by Bonnie Pega
“Gee, I don’t know. Maybe I’m psychic. You want to tell me or make me guess?”
“You ordered two pepperoni pizzas, Max,” she said.
Since they’d eaten a few meals together, he knew what she was getting at and was ready for her. “Pepperoni pizza is good for you since it has ingredients from four basic food groups.” Holding up one finger at a time, he continued. “There’s meat, vegetable—that’s the tomato sauce—dairy product—the mozzarella, of course—and grain, which in this case is whole wheat, as in whole wheat crust. Now you tell me if that’s not healthy.”
“Right,” Caitlin murmured. “The tomato sauce probably has artificial flavors and preservatives, and the whole milk mozzarella is loaded with cholesterol. As for the pepperoni, I don’t eat meat.”
“Not even one or two little innocent pepperonis?”
Caitlin looked horrified. “Max, do you realize how many calories are in those little innocent things, not to mention nitrates, preservatives, and cholesterol? And the cuts of meat they use—”
Max held up a hand. “Enough. I don’t really want to know where pepperoni comes from. But I do want to know if Jordan can’t have any.”
Caitlin glanced at her son playing a video game at the front of the restaurant. “I don’t force Jordie to be a vegetarian just because I am. When he buys lunch at school or goes to a friend’s house, he can eat whatever he wants. I simply choose not to cook meat at home.”
“So what does Jordan usually choose to eat on his own?” Max asked with interest.
Caitlin smiled a little. “Except for spaghetti day at school, he usually asks me to pack his lunch.”
“What does he do at a friend’s house?”
Her smile widened. “The little sneak decides whether or not he’s a vegetarian based on how well he likes what’s been fixed for dinner.”
Max laughed, then excused himself, saying Jordan probably needed another quarter for the game by now.
When he returned several minutes later, Caitlin raised her eyebrows. “Heavens, Max, just how many quarters did you give Jordie anyway?”
“Just a couple,” Max replied easily. “It took so long because I had to get exact change from the cashier.”
The real reason it had taken so long became apparent a few minutes later when the waitress brought their order. Instead of two pepperoni pizzas, only one was pepperoni; the other was what the waitress called a “Piggy’s Garden minus the pig.”
“That’s sausage, mushrooms, green peppers, onions, shredded carrots, and sliced tomatoes minus the sausage,” Max explained.
Goodness, but he confused her, Caitlin thought as she chewed on a bite of her pizza. First he’d do something that aggravated her, then he’d turn around and do something sweet. That really took the wind out of her sails. He wouldn’t even let her stay mad at him.
When Caitlin pulled into Max’s driveway, it was still fairly early. Max got Caitlin inside by mentioning that he’d just bought a computer game for his nephews to use. Would Jordan like to see it?
Max nearly winced at Caitlin’s razor-sharp glare but instead smiled and seated her on the sofa. After talking Jordan upstairs and settling him at the computer, he returned to Caitlin. When she took a deep breath and opened her mouth, obviously with the intention of speaking her mind, Max escaped to the kitchen to fix her a drink.
“Here you go,” he said a few minutes later when he came back and handed her a glass of orange juice. “No lemon.”
Ignoring the lemon joke, she immediately set the drink on the table. “Max, I will not—”
“I’d better go upstairs and make sure Jordan’s doing okay.” Max hurriedly got to his feet and went off, leaving Caitlin’s mouth hanging open in midsentence.
She turned her perplexed gaze to the dog sitting politely at her feet, waiting for her to notice him. While she scratched him behind the ears, she proceeded to tell the dog exactly what she thought of one Maximillian Tobias Shore.
Max, coming back, heard what she was saying and deciding discretion was the better part of valor, turned around to join Jordan for a few more minutes. He knew he wouldn’t get away with it when he stepped on the one squeaky spot on the whole staircase.
Caitlin turned her head with a snap and fastened her eyes on Max. “Oh, no, you don’t, you sneaky rat! Get over here and sit down. I want to talk to you. Now!” With her arms crossed and her back straight, she waited while Max descended. When he sat right next to her on the sofa, it disconcerted her, but she refused to give him the satisfaction of moving away.
“You wanted to see me, sweet Caitie?” he asked.
“You bet your stitches, I do,” she retorted in a low but heated voice. “What on earth do you mean by using Jordie like that?”
“Like what?”
“Don’t play dumb with me, Max Shore. You used him to get your way tonight. Don’t you dare deny it!” She turned her head away so he wouldn’t see that she really wasn’t as mad as she hoped she sounded.
“Okay, I won’t,” Max said, unruffled. “I used him to keep you from pushing me away.”
“Pushing you away?” Caitlin turned back to look at him.
“Don’t play dumb with me, Caitlin Love. You’ve been planning to push me away. Don’t you dare deny it.” He tossed her words back at her. “But I’m not going to let it happen. We’ve got too much going for us.”
“Like what?”
Max slid a finger under her chin and lifted her face to his. “Like this,” he said, and brushed a butterfly-delicate kiss across her left eyelid.
“Max,” she protested softly.
He ignored the protest and kissed her other eyelid. “And like this.” His lips teased one corner of her mouth, then the other, and trailed to her ear and the hollow beneath it.
“Max,” she protested more feebly than before.
“And this,” he breathed against the soft skin of her neck and traced a path with his tongue down to the collar of her blouse.
“Max.” Her voice was the barest whisper, all traces of protest gone now. She wanted more. The only parts of him touching her were the finger under her chin and his lips. And she wanted more. Her hands came up and fastened onto his shoulders.
Max lifted his head just enough to see Caitlin’s eyes. Fear wasn’t there, only a shy expectancy. His gut twisted and he swallowed, resting his hands lightly at her waist, trying to dampen the passion that threatened to blaze out of control. He couldn’t take a chance on coming on too strong and scaring her away.
Only when he had regained a fragment of his self-control did he allow himself to sip at her lips again and again, light kisses that seduced and tempted. It wasn’t until he felt her fingers curl into his back that he deepened the kiss. His tongue made daring forays into her mouth, luring hers to follow. When it did, he finally allowed his fingers the luxury of slowly sliding upward, to just beneath her full breasts.
Her whole body felt liquid and effervescent, as if afloat in a frothy sea, she thought hazily, and tightened her hands on his shoulders. He was her anchor, her security.
The feeling of security crumbled, however, when Max’s large, warm hands moved up to cover her breasts. Panic loomed its ugly head and Caitlin stiffened as her breath caught in her throat.
Max felt the change in her and ordered tenderly, “Open your eyes, sweet Caitie. Look at me.” When she did so, he held her gaze with his. “Just keep looking at me,” he whispered. “You’re so beautiful, so warm, so soft.” He continued to murmur soothing words as his hands moved gently over her full breasts.
Caitlin’s breath caught again, only this time she knew it had nothing to do with old specters and everything to do with the vibrant, sensual man who held her in his arms. She tilted her head back and closed her eyes, inviting him to take her lips again.
Max accepted the invitation gladly. Caitlin, vibrant and sassy, was enchanting, but Caitlin, soft and flushing, took his breath away. Only the knowledge that there was a small boy upstairs kept Max from goin
g further. He regretfully slid his hands down to a safer perch at her waist and pressed one last kiss to her lips.
“God, you are so sweet,” he murmured in her ear, then pulled back just enough to look at her. “Now tell me you don’t date,” he demanded.
She opened her eyes and returned his gaze. His eyes—were they royal blue? Midnight blue? Her lashes fluttered down. “I don’t,” she said in answer to his question. When his lips swooped down to nibble the side of her neck, she said breathlessly, “I—ah—I could make an exception.”
“You do that,” he growled against her neck. “For this Friday night.”
“Um, I—I don’t know if I can find a sitter for Jordie on such short notice,” Caitlin hedged.
Max sharply nipped the base of her throat, then soothed it with his tongue. “Friday night. I’ll pick you up at seven-thirty.”
Go on, insisted a little voice inside her. What harm could it do? They were very different, that’s true, but accepting a dinner invitation certainly wasn’t saying yes to a proposal of marriage. Besides, the warm, liquid feeling in her limbs was nice, more than nice. Wonderful. She owed it to herself to explore this feeling further. “Okay. I’ll try to work something out,” she acquiesced breathlessly as Max’s lips continued their delicate assault on her throat.
“Mom? Is Max kissing it better or is this just some mushy stuff?” an interested voice piped from the stairs.
Caitlin could feel hot color paint her cheeks and was speechless, but Max, unembarrassed, looked up and said, “What do you think, Jordie?”
“Who knows?” Jordan gave an unconcerned shrug. “Do you have anything to eat?”
“Jordie!” Caitlin admonished, hoping she wasn’t as red as she felt. “We ate just a little while ago.”
“It was hours ago, Mom, and I’m starvin’.”
“Growing boy, Mom,” Max said. “Is it okay if I give him a piece of fruit?”
Jordan didn’t wait for his mother to answer. “Do you have any bananas? I love bananas.”
“Well, bananas it is, then. Okay?” He waited for Caitlin’s nod before heading Jordan toward the kitchen.
Caitlin got to her feet and wandered around the living room, looking for signs that might reveal something else about the man who lived here. The furniture was nice but nondescript, and, although Caitlin was no expert, not terribly expensive.
The one piece that didn’t fit was an antique rolltop desk in perfect condition. There were intricate carved designs on the side panels and the wood gleamed with the patina of fine old cherry. Even the brass fittings had been polished till they shone. She ran a hand carefully across the surface.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
Caitlin turned at the sound of Max’s voice and nodded. “Oh, yes.”
“I found it a few years ago at a flea market in Vermont. It’s probably about a hundred and fifty years old. It was one of the few things I managed to keep.”
“Managed to keep?”
“After the divorce. Jackie hired some hotshot attorney, and I had a kid fresh out of law school. I’m still not quite sure how she managed it, but she got just about everything. I fought tooth and nail to keep the desk and the business. In the end, that was about all I kept,” Max said matter-of-factly, as if it didn’t matter.
Did it really not matter, Caitlin wondered, or was Max a good enough actor to make it seem that way? Did anyone emerge from a failed marriage unscathed? “How long were you married?” Caitlin asked quietly.
“Three years. Three of the longest years of my life.”
“Why—no, never mind. It’s none of my business.” Caitlin dropped her gaze back to the desk.
“It’s more your business than you’re willing to admit. Ask me anything.”
“Okay.” She glanced up. “What happened?” Caitlin couldn’t believe she’d really asked such a nosy question. She also couldn’t believe how interested she was in the answer.
Max leaned against the desk. “I met Jackie when I did some work for her father’s company. Her father was impressed with me and promised I’d really go places. He began to invite me to various functions. I’d usually end up as Jackie’s date. It really didn’t seem like much of a hardship. Jackie is well educated and beautiful.”
Caitlin swallowed back a twinge that might have been jealousy and nodded.
Max sighed. “Somehow, we wound up engaged. That really didn’t bother me too much either. I was twenty-five at the time and had been thinking about settling down. I felt I could do a lot worse.” Max gave a short laugh. “Let’s face it. Feeling you could do a lot worse isn’t much of a reason to get married, but I was intent on making it work.”
He smiled grimly. “While I was intent on making our marriage work, Jackie was intent on making me work. We’d been married about two years when I realized what was wrong. I wasn’t rising fast enough or high enough to support Jackie in the style to which she wanted to become accustomed. She began pushing, wanting me to take advantage of her father’s connections, expand my company, open branches.”
“What did you do?”
“I tried to make her understand that wasn’t the vision I had for my company. I didn’t care about expanding. I didn’t care about being the biggest, just the best. Needless to say, that didn’t go over well. The first six months of the third year, we argued constantly. The last six months, we didn’t speak at all. Then one day I came home and found her in bed with her father’s administrative assistant. A real up-and-comer, she assured me,” Max said wryly. “It was almost a relief. Until I heard what she was asking for in the divorce settlement.”
“What was she asking for?”
“Everything. The house, the car, the bank accounts, the business. Even my dog. And he is my dog,” Max exclaimed indignantly. “I’ve had him since I was twenty-two and right out of college. She just wanted him to spite me, I guess.”
“Oh, Max, I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t apologize, Cait. I managed to keep the things that really mattered—the dog, the business, the desk. I probably would have kept more had I fought hard enough, but it wasn’t worth the effort. I wanted to put all the ugliness behind me and get on with a new life.”
“Well, it looks like you’ve done well with that.”
Max smiled. “Yeah. And I’ve done even better the past few weeks. I took on this new account, you see, and met this absolute angel. I’m really hoping that one day she’ll trust me enough to tell me her life story, just like I told her mine.” His gaze flowed over her, lingering on kiss-swollen lips.
Caitlin whirled away. “I’d better round up Jordie. I need to get him home so he can get his homework done. At least I think he has homework. He usually does. I just don’t—” Her voice died abruptly when Max reached out one hand and encircled her wrist.
“I’ll let you run away this time, Caitie, but not forever.”
“Don’t push, Max, please.” Her eyes pleaded with him.
“You’ve got to tell me sometime,” he said softly. “You know that, don’t you?”
Caitlin took a deep breath, then nodded. “Sometime. But not now.”
“When?”
“When I can talk about it,” she said softly.
“Mom? Can I have another banana?”
Caitlin tore her gaze away. “Absolutely not, young man. It’s time for us to go home. It’s only an hour till your bedtime, and you have homework to do.”
“I don’t have any homework tonight, Mom.”
“Well, then you have spelling words you can study.”
“But Mom—”
“Jordan.” She said it quietly, but in the tone of voice Jordan had heard often enough to know what it meant.
Max swept Jordan up into a bear hug. “That’s right, Jordan. Go on and study those spelling words. I can’t have my best buddy flunk spelling.”
Jordan’s eyes lit up. “Am I your best buddy, Max?”
Max gave him another squeeze. It felt so good to have this young boy’s
trusting arms hug him back. “You bet.” He set Jordan down on his feet. “You run along to the van and get the best seat. I’ll send Mom out in a minute.”
“Um, I’ve got to go, Max,” Caitlin said immediately. “Thanks for the pizza.”
Max’s eyes gleamed. “Gee, seems I need to teach you how to say thank-you properly.”
Caitlin’s eyes darted to the door, then back to Max’s face. She stood on tiptoe and pressed a brief kiss on his cheek. “Thank you, Max,” she said demurely, and headed toward the door.
She felt hands fasten gently but firmly on her shoulders and turn her around. “Wrong again, sweet Caitie.”
She smiled—a nervous smile, a shy smile—as his gaze dropped to her lips. He lowered his head to taste that smile, and felt her tremble against him. He pulled back to see her face, and what he found there reassured him that she hadn’t been shaking from fear.
“Max?” Her voice was a plea and he answered by again claiming her lips. When Caitlin voluntarily parted her lips, inviting him to enter, he felt breathless, but that didn’t stop him from storming in and claiming the territory for his own.
When he finally pulled away, his conquest complete, he was satisfied to see the soft, dazed look on her face. “Can you pick me up in the morning? You still have my car, you know.” Max was vaguely surprised at the warm huskiness of his voice.
Caitlin nodded. “Um, why don’t I pick you up a half hour early and take you back to get it? Or I could take you with me now.”
A few more minutes with her. Max accepted immediately.
When they arrived at her house, Jordan bounded out and up the sidewalk with Caitlin’s key in his hand. He loved to unlock the door. Max turned toward Caitlin and reached out a hand to cup her cheek. “Thanks for the rides, Cait.”
“You’re welcome. I’d better go in. Jordan’s waiting at the door. Good night, Max.”
When his head moved toward hers, she opened the van door and got out. She needed time to sort out the strange new feelings inside her, and his kisses muddled her thinking.
Max just gave an understanding smile. He was satisfied with the evening. More than satisfied. And, after all, there was always Friday night.
