“Did you go in?”
“No.”
“I wish you had. I want you to see the house.”
“Then why didn’t you invite me to see it?” She lashed out. “Why did I have to find out about you, your work, from someone else, by accident?” She felt herself getting angry and it suddenly occurred to her that she had no right to. What claim did she have on Chad? How many times had she seen him? He had taken her to lunch. He had come to see her twice. That was all. By what right was she making demands of him? She sounded like a shrewish wife and hated herself for it.
She covered her fac
e with her hands. “I’m sorry, Chad. I shouldn’t be angry with you. It’s not as if we’re involved or anything.”
“You’re wrong. We’re very involved.” Her hands fell away and she looked across the space that separated them to meet his penetrating eyes. “I intended to tell you about my work that first night I came here. I knew you wouldn’t like it. I don’t think any reasonably intelligent woman would, but I didn’t know until you began talking about Greg how much you’d hate it.”
He rose from the chair, tossed his hat onto the coffee table, and knelt in front of her, covering both her hands with his. “Leigh, I couldn’t risk telling you then. I wanted to give you time to get to know me. Then, if things were going well, if we were getting ‘involved,’ I was going to tell you. I didn’t want to do or say anything that would prejudice you against me.”
“That wasn’t fair, Chad.”
“No, it wasn’t. My only defense is that I wanted you. I still do.” He lifted a lock of her hair from her shoulder and raised it to his lips. Slowly, watching her all the while, he drew the silky strand back and forth across his mouth. “All I thought about while I was away was how you look, how delectable you smell. I could taste you, Leigh. I remembered how your mouth responds to mine, how your skin feels against my lips, my tongue.”
If he touches me, I’m lost, she thought desperately. Even now, knowing his occupation, knowing she had sworn never again to love a man who put his work before her, knowing he had lied to her, she wanted to sift through his hair, to feel the hard muscles under his dark skin, to comb through that mat on his chest, to touch
Sarah’s cry dragged Leigh up from the ocean of desire that was drowning her. “Sarah,” she said needlessly. Chad stood and moved aside as she scurried off the couch and raced toward the bedroom. Such haste was unnecessary as far as tending the baby was concerned, but essential to preserving her sanity. She couldn’t love him. She wouldn’t!
“Now, now, how’s mamma’s girl?” she asked, turning the baby over.
“She’s grown so much,” Chad said from behind her. His body was curved around hers as she bent over the crib. When he leaned over farther to inspect Sarah more closely, his thighs rubbed against the backs of Leigh’s. A subtle adjustment of his hips reminded her all too clearly of his sex. One hand came out to steady him against the railing of the crib, trapping her between him and it.
“Yes, she has.” She didn’t recognize the unsteady voice as her own. “I need to move her out of this portable crib and put her in her baby bed in the other room, but I forgot to have my dad set it up for me when he was here last.”
“I’ll do it for you.”
Sarah’s diaper had been swiftly changed. Miraculously the baby hadn’t been stabbed as her mother wielded the pins with uncharacteristically nervous hands. Leigh lifted her up and turned around in the narrow space Chad allowed her. “I can’t ask you to do that, Chad.”
“You didn’t. I volunteered. Where is it?”
“In the other bedroom. It’s still boxed up,” she said to his retreating back.
By the time she and Sarah got to the other bedroom, he was examining the long, flat box. “There’s a baby bed in that?” he asked, laughing.
“See, I told you. It’s a big project and”
“Do you have a tool kit? Screwdrivers? Never mind. I have one in my truck.”
“Chad, really”
His mouth swooped down on hers to stop her protests. The kiss was quick and hard and potent. Leigh felt as if a bomb had exploded in the lower part of her body, showering her with prickling sensations. “There. I’ve found a very effective way of keeping you quiet. If you’ll make me a sandwich and a pot of coffee, I’ll be compensated.” He kissed her once again fleetingly on the forehead, then moved her aside and went out the front door to his truck.
Fuming, Leigh stalked into the kitchen. She put Sarah, who seemed momentarily content, in her swing, and cranked it up with a vengeance. Hearing Chad’s happy whistle as he came back into the house was like feeding new kindling to a smoldering fire. Her anger burst into flame.
“He barges in here and takes over like he owns the place. He doesn’t. I do. We’ll make it on our own, Sarah. I don’t need him or anyone else, and I’m going to tell him that just as soon as he finishes putting up that damn baby bed.”
Sarah clapped her hands.
He had lied to her by omission and she was furious. Yet the moment he had reappeared, she had practically fallen into his arms and kissed him. “Sarah, what am I going to do?” Leigh groaned. Her baby only gurgled in response.
Leigh slapped cold cuts and slices of cheese onto a platter, pulled wheat and rye bread out of the pantry, and made a pot of coffee. She filled Sarah’s electric warming plate with strained vegetables and plugged it in to heat. When all was ready, she stormed toward the small bedroom to call Chad.
But instead of making a haughty announcement that the meal was ready, she laughed. Chad was sitting crossed-legged on the floor, surrounded by bolts and screws, rails, springs, and reams of technical instructions for assembly.