The Littlest Stowaway

by Gina Wilkins

  It looked to her as if this whole situation was headed for disaster. Was she ready to risk that just when she’d begun to feel she had her future under control?

  10

  BY THE TIME Casey returned to Steve’s house late that afternoon, she was confident that she knew exactly what to say to him. She had needed some time on her own, she decided. It had given her a chance to put everything into perspective. To remind herself of her priorities. To convince herself that nothing had really changed just because she and Steve had given in to a fleeting impulse.

  That itch had been scratched, she assured herself firmly, if a bit indelicately. It wouldn’t happen again. By now, Steve had probably come to the same conclusion.

  They were both too busy and much too different to attempt a serious relationship. They were rivals, enemies. She had vowed to crush him, and he had insisted he wouldn’t allow her to do so. It was ridiculous to consider there could be anything more between them.

  She was quite sure Steve would agree if she explained it just that way.

  Carrying a bag of groceries for dinner, she approached his front door. An adhesive-backed note had been stuck beneath the doorbell. She smiled when she read the words scribbled on it Baby sleeping. Do not ring bell.

  Apparently, Annie hadn’t gone down easily for her nap.

  Casey tapped lightly on the door. Steve opened it almost immediately. “I just got her to sleep,” he said with a slightly worn smile. “Her Highness has not been in the best of moods.”

  “Do you think something is wrong?” Casey asked in concern, immediately conjuring up a whole list of dangerous childhood illnesses.

  Steve reached out to take the grocery bag from her. “I think she was missing you,” he said. “Something I completely understand.”

  That comment, while rather sweet, gave her the perfect opening. “Steve—”

  “I’ll take these things into the kitchen. Did you have launch?”

  “Yes, a couple of hours ago. Did you?”

  “Mmm. I grabbed a sandwich while Annie was resting between tantrums.”

  Casey bit her lip, feeling a bit guilty because she’d left him alone with the baby for so long. And then she reminded herself that she had baby-sat most of the day yesterday and had volunteered to do so again tomorrow.

  “Steve,” she said again, following him into the kitchen. “There’s something I—”

  He was already unloading the bag. “Looks like the ingredients for lasagna.”

  “Yes. I thought you might be getting tired of takeout.”

  “Sounds great. I love lasagna.” He stashed the perishable items in the refrigerator, leaving everything else on the counter. And then he turned to smile at her. “I don’t know what I would have done without you this weekend, Casey.”

  His deep, intimate tone made her knees go weak. She stiffened them resolutely. “Yes, well, someone had to give you a hand with the baby and it was obvious that there was no one else available.”

  “There’s definitely no one else I’d rather have had with me,” he murmured, reaching out to stroke her cheek with his knuckles.

  She swallowed, aware that this talk wasn’t going exactly as she had planned. “Steve, we need to—”

  “Do you know how long it has been since I kissed you?” His tone was almost whimsical now, though the expression in his eyes was anything but “Hours. But it seems like days.”

  “That’s...” She cleared her throat. “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”

  He bent his head to brush his lips across the tip of her nose. “Why waste time talking when there are so many better things we can do?”

  His lips captured hers before she could launch into her carefully prepared speech.

  It seemed like a very long time before the kiss ended. Steve lifted his head a few inches—as far as he could with Casey’s arms locked tightly around his neck. She wondered dazedly when she had placed them there.

  Sliding his hands slowly down her back, he rested his forehead against hers with a slight sigh. “Do you have any idea what you do to me?”

  What she did to him? All he had to do was smile at her and her mind emptied of rational thought A mere touch of his hand could make her tremble. And when he kissed her, when he held her like this, he made her want everything she had convinced herself she could never have.

  “There was something I wanted to tell you,” she said, tilting her head to a better angle when he began to nuzzle her ear.

  “What is it?” He seemed more interested in what he was doing than in what she was saying.

  She sagged against him when the tip of his tongue circled her ear. “I...um...needed to tell you what I...” Her voice broke off in a moan when his left hand closed over her right breast, his thumb slowly circling through her clothing.

  He’d raised his right hand to the back of her head. She felt a couple of tugs and then her hair tumbled around her shoulders and onto her back. “that were you saying?” he encouraged, speaking against her lips.

  She was going to tell him not to do this any more, she reminded herself. That she didn’t want this. That they were all wrong for each other. Maybe, she thought as his mouth moved enticingly over hers, maybe she could tell him later. She tightened her arms around his neck and parted her lips for him, deciding there was no real hurry, after all.

  Some time later, he lifted his mouth again, giving them both a chance to breathe, if somewhat raggedly. The smile that crossed his sexy mouth was pure temptation. “Annie should sleep awhile yet.”

  She knew what he was hinting at, of course. All the sensible arguments she’d formulated that afternoon echoed in her mind. They were all still very logical, all completely valid. She still believed every one of them.

  But would it really be so awful if she said them later? If she gave herself one last opportunity to pretend that things could be different between them?

  “How much longer?” she murmured, resting a hand against Steve’s warm, strong jaw.

  He caught her hand and placed a gentle kiss in her palm. “Long enough,” he muttered. “I want you, Casey.”

  “I want you, too,” she said with a soft sigh of surrender. That was one fact she couldn’t deny, no matter how foolish it might be.

  A moment later, she found herself in his arms, being carried toward the bedroom. Never in her life had a man carried her to bed. Never in her life had she believed she would have liked it. Had she known what a thrill it would be, she might have incorporated it into a few more fantasies.

  “The baby?” she remembered to ask.

  “I put the bassinet in the spare bedroom this time,” he murmured, laying Casey on the bed and following her down. “The door is open. We’ll be able to hear her if she wants us.”

  Relieved of that concern, Casey allowed herself to concentrate on Steve. He seemed intent on studying every inch of her this time, and she was in an accommodating mood. The prim, neat clothing she’d donned as symbolic armor fell away beneath Steve’s skillful fingers, leaving her completely revealed to him.

  He buried his face in her throat, nuzzling against the pulse that raced in the hollow there. And then he slid lower, his mouth skimming her chest, then closing over the straining tip of her right breast. Casey buried her fingers in his lush hair and arched beneath him. He murmured something that might have been an endearment, might have been encouragement, might have been something else. She didn’t try to decipher it.

  He nibbled her tummy, causing her to squirm with both pleasure and acute sensitivity. He circled her navel with the tip of his tongue, tickling her and making her laugh, and then he moved even lower, making her gasp with sensations so intense they took her breath away.

  By the time he donned protection from his nightstand and then returned to her, Casey was almost frantic with need. She drew him down to her impatiently, wrapping herself around him, welcoming him eagerly when he thrust into her.

  Once again, he took her flying. And she felt incredibly bold and
safe, because Steve was with her all the way.

  OKAY, CASEY MUSED when her mind cleared enough to let her form coherent thought again. So today hadn’t gone exactly as she had planned. It wasn’t too late to start getting it back on track.

  She lifted her cheek from Steve’s bare shoulder. He stirred beneath her, opening heavy-lidded eyes. “Where are you going?”

  “To check on the baby.”

  “I’m sure she’s fine. She’ll let us know when she wants something.”

  “I’d like to check on her, anyway.” Even though it was the truth, it also made a good excuse for her to put some distance between herself and Steve. Lying here naked in his arms was a feeling that was almost painful in its intensity. She had a sneaking suspicion that it might become addictive.

  “One minute more,” Steve murmured, drawing her mouth to his for another lingering kiss. Only then did he release her with visible reluctance.

  The neat, prim-looking clothes she’d donned so purposefully earlier were now scattered all over the floor. She gathered them self-consciously and escaped to the bathroom, away from Steve’s tooperceptive gaze.

  She dressed quickly, fastening every button, tucking her blouse in tightly. There was nothing she could do about her hair except shake it straight down her back. The pins that had held it in the neat twist she’d worn earlier were probably scattered all over Steve’s house.

  Already she was berating herself for her lapse of willpower. If she couldn’t remain firm in her resistance for one day, how was she going to do so in the upcoming weeks?

  Needing a distraction, she tiptoed into the guest room to the bassinet. Annie wasn’t fully awake, but she was beginning to stir, bumping her head against the mattress beneath her and making funny little noises.

  Infants certainly demanded a great deal of time and attention. It was probably just as well that she wasn’t likely to have one of her own anytime soon, she thought.

  “You’re running again,” Steve said from the doorway.

  She looked at him over the bassinet. He’d donned his jeans and pullover and had run a hand through his hair, but he still looked as though he’d just climbed out of bed. “What are you talking about?” she asked, dragging her gaze away from him.

  “Every time I think you and I are getting close, you run—emotionally, if not physically. What are you so afraid of, Casey?”

  Of you, she wanted to tell him. Of losing myself in you just when I’m learning how to be the confident, selfsufficient woman I always wanted to be.

  “I’m not afraid of anything,” she answered.

  “Casey—”

  Annie whimpered and opened her eyes.

  Casey reached for the baby almost gratefully. “She probably needs a clean diaper. I’ll change her.”

  “Hiding behind a baby?”

  She sent a quick frown in Steve’s direction. “This really isn’t the time for a discussion about us, Steve. We have more pressing things to concentrate on now.”

  “Perhaps,” he murmured, “but we will have to talk about this soon. It won’t simply go away if you ignore it.”

  Probably not, Casey thought, laying Annie on the bed and reaching for baby wipes and a clean diaper. But it seemed worth a try—at least for now.

  When Annie was clean and dry again, Casey handed her to Steve. “I’ll start dinner,” she said, not quite meeting his eyes.

  “Casey...”

  She could tell he wasn’t quite ready to let it go. “Steve, please. I need some time.”

  He sighed. “You’re making me crazy, you know.”

  She didn’t smile. “I know.”

  It went both ways, of course. Steve Lockhart was making her crazy, too. How else could she explain the way she kept ending up in bed with him, despite her utter certainty that it was a disastrous mistake?

  The problem was, it always seemed like a good idea at the time.

  STEVE COULD HEAR CASEY moving around in the kitchen, and from the aromas emanating from there, he assumed dinner was almost ready. He’d taken the hint that she wanted to be left alone while she cooked, so he sat in the rocking chair in the living room with Annie, who’d just taken a bottle and was now lying in his arms making faces and sucking her fingers.

  “When you grow up,” he murmured to the baby, “and you become a beautiful, intelligent, incredibly desirable woman—as I’m sure you will—are you going to turn some man inside out and leave his head spinning with your unpredictable behavior?”

  Annie gurgled, sounding rather pleased by the prospect.

  “Women,” Steve said with a sigh, shaking his head.

  Annie grunted softly, making him chuckle. He liked sitting here like this, holding her, watching the funny faces she made. It gave him an odd feeling to think that his footloose old friend Blake would be a father in a few months. Steve hadn’t given a lot of thought to fatherhood, himself, but he’d been thinking about it quite a bit this weekend. He thought he’d be pretty good at it And he wanted it more than he’d ever realized before.

  He wanted to experience it with Casey, he thought, his heart swelling with the magnitude of the emotions growing inside him.

  He wished he could understand what she was thinking, what she was feeling at this moment He had always suspected that she hid a passionate and volatile nature behind the cool, professional exterior she revealed to most people. He had been utterly delighted to discover that he’d been right—but now how was he supposed to convince her that it was safe to let him get to know that side of her?

  It had to be fear that made her pull back every time he thought they were making headway. Fear that he would hurt her. Fear of her own feelings. Fear of endangering the business her father had entrusted to her. Maybe all of the above.

  While he could understand that to a point, he wasn’t going to give in to it. Casey had to realize that he would never hurt her. He was crazy in love with her, and had been for months. If she didn’t know that by now, it was time for him to make it very clear to her. And he didn’t know if he could wait until the situation with Annie and Janice was fully resolved before he made his intentions clear.

  He wasn’t a patient man, and he wasn’t one who could simply set his feelings aside until a convenient time arose to deal with them.

  She appeared in the kitchen doorway. “Dinner’s almost ready,” she said without quite meeting his eyes. He doubted that the high color on her cheeks was entirely due to the heat of the kitchen.

  “It smells great.”

  She glanced at the baby. “Do you think she’ll sit in her carrier while we eat again?”

  “We can try. She seems to be in a pretty good mood for the moment.”

  The faintest smile touched Casey’s lips as she continued to look at Annie. “So it seems.”

  Casey had definitely developed a soft spot for this baby, Steve thought. He wondered how she felt about having a few kids of her own.

  Knowing that this would be the wrong time to ask that question, he kept it to himself. At least for now.

  He was just rising from the rocking chair when the telephone rang. Sinking back into the seat, he cradled Annie in his left arm and reached for the receiver with his right hand. Casey moved a step closer, obviously wanting to discover if the call held any news of Janice.

  “Hello?”

  “Hi, Steve, it’s Blake.”

  Steve nodded to Casey, indicating that she should stay close. “What have you got for us, Blake?”

  “I haven’t found Janice yet. But I’ve learned a great deal about her.”

  “Such as?”

  “Janice Gibson is her real name. She grew up in St. Louis, the youngest offspring of a well-off but apparently very restrictive couple. She had some behavior problems in her teens—they sounded to me like classic youthful rebellion, nothing major. She enrolled in college when she was eighteen, but dropped out after two years, a decision her parents vehemently opposed. And then a couple of years ago, she hooked up with a guy named Rick Walls.”r />
  Steve could tell from Blake’s tone that he didn’t consider that a positive development in Janice’s life. “Is that Annie’s father?”

  “Unfortunately, yes. The guy’s bad news, Steve. Got a problem with the bottle. And with his temper. Combine the two, and he’s dangerous.”

  Steve scowled. “Dangerous to janice?”

  “To anyone who gets in his way. I contacted someone who knew Janice a year ago, and she told me that Janice tried to leave the guy several times. He always brought her back, probably with threats. She disappeared just over six months ago, and he’s been looking for her ever since.”

  “She got out when she realized she was pregnant,” Steve speculated.

  “Probably.”

  “Why didn’t she go to her family? The police?”

  “Her parents basically disowned her when she got involved with Walls in the first place. They despised him and wanted nothing to do with her if she wouldn’t take their advice. She probably doubted that they would help her if she showed up carrying Walls’s baby. As for the police, well, she filed several complaints against him the year before she left him. Nothing was ever done, and eventually she dropped each complaint. God knows what he threatened. Trust me, Steve, I’ve seen enough domestic violence situations to know that the woman often feels as if she has absolutely no one to turn to.”

  “So what do you think made her leave Annie with me and take off the way she did?”

  “I think Walter Park must have contacted her. He’s working for Walls, by the way. It was either he or Walls who most likely followed Casey yesterday, since Walls is in town. If Janice thought Walls had located her and the baby, she probably panicked, left the baby with you for safekeeping and took off.”

  “Park is working for Walls? Then who hired Claybrook, the guy who approached me?”

  “Janice’s family. The woman I talked to, the one who told me about Janice’s history with Walls, said she contacted them when Janice disappeared. She knew about the baby, though she didn’t think Walls did at the time. She thought Janice’s family should have the option to try to help her, if they would.”