by Leslie Kelly
MITCH WASN’T THINKING totally clearly, but he knocked on her door anyway, muttering, “I owe you one, Kelsey Logan. You’ve got this coming.”
He shivered slightly as a draft swept up from downstairs, blowing under the towel he wore around his hips. Curling his toes on the cool wood floor, he wished she’d hurry up and answer. Every second she delayed made him think about heading back downstairs. But his reflexes were perhaps the tiniest bit slower because of his mood…and, possibly, the scotch. Before he had time to forget the whole stupid idea, Kelsey’s apartment door opened.
Kelsey had really expected Celia to be standing in her doorway with a plateful of cookies. Instead, a six-foot-tall, nearly naked, rock-hard, golden, lean man stood there.
“Hello, Kelsey,” Mitch said with a slow smile as he sauntered into her apartment. “Gee, seems I’m all out of soap. Got some I could borrow?”
Kelsey stared as Mitch moved past her. He was naked. Well, not entirely, she supposed. He wore a white towel around his waist, but otherwise, nothing. His dark hair was mussed, damp, as if he had just jumped in the shower, then jumped back out. A drop of water fell from one lock of hair and landed on his sculpted bronzed shoulder, slowly gliding a glistening path down the crisp, dark hair on his chest. She followed the droplet’s descent, and then allowed her eyes to travel farther down his body. A quivering sigh was the only sound she could manage.
Kelsey had a pretty good idea what men were supposed to look like. She’d been raised with two brothers, after all, and had enjoyed her fair share of male attention. But Mitch, well, she’d never seen a man who made her forget to breathe.
He was beautiful. His body was hard but not bulky. Lean, toned, with sinewy muscles that rippled along his chest and upper arms. His flesh was smooth, unmarred, a delicious light tan color. Her mouth suddenly felt very dry. The dark hair on his chest was sparse and tapered to a thin line down his flat stomach. The white towel interrupted her gaze, but she skimmed it and studied his firm legs. Even his feet were sexy.
Kelsey felt like one of those gaping, foolish men so often seen in comedy movies, ogling a gorgeous woman in a bikini. She quickly glanced up to see if Mitch had noticed.
He smirked.
“Ah-hem,” a voice intruded. Mitch glanced nonchalantly over his shoulder to the dark-haired man standing near the sofa. “Oh, I’m sorry, do you have company?” he drawled.
“I was just leaving,” the other man said. He eyed Mitch from head to toe, then glanced at Kelsey and gave her a huge grin and a wink. Mitch couldn’t understand why Kelsey’s date would be so amused at another man, nearly naked, bursting in on them, and why he would cut and run at the sight of the competition. But he really didn’t care. The guy was leaving. More important, he and Kelsey had both been fully clothed, sitting in the living room, when Mitch arrived!
Kelsey found her vocal cords and managed to say, “Uh, yeah, thanks, Brian.”
Brian surreptitiously gave her a thumbs-up as Kelsey returned his quick kiss on the cheek. Her producer looked highly amused, and she imagined she’d have a lot of explaining to do Monday night.
“Gee, don’t run off on my account. I really didn’t mean to interrupt your date,” Mitch said with an absolute lack of sincerity.
“No problem,” Brian responded as he stood by the open door. “Kelsey’s not my type, anyway.”
Mitch shrugged as the other man gave him another long glance, then sighed and slipped out the door. Suddenly he noticed Kelsey beginning to chuckle. He turned to face her as her chuckles turned to uproarious, gut-clenching laughter, and she fell to the couch.
“What’s so funny?” he asked indignantly.
Kelsey couldn’t answer him. Oh, it was too much! Mitch was paying her back for the trick she’d played on him with that blond witch. He thought Brian was her date, and he’d come up here to give her a little taste of her own medicine.
Finally, she calmed down and looked over to where Mitch stood, looking at her as if she were insane.
“I’m sorry,” she said between giggles. “It’s just…well, if Brian were to come to the brownstone for a date, I imagine he’d be knocking on your door…or Fred’s.”
Mitch didn’t understand for a moment. Then it sank in. Kelsey’s “date” was gay. Mitch tried for self-righteous indignation. He tried to be offended. He tried to feel stupid that his plan had blown up in his slightly drunk face. But he couldn’t. He started laughing and fell to the couch to sit beside Kelsey, who once again erupted in chuckles.
When they’d both calmed down, Kelsey said, “Oh, Mitch, what were you thinking? What would possess you to come up here like this?”
“Like this?” Mitch asked as he playfully stood and posed in the towel.
She grinned at his impersonation of a muscle-man, not that he couldn’t pull it off, but because she knew him so well. Mitch had never flaunted his looks. His personality and brains had taken him anywhere he ever wanted to go. But, oh, if ever a man was born who could have coasted a little on an absolutely mouthwatering physique, this was he.
“Well,” he continued, “I suppose I could have come like…this.”
Mitch grabbed the knot at his hip and loosened it, giving her an evil leer. Kelsey gasped and threw her hands over her eyes, but peeked through her fingers as the towel dropped to the floor.
“You cheater,” she exclaimed when she saw the running shorts he was wearing.
He grinned wickedly. “Did you think I’d be crazy enough to come up here totally naked under that towel?”
“I don’t know,” she replied. “When you were a kid you might have. But the Mitch Wymore I’ve been sharing this house with for the past few weeks…he’s so uptight, I’m surprised he didn’t show up in a three-piece suit.”
“Uptight?” he exclaimed with mock offense. “I am the least uptight person on the planet. Unless, of course, you happen to be Lady Love, the sex queen of Baltimore.”
Kelsey searched his face for any bitterness but saw only his teasing laughter. “I miss you, Mitch. I miss this. I miss my friend.”
“Kels, we’ve never really been friends. You were a royal pain in the butt.”
“Speak for yourself,” she said as she swatted at him with a pillow. “Seriously, do you think we could manage friendship? I mean, acquaintances, that’s absolutely out. And you’ve made it perfectly clear you don’t want anything more…intimate. Can we just be friends?”
Kelsey sounded uncertain, her voice quivered. Could it be she didn’t know how much he desired her? Could she really not tell that this whole fiasco tonight had been prompted by pure jealousy?
Mitch didn’t question her. Kelsey was giving him exactly what he wanted, what was right. Friendship with no strings. Perfect. He would forget about desire. He hoped.
“Being friends sounds great, Kelsey.”
AT TEN O’CLOCK THE NEXT MORNING, Kelsey stood outside the door to Mitch’s apartment and knocked sharply. He’d asked her to come down and help him sort some paperwork in the spirit of their new friendship.
“Reporting for duty, sir,” she said as Mitch answered his door.
“Come on in,” he replied.
Kelsey entered Mitch’s apartment, noting the piles of papers and pictures on every available surface. She didn’t bother to ask why they weren’t working in his office; she’d cleaned in there a few times while he was gone and, if anything, that room was even worse.
“What do you need me to do?”
“Actually, I really need help putting this stuff in some kind of order. I had several rolls of film developed, and I’ve listed the subjects in my journals. Could you match the rolls with the notes? It would be a big help.”
Kelsey sat on the sofa and picked up a packet of pictures. “I can do that. Are these pictures going to be in the book?”
He wryly shook his head. “No way. This is a collaborative effort. The publisher has professional photographers, graphic artists, even other writers for certain sections. These are just for my notes�
��and my memories.”
Mitch surreptitiously watched Kelsey work. Her tawny hair swung forward, covering her cheek, and he took advantage of the moment to drink her in with his eyes. This “friends” thing was playing havoc with his peace of mind. He grinned, teased, talked about his trip and answered her endless questions, carefully hiding the fact that he wanted to strip off her fluffy sweater and lick her collarbone.
“Who are these children?” she asked.
Glad she’d distracted him from his wandering thoughts, Mitch glanced at the photos she held. Gazing at the eager faces, he smiled. “These are China’s little angels. They’re the unwanted ones. The baby girls who’ve been abandoned and are raised in state homes.”
Mitch saw a frown cross her face. Her shoulders drooped as she sat cross-legged on the floor, next to the sofa.
“Oh, of course, I remember reading your articles in the Baltimore paper a few months ago. These are the girls who are suffering because of China’s one-child policy. Now I understand why there are no boys,” she said softly.
“You don’t usually see boys in these places unless they’re ill or handicapped.” Mitch set the pictures on the table. “Boys are a valuable commodity in a land where parents are punished for having more than one child. If a couple has no son, there’s no one to support them in their old age. Baby girls are found abandoned every day, and they’re usually taken directly to an orphanage. Officials seldom even try to find out who they belong to.”
“How could parents do that to a child?” Kelsey asked in dismay.
“Chinese parents love their children as much as we do, Kels. They’re in an untenable situation, and are forced to do something morally repugnant to survive. I’m sure most Chinese mothers mourn the loss of their daughters all their lives.”
Kelsey stared at the pictures on the table, captivated by the faces, the bright-eyed optimism of the beautiful little girls.
“Your articles helped them, you know,” she said softly. “I read that there has been a recent surge in foreign adoptions.”
He nodded. “That makes it worthwhile. Believe it or not, I even thought about it myself while I was there. For the first time in my life I thought long and hard about becoming a father, even though I’d never believed that would happen.”
Kelsey quickly looked up at him. “Why not? I’m sure you’d be a great father. What kid wouldn’t want a dad who knows how to hot-wire a car?”
He shook his head, chuckling, and replied, “I’ve come a long way from those days. It’s funny when you think about it. I grew up resentful as hell toward my parents, and ended up a lot like them…a little introverted, a little selfish. I travel all the time. I’m not cut out for home, family and kids. The only times I ever felt a family connection were when I was staying with your parents.”
She gave him a sour look. “You sure were around enough to be a Logan!”
“To me, you were like a television show from the fifties that I could step into and pretend I was part of for a little while. But I never felt I was really one of you.”
She stared at him, knowing what he said was true. Mitch had always been a little removed from them, always prepared for the rug to be pulled out from under him. At first it was evident in his rebellion, later in his self-imposed isolation.
“Anyway,” he continued, “I’m not really cut out for kids, just as my parents weren’t.”
“I’m quite sure your parents love you, Mitch. But admit it, you weren’t the easiest kid to deal with.”
She saw his wicked grin and knew he was indulging in a little reminiscing about his hellion years.
“I know you’re right,” he said. “I was totally out of their realm. I got more interesting to them when I was older, once your parents helped me overcome my tendency toward self-destruction. And they’re certainly pleased I ended up so respectable.”
He said the word as if it pained him, and Kelsey grinned. “I somehow suspect they know you well enough to be aware that the badass in you is always lurking just underneath the surface.”
He shook his head ruefully, leaned back on the sofa and said, “Kelsey, until you moved into my life, I would have sworn that badass was long gone!”
“Gee, that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me, Mitch,” she said with a self-satisfied smirk.
“Don’t let it go to your head.”
Kelsey slid up on the sofa to sit next to him. Papers and books covered two of the three cushions, and Kelsey nudged Mitch with her hip until he made room for her. He gave a loud, theatrical sigh as she sat down.
“Admit it, I’m not so bad to have around.”
He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. “There are a few definite benefits to having you around, Kels.”
She liked the sound of that.
“Mainly, it earns me points with your family.”
She elbowed him in the ribs. “Not funny.”
Kelsey reached out to retrieve the stack of pictures on the table, slowly flipping through them again. She sensed Mitch watching her. His body was pressed against hers, from hip to knee. When he stretched his arm across the back of the sofa behind her, she curled up into the crook under his arm. He didn’t pull away. Kelsey closed her eyes briefly and savored the heavy weight of his arm on her shoulders, and the faint scent of his cologne. His neck was inches from her face, and the urge to press a kiss below his right ear was nearly overwhelming. She resisted it by focusing on the pictures. He took a few from her and glanced through them himself.
“You’re wrong, you know,” she said as they finished going through the stack. “You have a huge heart, Mitch. You are not destined to be alone.”
She turned her face up to look at him, staring intently into his dark blue eyes. He didn’t say anything. Kelsey couldn’t stop looking at him, knowing she wasn’t quite staying within the “friends” boundary they’d decided on. She didn’t care. She’d be willing to bet money that he didn’t, either. Especially when she realized he was going to kiss her.
He leaned forward slowly and brought his lips to hers. He kissed her sweetly, lovingly, and Kelsey nearly melted. This wasn’t mindless passion, the heated exchanges they’d shared in the stairway, but instead a kiss of comfort and longing and sweet seduction. She opened her mouth slightly, inviting him to further the intimacy, and he complied, his tongue engaging hers in a slow, seductive dance.
Kelsey didn’t want the kiss to end. But when it finally did, Mitch didn’t jerk away from her. Instead he closed his eyes and moved slightly so his cheek rested against her temple. She felt his heart pounding under her fingertips, which had somehow found their way to his shirt-clad chest.
“Mitch?” she whispered against the side of his neck. “Is that how friends usually kiss?”
“I think that’s possible,” he replied softly.
“Then I’m awfully glad you’re my friend.”
“WE NEED TO TALK.”
Kelsey didn’t look up from the pile of correspondence she’d been sorting through. Mitch was obviously trying to keep busy, to cover up the awkward silence that had ensued after their kiss.
“I’m so sick of talking,” she replied.
Mitch had been brooding for the past half hour, ever since he’d finally moved away from her and gone back to work. She knew he was trying to figure out what to say, how to rationalize that kiss, and she did not want to hear it.
“We kissed. Friends kiss all the time. You said so yourself. Besides, I think it was natural for us to seek a little emotional release after talking about something so draining. Let’s not make more of it than it was, all right?”
Mitch didn’t let it go. “Look, Kelsey, there’s something happening here, and we need to sort it out.”
Kelsey nodded, sighing, giving in. They’d have to have this conversation sooner or later. “I understand, Mitch. I think, for the first time, I truly understand what you’re feeling.”
“You do? Tell me, would you?” he said with a self-deprecating smile as
he popped a handful of peanuts into his mouth.
“You want me so bad it’s killing you.”
Mitch choked, and Kelsey jumped up and pounded him on the back.
“Excuse me?” he said when he’d finally stopped coughing.
“You heard me. There’s no harm in admitting an attraction, Mitch. You want me. I know because I feel the same way about you.”
“That’s comforting,” he said, an amused grin crossing his face.
“And I finally understand why you have fought the attraction and made every effort to avoid me. I always figured you just saw me as a kid, a brat who used to bug you. But it’s a lot deeper than that, right? It’s all mixed up in your head, your loyalty to Nathan, your feelings for my parents, your view of yourself as an outsider.”
He stared at her, saying nothing, but Kelsey knew she was right.
“It’s okay,” she insisted. “Now that I know you’re not just being a tease, and you have deep reservations about anything happening between us, I can accept your rejections for what they are and not take them personally.”
She sounded so logical again. He really couldn’t stand it when she made things that were so very complicated sound so very simple. But Mitch couldn’t argue with her. She’d cut through all the extraneous garbage floating around in his head, and leaped straight to the correct conclusion. Then what she’d said sank in.
“Tease? What do you mean by that?”
“Well, aren’t men allowed to be called that? I mean, if I were the one who kept grabbing you and kissing you and rubbing all over your body and then running away, that’s what I’d be called, right? And isn’t that what you’ve been doing?” she asked matter-of-factly.
“Absolutely not! Besides, it’s not the same.”