Page 179 of Summer Heat
“The phone was an excuse.” Cash spoke deliberately. A long pause expired. “It wasn’t the reason I drove back to your apartment.”
“Wow…” She closed her eyes, feeling that love-drunk pull that always came when Cash bared his soul to her. “Tell me another deep, dark secret. Two for two. We’ll be even.”
He paused an eternity. “After that no-condom, no-problem moment, my mind went into overdrive. What if you got pregnant?”
“I couldn’t—”
“Things malfunction. Stuff doesn’t always work right.”
“Cash, if this is—”
“It has nothing to do with where you work or what you do.”
“What does it have to do with then?”
“Well, if that happened…if you, ya know, were pregnant.”
“Then we’d have a baby. We’d have to get serious. You’d have to be—”
“We’re not serious?” he asked.
“Are we?
Banging on the door drew her attention. “Hold on a sec.” She lumbered off the bed and cracked the door to see David’s weaselly face. “What do you need, David?”
“We have to head home. Something’s gone wrong with one of my back burner projects. I’m needed in the States. You’ve been trying to go home. Let’s go.”
A mischievous glint in his eye made her stomach tense. Instinct was a precious tool, and hers was precision honed. Something wasn’t right. Her gut screamed for her to backtrack and bed down. “I’m exhausted. We can leave in the morning.”
“You’re already packed.”
“I’ve been packed for two hours. Now I’m ready for bed. Leave without me, if it’s so important. I’ll hop on a commercial flight.”
David studied her, and her muscles tensed, the hair on her forearms standing at attention. There was an edge to his voice and an off-kilter air about him that made her skin shiver.
“Fine. I’ll have the jet prepared for a seven AM departure,” he said.
Nic shut the door without responding. Her skin continued to crawl. She fished the phone from her robe pocket and pushed it back against her ear. “Cash? You there.”
“Yup.”
“Sorry. What were you saying?”
“Nothing much. Just that this bed is lonely without you.”
“Truth?” She missed him deep in her heart, and he’d just mentioned babies. Future, accidental kinds, but still. Babies. Nicola curled closer to the phone. It was just the two of them, eating through the burner phone’s minutes.
“Truth.”
The word made her smile. “It’s no fun to make up with you when there’s an ocean between us.”
He laughed, and the sound felt like an embrace. She remembered the warmth of his body and how he could flash a look that made her nerves spark to life. They’d have to time their disagreements better.
“Get in bed, and let me tell you a good-night story. Before you know it, you’ll be home with me.”
Falling asleep to his voice, now that was a plan. She double checked the door lock and chain, shed her robe, threw back the comforter, and tucked herself into the mess of a cotton nirvana. “All right. Tucked in. Tell me a story.”
“It’s an interactive story.”
