Doorstep daddy

by Cajio, Linda

  Michael and Janice said nothing when he and Callie arrived earlier than anticipated. The kids were busy with their cousins, to his relief. Although he'd said differently, he had been a little worried about the arrangements. Probably he'd fed off Callie's guilt.

  "Do we have to go?" Jay moaned, watching his older cousin David play a video game. "David's going to show me The Legend of the Five Fingers."

  He was flanked by three lookaiikes, two males and one female, who seemed ready to block his departure.

  "Amy!" Mark shouted, running around the foyer. "Amy! Amy! Amy!"

  "Mark! Mark! Mark!" a cute-as-a-button dark-haired girl shouted while running ahead of him in circles.

  Amanda didn't say a word. She was too busy upstairs with her cousin Heather.

  "Now why did I feel guilty?" Callie murmured.

  "Damned if I know," Richard replied, pleased that his charges were so content with the arrangements that they didn't want to leave.

  Eventually they got Richard's three Holidays moving out the door and into the car.

  "That's a lot of kids," Richard said as he backed down the driveway.

  "They were fun," Amanda said. "Heather's going to ask me to her next sleepover so I can meet her friends."

  "They have sleepovers with more children?" Richard asked, trying to envision wall-to-wall teenage girls in Michael's house. His brain refused to create the image. He couldn't blame it.

  "Heather has them all the time," Amanda said, laughing.

  "Me love Amy," Mark announced. "Me love Pooh. Poopies!"

  "We got you out of there in the nick of time," Richard said, grinning.

  "Chris, C.J. and Cat showed me their rooms," Jay said, adding his two cents to the praises of the cousins. "They have bunk beds in Chris and C.J.'s. Cat sleeps with Amy in another room. Uncle Richard, they taped the room right down the middle! Amy's side is all girly.

  Cat's is way cool. And David lent me Five Fingers. He's way cool, too."

  "The Jason seal of approval." Richard smiled as he drove, happy this part of the night had worked out. "I guess you liked your cousins."

  "Yes!" Amanda and Jay said together. Richard assumed Mark felt the same since the little boy happily shouted, "Car!" whenever one passed them.

  When Richard turned into the neighborhood, he realized that Callie had been very quiet all the way home.

  "You okay?" he asked, glancing over at her when he pulled the car to a stop in his driveway.

  She came out of her reverie and smiled slightly. "I'm fine."

  She looked distracted to him. Fortunately Mark insisted on Callie carrying him into the house and then putting him to bed. Richard hustled Jason along the bedtime process, sensing Callie would leave if he wasn't at the door to stop her. He knew Amanda would go to bed on her own and simply kissed her good-night.

  He snuck into Mark's room as Callie kissed the child good-night and was able to escort her out after giving Mark his own good-night kiss. Something inside him, however, noted the moment, and he felt like part of a family. Callie's presence made the difference between him and the children being distant strangers. It wasn't that he needed a woman to give the sensation a traditional value. She had taught him how to reach inside himself and open up to the kids, something he and Callie desperately needed themselves.

  When they were alone downstairs, Richard said, "How about some coffee?"

  "I should be getting home," Callie said.

  "I believe I forgot to mention my rules for this date.

  You and I must have a nice after-dinner coffee and conversation," he said with a grim smile.

  "We did that at the restaurant."

  "Rules revision. You and I must have an after-dinner coffee and conversation at my place." He wasn't about to get caught on a technicahty.

  She smiled wryly. "That's nice, but I have to go."

  "You want to tell me what's going on here?" he demanded, dropping all pretenses. "You won't let me pick you up, using the excuse of being late, and then we can't talk about the kids. Then you feel guilty about the kids, even though we're not talking about them. So we bring them home early and it's bedtime, and now you're up and leaving. You wanted a regular date and yet do everything to sabotage it when you get it."

  She sighed and sat down on the hall steps. "Richard, I have been a terrible date, and I know it. I'm so sorry."

  He sat down next to her. "You're the best terrible date I've ever had, but you want to tell me why?"

  She blinked, as if trying to see for herself. "Fear. Confusion. Do you know what threw me the most this evening?"

  "No, but you better tell me."

  "Seeing that household of six kids. Nine of them, with your three. The place wasn't trashed, and no one was screaming at anybody else, and the parents seemed to be in charge. The oldest girl, Heather, had Amanda up in her room. She wasn't downstairs supervising the younger kids. I tried to remember when I had a friend over to my house when I was her age, and I couldn't. I always had to watch the younger kids. I never had a sleepover. Oh, I realize the circumstances were different. Michael and his wife are more affluent for one thing. They probably have more help with the kids, too. But I was bothered by the comparison with my life." She shook herself. "It's silly, I know, and I'm sorry to take it out on you."

  He cupped her face and turned her to him, giving her a tender kiss. Her lips parted. His tongue met hers, swirling in a gentleness that sent sensual shock waves through his body. He would have thought only an unstoppable fire of sexuality would create such a desire in him. But this was more, tying his emotions together in so many ways. All he knew was, Callie was hurting and he wanted to do everything in his power to heal her.

  He kissed her again and again, little kisses that promised much. Finally he whispered, "Let it go, honey. You're so much more than whatever you might have lost."

  She sighed and combed her fingers through his hair. He loved the feel of her hands on him. Soothing... coaxing... tempting...

  "Am I?" she asked softly. "Then why can't I let it

  go?"

  "Maybe because you haven't tried."

  He kissed her once more. Heat flared between them this time, suddenly, shockingly. Callie pressed her breasts against his chest, and her hands gripped his shoulders as her mouth ran wild on his.

  They were both panting for air and each other when

  the kiss ended.

  "I don't know that I've tried that," she murmured, resting her forehead against his.

  "Stay and I'll let you try more," he murmured back, kissing the corner of her mouth.

  She kissed him in return.

  Discussion was over for the moment. Maybe that wasn't a bad thing.

  Chapter Twelve

  "Do you think we'll ever have a normal date?"

  Callie chuckled wryly at Richard's question. She stretched fully against him, naked flesh to naked flesh. "It's five in the morning and I'm in your bed. What do you think?"

  "Nope, and I am eternally grateful we won't." He snuggled closer. "Normal dates are for wimps."

  "Normal dates are for normal people. What does that make us?"

  The question, or rather, general thoughts of normalcy, had rattled around under the surface of Callie's mind since last night. She'd managed to thoroughly confuse herself and Richard. Now it was five in the morning and she was lying in Richard's bed, naked and sated and more confused about what she wanted than ever before. Thank God, he was a patient man.

  He kissed her cheek. "Normal people are wimps, too. Now aren't you glad we're not?"

  "Yes."

  She freely admitted it. She wanted to be in his bed. From the moment she'd agreed to dinner, she knew their lovemaking was inevitable. She could no longer deny it.

  "I really should get up. I shouldn't be here when the kids wake up."

  "I don't think the kids would be surprised at all to find you here," he said against her hair. "I bet they'll be as delighted as me." He pressed his hardening body to her sorter one. "N
ope, nope, I'm wrong. No one is as delighted as me that you're here. If I were more delighted, I'd be stone."

  "Richard!" She turned into him, even as she protested his bawdiness. "I really should go."

  "You really should do something, but going isn't it."

  "You are a dirty old man."

  He pressed his hand between her legs, pushing them apart. "You bet."

  She smiled when he stroked her intimately, then caught her nipple with eager lips and tongue. Callie shuddered as her body heated. Everything inside her seemed to turn to hot thick liquid. She gripped him closer, her body demanding more. She should be sore and not able to even think of making love after they had eventually made their way upstairs last night. First they had been frantic for each other, then tender, then challenging. But she could not get enough of him.

  She wrapped her legs around his hips, pulling him inside her. They held each other still, unmoving, taking pleasure in being one and letting the wanting build until they could stand it no longer. Richard's thrusts were forceful, and she met each one with no shame and no regret. Her satisfaction came almost instantly, yet rippled deeply within her, touching the core of her with gentle pain.

  "You make me feel whole," he said when he found his voice.

  "This isn't good for the children," she said, thinking about any of the three catching them in such a compromising position. She risked too much spending the night with him, yet she wanted him so badly she was unable to resist. No amount of warnings about what she was doing mattered. She'd only known Richard a short time and already needed him on many many levels.

  "Of course it's not good for the kids. They're too damned young for sex. You should know that." His voice held amusement.

  She ran her hands down his back, loving the warmth of his skin against her palm. She loved the way his flesh moved under her touch. "You're Mr. Comedian, aren't you?"

  "I'm in bed with a beautiful woman I care a great deal about, and we've just made love. Why shouldn't I be happy? You worry too much." He kissed her temple. "I like that about you."

  Callie smiled.

  "Actually - " Richard nuzzled her neck, his breath warm on her flesh " - I love that about you. Callie, I love you."

  Callie tensed, the words hanging in the air between them.

  Richard raised his head. His gaze searched hers. "You have a problem with that."

  "God, yes." She saw the hurt in his eyes. "I didn't mean it like that."

  Richard rolled off her. He stared at the ceiling. "How did you mean it? And it better be good because it'll take some fast talking to get me past what I'm thinking."

  "I'm confused," she said. "Look, every time I take a baby step forward in this relationship, you take ten giant steps away and say, 'Come here, Callie. This is where you need to be.' I'm just not ready for it. That's no reflection on you. It's me."

  "Why did you think we were having sex?" he asked.

  She chuckled. She couldn't help it. "I think that's the woman's line. Don't men want just sex from women?"

  "Sometimes. Not this time. You knew that." He glanced at her. "I feel used."

  Callie put her hands over her face, feeling as if she'd entered some sort of surreal life. Through her fingers she said, "I'm not using you. I wouldn't know how to use a man."

  "It feels like you do." He pulled her hands away. "And look at me while you're doing it."

  Callie lowered her hands and glared at him. "I'm not doing it. That's the point."

  "Then what are you doing? I say I love you, and you say you have a problem with that."

  Callie groaned. It was far too early in the morning to deal with the normal havoc Richard caused inside her, let alone this. Love! Truly, the word exhilarated and frightened her. She just wasn't ready yet for love. She wasn't ready for any deep relationship.

  "Richard, calm down and look at it from my perspective. I'm trying to get my life together. How can I be ready for love? So many responsibilities go with the emotion I don't know if I ever will be ready for it."

  "As long as you think of love as a series of responsibilities, you won't," he replied, thrusting out his jaw.

  "Love is responsibility."

  "It's an emotional state. You do things because you want to. The person who loves you understands why you can't when you can't You work on it together - because you love each other."

  She wanted to believe him, but she couldn't afford to.

  She wished she could trust that his emotion stemmed from physical attraction and mental meshing, but she ��� couldn't. "Richard, it's too soon for you to even know if you're in love - or in love because you need a partner to help you with the kids." "I know how I feel."

  "Do you really?" Suddenly she felt on firmer ground. "You need to have some perspective, too. You're a single man who's just acquired three kids to raise. God knows you have a right to be confused about how you Veel - "

  "Uncle Richard!"

  Jason's voice gave a second's alarm before the bedroom door swung open. Callie yelped and dived under the covers. She held no hope that she hadn't been spotted.

  "I heard voices," Jason said from a distance. His voice was muffled by the covers over her ears.

  Callie strained to hear, trying not to be aware or distracted by the solid wall of Richard's chest against her cheek. Heat poured off him. Despite their crossroads, she only wanted to reach out and touch the silky pelt of hair that arrowed down his stomach. I "Voice?" Richard echoed. "Oh, I had my radio on." | Jason didn't ask how it had suddenly turned off. Instead, he asked something right out of left field. "Is Mark going with us today?" i "I don't know. Where are we going?" "Duh! My class trip to New York City." Jay's tone rose with enthusiasm.

  Richard cursed. "Damn! Is that today?"

  "'Course it's today. What'd ya think? It was tomorrow?" Jason didn't wait for a reply. "I'm real excited.

  Do you think Mark' 11 puke when we get to the top of the Empire State Building?"

  "No, but I will."

  Jay laughed.

  "Jay, it's early. Why don't you go back to bed for a while?"

  "Oh, I'm not tired."

  "Well, I need my sleep, son. You go on. Okay?" "Okay. Callie's going with us, isn't she? You said she would."

  Callie poked Richard's chest, but not in desire - in revenge. Damn him! How could he volunteer her for a class trip and never say a word?

  Richard yelped, then brushed her hand away. "No, Jay. She has to work."

  "But her car's here."

  "Ah...she had car trouble. I drove her home."

  "Oh. Okay. See ya later." The door closed.

  The second Callie heard it click shut, she yanked the covers down and whispered fiercely, "How could you volunteer me to go to New York and never say a word?"

  Richard looked innocent. "I told him you couldn't."

  "After you told him I would."

  "I meant to ask you because I thought I would need help with Mark and they were short on chaperons. The trip would have been canceled if I hadn't volunteered. A lot of parents work and can't go."

  "I work! I can't go! And I'm not a parent!" She couldn't believe he'd done this to her.

  "That part didn't matter. You only have to sign a form saying you're willing to chaperon." He smiled sheepishly. "I felt bad about that, and frankly, that was at the point when Jay was acting up. I thought if he saw that I was willing to do things with him, for him, that he and I would be closer. They gave me special permission to bring Mark, because of my situation. I thought you might be willing to help with the kids, too. You seemed to like them. But we all got sick and I forgot to talk to you about the trip. Don't worry about it. It wasn't fair to you at all, and I'm sure they've got enough adults by now."

  "Don't bet on it." Callie thought she would explode with anger. "And Jay expected me to go. How's he going to feel when not only do I not show up, but the trip gets canceled because I don't? He'll never trust an adult again. Especially not you."

  Richard shook his head.
"You're seeing this all out of proportion. Jay will understand when I explain it to him. And you're diverting the subject away from our real problem. Us."

  Callie closed her eyes in despair. Within fifteen minutes she'd run the gamut of emotions from tenderl ness to panic to outrage, all caused by Richard. No wonder she was confused by the man.

  "I shouldn't go. I really can't."

  "I know."

  "I care about you, Richard." "That's all I ask."

  "It's too soon. Maybe it will always be." Just think-I ing of his declaration opened a chasm inside her, one she was terrified to peer into.

  "It's not too soon, but it's too inconvenient for you," he countered. "I know that. But it doesn't change a I thing."

  "You can't be sure how you feel yet." "I can."

  "You can't. Trust me."

  "I do. But you have to trust me on this."

  "I..." She realized anything she said would be patronizing or hurtful. She closed her mouth.

  Richard pushed back the covers. "I'm getting up. I have to, anyway. And you need to go to work.".

  "I can't." she said.

  He paused, one foot halfway to the floor. He glanced over his shoulder, pulling her gaze from the muscled expanse of his back. How many times last night had she run her hands over those muscles? Enough to know their every nuance.

  "What do you mean, you can't go?" he asked. "You couldn't wait to get out of this bed earlier."

  "Jason will hear me if I leave now. I don't want to explain that and neither should you. And if I did somehow manage to escape, how do you explain my car suddenly being gone after you told him it was broke?"

  "The tow truck came?"

  "And a seven-year-old boy missed that event?" She shook her head. "Not likely. They're like sharks at feeding time whenever emergency trucks, any trucks, are around."

  He gave a shrug that affirmed his agreement rather than his indifference. ' True. They love trucks more than cowboys do."