Cal pulled a waxed paper bag from the cooler. “Doughnuts,” he said, but before he could go on, a too-familiar piping voice came from behind him.
“Can I have one?”
He sighed and turned around to see his skinny, grubby, dark-haired nephew standing at the end of the picnic table. “Shouldn’t you be home by now?”
“They forgot again,” Harry said, putting a lot of pathetic in his voice. It helped that he wore glasses and was small for his age. He peered around Cal. “Hello,” he said cautiously to Min.
“Min,” Cal said, glaring at Harry. “This is my nephew, Harry Morrisey. He was just leaving. Harry, this is Min Dobbs.”
“Hi, Harry,” Min said cheerfully. “You can have all the doughnuts.”
Harry brightened.
“No, you can’t.” Cal took out his cell phone. “You’d just throw them up again.”
“Maybe not.” Harry sidled closer to the doughnut bag.
“You do remember the cupcake disaster, right?” Cal said as he punched in his sister-in-law’s number.
“Can’t he have one?” Min smiled at Harry as he drew closer, her face soft and kind, and Cal and Harry both blinked at her for a moment because she was so pretty.
Then while Cal listened to the phone ring, Harry looked at Min’s skirt and poked it with his finger.
“Harry” Cal said, and Min pulled out one of her sandals.
“Here,” she told Harry, and he poked at the flower.
“Those are shoes,” Harry said, as if he were observing an anomaly.
“Yep,” Min said, watching him, her head tilted.
Harry poked the flower again. “That’s not real.”
“No,” Min said. “It’s just for fun.”
Harry nodded as if this were a new idea, which, Cal realized, it probably was. Not a lot of floppy flowers on red toes in Harry’s world.
Min reached in the bag and handed him a doughnut.
“Thank you, Min,” Harry said, still channeling abused orphans.
“Don’t buy his act,” Cal said to Min.
“I’m not.” Min grinned at Harry. “You look like you’re doing fine, kid.”
“I had to play baseball,” Harry said bitterly. “Are those hot dogs?”
“No,” Cal said. “You know you’re not allowed to have processed meat. Go over there on that bench and eat your doughnut.”
“He can eat it here,” Min said, putting her arm around him protectively.
Harry, no dummy, leaned into Min’s hip.
Bet that’s soft, Cal thought, and then realized he was close to being jealous of his eight-year-old nephew. “Harry,” he said warningly, but then his sister-in-law answered her phone. “Bink? You forgot to pick up your kid.”
“Reynolds,” Bink said in her perfectly modulated tones. “It was his turn.”
“He’s not here,” Cal said.
Bink sighed. “Poor Harry. I’ll be right there. Thank you, Cal.”
“Anything for you, babe.” Cal shut off his phone and looked over at Harry. “Your mother is coming. Look on the bright side, you get a doughnut and your mother, instead of nothing and your father.”
“Two doughnuts,” Harry said.
“Harry, you barf,” Cal said. “You can’t have two doughnuts. Now go away. This is a date. Seven years from now, you will understand what that means.”
“This isn’t a date,” Min said. “He can stay.”
Harry nodded at her sadly. “It’s okay.”
“Oh, come off it, Harrison,” Cal said, knowing Harry was milking the situation. “You have a doughnut. Go over on that bench and eat it.”
“All right.” Harry trailed disconsolately across the grass to a nearby Lutyen bench, his doughnut clutched in his grubby little hand.
“He’s so cute,” Min said, laughing softly. “Who’s Bink?”
“My sister-in-law,” Cal said, watching Harry, who still looked skinny, grubby, and bitter to him. “I don’t see the cute part. But he’s not a bad kid.”
“Bink,” Min said, as if trying to get her head around the name.
“It’s short for Elizabeth,” Cal said. “Elizabeth Margaret Remington-Pastor Morrisey.”
“Bink,” Min said. “Okay.”
Cal picked up a doughnut. “Your turn, Dobbs.”
Min leaned back. “Oh no. No, no, no.”
He leaned forward to wave it under her nose. “Come on, sin a little.”
“I hate you,” Min said, her eyes on the doughnut. “You are a beast and a vile seducer.”
Cal lifted an eyebrow. “All that for one doughnut? Come on. One won’t kill you.”
“I am not eating a doughnut,” Min said, tearing her eyes away from it. “Are you crazy? There are twelve grams of fat in one of those. I have three weeks to lose twenty pounds. Get away from me.”
“This is not just a doughnut,” Cal said, tearing it in two pieces under Min’s eyes, the chocolate icing and glaze breaking like frost, the tender pastry pulling apart in shreds. “This is a chocolate-iced Krispy Kreme glazed. This is the caviar of doughnuts, the Dom Perignon of doughnuts, the Mercedes-Benz of doughnuts.”
Min licked her lips. “I had no idea you were a pastry freak,” she said, trying to pull back farther, but the wind blew her skirt over to Cal again, and this time he moved his knee to pin it down.
He broke a bite-size piece from one of the halves. “Taste it,” he said, leaning still closer to hold the piece under her nose. “Come on.”
“No.” Min clamped her lips shut, and then shut her eyes, too, screwing up her face as she did.
“Oh, that’s adult.” He reached out and pinched her nose shut, and when she opened her mouth to protest, he popped the doughnut in.
“Oh, God,” she said, and her face relaxed as the pastry melted in her mouth, her smile curling across her face.
Cal relaxed, too, and thought, Feeding this woman is like getting her drunk.
Then she swallowed and opened her eyes, and he held out another piece so he could see that expression again. “Come here, Dobbs.”
“No,” Min said, pulling back. “No, no, no.”
“You say that a lot,” Cal said. “But the look in your eyes says you want it.”
“What I want and what I can have are two different things.” Min leaned back farther, stretching her skirt, but her eyes were on the doughnut. “Get that thing away from me.”
“Okay.” Cal sat back and bit into it while she watched, the sugar rush distracting him for a moment until Min bit her lip, her strong white teeth denting the softness there. His heart picked up speed, and she shook her head at him.
“Bastard,” she said.
He bit into the doughnut again, and she said, “That’s enough, I’m out of here,” and leaned forward to pull her skirt out from under him. “Would you get off—” she began, and he popped another piece of doughnut in her mouth and watched as her lips closed over the sweetness. Her face was beautifully blissful, her mouth soft and pouted, her full lower lip glazed with icing, and as she teased the last of the chocolate from her lip, Cal heard a rushing in his ears. The rush became a whisper—THIS one—and he breathed deeper, and before she could open her eyes, he leaned in and kissed her, tasting the chocolate and the heat of her mouth, and she froze for a moment and then kissed him back, sweet and insistent, blanking out all coherent thought. He let the taste and the scent and the warmth of her wash over him, drowning in her, and when she finally pulled back, he almost fell into her lap.
She sat across from him, her sweater rising and falling under quick breaths, her dark eyes flashing, wide awake, her lush lips parted, open for him, and then she spoke.
“More,” she breathed and he looked into her eyes and went for her.
Chapter Five
Cal’s eyes were as dark as chocolate, and Min panicked as he leaned close again. She put her hand on his chest, and said, “No, wait,” and he looked down and said, “Right,” and picked up another piece of doughnut. She opened
her mouth to say, “No,” and he slipped the piece in and the heat of her mouth dissolved the icing as she closed her eyes, and the tang went everywhere, melting into pleasure. And when she opened her eyes, he was there.
He leaned forward and kissed her softly, his mouth fitting hers so perfectly that she trembled. She tasted the heat of him and licked the chocolate off his lip and felt his tongue against hers, hot and devastating, and when he broke the kiss, she was breathless and dizzy and aching for more. He held her eyes, looking as dazed as she felt, but she wasn’t deceived at all, she knew what he was.
She just didn’t care.
“More,” she said, and he reached for the pastry, but she said, “No, you,” and grabbed his shirt to pull him closer, and he kissed her hard this time, his hand on the back of her head, and she fell into him, as glitter exploded behind her eyelids. She felt his hand on her waist, sliding hot under her sweater, and her blood surged, and the rush in her head said, THIS one.
Then he jerked forward and smacked into her.
“Ouch?” she said, and he looked behind him, still clutching her with both hands.
“What the hell?” Cal said.
“I said,” Liza said, holding up her leather purse, “what are you doing?”
“What does it look like I’m doing?”
“I cut my mouth,” Min said, touching her finger to her lip.
Cal turned back to her and pulled her finger away, his face flushed and concerned, and he was so close to her that she leaned forward as her heart pounded, and he did, too, his eyes half closed again, and she thought, Oh, God, yes. Then Liza jerked at Min’s arm and almost pulled her off the table.
“Get down from there, Stats,” Liza said as Min’s head reeled.
“Tony,” Cal said through his teeth.
“Sorry, pal,” Tony said. “She’s uncontrollable.”
“We were just having dessert.” Min scooted back as far as she could with Cal still sitting on her skirt. I know that was dumb, she thought, trying not to look at him, but I want that again.
“Dessert?” Liza looked down at the table. “You’re eating doughnuts?”
“Oh,” Min said, guilt clearing some of her daze.
“What are you?” Cal glared at Liza. “The calorie police? Go away.”
“No,” Liza said. “I think she should eat all the doughnuts she wants. I just don’t want you feeding them to her.”
“Why?” Cal said savagely.
“Because you are Hit-and-Run Morrisey, and she’s my best friend.” Liza tugged on Min’s arm again. “Come on. Bonnie’s waiting.”
“I’m what?”
Min tried to scoot back a little more, but Cal was still on her skirt. Which is all right, really.
“Bonnie’s over there on a park bench talking to Roger,” Tony said to Liza. “She could care less.”
“Couldn’t care less,” Liza said. “And she could.” She fixed Min with a stare. “We’ve talked about this. Get off that table.”
Right, Min thought. I don’t want to.
Across from her, Cal looked even more gorgeous than usual, enraged in the sunlight, but as her daze lifted, she remembered why she wasn’t supposed to be there. “Could I have my skirt back, please?” she said, faintly, and he rolled back enough that she could pull the fabric free. “Thank you very much. For lunch. I had a wonderful time.”
“Stay,” he said, and she looked into his eyes and thought, Oh, yes.
“No,” Liza said and pulled Min off the table so that she stumbled onto the grass.
“She can make up her own mind,” Cal said.
“Yeah?” Liza took a step closer to him. “Tell me you know her. Tell me you care about her. Tell me you’re going to love her until the end of time.”
“Liza,” Min said, tugging on her arm.
“I just met her three days ago,” Cal said.
“Then what are you doing kissing her like that?” Liza turned her back on him. “Come on, Min.”
“Thank you for lunch,” Min said as Liza tightened her grip. She reached back for her sandals on the table and caught the ribbons, and then Liza dragged her away through the trees.
When they were gone, Cal turned to Tony and said, “I can’t decide whether to have you killed or do it myself.”
“Not me, Liza,” Tony said. “And she did call Min’s name and poke you in the side a couple of times before she whacked you in the back of the head with her purse.” His eyes went to the table. “Hey, hot dogs.” He sat on the table and reached for a sandwich.
“That woman is insane,” Cal said, rubbing the back of his head. The heat was subsiding now that Min was gone, but it wasn’t making him any happier. “That was assault.”
“She’s insane?” Tony said, as he unwrapped a brat. “How about you?”
“It wasn’t that big a deal.” Ten minutes more and we would have been naked. That would have been a big deal.
“Tell that to Harry,” Tony said. “That was probably more than he needed to know about what Uncle Cal does with his free time.”
“Harry?” Cal said and looked over to where Harry had been sitting. He was still there, only now there was a thin blonde with him. Bink. Cal closed his eyes and the memory of Min’s heat vanished. “Tell me Bink wasn’t watching us, too.”
“Don’t know. She wasn’t there when we got here so she may just have caught the big finish. What the hell am I sitting on?” He pulled a red-flowered shoe out from under the blanket.
“Min’s,” Cal said, getting a nice flashback to her toes. “Give it to Liza when you get the chance. Down her throat, if possible.”
“Yeah, like I’ll remember,” Tony said and tossed it in the cooler.
Cal dug it out again before the ice could get the flower wet and tried to get his mind off Min. “It turns out that Bonnie’s a good deal, so Roger’s okay.” He turned Min’s sandal around in his hand. It was a ridiculous thing with a little stacked heel that probably sank into the ground when she walked across the grass and that dopey flower that would get screwed up if she wore them in the rain, and that was a turn-on, too.
“Roger’s not okay,” Tony said around a mouthful of brat. “He’s going to get married.”
“It’s not death,” Cal said, trying to imagine why anybody as practical as Min would wear a shoe like that. But then, Min clearly had an impractical streak or she wouldn’t have frenched him on a picnic table. The rush he got from that blanked out sound for a moment. “What?” he said.
“I said, yes, that’s why you’re running like a rabbit from Cynthie,” Tony said.
“Well, marriage is not for me, but it’s probably for Roger,” Cal said, dropping the shoe on the table. “He’s never been big on excitement.”
“True,” Tony said. “And if Bonnie is a nice woman, maybe I’ll live over their garage after all.”
“More good news for me,” Cal said, and thought of Min again, full and hot under his hands— No. He didn’t need any more hostility in his life. If he wanted great sex, he could always go back to Cynthie, who at least was never bitchy. He tried to call up Cynthie’s memory to blot out Min’s, but she seemed gray and white next to Min’s lush, exasperating, heat-inducing, open-toed Technicolor.
“What?” Tony said.
“Are there any hot dogs left?” Cal said. “That you haven’t sat on?”
Tony found one under a fold in the blanket and passed it over, and Cal unwrapped it and bit into it, determined to concentrate on a sense that wasn’t permeated with Min. Then he remembered her face when she’d tasted the brat, and imagined her face like that with her body moving under his, hot and lush, her lips wet—
Oh, hell, he thought.
“So what are you going to tell Harry?” Tony said.
“About what?”
“About you doing Min on a picnic table,” Tony said. “You guys looked pretty hot.”
“I’m going to tell him I’ll explain it when he’s older,” Cal said, and thought, We were hot. And now we’re d
one. “Much older,” he said, and went back to the cooler for a beer.
“Okay, why did we have to leave?” Bonnie said when they were in Liza’s convertible and Min was banished to the backseat.
“Because Min was swapping tongues with a doughnut pusher.” Liza looked back over the seat at Min the sinner and shook her head.
Bonnie turned so she could see over the seat, too. “You ate doughnuts?”
“Yes,” Min said, still trying to fight her way back from dazed. “Big deal.”
Bonnie nodded as Liza started the car. “Was he a good kisser?”
“Yes,” Min said. “Pretty good. Very good. World class. Phenomenal. Woke me right up. Plus there were the doughnuts, which were amazing.” She thought about Cal again, all that heat and urgency, and as Liza started down the curving drive to the street, Min lay down on the back seat before she fell over from residual dizziness. It felt good to lie down but it was such a shame she was alone.
“Have you lost your mind?” Liza said, over the seat.
“Just for that minute or two,” Min said from the seat, watching the treetops move by overhead. “I kind of enjoyed it.” A lot.
“You know,” Bonnie said to Liza, “he might be legit. He looked really happy with her. Roger even said so.”
“Oh, well if Roger says so,” Liza said.
“Don’t make fun of Roger,” Bonnie said, warning in her voice.
“Okay,” Min said, sitting up again as her world steadied. “I’m fine now. Very practical.” She picked up her shoe to untangle the ribbons. “So how was Tony?”
“Mildly amusing,” Liza said. “Stop changing the subject. What are you going to do about Cal?”
“Not see him again,” Min said, looking for her second sandal. “Oh, for heaven’s sake. I left a shoe behind. We have to go back.”
“No,” Liza said and kept driving.
“They’re my favorite shoes,” Min said, trying to sound sincere.
“All your shoes are your favorite shoes,” Liza said. “We’re not going back there.”
“Are you okay, honey?” Bonnie said to Min.
“I’m great,” Min said, nodding like a maniac. “Cal told me all about Roger. You have my blessing.”
Welcome to Temptation/Bet Me Page 47
