She tried to roll over to face him, but he pulled back, shaking his head. “Uh-uh, not now.”
Calista frowned, but his hand traveled down, further down between her legs and he found where she was already swollen and sensitive. She gasped against his mouth and he kissed her again. She felt his strength beneath her, his obvious arousal against her, as he kissed her and played with her sending her into the stratosphere. His caresses made her breathless, mindless. Her cl**ax racked through her from head to toe. “Oh, Leo,” she whispered.
“Now, you can turn over,” he said.
She rolled over and covered his lips with her fingers. “No, now I want you to stand up.”
He frowned, his eyes glittering with desire. “Why?”
“Just do it,” she whispered.
Sighing heavily, he stood, the water coursing down his strong thighs, his erection jutting proudly. Still weak from the way he affected her, she rose to her knees and skimmed her hands up his thighs to cup him.
He let out a sigh of utter sexual frustration.
Holding his gaze, Calista lifted her lips and took him intimately into her mouth.
He said things that sounded like a combination of curses and longing. He wrapped his fingers in her hair and shook his head, drawing her head away from him. “Enough,” he muttered.
Heedless of their wet skin, he picked her up and carried her into the bedroom, laying her on the bed, immediately following her down. “Hold on,” he said. “I have to have you.”
He took her in one sure thrust. She gazed into his dark eyes and the power she saw there made her feel as if she should look away. She felt as if he were taking more than her body. He was taking her soul.
When Calista awakened the next morning, she felt exhausted. Leo had made love to her several times during the night. She peeked through her fingers and saw that he was gone. She felt a twinge of disappointment, but told herself not to be surprised. Leo was almost always gone in the morning. A terrible loneliness sank inside her.Growling in frustration, she threw off the covers and rose from the bed. “This is ridiculous,” she muttered. “Lying in bed like some pitiful, sappy, helpless woman in love. I’m not helpless and I’m not in love,” she told herself and glanced into the bathroom mirror. She’d made a plan, and she was working the plan.
The woman in the reflection, however, told a different story. Calista lifted her fingers to her swollen lips. Her skin was pale, her eyes bloodshot, her hair a tumbled telltale tangle. Worse yet, the expression in her eyes was full of sadness and longing.
Unable to bear the sight of her n**ed emotions, she closed her eyes and turned away, taking a deep breath. She turned on the jets to the shower, determined to wash her vulnerability down the drain.
“Calista,” Leo said from the doorway.
She jumped at the sound of his voice, wishing she was dressed. Instead, she crossed her arms over her chest in a feeble attempt to cover herself. “I thought you’d left.”
“Almost,” he said and offered her a steaming cup of coffee. “I waited to talk to the vet. They want to keep Pooh one more night.”
Concern rushed through her as she accepted the coffee. “Did something happen? Did his condition worsen?”
He shook his head. “No, I just told them I want them to make sure he’s well. In that case, he said they’d keep him another night on IV support. We should be able to pick him up tomorrow.”
“You’re sure?” she asked, setting the coffee on a table inside the bathroom.
He shot her a half grin. “Yeah, I’m sure.” His gaze fell over her body. “Now, you’d better hop into that shower before I decide I need to distract you like I did last night.”
Calista didn’t know if her body or her emotions could take it, so she quickly stepped under the spray. She didn’t linger, reaching for a towel as soon as she got out of the shower. She lifted the cup of coffee for a quick life-giving sip and noticed it was laced with vanilla and hazelnut. Surprised, she felt her heart take a dip. Leo took his coffee black. He wouldn’t come within an inch of her girlie cappuccinos. She wondered if Meg or Leo knew her tastes.
Bombarded with more social invitations since they’d attended the expand-my-brain program on Saturday, Calista sorted out the few possible events she thought might interest Leo. She also talked with her sisters and cousin, reassuring them about Pooh.
Her cousin came back on the line after Calista finished talking to her sisters. “I hate to have to tell you this,” she said. “But I’m pretty sure Tami has been smoking again.”
Calista’s stomach clenched. “But that’s terrible for her asthma.”
“I know. I’ve told her the same thing. I’m not sure what to do next. You know that when Fall rolls around, she’ll go away to school and neither you nor I will be able to say a thing to her.”
Calista sighed. “I’m not liking this,” she said. “Not at all. Do you think it would help if she talked to a doctor?”
“I don’t know. She’s a teenager. It’s hard to tell her anything. I’m keeping close tabs on her, though. I’ve told her I want her to start bringing her friends here instead of going out.”
“What does she say to that?”
“She doesn’t like it, but I’m not giving her much choice,” Sharon said.
“Thanks. I’ll think about this. There’s got to be a solution,” Calista said.
“I just wanted you to know. We’ll talk soon,” Sharon said.
“Yes, we will. Goodbye.”
Calista stewed over the news about her sister after she disconnected from the phone. Tami should know better. She’d had plenty of frightening asthmatic episodes.
“Mrs. Grant,” Meg said, interrupting her thoughts. “You have a visitor. Mr. Rob Miller.”
Calista felt a dart of surprise followed by extreme discomfort. “Oh. Um. He’s a business colleague. Last week, he told me he needed to ask me a few questions about my projects. Please show him onto the back porch. I’ll be down in just a moment.”
Why had Rob shown up here without any warning? Her heart pounded in her chest out of fear. How could she explain him to Leo? Her hands turned clammy and she felt terror chill her to the bone.
Taking a deep breath, she struggled for composure. She would calmly arrange to meet him some other time at some other place. Calista walked from her makeshift office upstairs down to the back porch and closed the door behind her.
Rob turned to greet her. “Nice place,” he said.
She bit her lip, but kept her voice low. “What are you doing here? Why didn’t you call first?”
“Your cell phone changed. I called your work number and they said you were on extended leave. Hey, if you don’t want the information—”
“No, no,” she said, her stomach twisting. “What have you learned about Leo?”
“It’s not just about Leo,” he said. “It’s about your father.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“I hate to be the one to tell you, but I think you should know. I also knew you shouldn’t see this in a report.”
Her heart hammered against her chest in apprehension. “What? What is it?”
He moved closer to her and took her hand, lowering his voice. “Your father didn’t die of a heart attack. He committed suicide.”
Leo decided to leave the office early. Despite their trip to Japan, he realized he and Calista hadn’t had a real honeymoon. Although he couldn’t leave his business at the moment, he thought it would be a nice surprise to let her choose the place. Having a wife wasn’t such a bad deal after all. Remembering how she’d melted in his arms the night before, he felt a new urgency to be with her again.Meg greeted him as he walked into the house. “Welcome home, Mr. Grant.”
“Thank you, Meg. Do you know where Calista is?”
His housekeeper paused. “She has a visitor. She’s talking with him on the back porch.”
Him? Leo frowned. He didn’t like the sound of that. He walked through the house toward the back porch, stopping suddenly when he spotted Calista in another man’s arms. His stomach gave a vicious, sickening twist. The man caressed her back as she clung to him.
Who the hell was this? What was he doing with her? What was she doing with him? This was his house, damn it.
Taking a sharp breath, he strode to the porch and threw open the door. “Anyone want to tell me what’s going on?”
Calista pushed herself from his arms, clearly startled, a guilty expression crossing her face. “Leo?”
“Yes, it’s me. Your husband. Introduce me to your—” He paused. “Guest,” he said in distaste.
She licked her lips nervously. “This is Rob. He was just leaving.”
“It didn’t look that way,” Leo said, staring the other man down.
The man lifted his hands. “Excuse me. I’ll talk to you later,” he said to Calista.
She cringed as the man left.
“You want to explain what I just saw?” Leo asked, clenching his jaw.
She walked toward him. “It’s not how it seemed.”
“Then how was it?”
“It’s hard to explain,” she said.
“I’ll bet. How long have you been involved with him?”
“It’s not like that,” she said. “I swear.”
“Then why were you in each other’s arms?”
She closed her eyes for a second then took a deep breath. “He’s a private investigator. He just told me that my father didn’t die of a heart attack. He committed suicide. I never knew,” she said in a broken voice.
“If he’s a P.I., then why the hell was he holding you in his arms?”
“I’ve known him for a while. He’s a friend.”
“Just a friend?” Leo asked, full of doubt.
“Yes,” she insisted. “You have to believe me.”