Seducing the Old Flame (7 page)

 
Nor did she want him to move.

She liked it right where she
was, beneath him.
 
She toyed with a
strand of his hair.
 
“After that?”

“I meant for food.”
 
He grinned and propped himself up to stare
down at her.

“A little,” she admitted,
realizing it was true.
 
Eating hadn’t
been high on her list of priorities today.
 
Had she eaten a thing?

He dropped a kiss on her nose,
pulling her from her thoughts.
 
“Good,
because I’m starved.”

She shot him a look.

“For food, Tabby.”
 
He laughed, misinterpreting her look.
 
“For food.”

Food?
 
Oh yeah.

She cupped his jaw and stared
into his eyes.
 
“So what are you going to
cook for me?”

His gaze narrowed and she
realized her slip.

How easy it had been to fall
into old habits.
 
How many times had she
asked him the same thing after a lovemaking session?

Jason cooked better than she
did, truth-be-told.
 
She’d never enjoyed
the task, reminded her too much of growing up.
 
But with Jason, cooking together had been one of the many pleasures
they’d shared.
 
Was he remembering, too?

He didn’t answer, just rolled
off her.
 
“You’re going to help.”

Hadn’t she always?

He crossed the room and entered
an adjoining bath.
 
Silence, running
water, then the sound of him brushing his teeth.
 
Ever the neat freak.

Tabitha scrunched a pillow and
flopped back against the bed.

And smiled.

An entire weekend with Jason.

Lord, why hadn’t she undergone
therapy eons ago?

Chapter Four

“You’re in luck.
 
I had steaks marinating and salad in the
fridge.”
 
Jason dug a container from the
refrigerator and sat it on the Formica.

Tabby, dressed only in his
robe, leaned against the far counter.
 
“You’d planned to cook for Angie?”

He glanced at her. “It’s Annie,
and yes, I was going to cook for her.”

“I thought you said she was
here on business.”

Was that jealousy he heard
oozing from Tabby’s words?

“Put your claws away.
 
She didn’t know I planned to cook for her or
I’d never have let you stay.
 
I have to
eat, thought she might like to join me while we talked business.
 
No big deal.”

He was fudging the truth a bit,
but Tabby didn’t need to know.

Her hands slid beneath the robe
folds, his robe.
 
Amazing how good it
looked wrapped around her.
 
Much better
than it looked on him.
 
No one else had
ever worn it.

He tried to envision Annie
engulfed in the terrycloth and the image wouldn’t work.
 
It just didn’t fit.
 
But friends could be lovers.
 
He was sure of it.

Tabby’s gaze narrowed.
 
“You really were planning to wine and dine
her tonight?”

He shrugged.
 
Why lie?
 
He was free to do whatever he wanted.
 
Whoever he wanted.
 
Tabby and he
didn’t have a relationship.
 
She’d given
up the right to have any say in his life.
 
“The thought crossed my mind.”

“And the other?”
 
She pushed off the counter.
 
“Had that crossed your mind, too?”

“I told you she’s a ni—”

“A nice girl.
 
Yeah, yeah, I know.”
 
She waved her hand dismissively and paced
across the room.
 
“So, you wouldn’t have
invited her into your bedroom?
 
Wouldn’t
have done the things with her you just did with me?”

He stared, not getting why she
would even care.
 
During the entire time
they dated she’d not once shown signs of jealousy.

Quite the opposite, if
anything.

Tabby almost pushed him into
other women’s arms, as if trying to tempt him, to see how he’d respond.

“This isn’t a conversation we
should be having.
 
You’re here for the weekend.”
 
He sighed.
 
“No more questions about Annie.
 
Frankly my life outside of this weekend is none of your business.”

Her look of hurt bit him, but
he meant his words.
 
He didn’t want to
give her the impression that there could be more than this weekend.
 
Not that she’d hinted she wanted more, but he
wanted to be clear from the get go.

He had his life in order, the
cards were falling into place and a weekend romp with an old flame, even one as
hot as Tabby, wouldn’t sidetrack those plans.

Kelly Construction had landed a
really big contract for a shopping complex.
 
A contract that would set him quite well financially.
 
Well, enough to breath easy and know he could
provide for a family.

He had finally started building
his dream house on the acreage his grandfather left him right outside Knox County.
 
A house he was building with his own two
hands and planned to share with a good woman, their children, and a dog.

Tabby wouldn’t understand any
of that.

She’d been clear that she liked
living in the city, liked the party life, liked men, as in plural and one could
never be enough.

Memories assailed him.

His heart clenched.

“You’re right.
 
I shouldn’t have pried.”
 
She walked up behind him, threaded her arms
around his waist, and pressed her cheek against his shoulder blade.
 
“Forgive me?”

She kissed him and he’d swear
the touch of her lips seared straight through his back to his heart.
 
Something sure caused the organ to jerk in
his chest.

It hadn’t been memories of
their breakup.

“So,” she peeped around him, “what
can I do to help with dinner?
 
Can’t have
you starving to death.
 
You’re gonna need
your stamina for the next forty-eight hours.”

Forty-eight hours.

Then she’d disappear from his
life again.

Fine.
 
He didn’t want a relationship with her
anyway.
 
Forty-eight hours would be
plenty.

Except he had to go out to the
job site tomorrow.
 
At least for a couple
of hours.

Tabby would just have to go
with him.

She’d look good in a construction
hat.

Naked in a hard hat.

He gulped, trying to get his
one-track mind under control.

“I’ll start the steaks on the
grill, you get the salad ready.
 
There’s
a six-pack in the back of the fridge.”
 
And a bottle of wine he’d bought to serve Annie.
 
Should he offer to open the bottle for Tabby?

No, this wasn’t a date or an
evening to try to impress one another.
 
They both knew the score and would play by the rules.
 
Beer it would be.

Her gaze lingered on the wine,
but she didn’t comment, just pulled out two longnecks, opened them, and held
out one.
 
“Thirsty?”

He took the bottle, but didn’t
drink.
 
Just watched Tabby lift hers to
her lips and swig a long sip.
 
He took in
the lines of her throat working, the way her eyes closed in ecstasy at the
taste of the liquid.

“That’s good.
 
I hadn’t realized how dry I was.”

Dry?
 
Not Tabby.
 
He bet she was dripping wet.

They hadn’t been out of bed
thirty minutes.
 
He could handle feeding
her before stripping off his robe and losing himself in her again.

He took a step back.
 
“I’ll put the steaks on.”

Had he already said that?

She smiled, licked her lips,
and nodded.
 
“Don’t suppose I could
convince you to carry up my bag from my car, could I?”

Her bag.
 
Yeah, guess she would need clothes at some
point over the weekend.

Too bad.

“Which car is yours?”

“The silver BMW parked next to
the white crew cab with Kelly Construction signs plastered to the doors.”
 
She winked.
 
“The keys are in my purse.
 
I’ll
set them out on your coffee table.”

“Figures.”

She arched a brow.

“An expensive blend of class
and speed.
 
Just right for Tabitha
Sterling.”

She shrugged.
 
“It’s my car and it’s paid for.
 
I like it, for whatever that’s worth.”

“World of finance booming even
in this bad economy?”
 

Tabby’s mind did numbers
quicker than most people breathed.
 
Her
ability to glance at a column and immediately pick up on any problems or trends
never ceased to amaze him.
 
Beauty,
brass, and brains.
 
A unique combination.

Had her success been a problem
in their relationship?
 
She’d made more
money than him.
 
Lots more.

“Everyone is feeling the impact
of the bad economy, but I can’t complain.
 
I was named vice-president earlier this year.”

Still made lots more.

He whistled.
 
“Impressive as hell.
 
Congrats.”

“Thanks.”
 
Her cheeks pinkened and if he didn’t know
better, he’d swear Tabitha blushed.
 
He
knew better.

Had she realized it bothered
him that had their relationship worked, she would have been the major
breadwinner?
 
What did it say about him
that he had a problem with her income being more than his?
 
A chauvinistic jerk, that’s what.
 
His mother was probably rolling over in her
grave.

She turned and popped the lid
on the plastic container of lettuce.
 
“You want French dressing?”

She remembered what kind of
dressing he liked?

“Yeah, that would be great.”
 
Something about the thought that he’d played
more of a role in their breakup than he’d credited himself with made him feel
the need to cling to his manliness.

He needed to grill.
 
Grilling was manly.
 
He picked up the platter of T-bones.

“Steaks should be ready in
twenty minutes.”

Jason ran his fingers over the
sleek lines of Tabby’s car.

The fancy model suited
her.
 
Just like his white Ford truck next
to it suited him.

However the two together
contrasted just how different they were.
 
Opposite ends of the polar spectrum.

He clicked the remote and
unlocked the trunk.
 
A large dark wooly
purple bag with a pair of Betty Boop slippers sticking out from a pouch on the
side greeted him.
 
He grinned.
 
That was his Tabby cat.

Only she wasn’t his.

Never had been.

He slammed the trunk lid down
and started to walk away when her tags caught his eye.

He laughed.

T CAT

Had anyone ever called her that
other than him?

Did he really want to know?

Probably not.

Her bed hadn’t even been cold
before she’d replaced him.
 
Tabby never
lacked for men.

So why him?
 
Why this weekend?

No doubt hundreds of men would
have run had she crooked her finger at them.
 
Yet she’d sought out him.
 
A
construction worker from the wrong side of town, so to speak.

Made no sense but he wasn’t about
to question his good fortune.

This evening had already
brought him a helluva lot more excitement than he’d been expecting.

Tabby always had been
synonymous with excitement and adventure.

“What took so long?” she asked
when he re-entered the apartment.
 
“I was
beginning to wonder if you’d decided to ditch me and take the T-cat for a
spin.”

Him drive her car?
 
His lips twisted with the irony of her
comment.
 
She’d had a vintage Mustang
when they’d dated and refused to let anyone even sit in the driver’s seat.
 
Since when had she started letting men behind
her steering wheel?
 
Yet something else
that had changed.

“Maybe later.
 
The steaks would burn if I took off right
now.”

“The steaks.”
 
She eyed him curiously as he walked past her
to put her bag in his room.
 
“Right.”

“Here, you might need
these.”
 
He dropped her slippers to the
floor next to her bare feet.

Her toes disappeared into gold
and black fur.
 
“Thanks.
 
Better hurry or the steaks will be
overdone.
 
I like mine rare.”