The Family Plan (The McClouds of Mississippi 1)

Her automatic response was to smooth her hand down the skirt of the green knit dress she had worn for her meeting. Since when had Nathan been interested in her wardrobe? He’d never seemed to notice such things before, other than his habitual observations about how nice she looked—something he said to nearly everyone every morning. Casual compliments were a staple part of Nathan’s conversations, as automatic for him as breathing.

“Yes, it’s new.”

“It looks really good. The color makes your eyes shine. Have I ever mentioned that you have really beautiful eyes?”

Okay, way too personal. That was the kind of remark that made her go sort of shivery inside, which was definitely not the way to stay detached this evening. She dragged her gaze away from his face and glanced in the direction of the den. “Isabelle’s watching TV? I’ll go say hello to her.”

“Why does it make you so uncomfortable when I compliment you? Do you think I don’t notice how pretty you are?”

That brought her attention back to him. “

Now how am I supposed to answer that?”

“It was a fairly straightforward question, I think.” He reached out to toy with a strand of her hair, studying it as if he were trying to memorize the color and texture, though she sensed his attention was fully focused on her reactions to the questions he was asking. “Every time I try to tell you that I find you attractive, you get all gruff and flustered. Is it because you don’t know if I’m serious or because you aren’t interested in hearing it?”

“I think it would be better not to talk about attraction at all,” she said, and this time her tone was downright schoolmarmish.

“Why?”

She smothered a sigh. Did he have to make everything so difficult? “Because it could get sticky. We’re business partners. Colleagues.”

“Friends,” he added.

“Friends,” she conceded. “But that’s all.”

His fingers slid into her hair at the back of her neck. His face was very close now, his eyes boring so deeply into hers that she imagined he could see every wayward thought she was trying so hard to hide. “Not quite all,” he murmured.

Before she could move away, his mouth was on hers. And then she couldn’t move away.

She wanted to believe it was shock holding her immobile and not the fact that she had been wanting this kiss for so long. She wanted to believe it, but she knew better. She was perfectly capable of moving away, but, oh, heavens, she didn’t want to.

His mouth moved coaxingly on hers. His lips were warm and firm and skillful. Exactly as she had fantasized—and feared—his kiss would be. As she had feared even more, she knew their relationship would never be quite the same from this point on.

That same realization was in Nathan’s eyes when he drew back. Maybe a hint of the same what-have-we-done alarm.

The chime of the doorbell made them both almost jump out of their shoes.

“That must be the housekeeper,” Nathan said, his voice husky.

“You let her in. I’ll, uh, go check on Isabelle.”

Caitlin almost bolted from the entryway. There was no way she could meet Irene Mitchell’s sister without first splashing some cold water on her face.

Maybe it was because his brain was still rattled from kissing Caitlin that Nathan wasn’t as sharp-witted as usual when he saw the woman standing on his doorstep. “Irene?” he said blankly. “What are you—”

“Irene is my twin sister,” the thin-faced, flame-haired woman replied crisply. “I’m Fayrene Tuckerman. I assume you’re Nathan McCloud?”

“Yes, I—”

She stepped past him, holding her handbag in front of her, and looked around the entryway in assessment. “Lovely house. Shouldn’t be too difficult to keep it up.”

“Well, it’s—”

“The kitchen is this way, I presume?”

He shouldn’t have been surprised that she guessed correctly on the first try. “Yes, it’s—”

She was already moving, leaving him no choice but to follow behind her.