Tempting (8 page)

“Oooh, you're so brave,” she cooed. “I'm over there.”

She pointed to a late year import. He followed her to the car and waited while she dug her keys out of her purse. When she waved them in front of her, he started to take a step back.

At least that had been the plan. But instead of moving away, he found himself moving forward. Until they were close. Very close.

“You're a pain in the ass,” he said.

“Right back at you.”

“You should be afraid of me.”

She pretended to yawn. “I'm sorry. Were you talking? I couldn't hear anything just then.”

She made him crazy. So he kissed her.

He put his hand on the back of her neck, bent down and pressed his mouth to hers.

She went totally still. For once she didn't have a snappy comeback. Instead she rested one of her hands on his chest and softened her mouth against his.

Heat exploded between them like a fireball. Long-forgotten need flared until every part of him was hard, hot and ready. The desire was as immediate as it was powerful. Suddenly the hood of her car looked plenty inviting.

He brushed his tongue against her lower lip and she parted for him. He dived inside, wanting to claim her and arouse her until she was as desperate as he was.

He put his hand on her waist and pulled her close. She melted into him, her body supple and soft, touching him in all the right places.

She tasted of wine and whipped cream. Even better, she matched his urgency with quiet moans.

It was a kiss of desperate lovers, one that left him shaken with a passion he'd never experienced before. All that in less than a minute and with the one woman he should never be with.

Reality returned in the form of male laughter coming from behind the restaurant. He drew back just as Dani pulled away.

They stared at each other in the overhead lights of the parking lot. She looked stunned, which was exactly how he felt.

She swallowed. “That can't be good. Us kissing. Like that.”

Her breathing was still ragged. Considering he was hard enough to rupture steel, he appreciated knowing it hadn't been a party for one.

“Agreed.”

She exhaled slowly. “To quote Julia Roberts in
Pretty Woman
—big mistake. Huge.”

“Epic.”

“Epic's good.”

Her eyes were dark, her mouth swollen. He wanted her again. He wanted her naked and he wanted to kiss her everywhere. He wanted to hear her scream and feel her come for him.

Damn.

“You are so the wrong man,” she whispered. “I couldn't be a worse woman. Well, that doesn't sound right, but you know what I mean.”

He nodded. “So it never happened,” he told her.

She gave a strangled laugh. “Right. Like we're going to believe that.”

A
LEX LET HIMSELF
into his parents' house and made his way to his mother's study. He paused in the hallway, trying to shake off a feeling of guilt. It was like being seventeen and tiptoeing in after curfew. Except he wasn't a kid and he didn't live here anymore. Still, kissing Dani? What had he been thinking?

He hadn't, he reminded himself. That was the problem. He'd been reacting—to her, to circumstances. The kiss hadn't meant anything. How could it? She was a complication in all their lives.

Yet his sexual reaction to her hadn't faded. He still hungered for her with a powerful need that shocked him.

He ignored the desire and the memories, then lightly knocked on the closed study door.

“Come in.”

He stepped into the small cozy room and smiled at his mother. “You're still up.”

She rose and stepped around her desk to kiss him on the cheek. “I said I would be.” She took his hand and led him to the small sofa by the window. “I suddenly have reports due on all my charities. It always happens this time of year and I'm always surprised. I wish I were one of those organized women who go through life with a plan.”

“You have eight children. You get slack.”

She smiled as she angled toward him on the couch. “You and Julie are both living on your own. Ian is more independent by the day.”

Alex smiled. “So you're only worrying about five children, then. You're right. You should do better.”

She laughed. “I see your point. I can make excuses if I want and people will understand. Honestly, I'd prefer to be more together, but I'll take what I can get.”

And she would do it all because duty came first. She believed that and she'd raised him to believe it, too.

Alex remembered the first time he'd seen Katherine Canfield. He remembered her eyes—how blue they'd been and how kind. She'd touched him as they'd spoken. Her hand on his, her fingers on his shoulder. No adults ever touched him, except to hit him. The other boys had tried to beat him up, but he'd been tough.

She'd been pretty and gentle and when she'd smiled he'd known he would do anything for her if only she would take him home and adopt him.

She had. She'd loved him with a fierceness that had made him feel safe for the first time in his life. She had a heart that gave and gave. Sometimes, when he saw her with his father, he wondered if she gave too much…to all of them.

Now, he took her hand and gently squeezed her fingers.

“Mom,” he began, only to have her shake her head.

“Don't worry about speeches,” she said quietly, her gaze meeting his. “I already know. Dani is Mark's daughter.”

“How did you guess?”

She shrugged. “I sensed it the moment I saw her. There's plenty of Mark in her appearance—the way she holds her head, the shape of her chin. Your father will be delighted.”

“What about you?” he asked.

She leaned toward him. “That's my question for you. How are you handling all this?”

“Finding out he has a biological daughter?”

Katherine nodded. “It doesn't mean anything. You know that, right? It doesn't change how he feels about you.”

That's what Alex had told Ian. Neither of them had believed it then and Alex didn't believe it now.

“Everything changes,” he told his mother. “The family dynamic has fundamentally shifted. Am I questioning my place in the universe? No.”

“I'm more concerned about your place in this family and how you think this will affect your relationship with your father.”

Alex didn't know if it would. Mark wasn't like Katherine. He loved his children, but there was always a distance. Would that be there for Dani or not?

“You're his wife,” he said. “Are you okay with this?”

Katherine leaned back in the sofa and sighed. “Do I get a choice?” she asked.

“He didn't cheat on you. You were back East when he met Marsha Buchanan.”

His mother nodded slowly. “You're right. I've told myself that. It's just…” She looked at him. “We'd been engaged before he returned to Seattle. We had a big fight and I broke up with him. He left and came back here. That's when he met Marsha.”

Alex swore silently. Why did life have to get more and more complicated? So Mark's affair with Marsha Buchanan wasn't as disconnected from Katherine as Alex had first thought.

What had they fought about? Did his mother care that Mark had gotten involved with someone else so quickly?

Stupid question, he told himself. Katherine would have been devastated. Had she known about Marsha before Dani had shown up?

“I'm sorry,” he said awkwardly, not knowing what he could say.

“It's fine,” she told him. “Don't worry about it.”

But he did worry. He'd always wondered why his parents hadn't had children of their own. He'd assumed it was a conscious decision. A choice. Katherine talked about wanting to make a difference in the world, one child at a time. But was there another reason? Mark was obviously capable of fathering a child. Did Katherine have a problem?

He felt disloyal for even thinking the question, so he pushed it away. What the hell did it matter why? She was an amazing woman.

“I'm glad you picked me,” he said. “Grateful. You made me who I am.”

She touched his face. “I loved you from the first moment I saw you, Alex. But I didn't make you anything. You are the man you were meant to be. I'm so proud of you, but I won't take any credit. Flowers, maybe, but not credit.”

He laughed. “I'll send starburst lilies in the morning.” They were her favorite.

He didn't know what other children felt about their parents. How much they loved them or why. He could only go by the little he remembered of his biological mother and what he knew Katherine had done for him—even if she wasn't willing to accept his thanks.

“I always wanted a big family,” Katherine said lightly. “Now we have one more.”

She said the right things, she even smiled as she spoke. But her pain was alive and tangible. He needed to help, but didn't know how. Katherine had given him everything and in her time of need, all he could do was stand by and watch her suffer.

 

D
ANI'S SECOND TRIP
to Mark Canfield's campaign headquarters was only slightly less scary than her first one had been. While she wasn't in danger of being tossed out on her butt, she was about to have a private one-on-one lunch with her biological father for the first time in her life.

What if they didn't have anything to say to each other? What if he didn't like her? What if he thought she was boring and wished she'd never found him?

“Not going to happen,” she murmured to herself. “I'm charming.”

The attempt at humor did nothing for the nerves doing Pilates in her stomach.

Dani walked inside the warehouse and gave her name to the receptionist. The young woman smiled.

“The senator is expecting you,” she said. “Just wait here and Heidi will be out to take you back.”

“Thanks.”

Heidi? Heidi who?

She searched her memory and finally recalled the assistant who served as Mark Canfield's right hand wherever he went.

Dani hovered by the sofa, but didn't sit down. She was too nervous. The whole “this is my father” thing was still a weird statement rather than an actual part of her life. She didn't know Mark Canfield and he didn't know her. So far their blood ties hadn't helped form an emotional connection.

She was hoping this lunch would change that. Some private time could make all the difference.

Heidi walked up and smiled. “Hi, Dani. Welcome. The senator just got off a call with Washington and is available now. If you'll follow me.”

Heidi led the way down hallways to a conference room. She motioned for Dani to step inside, then left. Dani glanced around at the bare space—aside from the long table and ten chairs, there was no other furniture, no decorations. At least the campaign wasn't spending money on anything frivolous.

Seconds later the door opened and Mark walked into the room. He smiled at her.

“Dani. You're here. Good, good. Alex told you the happy news?”

He approached as he talked, then unexpectedly pulled her close for a quick hug. When he released her, he gazed into her eyes.

“I knew who you were from the moment we met. I'm not surprised. You're so much like your mother. She was a wonderful woman. Beautiful, just like you.”

Dani was willing to go as far as pretty or attractive, but she liked being told she looked like her mother. She could barely remember the woman. She'd been so young when Marsha had died that she wondered if her memories were hers at all, or just recollections formed from the stories she'd been told by her brothers and Gloria.

Mark perched on the edge of the table. “I remember the first time I saw your mother. It was a cold rainy day.” He grinned. “Winter in Seattle—it's always cold and rainy.” He shrugged. “It was the downtown Bon Marche. Marsha had her three boys with her. The youngest two were in a stroller and the oldest was still only four or five. She was struggling with the door to get inside. There was something about the way she looked, so determined. I jumped in to help, her eyes met mine, she smiled, and I was lost.”

Dani sank into one of the chairs. “Just like that?”

Mark nodded. “We talked for a few minutes. I was about to leave, even though I didn't want to, when your oldest brother…”

“Cal?” she offered.

“Right. Cal said he needed to go to the bathroom. He said he was too old to go into the ladies' room with his mother and she didn't want him to go into the men's room alone. So I took him. Not the most romantic beginning, I know, but there was something about her.”

Mark was traditionally handsome, with clear blue eyes and a ready smile. Dani had seen his face on billboards and in the newspaper, not to mention on TV. But until this moment, she'd never really
seen
the man himself. As he talked about her mother and the past, he finally seemed real.

He shook his head. “I can't believe how clear that day is to me. I invited your mother to lunch. When the hostess seated us, she assumed we were a family. That should have shaken me, but I remember thinking how right I felt with Marsha and her boys. We talked for hours.” He looked at Dani, his expression slightly chagrined. “That was it. I fell for her that day.”

A thousand questions crowded into Dani's brain. She had just started to ask the first one when the door opened and several people stepped inside, including Heidi pushing a cart with sandwiches and drinks on it.

“Oh, good,” Mark said as he stood. “Lunch. Dani, who do you know here?”

She started to say “No one” when Alex entered the room. She rose to her feet, almost as if she needed to get away from him…or what she remembered about him.

She hadn't seen him in a couple of days. Not since he'd shown up at Bella Roma, wined her, dined her and kissed her.

The meal she could justify, but there was no way that kiss made sense. Of course her romantic life had been a disaster of epic proportions for nearly a year, so why would she think it would get any better now?

She braced herself for the sexual impact, then bravely met his gaze. Despite his casual, “Hello,” she felt heat spiral through her. It paused in the most interesting places before moving on.

“Alex,” she said calmly, ignoring the sudden visual of him taking her right there on the big table. He nodded, apparently far more able to dismiss the past than she was.

Mark introduced the other three people. There were two men and a woman, all in their midthirties, all in suits, looking professional and energized as they took seats at the table. It was only when Alex pulled out a chair and stared at her pointedly that she realized this wasn't a private lunch with her father. She was one of a crowd.

Disappointment tightened her chest. Had she misunderstood the invitation? She replayed it in her mind and realized he'd said lunch, but hadn't said they would be alone. She'd assumed.

Okay, this wasn't what she'd expected, but it was still fine. A political working lunch could be interesting.

She sat next to Alex, across from her father. Sandwiches and bags of chips were distributed, then one of the two guys whose name she didn't catch leaned forward.

“We can run numbers,” he said. “A simple poll about the governor of Kansas. Midwestern sensibilities are dead on for us.”

“Numbers would help,” the woman added.

“We don't need numbers,” Mark said. “Not yet. Alex, what are your thoughts on the poll?”

“It's going to come out eventually.”

Dani felt as if she'd been dropped in the middle of a secret meeting. When Mark turned his attention to the other two men, she leaned toward Alex.