Maximum Exposure (24 page)

Water to quench the thirst he felt every time he remembered the heat of the flames. Water to put out the fire before it was too late for Olivia to save what she’d worked so hard to build.

“Buy you a muffin to go with that drink?”

He turned, looked up, watched as she settled into the table’s second chair, just as she’d done the day they met, the day she told him who she was and what she did. The day she showed him through her office window how well she did it when she did it solely for him.

He found himself smiling at how far they’d come only to find themselves back in the very same place where they’d started. “I was thinking more along the lines of a bagel. An onion bagel. With messy globs of garlic and chive cream cheese.”

She shook her head, strands of thick brown sugar and caramel hair tumbling from the loose knot on the back of her head. One side of her mouth pulled into a cheeky smile. “Men. The minute they’ve hooked a sure thing, they let themselves go. No sticking to the healthy bran muffins or the sweet-smelling banana bread. And I guess you’ll be wanting me to kiss you with your mouth smelling like an armpit.”

“I’ve never eaten a bran muffin in my life.” Then he homed in on the part of her speech he cared most about…well, other than the part about her kissing him. “Have I hooked a sure thing? Is that what you asked me here to tell me?”

She looked at him, her eyes soft, her smile softer. “It’s been a crazy few weeks, hasn’t it? Life-changing weeks.”

“I’ll drink to that,” he said and reached for his mug. He wasn’t ready to give her more. He’d only just stopped reeling from the last time his hopes had been dashed.

“I wasn’t sure you were going to come.”

He started to tell her he’d had the same doubts, but then realized that wasn’t honest. He’d known he would come since the moment she’d asked him to meet her here today.

It was time to step up. To be honest with himself, and with her. “I was.”

“You were?” she asked, and he swore he heard her voice break.

He straightened in the seat, which looked too flimsy to hold his weight, turned to better face her, to hold her gaze, to make sure he had her attention. “I love you, Olivia. Of course, I was going to come.”

“That’s the first time you’ve told me,” she said, her words barely a whisper, her eyes watering.

He was afraid his were about to do the same, and so he cleared his throat and said, “This seemed the time that it needed to be said.”

“I love you, too.”

He’d been pretty sure that she did, but he really did like hearing it. And now that they had that out of the way…“I’m here. You’re here. What’s the big surprise?”

She shrugged, crossed one leg, leaned an elbow on the table, toyed with her dangling earring. “It’s not a surprise. Not really.”

“Then why did you want me to meet you?”

“To start over,” she said softly.

“Come again?”

She reached out, wrapped her fingers around his wrist as he gripped his mug. “If you came here today like I’d asked, I was going to take that as a sign that you weren’t ready to give up on me.”

He wasn’t the giving-up type. She needed to know that. “We hit a bump. We’ll get over it. We’ve got too much good stuff here to give up.”

Her lashes fluttered as she raised her gaze to his. “Then we can start over? Right here and now? In the same place we started the first time?”

He saw what she was getting at, but…“A second start? Sure. But starting over would mean forgetting everything that’s gone before. I can’t do that. Good or bad. I don’t want to do that. I want to remember everything and build on it. That’s how foundations work.”

She canted her head to the side again, the scooped neckline of her coral-colored tunic shifting but not revealing a thing. “Even ones that are rocky?”

“We had a month together. And one bad night.” He winked, let go of his mug, and turned his hand to hold hers. “I’d call that a pebble.”

“No.” She shook her head, insistent. “It was more than a pebble.”

“It won’t ever be anything but, Olivia,” he said softly. “Not if we don’t let it.”

She gave him a small nod, her eyes bright and red, her smile just bright. “You mean, next time you need to shave, I can’t bring up what you did to my laptop?”

He fought a grin, narrowed his eyes. “Just like next time you forget that there’s more to life than work, I can’t bring up you telling me to get in line.”

She buried her face in her free hand. “I can’t believe I told you to get in line.”

“There’s one other thing.” He wasn’t much for deal breakers, but he came close with this.

“Anything,” she said, looking up, anxious.

“It’s a big one.”

“Anything. Tell me.”

“I don’t want anyone looking at you but me. I don’t care why you’ve done it, or for whom. If you’re going to be mine, that means all of you. Every little peek.” There. He’d said it. All he had to do now was see if she agreed or if she crushed him to pieces smaller than sand.

“Am I going to be yours?” she finally asked him.

“God, I hope so,” he said, past caring that he might sound desperate. He loved her. He wanted her. He had faith that they could get to where they needed to be.

“Before I came to see you? I saw my sisters,” she told him, running her fingers up and down one of his arms.

Her touch made it hard to focus on what she was saying. “Oh, really?”

She nodded, continued to rub his skin, as if the contact helped her gather her thoughts. “We talked a lot about my childhood…precociousness. They don’t know about the looking thing, and I kept that to myself. I’m pretty sure I’m over that. It served its purpose.”

“Which was?”

“I’m not even sure I can say,” she admitted, her expression seeming relieved. “All I know is that I’m feeling jealous of my sexuality these days.”

“That’s good to know,” he told her, keeping it light. “Because I don’t want to have to knock the shit outta some bloke for ogling those damn gold rings.”

“I’ve been thinking about those, too.”

No. Uh-uh.
He did not want her giving them up. “You said they made you think about sex. I like that part.”

She laughed, then said, “Which is why wearing them now will be all about you.”

He couldn’t help it. He found his gaze drifting down. “Are you wearing them now?”

“That’s for me to know, and you to find out.” She stuck out her tongue. “And, yes, I’m eight years old.”

Ha.
She was asking for it now. “In that case, you’re not too old to take across my lap.”

He grabbed her wrist, pulling her out of her chair and into his lap. She yelped, laughed, her arms going around his neck as he wrapped his around her waist and leaned forward to kiss her. Oh, did he kiss her.

He opened his mouth over hers and kissed her until his body rang from the live-wire tension, which was the only thing keeping him in his seat.

Her tongue was warm and wet, her lips soft and insistent. She wiggled on his lap and set off a chain reaction he felt all the way to his toes.

It wasn’t until she pulled away that he heard the whoops and hollers and the round of applause the crowd in the bistro was giving them. Instead of taking a bow, he chuckled and pulled Olivia even closer.

She nuzzled his neck, nipped his ear lightly, then whispered, “You know people are looking.”

Since he was feeling magnanimous, on top of the world, a king on his throne holding his queen, he whispered back, “Let them.”

Being in the car with him had unnerved her. They’d originally gone to the police station in a patrol car. She’d sat in the back. Like any good criminal.

The confines of Todd’s Corvette were far too intimate. The leather seat felt soft and sleek beneath her, and with the windows rolled up, the scent of leather and man filled the car’s interior.

Cara reached for the door handle.

“Wait.”

Her fingers curled into a fist at the command, her fingernails biting into her palm. She glanced at him and found his stare trained on her.

The car was cloaked with shadows, but she could still see his eyes. The strong lines of his face. Cara licked her lips. “What?”

“You feel it, don’t you?” A whisper that felt like a caress against her skin.

She shook her head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She could lie, too.

His lips quirked, just a bit. With a flick of his fingers, he unhooked his seat belt and leaned toward her. “There’s something here.”

The promise of hot, wild sex. Of power and magic rushing into her body and making her scream with pleasure.

But she’d given that up because after the burn of fiery release, she hated the ashes of cold reality.

The reality that a man wouldn’t love a demon, no matter how enticing her physical trappings.

His hand lifted, reached for her.

Her fingers flew out and locked around his wrist in a fierce grip.

Silence. Then he said, “I just wanted to touch you.”

He sounded sincere,
but
…“I thought you just wanted to send me to jail.”

He didn’t deny her words. Didn’t fight her hold. Good thing, too, because the way she was feeling, Cara would have shown him just how strong a succubus could be.

Instead, his gaze dropped to her lips. “I wonder,” he spoke with words little more than a growl. “Do you taste as good as you smell?”

The damn pheromones. “It’s not me that you want.” The admission was hard.

“Ah, baby, but I’m going to have to disagree.” He was close, so close that she could feel the light brush of his breath against her face.

“You don’t understand—”

He kissed her. A soft, fast press of his lips against hers.

Cara’s fingers tightened around him as desire began to heat her blood.

“Not enough.” His lips were just above hers. “I need another taste…”

And she wanted more.

“I just wanted to let you know I’ll be coming in and out of the house as I bring my equipment in,” a voice spoke behind him, softer than before, but still with a slight edge.

“Good. The sooner you can rid me of my problem the better.” He set his soda can on the table and stood, turning around to face her.

His mouth dropped open. No, no, no! What happened to the baggy clothes and the baseball cap pulled down low and she hadn’t looked like this and…Damn it!

He waved his arm in front of him. “You changed.” Where were her other clothes? The ones that made her safe. Hell, the ones that made
him
safe.

She wore short-shorts that showed off long, wrap-around-his-waist-and-pull-him-in-closer legs, and a little blue tank top that stretched across her full breasts. And no more baseball cap. Now her long beautiful blond hair tumbled over her shoulders.

She glanced down, then shrugged. “I’m cold natured in the mornings. By afternoon, I get hot. I’ll start getting my equipment.” She turned and left the patio.

His glanced dropped to her sweet little ass. His mouth started to water.

By afternoon she got hot?
Is that what she’d said? That was the understatement of the year. He wasn’t sure what was going to be worse, the ghost or keeping his hands off the sexy exterminator.

Damn, he hadn’t bargained for this. It seemed the hole he was getting precariously closer to falling inside just kept getting deeper and deeper.

Damn, she’d had a really nice twist in her walk, though.

No, he would not seduce Kaci. She was off limits—at least until she got rid of the ghost. But his mouth was already starting to water.

When his cell phone rang, he pulled it out of his pocket and flipped it open. He glanced at the number. His older brother. Great. He frowned. Things just got better and better.

“Hello.”

“Hey, Peyton. How’s it going? Has your ghost exterminator arrived?”

Peyton heard the unmistakable laughter in his brother’s voice. Why had he even told Joe about his ghost? “Yeah, she’s here.”

“She?” The humor immediately vanished.

“Yeah.”

“Get rid of her. You know how you are with women. It’ll be the same as the last town.”

He shook his head. “The last town, as you like to refer to it, was nothing more than a young woman who was infatuated with her professor. Nothing happened. I only left because I wanted to teach this other class as well as my history class and the dean offered me that opportunity. Have a little faith. Besides, I do have a ghost, and she can get rid of it.”

“She stalked you.” His sigh came over the phone lines. “A woman to you is like someone on a diet crashing into a candy store. You know you can’t change. At least tell me she’s ugly.”

Okay, he could do that. “She’s ugly.” He wasn’t lying or anything. Just telling Joe what he’d asked to be told. “I can’t get rid of her until the ghost is gone.”

“Please, just be careful.”

“I’m always careful.” Joe was acting as though he had a disease or something. Hell, maybe he did, but he really enjoyed a woman’s company.

“If you need anything, I’m only a phone call away.”

“Yeah, thanks, bro.” He closed the phone, then slipped it into his pocket as he walked toward the front door.

Man, he should’ve told Joe not to tell his other brother or his sister. If they got wind there was a woman living with him, even if it was business, he’d never hear the last of it.

Could he help it if he loved women? It wouldn’t matter if Kaci had been old or young. There was just something about women that he loved. All women.

The baggy sweats and cap had made her safer, though. Sort of.

But he would stay on guard around her. Just as soon as he helped her carry in the rest of her things. A slow grin curved his lips. She was damned sexy.

For just a moment, he closed his eyes and lost himself in the fantasy of her body pressed against his. Her naked body. His hands caressing her.

He quickly shook off the image.

Damn it, he was not going to sleep with her.

He wasn’t.