Angel Baby (21 page)

They turned to walk toward the building, and Claudia
shivered a as a cool breeze whipped through her short-sleeved dress. “Chilly?”
he asked as he moved closer.

“A little,” she said with a nod.

Claudia smiled lightly when Chase draped his arm across her
shoulders and pulled her body close to his. His warmth filled her, as always.
Not satisfied that she was warm enough, he slipped his suit jacket off his
shoulders and placed it over hers.

“Don’t be silly, we’re almost inside,” she protested, but he
ignored her.

While Chase went to his office to gather his things and call
for the tow truck, Claudia quickly called Melanie from the lobby to tell her
she was running late. Chase hadn’t asked for his jacket back, and she didn’t
take it off. Its weight gave a sense of comfort, even as the wool scratched a
little at her neck. It smelled of him...not of a cologne, but of Chase, all
warmth and seduction, just like his body smelled when he wrapped her in his
arms. She couldn’t resist closing her eyes, tilting her head to the side and
breathing deeply of it.

“Claudia?”

Opening her eyes with a start, Claudia was surprised to see
Chase standing directly in front of her. His dark eyes lingered on her,
narrowing slightly as he looked at her cheek brushing against the lapel of his
jacket.

"Do you have that look in your eyes when it's my skin
your cheek is resting against?"

"You know I do," she murmured.

Chase didn't give her a chance to protest as he bent forward
to capture her mouth in a passionate kiss. She slipped her arms around his
neck, loathe to let him go, even for the few minutes it would take to walk to
his car.

Finally, with a heartfelt sigh, he lifted his mouth from
hers and said, “Are you ready?”

She smiled flirtatiously.

"Seems with you I'm always ready."

Chase nodded and his eyes narrowed. "My desk is awfully
strong."

Claudia stepped away from him and held up her hand, palm
out.

"As much as I'd like to test that strong desk of yours,
we really should go."

Chase nodded ruefully and reached around her to push the
door open. Feeling every second of contact as his arm slid across the side of
her waist in a long, drawn out stroke, Claudia quivered. She paused numbly, her
body tingling in its now accustomed response to his touch.

"Claudia," he said softly, "you'd better get
out of here now, or we're not going to get to Melanie's for at least another
hour."

 He paused with his hand on the knob, and Claudia watched as
he stroked the brass surface, making a slight circular motion with his thumb.
She had to close her eyes to block out the sudden images of his hand touching
her breast in just that way.

Chase didn’t look at her as she sidestepped and turned her heat-filled
face toward the floor. Standing behind her, with the sweet scent of her hair
just inches from his face, and her supple body separated from his by no more
than a heartbeat, he’d been very aware of every breath she took, every slight
shift she made. 

"Well," Claudia said breathlessly. "Maybe a
half an hour?"

Chase didn't wait for her to say another word. Bending over,
he picked her up and carried her to his office.

“I hope Melanie won’t be worried,” Claudia said as she
buttoned her blouse and tried to fix her hair. “I know she expected us by
now."

"Regrets?" Chase asked raising an eyebrow.

"Not on your life," she said with a sultry stare.

Chase kissed her on the mouth, slid his hand through the
hair she'd just rearranged, then pulled away with a sorrowful sigh.

“I guess we'd better go. You can call Melanie from the car,
if you want,” he said.

Chase followed her out of the building and locked the door.
They hadn't hit the traffic light on Bougainvillea before Chase reached his arm
across the seat and tugged her closer. She curled up against his side,
breathing warm exhalations against the skin of his neck, fitting him as perfectly
as if she'd been tailor made. But when they pulled into Melanie and Ryan's
driveway, Claudia quickly pulled away.

“Here we are,” Claudia said brightly, wondering for a brief
second if Melanie had been looking out the window and seen her curled up
against Chase like a cat next to a warm hearth. Claudia barely waited until the
car reached a complete stop before she hopped out. Chase quickly followed,
reaching the porch just as Melanie opened the door.

“Well, hello. We were just beginning to wonder if something
was wrong.” Melanie said.

“I should have called again," Claudia said. Explaining
about the car, she concluded, "Chase is going to drive us home.”

 “That’s all right,” Melanie insisted. She smiled brightly
when she saw Chase standing in the shadows on the porch and said, “Come in,
both of you.”

Claudia followed Melanie into the house. Chase watched as
she immediately went toward the living room. Sarah sat in her pack-and-play,
biting on a soft plastic book, and smiled broadly when she saw her mother.

“I made a big roast, much too much for just Ryan and me.
Please say you’ll stay,” Melanie said. “Both of you.”

“I’m just the chauffeur,” Chase said with a shrug. “It’s
entirely up to Claudia.”

“Oh, no, we couldn’t put you out any more,” Claudia insisted
as she picked Sarah up. “I’m sure you have things to do this evening, Chase.”

“You know me,” Chase replied with a shrug. “I’m not about to
pass up a home-cooked meal.”

“Please, Claudia, give the poor man a chance to try some of
my mashed potatoes,” Melanie insisted.

“Oh, no,” Claudia groaned. “Tell me Ryan hasn’t talked you
into the ones with whipping cream and a pound of butter...”

“We’re staying,” Chase said with a firm nod.

“Okay, okay,” Claudia said with a laugh. “Far be it for me
to force a bachelor into one more night of frozen dinners or pizza.”

While Melanie finished preparing dinner, and Claudia played
with Sarah, Chase filled Ryan in on some of what he and Claudia had been
discussing about the courthouse project. Claudia didn’t pay too much attention
as they got into technical details, but noticed the two of them seemed very
friendly. Throughout dinner, the conversation remained easy and casual. Ryan
didn’t seem the least intimidated to be entertaining his boss, and Chase
appeared completely comfortable in Ryan and Melanie’s home. She wasn’t too
surprised when, after finishing dinner, Ryan urged them to stay for a game of
cards.

“Be careful, he’s a shark,” Melanie said with a smirk as she
cleared the dining room table. Claudia stood to help her, but Melanie waved her
off, urging her to play with Sarah, who had finished her own dinner and wanted
out of her high chair.

“I think Sarah liked the little bit of mashed potatoes I let
her try,” Claudia called to Melanie as she cleaned the baby off and removed her
from her chair.

“I think she would have liked them better if they were blue
and she’d had a nice white piece of paper to spread them on,” Chase said dryly.
“She seems to have mistaken them for finger-paint.”

Claudia raised a haughty brow. “It so happens, Mr. Paxton,
that this was her first experience with mashed potatoes. And obviously, since
more ended up in her tummy then all over my face, she enjoyed them very much.”

Claudia smiled at Chase over Sarah’s head, enjoying their
light-hearted banter. Chase didn’t seem to be in any hurry to leave, so Claudia
sat on the floor in the living room, playing with the baby while she talked
with Melanie. Her friend seemed more cheerful than she had been in the past few
weeks, but Claudia didn’t have a chance to ask any discreet questions.

“Come on, sweet pea,” Claudia urged as she stood Sarah up
for the seventh time and steadied the baby on her own feet. “Let’s see you walk
to Mommy. You've been standing for two months...how about moving those feet?”

Sarah scrunched up her little brow and stared at her mother
as if seriously contemplating the request. She reached out her arms, swayed a
little, then plopped down on her diaper-padded behind.

“Not tonight, huh?” Claudia asked with a grin. “Okay, okay,
just make sure you don’t do it while Mommy’s at work.”

“She won’t,” Melanie insisted. “I wouldn’t let her, I
promise.”

Chase, who had strolled over to watch Sarah’s performance,
said, “She can do it. She just doesn’t want to.”

Claudia rolled her eyes at him, amused by his matter of fact
certainty that her baby could walk just like that. As if challenged, Chase
hunkered down a foot or two away from Sarah. He stood the baby up, immediately
pulling one hand away while he let her brace herself on the other, and said in
a cajoling voice, “Sarah, do you want my keys?”

Claudia watched as he pulled his key ring out of his pocket
and dangled it several inches away from the baby. Sarah’s face lit up in a huge
grin as she spied the shiny, clinking keys. She reached out her arms and made a
demanding grunt.

“Huh-uh,” Chase said, “you have to come get them.”

In disbelief, Claudia watched as Chase let go of Sarah and
jingled the keys again. The baby never took her eyes from the prize. Moving her
pudgy little leg, Sarah stretched her arm toward the key ring. That first tiny
step led to another, and then a third. Claudia bit her lip to keep from
shouting as she saw Sarah take her first steps, reaching for the keys Chase
kept dangling just out of her grasp.

Finally, as if exhausted, Sarah puckered her lower lip out
in an angry pout, and plunked to the floor. Claudia, Melanie and Ryan, who’d
been watching in awe, all laughed and cheered at the same time, which only made
Sarah’s pout even harder. Fat tears rose to the baby’s eyes at all the noise.
Claudia was about to reach out to her when she saw Chase hand her the key ring
with a conspiratorial wink.

“You earned ‘em, kiddo,” he said.

Sarah blinked away her tears immediately, jangling the key
ring with all her might. Claudia, still smiling broadly, caught Chase’s eye.
For a long moment, she silently thanked him, and he just as silently told her
she was quite welcome. His brown eyes twinkled and he gave a slight nod, then
Melanie clapped her hands together and the intimate contact was broken.

“What a Kodak moment,” Melanie exclaimed. “And we didn’t
have the camera out.”

“I’m sure there will be plenty more,” Ryan said. “Oh, boy,
are we in trouble now.”

“That’s right,” Chase added. “She’s mobile, and everything
has to go up eighteen inches.”

Claudia laughed out loud, reached down to give Sarah a hug,
and was promptly whacked in the head with the key chain for her efforts.
Rubbing her temple, she laughed as she said, “Gee, maybe you should have given
her something softer.”

“Nah...it had to be something she really wanted,” Chase
explained.

“And how did you know she’d really want your keys?” Melanie
asked.

“Well," Chase replied dryly, "they’re shiny,
silver, and sparkle...irresistible qualities, to females of every age.”

Ryan let out a bark of laughter as Claudia gave Chase’s
shoulder a shove, knocking him off balance until he fell back into a sitting
position on the floor. Sarah thought this was great fun and immediately dropped
the keys to climb onto Chase’s lap. He responded by rolling onto his back,
letting the baby bounce on his stomach while he tickled her. Her squeals of
laughter soon had them all laughing out loud, too.

While Melanie went to go put a pot of coffee on, Ryan went
to look for his video camera in hopes they could coax Sarah into a repeat
performance. Claudia, Chase and Sarah remained alone on the floor of the living
room. Claudia sat with her back against the old sofa, her elbows resting
loosely on her upraised knees, watching as Chase continued to entertain her daughter.
The man really was very good with children, at least with this one. She
wondered for a moment how he might be with a child of his own, then quickly
dashed the thought. 

“I think you’d better stop bouncing her around like that, or
you’ll be the one wearing the mashed potatoes,” Claudia said with a laugh as
she crawled over, knelt next to Chase and tried to scoop Sarah off him. The
baby, however, didn’t want to let go.

Chase had taken off his tie and unbuttoned the top few
buttons of his dress shirt earlier in the evening. Sarah’s little fingers were
curled at the opening of the shirt in the dark crisp hair on his chest. Not
thinking too much about it, Claudia leaned further over the baby, and Chase,
and reached to free Sarah’s grip.

While trying to grasp Sarah's hand, Claudia brushed her
fingertips over the dark curling hair and tanned skin of Chase’s chest. She
couldn’t seem to tear her eyes away from her own fingers as they lightly
brushed across his body. She couldn’t tear her fingers away, either. He was so
incredibly warm, it seemed the heat rose up her hand, through her arm and
straight down into her middle. Her breaths became shallow as she slowly allowed
her gaze to travel across the hollow of his throat, up his neck, to his chin
which was just showing faint signs of a five o’clock shadow. Then his lips,
God
those amazing lips,
which were parted, panting shallow breaths of his own,
then over the fine lines of his cheek to his dark staring eyes. Suddenly she
wasn't in her best friend's living room, she was back in this man's bed,
feeling every erotic sensation she'd ever felt in her life.

Chase watched Claudia as she slowly let her gaze travel up
him. He saw her moisten her lips with her tongue, and nearly groaned at the
sight. She knelt so close he could feel the outside of her thigh pressed
against his hip, and imagined the smooth fluid motion she would use to slide
that thigh up and over his body to straddle him just as she had Saturday. Her
fingers still rested on his skin. As she leaned closer, her long hair fell to
brush against his cheek. Finally her eyes met his, and he saw the deep need
swirling in their green depths. Not thinking about it, he slowly lifted his
hand, sliding his fingers across the fragile line of her jaw, then across her earlobe.
He heard her suck in her breath at the same moment he saw her eyes close at his
touch. He didn’t stop. Curling his fingers into the thick mass of her hair, he
cupped her head and she leaned closer.