We were involved for two months.”

Yes, they had been involved, but their affair had been more about sex than conversation. He interrupted her thoughts by saying, “I know more about you than you know about me, Kalina.”

She tilted her head to the side and looked at him. “You think so?”

“Yes.”

“Well, then, tell me what you know,” she said.

He tightened his arms around her waist as they swayed their bodies in time with the music. “You’re twenty-seven. Your middle name is Marie. Your birthday is June fifteenth. Your favorite color is red. You hate eating beets. Your mother’s name was Yvonne, and she died of cancer when you were ten.”

He grinned as if proud of himself. “So what does that tell you?”

She stared at him for a few moments as if collecting her thoughts and then said, “I did more pillow talk than you did.”

He laughed at that. “Sort of. What it tells me is that you shared more of yourself with me than I did with you.”

They had already concluded there were a lot of things they didn’t know about each other. So, okay, he had a heads-up on her information. That was fine. What they’d shared for those two months was a bed and not much else.

“It should not have been just sex between us, Kalina. I can see that now.”

Now,
that’s
where she disagreed. Their affair was never intended to be about anything but sex. For those two months, they had gotten to know each other intimately but not intellectually, and that’s the way they’d wanted it. “If what you say is true, Micah, nobody told me. I distinctively recall you laying down the rules for a no-strings affair. And I remember agreeing to those rules. Your career was your life, and so was mine.”

Evidently, she’d given him something to think about, because he didn’t say anything to that. The music stopped, and he led her back to their table. A server was there, ready to take their drink order. One thing she’d noticed, two years ago and today, was that Micah was always a gentleman. He was a man who held doors open for ladies, who stood when women entered the room and who pulled out chairs for his date…the way he was doing now. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

She glanced across the table at him. “You have impeccable manners.”

He chuckled. “I wouldn’t go that far, but I do my best.”

“Do your brothers and cousins all have good manners like you?”

He winked. “Come home to Denver with me and find out.”

Kalina rolled her eyes in exasperation. “You won’t give up, will you?”

“No. I think you owe me the chance to clear my name.”

He didn’t say anything for a moment, allowing the server to place their drinks in front of them. Then she took a sip of her wine and asked, “Is clearing your name important to you, Micah?”

Leaning back, he stared over at her before saying, “If you really knew me the way I want you to know me, you wouldn’t be asking me that.”

She didn’t say anything for a while. A part of her wanted to believe him, to believe that he truly did want her to get to know him better, to believe that he hadn’t done what her father had said. But what if she went home with him, got to know him and, in the end, still felt he was capable to doing what she had accused him of doing?

“Micah—”

“You owe me that, Kalina. I think I’ve been more than fair, considering I am innocent of everything you’ve accused me of. Some men wouldn’t give a damn about what you believed, but I do. Like I said, you owe me the chance to prove your father lied.”

She drew in a deep breath. Did she owe him? She didn’t have much time to think about it. He reached across the table and captured her small hand in his bigger one. Just a touch from him did things to her, made her feel what she didn’t want to feel.

“I hadn’t wanted to make love to you again until we resolved things between us,” he said in a low tone.

She gave a cynical laugh. “So now you’re going to claim making love last night and this morning was my idea?”

“No. I wanted you, and I knew that you wanted me.”

He was right, and there was no need to ask how he’d known that. She had wanted him, and she’d been fully aware that he had wanted her.

“Would it make you feel more comfortable about going home with me if I promise not to touch you while you’re there?”

She narrowed her gaze. “No, because all you’ll do is find ways to tempt me to the point where I’ll end up being the one seeking you out. I’m well aware of those games you play, Micah.”

He didn’t deny it. “Okay, then. We are adults,” he said. “With needs. But the purpose of you going to Denver with me is not to continue our sexual interactions. I want to make that clear up front.”

He had made that clear more times than she cared to count. Her stomach knotted, and she wondered when she would finally admit that the real reason she was reluctant to go to Denver was that she might end up getting too attached to him, to his family, to her surroundings…

Her heart hammered at the mere thought of that happening. For years, especially after her grandparents’ deaths, she had felt like a loner. She’d had her father—whenever he managed to stay in one place long enough to be with her. But their relationship wasn’t like most parent-child relationships. She believed deep down that he loved her, but she also knew that he expressed that love by trying to control her. As long as she followed his orders like one of his soldiers, she remained in his good graces. But if she rebelled, there was hell to pay. The only reason he had apologized for his actions regarding her canceled trip to Beijing was that, for the first time in his life, he saw that he could make her angry enough that he could lose her. She had been just that upset with him, and he knew it. Although he had never admitted it, her father was just as much of a maverick as she was.

She glanced down at the table and saw that Micah was still holding her hand. It felt good. Too good. Too right. She thought about pulling her hand away, but decided to let it stay put since he seemed content holding it. Her breathing quickened when he began stroking her palm in a light caress. His touch was so stimulating it played on her nerve endings as if they were the strings of a well-tuned guitar.

She glanced up and met his gaze. He stopped stroking her skin and curved his hand over hers to entwine their fingers. “No matter what you believe, Kal, I would never intentionally hurt you.”

She nodded and then he slowly withdrew his hand from hers. She instantly felt the loss of that contact.

He glanced around the club and then at the dance floor. The deejay was playing another slow song. “Come on, I want to hold you in my arms again,” he said, reaching out and taking her hand one more time.

He led her to the dance floor, and she placed her head on his chest. He wrapped his arms around her, encompassing her in his embrace. His heart was beating fast against her cheek, and his erection pressed hard against her middle again. She smiled. Did he really think they could go to Denver together and not share a bed?

She chuckled. Now she was beginning to wonder if he really knew
her
that well.

He touched her chin and tipped her head back to meet his gaze. “You okay?”

She nodded, deciding not to tell him what she’d found so comical, especially since he was wearing such a serious expression on his face.

She saw something in the depths of his dark eyes that she didn’t understand at first glance. But then she knew what she saw. It was a tenderness that was reaching out to her, making her feel both vulnerable and needed at the same time. At that moment she knew the truth.

“Kalina?”

The release of her name from his lips sent a shiver racing up her spine. Drawing in much-needed air, she said. “Yes, I’m fine. And I’ve reached a decision, Micah. I’m going to Denver with you.”

Eight

“W
elcome to Micah’s Manor, Kalina,”

Micah stood aside as Kalina entered his home and looked around. He saw both awe and admiration reflected in her features. He hadn’t told her what to expect and now he was glad that he hadn’t. This was the first official visit to his place by any woman other than one of his relatives. What Kalina thought mattered to him.

In his great-grandfather’s will, it had been declared that every Westmoreland heir would receive one hundred acres of land at the age of twenty-five. As the oldest, Dillon got the family homestead, which included the huge family house that sat on over three hundred acres.

Micah had already established a career as an epidemiologist and was living in Washington by the time his twenty-fifth birthday came around. For years, he’d kept the land undeveloped and whenever he came home he would crash at Dillon’s place. But when Dillon got married and had a family of his own, Micah felt it was time to build his own house.

He had taken off six months to supervise the project. That had been the six months following the end of his affair with the very woman now standing in his living room. He had needed something to occupy his time, and his thoughts, and having this house built seemed the perfect project.

He could count on one finger the number of times he had actually spent the night here, since he rarely came home. The last time had been when he’d come to Denver for his brother Jason’s wedding reception in August. It had been nice to stay at his own place, and the logistics had worked out fine since he, his siblings and cousins all had houses in proximity to each other.

“So, what do you think?” he asked, placing Kalina’s luggage by the front door.

“This place is for one person?”

He couldn’t help laughing. He knew why she was asking. Located at the south end of the rural area that the locals referred to as Westmoreland Country, Micah’s Manor sat on Gemma Lake, the huge body of water his great-grandfather had named in honor of his wife when he’d settled here all those years ago. Micah’s huge ranch-style house was three stories high with over six thousand square feet of living space.

“Yes. I admit I let Gemma talk me into getting carried away, but—”

“Gemma?”

“One of my cousins. She’s an interior designer. To take full advantage of the lake, she figured I needed the third floor, and as for the size, I figured when my time ended with the feds, I would want to settle down, marry and raise a family. It was easier to build that dream house now instead of adding on later.”

“Good planning.”

“I thought so at the time. I picked the plan I liked best, hired a builder and hung around for six months to make sure things got off to a good start,” he added.

“Oh, I see.”

He knew she really didn’t. She had no idea that when he’d selected this particular floor plan he had envisioned her sharing it with him, even though the last thing she had uttered to him was that she hated his guts. For some reason, he hadn’t been able to push away the fantasy that one day she would come here and see this place. He had even envisioned them making love in his bedroom while seeing the beauty of the lake. Having Kalina here now was a dream come true.

“I had to leave on assignment to Peru for a few months and when I returned, the house was nearly finished. I took more time off and was here when Gemma began decorating it.”

“It is beautiful, Micah.”

He was glad she liked it. “Thanks. I practically gave Gemma an open checkbook, and she did her thing. Of course, since it wasn’t her money, she decided to splurge a little.”

Kalina raised a dubious brow. “A little?”

He shrugged and grinned. “Okay, maybe a lot. Up until a year ago she used this place as a model home to showcase her work whenever she was trying to impress new clients. As you can see, her work speaks for itself.”

Kalina glanced around. “Yes, it sure does. Your cousin is very gifted. Is she no longer in the business?”

“She’s still in it.”

“But she no longer needs your house as a model?” Kalina asked.

“No, mainly because she’s living in Australia now that she and Callum are married. That’s where he’s from. They have a two-month-old son. You’ll get to meet them some time next week. She’s coming home for a visit.”

He had given his family strict orders to stay away from his place to give him time to get settled in with his houseguest. Of course, everyone was anxious to meet the woman he’d brought home with him.

“This should be an interesting thirty days,” she said, admiring a huge painting on the wall.

“Why do you say that?”

She shrugged. “Well, all those markers I saw getting here. Jason’s Place. Zane’s Hideout. Canyon’s Bluff. Ramsey’s Web. Derringer’s Dungeon. Stern’s Stronghold… Need I go on?”

He chuckled. “No, and you have my cousin Bailey to thank for that. We give her the honor of naming everyone’s parcel of land, and she’s come up with some doozies.” He picked up her luggage. “Come on, I’ll show you to your room. If you aren’t in the mood to climb the stairs, I do have an elevator.”