“At least try,” he pleaded again. “I’ll even go to Pedro’s next three concerts.”
Everyone in the family dreaded the concerts, because seven-year-old Pedro and his classmates had more enthusiasm than musical talent. The events were torture, and excuses not to attend inventive and widespread. And poor little Pedro was beginning to catch on. To have his heroic uncle Enrique attend would go a long way toward improving his status among his classmates. Maria knew it.
“I will convince Mama to stay home tomorrow if I have to tie her to a chair,” she said with grim determination. “And the next concert is on Thursday. Plan to be there.”
Ricky grimaced. “You do your part and I’ll put it on my calendar,” he promised without enthusiasm.
Satisfied that he had done what he could to keep Allie from being intimidated by a gathering of the Wilder females, he hung up and turned his attention to dinner. He had steaks in the freezer and plenty of vegetables for a salad. It wouldn’t be fancy, but it would be filling. Allie needed to get her strength back, and he was going to need all of his to keep fending off his mother and sisters.
While Allie rested, he started the charcoal on the grill, defrosted the steaks in the microwave, then made the salad. He set the table on his patio and made sure the steaks were safely indoors and out of Shadow’s reach. He’d learned his lesson the hard way. There wasn’t a lot of human food the dog liked, but steak topped the list. Shadow could accomplish astonishing feats when there was a nice juicy slab of meat involved.
“Outside,” he ordered the disappointed dog.
Shadow stood on the opposite side of the screen door, an expression of betrayal in his eyes.
“You’re not going to make me feel guilty,” Ricky added.
“Guilty about what?” Allie asked.
She had managed to slip into the kitchen without Ricky even being aware she was in the vicinity. He was going to have to remember that she moved so silently and watch what he said. Of course, unless she was right in front of him, he was safe enough, but it would be wise to remember it just on general principle.
“I thought you were sleeping,” he said. “Wasn’t the bed comfortable?”
“The bed was fine. And I did rest for an hour.”
“Are you hungry?”
“Starved, actually. Everything they say about hospital food is true. It’s tasteless. Wouldn’t you think a place where the doctors keep telling you to eat to keep your strength up would do a better job of preparing something worth eating?”
“You would,” he agreed. “Is steak okay? And I’ve fixed a salad.”
“Perfect. What can I do to help?”
“That depends on what you’d like to drink? Iced tea? Coffee? Water? Beer?”
“Iced tea sounds wonderful. Shall I make it?”
Because she so obviously needed to make some sort of contribution, he pointed out the location of the teakettle and the tea bags. Unfortunately, the size of the kitchen all but guaranteed that they would keep bumping into each other as they moved around. Each brush of hip against hip, thigh against thigh made Ricky’s blood sizzle. He was so aware of Allie, so blasted tempted to stop her in her tracks and kiss her that he finally grabbed the steaks and backed out the door.
“I’ll be outside,” he said. “Cooking.”
She looked as relieved as he felt. “Will we eat out there?”
“Yes. The table’s all set.”
“I’ll be out with the tea in a few minutes, then.”
Ricky moved to the grill, closed his eyes and took a deep breath. It didn’t calm the flutter of nerves at all. He couldn’t imagine what was wrong with him. Women didn’t make him nervous. In fact, he loved women. All women. He could flirt with the most intimidating female on earth without so much as a tingle of unease. He could dance slowly, sensually with the sexiest woman alive and experience no more than the expected stirring of arousal. So why was he acting like a love-struck teenager around Allie Matthews? Why was his body behaving as if he hadn’t had sex for months?
Whatever the answer, Ricky was pretty sure he was going to hate it.
After Ricky went outside, Allie stood perfectly still and forced herself to draw in a deep, calming breath. No man had rattled her like that in years. Her only comfort was the fact that he had seemed as disturbed as she was.
“It’s the situation,” she muttered. “Of course we both feel a little awkward. He’s apparently not used to having a woman underfoot, and I am definitely not used to bumping up against anyone so…male every time I turn around.”
But what she felt wasn’t awkwardness. Not exactly. What she felt was an edgy need, a hunger for something more than the whisper of his thigh against hers in a glancing contact that had lasted no longer than a heartbeat.
She had lost her virginity years ago, to a man she had thought herself in love with. Maybe she’d forgotten over time, but she couldn’t recall that he had ever made her feel this wicked sense of anticipation, this unspoken awareness.
She had been nineteen when she had met Jared Yardley in one of her music classes. Only a few months later they’d had sex for the first time. She recalled feeling grown-up and vaguely thrilled by the decision that she was ready to take such a step. She didn’t remember feeling much of anything during the act itself. Not that first time, which had been rushed and uncomfortable.
Nor any of the times after that, now that she thought about it. Once she’d lost her hearing and left school, they had broken up, and there had been no one in her life since. Living with the memory of that single experience of having a lover, she had assumed that was just the way sex was, and she couldn’t imagine what all the hoopla was about. Now she was beginning to see that she might have gotten it all wrong.
If Ricky could make her feel hot and shivery at the same time with a casual touch, she had to wonder what he could do if he put his heart and soul into it.
She was so distracted by her speculation that she forgot to keep an eye on the teakettle. She was startled when Ricky came inside and stepped up to the stove to take the kettle off the burner.
“It was whistling,” he explained, when she regarded him quizzically.
“Sorry. I wasn’t paying attention. I usually watch for the steam.”
“No problem.”
“You can go back outside, if you want. I’ll pour it over the tea bags.”
“Trying to get rid of me, Allie?”
She swallowed hard at the teasing glint in his eyes. “Of course not. Why would I want to get rid of you?”
“I have a feeling I make you nervous. Do I?”
“Not you,” she insisted. “The situation. I’ve never stayed with a man.”
“Have you ever had roommates?”
“In college.”
“Then think of this as the same thing.”
She tried to compare living with Ricky to sharing space with the two giggling adolescents who’d been her freshman roommates. She shook her head. “Sorry, I don’t think that’s going to work.”
“Why not?”
“Did you have roommates in college?”
“I didn’t go away to college. I went right here in town. Later, though, I shared an apartment for a year.”
“With a guy?”
He nodded.
“Was it the same as this?”
“Hardly,” he said at once, then sighed. “Yeah, I see what you mean.”
“So what are we going to do about it?” she asked, determined to discuss the situation sensibly and get it under control.
Ricky’s expression turned thoughtful, then impish. “I do have one thought.”
“Which is?”
He took a step closer, which had Allie instinctively backing toward the counter. He put a hand against the counter on either side of her, effectively trapping her.
“This,” he said, lowering his head until his lips hovered just above hers.
Allie could feel the heat from his body reaching out to her. His breath fanned across her
cheek. Anticipation stirred inside her as she waited and waited for him to close that infinitesimal distance.
When he did, when his mouth settled on hers, an amazing sense of calm and inevitability spread through her. The action was bold and unexpected, but the kiss itself was as light as the caress of a butterfly. It was unimaginably tender, shocking from a man who exuded such overwhelmingly masculine strength. Because it was so deliberately gentle it made her yearn, made her want things she had never imagined wanting, filled her with a sense of wonder.
Her pulse scrambled. Heat spread through her. And through it all there was the sensation of that wickedly persuasive mouth against hers, asking for more, hinting at everything but demanding nothing.
When he pulled back slowly, unwillingly, Allie uttered a harsh, “No,” before she could stop herself. She felt his lips curve into a smile as they returned to hers for one more lingering caress.
She sighed when he abandoned her again, then avoided his gaze, until he captured her chin and gently forced her to face him.
“Better now?” he asked.
She blinked and tried to interpret the question. “Better?”
“Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way,” he explained. “It was bound to happen sooner or later.”
Was it? Allie hadn’t guessed that when she’d agreed to move in temporarily. Hoped for it, maybe, but she assured herself she definitely hadn’t grasped the inevitability of it.
“Because you can’t go for more than a few hours without kissing a woman who’s in close proximity,” she said with what she hoped was just the right amount of teasing inflection.
Looking vaguely hurt by the question, he stepped away from her, leaving her feeling suddenly bereft.
“It won’t happen again,” he informed her, his expression serious and determined. “We’ll just make sure not to come into the kitchen at the same time.”
“Why?” she asked, before she could stop herself.
“Because I don’t want you to think that I invited you here so I could take advantage of the situation.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I thought it might relieve the tension to get the kiss out of the way. That was probably a mistake.”
She could never bring herself to think of anything as wonderful as that kiss as a mistake. She studied him curiously. “Did it?”
“Did it what?”
“Relieve the tension for you?” It surely hadn’t for her. If anything, she was more restless than ever, more anxious to know where a devastating kiss like that could lead.
Ricky looked shaken by the question. “Dammit, Allie, you don’t ask much, do you? How can I answer that without causing you to run for the hills?”
“The truth might be a good place to start,” she suggested.
He shook his head. “I don’t think you’re ready to hear the truth,” he said, slamming through the back door and leaving her to stare after him.
She couldn’t stop the smile that began at the corners of her mouth and spread. So, she thought with a touch of feminine satisfaction, it had gotten to him, too.
Knowing that made it a whole lot easier to pour the just-brewed tea into a pitcher, add a tray of ice cubes and carry it outside where she would have to face him. He was concentrating on the steaks with a frown knitting his forehead. She had a feeling that frown didn’t have anything to do with worries over whether the meat was going to turn out rare or welldone.
He glanced up warily when she held out a glass of iced tea. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” She nodded toward the grill. “The steaks smell wonderful.”
“They’re almost done.”
“Anything I can do?”
“Just have a seat,” he said, then added pointedly, “over there.”
Allie bit back a grin. Was he afraid she’d edge too close and distract him again? Maybe she should, but she wasn’t bold enough for that. Instead, she dutifully settled into a chair at the round redwood picnic table, sat back and sipped her tea. Shadow came over to rest his head in her lap so she could scratch behind his ears. Or maybe he just meant to ingratiate himself in hopes of getting any leftover steak later.
“Did you speak to your sister?” she asked when Ricky eventually joined her at the table.
“Oh, yes,” he said, his expression bland.
“Did she have a lot of questions?”
“My sister could put an investigative journalist to shame,” he said, a grin tugging at his lips.
“Was she satisfied with your answers?”
“Temporarily,” he admitted. “And she promised to hold off all the others for a day or two in exchange for me baby-sitting her sons for a weekend.”
Allie laughed. “You bribed her?”
“You wanted peace and quiet, didn’t you?”
“Not half as much as you did, apparently,” she teased. “You don’t think your sisters are going to make too much out of my presence here, do you?”
“Oh, yes,” he said fervently. “You have no idea.”
“Then I guess they’d better not catch us kissing,” Allie said.
His frown returned. “There will be no more kissing,” he declared with grim determination.
“Too bad,” she said mildly, surprised at her own daring.
He carefully placed his fork on his plate and leaned toward her. “Allie, don’t do this.”
“Do what?” she asked innocently.
“Tempt me.”
“Is that what I’m doing?” She truly hadn’t been sure it was working. She was relieved to know it was.
“Blast it, you know you are,” he said with evident frustration. “Stop it.”
“Why?”
He blinked and stared. “Why what?”
“Why stop?”
“You know perfectly well that wasn’t part of the deal.”
“True,” she agreed. “It’s just a bonus.”
“You don’t have to feel obligated,” he began.
Before he could continue, Allie felt something akin to fury begin to stir inside her. She wasn’t totally familiar with the sensation, because she’d always been very slow to anger. Now it bubbled up, hot and urgent.
“Obligated,” she said, her voice rising sufficiently to draw a warning shush from Ricky. She allowed her voice to climb one more decibel as she repeated the word.
Ricky winced.
“I do not feel obligated to do anything,” she snapped. “When you kissed me, I kissed you back because I wanted to, not because I felt obligated. Since when did that word have anything at all to do with me moving in here? Were you thinking that sooner or later I’d feel obligated to do more than exchange a few little kisses? Despite your earlier denials, is that what this invitation was really all about?”
Ricky rubbed his hand across his face. Clearly, he hadn’t expected her to tear into him. “Look, that is not what I meant,” he declared, his expression defensive. “Of course, you don’t owe me anything for letting you stay here. There are no strings at all. None. That was exactly the point I was trying to make, when you got all hot under the collar. Maybe you misunderstood what I said.”
“Maybe I couldn’t hear you, but I could read your lips just fine. This isn’t about me being deaf.”
He winced. “No, of course it isn’t. I’m sorry if I sounded as if I thought it was. It’s just that there are going to be some adjustments here. We hardly know each other. There’s bound to be some miscommunication. It doesn’t have anything to do with whether or not you can hear.”
Allie sighed. Perhaps she had overreacted…on that point, anyway. She did tend to get defensive occasionally when dealing with the hearing world.
“Maybe we should start over, establish some boundaries,” she suggested.
“I thought that was what I was trying to do when I said there would be no more kissing,” he said with evident frustration.
“I suppose that would be a good place to start,” she said, hiding her reluctance to agree to any such thing.
&n
bsp; Of course, despite the relief that spread across Ricky’s face, she already had a pretty good sense that any such agreement was absolutely, positively doomed to failure.
Chapter Six
Ricky had never been so relieved to get an emergency call in his life as he was when Allie was sitting right across from him, all but daring him to kiss her again.
Oh, she was saying all the right words, agreeing that there would be no more moments like that one in the kitchen when he’d discovered that she tasted better and was far more intoxicating than wine. But her eyes held a challenge. In fact, he was pretty sure that she was going to dare him to break their agreement before the bargain was even sealed.
And he would do it, too, because he wanted her, now more than ever. He’d convinced himself for about ten seconds that it was circumstances and proximity that had him aching with need, but he was pretty sure now that he knew better. It was Allie, pure and simple. Intentionally or not, she was going to drive him crazy.
So when his beeper went off, he all but bolted, not just from the backyard, but from the house. He kept right on going to the station even before he called on his cell phone to see what the emergency was. For all he knew, it could have been Tom wanting to sneak in a quick game of poker. It didn’t matter, as long as it got him away from temptation.
As it turned out, the lieutenant had called them in on standby because of an imminent hurricane threat to the Louisiana Gulf Coast. That meant another long night of waiting, just in case there was devastation similar to what had happened in Miami. Normally the waiting made Ricky restless, but tonight the effect was compounded by the fact that he’d left Allie waiting for him at home.
He reached for the phone, then realized belatedly that he could hardly call. She wouldn’t even know the phone was ringing. And he had no other way to get word to her about when he might get home again.
“Blast it,” he muttered, slamming the receiver back into place. He tried to tell himself that he owed her nothing, but he simply couldn’t leave her there to wonder what had become of him.
“What’s wrong with you?” Tom asked, regarding him curiously. “Did you have to cancel a hot date?”
A Love Beyond Words Page 6
