My Dearest Cal (10 page)

“What else could it be?” she asked in a voice barely above a whisper. That shy question lured like the rustle of satin sheets.

“Maybe this,” he said, dragging her back into his arms. He fastened his gaze on hers and murmured again, “Maybe this.”

When his mouth claimed hers, the kiss was fueled by anger. He was deliberately rough, taking possession in a way that left no room for doubts about his intentions. It was time she recognized what was happening between them. This was between grown-ups now, the wild flaring of desire as hot and intense as any he had ever known. If he’d thought about it, he would have labeled it branding, but he was beyond thought. His body was hard and aching and needy. Marilou was soft and sweet and every bit as needy. She met spark with flame and made no apologies for it. Perhaps if she had, if she’d shown only the tiniest
hint of reservation, he would have been able to stop with that one deep, drugging, mistaken kiss.

Instead, with her willing in his arms, he wanted more. He wanted to taste the sweet skin at the nape of her neck, to feel the weight of her breasts against his palm, to touch and excite and possess. Her whimpers of pleasure, the flaring of excitement in her green eyes, the way she fit herself against the hard contours of his body, all were the gestures of a woman who wanted claiming, a woman who felt the same passion, the same need that he did. The emotions that rioted deep within him suddenly made him angry and as scared as he’d ever been in his life. He wouldn’t let this woman touch him, wouldn’t allow her to reach the places in his soul that were still raw from past hurts.

He smoothed away the wisps of hair that framed her face, studying the lush lips that were still parted and moist from his kisses. He rubbed the pad of his thumb over the silk of her cheek, then across a bottom lip that quivered at his touch. It all felt so good, so right, which made it vital that he prove to himself and to her how wrong it was.

“This is why you stayed, isn’t it?” he whispered, moving his hands over her, shaping the curve of her hip, cupping her bottom until she was tight against him. The look in his eyes and his words were deliberately provocative, just one phrase shy of crude. He’d show her where things stood, then watch her run. With his touch bold and his voice low and thick with innuendo, he murmured, “When it comes right
down to it, this is what it’s all about between a man and a woman. You want me as much as I want you.” She met his gaze then with a look that began as longing, then quickly turned to reproach as his meaning settled in. If he’d forced her upstairs and into his bed, she could have looked no more injured. He waited for satisfaction to come. Instead regret slammed into him, and he backed away as if he’d been burned and she were the flame.

“Damn,” he muttered, suddenly confused and blaming her for it. “You’re better at making a man feel guilty with one look than somebody else could with a whole dictionary full of words.”

She reached up and touched his face. “I’m not trying to make you feel guilty. At least not about this. You’re right. I do want you every bit as much as you want me. I’m not liar enough to even try to deny what’s plain as day to both of us. But not like this, Cal. Not when the motivations are all tangled up.”

“Hell, honey, when it comes to sex, motivations pretty much stay tangled.”

“Then I guess that’s something we’ll just have to work on along with all the rest.”

Amazed by her calm acceptance of what had very nearly happened between them and the way he’d tried to make it into something primitive and sordid rather than beautiful, he regarded her warily. “You’re not going to run like a scared rabbit?”

She grinned at him then, a wobbly smile that was sheer bravado. His heart lurched unsteadily. She was so beautiful, so incredibly desirable and so damned
gullible and innocent. She was no match for a man who’d always had few scruples when it came to women.

“So,” she teased, “that’s what you were hoping. It’s going to take more than an offer of your manly charms to scare me off, Cal Rivers, so you might as well get used to having me around.”

He shook his head in genuine bewilderment. “It occurs to me that you actually enjoy testing a man’s patience,” he said, delighted laughter suddenly threading through his voice.

“I’m beginning to think maybe I do,” she admitted. “And you’re such an easy subject.”

“Careful, sweetheart. I’m dangerous when I’m provoked.”

“So you keep warning me. But like I said, I don’t scare easy.”

His whole body pulsing with awareness and frustration, Cal conceded the round. “Maybe I do,” he muttered, leaving before the temptation to kiss her again grew overwhelming.

Several hours and several drinks later he was on the phone to Joshua, the one person in the world who knew just about everything there was to know about him.

“Cal, do you know what time it is?” his friend grumbled sleepily.

“Sometime after one, I suppose,” Cal said unapologetically. “I haven’t checked the clock since midnight.”

“Hasn’t anyone ever explained the concept of business hours to you?”

“On occasion. I’m not calling to discuss business.”

That seemed to wake Joshua right up. “Oh?”

“What do you know about Marilou Stockton?”

“Who?”

“Don’t play games. I know she called you.”

“Oh, wait,” he said thoughtfully. “I remember now. She was looking for you a couple of weeks back. Are you telling me she found you?”

“She found me all right. You must have sent her straight to me.”

“I didn’t tell her a damn thing. You know me better than that. What’s she after? She’s not some woman you ran out on, is she? Her name didn’t sound familiar.”

Cal caught himself grinning ruefully. “Where did you ever get the idea that I’ve told you about every woman in my life?”

“Good Lord! You mean there are more?”

“Very funny.”

“Cal, as fascinating as this conversation is, I have a 7:00 a.m. breakfast meeting. Could we cut to the chase?”

“She’s here.”

“Now? At one in the morning?”

“She’s been here.”

“Since when?”

“Since two weeks ago.”

Joshua, damn him, chuckled. “Well, well. How did that come about?”

“I hired her,” he admitted miserably. “Stop laughing, dammit.”

“Sorry. I can’t help it. Maybe you’d better explain. Exactly what did you hire her to do? I didn’t have the impression she was even looking for a job.”

“She wasn’t. It was just temporarily, as a housekeeper. At least that’s the way it started, but now I’m not sure how to go about getting rid of her.”

“Why do you want to? Is she stealing the silver?” Joshua inquired, too cheerfully, it seemed to Cal.

“No,” he said, aware that a bleak note had crept into his voice. “Why doesn’t matter. I just think she ought to go.”

“Then fire her. You used to be pretty good at that, as I recall.”

“I only fired you once, and even then I couldn’t make it stick. I think you’d better take care of this for me.”

“Me? Since when did I ever get involved in your personnel problems?”

“Since I just made it part of your job description.”

“Is there something more here that I should know about?”

“Nothing,” Cal denied emphatically.

“Which means there’s something. Why don’t you drive over tomorrow and we can talk about it?”

“I’m leaving town in the morning. Take care of this before I get back,” he said, and hung up before Joshua could argue with him. The phone rang within seconds. It rang again five minutes later. When it
started ringing again ten minutes after that, he picked it up reluctantly.

“No,” Joshua said in response to his growled greeting. “But I think maybe I will drive out to see what this is all about. She must really be something if she’s got you running scared.”

“I am not running scared,” he said emphatically, something the last two shots of Scotch made difficult to pull off.

“And I’m Secretariat,” Joshua said, chuckling again. “You sure lead an interesting life, old friend. Just watching you keeps me young.”

“Oh, go to hell,” Cal grumbled, figuring that was where he was going to end up after tonight anyway. He might as well have company.

Chapter Seven

M
arilou wasn’t all that surprised by Cal’s disappearance after that searing kiss and their conversation about the desire that was growing between them. Running seemed to be his way of dealing with unwanted emotions. She knew that and yet, with her whole body still aching with longing, she’d listened until well after midnight for the reassuring sound of his footsteps on the porch. If he’d come in, though, it had been after she’d fallen asleep.

Now, edgy with anticipation, she was putting dishes on the table for breakfast and fixing the ham, eggs and cheese grits she’d discovered were his favorite breakfast. Chaney came in, nodded, then stuck a napkin in the open throat of his blue chambray work shirt and silently began to eat. Marilou sat down
across from him and began picking at her breakfast, her gaze going constantly to the screen door.

“He’s gone,” Chaney said finally in a flat tone that told her he wasn’t too happy about it.

Startled, she stared at him. “Gone? You mean he’s out with the horses already?”

“I mean gone. Took the trailer and a couple of the men and headed up to Kentucky. Dang fool thing, if you ask me. Should have flown and saved all that time. The men could have taken the trailer up. Tried to tell him that, but no, he was dead set on getting out of here this morning. Left here at five.” He regarded her knowingly. “Any idea why he was in such a blamed hurry?”

She swallowed hard, sensing the undercurrent of disapproval in Chaney’s tone. “He didn’t say anything to me,” she responded defensively. “Why did he go? He must have said.”

“Said he wanted to get up there early for the spring horse sales. He’s hoping to pick up a couple of good yearlings.”

Though she hadn’t known when the sales were scheduled, she knew how important they were. Cal and Chaney had been discussing them practically since the day she’d arrived. “You let him go alone for that?”

Chaney hooted at that. “I don’t
let
the boss do nothing. He does what he dang well pleases. You might do well to remember that yourself, missy. Can’t hog-tie a man that’s spent his whole life independent.”

She glared at him, filled with indignation at Chaney’s interpretation of events since her arrival. “I have no desire to hog-tie anyone, and you know perfectly well what I meant. You both agree that you know more about horses than he does. Why didn’t you go? Was it because he left earlier than you’d planned?”

Chaney shrugged. “I wasn’t planning to go in the first place. I studied the catalogue with him. We talked about which horses he should take a look at. He’s got to get his feet wet some time. Man like him operates best when he makes his own mistakes. That’s one way to learn real fast.”

“But what can you tell from a picture? Don’t you have to look at the horse? What if it can’t move?”

“I’ve been teaching him all about conformation. They have photographers trained to shoot the horse just to show off the way he’s made. The boss’ll recognize good conformation when he sees it. And if the danged horse can’t move, don’t you think he’ll notice? The man may be a greenhorn, but he ain’t blind.”

“I suppose,” she said as she settled into a funk.

Her month’s vacation was nearly half over. Even after yesterday’s apparent breakthrough, she still hadn’t gotten Cal to agree to an actual visit with his grandmother. How was she supposed to work on convincing him when he was hundreds of miles away for who knows how long? How was she supposed to decide about going or staying herself without him around to let her know what he was really thinking?
What did she even want with a man who could dismiss family ties so easily? He’d probably forget her just as readily, locking her away in the past with all the other memories he considered too painful to deal with.

In fact, if she were to go by yesterday alone, he’d probably say goodbye and good riddance. He’d be pleased to be rid of her nagging. Even so, he might not be quite so pleased to be robbed of her kisses, no matter how hard he’d worked to make them into something ugly and demeaning. She wasn’t so naive that she couldn’t recognize wanting when it was pressed square against her. A tiny sigh of longing escaped before she could restrain it.

Chaney regarded her with something that almost looked like sympathy. He muttered his thanks for breakfast, then headed for the door. Twisting his hat in his hand, he stood in the doorway. “In case you was wondering, it’d be my guess that he’ll be back by Monday.”

“I wasn’t wondering,” she lied.

“Well, like I said, just in case.” He hesitated, still fiddling uncomfortably with his hat.

“Is there something else?”

“I don’t suppose you’d want to help out again today.”

“I’m probably just in the way,” she said morosely.

If she’d hoped for a denial, she’d picked the wrong man. There wasn’t a diplomatic bone in Chaney’s body, no matter how much pity he was feeling toward
her. “Let’s face it,” he pointed out. “You still got a lot to learn.”

“I know that.”

“Even so, your help would still be welcome while Zeke and Pedro are on the road with Cal.”

Her mood brightened a little. “You mean it?”

“Hell, gal, I don’t say things I don’t mean. You should know that much by now. See Roddy when you’re ready. He’ll tell you what to do.”

“Thanks, Chaney. I’ll be there as soon as I get these dishes scrubbed up.”

He nodded curtly, slid his hat on his head and left. His gruff invitation pleased her as nothing else could have. She knew better than to believe that she was more help than hindrance, but the fact that he’d asked at all told her volumes about the fact that he was beginning to accept her.

As soon as she’d straightened up the kitchen and run the vacuum, she put on her work jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, tying the shirttail in a knot at her waist. Anticipating the next few hours of hot, sweaty work with surprising enthusiasm, she started toward the stables, then paused at the sight of dust swirling on the long, winding driveway. Her pulse kicked into high speed.