Delectable Desire (8 page)

“Frannie!” Lorraine gasped, but then she laughed. “Why doesn’t that surprise me?”

“It shouldn’t,” the housekeeper said. “Have a good time tonight. And because your mother isn’t here to say it, I will. Don’t stay out too late.” Then she left them.

“Do your parents live here?” Carter asked.

“Yes,” Lorraine answered. “But don’t worry, they’re never around. It’s usually just me, Trina and Frannie.” She pointed to a gold-plated clock sitting on a marble table in the foyer. “You’re early. I haven’t finished getting ready.”

Carter’s gaze drifted over her tailored cream slacks and shimmering gold sleeveless sweater. The belt, made out of gold hoops, matched the necklace and earrings she wore. The entire ensemble looked as if it came straight from the pages of a high-end magazine...for the forty-and-over crowd.

Yet on Lorraine it looked just right. How she managed to make an outfit his aunt Daisy would wear look so damn sexy was beyond comprehension.

“What else is there to do?” Carter asked her. “You look fabulous. It’s perfect for where we’re going.”

“Thank you,” she said, that demure smile pulling at her lips. “But I’m still not done. Let’s go into the living area. I’ll fix you a drink.”

“I could use a bottle of water,” Carter said, following her farther into the penthouse apartment.

Living
area
was definitely the correct word to describe where Carter found himself standing moments later. The space was too vast to be called a simple “room.” There were several seating areas with love seats, chairs and low tables set up throughout the space. Marble columns separated the room into quadrants.

The fact that Lorraine lived with her parents had caught him off guard. The lack of privacy would drive him insane. But in a place this size, maybe privacy wasn’t an issue. He could get lost just in the living room. Living
area,
he reminded himself.

Yet it was still a bit unnerving that she still lived at home.

“What about your brother?” Carter asked. “Does he live here, too?”

“No, Stuart moved out after he finished college. I’ve been telling myself that I will move out eventually. It just hasn’t happened yet.”

Why not?
he wanted to ask. His skin crawled at just the thought of still living with his mom or dad. Instead, Carter said in a teasing tone, “Well, when you have a live-in housekeeper to cook for you, why would you?”

“Now that I know Lillian’s has been baking my family’s desserts, I’m starting to suspect that most of the meals must come from local restaurants.” She gestured to one of the sofas. “Have a seat.”

The smooth, comfortable leather enveloped him as soon as he sat. Carter’s gaze roamed around the room, taking in the sheer opulence of this place. Everything was done in various shades of white, cream and taupe. From the furniture, to the drapery framing the fourteen-foot windows, to the marble-topped pedestal tables.

His eyes fell on a painting illuminated by the warm glow of a recessed light high above. Carter hopped from the sofa and went over to the wall.

“Your drink,” Lorraine said, coming up behind him and handing him a long cylindrical water bottle.

Carter pointed to the painting. “This is a Duchamp.”

She blinked several times, as if she was surprised he could spot a painting by the French artist. “Yes,” she said. “He’s one of my favorites.”

“You have an original Marcel Duchamp hanging on the wall.” He shook his head. “I knew this place would be something else, Lorraine, but damn.”

“Please, do not make a big deal of it, Carter. I know how this must seem over the top to some people, but to me, this is home. It has always been just my home.”

“I get it,” he said.

“I know you do. It’s one of the things I like most about you.”

His brows peaked. “Hmm...
one
of the things you like about me? That sounds promising. What are some of the others?”

“I’m not telling you.” She laughed. “I think your ego is healthy enough without extra stroking from me.”

“Oh, come on. Just one more. Please?” Carter asked with a pleading look that usually led to him getting his way.

“Those puppy dog eyes won’t work on me,” Lorraine said.

“Are you sure?” he asked, moving a bit closer to her.

She looked up at him. Her big brown eyes sparkled with more than just laughter. There was something else there: heat.

“Fine,” she said. She motioned for him to lean over. “I like the way you wear an apron,” she whispered in his ear.

Desire shot down Carter’s spine at the feel of her warm breath on his skin and the seductive lilt to her voice. When he looked at her, a teasing smile spread across her face.

“Are you ready?” Lorraine asked him.

“For what exactly?” was Carter’s reply.

That grin turned coy as she said, “Give me a few minutes more, and then we can leave.”

Carter spent the next five minutes observing the other pieces of art in the room. It looked more like a museum than a home, but that was to be expected. He certainly wouldn’t find crocheted afghans draped across the sofas in a place like this.

A moment later, he spotted Lorraine walking up the hallway where she’d disappeared earlier. Carter followed her out of the penthouse and into the garage where his car was parked.

“Well, you certainly lived up to my expectations,” Lorraine said as he opened the passenger door for her. “I figured you to be the flashy-car type.”

“Uh-oh. Do you think less of me now?”

“I didn’t say it was a bad thing. It’s just an observation,” she said, slipping into the car.

Carter rounded the back and got behind the wheel. He started the engine, its gentle purr rumbling softly.

“I’ve always been a car junkie,” Carter explained as he pulled onto North Lake Shore Drive. “I used to have pictures of classic Porsches tacked to my bedroom wall at my mom’s house. I crossed an item off my bucket list when I bought this car for my birthday.”

“I like it,” she said in her prim and proper voice. “It fits you.”

“How so?” The fact that he knew so little about her made Carter hyperaware of anything she could read into his personality.

“For one thing, it’s a car with personality, and I’m sure it’s fast. I can picture you burning rubber along a country road, testing the horsepower.”

They were at a stoplight. He revved the engine, just because.

Lorraine laughed. “It’s also a very fine-looking automobile.”

“Fine-looking, huh? If I’m not mistaken, I’d say that you’re flirting with me.”

Carter glanced over and caught the reddish hue blossoming on her cheeks. Making her blush was terribly easy, and way more enjoyable than Carter could possibly have imagined.

He also noticed that she’d checked the rearview mirror three times already.

“You think we’re being followed?” he asked her.

“Excuse me?” She turned to him, then laughed softly. “I’m still a bit on edge about what happened last night. I’d rather not deal with any paparazzi again this week.”

“I have to warn you,” he hedged. “There will be media where we’re going tonight, but hopefully there will be too much other stuff grabbing their attention than who my date is.”

“Where are we going?” Lorraine asked. Carter turned onto North Cannon Drive and pointed straight ahead. “Lincoln Park Zoo? Is the zoo open this time of evening?”

“There’s an event to benefit Comer Children’s Hospital being held here tonight,” he answered. “Lillian’s donated the desserts, including four specialty cakes. I deployed a team of six to man the event, but I want to make sure everything is going according to plan. Are you okay with this?” he asked her.

She turned to him. “Of course.”

“Are you sure?” Carter asked, finding her swift acquiescence unconvincing. “You understand that this means we’re having hot dogs from the concession stand for dinner, don’t you?”

Her blithe laughter resonated around the car. “Carter, this is perfect. I mean it,” she stressed. “As long as we don’t have a repeat of what happened last night cutting our date short, it is perfect.”

Perfect. That was what Carter was beginning to think about her.

* * *

As they meandered among the crowd, Lorraine couldn’t help being charmed by the sights and sounds around her. Even though she lived only a couple of miles away, she had not visited this zoo since she was a little girl, back before she and Trina had been carted off to boarding school in upstate New York. She marveled at the improvements that had been made to the landmark zoo, one of the country’s oldest.

“Do you know what that structure is over there?” she asked Carter, pointing to an arched building in the distance.

“Amazing, isn’t it? That’s the South Pond Pavilion. We’ll wind up there eventually. It’s where they’ve set up the cakes.”

They forayed farther into the zoo, stopping at various booths that had been set up along the numerous walkways. Carter was continually waylaid by event-goers who had already seen the cakes donated by Lillian’s and wanted to remark on their magnificence. He introduced Lorraine to everyone who greeted them, but she’d met a number of the patrons before. Many were members of various boards her father sat on, or politicians who had been on the Chicago social scene for years.

Carter spoke to them all with admirable aplomb and grace, from the highest dignitaries to the average joes. He had a way about him that seemed to put people at ease. But it was the way Carter interacted with the children that had been brought in from the hospital that had a lump forming in Lorraine’s throat.

“I know hospital food isn’t always the best,” he announced to the small crowd gathered around him. “So I brought something extra special just for you guys and girls. Because all of you are extra special.”

Carter signaled to one of the workers wearing a pink-and-brown Lillian’s T-shirt. The girl brought over a covered tray, and the children gathered even closer around him. Carter lifted the lid to reveal elaborate cupcakes, decorated with zebra stripes, leopard spots and other animal prints. There were even some made to look like sea turtles. The children squealed in delight as Carter handed out the cupcakes.

He dropped to his haunches and wiggled the long braid of a little girl in a wheelchair, who had a trachea tube extending from her neck. The little girl’s green eyes lit up as Carter presented her with a cupcake covered with bright pink icing and a plastic flamingo standing proudly in the center.

Lorraine did her best to hold in her emotions, but when she lifted her eyes and spotted a woman she assumed to be the child’s mother looking on with tears flowing down her cheeks, Lorraine’s own waterworks started their cascade.

How difficult must life be when something as simple as a cupcake could bring so much joy. The notion tugged unmercifully at her heart.

She was suddenly overwhelmed with shame for lamenting over her own problems. She had nothing to complain about. She had her health, her family, a roof over her head and enough money to keep her free from financial worry for the rest of her life. She even had a man with a genuinely good heart interested in her. She was blessed.

She could not fathom the trials these children and their families faced, the pain they had endured. She wished she could do something to lessen their burdens, or at least put the kind of smiles on their faces that Carter and his cupcakes had elicited.

The woman whom Carter had introduced as the coordinator of the event appeared, accompanied by a clown, complete with a bright red nose. The children were all corralled, and the clown began performing a magic show, extracting oohs and aahs from his enraptured audience.

“That was very sweet of you,” Lorraine told Carter as they stood a few feet away, watching the clown juggle a collection of colorful rings. “Did you see their faces when you unveiled those cupcakes?”

Carter shrugged. “The kids can get lost in events like this. It’s for their hospital, but everything is usually catered to the donors. The kids should feel like the guests of honor.”

Lorraine stared at him, warmth settling into her bones. “You’re a very thoughtful man, Carter.”

“I like giving back,” he said. “Especially to kids who don’t fit in. I kind of know how they feel.”

“You do?”

“I don’t know what it feels like to be stuck in the hospital for months, but sticking out like a sore thumb? Yeah, I know how that feels.”

Lorraine suspected her skepticism showed on her face, but she couldn’t help it. In what universe would he not fit in anywhere he found himself? Taking in the man standing before her, with his gorgeous brown eyes, close-cut, naturally wavy hair, solid, athletic build and seemingly natural ability to converse with anyone and make them feel at ease, she could not imagine Carter ever feeling as if he were on the outside looking in.

Just as she was about to question him, another of the event coordinators came up to them, shaking Carter’s hand and thanking him enthusiastically for the showstopping cakes provided by Lillian’s.

“I wish I could see the amazing cakes everyone keeps talking about,” Lorraine said when the woman walked away.

“You will, but we’ve got something else to do first.”

She gave him a wary look, not sure she trusted that mischievous glint in his eyes. Carter led her to the amusement park area and purchased two tickets for the carousel. She had not been on a carousel since she was five years old.

“I’ll bet you weren’t picturing this when you were getting ready for our date tonight, were you?” he asked, holding her hand as she climbed aboard an acrylic horse.

“I’m relieved I opted for pants instead of a dress.” Lorraine laughed.

They rode the carousel three times in a row. By the time they were done, Lorraine was dizzy, though she couldn’t be sure if it was from spinning in a circle for ten minutes, or laughing at Carter. His ability to make fun of himself was as charming as anything she’d ever encountered.

“Are you ready to see the cakes?” Carter asked as he helped her down from the carousel.

“Yes. Finally.”

“Let’s go over to the South Pond Pavilion,” Carter suggested.

On their way to the arched pavilion where the cakes were on display, they strolled along the Nature Boardwalk, yet another feature that had not been installed the last time Lorraine had visited the zoo. It boasted an array of plant life, birds, insects and other residents of an ecosystem you would never expect to find in the heart of a thriving metropolis such as Chicago.