She walked over to the stools at the island and plopped down. “So what are we having?”
“Fajitas. Steak and chicken.”
“Cool.”
As she seemed to have settled in for the evening, he knew he wasn’t going to get out of cooking in front of her. “Want something to drink?” he asked, when he really wanted to offer her something to read, or a movie on TV. Anything so she wouldn’t see him fumbling around in the kitchen.
“Sure. What do you have?”
“Virgin margaritas.”
“Perfect.”
He poured them both drinks, then turned on the heat under the grill pan. He could see her eyeing the flame but didn’t know if he had it too high or too low.
“You want to do this?” he asked.
“No. I do it for a living. I like having you cook for me. It will be fine.”
“Any pointers?”
She smiled. “Cal, it’s nothing more than a simple stir-fry on a grill pan. You’ll do great.”
“Yeah.” He was already sweating. Why had he thought this was a good idea?
“I didn’t see another car in the driveway,” she said. “Has Walker already moved out?”
“A couple of days ago. Reid offered him a bedroom on his houseboat, but Walker’s determined to have his own place.”
“I’m surprised he moved out of here,” she said after taking a sip of her margarita, “but who on earth would want to move in with Reid? There would be too many women coming and going. I heard he already has a new chickie. He and Naomi lasted what, two weeks? Maybe three?”
“They burn hot and bright,” he said as he dropped the meat onto the grill pan. “Then it’s over.”
“I know. Naomi’s already making moves on one of the busboys. She’s amazing.”
“I hear Edouard has a new man in his life,” Cal said, throwing on peppers and onions.
“That’s the rumor.”
He glanced at her, remembering what Edouard had said about her not getting any. Did she want to?
Her eyes narrowed. “I know what you’re thinking. Stop it.”
“What am I thinking?”
She sniffed. “I’m gestating right now. Sex isn’t important to me.”
“Good to know.” He thought about how she’d responded to his kisses. She might be pregnant, but it wasn’t keeping her completely occupied. If he asked, would she say yes? Did he want her to?
Penny sniffed again. “Ah, is that burning?”
“I’M IMPRESSED,” Penny said as she made another fajita. “This is great.”
“Thanks.” Cal accepted the compliment, although he looked a little suspicious.
“I mean it. I love when someone cooks for me and this is really delicious. You used plenty of cilantro.”
“I knew you were having a craving.”
“That seems to come with the territory. At least I haven’t run into a food I can’t either buy or fix.”
They were eating in Cal’s dining room. He’d put her with her back to the kitchen, so she wouldn’t have to look at the red walls. A sweet gesture, she thought. Any more like that and in her present hormonal state she would start sobbing.
There was also something familiar about their dinner. Just the two of them at a table, talking about restaurants, food, life. How many evenings had they spent together around a table? Their world had been food, work and each other.
Where had their relationship gone wrong? She knew Cal changing his mind about wanting a baby was a big part of it, but there had been plenty of cracks before the crumble.
“Why did you start The Daily Grind?” she asked. “How much of it was wanting something of your own and how much of it was getting away from Gloria?”
He shrugged. “It was about equal.” He leaned toward her. “Oh, I see. Now you believe me about Gloria.”
She smiled. “I never had to work with her before. I’ll admit that when we were first married I thought you exaggerated her personality. I’ve had a few recent encounters with her that have changed my mind. She’s the most controlling person I’ve ever met.”
“Tell me about it.”
“Speaking of telling, have you thought any more about telling Dani the truth about her father? I know it would hurt her initially, but I suspect that after a while she’d find the information very freeing.”
“I don’t know what to do,” he admitted. “I’ve always looked out for Dani. I always wanted to protect her from the world. Now she’s all grown up and I still find myself wanting to shield her from things.”
He kept talking, but suddenly Penny couldn’t hear him. There was an ache deep inside that told her his words confirmed what she’d always believed: Cal would have been a terrific father.
He instinctively took care of those who weren’t as strong. Those in need. She could imagine him adoring a toddler while teaching him or her how to go forward in the world.
Why had he changed his mind? Why hadn’t he wanted children with her?
She opened her mouth, then closed it. The evening was going too well. She didn’t want to spoil the mood by fighting—and discussions about children and babies always led to fights.
He picked up his margarita. “I’ve been thinking about what you said,” he told her. “Better the information come from me than from Gloria. I just have to figure out the best time.”
Penny wasn’t sure there was a good time to shatter someone’s view of their world, but she trusted Cal to be sensitive about the whole thing.
“She’ll want to leave Burger Heaven,” Penny said.
“I know. Maybe I could offer her a job at The Daily Grind. We’re always looking for good managers. I’ve tried to hire her before but she claimed one incident of nepotism in her life was enough. I told her I would have hired her even if we weren’t family, but she didn’t believe me.”
Penny had a feeling Dani would want to escape family-owned businesses for a while, but she didn’t say that.
“You’ve done well for yourself,” she said instead. “The company is really growing.”
He grinned. “It’s even more impressive when you consider we’re in the city where Starbucks started. Talk about competition.”
“Good point. Obviously you’ve filled a niche and we’re a society of obsessive coffee drinkers.” She sighed. “I miss coffee. And before you remind me I can have decaf, I’ll tell you that it’s just not the same.”
“I know. Only a few more months.” He eyed her stomach. “Is your mom going to come out and stay with you when you have the baby?”
“Yes. She says she was there with all her other grandchildren. She’ll be here for the birth of this one.” Penny rested her hand on her belly. “I can’t help thinking she’s disappointed.”
Cal frowned. “At having another grandchild? Not possible.”
“Oh, I know she’ll be happy about the baby. It’s me being pregnant this way. My two sisters did everything exactly right. I bounced around for nearly five years before I figured out what I wanted to do with my life. I flunked out of college twice, worked at dozens of jobs. I know my parents were frustrated. Now I’m pregnant by a man they’ll never meet and about whom we know nothing. I have a list of characteristics and a brief medical history.”
Cal leaned close and took her other hand. “You waited to find out what made you happy instead of settling for a career you’d hate. How many people have the courage to do that? You weren’t willing to compromise. That’s a good thing.”
“Don’t be nice to me. I’ll start to cry.”
“Anything but that,” he teased. “Guys hate tears. It’s too much like blackmail.”
She smiled. “I was always very good about that.”
“Yes, you were. You played it straight.”
Except for changing his mind about having children, Cal had played it straight, too. They’d been good people who had been in love. So what had gone so wrong in their marriage?
“Why didn’t we make it?” she asked quietly.
“It seemed as if everything was fine one day and the next there were cracks everywhere. They had to have started sometime. They didn’t just appear.”
“Maybe we were too young,” he said.
“We were both in our twenties. Hardly kids. But maybe you’re right. Maybe we weren’t ready for the stresses of marriage.” She stared into his dark eyes. “I never hated you.”
“I’m glad. I didn’t hate you, either.”
Was it her, or had it just gotten hot in here?
“At least we can be friends now,” she said, knowing she should pull her hand free of his. There was something intimate about sitting next to each other, staring into each other’s eyes and holding hands. Way too intimate. And sexual. Because she was suddenly aware of his body—the hard planes, his broad shoulders. She knew exactly what he looked like naked. How to touch him to make him stiffen with pleasure.
“Wow, look at the time,” she said, drawing back and tugging her hand free. “Where did the time go?”
He glanced at his watch. “It’s eight-thirty.”
“I know, but I’m tired and, you know, tomorrow’s a work day. Friday, even. A busy work day. And I should call Naomi and check on things. Just to be sure.”
“What’s wrong?” he asked. “What are you afraid of?”
“I’m not afraid.” She stood and looked at the mess on the table. “I should help you clean up.”
“Screw that. Why are you running away?”
“Do I look like I’m running? I’m standing in place.” She raised one foot to show him. “See?”
He rose and moved close. “Did I say something to upset you?”
Nope. Not a word. She’d upset herself without any help at all. And upset wasn’t even the right word. She was…uncomfortable. And sexually aware. And seriously pregnant. Hardly circumstances to turn Cal on.
“Okay, this was great,” she told him as she backed toward the door. “The dinner. The conversation. All of it. Really, really great. Thanks. I appreciate it.”
She grabbed her coat and purse, then opened the door and ducked outside. Thirty seconds later she’d started her car and was zooming out of his driveway.
Free at last, she thought, unable to slow the pounding of her heart.
The worst part of it was she couldn’t explain what had just happened. She’d become aware of Cal on a sexual level and she’d been afraid she would act on it. Frankly, doing without was a whole lot better than getting rejected. Still, running felt wrong. Maybe she should have explained.
“Oh, yeah. There’s a conversation I’m dying to have with my ex-husband and boss.”
She drove across Seattle until she reached her own small rental house. After she inched her way inside the single-car garage, she turned off the engine. It was only then she noticed a car pulling in behind her. A familiar, small, two-seater sports car.
She walked out of the garage just as Cal climbed out of his Z4.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“Making sure you got home okay,” he told her. “And trying to figure out what has you so spooked.”
“I’m not spooked. I’m not anything. I’m tired. It’s late. I had a good time and then I left.”
He grabbed her arm, pulled her hard against him and lowered his mouth close to hers.
“I don’t think it’s that at all,” he said, right before he kissed her.
CHAPTER TEN
PENNY FULLY INTENDED to protest, right up until his lips touched hers. But the second she felt the warm heat, the soft pressure, wanting exploded inside of her. Powerful sexual need blocked anything close to common sense. She gave herself up to the kiss and knew she would have to deal with the consequences later.
Instinctively, she tilted her head, parting her mouth even before he asked her to. But instead of responding as he should, and plunging inside, he continued to kiss her chastely, nibbling on her lower lip before flicking his tongue against her upper lip without actually doing anything more.
Okay, he was being a gentleman. Under most circumstances, that was a good thing. She decided to give him a few more hints. She wrapped both arms around him and pressed her body against his. Her stomach made it hard for her to rub her breasts against his chest, but she rounded her shoulders and kind of leaned in so that he would get the message.
Or not, she thought several seconds later when he’d done little more than kiss her like a brother and rest his hands on her shoulders.
“What’s wrong with you?” she asked as she drew back. “Why are you here?”
He reached up and tucked her hair behind her right ear. “I’m seducing you.”
Seducing? With those chaste little bird kisses? “I don’t think so. If this is about what Edouard said, you can forget it. I don’t need mercy sex.”
He had the nerve to grin at her. “Actually, you do, but I’m interested in more than that.”
She wasn’t sure what to do. On the one hand, she longed for physical intimacy, to touch and be touched. That part of her relationship with Cal had always worked extremely well. But there were complications. Not only the fact that she worked with him and that they had once been married, but also how she looked.
“This is dumb,” she said and started for the garage.
He followed her up to the entrance to the house and pushed the button to close the garage door. “No, it’s not,” he said. “I want you, Penny, and I think you want me. What’s dumb about that?”
His words made her knees go weak, even as she glanced down at her stomach and panicked.
“There’s the whole baby thing,” she said.
“We’ll be careful.” He opened the door of the house and pushed her inside. “You can tell me what to do. You like doing that.”
“There’s not a safety issue, if that’s what you mean,” she said as she dropped her purse onto the table in the hallway and turned to face him. “But there are other things.”
He stepped forward and rested his hands on her stomach. “You mean the fact that you’re so beautiful, you practically glow? Or maybe you’re talking about your breasts, which are much bigger than I remember.”
She couldn’t help smiling. “You’ve noticed?”
“I’ve obsessed.”
“Really?”
He nodded. “Especially before I knew you were pregnant. I couldn’t figure out what you’d done to make them bigger.”
She liked knowing that.
He rubbed her stomach in slow, sensual circles. “Your body is different and that’s okay.” He leaned over and lightly kissed her. “Or are you going to make me beg?”
“Begging would be good. I would encourage—”
And then she couldn’t talk because he’d pushed his tongue inside her mouth.
He kissed her deeply, claiming her with a mastery that left her breathless. Sensations washed over her as he ran his hands up and down her arms, then did the same on her back. It was as if he had to reacquaint himself with every inch of her.
She wrapped both her arms around him. He angled his head, then circled her tongue with his.
There was heat between them. A melting warmth that made her want to be naked and on her back with him filling her. The combination of kissing and thinking caused her body to swell. Her breasts tightened and her nipples got so sensitive she could barely stand the pressure of her bra. Between her legs, everything dampened in anticipation.
He broke the kiss so he could nibble along her jaw to her ear. He sucked on the lobe, then licked the skin right below her ear. Goose bumps broke out all over.
“Bedroom,” he whispered in her ear.
Oh. Right. That would make things easier.
She began backing up down the hallway. At one point, she managed to flick on a light so they wouldn’t bump into anything.
As they continued to move, Cal reached for the hem of her sweater and tugged it up and over her head. He waited until they entered her bedroom to toss it on a chair.
She didn’t bother turning on a lamp. Enough light spilled in the open door. He moved close and then stepped behind her where he moved her hair to the side and bent down to nibble on the back of her neck.
“I remember your breasts were really sensitive the last time,” he murmured against her skin. “Is that still true?”
She was surprised he remembered anything from her previous pregnancy.
“I think so,” she said. “They haven’t seen a lot of action.”
He chuckled. “I’ll be gentle.”
Part of her wanted him to be fast. Seduction was all fine and good, but she ached for her release. Still, when he kissed his way across her shoulders even as he unfastened her bra, she decided to put up with his attentions for just a few more minutes.
He threw the bra on top of the sweater, then reached around her to cup her breasts. Even as he kissed his way down her neck, he cupped her curves.
It was five kinds of heaven, she thought as her eyes fluttered closed. He held her gently, barely touching and yet touching just enough. He rubbed his fingers against her sensitized skin, moving in slow circles that brought him closer and closer to her nipples. Then, as he lightly kissed the side of her neck, he brushed his forefingers against her nipples.
The contact was exquisite. She arched back, wanting more. Needing more.
“Again,” she breathed and he obliged her. Over and over he touched the tight tips, pressing a tiny bit harder each time. Fire shot through her and made her burn from the inside out. Between her legs, her muscles clenched in anticipation.
It felt too good, she thought hazily.
He released her and turned her so she faced him. Then he claimed her with a kiss that stirred her soul even as he found her breasts again and squeezed her nipples between his thumbs and forefingers.
Her body shuddered as pure liquid pleasure poured through her. She clung to him, caught up in an unexpected moment of release.
This couldn’t be happening. She’d never come that way. But there it was. And as he continued to touch her, she continued to come.
But it wasn’t enough. The minireleases only made her want more. She pulled back and reached for his shirt. “Take this off,” she demanded.
Susan Mallery Bundle: The Buchanans Page 38