“Here you g—” she began to say – only for the cup she’d held out to Caleb that he was just beginning to take from her to suddenly shatter to pieces, spraying hot coffee and shards of ceramic everywhere.
“Oh my God!” Kira cried, snatching her hand back – but it seemed, somehow, that the coffee had completely missed her, instead splashing across Caleb’s hands and arms. “Oh, shit – Caleb! Quick! You need to get some ice onto that right away!” Kira rushed over to the minifridge, yanking it open. She grabbed a towel from the counter and tipped out the ice cube container into it, creating a cold compress. Then she dashed back to where Caleb was sitting, looking more bemused than in pain.
“Quick, hold out your hands, I’ll ice them for you,” Kira said. In her panic, she barely noticed that his skin didn’t seem at all burned – nor did Caleb himself seem to be acting like someone who’d just been doused in near-boiling coffee. “I’m so sorry,” she babbled. “I didn’t know – I swear, I use that cup all the time, I never noticed it was cracked at all –”
“Kira, it wasn’t,” Caleb said calmly. “There was nothing wrong with the cup – and please, don’t worry. I’m not hurt. I promise you.”
“You can’t always feel it at first,” Kira blurted, realizing too late she really should have made two compresses, one for each of his hands. “But that coffee was hot, there’s no way it didn’t burn you – I just can’t believe I –”
“Kira, you didn’t do anything wrong,” Caleb insisted, still sounding completely calm, but Kira was sure the pain of being burned would kick in any moment now. “And please… believe me when I say you really didn’t hurt me. Look at my skin. It’s not burned at all.”
“But –” Kira started to say, before looking down. And blinked.
It wasn’t just that Caleb’s skin wasn’t burned – there wasn’t a mark on it at all. It was just a bit wet from coffee. Kira’s eyebrows drew together.
But… how?!
“I don’t understand,” she murmured, putting the ice pack aside to hold Caleb’s hands between her own, gently turning them over. “You really don’t have any burns at all… unless it’s just they haven’t shown up yet? I really shouldn’t have taken the cold compress off –”
“Kira. I promise you, you didn’t hurt me.” Caleb’s voice was firm as his fingers curled around her hands, keeping them in place.
Wow. His hands… warm…Kira thought in a mild daze. And for some reason, they made her skin tingle. Little ticklish electric sparks ran up and down her arms, and she pulled in a quick gasp of breath at the sensation. That feels so weird…
But it wasn’t exactly unpleasant, either, especially not when it was combined with the warmth that was quickly collecting in her belly.
Okay! Okay! Get a hold of yourself!
She’d thought bringing Caleb back to her office would mean this kind of thing wouldn’t happen – but instead, it just seemed to have created a situation for this exact thing to happen.
Blinking, Kira looked up – and then swallowed as she realized how close in to Caleb she had leaned, their faces close enough that she could feel his breath ghosting over her cheeks.
“Oh – um –” she whispered, shivering, but she couldn’t quite bring herself to pull away. She licked her lips, and watched as his eyes darted down to follow the movement, seeming to grow dark with desire as they did.
Okay. I definitely didn’t imagine that,Kira thought, even as she found herself leaning in, drawn irresistibly toward him.
“Um – Kira –”
Caleb’s voice was a low, husky rumble that sent a shiver of lust straight up Kira’s spine. At least until she realized that by saying her name, he was trying to get out of her attempted kiss.
Immediately, Kira felt herself flushing with mortification, pulling back.
Argh. I guess I did imagine it after all.
“I’m – I’m so sorry,” she stuttered. “I didn’t mean – I mean, I did, but I – ugh, this is soembarrassing…”
She tried to yank her hands away from where they were still gently encircled by Caleb’s fingers, only to find he tightened them to hold her in place.
“No! Kira – no, that’s not what I meant.” Caleb sounded desperate – and his eyes looked desperate. It was sincere enough to jerk her out of her puddle of mortification for a moment.
“Um – then – why did you stop me?” she made herself ask. Her heart still felt like it was doing double-time in her chest, and despite everything it was still taking every ounce of willpower she possessed not to throw herself at him again. She’d never wanted to kiss anyone so badly before in her life.
“Because… because I haven’t finished explaining things to you yet,” Caleb said, a raw edge to his voice. He was still staring at her lips, and Kira got the feeling he was having to hold himself back just as much as she was. “And I think I owe you an explanation before we go any further. And then you can decide if you want to go any further.”
“O… kay…” Kira said slowly. What on earth was Caleb talking about?!
“And I think… maybe… we should discuss this outside,” Caleb said, glancing around. “The last thing I want to do is make your computer short out, or bring your roof down on both of our heads.”
Kira frowned, opening her mouth to tell Caleb that that wasn’t exactly likely, but quickly shut it again. She didn’t really get what Caleb was talking about, but she figured if he had something to tell her, maybe she should just shut up and listen.