Pick Me (10 page)

He searched her eyes. “So did I work?”

“Which part?”

“Did our dance keep from you having bad luck for five years?”

Abruptly, before she could decide on an answer, the band stopped, the quiet severing their blissful, effortless rhythm. They broke apart, smiling at each other in the new silence.

Calder glanced at his watch. “Might be time for us old folks to call it a night, huh?”

Thea wanted to say—to scream—no, that she didn’t care if she had a meeting in the morning. The carefree way she was feeling here, in his company, she suddenly didn’t care if she lost her job and had to move into a camper on the beach.

All she cared about was holding on to this joy.

But when Calder offered her a hand back to the parking lot, she took it, knowing he was right to steer them home.

Chapter Eight

They
rode back in the soft air of evening, the faint dusting of stars they’d first ridden under now bright pinpricks in a field of velvety black.

It was nearly eleven when Calder pulled them into his driveway and cut the engine, her usual turn-in time, but Thea couldn’t remember ever feeling so awake, so uninterested in sleep. Around them, the humid air hummed and crackled with night insects and the rustle of fluttering palms.

Calder helped her off the seat. Thea handed him her helmet, thinking his smile looked as wistful as she felt.

“If memory serves, I think we stayed out a lot later when we did this at eighteen.”

“We did,” she said. “How embarrassing is that?”

“Totally embarrassing,” he agreed firmly. “So I think the only way to avoid complete humiliation is for me to invite you in.”

God, yes
. Blood rushed to her neck, tickling her scalp. Fourteen years ago she’d wished they’d been older so that they might have had this very opportunity, to fan the flames they’d built up all night and then let them consume them fully, without worry of parents or peers.

Now it was here.

“You hosted last time,” she said, nodding toward her door. “I don’t have any beer but I
do
have a bottle of wine.”

“I’m on call, so no wine for me,” he said.

“How about a Coke?”

“Coke I can do.”

Stepping inside the condo, Thea tried not to care that she’d left files and paperwork all over the counter, or that she’d neglected to put away her dishes from that morning. “For the record, I haven’t touched any of that since you saw me yesterday,” she said, gesturing to the table as they passed for the kitchen.

“Following doctor’s orders,” he said. “Good.”

She pulled a glass down from the cabinet and reached into the freezer for ice, grateful for the prickle of cold on her palms. She’d always loved the sound of ice falling into a glass, the clink, the weight. She poured his Coke and handed it to him. “You sure you don’t mind if I have some wine?” she asked as she withdrew an opened bottle of white from the fridge.

“Not a bit.”

She felt his eyes grazing over her as she tried to yank the cork free, but it wouldn’t budge.

“Here, let me get that.” Calder’s arms came around her and eased the bottle from her hands. Thea froze, the weight of him behind her like an electrical charge. If she turned now, he’d have her pinned against the counter. God, how she wanted to turn into him, into that chest.

The cork came loose with a loud pop but he didn’t step back to release her. Instead he lowered his hands from the bottle but kept them on the edge of the counter, two strong, sun-burnished fences keeping her there. Her knees felt like the joints of an old desk chair she’d had in elementary school that had always seemed one sit away from collapsing. If she turned to face him, would her own legs hold?

She swallowed. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” His voice was deep and husky behind her.

“Too bad I’m not thirsty anymore…” she whispered back.

If there was any doubt in her mind that he meant to maximize this position, it vanished in the next instant as the weight of his hips intensified, pushing her against the cabinet door with enough pressure to send a shiver of sensation right through her core.

Thea clenched the rounded edge of the countertop and squeezed.

Calder bent his head and swept his lips along her hairline, his breath against her scalp lighting up every hair from her ear to her ankles. She turned her head just enough to watch his hands slide off the counter. In the next instant, she felt the firmness of his palms on her waist, his fingers riding along her hips.

His voice was in her ear. “You were saying…”

She swallowed, her throat dry with anticipation. His hands traveled to her neck, his fingers raking her scalp, pushing her hair up and piling the blond waves on top of her head. Her neck bared, Thea felt a rush of warm air, then his mouth along the base of her skull, leaving a hot, slow trail of kisses.

His hands dropped again, this time to slide under the hem of her shirt, his thumbs hooking the waistband of her jean shorts and riding along the edge, grazing the tender skin below her bellybutton. She threw her head back and rolled her cheek against his jaw, wishing for him to sink his hands lower and put her out of her misery, but he continued to tease an insistent path along her abdomen. She flattened her hands over his, hoping to steer them, but he was too strong, too determined to prolong the delicious torture. He was driving her crazy—and he knew it.

“I wanted to do this to you that night,” he murmured. “I wanted to do all kinds of things.”

“I wanted you, too,” she practically gasped, her voice cracking with need.

Unable to bear another minute of his delicious torment, she spun around and reached to meet his mouth. He drew her up, guiding her kiss under his, tasting her, the heat of his tongue seeking and insistent, washing over hers. His arms caged her in, his thigh sliding between hers, easing her leg up around his. Her body melted under him, her knees shaky with desire.

Just when she was certain she’d slide to the floor, they parted, only barely, still nose-to-nose, just enough to catch their breath.

“Remind me again why we waited fourteen years to do that?” he asked.

“Because we’re fools,” she whispered.

“Speak for yourself.” His gaze fell to her mouth, his eyes hooded with desire. Longing snaked in her belly. It was like looking over the edge of a mountain.

“Your sister-in-law thinks it’s fate that you and I ended up as neighbors.”

“She does, huh?” His hands slid around her waist. “What do you think?”

“I think…” Thea swallowed. “I think I don’t believe in coincidence.”

“Then what
do
you believe in, Counselor?”

When his head tilted and his mouth came down over hers a second time, Thea made a noise she didn’t recognize as her own. This time, his hands slid up the side of her waist, his thumbs finding the tips of her breasts through the lace cups of her bra and rolling them into pebbled peaks. She nudged herself against his thigh, the urge to grind so strong, and when he slid his hands down her back and cupped her ass to bring her closer, she gave in to the urge at last. She could feel his body respond as she drove her core against the hard length of him. She lowered her hands to his fly, her fingers struggling to work the zipper against the strain of his erection, her efforts made harder when his fingers began to knead the flesh of her ass.

She was so lost in ecstasy that she didn’t hear the beep until he’d released her and leaned back to pull something from his pocket.

His beeper.

Damn.

She swallowed, trying to catch her breath. His was as labored as hers as he read the screen. “It never fails,” he said.

She smiled. “I thought that only happened in movies.”

“Yeah, me too,” he said, rolling his forehead against hers. “Then I went to med school.”

“I guess after waiting fourteen years, we’re going to have to keep waiting,” she said. “Or maybe we shouldn’t try and make the fantasy a reality.”

“I think we’re a little too late for that now,” he said, sliding his palm under her cheek and turning her face back to his.

“We could do dinner tomorrow night,” she said. “My turn to cook?”

He leaned in, his lips dangling over hers as he said, “Only if I get to open the bottle of wine.”

Chapter Nine

The
calendar may have told Thea that she had only been away from her office for a few days, but stepping back through the glass doors of Reynolds and Isaacson, she felt certain it had to be more like weeks.

“Looks like vacation is treating someone well.” Katie, the firm’s new receptionist, gave Thea a teasing wink as she passed the front desk. “You look fabulous. Must be all that sleep.”

Not exactly, Thea wanted to say but smiled instead. Fourteen years after her first secret date with Calder Frye and here she was again, savoring another one—its clandestine charm no less strong at thirty-two than it was at eighteen. Truthfully it was stronger—maybe because this time their night together had ended with the promise of another.

“Are you here for the meeting?” Katie asked.

The meeting, right
. Thea forced her floating thoughts back to earth. “Is everyone in the conference room already?”

“Everyone except Michael. But we’re still waiting on the client.”

Perfect, Thea thought, moving down the corridor to her office. Just enough time to gather some paperwork. Inside, she moved to her desk, found a clean notepad and plucked a pen from her drawer, determined to stay on track, but the minute she saw she’d chosen a pen from a local winery, her mind wandered back to the night before.

“Here, let me get that for you…”

“Knock, knock?”

Startled, Thea spun around and found Michael Isaacson, the firm’s younger partner, leaning in her doorway. “For a second, I was worried I’d have to find a trumpet to get your attention.”

“Sorry,” she said, tidying her desk to hide her blush. “I guess I’ve still got vacation-brain.”

“That’s a first,” said Michael, tapping the jamb as he stepped back into the hallway. “The client just got here. See you in the conference room, okay?”

Thea nodded. “Be there in two minutes.”

Michael was right; this spaciness wasn’t like her. She was a machine in the office, able to switch off all distractions as easily as a porch light. At work, her mind knew two speeds: get it done, and get it done yesterday. At least it had been that way before…

Calder.

Was she honestly so undone by a few days in the company of a teenage crush that she was standing around daydreaming?

But he wasn’t just a teenage crush—that was the problem. The Calder Frye she’d thought she’d known and lusted after was much more than just a hot guy on a motorcycle. Listening to his stories of his work in Haiti, the tender way he’d helped his father to bed. All these years and Thea had never imagined him as anything but a brooding bad boy with a sexy smile—he was so much more. Had he found himself equally surprised by her evolution, Thea wondered as she crossed the window and looked out at the view of Marion Square.

And that kiss.

God, which one?

All the teenage fantasies in the world couldn’t have prepared her for the way she’d felt pressed up against him in her kitchen last night, the weight of his body covering hers, the way their limbs had dovetailed into one another at the counter, not to mention their lips, their hands. After he’d left, she’d taken a long, hot bath to calm herself down but still she’d felt like a motor left idling. Even after she’d dressed for bed and slid under her sheets, her body had still tingled and burned with the memory of his touch, his kiss. How could it not? Lying in bed, knowing his bedroom was just on the other side of the wall, was a torture no less delicious than the kind he’d inflicted on her that night as he’d fondled her body to the brink of ecstasy. Thea had wondered if he lay as she did, craving what they both knew had to wait.

Another knock came from the behind her. Now she was really pushing her luck!

“Sorry to keep everyone wait—” She spun around to face the door and blinked, nearly dropping her notes. “Dennis.”

Her ex-boyfriend stood stiffly in the doorway wearing a tentative smile. “Hi.”

She frowned, confused. “What are you doing here?”

“To see you, of course.” He gestured to the free chair in front of her desk. “Can I come in?”

“No, actually. I’m about to go into a consult—“

“I know. I saw Michael on my way down the hall.”

She scooped up her phone. “This isn’t a good time, Dennis.”

“I stopped by the house and saw you had to relocate. I tried to get the address from Katie of where you were staying but she wouldn’t give it to me.”

“Then how did you know I’d be here for this meeting?”

“I ran in to Bill yesterday at the gym and he mentioned you would be coming in for the initial consultation so I thought it was my chance to…you know…throw myself on the mercy of the court.”