Baby Times Two

by Marie Ferrarella

  Chapter Six

  Gina simmered all through the rest of the dinner, biting her tongue to keep from launching into an argument with Chase in front of James. Rather than cool down as she waited, her anger only heated and expanded, like a piece of metal over a flame.

  Just what was it that Chase was trying to do? Was he trying to win points with James at her expense? It was a despicable ploy and she wouldn’t have thought Chase was capable of it. But she’d heard him with her own ears, heard Chase phrase his words to make it sound as if she were the ringleader of some sort of fly-by-night organization, plotting to fleece James.

  After dinner, James excused himself, saying that he had to confer with Benjamin about some matter involving the hiring of new personnel.

  “But that doesn’t mean that you two can’t stay on, have an after-dinner drink. Talk.” The suggestion was open and broad. If Gina hadn’t known any better, she would have said the man was opting to be a rematch maker. Just what she needed, an aging cupid.

  James walked out of the dining room, and suddenly the room became very, very still, with only the sound of their breathing offsetting the silence.

  Chase had seen that look in her eyes more than once. It was the one that had always sent him running to arm himself. Tonight he felt too tired for any battles, real or imaginary.

  He rose, glancing at her. Manners forced him to say something. “Want to call it a night?”

  Gina threw down her napkin and pushed back her chair. “I’d call it a hell of a night.”

  Somewhere in the distance, Chase knew a bell was going off, signaling the beginning of round one. He refused to put his gloves on.

  Chase left the dining room, only to have the sound of her footsteps echoing behind him as she followed. She gave him the silent treatment during the slow, tedious elevator ride, and he thought himself lucky. He wondered if his luck was going to hold out until he was safely behind closed doors. There was no way in the world that he was going to ask her what her last comment had meant.

  He was afraid she’d tell him.

  At length.

  As the elevator doors crept open on their floor, Gina swore to herself that she was not going to say anything. She wasn’t.

  The hell she wasn’t.

  “‘As your accountant’?” she echoed, whirling on Chase just as she reached her own door. “Just what was that supposed to mean?”

  Chase sighed as he took out his room key and slipped it into the lock. So near and yet so far. He’d almost reached sanctuary. The lock clicked and Chase opened the door, pausing as he looked at her. “Gina, there are no hidden meanings here.”

  Well there had to be something. Any way she turned the phrase, it was insulting.

  “Do you think I’m trying to cheat him?” she demanded, her eyes wide.

  To Gina’s surprise, Chase grabbed her wrist and unceremoniously pulled her into his room. He didn’t want to conduct their affairs, or their arguments, out in the hall where someone might stumble across them. There were a few hotel employees on the premises. He’d seen them on occasion and he didn’t feel like providing anyone with entertainment at his expense.

  “No, I didn’t think you were trying to cheat him, Gina. I was just trying to look after the guy’s interests.” He looked at her, softening. Even anger became her. More and more, he was beginning to feel himself a prisoner of that old feeling that only she could generate. His voice lowered, floating over her, a warm desert breeze. “Like I’m trying to look after mine now.”

  She pulled her hand free and retreated, facing him. She didn’t trust him enough to turn her back on him. If he kissed her neck the way he always had it would be all over for her.

  “You have no interests, not with me.”

  He remained where he was, but his eyes touched her softly and made her feel as if she were standing on quicksand. “You’re wrong there, Gina. No matter how much I fight it, I still do.”

  Her eyes narrowed, turning into tiny pinpricks of blue. Gina began pacing around the room like a person trying to outrun her thoughts. “Then my advice to you is fight a little harder.”

  He laughed, crossing his arms in front of him. “I think you’re taking care of that adequately for both of us.” Chase saw her eyes flash and progressed slowly. He was walking through a mine field and he knew it. “We can’t go back.”

  She shook her head slowly from side to side as she abruptly stopped pacing. “No.”

  His eyes on hers, Chase took a step closer. “And it looks as if, at least according to you, we can’t go forward.”

  Like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming truck, she found she couldn’t move and remained glued to the spot. Again. “No.”

  Another step and Chase was beside her. He lightly threaded his hands through her hair. Like silk, he thought. It always felt like silk.

  “Then let’s take it a moment at a time.” He smiled into her eyes. She had the most beautiful eyes he’d ever seen. They had been what he’d noticed first about her. Eyes the color of the sky at early morning. “You’ll grant me that we will be spending moments together.”

  Gina moistened her lips and realized too late that it was a tactical error. She saw desire flare in his eyes. The sight of it set off a twin flare within her. One she hoped she kept sufficiently under wraps so that he didn’t detect it.

  “As little together as I can manage.”

  Chase shook his head. For every statement of his, she had a counterstatement. She always did. That hadn’t changed, and yet other things had. The feeling he had inside was the same, and yet, somehow, it was different. Fuller. Perhaps more urgent, yet more patient at the same time. It confused him.

  Just as she did.

  He cupped the back of her head in his hand. “Still only one way to shut you up, isn’t there?”

  Was it possible for a heart to lodge itself in your throat? Hers felt as if it had shot up there, and was now throbbing wildly, making breathing extremely difficult.

  Gina looked at him with eyes that were huge. “You’re not going to kiss me again, are you?” It was a defensive question.

  And a prayer.

  His mouth, inches from hers, curved. “What do you think?”

  “Yes.” The word was a breathy whisper that excited him all the more.

  His breath shimmered along her face. “Bingo, you win the prize.”

  “Which is?” Her voice was hoarse, her eyes fastened to his, her body beating a wild tattoo that she was ashamed of but couldn’t do anything about. Chase had always had her number, even now, when she thought it was unlisted.

  “I’ll decide that later,” he promised.

  Panic rose, clawing at her, forbidding her to do this, to make the same mistake again.

  “Chase, I don’t think—”

  Oh, no, it wasn’t going to stop now, at least not yet. Not when he was so drunk on the look in her eyes, on the scent of her skin.

  “Very good. Hold that nonthought.”

  Tilting her head back, Chase brought his lips to hers and brought the Fourth of July fireworks into the month of September.

  The hunger came immediately, bursting from its wraps and bolting for the open gate. Gina clung to him; her annoyance with him for igniting—with herself for succumbing—had temporarily become a thing of the past. There was only this moment, this death-defying plunge on a mile-high roller coaster that would bring her down and then just as quickly, buoy her up once more.

  She had never drunk or tasted anything as temptingly wonderful as his mouth. His very breath, tangy and male, created a rush in her head as she held on tight, her body molding to his.

  Her desire molding to his.

  She was tumbling, tumbling. With a start, she realized that she had tumbled. Into Chase’s bed. Gina bolted upright, still a little dazed, and pushed Chase away.

  He felt as if someone had plunged him into a bucket of cold water. He hadn’t meant for it to go like this, not this quickly. Chase felt himself on rocky ground. It wa
s just that one taste of her lips and he forgot everything that was in his head, forgot everything except how good it had always been between them when they were making love. There, in bed, everything was always in harmony.

  It was only when they were standing that the recriminations, the arguments, came.

  Gina rose on legs that felt as if they were giant rubber bands about to be shot out from under her. She dragged a hand through her hair, wishing she could drag in common sense as well.

  She looked at him accusingly. “I thought you already got that out of the way.”

  She was entitled to that last stab. He let it pass. With a sigh, he sat up on the bed. He wanted her here tonight, in his bed, the way they used to be.

  “Yeah, but I can’t seem to get it out of my system. Or you.”

  She made it to the door without embarrassing herself, even though her limbs felt as if they were filled with tapioca. Damn him for doing that to her.

  “You had a piece of paper do that for you.”

  He laughed shortly, but there was no mirth in the sound. “Liposuction couldn’t do that for me.”

  She almost believed him. Almost. But not quite. She couldn’t risk it. “I’d better go.”

  He rose from the bed slowly, afraid of frightening her off. “We need to talk.”

  Maybe they did. No, there was too much to say and none of it would get said, she thought sadly. “Yes, but not now, not here.” She looked at him and tried not to think at all, about anything. Least of all about kissing him. “If I stay here, we won’t talk.”

  He cupped her cheek. “Would that be so bad?”

  Gina fought hard to refrain from leaning into the touch of his hand. Instead, she raised her head.

  “Yes. It would mean one of us would have to leave here in the morning. Most likely me.”

  She’d given herself credit for not rushing into things anymore. If she allowed him to sweep her off her feet, the way she secretly longed, it would be disastrous. She’d be right back to where she had been four years ago. And she couldn’t allow that to happen. She never wanted to be that heartbroken, wounded woman again.

  Chase nodded. He knew Gina well enough to know she was as good as her word. And maybe she was right. They’d gone at this quickly the last time, and it had fallen apart for reasons he still didn’t really understand. Maybe slow would be better.

  “Sure.” He stepped away from the door. “See you in the morning.”

  Looking at him uncertainly, she said nothing as she eased out of the room. The door closed behind her and a strange, bittersweet pang filled her.

  She had no idea why she felt like crying. Relief and regret mingled in equal parts within her. She fumbled with her room key, her pulse racing at ninety miles an hour.

  A shower, she told herself, finally getting into her room and then closing the door. She needed to take a long, cold shower to rid herself not of the warm glow spreading through her but the hot, pulsating desire that was shimmering in its wake.

  She smiled to herself as she heard the shower running in the next room.

  * * *

  The shower didn’t help.

  Gina lay in her bed, staring at a ceiling that was badly in need of painting, painfully aware that there was just a simple wall of plywood and plaster between her and Chase.

  Between her and ecstasy.

  Between her and a mistake, she reminded herself vehemently, punching her pillow, searching for a shape she couldn’t find. Sleeping with Chase would be repeating a mistake.

  She’d never wanted to make a mistake so much in her life.

  Restless, she tossed about in her bed, tangling the sheet into knots. The comforter lay on the floor, too warm to even consider.

  When the telephone beside her bed rang, Gina gave a yelp of surprise. She groped for the receiver, wondering who could be calling her here. Had James thought of something he wanted to add to his assessment of her sketches?

  Instinctively, she was searching for a pad and pencil as she said, “Hello?”

  “I just called to say good night.” Chase’s voice filled her ear. Filled her head.

  She swallowed, telling herself she was being an adolescent. “I just saw you.” She could hear him breathing. Why did such a natural function have to send waves of longing through her body?

  “I know, and you didn’t say good night. I thought that since we’re not going to bed angry, we should say good night.”

  She stared at the wall, visualizing him lying there in his bed. Chase liked to sleep in the nude. Gina looked down and saw that her toes were curled. Her hand was gripping the receiver so hard, she was surprised that it didn’t snap in half.

  “Good night,” she retorted hoarsely.

  The receiver slipped from her damp palm into the cradle.

  She crossed her arms in front of her breasts, locking her heart in physically. He was messing with her mind, she thought. And very soon she was going to be certifiably crazy.

  Was a commission worth this?

  When the phone rang again a minute later, she snatched up the receiver, angry with the games he was playing. “I already said good night, what more do you want?”

  “A hello would be nice.”

  Gina let out a sigh and leaned back against the headboard. “Rene?”

  His very proper, Harvard-educated voice filled the receiver. “Ah, so you can be civil. I thought perhaps the wilds of New Mexico had made you subhuman in a record amount of time.”

  She hadn’t given him the telephone number to the hotel. She hadn’t known it. Gina frowned, puzzled. “How did you get the number here?”

  “I have my ways.” He was concerned about her. Concerned about the state of her mind when she’d left him last night. He just wanted to assure himself that everything was going well and that she had just overreacted, as she was wont to do at times. “It’s not as if you were posted in outer space. I just thought I would check on you.” When she offered no words, he continued. “So how is it going?”

  Gina stared malevolently at the wall that separated their rooms. “Lousy.”

  “Is that a professional lousy or a personal lousy?” He heard the tension in her voice and could make an educated guess as to which it was.

  She wiggled her toes and then turned away from the wall. “Personal.”

  “Oh? Young Randolph attempting to storm your ramparts?”

  She could swear she heard a smile in Rene’s voice. She was glad one of them was enjoying this. “In a manner of speaking.”

  “And?”

  Gina sat up, uncomfortable. “Now you’re getting personal.”

  “My dear young woman, I have worked with you for three and a half years and held your tape measure. I think that gives me the right to expect a few personal answers since I have the misfortune of being concerned about you.”

  His voice was gruff, but unlike a father’s, Rene’s words weren’t intended to be. Gina smiled and twirled the black phone cord around her finger. A thin film of grit covered her fingers. The phones were going to go in the morning, she promised herself.

  “That’s very sweet.”

  “I am never sweet. I am merely practical.” If she closed her eyes, she could actually see him squaring his thin shoulders as he pretended to take umbrage at the sentimentality. “If you are undone for some reason, I shall have to seek new employment, a circumstance I find quite distasteful.”

  She was too tired to try to get him to reveal his true feelings. “Whatever your reasons, thank you.”

  “For what?”

  “For caring.”

  “Yes, well.” Rene cleared his throat, allowing her a small moment into his private life. He’d never longed for children. They were messy, noisy and expensive. But Gina stirred paternal feelings he would have sworn under oath he didn’t possess.

  His tone remained clipped, as if he were reading scientific data aloud to a gathering of students in a college lecture hall. “You make it quite easy to care. I’m sure young Randolph has
stumbled onto that fact again.” He didn’t give her a chance to protest his assumption. “If you find you need anything, I’m here to serve.”

  She laughed at the image that created. She might own the company, but she had no illusions about their positions. He was an independent soul, one of a kind. “You never served a day in your life.”

  It was his turn to be amused. “Well then, if I can help in any way.”

  She stretched, oddly tired and wired at the same time. Chase again.

  “You can be my liaison to the suppliers back there.” She had already cleared that with James. She was completely unfamiliar with suppliers here in New Mexico. Flying in people to do the work would be more costly, but at least she could guarantee the quality of the materials and of the work. And that was all James was concerned about.

  “I’ve already assumed that I would be.” Rene touched on business for a moment. “Is James giving you a hard time in any way?” He was well acquainted with the honeymoon period between decorator and decoratee. It dissolved once particulars became clear.

  “No, he’s not.”

  Rene had no difficulty picking up the inference. “But Randolph is?”

  “Chase is—” She stretched it out. What could she say? “Chase is just there.”

  She still loved him. It had been evident to Rene last night. He wondered if she was aware of it. And if Randolph would take advantage of the fact.

  “I see.”

  Gina sat up, afraid she had said too much already. This wasn’t fitting into her pattern of denial. “No, you don’t.”

  “Whatever you say, Gina. I’ll be saying good night now. Oh, one more thing before I go. Mrs. Anderson called today. It seems that it’s that time of year again. She wants her house redecorated.” He gave a dry laugh. He’d been on the telephone with the woman for an hour. His end of the conversation had consisted of “yes” and “I see.” “Mr. Anderson has apparently been straying from the fold again and she wants him to pay for it. The whole house, redone from top to bottom. Still, all in all, I suppose it’s cheaper than a divorce.”

  It struck a painful chord. “Yes,” Gina agreed quietly, “it probably is. Good night, Rene.”