Too hot to sleep (10 page)

A
LTHOUGH THE BOX FAN
had cooled his room somewhat, Ken lay wide awake, his body fatigued but his mind on a treadmill. It had taken all his effort not to go after Georgia today. Never before had a kiss shaken him so. He was falling for the woman, like a big stupid tree. He sighed and pulled a hand down over his face. There was no good ending to this scenario, at least not for him.

When the phone rang, he turned his head on the pillow, stopping short of a prayer. He couldn’t very well ask to be led unto temptation, could he? He reached out in the darkness and picked up the phone on the third ring, covering the mouthpiece with a handkerchief, just in case. “Hello?” He held his breath in the silence. One…two…three. “Hello?” he repeated.

“Hi. It’s Georgia.”

His breath whooshed out in relief. “I’m glad.”

She made a happy little noise that clutched at his stomach. “Did you try to call?”

“I…was getting ready to,” he said cautiously, wishing he had the nerve to come clean. The woman had already turned him down for a date. What did he have to lose?

Her stolen kisses. Her respect. Her calls.

“I just got out of the shower,” she whispered. “It
was so hot in here, I had to do something to cool down.”

He groaned. Just one last ride, he promised himself. She was so unbelievably sexy, and the fun would end Sunday night when her boyfriend returned, if not sooner.

“Problem is,” she said, “I’m still hot.”

His erection tented his pale-blue boxers. “It’s getting warmer in here by the minute. What are you wearing?”

“A towel.”

Lucky, lucky towel.

“What about you?” she asked.

He heard seams splitting as he shed his boxers. “Nothing. God, I haven’t been able to get you off my mind.”

She murmured her pleasure. “I was wondering…How do you feel about…oral sex?”

He swallowed. “I’m in f-favor of it.”

She laughed.

Ken lay back against the pillows and closed his eyes as she uttered erotic words. She knelt over him and took his throbbing rod into that wonderful mouth of hers, flicking her tongue like when he’d kissed her today. Her dark hair fell forward like a feathery curtain, tickling his abdomen. When the ministrations brought him close to the brink however, he instructed her to swing her body around so he could return the favor. He moaned against her musky sex, tonguing the center of her control until she lost it, grandly. His climax followed soon after, quick and intense.

“That was wonderful,” he breathed. “I can’t imagine anything you would do that I wouldn’t love.”

She laughed. “I thought the word ‘love’ wasn’t in your vocabulary,” she said, her voice breathless and teasing.

Hmm. Rob had never told Georgia that he loved her? “I, um, changed my mind. The last few days…” What? These last few days he’d fallen for her while impersonating her boyfriend?

“Go on,” she urged.

He squirmed, not wanting to put words in the man’s mouth. “I just feel different about us.”

She sighed. “And I was so afraid you wouldn’t like this.”

“Are you kidding? I can’t wait to see you again.” That had just slipped out. Ken winced and waited.

“You gave me a scare today,” she said.

Ken frowned. “When?”

“When I dropped by your house,” she said with a little laugh.

His heart skipped one beat, two beats.

“When I saw the papers stacked up on the stoop, I was worried that you were more ill than you told me. I could just picture you upstairs, withering away in that humongous bed of yours.”

Speaking of withering.

“I finally looked in the garage and saw your car was missing. Did you go in to the office?”

His mind raced, trying to keep up with the lies and the half truths. “Um, yes.”

“I figured your cold had put you behind,” she said. “You sound much better, by the way.”

“I’m still a little hoarse,” he insisted, then cleared his throat for effect.

“I suppose you got my note.” She laughed, then paused expectantly.

He nearly dropped the phone. “I, uh…I—no.”

“I left it on the kitchen counter.”

“Ah.” He cast around for an explanation. “It was dark when I got home and I didn’t even turn on a light.”

“Oh, well,” she said. “I just wanted to let you know I left you soup in the refrigerator.”

Ken frowned. “That was nice of you.”

“Happy to do it. And I’m glad to hear you’re feeling better. I guess this means you’ll be at the wedding tomorrow.”

He froze. Would Rob be back in time to attend the wedding? “I’m…planning to. If I don’t get caught up…at the office.”

“Oh,” she said, clearly disappointed.

Did Rob disappoint her often?

“Remind me again where the church is,” he said in his best guys-will-be-guys voice.

“St. Michael’s, silly. Remember, you pulled some strings and got them a deal on printing their invitations?”

“Of course.” Ken winced. “Except I don’t recall the time.”

She sighed. “Three-thirty.”

“Right,” he said. “Three thirty.” Far away, a siren screamed, barely audible over the whir of the fan, but his ears were attuned to the noise of emergency.

Crash scratched against the floor, obviously trying
to stand. He barked, several times, ending in a whine—he’d heard the siren, too. Like an idiot, Ken waved his arms to quiet the dog, then bounded into the bathroom and closed the door.

“What was all that noise?” she asked.

“The television,” he said, sitting on the edge of the tub. “Some cop show.”

“Oh,” she said flatly.

“How’s work?” he asked, partly to change the subject, and partly because he wanted to know.

“Dr. Story is watching me, waiting for me to make another mistake. He called me in this morning to sign a report he wrote up about that incident with that policeman I told you about.”

Ken swallowed guiltily. “Oh?”

“That little stunt he pulled will go on my permanent file.”

He was torn between commiserating with her and taking up for himself. “Well, I guess knowing you did the right thing will have to be its own reward.”

“Hey, whose side are you on, anyway?” She laughed, and he found himself irritated that she seemed so damnably cheerful around her boyfriend all the time. She yawned, then her laugh tinkled over the line again. “I’m sorry—I’m suddenly so sleepy.”

Ken frowned. He wished he could say the same, but he had enough on his mind to keep a dozen men tossing and turning. He didn’t want to let her go, but he couldn’t very well keep her on the line. “I guess I’d better say good-night, then.”

“That’s funny.”

He picked up on an odd note in her voice. “What?”

“You sound so…different.”

He adjusted the handkerchief and moved farther away from the mouthpiece. “It’s just my cold.”

“No,” she said, sounding troubled. “I don’t mean your voice. I mean…never mind.”

“Georgia,” he said, overcome with frustration. “I love…talking to you.”

She was silent for so long Ken was afraid she had fallen asleep. At last she murmured, “Good night, Rob,” and hung up.

G
EORGIA HADN’T FELT
so thoroughly miserable in recent memory. Her body still pulsed from a release she’d shared with Rob…while she fantasized about another man. And the mind could play devious tricks on a person—she’d even begun to imagine Ken Medlock’s voice in Rob’s scratchy one.

Was this roiling sensation in her stomach what her father felt when he came home to kiss her mother’s neck after a bout of fooling around? Could she even face Rob tomorrow if he showed up for the wedding?

She squeezed a handful of pillow into her fist. Rob didn’t deserve this, this…distraction. Not when things were going so well between them. He’d never been so carefree, so vulnerable. For months she’d been hoping for a sign that he was open to exploring a deeper, more intimate relationship. Yet tonight when she’d thought he was going to tell her he loved her, she’d panicked.

“What does that mean?” she whispered aloud in the dark.

It means you’re like your father. Never appreciating what
you have, always wanting what is out of reach, or things you know are bad. Or wrong. Or hurtful. Willing to sacrifice warm security for hot passion. Self-indulgent. Reckless. Wicked.

Georgia sighed and flung the sheet off her humid body.
And hot.

“W
HAT DOES IT MEAN
?” Toni repeated over the phone. “I’ll tell you what it means—you are falling for the cop.”

“No, no, no,” Georgia said, shaking her head. “Wrong answer.” She sat down on her coffee table and put her feet up on her couch. “Just because I have a couple of harmless little fantasies about the guy doesn’t mean I’m falling for him.”

“If they were so harmless, then why are you making such a fuss?”

Good question.

“And what about the kiss?”

She was beginning to regret telling her friend everything. “The kiss happened in the heat of the moment—completely unplanned. It meant nothing.”

“If it meant nothing, then why are you in such an uproar?”

“Because I feel guilty!”

“If you’ve done nothing to be ashamed of, you shouldn’t feel guilty.”

“You aren’t Catholic. And I have this fear that Rob will run into Ken in the gym, and Ken will casually mention that we kissed in the park.”

“So when you see Rob at the wedding today, tell
him about it and let him know it didn’t mean anything.”

Georgia blinked back sudden tears and made choking sounds.

“It did mean something, though, didn’t it?”

She dropped her forehead into her hand. “Maybe,” she whispered, sniffing.

“Georgia,” Toni said, her voice incredulous. “Meeting someone who makes you feel extraordinary is something to
celebrate,
not cry over.”

“But what about Rob? Things were just starting to go so well.”

“I think your interest in the cop simply means you’re not ready to settle down right now. It’s not a crime, and Rob might be hurt, but he’ll live.”

Georgia lifted her chin. “You’re absolutely right.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“I have no idea.”

“I
DON’T KNOW
what’s wrong with it,” Georgia told the clerk, then scooted a box full of the phone, message recorder and wires across the counter. “But the only message I’ve gotten in a week was the mechanical one about adjusting the volume.”

The kid scratched his head and gave her a sullen expression. “You’re returning this phone system because no one ever calls you?”

She smiled sweetly—he was the obviously the author of the manual. “
No.
I’m returning this phone system because a friend of mine told me she has left at least two messages I never received.”

“Got your receipt, lady?”

She slid it across the counter.

His hand disappeared below the counter to scratch someplace she couldn’t see. “One of our repair guys will have to take a look at it tomorrow. Can we call you?”

She leaned forward, pushed back the straw hat she had bought for today, and enunciated very clearly. “That would be fine, except now I don’t
have
a phone. How about you tell me what time tomorrow I can come back.”

They negotiated a time, and Georgia exited the store, aware she was garnering a few strange looks because not everyone in the electronics store wore a long sheer dress, a straw hat, and white wedge espadrilles, plus carried a huge wrapped package with a big silver bow.

She caught a bus at the corner of the shopping center, then walked a half block to the church, replaying her conversation with Toni. She was right, of course. If Georgia was so distracted by Ken Medlock, she wasn’t making herself wholly available to Rob. It was the pushing and pulling that was making her crazy. The prudent thing to do was to suggest to Rob that they take a break from seeing each other.

She entered the church from the back and followed the sound of raised voices and female laughter down a hallway to the room where the bride and bridesmaids were dressing for their photos. She had never seen so much clutter—clothes, shoes, makeup bags, hair appliances. Stacey looked ethereal in ivory. Her mother fussed with her train while another older woman worked on the bride’s chin-length red hair. Toni was
one of four bridesmaids dressed in long, straight-skirted gowns in a deep coral color.

“You look beautiful,” Georgia said.

Her friend blushed prettily and handed Georgia a curling iron. “Will you curl the back of my hair?”

She helped to arrange Toni in front of a mirror and set to work.

“I don’t suppose Rob is here yet?”

Georgia shook her head. “He said he might get hung up at the office since he’s so behind from being sick.” She couldn’t decide whether she wanted to get the breakup over with, or put if off another day.

“You’ll look back on this someday and laugh,” her friend offered.

“Think so?”

“Yeah, when you and the cop have six kids.”

Georgia laughed good-naturedly. What she hadn’t told Toni was that while she
was
planning to break off with Rob, she
wasn’t
planning to go out with Ken Medlock.

“Too bad you couldn’t have broken up with Rob before and asked that yummy uniform to bring you to the wedding.”

She gave a noncommittal nod. She was taking a hiatus from men—dating them, even merely
looking
at them, had awakened her dark side. She needed time and space to regain her perspective.

Toni kept glancing in Stacey’s direction with a wistful expression. “Think you or I will ever be brides, Georgia?”

An amusing question, since Toni was two years
younger. “Probably. Someday. How goes it with Dr. Baxter?”

Toni made a face. “I haven’t told him my name yet.”

“Toni!”

“I can’t help it. He calls me Terri Strawberry now. How cute is that?”

“How
sexist
is that?”

“I know, I know. I’m going to tell him, no matter how embarrassing it is.”

“Good.”

Georgia finished curling her hair, sliding her own envious glances toward the glowing Stacey—not because the woman was getting married, but because she was marrying someone she was head over heels for. And Neil seemed to be head over heels for her, too. Georgia looked around the room, surveying the happy, fretting women, taking in the buzz of conversation and hair dryers, acknowledging the charge in the air. Excitement. Happiness. Optimism.

She wanted it. She wanted true love and all the trappings of giddiness. And someday she’d have it…if these overactive hormones of hers didn’t get in the way.

Georgia smiled and nodded at another bridesmaid who needed an extra hand with her hair. She dreaded the talk with Rob, but she was grateful for one thing—she’d left Ken Medlock yesterday in the park with a stern rejection, and if she mailed the pictures of his dog, she couldn’t imagine a reason why she’d ever run into him again.

K
EN WALKED PAST
the job postings bulletin board a half a dozen times, each time promising himself he would not look. And he didn’t. Not until the seventh time. Then, just to satisfy his own morbid curiosity, he quickly scanned the list for churches and businesses in need of traffic control and security for the day.

St. Michael’s Church, Janus-Baker wedding, 10:30 a.m. Alexander-Childers wedding, 3:30 p.m. Piper-Matthews wedding, 7:30 p.m. Two officers, two hours for each event.

Georgia would be at the Alexander-Childers wedding in the afternoon. Maybe if he could see Georgia and her boyfriend together, see the way she looked at Trainer, see how the man adored her, he could shake this compulsion to be around Georgia. It was the guilt, he told himself, which triggered a burning need to know how she drank her coffee in the morning, if she left the top off the toothpaste tube, if she painted her toenails.

Telling himself he would bow to Providence and write Georgia Adams out of his life if the jobs were already taken, he walked up to the clerk who assisted in linking off-duty cops with community needs.

“Is St. Michael’s all filled up today?” he asked casually.

The young man ran his finger down a grid. “There’s one slot left for the evening wedding, seven-thirty. Interested?”

Disappointed beyond words, Ken stood stock still. He’d promised to heed whatever the schedule dictated. He would eventually get Georgia out of his mind. It was just a simple physical attraction, albeit a strong one. Things had worked out for the best—he
liked being a bachelor, and she was obviously looking for a more serious relationship.

I try to be an honest person…just as I expect the man I’m seeing to be honest with me.

His track record on honesty took him out of the running anyway, Ken noted wryly.

“Medlock?” the guy asked, waving a hand to recapture his attention. “You want it?”

Disgusted with himself for caring about a woman who’d made it abundantly clear that she wasn’t interested in him, he nodded. “I’ll take the seven thirty slot. Gratis, for the church.”

The clerk pursed his mouth as he made a note. “Mighty nice of you.” Then he grinned. “Penance to pay?”

Ken smirked, then grabbed a cup of coffee and returned to his desk, feeling somewhat better. The one upside of not dating Georgia—he would never have to confess that he’d been the man who’d taken the sexual pleasures she’d intended for her boyfriend. He drank deeply of the coffee, still marveling over the week’s events. Considering how quickly the situation had snowballed, he should be thanking his lucky stars to have escaped relatively unscathed.

He sat back in his chair with a resigned nod. Yes—lucky, lucky, lucky.

“Hey, Medlock.”

Ken turned and jerked his chin up to acknowledge a colleague approaching his desk. “Yeah, Booker?”

“I’m in a bind. I signed up for the three-thirty wedding at St. Michael’s, and I just remembered I’m supposed to take my father-in-law golfing. Don’t suppose you’d—”

“Absolutely.”