Stealing Second Page 23

  At the moment his attention was on his menu so she used the opportunity to study him unobserved. Her gaze rested on the wide expanse of his shoulders; she imagined divesting him of his perfectly cut sport coat, unbuttoning his crisp white dress shirt and sliding her hands over his muscular chest.

  At the exact moment she imagined what came after that, he looked up and hot blood rushed to her cheeks. Thank God, her face was still slightly sunburned. Maybe he wouldn’t notice she was blushing.

  “The filet mignon sounds good.” He cocked his head and a small frown furrowed his brow. “Are you all right? You look flushed.”

  “I’m fine.” She smiled, then studied her menu. Every entrée sounded marvelous. “Their seafood is wonderful.”

  “If you say so.”

  She looked up and laughed at his pinched expression. “Seriously, you still won’t eat fish?”

  “No.” A grimace of disgust twisted his mouth. “I still hate it.”

  “How can you not like fish?”

  “I don’t know.” He gave her a pointed look. “How can you not like yams?”

  Katherine grimaced and held up a hand. “Don’t even go there. Yams are disgusting.”

  “I rest my case.”

  Before she could respond, their waiter appeared with the sparkling water they’d ordered. After he deposited the glasses on the table, he recited the day’s specials, then took their order.

  “So tell me what you like about San Francisco,” Tom asked, once the waiter had disappeared with their menus.

  “A lot of things.” She glanced at the majestic bridge that connected the East Bay to the city. “The food. The shopping. And for a major city, it’s actually quite small in size. I like that. I also love the proximity to the ocean and the bay. The Victorian homes are amazing, and there have been days when I’ve spent hours exploring Golden Gate Park.”

  “Do you miss Texas at all?”

  “Sometimes. But I’ve lived here so long now, I consider it my home.” She reached for her water and took a sip. “Is there anything you like about San Francisco?”

  “I like that you’re here.”

  She let out a soft laugh. “I’m serious.”

  “Fine.” He flashed a grin that warmed her insides. “Aside from the fact that it’s too damn crowded, the city is growing on me. During the season I spent the majority of my time at the ballpark and on the road. And I’m in Austin during the off-season, so I haven’t had a chance to see much of what San Francisco has to offer. Maybe after the season is over, you can play tour guide and show me around.”

  “I’d love to.” She set her glass on the table, then looked up and met his eyes. The heat in their depths left her breathless and, suddenly, the low chatter in the room disappeared, and all she could hear was her heartbeat echoing loudly in her ears.

  “You’re so damn beautiful.” He leaned forward and lowered his voice to a husky whisper. “I want to kiss you so badly right now.”

  “The feeling is definitely mutual,” she said softly, and she couldn’t help but stare at his lips and remember exactly what he could do with them.

  “Don’t look at me like that. Or I’ll never make it through dinner.”

  “How am I looking at you?” She smiled demurely.

  “Like you can’t wait for me to peel that dress off of you and lick your pussy.”

  Katherine let out a soft gasp as desire throbbed between her legs. “I can’t believe you just said that,” she whispered. “In here.” She glanced at the neighboring tables, but no one paid them any attention.

  “You asked me a question. I answered it.” His eyes gleamed with wicked humor. “Don’t blame me if you don’t like the answer.”

  “Oh, I like the answer.” She extended her leg under the table and lightly brushed her foot against his calf. His swift intake of breath pleased her. “But now that’s all I’ll be thinking about during dinner.”

  The corner of his mouth kicked up. “You and me both.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Standing beside Tom outside the historic Audiffred Building, where Boulevard was located, Katherine wrapped her arms around her midriff to ward off the chilly bay breeze and studied his brooding profile. Although he gave every appearance of admiring the stunning view of the Bay Bridge sparkling brightly under the night sky, she wasn’t quite so sure that was the case.

  That he hadn’t been successful at forgetting his conversation with his mother didn’t surprise her. Despite Boulevard’s romantic ambience, there were moments during their meal when she’d glimpsed an imperceptible tightening of his jaw and a quick flash of anger in his eyes. Like her, he was having a hard time dealing with the fact that someone who was supposed to love him had conspired against him.

  “You’re thinking about your mother again.”

  “Is it that obvious?” He turned to face her; the golden beams from a nearby street lamp washed over his face, illuminating his troubled expression.

  “Only to me.” She gave him a small smile and brushed back several strands of her ruffled hair.

  “Do you think we’d still be together if our parents hadn’t intervened?” he asked.

  She’d wondered about that herself. “I’d like to say yes, but the truth is, we’ll never know.”

  “Let’s say we didn’t make it.” He gestured with his hand toward her, then himself. “That we broke up anyway. Does that make what they did any less unacceptable?”

  “No,” she said, quickly. “They made the decision for us, based on their perception of our relationship. What they did was wrong. And cruel.”

  “You know, what bothers me the most about that conversation with my mother was how dismissive she was of our feelings.” A scowl darkened his face. “Who is she to say I can’t find the love of my life at the age of eighteen?”

  Katherine’s heart constricted and for a moment she couldn’t catch her breath. The love of his life?

  Before she could speak, he looked past her. “I think that’s our cab,” he said, then moved toward the curb and raised his hand.

  A short while later, she stood in front of her building and waited at the curb while Tom finished his conversation with their cab driver. The driver had turned out to be a die-hard Blaze fan and recognized Tom as soon as they’d slid into the backseat. During the brief drive, the cabbie had talked nonstop about the team’s recent hot streak and predicted the Blaze would win the division—after the Dodgers choked in September, of course.

  While they discussed the pros and cons of the recent MLB challenge rule changes, she checked her phone and discovered her father had returned her call. Of the two calls she’d missed while at dinner, one was from him. As was the lone voice-mail message.

  Katherine shoved her phone back into her purse and sighed. She wouldn’t call him back tonight. Nor would she listen to his message. She wouldn’t let him ruin even one second of her evening with Tom.

  A few minutes later, she preceded Tom into her condo and loosened the belt of her embroidered evening coat. “I still haven’t found the time to get to the store.” She moved to the small dining space adjacent to the galley kitchen and set her purse on the table. “But I do have coffee. Would you like some? I can make us a pot,” she said as she shrugged out of her coat and laid it over the back of one of the chairs.

  “I could go for a cup.” He surveyed the living room, lit by only the white floor lamp next to the sofa, then looked at her. “You’ve accomplished so much since high school. Front office positions with professional sports teams are highly sought after and you’ve got one.” He gestured toward the living room. “You live in an expensive condo, wear designer clothes, and from what I’ve observed, you’re invited to all of San Francisco’s most prestigious social events. My mother believed I wouldn’t have had the career I had if we’d stayed together, but maybe you wouldn’t have the life you have for the same reason.”

  “Maybe not.” She moved to stand in front of him. “But if we’d stayed together I would have ha
d you. And I would have a career too. Probably not the one I have now, but one just as fulfilling.”

  “They stole so much from us. It pisses me off that my mother’s justification for her actions is that we were too young to know what love was. Maybe our relationship wouldn’t have lasted, but it’s as likely we’d be married and have kids right now, just like we planned. But that was for us to figure out, not for someone else to decide for us.”

  The pain and anger in his eyes broke Katherine’s heart. She couldn’t repair his relationship with his mother any more than he could repair hers with her father, but it didn’t stop her from wanting to help them both forget it.

  For tonight anyway.

  Slipping her arms around his waist, she pressed her body to his and inhaled the warm woodsy scent of his cologne. He wrapped his arms around her and held her close. An odd sense of peace flowed through her; in his arms was the one place she’d always felt safe.

  “God, Katie. I’ve missed you so damn much.” His agonized whisper brought a flood of moisture to her eyes. For years she believed that she’d been the only one to suffer. To discover he’d been hurt just as badly didn’t make her feel any better, but it did remove any doubt that he hadn’t loved her as deeply as she’d loved him.

  “I missed you too,” she said, and then an overpowering rush of emotion swelled in her chest and the tears spilled from her eyes. Overcome by her startling reaction, she let out a strangled cry and buried her face into his neck. Tom made a low soothing sound and tightened his arms around her, absorbing her soft sobs with his strong, solid body.

  Katherine had never been one to cry at the drop of a hat—which was why her sudden outburst surprised her. The only other times she distinctly remembered crying was when her mom died, when she was in the hospital after the drunk driver hit her and when she believed she’d lost Tom forever. But at this moment she couldn’t seem to stop crying.

  When her tears finally abated, she pulled back and sniffed. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be,” Tom said. “I know how much you love your father. What he and my mom did to us is hard to swallow.”

  “I wasn’t crying because of my father.” She sniffed again. “I was crying because for so long I thought I was crazy for not being able to get you out of my heart. I tried… I tried so hard to move on, but I could never fully commit to anyone. Instead, I casually dated and immersed myself in my job.”

  “The way I immersed myself in alcohol.” He gently released her, then reached up to wipe her wet cheeks with his fingers. “But even that didn’t help after a while. When the haze wore off I still didn’t have you. After I got sober, I dated a couple of nice women, but when push came to shove and they wanted more from me, I couldn’t give it to them.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I gave everything I had to you.” His tender gaze searched hers. “There was nothing left for anyone else.”

  Her eyes welled with fresh tears. She blinked to hold them back. “Damn it all, Tom. You’re going to make me cry all over again.”

  “That wasn’t my intention.” He lifted a hand to her face and gently brushed his thumb back and forth against her cheek. His light touch sent a pleasurable tingle over her skin. “I’d much rather make you smile. You have a beautiful smile.”

  She covered his hand with hers and gave him the smile he wanted. “Take off your jacket and get comfortable. I’ll make us some coffee.”

  A few minutes later, after she’d turned on the coffeemaker, Katherine ducked into the small powder room at the far end of the kitchen to freshen up. She looked at her reflection in the mirror over the pedestal sink and grimaced. Her crying jag had left smudges of mascara underneath her eyes, leaving her looking like a raccoon. Pulling one of the small hand towels from the rack on the wall, she wet one corner in the sink, then dabbed away the smudges.

  After hanging the towel back on the rack, she finger-combed her tousled hair and her gaze fell on the sterling-silver diamond pendant around her neck. It had been her mother’s and her father had given it to her the day before she left for college.

  Like it happened yesterday, she remembered him fastening it around her neck and telling her that once she got to Berkeley she’d be so busy studying and making new friends that she wouldn’t give Tom a second thought. Then he’d turned her around, looked her directly in the eyes and said that if Tom could leave town without coming by to see her or calling her, then he wasn’t worth the time she’d spent crying over him.

  For the life of her, she couldn’t wrap her mind around his behavior. What kind of father could comfort his daughter after being the one who had caused her pain in the first place?

  In all likelihood, he would defend his actions in the same manner Ellen Morgan had. It wouldn’t do him any good. From the moment she’d learned of his lies and manipulations, the respect she held for him disappeared, leaving nothing in its wake except disappointment and anger. No matter what excuses he came up with, she would never forgive him for what he’d done.

  A half an hour later, she had slipped off her heels and was tucked comfortably next to Tom on the sofa. She marveled at the irony of it. Less than a month ago they couldn’t be in the same room together without arguing. “Did you get a chance to talk to Trey after I left your office this afternoon?”

  “Yeah. We talked.”

  “How did he sound?”

  “Subdued. I got the sense he’s still trying to process everything.”

  “I suppose that’s normal.” She glanced at their empty cups on the low black coffee table. “Do you want more coffee? Or some dessert? I think I may have some ice cream in the freezer.”

  “Nah. I’m good.” He tightened his arm around her. “I have everything I need right here.”

  She tilted her head back to look at him. Heat flared in his eyes, melting her insides. “Me too,” she whispered, then lifted her mouth to meet his. She’d expected a soft, sweet kiss, but the moment their lips touched, the fire ignited. In a heartbeat, the kiss turned demanding and deeply intimate. Several seconds later, he pulled back, his breathing as ragged as hers.

  “Let’s go to my bedroom,” she said softly.

  Amusement kicked up the corner of his mouth. “Whatever you say, darlin’,” he said, then stood and held out his hand. Smiling up at him, she took it and let him pull her up.

  Once they entered her room, she moved to the nightstand, switched on the light, then turned to face him. Like magnets, their eyes locked, and electricity filled the air and shimmered between them. For several long seconds she couldn’t move; the force of his smoldering gaze had rooted her to the spot. Then something in the air shifted, and she moved toward him at the same time he took a step toward her. They came together with urgency by the side of her bed, and she moaned when his mouth came down on hers, hot, hard and demanding.

  “I want you,” she said against his mouth, her fingers impatiently wresting his shirt from his waistband, then sliding under the soft fabric to touch his warm, supple skin.

  “Thanks for clarifying. I wasn’t sure,” he murmured, trailing his lips down her neck and reaching behind her with one hand to unzip her dress. Within seconds, he had her dress on the floor at her feet, and his warm hands were gently kneading her breasts.

  Her knees almost buckled and a gasp escaped her lips as he brushed his thumbs over her nipples. She whimpered in protest when he removed his hands, but then a throb of desire rolled through her as he urged her down onto the bed and kneeled before her. He leaned forward and his mouth closed over one taut peak. Moisture pooled between her legs, and with every rasp of his tongue over and around her nipple, the pleasure twisting deep inside her grew tighter and tighter.

  He hooked his fingers under the slim scraps of lace at her hips. Her body hummed with anticipation. She lifted her butt slightly; he eased her panties down over her thighs and finally pulled them off and tossed them on the floor.

  “I’ve wanted to do this since dinner,” he said, in a low, husky voice, the
n spread her legs wide, lowered his head and leisurely swiped his tongue over her swollen pussy.

  She gasped, and then, when he slid two fingers deep inside her, she leaned back and braced her palms on the comforter to keep from collapsing onto the bed. Her breath jammed in her throat as he circled her clit with his tongue, and gently thrust his fingers in and out of her wet heat.

  Thoroughly aroused, she reached out with one hand, fisted her fingers in his hair and shamelessly rocked against him. The exquisite tension wound tighter and tighter, and her sounds of pleasure filled the room as she moved her hips to the rhythm of his thrusting fingers. A heartbeat later, he drew her clit into his mouth, gently sucked it and her orgasm ripped through her, hot powerful throbs that pulled a shuddering moan from her throat and shook her body.

  Trembling and boneless, she collapsed on the bed and closed her eyes. Tom withdrew his fingers from her, then pressed his warm, moist mouth to her inner thigh. “You’re the perfect dessert, darlin’,” he murmured against her skin. “Hot and delicious.” He slid a finger into her folds, and she gasped as an aftershock of pleasure pulsed through her. “And wet.” His breath blew hot against her swollen folds. “So wet,” he said, then licked her again, a long swipe that ended with a delicious swirl around her now ultra-sensitive clit. She sucked in a breath, then heard him chuckle before he got to his feet.

  She propped herself up on her elbows and watched him unbutton his shirt. Her gaze dipped to the unmistakable bulge behind the zipper of his slacks and she smiled. “Hmm. Dessert for me?”

  The corner of his mouth kicked up. “Only for you,” he said, then pulled off his shirt and tossed it on the chair next to the nightstand.

  Only for her. She liked the sound of that.

  Katherine had always enjoyed watching Tom undress. Sitting up, she scooted to the middle of the bed, stretched out on her side and let her gaze wander over his wide shoulders. The play of his biceps and triceps as he removed his shoes, socks and the rest of his clothing fascinated her; she could stare at his body all night and be perfectly content.