by Gina Wilkins
Pleasantly tired from the basketball game, at which she’d had a wonderful time despite the disappointing final scores, Nina smiled at Steve as he pulled into a parking space at her apartment complex. “I had a lovely evening. Thank you for asking me.”
“I’ll walk you to your door,” he said, reaching for his door handle.
Nina waited for him to come around and open her car door. She knew that wasn’t the way things were done anymore, but she’d been raised with old-fashioned manners and she liked such niceties. Steve himself seemed to enjoy them. He’d made a point each time he was with her of opening doors, walking near the street, standing when she stood. Yet he still treated her as an intellectual equal, showing interest in her words, respecting her opinions. A true gentleman, she thought with pleasure.
“Do you mind if I ask you a personal question, Steve?” she inquired impulsively as they strolled down the sidewalk toward her brightly lit apartment entrance.
“Of course not. Ask me anything you like.”
“Have you ever been married?”
“No.”
Tentatively, she asked, “Did your parents’ bad experience sour you on marriage permanently?”
He placed a hand at the small of her back to guide her around a slender branch that had fallen onto the sidewalk from a huge oak nearby. “Actually, I was engaged for almost two years. Three weeks before the wedding, my fiancée died in a car accident.”
Though he spoke without emotion, Nina was appalled. “Oh, Steve, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”
“Of course you should ask. How else will we get to know each other?”
“How long has it been?”
“Eight years. I had just turned thirty.”
Tom’s age now, Nina thought automatically. So young to face such a tragedy. She wondered if he still grieved for his lost dreams. “You must have loved her very much,” she murmured, thinking that must be the reason he’d never found anyone else to marry.
“Yes. She was very special. I was devastated at first. I was hardly functional for several weeks after the accident, and then I overcompensated by throwing myself into my business. As time passed, it became easier to smile when I remembered Jessie. She would have wanted me to remember her that way.”
He spoke easily, obviously comfortable with sharing that part of his life with her. With every new facet Nina discovered in this man, she grew more intrigued.
They had almost reached the entrance of her building.
“What about you, Nina? Why did you never marry?” Steve asked.
A bit embarrassed by the question, but knowing it was only fair after she’d asked the same of him, she shrugged lightly. “It just never happened for me,” she admitted. “I’m afraid I haven’t shown very good judgment where men are concerned.”
“Just because you made a mistake when you were a teenager? Nonsense.”
“It wasn’t only that,” she said with a frown and a shake of her head as a bitter memory stabbed her. But she had no intention of sharing that humiliating story with Steve tonight. “Let’s just say that with my Tommy to raise and my business to start, I’ve stayed quite busy.”
“Your Tommy is thirty years old,” Steve noted mildly. “He’s been raised for quite some time.”
“That’s true, of course. But we’ve remained very close. And after the accident that caused his limp just over a year ago, he needed me very badly. There were long months of physiotherapy, weeks when he wasn’t able to get around on his own. I moved in with him for a while, until he was literally back on his feet. And then I came back to my apartment so that he could rebuild on his own.”
“You’ll have to tell me more about that accident sometime.”
Was he implying that there would be another date, or acknowledging that they would probably see each other because of his connection with Kenny? Nina cleared her throat. “Yes, sometime.”
They were within a couple of feet of the door, when something large, dark and hairy jumped out of the bushes lining the side of the brick building. The dog spotted them, barked and dashed toward them, feathery tail pumping the air.
Nina shrieked and instinctively tried to climb Steve as though he were a six-foot tree.
He caught her close. “Hey, it’s okay,” he said as the dog circled them, sniffing and whining. “He looks friendly. His tail is wagging.”
Nina jerked and shuddered when the dog poked his nose against her leg. “Please get me inside,” she gasped, hardly able to breathe through the panic that tightened her throat.
As though suddenly aware of the extent of her fear, Steve tightened his arms around her. “Go on, get out of here,” he snapped at the dog.
The shaggy beast whined and wriggled closer to them, blocking the sidewalk between them and the door. Nina buried her face in Steve’s comfortably broad shoulder. The top of her head came barely to his chin.
“You heard me. Get.” Steve spoke more harshly this time, his meaning unmistakable, even to this dopey-looking animal.
Appearing dejected, the dog turned and ran back into the bushes, clearing the way for Nina and Steve to proceed.
“He’s gone, Nina,” Steve murmured comfortingly, without loosening his hold on her. “Come on, let’s go in.”
She was trembling so hard she could barely walk straight. She was both grateful for Steve’s support and humiliated at the way she was acting. But she couldn’t help it. She’d been terrified of dogs ever since she could remember. To have such a large, boisterous one jump out at her from nowhere like that was a scene straight from one of her childhood nightmares.
Steve stayed with her in the elevator and down the short hallway to her apartment. He took the key from her shaking hand and opened the door himself. And then he escorted her in and closed the door behind him.
She might have stepped away from him then, but he turned her into his arms and gathered her against his broad, firm chest.
“Are you all right?” he asked, his cheek resting against the top of her head.
She was still quivering like a leaf, her breath hitching, pulse racing. Only now she no longer knew how much of that reaction had to do with the dog and how much of it came from being held so tightly in Steve Pendleton’s arms.
“I’ll be fine,” she said in a voice that was nearly an octave higher than her usual tone. “I feel like such an idiot.”
He stroked her back soothingly. “You have a fear of dogs.”
She nodded against his shoulder. “A phobia, really. It’s so foolish. I’ve tried to overcome it. But when he jumped out like that...”
“He was a big dog. Anyone would have been frightened by his sudden appearance. For all you knew, he could have been dangerous.”
She shuddered again. “Thank you for trying to make me feel better, but I know my reaction was totally out of proportion. You wouldn’t believe how many times poor Tommy had to chase away dogs when he was growing up. Sometimes the dogs were bigger than he was, but he was never afraid of them. Never afraid of anything, really.”
She was babbling now, a combination of reaction to her fright and nervousness about her current position. She felt Steve press a kiss against the top of her head. His voice was a rumble against her cheek.
“I’ll share a little secret with you,” he murmured. “I’m terrified of heights. No way you’ll ever catch me on a ladder or an observation tower or one of those stupid swinging bridges other people seem to like so much. I like my feet planted firmly on solid ground.”
Nina couldn’t imagine Steve’s ever being “terrified.” He seemed much too calm and controlled for such an endearingly human weakness. As for having one’s feet planted on the ground—she was afraid that didn’t apply to her at all at the moment. She couldn’t have sworn her feet were touching the floor beneath them, so heady were the feelings Steve’s wandering hand was arousing in her. Firmly, deliberately, he stroked from her nape to her waist, tracing the curve of her back, stopping just before he reached the swell of her hips.
She trembled again, and she knew exactly what caused it that time.
“I, um, I’m surprised. I wouldn’t have guessed you were afraid of heights,” she managed to say with some semblance of coherence.
“Comparing me with your paragon of a son?” he asked, just a touch of censure in his voice. “Don’t do that, Nina. I prefer to be judged on my own merits—or lack of them.”
That brought her head off his chest. She craned her neck to look up at him. “I wouldn’t presume to judge you, Steve. And I’m not comparing you with my son.”
His mouth quirked. “Good. He sounds just a bit too perfect for my peace of mind.”
“Tommy isn’t perfect. Though he’s close,” Nina couldn’t resist adding, meaning every word of it.
“I can see where a man could become a little jealous of your devotion to him,” Steve mused, bringing his hand around to trace her still-unsteady lower lip. “I admire your maternal loyalty, of course, but I can’t help wondering if you’ve left any room in your heart for anyone else.”
She didn’t know how to answer that. Didn’t understand quite how to interpret his words. Was he simply making an observation, or could he possibly be speaking from a more personal position?
He smiled. “You look thunderstruck. Why?”
“Er, I—” She stumbled helplessly to a halt.
“Maybe it has something to do with this,” he muttered, and bent his head to cover her mouth with his.
A frantic little moan lodged in her chest. And then dissolved into a sigh as she went up on tiptoes to wrap her arms around his neck.
It was the most spectacular kiss of her life. It lasted for a very long time. Until Nina suddenly came to her senses.
She tore herself out of Steve’s arms with a gasp. What on earth was she doing?
“This is not right,” she said shakily.
His eyes had darkened to near black, and his face had gone taut with his reaction to the kiss. “It felt damned right to me,” he groaned.
She lifted her hands to her cheeks, her fingers feeling ice-cold against her flaming face. “No. It’s not...we can’t...”
“We can’t what?”
“Get involved—that way.” Lord, she felt like a fool.
Hands on his lean hips, he cocked his head and frowned at her. “You’re telling me you aren’t attracted to me?”
She could hardly make him believe that, considering the way she’d just plastered herself against him. She drew a deep breath and tried for logic, instead. “Be reasonable, Steve. I’m much too old for you.”
“You’re forty-seven,” he replied evenly. “I’m thirty-eight. They’re only numbers, Nina.”
“Well, yes, but it’s more than that. You’re Kenny’s uncle, and you’ll be seeing him and my son when you visit. I don’t want any awkwardness between us if we should happen to run into each other in the future.”
His left eyebrow shot upward. “If we should happen to run into each other in the future?” he repeated. “You make it sound as though I’m interested in a one-night stand. I can assure you that’s not at all what I have in mind.”
She eyed him warily. “Then what do you have in mind?”
“I want you,” he said, holding her gaze with his.
Her heart skipped a beat.
“But,” he added before she could speak, “I’m not interested in a one-time fling. I’ve been attracted to you since you walked into your son’s apartment carrying a chocolate pie and looking at me as though you weren’t sure whether to throw me out or invite me to dinner. When you chose the latter, even understanding why I was there, I realized you were someone I wanted to get to know better. The time we’ve spent together since has only convinced me that we can have something very special with each other.”
“Oh, Steve.” She sank bonelessly onto a dainty chair, trying to clear her mind.
“I haven’t felt like this about any other woman since Jessie died,” he went on relentlessly. “It isn’t just lust, Nina, though there’s definitely some of that involved.”
The corner of his mouth twitched with a suppressed smile. “You’re beautiful. And you’re kind and loyal and generous and funny. Is it any wonder that I’ve fallen for you?”
She groaned and hid her face in her hands. “Don’t talk like that,” she pleaded. “I don’t know what to say.”
“It’s too soon for you.” Regret colored his deep voice. “That’s okay. We’ll take it slowly.”
Her hands fell to her lap. “Steve, I don’t think this is a very good idea.”
He stood his ground. “Tell me you don’t feel the same way I do, and I’ll leave you alone. I would never try to force my attention on any woman who isn’t interested.”
Not interested? She might have laughed had this not been so very serious.
She was most definitely interested. She just wasn’t sure she was willing to take the gamble of doing anything about it. She’d settled into a comfortable, safe, relatively risk-free routine and she’d been content, for the most part, with the life she’d made for herself. Was she really ready to open herself up to heartbreak again, just when she’d put the mistakes of her past firmly behind her?
Steve seemed to find encouragement in her silence.
“Give me a chance, Nina. Let me show you how good we can be together.”
His voice was pure seduction, playing on her nerve endings in a way that started her shivering again.
“I won’t rush you. I won’t expect more than you’re willing to give. But please don’t say you don’t want to see me again.”
“This is insane,” Nina murmured, shaking her head. “I can’t imagine what Tom will say.”
Steve scowled. “This has nothing to do with your son. This is strictly between us.”
Her chin lifted then. “I didn’t say I have to ask Tom’s permission, but you must understand that I will always consider his feelings, no matter what choices I make.”
He held up both hands, palms outward in a sign of surrender. “I’m not trying to come between you and your son.”
“No one could.”
“Do you think I don’t know that? I’m only asking you to make a little room in your life for me. Won’t you try to do that?”
“What do you want from me, Steve?”
“Say you’ll go out with me again. I have to go back to Little Rock tomorrow, but I can be back in Fayetteville this weekend. I’d like to see Kenny, but most of all, I’d like to spend time with you. Say you will.”
She stepped to the edge of a very steep, very hazardous cliff. And without looking back, she jumped. “All right.”
He narrowed his eyes. “You will?”
“Yes. Just—don’t rush me.”
“I promised I wouldn’t.”
“I know. And I’ll hold you to that promise. It’s...been a while since I’ve dated anyone regularly. Give me a little time to get used to the idea again.”
His smile was devastatingly beautiful.
“All the time you need. As long as I know you’ll be spending part of that time with me, I can be very patient.”
It wasn’t his patience that worried her. It was her own. She’d always had a little problem with impulsiveness, and being around Steve Pendleton definitely brought out her impetuous side. But she was a mature adult, she reminded herself. She was perfectly capable of taking things slowly, making careful decisions, calling a halt if she could see she was headed for a mistake.
His smile deepened, carving deep creases into his tanned cheeks.
“You are most definitely worth waiting for, Nina Lowery.”
Oh, Lord. So much for being mature and levelheaded. That smile was almost enough to make her pounce on him right there in her living room. “Behave yourself,” she ordered him.
He laughed. “I’ll try.”
He leaned over to kiss her again, firmly, boldly, just a tad possessively. “Good night, Nina. I’ll call you.”
Trying not to gulp, she nodded. She didn’t quit
e trust her voice that time.
Steve let himself out.
Nina sat perched on the edge of that chair for a very long time, her mind whirling with nagging doubts and breathtaking possibilities.
Chapter Ten
Though she’d spent all week dreading it, Leslie was almost relieved when it was time to depart for the party at the Gilberts’ house Friday evening. The novelty of keeping house and cooking Tom’s dinner had worn off fairly quickly, leaving her bored and restless during the days while he worked. She enjoyed being with Kenny, but he was such a good baby that his care was hardly a full-time job. He liked spending time on his tummy on the play blanket, kicking his feet, gumming his bright plastic toys, generally entertaining himself.
Leslie wished that she were so easily amused.
She wasn’t accustomed to having nothing to do.
The weather had turned cold again, so she chose a plush black sweater and charcoal wool slacks, which she paired with short black boots. She brushed her auburn hair until it gleamed, letting it fall free and wavy to her shoulders. Her jewelry consisted of a large, open-heart silver pendant on a glittering silver chain, cascades of silver hearts dangling from her ears, and several silver bracelets. And, of course, the plain gold band that she still wasn’t quite used to wearing after five days.
She emerged from the bedroom to discover that Tom had also chosen to wear black. A black shirt, open at the collar and black denims smoothed over black Western boots. His black belt was studded with silver. With his dark-blond hair brushed back and gleaming in the lamplight, his green eyes glittering and his mouth curved into a smile as he played with Kenny, he looked good enough to cause any woman’s heart to flutter.
Leslie’s heart was fluttering like crazy.
She cleared her throat. “Looks like we coordinated our outfits tonight.”
He glanced up, lifted an eyebrow and chuckled. “Yeah, it does. Want me to take mine off?”
She nearly melted into the carpet as her mind suddenly filled with images of his doing just that. In which case, they would never make it to the party if she had her way..
“I don’t think that will be necessary,” she managed to say.