Authors: Kat Attalla
His smile never faded, but the knot in his stomach tightened. Luckily, Caitlin wasn’t looking for signs of his involvement, because she’d had enough of them. He slid his arm across her shoulder and edged her closer. “What can I say? I have the kind of face people trust.”
“I will refrain from the obvious retort, because today is a special day.”
“Is it? You’re not still angry that I forced you on the plane?”
She rested her head on his shoulder. “I’m not sure. I had my heart set on Disney World. Let’s see if you can make it up to me before Monday.”
A grin spread across his face. “Don’t you think I’m up to the challenge?”
“Don’t make me talk dirty in my father’s house.”
“All right. You just keep those racy thoughts to yourself. I know what you want.”
“I know. That’s the problem.”
Before he could decide how to take her response, Mary arrived with a tray of steaming coffee.
Caitlin sent her mother a grateful smile and reached for a cup. “Boy, do I need this.”
“No dear, that’s Andrew’s. It has no sugar,” Mary said, then discretely returned to the kitchen.
Caitlin wrinkled her nose in distaste and handed him the cup, then reached for the other.
“Now, about tomorrow. I suggest you take your brother and run, because I won’t be held responsible for the trouble my father and brother might get you into.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. What about tonight? Do you want to stay here with your family?”
“Oh, sure, Andrew. I’d much rather sleep in a cramped room with two sisters than with you,” she joked. “Is that your preference, too?”
He exhaled a groan. “No. I want you in my bed. But what about Tyler?”
“We have a two-room suite. I have an intercom. By the time we leave here, he’ll be so exhausted it will take an atom bomb to wake him before morning.”
“I see you’ve worked out every detail.”
“Not every one. I prefer spontaneity. I wouldn’t want to become too predictable.”
Predictable? So many facets of Caitlin were still a mystery. She guarded her emotions closely and he wasn’t sure what she felt for him—except when they made love. Then she was easy to read. She gave everything and expected the same from him.
He had his doubts, though, if she would be up for much tonight. She curled into his body and closed her eyes; her warm breathing along his neck became deep and rhythmic. All of Mary’s matchmaking efforts had been for nothing.
* * * *
Hushed voices invaded Caitlin’s restless sleep. The entire family must have returned to the house. She opened her heavy eyelids and looked up at Andrew, who was talking to someone above them. She turned her head to follow his gaze. Maggie stood with Tyler in her arms.
“Welcome back,” Andrew whispered.
“How long have I been out?” she mumbled.
“A half hour.”
A half hour? With company arriving any minute! She struggled to a sitting position and smoothed the fabric of her dress. Too late, she discovered, when she saw Sissy wrapped up in her fiancé’s arms.
Tyler began to whimper and she immediately got to her feet. Any excuse to exit the room was welcome. “Thanks for waking me,” she grumbled to Maggie as she took Tyler.
“Andrew said you needed to rest for a while.”
Oh, he did? Andrew was acting very peculiar. Why would he want her sleeping in his lap when Quinton arrived? Was he jealous of her old boyfriend? That didn’t fit her image of Andrew. Maybe she didn’t know him as well as she thought. Despite her constant protests, he had done everything in his power to make her life easier.
She knew better than to question fate, but something wasn’t right. Her life was coming together too smoothly, as if someone had scripted a happily-ever- after ending onto a soap opera. What had she overlooked?
When Tyler began to cry in earnest, her thoughts were immediately diverted. She took him into her parents’ room to feed him and was soon joined by Andrew, who had turned watching his son nurse into a daily ritual. “You’ll shock my mother if she finds you in here while I’m doing this.”
“What’s one more shock today?” He sat behind her on the bed and wrapped his arms around her and Tyler. The warmth of his body blanketed her in comfort. Moments like this could almost make her believe in a future with him.
He nipped playfully at her earlobe.
“Damn it, Andrew, don’t get me excited while I’m feeding the baby. He’s liable to grow up with all kinds of hang-ups.”
“He’ll grow up just fine, Caitlin. And in another twenty years, he’ll discover a whole new interest in the female breast.” He ran a featherlike stroke along her arm, then slipped his hand inside her dress to cup her breast as Tyler suckled.
The jolt to her system was so intense that even Tyler jumped. “Please, Andrew.”
“Please stop or please continue?”
“Just hold that thought a couple of hours.” She elbowed him in his side. “Why don’t you go back out there and talk to the company?”
“Your ex?” he said with a laugh.
“You jealous?”
“Not after meeting him. Did your father really expect you to marry that—”
“Careful. He’s going to be my brother-in-law. If you can’t say something nice . . .”
“Something nice?” He drummed his fingers against her thigh as he tried to find one kind word to say about the pompous bag of wind in the other room. “He has a beautiful sister-in-law.”
“How sweet. I’ll be sure to tell Maggie you said that.”
“You don’t take compliments very well.”
She nodded. “I know. I don’t like them when they have to do with my looks. Unfortunately, that’s the only kind I’m likely to get in this town.”
Andrew knew exactly what she was thinking. Resentment burned in her eyes. Resentment for a town that had ostracized her for years, had made her doubt herself. And particularly resentment for Quinton Fletcher, who should have stood up for her then, instead of taking all the credit for getting the money back now.
There were a hundred things he wanted to say to her about Quinton Fletcher and the Simon Reed case. But unless she brought up the subject, he had to remain silent.
She tilted her head back and gazed into his eyes. “Can I ask you something?”
“Anything . . . except—”
She laughed. “I wasn’t going to ask to move back to my apartment.”
“Okay.” He nodded for her to continue.
“Why did you want to come here?”
His eyebrows arched in question. “Why do you think?”
Silky strands of hair tickled his neck as she shook her head. “I don’t know. To tell you the truth, nothing makes sense anymore. It’s like I never left. My parents react to everything I tell them as if they already knew, but Maggie swears she never told them anything.”
Guilt gnawed at his insides. He tried to convince himself that omission was not lying, but he wasn’t buying it. Maybe he shouldn’t have told her family so much about her life, but they had been so desperate for any scrap of information.
“They want to make you feel at home.”
“It’s more than that. I half expected my father to put a shotgun to your head and demand you make an honest woman out of me.”
Andrew choked back a laugh. He’d half expected that himself when he first told William. Hell, a part of Andrew wished the old man had. It would be easier than getting up the courage to make Caitlin an offer she might refuse. “Thanks for the warning. Your father invited me hunting tomorrow, but now I’m afraid he plans to hunt me.”
“I’m serious, Andrew. Why did you come?”
“To meet my son’s family.” She narrowed her eyes in disbelief. “All right. I wasn’t sure how you were going to react and I thought you might need me.”
For a long moment she said nothing. Finally, she smiled. “I’m glad you came.”
“So am I.”
She handed Tyler to Andrew to burp while she straightened her dress. “Let’s get this dinner over so that we don’t have to spend the entire evening with Quinton.”
“Is that the only reason you want to go back to the hotel in a hurry?”
She winked and blew him a kiss. “What other reason could there be?”
* * * *
Caitlin pushed Andrew’s hand away for the third time in as many seconds. She tried to squirm off the bed, but his arm kept her firmly anchored next to him. “Cut it out. I have to go to the house to help out my mother.”
That was just an excuse. She needed to catch her breath. Andrew’s stamina was awesome. They had been up since six o’clock. Tyler had nursed and had gone right back to sleep, but she had been kept in a state of continuous arousal since.
A glance at Andrew’s silly grin, and she knew he wasn’t buying her excuse.
“No one expects you this early. We don’t get much time alone as it is. We have to make the most of it.”
At the rate he was going, he’d be set for the next year.
“Don’t you ever get tired?” she asked.
“I could never get tired of making love to you.” He slid his hand along her stomach and down to her thigh.
Her reaction was rapid and acute. Heat burned in her lower abdomen and she instinctively arched against his open palm. She groaned.
“Couldn’t you pretend to be tired? For ten minutes?” She blew a wisp of hair off her forehead and reached for the intercom. “Come on, Ty, wake up.”
Andrew chuckled. “Let him sleep. The poor kid’s exhausted.”
“So’s his mama.”
“Then I guess I couldn’t interest you in a nice hot shower.”
She smiled wryly. “Who said that?”
Andrew slid off the bed. Caitlin tried to follow, but her sore limbs protested. Every muscle ached. Her breasts were tender and a moist feeling burned deep inside her. She was more tired than she ever thought possible, and she had never felt more alive.
“Having trouble?” Andrew asked.
“I could use a little help.”
He came over to the bed. “What would you like me to do?”
“Put your clothes on?” she suggested hopefully. Just the sight of his naked body made her ache for him again. As he leaned over to lift her, she wrapped her arms around his neck and tugged him down on top of her.
His body pressed to hers, searing her with the pure strength and silky smoothness of hot, hard flesh. He balanced his weight on his elbows and hovered just slightly above her. “I thought you were tired.”
“I caught a second wind.” Or a fifth wind, by this point. She wriggled beneath him, urging him to join with her.
“Patience, Caitlin.”
She arched to him, inhaling sharply as he entered her. Andrew’s control contrasted with her own abandon. A control, she quickly discovered that was nothing more than a facade, easily stripped away. He was no more patient than she was. Release came quickly and with violent intensity.
Long after her breathing had returned to normal, she gazed into his eyes. God, how she loved this man. She wanted to tell him, but the words died on her lips as he pressed a kiss against her mouth. Perhaps it was just as well that she didn’t tell him. If he didn’t share her feelings, she didn’t want to know. At least, not yet.
SIXTEEN
Caitlin watched from the front porch as the truck disappeared around a winding bend.
“Do you think we should have stopped them?” Maggie asked.
“Not on your life. I only wish I could have convinced Sean to take the camera along. If Andrew’s
naive enough to think we still hunt and eat possum in the mountains, then he deserves everything he has coming.”
“Oh, you’re rotten to him.”
“Maybe, but I almost envy him today.” With a forlorn sigh, she reached for the door handle. “Let’s go help Mom set up for the shower.”
“I can’t wait.” Excitement bubbled in Maggie’s voice.
“I can.” Caitlin wrinkled her nose in distaste. “I’m in no hurry to see those people.”
“You should revel in it. Don’t you know what they say about living well being the best revenge? Well, rest assured, by the time I’m finished, there won’t be a person in the town of Weldon who doesn’t know how well you’ve done.”
There was a time when Caitlin would have wanted nothing more. Now just being able to see her family again was enough. “Forget it, Maggie. There’s no point.”
“Okay. Then you’d better get inside before Sissy picks your suitcase clean. Apparently she wants to impress these people, even if she has to steal your clothes to do it.”
Caitlin smiled. When she had left the hotel with her suitcase this morning, Andrew had accused her of trying to run away from him. “Let her have ’em.”
She pushed open the screen door. Her mother looked to be in heaven, sitting on the floor of the living room with her two babbling grandchildren. Sissy was sitting on the couch, rooting through the open case.
“Are you sure you don’t mind, Caitlin?” Sissy asked, not sounding the least bit concerned. She looked over another dress and added it to the pile of clothes she wanted to keep.