A Love Like This

by Diana Palmer

  “I’d believe it.” He laughed. “They haven’t built machines to pollute themselves out of existence.”

  “No,” she said sadly, “we’ve done that for them. The days are coming when all animals in the wild will be competing with man for space. I saw a special the other night on the Kalahari, and it was really sobering. So little vegetation, with animals and men competing for it...” She turned her face up to his. “Can it really happen? Can we wind up in a world where the only wild things are kept in cages and on reels of film?”

  “Dinosaurs are extinct,” he said noncommittally. He shifted his broad shoulders. “I don’t know, honey. That’s a question for a scientist, not a businessman.”

  She frowned up at him. “Didn’t I read somewhere that you were right in the middle of that wilderness controversy?” she murmured.

  He chuckled softly. “I like trees,” he told her.

  “And contributed to a foundation that’s pouring money into finding a way to protect dolphins—a research project on some Caribbean island with protected coves...and there was that wildlife preserve...”

  “I told you I had cats,” he muttered, looking faintly embarrassed. “So I like animals, too. So what?”

  She only smiled.

  They had dinner at a Chinese restaurant, where Nikki ate sweet and sour pork until she felt as if she’d pop. She was lingering over a cup of black coffee when she noticed Cal’s eyes following a particularly lovely waitress. Jealousy surged up in her like bile, and she kept her eyes down so that he wouldn’t see it. If she’d been sure of him, if she’d been able to expect anything more than friendship from him, it was an emotion she’d never have known again. Because once he committed himself, Nikki knew he’d never look at any woman but the one to whom he gave his heart.

  But he wasn’t committed; he was a free agent. And pictures of him with other women invaded her mind, wounding her, hurting her. Of course he wasn’t going to live like a monk because they were friends. He wouldn’t feel the necessity for those kind of limitations. She shouldn’t expect him to. After all, she was equally free, wasn’t she? Or was she? Just the thought of being held, being touched, by any other man was frankly repulsive to her.

  “Through?” he asked suddenly.

  She looked up at him quickly and down again. “Yes. Where to now?”

  “Back to the hotel,” he said, his eyes idly following that waitress to the counter. “Wait for me here. I’ll get the check.” He picked it up and she watched him move toward the counter out of the corner of her eye. The older girl’s eyes sparkled as he approached and she smiled; a smile Cal answered. They talked for what seemed a long time, and Nikki felt as if a whip had cut into her flesh by the time he came back and helped her out of her chair.

  “Do you have anything planned for this afternoon?” she asked, resolutely concealing the jealousy that was eating her alive. She knew that he’d made a date with the other woman; she knew it as surely as if he’d shouted it.

  “No, why?” he asked, frowning curiously.

  She went through the door he’d opened, leaving the comfortable air-conditioning behind. A wave of hot sea air hit her body like a caress. “I thought I’d spend the afternoon on the beach,” she said, stretching with a plastered-on smile.

  He walked lazily along beside her the short way back to the hotel. The streets were busy with cars and tourists. Most everything was within walking distance on Bay Street.

  “You don’t look like you’re dying to get on the beach,” he murmured, seeing that wildness reflected in her eyes, her face.

  She looked up at him innocently. “What do I look like?” she asked.

  “I don’t know,” he said. His dark eyes searched her face. “It’s a look I haven’t seen in you before. Feel all right?”

  “Sure!” she said brightly, and laughed, “I’m having a great time. I’d just like some of that delicious sun. Of course, if you’d planned something...”

  “In fact, I had,” he murmured with a faint smile. “A meeting with two out-of-town oilmen. They’re staying on the floor below us, and we’ve got some problems at one of the rigs that I’d like to discuss. I was going to wait until tomorrow, but this may work out better.” He eyed her curiously. “But that isn’t going to leave us any time tonight,” he added slowly. “I’ve got to entertain one of the food chain representatives tonight. I may be out all night.”

  She hadn’t dreamed that anything could hurt so much. Food chain representative? Only if a pretty waitress could be loosely classified that way, she thought with shameful bitterness. But she only shrugged and smiled harshly.

  “I wouldn’t mind an early night,” she lied. “I brought along some material to work on a story with. It will give me just enough time to get it written. I hope you have a great time entertaining your representative. She sure looked eager enough to me!”

  Before he could reply, she took off at a run and didn’t stop until she got to her suite of rooms. For the first time, she locked the door between it and the sitting room. Then she threw herself down on her bed and let the tears scald her hot cheeks.

  She heard Cal enter the sitting room minutes later. While she sat up, rigid and nervous, she heard other sounds. A door opening and closing. The sound of a shower. Minutes later, the door opened and closed again. Sounds came into the room. A phone being dialed. A muffled deep voice. Footsteps that paced, coming close to her door for an instant. A hesitation. Then a muffled, harsh sound, followed by footsteps moving away, a door jerked open and being closed angrily. Then silence. A long, stifling silence.

  Only then did Nikki begin to breathe again. She wasn’t going to worry about mending this wall between them. Not now anyway. She was going to get on her bathing suit, go downstairs, and lie on the beach until the aching stopped. And then she’d think about going home. She could catch a flight back to Atlanta and have Mike meet her. She could always leave a note for Cal. Not that he’d mind, she was sure. It wouldn’t bother him that much to lose a friend. And no doubt the pretty waitress could console him...

  She got up and put on the black-and-white striped swimsuit she’d brought along, sliding her arms into a white beach robe. Maybe the sun would get her mind off her chaotic feelings.

  The beach wasn’t crowded, probably because most of the tourists were still at lunch, so Nikki picked a place near the water. She lay down on her stomach on the wildly striped beach towel, pausing to unclip the halter of the two-piece suit so that she wouldn’t have a line across her back from the suntan. Then she closed her eyes, wiped everything out of her mind and let the warm sun and watery sound of the surf relax her into a sweet, light sleep.

  She awoke to the sound of children laughing nearby. To the murmur of voices. And to a sensation like blistering all over her back.

  Her eyes flew open and the sensation got worse by the second. Her back felt stiff; as if her skin had been violently stretched to the point of bursting. There was the feel of a giant blister to it, and she knew before she eased the halter clip painfully together that she’d made a terrible mistake in letting herself go to sleep.

  The backs of her legs were red, too, but a glance over her shoulder told her belatedly that her back was in much worse shape. With a faint moan, she picked up the towel, slipped into her beach shoes and went back up to her rooms.

  She stripped off the halter and backed up to a full-length mirror in the bathroom, wincing when she saw what she’d accomplished with her impulsiveness.

  “Leave it to you,” she muttered at her pouting reflection. One side of her face was redder than the other, too, and already she was wondering how she was going to be able to bear anything against her back. She felt faintly nauseated, as well. If only she could get some cream on that blistered skin. But how was she going to reach behind her? And worst of all, how was she going to get home? It would be absolute torture to try to sit in an airplane seat—assuming that
she could get a dress on over it.

  She took the tube of suntan lotion and squeezed out a glob of it, easing it over the portions of her back that she could reach. She winced even at her own light touch. What was she going to do now?

  With a muffled sob at her own stupidity she walked back into her bedroom, a towel clutched to her breasts, and lay facedown on the quilted coverlet. It looked as if she might have to spend the rest of her life that way.

  A few minutes later there was a light tap at the door, followed by Genner’s polite voice. “Miss Blake?” he called.

  She relaxed. She’d been afraid that it was Cal, but she might have known that he’d never tap lightly at anyone’s door. In the mood he’d been in earlier, he was more likely to kick it down.

  “Yes, Genner?” she called back, her voice weak.

  “May I bring you anything, madam?” he replied. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here sooner, but as I explained to Mr. Steel, I was delayed at the post office.”

  “No, thank you, Genner,” she replied. “I...I just thought I’d lie down for a while. I’ve been on the beach and I’m...tired,” she added.

  “If I can be of assistance, please call,” he told her, and his footsteps went away.

  Nothing short of new skin on her back would be of any immediate assistance, but she couldn’t tell him that. What was she going to do?

  She got up and fished a couple of aspirin out of her suitcase. With her susceptibility to medicine they’d knock her out for at least a couple of hours and spare her that much pain. She swallowed them with a glass of water and lay back down on the bed. Minutes later she fell asleep.

  A deep voice cut through her restless dream and woke her up, along with a far from gentle touch on her arm.

  She gasped, half rising from the bed before she realized that there was nothing protecting her bare torso from Callaway Steel’s dark, angry eyes.

  With a gasp she dropped back down onto the bed, her face matching color with her back.

  “Where did you come from?” she asked drowsily.

  “That’s a long story,” he replied. “What the hell have you done to yourself? Do you realize that you’ve got a second-degree burn on your back? You little fool, I could beat you!”

  “Anywhere but on my back, please,” she whispered, with a weak attempt at humor. “I didn’t mean to go to sleep in the sun...”

  He was unscrewing the cap on some cream while she spoke. He noticed her pointed glance at it. “It’s an analgesic cream, to take some of the sting out. If you’re not better by the morning, you’ll see a doctor. Now grit your teeth. This is going to hurt like hell.”

  She chewed on her lip instead, wincing at even the gentle touch of his big hand as it smoothed the cool cream against the angry burn on her back.

  “You crazy idiot,” he growled as he smeared it on, taut anger in every hard line of his face. “Why the hell didn’t you stay in your room and throw things? There are kinder ways of getting back at a man.”

  “I wasn’t getting back at you,” she ground out. “I’m not that petty that I’d do myself in just to get at you,” she informed him stiffly. “I just went to sleep, that’s all.”

  “Well, you won’t sleep much now,” he said with venom in his deep voice.

  Tears welled up in her eyes. “And it will serve me right, won’t it? Why don’t you smooth some vinegar on it...?”

  “That’s enough.” His tone was uncompromising and full of authority. He finished rubbing in the cream. “Genner, bring me a cold, wet cloth.”

  “Yes, sir,” Genner replied from somewhere near the doorway, his pleasant voice concerned.

  “What are you going to do, choke me with it?” she asked tearfully.

  “Wipe your face,” he said quietly. His fingers moved up to smooth the disheveled hair away from her temple. “Want some aspirin?”

  The tenderness was her undoing. She couldn’t hold back the tears. She told him, tearfully, what time she’d taken the last two, and he calculated when she could have two more. Genner came back with the cloth and went out again, closing the door gently behind him. Cal bathed her hot face with the cloth, his hands tender, his eyes out of sight.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered with her eyes closed. “I feel like such a fool. I do want to go home, Cal.”

  “Like this?” he murmured, and there was amusement in his deep, slow voice. “You’d scandalize the airline.”

  She tried to smile. “There isn’t much to scandalize them with,” she managed weakly.

  His fingers ran over her soft hair. “There’s more than enough,” he murmured gently. “You have a lovely body. Exquisite.”

  She felt the heat in her cheeks, remembering that first surge of consciousness when she’d risen up without thinking and given him a brazenly clear look at her bareness.

  “Another first, Nikki?” he whispered gently. “I wasn’t disappointed.” His fingers moved down to the curve of her shoulder, tracing the inside of it with a touch that made her tremble. “My God, you’re perfect.”

  “Don’t...” she choked.

  “Too intimate?” he asked slowly. “Do you want me to pretend that I closed my eyes? I didn’t, Nikki. I couldn’t. I wanted to look at you.”

  Her eyes opened straight into his, and she felt tremors in the very fiber of her soul as she met that dark, quiet gaze.

  “How fortunate for you,” he said under his breath, “that you’re half-fried, Miss Blake. Because if you weren’t, nothing in this world would save you from me right now.”

  Her lips parted on a gasp that never got past them. Her heart felt as if it were going to strangle her with its wild beat.

  Cal bent, brushing his mouth lightly, tenderly, over her eyes, her small, pert nose. There was a tenderness in the caress that she’d never expected from a man like him.

  His fingers traced her soft mouth and he sighed heavily. “My God, you’re tangling me up like seaweed. Do you realize that?” he growled.

  “I’m not trying to,” she replied, forcing a smile. “I won’t get in your way. I’m sorry about this afternoon. I promise, it won’t ever happen again. Okay?”

  “It didn’t even dawn on me what you meant until I got back to my room,” he murmured, ignoring her little speech. “About my meeting. Nicole, that waitress used to work for me in this hotel. She left to marry the man who opened the restaurant. She’s just helping out today because one of their regular girls was sick.”

  She looked thunderstruck. “Oh,” she managed.

  His face clouded. “And despite the opinion you seem to have of me, I don’t seduce the hired help. When I want a woman that badly, I can afford one who knows the score. I don’t have to resort to pickups.”

  She felt ashamed, of her suspicions and her unfounded jealousy. “I’m sorry,” she said genuinely. “It was none of my business, and I had no right—”

  His finger pressed against her lips. “You want me,” he said quietly, putting it bluntly. “That gives you the right.”

  “Cal...”

  “And I want you,” he added, his hard face, his eyes, enforcing every word. His fingers contracted in her hair. “Oh my God, I want you, Nicole!”

  Her lips trembled. She couldn’t find the words to answer him.

  He drew in a harsh breath and stood up, bending his dark head to light a cigarette. He moved deliberately away from the bed, staring at the carpet.

  “I don’t know what to say,” she murmured miserably.

  “There’s nothing to say. I’ve tried every way I know to ward it off, but it’s like a damned tidal wave.” He made a contemptuous gesture, blowing out a cloud of smoke as he turned to face her. “I don’t want marriage,” he ground out.

  “I’m not asking you for anything,” she said, her eyes as soft as the words.

  “If we spend much time around each other,” he
replied, “I’m going to ask you for something. I’m going to ask you for that perfect body that you’ve never given to a man. And you won’t lift a finger to stop me. Will you, Nikki?” he added curtly.

  She eased onto her side with a sigh, drawing the towel against her like a security blanket, her eyes sad as they looked up into his. “No,” she admitted painfully. “I’d welcome you. You knew that from the beginning. But afterward...” Her eyes lowered.

  “Twenty-five years of conditioning don’t go away easily.”

  “I realize that.”

  She shifted, wincing as the sunburned skin protested. “What do you want, then?”

  He laughed shortly. “That’s a hell of a silly question.”

  She smiled in spite of herself. Her eyes traced every line of his body, his face almost worshipfully, loving the hard, smooth lines of it. He scowled at the look.

  “Don’t worry.” She laughed gently. “It’s just infatuation. Or desire. Or both. I wouldn’t know how to trap you.”

  “I feel trapped,” he said shortly. He finished the cigarette and stubbed it out in an ashtray. “It might be a good idea if we don’t see each other for a while. Are you sure you want to cut your vacation short?”

  “Yes,” she agreed sadly.

  He glanced at her. “Your birthday’s coming. I’ll pick you up in Ashton. I want to take you to New Orleans for some Creole food. As I remember, you told me that was your favorite.”

  That shocked her, that he should remember something so trivial. But she was learning that he remembered a lot of things that most people dismissed as too trivial. Small, dreadfully important things that endeared him to his staff. To her.

  “I’d like that very much.”

  He smiled half-heartedly. “Are you going to be all right? Genner will bring you a tray.”

  “That would be nice. Yes, I’ll live. I’ve had burns like this before,” she said with a laugh. “The last time I sunbathed, in fact.”