On the other hand, if it were Mike’s obnoxious coworker, Officer Ollie, she should definitely worry.
She’d seen the man in a few places this past week, and each time she’d gone out of her way to avoid coming face-to-face with him. Still, she’d caught his eyes on her—once in the grocery store, once in the diner. He’d tried smiling, and, when she didn’t respond, had ended up narrow-eyed and angry.
Angry enough to come down here and harass me?
God, she hoped not. She had packed away her big penis-weapon in a box which was now buried in the back of her closet, so she couldn’t beat him up with that.
Another knock. Still clutching the phone, she tightly tied the sash of her robe and crossed through the bedroom and the living room to the front door.
“Who is it?” she asked, not so much as lifting a hand to undo the dead bolt.
“Lindsey, it’s Mike. I need to talk to you.”
Relief flooding through her, she dropped the phone onto the foyer table, unlocked the door and pulled it open. “You scared me.”
He offered her a half smile. “This isn’t Chicago. There hasn’t been a home invasion on Wild Boar for as long as anybody can remember.”
“I know. It’s just, the quietness is eerie. I certainly wasn’t expecting somebody to knock on my door. Why did you?”
“Can I come in and explain?”
Stepping back, she gestured toward the living room. As he entered, the room seemed to shrink around him, so big was his presence.
“I see you still haven’t found a permanent place for your books,” he said, nodding toward the back corner of the room, where the cartons were piled neatly against the wall.
“I won’t be here that long. I figured I could just dig out the ones I want, as I want them.”
He crossed his arms, leaning against the back of a tall armchair. “What about your other...package. Have you pulled out anything you wanted from that?”
The air seemed to have been sucked out of her lungs. Her mouth went dry, and she couldn’t make it work to form words.
Had he really come here to talk about the sexy things that had fallen out of that box the last time they’d been together in this room? And if so, to what end?
“No, I packed it up and buried it in the bottom of my closet. It was delivered here by mistake,” she admitted. “Though I was just thinking that if Officer Ollie was at my door, I might wish I had my giant rubber club handy.”
He grinned. “I don’t imagine he’d have even recognized it. Bullies are dickless, as a rule.”
Not inside more than ninety seconds and they were already talking about sex organs. Her famous control over every personal situation had slipped away as easily as water through her fingers. That was par for the course lately, considering her professional life had slipped beyond her control, too.
Of the two, she had to admit that, right here and now, the personal one bothered her more. This man did have a knack for keeping her off guard. She wasn’t used to it and didn’t like it— possibly because she feared he could make her like it too much!
“Why are you here?” she finally managed to ask.
“I really am curious about that box of yours.”
His husky voice and gleaming eyes made her heart flutter. Her pulse sped up, and her whole body went on alert. Her legs quivered and she wrapped the robe tighter around herself, suddenly feeling way too vulnerable.
She wasn’t scared of Mike. She was, however, scared of how quickly he made her forget all her resolutions to avoid any entanglements, especially entanglements with a man she feared she would dream about long after the hot sex was over.
“Why?”
“I’m wondering if you’re missing anything out of it.”
He reached into his pocket and withdrew a small book. She eyed it, recognizing the jade-green binding, and, of course, the art on the cover. Her mouth falling open, she looked from it, to him to her laptop case, which was on the coffee table. Hurrying over, she yanked it open and peered inside.
No book.
“It’s possible it fell out when you dropped that case in the parking lot yesterday afternoon.”
He was probably right.
God. Of course she couldn’t have dropped her keys, or a wallet or some sunglasses. No. It had to be a book nobody on this island had probably ever heard of, much less read.
Except Mike. Judging by the confident gleam in his eyes, she suspected he was aware of exactly what the book contained, and had been even before this particular copy had landed in his hands.
He was bluntly sexual, so confident, so self-assured. He would not be pushed around when it came to sex. He would try new things, explore all possibilities and not be shocked by anything as simple as some graphic illustrations.