She doubted that he really cared. She wasn’t surprised he was at this function, but she was surprised he had deliberately sought her out, and there was no doubt in her mind he’d done so. Any other man who’d done what he had done would be avoiding her like the plague. But not Dr. Micah Westmoreland. The man had courage of steel, but in this case he had just used it foolishly. He was depending on her cultured upbringing to stop her from making a scene, and he was right about her. She had too much pride and dignity to cause a commotion tonight, although she’d gone off on him the last time they had seen each other. She still intended to let him know exactly how she felt by cutting him to the core, letting it be obvious that he was the last person she wanted to be around.
“I’m fine, and now if you gentlemen will excuse me, I’ll continue to make my rounds. I just arrived, and there are a number of others I want to say hello to.”
She needed to get away from Micah, and quick. He looked stunning in his tux, which was probably why so many women in the room were straining their necks to get a glimpse of him. Even her legs were shaky from being this close to him. She suddenly felt hot, and the cold champagne she’d taken a sip of wasn’t relieving the slow burn gathering in her throat.
“I plan to mingle, myself,” Micah said, reaching out and taking her arm. “I might as well join you since there’s a matter we need to discuss.”
She fought the urge to glare up at him and tell him they had nothing to discuss. She didn’t want to snatch her arm away from him because they were already getting attention, probably from those who’d heard what happened between them two years ago. Unfortunately, the gossip mill was alive and well, especially when it came to Micah Westmoreland. She had heard about him long before she’d met him. It wasn’t that he’d been the type of man who’d gone around hitting on women. The problem was that women just tended to place him on their wish list.
“Fine, let’s talk,” she said, deciding that if Micah thought he was up to such a thing with her, then she was ready.
Fighting her intense desire to smack that grin right off his face, she glanced over at Major Rose and smiled apologetically. “If you will excuse me, it seems Dr. Westmoreland and I have a few things to discuss. And I haven’t decided just where I’ll be going on vacation, but I’ll let you know. I think it would be fun if you were to join me.” She ignored the feel of Micah’s hand tightening on her arm.
Major Rose nodded and gave her a rakish look. “Wonderful. I will await word on your plans, Kalina.”
Before she could respond, Micah’s hand tightened on her arm even more as he led her away.
* * *
“Don’t count on Major Rose joining you anywhere,” Micah all but growled, leaning close to Kalina’s ear while leading her across the ballroom floor toward an exit. He had checked earlier and the French doors opened onto the outside garden. It was massive and far away from the ball, so no one could hear the dressing-down he was certain Kalina was about to give him.
She glared at him. “And don’t count on him doing otherwise. You don’t own me, Micah. Last I looked, there’s nothing of yours on my body.”
“Then look again, sweetheart. Everything of mine is written all over that body of yours. I branded you. Nothing has changed.”
They came to a stop in front of what was the hotel’s replica of the White House’s prized rose garden. He was glad no one was around. No prying eyes or overeager ears. The last time she’d had her say he hadn’t managed to get in a single word for dodging all the insults and accusations she’d been throwing at him. That wouldn’t be the case this time. He had a lot to say and he intended for her to hear all of it.
“Nothing’s changed? How dare you impose your presence on me after what you did,” she snarled, transforming from a sophisticated lady to a roaring lioness. He liked seeing her shed all that formality and cultural adeptness and get downright nasty. He especially liked that alteration in the bedroom.
He crossed his arms over his chest. “And what exactly did I do, other than to spend two months of what I consider the best time of my life with you, Kalina?”
He watched her stiffen her spine when she said, “And I’m supposed to believe that? Are you going to stand here and lie to my face, Micah? Deny that you weren’t in cahoots with my father to keep me away from Beijing, using any means necessary? I wasn’t needed in Sydney.”
“I don’t deny that I fully agreed with your father that Beijing was the last place you needed to be, but I never agreed to keep you out of China.”
He could tell she didn’t want to hear the truth. She’d heard it all before but still refused to listen. Or to believe it. “And it wasn’t that you weren’t needed in Sydney,” he added, remembering how they’d been sent there to combat the possible outbreak of a deadly virus. “You and I worked hard to keep the bird-flu epidemic from spreading to Australia, so it wasn’t just sex, sex and more sex for us, Kalina. We worked our asses off, or have you forgotten?”
He knew his statement threw her for a second, made her remember. Yes, they might have shared a bed every night for those two months, but their daytime hours weren’t all fun and games. No one except certain members of the Australian government had been aware that their presence in the country had been for anything other than pleasure.
And regardless of what she’d thought, she had been needed there. He had needed her. They had worked well together and had combated a contagious disease. He had already spent a year in Beijing and had needed to leave when his time was up. Depression had started to set in with the sight of people dying right before his eyes, mostly children. It had been so frustrating to work nonstop trying unsuccessfully to find a cure before things could get worse.
Kalina had wanted to go to Beijing and get right in the thick of things. He could just imagine how she would have operated. She was not only a great epidemiologist, she was also a compassionate one, especially when there was any type of outbreak. He could see her getting attached to the people—especially the children—to the point where she would have put their well-being before her own.
That, and that alone, was the reason he had agreed with her father, but at no time had he plotted to have an affair with her to keep her in Sydney. He was well aware that all her hostility was because she believed otherwise. And for two years he had let her think the worst, mainly because she had refused to listen to anything he had to say. It was apparent now that she was still refusing to listen.
“Have you finished talking, Micah?”
Her question brought his attention back to the present. “No, not by a long shot. But I can’t say it all tonight. I need to see you tomorrow. I know you’ll be in town for the next couple of days and so will I. Let’s do lunch. Even better, let’s spend that time together to clear things up between us.”
“Clear things up between us?” Kalina sneered in an angry whisper as red-hot fury tore through her. She was convinced that Micah had lost his ever-loving mind. Did he honestly think she would want to spend a single minute in his presence? Even being here now with him was stretching her to the limit. Where was a good glass of champagne when she wanted it? Nothing would make her happier right now than to toss a whole freakin’ glass full in his face.
“I think I need to explain a few things to you, Micah. There’s really nothing to clear up. Evidently you think I’m a woman that a man can treat any kind of way. Well, I have news for you. I won’t take it. I don’t need you any more than you need me. I don’t appreciate the way you and Dad manipulated things to satisfy your need to exert some kind of power over me. And I—”
“Power? Do you think that’s what I was trying to do, Kalina? Exert some kind of power over you? Just what kind of person do you honestly think I am?”
She ignored the tinge of disappointment she heard in his voice. It was probably just an act anyway. At the end of those two months, she’d discovered just what a great actor Micah could be. When she’d found out the truth, she had dubbed him the great pretender.
; Kalina lifted her chin and straightened her spine. “I think you are just like all the other men my father tried throwing at me. He says jump and you all say how high. I thought you were different and was proven wrong. You see Dad as some sort of military hero, a legend, and whatever he says is gospel. And although Micah is a book in the Bible, last time I checked, my father’s name was not. I am twenty-seven and old enough to make my own decisions about what I want to do and where I want to go. And neither you nor my father have anything to say about it. Furthermore—”
The next thing she knew, she was swept off her feet and into Micah’s arms. His mouth came down hard, snatching air from her lungs and whatever words she was about to say from her lips.
She struggled against him, but only for a minute. That was all the time it took for those blasted memories of how good he tasted and just how well he kissed to come crashing over her, destroying her last shred of resistance. And then she settled down and gave in to what she knew had to be pleasure of the most intense kind.
* * *
God, he had missed this, Micah thought, pulling Kalina closer into his embrace while plundering her mouth with an intensity he felt in every part of his body. She had started shooting off her mouth, accusing him of things he hadn’t done. Suddenly, he’d been filled with an overwhelming urge to kiss her mouth shut. So he had.
And with the kiss came memories of how things had been between them their last time together, before anger had set in and destroyed their happiness. Had it really been two years since he’d tasted this, the most delectable tongue any woman could possess? And the body pressed against his was like none other. A perfect fit. The way she was returning the kiss was telling him she had missed this intimate connection as much as he had.
Her accusations bothered him immensely because there was no truth to what she’d said. He, of all people, was not—and never would be—a yes-man to her father, or to anyone. Her allegations showed just how little she knew him, and he intended to remedy that. But for now, he just wanted to enjoy this.
He deepened the kiss and felt the simmer sear his flesh, heat his skin and sizzle through to his bones. Then there was that surge of desire that flashed through his veins and set off a rumble of need in his chest. He’d found this kind of effect from mouth-to-mouth contact with a woman only happened with Kalina. She was building an ache within him, one only she had the ability to soothe.
Over the past two years he’d thought he was immune to this and to her, but the moment she had walked into the ballroom tonight, he’d known that Kalina was in his blood in a way no other woman could or would ever be. Even now, his heart was knocking against his ribs and he was inwardly chanting her name.
Lulled by the gentle breeze as well as the sweetness of her mouth, he wrapped his arms around her waist as something akin to molten liquid flowed over his senses. Damn, he was feeling the heat, and it was causing his pulse to quicken and his body to become aroused in a way it hadn’t in years. Two years, to be exact.
And now he wanted to make up for lost time. How could she think he had pretended the passion that always flowed through his veins whenever he held her, kissed her or made love to her? He couldn’t help tunneling his fingers through her hair. He’d noticed she was wearing it differently and liked the style on her. But there was very little about Kalina Daniels that he didn’t like. All of which he found hard to resist.
He deepened the kiss even more when it was obvious she was just as taken, just as aroused and just as needy as he was. She could deny some things, but she couldn’t deny this. Oh, she was mad at him and that was apparent. But it was also evident that all her anger had transformed to passion so thick that the need to make love to her was clawing at him, deep.
Conversation between an approaching couple had Kalina quickly pulling out of his arms. All it took was one look in her eyes beneath the softly lit lanterns to see the kiss had fired her up.
He leaned in, bringing his lips close to hers. “You are wrong about me, Kal. I never sold out to your father. I’m my own man. No one tells me what to do. If you believe otherwise, then you don’t really know me.”
He saw something flicker in her eyes. He also felt the tension surrounding them, the charged atmosphere, the electrified tingle making its way up his spine. Now more than ever, he was fully aware of her. Her scent. Her looks.
She was breathtaking in the sexy, one-shoulder, black cocktail dress that hugged her curves better than any race car could hug the curves at Indy. There was a sensuality about her that would make any man’s pulse rise. Other men had been leery of approaching her that night in D.C. when he’d first flirted with her. After all, she was General Daniels’s daughter and it was a known fact the man had placed her on a pedestal. But unlike the other men, Micah wasn’t military under her father’s command. He was civilian personnel who didn’t have to take orders from the general.
She surprised him out of his thoughts when she leaned forward. He reached out for her only to have his hands knocked out of the way. The eyes staring at him were again flaring in anger. “I’m only going to say this once more, Micah. Stay away from me. I don’t want to have anything else to do with you,” she hissed, her breath fanning across his lips.
He sighed heavily. “Obviously you weren’t listening, Kalina. I didn’t have an affair with you because your father ordered me to. I was with you because I wanted to be. And you’re going to have a hard time convincing me that you can still be upset with me after having shared a kiss like that.”
“Think what you want. It doesn’t matter anymore, Micah.”
He intended to make it matter. “Spend tomorrow with me. Give it some thought.”
“There’s nothing to think about. Go use someone else.”
Anger flashed through him. “I didn’t use you.” And then in a low husky tone, he added, “You meant a lot to me, Kalina.”
Kalina swallowed. There was a time when she would have given anything to hear him say that. Even now, she wished that she could believe him, but she could not forget the look of guilt on his face when she’d stumbled across him discussing her with her father. She had stood in the shadows and listened. It hadn’t been hard to put two and two together. She had fled from the party, caught a cab and returned to the hotel where she quickly packed her stuff and checked out.
Her father had been the first one she’d confronted, and he’d told her everything. How he had talked Micah into doing whatever it took to keep her in Sydney and away from Beijing. Her father claimed he’d done it for her own good, but he hadn’t thought Micah would go so far as to seduce her. An affair hadn’t been in their plan.
“You don’t believe you meant something to me,” he said again when she stood there and said nothing.
She lifted her chin. “No, I don’t believe you. How can I think I meant anything to you other than a good time in bed when you explicitly told me in the very beginning that what we were sharing was a no-strings affair? And other than in the bedroom, you’d never let me get close to you. There’s so much about you I don’t know. Like your family, for instance. So how can you expect me to believe that I meant anything to you, Micah?”
Then, without saying another word, she turned and walked back toward the ballroom. She hoped that would be the end of it. Micah had hurt her once, and she would not let him do so again.
Two
By the time Micah got to his hotel room he was madder than hell. He slammed the door behind him. When he had returned to the ballroom, Kalina was nowhere to be found. Considering his present mood, that had been a good thing.
Now he moved across the room to toss his car keys on a table while grinding his teeth together. If she thought she’d seen the last of him then he had news for her. She was sadly mistaken. There was no way he would let her wash him off. No way and no how.
That kiss they’d shared had pretty much sealed things, whether she admitted it or not. He had not only felt her passion, he’d tasted it. She was still upset with him, but that hadn’t stop
ped them from arousing each other. After the kiss, there had been fire in her eyes. However, the fire hadn’t just come from her anger.
He stopped at a window and looked out, breathing heavily from the anger consuming him. Even at this hour the nation’s capital was busy, if the number of cars on the road was anything to go by. But he didn’t want to think about what anyone else was doing at the moment.
Micah rubbed his hand down his face. Okay, so Kalina had told the truth about him not letting her get too close. Thanks to an affair he’d had while in college, he’d been cautious. As a student, he’d fallen in love with a woman only to find out she’d been sleeping with one of her professors to get a better grade. The crazy thing about the situation was that she’d honestly thought he should understand and forgive her for what she’d done. He hadn’t and had made up in his mind not to let another woman get close again. He hadn’t shared himself emotionally with another woman since then.
But during his affair with Kalina, he had begun to let his guard down. How could she not know when their relationship had begun to change from a strictly no-strings affair to something more? Granted, there hadn’t been any time for candlelight dinners, strolls in the park, flowers and such, but he had shared more with her than he had with any other woman…in the bedroom.
He drew in a deep breath and had to ask himself, “But what about outside the bedroom, man? Did you give her reason to think of anything beyond that?” He knew the answer immediately.
No, he hadn’t. And she was right, he hadn’t told her anything about his family and he knew why. He’d taken his college lover, Patrice, home and introduced her to the family as the woman he would one day marry. The woman who would one day have his children. She had gotten close to them. They had liked her and in the end she had betrayed them as much as she had betrayed him.
He lifted his head to stare up at the ceiling. Now he could see all his mistakes, and the first of many was letting two years go by without seeking out Kalina. He’d been well aware of what her father had told her. But he’d assumed she would eventually think things through and realize her dad hadn’t been completely truthful with her. Instead, she had believed the worst. Mainly because she truly hadn’t known Micah.
Feeling the Heat Page 2
