by Leslie Kelly
“No, I don’t want to put you out. I have to go to their house and get the baby,” Claudia said.
“Claudia," he insisted, "I've been asking you to ride with me to work, anyway. And I was just about to leave. We’ll swing by Ryan's place, pick up Sarah and head home.”
Claudia bit her lip uncertainly, but Chase didn’t appear to want to take no for an answer.
“I even drove my car instead of my pickup today, because I took Dorien to a doctor’s appointment this morning. We can get Sarah’s car seat and be ready to leave after I call for the tow truck.”
Not waiting for her reply, he opened the car door and stepped out. Claudia sighed, shrugged, and got out as well. He helped her unbuckle the car seat from the back and carried it to the other side of the parking lot where his mid-size sedan sat alone. Claudia grimaced a little as she saw a few crumbs and dried milk stains on the baby seat, worrying about the interior of his extremely expensive car. He didn’t seem to give it a thought, though, and quickly buckled it in.
They turned to walk toward the building, and Claudia shivered a as a cool breeze whipped through her short-sleeved dress. “Chilly?” he asked as he moved closer.
“A little,” she said with a nod.
Claudia smiled lightly when Chase draped his arm across her shoulders and pulled her body close to his. His warmth filled her, as always. Not satisfied that she was warm enough, he slipped his suit jacket off his shoulders and placed it over hers.
“Don’t be silly, we’re almost inside,” she protested, but he ignored her.
While Chase went to his office to gather his things and call for the tow truck, Claudia quickly called Melanie from the lobby to tell her she was running late. Chase hadn’t asked for his jacket back, and she didn’t take it off. Its weight gave a sense of comfort, even as the wool scratched a little at her neck. It smelled of him...not of a cologne, but of Chase, all warmth and seduction, just like his body smelled when he wrapped her in his arms. She couldn’t resist closing her eyes, tilting her head to the side and breathing deeply of it.
“Claudia?”
Opening her eyes with a start, Claudia was surprised to see Chase standing directly in front of her. His dark eyes lingered on her, narrowing slightly as he looked at her cheek brushing against the lapel of his jacket.
"Do you have that look in your eyes when it's my skin your cheek is resting against?"
"You know I do," she murmured.
Chase didn't give her a chance to protest as he bent forward to capture her mouth in a passionate kiss. She slipped her arms around his neck, loathe to let him go, even for the few minutes it would take to walk to his car.
Finally, with a heartfelt sigh, he lifted his mouth from hers and said, “Are you ready?”
She smiled flirtatiously.
"Seems with you I'm always ready."
Chase nodded and his eyes narrowed. "My desk is awfully strong."
Claudia stepped away from him and held up her hand, palm out.
"As much as I'd like to test that strong desk of yours, we really should go."
Chase nodded ruefully and reached around her to push the door open. Feeling every second of contact as his arm slid across the side of her waist in a long, drawn out stroke, Claudia quivered. She paused numbly, her body tingling in its now accustomed response to his touch.
"Claudia," he said softly, "you'd better get out of here now, or we're not going to get to Melanie's for at least another hour."
He paused with his hand on the knob, and Claudia watched as he stroked the brass surface, making a slight circular motion with his thumb. She had to close her eyes to block out the sudden images of his hand touching her breast in just that way.
Chase didn’t look at her as she sidestepped and turned her heat-filled face toward the floor. Standing behind her, with the sweet scent of her hair just inches from his face, and her supple body separated from his by no more than a heartbeat, he’d been very aware of every breath she took, every slight shift she made.
"Well," Claudia said breathlessly. "Maybe a half an hour?"
Chase didn't wait for her to say another word. Bending over, he picked her up and carried her to his office.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“I hope Melanie won’t be worried,” Claudia said as she buttoned her blouse and tried to fix her hair. “I know she expected us by now."
"Regrets?" Chase asked raising an eyebrow.
"Not on your life," she said with a sultry stare.
Chase kissed her on the mouth, slid his hand through the hair she'd just rearranged, then pulled away with a sorrowful sigh.
“I guess we'd better go. You can call Melanie from the car, if you want,” he said.
Chase followed her out of the building and locked the door. They hadn't hit the traffic light on Bougainvillea before Chase reached his arm across the seat and tugged her closer. She curled up against his side, breathing warm exhalations against the skin of his neck, fitting him as perfectly as if she'd been tailor made. But when they pulled into Melanie and Ryan's driveway, Claudia quickly pulled away.
“Here we are,” Claudia said brightly, wondering for a brief second if Melanie had been looking out the window and seen her curled up against Chase like a cat next to a warm hearth. Claudia barely waited until the car reached a complete stop before she hopped out. Chase quickly followed, reaching the porch just as Melanie opened the door.
“Well, hello. We were just beginning to wonder if something was wrong.” Melanie said.
“I should have called again," Claudia said. Explaining about the car, she concluded, "Chase is going to drive us home.”
“That’s all right,” Melanie insisted. She smiled brightly when she saw Chase standing in the shadows on the porch and said, “Come in, both of you.”
Claudia followed Melanie into the house. Chase watched as she immediately went toward the living room. Sarah sat in her pack-and-play, biting on a soft plastic book, and smiled broadly when she saw her mother.
“I made a big roast, much too much for just Ryan and me. Please say you’ll stay,” Melanie said. “Both of you.”
“I’m just the chauffeur,” Chase said with a shrug. “It’s entirely up to Claudia.”
“Oh, no, we couldn’t put you out any more,” Claudia insisted as she picked Sarah up. “I’m sure you have things to do this evening, Chase.”
“You know me,” Chase replied with a shrug. “I’m not about to pass up a home-cooked meal.”
“Please, Claudia, give the poor man a chance to try some of my mashed potatoes,” Melanie insisted.
“Oh, no,” Claudia groaned. “Tell me Ryan hasn’t talked you into the ones with whipping cream and a pound of butter...”
“We’re staying,” Chase said with a firm nod.
“Okay, okay,” Claudia said with a laugh. “Far be it for me to force a bachelor into one more night of frozen dinners or pizza.”
While Melanie finished preparing dinner, and Claudia played with Sarah, Chase filled Ryan in on some of what he and Claudia had been discussing about the courthouse project. Claudia didn’t pay too much attention as they got into technical details, but noticed the two of them seemed very friendly. Throughout dinner, the conversation remained easy and casual. Ryan didn’t seem the least intimidated to be entertaining his boss, and Chase appeared completely comfortable in Ryan and Melanie’s home. She wasn’t too surprised when, after finishing dinner, Ryan urged them to stay for a game of cards.
“Be careful, he’s a shark,” Melanie said with a smirk as she cleared the dining room table. Claudia stood to help her, but Melanie waved her off, urging her to play with Sarah, who had finished her own dinner and wanted out of her high chair.
“I think Sarah liked the little bit of mashed potatoes I let her try,” Claudia called to Melanie as she cleaned the baby off and removed her from her chair.
“I think she would have liked them better if they were blue and she’d had a nice white piece of paper to spread them on,”
Chase said dryly. “She seems to have mistaken them for finger-paint.”
Claudia raised a haughty brow. “It so happens, Mr. Paxton, that this was her first experience with mashed potatoes. And obviously, since more ended up in her tummy then all over my face, she enjoyed them very much.”
Claudia smiled at Chase over Sarah’s head, enjoying their light-hearted banter. Chase didn’t seem to be in any hurry to leave, so Claudia sat on the floor in the living room, playing with the baby while she talked with Melanie. Her friend seemed more cheerful than she had been in the past few weeks, but Claudia didn’t have a chance to ask any discreet questions.
“Come on, sweet pea,” Claudia urged as she stood Sarah up for the seventh time and steadied the baby on her own feet. “Let’s see you walk to Mommy. You've been standing for two months...how about moving those feet?”
Sarah scrunched up her little brow and stared at her mother as if seriously contemplating the request. She reached out her arms, swayed a little, then plopped down on her diaper-padded behind.
“Not tonight, huh?” Claudia asked with a grin. “Okay, okay, just make sure you don’t do it while Mommy’s at work.”
“She won’t,” Melanie insisted. “I wouldn’t let her, I promise.”
Chase, who had strolled over to watch Sarah’s performance, said, “She can do it. She just doesn’t want to.”
Claudia rolled her eyes at him, amused by his matter of fact certainty that her baby could walk just like that. As if challenged, Chase hunkered down a foot or two away from Sarah. He stood the baby up, immediately pulling one hand away while he let her brace herself on the other, and said in a cajoling voice, “Sarah, do you want my keys?”
Claudia watched as he pulled his key ring out of his pocket and dangled it several inches away from the baby. Sarah’s face lit up in a huge grin as she spied the shiny, clinking keys. She reached out her arms and made a demanding grunt.
“Huh-uh,” Chase said, “you have to come get them.”
In disbelief, Claudia watched as Chase let go of Sarah and jingled the keys again. The baby never took her eyes from the prize. Moving her pudgy little leg, Sarah stretched her arm toward the key ring. That first tiny step led to another, and then a third. Claudia bit her lip to keep from shouting as she saw Sarah take her first steps, reaching for the keys Chase kept dangling just out of her grasp.
Finally, as if exhausted, Sarah puckered her lower lip out in an angry pout, and plunked to the floor. Claudia, Melanie and Ryan, who’d been watching in awe, all laughed and cheered at the same time, which only made Sarah’s pout even harder. Fat tears rose to the baby’s eyes at all the noise. Claudia was about to reach out to her when she saw Chase hand her the key ring with a conspiratorial wink.
“You earned ‘em, kiddo,” he said.
Sarah blinked away her tears immediately, jangling the key ring with all her might. Claudia, still smiling broadly, caught Chase’s eye. For a long moment, she silently thanked him, and he just as silently told her she was quite welcome. His brown eyes twinkled and he gave a slight nod, then Melanie clapped her hands together and the intimate contact was broken.
“What a Kodak moment,” Melanie exclaimed. “And we didn’t have the camera out.”
“I’m sure there will be plenty more,” Ryan said. “Oh, boy, are we in trouble now.”
“That’s right,” Chase added. “She’s mobile, and everything has to go up eighteen inches.”
Claudia laughed out loud, reached down to give Sarah a hug, and was promptly whacked in the head with the key chain for her efforts. Rubbing her temple, she laughed as she said, “Gee, maybe you should have given her something softer.”
“Nah...it had to be something she really wanted,” Chase explained.
“And how did you know she’d really want your keys?” Melanie asked.
“Well," Chase replied dryly, "they’re shiny, silver, and sparkle...irresistible qualities, to females of every age.”
Ryan let out a bark of laughter as Claudia gave Chase’s shoulder a shove, knocking him off balance until he fell back into a sitting position on the floor. Sarah thought this was great fun and immediately dropped the keys to climb onto Chase’s lap. He responded by rolling onto his back, letting the baby bounce on his stomach while he tickled her. Her squeals of laughter soon had them all laughing out loud, too.
While Melanie went to go put a pot of coffee on, Ryan went to look for his video camera in hopes they could coax Sarah into a repeat performance. Claudia, Chase and Sarah remained alone on the floor of the living room. Claudia sat with her back against the old sofa, her elbows resting loosely on her upraised knees, watching as Chase continued to entertain her daughter. The man really was very good with children, at least with this one. She wondered for a moment how he might be with a child of his own, then quickly dashed the thought.
“I think you’d better stop bouncing her around like that, or you’ll be the one wearing the mashed potatoes,” Claudia said with a laugh as she crawled over, knelt next to Chase and tried to scoop Sarah off him. The baby, however, didn’t want to let go.
Chase had taken off his tie and unbuttoned the top few buttons of his dress shirt earlier in the evening. Sarah’s little fingers were curled at the opening of the shirt in the dark crisp hair on his chest. Not thinking too much about it, Claudia leaned further over the baby, and Chase, and reached to free Sarah’s grip.
While trying to grasp Sarah's hand, Claudia brushed her fingertips over the dark curling hair and tanned skin of Chase’s chest. She couldn’t seem to tear her eyes away from her own fingers as they lightly brushed across his body. She couldn’t tear her fingers away, either. He was so incredibly warm, it seemed the heat rose up her hand, through her arm and straight down into her middle. Her breaths became shallow as she slowly allowed her gaze to travel across the hollow of his throat, up his neck, to his chin which was just showing faint signs of a five o’clock shadow. Then his lips, God those amazing lips, which were parted, panting shallow breaths of his own, then over the fine lines of his cheek to his dark staring eyes. Suddenly she wasn't in her best friend's living room, she was back in this man's bed, feeling every erotic sensation she'd ever felt in her life.
Chase watched Claudia as she slowly let her gaze travel up him. He saw her moisten her lips with her tongue, and nearly groaned at the sight. She knelt so close he could feel the outside of her thigh pressed against his hip, and imagined the smooth fluid motion she would use to slide that thigh up and over his body to straddle him just as she had Saturday. Her fingers still rested on his skin. As she leaned closer, her long hair fell to brush against his cheek. Finally her eyes met his, and he saw the deep need swirling in their green depths. Not thinking about it, he slowly lifted his hand, sliding his fingers across the fragile line of her jaw, then across her earlobe. He heard her suck in her breath at the same moment he saw her eyes close at his touch. He didn’t stop. Curling his fingers into the thick mass of her hair, he cupped her head and she leaned closer.
“Ba-ba-baa,” Sarah chortled happily as Claudia leaned against her.
Watching Claudia flinch, then the color rush into her cheeks, Chase sighed deeply. He immediately let go of her. She straightened, pulling her hand away from him as if burned. Sarah had obviously decided Chase’s chest hair wasn’t as interesting as her mother’s shiny gold necklace, and she gave it a good tug as Claudia picked her up and quickly scooted back to the couch.
Still lying on the floor, Chase closed his eyes, placing his hand over his forehead. He couldn’t believe how close he’d come to kissing her again, with her best friends in the next room and her baby right between them. But he couldn’t be too angry with himself. Claudia was living temptation.
“Anyone ready for coffee?”
Claudia glanced up quickly to see Melanie standing in the doorway to the living room, a speculative smile on her face. Wondering just how much she’d seen, Claudia quickly stood and said, “I think I’ll go put some pajamas on Sarah so she�
�ll be more comfortable for the ride home.”
Melanie didn’t say anything as Claudia carried Sarah from the room toward the spare bedroom. Flicking on the light, Claudia found the drawer full of baby clothes she’d left at Melanie's. Sitting down on the twin sized bed, Claudia slowly began to change the baby's clothes. She didn’t hurry. She was still trying to figure out how she was going to walk back into that living room and look Chase in the eye right in front of Ryan and Melanie after that sensuous moment they’d just shared.
“Mommy’s got a case, baby,” she whispered as she finished snapping Sarah’s jammies. “Mommy’s got it bad.”
Sarah promptly yawned, rolled onto her side and stuck her index finger into her mouth. Claudia watched as Sarah gazed at the brightly colored blanket hanging from the side of the portable crib in the corner, and realized the baby wanted to go to sleep. Chuckling lightly, she said, “Okay, honey, we’re going to go home and let you go to bed.”
“Don’t count on it.”
Claudia turned abruptly as Melanie walked into the room. “Ryan's broken out the cards," Melanie continued. "He’s teaching Chase how to play Spades.”
“Good grief...we could be here all night.” Claudia replied.
Melanie laughed and said, “Why don’t you just put Sarah down in the crib. Come on, it’s only eight-thirty. How long has it been since you’ve just spent an evening with friends doing something as silly as ignoring my husband as he starts pounding on his chest because he wants me to lead with hearts.”
Sarah’s eyes drooped even more, and Claudia knew she’d be asleep in a few minutes. Melanie seemed to sense she was considering it because she pressed, “Just stay, Claude. It’s not every night Ryan and I get the chance to impress the boss.”
Claudia heard the teasing note in Melanie’s voice. With an exaggerated sigh of resignation, she lifted Sarah off the bed and carried her to the crib. Covering Sarah with the blanket, Claudia watched as the baby stuck her finger back in her mouth and promptly closed her eyes.
“I guess the decision’s been made,” Claudia chuckled as she turned off the light and followed Melanie out of the room.
