“This is what you call safe?” he demanded. “What this is…is a perfect setup for someone to attack you. You could scream, and no one would hear you.”
“Good,” she said, slamming her door shut. “What were you thinking, kissing me like that in Mom and Dad’s pantry? What if someone would have seen us?” He was a few inches away, and she shoved at his chest. “Don’t ever do that to me again.”
He gently snatched her hand. “Kiss you or kiss you in the pantry?”
Bypassing a direct answer, she continued her rant—and damn, he’d missed her rants. “You can’t just decide to kiss me when you want to kiss me, after ten years of making me feel like crap for kissing you in the first place.”
“I’d like to think kissing me made you feel something other than ‘like crap.’ And for the record, I only did what you suggested. You said you kept thinking we should kiss again and get rid of temptation. And I decided that all the thinking and not doing was what always got us in trouble.” He tugged her closer, slid an arm around her waist. “And you didn’t kiss me ten years ago. We kissed each other.”
“I started it,” she said, swallowing against the raspy tone he noted in her voice.
“And I wanted it,” he promised her.
“But you never would have kissed me on your own.”
“Never is a long time for two people who want each other the way we want each other. We would have ended up here eventually, Shay, even without that first kiss.” His hand slid up her back, and he pressed her closer. He lowered his head, slowly bringing his mouth near hers. “There was enough electricity jumping off us today at that party to light up Texas. I spent every second after Kent interrupted us thinking about the forbidden kiss that would have happened had he not shown up. If we don’t do something about what’s between us, someone is going to notice—if they haven’t already.”
“We did do something about it,” she said, her breath warm on his lips. “We kissed and it solved nothing.”
“One kiss isn’t a lot of comfort after ten years of anticipation,” he said, his lips close to hers. He could almost taste her now. “Maybe we need to kiss again.”
She leaned into him and then suddenly pulled back. “Stop. No.” Abruptly, she pushed away from him. “We need to talk. You said we’d talk, and I’m holding you to it. And not when I have a client about to show up. I have to be focused on my patient…not on kissing you, Caleb.”
“All right then,” he said softly, his fingers curling into his palms as he resisted the urge to reach for her again. Now that he had touched her, he wanted to touch her again. Just as he wanted to kiss her again, to tear away the barriers and her clothes, so there was only the passion. It had to be. It would be. “But it’s time we deal with this, Shay.”
Her eyes went wide. “Deal with this? Gee, Caleb. You really know how to steal a girl’s heart.” She paled instantly. “Not that I mean—” She flung her hands in the air. “We need to go upstairs before my patient arrives. You’ll scare the crap out of him, too.” She turned on her heels and stomped away.
Caleb ran a hand over his jaw, the light shadow of a new beard rough against his hand. He considered himself a fairly sensitive guy, the front man for missions that had required diplomacy, but it seemed, with Shay, he had a knack for opening his mouth and inserting his foot. Ah, well. Hell, at least that gave him an excuse to keep his mouth occupied in other ways.
With all the ways he might occupy said mouth on his mind, Caleb followed her, a man stalking his prey. Shay’s every move attracted his attention. Her every word interested him. Caleb had never felt this way for any other woman. He had every intention of showing Shay exactly how he intended to deal with this “thing” between them.
Shay had been right. Temptation and desire were making them crazy. Him crazy. And it had separated him from the family, forced him to distance himself for fear he would destroy his family bond, when that action itself had darn near done exactly that. That was the lightbulb that had set him into action. They had to put the temptation behind them. And no matter how many times he kissed her, it would simply not be enough to do the job.
***
SHAY PUNCHED the elevator button, waiting, all too aware of Caleb behind her. Close. Too close. Not close enough. She was all over the board when it came to him. She wanted him. She didn’t want him. She had thought the kiss was a good idea. Now it felt like a horrible idea.