“It’s always yours,” Hannibal answered, smiling beneficently at Kady.
“What doorway?” Luke asked with interest.
Tarik put his arm around Kady. “A doorway that doesn’t concern little boys like you.”
Luke laughed confidently. “I may be a boy to you, Cousin Tarik, but not to the ladies.”
“Tarik, honey,” Wendell purred, “you can’t be going to bed now. It’s the shank of the evening. I’m sure your little . . . friend must be tired after all that chopping and peeling, but you and I . . . Well, as you remember, at this time of day we’re usually just getting started.”
When Wendell fluttered her heavy lashes, Kady feared the breeze was going to blow the chairs off the porch. “Yes, darling,” Kady said sarcastically, “why don’t you stay here and help Wendell with a . . . a fan belt or something? I’m sure you two can find lots of boy things to do together. As for me, I have knitting and crocheting that will keep me busy in my rocker. Good night everyone.” Opening the door, she went inside the house.
Tarik followed her, but he halted at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at her, and for a moment there was pain on his face. “I . . . I think I’ll stay downstairs for a while.”
Kady put her nose into the air. It didn’t matter to her what he did, but as she glanced toward the open door she saw that Wendell was listening avidly. Over Wendell’s painted mouth, her eyes held an expression of such knowing smugness that Kady’s heart tightened into a little knot.
“Whatever,” Kady said and mounted the stairs, but Tarik caught her hand on the rail.
“Look, it’s not what you think,” he said softly so the others couldn’t hear. “I have to take care of something. I’ll be up when I can.”
“Are you under the impression that I want you to share the same bedroom with me?” she hissed, looking down at him.
It was as though he hadn’t heard her. “I want nothing more than to spend the night with you, but I have to—”
“You are too vain for words! Go on and stay with your cousin. Or is Leonie flying in to visit you? There is nothing between us except—”
She didn’t say any more because he vaulted over the stair rail, took her into his arms, and kissed her until she was limp.
“Don’t you think it’s time that we stopped playing games? You know as well as I do that we were meant to be with each other. Destined, if you like. Ever since that first day when I looked into your eyes, I . . .” He trailed off as he smoothed the hair back from her face, tucking a curl behind her ear.
“You what?” she asked, looking up at him. When he touched her, she had trouble thinking clearly.
“Since that first day I’ve known that I love you.”
“That’s not true!” she said, trying to push away from him. Two men had told her they loved her, and they had both turned out to be false. Gregory had wanted to use her to make money, and Cole was—
“It is true,” he said, holding her, not allowing her to move from his arms. “We have loved each other for a long time. I think maybe we loved each other before we even met.”
“How absurd. That’s ridiculous.” Again she tried to push away, but he wouldn’t release her.
“You don’t have to tell me now that you love me,” he said. “First I want to earn your trust.”
“In which woman’s bed?” she spat at him. “And what about your engagement to the skinny Leonie?”
“I broke it the day you threw the papers on my floor. She’s out of my life.”
“I don’t believe you,” she said, trying not to look at him, for she couldn’t bear to look into his eyes. “We hardly know each other, and you only came here because of Ruth’s codicil and—”
“There is no codicil,” he said softly.
“And you live in a different world than I do, and you—What do you mean, ‘There is no codicil’?”
“There, that’s better,” he said, smiling because she’d stopped struggling to get away and was now looking up at him in disbelief. “I made up all of it. I’m a good actor.”
“You aren’t an actor, you’re a liar!”
“Whatever you want to call it. Mmmm, you taste good.” He was nuzzling her neck. “That was very funny that you said you were going to cook spaghetti and an apple pie. That’s like comparing a Ferrari to a bus. How do you remember all those ingredients? Do you carry a cookbook with you?”
“I have an ability to remember recipe ingredients. I can’t think when you’re doing that.”