By the time the evening crush settled down to an occasional patron, and Helen could join a newly arrived Annie for a fresh cappuccino, she was wondering if Luke had changed his mind about wanting to see her.
“Nick is really nervous about his video premiere tomorrow night,” Annie said.
“Uh-huh.”
“Something about Isabel seeing his work.”
“Oh.”
“Not that she hasn’t seen it before,” Annie went on, Helen hearing her through a haze, “but I guess there’s something special about this footage.”
“I guess.”
Vaguely remembering Nick had been editing footage of Isabel and her sister Louise made Helen wonder again about what it would be like to have that kind of special relationship with a man. What it would be like not to be the fifth wheel for once. She was always the odd person out since she rarely introduced her dates to her friends, let alone double-dated with them.
“Earth to Helen.”
“What?” Focusing, Helen connected with Annie’s puzzled gaze.
“I feel like you’re on another planet.”
Remembering her mother’s similar complaint the night before, Helen flushed. “Sorry. I’ve got that Muscle Beach Web site to finish and—”
“You weren’t thinking about any Web site.”
“I should be thinking about the Web site.”
“But you’re thinking about Luke.”
“Guilty.”
“When are you seeing him again?” Annie asked.
Helen shrugged.
“Is that the problem? What are you doing about it? Why don’t you simply call him and find out?”
“I did. Well, I called about business—his espresso machine—but his assistant said she’d handle it and wouldn’t let me talk to him because he was too busy.”
“So call his cell.”
“If only he’d given me the number.”
“This isn’t like you,” Annie admonished. “Man, you’re so itchy you’re sending out vibes.”
“Itchy?” When Annie’s eyebrows jutted up above her glasses, Helen said, “Oh.”
“Luke DeVries must be some scratching post.”
“I wouldn’t exactly know about that.” Though they hadn’t done the deed yet, imagining the experience was enough to make her knees weak. Not wanting to give her sharp friend too much fuel, she resorted to her best weapon. “But he’s something, all right. I just don’t know if they’ve given it a name yet.”
“Sarcasm won’t put me off. Or him.”
“From your lips…”
“You mean from his lips. You really do have it bad. Nick was right.”
Moaning, Helen muttered, “Nick? Right about something? I’m doomed.”
HELEN WASN’T FEELING quite so dramatic later that night as she sat alone pretending to watch bad television and thinking maybe she ought to get herself a cat. Then, at least, even if it wasn’t sexual, she’d have someone to talk to and cuddle up with at night.
No, with her luck, she’d probably pick a cat who would be perverse enough to sit at the end of the bed and snicker at her foolishness.
Maybe she could read.
She’d just turned off the television, put on some music and was looking through the fashion magazines piled up on an end table, when her doorbell buzzed. It was after nine and she wasn’t expecting anyone. Unless Annie had talked to Nick and he’d decided to drop by to torture her.
A cautious city girl, Helen didn’t simply open the door. First she checked to see who was outside.
The bell rang again.
Yikes! Luke!
And from his expression under the porch light, he knew she was there. She wore a pair of stretch pants and a big T-shirt for comfort. Her face was clean of makeup, her hair clipped back, away from her face. And she was barefoot.
But there was simply no helping it—she had to open the door.
She opted for opening it a crack. “Luke, hi,” she said, hiding behind as much door as possible, hoping that with her foyer light off he couldn’t possibly see her well enough to be disenchanted. She could see him, though, gorgeous and well groomed as usual. “What are you doing here?”
“Hello, darlin’. I wanted to talk to you and took the chance you’d be home. Can I come in?”
“Well, uh…”
He started. “Sorry. What was I thinking, assuming you would be alone.”
“I am alone.” And trapped now that she’d confirmed it. Damn! She stepped back. “Come on in.”
“You’re sure?”
Luke must have felt her answering glare, for he rushed in. Or maybe he was simply taking the opportunity before she could change her mind. Helen locked the door and followed him into the living room, lit only by the two lamps she used when watching television.
“Your espresso machine is okay, right?” she asked, stopping at the nearest couch.
“I guess.” He gave her a puzzled look. “Oh, then yours is fixed.”
“Yes. You didn’t know yours came back? You didn’t get my thank-you?”
“No and no.”
“Great.”
“When did all this happen?”
“This afternoon. I wanted to talk to you personally, but your assistant wouldn’t call you to the phone. I realize how busy you all must have been, but I wish she had at least passed on my thank-you. I wouldn’t want you to think I wasn’t grateful.”
“I’m sure Alexis simply forgot,” Luke said with a shrug. “One crisis after another needed solving or I would have called you earlier anyway.”
“And yet you didn’t call at all.”
“I wanted to see you.”
The sound of his voice when he said it was so sexy, it took Helen’s breath away. She swallowed hard and her pulse picked up as she said, “A little late for a date, don’t you think?”
“Not a date. Just…see you. Maybe have that cup of coffee and get to know each other a little better.”
“Now you want coffee?”
“What? You don’t have any in the house? I could go out and get whatever—”
“Enough. Okay, a visit. Coffee. Get to know one another better. It’s a plan.”
“So which way to the kitchen?”
“No one invited you,” Helen said, whisking by him and across the room. “I know how to make coffee, too, you know.” She glanced back at him. “It’s late. Decaf?”
He shook his head and smiled so that dimple kissed his cheek. “Give me everything you’ve got.”
Now why did he make that sound like something more personal than coffee?
“I’ll certainly give it my best shot.” She indicated the table where the fashion magazines lay. “You can wait here and read or turn on the TV or—”
“I know how to amuse myself.”
He was looking at her in a way that made her catch her breath.
Helen turned and nearly ran into the kitchen.
Coffee…coffee…but what kind?
It had to be special. Had to wow him. Had to out-orgasm his Orgasm, she thought, remembering the special brew he’d whipped up for her.
While the water was heating, she got her other ingredients together on the counter.
And then she ran into the powder room where she unclipped her hair and finger-combed it into a wild mess which she hoped looked sexy. A swipe of pale lip gloss and then she was back in the kitchen mixing ingredients.
Several minutes later, she carried a tray with two large cups into the living room, where Luke was looking over her CD collection.
“See anything you like?” she asked.
He glanced back at her. “Very much.”
“I meant the music.”
“Enigma does it for me,” he said of the selection playing at the moment.
They sat on the same couch with room to spare between them.
Luke eyed the oversize cups. “That should keep me running half the night.”
“It’s not all caffeine. There’s Godiva liqueur and some
Chambord—”
“Chocolate and raspberry. Very sensual combination.”
“—and fresh raspberries steamed in the heavy cream.”
“A woman after my own heart.”
Was she?
Helen concentrated on her own cup, stirring the concoction once before tasting it. She watched him over the rim of her cup. A connoisseur, he swirled his drink, took a sip and looked as if he were analyzing it.
“Outstanding.”
Helen let go of the breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. His approval was more important to her than she would have guessed.
“So what did you want to talk about?” she asked, guessing it had to do with their next date.
Luke took another sip and surprised her. “I thought you’d like to know I called Peggy.”
“You called your little sister? That’s great!” she said, then hesitated. “Right?”
“Right. She was all excited, and here I never realized she even thought about me.”
Speaking from experience, from the buried longing over the siblings who refused to acknowledge her existence, Helen said, “I bet she thinks about you a lot.”
He nodded. “Thank you.”
“For?”
“Making me realize what a dolt I’ve been for too many years. I promised to visit her when all the furor with the new store dies down.”
A reminder that he would be leaving town all too soon, Helen thought. “Good for you.”
“You’re right. Developing a relationship with my little sister will be good for me. Now I have to try to figure out what a thirteen-year-old likes to do.”
“It’ll come back to you. Like riding a bike.”
“Or I could use help.”
He was looking at her pointedly, making her pulse jump.
“I’ll see what I can come up with.”
Luke took another sip of the coffee. “You should patent this stuff before someone steals it from you.”
The offhand remark gave her a different kind of jolt, reminded her that they would soon be in competition. She had to keep that in mind, Helen thought.
“What do you call it?” he asked.
“No need to name it. I can’t serve this at the cybercafé. No liquor license.”
“I don’t suppose trying to get one would make sense since you close early.” Suddenly switching gears, he asked, “So what are you doing tomorrow night?”
Her pulse suddenly picked up and her mouth went dry. Helen called herself a fool. How could one little question have such an effect?
“Tomorrow? I’ve made plans with my friends,” she said, remembering Nick’s video. “But you could join us. Annie and Nate and I are going to Club Undercover with Nick and his lady Isabel. Nick shoots and edits videos for the club, and they’re showing a new cut tomorrow night.”
“Great. I’ll get to spend some time with your friends, then.”
He made it sound like there was a reason to get to know them, when really there wasn’t, she told herself.
As if he could hear her thoughts, Luke said, “I envy you. I’ve never stayed in one place long enough to make friendships that would last a lifetime.”
Again he was reminding her of their short future together. Soon he would be off and running, conquering yet another city. So what was she doing, sharing time with him, when they could be alone?
Too late to change her mind now, though.
“It’ll be fun,” she promised, trying to beat back the unsettled feeling that suddenly gripped her.
“You look a little tired.”
“Long day.”
“Then I should go,” Luke said, setting down his cup.
He didn’t get to his feet, though, and from the way he locked gazes with her, Helen had the feeling he had something else in mind totally. When he started to move closer, she put out her hand to stay him.
“Not even a kiss?” he asked softly.
Longing for the feel of his lips on hers—on other parts of her—she said, “This isn’t a date, remember.”
If he insisted, she would be too weak to hold out. But she didn’t want tomorrow night to be date number three. She wanted to draw out this…this…well, whatever they had going between them…for as long as possible.
“Close your eyes,” Luke said.
“But—”
“I’ll close mine, then you close yours.”
What was he up to now? she wondered as his long, thick lashes fluttered downward to tease his high cheekbones.
Following suit, she said, “Don’t think that just because your eyes are closed a kiss doesn’t count.”
“Even if we don’t actually touch?”
“Huh?”
Her eyes popped open but his were still closed and he hadn’t so much as inched closer. Telling herself to relax was futile, but she did close her eyes again.
“What now?”
“Now we imagine it. Our lips touching…your mouth opening to mine…wet warmth…my tongue sliding inside…”
Warmth sizzled through her and Helen shifted, seeking relief from the sweet discomfort. “And then what?”
“What do you want to have happen?”
“I don’t know.”
“You must. You’ve been thinking about this all day.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“Because I have. What next?” he repeated.
“Another kiss.”
“That’s all you want?”
“All right. Your hand stroking my cheek…following the line of my throat…finding my breast…”
“What do I do to it?” When she didn’t answer, he said, “I slip my hand under its fullness and feel its weight…my thumb finds your nipple and teases it into a hard peak…and then you touch me….”
She could see it…feel it all…just as if it were happening.
“You’re so hard,” she whispered, mentally running her fingers over his length to the tip where she discovered a tiny drop of fluid and spread it over the head. “I love touching you, but I want to taste you.”
“Go ahead. Put your mouth around me.”
Helen licked her lips as though she were preparing to give him head. She could feel him in her mouth, could taste him. She thought about taking him deeper, relaxing the back of her throat until she could feel his head probing there.
“Mmm, feels so good,” Luke murmured. “Now I’m tangling my hands in your hair and pulling it back because I want to see everything.”
“Yes, watch,” she said breathlessly.
Luke opened his eyes and if he didn’t already have a hard-on, one look at Helen would have done it. She was laying back against the couch, her legs spread slightly. Her hand was on her stomach, near the vee between her thighs, fingers pointed downward as if she wanted to touch herself. He imagined she was wet, so wet that her fingers would slide right up…
“Touch yourself,” he said.
“What?”
“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” he teased, his voice tight. “Your mouth is on me and your hand is on yourself…exploring…leaving trails of sensation everywhere.”
He watched as her fingers dipped lower and her breath caught in her throat when she touched herself intimately, and he thought he might come right then, right there, without her ever touching him at all.
What the hell was he doing? This woman made him crazy with wanting her and once more he would go to bed with a boner. But she was so naturally sexy, so open about it, he couldn’t help but say and do things he would never even think of with another woman.
Helen Rhodes had some kind of hold on him.
Startled by that reality—he was used to being in control—Luke took a deep breath as she softly moaned and his body responded to the sound. Her fingers had disappeared between her thighs.
“Now what?” she asked.
For a moment, he was tempted to tell her, to detail every move he wanted them both to make. He wanted to watch her skin flush…wanted to see her wet her lips and bite t
hem…wanted to hear her moan as sensation swept her…wanted to be privy to her coming as she masturbated.
But something held him back.
The brain might be the best sex toy ever, but he didn’t want a toy. He didn’t want to play. He was serious about wanting the gritty, sweaty reality of tumbling on her, thrusting into her and maybe even coming all over her. He wanted to touch her, to taste her, to take her until she was mindless with need.
He didn’t want fantasy.
But obviously she did or she wouldn’t have created some dumb rules for dating that somehow shielded her from the realities of having a healthy sex life.
Why? What had happened to her? What was she afraid of?
Now wasn’t the time to shatter whatever illusions she was under. He couldn’t do that to her. Instead he simply wanted to be kind to her, something he’d never been particularly good at with women.
“Now we kiss again,” he murmured, looking away so that he could end this gracefully. “We kiss and hold each other and savor the magic that we know will come.”
8
“SO HELP ME, Nick,” Helen said during their morning coffee get-together, “you’d better not try to embarrass me in front of Luke tonight or—”
“Or you’ll what?” he challenged her.
“Or I’ll tell Isabel about…about the thing.”
“No, not the thing!” he said in mock horror.
“What thing?” Annie asked.
“Nick knows,” Helen hedged, making this up as she went along. “The thing that happened in college.”
In reality, Nick could do whatever he pleased to embarrass her, and she couldn’t do squat to stop him.
“A thing happened?” Annie glared at them suspiciously. “Why don’t I know about it?”
Both Helen and Nick gave Annie looks of sympathy, as if confirming they’d been correct in assigning her to the status of “innocent” long ago.
“Oh, cut it out! You two—I’m surprised you two didn’t kill one another long ago. Maybe that would have been a good thing,” Annie muttered to herself.
Nick said, “Helen talks a good game, but she’s full of hot air, and I could take her if she tried anything.”
Helen laughed. Nothing could dampen her spirits this morning, not even Nick Novak.
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