“Nothing’s better.”
“You’re damned right. I don’t like being manhandled, Ben. Not by you. Not by anyone. So cut out the Neanderthal macho routine!”
His eyes flashed fire, but he released her. “Oh, hell, Carlie, I didn’t mean to insult you.” He drew in a deep breath of the wintry air. “I’m just warning you about Fitzpatrick.”
“I don’t need a mother.”
“I’m not—”
“Or a babysitter.”
“Carlie—”
“Shh. I don’t even need an older brother, Ben. I can take care of myself.”
“Can you?” His voice was suddenly low and sexy. “Maybe I don’t want to think that you’re so damned independent. Maybe I want to think that you need a man.”
“Are you applying for the job?” she asked, her anger beginning to fade.
“I’d like to.”
She stood on her tiptoes and brushed her lips gently across his. “I’m a big girl now.”
His grin, a slash of white in the darkness, was wicked and sensual. “I’ve noticed.” His lips found hers and his hands spanned her waist. “Let’s ditch this party.”
“Mmm, I can’t,” she said with genuine reluctance. “I promised Mom and Dad I’d drive them home.”
“Later?”
She wanted to say yes, to beg him to meet her at her apartment, but she held her tongue. She remembered their argument about Tracy, about the past, about Thomas Fitzpatrick. “Soon,” she promised, closing her eyes and drinking in the smell of him—of soap and champagne and some musky cologne.
His lips found hers again and her head began to swim. Her eyes closed and desire pumped through her blood. She wondered what the future would bring, but steadfastly shoved all her cloying doubts into a dark corner of her mind. She was caught in the wonder and magic of loving him.
Slowly she opened her eyes and saw, through the steamy glass of the French doors, a woman in white. Tracy Niday, her eyes squinting through the glass, her jaw set in renewed determination was staring at them. A chill, deep as the February night, passed through Carlie’s bones.
Carlie drew back from Ben’s embrace, but he groaned and pulled her close again, his lips hot and wet against her own. She fell willingly against him and when she looked back to the glass, Tracy had disappeared.
“We can’t do this all night?”
“Not here.”
“Come home with me.”
“I will, but not tonight,” she said, regret heavy in her voice.
“I’ll hold you to it.”
“You’d better.”
Ben took Carlie’s hand as they walked back into the dining room. Though Tracy was drinking champagne and flirting with several of the men collecting near the open bar, Carlie was certain that Tracy knew the exact moment they’d walked inside.
Telling herself she was being petty, Carlie turned her attention back to the party. She talked to some friends, avoided any more champagne and held Ben’s hand. His eyes sparkled when he asked her to dance and she couldn’t say no. Other couples, including Hayden and Nadine, swept around the floor. Nadine looked radiant. Her red hair was piled in loose curls on her head and her dress, black silk with rhinestones, caught in the light. The newlyweds laughed and talked as they danced, and when they passed Ben and Carlie, Nadine winked, as if at a private joke.
“What was that all about?” Carlie demanded.
“Just my sister’s perverse sense of humor.”
“Meaning—”