Breathless Descent (Texas Hotzone 3)

She opened the door and darted out. Caleb was about to follow when it slammed on him. He grimaced about the time Kent’s voice filtered through the air. “We decided to start the poker game early. Where’s Caleb? We want his dime involved.”

Oh, crap. The poker game was at the kitchen table, the eat-in table by the patio door overlooking the kitchen. Shay wasn’t trapped, but he was.

“Where is he?” Kent asked.

“In the pantry,” Shay said matter-of-factly.

“Why the heck is he in the pantry?”

“He went in to look for the cookies Mom made for him,” she said, and instantly a lightbulb went off in Caleb’s mind. He flipped the light on and started looking for the Tupperware container Sharon always hid his cookies in so Kent wouldn’t eat them all. He found it on the second shelf and opened the lid.

“That doesn’t explain why the door is shut,” Kent said, suspicious.

“I shut him in to shut him up. He’s a nag, like you. I have to call my service. I have some sort of emergency.”

Caleb opened the door with a cookie in his mouth as Shay headed down the hall, phone in hand. “This is Dr. Shay White,” she was saying.

Caleb eyed Kent. “Don’t even think about touching my cookies.”

Kent laughed and walked toward him, determined to snatch a cookie. “You can bet them on a hand of poker.”

“Forget it,” Caleb said. He’d never been a lucky poker player. The question was, had his gamble with Shay paid off? And how long was it going to be before he could get her alone and find out? He’d come too far to turn back. Soon, he vowed. Tonight, if he had his way. Though it hadn’t been planned like that, her parents would be gone for almost two weeks. A perfect time to get the apple off the tree, and then reattach it permanently. He and Shay were going to work off the fascination. It was a better plan than walking around on pins and needles—the only plan he had.

***

IT WAS THIRTY MINUTES after that sultry encounter in the pantry with Caleb, and Shay had showered and changed, and still, her body hummed from his touch, his kiss. Standing in front of the mirror in the bathroom, which was attached to her old room and was well-stocked thanks to her mother, she dried her hair to a sleek finish…and thought about Caleb. Thought about the kiss.

Any hope that kissing Caleb would prove the kiss of the past was nothing but a blown-up memory was gone. Kaput. For the first time ever, it seemed as if she and Caleb might really explore what was between them. And for the first time ever, she realized if it went wrong, the divide between them, and him and the family, could become too much to recover. She was terrified, which was an unexpected reaction to something she’d believed she wanted. But this was real, not fantasy, and there was a lot on the line.

A flashback of Caleb pulling her into the pantry played in her head. Of the feel of his hard body pressed to her. Good gosh, she was a mess. Shay leaned on the sink and turned off the dryer. Her eyes were glossy with the memory, and she could still taste him on her lips, still feel his hands on her body. His hot-and-cold routine had officially reached extreme levels and so had her body’s demand for satisfaction. Hot and cold, she reminded herself. Whatever got into Caleb in that kitchen wouldn’t last. There was no reason to panic. They would put this behind them like they had every other “almost” moment, despite the fact that this time didn’t exactly rank as an “almost” worthy event.

Thank goodness a patient had given her an excuse for leaving the party early. Shay stopped at the full-length mirror and sighed. Faded jeans and a Sex and the City T-shirt hardly seemed the right attire for an office visit, but she didn’t have time for a trip home.

Shoving her purse over her shoulder, she headed for the doorway, remembering the night she and her friend Anna—a doctor who worked in her building—had gone to the Sex and the City movie for a girl’s night out. Shay had often seen Caleb as her “Mr. Big,” the kind of guy you want but never really have. But then, shockingly, during the movie the heroine, Carrie, had gotten her man—and married Big.

Shay had been happy, sad, confused…irrationally bothered by the loss of her Big/Caleb comparison, which had been oddly comforting but no longer existed.

Shay shoved aside her movie reverie as she entered the kitchen and found Caleb, Kent, her father and several other males sitting at the table, the poker game in full swing. The instant her gaze landed on Caleb, her breath lodged in her throat. Fortunately, she was quiet enough to go unnoticed, which allotted her a second to compose herself. That was, until she noticed who was sitting next to her father. With cards in her hand.