Wild Fling or a Wedding Ring? (10 page)

Cali pulled back, her heart soaring. “Oh, my word! That’s
you
?”

Jake closed his eyes, his mouth setting into a hard line. “You’ve seen it.”

Had she ever? This man who ranked Greek god status in front of her had
not
been a beautiful baby. That picture, so prominently displayed in a frame that said “Luv Bug”, had been discussed using words and phrases like “unfortunate” and “maybe he’ll be smart” by everyone who’d ever crossed the threshold of Amanda’s New York office. No one had a clue that the juicy blue-eyed babe in that snap was actually one of the leading cardiac surgeons in Chicago and, as far as Cali was concerned, the all-time sexiest man alive.

Which brought her back to the sexy man himself, staring down at her with those endless blue eyes, a half-smile fixed on his lips. “You realize what I’ve sacrificed by admitting that picture is me?”

“I do.” What she also realized was that, as of that moment, Jake Tyler was hers, free and clear. Tension loosened from around her chest, freeing her for her first unfettered breath in weeks.

Her hands skimmed over the planes of his chest, his washboard stomach, his trim hips and then inward, to stroke the smooth-steel length of him.

His jaw clenched even as he gritted out the words. “So, you believe me about Amanda now?”

“I believe,” she murmured, giving in to the seemingly magnetic pull of his body as the water rinsed the last of the suds from their skin. Her mouth opened over his chest, slid
across to cover the disk of his tight male nipple. She flicked at it with her tongue, groaning at the sensation of Jake’s hands weaving through the wet mass of her hair.

Silky heat pooled within her as the seductive image of making Jake tighten his hold flooded her mind. Hungrily, she kissed down the contours of his torso, licking and sucking a greedy path south.

Jake’s gruff warning sounded above her. “Cali….”

But she couldn’t stop—wouldn’t. “I want….” she whispered, breathing the steam rising off his skin, the clean scent of him. Then she was melting to her knees between his legs, taking what she wanted.

She’d given in, and it felt so good, so free, she wanted Jake’s surrender as well.

Licking, tasting, gorging on the erotic fantasy come to life, she moaned around him, her own arousal building exponentially with the masculine sound of restrained pleasure.

“Enough,” came his harsh growl as Jake pulled free of her and ducked, swiftly lifting her into his arms. “It’s time we did this in a bed.”

C
ALI
was a slick tangle of wiggling, naked perfection as Jake held her soaking wet body against him. Hands devouring the damp terrain of her skin, he couldn’t touch enough, couldn’t get close enough. His fingers pushed into the hair at the base of her skull, fisting over the wet mass as he pulled her head back, opening her mouth wider to the thrust of his tongue.

He filled her, sweeping through that moist, warm space that tasted like sweet desire. God help him, he had to get inside her again—feel her around him. Hear those breathy sounds she’d make as he took her.

Water streamed from her auburn tendrils, coursing down the creamy expanse of her body, dripping from the taut peaks of her nipples and clinging to the darker curls between her legs.

He carried her to the bedroom, braced a knee at the edge of the mattress and set her down. Her bare chest, glistening wet and tinged with pink where they’d rubbed together, rose and fell in rapid succession as she scooted to the center of the bed, a lust-hazed gleam in her eyes.

She reached for him, but he caught her wrists and pushed her back, following her down. He stretched her hands above her head. Holding her gaze, he adjusted his grasp on her hands, threading their fingers together as he pinned them to the mattress.

“No more running, Cali,” he gritted out, sliding against the welcoming hold of her body in a torturous stroke. “No more excuses.”

She flexed her fingers, tipping her pelvis to meet him. “I’m not running. And I don’t have any excuses left. I don’t want any.”

“No?” He stroked again. Another tease.

“No. All I want is you.”

“Good.” Pushing her thighs apart, he opened her legs wider and, wearing his most wicked grin, gave her what she wanted.

An hour later, Jake walked back into the bedroom, a towel wrapped around his hips, chuckling at the sleepy smile on Cali’s kiss-swollen lips. “What are you thinking?”

He wouldn’t have thought it possible, but a slow blush rose to her cheeks.

He shook his head. “Oh, no. Not for at least another five minutes.”

“Five?” she asked, pulling a corner of the sheet up as he neared the bed, making room for him to slip back in.

“Ten at the most. I’m not a machine, Cali.”

“Mmm. But if you were, think of the marketing potential.”

“Knock it off, lady. You’re making me feel cheap.” Jake pulled her into his arms, savoring the press of her bare breasts and the spill of tangled curls tickling his chest. Her thigh tucked between his legs.

They fit together.

After a quiet moment, Cali peered up at him. “I know you were right, Jake. I was making excuses. Looking for reasons not to get involved with you.” Her fingers dusted over the light hair on his chest, tracing circles on his skin. “I was scared.”

He brushed a hand down the length of her back, settling over the flare of her hip. “Was it really so bad last time?”

Cali laughed against his chest, her lips and breath feather
ing over him, only the sound was anything but light. “Pretty bad. The guy was your average scum. I’m the one who took ‘bad’ from just plain to monumental.”

“I find that pretty hard to believe, sweetheart.” He stretched his free arm behind his head, settled into the pillow. “Tell me about it?”

Warm breath rolled across his skin and Cali molded herself closer.

“I dated a man who cheated on me. But before I found out what was happening I made several errors in judgment. I thought I was in love with this guy.”

She rested her chin against his ribs and stared up at him with those soulful eyes that made him think of slow jazz and smoky melodies. Eyes he didn’t like to think of gazing at another man from a distant past.

“It probably won’t surprise you that I wasn’t a huge party girl in school. I’ve always been pretty serious about work coming first, so I didn’t have a lot of romantic experience when I met Erik.”

Erik. The man who’d had her heart. Her body and trust. Things Jake was suddenly feeling very possessive of. Short-lived as this relationship was destined to be, for now Cali was his. And the idea of another man betraying her was difficult to tolerate.

“He was so excited about everything—really a ‘jump into life with both feet’ kind of guy. So different from me. I loved it, and I fell for him. Hard enough that I wouldn’t let myself see what was right in front of my face. He was cheating and he was using me, neither of which I chose to believe even when the evidence started piling up at my feet. I wouldn’t accept that a guy who made me feel so good could possibly be that kind of bad. I turned down an international position to stay in town with him
after
he’d cheated on me. Of course
I believed him that he hadn’t, but—oh, man, being proved wrong later—that was tough.”

An international position? Like the one she was pursuing now? Was she just catching up to where she’d been?

“Everyone has lapses in judgment, Cali. We always want to believe the best about people we care for. I’m sorry this guy hurt you. He sounds like an ass and an idiot for not appreciating what he had in you.”

“Not really. I mean, yes, the guy was definitely scum. But he did appreciate me. He appreciated that I had a skill-set that paid bills more effectively than a mostly-out-of-work actor. He appreciated me enough that when he got a break in L.A. he begged me to give up my job in Boston and go with him. I’d busted my butt all through school to get in with that company, used every reference. People put their necks out for me, swearing I was someone who could be counted on—”

Cali buried her face in her arm, just breathing for a moment. She wasn’t done, so he waited, knowing the rest would come.

“I should have told Erik I wouldn’t go, or at least held strong and finished the project I’d signed on for. Only this one time when we were arguing about it he asked me what kind of woman put a job before the man she loved, and I….” She dragged in a long breath and turned her head so he couldn’t quite see her face. “I thought, a lonely woman.” She laughed a little. “In the end, I caved on every front. Not only did I agree, but in order to take advantage of this ‘big break’ he had I quit with half the notice I should have.

“Apologies only go so far when people are counting on you— I basically burned every bridge I had. So, while Erik was a jerk, I’m the one who really wrecked my life. For some guy who put a ring on my finger and then screwed the girl from the coffee shop in my bed, two weeks after I gave up my career for him.”

Jake jolted up. “You
married
him?”

She pulled back, surprised by his reaction. “No. Engaged.”

Settling back into the pillow, he tried to release the irrational tension that had snapped into his muscles. Okay, now he got it. This jerk had done a number on her like no other.
This
was the reason she’d been losing her mind about giving in to a relationship that was even remotely tied to her career. “Cali, everyone makes mistakes.”

“You just have to learn from them, right?”

He smiled down at her, wondering about the lesson she’d taken from her experience. “Yeah. But you can’t keep them from letting you live or you end up going nuts.”

“I know. But it’s hard for me to let down my guard when it comes to my career.”

“Even when you know it’s not going to get that serious?” he asked, tensing for her answer.

“I guess it’s just felt safer to avoid romantic entanglements altogether.”

“Except pretending you don’t have the usual human needs doesn’t mean they aren’t there, building in you like a pressure cooker. Think about the night we met. Your bikini. Hell, the hall downstairs, for that matter. You try so hard to rein in your emotions, needs, anything that could get you into trouble, until suddenly you can’t contain it any longer and you find some extreme outlet to vent off the excess.” Cali’s brow wrinkled delicately and Jake dropped a kiss at the furrow between her eyes. “Or are phone booths your preference for first dates?”

“Jake, that was—”

“I know. An unfair example because of my extreme animal magnetism.”

She swatted his arm harmlessly, ending in a slow caress that sent a wave of heat surging through his chest.

“But, magnetism aside, let’s assume that’s uncharacteristic behavior for you. A little reckless maybe. You’ve ignored a very real side of yourself, Cali. You are an incredibly sensual, sexy being.”

She laughed then, shaking her head in dismissal. “Not quite, Jake.”

He stared at her. How could she not know? Not recognize it in herself? Had it just been too many years of denial? Too many times where, when the dam burst, she’d been with the wrong man?

“Cali, don’t you feel what it’s like between us? That’s not just me. Not even close, sweetheart.”

“So you’re saying that if I tend to this other side of myself—?”

“In moderation, of course. Like I said, I’m only a man.”

She rolled her eyes. “Then my subconscious won’t sneak up on me, leaving me with a scandalous blue bikini that I’ll have to incinerate the next chance I get.”

“Bite your tongue. Or better yet” He leaned over and briefly nibbled her bottom lip. “I love that bikini. I’m confiscating it. And you can wear it for me
here
any time you like.”

Cali let her head fall to the side, laughing, and then peered up at him again, mischief in her eyes. “Is that so?”

“That’s so.” His fingers trailed across one slender shoulder, down through the hollow between her breasts to where her heart tripped beneath her skin. “A little romance isn’t going to end your career.” Then lower still, across her belly, circling once around her navel before continuing the downward exploration. “All I’m saying is let yourself enjoy this while we have it.”

Cali arched against him, her eyes drifting closed as a decadent sigh escaped her lips. “Ooh, I am.”

T
HEY
burst into Jake’s apartment laughing, nearly tripping over each other as he pulled Cali into a quick kiss. Then, stripping the
Sunday Tribune
from her arms, he guided her around to the living room area.

Indulging in a full body-stretch, Cali moaned at the sensation of hard-used muscles pulling long throughout her body. Well-used muscles. Deliciously used. The thought alone had her senses awakening, but already Jake had dropped to the floor—back resting against the front of the leather couch, legs extended before him. A study of casual masculine perfection.

“Front page?” he offered, as she moved in beside him.

She shook her head. “Comics first.”

Jake gaped, an expression of disbelief painted across his gorgeous features. “Not World? Or Business? Travel, even?”

Snatching the colorful spread of cartoons from his grasp, Cali rolled her eyes. “I’ve been having too much fun. Not quite ready to give up frivolity in exchange for the standing of humanity at large.”

“Fair enough, sweetheart. But I’m stunned.”

Cali laughed him off, but in a way she was as well. Being with Jake made her want to stop and savor the light moments. There would be plenty of time for all the rest later.

Passing the sections back and forth, they read snippets of the articles that interested them out loud. Discussing and then moving on. It was lazy and decadent. Highly entertaining.

Jake’s knowledge base was incredible—he knew something about everything, from pop culture to politics to classic literature and everything in between. He was open with his opinions, thoughtful and considering of hers, interested in debating anything and everything. She felt like a starry-eyed schoolgirl, staring at him in awe, marveling at his every inane accomplishment, and wondering if there was anything this superman specimen couldn’t do. It was foolish, but she couldn’t help but be impressed.

He
was incredible.

The whole past week had been.

She’d been hitting the office early every morning to try and get out by seven at night. They’d spent their nights together camped out on his floor or hers, stretched across a couch, laughing and talking, frequently using furniture for purposes it wasn’t intended for. Overall, she’d been making up for three years without any life to speak of in the span of one fabulous week.

A dreamy sigh slipped from her lips before she’d had time to check it.

Jake chuckled quietly beside her, folding the Sports section into a neat rectangle and offering it over, while snagging Travel from her lap. “Please tell me that sound had something to do with me.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, mentally berating herself for being so completely obvious.

“Really? Hmm…. Kind of a breathy, sexy, desirous sound?”

“Your ego!” At least he hadn’t pointed out that said sexy sound had followed on the heels of her staring at him all doe-eyed for the previous five minutes.

“Yeah, well, we’ve already been over the solution to that one, haven’t we?”

Smothering a grin, Cali pushed to her feet and headed into the kitchen. “What was it again? A glass of cold water over your head?”

“Only if you want the next glass down your shirt,” he called after her. “Which actually sounds rather interesting now that I think about what you’ve got on.”

She glanced down at the pale pink short-sleeved blouse she was wearing and shook her head. But just as quickly she thought about the white tee-shirt currently stretched across his chest and had ideas of her own.

Get a grip, Cali
. She was worse than he was. Way worse.

Pulling out the basket of strawberries they’d picked up at the farmers’ market on Armetage and Orchard the day before, she asked, “Want any of these?”

Her refrigerator was stocked with savory herbs, ripe fruit, and vegetables so fresh the earth still clung in places. She loved it.

Jake leaned one shoulder against the wall, his gaze moving hungrily over her as she offered the basket to him. “You know, I have this recurring fantasy about you in my kitchen.”

“Really?” she asked, stepping closer to hold one ripe red berry to his lips. His hand snaked around her waist. “Your kitchen as opposed to mine?”

“It involves supplies.”

Her body warmed from within. “Like the kind you picked up at the Snappy Store last night?”

His mouth curved into a wicked grin at her mention of his ice cream purchase.

“Maybe you should tell me about this fantasy in more detail.”

“Bring the berries and I’ll show you instead,” he growled, pulling her by the hand toward the front door.

With a pained sigh, Cali shook her head and stopped. “I
can’t. I
can’t
.” She hated to step back from this fantasy, but she had work to do. Work she’d been putting off all weekend. “I want to, but I have to get caught up this afternoon.”

Jake bowed his head to her ear, his breath teasing the whorl as he detailed his sensual threat. “What’s three more hours, anyway?”

“Not fair,” she whimpered, her hands running over his chest as he let out a low, menacing laugh.

“Did someone tell you I played fair?”

Damn him.

Hating to do it, she pushed back. “No. Not today. But, actually, I was thinking maybe I could make you dinner tomorrow. I’m not a half-bad cook, and then after….”

Jake shook his head. “Tomorrow’s no good. Meeting with my research partner I can’t put off. We’ve got a conference in a few weeks, and we need to hammer out some details on the talk.”

“No problem. Another time.”

“Tuesday night?”

As she was about to agree, four sharp trills from Jake’s phone cut her off. A quick glance at the message display and his jaw set. “That’s the hospital. My patient—scheduled for surgery tomorrow—well, he’s going in now.”

Jake caught her chin and tilted her face to meet his gaze. The hunger was still there, but she could see his sharp mind engaged in whatever emergency he faced at the hospital. His thumb brushed her cheekbone. “Tuesday night?”

She nodded at his phone, aware of the role their respective jobs would play in making plans. “Let’s see how it pans out.”

“Nuh-huh, Tuesday,” he said, backing out of her apartment, his gaze lingering on her until he let out a frustrated growl and pulled the door closed behind him.

Cali slumped against the refrigerator behind her and slid down to the floor, wondering if the smile she hadn’t been able
to shake for days would ever go away. This man was beyond perfect. Every time he laced his fingers through hers, every smile, every sexy, depraved, fantastic suggestion, had her aching, bursting with some emotion she didn’t want to think about. The way this man made her feel was dangerous. Alive. And ready for more.

Tuesday morning, Cali was suffering the symptoms of withdrawal.

The sleepless nights. The achy body. The near obsessing over the one thing she wanted above all else. Oh, yes. She’d become a Jake Tyler addict, all right, and after less than two days without seeing him she craved a fix that couldn’t come soon enough.

She could wait until five. Somehow she felt as if she’d waited her whole life for a man like him. What were eleven more hours?

Unless she went over there right now.

The coffee-maker beeped that it was ready, and she filled her travel mug. At six-oh-five in the morning, she imagined a wake-up call wouldn’t garner the reception she’d be hoping for. Better to wait. Besides, her morning was stacked with back-to-back meetings that started in thirty minutes. There wasn’t time. Really, there wasn’t.

With a deep sigh, she added a splash of milk and a spoonful of sugar, capped the mug, and gave it a swirl as she headed for the door. Work first. Reward—in the form of Jake’s naked body colliding with her own—after.

Coffee in hand, Cali locked her apartment and turned for the elevator, dropping her keys into her purse as she walked. The sound of a lock turning ahead had her pulse kicking up. Could they actually run into each other this early? Could she talk him into starting his morning twenty minutes late?

Her body responded to the quiet creak of his opening door like melting butter, with a rich, warm spread of pleasure through her center. A smile slid across her face as her steps quickened, and her head angled as she sought to get a glimpse of the man who made her ache. Was he leaving for work too, sexy in a shirt and tie? Or headed to the gym, sexier still, with a bed-head and clothing he could get sweaty in?

She ran a hand over her hips in a quick check of her clothing. Her makeup was polished, she’d finished it only minutes ago, and she hadn’t had more than a sip off coffee so her mouth still held a hint of mint.

Jake’s door cracked further and then pulled fully open.

What—?

A woman stood at the threshold. Fumbling with the topmost button of her blouse in a way that revealed the scarlet lace mounding her breasts below.

Blood rushed to Cali’s head. Her breath ceased to pull through her lungs and her gut hollowed.

Maybe there was an explanation. Maybe—

The woman was beautiful. Petite, with china-doll-delicate features—blue, blue eyes, and honeyed hair that fell into a soft curl at her breast. She was stylish, in silk French cuffs and low-cut, narrow-hipped charcoal trousers that flared over stilettos. And she was buttoning up her freaking blouse while she stood halfway in the hall. On her way out of Jake’s place at barely six in the morning.

Oh, God. Really what kind of explanation could there be?

She was going to be sick.

As Cali managed to put one foot in front of the other and pass the door a new panic set in. This woman’s walk of shame was coinciding with Cali’s trip to the office. They were going to have to share the elevator to the lobby. Heat crept up her neck, bringing with it a sickening sheen of anxious sweat.

The stairs were at the other end of the hall. It might be worth backtracking. Her breath was coming faster, she realized. No good to hyperventilate in the hall. Someone might call a doctor to assist, and then she’d bludgeon him to death and end up in the clink for the rest of her life.

Get a grip. Get a grip.

Okay. Forget the stairs, forget the elevator, just get out of the hall. She’d hurry back to her own apartment.

From Jake’s door behind her, a lilting voice murmured something, and Cali’s tension increased tenfold. Jake was awake. If she walked back past his door she’d have to see him.

The only choice was to move forward. The quiet murmur of voices continued.

“…wonderful…felt so good…bed….”

Her chest ached with a flesh-rending kind of pain that ripped through the center of her. While she’d been thrashing in her sheets, frustrated by the idea of having to wait another night to be with him, Jake had been burning up
his
sheets, screwing another woman three walls away. Blood rushed past her ears, and her stomach seized in on itself, threatening imminent revolt.

Her fist knotted against her side as her breath came in ragged, fitful bursts. Damn him. Damn herself for trusting him! Her vision narrowed with her erratic gasps, swamping her in muted sensation. The buzzing hum within her head intensified like a raging swarm of bees until all other sound was drowned out.

Moving toward the elevator, she forced herself forward as an icy calm seeped into her chest, dousing the hot rage and hurt. She’d known better than to get involved, to open her heart again. She didn’t have time for feelings. She didn’t have time for heartbreak. Chicago was about work, about reaching that next rung on the ladder of success. This was just
a painful but blessedly private reminder that she needed to realign her priorities.

Silently, the elevator doors opened. She stepped into the car and turned back to face the hall. The sight of the woman pulling out of an embrace burned into her retinas. The doors slid closed and Cali’s reflection stared back at her. Still. Silent. Unblinking.

Her senses returned with the gentle ding as the car stopped at the lobby. With the exception of her hands—her fingers felt as though the tendons had shortened within them and every flex and motion strained—she was coolly numb.

Cali curled her thumb over the lid of her mug and pushed the sip-flap back. Took a swallow of what might have been blistering coffee and sedately crossed the lobby.

She’d known better. But at least this time her stupidity hadn’t cost her a career.

Outside, she flagged a cab at the corner and arranged herself into the backseat, work gear piled around her. Punching in the office number, she got her assistant’s voice-mail and began dictating a memo regarding the vendor she’d met with the day before.

There was plenty to keep her busy. Nothing that mattered had changed. And so, refusing to acknowledge the emotion weighing heavy in her chest, she swore to herself she was fine.

Tuesday night, Jake hung one hand from the frame above Cali’s door and knocked again. She hadn’t phoned him back this afternoon, and he was trying to ignore the slight, chalking up his irritation to a day that had been terrible from the get-go. The get-go having shot off shortly after midnight, with the arrival of a woman he hadn’t been able to turn away and had spent the better part of the day trying to forget.

Pam. Arriving in a flurry of hugs and kisses and thank-yous for rescuing her—for always being her hero. Tossing around
the ‘remember whens’, giggling on about things they’d done together. Waiting for him to laugh. Waiting for something.

Pam could reminisce all she wanted, and stare at him with those pleading eyes, but the trips down memory lane would never bear the fruit she hoped for. He didn’t miss her. Didn’t want her back. Couldn’t believe after four years of marriage to Paulo she still hadn’t quite given up.

Marrying her had been as big a mistake as he’d ever made—a disservice to them both. Which was why, no matter what Pam had done, he knew the blame was shared. He’d been so focused on school and grades and scores and residencies…and Pam had been by his side, pleasant and sweet, since they were sixteen years old. He’d loved her, but it wasn’t the kind of love you built a marriage on. Only drifting along, in that comfortable, distracted ignorance, he hadn’t realized the mistake until it was too late. Until the unsatisfied expectancy shimmering in Pam’s eyes had finally faded and she’d stopped looking to him for something she realized he wasn’t going to give her. Wasn’t capable of giving her.