by Helen Conrad
She settled on applying a little extra eye makeup, just a slightly thicker line at the eyelids, a second coat of mascara on the lashes, a little more eye shadow. She got out the curling iron and coaxed feathery curls around her face. And then she looked through her perfume collection for something special.
One by one she checked through the little used bottles, all of them gifts she’d garnered at one time or another. “Daisies” sounded too girl-next-door. “N’est-ce pas” sounded irrelevant. She hesitated over “SpringStorm,” but then her gaze fell on “Naked Lust.”
“Naked Lust.”
She let the words curl around her tongue, then grinned. If that didn’t get him, nothing would. Twisting off the jeweled top, she took a deep sniff, then choked. It was strong medicine all right. That was exactly what she needed. Pressing her lips together, she dabbed it on liberally and turned to consider her wardrobe.
She usually wore jeans and jersey tops or sweatshirts, but today it would be tiny white shorts and a snug plaid blouse unbuttoned one more button than she’d ever dared before.
The blouse was going to take a lot of nerve on her part. Leaving off her bra, she put on the blouse and practiced in front of the mirror, turning and bending over and dipping, examining every angle and how much unsunned skin was revealed. A lot more showed than she was comfortable with. She put the bra back on. There were only so many concessions she could force herself to make toward this manhunt.
Finally she was ready to go. Tammy was calling from the front porch. Kelly stopped for one last long look in the mirror. “Is this obvious, or what?” she whispered despairingly. But she steeled herself, closing her eyes and refusing to think about it. After all, she’d been unobtrusive for days now, and where had it gotten her?
She tried to ignore the startled looks on the girls’ faces when they saw her, but she couldn’t avoid overhearing the comments.
“Gee, Tammy, look at your mother!”
“She’s so pretty!”
And from the precocious Mandy. “I don’t know. If my mother looked like that, I sure wouldn’t bring any guys home to meet her.”
It was too obvious. She hesitated, wondering if she had time to run home and change back into her usual clothes, but then it was too late. Cody had arrived.
Kelly saw his car drive up and hurriedly busied herself handing out mitts and balls and shouting orders to the girls. Out of the corner of her eye she could see him coming toward them. She grabbed the water bucket and trotted off to fill it at the faucet on the edge of the bleachers. By the time she got back, she figured, Cody would be out on the field with the girls.
She figured wrong.
He was standing by the bench, waiting for her.
“Hi,” he said, and finally she had to raise her face and meet his eyes.
“Hi,” she responded, meeting his gaze. He was standing casually before her, his sunglasses in his hand. His eyes were laughing at her. She turned scarlet and barely restrained the impulse to throw the water over his head. Instead, she glared at him, silently daring him to say anything about the way she looked.
He read the message and took the coward’s way out. “Nice day,” he said, trying to sound sincere as he replaced his sunglasses.
“Looks like rain to me,” she snapped, pointing out the dark clouds rumbling over the mountains.
“Oh.” He squinted. “I guess you’re right.”
She put the bucket down and looked out at the field.
“We should be able to put in an hour or so before the rain gets here,” she noted evenly. “Did you want to run a batting drill or something else useful?” She stressed the last word to make sure he got the point.
“No.” Cody stood right where he was, his thumbs hooked into the pockets of his crisp blue jeans. His mint-green polo shirt was open at the neck. The aviator glasses hid the expression in his eyes from her. “I thought I’d just stay here with you and watch them today,” he said quietly. “Get the big picture, for a change.”
“Fine.” She cringed at the sarcastic tone she heard in her own voice, but couldn’t seem to help it. “Why don’t I just go home and leave you to... ?”
She turned away but he caught hold of her shoulder. “Don’t you dare,” he said softly. “What do you think I came here for?”
She looked up at him, wide-eyed. “To train the girls,” she said breathlessly.
His smile was slow and mysterious. “Is that what you think?” he asked. “Think again, Kelly Stanton.”
Thinking was something that was hard to do when he was so close. She waited, heart pounding, for him to go on, but before he could get another word out, a shout came from the field.
“Cody, come and show Penny how to hold her glove. She can’t get her fingers in the right slots.”
“Coming,” he called, but his glance lingered on Kelly. He touched her chin. “I’ll be back.” Throwing her a regretful smile he started out toward the girls.
Kelly watched him go. He’d been about to say more. She could feel it. But she had another feeling that he was just as glad not to. Could it mean that he felt just like she did—that he was attracted to her, but didn’t want to be?
For the next half hour she watched while Cody worked out on the field, then they all came in for an orange break. She’d cut the oranges into quarters and they made a refreshing snack. The girls grabbed at the sections, throwing peel around, laughing and joking. The loudest talker and the biggest joker of them all was Cody. He seemed to be having an awfully good time, for all he’d implied he didn’t come because of the girls. Kelly found herself moving with short, jerky motions, acting out the resentment that seemed to be smoldering deep inside her. She didn’t put into words exactly what was making her angry, because she wouldn’t have been proud of her own thoughts. So she kept it suppressed and acted grumpy.
“What’s the game for Saturday?” Cody asked as they began to gather themselves together to go back out.
“The Blue Meanies,” Kelly said shortly. “It’s right there on the schedule. All you have to do is read it.” She opened a plastic trash bag and began collecting orange peel and paper cups, glaring at the girls who’d dropped them.
“Oh good,” Heather cried, completely ignoring Kelly’s mood. “We have a chance with the Blue Meanies.”
“Yeah. And their uniforms are at least two years old,” Tammy added.
“I wish we didn’t have to play the Golden Unicorns again,” Heather sighed, leaning against a sad but handy ironwood tree.
Cody looked up from where he’d been wetting his handkerchief in the water bucket. “Why do you let the Unicorns intimidate you?” He rose and pulled off his sunglasses, then touched the wet cloth to his temple. “They aren’t any better than you are.”
Tammy stared at him, dumbfounded at his ignorance. “Are you kidding? Look at the clothes they wear!”
Despite his own impeccable sense of grooming, Cody didn’t understand. He was, after all, a male. “Clothes?” he muttered, bewildered. “What do clothes have to do with it?”
“Everything!” the girls cried in unison.
“You’re not a girl,” Tammy added with kind condescension. “You wouldn’t understand.”
“I guess not.” His eyes met Kelly’s and suddenly they were laughing together while the girls began to straggle out onto the field. Kelly averted her gaze and shivered, wrapping her arms around her. Suddenly, there was a cool wind blowing air their way.
“Put on jackets, girls,” she called to them, but when she turned to retrieve her own, Cody was just stepping toward where the bats were stacked, and the two of them collided.
“Whoops!” Cody’s hands steadied Kelly. She looked into his eyes again and felt as though she were melting. His hand went to her hair, touching softly. Kelly’s breath stopped in her throat. She closed her eyes. “New perfume?” he asked softly, his hand still tangled in her hair.
The pulse was beating hard and heavy. She smiled up at him, wishing her lips wouldn’t tremble.
Maybe all her plans were working, after all. “Do you like it?” she asked shyly.
He didn’t even hesitate. Instead of giving her a smile, he grimaced. “No. It’s not you.”
Her eyes widened with shock as she jerked away from his touch. “Oh, really?” All trembling was gone. “Who is it then?” she asked stiffly.
He tried to smile seductively, but the damage was done. “It’s somebody who wishes she were you,” he said, but she wasn’t buying.
She stepped back another foot or so, just to put more distance between them. “That doesn’t make any sense.” She was hurt, yet she would have denied it. Anger covered up the jab.
Cody still had no idea of how angry she was—or why. “It makes perfect sense to me,” he said casually.
“Keep your conversation to yourself, then.”
He laughed softly, as though he found her annoyance adorable. “What’s the name of this stuff?”
“Naked Lust,” she said promptly, enjoying each word as she said it.
He looked startled. “You’re kidding.”
“Would I kid about a thing like that?”
His sense of humor returned. “But isn’t that a book by William Burroughs?”
“No. You’re thinking of Naked Lunch. That’s something else entirely.”
“True.” His eyes were brimming with amusement and she wanted to hit him with a brick. “Though one could indeed lead to another, don’t you think?” She didn’t answer. “Naked Lust. Quite a provocative name.”
Her chin rose. For some reason she felt the need to defend this awful perfume to the death. “It was quite expensive,” she said, glaring at him. “It’s supposed to drive men wild,” she informed him through clenched teeth.
He grunted. “Or straight for the nearest cliff.”
“That shows how much you know about it.” She tossed her head, hair spilling about her shoulders. “After practice is over, I’m going out to drive men wild all over town.”
He started to laugh at that, but stifled it. Not, however, before she’d noticed. “That ought to be interesting. And what are you going to do with them once you’ve reduced them to their primitive state?”
Kelly was shooting sparks by now. How could he not notice how furious she was? Did he really think they were just joking?
“I don’t know,” she retorted. “Maybe I’ll bring them all down to the Marquis so you can fleece them while they’re weak.”
His head went back, just a little. “What a good idea,” he said carefully. Perhaps he was finally getting the feel of the way the wind was blowing. “We could become a team.”
“Sure. Why not?” She tossed a hand out carelessly. “I could send them reeling, and then you could take them to the cleaners. Sounds great to me.”
Something in his gaze told her he didn’t much like the way she characterized how he made his living. Well, he was the gambler; what did he expect? He was the one who was covering up for criminal activities. If he couldn’t take the heat, he ought to get out of the kitchen. She was just about to tell him so in no uncertain terms, when he stepped forward and grabbed her by the shoulders, pulling her back toward the bench.
“What are you doing?” she cried, trying to free herself. “Stay away from me! I thought my perfume disgusted you.”
“Oh, no.” He stopped near the bench, behind an awning, just out of sight of the field, holding her a prisoner in his arms.
“Nothing about you could ever disgust me.” Holding her tightly with one arm, Cody very carefully dipped his handkerchief in the water again. Before she realized what he was planning, he’d pushed back her heavy hair and begun to rub behind her ears and at her temples, scrubbing away the perfume she’d so liberally applied there.
“What are you doing?” she squealed, trying unsuccessfully to wriggle away. As she struggled, her hands came in contact with his hard, tightened body and her palms flattened against him involuntarily, lessening her chances of escape.
“Testing a theory,” he told her calmly, dropping the rag and pulling her close once more. “I just have a feeling....” He pushed back her hair again and slowly lowered his face to her neck.
Kelly stood very still and held her breath as he came closer, and when she felt his lips touch the sensitive skin behind her ear, she gasped and closed her eyes. Chills cascaded through her and she shuddered, her fingers moving against the solid wall of his chest. He pressed his face to her neck.
“I thought so,” he whispered at last. “This is the scent that will drive men wild, Kelly. Throw out that other stuff.”
Kelly’s knees went weak and she sagged, but he had hold of her. Her anger had evaporated. Everything around her had disappeared. His voice, his touch were all she knew.
He thrust his fingers into her hair and looked down into her face. She gazed up at him and lost herself in the cloudy depths of his eyes. Her hands traveled up his chest, fingers spread wide, until her arms were around his neck, and then he bent to kiss her softly on the lips.
But the kiss only lasted an instant. The girls were shouting out on the field. At last their calls penetrated the cloud of sensuous pleasure Kelly had been floating in. As they did, she became aware of something else.
“It’s hailing!” she gasped as she pulled away from Cody.
All around them the little chunks of ice were hitting the ground with sharp thuds. The girls were already running for the parking lot. Overhead the clouds were black and angry, and for the first time, Kelly heard thunder roll.
“Come on.” Cody took her hand and began to run. She followed him blindly, trying to protect her face from the flying ice.
“Here we go.” They crouched and made their way into a barricaded area. It wasn’t until she’d caught her breath that Kelly realized they’d found shelter in a corner under the bleachers. The ground was pressed dirt, still warm and protected from the storm outside. She sat down with a sigh, crossing her bare legs and peering out at what was going on outside.
“Omygosh, they’re as big as golf balls!” she cried as a few bounced inside their niche.
“Well...not quite.” Cody held one between his thumb and forefinger. “More like marbles.”
“Hmm,” she grumbled, narrowing her eyes to look at it before it melted. “They look like golf balls from here. And they certainly sound like golf balls.” She squinted out through the torrent. The noise of the ice hitting the metal bleachers above them was so loud she winced and had to shout her next question. “Do you think the girls are all right?”
“I think they made it to the cars. Some of the parents are here and I heard some of them yelling instructions. They’re meeting at the pizza parlor. I only hope they took all the gloves with them.” He leaned out, surveying what he could see of the field. “I don’t see anyone left,” he noted, pulling back in. He moved closer and they both leaned back against the solid wall behind them. From where they sat, they could see the hail outside, falling like a constant sheet of ice.
“It sounds like it’s going to go on forever.” She glanced up at Cody. He was sitting close enough to touch. “What will we do?”
The moment the words were out of her mouth, she had to bite her lip to keep from laughing. It was obvious from the look on Cody’s face that he had plans.
“Oh, I don’t know,” he drawled, and slowly put an arm around her shoulders. “I think we’ll find some way to spend the time.”
Kelly looked up at him. The memory of the way he’d been nuzzling her neck only moments before sent a thrill through her. Maybe he hadn’t been teasing her, after all. “Really?” she said brightly.
He shrugged. “We could play twenty questions or discuss the efficacy of space travel in the new century.” He touched her chin with his finger and his voice lowered to a rough growl. “Or we could make out.”
“Make out!” The words amused her.
His arm tightened around her. “Too teenage for you? Somehow the other words for it seem too graphic—even threatening.”
Th
reatening? Was that it? Did he think she was too Goody-Two-Shoes for him? She turned on him earnestly. “Listen, mister, I’ve been married and had a child. I’m not some innocent little schoolgirl, you know.”
Cody grinned at her vehemence. “Yes, but there’s something about you, something fresh and untouched.” He shrugged again. “I don’t know. As though you’d been rumpled by life, but not damaged. Do you know what I mean?”
The laughter had left his eyes by the end of his statement. She read puzzlement there, wariness.
Frowning, she shook her head. “Not exactly,” she said softly.
He stared at her. “Do you feel safe, Kelly?” he asked at last.
She wanted his touch, his kiss, but she wouldn’t lie to him. “I never feel completely safe around you,” she whispered.
He drew in his breath, head back, then decided to try to make a joke out of it. “Thank you very much.”
“No, I don’t mean that.” She turned to him, her eyes entreating him to understand. “There are things about your life that I don’t like. Things you believe in that I don’t like. But I trust you, Cody. Absolutely.” Reaching up, she touched his cheek. “I don’t feel safe with you because...”
She took a trembling breath. This was more difficult than she’d thought it would be. When she spoke again, her voice was choked.
“Because you send my emotions into a tailspin whenever I’m near you.”
He made what sounded like a soft groan and covered her hand with his, turning his face to press his lips to the center of her palm. “Kelly,” he murmured huskily. “You tear me apart.”
She didn’t know what that meant, but she knew she wanted him to understand that she was a mature woman with a woman’s feelings and not something pure, to be protected. She stretched toward him and then she was in his arms. His face touched hers, and then he kissed her forehead, her eyelids and her lips with short moves that set up an ache within her. His large, supple hands were stroking her body and then his mouth was on hers, caressing, probing, tantalizing her with the promise of much, much more.