by Jane Toombs
An hour and a half later Zed, Karen and a sleepy, cranky Danny were on the road, heading north on Interstate S. Zed was driving, and Karen was in the back with Danny. True to Karen’s prediction, by the time they reached Oceanside the motion of the car had lulled the boy to sleep.
They were lucky enough not to hit any delays on the always crowded Los Angeles freeway system, making Zed’s goal of a four-hour trip possible.
“How do you prune-pickers put up with this mess?” he asked Karen when they finally hit 101 and the traffic eased slightly.
“If prune-picker means a Californian, I’m not one,” she replied tartly. “I’m a transplanted New Yorker. What do you call them—apple-pickers?”
“Never heard a name for New Yorkers,” he admitted. “Too far away from Nevada, I guess. Carson’s pretty close to the state line, so we see a lot of Californians coming and going and we like to pretend they’re a bunch of weirdos.”
“Some of them are,” she admitted. “Like some New Yorkers. And probably Nevadans, too.”
He grinned, glancing over his shoulder at her. “Present company excepted, I hope.”
He caught her smile in the rearview mirror and his heart lifted. He preferred things easy between them, he was uncomfortable when they were at odds. If it wasn’t for the chemistry between them, he and Karen could become good buddies. The problem was, you don’t keep hoping you can get your good buddy into bed.
If she was beside him in the front seat, he’d be touching her—he couldn’t seem to help it. She affected him in unexpected ways, even holding her hand could be erotic. When he laid his hand over hers, she had a unique way of turning her hand so their palms met and then she’d caress his lightly but sensually. He could almost feel her fingers under his now. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Damn. Even with her in the back seat, he got aroused.
With Danny no longer needing her attention, Karen focused on Zed. No matter how she tried to set her mind on something else, her thoughts stubbornly clung to him. What would he do, she wondered, if she leaned forward and kissed his nape? If she licked his ear?
She’d probably cause an accident if she tried it, that’s what would happen. Not that she’d actually do it—but she wanted to. And that was only the beginning of what she wanted. Fortunately she sat in the back and, with her seatbelt on, couldn’t touch him if she tried.
Eventually, though, they’d stop for the night. And then? She shook her head. They’d be in different rooms; she’d insist on that. Anything else would be a mistake.
Danny woke up just outside Santa Barbara and set up such a howl that Zed pulled in to the first decent-looking motel he came to.
“Busy week with the horse show in town,” the desk clerk said when Zed asked for two rooms. “Nothing left but a suite.”
Remembering Danny’s plaintive crying, Zed had no heart to get back into the car and look for another place. He took the suite and asked for a crib to be placed in it.
He explained the situation to Karen as he drove around to the back of the motel. “Anything,” she said as she tried without success to comfort Danny. “Just as long as we don’t have to share a bed.”
“Sharing a bed isn’t a plus?” he teased.
Without replying, she slanted him a speaking look.
They discovered the two rooms of the suite were separated by an archway rather than a door, with two double beds in one and a queen-size in the other. There was only one bath, large, with a whirlpool tub in addition to the shower.
“I didn’t think to bring a swimsuit,” Karen said regretfully.
Zed shrugged. “There’s always underwear. Why don’t you strip Tiger while I fill the tub, and I’ll take him in with me? Maybe that’ll distract him.”
“I’m willing to try anything at this point,” she said. “Just don’t get the water too hot.”
At first the boy eyed the seething water with suspicion and he clung to Karen, refusing to go to Zed. Soon he stopped crying, obviously fascinated by the bubbling. Zed began whistling, choosing a country-western song. This one, as he recalled, dealt with unrequited love in El Paso.
Finally Danny reached out to him and he took the boy from Karen, easing him down slowly onto his knee, watching as Danny’s expression changed from dubious to interested. Moments later he. was slapping his hand against the bubbling water. Holding the little naked body next to him gave Zed an overwhelming feeling of protec-tiveness. By God, no one was ever going to hurt this kid, not as long as he was around.
Intent on the boy, he didn’t realize Karen had disappeared until she returned, wearing a short terry-cloth robe. “Don’t look,” she warned. “You’ll make me self-conscious.”
“I hope you realize the first reaction to being told not to look is to stare,” he told her.
“I’m not coming in unless you look away.”
He complied, heard her step into the tub, gave her a moment to seat herself and then turned toward her again. Only her head and shoulders rose above the water. He could see straps over her shoulders, so he knew she must be wearing a bra and panties, just as he was wearing his boxer shorts. His loins tightened as he pictured her stepping out of the tub with the wet bra and panties molded to her body, the next best thing to being naked.
“Tiger isn’t at all modest,” he said. “To him being naked is perfectly natural. Too bad we have to grow up and change. I’m partial to nakedness myself.”
Karen rolled her eyes. “Tell me.”
“I’d go naked more often if the world wasn’t fulled with Mrs. Hammonds.”
Karen hadn’t seen him in the towel, but she vividly recalled his penchant for wearing sweatpants that hung precariously on his hips, so low it was evident he wore nothing beneath them. She also remembered how she’d anticipated their fall. She knew he’d left his shorts on before climbing into the tub, because she’d watched him from-the corner of her eye while she was stripping Danny.
And, of course, there’d been that one time at the ranch when he’d rushed out of his bedroom without any clothes on. Unfortunately, she’d been too occupied with Danny to pay close attention. At the moment, she was very aware of his near nakedness so close to her. Water beaded his black chest hair, the beads breaking and trickling down. When she realized her gaze was following each tiny rivulet, she forced herself to stop and look at Danny instead. Noting the contrast of Danny’s lighter skin against Zed’s tanned arms and torso made her try to remember if Zed’s tan extended below his waist. She couldn’t recall seeing a demarcation line when he was wearing those low-slung sweats.
“I need a shave,” he said, evidently conscious of her scrutiny. He rubbed a hand over his dark stubble. “Didn’t get around to it this morning.”
No way was she going to admit she found his unshaven look sexy. Nor that she admired the play of his shoulder muscles when he moved his arms. “The moisture’s making your hair curl tighter,” she said. “It does the same thing to Danny’s.”
Zed wound one of Danny’s brown curls around his forefinger. The boy turned to glance at him and stuck a finger between Zed’s lips.
“I guess that means whistle. Let’s let Karen pick the tune. What’s your pleasure, my lady?”
A frisson ran along her spine at the “my lady,” even though she knew it was merely a meaningless phrase. When she’d been in his arms the other night he’d called her “my beautiful Karen.” Quite likely that had no meaning, either, beyond the passing moment, but she still cherished the words.
“You must be influenced by the Maddamti,” she said. “If we’re getting into things Arabic, how about a real oldie, “The Sheik of Araby’?”
“I’ll give it a whirl.” As soon as he began to whistle, Danny started to rock back and forth in time to the beat.
Karen smiled, a surge of happiness lapping through her. If only it could always be this way, she and Danny and Zed…. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, her smile fading as she reminded herself of their purpose in coming to Santa Barbara. W
ith luck, tomorrow they’d find the Maddamti moored in the harbor and their search for Danny’s father would be over.
Why wasn’t she more exhilarated at the possibility? Her aim from the moment Danny was born had been to locate his father. Now she was on the verge of accomplishing, that. But then what? Zed would have no reason to stick around; he’d be off to Nevada. Would she ever see him again?
“Do you think we’ll actually find him?” she asked.
Zed shrugged. He stopped whistling, at the same time lifting Danny off his knee and bouncing him up and down in the bubbling water. “If the boat’s here, our chances are excellent. Even if he’s merely moored it here for the time being, they’ll have an address. If the boat’s not here, someone may know where he was headed.”
He sounded more enthusiastic than she felt. But why not? He’d been put through a lot of turmoil because of Talal Zohir. Part of it had been her fault, hers and Joe Santoro’s, but that couldn’t be helped. After this disruption of his life, Zed probably couldn’t wait to get things settled and go home.
Danny laughed aloud, riveting her attention. “You’re a regular water baby,” she told him. He squealed with delight and held out his arms to her.
Zed relinquished the boy to Karen, watching how lovingly she nuzzled Danny’s neck as she hugged him to her. Had she, he wondered, thought of what might happen once they located the boy’s father? Would Talal Zohir accept his responsibility? And, if he did, how would he do it? Would he pay support for the boy, allowing Karen to keep Danny, or would he decide to raise his son himself?
Karen would be devastated to lose Danny. The boy would be unhappy as well, but kids were resilient and he’d come to accept a new life, while Karen would mourn his loss for years, maybe all her life. He didn’t want to see that happen. Yet they were too close to turn back. Not only did Danny deserve a father but he, himself, was eager to confront this man who looked so much like him that he’d complicated Zed’s life.
Karen lifted a red ball from the edge of the tub and floated it on the water toward Danny, who reached for the ball, almost flinging himself from her arms. A sense of déjû vu crept over Zed as he watched. A child, a red ball—it seemed so familiar. Familiar and yet wrong. This was water when it should be sand….
“Gone into another trance?” Karen asked, making him blink.
“Another trance?” he echoed.
“Like the one earlier today. Both Jade and I noticed how you spaced out when Louie called you Talal.”
He couldn’t bring himself to talk about what he’d felt. It wasn’t that he minded if she thought him weird, but his feelings then and now were too nebulous and private to be put into words. “Stunned the first time, sleepy the second,” he told her, which was a partial truth.
“Sleepy means it’s time to get out of the tub before we get too much of a good thing.” Hefting Danny, she started to climb out, then hesitated.
Aware she was waiting for him to go ahead of her, he said, “Ladies and children first. That’s an old shipboard rule.”
“We’re not aboard ship.” Though she spoke tartly, she proceeded to climb from the tub.
As he’d anticipated’, her wet, silky underwear clung to her, revealing a sweetly rounded bottom. Unfortunately, Danny’s body effectively concealed her breasts but, he told himself, it was just as well, since he was already turned on to the point of discomfort.
When she vanished into the room she’d chosen, he eased out, took off his shorts, wrung the water from them and pulled the tub plug. He padded naked into his room, towel-dried himself and then grabbed his jeans. First they’d eat, Danny would fall asleep and then what?
Go to bed? Probably, though not necessarily in the way he’d choose. She’d be in her room in her bed and he’d be in his room in his bed. Unless he could change her mind. He was off the hook now. Karen knew he wasn’t Danny’s father, so there was no reason he shouldn’t make love to her. But that didn’t mean she intended to cooperate.
He didn’t recall ever wanting a woman as much as he wanted Karen. She was so beautiful, she fit into his arms so perfectly and her eager response to him was erotic nectar, making him drunk with desire.
He imagined her in his bed, naked, no clothes hampering their enjoyment of each other. He’d make slow, sweet love to her, make it last…. He shook his head. This was no way to get turned off.
Ordinarily, after a long day that began at 5:00 a.m. as this one had, he could be sure of dropping into bed and being asleep before he hit the pillow. He didn’t think that would work under the present circumstances. In fact, he suspected he was going to find the night even longer than the day had been.
Chapter Eight
After dinner Karen breathed a sigh of relief when Danny accepted the motel crib without protest, closing his eyes and falling asleep almost immediately. Now that the troublesome tooth had poked through the gum, he was no longer in pain, thank heaven. For the moment she had no worries about him.
She wished she could say the same for herself. What was she going to do? The coward’s way would be to undress and crawl into bed without leaving the room, avoiding any chance of encountering Zed. She wasn’t a coward. What was she, then? A woman who didn’t know her own mind? Or one who knew her own mind but was afraid to acknowledge that she did?
Whatever, she was so bemused by Zed Adams that she couldn’t be in the same room he was in without wanting to touch him, aware that a touch might lead to a kiss and a kiss would lead to her wanting more and more and more. And after that, where would she be?
Though she hadn’t accused him, she was sure he’d taken off his shorts on purpose after leaving the tub, knowing very well she’d watch him go into his room. The glimpse she’d gotten had been from the rear, hinting without revealing, a real teaser.
Now that they’d discovered the man in the photo was not Zed, there was no real reason they couldn’t make love. Obviously he wanted to. So did she. Why did she hesitate? Was she waiting for some kind of a commitment when she had no reason to expect any?
“Stop dithering,” she muttered. “Say good-night to the man and go to bed. Alone.”
“Danny okay?” Zed called from the other room.
Karen straightened her shoulders, ran a hand through her hair and walked through the archway, prepared to tell him Danny was asleep and that she soon would be. Zed, she noted, had changed from the jeans and T-shirt he’d worn to go out and bring back pizza. He was back in those damn low-slung sweatpants and no shirt, distracting her.
She marched across to where he stood in the tiny neutral territory between the rooms, yanked up his pants and said, “I’ll hold them in place while you retie the waist cord.”
“I don’t recall ever getting an offer quite like that,” he said.
“I suppose everyone else wants to see them fall off,” she snapped. “I don’t.” Even as she spoke, she realized it was a big mistake to get this close to him. He’d shaved, so a spicy after-shave scent mingled with his own intriguing musk.
Her fingers, holding the waistband, were pressed against his warm, bare flesh, the contact sending urgent messages along her nerves that translated to yes, yes, we want more.
“You smell delicious,” he murmured as he fumbled with the cord. “Good enough to kiss.” Without touching her otherwise, he leaned and brushed his lips over hers. “You taste even better,” he said, easing away enough to gaze into her eyes.
Determined not to fall into the darkness of his eyes and lose all contact with reality, she closed hers. “Tie the damn cord,” she said. Instead of the no-nonsense tone she tried for, her words came out in a husky whisper.
Realizing she couldn’t resist her own need much longer, she opened her eyes, at the same time releasing the waistband of his sweatpants and stepping back.
“Whoa!” he exclaimed, grabbing at the pants barely in time.
“Good night, Zed,” she said hastily, and fled into her bedroom with the taste of him still on her lips and the need for him heating her bo
dy.
“So I’m a coward,” she muttered as she got ready for bed. “I’m just not ready to handle how I feel about him.”
For a person who had always been in charge, it was scary to lose control; she was too afraid of the consequences. Erin hadn’t worried about consequences and Erin was dead. Not that Karen feared getting pregnant—she knew better. Losing control was another matter. It meant that she’d be giving in to an emotion that scared her because of its intensity.
She’d never once felt for any other man what she did for Zed—an overwhelming, aching need that demanded fulfillment. Worse, she feared another emotion was becoming linked with the physical attraction, one she was almost afraid to name.
With her responsibility for Danny to think about, she couldn’t afford to fall in love. She leaned over the crib to check on him, covering his rump, sticking up as usual, with the blanket. Danny must always come first.
After brushing her teeth, she slid into bed. As she closed her eyes, seeking sleep, the aftertaste of mint faded from her mouth, replaced by the memory of Zed’s dark, enticing taste. He was, it seemed, going to spend the night with her one way or another.
Though he hadn’t expected to, Zed fell asleep almost instantly, only to rouse two hours later to Danny’s wail. He sprang up and started for the other room, hesitated, then grabbed his sweatpants and yanked them on. In her bedroom he found Karen sitting on the bed with Danny on her lap.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, sitting next to her and touching Danny’s forehead gently. “He doesn’t feel hot.”
“I’m not sure,” she said. “I don’t think he’s sick. My guess is he bit down on that new tooth in his sleep and the gum is still sensitive. If you’ll hand me that zipper bag from the dresser I’ll rub some stuff on his gums.”
Danny didn’t want anything rubbed on his gums and refused to open his mouth. Nor would he swallow the baby pain reliever she tried to give him. He took a couple of sucks on the bottle nipple and turned his head away, emitting another wail.