Kissing her brought back unwanted memories. Her taste. Her feel. The rightness of having her in his arms …
Caleb turned away. A taxi was heading toward them. Perfect timing. He hailed it, then looked at Sage. Her face was pale. Her mouth was trembling. He wanted to kiss her again …
“Let’s go,” he said briskly.
A moment later, they were en route to Brooklyn.
Her neighborhood didn’t look any better than the last time.
In fact, it looked worse.
Half a dozen overflowing trash cans stood at the curb. One had fallen over and garbage lay strewn beside it.
A pack of boys, sixteen, maybe seventeen years old, were lounging in front of the building. Two of them elbowed each other as Sage stepped from the cab.
Caleb was right on her heels.
One look from him, the kids turned away.
He figured that what he was feeling—a growing anger to replace the foolish tenderness or whatever you wanted to call it that had overtaken him outside Fein’s office—was showing, loud and clear, on his face.
He grasped Sage’s elbow, marched her up the steps, into the misery of the entry hall, then up the dark, creaking stairs to her apartment.
“Keys,” he said, ignoring the roll of her eyes as she handed them over. Once inside the living room, he wasted no time on niceties and pointed to the sofa. “Sit.”
Sage folded her arms.
“Did you hear me? I said—”
“Do I look like a poodle to you?”
Dammit, as angry as he was, he wanted to laugh, but he wasn’t that foolish.
Instead, he bared his teeth in a cold smile.
“Very funny.”
“No,” she said, “it isn’t funny at all.” She strode past him to the kitchen, banged open cupboards, took out a mug and a box of tea bags, filled a kettle with water. Caleb, following after her, muttered something under his breath, snatched the kettle from her hand, slapped it onto the stove.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“I’m making tea. Herbal tea.” She looked up into his eyes, fluttered her lashes, gave him a smile sweet enough to cause a sugar high. “Why? Did you want some?”
Was she deliberately trying to infuriate him? He wanted to grab her by the shoulders and shake some sense into her …
Or maybe haul her agains
t him and kiss her until sense was the last thing either of them needed.
Hell.
Where did logic go when he was with her? It seemed to disappear like smoke on a breeze. He couldn’t let that happen. Again. Once was enough. More than enough. Just look where it had taken him …
Taken them.
He had to remember that.
“As a matter of fact,” he said, “I’d love some tea.”