Slow Burn: Seducing Mr. Right / Take Me
Cherry Adair
Two classic stories of tantalizing seduction–and uncontained desireSeducing Mr. RightCatherine Harris has been head over heels for Luke Van Buren for as long as she can remember. But he's always regarded her as a kid sister, not a mature woman who knows exactly what she wants. When Cat asks Luke to help her meet–and seduce–Mr. Right, the request stirs up feelings in Luke that are definitely not-so-brotherly. But he's never been able to say no to Cat, and now he's finding her more irresistible than ever….Take MeJessie Adams knows exactly what she wants. Long nights of incredible sex and a baby to call her own. Then she's moving on.A sizzling affair with no strings attached suits business executive Joshua Falcon just fine. He's used to getting what he wants, both at work and at play–and gorgeous Jessie is too tempting to resist. But the pair share a surprising past. One that's poised to take their no-obligation arrangement somewhere they never dreamed….
Two classic stories of tantalizing seduction—and uncontained desire
SEDUCING MR. RIGHT
Catherine Harris has been head over heels for Luke Van Buren for as long as she can remember. But he’s always regarded her as a kid sister, not a mature woman who knows exactly what she wants. When Cat asks Luke to help her meet—and seduce—Mr. Right, the request stirs up feelings in Luke that are definitely not-so-brotherly. But he’s never been able to say no to Cat, and now he’s finding her more irresistible than ever….
TAKE ME
Jessie Adams knows exactly what she wants. Long nights of incredible sex and a baby to call her own. Then she’s moving on.
A sizzling affair with no strings attached suits business executive Joshua Falcon just fine. He’s used to getting what he wants, both at work and at play—and gorgeous Jessie is too tempting to resist. But the pair share a surprising past. One that’s poised to take their no-obligation arrangement somewhere they never dreamed….
Slow Burn
Cherry Adair
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Table of Contents
SEDUCING MR. RIGHT (#ue75980fe-bf3f-515b-b8d5-a1cda9853e7e)
TAKE ME (#u6c2eee41-c2af-52db-92e7-1cff652ffe80)
SEDUCING
MR. RIGHT
Contents
CHAPTER ONE (#u6e6d76b8-ff6d-538e-92f3-eda7adef0103)
CHAPTER TWO (#u23447e47-3003-508d-a30a-5cc0a80a2d3c)
CHAPTER THREE (#ua8842494-5c53-5488-b050-e3e04c6eeded)
CHAPTER FOUR (#uc7413641-912e-5376-958d-dc68e5cfb1ff)
CHAPTER FIVE (#u38734614-5d42-5c7a-8708-65f0fd10f5bc)
CHAPTER SIX (#u6c8d2af6-3c5a-59d1-9809-7aa17e6084aa)
CHAPTER SEVEN (#u84b44c36-10a5-5846-b818-81f06185cb47)
CHAPTER EIGHT (#u87c2c338-c621-512f-87be-a3b923c88652)
CHAPTER NINE (#ua1f9b17d-acc8-5965-8a86-45cdfb3c63db)
CHAPTER TEN (#u736b9c83-1411-5f34-a857-69aa8a870753)
CHAPTER ELEVEN (#u65454069-fe3a-54b7-83a1-63a4a00fb890)
CHAPTER TWELVE (#u669413b0-ae6e-5d63-9c4a-8b08536ce0ed)
CHAPTER THIRTEEN (#u7368bbaf-91f1-5dc4-9fad-62f07ba0a2a5)
CHAPTER FOURTEEN (#u55d8f7bd-3b41-5c69-a3ac-f0a04c88bb54)
CHAPTER ONE
THREE THINGS OCCURRED to Catherine Harris as she jerked out of a dead sleep.
One, she was stark naked in Luke Van Buren’s bed.
Two, he was about to enter his bedroom.
Three, he wasn’t alone. A woman’s throaty laughter mingled with Luke’s deep baritone in the hallway.
Luke wasn’t supposed to be back in San Francisco for a couple more days. Catherine tried not to panic. Suddenly years of planning didn’t seem like nearly enough time.
She leaned up on one elbow, squinted into the darkness and remembered she’d thrown her bra over the clock to block the red LCD light. Catherine flopped back on the pillow, several options, none of them viable, flashed through her sleep-fogged brain. Hiding under the bed while bedsprings bounced was too hideous to contemplate. As was the picture of the fire department rescuing her from the ledge outside Luke’s bedroom window, twenty-two stories above the street.
She heard a soft thud. A shoe? The sound of her own rapid pulse did nothing to block out the next thump. The swish of clothing. An impatient sigh. A hungry kiss pressed to bare flesh. Framed in the open doorway, barely discernable, was Luke’s white shirt, which the woman’s hands were rapidly removing. Catherine saw it flutter to the carpet. Heard a click.
Oh, God. His belt buckle?
“Speak up, Catherine,” she whispered.
There was the distinct rasp of a zipper.
The sound of a juicy kiss.
“Oh, Luke!” The woman giggled. Then there was more rustling, more heated murmurs, breathy sighs. Catherine’s cheeks flamed, blood pounding in her ears. Anticipating the fireworks to come, she felt hysterical laughter bubbling up in her throat.
“Make love to me, Luke. Oh, yes...I adore when you touch me...yes. Mmm. Oh, yes.”
Oh, no. Catherine tried to slither out of the way before the woman flopped onto the bed. Too late.
The weight of two full-grown adults squashed the air out of Catherine’s lungs. Grunting, she tried to wriggle out from under, but couldn’t get any traction on the satin sheets.
The woman rolled to the side, shot to her feet and let out a bloodcurdling scream. With a thump and a curse, Luke landed on the floor beside the bed.
“What in God’s name—”
“There’s someone in your bed!” the woman shrieked.
Catherine heard Luke get to his feet, then fumble for the switch on the bedside lamp.
Showtime.
She sat up, tucked the slithery sheet under her armpits and tried her best to appear nonchalant. Chances were she looked like the wild woman of Borneo. She hadn’t braided her hair before she’d gone to bed; it frothed about her bare shoulders, tickling the tops of her breasts. The bedside light snapped on just as she blew a particularly stubborn hank out of her eyes. As she squinted in the brightness, her gaze clashed with a pair of narrowed gray-green eyes boring a hole into the middle of her forehead.
“Catherine.” Luke zipped his pants, then raked his fingers through his disheveled dark hair. His broad, hairy chest expanded with the ragged, frustrated breath he dragged into his lungs.
Reluctantly she tore her gaze from his splendidly naked chest and waited for the dragon to roar. He appeared twice as tall as six foot three, and three times as irritated as he’d been when she’d backed his new sports car into the mailbox years ago.
“I might have known.” He plucked her bra off the clock. “Yours?” The black sports bra hung like a limp piece of licorice in his large, well-shaped hand.
Catherine leaned forward just enough to take the bra without losing her grip on the safely tucked sheet. “Thanks.” The brush of his fingers sent an electrical charge up her arm. She cleared her throat, then decided to live dangerously and fluttered her eyelashes at him. “Does this mean I have to get dressed now, honey?”
Catherine gave his friend a wide smile, which the woman didn’t reciprocate. Drop-dead gorgeous in a little black number hardly wider than a belt, she had long legs and an ample bosom, displayed to advantage in the skimpy dress. Expensive, high-maintenance, honey-colored hair cascaded seductively over one shoulder. Catherine sighed. Another pocket Venus. Without a sense of humor. Figured.
Into the tension-laced atmosphere, Catherine asked brightly, “Is it your birthday?”
“What is she talking about?” the blonde demanded, hand splayed across her chest to hold up her dress. Keeping her eyes firmly fixed on Catherine, she turned her back so Luke could zip her. The twin lines between her plucked-to-a-fare-thee-well eyebrows would become permanent in short order if she persisted in scowling like that. The woman had the kind of looks that would go rapidly downhill the moment gravity took over, and a slight overbite that made her, in Catherine’s opinion, look a little like a hamster she’d once owned. She also had the same mean-eyed look Scamper used to give just before he gnawed her finger.
Narrow-eyed, Luke scrutinized her. “What are you up to?”
Catherine opened her eyes so wide her lashes tickled her eyebrows. “Didn’t you bring her home to play, Luke, sweetums?”
“Catherine...” he warned.
She gave him an apologetic little smile, filled with as much sincerity as she could muster, and spoke normally. “I thought you were out of town. Honestly, I wouldn’t have—”
“Who the hell is she?” the woman demanded, slipping her dainty feet back into high-heeled mules, her mouth unattractively pouty.
Luke strode to the highboy against the far wall, then glanced over his shoulder. “Cat Harris. Elizabeth Wyrech.” He jerked open a drawer, yanked out a sage-green cotton sweater and pulled it over his head. It did wonderful things to his eyes.
“Hi.” Catherine didn’t offer her hand, for the sheet was in danger of slithering into her lap. “Look, you don’t have to run off. Does she, Luke? I mean—”
“Cut it out, Catherine,” Luke said, clearly not amused. “Explain to Elizabeth who you are, then shut up.”
Catherine stared at him. “Everything? Are you sure? Doesn’t she know you get bored with just one lady in your be—”
“A ménage à trois? This is really sick, Luke.” Elizabeth scooped up her purse and held it in front of her like a shield. “I’m calling a cab.”
“She’s my sister, for God’s sake!”
“Oh, really?” No matter how beautiful, the woman had a nasty mind and an ugly sneer. Catherine narrowed her eyes at her. Elizabeth narrowed hers back.
“You have different last names.”
“Different mothers,” Luke said.
“Different fathers,” Catherine said at the same time.
“She’s my stepsister!” Luke strode across the room and wrapped his strong fingers around Catherine’s clenched jaw. “Siblings. Right, Cat?” His hand moved her head up and down to acknowledge the statement.
“Right.” Catherine gave Elizabeth the Wretch a tight smile and pretended that arrow hadn’t pierced her heart. “His sister.”
“That’s even sicker,” Elizabeth said coldly before storming out of the bedroom.
Catherine gripped the sheet tighter, a hard knot in her throat. She couldn’t drag her eyes away from Luke, and her face flamed hotly enough for her to damn her pale skin. His sister.
From six years old she’d dreamed, wished, prayed he’d accept her as family. When she’d been older that wish had come true. But by then sister was no longer the relationship she craved.
Usually pragmatic and sensible, Catherine had made a gigantic leap of faith in coming to Luke. This was not an auspicious start to her plan.
“I’ll take Liz home and be back in twenty minutes.”
“I’ll be here.” If she didn’t take a cowardly leap from the balcony first.
He turned when he got to the door and glanced back. “Don’t go to sleep. We’re going to talk. Tonight.”
Did they have to? She checked his eyes. Absolutely.
“Be dressed when I get back.”
“Aye, aye, Captain.” Catherine saluted. The satin sheet glided like water over her naked skin, baring one breast.
She froze and stared at Luke.
White-knuckled, he gripped the doorknob.
A beat later he slammed the bedroom door behind him.
* * *
I’M IN DEEP, deep trouble here, Luke thought on his circuitous, I-need-more-time-to-think-about-this drive home an hour later. How in heaven’s name was he ever going to be able to forget the sight of Cat’s bare b— His fingers tightened on the steering wheel. Oh, man...
His dad had married Cat’s mother nineteen years ago. So there wasn’t a drop of familial blood between them. Thank God. But Luke could never forget what a mean, nasty jerk he’d been to Catherine for years. It had taken even more years before he’d been forced to realize just what his cruelty was costing her, and he’d sworn to himself he would always love and protect her to make up for the years he’d done just the opposite.
The way he now felt didn’t negate the promises he’d made.
He’d sworn to his dad, just before he’d died, that he would take care of Catherine. More important, he’d made Cat a promise to be her big brother. He’d assured her he would always be there for her. To protect her, to keep her safe, to have him to depend on, for anything and everything. Luke considered these promises sacrosanct, unshakable and nonnegotiable.
Too bad his libido wasn’t as ethical as his brain. He reluctantly turned his decrepit Jaguar into the basement parking lot beneath his building. Just because his feelings had changed dramatically was no reason to disillusion her. He had to remember that to Cat he was no more than her big brother. Her safe, dependable big brother. End of story.
* * *
HER FACE STILL hot, Catherine speedily dressed the second the front door closed behind Luke and what’s-her-name. Her goal had seemed so simple and straightforward back home in Beaverton. Get Luke to see her as a desirable woman and act on it. Of course, she hadn’t planned on him seeing her naked in his bed. At least not yet!
Catherine padded into the living room and flung herself into the squishy black leather chair she’d bought Luke with every penny of her savings when he and their friend Nick had gone off to New York to become architects. The chair smelled like Luke. She snuggled her cheek against the skin-smooth leather and closed her eyes. She’d thought of little else but him for years. She could do this. She would do this.
Perhaps it wasn’t so bad, after all, that Luke had had a sneak preview....
* * *
WEARING JEANS AND one of his old Pratt Institute sweatshirts, Cat’s five-foot-ten frame was curled up in the big black leather armchair in the corner of the living room when Luke returned.
Thank God she’s dressed, he thought, and thank God she’s tamed that hair. Catherine Anne Harris had the reddest, wildest, most touchable hair he’d ever seen. It had a life of its own.
Seeing her naked in his bed with that electrified mane, like living flame gone berserk, had almost given him a coronary. He wasn’t quite so tempted to bury his hands in it when she had it scraped back in her usual French braid. And if he concentrated very hard for the next three or four hundred years, he might forget how the light had sculpted, in shadows and highlights, the satin sheets on Cat’s naked body. And the sight of one plump, perfect, pale freckled breast. He stuffed his hands into his pockets and sauntered into the living room.
“Hi.” Cat sat up and rubbed sleepy hazel eyes, her cheeks flushed under a generous sprinkling of cinnamon-colored freckles. She pulled her bare feet up and wrapped her arms around her knees. Even her slender toes had cinnamon dots.
There was a short, strained silence. “She seems like a nice woman,” Cat commented, offering a hopeful smile. Luke was caught by the humor in her eyes and the lushness of her wide, soft mouth.
He shook his head. “Not particularly.” He sat on the edge of the coffee table facing her. Thank God she had no inkling how much it cost him to sit this close and not jump her bones.
Cat frowned. “I don’t get it. If you don’t like her, what were you doing sleeping with her?”
“A, I hadn’t slept with her. Yet. B, I like Elizabeth just fine. C, don’t change the subject. Not that you aren’t welcome, Catwoman, but what are you doing here?” he asked mildly.
“I thought you’d gone to New York this week.” She rested her chin on her bent knees. “What did you tell her?”
“I told her you have a warped sense of the ridiculous, but that basically you’re harmless.” About as harmless as dropping a centerfold into a maximum-security prison block.
“I was embarrassed. It was awkward for all of us. I guess I made it worse by trying to joke about it. I’m sorry to have put you in an uncomfortable position, Luke. Really. If you want me to call her—”
“There’s no need, Cat. Don’t worry about it.” Elizabeth had the sensitivity of a newt. Anyone else would have seen Catherine’s embarrassment. “I came home from New York early.”
She wasn’t wearing a bra. He could see her full breasts move gently as she shifted. He frowned. “Don’t distract me, answer the question. What are you doing here?”
Cat yawned, then rubbed the tip of her nose with her palm. “I was in a rut in Oregon. I needed a change, so here I am.”
“You aren’t going to stop day trading, are you?” Luke asked, horrified. Self-taught, Cat had become a market wizard. She enjoyed the challenge of figuring out which stocks were about to go up, and buying and selling them on the same day to immediately profit on the stock’s rise in value. This enabled Cat to multiply her money many times over the course of a day. Plus she’d been able to do it from home, on her own computer, while she took care of his dad. With her canny knowledge of the stock market, and uncanny intuition, she’d made a bundle of money trading stocks for Luke over the years. If it wasn’t for her, he and Nick would never have been able to afford to open their own architectural business so soon. The business was doing well enough to afford them the luxury of owning their own building.
The woman had a mind like a steel trap and the Midas touch. There were several of his dad’s old cronies whose money she’d parlayed into small fortunes, just for the fun of it.
“Don’t worry. I brought my computer. Your future fortune is still safe in my hands.”
“Thank God. You can set up camp at Van Buren and Stratton if you like. There’s a spare office on the second floor you can use.” The thought of being with Catherine Harris 24/7 terrified him. He wondered where he could find large amounts of saltpeter.
“You don’t have to sound so unenthusiastic,” Cat laughed. “No, thank you, it would never work. We all know each other too well. You’re too much of a slob, and Nick and I would goof around and I’d never get any work done. If you don’t mind, I’ll work from here for a while.”
“Sure.” Cat would be here every night when he got home. A curse and a blessing.
“Did I mess up a beautiful relationship?” she asked suddenly.
Luke easily followed the non sequitur. Cat was nothing if not tenacious. “Probably not.”
“Will you see her again?”
“More than likely.”
“She could have given the situation the benefit of the doubt, you know.” Cat nibbled her bottom lip. He wished to hell she wouldn’t do that. “A little sense of humor would have gone a long way.” She sighed gustily. “Okay, it was stupid, and I’m really, really sorry.”
Ah, Cat’s innate sense of honor and fair play. “No harm done. Don’t worry about it.”
“Do you mind if I stay here until I find a place of my own?”
Don’t offer, he thought. Do not, the hell, offer. “No, not at all. I wouldn’t have given you a key if I minded your comings and goings.” He paused, then scowled, alarmed that his eyes kept dropping to her chest. “I told you when I came home for the funeral that you’d be welcome anytime. Why didn’t you tell me you weren’t happy there?”
Cat sighed. “Luke. How old am I?”
“You’re...twenty-three?”
“Try twenty-six, I’ve always been seven years younger than you. How come you never remember?” She shifted back in his chair, clearly uncomfortable under his close scrutiny. She’d always been a prickly little thing. “Life was passing me by. I want to stretch my wings a bit.”
“I know, honey.” He reached out and covered her hand. Cat had nursed his father for the five years preceding his death eight months ago. Luke had frequently envied Cat and his father’s close relationship. Now Luke was all Cat had left. Her flaky mother didn’t count.
She flushed and withdrew her hand. “I didn’t sacrifice anything. We were father and daughter by choice, not chance, and I loved him. Don’t go all big brother on me. It took longer than I thought to get his affairs tied up. I contacted a real estate agent and put the house on the market—” She put up a hand to forestall his usual rhetoric about the estate. “No, Luke, I’m not keeping the house. Besides, my moth—Faith is between husbands at the moment, and she’s been broadly hinting she might like to come ‘home to rest’ for a little while.”
“She’s run out of money.” It wasn’t a question. If Faith was between husbands or lovers, it was a given.
Cat’s smile broke his heart. “That, too.”
He’d like to wring Faith’s beautiful neck. “You should buy a nice condo with the money Dad left you.”
Those expressive tiger eyes of hers darkened. Ah, hell.
“It’s invested. If you don’t want me here,” she said stiffly, slender shoulders hunched, “just say so. I’ll go and stay with Nick.”
Nick. Their mutual friend, partner, fellow architect and ladies’ man? No way. “Does Nick know about this?”
“Not yet.”
At least she’d come to Luke first.
He and Nick had been next-door neighbors, and best friends, when Luke still had a matched set of parents. After the divorce, and his father’s remarriage, Nick and Cat had become friends. Luke wasn’t jealous of their close relationship anymore, but he was inordinately pleased she’d chosen to come to him instead of going to Nick.
“Hey! Mi casa es su casa. Finding an apartment in San Francisco is almost impossible. I was planning to keep the condo for the nights I work late. You might as well live here. In a few months the house should be finished, and I’ll be moving out of the city, anyway. Until then we can figure out who gets the bed and who gets the sofa.”
Her eyes clouded briefly. “Sure?”
He knew this particular insecurity well, and said casually, “Positive. But on one condition. This time unpack and spread out. Last time you came you kept your stuff in your suitcase stuck in the closet for two weeks. If you’re going to live here, live here. Okay?”
“Okay. Thanks.” Her shoulders relaxed. “The house is that close to being finished, huh?”
“Yeah, it’s coming along great. You can come and help me tomorrow, if you like.” He noticed her sleepy eyes and smiled. “Since you had the bed last, why don’t you finish the night there? I’ll take the sofa. We can work out our sleeping arrangements tomorrow.”
“I’m not sleepy. How about hot chocolate?”
“I don’t have any.”
“Yes, you do. I bought groceries on my way here.” She unfurled her long, long legs and stood. Luke rose at the same time, and they came nose-to-nose, inches apart.
He’d forgotten how tall she was. Her mouth was almost on a level with his.
If he bent his knees...
If Cat stood on her toes...
If she had been any other desirable woman, he would have slipped his arms about her slender waist, drawn her against his chest and kissed that soft succulent mouth until they were both gasping for air. He quickly shook off the thought.
He trailed her into his chrome-and-black-glass kitchen, observing the way her hips moved as she padded on bare feet. She had a loose-jointed walk that made Playboy centerfolds look like windup toys.
Luke settled at the small table under the window as Cat heated milk and made their drinks. She knew where everything was because she’d put it there when he’d moved in two years ago.
“Thanks.” Luke took the brimming mug she offered. Chocolate-scented steam tantalized his taste buds. He waited until she slid into the other chair before he spoke. “You were stifled in that house with Dad all those years, Cat. I understand you wanting to try something new and exciting. And San Francisco certainly is that. But don’t you think it might be a culture shock?”
She’d taken a tentative sip and already wore a chocolate milk mustache. She watched him over the rim of her mug. Transfixed, he watched her pink tongue come out and lick the creamy film off her upper lip. He was going to drop dead from a heart attack at age thirty-three.
Her eyes flickered away, then back again.
“Okay, Cat. What are you up to?”
“Me?” She was all wide-eyed innocence. “Nothing.”
“The first time you gave me that look was when you said you weren’t running away to join the circus, remember? We found you in the park two blocks away, panhandling for bus fare.”
Cat grinned. “I promise, I don’t want to join the circus.”
The chocolate must have burned the hell out of her throat, but she chugged it down, then cradled the empty mug. She had pretty hands. Slender, no-nonsense, with short, unpolished nails. He wanted them on him.
Luke’s heart took up an unexpected arrhythmic beat as he watched her. Despite her mother’s influence, Cat had always been a sensible woman. Somehow she’d remained refreshingly innocent. She was what was known as a “good girl.” More than likely the last of a dying breed. In spite of her lush, curvy body, she was wholesome. Natural.
Cat gave him a level, serious look. “I came because you’re the only man I trust, Luke. I have a problem.”
He felt sick. “Do you want him to marry you, or do you want me to punch him out?”
Cat looked at him blankly. “Marry? Punch? Who?”
“Cat, for God’s sake! The man who got you pregnant!”
She stared at him as though he’d lost his mind. “I’m a virgin, Luke.”
“Well, hell, what does that have to do with anyth—What?”
“Virgin? Unmarried woman? Untouched? Pure?”
“Jesus.” His breath gusted out, and it took several moments to get his heartbeat back to comfortable. He scraped his fingers through his hair, feeling ridiculously as if he’d stood perilously close to the edge of an abyss and survived. “Sorry, I tend to get a little carried away,” he admitted gruffly.
“I’ve noticed.” Cat’s voice was dry. Her mouth wore a small, tentative smile, but her eyes still looked as if she were about to tell him something he didn’t want to hear. He’d anticipated the worst and rallied. Relaxing, he leaned back in his chair.
“What do you need help with? Want to come and work out of our office? No problem, I told you we’ll find a spot for you—”
She watched him with big, serious eyes. “I don’t want you to find me office space, Luke. I want you to find me a husband.”
CHAPTER TWO
“WELL, SAY SOMETHING.” Catherine tried not to let her nerves show as he sat there gaping.
Even while she’d agonized over doing this, she’d hoped she’d have to go no further than to ask Luke for his help. It would have made life a whole bunch easier if he’d just cut to the chase and declared his undying love for her at the onset.
The Plan hadn’t gotten much beyond that. She wanted more, but with Luke’s attitude toward permanence, she was realistic enough to know she wasn’t going to get it.
Her biggest leap of faith had been to burn her bridges, and take the chance that he wouldn’t reject her outright. Again.
Ten years was a long time, she kept reminding herself. They’d both grown up since. She wasn’t that naive, impulsive kid anymore. She knew Luke better now. For her plan to work, this seduction was going to have to be his idea. Unfortunately, he was still staring at her, slack-jawed.
“Well?” she said with a shaky breath. “Say something.”
“I’m speechless.”
“Could you hurry up and get over it?” Catherine pulled a yellow scratch pad and a pen out of the canvas bag she’d slung over the finial of her chair earlier. She concentrated on writing “Prospective Husbands” at the top of the page in neat block letters, more to give Luke time to assimilate what she’d said than the need to make a list. She glanced up. His eyes were squinty.
“What?” she asked innocently.
“What do you mean, you want me to find you a husband? You have a phobic aversion to marriage!”
“No. That’s you.” Keep it casual, Catherine. “I have a phobic aversion to my mother’s marriages. What if poor marital judgment is hereditary? My apple might have fallen closer to my mother’s tree than I’d like. I just don’t trust my own judgment.”
“And you’d trust mine? I don’t believe in marriage, remember?”
How could she forget? “You’ll meet someone someday.”
“No,” he said unequivocally. “I won’t. And frankly, Cat, considering we’ve both seen your mother in action, I’m surprised that you’d want to make the same mistakes.”
“With your help, I won’t.”
“I don’t get it. Why?”
“Because I need someone to take care of, Luke. After Dad died I realized I liked taking care of someone. I love being a homemaker. I know it’s politically incorrect not to want a career, but I don’t. I enjoy trading stocks on the market, and as long as I have my computer and a phone line, I can do that anywhere. But if I had to stop that tomorrow, I wouldn’t care. I guess I’m a throwback, what can I say? I want a husband to love, and to be loved by. Eventually kids. I want a couple of dogs, and a house with a big yard. Is that too much to ask—where are you going?”
“To make more hot chocolate.”
“There’s still some. Here.” She handed him her mug and waited while he poured hot chocolate haphazardly from the pan. Catherine observed the motion of muscles flexing beneath his green sweater. She drew in a deep breath, then held it until her stomach behaved itself. Luke had never made any bones about his intention to remain a bachelor. She remembered him telling her just that, right after his own mother remarried for the third time. Luke didn’t believe in promises any more than Catherine did. The difference was she was willing to take the chance. Luke wasn’t.
He yanked open a cabinet and grabbed a bottle of something hideously expensive, using more force than necessary. She perked up. Wrenching the cap off, he sloshed liquor into his mug, then slammed the bottle onto the black granite countertop. Even better.
“Are we celebrating?” she asked as he placed both mugs on the table. She plucked napkins out of the holder to mop up the chocolate milk he’d sloshed onto the tabletop.
“What do you think, Catherine?” He strode back to retrieve the liquor bottle, which he slam-dunked onto the table between them. Then, scowling, he threw himself into his chair and raked his fingers through his hair until it stood up like a shark fin.
“Well, I think a celebration is a little premature right now...but sure.” She reached out to take the bottle. Luke removed it gently from her grasp. Which was fine with her. If it tasted anything like it smelled, she’d gag. Come on, Luke, she silently urged, let’s hear it.
“Are you out of your mind, Cat?” A vein throbbed in his temple. His eyes had turned a smoky green. “If you have this burning need to take care of something, get a poodle.”
“Not quite the same thing, Luke.”
Even with that look of total exasperation on his face he was the sexiest man she’d ever laid eyes on. Too sexy for plain Catherine Harris. But she wanted him anyway. Her and about a billion other women. Luke Van Buren was Mr. Confirmed Bachelor Playboy himself. He’d never had to look for female companionship. Anything female would spot him from a hundred feet away and be charmed. He loved women. He treated his girlfriends with care and consideration, and adored them.
As long as he was with them.
Lucas Van Buren epitomized the expression “out of sight, out of mind.” Over the years she’d witnessed the ebb and flow of Luke’s lady friends. None of the relationships lasted very long. Which didn’t bode well for her own future. But if she didn’t try, how would she ever know?
Luke was a freewheeling playboy. She valued security and stability above all else. He was a daredevil who considered variety the spice of life. She wanted marriage. He wanted affairs.
She wanted him. He didn’t want her.
When she’d first decided to come to San Francisco she’d considered asking Luke to find her a lover, not a husband. Since he wasn’t husband material, that would have been closer to the truth. But she’d immediately dismissed that idea. Luke would have choked out a resounding and unequivocal “N.O.”
“Did being stuck in that house with just Dad for company turn your gray matter into oatmeal?”
“Not that I know of. Look, this is quite simple, Luke. You must know a gazillion single guys. Lots of cultures have marriage brokers. Which, if you think about it, makes perfect sense. Look at the divorce rate when people find mates by random selection. It’s up to sixty percent. Our mothers probably had a lot to do with that figure rising.”
He splashed more amber liquid into his mug. His knuckles glowed white where he gripped the bottle. He hadn’t said a word in minutes.
“You’re intelligent. You know me, you care about me. You’ll make a perfect marriage broker. Pick a few friends you think would make good husband material and I’ll do the rest.”
Catherine grabbed the pen, ignored the thud of her heartbeat right under her breastbone, and gave him a perky smile. She set the tip of the pen in the left margin and wrote a large number one. “Any interesting prospects in your address book under A?”
* * *
HE’D DONE SOMETHING really bad in another life and God was punishing him, Luke thought as he silently opened the bedroom door several sleepless hours later. To get to the bathroom and a cold shower, he had to traverse the bedroom where Cat slept. He’d spent a miserable night on the sofa thinking about her—and her harebrained scheme.
The world was her oyster. She should be enjoying the bliss of singlehood. Besides, how could a woman whose mother had been married, at last count, eight times even consider marriage?
Variety was the spice of life. Why would anyone put all their emotional eggs in one basket? How could one person be everything to another person? It wasn’t logical. It wasn’t smart. And Cat was usually so sensible, so predictable, so...sane.
Last night she’d been too tired to listen to reason. He’d talk some sense into her today, he decided, as he sneaked into his own sun-washed bedroom on Sunday morning, averting his gaze from the bed—for half a heartbeat.
Sleeping the sleep of the innocent and still wearing his sweatshirt, Cat sprawled diagonally across his California King mattress, sunlight streaming across her smooth bare legs. His fingers itched to slide up the satiny expanse. He wanted to follow his hands with his mouth and taste those freckles.
He sped into the bathroom, closed the door and wilted against it in his relief to have made it this far unscathed.
An icy shower went a long way to making him feel halfway human. When he opened the bathroom door again the first thing he saw was Cat’s smiling face. His heart did a ridiculous and wholly inappropriate double axel as she sat up in bed, his bed, to smile at him.
“Good morning.” She yawned, stretching like a cat.
“Get your lazy butt out of bed, woman,” he told her sternly, digging through the chaos of his drawers for clean underwear while he held on to the towel around his waist with the other hand. “We have things to do and places to go.” He’d have to knuckle down and do laundry soon. He looked over his shoulder and raised an eyebrow at her. “Are you awake in there?”
Cat shook her head as if to clear it, then scrambled over the edge of the bed. “You betcha, Bubba. Give me ten minutes and I’m all yours.” She shuffled into the bathroom. The door snicked behind her. He dropped the towel, dragged on underwear over damp skin and waited for the click of the lock.
He waited in vain.
The shower turned on.
He struggled to zip his jeans.
The bedroom smelled like Cat. Soft. Flowery. Permanent. He searched the upper shelves for a sweatshirt. Finding one he’d stuffed in there months ago, he held it up. Not too wrinkled. So he put it on.
“Hey, Luke?” she shouted over the noise of pounding water.
He closed his eyes. “What?”
“Did you come up with some names for me?” The shower turned off. “Hey. What happened to the towe—never mind, found them.”
People showered naked every day of the week. He wished to hell Cat wasn’t one of them. “We’ll talk about it.”
“What? I can’t hear... That’s better.” A billow of Cat-scented steam preceded her as she opened the door. “Well, did you?”
“I said...” He clenched his teeth, bending down to tie the laces on his boots. They were on the wrong feet. He removed, then switched them, before tackling the laces. “...we’ll talk about it.”
She came out of the bathroom wearing one towel around her body, another wrapped turban style about her head. Her face was scrubbed shiny, her skin like fresh cream sprinkled with cinnamon. Her legs went on forever. In his fantasies he joined the dots.
If she was any other woman... But she was Cat. He’d bite off his own foot before he’d hurt her. This was not a woman a man played with. Cat was a keeper.
There wasn’t a drop of blood in common between them. Their relationship was a state of mind. One he’d better keep remembering. She thought of him as her brother, he reminded himself grimly. Therefore Cat was off-limits. A no-no. Absolutely forbidden fruit.
“I hope it’ll be soon, Luke.” She pulled the towel from her head. “I’m not getting any younger, you know.”
“Who is?” He’d tied the laces too tight, but he walked to the door anyway. When he turned back he managed to look just at her hair. Wet and wild, it tangled around her face and bare shoulders, and lovingly clung, like wet flames, to the upper swell of her—
“Hurry up and dress, will you? It’s past ten and my stomach thinks my throat’s been cut.”
He closed the door gently behind him, feeling as though he’d just escaped something too terrifying to contemplate.
* * *
“OH, MY GOD, Luke, don’t take the corners so fast!” Catherine screamed as the Hideous Harley did a faster-than-a-speeding-bullet skim around another corner. Clinging to his waist, she gripped his belt buckle with both hands. The seat felt obscenely wide between her thighs.
“Lean, Cat. Lean.”
She leaned, sure her helmet must have brushed the gray asphalt as they cornered at an impossible angle.
Luke hadn’t given her time to dry her hair. The moment she’d dressed in jeans and another of his oversize sweatshirts, he’d hustled her down to the parking garage, ignored his well-preserved 1977 Jag, climbed onto his enormous black demon motorcycle, handed her the spare helmet, revved the engine and instructed her to hold on.
If she’d been holding him any tighter, she would have been in front. The speed scared her speechless, no easy feat. Nevertheless, she’d better learn to love the wind tugging her hair from the helmet, biting into her face and making her nose and eyes run. Luke loved his bike.
His house was an hour south of San Francisco, down narrow, windy, stomach-churning coastal roads. Catherine squeezed her eyes shut and buried her icy nose against his leather-clad back, remembering the first time he’d taken her up behind him. She’d been ten. He was seventeen.
He’d only taken her because Dad had insisted she get the first ride on his new bike. She’d been terrified. Luke had been furious at her for being such a baby and had screamed blue murder at her for three blocks. The wind had caused her eyes to tear. And Luke and Dad had had a huge, yelling, door-slamming fight when they got back.
“Loosen up a bit, Catwoman. I can’t breathe.”
Since Catherine hadn’t drawn a proper breath in more than an hour, she ignored his request. He felt warm and solid in her arms. “Are we there yet?” she whined like a five-year-old.
She felt Luke’s laugh vibrate through her body like dark, sinfully rich chocolate. Oh, yes. She’d made the right decision coming to San Francisco. Yes, indeedy.
* * *
“STOP HERE FOR a sec,” Catherine demanded an hour later as the bike turned from the tarred road parallel to the ocean onto the as-yet-unpaved gravel of Luke’s new driveway. The fog had burned off, leaving sparkling spring sunshine glinting off the Pacific in the distance. Catherine inhaled the fresh briny air deep into her lungs as she let go of him and flung her leg over the bike the moment he brought it to a stop.
She stood, took off her helmet, then shaded her eyes with one hand against the sun, waiting for her heart to take up its normal rhythm after being glued to Luke for miles.
While the soft whoosh of the ocean sounded behind her, she forced herself to check out his house, as opposed to analyzing which body part felt what from the close encounter of the third kind with Luke’s body.
Constructed of weathered redwood, tucked into the surrounding trees on a bluff overlooking a sliver of beach and the vastness of the ocean, the single-story house already had a look of permanence. Wonderfully gnarled, windblown cypress trees dotted the front yard.
“It’s going to be magnificent, Luke.”
Unaccountably, she felt the sting of tears, and rubbed the end of her nose with her palm. The house had been a goal of his for as long as she could remember. From the second he’d decided he wanted to be an architect, Luke had vowed to build his house from the ground up with his own two hands. A strangely permanent idea for a temporary kind of guy. Catherine wondered if Luke realized how at odds owning a house was with his playboy lifestyle.
While Luke loved the intricate curlicues and elaborate bits and pieces of Victorian houses, he’d explained to her once that he needed the clean, uncluttered lines of more modern architecture to cleanse his palate when he came home.
She noticed the enormous bay window in the living room. A window she’d suggested one rainy winter’s night as they’d pored over the first version of his blueprints years ago. She doubted if he suspected how many of her own dreams had been woven into his house plans.
Gravel crunched under his workboots as Luke came up behind her and rested his hands lightly on her shoulders. They stood silently for several moments looking up the slight incline to the house. Catherine was excruciatingly conscious of him behind her. She felt each finger on her shoulders, the warmth of his tall body shielding her back from the hair-ruffling breeze. The air smelled of salt spray and fresh lumber. But most of all it smelled of sun-warmed Luke in leather.
His proximity had already caused her stomach to coil into knots. After an hour of straddling his rangy body she needed to put some distance between them. She stepped out of reach and smiled over her shoulder. “Let’s walk the rest of the way so we can get the full ambiance.”
Luke grimaced and Catherine grinned. If Luke could ride instead of walk, sit instead of stand or call instead of write, he was a happy man.
“Exercise is good for you. It can’t be more than half a mile.”
“These are workboots,” he told her, “not walking boots. I have to save my energy for bossing you and Nick around.”
She shrugged. “Fine. I’ll walk. You ride. You should be an interesting-looking specimen once you hit forty. Flabby. Weak. Pasty. Probably sickly. That’s okay,” she said cheerfully, “you won’t be the first man to wear a waist cincher.”
Luke sighed, then knocked back the kickstand with his toe and rolled the bike beside her. “I go to the gym four times a week.”
Catherine laughed. “You go there to pick up women.” Luke’s indolence had been a family joke. Yet there’d been nothing soft about the stomach muscles she’d felt when she’d clung to him on the bike, or the hard, tight muscles in his behind pressed between her thighs. There wasn’t a flabby muscle on Luke’s six-three frame.
“I pay the dues. I can do whatever I want.”
He probably bench-pressed two blond gym bunnies. He might give the impression of being lazy, but Luke was no slouch in the flirtation department. Catherine had seen him in action. How many women, despite knowing Luke’s views on marriage, wanted him anyway? But she wasn’t going to dwell on that today. She was the woman he was with on this beautiful spring day. And she was going to enjoy every moment of it.
On either side of the slightly rolling topography, weeds, shrubs and vines tangled with thick trunks of oak, pine and cypress. There wasn’t another house for half a mile. The only sounds were ocean breezes and insects in the long grasses.
“Nick’s late,” Luke commented as he detoured to angle the monster bike through a patch of sand, parking it against a prefab shed off to one side of the half-finished front porch.
“You work the poor guy like a slave. We barely got here ourselves.”
“He’s cheap, but he’s good.” Luke squinted in the wind that ruffled his dark hair. He sent her a grin. “And he’s bringing lunch. Now, if I could just get him to give up some of his active social life, I might have this house finished next month as planned.”
“It’s a long commute,” she said casually. A month? My God, there was no way she could pull this off in a month. Could she?
“Well, the office won’t be practically across the street as it is now, but an hour’s commute these days is nothing. Come on, I want to show off everything before Nick gets here.”
Catherine followed Luke slowly as he walked up the wide, shallow redwood steps onto a deep porch. He bounced lightly, testing each tread. His fingers lingered as he trailed them up the simple banister beside the front steps. He took pride in his craftsmanship and it showed. Luke had a hedonistic pleasure in textures. He always had. She was jealous of the attention the wood was getting.
Catherine swallowed hard, remembering the night of her dateless junior prom. Luke had come to spend that weekend with his father. Exuberant as always, he’d burst into her room and found her crying. He hadn’t known what to do with a weepy female, and had plucked the hairbrush out of her hand. More, she’d been sure, for something to do with his hands than to console her, he’d ended up brushing her hair for hours as they talked. Luke looking at the back of her head, Catherine watching his face, unobserved, in her vanity mirror across the room. She never did remember what they’d talked about, only that it was the first time she’d experienced sexual awareness. For her, it was the night their relationship had changed forever.
That was the night she’d realized she loved him.
Her ponytail brushed between her shoulder blades and she shivered, remembering the sensual pleasure of Luke’s fingers in her hair, against her nape.... Get a grip here, she warned herself sternly, as she waited for him to unlock the massive oak door. Before she followed him inside, she bent to pull a weed that had managed to grow through the wood slats.
“Gonna plant that in a pot?” Luke turned, indicating the two-foot weed clutched in her hand, soil trailing from its roots.
His smile tangled up in Catherine’s heart. Sunlight stroked his dark hair and magnified his strong, unshaved jaw. His long, lean body looked breathtaking in washed-almost-white jeans and a short leather jacket. He looked handsome, disreputable and too sexy for a small-town girl from Oregon. Yet she wanted him more than her next breath. She held out the droopy weed. “Got a pot?”
“And a window,” he said dryly. “Here, give me that. I’ll take you on the twenty-dollar tour.” He took the plant, tossed it outside, then brushed off his hands.
“Twenty bucks, huh?”
“And worth every penny. Careful where you walk. Not all the nails are countersunk in the subflooring.”
The square entry echoed their footsteps as she followed him into a large room filled with sawhorses, paint cans, lumber scraps and other paraphernalia of construction. Sunlight streamed through the plastic-covered windows. The room smelled of fresh wood, mudding compound and dust. She sidestepped boxes of nails and a mountain of Sheetrock to cross the room.
“Wow. This fireplace looks great.” Catherine ran her hand lightly over the enormous natural stones, then glanced at him over her shoulder. “Did you carry even one of these monstrous rocks?”
He gave her a horrified look as he removed his jacket, tossing it onto a stepladder. “Are you kidding? What do you think Nick is for? Poor spindly fellow, he needed the exercise.”
Catherine shook her head. “You’re terrible. What was the bet?”
“Who could eat the most soft pretzels.” He puffed out his chest, stretching his black T-shirt over hard muscle. Catherine’s mouth went dry. “I ate twenty-three.”
“Gross. You must have been sick as a dog.”
“Well, yeah. But it was worth it.” His grin was infectious and her heart leaped ridiculously as he laid his arm across her shoulders and stood beside her, looking at the wall of stone with pride. “There are over two hundred fieldstones embedded in that thar li’l ol’ fireplace.”
Reaching to the cathedral ceiling, and about fifteen feet wide, it hardly qualified as little. She shook her head, used to Luke’s and Nick’s ridiculous but harmless bets.
“When are you two going to stop that nonsense? You’ve been betting on anything and everything since fifth grade.”
“We did a sealed bet when we’d stop.”
Catherine shook her head again and slipped casually from under his arm. The back of her neck tingled and her knees felt wobbly as she strolled over to the plastic-covered bay window.
“Oh, Luke, this is absolutely glorious. Look at this view. Are there any deer out there, do you think?”
“Several. I saw a doe and her fawn last weekend.”
He walked over and leaned against an exposed stud, his arms folded as he watched her from hooded eyes. A stud leaning against a stud. How appropriate. Uncomfortable under his scrutiny, she shifted without looking at him.
“Are you okay?”
“Of course,” she said brightly. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“You just seem...I don’t know...different.”
“Different? How?” Since when?
“I don’t know.” He looked as puzzled as he sounded.
Excruciatingly aware of him watching her, she didn’t know where to look, what to do with her too-large hands and feet.
“There’s Nick! Is that his new car? I’ll go out and help him carry whatever he’s brought for lunch.”
If she took a breath in there, Luke didn’t hear it. She dashed out of the room, fiery ponytail bobbing against her shoulders, her sneakers echoing in the vast, empty room. Luke stared at her retreating back, avoiding the view of her tight little butt in retreat.
He shook his head and followed her outside. Just in time to see her fling herself into Nick’s open arms.
Scowling, Luke jogged down the stairs, gave a cursory glance at the screaming red BMW parked beside his bike, and dug into his back pocket. When Nick caught his eye over Cat’s head, Luke flashed him the twenty in his hand. The top of Cat’s head reached Nick’s jaw. Luke didn’t like the way they had their arms looped about each other’s waist as they strolled toward the house together.
He’d seen that look in his partner’s eye about seven million times. Luke wanted to gently set Cat aside and pummel his best friend’s and business partner’s face into the dirt. Twice, for good measure. He settled for a meaningful glare.
Nick grinned. Still holding Cat under one brawny arm, he snagged the money out of Luke’s fingers. “Thank you kindly, son.” He chuckled, stuffing the bill into his front pocket.
Cat glanced from one to the other and raised one red eyebrow.
“License plate. Has two threes in it,” Luke explained, keeping abreast with them on the steps and porch, but unable to squeeze through the front door. He glared at Nick, whose mockingbird-blue eyes held the devil today.
All three of them paused on the threshold.
“We could try it single file,” Cat offered seriously, her head doing the tennis match waltz to see who was going to cave first.
“No,” Luke and Nick agreed. Nick pulled a quarter out of his pocket. “Call it.”
“Tails.”
The coin caught the light as it twisted in the air, then landed on Nick’s palm. “Step back, pardner. The lady’s with me tonight.”
Luke scowled as he followed them into the living room. There wasn’t that much heavy lifting to do. He could have done without Nick’s help today.
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